Dark Age Year 871
Ninth day of the Eighth month
“You would be amazed by the amount of things that are buried deep within the earth, sleeping away untouched for untold millennia in Aria. If you’re lucky, you may come across great treasures from peoples and empires long since past. If you’re less lucky, layers of monsters and horrors from bygone eras may be encountered. On my many travels with Tharos, we often encountered all of the above. If I had a gold coin for every time we found treasure, ran into monsters, or explored abandoned ruins from once great civilisations and empires that often contained horrors I cannot even hope to describe, I would be a very rich and wealthy man, even more than I am now. Although, money means very little to me at this point. This first job with Jabari was one of those cases. What started off as a simple delivery job had a small setback of getting our stolen cargo back from goblins, then escalated into something that none could predict or even suspect. It makes me wonder how many of the foundations of our current Civilization are just built upon foundations far older than we can ever know, that are in turn built on top of things that should have stayed buried. Sadly, I don’t have a proper answer to these questions, and to be truthful, I don’t think I ever want to know. I already have enough keeping me up at night as it is.” —Excerpt From the memoirs of Cenric Dellcreek.
It was dark and cold in the stairway, and Cedric could feel a chill down his spine as they all travelled deeper into the hill. The only sound he could hear was the echo of their boots on the stone steps, their breathing, and the flickering of fire from their torches. Fighting goblins and exploring the underground of an abandoned ruin wasn’t exactly how Cedric had imagined his job would go. He figured maybe they would encounter some bandits or monsters during the trip, as they always did with most of these jobs. Perhaps they would see another example of beautiful scenery that was becoming a reality in Aria, come across a village or two, or meet interesting people on the road. That’s how it had been for the last several months, aside from a few unexpected occurrences. Most of these jobs started to blend together in this mind.
Regardless of where this staircase leads, he didn’t like being here. He would rather be back travelling on the road, heading to the city of Ammos. They had a job to do, and people were counting on them. Every day that passed could result in another death, a death they could have prevented if they had the medicine they were being paid to deliver. But Tharos was right; they had already been delayed by a few days, and what was another few hours? There wasn’t much he could say or do about it. He was just tagging along with Tharos. If Jabari wanted to take a few hours for a quick detour, what could he do about it? But that wasn’t the only reason he didn’t want to be here. Even if they didn’t have a job, he didn’t like exploring these odd ruins. Most of the time, they just gave him the creeps, dusty and cobweb-filled halls often filled with monsters or dead things. This place was different however. There was just something about it that he didn’t like. It was a similar feeling he got when he was in the city of Zarbar. He assumed at the time that maybe it was a monster that was underneath the city that was making him feel that way, a theory that Tharos thought was a reasonable explanation. However, this wasn’t that feeling, but it was something similar to that feeling.
“I hope there’s not another monster like that thing back in Zarbar. It took an entire city being destroyed to kill it,” he hoped with all his heart. At the end of this stairway, there wasn’t another monster from ancient times that he had no clue about. Instead, he wished to find treasure or perhaps the entrance to something mundane like old abandoned mines or maybe even the dwarven roads. Tharos had told him that throughout Aria, the Dwarfs had built several underground highways, along with villages, cities, and towns. Cenric knew that Dwarfs liked to live in the hills or mountains, but he didn’t know that they had their own underground highways beneath their feet. He was hoping that if they did encounter an entrance to the dwarven roads, maybe they would encounter some Dwarfs. He had never met a dwarf before, but he had heard stories about them and he always wanted to meet one.
As they continued travelling down the incline, they came to a stop, now heading in a straight line. However, instead of well-carved stone steps with a hallway of smooth stone supported by pillars, this part of the passageway looked more like a makeshift dug-out mine shaft than anything else. There were wooden support beams tied together with rope. It was at that point that Tharos and Jabari started talking amongst themselves quietly.
“What do you think is down here, Tharos?” asked Jabari as he rubbed his chin.
“I don’t know,” Tharos replied, glancing at the walls. “But I suspect there must be something of importance down here. You don’t just make a hidden trap door for the sake of nothing.”
“Unless the builder of this place had a sense of humour,” Jabari added. “I don’t care what’s down here, as long as whatever is down here is worth the trek,” Rayner said.
“But what if there’s nothing down here?” he asked, feeling it was his time to speak.
“Well, if there’s nothing down here, then this was just a small minor detour,” Tharos replied.
“Okay, well, if there is something down here, what do you expect to find?”
“Either clues as to who built this place or maybe some treasure.”
“I hope you’re right. I would rather not run into any more monsters,” Cenric said. As they finished talking and kept walking a few dozen more feet, they passed another set of support beams, and the sound of their boots changed. Instead of walking on stone or earth, it sounded like they were walking on metal. Looking around, they found themselves in what looked like a corridor of some sort of building. However, this must have been a building for giants as the ceiling was as tall as a first story building, and the hallways were so wide that you could march an army maybe ten to fifteen men abreast and still have lots of room. To their left and right were hallways that stretched on for several meters, with passages going in either direction. However, this wasn’t like anything they had seen before. The walls, they looked like they were made of some sort of metal, had a silvery-blue colour Although it appeared solid, this metal that made up the floors and walls had a liquid quality to it when touched. It felt like they were moving through water.
“What do you think this is?” he said as he turned towards Tharos and Jabari, who were also examining the wall. “Fascinating,” he heard Jabari mutter, then turned his head to Tharos. “What do you make of this place?”
“I don’t know,” Tharos responded.
“Yes, it’s quite curious,” Jabari said. “Perhaps this once belonged to some race that never made it into the history books,” Tharos pondered. “Could be,” Jabari said, rubbing his chin. “If you three don’t mind, I would like to look around this place a bit more before we head back to the surface.”
“I don’t mind,” Tharos replied. “You’re our employer here, and I am also rather curious about this place. So I don’t mind looking around some more.” Jabari gave a small nod at that and went down one of the corridors, with Tharos and Rayner following behind him. “Cenric, watch our backs,” Tharos asked.
“Got it,” Cenric replied with a nod.
As they walked down one of the corridors, navigating the network of hallways, Cenric caught a glimpse of movement in a hallway opposite their direction. While the rest of the group paused to rest and explore the rooms, he decided to sneak off and investigate alone. He readied his shield and spear, making sure his axe and dagger were fastened to his belt and within reach. Turning the corner, he noticed patches of walls and floors stained with various colours, including a dark reddish-black hue, with what seemed to be a trail. Following the trail around another corner, he encountered a tall, lean figure. The figure had sharp facial features, long pointed ears, and golden blonde hair. They were armed with two curved swords, a longbow, and a carved dagger on their belt, and wore what looked like a lightweight suit of plate armour. It appeared to be an elf, resting against the wall and taking a nap.
As Cenric was about to call out to the figure, he realised the elf didn’t react to his presence or the torchlight now shining in its face. He had heard that elves had senses far sharper than any person; they could see things from miles away as if they were close by or could hear a single twig snap from afar. However, this elf wasn’t moving, not even a single muscle. As he walked closer to get a better look at the elf, Cenric found out the reason why the elf didn’t react to him. He quickly realised, to his horror, that this elf was dead. The elf’s face was slightly sunken in, and in the centre of its chest, there was a massive gaping hole where its heart would have been, a hole that looked as if it had blown clean through the elf’s armour and out of the other side. However, the wound this elf had was odd to Cenric, as the entrance and exit wound were clean, almost too clean, and he had seen enough dead bodies on the road or ones he made himself to know when something looked out of place.
I wonder what could have caused this, he thought as he looked at the hole. He walked closer, crouching down to take a better look at the fallen elf’s face. As he examined the elf’s face more closely, he could see that it was clearly male. Elves are often hard to distinguish as male or female at a glance, unless you take a closer look. Despite the difficulty in discerning the gender of this elf, even in death, this elf still possessed a beauty and grace that did not fade. It was like seeing a living example of those stone statues that the Invicti liked to build. For the elven race, as he heard and had been told by Tharos, they were long-lived to the point they were considered immortal. They had a timelessness that many envied and some wished to emulate. For Cenric, looking at this fallen elf’s body, he could see and understand why one would feel that way. However, he couldn’t help but look upon this fallen warrior with a sense of sadness. This elf died alone in the cold darkness of whatever this place once was, its empty and lifeless shell serving as a reminder to all who pass by that death could even come to those who most thought were almost untouched by its caress.
Estrid would surely get a kick out of this, he imagined, wishing she were there with him. She would have loved the atmosphere down here, the dust, the decay; these were all things she enjoyed and found beautiful. The first elf I ever meet, and it’s a dead one, he thought to himself as he gazed at the lifeless shell of this elf. This is not how he thought his first elf encounter would be. He thought it would be something more friendly, like a chance encounter in the woods that might end in exchanging words, or maybe something slightly more hostile, with him in the sights of an elf’s arrow due to a misunderstanding that he manages to get out of. That’s how he expected it to go if he met an elf. However, what he never expected, not even in the many possibilities his imagination could conjure, was that his first encounter would be like this. The first elf he met was dead, lying in still silence. Encountering an elf wasn’t something that happened every day. Every now and then, he heard that the men from the village, when they went on hunts or raids, saw an elf or caught a glimpse of one. Whether this was true or not, Cenric couldn’t say. He had heard that there were not many of them in Aria and that they liked to keep to themselves, preferring to be left alone.
“I wonder what your name was and what you were doing down here,” he said, addressing the elf, even though he knew it wouldn’t answer him back. As he stood up and peered further down the corridor, he noticed more stains that he assumed to be a trail of blood. Walking further and turning the corner, he encountered another hallway. However, this hallway resembled a war zone; there were massive holes in the walls and floors, bloodstains everywhere, and black patches where perhaps a fire or explosion had occurred. In the midst of it all lay more dead bodies—elves, dwarfs, humans. Most of them were riddled with injuries so great that even a novice like him noticed them. Some of them had missing limbs or heads, or were so badly wounded that he couldn’t even discern their race. The humans and dwarfs were in varying stages of decomposition, with some reduced to skeletons and others resembling mummies. The elves, on the other hand, looked fresh as a daisy, as if they were merely sleeping, their beauty and grace preserved even in death. Taking a closer look at some of the mangled figures, he saw that a few of them, although it was hard to tell, bore a striking resemblance to Tharos.
Cenric then picked up one of the swords that had been left on the floor, examining it closely and giving it a few swings before returning it to its place. It felt light in his hand and still appeared sharp, almost like a new sword. What surprised him the most about the armour and weapons they were wearing was their condition. Despite some being dented and battered, most seemed to just need a bit of elbow grease to be usable again. He wasn’t a blacksmith, but the fact that these items were in such good shape despite their age, some possibly hundreds of years old or even older, impressed him. they don’t make them like they used to, I guess, he thought to himself with a shrug. Suddenly, an idea sparked in his mind, as if a light had been turned on. Many of these armour and weapons resembled those he had seen on the wall in Zarbar.
Could it be that these people fought in that war that Tharos told me about. During their travels Tharos told him a lot about his people, or at least what he could remember. Most of what he told Cenric, he couldn’t recall. If he was being honest, Cenric wasn’t paying much attention at the time. Tharos had a tendency to wax poetic about things, but one thing Cenric could recall was Tharos telling him that the monsters they encountered were likely weapons used by a race of people known as the Sky People. These Sky People, according to Tharos, were the enemies of his people, elves, dwarfs, dragons, and others whose names have been lost to time in a long extinct past. However, when Cenric asked who these Sky People were, Tharos had no answer. It was a war that was waged centuries before his time, and had become more myth and legend, than actual fact.
Cenric didn’t want to consider the possibility that the place they were walking in might be related to the war or the sky people. He still had nightmares from those creatures he encountered in Zarbar. But there was only one way to be sure. As he continued to explore the scene before him, following the trail of carnage, he came across piles of bodies unlike anything he had seen before. Among these bodies were creatures made of liquid metal, similar to the ones he had encountered in Zarbar. The sight of this almost made him jump back as he recalled memories of almost being sliced in half by these things or watching as they cut Thorag in two. “I also wish he was here as well,” Cenric thought as he tried to ignore the memories that were now clawing their way to the surface. He shook his head. “Focus on the now, focus on the now,” a phrase that repeated in his mind to not let those bad memories slow him down. He had to keep moving forward and focus on the present, rather than let the sands of the past drag him down.
As he continued to look around, the flickering of his torch intensified, revealing more bodies. However, these bodies were unfamiliar to him. Some of them looked like humanoid reptilians, almost like the snake people they encountered in the dead lands all those months ago. However, they were more human-like, but more reptile than man. The colour of their scales was hard to discern, as all their scales had turned into a grayish black. One thing that stood out to him, aside from their size, as these beings were large, almost as big as Rayner. Some of them still held massive, heavy weapons resembling maces or hammers in their claw-like hands and appeared to have collars around their necks made of the same liquid metal as the rest of the building. However, there was a small square box with a red circle on it. The other bodies belonged to pale, almost translucent-skinned individuals who, at first glance, looked like people. However, upon closer inspection, Cenric could see that they were not human. They had very flat ears and noses, extremely thin. Metal components were grafted onto their bodies, like misplaced pieces of armour sewn into their flesh. Some of them had metal limbs or eyes, which were a creamy milk colour. They carried clubs with rotating rings around them, similar to the reptilian people, and also had collars around their necks.
Although he didn’t know if the strange creatures that now stood before him, long since dead, were the famed sky people of yore that Tharos spoke of, or what he was slowly starting to suspect were their slaves, he didn’t want to stick around long enough to find out if the opposite was true. He started to head back the way he came. As he did so, he felt himself trip over something, slamming into a bump in the wall. He managed to stop himself from falling completely and regain his footing. As he did so, he noticed that the hallway he was in was starting to glow a faint green colour, emanating from various shapes that were coming out of the ceiling and walls. Standing still, making sure not to move, Cenric looked around, trying to see any movement or if anything else was out of place.
I hope I have triggered some sort of trap or something, he thought to himself. After several tense moments, his heart racing, he realised nothing was happening. “Maybe I just lit the torches in this place, he mused. He then sprinted back to where Tharos and the others were. As he retraced his steps, he almost collided with Jabari as he turned the corner. Stopping to compose himself, Jabari stepped back, and Tharos spoke up.
“Cenric, where did you go and what happened?” Tharos asked in a warm tone.
“I thought I saw something move over there,” he said, pointing to the hallway he had just come from. “When I went to take a look, I found a bunch of dead bodies. It looks like there was a battle down here.”
Both Tharos and Jabari raised their eyebrows in surprise. “Dead bodies of what?” Tharos asked pointedly.
“People… elves, dwarfs, and… things I have never seen before. I kinda panicked and tripped on something, and now there’s light in here,” he said, the words rushing out of him like water.
“There are elves and dwarfs down here?” Jabari exclaimed.
“Well, dead ones,” Tharos answered back. He then saw Jabari rub his chin.
“Could you please show me?” Jabari asked. “In all my travels i have never seen one.”
“Sure,” he nodded, and the rest followed behind. They all came across the hallway where the dead bodies still lay, the signs of their struggle evident even after the untold years they were down here. As they did so, he saw both Jabari and Tharos scan the area with their eyes. Jabari was carefully walking among the bodies, crouching down to take closer looks, making sure not to touch anything. Meanwhile, Tharos stood overseeing everything. For a moment, he noticed Tharos’ eyes widen and glow even brighter for a second as he noticed the liquid metal men among the pile of bodies.
“Must have been one hell of a fight,” Rayner exclaimed, showing interest in the reptile men. They were almost as big, some even bigger than him. “Milk drinker, Whelp, look at the size of this thing,” Rayner said as he tried to lift up the arm of these creatures, its arm snapping like a tree branch, and starting to crumble into dust at his touch.
He felt his face tense up as he watched this sight. While this creature had been long dead, he didn’t like the fact that Rayner was basically playing with its corpse. As he was about to say something, Tharos beat him to it.
“Yes, it’s all very fascinating, Rayner, but I wouldn’t touch those things if I were you. They could be poisonous and have diseases.” Tharos said, his arms crossed.
Rayner gave a snort. “You worry too much.”
“Suit yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” After several more minutes of watching them look over this long-lost and forgotten battle, Jabari spoke up.
“What do you think happened here?” he asked Tharos.
“I don’t know. It looks like the signs of some battle. However, I’ve never heard or seen anything like this before,” Tharos said, gesturing to the bodies.
“Same here. This place is quite the puzzle. A puzzle that I would like to solve. However…” He paused and then said to all of them, “While I would like to explore more and get to the bottom of things, I think it would be prudent to leave this place for now. I don’t know what further dangers await down here, and I would rather come back later when more prepared to face such dangers.”
“Yes, that is a good idea,” Tharos responded.
“Yeah, I would like to get out of here too, please,” he said, hoping to speed up the process of getting out of here and back on the road.
The four of them then started to make their way back to the stairway, passing the fallen elven warrior they had encountered. Cenric paused and looked at the fallen warrior once more, thinking that if they ever came back here, they should give him and all the others who were down here a proper burial. It didn’t feel right to Cenric that they were left down here. Before he could continue walking, Tharos spoke up.
“Zaradel.”
“What?” he said, turning his head toward Tharos, with Rayner and Jabari stopping mid-walk.
Tharos pointed to the elf. “Zaradel, that’s the name of that elf.”
Cenric looked at him puzzled. “How do you know that?”
Tharos gave him a knowing smile and replied in a slightly smug tone, “Cenric, you know I can read the elven language. There is a nameplate around his neck with his name on it. That’s how I know.” Tharos then turned away and started to walk, gesturing for Cenric to follow, which he did. As he did so, he heard Jabari say to Tharos, “You can read Elven?”
“Yes,” Tharos answered. “I speak several languages.” They engaged in another conversation about linguistics, which started to give Cenric a headache. They continued walking for several more minutes before reaching the entrance they had come from, only a few feet away. As they were about to leave, Cenric felt his foot dip and sink slightly into the metal. When he raised his foot, a clicking noise was heard, and the green lights turned red. A loud noise reverberated through the halls, causing them all to pause. Before they could react, the walls began to move, and the entrance they had entered through sealed shut. Figures made of liquid metal emerged slowly from the walls, prompting them to ready their weapons for battle. Cenric’s heart raced as he saw the liquid metal figures, and memories flashed through his mind. Gripping his spear tightly, he knew that losing heart would lead to a fate like the fallen elven warrior, dying alone on the cold metal floor. The figures then charged, signalling the start of the next battle, the next struggle, and perhaps the last time he would draw breath.
