Val leaped down the side of the rugged cliff, tied safely by the rope he had brought. He was the last of the mercenaries to abseil down. They stood over the large temple. Although it was obviously old and dusty, it still looked magnificent surrounded by the sea of decaying trees.
"Right, so how do we get the plant?" asked Thor, half joking.
"There's this entrance but it sealed completely with this stone tablet," said Arturo running his fingers over the tablet. Delicate carvings bristled over the ancient stones surface. The carvings displayed pictures of intricate vines fighting with a brave armoured knight. They all paused and studied the tablet. 'Hmm, I hope we don't find these vines in their," said Arturo.
"Well there's no door handle and no one to let us in so the way I see it there only one option!" laughed Val and he struck the door with his sword before anyone had time to react. The sword made a large clinking sound on the wall. It hadn't even chipped the stone.
"Think before you act!" cried Zanatos. The large sound created by Val echoed throughout the next few kilometres.
"Everything in these swamps now knows we're here! Who knows what will happen to us!" cried Arturo.
"Hold on, we still have time," replied Zanatos. "Look, the warriors' sword on the carving is pointing downwards. Isn't that strange?"
"DIG!" cried Julius. Val and Thor dropped to their knees and began digging at the dirt beneath them. The ground parted revealing an object wrapped in some sort of ancient skin. The wrapping revealed a thin small key with markings and engraving much similar to the obelisks surrounding them.
"Alright so we've got a key but there's no slot," said Julius in despair.
"No wait! I see it! Look at the knight's helmet! His visor is unusually large and it's hollow!" gasped Arturo. The thin key slotted easily through the small opening. Everyone heard a large click of stone grinding against stone. The ground began to vibrate and the large stone tablet parted into the ground to reveal the inner chambers of the temple...
What lay ahead of the adventuring band was pure darkness but that was soon solved. The band entered the chambered, now equipped with their makeshift torches. The temple was simple yet marvellous. It consisted of a single hallway, around three metres in width and around fifteen metres in length. The walls were covered in delicate tapestries, depicting battles, strangely of great warriors fighting hordes of vines. The hallway opened into a large square room, around twenty by twenty metres was enormous and the celing stretched at least 9 metres. In the center was a large staircase leading to the ceiling in which stood a small plateau. Above this plateu moon light spilled through a grate and was reflected off several, cleverly placed mirrors, making the whole room shine in moonlight. Surrounding the staircase, were six evenly placed coffins made from a fine oak and painted a subtle green. They were plain other than their colour.
"I'm guessing what we need is at the top of those stairs," said Thor, eyeing the coffins suspiciously. Zanatos took charge.
"Listen, one of you will go to that platform there to retrieve the plant. These coffins are very likely to open and whatever is in them we cannot fight, so I'm going to hold them off, I can't explain how right now but I will. Time is running short its going to be morning in a couple of hours." The mercenaries did as they were told. Arturo, the most athletic of the lot clambered up the stone stairs to the platform. The other waited at the mouth of the hall while Zanatos stood calmly at the foot of the stairs. Arturo reached the platform and the sight before him was amazing. Unlike the temples musty air, the air on the platform was clear and cool. Mirrors were placed near the grate and moonlight spilled all over the platform. In the center, with all the light focused in it was a plant. It was small, no larger than a fist. It was simple enough, a thin green stalk protruded from the dirt and ended in a small purple flower. Other thin green branches protruded from the main one. Arturo hastily retrieved the instructions he had received from the mage from his pocket. Then he slowly pulled the plant out of the small inbuilt soil from the platform.
The coffins creaked for a second. Zanatos tensed. They burst open revealing six glowing figures. They were humanoid and quite tall, mostly resembling elves. They all began speaking in some sort of hybrid ancient elvish language that few knew. Arturo tore down the step to find them advancing.
"Give me the plant and run," said Zanatos through bared teeth. Arturo opended his mouth to protest but after he seeing Zanatos' face he handed his the plant, drew his sword and ran after the other three mercenaries.
Zanatos stood in the center of the six arcane figures. He remembered his childhood, how he had developed his magical powers over that one night. He stood there and focused his thoughts, built them up. Then he concentrated them to screaming intensity and released. The hell began…
Zanatos' eyes glowed a blinding blood red. He stared at one of the figures and the figure began to decay as if time had accelerated by millions of years. A swirling black ball of energy formed around Zanatos and then exploded engulfing the beings in a blazing black flame. One still stood and charged at Zanatos. The warrior drew his sword and so did the being. The sword glowed with a black aura and black whisps of energy swirled around the sword as it blocked and parried the blows of the being. The battle raged, and with each clash of swords black magic exploded. Zanatos weaved in and out of the beings range parrying it's blows until eventually the moment came. The being dropped its guard and Zanatos tore his blade through the beings heart. Electric energy surged from the beings wound as it dropped to the ground, lifeless. Zanatos, panting breathlessly and clutching the plant, stumbled out of the temple to the darkness of the swamp to find the others waiting, prepared to fight. As soon as they saw Zanatos stumbling around as if about to die, they rushed over to him. He dropped to the ground lifelessly.
"What happened?"
"Are you ok?"
"Did you get the plant?"
"What was in there?"
Zanatos stared at the swirling masses of faces. All their words were slurred and he could barely talk let alone stand.
"Don…Take… take the plant…" he blurted before the world sank into oblivion…