High Rollers - 'The Lightfall' - Episode 1

Chapter 8 - The Temple

No longer in the heat of battle, the party paused to breathe and recover. But their victory was not to be celebrated joyfully. With the freedom now to more thoroughly and safely investigate, they examined the bodies lying around the room – including those of the enemies they had just defeated. They recognised them – some immediately, some upon closer inspection, but they recognised them. They knew their appearance and clothing, but had not learned their names. Made up of mere villagers and traders, they had also been a part of the same caravan as them. On their way from the town of Graybell, to the capital city of the Dawn Republic, Talas Val. They were there, with them, when they had been ambushed. It hadn't occurred to them, earlier, to think about where the others had ended up. Now, standing with this temple of sorts, its clear they had each met their horrifying demise. But it seemed a few were missing. There were certainly less bodies here than were present during the journey. Noticeable absentees included Tomas – the caravan master, whom the four of them had paid in order to join the caravan – as well as one or two other commoners they distinctly remembered travelling with them too.

Choosing not to linger on this new development, Trell stood behind the altar, peering into the opening he had spotted earlier. Looking closer now, he discovered two, small, beautifully decorated glass vials, each containing a peculiar looking liquid. Both were wrapped up in bundles of cloth and alongside them, sat two ceremonial-looking urns – 'most likely used to hold some sort of incense, or something along those lines', Trell thought. 'Probably quite valuable', he added. Choosing to perhaps sell of the urns later, he subtly leaned down to grab the contents of the altar. He sneakily shuffled the urns into his bag, going about this unnoticed, before taking a vial in each hand and standing up.

"Hey, I found these back here."

"Oh! Let's have a look?"

Cam approached Trell, promptly taking both into his own hands and peering at them intently.

"Well, these look like...healing potions. Yes, I've come across these before."

"Interesting..." Trell said, taking one back and examining it.

Cam groaned suddenly, clutching his ribs.

"Eugh, hang on guys. I might need a minute. Maybe a bit more than a minute," he said, nursing his injured side.

"Why don't you take a sip of one of the potions?" Jiutou asked.

Cam shook his head.

"Let's save those. I just need a breather. I'll be fine."

The rest of them nodded. As long as they made sure there were no other imminent dangers to be attended to, there wouldn't be any problem resting for a moment.

Meanwhile, Elora made her way over to the altar and statue, where Trell had been earlier. Looking up at the statue, she knew that this, too, was in dedication to Corellon Larethian. However, examining the altar and materials lying around it, she was more and more certain of the ancient nature of this temple. Everything seemed to be part of a tradition she learned of as a child, but knew to be, at this point, long dead. With that in mind, she deduced that the structure around them was likely a sort of barrow. Particularly for royalty. Judging by the décor, someone important must have been buried here. But a long, long time ago. She stepped out and walked over to one of the, now still, vine covered bodies. The entity as a whole repulsed and horrified here but certain things stood out, intriguing her. Firstly, the cuts along the body, through which some of the vines poked through and re-emerged, seemed deliberate. It didn't look as if the vines had burst through, but had instead made their way through THE existing cuts. Which led her to her second observation regarding the vines. They were definitely placed onto and into the corpse. Someone, with control over this strange and terrible plant, had planted them into both corpses. Elora's final observation was by far the most sinister. As observed earlier, the corpses didn't bleed. Something had bled them dry. But around the small, razor sharp thorns sat small patches of dried, caked blood. As if...the plant had taken it. Had drank it from the body. She shuddered at the thought and recoiled, stepping away from the corpses.

As Elora stepped out from behind the altar, the rest of them scanned the room. As well as the corridor they had come through, another corridor let out from the north side of the room, to the left of the altar. As per usual, this pathway, too, was decorated with bunches of these thick vines. Trell paced round the room, examining the bodies of the caravan members. For the most part, the items on their person were present and intact. All their clothes had been left on and most them even had their pouches. Amongst them all, he managed to scrounge roughly seven silver pieces. Several of them were still in possession of various bits of ornamental jewellery. Whoever was responsible seemed to have no interest in stealing from the people. They had killed them quickly and left them here.

"Guys, they strung up these people, drained their blood and put the vines in them, to reanimate them. Perhaps they were put in place here, just to ward US off?"

"Yeah, well, it's like they wanted us to find them. I mean, why would they put us in there..." said Elora as she gestured back in the direction of their makeshift cell.

"Well we could've been next. It could've been a holding pen, that we were put into."

"They also put our weapons really close by..." Cam pointed out.

"That was quite convenient" Jiutou said, warily.

"It was just a bush, holding us back. Eugh, my brain!" Cam said, suddenly, holding his fingers up to his temples, "Too much thinking!"

"But whoever did this doesn't care though," Jiutou said, ignoring his outcry and gesturing to the corpses, "It was a rough blade that sliced them."

"So do we think that they were sacrificed? That they were drained in this room?" Or.."

" Well there's no blood anywhere."

"They must have been drained in a different room."

"Guess there's more fun to come."

"Well let's make our way through."

Jiutou passed Cam and made her way to the corridor at the north side of the room, pulling out a torch from her pack. She stopped and pulled out a flint as well and promptly sparked life into the head of the torch. A gentle orange flame sprung to life, dancing around the cloth. Trell followed suit, holding high the torch he had taken earlier from the sconce. It's pale, ghostly blue flame still flickered with its eerie light. Cam, once again, removed a dagger and willed it to radiate light. The torch Elora had grabbed earlier lay, extinguished, on the floor, discarded during the fight when she had taken her staff in both hands. She bent down to grab it and quickly had it burning once more. With each new source of light, more and more details of the structure around them became visible. From where she stood at the corridor's threshold, Jiutou could see the next room ahead. Here, peculiarly, the stonework of the corridor seemed more refined. Areas of it seemed more sculpted, whereas the previous stonework seemed much more rough. The floor seemed to be built out of more carefully crafted flagstones. The architecture appeared more stable and less earthy.

Before they continued, Elora perked up suddenly.

"Ok, point to make," she said cautiously. The three turned to her. "This is a burial chamber and it looks like it's for someone important. So there's probably a grave for someone very important, somewhere in this building."

"You think they've come back? There's gonna be a big bad zombie vine?"

"I don't know!"

"Either someone is using this old temple as their new stomping ground or it's an old god who's come back."

"Well, we've already got the clue with those vines, you know, those vines were being used to reanimate those bodies. So..."

"That's true, but it could be some crazy vine cultist for all we know. Just taking this place over and messing up some corpses."

And with that, Cam pissed himself.