Chapter 1

The beginning of the end

The dark chamber stood in complete silence, only to be interrupted by occasional sounds of dripping water. As the chamber was covered in pitch black darkness you couldn't distinguish any specific characteristics, only the general ones – the room was extremely large. It was spacious and had a really high ceiling - supported by wide pillars. Presumably the chamber remained so for decades and would have remained so for a similar duration, but not today.

A faint light could be seen approaching from one end of the chamber – a narrow tunnel, which was connected to it. As the light came closer and got brighter, sounds of voices and footsteps could be heard.

As the responsible for such intrusions entered the chamber, we could already distinguish specific features and the number of them(obviously). The unexpected and probably unwelcome guests were numbering in three – a tall troll, a short(duh!) dwarf and a female human. The troll was armed to the teeth with a curved sword(which curved to the opposite direction then normally) hanging from his belt on the right and a quiver of strangely short spears on his back (since they were too thick to be considered as arrows). The troll had distinctive features as a one of his race – a mohawk for a hair-do (well I guess that's normal), dark purple skin, with random markings on his arms and he did not seem like one of the friendly types (figures). He was wearing black leather, which covered most of his body with only his hands and parts of his legs free from it's dark clutches, which made an interesting view.

The dwarf on the other hand was a complete opposite, firstly - he was short. He wore a hat and light clothes, which gave off a refined and „rich" atmosphere. The dwarf had a paper scroll in his right hand (looks like a map) and his belt was littered with various tools (little picks, brushes and such).

Meanwhile the human female – she was a mage, or at least was skilled in those arts, since she was responsible for the bright light, or to be precise, for the fire that floated above her palm. The fire was lifted high and held in front of the trio, so that they could see further in front. The female had long raven hair resting on her shoulders and had a serious – even dark expression on her face (but she could still be considered beautiful of course). She wore dark robes with no markings or distinguishable features, you could even say they looked plain.

„The treasure should be at the end of this chamber. It better be worth the trouble I went through to get this map"– The dwarf mumbled as the three went deeper into the huge chamber.

His companions remained silent and they continued onward.

As the light from the mages (let's just stick with that) conjured fire illuminated the chamber, the three noticed something interesting. The whole floor was littered with various bones of the deceased, most of who were armed as there were a lot of weapon and armor parts (well what's left of them anyway). It looked like all of it was there for a while, since the gear was rusted through and not much remained of them – similar could be said about the dead. The three also noticed that the ground was burned in various places and that the huge pillars, which were placed in a neat order, leaving an obvious path towards the other end of the chamber, were all scarred and covered in strange drawings and runes.

„You think the warnings given by the witch were true?" - The female asked, as she checked the markings on one of the pillars.

„Bah! There's nothing to be scared of, whatever was guarding this place died off a long time ago. Those were just delusional snivelings of a dying old hag – The dwarf replied – Now let's continue further, I can almost smell the money I'll be making out of this place.

And thus the two went towards the other end of the chamber, stepping over the remains of the long forgotten. The troll on the other hand took a little longer as he investigated the pillars and the dead on the floor, only to pick up a skull that looked surprisingly similar to that of his own kind. He then dropped it to the ground and got up, walking towards his companions with a grin on his face.

As the three continued towards the end of the chamber, swimming through the endless sea of the dead, they reached their destination – a huge door with a small hole in the middle of it. The door itself was littered with drawings, skulls being the most distinguishable one. But the most visible one was a huge drawing of what seemed like a throne, with a dark figure sitting in it. None of the figures characteristics could be picked out, except a big crown on his head and red shining rubies in place of his eyes. The drawing was right in the middle of the door, taking up most of it's space. By the door two noticeable remains lied, which caught the attention of the guests.

The remains were big and I mean BIG, almost twenty times larger then our three companions. The broken down remains were winged and had a long skull with large fangs.

„Dragons" - The female spoke.

„And by the looks of it – red dragons" - the Dwarf spoke, while lifting a red dragon scale - „Now I want to enter the treasure chamber even more"

The three then approached the huge door. Or two to be precise, since the troll stood in front of it from the very beginning, examining the drawings on it.

„I can feel magic coming from behind the door" - The human spoke - „And it feels quite hostile"

„I didn't pay you to complain, now shut up and let me through. It's time to claim my payment" - The dwarf said and took out a strange object.

The object almost looked like a knife, since it was shaped as one, but it was too thick and didn't look sharp at all (unless it was poorly taken care of). The knife seemed to be made out of bone with skull ornaments carved on it's handle. The rude dwarf then inserted the strange knife in the key-hole – that was in the middle of the door and turned, stepping back and waiting for what's to come next.

After the „key" was inserted, the drawings on the door lit up in red and after a while it slowly opened up with dark, thick mist coming from the widening gap. As the door completely opened and the light invaded it's dark chambers, the three could finally peek at it's content. The room was quite small, comparing to the previous one. The only visible structure in it was a pedestal, marked with odd drawings and writings. On it lied a large object. As the intruders looked around the rest of the room, they noticed that the walls were also littered with drawings, accompanied by the same runes they saw in the previous room.

The chamber itself was filled with all kinds of junk – books, strange contraptions, clothes, weapons and even armor. In one of the corners stood a mannequin with an impressive looking set of armor on it, which caught the eye of the greedy dwarf. The armor was surprisingly well made, with black plate shoulders, shaped to look like claws and a helm that was shaped like a human skull – more or less, since it's shape was a bit different and it had horns. But what captured his eyes the most was the emblem on the front plates of the armor – the emblem itself did not look familiar, but it looked like the head of a horned beast.

„Bah! That's it? There's no treasure here, only junk" - the dwarf shouted and turned to the pedestal with the strange looking object on it, slowly approaching it - „There better be something valuable in there."

The dwarf was stopped from his advance before he could reach his new-found destination by the female human.

„Boglar, stop! The pedestal is protected by strong magic, let me investigate first" - She said and approached the pedestal.

„Make it quick Myriam" - The dwarf mumbled, angrily looking at her.

The female lifted her free arm and closed her eyes, concentrating and standing still for a few moments. After that Myriam suddenly opened her eyes and quickly moved her arm to the side, like she was ripping something open.

„Correction – previously strong magic. It's so old that only a shadow of it's former power remains. It was easy to dispel." - the female then explained.

Boglar then approached the pedestal and started examining it. The object was long and made out of dark metal-like material, at one end a face was shaped out and the whole object was covered in unfamiliar runes.

„It seems to be some sort of a sarcophagus" - he said, while walking around the object - „and by the looks of it, this whole place is a tomb. The treasures of the buried should be in the sarcophagus, or it usually is." - he said.

„Let's get back to the camp, we'll need more people to carry all this stuff." - The dwarf then said and turned towards the entrance.

„I be stayin' here just in case" - The silent troll then replied, while looking at the object which was identified as a sarcophagus.

Boglar turned to the troll.

„This is probably the first time I heard you mutter a word Zal'jin. I liked you better when you were silent. Very well, you can remain here just don't even think of stealing anything." - The dwarf then said and left the room with the female accompanying him.

After the two left, Zal'jin slowly approached the coffin and placed his hand on it.

„Finally, I be findin' you, master" - He whispered.