This chapter: 4340 words
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This weekend was simply crazy! First I wrote a chapter I liked, then realized there was no connection to the previous chapter whatsoever!
In the end I wrote this pathetic string of words to bridge the gap... I don´t like this chapter... but I already wrote it!
Once I have looots of time I will fix this mess, until then it will stay here. I will post the evil chapter I really liked sometime later today. Until then happy reading I guess~
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In a desolate mountain range high above the sea level where the air began to thin out and turn every step into a struggle, a stone rolled down the steep cliff atop which a party of five merrily walked, not minding the bad footing.
No plant life grew this far in the domain of the creatures of the sky, yet the group had not even reached the halfway point to the top. With a glance to the blindingly white peak, covered in the glacial, eternal ice of eons past, anyone would have been stunned by the sheer beauty of this world.
Alas, this party and its members had been climbing the mountain for quite some time now and the sights while dazzling had lost their novelty. What remained of their previous astonishment had long since been lost due to the difficulty of the climb.
Now they were completely intent on simply reaching their goal, which was a rumored dungeon whose entrance was said to be located at this very cliff.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we now there?"
"No."
"Just when will we arrive?" Lars asked again.
"No. I mean, I don´t know!" Ares answered again.
Why Ares bothered answering the druid was anyone´s guess. Maybe he enjoyed the game of endurance though he never won against the stubborn trickster. Perhaps he was simply bored enough to play along, like an adult humoring a little kid. Lars was by no means a child though and knew exactly what he was doing. The sheepish grin never left his face even after many hours of these exchanges.
The GM watched this scene play out as he had for the past three days. Those two really had remarkable endurance. Well the alternative was joining in on Pie and Zessmi´s girl talk. Not that they didn´t try but some way or another Ares always managed to step on a landmine, igniting Zessmi´s fury and endangering their whole expedition in the process.
The GM already considered Ares an expert in that particular field. He sometimes stopped to wonder whether Ares really was that dense or maybe just liked fooling around. A bit of both most likely.
Pie was just talking about this 'adorable' new hairpin she had gotten in the last town when she spotted the first sign of the dungeon. The group had put Pie at the front of their formation due to her archer class having a passive effect of heightened sight. With a buff from the GM that doubled that effect she could see just about anything.
When they had tried this technique out for the first time she was so overwhelmed by the sight of the mountain she had almost fallen down the cliff because she kept staring at the beautiful mountain above. Only the GM´s quick reaction saved her at the time. Pie had furiously apologized and promised to never look at the peak again and she had kept her word.
Her eyes had also become more sensitive with their new capability which made it hard to look at very bright sights for a long time, luckily the dungeon was located beneath the snow line, sparing her from extended exposure to the glaring snow.
"It´s over there!" She said and pointed at a place only she could see.
"Finally!" Ares and Zessmi at the same time and laughed in relieve.
"Alright, we´ll get that treasure!" Lars said. He wanted to fly to the dungeon and be the first to enter but stopped himself at the memory of his last encounter with the vicious mountain winds.
"What kinds of monsters do you think we´ll get to fight?" The GM asked excitedly.
"A dragon!" Pie exclaimed.
"As if, or rather, it´s possible right...?" Zessmi said with a look at the remote region.
"If there really is a dragon we just have to fight it!" The GM said.
"Yeah!"
"Agreed." Ares and Lars chimed in.
"We simply can´t not fight a dragon if we find it!"Pie yelled. An echo of her voice was cast all over the place and she giggled at it.
"Funfunfun!!!" Lars tried making an echo of his own and listened in glee.
"Let´s hurry." Zessmi said with a look towards the rumbling mountain. She didn´t want to be buried by an avalanche.
The group moved towards the cave, lead by Pie the others soon spotted a clearly suspicious crack in the cliff. It was big enough to house a dragon...
They entered the crack happily grinning and quietly snuck deeper into the mountain in anticipation. Soon they were too far from the entrance to be able to see anything in the impenetrable darkness of the dungeon, or maybe that would have been the case if they were not in the presence of their very own walking flashlight.
The green light cast by the ones and zeros only increased their nervousness. There was something in here.
A crunching noise could be heard up ahead, it sounded like slow steps on gravel. Whatever had approached the group stayed clear of the light and remained just out of sight. The GM thought he could see a humanoid silhouette that could also have been his mind playing tricks on him.
The group had gotten the information about this dungeon in the city of Balsch, to the east of Grauling. Sadly there was no mention of the level or inhabitants of the dungeon.
With bated breath the group stepped forward in unison. The light reached the being lurking behind the veil of darkness and revealed its true form to be... a blind old man?
His gray hair dangled around his face in a confused mess and his beard sported bald places here and there. A dirty rag hid his eyes, acting as a make shift blindfold.
Lars who was itching for a challenging fight displayed the face of someone who had just won the lottery just to realize his ticket had been eaten by his dog.
Zessmi and Ares exchanged confused looks while Pie just kept staring at the old man, searching for any sign of danger. The GM just watched the man with a knowing smirk. He had fixed this NPC ages ago and knew exactly what was going to happen next. The rising suspicion he had had ever since they had started this search for a dungeon in this mountain was not unfounded in the end.
For a while the group simply stared at the blind geezer, the old man seemed to be staring back despite his blindness.
"Hel-" Just when Ares wanted to break the ice and greet the stranger he was interrupted by a deep rumbling voice, which sounded as if it was the voice of the mountain itself.
"Leave this place, foolish mortals, for here lies the relic of Sakari. The relic will spell not only your death but also the end of mankind itself. Turn around and forget you ever found this place!"
"Oh, ummm... if you can point us towards the dragon we will leave!" Lars took the initiative to Ares dismay. Normally he did the talking when it came to NPCs.
"Dragon? Those pests have been sealed away for millennia. Why would you seek one?" The man asked in slight curiosity.
"Cause we wanna fight it~" Pie answered this time. The GM began to wonder why Ares and Zessmi let the most airheaded group members do the talking but kept the sigh bottled up. He sadly couldn´t interact with the NPC because NPCs and monsters didn´t react to him.
"Hohoho~ did you come in search of a fight then? Sadly there is nothing left in this maze but me and the relic of Sakari. The others are long gone..." The old man laughed just to slip into a very melancholic tone.
"Hey, hey Lars! what do you think the relic of Sakari is?" Pie whispered. Her gaze was still glued to the old man in vigilance. If he turned out to be an enemy she would immediately react.
"It just has to be some magic item that can turn dozens of people into flies at once!" Lars said with a face that betrayed the plans he was hatching while thinking about various fun uses of such an item.
"No it ought to be a laser gun!" The GM joked along.
"Maybe a spacecraft left behind by an alien civilization eons ago!" Zessmi added.
" Or a unicorn..." Pie said with a dreamy look.
"Guys you´re forgetting the most obvious answer! A holy sword! It just has to be a sword!" Ares said in an obnoxiously loud voice and woke the old man up from the memories he was probably remembering only moments ago.
"Dream on!" The others countered, laughed and turned back to the NPC.
"What is the relic of Sakari, if you don´t mind me asking?" Zessmi asked and ended their guessing game.
The man answered in an even deeper and more gravelly voice than before.
"The relic of Sakari is... well, where to begin..." He looked confused for a moment.
"Ah! That´s right! To understand the relic of Sakari you need to know how it was created! Once upon a time there were-"
"Damn! He´s telling a story." Zessmi sighed in exasperation.
Until now this expedition of theirs had been all but favorable. Nothing to kill, no dragon, a long and difficult climb up and now a creepy storytelling old man in a dreary wet old cave that was only illuminated by green light. If this story turned out to be a horror story she resolved herself to turn around and just leave!
"-and so the four heroes traveled to the far away city of Arnam so their leader would get married to the princess of Arnam. When they arrived after a long perilous adventure during which they had faced death more than once, they realized the princess had already gotten married to some lowly merchant. The princess loved the man and her father had given in to her begging and let her wed him.
The heroes of course weren´t as happy about this turn of events. Their leader was the prince of a mighty nation and was very interested in a political marriage to one of the princesses of the Arnamese kingdom. This kingdom was one of the weakest as they were always exposed to the threat of invading monsters from the mountains.
Oh! To understand that you should know that in those ancient days the monsters were way stronger than they are now. It wasn´t uncommon to see a behemoth or a lich just casually strolling around. The warriors of the time were stronger than the weaklings who call themselves warriors today ("Hey!"~Ares), too. Due to the continuous threat of mighty monsters and the frequent destruction of human settlements the people couldn't progress in technology or magic but their warriors were top notch! Ahhh where was I again?"
"Something about a political marriage~" Pie helped the confused man out.
"Right, the marriage! So the prince wanted to marry the princess but she was already married and happily so. Thus the man did as many nobles do even to this day. He pressured the poor girl and tried to get her by force, but no matter the plot those so called heroes spun there was no prying the lovers apart! In the end the solution the prince chose was the simplest yet most grave as well. He decided on foul murder and killed the merchant.
The princess, unable to bear living without the man she loved killed herself shortly after while cursing the heroes. Her curses were heard as her pure soul transformed into something wicked. In death she became what is known as a banshee.
Craving revenge the smart banshee bode her time and amassed power. Years passed, the heroes had long since returned to their home country when the banshee attacked them one after the other.
When the first hero died under mysterious circumstances, the kingdom investigated his murder and judged it to be done by a demonic beast.
When the second hero fell, the other two began understanding the pattern and considered themselves the next target. In search of the perpetrator they had anyone they had ever crossed killed, causing bloodshed and injustice in the entire land.
When the third hero was killed, there was only the prince left. He hid himself away inside a tower, protected by the best warriors of his time. Yet there was no use. The banshee came for him all the same.
In the end all of them had met an awful fate, yet the populace rejoiced at the death of the four tyrants that had plagued their land. Mourned by none and soon forgotten the four heroes ´souls were taken by the banshee. Murder was but the first step towards her revenge after all.
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She wanted them to suffer. Eternally suffer.
The black souls of the four were bound to objects they had carried around in their lifetime. Unable to leave, forced to watch the world around them in solitude.
As centuries passed the souls energies were soaked up by the items they were bound to and the items gained powers.
Those powers came in very handy when they were discovered. By that point none remembered the people bound to the 'relics' and so the humans used them as mediums to seal away the ever growing monster threat that had driven humanity close to extinction by this point.
Monsters that could make cities vanish in the blink of an eye. Monsters that could corrupt minds and souls. Beings of power that were only below the gods.
All of them were sealed!
The relics were distributed to the corners of the continent. Hidden away so they would never be touched by unknowing people and yet, as guardians of the relics me and my brothers have failed miserably.
The relic of Sakari is the last relic that remains untouched. Human greed knows no bound as it would seem. If this relic is removed the threat to the world will return and put an end to humanity and the other sentient races."
"Yawn...that was one long story..." Lars said.
"Yup..." Pie said.
"So we really have to just leave this alone? What a waste of time..." Ares said.
"We could help save the world you know. Get the other relics back and all?" The GM proposed. Everyone´s eyes lit up at that prospect.
"Good thinking GM! Let´s become heroes!"Pie shouted reenergized.
"Hey mister can we help you return the other relics?" Zessmi asked.
The old man looked confused. Apparently he had been expecting the group to ignore his warning and steal the relic of Sakari.
"You would...return them?" He asked in disbelief.
"Sure sounds like fun!" Lars said and Ares nodded.
"Do you know where we can find the other relics, what they look like and who took them?" Ares asked.
The old man needed some time to think about their proposal first. Could he really entrust such an important quest to these random strangers, but then again... nobody else was going to do it so it should be fine right?
"The other three relics are no longer in their original spots. They were stolen by various people hundreds of years ago. Where they are now, I do not know. There is a certain resonance between the relics so maybe if you had the relic of Sakari with you, you could use it to search for them. But we can´t move this relic otherwise the seal will break."
"Can´t we use some sort of spell to stabilize the seal for a few years, we could take the relic and bring it back before the time runs out." Zessmi proposed.
At this the blind man didn´t know how to react. It was possible. He could probably stabilize the seal for a few years but the consequences were... and could he really entrust the relic of Sakari to these people? On the other hand, what choice did he have? The seal had been cracking ever since the first relic was removed all those years ago. It was only a matter of time until the world was destroyed by the monster hordes within the seal.
"It´s possible... I have decided to trust you. Now listen closely. You need to return the relic of Sakari before two years have passed. Do you understand? Otherwise we are doomed. Once you have one of the other three relics you can return the relic of Sakari to me and continue the quest for the other two."
The usual scroll shaped quest window appeared in front of the parties eyes. They were pleasantly surprised to see the quest of rank nine which meant this was an extremely difficult quest. Just the challenge they had been searching for.
"Wuhuu! This will be awesome!" Ares said.
"What kinds of enemies do you think we will fight?" Zessmi wondered.
"Hopefully the strong kind!" Lars said.
"It´s probably going to be extremely hard to get just one relic in the given time. We will really have to travel all over the continent to get all of them don´t we?" The GM said happily at the prospect of a long adventure.
"So there are no unicorns involved?" Pie said in mock disappointment.
The group followed the old man animatedly. It was an unexpectedly long walk through winding tunnels with countless intersections. It really was a maze.
Drops of water sometimes rained down on the group and gathered in little streams on the floor. Sometimes bats would take flight, disturbed by the noisy group. Zessmi would involuntarily shriek at that causing the rest of the group to laugh at her. Ares even went as far as to claim he could finally get his revenge for the last spider incident when Zessmi put a real spider on Ares face while he was asleep so that he woke up to face true terror.
The GM was the one to propose that little prank but Ares didn´t need know about that.
"We finally have a reason for a big world tour!" Pie said.
"I hope we get to go to Jurga. I heard the beach there is simply awesome." Zessmi said.
"I heard the best food can be found in the south, let's start searching there. Oh and Zessmi if you want to go to the beach we can always just go to my island right? That one is a piece of art." The GM said.
"Yes, food~" Ares said.
"Well, sure but don´t you want to see something new too? We can still visit the island later on."
The group was busy planning their vacation and didn´t even notice how much time passed.
When the natural caves gave way to smooth stone walls and an enormous door appeared in front of their eyes the group got serious. They would finally see what this relic of Sakari really was.
The old man approached the door and placed his hand on a slab of stone to the right of the door. Suddenly a blinding light was emitted by the stone and a few seconds later by the door, which slowly slid open.
"Neat~" Ares commented.
The inside of the room that was slowly revealed were bathed in warm light. The room was circular with walls that sported a mosaic pattern. In the center of the room a silvery pedestal with black runes etched on its surface held a proud glittery pink unicorn statue. The statue was about ten centimeters big and made with incredibly defined details.
"UNICORN!" Pie ran towards the pedestal and stared wide eyed at the object in question.
"This is...the ultimate item!" She was almost moved to tears and had a feverish tremble in her voice as she stopped her run and approached the statue hesitantly, almost with reverence.
While Pie was lost in her own world the others had frozen smiles on their faces. Why was it a unicorn? None knew but the old man so they looked at him with questions in their eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like this?" The old man asked as if he didn´t know the reason. The smile on his face betrayed his real thoughts though. The question of how the old man knew they were looking completely escaped their minds.
Still incapable of formulating an actual question the others kept glaring at the man while the GM who knew all along finally couldn´t keep it in anymore and burst out laughing.
"The hell are you trying to pull here? Where is the relic of Sakari?" Zessmi finally managed to ask.
"This is the relic of Sakari. Did I ever say the relics were weapons?"
"Yes, No but ahhhh." Zessmi looked at Lars and Ares for help.
"Why the heck would anyone want to steal that? Well.. anyone but Pie..." Lars asked with a look at his dazed comrade.
"The looks of a magical artifact do not matter, right?" The blind man said in irony.
"Oh, buuut isn´t that a bit too embarrassing. Even if that ... thing... had the ability to activate an instant death spell I would be too embarrassed to take it out and use it in front of my enemies. They might just laugh themselves to death if I did!" Ares said. "Like that guy!" He pointed at the GM who was holding onto the wall so he wouldn´t collapse from laughter.
"The divine relic has been secured!" Pie said reverently.
"Wait...what? Wasn´t the creepy old man supposed to cast some spell to stabilize the ba-"
Creak! Groan! Baaaam!
A noise as if the entire mountain was about to break apart could be heard. Pie had just pocketed the relic of Sakari and caused the barrier to collapse.
"Pie! What did you do?" Lars screamed at her, while she only looked at him blankly, not quite understanding the fuss.
The old man on the other hand understood clearly and ran towards the pedestal and jumped with a precision that was completely unexpected from a blind man on top of it. Without a moment's hesitation the man cast a spell.
Silvery strands of light were woven between the man and the walls of the room. He was fixed in place, completely unable to move. Whatever he had done had stopped the shaking and the noise. The barrier seemed to be stable for now.
"Are you ok?" Lars asked tentatively, ready to heal the man if anything was amiss.
"No. No, I´m not. The young lady took me by surprise and I didn´t have the time for a full incantation. Now I am stuck here for at least a month." The strands of light held the man in place. He was unable to even wiggle with those chains tying him down.
"This version of the spell will not last as long as the one I originally wanted to use. You have probably around one year maybe less..."
"Probably?" The GM asked and looked at Zessmi.
"Maybe?" Zessmi reflected the same worry and exchanged glances with the GM.
"Seriously Pie! Just what do you think you´re doing?" Lars tried to make Pie understand but she just kept looking at him as if what she did was obvious from the start. Ok, maybe it was.
"Can´t we just give the relic of Sakari back?"Lars asked in an attempt to fix the situation. Pie glared at him and cuddled the unicorn protectively.
"No, even if we replace the relic now we won´t have more time after using the normal spell because the barrier already took serious damage." The man lamented.
"Well, see you in a year I guess!" Zessmi had enough of this and turned to leave.
"Bye old man." Ares said and followed Zessmi.
"Wait a second... do we even know how to use the unicorn?" The GM asked as the others turned to leave. "And did anyone care to memorize the way out of this maze?"
The group stopped in their tracks and slowly turned around.
"Ups..."
"How the hell are we ..."
As the others lamented Pie grew excited at the thought of using the unicorn and asked.
"Mister, how do we use the unicorn?"
"Just insert some mana into it and you should feel the general direction of the closest relic."
"Okay, thanks!"
Pie turned around to leave again.
"How do we get out of here?" Zessmi asked this time.
"Oh right! I almost forgot! There is a backdoor behind me." the old man exclaimed as the group sighed in relieve.
They quickly searched for the backdoor to find a path that lead to the grassy plain sprawling out at the foot of the mountain.
This path was easier and faster than the one they had taken to the entrance of the cave. In the end they traveled for two days while sometimes encountering monsters along the way.
When the group reached the grassy plain filled with many beautiful flower monsters it was time to find out where they would travel to next.
Pie took out her beloved unicorn which she simply called 'Sakari' and handed it over to Lars. He was the only member of their group with a magic class and was best suited for the job of infusing mana into the item.
Green light emerged from Lars right hand and traveled the short distance of five centimeters, separating his hand from the unicorn in the blink of an eye. The unicorn was fully enveloped by the magical light and kept glowing for a while even after Lars stopped the flow of magic.
The group looked at the item intensely, almost expecting the thing to start talking, when a stream of the green light emerged from the glowing statue and pointed towards the south east. Soon the magic faded and the relic of Sakari returned to its normal state.
With this Pie reclaimed her prized possession and the group started walking towards an unknown destination. They had a long journey ahead of them, that much was sure.