High in the Frozen Mountains to the north, west of the Dwarf Kingdom of ‘Stonehall’, or better known as ‘Eborion’, the White Lions scaled the steep mountain walls, growing ever closer to the tomb they went to investigate. “We’re getting closer team! Let’s keep moving!” Layris commanded the group, her voice barely audible over the thundering blizzard so common this high in the north. Gargonia had the most trouble, her heavy armour weighing her back against the powerful winds, not that her natural strength wasn’t more than enough to resist the more than harsh weather conditions. Meanwhile, Arsil always seemed to be at least ahead of the others, like the more than harsh weather conditions didn’t affect her remotely.
Eventually, the group of four would reach the mountain side as they had intended, the stone held a huge tomb embedded into the steep wall. The structure had intricate patterns and completely parallel as it went completely down the middle, even the door seemed unaffected by the relentless snow. Layris approached the door first, her armoured hand pressing against the tough stone, one that couldn’t be moved, even with the mightiest of forces.
“It’s magically sealed,” Layris commented with a sigh, closing her eyes while channelling magic energy into the stoned barrier, it moved soon completely out the way, “There…let’s go.” She said, leading the others into the darkness, a place where no light had reached for thousands of years, probably not ever.
Each of their footsteps made echoes that travelled through the seemingly endless corridors, there were no traps, no decorations, no signs…nothing, like no-one was expected to have ever entered the pitch-dark structure. Each corridor they wondered down felt like it went on for hours each, like time in this untouched land distorted time itself. However, one thing that was consistent here like it was outside was the frozen winter lands was the burning cold, it was if anything remotely connected to the idea of warmth were nothing more than just words. Elithil had obviously used spells to help cope with the harsh temperatures, and even though it seemed even colder in the night filled tunnels, it helped offer sufficient protection, at least enough to help cope with the negative climate temperature both inside and outside.
The corridors remained perfectly wide as one another, none smaller or narrower than the last. A small light orb hovered above the group, a means of seeing how the group was able to see where they were moving, “This place is…interesting?” Gargonia mentioned to herself, as if trying to make small talk with her fellow party members. “Tell me about it.” Arsil responded, looking around at the cold stone walls, “Stay close…we don’t want to-“ Before Layris could finish, she slipped and was about to fall down a pit she hadn’t paid attention to, however, Gargonia grabbed onto her and lifted her back.
“Oh…oh wow, thank you.” Layris said, panting and taking deep breaths to calm her fear, putting her hands on her knees in an attempt to calm herself, Gargonia patted her shoulder with an out of place grin, a common occurrence for her, “Of course, I can’t have my favourite guild leader dying on me.” Arsil and Elithil soon caught up. “What happened?” Arsil said, rushing over with genuine concern, “It’s nothing…is there a stone here?” Layris asked, looking around, Arsil walked away and picked up a small pebble and held it over to Layris. She took the stone and walked over to the edge to where she nearly fell and dropped it. “1…2…3…4” Layris counted out loud, but seconds ticked by with no sound until eventually, after at least perhaps 3 or 4 minutes, a small crash was heard at the bottom of the pitch-black abyss beneath them.
“Well…that’s eerie.” Gargonia said, her voice trying to remain calm, despite that, small amounts of anxiousness pressed through. “There’s a staircase over there…it should be fully stable, or at least, stable enough to help us get down.” Ethil said, pointing towards the side where stone curved along the walls, descending down into the darkness. “I see…well, let’s just get this over with.” Layris spoke, she hid her anxiety much better than Gargonia, even if she felt just as much as, if not more than her friend. The group practically clung to the square walls, each step radiating a crisp sound through the emptiness. “So uhm…what is the story of these guys anyway?” Gargonia asked, clearly trying to make small talk to cope with going deeper into this unknown. “It’s a long story…” Elithil began, as if reciting from pure memory.
“They were human men from Elnoria, the greatest of his soldiers and together, the king formed ‘The Brotherhood of Light’…armies looked up to them, viewed as protectors of their great kingdoms as great patriots…then they were commanded to slay an ally of the Dark Lord during the Dark Age Wars, they did as he said without question. Despite their efforts, they were slain but instead of dying, they were turned into ‘Wraiths’ with the power of other spirit creatures, they became known as the ‘Zarumogol’, dark elven for ‘Wight Ghouls’…they ruled over the kingdom of ‘Tazekdem’ for years by their groups leader, his name I dare not say...before they were eventually killed by the king’s son, buried here to rest finally like they should have…”
Silence seemed to stretch out unnaturally before Arsil responded, “But apparently, staying dead wasn’t an option…or at least for goodness knows how long they were in this place, undisturbed.” Layris could only nod at her sentiment, leading the group down into the black abyss.
What felt like hours, they eventually reached the bottom of the black pit, the stone rested on the floor away from the centre of the floored area, in the centre was a small table. Arsil was the first to approach the small structure, on it made into a circle were 7 rings, all of them gold and with matching patterns, the only difference between each of them were the jewel held in the centre. The colours consisted of; white, red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple. Each one remained still, untouched by the flow of time and resting in the undisturbed darkness of the night for thousands of centuries now, their origins a mystery to the group of four.
“You didn’t say there would be rings here.” Gargonia said, walking over and standing over the small table, staring down at the small jewels that seemed to rest peacefully. “I didn’t know there would be any…” Elithil calmly responded, just as curious about their origin but wise enough not to make a move towards them. Layris walked over to the other side of the area, looking at the wall that seemed to have been smashed through from the inside, the stone curved outwards unnaturally towards the table, revealing a hidden room from the other side. “This stone…it was broken from the inside, whatever it was, it was strong, determined.” Gargonia said, running her hand over the stone before moving in. Arsil and Layris followed after while Elithil made another orb of light to follow them in, illuminating in total seven stone coffins, all of which formed a perfect semi-circle, each one had the covers moved to the side and out of the way, revealing the small spaces inside large enough for only one person each. “This is where they were buried…this specific stone only forms in these winter mountains, it takes a lot of force to move it…perhaps multiple Orcs at once can just about perform such an act.” Gargonia said, running her hand over the ancient stone.
Outside the small hidden room, Elithil placed her hand over all the rings at once and closed her eyes, she saw a vision. She saw eight men in total, seven wore clothes like high knights and kneeled before the last who was older than the others, his clothes royal and comfortable, on his head rested a great crown. On his lap rested a pillow with the same seven rings that Elithil had her hand over. Elithil opened her eyes again in a cold sweat, her mask still plastered on her face, she couldn’t understand why or how such a calm vision could make her body so afraid. She looked over to her friends, who were still inspecting the ancient stone coffins, she walked over too and placed her hand on the broken stone wall, closing her eyes to repeat the same process she took with the rings just seconds earlier.
Once Elithil closed her eyes, she was inside the tomb, surrounded by the coffins, this was wrong somehow, she never had these visions in first person like this. “Gargonia?...Arsil…?” She called out to her friends, “Layris?” No response, just her in the dead silence and pitch-black darkness she could somehow see in, none of this made sense, soon however, she heard a whisper. This strange voice was very humanoid but too quiet to properly make out, the words seemed to rise high into the air and fall deep beneath the earth, get closer and further, the only consistency was that it was feminine and that she couldn’t coherently make out one sentence that was being said.
After what seemed like a few minutes, it stopped and Elithil was plunged into cold silence once again, it seemed to stay like that for what felt like forever. However, the stone suddenly moved, each seal to each coffin one by one, shifted to reveal what rested inside, this time were robed figures that hide their bodies in the darkness and their robes. Each of them moved forward with perfectly fluent motions, like they were waking up from a short nap rather than a rest that had lasted for many centuries. All of them moved past her and smashed through the wall behind, paying no mind to the adventurer in front of them.
They moved through the wall and disappeared into the darkness passed the staircase and through the dark corridors, escaping even her temporary night vision. Suddenly, the environment changed into something else, still cold but not from weather, the walls went from smooth and high to rough stone and much shorter than before, in front of her were the same figures, slowly turning to face her, their faces still hidden under their helmets. The one in the center moved forward, reaching out a gauntleted hand, the others releasing an ear-piercing wail, one that was like that of a banshee, it carried an ancient evil and callousness that seethed deep into her bones.
"I see you..."
Suddenly, her eyes widened and she fell back, being caught by Gargonia right before she hit the floor, however, her eyes behind the mask remained widened while her breaths short and panicked. “Elithil…Elithil, it’s okay, deep breaths.” Layris said, running over and kneeling down next to her scared friend. Elithil eventually calmed down, climbing back onto her own two feet before looking back over at her parties leader, “They…have returned.” The sentence hung like a bad omen, now knowing one of the most ancient threats in the world have returned.