Dakath shakes his head "How did I get here? A few months ago I was a wealthy merchant living in fine apartments, what a turn of luck. I've been wrongfully imprisoned with gnomes forced to mine coal, chased by the Bishop's men because the people who rescued me are fugitives, fought numerous battles for others, been shot, stabbed and mauled and know my life seems to consist of tomb raiding and assaulting castles, again for others benefits and not my own."
He sighs, "I'll be lucky to see 24. The only thing that's keeping me going is the thought of riches untold and stories told round the fireplace of my heroic deeds."
"Or STORIES untold, and pieces of YOU being passed around the fireplace..." remarks Amibar with a shaky smile. "We don't know WHAT"S waiting for us in there."
"Kyo know what is waiting for us." He looks grim. "Things the Demons are afraid off...big nasty things."
Dakath raises an eyebrow. The usually quiet gnome seemed to have grown quite bold.
"I always though it usual for diners to eat a small appetizer before moving onto the main course, eh Amibar."
"Looking at me, can you honestly say I look appetizing, Dakath?" Ami's voice is full of bitterness and self-mocking.
Dakath doesn't turn round but addresses the timid gnome, "If we're going to be eaten I shouldn't think appearances are going to matter, if they only would, then we could offer Xania to our would be diner in exchange for our lives. She is the most radiant and beautiful in our group, I'm sure you'll all agree."
He spares a glance to Xania and winks at her.
"Well, being a statue looks boring," Xania comments.
"Ah, then you agree then mio amico. There is much drama here, si. That story of yours will make a great song. We should work on it together, then even if you die, you can still be making a profit!" Tag once again gifts the group with his melodious laugh.
Ever since landing on the island, Rhune felt the unease the rest of the group felt, intensified ten times. However, whenever she made to speak of it, some grip fell on her tongue, urging her to keep quiet, behave as if all is normal. She was unable to resist that urge.
Once she sees the building, the urging becomes stronger by the second, though her hesitation is not noticed by anyone else, not even Asif. As the group prepares to enter it, Rhune suddenly sees that all of them, except for her beloved, have become sardonic, mocking. Their continuous barbarous humanity has become quite sickening. Only her affection for Asif conceals disgust at his hairy body, his filthy human smell. She feels that nothing would make her happier other than to kill them all and be done with it. Xania is certainly too bossy, and Rhune has noticed Asif staring at her lustfully along with the other men. She must die. The others must die as well, leaving her alone with her love, as that will be the only way she can ever manage to survive this devilish experience. Her mind is suddenly consumed with the all-encompassing desire to destroy every one of them.
However, she knows that she must wait until the moment is right, as they would surely kill her if she struck inappropriately. She mustn't wait, though, as the savage was surely contemplating how to murder her even now.
The splitting of the groups is a problem, though, as her targets are not with her now. Her first goal is to reunite the group, then kill Xania and Kyo, then the others. She feels the knowledge in her head that the moment for doing this will come very soon. The image of a black mirror comes into her head, and she knows when she sees that, the time to strike is immediate!
Splitting into two groups as designated by the group's thinkers Forte leads his group around the outside of the building, Dakath noting the area he saw before. Doing a complete circle of the building, they see no hint of an entrance or means of access. The building appears very solid.
Ullar's group cautiously moves into the building itself through the front archway. They find it much as Dakath saw it, very plain, without furnishings, and apparently abandoned. The ladder and hole in the floor are prominent. Looking closely in the light that falls into the chamber from the small holes near the ceiling, Asif notes that there are some disturbances in the dust, what looks like a trail of man-sized footprints leading from the archway to the hole. There is only one trail, and it looks at least a week old.
"Well," Forte asks the group, "what should we do now?"
"First to die, or last to die, not big difference. Kyo go down the hole." The savage warrior begins to check the stability of the ladder before putting his weight on it.
Looking cautiously around, "Hmmmmm....this doesn't look all that bad. But then that last temple didn't look all that bad either," Rhune utters as they enter the building. "I wonder where the hole goes?" she adds as she takes it in.
Kyo lets out a nervous laugh. "It goes down."
"Ahhh my friends, here I think we have something. Some tracks here, can you see. Women's feet they be not. Print too small, a man I say left these. The trail is old but if talent any you have, it be our best hope," Asif puts forth.
Kyo peers over their shoulder at the prints. "Women can't have big feet? My mother's feet were bigger than mine."
Asif looks in Kyo direction with expression of great surprise on his face.
"Ah you make fun at poor Faris expense. Women's feet most small and pretty, not large and clumsy like big warriors like us. Take Rhune's feet they leave much smaller print than mine, or yours for that matter."
"But it is better for a man to have big feet," replies Xania, with a wink at Dakath.
Rhune looking at Asif curiously, "I don't have any skills like that. But maybe someone in the other group does. Perhaps we should all get together now and compare findings. I don't really like not having the group separated anyway. And it seems to be okay for now. Maybe Kyo can tell you more about the tracks," she utters to the young man. She looks around at the room shivering a little but otherwise apparently okay.
Out of the corner of her eye she watches the others intently. Making plans in her mind as to how to go about destroying them. First she must get the group together...there is no telling what Xania and that barbarian Kyo are plotting together. Xania has never liked her anyway and Kyo thinks she is a demon.... Ah she will show them. Trying to keep her from Asif...Xania trying to steal him from her. And Dakath...must be very careful around him. He is a thief after all...but she is much quieter than he is...she will have to take off the armor to sneak up on him but she is much better than he is...yes must be very careful....
Kyo studies the tracks, moving around them being careful not to disturb them. "Something walked through here," he says finally.
Rolling her eyes towards the ceiling at his words, Rhune steps slightly closer to Asif. Thinking to herself, typical human, useless beings they are....should he be the first to die or should Xania be the first?
Asif with a broad smile upon his face then asks, "Well by Aten's bright light Efendi, is it possible for you to follow them to the feet who made them. I am blessed with the sight of a hawk, but not the skill at tracking efendi. An occasional footprint I may see, but not enough to follow the path that they make."
Once done circling the building Dakath enters the room, "I thought I heard a woman's voice from down there," he says indicating the hole in the floor. "Couldn't be sure though."
He then takes the room in and searches it for anything interesting.
Once done Dakath moves over to the hole and cautiously peers down into it to see what lies below.
Assuming everything's clear, he grins at Forte and steps aside to let him climb down.
"Well...since this is the only entrance, we're all together again," says Ullar with a smile.
As he sees Dakath peer in the hole, Ullar moves forward. "I don't mind being point-man, so if it's ok with you, Forte, I'll head down first."
"Uh, sure. I'll be right behind you," states Forte.
Rhune watches with fascination as the two warriors argue over who is to go down first. *That's it. Go first you stupid barbarian. Break the ladder and fall to your death...One less I will have to worry about.*
The thought that Marika might be down here fills the veins of the ex-gladiator with adrenaline. However, Ullar feels unthreatened and heads down without his sword drawn.
"I am glad that the party is all together. I feel much safer now," Rhune utters to no one in particular as the others join them. "Ullar you might want to be careful though there might be traps," she says to him politely. Seeing that the party is heading down the hole, Rhune switches from her bow to her longsword.
Almost sweetly polite...*yes it is good now that the party is together again...and I hope you trip over a trap you big ugly human. Will save me the trouble of killing you if you are stupid enough to do so. Neither her eyes or her face betray any such thoughts to the others...the only thing they might see is that she does appear to be more nervous than normal..perhaps due to the unease of the island.
"Anybody with a light?" Ullar asks, before heading down.
"Think I used all my candles in the tombs," responds Forte. "Sorry."
Kyo fished in his rather beat up back pack, really just a cracked wicker basket with some leather straps to go over his arms, and produced three small pitch and reed torches and some flint and steel. "Kyo has light."
The two groups reconverge in the open chamber while Asif is describing the tracks. Taking note of them and the ladder, the larger fellows begin to descend, with Ullar going first, his metallic armor clanking on the rungs as he climbs down, followed by the much quieter Kyo, then the bulky Forte.
One by one, the group descends into the dark. Kyo's torch throws up a soft light, but there appears to be a rather expansive space in this chamber, much larger than the one above. Staying huddled about the ladder until the group all climbs down, it is only when the entire group has come down, with Rhune still halfway down the ladder, that Kyo looks out toward the edges. He is not pleased with what greets his eye.
Taglio's lantern at the same time casts upon the other side of the room. There appears to be two passageways on his side, two more on Kyo's, but that is not what causes the alarm. All along the four walls are human-sized skeletons, standing at alert, still carrying swords, axes, and miscellaneous other weapons. The moment the light strikes one of them, they all lurch to attention and begin marching toward the densely packed group.
There are more than a dozen, and what is more problematic is that from each of the four passageways, more are pouring, clattering toward you with an eerie rattle of dry bones.