Chapter 3: The Catacomb.
Celestyn slowly walked down the stairs, looking around, listening. For anything. Any sign he should turn and sprint away. But he heard nothing. He saw nothing other than the steel walls and stairs.
After a few moments, Celestyn reached the bottom, to a steel door. He tried the knob, hoping it to be unlocked, but as soon as he pulled the knob, it popped right off, leaving just a hole in the door where the knob was. There was nothing keeping the door shut, and he just pushed the door open.
Walking through the door, Celestyn found himself in a long, dark wooden corridor, barely wide enough for him to hold out his arms at half-mast. He looked around, on the walls were Visuisan banners, strangely, of inverted colours. Yellow, with a white eye, surrounded by a purple border. How strange, Celestyn has never seen that before.
Continuing onward, Celestyn counted 4 doors, 2 on each side down the long hallway, with several different hallways off to the left and the right. Celestyn sighed, not looking forward to searching all of this. Celestyn tries the first door on the left, finding it locked. It looks sturdy, but he figures he'll try it anyways. He reels back, foot up, and kicks next to the doorknob. Nothing. Again, nothing. He does this a few more times, to no success, giving up after about 4 kicks.
Moving onto the next door, the first on the right, he tries the knob. The knob turns, the door opens, and inside he finds a comfortable little room. The room had bookshelves on the back wall, a comfortable-looking chair in the center, next to a coffee table, with a magical lamp on it. He walks into the room, looking around, spotting a very pretty blacksteel shortsword mounted on the wall. The blade was black, as it was blacksteel-- a very strong form of steel, native to the lands of Willowvale--, and about 16 inches long. The hilt's handguard was about 4 and a half inches. The handle was short, wrapped in purple leather, with a gold string used to tighten it to the material underneath. The handle was shaped similarily to the beam of an antler, with no branches, the antler went on for about another inch below the end of the leather, the uncovered parts made of blacksteel, etched with intricate runes, a language Celestyn didnt understand.
After taking a moment to admire the sword, Celestyn decided to grab the sword, grabbing the hilt aswell, and mounting it upon his belt. Turning, Celestyn took a moment to look at the books. He traced his eyes along the spines, reading the names, "Leviathan", "Demonology vol. 1", "Purgatorio", "Paradiso", "Deities", "White cat", "The life and times of Visuisa", "Inferno.", "The life and times of Terranun", "Elunarun history Era 1: Volume 1", "Behemoth". He didnt see any books he was interested in reading, so he decides to turn and leave the room.
Walking down the hall, he decides to try the second door on the left. He places his hand on the knob, and tries it, finding it to be unlocked, inside he found the room entirely filled with a deep purple haze, the awful rotting smell returning, burning his nostrils even through the face mask. He stumbles back, coughing, his lungs stinging and burning, the awful purple dust flowing forth out of the room, following him, stirring. He coughs and falls to the ground, crawling away from the awful-smelling dust, gasping for air as soon as he escaped the plume, pulling his face mask down to get deep breaths of the clean-ish air. The air was stale, it smelled of old wood varnish. It's not a good smell, but it's definitely better than whatever that is. He looks back at the thick plume of purple, trailing after him, he stands back up, backing away from the trailing plume, as it settles near the floor, still swirling ever so slightly, slowly pooling out from the room.
Celestyn steel'd himself for a moment, then held his breath, hand over his mouth, then pushed through the cloud, the purple dust stinging his eyes. He blindly pats his hand over the wall, looking for the door. Once he finds it, he quickly slams it shut, and rushes back out of the plume, to the other end of the hall, pulling his hand off of his mouth and panting hard. After a few moments to take his breath, he turns back the way he came from, at the mysterious purple plume, pooling and stirring near the floor. He looks down at himself, noticing that he was covered in lightly speckled purple dust. He starts patting himself, getting the dust off, unsure what it is, but certainly not fond of it. After a moment, he was mostly clean of it, and walked down the hall, turning to the left down the next hallway.
A few feet into the hallway, the wood disappeared, the walls and floor turning to rough stone. A little farther and he came across a solid steel door. He tried the handle, only to find it locked. Hm. He doesnt think it's a good idea to try to kick this one, might hurt. He turns back around, deciding to take the other hallway.
Walking down the other hallway, he finds 3 more doors, two to the left, one to the right. First, he tries the door to the right. He tries the knob, finding it to be unlocked, inside he finds a dark room, with no furniture. In the center of the room, on the floor, was a circle, drawn in a dark chalky substance, a Moon symbol in the center. In the moon was a darksteel knife, covered in the same dark chalky substance. Celestyn walked over, crouched down, and picked up the knife, examining it, turning it around in his hand to look at it. "How odd.." he says aloud. After a few moments, he puts the knife back down in the moon symbol, standing back up and turning around, walking toward the door. Just about to reach the door, he's frightened by the sound of loud creaking in the distance, a quiet squeak coming out of his throat. He freezes, startled before slowly peeking out of the door, down the hallway at the other end. Seeing nothing, he slowly sneaks back down the hall, to the middle hall. He looks to the right, where the purple plume was. He found nothing there, but the plume of purple dust was stirring, like it had been walked through. Frightened at this sight, he squeaks quietly yet again, before quickly turning and rushing back the way he came. He attempts the first door on the left, finding it yet again unlocked. Inside, the room was fancier than the rest, the wood darker. It appeared to be a bedroom, a desk in the left-hand corner, next to the door, a book-case to the left of that. Along the walls were more bookcases, but what piqued his interest most, was a strange-looking table in the middle. He approached the table, finding it to be a oversized coffin. Easily able to fit several of himselves. He steels himself for a few seconds, before hooking his fingers into the edge of the coffin lid, and lifting it. Immediately hit by a plume of more of the purple dust, he stumbles backward, coughing. After a few moments, he puts his face mask back on, then approaches again, using his hand to wave away the dust, the smell of rot and mildew filling his nose. After a few moments, the dust cleared, he finds what is inside. A giant Vistakin skeleton, red in colour, covered in the mushrooms that infested the shrine above. The mushrooms twisted and turned over the bones, like they were mimicking a nervous system and veins, and even a few muscles. He takes a moment to trace his eyes along the bones, intricate runes and symbols similar to those on the handle of the shortsword he had found earlier. Making his way up to the skull, he finds the head to have 7 eyes. 3 on each side, with 1 on the forehead. Its antlers were broken, likely so it would fit into the coffin. He picked up a branch of the antlers, examining it. It's cold in his hand, frigid even, and covered in more of the runes and symbols. He opens his bag and slips it inside. His eyes trail back down to its chest, where he finds a large symbol engraved in the sternum. An eye... Oh. Celestyn realizes who this skeleton belonged to. His lord, Visuisa. He hadn't been off on a business trip as they were all told. He was dead. Rotting. Covered in mushrooms.
Celestyn was stunned, taking a few steps backward. He quickly turned, walking to the door, before he hears a gentle creak behind him, like bones moving. He freezes, terrified. A few moments later, he feels something grasp his thigh, tugging gently. Without a second thought, Celestyn draws the shortsword he grabbed earlier, slicing the arm of the assailant clean off, turning around, he finds the massive 12 foot tall skeleton sitting up, head turned toward him, arm outstretched. Celestyn squeaked in terror, quickly grabbing the hand still grasping his thigh, and tearing it off, throwing it at the head of the massive skeleton, before turning and sprinting. He sprints down the hall, turning to the left, stumbling, the plume of purple dust stirring. He turns behind him, to look at the plume, and sees a figure standing there, clad in robes. They weren't vistakin, they had no antlers, they were broad in build, and rather tall, but he didnt stay to examine any further, quickly spinning back around, sprinting toward the door he first entered through, slamming it open with his shoulder, rushing up the stairs, through the room at the top, and slamming his way out the front door of the shrine, knocking it off of his hinges, tripping and falling down the stairs of the front porch. He takes a few moments to get his bearings back, before climbing back up to his knees, looking down at the ground. He finds a golden coin there, and he picks it up, taking a very quick moment to examine it. Huh, odd, it wasnt a Willowvale coin, it was a Hundestadt coin. It had a depiction of the deity Terranun, wolf-deity of the earth, a broad masculine figure. He doesnt take any longer to examine it though, stuffing it into his pocket seperate from the rest of his coins, before climbing to his feet, and sprinting off into the woods, dead-set on escaping whatever the HELL was going on in that basement.