Chapter 1.1: The Descent
Mika rounded a corner, all the while searching the path ahead for dangerous traps and other contraptions that may have been left for tresspassers such as her and her companions. She was filled with a sense of awe at the scale of this place. The halls were all at least 20 feet wide, and the ceilings were at least that tall. Suddenly, she threw up a hand signal and the group came to a halt.
"Taelor, there's a strange glyph on the wall ahead that seems out of place. Check it out," Mika said.
"Right," a strapping young half-elf said as he approached the glyph. He stared at it for a few moments, then began tracing around the pattern with his index finger. After a minute, he stepped back and looked at the rest of the group.
"Well, the trap is bypassed, on our way out we should reactivate it so no tomb raiders or other such vagrants set up shop here," he said.
Mika again took point, walking down the expansive hallways of the tomb. Taelor walked a few paces behind her, with the rest of the group a good twenty feet back.
"Remind me again why we can't just walk through here like normal people," Jaysen quipped as he walked beside Mykel.
"Because normal people don't walk fully armed and armored through ancient tombs filled with death traps and quite possibly zombie giants," Mykel responded sarcastically.
"Still," Jaysen replied, "we should at least let me lead. I'm the best."
"Stop saying that," Mykel replied.
"What're you gonna do, cry about it? You always were such a crybaby. Cry cry cry, all the time," Jaysen said mockingly.
"You sound just like my dad," Mykel sniped.
"Will you two both just shut up," Raczel exclaimed, "you two retards arguing could wake the dead."
"Or, more likely in our case, the Undead," Joi interrupted.
"Why is it that every time she brings up something horrible, it always happens," Jaysen asked.
"Because she's the brains, sweat-hog," Mykel replied.
Joi simply rolled her eyes at the entirety of the exchange, "Come on, we have artifacts to find."
Then, from the front of the group, came the words that everyone dreaded hearing more than anything.
"Oops. Run. NOW!" Mika yelled as she darted past the rest of the group.
Loose bricks started to fall from the ceiling, coming straight for the group. Mika managed to run out of their path, as did Mykel. Joi, Raczel, and Jaysen were soon buried beneath the torrent of stones.
"Oh crap. What do we do, what do we do, whatdowedo, whatdowedooo?" Mika squealed.
"Don't panick, I'm sure that at least one of them survived," Mykel said dourly.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the cave in, Taelor began to try and unearth his companions. After a few minutes of digging, he found Raczel's unconscious form.
"Traveller take me, I hope she's still alive," he said as he reached beneath her armor and began fishing around.
"Ah ha," he exclaimed as he pulled a wand from beneath her armored shell, "now, how do I work this thing?"
He swung the wand around a few times and tried to mutter some magic words. That didn't work. He concentrated on his connection to his deity. That didn't work either. Finally, he had the solution.
"F***ING WORK YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF CANNITH CRAFTED CRAP!" he screamed out of pure frustration.
Blue light lept from the tip of the wand, coalescing into a slight corona around Raczel. Her visible wounds began to knit together, and slowly she regained consciousness.
"Why do we keep her around if all she does is accidentally set of traps," Raczel joked as Taelor helped her up.
"Well, there's always the comic effect of a bunch of unconscious archaeologists," Taelor replied, "we should probably start digging Joi and possibly Jaysen out."
"Jaysen should be fine," Raczel said as she tossed rocks to the side, "right now I'm more worried about the fragile elf bookworm."
"You're right, I'll get her out right away," Taelor said as he unsheathed a wand from his belt and wandered towards where Joi fell. He casually pointed the wand at the rubble covering her body and began to charge it. Bright yellow light formed at the end of the wand and small crackles of energy streamed from it. After a few seconds, the ball of light turned into two beams and struck the rubble, turning it into so much ash, "now, use those magical hands of yours and make her feel better."
"Must you always make it sound sexual when I heal one of the females in the party," Raczel asked.
"Yes," Taelor said, "yes I must."
"Men," Raczel sighed.
Raczel offered up a short prayer to the Sovreigns and Joi's wounds were gone. The pair helped Joi up and went towards Jaysen's nearly lifeless body.
"Well, he's dead, we'd best move on," Taelor said jokingly as he changed forms to match Jaysen's appearance.
"Taelor!" Joi exclaimed, "we can't just leave him here to die."
Taelor shrugged and walked towards the other end of the rubble, looking for Mykel and Mika.
Raczel held her hand a few inches from Jaysen's chestplate and he was bathed in white light. The various cuts and obviously broken bones began to snap back into place, and within a few seconds, he was good as new.
Jaysen stumbled to his feet and looked around.
"Next time, I'll take point. That girl can't see half as well as Joi can fight," he said.
"Hey now, her eyes aren't that bad," Raczel quipped.
"Well, I'm sorry that I dislike violence. It tends to get so messy, and I don't want to have to keep washing other sentient's blood off my clothes," Joi replied.
"I found some stragglers," came Jaysen's voice from the other side of the rubble.
"How am I over there?" Jaysen asked confusedly.
"Wait, how am I over there," asked Doppel-Jaysen.
"Dammit, Taelor, I told you like 30 times, stop doing that, it's friggin' creepy," Jaysen yelled out.
"Mika, try to be more careful while looking for traps," Joi said, "it doesn't help matters if they're set off shortly after you find them."
"Or shortly before she finds them," laughed Mykel.
"Oh shut up," Mika said as she calmly walked back towards the head of the group, "you're just lucky I set of this relatively non-lethal trap instead of the four Power Word Kill traps we found earlier."
"There are Power Word Kill traps in this dungeon and nobody mentioned it to me?!" Jaysen exclaimed annoyedly, "We should leave."
"There are still lost treasures and lost knowledge to uncover, we aren't leaving," Joi said calmly.
"Taelor, can you at least look like somebody else," Raczel asked, "you're giving me the creeps."
"Hey now," Jaysen said, "I resemble the target of that remark."
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-TRRW