Marrhosh went towards Dayer’s direction. The Eladrin showed him what he had just discovered.

The Dragonborn pondered for a while as he looked at the torches.

[How many torches are there in reality?]

Marr asked Dayer to stay right where he was and counted the torches. When he got back to the Eladrin’s position he counted a total of 10 torches.

The Dragonborn pondered for a while as he looked at the torches. Finally, he decided to try his luck, and he ordered the first five torches in the same order the colors changed, and the following five in the same order as the previews ones.

Now the order of the torches was as follows: Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red again.

Marr looked told his friends to follow him as he didn’t know what kind of effect this could have on the corridor. The group went on and after walking a while a Door very similar to the one they had come in appeared in front of them.

The Dragonborn and his friend’s hand an elated expression, Marr pushed the door, and it opened without a problem. When the three of them got out, and the door closed, they realized they were back to the stairways that lead outside, which meant they hadn’t solved the puzzle.

The group of friends had an embarrassed expression as they went back through the door into the corridor with torches, which had all turned back to the green color.

Marr sat down in the middle of the corridor and pondered for a few minutes. Finally, he decided on a new pattern for the torches as he reorganized.

The torches now had the following color order: Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red, Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue and finally Green.

Once again, the three friends walked together across the corridor and finally a door very similar to the one they had come in through appeared once again in front of them.

Marr pushed the stone door open and a different scenery welcomed him. There was a spacious corridor in front of them and many gigantic statues of the same creature that was carved on the gate where visible. This creature had a square shaped face, his eyes had a deep frown and evil could be seen on his expression, the creature also had a strange triangular shaped bear on his face that gave it an ancient feeling. The statue had one of its arms extended with an open palm as if it was waiting for something to be given to it.

The three friends walked in with caution as they inspected the room. Merrich looked at the floor and realized it had some interesting runes carved on it as well as some mechanism that were invisible at first sight.

“Marr, I think there is a passage on the floor, I’m just not sure where and how to open it.”

Marr nodded as he kept inspecting the room while they advanced. Finally, when they reached the end of the corridor a smaller version of the same statue could be seen it was making the same gesture as the other statues, the only difference was that this statue had a small bowl at his feet.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

In front of the bowl, they could read a plaque with a small inscription as it said.

“For the passage to reveal, a price must be paid, an item with head and tail in my hand must lay.”

When the Dragonborn read this inscription, he didn’t hesitate as he put a coin in the hand of the statue. At the moment that Marr’s hand let go of the coin the hand went down and the coin disappeared.

Suddenly a red liquid sprouted out of the bowl at the sculpture's feet.

The liquid slowly raised until it finally overflowed, as increasingly more liquid came out of the bowl, a strong nauseating familiar smell filled the room.

Dayer touched the red liquid, and an astonished look appeared on his face as he said.

“It's blood… and fresh one at that.”

The red liquid kept falling to the ground as it flowed through the runic structures and mechanism on the floor. Suddenly, a loud noise was heard as a circle in front of the statue slowly descended and a circular staircase was now visible in its place.

The blood on the floor suddenly disappeared as if it absorbed it, and the hand of the sculpture went back to its normal position.

Marr and his friends looked at each other and nodded as they slowly went down the stairs as they went down many murals of that creature could be seen on the side of the wall and they seemed to tell a story.

It told the story of a demon lord who had terrorized this region and its inhabitants. It was a powerful demon lord and according to the inscription’s next to the mural his name was Orzoi the undead lord. Dayer reading this had an astonished look on his face as he said.

“Orzoi is one of the most powerful Demon Lords of the abyss. He is known as the Undead lord because he controls the damned souls of those who went to the abyss on their afterlife. This Demon Lord is also a prince of hell and a creature who ascended to godhood.”

The other two friends showed an amazed expression as they heard Dayer’s explanation. But what they read next made them completely baffled.

Finally, the inhabitants were unable to take it anymore and asked for the help of many powerhouses, who came together to defeat Orzoi.

Many late and beyond Epic stage experts came to help the inhabitants, sadly they could not kill the demon because it was too powerful.

Being unable to completely eliminate the threat, they decided to use another path. They sealed the creature’s heart inside this underground temple using an ancient artifact and destroyed its body completely using plaguefire.

As the three friends finished seeing this mural, they realized that the corruption of the Darkplague Swamp might not be a simple coincidence. It was likely that the seal on the demon lord’s heart had weakened with time, and the power it held within had caused the current situation of the swamp.

Finally, as the group of friends reached the end of the stair, a familiar flag appeared in front of them, the three smiled at the Flaming dagger on the flag as they knew they were in the right place.

The Dragonborn got his axe and said to his friends.

“The first thing we must do is save Yllana’s sister. Once that’s done we can deal with the main mission.”

Dayer and Merrich had a solemn expression on their faces as they also prepared their weapons.

“Merrich can you find her in here?”

Merrich nodded at Marr as he asked with a serious expression.

“Did Yllana gave you anything that belonged to her sister?”

Marr nodded as he recovered a hand embroidered white handkerchief from his bag and handed it to the Halfling.

Merrich took out a small bag that he had prepared beforehand and chanted an incantation as he enveloped the little bag with the handkerchief. Suddenly that small bag lit up as it transformed itself into a bird made of pure arcane power.

The bird flapped its wings and moved along the corridors of the underground temple.

“Follow the bird It will take us to where the girl is.”