A still silence dominated the underground expanse, with only the sounds of dripping water from overhead stalactites and the flow of a small stream being audible, though no-one was there to hear it. Ubiquitous darkness shrouded everything in shadow, the lumen globes already drained of mana and the torches burnt to uselessness. Chests had already been looted, and scientific apparati shattered into shards and bent metal; and from the temple entrance to the farthest wall, there was a trail of broken limbs and mutilated bodies, the rusting iron of weapons carelessly strewn about, and torn, heavy banners hanging from the ceiling, swaying to and fro as they peddled their now meaningless symbols to the mild breeze. Of course, in the oppressive shadow, he couldn't see any of this as he awoke.

"Urgh," [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/78671-artificial-spirits/char#post-2515528]he[/url] groaned, as his nostrils flared, hungrily sucking up the dank air and the life the came with it. Lying face-down on the floor, a small pain was incessant in his chest from a pebble he had been laying on, and he found his arms incredibly weary as he moved them from their place near his hip, winning the battle against rigor mortis.

He moved his hands further along, at the sides of his head, and pressed his palms against the damp cavern floor as hard as it was possible. Still weak, the effort it took to even sit on his knees was almost insufferable with its intensity, and Vaul succeeded only barely. A flash of instinct told him then that something important lay just towards his right, and he followed it, fingers alert, to feel a solid, deathly cold rod. His hand clenched with force, and he hefted the staff up by the rearward portions of its shaft, then steadied the pommel on the ground and grabbed it with his other hand to finally wrench himself away from the floor. And yet, no matter how many times he blinked, it was still dark where he was at.

And so he gestured thoughtlessly, his arm going from right to left in an aimless wave, and at that very instance glittered the underground stream as light, for the first time in forever, greeted its waters, coming from lumen globes held in sconces along the walls of the cavern. Vaul looked around, examining his new surroundings, unsure of what to make of it all, as after he swiveled his eyes horizontally, taking it all in, and looked down at his feet, there was the grinning face of a disembodied skull.

Mildly startled, he kicked it without a thought, the sudden effort jolting his muscles to spasm protectively as the calcium husk rolled away. A dull, but very noticeable pain was welling up in his left calf, as the gravitas of many dozens of armed corpses and opened, desecrated coffins extracted from their places within the walls began to sink in.

He found a smooth enough piece of rock towards the side, one that he made his way to and sat upon. He was surprised to feel something poking his hide, so he shifted a bit on his impromptu seat to get comfortable. He continued to breathe, his lungs admirably remembering how to, but his respiration lessened in vigor as his need for air decreased with time. Then he figured out the cause for the shadow hanging overhead, and pulled back his hood, and reached further back to feel the long tresses of his hair. Tiredly did he sigh.

"A Necromancer," he half-whispered, his voice not quite there, but the characteristic, moderate inflections that indicated a male were definitely noticeable. He cleared his throat, and tested his vocal cords again. "A Necromancer..."

Such was the breadth of the underground temple that wherever he looked, he could see the messy aftermath of whatever battle had occurred here. Though the air was putrid, he could find no more flesh on what had once been thralls to whoever once owned this body. It had all rotted away, and a dozen skulls grimaced silently his way as he just sat there, finding hints of pain as he experimentally flexed his limbs. He brought his hands to his eyes and rubbed away the earthly crust that had formed on them, as he began to think on the road ahead.

And when he took his hands away, he finally noticed the statue of the goddess, and other other, peculiar figures rising from the floor far away, in the center of the expanse.