Swords and arrows

[Lion]

"I just hope I don't drop them.  Go on then!  Don't be such a scaredy elf," Dram said with half a smirk, wearing one pack in front and one on his back.  He walked a bit awkwardly, but he carried it with not complaint, eyes cutting through the darkness and viewing the path ahead of them was forged out into a long, black tunnel.  They walked out onto a bridge, which hung over a black pit, and at the end of its spread out into two divergent paths that ran along the rectangular walls, spiraling down below.

[Anadwen]

Athran let out a short sigh upon sighting Dram with the backpacks when they walked onto the narrow bridge, and took the one from his chest, throwing it over his shoulder. "Just give it here..." he muttered.

The surface of all the tunnels and paths around were surprisingly smooth and straight, cut perfectly, without anything marring them even after such long centuries. Sharp, angular ornaments were often revealed as the glowing tip of the Black Sword passed by, followed by Athran's tall figure.

The paths both seemed to lead down the same direction... Athran lowered his sword at both, but there was no difference. However, something seemed to glimmer and shine in the deep with a warm metal glow...

[Lion]

"When in doubt, go right," Dram commented just before they reached the divergent paths.  But they did not seem to lead any other place but down.  As they descended further into darkness, Dram had to unleash a steady breath to keep his nerves under control.  It wasn't the dark, it wasn't the unknown.  He was just on alert as he always was, but this place especially irked him.  Then a notion struck him.  "Athran...do you think the orcs found a way in?"

[Anadwen]

"Way in?" Athran scoffed. "No. Even if, I think that they'd be eaten by the beast in the well." he replied, taking the spiraling stairs by two. He carried his sword low, to light the stairs before them, which seemed to jump out of the dark, dusted, but still straight and perfectly regular.

And all of a sudden, they ended.

Athran frowned, stepped back a little, and then cautiously extended his leg to step forth. Something clinked under his boot... A silent shuffling, like plates of metal sliding down metal. He reached back, and put the tip of the Black Sword down to see what is there that caused such a strange sound.

A pile of gold coins. No, not pile - a continuous cover of gold coins. A carpet of jewels and precious metals... His jaw fell upon sighting it. He carefully picked his sword up, and made the flame burn brighter, to light a larger portion of the hall than before, but what he saw he didn't expect even in his wildest dreams, for it was beyond imagination.

This large hall must have extended through at least half a mountain. Its ceiling was somewhere in the indistinct darkness, where even that bright light couldn't reach, and everywhere his eyes turned lay gold, mountains of treasure. There were many staircases and corridors thorough this hall, but all around was nothing but insane amounts of jewels. They themselves stood atop one, towering under the stairs, and leading down a relatively steep slope.

He turned to Dram with a wild fire in his eyes, and a slightly mad grin. "Gods bless us. There isn't more gold on one place in whole Le'raana."

[Lion]

The gold, the precious gold that he had searched for all his life.  One good haul, one great find, one object to end all hunts for anything of precious value again.  Not that Dram would ever think about quitting, for half the fun was the thrill of the hunt, the pursuit, the passion of it.  And that was where his greatest love resided.  But it didn't make this moment any less impactful.

All this gold....that no one in the world could possibly carry all by themselves.  Dram was hesitant, despite his despite, to simply leap head first into the pile of gold before them.  Yet that didn't halt his flashing grin and he suddenly laughed out loud.  If he was afraid anyone would hear them, he didn't show it as he suddenly grabbed Athran's good arm and shook it.  "We did it!" he shouted, and howled loudly like a wolf, which echoed further and further out into the cavernous tunnels and hallways.

Dram released Athran and leapt from the precipice of stairs, sliding down a river of gold, which only clinked and rang out below.

[Anadwen]

With eyes glinting in the glow of the gold, Athran cheered - something truly unusual for him. This was enough gold for a lifetime, even for an elf - it was practically impossible to spend all. Not that it would mean that he'd stop being a mercenary - he loved the fighting and excitement that brought - but at least he wouldn't have to worry about expenses such as armour any more.

He grabbed a shield, laying nearby, and stepping onto its underside he sled down the side of the golden pile, using it like a board. "Watch out! You're gonna get gold in your shoes!" he shouted at Dram from behind, laughing. His smirk disappeared for a moment as he almost crashed into the dark elf, but in the last minute he turned the shield aside and sled around him, giving him a wide grin.

[Lion]

There were mountains of gold, mounds and mounds of them as far as the eye could see.  Dram was in awe of it all, that he nearly didn't notice Athran sliding around him.  He paused to look at the Pale Elf and his grin only grew.  "You can carry that half over there and I'll get the other," he said, gesturing with his arms and threw himself down the slope, rolling off with trails of gold behind him.  At his movement, more coins clinked together and slid down various paths, and he was swimming in jewels and gems, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and so much more.

[Anadwen]

As the slope ended, Athran's shield stopped sliding, and he picked it up and carried it atop the next one, where he stepped onto it again and kicked himself forth to slide down again, slightly hunched over on his bent legs to keep his balance. Something strange glinted in the pile...

He bent forth, but unfortunately fell off the shield, straight into the gold onto his head. It seemed to open underneath him, like a sea, and when he stood up again, he was partly covered in jewels and precious metals. His hand flicked a chain off his head, and he laughed, throwing coins out of the folds of his clothes. Right before his feet was a beautifully crafted helmet, shining like silver, though made from hard steel, and adorned with dark rubies and a pair of wings by the sides. He picked it up, and set it onto his head.

"Look what I found! Aren't I pretty?" he laughed, tilting his head aside.

[Lion]

"Like a regular bar wench," Dram quipped as he skipped and jumped through the hold piles, from mound to mound, spilling sapphires and rubies and other gems everywhere until he looked down into a larger pit where he stopped suddenly.  He saw what looked like a skeleton's hand protruding from a pile of gold, holding on to a necklace and he gestured Athran to come over and look.

"I guess we weren't the only ones that found his place," he said, pointing to the skeleton's hand.

[Anadwen]

Bolting through the sloping mounds of gold and valleys between them, Athran got to Dram in a matter of a few moments. There indeed was something that looked like bones... Very old and withered bones at that.

"Looks as old as these ruins themselves... I wouldn't touch it, who knows how it died." he muttered with disgust. "But there are lots of armours and robes around, I think we should find some for ourselves. Just to be sure... I guess it would be better than those scraps we're wearing."

[Lion]

"If you want armor, go scavenge for some," Dram gestured to him, as he leapt down to the bottom of the gold pile the skeleton hand was thrusted out of.  He stepped around it and knelt to the side while he examined the delicate necklace within it's grasp.  It shouldn't have been hard to pull out if Dram was careful to avoid the bones.

They were stone still, and soon he had to decide either to break the chain of the necklace or to snap the fingers.  The crack of dry joints snapped off the upper knuckle of the middle and index finger and Dram examined the diamond pendant at the center of the necklace and promptly put it around his neck.  And he didn't notice the flicker of movement from the skeletal hand.

[Anadwen]

Athran ran off to search for a suit of armour that would fit him, looking all across the hall, through the mounds and piles of gold...

All of a sudden, it just... Appeared before him. The most wonderful suit of armour ever, at least he thought so... A black chainmail shirt, hung over though leather armour, and topped with several plates of black metal and dragon scales, all of the highest quality and crafted so masterfully.

He didn't hesitate to grab it, and almost immediately threw away the broken remnants of his own armour. Most surprisingly, it fit him...

After buckling all the plates in their place, he looked around himself for a moment. Another armour hung beside this one, a somewhat smaller dim silver one - he grabbed that one, too. Dram could use that. And then he started finding his way back to him.

It appeared that he was still where Athran left him before. He poked him in the back, and handed him the armour. "I found this, it should fit you."

[Lion]

Dram turned around and peered skeptically at the armor shirt and made a face at Athran.  "For what?  I don't wear armor.  Too heavy.  Impedes movement.  Besides, I've got my eyes set on what the hell I can take back with me.  I'll need several trips to be sure, but I think I can haul maybe three hundred, no four hundred -"

His voice trailed off as the coins began to move from their place and the skeleton attached to the hand emerged from the pile of coins.  It was rotted, half way at least with some hunks of flesh still clinging to his torso and face as his eyes glowed a rotted green.  And in his hands there clutched a black hammer that it raised above its head and slammed it down toward Dram.

[Anadwen]

A wight. Foul stench seeped out of the rotten chunks of meat that hung from the bones, and it emitted something between a growl and a groan - before the Black Sword smote it down, cutting it in half through the skull and ribcage. The hammer missed them only by a few inches when it collapsed, just a pile of bones under the blade, and Athran stepped back.

"Put that thing on. It's so light you won't feel it, I have a similar suit... But if this is how you thank someone, for all I care, stay in your scraps, and rot here if something rips your head off." he snarled at him, throwing the armour to his feet. "If a dragon can fly in its scales, it should be enough for you, too."

[Lion]

"I don't want it, I don't need it!" Dram declared and sprang to his feet, leaping back and away from the pile of bones that fell to Athrna's blade.  But even if he changed his mind, he didn't have time to consider it before more gold moved and shifted aside and more hands crawled up from the piles of treasure, bearing weapons and arms until there was a great army of them.

[Anadwen]

But even then, they halted, and didn't attack. The mass of gold kept moving, more strange bones appearing amid the mounds of coins like if an avalanche rolled down a hill, leaving the rock barren and revealed.

The skeleton was different than those of the half-rotten warriors. First, because it was far larger. Second, because it wasn't human at all.

Scales hung from an almost decomposed corpse of a huge wyvern. It was towering above the army of dead swordsmen, while chains still hung from its figure, stretched across the enormous ribcage, wings, and spine.

Athran tossed the helmet at Dram, unsheathing the massive blade of the Black Sword. "Put it on, you idiot! If you like your head well enough to keep it attached to your body, but that piece of shit onto your head and shut your mouth!" he yelled at him, almost instinctively taking a defensive stance, hands clenched around the sword's hilt, and its tip in the same height as his head, ready to swing down at the first attacker.