[youtube]2ZMxPdpuuO0[/youtube]

This was it. The moment of truth. They were on the precipice, staring into the abyss. Quite literally, perhaps. The small party stood just outside the door that would lead them to the Boss’ chamber. The double doors were comprised of two massive blocks of sandstone, each easily weighing in at several tonnes. Scrawled across the doors were more pictographs like those found on the walls in each of the passages leading here. The carvings depicted some sort of massive worm in a barren landscape. Laying around the worm and under its astounding girth were the scattered corpses of armored, weapon-bearing men and women. The human figures lay broken, limbs twisted into grotesque positions. In the flickering lights of four torches flanking the doors, the images seemed to crawl and move across the rough sandstone into which they were carved. 

Jason ran his fingers over the carvings and let a grim grin split his face. Glancing at Alphard, he rapped the doors lightly with his hammer, “They’re gonna hafta change the decorations here after we’re through with this place. I wonder if we can find someone with a high enough Masonry Skill to put our pictures up here with chopped up worm in the background.” No one laughed. Even Jason knew it was a weak joke, but he had to try to alleviate the dark mood in the room. The Tower of Lingering Regrets had been getting to them all. Surveying the somber looks of his teammates, Jason sighed and checked his inventory, making sure that his two health crystals and his multitudinal health potions were still prepped and ready within easy access. Then, without looking back to his team, he set the top of his hammer against the massive sandstone doors and [i]pushed[/i]. 

The doors led to what must have been the roof of the Tower. The area was vast and open to the sky, allowing the dark desert sun to beat down on what appeared to be a coliseum. In the center of the coliseum lay a stretch of sand nearly one hundred meters in diameter. Spaced evenly about the sand were tall stone pillars dangling blackened and rusted chains. Ringing the sand was five or six tiers of rough-cut stone seating. Alphard charged out onto the sand shield first, blade raised high. Jason bounded out behind her, using his superior speed and agility to spring up one of the pillars. He clung to the chains hanging from the pillar and drew his hammer. The two warriors glanced around, searching for the Boss and found… nothing. Jason slowly made his way down the chains, landing softly beside his Lady and she lowered her guard for just a moment. In just that moment, a ripple ran through the sand and three meters of Boss rose up in a geyser of silicon, throwing Jason and Alphard into the air. The monster was indeed the sand worm from the hieroglyphs on the doors. The worm was colored a sandy dun and what was visible aboveground seemed to be approximately one fifth of the overall beast. Alphard had time only to wonder how the worm had stayed concealed before she crashed hard to earth. The worm towered above her, preparing to devour her whole and Alphard thought, [i]is this the end?[/i]. She prayed that her teammates would reach her before it was too late.