"We've got one more group on the way, and no one is going in until everyone is here!"

The little man was dressed in fine clothing that wasn't at all suited the sandy desert surrounding them all, but they showed no signs of discomfort from the heat. Not a single drop of sweat marred their perfectly fitted suit and tie. Various pieces of jewelry adorned him, from rings to golden cuff links to necklaces tucked inside their buttoned shirt. He sat down on a high-backed chair that was practically a throne beneath the shade of a luxurious marquee tent that was decorated with rugs and potted plants as if it was some room transported from a palace and plopped among the dunes. A butler in equally fine clothing stood at the ready to be of service to the man along with several maids.

Outside the tent was a far different assortment of people. Split into three groups, they stood facing the tent. Some burly men and women in armor, some robed individuals, a few crossbows hung on backs. Their professions were obvious. Adventurers, sell-swords, mercenaries and the like. Off to the side, standing alone, was a tall, muscular Lizardman with red scales that seemed to give off as much heat if not more than the burning sands beneath everyone's feet. Xalmann crossed his arms in annoyance.

The job was simple. Go in, find treasure, and bring it back for this man to buy. The hole in the ground nearby that had opened up recently apparently lead to some underground city and this man wished to collect the ancient artworks and relics for his personal collection. He would pay handsomely. What he hadn't told him was that he had gone and hired competition. And now they were waiting for one more group of competitors to show up before being allowed to begin.

"Oh, I think I see them!" the man let out an excited squeal as some figures crested a dune in the distance.

Xalmann looked at the approaching figures and scowled. Oh great. It was her.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Buried with you

Chapter: One

Description: As you head into the opened cavern, you discover a lost city. You are needed to venture through this city and do research, taking notes, exploring the ruins and protecting yourself from any dangers. The ruins were crafted by dragonkin thousands of years ago, but apart from that you can be as creative as you want in the discovery of the ruins. Be warned, the earthquake has made this area unstable, and may have even disturbed creatures using the ruins as a home.

Requirements:

- Requires at least two people (you and one other, if the other participant does not qualify they will not gain the reward. )

- You must make at least 7 post to complete the mission with each post being at least 200 words

- Must venture through the city exploring and recording the site

- Must encounter one kind of obstacle, can be up to you

- Once you complete this mission you have completed this quest chain and may turn in the mission.

Rich men and their shinnies.

"CAWWW! Shinny?"

"Yes, Mischief... We're gonna get us some shinnies..."

Kamille wouldn't blame him, as she was much a collector of "shinnies" as the man himself - even if her treasures came in a different shape. She had reasons to believe that place might be more than it looked like, if all the vague and missing descriptions from the tomes of the Mage's Guild were any indication of it. If people have been trying to erase the existance of that place so much, there must be something good there...

And as fashionable for a mage as it was, she was late. Her entourage was comprised of her three "bodyguards", of sorts, all too well trained to complain of the heat of the desert under their black clothing. At least, on top of that, they all had thrown a cape and shemag the color of the sand to put the scorching sun at bay ever so slightly. They approached by foot, and Kamille squinted her eyes at the group already gathered by the entrance of the supposed cave.

So the noble had failed to mention that there would be competition too... Well, it served to brush off the feeling of guilt that had been slowly creeping up her heart. She wasn't a fan of stealing, but depending on what they found down there, she doubted it would be suited for the well manicured, delicate hands of a nobleman like that. But wait....

What was that she was seeing? Glistening against Zeinav's scorching sun like a jewel? Oh.... Ohhh! Those were some nice, scaly abs! And some nice, really well-defined pecks as well... Wait, was that Xalmann? When her gaze finally reached above his neck, Kamille finally realized it was, indeed, the same Xalmann she met a while ago!

She grinned at him. Well, that would be much more fun right now............

As her entourage approached, it was clear she was not in the least bothered by the heat, even if her clothes were lighter than her usual "Witch of the Moonglade" attire. A thin, embroidered veil was covering the lower half of her face as to protect herself from the whiplashing sand. As she came closer, she lowered the veil that covered her head and mouth, offering the Lord a gentle smile and curtsy.

"Good morning, my Lord! I wasn't aware I would have company... Not that I'm complaining...."

There was not an ounce of shame or guilt for arriving late. With that, she shot a mischievous grin towards Xalmann.

"Hello again..."

Xalmann just tried to ignore the annoying witch whose insults against him he hadn't forgotten. Now wasn't the time for petty arguments. With the arrival of the final group, the man in the tent raised his hands in a grandiose manner and addressed all of the gathered hires waiting.

"Alright, now that we're all here, we can begin..." he announced and the groups looked pleased until he continued. "..by going over the rules one more time!" they contained their groans. They'd already been over the rules while waiting for Kamille to arrive, but apparently he wanted to say them one more time now that she was here.

"You will all go down there to find treasures, artifacts, and beautiful pieces of art from a long-lost civilization and bring them back for my collection! You will be paid handsomely for your findings! You will be competing against each other to find these treasures, but in the spirit of friendly competition, no fighting or stealing from each other, alright? We won't be held liable for any injury or deaths down there from any nasty beasties living in those ruins, so be prepared for combat still. Well, I think that's everything, isn't it?" he petered off and the butler leaned in to whisper something in his ear. "Oh right, the bags! Everyone received a special bag that will store whatever they find! It's much bigger on the inside than it appears, and it should make it much easier for you to bring back much more treasure. Right, now that's everything! Alright, go on, have fun down there! Bring back lots of treasure!" The butler whispered once again in his ear. "OH! The one who brings back the most treasure gets a prize! Tah-tah now!" he called as he waved a handkerchief in the air.

One of the maids walked up to Kamille's group with a black, velvet sack with a fancy golden emblem, embroidered on the outside and held it out for them to take. It could be seen that the other groups each already had one on them as they began to head down into the cave.

Xalmann glanced at Kamille and her group silently before beginning to walk down the path himself. He was the only lone competitor, but he was confident he could keep up with the other groups. And he knew he wasn't the only one willing to break the rules down there. Some of the other groups gave him glances, probably already planning to pick him off as the only loner to eliminate some of the competition. He eyed them right back.

It was good to see no one seemed to have intentions on actually honoring the good man's will. She felt it was kinda naive to assume that, bringing in random mercenaries and treasure hunters to a random place, supposedly with artifacts, could result in anything but blood. Some of the people there must be aware of the actual value of what they could find. For herself, she did have an eye out for artifacts, but what she was after was no shinning treasure of gold or silver.

In the blink of an eye, Xalmann's fears were made true: Kamille happily hoped on his direction, with a huge grin on her face.

"Xalmann! So long! It's been quite a while, right? I missed you, you know? And your lack of clothes. Never expected to meet you again here! We could join forces, you know?"

Of course, she knew he would refure. He would rather eat his own tail than join forces with her, but the tease was still funny... for her. He would probably get pissed. Maybe she could see his head explode if she pestered him enough?

"....Did you know this is the place a great alchemist hid his treasures? I'm assuming none of these idiots cared to search for that information but... You know that this means? Alchemists are known for being good at making traps..."

Well, at least Kamille did seem to do her homework. Or she must have searched for the place for other reasons beforehand, and the story of the fancy noble punk just caught her ears with a good timing. Either way, the adventure was made infinitely more fun if she could tease Xalmann all the way.

Xalmann tried to stay stoic and ignore the annoying witch trying to insult him about his choice of wardrobe. He walked along, pretending he didn't hear her, until she mentioned traps. He hadn't known much about this place, just accepting a job to go raid an old underground city. Researching wasn't his specialty. He hadn't expected Kamille to be very thorough about her homework either, so her suddenly sharing all this information was a surprise. Didn't she know she could have kept that to herself and had an advantage over him? They were competing down there, weren't they?

His head finally turned in her direction, eyes narrowed suspiciously. Her offer of joining forces had to be another dig at him, and even if it wasn't, he'd rather fight a dragonturtle again than have to spend five minutes with her.

"I will work alone." He hissed curtly before looking forward again.

Soon, the tunnel leveled off and then opened up into an enormous cavern. The ceiling was high and supported by innumerable square columns of beige sandstone, like a forest of massive trees. High in the air, walkways spanned between the columns and around them. Staircases were scattered throughout the strange city, climbing up the sides of the pillars. Holes were spaced along the columns, doors and windows with beaded curtains. Glowing purple crystals hung from the undersides of the walkways and from golden sconces on the sides of the pillars, illuminating the whole place and highlighting the geometrically stylized carvings on the walls of people, plants, animals, and a strange writing that no one seemed to be able to read.

This city was not like anything Xalmann had ever seen before.

Despite Xalmann' best efforts, the Witch would remain close and trying to strike up a conversation. Unlike him, it didn’t look like she was in the mood for competing, as many of those baubles didn’t actually interested her so much. On the contrary, she was after the kind of treasure that didn’t glitter.

"Oh, are you sure about that?"

She knew what he would answer, but before he could, the tunnel opened up in a fantastic pale-gold city. It was one thing to read and see the pictures of it, but to see it right before them and feel tiny between gigantic pillars of sandstone was something else entirely. Before she would take any more steps, she took out a bottle from her satchel. Instead of drinking it, however, she turned it on the floor: in a poof of smoke and soot, several small creatures with tiny thin arms flopped out the flask. They seemed to be made entirely by soot, small cute voids with arms, legs and cute little eyes. Kamille quickly turned to Xalmann, extending a hand.

"Since you insist... Good luck, and may the best mage win."

She grinned at him, just in time for them to hear a set of arrows flying over from their hidden panel and hit the wall on the other side. The trap was apparently set by the several sootlings that now ran amock, not hurt by the trap but clearly meant to just trigger anything they found.

Kamille waited on his handshake to follow her path as it diverted from Xalmann's.

Xalmann watched as the sootlings ran about, setting off traps before Kamille and her entourage would follow behind. That was convenient. From a short distance, the sounds of shifting stone, metal clashing, and liquid flowing could be heard along with shouts from what must have been the other teams. A jet of fire suddenly shot out of one of the corridors above along with more shouting.

In contrast to the beauty of the place, it was a goddamn death trap! The offer to work together was suddenly a lot more tempting in the face of such an awful place. Still, he just couldn't stand the idea of working together with her. And she seemed to already be well aware of that as she offered a hand and words of competition. He didn't consider himself a mage, he was more of a warrior even if he did use magic, but he understood her meaning.

Xalmann narrowed his eyes and took her hand hesitantly. His clawed hand was almost burning hot as he gave Kamille's hand a quick shake. He could at least show a little sportsmanship before they separated. A bit of competition could be a good motivator for him to head into this death trap and find some fortune for himself.

He headed off on his own, toward a different corridor.

"Mother Raven! I think I found something..."

The heat didn’t seem to intimidate her as she shook hands with Xalmann - on the contrary, her grin widened even more as they parted ways and Kamille went to investigate what her Black Quills have found. They seemed very intrigued by some markings on one of the giant pillars, curious in the same measure they were cautious. A bit of proding later, the two men crouching and poking at the markings like idiots, they jumped back as the stone started to move after a loud click.

They braced for the worse, taking a defensive stance..... then, for a minute or so, nothing happened. Poe, the smaller Black Quill, approached and poked at a square on the floor, revealing a hidden passageway with a narrow, long stair leading down into the darkness.

Kamille looked pleased, as she took a torch from its place nearby and lit it up with the snap of her fingers [1]. She did that with a few more torches, carrying one and giving one to Poe. The other one she gave to two Sootlings, who promptly carried it into the tunnel, lighting up the path ahead and imediatelly tumbling down the stairs.

"Good luck, Xalmann!"

With one last wave of the hand, Kamille followed her entourage into the tunnel, the bouncing Sootlings guiding their way.

[1]Create Spark 

Xalmann ignored the shout behind him from the witch as he walked away. He took a deep breath to calm himself. He still needed to work on his temper a bit, still getting too angry to control his fiery magic sometimes. Even his hand being so hot had been unintentional. It was just lucky Kamille didn't seem affected by it. Maybe when he was done here he could try visiting some sites in the desert that he was told were very relaxing, like the oasis. Cactus juice was apparently very refreshing too. He needed some relaxation.

As he turned down another corridor, he stopped and looked around. The possibility of there being traps here was high if the shouts of panic and pain still echoing about the chamber from the other passages was any indication. He clapped his hands together and two more Lizardfolk appeared beside him, these two translucent and covered in burns. One was taller and thinner than Xalmann, a lanky Lizardman with a small hand axe in each hand. The other was a bit shorter than Xalmann, but bulkier and broader with a larger, two-handed war axe strapped to his back and a goofy mile on his face.

Xalmann spoke to them both in the Lizardfolk language, their native tongue, for a moment. The tall one gave a curt nod and walked past, down the corridor searching for tripwires and pressure plates along the ground. The short one gave a confident smile and puffed out his chest as he stuck close to Xalmann, ready to protect him from any traps the scouting Lizardman might miss.

---

Call Ghost
Spirit Guardian

Xalmann followed his way and the Witch followed hers, accompanied by her many associates and a handful of curious critters made of soot. Either she was going insane or there were more sootlings this time. Maybe she could put some on a spare bottle she had and hide it in Xalmann's satchel. The thought made her snicker.

Kamille didn’t have much interest in the kinds of treasures the fancy lord wanted, so whatever they found that reflected a gold glitter, the Black Quills would put in the bag. Kamille looked more interested in the inscriptions on the walls, following along slowly as she tried to decipher the markings. It was a slow process and the Black Quills were soon walking ahead, tearing down anything remotely interesting while the Sootlings ran about.
The Sootlings proved their usefulness more than once, setting off deadly traps much ahead of them, giving the group plenty time to avoid it. Flying arrows, descending axes and hidden buttons and lines were all found by the little ones while they ran around seemingly at random. Just once a trap was actually set off by Edgar because the sootlings were too light, and the weight of the Black Quill made a pannel on the ground slide and flames shot out from hidden holes on the ground. Luckly, Edgar was quick enough to avoid the brunt of the damage; and Kamille would put the fire off quickly before it became a problem [1].

For herself, Kamille was able to recover some books and scrolls, unsure of its value for the moment. She had the Sootlings go grab a gorgeous tome that was displayed in a pillar, alone, in the middle of a room. She feared some kind of fallout upon its retrieval, but nothing happened. It was a beautiful magic tome, but its contents still locked away by a couple of chains etched with arcane runes. Whatever it was inside that book, someone took several extra steps to keep it there.

The Black Quills had become restless when Kamille insisted on investigating the same column for about half an hour, in the same room, occupying themselves on the tearing down of an old tapestry. But her stubborness did pay off, as the Witch checked and checked again in her book to decipher the writings: she pressed the markings on the right combination, revealing a small alcove. With a satisfied scream, Kamille pulled off what appeared to be...

A ball. Of steel.

"Is this the reason we came all the way down here?" Poe asked, making no effort to hide her dissappointment.

"HA! Do you know what this is? With this, I'll have made-"

Whatever it was she was gonna make with that, Poe would not know, because Kamille carelessly put a hand on the collumn to lean against it, accidentally pressing some kind of hidden button. Everyone went quiet as they listened to the clicks and clacks of several gears and springs setting off the trap.

Click.

The next moment, the floor receded, and everyone went down with it.

[1]Control flames

Xalmann walked through the corridor, avoiding the pressure plates and tripwires that were pointed out for him by the ghostly apparition scouting ahead for him. The tunnel descended downward a few times, staircases with trick stairs that would likely give way or trigger another trap. There were holes in the walls that darts might fly out of or maybe spears or arrows. He didn't know, since he managed to avoid setting them off.

It was getting tiring. There were just so many traps to avoid, that eventually the scout missed something and Xalmann didn't notice either as he stepped onto a pressure plate on the ground that was well hidden. With a click, suddenly the stairs all flattened out and the staircase became a slide of smooth sandstone. Xalmann slid down quickly, his spirit guardian right behind him looking as though he was enjoying the ride with a big grin on his face.

At the bottom of the stairs, spikes came up from holes in the ground, ready to impale anyone sliding down onto them. Xalmann quickly spun around to approach the spikes backward, wrapping his cloak around him and then channeling a bit of mana through the fabric.

As it looked like he was about to be impaled, the bundled up Lizardman suddenly stopped right on top of the spikes harmlessly. The cloak was as hard as steel as Xalmann rolled off the spikes and continued walking forward. The ghostly Lizardman ahead came back and gave a short apology for missing the trap, but Xalmann waved him away. There were too many traps here. It wasn't surprising he'd miss one eventually. At least the slide had made the trip down the stairs much faster. The shorter Lizardman behind him slid straight through the spikes harmlessly and looked like he had enjoyed the slide. Xalmann rolled his eyes and turned to continue on.

Suddenly, the ceiling above the spikes opened up and Xalmann saw something he'd really not expected and really didn't want to see.

Kamille and her lackeys!

---

Rime Mantle

While all the Black Quills managed to avoid getting wounded by sheer amount of luck or ability - though Edgar seemed to have hurt himself a bit - Kamille was quick enough to cast a single spell: Slow [1].

She was not particularly skillful when it came to physical abilities, so while her spell made her slowly descend in what would otherwise be a painful - possibly deadly - fall, she still hit the floor as elegantly as a sack of potatoes, while still being helped by Allan to get her out of the way of danger. Her hair was a complete mess, her cloak wrapped around her shoulders, and still once her feet were safely on the ground, she stood up and coughed a little, straightened up and looked around as if nothing happened. When she spotted Xalmann, dust and sand still twirling around her from the collapsed tunnel, she flashed him the most shameless grin.

"AH! I've been looking for you! How about we make our way out of here already, hmm?! I got what I want, and some stuff to make the lord happy. What about you?"

Before Xalmann could answer, a shower of soot fell on them - but it was just the sootlings, throwing themselves from the tunnel above and bouncing off of the floor harmlessly. Kamille handed Poe a healing potion to take care of Edgar, who seemed to be the only one injured on the fall, but nothing that a potion couldn't take care of.

Why.

Why did it have to be them?

Why did she and her cronies have to fall from above? Was it just to torment him? Was this maze alive with a mind of its own? Did it find pleasure in making the Lizardman suffer? Because if it did, it had definitely found the best way to make him do so.

Xalmann glanced at his magic bag. He'd managed to grab a few trinkets as he'd travelled through the tunnels, but he wouldn't say he was completely satisfied with his spoils. He'd wanted to find something more down here. There were supposed to be magic items, weren't there? He didn't care if the witch went back to the surface now, that'd be more than fine with him, but he wanted to explore some more.

He also glanced past her toward the slide that used to be the staircase. It was far too steep to climb back up easily, and it had gone down quite a distance. There was no backtracking.

He shook his head, but before he could say anything out loud in response to the witch, there was a noise of flowing water. From down the slide, a cascade of some greenish liquid was suddenly flowing down! Now there was really no going back up the way he'd come down.

Kamille shot Xalmann one of those smiles - that one that was so bright and sincere that would make the lizardman's blood boil on its own. She wouldn't know about the maze, but the Witch did seem to like seeing Xalmann annoyed. But it didn't last long.

She was still waiting for him to answer when she heard something on the distance. In the brief time she was at that maze, she was confident enough to know they would be lucky if said liquid was just some kind of acid. There was no time to waste.

"This way!"

Poe and Allan hurriedly helped Edgar back on his feet, and though the potion seemed to have healed his injuries, he took a while to really recover his strength to start running.

There was really nowhere else to run, so they all just ran along the corridor. She heard the faint noises of a trap or two being triggered on their way, but didn't look back to watch what would happen there. On the end of the corridor, they could see a door that, hopefully - and mysteriously - didn't seem to have any traps to it. The Black Quills helped open it enough for everyone to squeeze into the room - it was a heavy, old stone door. Once everyone was inside, Kamille stomped the ground and stone shards shot out from the floor in front of the door, helping lock the door in place. Just as they got to do so, they would hear the splash and pressure of the liquid against the door... as well as a thin stream of it leaking into their room from the cracks of the doorframe.

"We should be looking for another way out. Quickly."

She finally looked around to see what kind of room they just got themselves into.

This wasn't good at all. Green liquid trickled in through the cracks in the door and slowly spread across the floor. He had no idea what that liquid might do if they touched it. Knowing it was some maniacal wizard who had set these traps, it could be anything really. Acid wouldn't be the worst thing. He'd survived walking through acid before, but if this liquid turned his legs to stone or was some toxic poison, he wouldn't be able to just heal himself of that so easily. They had to get out of here. Not only all that, but he was stuck in here with her.

Looking around the room, the walls were the same yellow sandstone as all the rest of the underground maze, but the green gemstones in the sconces had been replaced with purple ones, contrasting with the yellow walls and casting a light that almost made them greyish in tone. The carvings on the walls looked like blocky images of people, their torsos made of a large square and their arms and legs made of rectangles with a smaller square above the torso to serve as a head.

In the center of the room was a statue of a man, a crystal vial in his hand and his eyes gleaming green like emeralds.

There didn't seem to be any doors on any of the walls. Was this place designed to be a dead end? A trap, where those fleeing from the flowing liquid would meet their end? No, there had to be some way out, right? Xalmann placed his hands together and looked to the other Lizardfolk that reappeared beside him and spoke a few words, hissing them in his native tongue.

Xalmann's summoned ghost nodded and went to search for some way out, checking for a switch or anything. Another trap being activated would be the least of their concerns if this room flooded with that strange liquid. Maybe they could activate some spiked pit or something and buy themself more time.

Xalmann also set off to look around for a way out. Not because the witch told him to. He just wanted to survive. He tried to avoid looking at Kamille as much as possible 

---

Call Ghost