A Place like this {James&Marcus}{Open}

Marcus eventually made it to the bottom of the stairs and sighed. "Fine, but where would the fun in that be, plus, this worked faster." He looked at the door into the next room. "Whatever trap is in there, it'll be your problem." He said, motioning to the door and not even opening it. "Well, come on, let's keep going. Your sister does not seem like the patient type for this sort of thing."

"Leandra can bite be," James muttered walking to the door, he gave it a once over and didn't notice and obvious traps so he cautiously opened it. Beyond the door was a hallway about 5 feet wide and 30 yards long before it ended at another doorway. Evenly spread out down the hallway stood six statues on alternating sides of the hallway they were in the shape of soldiers carrying halberds.
James cautiously stepped forward and went and examined one of the statues being very careful not to touch it. "Okay, so this could be just a statue," he said turning towards Marcus, "Or it could be something that will try to kill us eventually. I'm absolute rubbish in figuring out whether something is magic or not."

Marcus noticed the statues and put a hand on his sword. "Just because I can use a bit of magic, doesn't mean I can pick up on it too well either." He admitted, stepping into the hallway slowly. "My plan is to just not touch them and if they start to move, we make a break for it. If these things are magical, I'm guessing it's gonna be some sort of super complicated magic that none of what I have could disable." He looked one of the statues up and down and then glanced at James. "Just don't make any sudden movements for now..."

"Sounds like a solid plan," James said with a chuckle as he carefully began walking down the hall staying alert, testing the floor before fully stepping, but the hallway was uneventful. They reached the door with out incident and James opened it.

The room beyond was fairly circular. With three other open hallways opening off of it all looking about the same. "Well Marcus, you've got the map. Which way?" He asked looking about.

Marcus let out a sigh of relief after the last room didn't attempt to kill them. "Right, map." He said, reaching into his pack and pulling out the map. Despite how likely to deceive them Leandra seemed, it was in fact an actual map of the building they were in. "Well, let's just figure out where we are quick..." He muttered, running a finger over the map until he managed to find where they were. Taking his fingers down each of the lines he finally tapped on one and looked up at James. "Assuming this map is accurate, we gotta take the right path." He said, rolling the map up and putting it away. "Granted, your sister didn't give us an up to date map, or one labelled with traps, so I can't say what we'll find, but we're taking the right path."

"Trust me it's accurate," James sighed, "She can't detect traps when she's sensing out a place, she can just see the layout and where she needs to go. We used to make a pretty good team back home," he said with a slight smile rubbing his hand over his hair. "She'd scope out the place, take care of any magic defenses, and what not, and I'd do the physical work. But that's the past," he shrugged and headed towards the right path.

As James crossed the room the ground in the middle seemed to almost liquefy, and up from the stone rose a stone golem, about 8 feet tall. "What doest thou seek humans," the golem said his voice like stones rolling together.

James froze and gave the golem a bow. "We are merely passing through, curious about the architecture of this great place sir Golem." He said giving the golem a charming smile. The golem turned and walked towards James, leaning down to look at his face.

Marcus started to draw his sword as the golem rose up but stopped himself. He figured that him and James had no chance at fighting this thing head on and appearing aggressive would probably not end well. Releasing his hand from his sword he took a deep breath and stepped up next to James. "Yes, it's as he says. We're merely admiring the architecture." He glanced over at James, hoping the thief had more of a plan.

James held his breath as the golem approached and studied him.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Marcus drawing his sword and he tensed up, but as Marcus released his sword and stepped up next to him he slowly released his breath and straightened up.  

“You see mighty golem we have heard tales of this place and the great people who built it.  Truly masters of their art, and to have made such a powerful well formed construct such as yourself well, I find myself in awe of them,” James said doing his best to flatter the golem and appear non threatening.

The golem stared at the men studying them intently.  In all his countless years never had anyone spoken to him.  He had been ordered about by those who made him.  Cursed and insulted by those whom he killed, but to be talked to in this manner, was a new sensation and he was not exactly sure how to react.  He straightened up looking at them quizzically.  “And what say thee red man?” he said turning towards Marcus.

James rapidly stepped up putting an arm around Marcus saying  “Why great golem, my friend here is practically frozen in awe of you.  Never before has he seen such a magnificent sight, it stabs into the heart of his soul like ice”

Marcus flinched a little when James suddenly threw an arm around him and glared at the thief with how seemingly obvious he was being. "Right, just as my associate says. I am just so in awe of you that," Before he came up with anything else to draw this out, he threw his hand out and blasted the golem with a mass of frozen energy. A coating of ice covered the golem but it was clear that it wasn't going to hold for long. "We've probably got a few seconds here James...Run." Marcus said, running past the frozen golem and towards the other end of the room, hoping he could get there before things got too hairy.

"Ha!" James said so surprised by the mages action, "Sorry mate gotta run," he said over his shoulder as he sprinted away from the golem, grabbing Marcus as he ran past and pulling him towards the right hallway.

The golem was...surprised, the red man's magic had no effect on him but the mere fact that these humans lied to him and he almost fell for it infuriated him. Digging his hand into the earth he pulled up a large boulder launching it after the men. "This place shall be thy tomb then," He roared as the boulder landed at the entrance to the hallway sealing it off.

"Nice work mate!" James said clapping Marcus on the back. The tunnel they were in was quite dark but James couldn't here anything immediately threatening other than the golem's cries from the other room. "Say, do you have a light? Can't see a blasted thing here," He said resting his hand against the rough stone of the wall.

Marcus stood in the new hallway, catching his breath and gasping a little when James hit his back. "Thanks...I think. We aren't out of the woods yet though..." He muttered, looking at the boulder. "I'm pretty sure that was our only way out too." When asked about a light the mage nodded and drew his sword.

"You might want to step back a little." He held his sword out and closed his eyes, muttering some words under his breath until he channeled a spell into his sword. The blade glowed red and small flames ran across it. It emitted a small circle of light around them and he looked at James. "This will last for a little while, come on." He said as he moved down the hall, sword out in front of him to light the way.

"Eh, we'll find a way out, I've been in worst spots. Worse comes to worse we call Leandra on the stone and she'll figure something out since she wants this thing bad enough." James said with a chuckle.

As Marcus lit up his sword James nodded in respect and approval. "Nice trick mate, be cautious of pits though, dungeons like pits," james said cautiously following along.

The hallway seemed to be sloping down a bit and as they walked a dampness seemed to creep in, the walls were damp and the floor was getting slick. James shivered and turned to Marcus, "You're sure this was the right hallway right? What should we be coming up on to get there, this place is starting to give me the creeps."

Marcus kept leading James down the hall and shrugged a little at the mention of Leandra. "Yes, because getting your sister to bail us out without anything to show for our efforts is our best plan here." He kept walking in fairly relative silence, being mindful of any potential pits however.

"Yeah, this was the way. The map's in my pack if you want to check it." He said, rolling his shoulder and holding out his bag to the thief. "Like I said, the map, while good for a layout, didn't really have too many details. We're on the right path though, I can tell you that much."

As James took out the map to look at it he still felt like something was watching him but he tried to shake it off. "It's a stupid long hallway, but we should be almost there. And mate, we grab the thing first and then call Leandra, if we can't find our own way out. I wouldn't dare bug her until we had the thing whatever it is."

As James was speaking and distracted by the map something began oozing out of the darkness, almost indistinguishable from the water on the floor it began creeping it's way over James' boot. "What the fuck," he cried kicking the thing off and drawing a dagger. At his cry four large splashes were heard outside of their little area of light as the thing he kicked took the form of a watery blob with two eyes, stubby arms and a very large mouth. "What the hell are you?" he asked brandishing his dagger at it.

"Grabbing magical artifacts without any planning isn't a good plan James." Marcus said, looking at the walls. They were surprisingly smooth, there weren't even seam lines, implying this hall was one solid piece. "And I doubt your sister would appreciate us getting the wrong thing or getting caught grabbing the right one." He was speaking fairly absent mindedly when he heard James curse. Marcus turned quickly, sword still glowing with flame as he looked at the creature. "Just stay calm, don't attack it, it might be peaceful."

"Doesn't seem to peaceful mate," James cried as the thing tried to bite his arm. James deflected the bite and tried to stab the thing but his dagger just seemed to sink in without doing any damage. As he was distracted another of the blobs came into the light trying to bite hit leg. The other two surged towards Marcus mouths open wide, making a sloshing sound as they moved.

"There goes that hope." Marcus muttered as the first creature lunged at James. Holding his sword out and placing his other hand on the blade, not seeming to be affected by the fire, he closed his eyes and spoke a few words. For a moment, the chamber was dark again, before being lit up by a mix of yellow and blue light as electricity began to course along his sword. As one of the creatures lunged at him, the Red Mage struck it, the electricity running through the creature as it was sliced in two, for the moment it seemed to cancel out the magic holding the creature together. Marcus spun and sliced at the creature assailing James before looking around for anything else. "Come on, before they get back up." He said, running further down the chamber.

"You don't have to tell me twice mate," James said taking off down the hallway. "The door should be up here soon just keep runni-" He had turned his head to talk to Marcus and in the dim light he had run right into the door. "I'm an idiot," he muttered to himself before yanking the door open and ushering Marcus inside.

The room they had entered was amazing to say the least, the walls were decorated in gold and red, spiraling images tracing up to a domed ceiling. Light seemed to emanate from the gold sections giving the whole room an odd but comforting glow. In the center, under the dome was a pedestal and sitting on the pedestal was a thin golden rod about 2 feet long. James looked around the room wary of attack or traps but didn't notice anything odd. "Reckon that's the thing?" He asked turning to Marcus.

Marcus made sure they weren't followed before releasing the magic from his sword and sheathing it. "Well, that was close..." He muttered, looking around the room and taking a second to catch his breath, the strain of channeling magic for as long as he had been finally catching up with him. "Yeah...probably." He muttered, looking at the staff.

"Catch." He said, tossing the summoning stone to James. "Stay close, and when I grab the staff, throw that at the ground as hard as you can. It'll get us out of here and then your sister will let at least me go." He removed his sword and his bag, handing them to James as well. "The less stuff that could short out the magic, the better." He said, slowly making his way towards the staff. He could feel magic, slowly radiating out from it and focused himself so his magic was on a matching frequency. "Here goes." He whispered before slowly reaching out and taking hold of the staff, a surge of magic started to run through him but he threw a glance towards James. "Throw it now!"

James was about to speak when Marcus grabbed the rod but shrugged instead and prepared to do what he said. As Marcus yelled at him he threw the stone and in a flash of light Leandra appeared, she seemed to have been in the middle of a conversation and whirled around to James her eyes flashing in anger. "This had better be good brother," she said her voice dripping with Venom.

"We've got the thing, you told us to reach you when we had it, so I just did what you said," James said with a small smirk.

"You know what I meant! You know perfectly well I meant when you were out of here. Now you've summoned me and I can't teleport out," Leandra yelled and it almost appeared like red sparks were traveling around her hair.

"I just did what he told me," James said pointing at Marcus. "Besides, a rock golem kinda blocked our way out anyway," he tried to hide his smirk but messing with Leandra had always been a bit too fun for him.

Leandra turned to look at Marcus with a scowl, "You vex me little mage, I thought you'd be actually capable of a simple task." She turned away from them and strode towards the door. "Men are useless," she muttered under her breath.

"Now wait here!" Marcus said, angrily responding to Leandra's annoyance. "You sent us in here against our will to get an artifact with no knowledge of what it was and now you're mad at us for calling you to get us out of here? Maybe if you were a bit more specific in your instructions, we wouldn't have summoned you here." He started to walk towards her. "Now, I want you to tell me what this thing does, or we're gonna find out first hand." He said, raising the rod and pointing it at Leandra.

"Do Not Threaten Me Child," Leandra said enunciating each word, her voice icy cold. She made a gesture with her hand and the rod was yanked out of Marcus' hand, giving him a sharp little hit on the head before flying over to Leandra. "It's a control rod for a particularly nice construct my master found. By itself the rod does nothing. Now let's leave." She said turning back towards the door.

"Just so you know dear sister there is a particularly large golem between us and the exit, and some weird blob things in the hallway." James said with a smirk, I'm sure not a challenge for one such as yourself but I know how you hate surprises." James looked back at Marcus and mouthed the word 'sorry' as he followed Leandra out the door.

"I'll deal," Leandra said furiously striding briskly out the door.

Marcus just glared as Leandra stormed off. "Not your fault." He muttered to James, rubbing the small bump on your head. "Let's just get out of here." He said, hoping that Leandra would be able to light up the tunnel this time around, he was still feeling drained and didn't want to use what energy he had left just to make his sword an over glorified torch. He glanced over his shoulder to look at the room one last time, to see if he'd missed anything, before heading after the siblings into the hall way.

Leandra had a small orb of light floating above her in the dark tunnel. When the first of the blob creatures tried to approach her she quickly snapped her fingers sending an arc of red lightning straight into it's mouth disintegrating it to nothing. "Any one else?" She said to the other blobs who seemed to be trying to push their way away from her.

James hung back a bit closer to Marcus. "Despite her attitude issues she can be handy to have around eh?" He said with a smile trying to make light of the situation. "I'm interested to see how she deals with Rocky up here though, he seemed a bit tougher than the little jelly boys." As he was talking one of the braver blobs tried to creep up on him but he gently kicked it away not wanting to draw Leandra's attention.

Marcus followed slowly behind, keeping his eyes peeled. "Yeah, she's handling herself pretty well." He said rather absent mindedly. "I don't know James, but something about this feels off to me." He finally said, keeping his voice low to avoid having Leandra hear. "This whole operation seems to have gone too easily. I get there were traps and things between the entrance and our goal, but to just have it there with no security? Something doesn't add up here." He said, glancing at Leandra, not trusting her.