One of the tiles from the sun mosaic on the ground rose up, revealing underneath a small pillar. The four adventurers stared at it until it stopped moving, none of them ready to make any gestures yet.
"I think it's stopped," Iadre said, fluttering in the air. She looked over to the three others.
"Well, if anyone should investigate, then it should be you," Lyman said, patting Zerat on the back. "After all, your body is more durable than ours."
"Only if this ain't gonna take out my real self," Zerat said, pointing to the hat.
"If we're just going to fight about this, then I'll do it," Garrett said, walking forward. The other three waited for something to happen as Garrett approached the pillar, but nothing did. As Garrett looked over the pillar, he noticed a small slot in the pillar. Inside was a rolled-up piece of parchment. Once he took it out, the pillar retreated back into the ground. All four of them waited for some trap to spring, but nothing else happened.
"So, what did you get?" Iadre asked as Garrett made his way back to the other two.
"It's some kind of paper," Zerat said, peering over as best as it could to try and see.
It was different curves and lines of various angles and shapes. "It is these strange symbols, but what do they mean?" Lyman asked as he looked over it, trying to figure out what it could mean.
"Wait a minute," Garrett said, looking much closer at the symbols, "I think I recognize these." He traced the symbols with his finger, trying to pinpoint where he had seen them. "It's Orkish."
"You read Orkish?" Iadre asked, a bit surprised.
"No, I have no idea what it means," Garrett clarified, "I just recognize it as Orkish." He took another look at the writing on the paper. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that I've seen these exact letters."
"And where would that be?" Lyman asked, putting his hand on his hip.
"The vault for the treasure," Garrett said as he pointed to the path that led them to it.
He took the lead while Iadre and Zerat followed, with Lyman bringing up the rear. It didn't take too long for them to reach the antechamber with the large stone. Gasps of amazement and wonder escaped from the other three's mouths as Garrett made his way over to the stone.
"I swear that I've seen these exact letters somewhere on here," Garrett said, trying to compare the writing to the engravings.
Zerat walked up along the side of Garrett, holding up the paper for him. "And what are we supposed to do with it?"
Iadre looked over the paper before fluttering around and looking at the engravings. "Maybe it's like the mosaics where we need to press things in the right order?"
"Maybe, but don't press anything until we know for certain," Garrett said as he looked around. "Lyman, you gonna help us out here?" Garrett turned to look at the draconian, but Lyman wasn't paying attention.
"Shhh."
Instead, something else had Lyman's attention. Lyman gripped onto his rapier tightly as he faced the entrance of the room. He hid against the wall, listening closely. Their anxiety heightened by Lyman's alertness, the remaining three got into a battle stance. Iadre held her orb, Zerat prepared his hands, and Garrett held up his shield. They all stared into the darkness as a few figures began to emerge.
"Well then, it would seem that we've found our little runaways." Stepping forth was Captain Desmond with his crew of armored men behind him. "Surrender now or forfeit your lives." Upon seeing Desmond, Iadre immediately hid behind Garrett's shield. Desmond pulled out a large two-handed greatsword from behind his back and aimed it towards Garrett. "I see you've still continued to ally yourself with these monsters. What a pity to give your life for such a pathetic cause."
"They aren't monsters!" Garrett shouted. "They're people! Living, breathing, thinking people who are just trying to live their own lives." His eyes glanced down to the cowering Iadre, then back to Garrett. "And we aren't going anywhere. Zerat! Lyman! Now!"
On Garrett's command, Zerat unleashed several beams of energy as Lyman took a deep breath before shouting his powerful voice at Desmond and his crew. The two attacks collided upon impact and whipped up a cloud of dust. Quickly, Lyman used that time to make his way over to Garrett and the others.
"Did we get them?" Lyman asked as he stared at the cloud.
Lyman's hopes were dashed away as the dust settled, revealing all the men standing there and a magical barrier surrounding them all. "What a shame," Desmond said as he waved for his men to put down the barrier, "You'd turn on your own kind, Garrett. And now you've attacked an official. The punishment is death."
Zerat fired off more beams of energy, but the magical barrier kept being raised and lowered. Seeing that magic wasn't working, Lyman rushed in, rapier ready. Desmond waved for his men to charge, two of them taking Lyman head-on. Desmond then gestured for four more of his men to go after Zerat. Finally, Desmond turned his head towards Garrett and pointed his sword directly at him.
"Iadre, if you're going to use that energy from Bilun, now's the time to do it," Garrett said, but it was no use. She was shaking, terrified, at the mere presence of Desmond.
Once again, Desmond gestured for more men to swarm Lyman and Zerat. Lyman was already having trouble fending off two opponents at once, but once more started to come towards him, he began to retreat towards Garrett, only to be cut off by more men.
Zerat was trying its best to blast as many of the soldiers as possible, but splitting its attention up like this wasn't something that Zerat was used to. It was forced between trying to deter oncoming attackers and helping out Lyman as much as possible.
After a bit of watching the scene, Garrett rushed down towards Lyman, ready to help him out. He tucked Iadre into his shirt to keep her safe as he blocked an attack on Lyman with his shield. "I've got your back."
Lyman kept as many as he could back with his voice, but he was easily knocked aside once Desmond approached the two of them. "Thought you hide from me, monster sympathizer?" Desmond gripped tightly and swung his mighty greatsword at Garrett.
Garrett, bracing himself, barely managed to parry the attack with his shield, much to Desmond's surprise. The blow was certainly harsh, but Garrett had gotten much better at using his shield. With Desmond quickly caught off-guard, Garrett reached down and grabbed his sword to slice at Desmond's face.
Only for nothing to happen. Garrett stared at the end of his arm where his sword would be, only to realize that he didn't grab his sword because he didn't have a hand to grab it with. Then, Garrett felt a sharp pain course through his stomach. He stared down to see Desmond's greatsword clean through his abdomen.
Desmond lifted up his sword with ease, and Garrett on the end of it. "Know that if you stand against the Sunrir Brigade, you stand against all of Illiman-kind." Then, everything went black with a terrible squelching sound of metal tearing through flesh.