"Wealth does not come from owning treasures,

but from using them."



The Owl's Tavern was the most frequented adventurers' haunt north and south of the border, so it was quite common to find people from the far corners of Erthea inside.

Despite this, the traveler who had crossed the doors of the restaurant that evening was particular enough to catch the attention of all the customers, who gave him brief inquiring glances and then went back to minding their own business.

Being an adventurer very often meant having a bounty on your head or something to hide, and the fact that the person hid his face behind a lacquered wooden mask was enough to believe that he didn't want to be recognized.

The newcomer looked around as if he were looking for someone, until his gaze met that of an armored elven girl with long black hair gathered behind her head sitting at a secluded table in the company of three other patrons – a half-orc, probably Jormen and two humans, a sorceress and a scout – who waved at him.

"You're late."

"Have you looked outside? This place is a mess. First the plague, and now this revolution, as they call it. Basterwick used to be a quiet place."

"Do not complain. We didn't expect it either."

"You must be Sadee."

"And you? I don't recall ever hearing your name."

"Jonah."

"Are you a bounty hunter?"

"Bounty hunter, hit man, mercenary, depending on the moment. But today, as I understand it, I will be a treasure hunter."

"Boss." said the ogre. "Are you sure we can trust this guy?"

"Musk is right." said the sorceress. "Torians are the kind of people who are your friend one minute, and backstab you the next."

"We've already talked about Dahlia. We need someone familiar with this region but not a native of Eirinn. They say the new ruler is after every piece of gold he can get hold of, and I have no intention of sharing our loot with him."

"You're pretty venal for an elf."

"I left that life a long time ago. Now I'm just another mercenary, and you can believe me when I tell you that what we have on our hands is enough to set us all up for the rest of our lives."

"I'm all ears."

"Have you ever heard of the Mad Wizard?"

Jonah shrugged, snorting in evident disappointment.

"And you brought me all the way here to tell me a children's story? Now I'm leaving."

"Wait, not so fast."

"Even I who am not interested in such things know the legend. The Mad Wizard who served Emperor Ademar IV, and who allegedly had himself buried in a crypt with all his treasure. I could give you the names of at least a dozen adventurers and seekers who have wasted their lives looking for the tomb. But as I said, it's just a legend."

"You're wrong. The crypt exists. And we know where it is."

The mask hid Jonah's eyes, but Sadee was sure she saw a glimmer of interest in them.

"What exactly do you know that other people don't know?"

The four adventurers looked at each other for a moment, then Dahlia took out an old parchment and opened it on the table.

"We bought this map from a local smuggler, a pig named Borg." said the sorceress "At first glance it looks like just a map of the region, but..."

A wave of the hand and a pinch of magic was enough, and lines, writings and symbols that were previously invisible appear out of nowhere, giving a completely different meaning to the image.

"See this symbol? It's an old mansion south of here, deep in the forest." Sadee said. "Legend says it belonged to the Mad Wizard. It was difficult to translate the entire codex, but we now know for sure that the crypt is right below, and that the entrance is somewhere in the ruins of the palace."

"How can you be sure it's not a fake? That Borg certainly has no reputation for being honest."

"Did you take us for fools?" said the archer. "We know an ancient code when we see it. No one has used this dialect for at least two hundred years."

"Gaston is right. We were unable to translate the entire text, but we understood the most important parts. The crypt and the treasury are down there, no doubt about it."

Jonah stalled, as if he wasn't quite convinced yet, taking the time to examine the document himself.

"Let's assume that this story is true. You all seem like smart, self-care guys. What do you need me for?"

"The Mad Wizard certainly didn't earn his nickname by accident." said the ogre. "Who knows what kind of magical devilry he must have put down there to guard his treasure. An extra pair of arms can't hurt."

"That's the deal. You help us get to the treasure, and then we'll divide it equally. Are you in?"

There was a brief moment of silence, then Jonah adjusted the mask more tightly over his face.

"I'm in. When do we start?"

"Immediately." smiled the elf. "Master! The bill!"



Under a pouring rain, the five adventurers rode the approximately thirty miles that separated Basterwick from the ancient ruins in the forest.

Indeed, there were very bad rumors about the place; farmers and shepherds in the area avoided passing by it, and parents used to discourage their children from going to play with scary stories of ghosts and demonic apparitions.

Only a few crumbling ruins remained of the old and sumptuous palace, but it was enough to look at the collapsed walls, the broken columns and the moss-covered marble floors to understand that it must once have been a building fit for a king.

"Damned rain!" Musk protested as he wrung out his cloak. "But does the sun exist in this accursed Country?"

"But doesn't everyone say it always rains in Jormen?" Gaston joked

"And why do you think I left in the end?"

"You orcs like to live underground, don't you? When we get our hands on this treasure, you can build yourself a palace of stone so deep that you forget even what the sky looks like."

"Let's not run, first we have to find the entrance." Sadee said

"I think I've already found it."

Jonah then called everyone's attention to some grooves in the floor where the rain, as it entered, made a clear dripping sound.

"There's definitely something here."

Musk tried to hit the ground with his ax, only to be knocked off by some sort of barrier.

"You waste your time, you stubborn Jormen." Dahlia said. "This is a level four magical barrier. Not even the court sorcerer would be able to undo it."

"We had to expect it wasn't going to be easy. Come on, let's look around. Maybe there's a way to get inside."

The five then set out to look for some clues, but after a few hours spent looking around, no secondary entrance or indications on how to break the magical shield were found.

Gaston noticed a small votive chapel, discovering a small obsidian statue that time and vines had not managed to scratch.

"Do you think it may have any value?"

"This is Leah." Jonah said. "The goddess of creation."

"So he's one of the Old Gods?" Sadee said

"Then our wizard was not only mad, he was also a heretic." Dahlia joked. "I like this guy more and more."

Gaston tried to retrieve his loot, only to find that it was connected to the pedestal with a chain; as he pulled at it, a sharp, violent noise came from the entrance to the crypt.

"Did you hear?" Musk said

"It looked like a latch. Maybe we pulled a lock."

However, the door was still closed, so everyone deduced that there must be other similar statues opening the remaining locks and started looking for them.

Again it was Gaston with his thief's sixth sense who found another one first, and before Jonah could tell him to wait he hurried to pick it up.

This time, however, instead of the noise of a bolt, a very loud whistle was heard, followed by the appearance on the ground of a large number of magic circles from which armies of small winged demons began to emerge and immediately attacked the five adventurers.

"Damn Gaston, why don't you ever think before acting?" yelled Sadee swinging her sword around.

It took several minutes and a lot of effort to be able to defeat those creatures as small as they were dangerous, so much so that once the battle was over Dahlia had to use healing magic on all her companions to allow them to catch their breath.

But not for Jonah.

"They weren't kidding when they said you were good at fighting." Musk said. "You slaughtered about twenty of those filthy things and you're still fresh as a rose."

"I have accumulated quite a few hours on the battlefields. But I would avoid repeating the experience if possible."

"Maybe we were wrong that this might be the right way to open the crypt." guessed Sadee

"No, I don't think so. First, let's try to find all the other statues."

It took a lot of patience, but in the end the five managed to find six other icons in as many votive chapels, all more or less at the same distance from the entrance to the crypt and all perfectly preserved.

"Eight icons for eight bolts." Musk said "Does anyone have any idea what is the right order in which to operate them?"

"I sure don't."

"What a beautiful sorceress you are." muttered Gaston. "This should be your stuff."

"Have you forgotten that I studied at the Circle of Parn, and that I am technically a cleric? I'm crazy, but not to the point of studying the Old Gods. Do you want to see me burned at the stake? If you want to know something why don't you ask Musk. The Old Gods should be his stuff."

"Cut it out. I may have become a Jormen, but the only reason I went to their pagan rites was so I could eat as much as I wanted afterward."

"Stop it, you three, and let's figure this out." Sadee said. "Jonah, do you have any ideas?"

The Torian had written down the names of all the gods represented in those effigies, and was intent on studying them carefully by the light of a torch.

"The first statue we pulled was Leah. The second, but who sprung the trap, was Ezwin. The other gods depicted are Kalya, Zante, Hati, Myrra, Tichern and Samael."

After much thought, and without saying a word, Jonah returned to the first statue, pulling it and clicking the latch again that opened the first lock.

"You, petty thief. Pull that statue over there."

"Who did you call a petty thief, you kind of..."

"Stop it and do as it says."

"But..."

"Don't make me repeat that."

Grunting with rage, Gaston obeyed, not without fear pulling the effigy of Zante. A few tense moments passed, which dispersed in a collective sigh of relief when everyone heard the second lock click.

"How did you guess?" Dahlia asked

"I didn't need to guess. Each of these gods is the father or mother of one of the others. According to mythology Leah, goddess of creation, gave birth to the three progenitor gods by mating with the universe she created. One of them was Zante, the god of the earth, who created human beings by carving them from stone. Zakynthos slept with his sister Tiama, goddess of the sun, and from their union was born Hati, the god of the sky. Hati was the father of Nama, the goddess of the sea, who in turn was the mother of Ezwin, the god of storms. Ezwin kidnapped the mortal princess Epheya, and of their union was born the moon god, Tichern. Tichern finally begat Kalya, goddess of justice."

Following his instructions Sadee and the others pulled the statues in the order indicated, and one by one six of the eight bolts opened without incident.

"I withdraw everything I thought about you." Gaston said satisfied. "Two more and you're done."

"I'd like to, but there's a problem. Myrra and Samael were both daughters of Kalya, and they were twins."

"So the next statue in the combination could be either one."

"And it gets worse. Samael was the god of chaos and destruction. I wouldn't be surprised if pulling his statue without it being the right one would cause something far worse than the appearance of some magical demons."

"Aren't there any clues that can help us understand?" Dahlia asked

Jonah took some time to think; then, as if he were choosing at random, he pulled the statue of Myrra.

"It worked!" yelled the Gaston, hearing the bolt click first

At that point, it was enough to pull the last remaining statue and the trapdoor in the floor finally opened revealing the access staircase to the crypt.

"But how did you guess?" Musk asked

"The first goddess of combination was the goddess of creation. I thought whoever created the puzzle would find it fitting that the God of Destruction was at the opposite end."

"Well done." Sadee said. "Come on guys, there's a treasure waiting for us."



The interior looked like an extension of the building above rather than a tomb.

Wherever the five adventurers went, it was an uninterrupted succession of large halls, vaulted corridors and even underground gardens kept alive despite the darkness and the lack of nourishment by who knows what spell.

Everything was illuminated by magical globes casting a pale blue light, too dim to be able to do without torches but strong enough to have an idea of what was around.

"No wonder the Mad Wizard is so famous." Dahlia said. "To create and keep such gardens alive he had to possess magical knowledge never seen before."

In such a place, it was easy to get lost, but as a good member of the Jormen people who had navigated all the seas of Erthea Musk knew how to find his way in a dungeon like a deer in the forest and managed to never lose his bearings.

As they crossed a large corridor which, according to the parchment, should have led to a large antechamber from which one had access to the room with the sarcophagus, however, Gaston had a strange sensation.

"Wait." he said, ordering everyone to stop. "There are traps here."

The archer placed a hand on the floor and closed his eyes, as if he were trying to perceive the vibrations of the ground thus creating a detailed map in his mind. Then, after a few minutes spent without moving a muscle, he shot a volley of arrows at various points in the room, unharmingly revealing and setting off one after another a volley of darts and a jet of fire from the wall, a freezing spell and two different pits filled with pointed spears.

"Done. We can go on now."

"I'm truly speechless." Jonah commented. "So you know how to use your head once in a while after all."

"Gaston trained in the best thieves' guild in Connelly." Sadee said with obvious admiration. "Sniffing out traps and dangers is nothing to him."

At that point the exploration was able to continue, but what the five adventurers found once they entered the huge quadrangular room at the end of the corridor left all of them dismayed and terrified with horror.

Lined up along the side faces and surrounded by frescoes, an infinity of open coffins stood out, inside which there were dozens and dozens of mummies; they wore sorcerers' clothes reduced to sagging rags or very old and now almost completely rusted imperial armors, but what was most shocking were their expressions that tasted of agony and pure terror.

In the center of the room, like a pagan idol of ancient times, stood a large statue of the Mad Wizard holding his famous scepter made of dragonbone, raised upwards as if to summon a spell.

"What in Gaia's name is this place?" said Gaston.

To understand this, it was enough to analyze the frescoes, from which it was possible to deduce that they were the disciples and personal guard of the master of the house. And judging by the story those images told, it was clear that they hadn't ended up in those coffers of their own free will... nor when they were dead.

"In the time of the Old Gods it was quite normal for the most powerful magicians to have themselves buried together with their disciples and all their retinue." Jonah explained with icy calm. "They were probably paralyzed with magic, placed in coffins, and left here to starve."

"This is far beyond mere madness." Musk said shocked. "This guy was completely out of mind!"

"This place creeps me out." said Gaston. "Let's find this damned treasure, take it, and get out of here."

They then began to walk towards the arch on the other side of the room, but while everyone couldn't wait to leave that macabre place, Dahlia clearly sensed something menacing in the air.

"I feel a strange energy in here. Let's hurry up and get out."

They had practically reached the other side when, preceded by a whistle, magical barriers similar to the one that protected the tomb appeared at the entrance and exit of the room, blocking the way for the five adventurers and at the same time closing any possible escape route.

"I knew it couldn't be that easy." Sadee said. "Be careful, guys."

In fact, it was just the beginning.