A deadly glint was in Markus' eye and he grinned. "Let's." 

No sound emanated from below, though it could have been drowned out by the shudders and worried whispers of the bandits behind them. Hayikk cleared his throat and strode toward the two dark corsairs. Markus, his stygian cloak swept back behind him, placed his fingers upon the strong of his blade and whispered an incantation, using the archaic word for 'fire' and 'enchant'. "Curuvin" and a white flame roared to life on his blade. It wasn't a large fire, but even so the men jumped back. Hayikk fell over onto his subordinates, though Calliope and Markus had already begun their descent into the dark. 

The stench of decay grew more palpable as the two lightly stepped into a small hewn chamber of rock, on instinct stepping over any of the rougher rocky edges at the small 'archway' if it could even be called that. The light showcased a room of rock, but to their surprise the floor was littered with corpses. Mangled bodies wearing bronze armor and ancient helms lay strewn across the small cavern floor, bones and jaws broken. Their flesh was still decaying, but upon inspecting them, Markus could tell they had spent centuries within this room, their flesh only now decaying more rapidly due to the opening of the doorway behind them. At the end of the room, door of brass and framed with an archway of shining jade lay cracked open. 

Hayikk peered into the room, eyes widened with fear. Only his greed kept him moving forward. Behind him, one of his band whispered. "What heathen spirits devoured these men?" in a raspy tone that echoed across the stone. The statement was followed by a haughty chuckle, coming from the sleazy mustached bandit. He was the last to descend, sword out and helm donned. "You fool, they must have simply starved down here-" 

He stepped onto the crack between the stairway and the room; a low rumble caused everyone to turn. His bravado gone, the greasy man decided to leave his comrades to their fate, now taking three steps back up the roughly carved stairway to the exit. Little did he know he was dooming himself from the first. Markus laid eyes on him just in time to watch the walls on the stairway slam inward, halting the man's cries in one terrible instant, leaving him crushed into dust and, leaving the rest of them trapped here. 

The torches flickered from the burst of wind with only the Captain's blade unyielding in its light. Hayikk cursed, throwing a bone at the new wall behind them. "That fool! Bloody coward!" He cursed. It took the big man to keep him from running over to kick the wall, and Markus shook his head. "We can only go forward," He remarked, somehow more thrilled at what lay ahead from the clear danger around them. It wasn't exactly a healthy mindset, but Markus had learned to live with it. Perhaps that's why he got on so well with a sorceress tyrant.

He opened the brass door fully, leading the way with Calliope close behind him. His eyes meticulous in their search for any more traps that lay before their feet. He stepped quietly, nearly half a dozen feet into the room before he saw they were in a vast domed chamber, with crumbling pillars and fallen cyclopean statues strewn in ruin from age and some violent cataclysm that had driven through here. Upon the edges of the rooms were suits of armor made of bronze and studded diamonds with helmets of horsehair. Beside them were silver scaled corseletes studded with lapis lazuli. A great hole had been wrought upon the left side of the chamber, leading into a dark cavern and upon the center of the room was a dias which bore an obsidian statue of a scorpion. 
[@Penny]