Chapter 2

Since our last bandit encounter a few months ago, everything was fine. Jade had moved up in the ranks of the Talos army, and the rest of us were continuing training. Our families were allowed to go back to our village, which had now grown into a small town with new shops and more people. The empire still controlled us, but we enjoyed greater freedom compared to our life in the capital.

One night as we were all settling down for the night, a messenger from the capital came to the town with a message for the group. “ War was coming” is all the note said. We had heard that the elves and dwarfs to the north were gathering resources and an army to prepare for the empire to move on them, but we never thought that it would ever happen.

The next morning, we all gathered our stuff and headed toward the capital. We were certain we would be sent on a mission, but we had no idea what would happen. When we got to the capital, there was a massive army there waiting to be deployed.

As we walked through the massive army, we made our way to the captain’s quarters to get the orders for our mission. Once we got to his quarters and we were let in, we saw him sitting behind his desk with a look of worry and anticipation on his face. We all piled into his office, waiting on him to let us know what our next mission was.

The captain leaned forward at his heavy oak desk, his weathered hands clasped tightly; the lamplight cast ominous shadows across the stone walls. His voice dropped to barely above a whisper.

“Listen carefully. Deep in the western caverns, past the third chamber where the underground stream runs black, there’s a sealed door marked with ancient runes. Behind it lies something we’ve guarded for generations.”

Hagert and Jade exchanged tense glances as the captain’s chair creaked. Sweat beaded on Jade’s forehead despite the chamber’s chill.

“But be warned - you’re not the only ones seeking this weapon. If the wrong hands reach it first...” Well, we can’t let that happen; it would mean the end of the empire and the end of everything we have built.

You all will leave first thing in the morning; tonight, you should all go and get the supplies you think you will need for this mission. This includes new armor and weapons, as well as any special supplies that “certain” members may need for their respective tasks. He looks at both Mryielle and Harry. * Since I know what you two can do, I haven’t said anything about it because there hasn’t been a need to. Please don’t make me regret keeping this to myself.

The group went that night and gathered everything that they needed, from new armor and magical weapons to materials that would be needed to cast their spells and food, before finding a place to sleep for the rest of the night. At the first light the next morning, we took off toward the location of the caverns, hoping for a nice and easy mission. Boy, were we so wrong; it was anything but easy.

As we approached the entrance to the cavern, we could tell that it had been some time since the last person had been this deep into the woods. The entrance was grown over with vines and plants. As we approached the entrance, Harry noticed that there were ruins that were aligned around the outside of the entrance. Both Harry and Mryielle looked the ruins over before touching them in a specific order; as they touched each one, they started to glow a light blue color. As the last one was lit up, they went from a bluish tint to a dark green color, and the door slid open to the left, showing a steep stairway that led down into the caverns.

The group made their way down into the caverns; it was dark; the only light source was at the entrance. Once everyone was inside, the door closed behind us, leaving us in pitch black. Koemi reached up to the wall and felt around for anything that she could use to make a torch so that we had a light source. As she searched around, she discovered a small lever that she could pull to illuminate the torches lining the wall. The group continued down the steps to the bottom that led to a small hallway lined with moss and vines; about 50 feet down the hallway, there was a split in it. The group had to choose if they wanted to keep going straight, go to the left, or go to the right.

As the group approached the split, we decided that the best decision would be to go to the left first and go as far as we could before turning back if needed and check the rest of the cavern for our goal. As the group started their way down the left corridor, a feeling of despair began to creep in, accompanied by the unsettling sense that we were not alone. As we kept walking down the hallway, we came across what appeared to be cells that once held prisoners, but why were they down here if this was a place to keep a weapon? It made no sense to us.

Khalyra decided to check the cells and noticed that there were remains of all sorts of creatures, from humans to what looked like small lizard creatures. After Khalyra said a quick prayer to Pelor, the god of the sun, to look over the souls of these fallen creatures, the group moved on to the next part of the hallway. As we approached the end of the hallway, it opened up into a room that was dimly lit with a few torches around the walls, and in the middle of the room was a small onyx stone hovering over a pedestal. Once we were in the room, we noticed that there were more skeletal remains along with rotting corpses. Hagert, Harry, and Mryielle were fascinated with the stone in the middle of the room due to its mysterious aura. As they approached it, the entrance that we came in suddenly closed off behind us, and the stone started to glow a reddish color right before it destroyed itself and was scattered into pieces. The bodies in the room looked like they had fought before we arrived, as their pieces were scattered around the room as we watched the stone shatter. We watched in horror as the mangled skeletons reformed themselves back into full bodies and started to rise up from the floor.

We prepared ourselves for a fight; we had never fought the undead before, but we had all been told that fighting the undead was different than fighting a living being, as they don’t feel pain. The other thing that we were told was that as long as the source of the magic was around, the undead would keep coming; the only way to stop them was to destroy the magical source that kept them alive. Jade first noticed that, as each creature formed, a piece of stone entered it. We counted about 20 creatures in the room, with one in the center appearing to control the rest.

In its hand there was a wooden staff, and it was wearing tattered red robes; the rest of the creatures were all wearing some sort of armor with wooden shields and swords. Jade was the first one to attack these creatures; with a quick movement, he pulled back his fist, and it started to glow before he hit one of the skeletons and broke it into pieces. As the creature fell apart, the small fragment of the stone that had imbedded itself into the skeleton floated out and started to make its way back to the pedestal in front of the skeleton holding the wooden staff. The fight continued until there were only two creatures left: the mage in the middle and a lone warrior who was now standing over top of Harry. Mryielle, seeing that her friend was in trouble, unleashed a storm of magic missiles at the lone warrior, destroying it as the last one hit. The mage, who was now alone, started to cast a spell of some sort, and the room started to grow darker as thunder and lightning started to form at the top. Harry, seeing this, started to get a strong look in his eyes, and you could see what looked like small flames taking the shape of where his eyes used to be. As he moved his hands together, small sparks started to form in between his hands, and he suddenly unleashed a rapid barrage of fireballs at the undead mage. As the flames died down, the mage crumbled to the ground, and the last two pieces of the black stone returned to the center of the room, and the stone reformed into a solid unit again. The group looked on as the stone reformed and then disappeared then shortly after a staff appeared in front of Harry. The top of the staff had the shape of a small skeleton, and in the center of it was the black stone. Harry reluctantly reached out and grabbed the staff; as he did, he felt a strong dark presence take over his body and could feel the souls of the dead around him. He knew after touching the staff that this was not an ordinary staff but a staff of soul binding.