It has been five days since Zedro Diringer, the high priest of the Church of Alexandra of the capital of Elesby, Aloshir, had sent out five high-level adventurers to retrieve a holy medallion, believed to have been directly given to humanity by the goddess herself, from the hands of a death cult, worshiping, of course, the god of death, Urien.

Supposedly, the medallion can call upon the goddess, as of yet, none involved with the retrieval of it know what plans the leader of the cult, a nasty man named Aebshem, have in store.

We have already met the people who were tasked to retrieve the relic and saw that they had a few problems with each other.

A brief introduction to these brave heroes:

An old ex-soldier of the human army of Elesby, Mine Glory, who had served in the forces for over thirty years, twenty of them being in the role of a general.

The only one of the five members of the party qualified to be the head of it, with real experience leading a group of people into battle.

A Platinum-Dwarf, rarely seen outside their mountain home of Anvilsburn, deep in the south of the continent, Thakin Forgebreath.

He was the champion of the dwarven equivalent of an arena fighter in his home.

Like any other dwarf, Thakin dislikes most any other race except his own and even then he doesn't like most of them either but for gold and silver he learned to work with most everyone else, what else would pay for the upkeep of his mighty beard and addiction to alcohol?

Thakin uses mechanical gadgets which have been crafted by himself. A Platinum Dwarf would never use anything as equipment that has not been crafted by their own hands.

A War-Orc, Yam.

Most orcs do not have traditional last names. Ten years after reaching the age of maturity orcs go out and look for some kind of meaning in life to choose their own name, as a kind of patch of what they have lived through.

For War-Orcs the meaning of life is to fight and if that is not enough then to fight even more.

If a War-Orcs offers you a duel and you are not an orc it is a great honor, for the last five minutes you have left to live.

Even if for his race Yam is younger and on the 'weaker' side he can fell a tree with a single swing of his giant axe and punch through iron without much worry.

A young Dark-Elf called Asharisralorentanithilgenkian, simply called Asharis.

Like all of the elven races, Asharis is immortal though she has not wandered the world for a long time, comparatively.

Threehundredsixty years and twenty-eight days to be exact but she spent most of these years with her own kind, which are in layman terms, uppity and not unlike dwarves, outright racist.

Though she was only passingly interested in magic, after decades of using specific skills she is exceedingly proficient in elemental magic compared to any mortal race.

Lastly Vethra Nox, a goblin. Best described as a small kleptomaniacal orc. Like a certain type of bird, goblins are compelled to collect shiny things to keep for themselves. What they actually do with them is unknown to most, even some goblins don't actually know why they do it.

Because of this Vethra is skilled in most that are related to anything stealthy and in turn, makes her a great thief and if the need arises, an assassin.

Now let's see what these heroes are up to at the moment.

"Company HALT!" Mine yelled out raising his fist.

The orc and the goblin stopped dead in their tracks but the elf and the dwarf didn't.

Asharis walked in front of Mine then turned around and crossed her arms, "what?"

She pulled the collar of the dwarf who wanted to walk on still, "let go, yer little..."

"Listen up," Mine exclaimed spreading out a map, "we're almost at the cult's temple, and before we do anything we need a plan."

"IZ GOTTA PLAN," Yam almost deafened Mine who was standing right beside him.

Thakin laughed mightily, "Ah wanna hear the orc's plan."

Asharis also giggled.

Mine turned to Yam, "it is great that you have a plan, Yam, but is it anything besides killing everything you see?"

"NAH."

The human sighed, "that can be Plan C." He turned to the map again, "the temple is right here," he pointed.

"I see it," Asharis said.

"Yes, right here," his fingers still hovering over the map.

"No, I mean I can see it."

"What, where?"

"Right there, east."

Mine strained his eyes but try as he might he saw nothing.

Everyone else also tried but failed to see what Asharis was seeing.

"Sorry, I always forget that humans are even lacking in eyesight," she said with a clear feeling of superiority.

"If you can see it then tell us about it."

Even though it seemed that the elf could easily see where the cult's temple was located it was barely in view.

"The entrance is clearly carved into the side of a cliff. I think it's more of a crypt than a temple. Whatever it is made of is very dark, not normal stone."

"Anything else? Do you see people?" Mine tried to gather information.

"No, I don't see any, and I don't see anywhere that could be a hiding spot," Asharis tried her best to answer.

Mine thought about it, "great," he said under his breath, "we'll set off tonight under cover of darkness."

Time passed without much happening. Only Vethra and Yam actively talked with each other.

It made sense, many consider Orcs and Goblins to be racial cousins or even the same race that had split into two different paths eons ago.

Thakin polished everything he had in his bag and checked everything thrice, bombs, powders, little machines none, except him, knew what'd they do.

Mine racked his brain over what would be the best plan to proceed, though, in the end, he came up with nothing that could be used, he just knew too little about where they were going.

And Asharis was meditating, how dark-elf most often spend their time when nothing was to be done immediately.

When the sun had fully set each one was as ready as could be.

The distance between them and the cult was still great, taking a few hours until the entrance was finally seen by all.

Vethra was sent out by Mine to recon the area around the entrance but there was no one, not a single soul.

Dark, unnatural stone covered everything.

There were no doors, just a giant opening with stairs leading down into a dark abyss.

"TERE IZ NO FITE," Yam tried to say in a quiet voice, which by most everyone else was still considered screaming.

"Shut yer gob, will ya?" Thakin whispered, "do we hafta go down there?"

"Why? You scared, baby dwarf?" Asharis rubbed her eyes in a crying motion mockingly.

"That is exactly why everyone hates elves!" The dwarf went first into the dark trying to prove that, in fact, he was not scared in the least.

Everyone else followed suit.