Tomb Raiding

Laughing with the sheer joy of successes, the tomb raider let the golden coins fall from his clawed hands into the chest at his feet. All around him his party was opening forgotten riches that have never seen the light of day in hundreds of years. For six months the raider and his band had been traveling from Bree-land to Evendim, having finally given into temptation about lost riches and treasure. Their numbers had thinned from the journey, yes, but oh was the reward worth it! The tomb they had opened had cost them a whole afternoon, the old steel door locked from the inside and barred by stone. How this was possible, the raider didn’t know. They had mined away with their pickaxes at the stone door frame until it fell down in front of them. What followed was a pillage much dreamt of for the past six months. What ever could be grabbed and placed into sacks was striped from the walls and floors, looted and stolen. The raiders lit old torches and filled the dark tombs with dull orange casts, elongated shadows crept and emerged into dark corners. Old fonts of Aronrian of text, tapestries, anything and everything that was of worth within the tomb was taken by greedy hands. The raider leader pushed past his party, reaching a wide room with a sarcophagus of a stone man resting with a sword resting on his chest. ‘Give me a hand, here!’ He called out, hearing six sets of feet running towards him. Five men and a single woman joined their leader, aimed with shoves and pickaxes and each with a bag across their shoulder filled with their victory treasure. Setting down their bags, they surrounded the sarcophagus with large smirks across their lips. All seven raiders dig their tools into the sarcophagus and slowly ruined the artisan cover in their greed. ‘Can’t wait till I get back home!’ Said one of the raiders as his pickaxe fell on the stone man’s face, chipping away rock fragments. ‘Same here! I’m just going to spend a fair share on food, drink and buy myself anything I damn well like!’ A second raider sang, getting his shovel into the lips of the lid and casket. ‘I’m going to spoil my baby girl rotten when I get back!’ The woman replied, at last getting her metal pole into a foothold to prize the lid off. That was when the tomb went dark. There was a sizzling sound that echoed down the tomb, each fire being extinguished along the walls dug deep by trench works. Shouts of calling and weary weapons being drawn could be heard from the burial chamber, readying their own weapons. ‘What’s going on?’ A raider asked, holding his club in front of him, fear wet in his voice. The leader opened his mouth to snap a retort when something fell with hard and heavy, followed by a spilling sound of stolen treasure slipping out of a bag along the stone floors. There was a scream, but in pain but of shear panic and the dull crunch of a skull caving in, bits of brain and skull fragments decorated the wall where one raider had foolishly mistaken his partner for an enemy. By the sarcophagus, the raiders remained where they stood, hearing the deaths of their party one by one. A raider was breathing deeply, reason giving way to fear as he screamed and ran from the chamber, forsaking his bag of treasure in a flight to live. His screams were swallowed up by the distance of the tomb, until they stopped all together. The last six raiders kept their eyes locked on the doorway, ready to meet what ever was attacking them together. There was a whooshing sound as something flew across the air, it took the raiders a second to hear it, but it was too late. A javelin of jet black with the steel tip blackened with dirt flew from the doorway, finding its mark in the chest of a raider. Blood flowed from his mouth as his lunges filled with blood, falling down with a gaggling sound. The raiders made the mistake of watching their number fall when their attacker charged. The attacker’s footsteps were so light that when the raiders turned slowly to the door way, it was already upon them. A spear shot like lightening in a powerful one armed thrust, slicing a clean cut across the raider’s neck with a jet of article blood. The tip of the spear barely reached their climax of length when the attacker span on his heel, the spear tip coming down like an axe. The face of another raider was cut in two, an eye ruined has hands came up in agony. Both raiders fell to the ground at the same moment, holding their wounds tightly in clawed hands as their life faded from their bodies. The attacker stood with his free hand like a blade, while his spear was held behind him. The leader and his last two raiders backed away, looking at each other for a moment and let out a desperate cry and charged. The attacker leapt into the attack, taking the raiders by surprise. The woman brought her sword down with a two handed grip on the attacker, but instead only hit air as it turned and let the blade dig itself into the stone floor. The other raider armed with a mace swung madly, hoping to at least land a blow. The attack ducked the mace and brought his shoulder into the raider’s leg and lifted him off the ground, throwing him over his shoulder and landing on the woman’s sword. He howled with pain has the blade cut into his slide, bleeding heavily and leaving the woman unarmed. She madly clawed for the sword hilt only for a boot to find her left eye and screamed in pain as she fell on her back. The raider leader had only had time to turn around from the charge to see the attack place one hand on the end of his spear and with all the power it could muster, trust the tip deep into the leader’s heart. The duel had only lasted ten seconds at the most, the leader impaled on the attackers spear and the woman rolling on the floor and clutching her eye in boiling pain. With a jerk, the attack withdrew his spear and watched the leader fall to his knee’s, and then onto his face. The raider who landed on the sword still held his side and spat curses at the attacker, until the spear stabbed down onto his mouth and silenced him. The woman looked up the corridor, seeing weak light of day and started to crawl towards the door. Her sobs were still loud enough to draw the attackers boot down hard on her back, pinning her in place. ‘Please!’ She begged. The spear tip rested on the back of her neck, she could feel the blood of her fellow raiders drool down her back and shoulders. ‘I have a son!’ The woman screamed, wanting to live more then she could ever put into words. The spear tip rolled over her neck, toying with the power of life and death. ‘Please show me mercy! Let me go, and I’ll never come back, I swear!” She spoke as quickly as she could, still holding her eye. With a kick, she was forced onto her back, looking up at her attacker and seeing the face for the first time. Wearing a leather robe of grey and a cloak that blended effortlessly to the back, the attacker was a man of great height with his spear resting now on her neck. His face was a cast of something she couldn’t put her finger on. He was handsome, yes, but that in itself seemed like the most basic description. His eyes were a most blue, like the lake they were over looking but points of grey that could be small rocks in the deep. He looked on at her with a face that showed no emotion, as if killing her whole band of raiders was just an everyday activity. But even she could see that he couldn’t end a life that was not wholly evil. The woman had only come with the raiders for her baby son, not out of her own greed. The man could understand why this wretch would steal, and perhaps she had learnt her lesson. ‘I spare your life, as my lord would if he had caught you himself.’ The man said, rising his spear and pointed towards the corridor. ‘Should I find you desecrating another tomb, I shall end your life swiftly and without pause.’ The woman, now getting onto her knees, bend and kissing the man’s boots. She could taste her blood on the leather straps, but didn’t care. She was going to live. ‘Thank you, my lord!’ She exploded with joy, picking herself up and running away as fast as she could. Alone in the burial chamber, Sangunius Lupercal of the Dunedain bent his knee to the sarcophagus and vowed he would remove the bodies from the tomb.