The Keepers of Chaos: A Vault of Hell

Adleth: CXXII

The Vault of Dragons: CXXII

"Explain to me again why a cultist is leading us? Adleth criticized. The marching order down the spiral stares wrapping to the left. (Which was apparently very important to Herod for some fucking reason). Had Markos and Herod standing in the near front but instead they decided to push one of Markos's cultists in the very front.

"Markos said something about.. Cannon fodder?" Vaelle replied skeptically. She chuckled a bit, ok then. The staircase seemed to widen at its base, Adleth was hit by rays of light burrowing into her eye sockets. She hadn't even realized her eyes had become adjusted to the dimmer rays littering the cavern above. She arrived into a clearing at the base of the stairs and nearly gasped. However, she didn't cause only weird people gasp.

The room before her was roughly ninety feet long and a hundred feet wide, probably more she couldn't tell. Massive ornate columns decorated the center of the room with dwarvish designs spiraling up them. Dwarves battling goblins, invading human armies clashing with swords against hammers. Her vision had to be playing tricks on her, the rays of light beaming from the ceiling caught stray bits of dust in their luminous columns. It made no sense. Her body kept saying over and over; 'We're hundreds of feet underground, theres no sunlight here!' before her eyes told it to look again. They were like streams of fire, circular beacons catching the silver flecks in the air.

The ceiling was adorned with dwarves basking in the presence of angelic beings; gods. "Oh, fucking Corellon ok.." Adleth mumbled realizing how much crap she was seeing. It was incredible, and it looked valuable. Her eyes caught the treasure they'd been working so hard towards. What was the most interesting and most tempting part of the room. Piled high, like a mountain of dirt her breath hitched staring at the glittering mass. Tons of tiny golden fragments met her gaze teasingly. It was a mountain of golden dragons. Adleth was sure she could climb the hill and never find the top. Gemstones, small bits of treasure with weapons and armor. It was an enormous pile of gold. More than she'd ever seen in her life. Her hand drifted to her clutched purse. In a secret spot, she'd stashed her various robberies, totally her own net worth was well over a thousand coins but this.. This was hundreds of thousands. Half a million worth. Fuck was she really gonna be this god damn mesmerized by gold? -Ok yes..

"I wasn't expecting anyone down here."

*Steehcc* Adleth drew her swords instantly spinning them on their rings. The voice came from somewhere in the vault.

"My six?" She asked. A spear came over her shoulder, the sound of weapons being drawn echoed across the massive hall.

"Always," Vaelle replied.

The dusty lights from above hit a figure casting a long shadow across the floor. Adleth brought her blades closer, they'd come a very far way. She wasn't going to lose out on this vault now. The shadow grew longer and longer until- "huh?" She cocked her head. A small figure came out from behind a pillar, gold robes dragged against the floor. Golden eyes met her own, with a funny beard and a squished face. Adleth frowned staring at the old dark-skinned dwarf. He had flat gold hair with a long arrow-shaped beard descending down his chest. He picked furiously at his own beard while walking, his face looking rather bored. He was dressed in orange robes and held a large staff with twirling dragons one red and one gold wrapped around one another. Hold on.. Adleth instantly recognized the staff, she was only curious what the hell it was doing down here.

"Hi!" Markos cheered. Adleth kept her weapon up. This man was short, old, and fat. Yet something told her if he held the dragon staff by some miracle, then perhaps he was someone to fear.

"Hello, sir how are you today?" Vestus cleared his throat he was the first of the seventeen of them to approach. His weapon was drawn and his stance was wide. She could feel it, all of them on edge. This was the vault of dragons. Not the vault of pixies. Especially with the dwarf carrying that staff.. The vault may not have been named after the currency, the more she thought about it. The dwarf's eyes snapped up lazily, he looked rather.. Preoccupied stepping in and out of the light shafts.