Mystery of the Draconics

by Wanderwing

Treasure Trove

Mystery of the Draconics

Chapter 9

Treasure Trove

I awoke at dawn, feeling refreshed and ready for anything. I made myself a quick breakfast and began getting ready to return to the catacombs. I knew going back would be dangerous but I had to make the work I had done worthwhile.

I tried to avoid thinking about what Warmhearth said last night but my mind kept coming back to the mysterious gryphon. I knew it would probably be a trap, but at least I know Stoic can help me out if things get ugly.

I met up with the others down at the bar. Brightflare and Falling Star looked very well rested. Stoic however kept clutching at his head and groaning. “Okay, I got my shield strap fixed; let’s get going,” Stoic said.

We headed out of town back to the church again. We headed back into the basement and back through the same tunnel as we took the day before. Falling Star said, “I can’t wait to see what is down here, with the fight out of the way this should be easy enough.”

“Let’s hope so,” Brightflare said, “We have been lucky so far.”

We walked into the grove and found it quiet. Walking around the edges of the grove we found no other exits. Searching most of the grove we found nothing. The variety of plants was incredible; there were trees both evergreen and deciduous. Some bore fruit while others flowered throughout the grove.

“This is all amazing! The Druids must have mastered some sort of growth magic to manage all of this,” I said.

Brightflare nodded in agreement and said, “It must have been incredibly complex, I would love to see the spell work that went into all of this.”

“Yeah, yeah, the plants are nice and all but where is all the gold? Where are the jewels?” Falling Star asked, clearly growing frustrated.

“Don’t worry Star there are still plenty of tunnels down here, plus there is still the den to search,” Stoic said.

“Good idea Stoic, there has to be something in there,” I said. On the way to the den’s entrance we stopped at the tree the great wolf had become. I noticed its branches were bare and it seemed almost dead. This was far from the case however as I found out when I touched the trunk.

“Incredible,” I said my mane standing up, “It feels charged. I think this might be a Zap Apple tree!” I quickly stepped away from it, happy to have not been fried.

I took a look at the collar. I found it was made of a bronze-like metal, it was written on in the same runes from the walls back in the ritual chamber.

I would have stopped to translate them but Falling Star cleared her throat behind me, wanting me to hurry up. “Oh, yes, I suppose we should get going, there will be time for this later,” I said, and crept toward the entrance to the domed den.

Frightened of what I may find inside I moved slowly through the opening into a chamber, just tall enough for the huge wolf to stand in. What we found was not treasure, but strange oval pods rooted to the ground. They were scattered about in various sizes some as small as a hoofball, others nearly my height.

The taller ones were translucent, showing what looked to be a small timberwolf pup in each one. I suddenly realized what we had walked into. This dome wasn’t just a den. It was a nursery. I noticed a bed at the back end of the dome, and around it there were old bushes growing around it, crushed down as if a great creature had laid upon them curled around the old pony sized bed.

There was an old cabinet beside the bed, and in opening it I found an old journal, unadorned and simple. I grabbed the book and put it in my bag, “This might have some of the answers I am looking for. At the least it will tell me how the Druids tamed and lived among these creatures. Now we should search quickly then get out of here before the pods hatch.”

“Okay Wander,” Stoic said. “Everypony pick a direction and search, after this we will go try one of the other tunnels.”

“On it,” Brightflare and Falling Star said in unison. We all split up and searched the ground, weaving through the patches of orbs. We came up mostly empty hooved, as the floor was simply dirt layered over old bones. We did find a few simple trinkets, a bracelet and a brooch.

“I’ve waited long enough, I’m taking these two.” Falling Star said.

They were fairly simple pieces of the same bronze metal the collar was, so nopony bothered to argue over them. We left the room of pods and headed back to the mirror chamber.

“Well, I guess it’s time to pick another path. I vote left,” Brightflare said.

“I have no problem with that,” I said. We began walking down the new tunnel. This one was made of the same stone as the mirror chamber and was edged in ornate columns.

“Now all this looks promising,” I said, eyes glittering with excitement, “Look at these pillars, they look as if they were all carved by hoof, and each has these same bramble-like carvings around the tops and bottoms.”

“Yes, these Druids clearly had a bit of a thorn fixation,” Brightflare said, “And they definitely wanted to make an impression.”

As we reached a straight point in the tunnel after a sharp left curve we found there were eight doors, four in each wall, and the tunnel continued forward after them.

“It’s almost like a street, and these doors set in the sides seem like houses,” Stoic said, “They all appear disused though, check the doors maybe there are valuables inside.”

We each checked door after door and found most of them locked, as we all noticed this Falling Star brought out a small pouch from her saddlebags. “It’s a good thing I learned to pick locks, or we might miss some things. You two check the unlocked two doors, I will unlock these six. I should be done by the time you search them. Brightflare, you stay with me and hold a light spell; I need to be able to see what I am doing.”

“Okay,” I said and moved to the first unlocked door. I opened it and found out why the door was unlocked. The room inside was quite small. It was just a closet, brooms and cleaning supplies stacked against the back wall. I gave the room a once over anyway just to be sure but found nothing of interest.

I walked back out in to the wide tunnel, “There is nothing worth anything in there, how about you Stoic?”

“Not a thing. It turns out that was the Druid’s latrine,” Stoic answered.

“All that is in here is a broom closet. No real wonder why they are unlocked, but it definitely looks as though some Druids lived down here. Let’s hope these locked doors have something better behind them,” I said.

“Well I have this first one opened if you want to take a look. I’ll start working on the others now,” Falling Star said as she moved down to her second door.

I stood aside and allowed Stoic to open the door. Peering inside and still watchful of traps we found what seemed to simply be a bedroom. It was walled in stone with no windows. The bed was just a cot from the wall, but had a small layer of cushion on it. There was a lantern beside the bed and a table in one corner. On the table we found a set of silverware and a silver bowl.

The rest of the room was bare and had no decoration or personal touch. We went through each of the rooms as Star unlocked them, finding all but the last identical. In the last room we found a kitchen and a small servant’s quarters.

We took all the silverware; although it was simple it would still sell. We all groaned at our very low amount of treasure. It almost appeared that we had wasted our time and risked our lives for nothing.

Moving farther down the tunnel it turned right once again, and abruptly ended at a larger more ornate door. “Hopefully this is the treasury,” Star said, quickly getting her lock picks back out.

“Wait Star; let me check if they thought to enchant this lock first, we don’t need our only lock pick expert getting hurt.” Brightflare said. He probed at the lock with magic and found it was indeed enchanted; attempting to unlock the door without the proper key would electrocute the offending pony.

“Okay, I think I can hold back the enchantment while you pick the lock,” He said, horn beginning to glow. I took a torch and held it so Falling Star could see what she was doing.

Watching as she expertly manipulated the complex tumblers within the lock I made a quick mental note that I should probably learn to do it as well. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she focused, the lock was more complicated than she had thought.

“Almost got it,” she whispered, “Almost…” The lock clicked as it opened. “All right!” She yelled breaking into a shining grin, “Now let’s see what we’ve got here.”

We opened the door; it was wide enough we could walk through two at a time. We entered the room and all gasped. The edges of the room were surrounded in treasure! There were pedestals holding several of the more valuable pieces.

“Forget everything I said, this trip was so worth the time,” Falling Star said, jaw hanging open in disbelief.

I looked down at the ground and swore. “We aren’t done yet, look, between us and the treasure, there are a bunch of tiles. They may not look like much but I’d bet anything more than a few are traps.”

Each tile was about the size of one of Stoic’s hooves, and each had a symbol on it. I took great care in not allowing the door to close behind us; we might need to run out if certain traps were set off.

“I hope you still have that bag of rocks Brightflare. We might need to set off a few of these to learn the pattern.” I said and began to study the tiles. I found each had a shape on them.

There were some that seemed obvious, a few clearly had arrows on them and in levitating a rock on to one we found that an arrow shot out of the wall with enough force to pierce a pony, even an armored one.

A few others were more complicated, the obvious choice of a safe tile, a horseshoe, turned out to be a red herring, as when one was pressed a piece of the ceiling dropped, and was then lifted back up by a chain in some sort of winch.

There was one symbol I chose to ignore, a skull with a strange shape behind it. I noticed strange vents at parts of the ceiling and realized that the shape may just be a gas cloud. I stood glaring at the tiles for what seemed like an age.

I noticed there was a pattern, an order the tiles always followed. This should have been the key to unraveling this puzzle and I knew it. Then I realized I was over thinking this, Falling Star and I could just fly over the tiles. I said this and my friends all groaned. We had all forgotten this detail.

Brightflare thought a moment and then said, “Wait, they would have thought of that, let me try something first.” He attempted to teleport across, a complex spell but one he could handle. He disappeared and reappeared outside the door. “Okay, that didn’t work, now lets’ try the flying option.”

Stoic said, “That might not be such a good idea either.” He threw one of the stones at the height we would fly and a spell struck the stone with a fireball.

“Yeah. Good call Stoic, let me get back to work on these tiles,” I said, rolling my eyes at how I thought this could be simplified.

Then I noticed something, the pattern had one change in each cycle. At one point in the first cycle closest to us, there was an acorn on one of the tiles. At the point there should have been an acorn there was instead a mound of dirt. After the next cycle a sprouting plant was in its place. Then it was a sapling, a tree, a flowering tree, a fruiting tree, and a withering tree after that.

Druids certainly seemed to have a love of plants. “Okay Bright, set a rock on this acorn patterned tile please,” I said. He did so and we found that nothing happened. “And now the mound of dirt, then the sprouting plant, then the sapling.” He complied and none set off a trap.

“Okay, that’s that problem solved then. Pull all the rocks back; you definitely don’t want to trip while we do this.” I carefully stepped onto the acorn tile and brought one hoof across to the next tile in the safe sequence. The path was jagged and turned sharply so we went one at a time.

It took some time but we all managed to cross the perilous patch of the floor.

Looking around, free from the fear of traps I noticed that this room was made of gray stone but it seemed harder than the stone used in the hallways. It was magically reinforced; there would be no teleporting in or out of this room, even trying it while inside could prove dangerous. I also elected not to fly as it was possible the fireball spell continued over this area as well.

The pedestals were all set in a white stone with the exception of an area that gave off an aura of malice. Those pedestals were all pitch black as if carved from obsidian. They were all arranged in neat rows and columns and between them extra treasure lay forgotten on the stone floor.

After our quick observation we began to walk among the pedestals. A quick magical sweep from Brightflare showed that all of the pedestals and the treasure scattered between them was free of enchantment, and free of traps.

The objects upon the pedestals however were a different story. Many of them seemed to have magical properties. A few objects had tags on them outlining their effects. They were mostly minor enchantments, pendants that give off light, an ever burning lantern, a cloak that made one harder to see, objects that would be both valuable and practical.

On the black pedestals there were a few objects that seemed malevolent and nearly evil. On one pedestal sat a skull, its eye sockets seemed to watch you as you moved despite their emptiness. There was an area to one side of the chamber, with black tagged artifacts on pedestals. A few even seemed to have cages erected around them.

I quickly grabbed the ever burning lantern; I knew it would be very useful. The others began scooping the treasure off the ground. I grabbed a few coins and a bit of jewelry from the ground. Falling Star’s eyes seemed to travel quickly to the larger items, knowing they may hold greater value.

It wasn’t long before our bags were nearly full. Each of us saved a bit of room in case the other path also had some sort of treasure within it.

“So Wanderwing, this all turned out much better than I expected,” Falling Star said, “But I haven’t seen that gem you talked about. Do you think it could be down the other path?”

“If I had to guess it would be there, yes. All the objects in the cages are too cursed or hexed to move so we may as well go try that other path,” I answered. “Oh, I found a little something over here for you.” I pointed to a set of knives on one of the pedestals just a short distance from the cursed section.

“Wow, I’ve heard of these, but I never thought I’d find a set! They are called Dragon’s Claws. As the name states, they are made from the claws of a dragon. It is near impossible to make these, but once made they can pierce nearly any armor, and most magic won’t even stop them. They are probably worth more than half the treasure in here combined, and you want me to take them?” Falling Star asked. “There has to be a catch.”

“No, I swear, there is no catch. Except maybe, I may have another job for you. It’s not going to be for some time,” I said, thinking of the cave my grandfather was lost in.

“Well, if the treasure stays this good I am definitely willing to work for you again. Besides, I’m beginning to enjoy your company,” Falling Star said with a wink.

Stoic cleared his throat awkwardly, “There will be time for flirting later, maybe you haven’t noticed but Brightflare moved over to the cursed section about three minutes ago.”

“Well maybe he saw something he liked,” I said. “Still, we should try and find him.”

We all moved together into the cursed section, which now seemed larger than I had thought. It continued into a small alcove off of the side of the rectangular room. We travelled quickly and it wasn’t long until we had Brightflare in sight.

“Hey Brightflare!” Stoic called, “You can’t just run off like that, and what are you doing over there? This stuff looks dangerous.”

“I know, but I saw something. I want it. So I am going to take it,” Brightflare said. There was something a little off about his voice. He was staring into one of the cages. I ran up alongside him and quickly read the tag aloud so Stoic and Falling Star could hear me as well.

“‘Warning, Class Five cursed object, do not touch. Cage contains an urn. The urn’s contents are unknown as most of those who came into contact with the urn itself began muttering about conspiracies. They would quickly turn violent and very protective of it. Unicorns seem especially vulnerable to this object’s effects. Effects seem to manifest as possession,‘ Oh horse-feathers,” I said turning back to Brightflare. “Hey Flare, buddy, are you in there?”

His pupils were large and looked almost empty. He stared blankly at the urn in the cage.

“Stoic, I think we need to get him out of here. Now! This is about to get out of hoof,” I said, panic creeping into my voice.

“Okay, I think I know just how to take care of this,” Stoic said. He hit Brightflare over the head and slung him across his back. “Hey don’t look at me like that, we do not need him having a magical freak out. I think if we get him away from that thing he will be fine.”

“Yeah, that seems like a good idea,” Falling Star said, “We can always come back for the treasure later.”

We moved back toward the entrance, our loot and an unconscious Brightflare in tow. Falling Star and I crossed quickly one after the other. Stoic getting across would be the difficult part. He was sweating a bit, carrying all his armor, treasure, his shield and now Brightflare, and all Brightflare’s treasure, was beginning to take its toll on him.

He carefully stepped one hoof at a time across the pattern of safe squares. His brown coat quickly became coated with sweat. Stoic knew that dropping anything on the tiles or misplacing a hoof could spell death for him, and us as well.

After a few tense moments of waiting Stoic reached the other side and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He threw Brightflare’s bags across my back and said, “Okay, from now on you carry the extra stuff.”

I nodded and we took a few minutes to regain our strength. I took out some of the food I had brought with us and we each ate some. After about ten minutes time Brightflare began to stir. “What… happened? Where are we?” He shook his head to clear it and then looked as if that was a terrible idea. I passed him some food and water. After a few minutes of eating and drinking he seemed to focus again. “The last thing I remember we were in that treasure room. How did we get back out here? And why does my head feel like it got hit by a train?”

Falling Star looked over at him and said, “It was either the creepy cursed artifact, or it was from when Stoic punched you in the head. As for how we got back here, Stoic carried you out. Now since you are the medic I suppose it’s best if you get healed up.”

“No, I’m fine, but what was that artifact? All I can remember is that I wanted it, so desperately. Or maybe it wanted me,” Brightflare said, looking thoroughly unsettled. “I think we should move on, I want to be as far away from that thing as possible.”

“Good plan,” I said, “There is only one tunnel left to travel; let’s see if that gem is down there. Be on guard though, if I’ve learned anything about Druids from all this it’s that they were very protective of their secrets.”

“Okay, let’s get moving.” Stoic said. We all walked on towards the mirror chamber.

Comments

[Rose Lucks special somepony]

I like your chapter sizes, not to long yet just large enough to contain the crucial bits of information necessary to get a picture in ones head, good job.