Maybe Xalmann was doing his best to avoid looking or interacting with Kamille, but he should have also brought ear plugs if he intended to have her torrent of words stopped from cutting through his brain.

"Everyone be calm, there's plenty of time, no need to panic...Did you find something, Xalmann? What is that on the wall? And what is that? Why are the gems purple and not green? That guy's eyes are green. Wait... is that a vial in his hand? Does it have something in it? Where are the Sootlings? Quick, go find another way out."

Desperate times called for desperate measures, so all the Black Quills were trying for anything they could push or pull that looked like it could be some kind of lever, regardless if they could trigger a trap. Even Mischief, that only now Kamille acknoledged to have followed them so far, stood on the head of the statue of the man, trying to pluck his shinning eyes out like a good raven that he was, while the Sootlings ran about to look for other ways out too.

"I mean... This was the tomb of an alchemist, right? Certainly this have to be some kind of puzzle... XALMANN! Do you understand any of this, Xalmann?! If nothing else works, I'll lift us up to the floor and you punch a hole on the ceiling! What is this?"

Of course, Kamille had gone up to the statue of the man, where Mischief got increasingly frustrated for trying to get his gemstone eyes, and tried herself to take the vial from his hand and see if there was any kind of liquid there. All the while, she seemed to be talking to... the statue itself?

"Are you the guy who is buried here? Despite how dire the situation is, I must give you props for arranging all of this... Really love what you did to your first room, really did bring out the best features of your murderous psycopathic traits..."

As she managed to pluck the vial from his hand... nothing happened. But as Mischief plucked the emerald from the statue and it click clacked on the floor, they all felt the ground shake and the rock slide in weirdly matching slabs and settings. A maze of slithering paterns appeared on the floor, and as the fluid started to fill the room, it started to flow through the small cannals formed.

"This... This looks like..."

"BOSS! WE GOT A PROBLEM!"

The Black Quills were not as lucky as she was, and ended up trying their luck at one of the humanoid figures in the walls.

Xalmann thought he might lose his goddamn mind. Kamille would just not stop barking orders and asking questions, even shouting his name! She was telling everyone to remain calm when she was the one acting the most panicked. He couldn't even read common, how could he read some ancient alchemist language? And did she actually think he could punch a hole through the ceiling? How strong did she think he was? Yes, he was pretty muscular, but he couldn't punch a hole through solid sandstone! Part of him just wanted to dunk his head into the mystery liquid pouring into the room just to hopefully end his suffering. Oh, and now she's talking to the statue. The statue that her dumb bird plucked the gems out of and triggered some kind of mechanism that made channels appear in the stone floor. Surely that wouldn't be a problem.

At the walls of the room, the carvings of humanoid figures suddenly let out a tremor, shaking the walls and causing dust and bits of sandstone to fall from the ceiling. The liquid flowed through the channels on the floor which all led to the figures on the walls, flowing into a hole at the base of each one. The eyes of the figures began to glow green and the outlines were revealed to not, in fact, be carvings in the wall, but were actually the edges of the stone golems that began to slide out from the walls and attack!

Xalmann let out a hiss of annoyance and went to fight the golems closest to him. Hopefully the Black Quills would be able to handle the ones that came out near them.

It was easy to miss, in the havoc that just erupted around them, that the liquid filling the channels didn’t seem to overflow. The Black Quills were already too busy fighting off some of the stone golems they had awakened, but at the distance that she was, she could see that the purple gemstones directly above the vacant nooks the golems left were changing... as if the gems had been hollow, they were being filled with the green liquid that was still pouring slowly from the door.

Reaching into her purse, she pulled out both of her rooks, whispering words of power into them before before tossing the pieces before her. They hit the floor, not as two pieces of chess, but as two six-foot tall stone gargoyles, ready to follow her orders.

"Miss Fortune! Sir Prize! Awaken the rest of the golems and defeat them! Xalmann! I think the golems are his guards! Maybe a door will open once they are out of the way!"

It was a complete, wild guess. Maybe there was a better way around it, but she wouldn’t know. All the inscriptions looked too foreign and ancient for her to decipher, but she was hopeful as she saw the room starting to light up in green lights as the purple gems changed color.

While the stone gargoyles went to fulfill their tasks, the Black Quills teamed up to take down the golens too, all the while the small sootlings ran wild, one of them holding to Xalmann's tail. More and more golens awakened, and Kamille turned to one of them that was making his way towards Xalmann. The Witch raised both of her hands as spheres of fire twisted and turned - when she extended her hands, the spheres merged into a single ball of fire that jumped towards the golem [1]. The explosion that followed the impact was much greater than what could be expected from such little effort, it would seem, the golem instantly shattering in a thousand pieces, while another right next to it was also damaged. The Witch paid attention, and as the golem was defeated, she saw what looked like the first step of a round stair around the statue leveling down.

"I guess it's working, Xalmann!"

[1]Massive fireball

Xalmann held up his cloak to shield him from the bits of rubble raining down on him, the remains of the golem he'd been about to face in combat that Kamille had blown up in his face. He glared at her in annoyance for a moment, but had to accept that her spell had been effective. He turned to pick a new opponent, a pair of golems that had emerged from the wall near him.

The Lizardman spirit he'd summoned earlier stood behind him as he conjured his own ball of fire at the tip of his axe, the spirit's presence empowering the spell and causing the fireball to grow in size. With a swing of his axe, the ball of fire streaked through the air and, while directly between the two golems, detonated into an explosion even larger than Kamille's had been thanks to the boost in power from the spirit. Both golems were destroyed, the rubble scattering across the floor where the channels of green liquid continued to fill the purple crystals on the walls.

Xalmann took a quick glance at Kamille again to see her face reacting to his spell being more powerful than hers, but noticed the Lizardman spirit behind him acting much more blatantly cocky. The shorter, but bulkier Lizardman struck a confident pose, his axe over his shoulder and a hand on his chin as he looked up at Kamille with a grin, silently goading on the fireball measuring contest between the two pyromancers.

Damnit, Durumann, that idiot. Xalmann thought to himself.

Yes! It was working! Each golem that fell, another step on the staircase was lowered, until she couldn't see past the darkness beyond. The Black Quills finished off the golem they were up against, as well as the gargoyles smashed together a couple more.

Not only that, but Xalmann seemed to have summoned a spectral being that... Looked very much like him. Great, another lizardman. The pair really got her attention when they started to throw around flames and fireballs as well, and she would look sincerely impressed and pleased at their display - after all, good thing they were on the same side, right? - but once again, something got in her eyes...

It was when Xalmann's friend struck a pose that hightlighted his muscles, a bit bulkier than Xalmann and with equaly impressive core muscles - if not even better! - that the spell Kamille had been prepared fizzled completely and she was sent into a spiral of darkness. Literally.

When Xalmann looked back to Kamille, she was clearly impressed... by Durumann. Not their spells, but clearly by his physique, her head slightly tilted to the side, like a curious bird, with a pleasantly surprised look on her face. And then it turned to simple surprise when she took a step back and started her painful descend into the spiral staircase, swallowed by the shadows in the blink of an eye.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Her screams echoed in the distance, as for the second time just that day she rolled down the path opened for them. The sootlings hurried to follow her, as well as the raven, while the Black Quills and the gargoyles finished fighting the remaining golems.

Why is this witch so damn clumsy? Xalmann thought to himself as he watched Kamille tumble down the stairs that had slowly formed as the golems had been destroyed. He looked at Durumann who shrugged with a smile. The Lizardman spirit also had no idea why Kamille had suddenly lost all focus and rolled down the stairs. Maybe she was startled the Durumann's appearance, the patches of blackened burns across his body from his death by fire. Xalmann would have the same burns now if he hadn't survived to shed his damaged scales for new ones.

With an exasperated sigh, he just followed Kamille down the stairs. He didn't want to have to continue travelling with her, but it was the only way out of here right now. Mysteriously, the green liquid didn't spill down the staircase at all for some reason. It was like it just refused to do so, forming a tall meniscus all the way around the hole in the floor. Nearly the entire room now had at least an inch or two of the green liquid covering the floor. All of the golems had been destroyed and the purple crystals on the walls had all changed to be completely green.

It seemed like the puzzle of this room had been solved, and now they had no choice but to keep going down farther into the alchemist's labyrinth and face whatever came next.

The Black Quills were quick to wrap up their fight with the golems, take the two gargoyles that had turned back into small pieces of chess and run to see what was left of their Master.

Despite her painful and loud rolling down the stairs, she managed to arrive down there in one piece. This one piece was a bit twisted and disheveled, but whatever injury she might have sustained, she was quick to chug down a healing potion to help alleviate it. Still, she needed a moment or two to compose herself and shake off the confusion from having just rolled down a spiral stair.

Once again, as she rose, she had a flame in her hand, so the room was bathed in a warm, orange light. It was very gloomy and simple compared to the rest of the tomb they have been, a tunnel that stretched out beyond the reach of her small flame. Kamille was apparently trying to decipher some markings on the walls, still massaging her head.

"I guess... I guess this is a safe tunnel the alchemist projected to bypass all the traps... It should lead to the surface, as well as to every room of interest in this place, if I'm not mistaken..."

Then she turned to look at the group as they wrapped up the conflict up there and offered Xalmann one of those large, toothy grins he would be quick to associate with nothing good.

"Nice fight, Xalmann... Though I must say I didn’t know you had a friend with so much........... talent."

Yes, talent. Talent was a good, proper word. 

Xalmann looked at the Lizardman spirit following behind him sporting a proud smile at being called talented by the witch. Yeah, talented wasn't what Xalmann would have described him as right now. Sure, he had been a strong warrior in life, but Xalmann and Durumann had never been that close. Their difference in personality had prevented that. Honestly, it was mostly Xalmann that had prevented that. His antisocial tendencies and serious attitude had been present long before nearly dying, and his whole village burning to the ground had just made them worse. Why Durumann, of all the spirits of all his tribesmen that had perished that night, had been one of the ones to attach to him, he still wasn't really sure.

Kamille explained that the tunnel was some sort of safe passage for the alchemist that had created this place, but Xalmann wanted to play it safe anyways. With a quick prayer-like gesture of his hands, yet another semitransparent Lizardman with burns all over his body appeared in front of him. This Lizardman, almost perfectly opposite to Durumann, was a bit skinnier but taller than Xalmann and held two smaller hand axes rather than the one large war axe. Though he was skinnier, he still had an impressive physique of lean muscle. He was a warrior just like Xalmann and Durumann, but Xildak's true talent was in his scouting abilities and stealth which became even greater as a spirit.

In a hissed conversation in the Lizardfolk language, Xalmann instructed Xildak to scout ahead and make sure there weren't any traps or enemies ahead. Also unlike Durumann, Xaldak had a much more reserved and serious demeanor. With a nod, he did as he was asked, seemingly vanishing as he turned invisible and then silently went off ahead.

---

Call Ghost

Kamille looked curious, this time watching closely as Xalmann made his prayer-like gesture before calling up on the ghost of... another lizardman. She didn't understand their language, but it didn't seem to keep her from watching.

"Xalmann, why all of your friends look so............... talented.....?"

She hoped the lizardman didn't fully realize what she meant.

"Are they from your family? They don't look exactly like you, but still.......... Is there some of them still alive?"

Without being ordered to, both Poe and Allan also took in the role of scouts, promptly becoming invisible [1] and scouting ahead too. Edgar remained behind his boss and the lizardman, wary of anything that would come from behind, but all in all, looked like that was clearly a tunnel to bypass all the obstacles. Dug on the bare rock and earth, just a few sections had some stone warnings, directions and pillars to keep the tunnels from collapsing.

"We should probably keep moving... Or do you want to wait for your amazing friends to come back and report? What's his name again? You could introduce me to your friends, Xalmann..."

The Witch seemed to feel whenever she talked, his anger spiked. So she kept talking.

[1]Invisibility

Talented. Xalmann was started to think that word didn't mean what Kamille thought it did. Or maybe he was the one that didn't know what it really meant. His common still wasn't perfect. But then what did it actually mean? How did the spirits he summoned look talented? Was she just impressed with their abilities? Xaldak did display considerable talent in scouting, but how had she witnessed Durumann's talent? He was a spirit who couldn't actually assist in combat beyond blocking hits and making Xalmann's spells stronger with his presence. That wasn't much of a display of talent.

No, maybe it was the most obvious answer. She was just messing with him.

Xalmann gave Kamille his usual annoyed glare that he used when speaking with her. He didn't appreciate her nosing into his business, asking about his relationship with his summoned spirits, but he knew she wouldn't shut up about it if he didn't give some kind of answer. She never shut up in general, really.

"Tribesmen." Was all he hissed to her as he walked forward, silently answering Kamille's question by not waiting for Xaldak to report back. He trusted the Lizardman would warn him of any traps when he got close to them. He didn't need him to come back and warn him ahead of time. They worked efficiently.

Durumann gave Kamille a grin and a wave as he walked past, following behind Xalmann. He was clearly a lot more socially outgoing. He also liked that the lady kept calling him talented. He was a lot less distrustful than Xalmann was, despite being the one that ended up dead after trusting someone.

The tunnel was long, with no traps that either the Lizardman spirit or Kamille's followers reported on. Sadly, there was also no treasure in the tunnel to be found. Disappointing for their coin purses, but at least they'd be out of there soon. Xalmann had found plenty of treasure already anyways and he'd give it all up just to not be stuck with the far too talkative witch anymore.

But of course, she couldn’t let that end on a good, sappy note, so she chose to poke the lizardman one last time. She whispered to Xalmann, as if she didn’t want his friends to hear, even if it was impossible for them to not hear it.

".....besides! You are still hotter than your friends, so don’t worry. You're still my favorite lizardman."

Probably the only lizardman she's seen more than once, though. At this point, it was clear she just enjoyed to see Xalmann getting angry and interpret everything she said backwards.

The Black Quills seemed to be making some noise up ahead, as they seemingly tried to open up a hatch on the ceiling. For that, Allan was on Edgar's shoulder, making everything he could to make the man as miserable as possible. Poe was at the distance, just shaking her head at the two morons.

"Boss! I guess we found the... Yes! This is it! It's almost-!"

As Allan managed to open a portion of the hatch, they were imediately showered with sand from the floor up. Warm, golden light escaped the open passageway.

"Looks like that's our way out! Possibly goes directly into the main chamber." 

What was that supposed to mean? He was hotter than his friends? Hmph! Of course he was the hottest! He was the only one with fire magic! All of his other tribesmen only used axes. He was the only one who had awakened a connection to an element, to magic. Doing so had nearly cost him his life, and had been completely unintentional, but still.

She was teasing him, wasn't she? Was this some kind of dig at his fire magic? He wouldn't put it past her. She loved toying with him. He just grumbled and stepped away from her in annoyance. Any kind of response wouldn't help him deal with her, so there was no point in saying anything even if he could think of some kind of retort.

Behind Xalmann, having heard what Kamille said perfectly, Durumann looked upset. He stowed his greataxe on his back and crossed his arms in front of his chest with a huff. How could she say Xalmann was her favorite Lizardman!? He was clearly a much more fun Lizardman to be around!

Durumann looked away from Kamille as he walked past her behind Xalmann, who walked ahead quickly toward the exit that the Black Quills had found, eager to get out of there and away from the witch.

Kamille looked amused at Xalmann's reaction... And Duruman's as well, as he seemed to pout away too once she called Xalmann hotter and her favorite lizardman. For the time being she was content on following along with an annoying grin on her lips.

It was truly an exit towards the main chamber of the tomb, and after being showered in sand, both of the Quills hoped back to their feet. They could spot one of the "competing" group shuffling around, a couple integrants smaller than they remembered, shoulders low and overall defeated looks as they headed towards the entrance of the tomb once again. The chamber didn't look much different from the way it looked before, but there were some holes and spikes sprouting out from places they were not before, so they could assume the other competitors didn't have as much luck as them.

As Xalmann and his fellow lizardman went through the hatch, Kamille followed along, even if for a moment it looked like she was taking a bit longer to climb up. For such a powerful mage as she was, the lady could be a real ditzy sometimes: one of her men helped her up the hatch, but even then, as she was pulled to her feet she tripped and held onto the first thing she saw to keep herself from falling.

And it was Xalmann.

And he could swear her hands knew exactly what they were doing as she mainly only grabbed his purse to pull herself back up, jumping back to her own feet and straightening up her back. At least this time she had the decency of blushing and stuttering.

"ACCIDENT! I-it was an accident, I swear. L-let's us move along! Where is the idiot we are supposed to report back to?"

Even one of the Quills squinted his eyes at his boss. He knew, first hand, she had an odd sense of humour, but he could've sworn the flask she slipped into the lizardman's purse was...

Regardless, Kamille rushed to the exit of the tomb, leaving them to quickly tail after her.

Xalmann was surprised by the sudden physical harassment. He'd thought the witch had been limited to verbal only, but he guessed he'd thought wrong. He gave her a suspicious glare as he looked at his bag she'd grabbed onto. It didn't look like anything was missing. All the things he'd gathered from the ruin were still there, from what he remembered. He didn't remember grabbing this flask of some kind of black powder, but it didn't make sense for her to actually give him a magic item, now did it? In her desperation to win their contest, she must have tried and failed to swipe something from him.

He was also sure he'd felt her touch his abs for a moment. Maybe trying to place a spell on him that required touch. Well, that had failed too.

"Hmph." He let out an annoyed grunt before turning away and heading to the tent in the distance where their patron was awaiting their return with the treasure. Before getting there, he took the time to separate what he was going to hand in and what he'd found and decided to keep for himself. Some of the magic items, he was sure, were going to be worth keeping. A nice set of gloves and armguards. A strange ring that had seemed to make some kind of connection with him when he'd picked it up. And lastly, the flask of black powder. He didn't know what it did, but he had an odd sense that it was worth keeping. It didn't look valuable anyways, so he probably wouldn't have been paid much for it. The things that looked the most mundane were the most likely to have some hidden secrets, when found in a place like these ruins.

"Ah, you're back! Well, how'd it go? Quickly, let's see what you found!" The nobleman that had organized this whole excursion said excitedly when he saw them enter his tent. Xalmann handed over the magic bag he'd been given that was now full of all the useless but pretty things he'd found. Gold statuettes, gems, weapons that were more form than function that he didn't care for.

"Oh, this will look lovely over the mantle in the third drawing room, won't it?" He asked, looking to one of the maids he'd brought who nodded in agreement. "This is quite the haul! You're in the lead, my scaly friend! Now, let's see what the Witch of Moonglade managed to bring back."