[Catacombs] Girl's night down [mod please, PM to join]

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Early Imperos, Era 14

She chose to visit after sundown, when the dead could more easily manifest. It did not make much of a difference from Amelia's point of view, seeing as she was going to enter an underground network of catacombs in which sunlight had no place. Tonight's adventure was really unoriginal but a necessity in her line of work. With her shop getting its first customers, the girl needed to study Zinn'Sunn from the angle of the dead. She was to become respected among the spirits of the place and to learn about them. This was what being a medium was about.

When an Adjurator bent on carving a niche for themselves made a fresh start in a new city, the first thing they did was secure a place of power, their base of operations. This was the way Amelia's teacher had taught her, and the only way she knew how. Once that place had been claimed and secured - in Amelia's case, her shoppe - the witch would typically spend some time learning about the spiritual side of the place, its inhabitants and their quirks. All these things would come in handy later on, when these denizens of the Other Side could be exploited and dealt with in convenient ways. And really, there was no better place for this than a graveyard or burial site. Often crawling with ghosts, it was not uncommon to find spirits there, as well. A place ripe with possibilities.

Amelia found graveyards to be very exciting places. Tonight, she was mostly looking for information, perhaps a few alliances with worthy entities and a quiet corner to perform future rituals in. The dead made the best information sources, especially those who knew things that most had forgotten. She was very familiar with all manners of crypts and burial sites, ranging from the Great Mausoleum in Vortex to the graveyards and ancient sacrificial sites in Nexus, and now the Howling Monkey complex in Zinn'Sunn.

Clad in utilitarian clothes, Amelia had come armed with her smallsword and dagger, slightly alarmed by one rumor she had heard about large monkey guarding the place. The half-elf was the kitty and raven type and had never been too fond of monkeys and the endless amount of diseases they carried. And thus, Amelia's textbook approach began with two bags flung over her shoulder as she made her entrance with a lit torch in her hand, letting the gaping mouth of the stone monkey swallow her.

This was going to be fun!

[Haywire]

In the fringe of The Outlands, nestled up against one of the many granite and limestone buttes lies a carved face of a monkey howling in grief. It's stylized, enormous, and the monkey's gaping screaming mouth allows for entrance into the Catacombs where the Zinn'Sunnese bury their dead. The city has no formal graveyards. They feel, if the dead are not burned, then they are best restful when inhumed in stone quietly amongst themselves... away from the city.

The catacombs are extensive and contain generation upon generation of Zinn'Sunnese. They are open to visitors, and folks exploring them are apt to stumble across numerous things... if they are brave enough to tolerate the smell, the stagnant air, and the wet weeping walls. Rumors even abound of incredibly large feral monkeys that guard the tomb, able to sense the presence of Necromancers and grave robbers, controlled by the very spirits of the bodies they protect.

Amelia was quite prepared for her journey, supplies, clothing, weapons...All was ready and at hand if she needed it. Graveyards were indeed exciting places, for those who walked the path only ghosts and spirits took and even then those paths were quite bleak and reserved for those who dared challenge the ways of the afterlife.

Torch lit and ready to go, the young adjurator walked into the mouth of the howling monkey entryway, its gaping mouth consuming the flame and the body of Amelia as they walked further and further inwards. A very dry and musty smell entered her nostrils, tendrils of cob webs and vines overgrowing their boundaries from outside and latching onto the stone walls inside draped down and clouded her sight. It was only a temporary set back however as her quiet footsteps moved her past the foliage, through a few webs and down the stone corridor. The stone itself was cold, flat and smooth, a sign as to the dedication that the ancient crypt builders had to their loved ones. The corridor itself was on a slight decline and was about as wide as four men abreast as it carried itself down into the depths below.

An ominous silence carried along with Amelia as she walked further, deeper into Telath's unknown boundaries. The floor's that were illuminated by her torch light suggested that not many traveled down here recently, as there was still quite a bit of dust around and she also noticed she was making footprints herself as she stepped about amongst the grime and dirt that had been pushed inwards by mother nature itself. As she came to a landing however, the grime and dirt disappeared, as if it were cleaned away, the dust and cobwebs vanishing from sight. There were no official custodians in this crypt.

At the landing it split off into three different directions. The torch light only illuminated down far enough to see only more darkness ahead of her in either direction. To her left, there was a hallway with a square above it that had two swords crossed amongst each other and a half sun above the swords, shining downwards. Ahead of her, there was a hammer and a farmers scythe crossed and to her right, a feathered quill was engraved in stone above the corridor entrance.

On the wall between the middle and right corridors was a stone tablet, engraved and chiseled into the ancient stone that surrounded her.


It read:

"Here lie the dead, the honoured, the working man, writers and scholars, Buried beneath stone they seek the path to Aetheria, They will be remembered always..."

Below it there was a smaller inscription that Amelia could barely make out with her torch.

"Intruders beware, stone and silence are not all that accompany the dead..."

That was it. It ended there and said no more. Amelia had three choices, left, right or centre. It all depended on where she wanted to go first. Whether she took heed of the warning or not was her choice. It was after all, just rumour and legend.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

The witch descended into the catacombs with respect, but without fear, the flickering light of the torch casting irregular light upon her half-elven face. While the vines and cobwebs worried her to a small degree as they seemed to imply a general state of abandon and disrepair, it turned out that the crypt looked much better kept shortly afterwards. Amelia had heard that the people of Zinn'Sunn maintained the burial site themselves, without any dedicated personnel. They were wise enough to care for their dead, though did their dead care for them in return?

She took note of the amount of dust displaced by her boots as she made her way deeper into the catacombs. No sign of monkeys so far, either; and that was definitely good news as far as Amelia was concerned. Now, if only she could get to the actual tombs... she was curious to see how the Zinn'Sunnese interred their dead, the little details that revealed much about a culture, the nuances of their religion, the shades of their superstition. It was the living that inhumed the dead, after all.

And in the end, she came across a three-pronged fork in the path, each marked with a different symbol, and a plaque indicating the meaning of each. Amelia smiled. The Zinn'Sunnese had taken the time to actually separate their dead according to their occupation in life. How methodical. The girl approved whole-heartedly. She had her work cut out for her... she would not even have to browse too many tombs to find one of the type she desired. It was as if they had designed this place around her needs - which suited Amelia just fine.

She examined her options slowly. She enjoyed choices and often took her time pondering over her decisions. She planned on visiting all three branches, of course, but which would she pick as her first? After a minute of two, she made up her mind and opted for the feathered quill. What better information source than the souls of long dead scholars? There would be plenty of time for warriors and workers later.

And so, the witch chose the path to her right, though of course whether it was also the right path remained to be seen. She took notice of the warning and patted the hilt of her sword. Whatever guardians this place may have, Amelia would take care of them if they were dead, or her sword would if they were alive. Walking in silence, the half-elf was eager to admire long gone generations of Kemite intelligentsia.

[Haywire]

The Kemite people were very deeply spiritual, its culture filled with mythos of Orod creating the race, some believing it, some not. Aslan was quite prominent however in present day, almost all abandoning the past. The past lay here at Amelia's feet, the stone floors leading her from tomb to tomb, the bodies of the long dead calling to her in a sense, a valuable source of information at her fingertips.

Opting to take the way of the scholar, Amelia had heeded the warning and was for the meantime prepared whatever she might face, however the realm of the dead brought many surprises.

Walking down her chosen path of the quill, Amelia found herself walking down a deep, dark and long stone corridor that went on for a good two hundred feet. It was also on a bit of a decline as well, burrowing further and further into the earth as it went. The flicker of her torch revealed a large, rectangular entryway into a tomb ahead of her. It was a good 100 metres long and almost as wide. Two metre by a metre stone caskets were separated in one metre intervals, so to the estimation of Amelia, there was anywhere from seven hundred to nine hundred stone caskets in the room itself. The ceiling was a good six metres high and was inlaid with carvings of dragons, kemite symbols and prayers for the dead, all to help the dead pass to the next life.

In the centre of the room there was a stone tablet upon a pedestal. It was in Kemish, so Amelia couldn't decipher it unless she knew the language, however it was too short to contain all the names in the chamber. As she looked about the chamber, stone statues of howler monkeys and the marks of Orod and Aslan were littered about, carved into caskets, upon the walls, on the floor, all hand done by the looks of it and in a somewhat organized fashion. There were some wilted candles here and there lit in vigil for the dead by loved onces, but as Amelia observed the caskets, there were no names upon the dead and for good reason. If grave robbers knew the names of the people within the casket, they could rob their personal effects if their family had buried their loved ones with them. It was to hide the dead and protect them at the same time.

At the back of the chamber there were very large howler monkey statues, their paws raised in defiance, their maws opened wide. In between them was a raised stone picture of an Oroboros. It was usually the symbol that represented alchemists but it also represented the universal cycle of life, the end of something old and the beginning of something new. In traditional kemite fashion it had been placed upon the wall. There were three sections to the elaborate stone carving upon the wall, all three pieces raised out from the wall. In the flicker of the torch light, she could see a a depression on the snake's eye where a gem once was, but it was no longer there, as there was a good chance that it was stolen by a grave robber many many eras ago.

She had her work cut out for her. Where to start first? Silence enveloped her, the darkness encompassing all but the small radius of her torch.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

The corridor eventually led Amelia into the first burial chamber of the catacombs, and the girl was surprised by the tidy, organized approach to interring that the Kemites had. Tombs had been placed at regular intervals all over the room, not unlike a silent checkerboard. Hundreds upon hundreds of them, and remarkably not a bone out of place anywhere. To one such as Amelia, this was much like a library - enter, pick your section, browse the books and put them back on the shelves.

There were going to be problems, though. The lack of names, while not an impossible obstacle, was quite a setback, together with the apparent lack of ghosts and spirits. Apparently the inscribed prayers worked rather well when it came to ensuring that the dead do not linger here. Not that Amelia was totally unable to find ways around the problem of names, but it would take much more time, unfortunately. She would have to collect evidence from the tombs just like a detective of the dead, then run a large amount of cross-referencing with clan insignia, personal effects, estimated dates of death, physical descriptions and interviews with Kemite ghosts. In time and with some headaches, she would be able to associate a name to some of these bodies. Thankfully there couldn't be too many scholars in Zinn'Sunn.

Still annoying, though. She made a note to bribe people into collecting hairs from the deceased just after their interring at some point. It would make everything a lot easier.

Well then, time to get to work. The statues of the howling monkeys were somewhat unsettling with their open maws... not to mention that monkeys were universally ugly. The Ouroboros was a particularly unexpected sign as it also symbolized the cycle of death and rebirth. The lack of a gem in its eye socket seemed to indicate that grave robbers could act undisturbed and remove things without fear of reprisal. Would the statues come alive if she opened the tombs? Now that would be quite the tale. Amelia had no idea why people around the world thought dead bodies to be sacred. There was really nothing taboo about some flesh and bones; just tools to be used. She was not doing this for the valuables, either... but something would have to be done.

Amelia lingered by a random tomb, the temptation to force it open almost physically overwhelming. She was curious to see how the Kemites dealt with the bodies, their position inside the casket, the little superstitions... but no, not just yet. Instead, she advanced towards the back of the room, giving the Ouroboros and later the monkey statues a good inspection. Just in case. She wondered if the snake hid some kind of mechanism that could be pushed, or something along those lines.

[Haywire]

OOCI like the new avatar. Very suiting :)

The Kemite people were very methodical in their techniques as it was a large part of their culture, their heritage and their spirituality. The stray brass candle holder and candle lay strewn about but despite the lack of corpses laying on the ground, the tomb was quite sound and devoid of any mess or evidence of activity. Not many ventured down here as they did not trust the individuals responsible for the tomb and its care. Their beliefs were...too different; too foreign and too similar in some cases.

Lingering about, Amelia went through her thought processes, trying to determine how she could go about finding out more information about the deceased. Without having a solid name to work with it would indeed prove quite difficult for any adjurator to control any ghost or spirit that was to confront them if summoned or otherwise.

Unable to determine what to do next, she muddled about, trying to discern where to start first. The Ouroboros drew her attention and bringing forth the torch she felt it gently with her hand at first, the cold stone caressing her fair skin. Just because the gem was gone however did not mean that the robbers were able to escape easily...It just meant that the gem was gone...Where it went exactly however was another mystery for the ages. As she felt around, inspecting the statues, there was nothing of true value upon the stone figures of the monkeys but the Ouroboros proved to be very interesting. She could feel as she applied more pressure to the outline of the Ouroboros that she could physically push it inwards. However as she was just about to apply her full weight into it, a very harsh and sharp voice emanated from behind her.

"I would not touch that if I were you..."

A ghost of sorts was standing behind Ameila a good ten feet or so. It was a ghost in the form of a Darui'Torek, the legendary warriors of Aslan that had protected the city since its founding. This ghost was outlined in his own ethereal armour which had no real purpose however it looked to Amelia that he had been buried in it. He possessed a very large ethereal sword as well and 'drew' it out of his 'scabbard' that was attached to his side. Many of the grave robbers that came here were usually too scared to face him nor did he expect Amelia to understand his words.

He did not move but held his sword in front of him in a downwards manner, he often didn't have to move it any further for those who were wanting to rob the graves to make them run away. He had not spoken to a spirit talker in some time and it was unlikely for him to expect one to be standing in front of him.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

OOCThanks! Goss found it for me. :)

The girl inspected the snake that was eating its own tail, curiosity in her blue gaze. It definitely concealed a device, one she could trigger through pressure. Why the builders of this place would put it in such an accessible place was a particularly interesting conundrum. It seemed that her investigation would have to wait a little, however. A sharp voice distracted her from her task and she turned around to face the source of the noise, vague surprise coloring her face for an instant.

The ghost of a knight, the peculiar kind that Amelia spotted on the streets every once in a while, the knightly order that was unique to Zinn'Sunn and formed the elite of its defenders. It looked like the tomb had its own guardians and caretakers after all. The half-elf glanced at the ghost and her lips curled imperceptibly into the shadow of a smile. Like all sensible girls, Amelia much preferred men in uniform to those in heavy armor - a simple matter of smell and noise, really - but this one was almost cute, sword and all. It was probably the self-righteousness of the guardian on duty that had something vaguely adorable to it.

Amelia wondered, slowly, if she could have a good time breaking him into submission. Probably, though she did not have as much time as she might have hoped. "Serale, there," she smiled at the Darui'Torek, not looking intimidated in the least by his ghostly weapon. She had poppy seeds in her pocket with which she could stall him if she so wished. That she was no ordinary grave robber became apparent as several vials of blood hung from her trouser belt by her side, opposite her sword. Amelia usually tried not to use her tools unless she really had to. None of them were as satisfying or elegant as the spoken word... the feeling of gaining control over an entity with a web of speech. That was the only part of her trade to which she was utterly and totally addicted.

"Why place a button in plain sight only to prohibit helpless innocent ladies from pressing it?" She reasoned, seemingly light-hearted in her approach, though she was certainly not helpless... and not so innocent anymore, either. "Truly a waste of time, yours and mine both. I hope waving that big sword of yours at me is not the only reason why you linger in this tomb instead of joining your comrades at Torek's side in Sonos? That would be so sad... Pray tell me then, what is so important about this snake? Is the world going to end if I touch it? Or did they not even tell you the reasons behind your orders?" She delivered the teasing casually, knowing that most likely someone had put him in charge of defending the place.

She was curious to find out how hard a nut to crack he was going to be. Amelia tried not to mix business and leisure usually... but that did not mean she always succeeded.

[Haywire]

The Darui'Torek warrior did not expect Amelia to turn around and speak back to him. It had been a long time since he'd spoken to a spirit talker. Too long. However it was the one question that posed him a lot of confusion as he lowered his sword.

"Who is they?" The ominous question came low and deep from the ghost's maw, his translucent armour shifting about his figure.

"I know not who you speak of..." The warrior was a bit slow but careful with his words as he put his sword back into his ethereal scabbard. It was mainly to scare those who did not know a lot about his kind. Amelia however was not one of those people.

"It has been many, many eras since I have talked to one of your kind, spirit talker..." The ghost floated over to Amelia and looked the girl up and down, a good three feet away from her. The adjurator's instincts could sense that he was not here to harm her.

"Mmmmm....You are young but looks can be deceiving..." His hallowed eyes looked lost once again, his look blank and saddened, almost as if he still considered himself to be alive. He was indeed tethered to this place but it was because there was still a link, a chain holding him here, a task unfinished.

"If you activate that...They will come." The ghost looked back and around him as if looking for something. "I would not want to see a spirit talker killed because they were foolish enough to alert them. They see all and hear all that goes on in the darkness...They know I am here but they cannot see me like you do...I still remember...." The ghost looked faintly at one of the howler monkeys beside Amelia as he reminisced.

"I remember talking to one of your kind when....when breath still pulsed through my lungs." He looked back at Amelia with a bit of hope. "Your kind were somewhat revered...in the brightenings of old. Yes...Admired.." The spirit was quite vague as he looked about the old stone. He was old, ancient, almost as ancient as the city was. His memories had faded and faded and he was now but just an empty ethereal shell, having lost track of both time and himself as he 'blinked' rapidly, as if clinging onto some sort of consciousness.

"If you press that, you will regret it. It is their sanctuary. They do not like intruders."

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Now it was Amelia's turn to be surprised by his words. Apparently the man was not the guardian she had thought him to be, and he did not mean to oppose her, either. He was merely relaying a message. While this may be good news as it would save the witch some time, he was also taking all the fun out of it. The glint of excitement left her blue eyes as she realized this was going to be more business than leisure. Oh well, there would be plenty of time to find ghosts with a stronger attitude who could be a match for her will.

She cast a quick glance at the stone serpent before answering the Darui'Torek. "My apologies, I thought you were someone else," she said softly, her tone slightly more impersonal now that a confrontation did not seem to imminent anymore. What you got from Amelia depended a lot on what you gave her... politeness usually yielded politeness.

The ghost was definitely old, if he could remember a time when Papa Bountiful's progeny were admired and respected. "That was a long time ago... there was hardly any ruler, leader or feudal lord who did not keep one of my kind as a trusted advisor. You have long memories indeed, knight." A long time ago... before the force known as Arcana had spread through the lands like a disease, carried by the Aelyrian conquerors. Ancient balances had been broken then, struggles had taken place that had almost consigned Amelia's art to final oblivion - a slumber the girl planned on interrupting some day.

"Thank you for your warning, by the way," the maiden spoke through her split tongue, though a part of her still itched to press the trigger and see what happened, "I have no idea who they may be, but I take it it is more than simply wild monkeys you are talking about. I will be careful around this place." A thought occurred to her, and she frowned ever so slightly. "May I ask why you linger here, if you are not a guardian? Does it have to do with them? There are prettier places to spend the rest of eternity in, to be sure. If you need help with moving on, that happens to be my job and we can certainly strike a deal. Information is all I seek."

[Haywire]

The spirit nodded in response to her apology. Respect for the dead was rare to those who ventured into these tombs and spirit talkers knew much about their kin. He looked closely at her once more, wondering, contemplating. Could she be the one to help him to the other side? To walk the plane of Sonos like his graceful brothers had done? Skepticism still lingered about him as he listened to Amelia's praise.

"Mmmm....Just be sure to keep it in mind. They are the Guardians, the Shou'hu'zhe. They have grown into something...much more since my time." It was a Kemish word, something that Amelia would have to look up back in Zinn'Sunn but she was able to draw a conclusion that someone else besides the spirits resided over these tombs.

"The other side...It is something I think of often...What Aetheria is like..." The faint looked up to the carvings in the ceiling, one of them a holy warrior with a sword, representing the might of Torek. In another hand he held a piece of parchment. He was a holy messenger of Torek in the old brightenings, carved during the ancient times of the city of Zinn'Sunn.

"I roam these halls aimlessly, hoping to meet one of your kind Spirit talker. I guard the dead so thieves do not rob those who cannot protect themselves...I still seek vengeance from my death. It was unjust, dishonourable." He looked down at Amelia with annoyance, anger long faded from such a long time roaming empty halls.

"Can you help an honourable warrior finally gain the death he truly deserves? I fear..." He cut himself off and almost froze still, even in his ghostly form it was somewhat unsettling to Amelia. He turned around and looked down towards the entryway where Amelia had originally come from.

"They are coming..." A very loud and disturbing howl erupted from the crypts. It was beast-like, very loud and angry sounding, something that a large monkey might sound like if it was maddened, perhaps by an intruder in its own den? The roar echoed about, making Amelia's ears ring like crazy and she soon found out why they used such animals in the crypts down where the dead could not hear.

"I must go...I stand guard in the halls of my ancestors...You will find me there." His figure disappeared as he walked through the wall past Amelia and disappeared. The howling became louder and louder and Amelia could see the faint light of a torch coming from the entryway to the tomb. She would have to act quickly if she did not want to get caught. There was plenty of space to hide, the stone caskets were big enough to park her small frame behind and stay out of sight but the real question was 'was it going to be enough'?

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

"Shou'hu'zhe?" Amelia repeated absent-mindedly. Kemish sounded so exotic as it rolled on her split tongue. While very little remained of the ancient Vagaran language, what was left of it bore no resemblance to the sounds of the Zinn'Sunnese. The rest of the knight's speech was somewhat predictable, as it was a story Amelia had heard countless times before. The details varied each time, but the feelings behind it never did. Typically, novice Adjurators were moved by such stories in the beginning, but after a while they distanced themselves, and it just became a part of the job.

She knew what would follow next... she would inquire as to the reasons why he lingered, her questions getting more and more accurate as she dug into the life of the ghost. Or at least those were her intentions. Amelia blinked as the soul suddenly froze, and had he been alive one might have said he had just seen a ghost. Then, he announced that 'they' were coming, and some kind of howl echoed through the corridors and halls of the catacombs. Now, Amelia was a polite girl, but right now she barely refrained from swearing under her breath. If this was what she got for not pressing the button, then what would have happened if she had yielded to her curiosity?

The ghost departed to watch over his own section of the tombs, leaving Amelia to her own devices and rather frustrated for having to deal with the guardians even before she had started to do her grave robbing thing. Granted, that had been her intention all along, but she had not done anything bad just yet, had she? Still, she supposed that explaining that to a howling monkey may be among the most difficult things she had tried on that brightening. The fact that the creature, whatever it may be, was approaching with a torch was mildly disturbing because it was an act one would not attribute to most animals.

Suddenly a confrontation did not seem like a good plan A anymore. Amelia pushed it back to plan B and rushed behind the nearest tomb, crouching for cover but trying to get a glimpse of whatever was going to show up. While the girl was not afraid of a fight if it came to that, she liked herself alive and well. If caught, one could be certain she would draw her sword and fight... but it irked her to have to use her teacher's blade, an item she treasured, on some kind of flea-ridden monkey-like creature.

[Haywire]

The howl began to get louder and louder, huffs and intermittent hacks, like that of a whooping cough resided in and amongst the thundering call of the beast that was coming down the hallway. However it was not just a beast that was coming, it only made up one third of the group.

Recognizing the amount of danger she would be putting herself in, the adjurator and crypt explorer dove in behind one of the tombs near the back of the room to escape detection. Quick thinking drove her to snuff out her torch as well, throwing it aside and to the floor as she peered upwards above the stone to catch a glimpse of the rumoured 'Shou'hu'zhe'.

The torch light from the entryway revealed three figures, one that of a beast and the other two in humanoid form.

The beast itself was a large howler monkey, it's fur a sheer silver with splotches of red, black, brown and white as well, some of it war paint, some of it natural colouring. It stood at a good three and a half feet tall while walking on all fours. Upon its head however was a fearsome sight. The skull of another being, not human, but beast-like in nature was fit around its muzzle, it's dark red eyes shining out from behind the bone and enamel surrounding it. Large fangs protruded from the animal's mouth, saliva dripping upon the crypt floor as it walked slowly on its padded feet with its keepers. Amelia could also note a silver chain slung around its neck that carried some sort of figure piece but the torch light was overshadowed by the beast's form and created a pocket of darkness below it, not allowing her to see in great detail as to what it was exactly.

Attached to the beast was a large leather collar and a chain link that ran to its right and left in two different directions, one chain to each a separate hand; the hands of the humanoids with the beast. They were its keepers, it's trainers and the one's known as the Shou'hu'zhe. They were Kemites, priests and priestesses of the after life, worshipers of both sides of life and the keepers of the dead.

They wore very little clothing except for white loincloths and sandals, their bodies and faces covered in a white powder lining, black marks streaking across their cheeks and jaw lines. The one priest was holding a primitive spear of sorts, the other had a small whip that looked like it was used to control the actions of the beast they held onto with one hand each. Both were male and were of somewhat strong stature but somewhat lithe in a similar respect. If it was one fight that Amelia did not want to pick, it was with these keepers, or its beast.

The trio walked up the centre of the tomb, seemingly unaware of Amelia's presence. Unknown to Amelia, the Shou'hu'zhe patrolled the crypts regularly with their beasts of burden. Could the ghost have been wrong about them? She was about to find out.

They passed by the centre tablet and towards the back of the tomb, a good fifteen feet away from Amelia. Their heads were swiveling about, looking for any sign of activity in the past little while but Amelia had been good in that respect, barely having the opportunity to go rooting about before she was interrupted. Suddenly the pair stopped as the beast stopped in its tracks, the monkey's nose sniffed about in the still air of the crypt, it's eyes glimmering, the crimson dancing in its pupil guided by the torch light. It looked in Amelia's direction and stood on its hind legs as it beated it's chest.

The pair of Kemites looked at each other and a few whispers could be heard. "Shi Ku? Tei kah'ru?" They both looked in Amelia's direction but could see nothing but dust and the stone tombs surrounding the adjurator. Slowly the monkey lowered itself and snorted as it couldn't discern as to whether or not there was an intruder in the crypts and the priests turned to continue to walk near the back of the tomb itself. Amelia soon heard the click of stone and if she looked out from her hiding spot could see the ouroboros being pushed inwards like a button and the stone wall that it was attached to rise above as if it was being carried upwards by some sort of weight pulley system as the grinding of stone could be heard.

The figures passed into the darkness as the stone closed behind them moments later leaving Amelia in silence and in darkness as she sat there motionless amongst the dead.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Amelia waited with baited breath for the mysterious guardians and caretakers of the catacombs to show themselves. She could only hope that they were not as omniscient as the knight's words made them to be, or else her attempt would prove a pointless exercise.

Steely blue eyes narrowed as the three figures stepped into the hall, one of them quite clearly a howling monkey, the other two perhaps more disturbing still. The beast was large and muscular and clearly a force to be reckoned with, but the two Kemites were one of the things Amelia despised the most. Cultists. Bloody Aeternia. There was nothing to be gained from such people, who could see no further tha