Arix and the tomh of Mul'din

 

There once was an ancient tomb, a tomb darker than night and so abandoned that no human eye has seen it centuries. Arix the young adventurer pushed over a stone slab from outside the tomb. The slab fell inward creating a booming noise that echoed through the ancient tomb. Tomb had not been disturbed, felt sound or sunlight in centuries and Arix the adventuring youth introduced light and sound to the tomb in one motion. Light beamed in from the bright midday sun, banishing the darkness and causing small, nocturnal creatures to scurry away in fright.

 

            This was the lost tomb of Mul’din, a great and fierce king of old. Mul’din was kind to his people and brutal to the rest of the world. His armies were vast and he would dominate and destroy all who did not join his Kingdom. The Kingdom of Mul’din stretched over a quarter of the world and his riches stretched on as far as the eye could see. Mul’din didn’t just acquire treasure from conquering, he also sent out bands of pirates and raiders to loot and pillage in his name. Mul’din’s raiders would regularly harass and land that couldn’t be conquered and through his looting and conquering he had a treasury stuffed with rare items from around the world and more gold than anyone could count.

 

            Arix had spent years trying to find this lost tomb. While he explored other ruins and new lands he always kept an ear open for anything that related to Mul’din. Arix even spent a fair amount of the treasure he found in other tombs just for info about Mul’din’s tomb. Finding this tomb would give Arix recognition, opportunity to join the explorer’s guild and befriend famous adventurers and Arix also had the possibility of finding Mul’din’s treasure and being incredibly wealthy.

 

            Arix crept carefully through the tomb holding a blue gem that let out a soft light. The light was faint enough so that Arix wouldn’t be immediately spotted by predators but bright enough to see inside the pitch black tomb, the gem also sent light out further than a torch would. The gem was the size of a small apple and glowed through Arix’s hand. The sunlight from outside illuminated the first room, but the darkness won out as Arix walked deeper inside.

 

            The tomb was silent and every light step that Arix took sounded like heavy boots stomping on the stone. As Arix walked he heard a faint voice calling from deep within the tomb, the voice was followed by a purple fog that reflected the light of the blue gem. The fog floated through the tomb, in and out of only certain rooms. The fog started looking like a trail and Arix wanted to find its source. Arix’ curiosity got him into trouble more times than he could count and he knew that the strange voice and purple fog could be luring him into a trap. It was possible that Mul’din’s ghost was trying to tempt a greedy treasure hunter and lure him into an ambush. Arix had experience with the undead and was overly confident with his ability to get out of bad situations.

 

            The fog led Arix to a large room that was full of bottles, tables and small trinkets. As Arix entered the room torches lit themselves and the voice calling out grew louder. “Help please!” cried the voice. “Where are you?” asked Arix “I am trapped in this bottle, please open it!” The voice called out. Arix now knew the voice belonged to a mystical creature, as a mortal could not survive being trapped in a bottle and sealed in a tomb for centuries and would have to be shrunken down to even fit in a bottle in the first place.

 

            Arix followed the voice and looked through a table full of dusty bottle of different sizes. Finally Arix touched the right bottle and the small glass bottle glowed with purple light. “Please release me!” Cried the voice. “I want to know where Mul’din’s treasure is first, then I promise to release you” Arix said. The voice was silent for a few seconds then finally spoke. “Mul’din acquired mountains of gold but when he died he did not keep any of it. He loved his subjects so much that he told his royal advisor to give everything to the people of his kingdom. He did not see the point of storing it or burying it. He gave the largest portion to his sons but he told them to use his riches to make their own riches. He was a wise man. This tomb was built in his honor and while many of his prized possessions were buried with him, none of those possessions were gold or jewels” Explained the voice.

 

            Arix was disappointed but didn’t completely believe the voice. “How did you end up here? And how do I know you aren’t lying to me?” Asked Arix. “I wouldn’t lie and risk my first chance to be free in centuries. I am a djinn, a wish granting spirit who has been trapped in this bottle by the king. I do not care about the king and if he had gold I’d help you find it. This is my punishment for not being able to bring back his dead wife” Explained the Djinn.

 

            Arix figured that gaining the favor of a wish granting spirit might be even better than gold and so he opened the bottle. The bottle had a cork, which was covered in a cloth, and the cloth had ancient writing all over it. Arix twisted the cork and pulled open the bottle.

 

            Purple fog sprang forth from the bottle. It flooded out and filled the large room, then in a second it all was pulled toward a single point in front of Arix. The fog swirled around and the Djinn appeared before Arix. “Thank you so much, kind master” Said the Djinn. The Djinn was dark purple, had yellow eyes with no pupils, had a torso and head but his arms were partly transparent and his legs were missing, he was completely made up of purple fog from the waist down.

 

            “So I am your master now?”  Asked Arix. “Yes, you are. But before you start trying to make wishes, let me make a deal with you. If you do not like my deal, you can wish for any one thing” Said the Djinn. Arix was intrigued and figured it wouldn’t hurt to listen to the spirit. “What is your deal? I was hoping for a mountain of gold in this tomb, so your deal better be worth the time and money it took to find this place” Arix explained.

 

            “The deal is, you bring the bottle outside of this tomb and use your one wish to free me. Once I am free I will be able to join the wind and cloud spirits in the sky. I will never bother a single mortal and after being stuck under ground for so long I will probably never even want to leave the clouds again. In exchange for my freedom, I will leave all of my magic in the bottle in the form of a potion. This magic potion will cure any disease, ease all pain, emotional and physical and it will give you energy like a night of restful sleep” The Djinn explained.

 

            Arix liked the sound of this magic potion but was still cautious. “What is the downside, there is always a downside” Said Arix. The Djinn grinned “Well of course. I see you are no fool. All magic comes with a price. Even those who wield magic must suffer a burden of it. The potion will do just as I say it will but if you use it too much or become too reliant on the magic, then you will suffer from it. Mortals cannot handle magic in large amounts or consumed too frequently” Explained the Djinn.

 

            Arix figured that he was as careful as anyone and would only use the potion in dire situations. So Arix agreed and the Djinn led Arix out of the tomb. They talked as they walked through the dusty ruins and Arix felt more confident that the Djinn was telling the truth about all he said.

 

            Once they reached the exit, Arix took a step out into the fresh air and held the bottle open as he said “I wish you were free from this bottle and live peacefully in the clouds away from mortals” Arix wished for a very specific thing just in case the Djinn wasn’t as friendly as he seemed. Arix hoped that the phrasing would bind the Djinn to his word and force him to be peaceful. Arix didn’t want to be responsible for unleashing a terror on all humanity.

 

            “Thank you human!” Said the Djinn as he started to turn into purple fog. A thin blue chain appeared. The chain led from inside the bottle and was wrapped around the purple fog that struggled to break free. Finally the blue chain shattered into a thousand pieces and each piece puffed up into the air in a ball of smoke. The Djinn was finally free and shot up into the air as fast as he could “Remember my warning human!” called the voice of the Djinn as he disappeared from sight.

 

            Arix knew he would heed the Djinn’s warning and put the purple glass bottle into his adventuring bag. Arix might not have been rich and famous from the trip into Mul’din’s tomb, but he did gain a magic healing potion, which in his line of work was priceless.

 

            Arix also decided to not tell anyone that he found the tomb, not only was there no gold to share but owing a magical cure all potion and telling people about it would drastically decrease his life span.

 

            Arix began the long trek home, his head swimming with tales of ancient kings and a long lost time. Arix put the potion out of his thoughts and did not think about it again until the day he desperately needed it. But that is another story for another day.

Arix and the sunken crypt

Arix walked slowly through the dark corridors of the underground tomb. Once he got into the sunken crypt he lowered himself down deeper into the giant hole in the floor of the crypt. Once he was underground he discovered that directly below the crypt was a tomb. The underground tomb also belonged to the Hidonon family. It was rumored that the family held many secrets and Arix was determined to find out what they were.

As he walked he heard faint whispers and sounds of footsteps deeper in the tunnels. Either some other adventurer got here before he did, or he was going to have to deal with another monster/creature that wanted to kill him. Oddly enough he was hoping it was a monster. It was much easier to deal with a cave creature than it was competing for glory with another adventurer. Having another adventurer around made the whole area seem less dangerous and took the thrill away also Arix wouldn’t be able to say he was the first one to explore the tunnels under the crypt. So he walked on, keeping his torch up and scanning the darkness for any sense of danger or competition.

The tunnels were lined with engravings and coffins that slid into little doors built into the walls of the tunnel. The engravings were mostly just peoples names and how old they were when they died, normal stuff you would find on a tombstone. Arix kept an eye out for mysterious warnings or any sign of hidden secrets. All of the tunnels eventually led to one central point. It was a giant underground room, built like a stadium but looked more like a sacrificial chamber. Arix held his torch up high as he looked at giant room. The walls were made of carved stone, all with incredibly detail images and writings. Strange symbols, skulls and arcane writing stretched over every wall. Arix had a feeling this was the secret he was looking for. At the center of the room was three torches, the fire was purple, blue and green, one color slowly fading into the next as it burned.

Arix walked closer to get a better look at the torches when suddenly heavy smoke spewed from the flames. The smoke circled around and finally took on a form. A tall thin man, wearing black robes now stood in front of Arix. “come to join your friend?” asked the man. Arix looked confused but then noticed further into the room was the body of another adventurer. “Damn, someone DID get here first” Arix cursed under his breath. Then stopped to think “oh, also hes dead” Arix added grief adding to his voice. He knew adventuring would be dangerous, but never thought that other people might also be adventurers and never came back. But seeing the dead man on the floor made his fathers warnings seem more real. When Arix looked back, the thin man was smiling. “Yes, you’ll do. Your so full of life, your soul will feed the fires” Then the man lifted his hand and skeletons came up from the ground to grab Arix.

Arix whirled around and bashed his torch over the head of one of the skeletons. The undead minion burst into fire and crumbled to bones. The second skeleton kept a slow pursuit as the frightened adventurer ran for his life. “Why are you doing this? Who are you?” Arix asked as he ran in circles around the Arena like room. As he ran more skeletons appeared to capture him. “I am Arlend Hidonon, the founder of the Hidonon family and immortal necromancer” Replied Arlend. “so you kill people to stay alive?” Arix asked. He reached into his back and pulled out his hammer, which is more for practical uses, but used it as a weapon by hitting one of the skeletons with it. The force of the hammer cracked the skull, releasing a tiny-trapped spirit. “I take the souls of every Hidonon who has ever lived and died, also the soul of anyone who stumbles into my tunnels. There are many entrances to this location and I draw in the occasional grave robber. But this place is built to harness souls of the dead, not so I can stay alive, but so I can return to life. I am no more than an echo, a shadow of my former self. With enough souls I will be reborn as the most powerful wizard in the world!” Laughed Arlend.

“Using those torches and this stadium” Arix said as he smashed another skeleton. “Yes, exactly” Arlend replied in delight. “Thanks for clearing that up” Arix replied. He reached into his bag, pulled out his fire bomb gun and shot at the three standing torches. The small explosion and the fire that spread from it, toppled the torches and broke them on impact. Souls started to rapidly escape, rising up from the floor and leaving for the afterlife. Arlend screamed and his skeletons all collapsed. Arix fired another shot at the engravings, disfiguring the ancient text and hopefully ruining any chances to restart the soul harvest. Arlend faded away, though Arix wasn’t sure if he was really gone or not. Either way, it was time to leave. He quickly made his way back through the tunnels. He didn’t have enough explosives to destroy the stadium, but he hoped he ruined enough to stop Arlend.

After following one of the tunnels out for a half hour, Arix finally reached one of the exits, a cave mouth on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Arix sat down and stared at the water, He needed the rest. Even though he didn’t get any treasure, at least he was still alive and better yet, he had another great adventure.

Arix and the new adventure

            It had been months since Arix had escaped the horrible giant spider like monster from the caves and made it home safely with his prize, the now named “Arix Gem”. This was the first Gem seen of its kind, the material, light red color and strange calming glow were unique. Arix was tempted to keep the Gem, but decided to sell it to fund more adventures. He was able to find a rare jewel collector and made a small fortune from selling it.  If he kept finding rare treasures he could make a living off adventuring and even retire when he was too old to continue on. Even though he had only experienced one big find, it was such a great success that it would fuel his enthusiasm for a while.

            Arix stashed most of his money at home in a safe location and brought the rest with him to buy supplies or information. He packed up his bags, got his maps and tools and once again set out from his village to find another adventure. Despite the sizable profit made from selling the gem, Arix’s parents didn’t want him to go back out. His mother worried about his safety and his father thought this was just a scheme to get out of doing ‘real work’.

            The next target was the sunken crypt. During an earthquake that happened months ago the crypt sank into the ground, pulling the treasures and secrets of the royal “Hidonon” family with it. The earthquake that sank the crypt had also sent shockwaves out and shook the tunnels that Arix was in while trying to escape with his precious glowing gem months earlier.

The roof of the crypt was still partially exposed, as it hadn’t fully been pulled underground. Other hopeful treasure hunters and grave robbers had broken a hole in the exposed roof so they could get into the crypt. The problem was even if you dropped in through the ceiling and entered the crypt, most of its contents were pulled even deeper into the earth, into depths others dare not go. Only someone with a defective brain would enter a crypt, then climb down miles into the belly of the earth to find long lost secrets and treasure that might not even exists. Though it seemed incredibly stupid and dangerous, Arix planned on making the trip down into the crypt tunnels, both for adventure and because he was sure the Hidonon had treasures sealed away with their last of their bloodline. As the family died out, they took everything with them and a hundred years later, Arix was going to find out what they had.

            As Arix neared the sunken crypt he began to have doubts, facing danger for treasure was all well and good, but what he was doing was grave robbing. Grave robber didn’t have quite the same ring to it as Adventurer. He shook off the guilt though, the crypt had collapsed into the earth, it was fair game, besides the dead have no need for money or trinkets. With his excitable smile returning to his face, Arix walked on.

            He finally found the crypt near an old graveyard. He knew the crypt’s location when he saw a bit of roof poking up from the ground and dirt moved around like someone had been digging there. Arix ran up to the spot, the digging hadn’t been recent, so he was free to enter without worrying about other treasure hunters. It seemed the real grave robbers had already been through here and when they realized everything was pulled into the earth, they left. Arix was a true adventurer at heart, the fact that anything of value was now resting in unexplored caverns made him want to go even more.

Arix and the Gem

A loud roar, shaking ground and suddenly light. Arix ran for his life through a dark underground tunnel, the light from his torch pierced through the overwhelming darkness. Arix was a young man with light brown hair, blue eyes and tanned skin. He wore a tan shirt that was ripped in several places, black pants, sturdy brown boots, a pair of goggles to keep dirt and dust out of his eyes and brown work gloves. He came from a family of carpenters and masons but instead of following in his family trade he became a treasure hunter.

           

            Arix ran for his life as a creature roared after him. This monster had been guarding or at least living with a rare gem. This gem would be worth a small fortune. Which wouldn’t matter if Arix died before he could sell it. The roars grew louder as the beast gained on the unfortunate adventurer. Arix reached into his bag with his free hand and pulled out the gem to get a better look at it. It was a large red gem the size of his fist and seemed to emit its own light, not enough to light a cavern just a soft glow that soothed Arix when he looked at it. After a few seconds of admiring the gem, he realized he had almost stopped running. The gem entranced him and he almost forgot about the monster. Quickly he stuffed the gem back into his bag and continued his run. He could hear the creature’s footsteps, it was right on his tail. Arix ran through the dark tunnels, taking turns and running down various paths, hoping to find his way out. He reached back into his bag, this time to grab his weapon. He didn’t want to fight, but would if he had to. No matter how fierce the creature, he would fight. Fight to see his family, to see the light of day again and of course to be rich when he sold the gem.

            The creature approached and Arix turned to face it, the light of the torch dimly lit the surrounding area. The monster stepped into view and Arix’s blood ran cold. The creature had a large thin body held up by spider like legs. The front of the body could move upright like a humans torso. The whole body and legs were covered in short brown fur, like a dog. Attached to the top of the body was a head, no eyes, no visible ears only a mouth, large and full of razor sharp teeth. The creature had rows of teeth that could probably even bite through stone. If Arix had seen the beast before he saw the gem, he might have just left it alone and went home. Then he thought, maybe if he gave the gem back. He wanted to be rich, but not enough to risk his life fighting a monster like this. Arix reached into his bag as the tunnel monster approached. He pulled the gem from his bag and held it up, instantly the creature stopped. It moved its head and slowly reached out for the gem with its creepy clawed spider legs. The gem seemed to lull the creature into a trance, like it had done to Arix earlier.

            Arix held the gem out, but kept it out of reach as he slowly backed away. The creature slowly followed Arix, subdued and focusing on the gem. It didn’t have eyes, yet the gem’s magic still worked. Slowly Arix continued to walk through the tunnel, he was nervous and was sweating. Suddenly the tunnel started to shake, it felt like an earthquake and pieces of stone ceiling began to fall. The tremors and falling stone shook the beast and he seemed to snap out of the trance. It realized it was being led and the thief still had its gem. The creature let out another roar and Arix took off into a sprint. He put the gem away and pulled out his weapon, a modified single shot pistol. This gun could shoot bullets, but also could shoot fire. Arix had made special combustion shots that would light things on fire. As he ran he loaded his gun. Rocks continued to fall, the creature was getting struck with stones and Arix had almost been struck several times. Arix finally ran into a dead end, it was a cave in, blocking him from the outside world. He turned as the creature closed in. Arix fired a shot into the darkness, the bullet zipped through the air and it a wall causing a burst of light and a splash of fire. He missed and tried to load another shot. Then a sharp spike flew from the darkness, Arix tried to dodge it, but was struck in the leg. It was a barb and as the creature stepped into view, Arix could see that the legs of the tunnel monster were covered in sharp barbs than it would throw. The beasts front leg jerked forward and another barb shot out, flying at high speeds. Arix dropped the ground and the barb embedded itself into the stone, right where his head was moments ago.

            Arix clutched his bleeding leg. The barb was sticking right through his leg. Arix used all his strength and pulled the barb out, a flash of pain swept over his body and cried out. His wound burned and throbbed and he hoped the barbs weren’t poisonous. The beast ran up at Arix and prepared to bring his clawed leg down to crush the boy. Arix finished loading his gun and right as the monster stood over him, Arix fired. The shot hit the beast right in its torso. Flames splashed across its body and caught fire to its fur. The monster backed up and roared in pain. It scuttled back into the darkness, hitting its body against the walls to put out the remaining fire.

            Now that Arix was safe, he would be able to crawl out of the cave. He wrapped his leg in cloth from his bag, then slowly began to move rocks away. It took hours, but Arix was able to get through the cave in. He limped through the caverns until he eventually found light. Light shone into one of the tunnels, Arix followed the light and found the exit to the cave. He smiled and began to laugh to himself. He didn’t think he’d ever see daylight again. From the cave he began his journey home, stopping to rest often. Once he got home he planned to rest and let his body heal. Arix had risked his life to steal treasure from a monster, the tunnel could have been his grave and no one would have known what happened to him. A sane man would take this as a lesson and maybe settle down to become a carpenter or mason, but Arix, he just wondered where he would find his next adventure.