It was a cloudy night in Miramor, and The Grinning Pig was particularly noisy. A small band of rogues led by the tall, blonde barbarian Tulak was spending their ill gotten gains at an alarming rate. Tulak sat at a table near the bar, bragging about the things he had killed, and challenging anyone and their pet dragon to a drinking contest. Meanwhile his dwarven companion Orgy was playing a hide-and-squeeze game with the barmaids. Orgy wasn't a very good looking dwarf, but he was fast and nimble, which made it possible for him to pop up wherever he was least wanted. Shidra, the mandatory elf, was amusing herself by shooting small balls of fire at people, thus setting their drinks on fire. The elven beauty could have any man in the room, but since she by elven standards barely was a teenager, she preferred to make men hot and bothered by setting their hair on fire. The last member of the group had some experience in this matter. Agire was a healer, and he and Shidra often argued about things of magical nature. These arguments used to end with Agire's hair being on fire, so he began to shave his head in order to avoid it. And while the rest of the rowdy bunch entertained themselves, he sat quitely in a corner and inhaled mysterious fumes from a bowl of bubbling liquid.
   By noon the next day a scream could be heard from the second floor of The Grinning Pig. One of the barmaids had found an ugly little dwarf in her bed, and began to chase him down the stairs. Orgy really got a kick out of being chased around by a woman, and his hysterical laughter caused a lot of moaning and cursing from a hungover Tulak.

   "Quit that noise, shorty!", he growled.
   "Well, at least he woke you up, you lazy bum", a voice to his left said. Shidra's voice. She must be invisible again. One of these days... Tulak's trail of thoughts was interrupted by a strange, yet familiar smell. Agire was standing next to him, reeking of whatever recreational fumes he had been inhaling during the night.
   "My divine insights have led me to believe that the closest pile of gold is inside the palace. I also saw myself...I wonder what that means...", Agire said.
   "It means that you're too self conscious...", Shidra remarked. Agire glared at her, she being fully visible to his magical senses.
   "Did someone say gold?", Orgy said while panting for breath. The love of gold had been running strong in the dwarven blood of Orgy's family, so when there was a choice between being chased by a cute barmaid and a chase for gold, there was no real choice at all.
   "Yeah, well...we're running short on coins now, and Agire here seems to know where to refill our pockets", Tulak explained.
   "Oh...where? Where is the gold?" Orgy asked.
   "The gold is in the palace. I have seen this in a vision", Agire answered.
   "Ooh. A vision he says...as if you'd need a bleeding vision to tell that the gold would be in the palace!", Shidra said in her most mocking manner.
   "There is a difference between knowing and guessing, however educated the guessing might be", Agire replied dryly.
   "Well, if we all agree on where the gold be kept, what's keeping us?" Orgy burst out. He was already gathering his gear and strapping his tools on.
   "You're right, Orgy. If you all follow me..." said Tulak as he picked up his large, twohanded sword.

   They made their way to the palace, and although they got funny looks from the guards, no one bothered to stop them. Since the bottom floor contained no visible treasures they quickly decided to go upstairs. There they immediately spotted two halfelves guarding a pair of golden double doors. The would-be raiders casually walked past the guards, and when the corridor took a left turn they huddled up and started to make plans. Being experienced at ambushes they quickly decided to let an invisible Shindra distract the two guards so that Orgy could shoot one of them in the back with a poisoned crossbow bolt. At the same time Tulak would draw his huge sword and chop off the other guard's head, to make sure there would be no shouting and yelling. The three rogues executed their devious plan flawlessly, and as soon as the bodies hit the floor, Orgy pulled forth his multiple tools and began working on the doors.
   Meanwhile Agire had opened a door leading to a nice looking bedroom. On the far wall he saw a huge mirror which immediately caught his attention. Maybe this had something to do with the vision where he saw himself? After examining the mirror he concluded that not only did it double as a secret door, it was most likely leading to the same room as those golden doors did. He should probably tell the others before attempting to open it though...

   "Hey, Orgy...you can remove those tools from the lock. I found the key on one of the guards", Shidra said.
   "What? They let the guards have the key? Why bother locking the door at all?", Tulak wondered.
   "Tis a bit late now...it'll probably take longer time to remove the tools and unlock the door than it would to just let me finish the job" Orgy said. No sooner had he finished the sentence than a loud clicking noise could be heard from the lock. "There you are" Orgy said as he began to remove the tools.
   "Hurry up! We ain't got all day!" Shidra said impatiently.
   "Oh come on...you know he loves gold more than anything else...I'm sure he's working as fast as he can", Tulak said in an effort to calm the elf down.
   "Maybe so, but I just got a bad feeling about this...", Shidra said as she began to scan the corridor.
   "Don't worry...I can smell the gold even from here", Orgy said as he removed the last piece of equipment and pulled the doors wide open.
   "What!? There's no gold in there!", Tulak burst out.
   "Told you there was something wrong. Check out that door to the right!" Shidra said.

   Tulak quickly sped over to the secret door and jumped through it, finding a nearly unconscious Agire on the other side. He began shaking the bald healer in order to restore his senses, and didn't notice that it was Shidra's spell that really woke the man up.

   "What happened? Where is the gold?" Tulak asked.
   "I was examining the mirror when it was pushed open. A masked man with a sack on his back came through and knocked me down. Uhh...my head hurts...quit shaking me" Agire let out.
   "Argh! Bastard! He stole our gold!" Orgy screamed.
   "That way! Don't let him escape!" Shidra yelled while she ran for the bedroom door.

   As soon as they got out of the bedroom they heard a voice call out the alarm from downstairs. With her astuate senses, Shidra noticed a small hatch leading to a crawlspace which ended up in the kitchen. It was obvious that the thief must've taken that route, so the group didn't need the sound of many running feet from the stairs to decide on which way to go. Once they reached the kitchen they saw two unconscious halfelves, but no masked man with a sack of gold on his back. They spent a very short time looking for him, and then decided that fighting a lot of guards for no gold wasn't a desireable solution. So they ran out through the main hall, knocking over a few guards at the portal. As they reached the fountain Tulak got the great idea to head for the volcano, as no wimpy halfelves would dare to pursue them there. That there might be a reason for this didn't enter Tulak's mind.

   The group silently descended into the warm volcano. The sight of a sleeping red dragon was a bit intimidating, but as long as it was sleeping everything was fine. And the dragon kept sleeping until the last member of the party had left the scene. They had now entered a tunnel whose walls were filled with sparkling gemstones, but none of it would come off when they tried to pry it loose. The tunnel turned left twice, and then ended in a hot room filled with black smoke where they found a way down. They ended up at a source of immense heat, and didn't investigate further before hurrying along, reaching parts that were a bit cooler. The tunnel took a right turn, and split into two tunnels which looked rather similar to each other. Tulak chose the left tunnel, since it was going pretty much straight ahead, and Tulak certainly was a straight ahead guy. They reached a corner where the walls where filled with strange and evil symbols, and the tunnel continued leftwards from there. Suddenly the tunnel became completely round, and a spiral along the walls, ceiling and floor led their minds to believe they were floating in the middle of it all. After this dizzying experience they finally reached a black hall, with a multitude of pictures along the walls. In the hall they were attacked by two guards, who probably should've yelled for reinforcements rather than waste their lives like that.

   "Hm. Guards...maybe these guys have gold somewhere as well?" Tulak said as he cleaned the blood off his sword.
   "You think so? I hope so...", Orgy said with a new gleam in his eyes.
   "We should probably check out that passage to the left before continuing further", Agire advised.
   "Sure. Let's go!" Tulak said.

   Tulak led the way as usual, and upon reaching a couple of doors, he bravely opened the left one and stepped inside. Suddenly a lot of growling could be heard from the room, and after a while Tulak stood at the door again, with torn and blood drenched clothes. For the next fiften minutes, wild tigers was all Tulak could talk about.
   During this temporary loss of proper leadership Agire led the group to a library, where he immeditely began to examine the books. Meanwhile Tulak continuously mumbled about those tigers, and Shidra watched everyone's back. Except Orgy's of course, since he decided that books weren't for him. Instead he snuck away, trying to get a lead on the nearest gold deposit.
   As Agire was going through the pages of a particularly interesting book, a single parchment fell out. He bent down and picked it up, only a blink of an eye faster than Shidra, who now eagerly peeked over his shoulder. The parchment contained a map and some text, and the whole thing reeked of hidden treasure. Suddenly they were rudely interrupted by Orgy, who came running from the end of the row of bookshelves.

   "Oww, get this thing off me! It's tearing me up!", he screamed while trying in vain to dodge a hideous shape behind him.    "Demons", Shidra hissed before she began to blast it apart with fireballs.
   "Uh? Let me deal with that..." Tulak mumbled as he strode forth and ran his sword through the vile creature.
   "Hmm...maybe there are more of them around...or did you do something special to aquire it's attention, Orgy?" Agire asked the bleeding dwarf.
   "It came out of nowhere! I didn't do nothing...I swear!", he whined.
   "If you quit using double negatives I might consider tending to those wounds", Agire said.
   "Where's the map? You still got it?", Shidra asked.
   "Of course. Don't worry about it", Agire answered as he reached down to pick it up once again.
   "What did I hear about a map? Does it lead to a heap of gold?", Orgy wanted to know.
   "We think it's a treasure map...stay still while I heal you", Agire said.
   "Let me hold that map while you do it...so you don't drop it again", Shidra suggested.
   "No, I want to have a look at it! Give it here, Agire!", Orgy said loudly.
   "Enough! I know what to do with the map. Give it here, healer!", Tulak ordered. As he got the map, he proceeded to cut it up in four equally large pieces. Then he gave one piece to each member of the band. "This way no one will run off alone with the map. And we'll make sure we all do what we can to keep everyone alive, so no map pieces get left behind", Tulak explained.
   "I don't like this. I don't like it at all...", Agire muttered.
   "I thought I heard voices", a pale, bearded man interrupted.
   "What? Who are you?", Tulak asked.
   "They call me 'the Professor', and I'd like to know what you are doing in my library", the man answered.
   "Um...nothing...we're just lost...", Shidra said as she hid her piece of the map behind her back.
   "Hrmpf. Well, it's not safe here for...trespassers. Come with me", the professor said as he began to walk out of the library.

   The treasure hunters followed their new acquaintance to a small bedroom where they sat down on a bed. They immediately began to interrogate the professor about what treasures could be found in the dungeon, and what creatures would be guarding it. However, after receiving the answers to all their questions they decided that they weren't quite up to the challenge. They were all eager to get out of there so they could see where the treasure map would lead them.

   "Methinks we are somewhat impopular back in Miramor. There wouldn't be some kind of backdoor we could take?", Agire asked the professor.
   "Why sure, there is one. Let me show you", the professor said, feeling quite relieved that they wouldn't continue to kill guards and demons.

   They all walked back to the place where the tunnels had split, and this time they took the other tunnel, following it to a place where they had to climb upwards. They found themselves in a very chaotic place, but luckily the professor knew what he was doing and was able to lead them further. After walking along a dark tunnel that kept turning to the left all the time, they ended up inside a very dark and spooky cave.

   "Well my friends, this is where we part. Just open the limb up there, and you'll be out of here. Remember to close it though, because we don't want any visitors coming down here", the professor said.
   "Ok. Thanks for your help. We'll be sure to close it after ourselves. Come on, people", Tulak said.

   After they all had climbed up, and the limb was shut, the professor could afford a smug smile. As he began to walk away he could hear faint screams and curses, but they quickly faded away, only to be replaced by the screams that originated from inside those caves. He was used to those screams...

Written by the Mighty Minq

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