Nathaniel woke up in his bed and looked around. The sun was rising outside, birds had begun to chirp and wake up the neighbourhood.

Nathaniel did not want to leave the cosy blankets of his bed, but he got up and started brushing his hair with tires eyes. He yawned and then stretched. His arms were covered in tattoos under his sleeves.

He grabbed a pan, started a magical fire in his stove and started making some fried eggs in olive oil. He procured a bread roll from his pantry and sliced it in half.

He waited until his egg had cooked all of the white, but left the yolk runny and delicious. He lifted the egg from the pan with a metal spatula and put it inside the bread roll, making an egg burger. He next added some caramelised onion and tomato chutney from a jar to the roll and closed it up. He took a big bite and yolk oozed from the burger onto his face and the plate.

“Yum,” he said, with orange yolk on his chin.

He quickly finished the egg burger and wiped his face clean.

Nathaniel set about his daily chores next, tidying scrolls, cleaning up old candle wax, taking stock of his herbs and medicinal ingredients.

He noticed he was low on pickled toadstools, ground ivory and blank scroll paper. He made himself a shopping list and started to leave his house. He opened the door and saw a small group of men outside, sitting on some benches nearby.

The men were all dressed in adventurers clothes, some wore armour. Some were dressed in cloaks. They were laughing and chatting quietly among themselves. A man with shoulder-length blonde hair dressed in dented steel armour, with a long green cape approached Nathaniel with a smile.

“Hello,” he said with a flourish, “Good sir, my party and I would very much like to hire your services for a quest we are currently undertaking.”

Nathaniel was a bit caught off guard, he looked at the blonde man, and then looked at the other adventures behind him. There were eight of them in total. All of them seemed friendly, but their weapons and armour had clearly seen lots of use.

“What kind of service do you require?” Nathaniel asked.

“It’s a secret.” The blonde man said.

“No.” Nathaniel responded coldly and walked away.

The man in the green cloak stopped him and called him back. “Ok, ok. I’ll tell you. But you need to keep it down.”

He ushered Nathaniel closer and whispered.

“We’re hunting treasure, a shit load of treasure. Five thousand dime in it for you.”

“Five thousand?” Nathaniel shouted. He started thinking. “What do you need me for?”

“Legend says the old Elvish King, Asgrammor, was buried in a hidden chamber with his riches. The biggest collection of priceless gold artefacts in the realm.” The mercenary stopped.

“There's only one way into the secret parts of the tomb, you must speak the secret passcode in Ancient Elvish. A language that has been dead for over four thousand years. We need you to revive the Architect. He is buried in a smaller chamber, closer to the entrance.”

“An architect, who knows a secret password to an elf dungeon full of gold. Sounds like something I can do.” Nathaniel had heard of ancient treasures, and he felt excited to be invited. Though he had some concerns

“Excellent!” the adventurer said. “Are you ready to leave now?”

“Right now?” Nathaniel looked at his shopping list and then crumpled it into a ball “Just let me lock up.”

Nathaniel left the city with the adventures. Most of them had horses, but four of them shared an empty carriage, Nathaniel sat in the back of the carriage. Nervously meeting his new party members.

The carriage and the horses rode into the forest.

A few days later, Nathaniel and the adventurers had arrived at the entrance to a tomb. It was an ornate archway carved from the mountainside. A large, thick wooden door blocked the way, it was barred shut from both sides. The doorway had been abandoned and overgrown with thick vines. They were halfway up a mountain in a dense jungle. The carriage had barely made it. They’d somehow parked it near the entrance though.

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The blonde man, Tanner, had introduced Nathaniel to the rest of his small gang over the journey. They were all waiting to enter the tomb.

“The Elf Architect has a tomb right near the entrance of the grand hall. We can find his tomb by finding his statue, he was a tall elf with short hair, and a long nose. Keep your eyes out for any statues like that near the Grand Hall.” Tanner said. “Nathaniel, our necromancer, will bring the elf back to life, then we simply need to persuade the dead man to help us get in.”

“Are there any monsters in this dungeon?” Buck, one of the warrior’s asked.

“The ancient elf translation wasn't clear. There were no mentions of any traps or beasts left to guard the dead. We should probably assume that since we are the first people to find this place in years, we may have some critters, or monsters to deal with inside. Large insects even.”

All of the party members nodded and understood.

“All right then, Let’s go, Nala, you stay outside with the horses.” Tanner said, and he adjusted his sword sheath strap so it was more comfortable.

“Sure,” said Nala, a strong female warrior.

“William, you know what to do.” Tanner said, as he gestured to the door.

Nathaniel wondered how William would open the door, but was not expecting a fireball.

The party stood back as William punched quickly and a fireball came tumbling from his fist. It exploded against the door and ripped the rotted wood from the hinges. The door was left splintered and charred. The heavy wooden beams groaned and knocked against each other as they tried to find places to rest on the floor.

The doorway was open, and a large gust of cold air rushed from the inside of the crypt.

The tomb was black, the darkness seemed to swallow the hallway.

William conjured a mage light and sent it forward into the tunnel. The ball of glowing white plasma hovered gently as he commanded it.

The adventurers slowly walked inside the tomb.

Nala watched as they disappeared deeper into the entrance.

A few hours passed and Nathaniel strangely did not get bored of wandering through dark stairways, and cobweb-filled stone rooms. Each step was filled with excitement and curiosity.

They came across burial chambers, food offering rooms, some hallways had collapsed, some tombs had been looted and defaced. Statues lay crumbling, ashen scorch marks covered the walls. They would come across rotten tables, with equally rotten chairs, old wooden chests that were full of damp ruined scrolls. Critters like spiders, beetles and centipedes seemed to appear from the brickwork every few seconds. They regularly came across statues of eleven lords, kings, queens and people of high importance. The sarcophagus of the person was located behind these statues. They saw a lot of long haired elf men, some had short noses, others had long beards, none of them perfectly matched the one they were looking for, the Architect of the very dungeon they had been wandering.

The adventurers searched for a long time before they came across a statue of an elf. He was tall, had short hair and a long nose.

“This must be him,” Tanner said. The magelight orb cast a ghostly light over the stone figure.

Behind the statue was a stone coffin. The lid was ornately decorated with stone engravings. Three of the party pushed the stone lid and it fell onto the stone floor.

Inside the coffin was a very dried out, very decayed skeleton. The clothes it wore were shredded brown robes, that may have once had some decorative patterns, moths and rats had long since destroyed these.

“Alright. This is your moment, Nathaniel.” Tanner said.

Nathaniel approached the coffin andlooked down at the skeleton. He closed his eyes and held his hands over the ribs of the elf. Nathaniel started singing, his young voice echoed off the walls of the darkened chamber.

“Your body is cold, your spirit is free

Return to your bones, rise and serve me

Your soul is returning, to bring you new breath.

I command you, skeleton, stand up from this rest.”

Magic bubbles of light extended from his hands and moved to inhabit the bones of the dead elf. The skeleton then took in a deep gasping breath and sat up straight.

It looked around at where it was.

“Where am I?” The Architect spoke. He could speak magically, even though his neck had no muscles and his lungs did not work.

“Who are you all?” He asked again, confused and puzzled. The skeleton looked at his arms and then his body. “Aaaah!” He screamed. “What did you do?” The skeleton grabbed Tanner by the shirt and shouted in his face.

“Are you Barraud? The architect?”

“Well hold on a minute, mate, first things first. What the fuck is going on right now. I’m feeling pretty naked here guys. Where is my skin?”

“Barraud, you’ve been dead for over two-thousand years.”

“Two-thousand years-... Then what the bloody… What did you wake me up for?” Barraud shouted. Tanner looked at the rest of the party.

“We need a guide.” Tanner said. “To get into Asgrammor’s Tomb”

Barraud sat silently for a moment, thinking this was some elaborate joke. He looked at the dirty, battle-worn adventurers huddled around his coffin and finally came to terms with where he was.

“So I’m dead?” Barraud said, knowing the answer. “How did I die?”

“We don't know, that was two thousand years ago.” William said.

“But will you help us, Barraud?” Tanner asked, casually. Barraud though for a moment.

“You really came here for me?”

“We are standing in a dungeon that has been abandoned and left to rot. The only living things in here are us, and the rats and bugs. We really came down here to get you mate.”

“I’m a little bit flattered.” Barraud said. “Do people still sing songs about me?

“Uh… Yeah.” Tanner lied, and nodded at the rest of the group.

“Yeah all the time,” said William. The rest of the group lied as well and nodded to each other.

“Well,” Barraud said and paused for a while. “I suppose I can help you fine fellows find the secret tomb.” Barraud teated his arms and found them surprisingly strong. There was no muscle connecting his bones together but he was whole, as far as he could tell. He grabbed the sides of the coffin and lifted himself out.

He stood up and tested his feet. Somehow, all good.

“Alright follow me, this way!” Barraud said. Then he confidently walked into the darkness…

Only to emerge moments later, confidently walking the other direction. “This way.” He said with a small laugh.

The party slowly followed after.

A few hours later they had arrived. In the middle of a hallway, the skeleton architect stopped and looked at the wall.

“The first secret passage is through here.” Barraud said. “Fireball that shit.”

William punched and the meteor shot from his fist straight at the wall. The bricks crumbled easily and fell into a dark stairwell. The wall had been built to conceal the entrance entirely. No one had set foot in this part of the tomb since it was built. The adventurers all gathered and slowly ventured inside.

They walked down a long narrow staircase that eventually opened up to a giant chamber. There was a fountain in the middle, it was a tiered water fountain and the water was still running, which was a calm and relaxing sound in the dark dungeon.

On the opposite side of the room stood a very stone big statue. An elf man with a huge crown, he was striking a heroic pose.

“This is just the first room.” Barraud said.

The adventurers looked at each other and groaned, they had been walking in the dark for over ten hours.

“This way!” Barraud said.