1. Hills and more hills
Anthrak glanced at the map again. This had to be at the least the tenth time in the last hour, a sign that they were close or a sign that he had no clue where they were. His brow furrowed as he concentrated, his tongue pressing up against the small tusks protruding from his lower jaw.
“Not far now.” His voice surprisingly articulate and mellow considering the number of teeth in the half-orc’s mouth. “Perhaps just over that next hill.”. Anthrak, shrugged his gear into a more comfortable position. His sword swaying at his side, rubbing up against the leather armour.
Jude stared at him as they trudged further along the foothills of Southern Chark, willing daggers to stab into his back. She was perhaps a little uncharitable, but that sentence had repeated from his mouth at every hill. Even so, the hope blossomed in her breast that this was indeed the last hill before they found the location marked on the map.
Two weeks ago, that dog-eared map had been handed over to her by Father Antillius, his old hand shaking as he’d done so. The mission was simple, reclaim two holy relics sacred to the Church of Lathander and this map led to their location. She was to collect them and use them to further her flight from Chark and build the Church of Lathander in Ranke. At the time, she’d been determined to cause trouble and make a stand for her rights in the Theocracy but it soon became clear that she had none. Not any more, things had changed.
She had expected to be travelling alone, but Father Antillius had one further trick up his frayed sleeve. That trick was in the form of a seven foot, two-hundred-and-forty-pound wall of muscle called Anthrak. He was a warrior from the northern barbarian tribes and had found himself being healed and looked after by Antillius. A strange kind of honour meant that Anthrak was now a bondsman to the Church. She hadn’t managed to get that story from either the Priest or the half-orc, not for want of trying.
At first, Jude had found his enthusiasm and brightness endearing, but after fourteen long days on the road she had decided that he was just annoying. When she rose at dawn to offer her prayers, usually with a slight hangover, Anthrak was already making breakfast humming some tuneless ditty to himself. What made it worse, is that he had been up long enough to catch rabbits and roast them before she’d even slightly become conscious. Jude was not a morning person, ironic that she’d been called to the service of the Dawn Bringer, god of those first rays himself. Maybe that’s why he’d called to her, just another way to piss her off. Not that she needed any other stimulus in that direction, she smiled to herself.
The breakfasts had been excellent, and grudgingly she’d admired his ability to hunt and cook. Her contributions had been the food and drink summoned forth from her god. Bland was the best word to use before becoming blasphemous. Besides, she tried not to use her magic when she didn’t need to. Not because of laziness, Jude was not lazy, but out of respect. She genuinely loved her god and his works and tried to bring light to all situations. Just not ones in the morning.
She glanced up at the sun and saw that it had started to dip from its zenith, her pack digging into her back with each uneven step across the grasslands. The rolling hills, dotted with trees and the occasional wild animal, went on for as far as the eye could see. She ran a finger over her brow, pushing aside a long, black lock of her hair that had fallen over her eyes and tucking it behind her ear. The current hill, Hell Hill, as she named it was coming to an end and the pair reached the peak and looked down.
The hill descended into a small flat plateau, protected on all sides by sister-hills to the one they had just ascended. Jude saw nothing and was about to ask Anthrak if he wanted the compass pushed up his arse for all the use it had provided, when he spoke up.
“This is it, Jude. This plain below matches the location marked here on the map.” His tusked demeanour lighting up with that eternal optimism of his. “Told you!” he finished and strode off with a new bounce in his heavy step. Jude stared at his retreating back.
“Told me what? You said that a million times on every hill for the last week!” she shouted after him. “Twat.” she said a lot quieter making sure he couldn’t hear.
Anthrak ignored her, determined not to let her grumpiness deter him from his joy at finally being where he was supposed to be. Part of him was also pleased that he’d be soon rid of this sarcastic, pessimistic priestess.
“Bitch!” he muttered in his native tongue, knowing she couldn’t hear him.
Jude caught up with Anthrak and they proceeded down the hill towards the grassy area. It wasn’t quite as featureless as she’d first thought. There were a number of mounds scattered about, encircling a larger mound in the centre. The mounds were covered in grass, indistinguishable from the rest of the flora. She had regretted the speed of her departure many times but now, looking at the lay of the land below, she began to think of many questions she should have asked. Like, how long ago these relics had been lost and how they’d been misplaced in the first place, and to whom.
“Ah well, too late to worry about it now.” She said to herself and matched steps with the hulking barbarian at her side.
“Seven, an inauspicious number.” Anthrak grunted, as they got closer to the foot of the hill. He pointed to each mound in turn, proving he could count. The outer mounds were about ten feet in diameter and some four feet high, with the centre being about double that. Tumuli for sure. She wasn’t sure if seven was bad luck for half-orcs, barbarians or folks from Chark in general, but she’d never put much stock in superstition. The world was already too full of mystery and magic to have space for mud-hut style fear. If the superstition was real, then it wasn’t superstition. It would have been documented by sages the world over and then classed as magic or relegated to folktales.
Her wandering mind came back to her as the foot of the hill evened out to flat ground. They both slowed their pace to reconnoitre the plain before them. The sun was slipping to the far west making the mounds reach out towards them with inky fingers of shadow. There were perhaps two hours before dark. Plenty of time to explore and find two wayward relics before making camp and slapping each other on the back for a job well done. Jude’s mind caressing the thought of the wineskin strapped to her pack. A rather beautiful little Avenis red, with its peppery, oaked flavour.
It took Jude a few seconds to realise that Anthrak had stopped walking and was taking off his pack and placing it carefully on the ground. He then proceeded to check the straps on his armour and loosen his great sword in its scabbard. With a sigh, she stopped too and let her pack fall with its usual heavy thump. The kite shield on the back hit a stone poking through the grass and let out a noise any bell would have been proud of.
“Are you expecting company?” She asked innocently. She knew the drill just the same as anyone, but something in her couldn’t help but bait this barbarian. She felt the hook bite.
“Always Jude, you know how this works. In any situation where things might get complicated, we need to be prepared. Besides, my pack was chafing.” He rolled his huge shoulders and she heard the cracks from where she stood some ten feet away. He muttered under his breath “Fucking spellcasters.” again in his native tongue.
“Idiot sword wavers!” she replied in perfect orcish, watching the man-mountain blush profusely.
“Sorry.” he said eventually.
“Don’t be. Honestly, it’s the first thing you’ve said to me that hasn’t been about hills or that map. And it made me smile, so all good. Come on, let’s do this.”
She detached the shield from her pack and hefted it onto her left arm, whilst grabbing her mace in her right. Her shield had seen better days, battered as it was, but it was hers and had taken many a blow meant for her head. The holy symbol of Lathander emblazoned on her cuirass catching the light of the late afternoon showing the rising sun and road.
Jude turned to Anthrak, signalling for him to wait. She closed her eyes and recited the prayer she had prepared the night before. She felt the caress of magic wash over her and the blessing of Lathander took hold of them both. Things always seemed easier after a blessing. They then turned to the mounds.
“How do you want to proceed? Small mounds first?” she asked, looking at the vista before her.
“Yup, seems like a good idea.” He agreed.
She led him to the first mound on the right of the large centre one. It was covered completely with earth and grass and had little in the way of any indications of what was below. She recited another prayer calling for magic to make itself known. All of the mounds started to glow in the grip of her spell.
“Ah!” she said when it was clear things were not going to be as easy as she’d hoped. Asking for guidance, she turned her world-wise gaze around again seeing if anything stood out. It seemed that there was a small indentation in the earth on the south side, that might indicate an entrance.
“Tumuli then and not statue?” She asked Anthrak
“Yeah, probably. Either way these have been here for a very long time. Hundreds of years maybe.”
“Agreed.” Yet again she wondered at her mentor’s decision to send her out here. How long had he known about the artifacts and decided not to investigate. An Amulet and a Staff, dedicated to their church and god. Surely these are not things that could be discarded and left to the great entropy.
2. The problem with digging.
Anthrak gestured to Jude. “Best get your spade out, we’re going to have to dig. I think I left mine back in the city.”
“I don’t have a spade, I am priestess of the church, I don’t carry spades.” She retorted, surprising herself at her own petulance.
“So, we’ve both been sent on a holy quest to dig up some old rusty relics and neither of us have spades.” Anthrak sighed.
“Yeah, we’re both a bit shit I guess” she laughed. “Not to worry, I’ll use the haft of my mace.”
Jude knelt before the indentation and began to dig away at the soil. The earth was hard and compacted, it had definitely been a long time since this earth had been disturbed. It took ten minutes before an opening was revealed, scraping, pulling and kicking eventually opened up a small door way into a small stone chambre. Jude lent in but couldn’t penetrate the darkness within. She could, however, see that something was glowing with the remnants of her magic detection spell. She commanded light to appear at the end of her mace and she took a good look.
Inside was a skeleton, lying in a repose form. It seemed to be humanoid but the skull was strange and not something she could recall seeing before during her many travels. The magic was coming not from the armour or weapons in the tomb, but from the bones themselves. Never a good sign in her experience. Contrary to her normal experience of bones, this set did not suddenly rise up and try to throttle her. She shuffled back out and stood up.
“Ok, so that’s weird. Bones are magic but nothing really seems to be amiss. Should we dig up another?”
“Might as well. If we’re to find your relics we may have to dig them all up.” Anthrak looked up.” And the daylight is not with us.”
They moved on to the second tumulus and repeated their previous efforts. When they opened this tomb, they found a second skeleton lying in the same position, with the same magic emanating from the bones as before.
“I have a good idea my half-orc friend.” Jude said with a smile that worried Anthrak. Jude’s ideas were rarely good and often resulted in long drunken evenings or, one particularly bad night, tricking the temple nuns into playing strip poker. “Let’s try talking to them with some good old-fashioned necromancy!”
“You know I hate that shit, Jude.” Anthrak’s voice had almost reached a whining pitch.
“What can possibly go wrong, eh?” she said and she began to prepare the ritual. Anthrak began to pace back and forth, glancing at the bones every now and then to make sure that they did, indeed, stay still. Jude’s mumbling prayer doing nothing to still his unease of anything that fiddled with dead people. Especially centuries old dead people, that weren’t even people, judging by the skull.
Jude finished her incantation and turned to Anthrak.
“We get five questions, so erm what should we ask? Its name? Might be a friendly way to start.”
She faced the skeleton and asked “Good Sir, what is thy name?” After a small pause, the skeleton’s jaw opened and with a hissing whisper said the word “Ssshisstar.”
“Good, we’re getting somewhere!” Jude looked pleased and she asked her second question. “How did you die Ssshisstar?”. With that same dry and ever so creepy whisper, the skull spoke again. “Ssthis shsiitis Ssshhhar!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. It doesn’t speak common and god only knows what language that is. Sorry, that was a bit of a waste of time.” Jude laughed, Anthrak didn’t.
“Let’s forget the small mounds and just get on with the large one. If the relics are going to be anywhere, they are bound to be there.”
“Ok, I have to admit I don’t fancy digging all of these mounds open.” Jude followed Anthrak over to what must be the blocked opening to the main tumulus. They set to digging and soon removed the plug of hard earth, revealing a small arched door way, leading into utter darkness.
Anthrak stuck his head in to look and that was when all hell broke loose.
Jude watched the earth explode off each barrow in turn, the sound a deafening thump. Clouds of soil fell back down to earth. The ringing in her ears fading quickly but it was her vision that worried her the most. On each mound now stood a warrior in full battledress. Three armed with bows, three with swords and one with a massive scythe. Their heads were all serpentine and reptilian, with scaled skin showing in the gaps of their antiquated armour. As soon as the dust cleared, the snake men attacked. The three archers letting loose as the other charged at the pair standing, open mouthed and completely caught on the back foot. One arrow whistled past Jude’s head, whilst another caught her above her shield arm, sinking into her chainmail. The third hit Anthrak, as he roared out a challenge in his true berserker style.
Anthrak, no longer caught unawares, closed the gap on the charging enemy and swung his great sword cutting deeply into one of the snake men and then brought the blade about lightning fast, to catch the same warrior again. With battle engaged, things seemed to slow down for Jude as she realised the arrow had been poisoned. She shrugged off the effects and summoned forth protective guardians. The small angelic figures spun around her at dizzying speed as she readied her mace and dived into the fray. As soon as the guardians came into contact with the warriors, they chewed chunks of snake flesh, searing them with the radiance of the holy. Jude watched Anthrak take another blow, but deliver several of his own, causing one of the snake men to fall. His face a laughing grimace as fury took over. He didn’t seem to notice the bleeding wounds on his arms and legs.
Jude swung her mace, using all of her years of martial training, aiming for the nearest snake’s head, the one with the scythe. She chose her timing but the terrain was against her, with the mace swishing past the target, not even connecting. It was not her imagination but the snake seemed to laugh at her even as her guardians caused damage to it.
“Fuck you!” she screamed and swung again this time connecting, causing the snake to stagger slightly, but it quickly recovered and launched at her, again managing to get through her armour. Her skin feeling the fiery burn of yet more poison, weakening her further, but she kept her concentration going on her spell. Anthrak saw her plight and stepped to her aid, killing another of the snake men on the way. They now stood back-to-back, surrounded by enemies. Just how she liked it as it gave her more options to help turn the fight. Her guardians were still harassing the snake men as she brought forth a new holy ally, in the form of a sword and shield. It too joined the fight and took its toll on the oppressors.
Jude saw the blood on her as well as Anthrak and knew she had to do something, she concentrated and blasted out a wave of healing, washing over them both and closing the wounds they had.
Anthrak saw an opportunity and swung again, killing another warrior before facing the scythe wielding snake man, definitely the strongest of the warriors. Blows seemed to come at Jude from all directions but her armour held them at bay whilst Anthrak finally found the opening he was looking for and dispatched the large snake. It didn’t take the pair long to kill their final foes, now that the numbers were more even.
Jude and Anthrak stood panting, finally feeling the sting of the wounds that the spell hadn’t healed, but they were alive. As they caught their breath, they watched the snake bodies disappear, sinking down into the earth as if they had never been there. A quick glance showed that they were back in their barrows, sleeping once more.
“Well, that hurt.” Jude panted. “Although, I am a little jealous that they are resting. Let’s do the same for a bit.”
Anthrak looked up again at the sun, just as it tipped over the horizon of the hill country and the dark was coming down hard on the little plateau area. He could see well enough and Jude’s mace gave off a comforting, brilliant white light.
“Ok, a short rest, but know that we’re going to have to go into that large tomb at night.”
“Like I said. What can possibly go wrong eh?” Jude grinned.
Anthrak just raised an eyebrow and sank down to the ground to rest.
3. Snakes
The pair felt much better after their break. Jude had even managed to sneak a surreptitious gulp of her wine. They had to get this job done and it was definitely not going to be as easy as they’d hoped. In fact, Jude had been convinced Father Antillius had sent her in this half-orc’s company to teach her a lesson. She pondered what that lesson might be. Better patience, humility or more martial training, or all three?
“No rest for the wicked” Anthrak joked as they rechecked their weapons and armour. “And you’re definitely wicked.”
“Why does everyone have such a bad opinion of me?” she pouted. “I mean I literally talk to our god! He thinks I’m doing ok.”
“Maybe Lathander sees something is you, a chance for you to be a better version.” Anthrak smiled. It was definitely his turn to bait. “Besides, does he actually critique you? A score out of ten perhaps?”
Jude turned her gaze to the half-orc and looked up into his eyes. “No, it’s the fact I can still do this…” and she cast two spells in quick succession. The blessing was renewed and Anthrak felt a barrier around him, a faint blue light flashed over his armour before fading. Jude then conjured the light to reappear on her mace.
“Come on, let’s get this over.” She pointed to the yawning entrance. “After you, good sir.”
They made their way over to the barrow entrance, noticing a large number of grass snakes slithering all around, disappearing into the shadows at their approach. Various shades of green and brown, all perfectly harmless but their presence odd as it was night time. Normally they’d be secured in their burrows, away from the pale moonlight now pouring down from the sky.
Tentatively, Anthrak stuck his head in the entrance, this time with no ill-effects or exploding earth. He looked down at an old stone staircase leading further into the dark. His vision making out an entranceway at the foot. He took his trusty javelin from the side of his pack and began prodding at the steps, those in range all giving up a typical stone hit by a javelin sound. Jude had never seen him throw the blasted thing but seen it used it for a million other, non-throwing, based tasks. She had wondered more than once whether he knew how to throw it. Perhaps, he just didn’t know what it was at all. Either way, here it was being put to good use to check for traps and reassuringly his Javelin of Trap Detection hadn’t found any.
The tunnel was tight and the ceiling way too low for the Barbarian to stand. He elected to sit on the steps and make his way, bumping from stone to stone until he reached the bottom. He turned and gestured to Jude to follow his example. She could just make him out in the light of her mace and he seemed to be ok, so she shrugged and followed his technique, her armour making a lot more noise than his well-oiled leather. Sneaking and stealth were really not her thing, so she enjoyed the wince on Anthrak’s face every time her chainmail and shield hit a step or one of the close walls. Finally, she reached the bottom and stood next to Anthrak and looked in through the archway they’d found at the foot of the steps.
Without warning there was a thump behind them at the top of the stairs and the archway of moonlight winked out with just a few clods of earth falling down the stairs. Their earthworks had either collapsed and resealed the doorway or something else had. They paused and waited, nothing stirred apart from the dust motes in the light of her mace.
Anthrak shrugged “We can deal with that later, one problem at a time.”
Not being particularly claustrophobic, Jude agreed, but was no less disturbed about being sealed inside an ancient tomb. It just meant there’d be no going back this way, definitely running and probably screaming.
In front of them was a large chambre with little in it other than what might have been a statue in the shadows at the far end. The floor was mosaic of rough-hewn granite flags slightly weathered, but the walls seemed to have been a lot better protected.
Their mood settled into a more serious demeanour and Anthrak took the lead and stepped through the archway with Jude following a few paces behind, single file. When Anthrak moved to the right and followed the wall, Jude did the same. Neither taking their eyes off what was indeed now revealed to be a statue. It was of a coiled snake, with its head some seven feet from the ground, dominating the far wall. Its eyes were gemstones of some indeterminate type but the rest of it was made from a greyish rock.
Jude took her eyes off the statue long enough to notice that there was a mural on the wall next to her. She tapped Anthrak on the shoulder and nodded her head towards the relief. It seemed to depict a story or a series of acts. In nearly every scene was a snake man holding up a human and cutting them. They checked other parts of the wall and found similar carvings, of humans being bled. Something tickled at the back of Jude’s mind but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. “They don’t appear to be being tortured, just cut.” She whispered into Anthrak’s ear. Anthrak nodded and carried on along the right wall towards the statue.
As they got closer, the more realistic the statue became but it remained just that, a statue. Seemingly inanimate objects were the worst in Jude’s experience, as they built up tension in any exploring party. Was the teapot just a teapot or a mad magician’s trap that would transform into a blood thirsty fiend from some fiery plane of hell. The problem was when it just remained a teapot, you always had to assume the worst and you could never trust that teapot again. “Always better the fiend.” She thought. “At least then you knew.”
At the base of the statue was a bowl and Anthrak noticed behind the monstrous carving was a door, leading further on into the tomb. He shuffled along the wall and made his way behind the statue towards the door. As he got close there was a grinding sound and before he had any thought of moving, the snake’s stone tail whipped round and caught Anthrak across his broad chest, sending him crashing back into the room. His chest and pride bruised and bleeding. With a muffled whimper not really becoming of such a large man, he stood up and stared accusingly at the now lifeless
statue. Jude watched Anthrak try to speak and waited patiently until he could get his breathing under control.
“No.” was all he managed with a wheeze, but it was enough and to be honest she had no interest or intention of trying that for herself.
“Perhaps we need to make an offering in that bowl.” She mused and moved closer to the front of the statue, being very careful with each step. How many flagstone floors had she crept across in her time? Of those, a truly disproportionate number had been trapped with spikes, arrows or fireballs. With a sigh of relief, that was not the case today.
The bowl was a silvery metallic and stained, clearly very old as it has also collected more than its fair share of dust.
“I think it’s fairly obvious what kind of sacrifice these creatures gave to their god.” Jude called back to Anthrak. “Come over here and give me a hand please.”
Anthrak walked over, now that he was in command of his body again and assessed the statue from up close. It was a truly remarkable piece of masonry as well as magic, as he now knew. Each scale had been painstakingly carved and the snake’s open mouth seemed to be wet with its teeth dripping venom.
“Right let’s get you bleeding into that bowl” Jude said, all matter of fact, wielding a small knife from her surgical pack.
“Eh?” Anthrak’s head snapped round to look at Jude and saw the knife. “Why don’t you do it?”
“Because I am the one that can heal the big baby when he cries at a little nick in his hand.” She said, trying not to smile and ruin the moment. Anthrak thought about her argument and gave up, knowing any kind of back and forth with this cleric would be pointless. He removed his gauntlets and held out his left hand to her, sighing again for what must have been the hundredth time today. Jude lent over and cleaned an area before slicing an inch long cut in his palm. Not deep, but Anthrak tried not to wince at the acid sting.
“Now, clench your first over the bowl and let’s see what happens.” she pushed him towards the statue and readied her weapons.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing Jude?”
“Absolutely none, now stop whining and bleed.”
Anthrak stopped the next sigh in its tracks as he squeezed his fist over the bowl, letting a constant rain of drops fall into the dust below. The dust puffed into the air but the bowl soon had a layer of blood covering the bottom. Anthrak stepped back and as he did so the statue animated once more, this time bowing its head into the bowl and appeared the drink the blood. A sibilant voice rang out in the room, filling all of the corners. It was also in Common.
“All kneel before Set and worship him!”
Anthrak shrugged and knelt to see what would happen. Jude on the other hand backed away from the snake statue, she hadn’t escaped one religious regime to be forced to kneel before another. Anthrak didn’t receive riches and Jude wasn’t struck down by lightening. The snake’s head rose again and once more was fixed in position like all good statues should be.
“Next plan Jude? One that doesn’t involve hurting your companions.” Anthrak was clearing sulking as Jude looked back to the murals on the walls deep in thought.
“Actually, my friend, I think we need to do it again but with more blood” she said as finished her sweep on the pictograms.
“Don’t you have any other way? Perhaps some knowledge of this Set? Isn’t that your thing?” Still sulking obviously.
“Well, my ‘thing’ doesn’t provide me with any insight here but these pictures do. Now stop being so soft and come back here.”
Anthrak came back and held out his hand again. Jude made a quick two-inch incision that began to bleed profusely. Anthrak let the blood pour out of his closed fist into the bowl, letting it reach a healthy pool at the bottom before stepping back. The snake head came alive again, this time the gem eyes glowing red as it reached down to the bowl. The head did not rise immediately like last time but stayed in the lowered position.
“Now run!” Anthrak shouted and the pair ran behind the statue unmolested and through the unlocked door, slamming it behind them. Anthrak looked up and saw there were in yet another room. This one much larger than the previous ante-chambre and it was in a bad state of repair. Once there had been majestic pillars down both sides, but half of these had fallen down and now lay like broken bones across the room. Down each side were a number of lit braziers, their flames providing light, and next to each seemed to be another light source. These looked like mirrors at a distance, providing a blueish hue to the dust laden air.
At the far end of the hall was another statue, this one massive and obviously an effigy of the snake men’s god, presumably Set. It was at least twenty feet high and was sculpted to a most exquisite finish. Unlike the previous statue, this one was covered in gold leaf and it seemed to slither in the flickering light. Infront of the statue set to the left and right were two large sarcophagi. Too big for orc or man.
“Ok, what now?” Jude asked Anthrak as she touched his hand, removing the cuts as if they’d never been there.
4. Let sleeping snakes lie
“Okay, as I see it, we have four things to investigate, the fires, the mirrors, the sarcophagi and the statue.” Anthrak mused as he looked down the long, two-hundred-foot room. “We might as well look at them in the order they arrive. Any preference, clockwise or anticlockwise?”
“Always widdershins, it’s the path least expected or at least I like to think of it that way. Someone designed this place and I am willing to bet they were right-handed and that’s where the traps are.”
“You do know that makes little sense right?” Anthrak asked looking at her. He was beginning to think that Jude has some real issues.
“Actually, it’s something my mother used to say. Well, less about traps but about always go the direction least expected. Thinking about it now, I suspect she was being more metaphorical and less literal and I just hadn’t understood. Never the less, I am still here and not impaled on some trap makers spike so it must work.”
“Hard to argue with that!” Anthrak laughed. “We should always listen to our mothers.”
They fell into their standard formation of single file with the hulking barbarian taking the lead heading towards the nearest brazier. Never had twenty feet seemed so long, the silence pressing down on them along with the knowledge that they were trespassing in a tomb dedicated to a god.
Reaching the first brazier, Jude peered at it, trying to determine how it was still lit when obviously no one had been down here in centuries. There was no pool of oil visible and a quick check confirmed that it was magically fuelled. Whilst the flame was bright it held little heat, so just used for lighting then.
“Nothing too odd here, let’s move on to the other light source on those pedestals.” Jude led the way over to a stone pedestal set into the floor. It was roughly two feet square with plain, unadorned sides and on top looked to be a glowing piece of glass. As Jude looked closer it definitely was not a mirror but some kind of portal. Anthrak leant over and squinted.
“I can see a desert, along with some form of ziggurat. What’s more I can see the sand blowing in a wind. So, this is a view to somewhere real and now?”
“I see the same.” She put her finger tips to the glass gently, it was cool to the touch and had no give in it at all. “Let’s move on to the next pedestal”
They continued their cautious walk along the right-hand wall, always keeping an eye to the hall in front of them and especially that huge Snake God statue. They had to climb over a fallen pillar and in doing so saw that it had been made of marble. Its glory days long gone now but still maintained some grace in its shattered remains. As they landed on the other side and approached the next pedestal, the two huge sarcophagi could be seen in much better detail. They were heavily engraved on the sides with images of war and battle. The lids were carvings of the heroes that were supposedly inside their tombs. Serpentine, snake men but bigger than the ones they’d encountered above. Which now seemed such a long time ago.
Anthrak looked into the next portal and found a similar scene but different, just sand dunes stretching in every direction.
“More of the same here. Probably the lands where these two came from.” He pointed to the stone carved coffins. “How their tomb ended up here we’ll never know. These are just windows Jude, we can ignore them.”
“Agreed. So that leads us to the sarcophagi and the statue and I truly believe we should try and leave the coffins and let these long dead snakes, stay dead.”
Moving closer to the statue, Anthrak noticed a chest nestled behind it. The chest was made of stone and had a stone lid. Very much out of place were the markings on each side, the road and rising sun symbol of Lathander. Anthrak, obviously not learning from his previous lesson, moved towards the statue in order to go around it and open the chest.
“Er, Anthrak…” was as far as she got before a deep green mist appeared above each sarcophagus, both coalescing into a solid form. As the last of the mist cleared, they could clearly see two huge snake men warriors, heavily armed and armoured. Jude didn’t waste any time and summoned her Guardians, and shot off a bolt of searing light towards the nearest enemy. The bolt landing with a blast of radiant energy but barely slowing it down as it leapt from the stone top of its sarcophagus with a grace that belied its size. The second one was not far behind and both were heading towards Jude, ignoring Anthrak as he turned on his heel and was charging back with fury in his every step.
The first snake reached Jude and swung its jagged sword, causing her to raise her shield high and let it take the blow. Much to Jude’s surprise this was not the only attack coming her way. As she warded of the sword blow, which left her shield arm aching, the snake lent forward and bit her shoulder, its teeth sinking far too easily through the chainmail. The pain was indescribable and she brought her shield back across to catch the snake’s head on the edge but it was too quick and released her. All this time the guardians, spinning around her, were burning at the scaled flesh. She stepped back to get herself onto a better footing. Her shoulder started to burn, more poison.
Anthrak charged into the second snake as it lifted its weapon to strike at Jude. He dipped his shoulder and knocked it backwards, forcing it to turn to him and address the new threat. Anthrak swung a series of blows all landing but not slowing down the opponents in the slightest. They simply didn’t seem to care about the damage being wrought on them.
Trading blows like this would soon be in the favour of the snakes if they didn’t get the better of the surprise. Anthrak took his position next to Jude and they worked as a team in the way that they had trained on the journey to this forsaken place. Jude firing bolts and beating back at her adversary all the time feeling the poison take hold. Another bite caught her and as she staggered, the snake whipped its tail around and snared her in its grip. She couldn’t move but her arms were free and she continued to flail at the scaled devil as it tried to eat her alive.
Anthrak changed targets and landed two solid blows on the snake grappling Jude, causing it to let go and back off, that was all the pair needed. Both seeing an opportunity, they cut and blasted the snake warrior into a bloody corpse. Not worrying about its fallen comrade, the second snake man sank its teeth into Anthrak and refused to let go, tearing at him. Anthrak howled in pain as the creature’s poison seeped into the ever-worsening wound.
Jude’s mace came down heavily on the snake’s head, rupturing one of its eyes, but still it wouldn’t let go. Her blows came down again and again, causing bloody ruin. The snake finally backed off allowing Anthrak to get the swing he needed and neatly decapitated the creature, its head bouncing across the floor leaving a trail of green ichor.
Without a pause Jude fired off a powerful healing spell, one she always saved for a time like this. Both of them felt the warmth of the healing and their wounds closed. They were drenched in blood, both theirs and that of the snake warriors.
They reassessed the room, looking for any further danger only to see the two corpses return to their gaseous form and pour back into the two sarcophagi. Breathing heavily, the pair backed up to the wall again.
“Sorry.” Anthrak started, but Jude cut him off.
“Not your fault, they’d have attacked what ever we did.” Anthrak looked a little taken aback but took her at her word.
“Look in front of the statue.” she panted. “There’s another bowl.”
Anthrak started to take his gauntlet off but Jude put her hand on his arm. “My turn!” she said.
Jude carefully walked between the sarcophagi towards the waiting statue. It was truly magnificent and this close up she could almost believe it was breathing. She rolled up her chain sleeve and used the small scalpel to cut her palm open, letting the blood fall into the bowl. She counted the seconds as her life blood poured into the offering bowl. After a full twelve seconds the statues gem eyes glowed red and it lent forward towards the bowl. As the head came down, it paused, staring at Jude and then the snake god smiled before reaching the bowl where it stopped.
Not missing a beat Anthrak ran to the chest, ripping the lid off and grabbed everything he could find, stuffing it into his loot bag. Jude was still in front of the statue, feeling slightly lightheaded from the blood loss but perplexed at the statue’s smile. It seemed much more aware than a statue should be. She shook herself and joined Anthrak as they looked at what they had gained from the chest. Along with a pile of gold and gems where three artifacts, two of which were the sacred items she had been charged with finding. The staff was six feet long and engraved with gold-inlaid words and the holy symbol of Lathander. Looking at the words, she saw they told of the staff’s secret, it could heal. The amulet was a holy symbol in of itself and she knew the unholy would fear her from now on.
The last artifact was a necklace with a golden pendant, set into the pendant was a green stone that glowed slightly. “Interesting!” she said out loud. “We’ll have to find out what this is when we get out of here.”
Anthrak wasn’t really listening as he’d found a glowing serrated dagger in the chest and was playing with it. Each to their own.
Without saying a word, she went over to Anthrak and hugged him. “Thank you” she said, as she let him go and walked back towards the entrance, getting her mace haft ready to dig them out of this tomb.
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