Hero Quest, episode one

Descent into the Crypt

Character Sheet

Race: elf

Class: bard

Background: scholar/street urchin

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You push aside the weathered stone slab, revealing a narrow stair of marble descending into darkness.

A trail of rumours and whispers has finally led you here, to the tomb of some long-forgotten king in the midst of this long-abandoned graveyard. Why your brother would be in such a place, you can hardly begin to guess.

There’s something off about this place. Some dread presence lurking below, just beyond sight. Nerves… must be.

You steel yourself for a moment, then step forward, brushing aside cobwebs and bringing up clouds of dust in your wake.

At the stair’s foot is a gallery, lined with faded tapestries and strangely featureless stone busts. You pause to study them, trying to glean some hint as to the inhabitant of the tomb’s identity, but you can’t see any—

Icy breath washes down your spine. You spin on your heels, reaching for the hilt of the sword hanging for your belt, but the gallery is empty. All is still and silent.

Swallowing through a parched throat, you press on. As you move deeper into the tomb, the sunlight trickling in through the entrance fades to a faint glimmer behind you, but thanks to your elven blood, you can still see with perfect clarity.

Eventually, the gallery opens out into a hall, wide and low, with rounded walls of ancient cyclopean masonry. 

Directly across from you on the chamber’s far side is a great double door of stone and tarnished bronze, carved with scenes of man and beast and bloody battle. 

Evenly spaced around the chamber’s walls are what look to be unadorned sarcophagi, six in all, three to your left and three to your right. In the spaces between them are mounds of piled gold. In the chamber’s centre is a circular low-walled well from which you can just make out the echoes of strained, hoarse whispering.

• Episode two

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Thank you for joining me on this adventure.

Your time and attention truly is appreciated.