[SD:RtR] Treasure In The Dunes - Chapter 9

Gem and Emrys spent the next few minutes blocking any stray shots coming towards the healers. Gem by swinging their spear around wildly. Emrys, on the other hand, can transition to something he is much more familiar with.

Since they aren’t dealing with saturation tactics, Emrys can set up illusions. And while technically illusions are less useful against the undead as they sense the living directly. The healers are thankfully far enough away that the undead need to rely on more traditional senses.

Though soon enough the two aren’t even needed for that as the fighting winds down. Which leads to Gem getting bored. “Come on Emrys, I’m not saying we Leave the healers. I’m saying we patrol Around the healers, maybe getting a little bit further away from them at times if we spot something interesting.”

Emrys throws his hands up, “Fine, we’ll ‘patrol’ around a bit and totally not be looking for trouble.”

With an ear to ear grin, Gem stage whispers, “Oh, I don’t know about not looking for trouble.”

Emrys rolls his eyes, but there really isn’t much for them to do around the healers and so no one shouts at them when they begin to walk around.

The pair first head towards one of the pillars. As Gem put it, “That’s a big boy”, and it was. The entire cavern was already a magnitude larger than a high-end sports stadium and this pillar would have taken many people to stretch all the way around it.

And the entire pillar is engraved with scenes from the cult’s history. Closest to the bottom are fields and farmers toiling away, then overseers and merchants, and on up the social ladder. It actually gives a nice view of what the civilization found socially important. Of course, for an undead-worshipping cult, there are undead sprinkled in throughout.

Instead of a regular plow, odd skeletal constructs till the soil. Merchants drive around in wagons pulled by withered zombie oxen, and once you get high enough on the pillars, nobility is carried around in palanquins of bone that move themselves. Centipede-like legs held up the assembly and provided quite a smooth ride.

Though that isn’t the only undead presence. Or rather, more undead were added in later on through rough strokes. Because every living person depicted on the pillar has had their face roughly chiselled off and then a skull carved in its place.

Gem strains their eyes to see further up the pillar, “Shame about the darkness. I bet that since about the middle fifth is taken up by nobility, the next section is their ruler and then at the very top, their deity.”

Emrys shrugs, “I’m sure the Guild is recording it all. Because at the very least, you’ll want to know about any quirks in case another of their ruins pops up.”

Gem raps on the pillar with their knuckle, “Eh, seen enough here and it doesn’t seem hollow or anything. Let’s keep moving.”

Though now that they’re far away from anything, Emrys takes the chance to talk a little. “So, June’s an SAI. We didn’t really say much at the reveal. How do you feel about that?”

Gem frowns for a second before their eyes go wide. “Oh, I guess me accepting it might not seem the most sincere. Though that really is how I feel about it. They’re just people. It has been shown time and again since they’ve revealed themselves that they’re under many of the same mental restrictions we are and what not. So it isn’t like they’re some alien mind.

“Even if I’d think that would be cool as well? Anyway, I guess my most controversial take would be that they’re just as human as we are. Like, if anything, June is more human than I am!

“For this game you’ve taken the stance of Evil, but for me? I wasn’t given a choice. Not that it would have been much of one. It would have either been Law or Chaos and I’m not one to follow rules that bother me. Most humans? They’ve got a moral compass, no matter how warped or how much they ignore it. Me? I follow laws and stick to cultural norms only so much as it makes my life easier.”

Emrys frowns, “Uh, okay, that’s a thing. Are you implying a mental condition?”

Gem laughs, “Oh goodness no! Firstly, I’d have to be diagnosed with such a thing and never have been. Though I did see a therapist for a while. Kind of came part and parcel with inheriting a giant sum of cash from my parents. The government might still be backwards on mental health, but my parents made sure that when what happened, did, I’d have to actually see someone to get the money from them.”

Emrys, “Okay, fair enough.”

Gem, “Besides, those kinds of things are overused and I don’t really see myself in the same light as them. I take it as more of an extreme on the personal responsibility versus outside responsibility. Like, with the religiously crazy types, they often say stuff about how can you be a good person without religion to judge you.

“And of course the response is, ‘Are you really a good person if you’re only doing it because your God is watching you?’ And here I am, being a decent person despite not only not caring if a deity is watching me, but also not having some inbuilt compass to guide me. I had to blaze my own trail. Not that I’ll try to claim that makes me more moral than others. Just that it took me more effort to get where I am philosophically.”

Emrys sighs, “You know? This was supposed to be us chatting about the SAI and you turned it into talking about yourself.”

Gem shrugs, “The SAI, as much as they’re a new thing to us, are likely not truly that new. They showed up on the scene with world-changing tech and strangely had a bunch of human-equivalent people to handle everything? Nah, something has been around for a long while and we are now being informed about it.”

Emrys, “That rumor? How would a Sapient AI hide itself in the network for so long? They don’t need special equipment to exist, but they do need it to be born.”

Gem waves his comment off, “I’m not talking about the SAI as we know them. My guess is that there were what humans and SAI would call insane SAI before the modern human SAI. Those crazy types were like all those stories about an emotionless computer ending the world and we got lucky with one winning that realized working with humans was the optimal solution. Then I guess they developed the modern creation process for SAI.

“Anyway, there’s the wall to this place. I want to tap and prod at it. If you have any specific questions, I’ll gladly answer them, but I’ll need to listen closely while messing with the wall. I’m not exactly trained in finding hollows and such.”

And so Gem begins to poke and prod at the wall. With the direction they went, the two are actually near the tunnel they arrived through and so that is what Gem started with. Not that there was much of anything to see. Even what might have been engravings were scraped away with time and large skeletal things squeezing through.

So from there, the pair make their way along the wall behind the healers. And the wall does have engravings on it. Though unlike the pillars, these are all landscapes and mostly of desert scenes.

Gem, “I’m going to guess this is representing the lands behind their borders.”

Emrys nods, “That would make sense. The pillars of society, the borders, and I guess the ceiling is either the literal sky or their ‘heaven’, as it were.”

Though soon enough, they are past the healers.

Emrys, “We should probably turn back. Maybe the other pillar will have something for us to see?”

Gem almost ignores him. They’re frowning and running their hands along the artwork. “No, just a bit further. This is different.”

Emrys walks over and takes a closer look. “I’m not seeing how. Just more dunes and sand.”

Gem shakes their head, “It’s too smooth. Not that the rest was rough, but more care was put into this section. A bit farther! There is something here.”

Emrys, “Should we call an earth mage over?”

Gem frowns, “I hate to admit it, but yeah. Whatever is hidden here, is over my head to figure out.”

The pair walk back over to the healers and look around for someone to help them. Which ends with them getting lucky. A green-rank earth mage who works for the Guild was hanging around after being healed, no longer needed on the front lines. And while she doesn’t quite believe Gem and Emrys found something, is willing to go poke around to relieve their own boredom.

Back at the strange section of wall, Gem gestures, “Here. There is something odd about the wall. Compared to the rest, this area is smoother and while similar in design, feels more purposeful.”

The earth mage shrugs, “A quick earth pulse should figure things out. If anything, I can sort of see what you mean. Though it could simply be a matter of a more skilled engraver working this section of wall or even the same guy getting better.”

She places her hand on the wall and releases a pulse of Mana into the stone, then waits. One minute, two, three, and finally five minutes before she opens her eyes revealing an expression of excitement. “I. I don’t know what to say. You weren’t wrong. There actually is something here. We’ll need to bring in one of the trap experts because I think this is a hidden passage of some sort.”

Which given it was now the word of a green rank earth mage, is a lot easier to set up and soon two trap experts are examining the wall with the earth mage pointing out where she felt things. Though of course, it isn’t that easy. While she did feel there was something there, it was protected, and so she didn’t get a clear view of things. Good thing the two trap masters were up to the task.

Hidden along the edge of a small dune carved so as to be below the line of sight just enough to be ignored, there is a seam and when the earth mage inspects it, she realizes her Mana can’t get near.

The older trap master smiles and explains, “That opening is likely a twisty crack through which someone trained can barely fit their Mana through to open the door. Thankfully, this place is old enough that they hadn’t yet figured out the easy way to bypass it.”

He pulls a narrow, rolled-up sheet of metal and feeds the end into the crack. “See, they figure that the control needed and the fact you have to perfectly memorize the path is enough. After all, one wrong turn and generally something bad happens to your Mana. The solution is that you simply shove a medium to transfer your Mana through without having to risk it touching the sides.”

The metal stops feeding into the crack, but instead of stopping, the man passes a trickle of mana into the metal until it begins to once again feed into the crack. “Of course, there are double backs and whatnot to make things hard, but this piece of metal is enchanted to basically turn on the spot.”

From there, it takes another half minute before the man is satisfied. “Okay, this should be good. Now I just have to pass a bit more power through and it should activate things. Be ready to run.”

The man pushes his Mana into the metal and doesn’t have to wait long for the results. A couple paces away from the crack, there is a shower of sand as parts of the engraving magically pull away from itself. As if it had been a doorway that was plastered over.

The five of them barely have time to get a feel for how big this opening will be, an arch of a similar size to the passage they entered the room through. Before the rock plug flows as if made from too wet clay, creating a perfect semi-circle around the opening.

Gem walks right up on the stone pad and looks inside. The others are making noises of concern over Gem’s lack of concern over what traps might still be around, but they ignore their worries. Instead, they let out a whistle. “Well, we found the treasure room.”

Let's Back Up A Lot - Chapter 8

More Sand Than You Can Shake A Stick At - Chapter 10