Mason cracked his eyes open and at first he thought he hadn’t. The darkness which surrounded him was complete except for the barest trickle of light coming from somewhere above him. As his eyes adjusted to the dark he saw he was in some sort of spacious room. Stone shelves lined the walls, each bearing dust and nothing else. He saw that the other members of his adventuring party were laid out around him, and he began to prod them awake. As they woke up Dally decided to heal everyone here, However her spell was of the light element so it illuminated the area around them and ruined any night vision they had. Mason groaned at the light piercing his eyes. After dally was done with the spell the group discussed where they were.

Dally began explaining that the current Etton was built in the location of a pre plague city of the same name. The previous Etton had been the capital of a large kingdom. People had assumed the old etton was lost after no sign of it was found in the building of the new Etton. The ancient city was said to be fairly wealthy so Dally seemed excited about the idea of finding treasures down here.

They stood up and began exploring their near surroundings. As they once again grew accustomed to the dark, Mason saw it was not quite as intact as he had been suspecting. There were cracks everywhere and occasional piles of rubble. However, for it to even be this intact was already an accomplishment. “Hmm. I'm sensing a faint layer of magic in this place. It has an almost holy feel. It seems to be diverting attention from the place. Perhaps that is why no one has come down here before. They weren’t actively looking for somewhere to hide, so the tower didn’t attract their attention. If so that also means that just because we don’t see any monsters here doesn’t mean they aren’t outside. Let’s be cautious, okay?”

As they explored the room which to be a long lost library, he came across a cylinder shaped item. It had some level of magic in it though he wasn’t sure what. It was made out of a brownish metal twisted around itself, capped at both ends with a dome. He put it in his bag for later examination. They left the room and found themselves in a hallway, one end leading to a staircase and the other leading to what resembled a church room from earth. He could see at the other end of the room, a doorway leading to the outside. He pointed it out and they began walking towards it, going slowly wary of a trap. They reached the doorway and peered out of it, finding themselves in a massive cavern, with the bottom of the cavern being the ancient city they had been expecting. The cavern was not quite as deserted as they originally thought, as he could see glowing lichen and moss on the ceiling high above, Occasionally obscured by moving blotches of darkness which appeared to be eating the lichen. The group slowly walked onto the street, finding themselves on what appeared to be a shopping street, as all the buildings on the other side had what had most likely once been windows. At one end of the street was an imposing gate, and they could see a large courtyard behind it. And the other end lay a plaza of some kind, with what appeared to be a long dead fountain, resembling a knight with his sword out. The building they had just come out of took up the entire side of the street it was on. Anne seemed freaked out by the entire thing, as even with her keen eyes she could not make out everything.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

They began sweeping the shops, heading into them and seeing if there was anything of value left. While they were in the third one they entered with nothing they heard a very loud buzzing rush by outside, Heading in the direction they had come from. As they turned around to face it, two more of the sounds raced by, and this time they were able to see large beetle-like shapes, with wings flying towards the citadel. They were about the size of dogs and it was strange they were able to fly. As he observed them more, it seemed more as if they were gliding while intermittently shifting their wings to gain some height, Before landing on the ground and jumping. As he watched them he sensed the distinct feel of mana emanating from them. The group crouched down and stayed quiet. The creature seemed to stay close to the entrance to the citadel for a while before leaving again. With this the group got up and released a breath. Dally whispered “Those things were wielding mana. To be clear, not infused as some monsters are. That means they are sentient. We just most likely discovered a new sentient species. That is … just insane. Let’s not do anything hasty involving them okay?”

They set out from the ruined shop and continued until they found what looked like an old adventurers shop. When they went in they saw what looked like heaps of rusted metal, in addition to 4 items which had stood the test of time, 2 looking brand new, likely due to some endurance enchantment, The others due to sheer craftsmanship and being kept in cases seemingly designed to maintain them. One of them was a shield, one was a helmet, a third was a short sword and the fourth was what appeared to be a small leather pouch. As they inspected them dally said that most likely, The sword and shield had survived because of their toughness enchantments. As such those obviously went to rowan, and he immediately replaced them, making use of the fourth item to keep his old ones. It was a bag of holding, a treasure which while expensive, was not exactly rare. However the shortsword was exactly that. However as they took the shortsword out of the case they seemed to trip some sort of alarm as there was a short and fairly quiet wailing sound. It seemed whatever enchantment was on the case had lived its last legs. The shortsword was a well-wrought blade with a sensible hilt. It wasn’t anything special in regards to its design, However it was a very wide purpose blade. For example, apparently the blade had a core of holy silver, which was enough to harm pretty much any type of undead. As well the shortsword functioned as a wand, allowing the one using it to store shaped mana in it allowing for use as additional spells in a battle. In addition it was a duel wand, Allowing for two spells to be stored at once. Since it fit with both his classes this went to mason.

“I can’t possibly accept this. I’m literally just starting out.”

“It’s perfect for you. Just take it okay?”

With this they headed out of the shop, Anne wielding the bag of holding and putting some of her arrows in there for now. Since the Beetlekin, Which was what they were calling them for now. had headed towards the plaza and they didn't want to deal with them right now they headed towards the courtyard they had seen on the other end. As they approached the archway, they could see some sort of words, written in a language none of them could read. They decided to head in, hoping they could find more artifacts.