Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-3293219-20150510174752/@comment-25828117-20150512174831

34 years ago...

"Alright, lower the lantern..."

"Gently..."

Peri'k held his hands up, ready to catch the light source that was being lowered down to him on a rope. The team had learned to be cautious since last time. When they lost one of the men during a descent into the dark.

Losing someone is never good. The morale takes a severe blow, always. Though oddly enough, not so much with Peri'k. The old Redguard was more formal about it. Perhaps a leader instinct?

"Got it!"

The man yelled up, making his words echo through the large hall.

"What can you see?!"

"Sand! As always..." Peri'k replied to the voice above him.

"Can I come down?!"

"Yeah you can!"

-

Not long after, Peri'k and his assistant were both down the large hall. They had to Rappel quite a bit to get here... These halls were about 400 feet high. The duo looked around, into the eerie but silent darkness that surrounded them. The floor of the hall was completely covered with dunes of sand, who knows how deep. They had to thread carefully, otherwise they might sink down any hole and meet their untimely demise.

"Hey! Give's a bit more light!"

Peri'k said softly, not looking back to his assistant whom looked up from his toolbox.

The younger man simply did what he was told. And together their light revealed at the other end of the hall a bronze plated half-open vault of sorts.

"Now THIS is interesting..."

Without hesitation, the old man approached the vault, with little regard for his own safety. His assistant tried to warn him, but it would've been too late regardless. Luckily there were no hidden sinkholes or deathtraps.

"Peri'k! Be careful man!" the assistant yelled

"I'm so close!" the weather archaeologist said almost entranced.

The Vault door mechanism in itself was a marvel to behold. The locking mechanisms revealed were deliciously complex.

While Peri'k carefully studied the door, the younger man quickly joined him, skipping across the sand as if moving quickly would help against sudden quicksand.

"Seriously though, you need to be more..." The assistant's voice faded as he noticed what was in the vault.

A brass pedestal stood up from the heaps of sand that had poured in thousands of years ago, and on that pedestal, a huge flawless emerald glowed brightly once it met the lantern's faint light.

oddly enough, Peri'k didn't even seem to notice the emerald, he was more enthralled with the door, he hadn't even bothered looking in the vault yet. His assistant though, did notice... And instead of notifying his friend and colleague, he felt himself somehow drawn to the mystical gem.

It was brilliant. And the closer he got the more he seemed to lose control. His vision and hearing started to focus solely on the stone in front of him, the rest was background noise. Whatever it was, it wasn't made by mortal hands, not even dwarven.

The man couldn't help himself as he stretched out towards the emerald, and it started to glow violently, even before contact. Peri'k, now finally took notice as he felt the earth tremble slightly. He looked up from the Vault door and saw his Assistant inches away from a raging bright green light.

"Julien! Don't!" He yelled.

But his heeds fell on deaf ears. Julien, the young Breton rested his hand on the stone, causing a huge spark that hurled Peri'k back into the hall, luckily the sand softened the blow.

"What have you done..." the redguard muttered as he looked on, hearing the faint screams of his friend.

"Old man! Get up!" A different voice yelled from above.

Peri'k, in his dazed state simply obeyed. Fearing for his life, he grabbed the rope, which prompted the hired workers above to pull him up. While this happened, the floor had severely started to tremble as if the city's engine had roared back to life.

-

Quickly all members of the expedition scrambled for the exit. climbing flights of stairs faster than they'd ever done, as debris started tumbling down on them. Once they were finally out. And back under the night sky of the Alik'r Peri'k finally realised just how dangerous this ruin was. He had just lost his best friend.

Broken, but unable to cry he vowed to himself to close the entrance again and leave this place, forever.