The passage they’re following abruptly ends again, so they again turn back. Coming to the juncture of passages, they turn right.
They follow this passage down past six chambers until it suddenly ends at a crude stairway going up. “This is encouraging,” James says as he begins to ascend the stairs.
“I hope it leads out,” Miko says from behind him.
“Me too,” agrees James.
Coming to the top of the stairs, they enter a small room, with more biers of the dead. This room looks to be constructed slightly better than what they saw down below. Where the area below had looked to have been just dug out of the earth, here it looks more constructed. The walls are more uniform, though still consisting of dirt and earth.
The biers here aren’t just dug out of the walls. Instead, some are lined with linen and wood. The dead here looks to have been better preserved than those below.
“This area looks newer than the other,” observes Jiron.
“Yeah,” agrees James. He moves through the chamber to the opposite side where a doorway leads to a connecting hallway. The hallway is wider and slightly higher than its counterpart below. “We may be getting closer to the exit,” he announces.
“That would be wonderful,” he hears Miko exclaim behind him. He can’t help but smile at him.
Moving along the hallway, they pass more chambers. These contain more gold and other valuables for the dead. In one, he sees gripped in a corpse’s hands that are crossed upon its chest, a finely wrought golden chalice. The Holy Grail? He smiles at the thought. I doubt it!
Continuing on, they come to where the hallway they’ve been following intersects another. Now faced with three choices, they pause a moment.
“Which way?” he asks, glancing back to his friends.
“Doesn’t matter,” Jiron says.
So James turns again to the right and follows the hallway. After passing by several chambers, it opens up onto a large chamber, the largest they’ve yet seen.
A large sarcophagus rests in the center of the chamber and a chest sits at the foot of it. He moves into the chamber to inspect it more closely.
“What are you doing?” asks Miko from where he stopped at the entrance.
“Just taking a better look?” he replies.
“Why?” he asks. “Let’s get out of here!”
“Just a moment,” James replies. He moves to the sarcophagus and holds the orb over it as he examines the artwork. His eyes are drawn to the chest and he really wants to open it. If this had been a role playing game, he’d not even had hesitated. But he dares not risk it, he remembers the last time they opened a chest and the results.
The room itself is fairly unadorned, a lone tapestry which has long since fallen to rot hangs on one of the walls.
His curiosity satisfied, he leaves the room and they move back to the juncture. Turning again to the right he follows the hallway down past burial chambers until it ends at a stone door set in the wall.
He gasps when he sees what is upon the door. The Star of Morcyth. “This must be a burial chamber for a priest of Morcyth,” he says. Taking out the medallion, he puts it into the recess of the Star on the door and the door begins to open.
Before he replaces the medallion back within his shirt, he notices a subtle glow emanating from it. He shows it to the others. “Never saw it do this before,” he says.
“Maybe it’s like back when we were trapped in the place with the skull pyramids,” suggests Miko.
“Perhaps,” James agrees, “but I’ve yet to encounter anything bearing the Star of Morcyth to be harmful.”
He moves through the doorway, holding the medallion out before him and enters a large chamber. A single sarcophagus rests upon a stand in the center of the room, the Star of Morcyth engraved upon the top.
The medallion flashes in his hand and the room seems to begin to glow with a soft, warm light. Next to him, he hears Jiron suddenly gasp. He looks toward the sarcophagus and sees a light begin to form next to it.
“James…” Miko begins to say as he tugs at his arm.
More curious than fearful, James continues to watch as the light turns into a ghostly apparition.
The ghost is a man in robes, hovering there next to the sarcophagus, and upon its breast is a medallion similar to the one James is holding. It’s face, hard to make out but looks human, is facing them.
James steps forward and says, “Greetings.”
The ghost nods its head and replies in a far off sounding voice, “Greetings, fellow priest of Morcyth.”
James glances at the medallion he’s holding and replies, “I’m not a priest.”
The apparition reaches out, almost touching the medallion he’s wearing. “The glow only comes from his priests, it manifests for no others,” the ghostly voice says.
“Who are you?” James asks.
“I am no longer,” the ghost explains. “I wish no longer to be.”
“Why are you here?” he asks the ghost.
“To guard, to watch, to bar, to wait,” the ghost replies.
“Guard what?” James asks.
“That which must not be found,” he says. “That which must never leave.”
“What must never leave?” he asks.
“The fire, the scourge, the ending,” moans the ghost.
“I don’t understand,” James says.
“Stolen it was,” the apparition says. “Stolen by us, never to leave. No, it must not be found!”
James glances back to his friends who look back at him nervously. Returning his attention to the ghost, he says, “Who did you steal it from?”
“The name that shall not be spoken,” the ghost wails with great anxiety.
“What would happen if it is found?” James asks.
“Death! Much death at the hands of his followers,” cries the ghost.
Suddenly, the ghost begins wailing. The wailing increases to such intensity that they’re forced to cover their ears. When the wailing stops, the ghost cries, “One has come!” Again the intense wailing.
“Hope is lost!” it wails and begins moving in an agitated manner.
“What?” yells out James. “Who has come?”
“One who belongs to him that shall not be named,” cries the ghost. “He shall find it!”
Suddenly, in his mind, he understands. Abula-Mazki has entered the catacomb.
The ghost moves suddenly and comes to stand but inches from James. “You must take it!” it wails to him. “Take it and hide it!”
“Where is it?” James cries out to the ghost.
“Above us,” the ghost replies. “You must find the Room of Stars.” He moves to the side of his sarcophagus and placing a hand upon it, says, “Within here, is the key.” Beginning to wail again, the ghost begins shimmering until finally dissolving into nothingness.
When the apparition is gone, they glance at each other.
James walks over to the side of the sarcophagus and tries to remove the stone slab covering it. “Help me!” he hollers back to the others.
Moving closer, they both grab a hold of the stone slab and with all three working together, manage to raise one side. Pushing the slab away from them, they begin to slide it across the sarcophagus where it drops over the other side, smashing into the floor.
Within, they see the body of the priest whose ghost had just spoken to them. Upon his breast is a golden key, three inches in length with a large diamond at one end. Reaching in, James picks it up.
“Come on!” he says as he runs from the room.
“What’s going on?” Miko asks him as he follows.
“Didn’t you hear what the ghost told us?” he asks.
“All we heard was wailing,” Jiron explains.
“He said that there is something here that the priests of Morcyth had been hiding from someone,” he tells them. “He also said that a follower of that someone is now here. I think Abula-Mazki has found the entrance to the catacomb and is now within it, hunting for us.”
“The priest told me I must find the ‘fire’ and keep it from him. It’s above us in the ‘Room of Stars’, whatever that means.”
“What happens if he should get it?” Jiron asks.