World Conquest Online

Dom made his way inside the Ancient Building with Legionary Macro accompanying him, they first stepped across the small distance over the lake and in to the entrance way, they were able to do this with a long stretch of their legs, making sure to balance themselves and not accidently fall in.

The archway above made them step in to darkness for a second before they arrived in the centre of the small building. The stone roof had crumbled in places, allowing the light to flow in to the building.

Inside amongst the rubble was a large alter in the centre, with rows of large stone Coffins that aligned the surrounding walls of the building. Some of these had been crumbled and destroyed due to the damage to the aged building, especially on the right hand side where large parts of the roof had fell in and destroyed what was underneath. Other parts were inaccessible due to large columns that would have once held the roof up laying on their side. The Coffins that had broken apart showed no contents, showing that time hadn’t been kind to this building.

The building was overgrown with yellow vines and dead leaves. There was also some grass peaking through in locations throughout. In some areas there was also a slight layer of water, showing that the building was gradually loosing it’s historic battle with the small lake that surrounded it.

Dion was stood on the left side, looking down at a stone Coffin covered in intricate engravings and unknown letters. Gan Ning was stood at the large stone alter in the centre, looking down at something, however as his back was to Dom and Macro, they couldn’t see what.

"What have you found?" Dom asked Gan Ning, who seemed to be intently looking at what was in front of him.

"I’m not sure." He replied seriously, "But I know you needed to see this!"

Dom stepped forwards to see what he was looking at, whilst Macro went and looked around the room that they were stood in. As Dom approached, he noticed that there were stone tablets in front of Gan Ning, written in the same unknown language that was on the rest of the building. There were a couple stacked on the alter.

"They look like tablet’s of some sort." Dom said to Gan Ning, "But I am not sure what the words mean."

"Well, this is just the start of it." Gan Ning replied, "Look under here!"

Gan Ning directed Dom to look below the large stone alter they were stood at, the alter was also covered in intricate engravings. On the top, was an angled shelf, where the Stone Tablets could be laid for reading. There was also what seemed to be the remains of a bowl of some kind, mostly lost to history and covered in vines and dead leaves. Underneath it was a large gap, where there were two shelves where more stone tablets were laid.

"There are many of them." Gan Ning continued, "However, this one here is the reason I shouted you."

Gan Ning grabbed one from the shelf that was underneath and placed it on the top of the alter, stacking the other tablets that were on the alter on top of each other.

Dom looked down at the stone tablet, and saw that instead of the language, there were images engraved instead. The engravings were crude and were not overly detailed, but they did show an interesting scene. The engraved images showed a group of warriors fighting against another group. One group were tall and wide, with three of these warriors crudely drawn, waving large Sabre’s at their foes. The others were short and slim, holding Spears with curved tips. The first image showed three of each warrior type facing off against each other, with Sabre’s raised or Spears pointed forwards.

"This is the only tablet that I noted with images." Gan Ning commented as Dom continued to look through it. Each image with some engraved unrecognisable text below it.

The second image showed the group clashing, with a slim warrior being headless, the head engraved slightly above the bodies with a few carved lines showing blood. Two of the larger warriors at this point also had Spears piercing them.

The third image, which was below the first two, showed the one large warriors wielding two Sabre’s against the two slim warriors who held Spears. The Sabre’s were clashing with the two Spears in this image. Whilst the bodies of the other warriors had disappeared in this particular image.

The final image showed both of the slim Spear wielders on the floor, the Sabre’s impaling them both, whilst the tall Sabre wielder had both Spears impaled in him.

"It looked like both of the groups of warriors fought to the death." Gan Ning said to Dom, "But I don’t recognise either of their weapons or figure types. I was wondering if you did?"

Dom looked at them again, trying to note any additional details, but nothing came to him.

"Game Support, Can you help?" Dom asked.

[Negative, System can only show you things that are within your remit. You do not currently have access to this information. To get access, you will need to have contact with the necessary civilisation or have the necessary research or experts within riverside or it’s contacts]

"Then can you translate any of the texts?" Dom replied with another question.

[Negative, System can only translate languages that you have access to. You do not currently have access to this language]

"I can’t help." Dom said to Gan Ning, "But I do agree it is interesting, I have never heard of someone wielding Sabre’s that large, or even being that large, let alone a unit of warriors. The Spears are also rather unique. System, can you show building stats at least?"

[Unknown Ancient Mausoleum - Damaged

Building Grade - Unknown

Building Level - Unknown

Building Perks:

(Eternal Rest- A place to store the bodies of the lost heroes from your civilisation.) (Unknown Perk - More information needed.) (Unknown Perk - More information needed.)

"A Mausoleum?" Dom commented, "Sorry Gan Ning, I can’t overly help!"

"It’s fine, and I suppose we can’t also believe everything that we see, maybe they have just been portrayed at this size to insight fear." Gan Ning replied, "What should I do with these tablets?"

"I think we should take them back to Riverside and store them until we have an expert that can decipher them. We also can flag this location in the map room for future visits." Dom answered.

"Ok, we can do that, these are heavy, so we may have to do it gradually over a few scouting trips. Let’s continue looking around." Gan Ning commented, "I think we should have a look at some of these stone coffins, if you are ok with that?"

Now, if this wasn’t a game, there is no way Dom would even think about opening a Coffin up, but this was a game and this was an ancient temple that could potentially have some game breaking loot.

"Yes, let’s get one open!" Dom replied excitedly, wondering if they would find anything good.

"Dion." Gan Ning commanded, "Can you get that Coffin you are looking at open?"

"I’d rather not." He replied, but noting Gan Ning’s face he quickly continued, "But I will, Macro have you got anything I can use?"

"I do!" Macro replied, pulling out a small foldable shovel from his sack.

Macro headed over and placed the edge of the shovel to the rear of the stone Coffin, trying to pry it up. The weight of the stone top was heavy and Macro struggled to lift it up.

"It’s going to be a tough one." Macro commented, "Dion, can you help me push this."

Dion pushed the stone slab top forwards, whilst Macro pried it up to make it easier to push with his shovel. Eventually after several muscle churning attempts, the slab moved slightly.

"Keep going!" Gan Ning cheered from the side as it move further and further. As it got slightly further on, Dion and Macro both pushed it off, causing a loud crash of stone on stone as the top fell to the floor. The Ancient Building shook a bit, but thankfully nothing else fell down.

"That was a bit heavy for someone to lift in place." Dion commented, "Please don’t ask me to do the rest of them."

Dom looked around the room and looked at the other stone Coffins that were complete and accessibly. There were a few of them and they didn’t have all day to spend opening all the different Coffins. This could be a task for another day.

"Erm." Macro said, in a shaky voice. "You’ll want to see this."

Dom, Gan Ning and Dion all gazed down in to the Coffin below. What they saw was a shocking sight. There was a skeleton of a person, who wore a rusted helmet, with a rusted chest piece and greaves, similar to what the Hoplite wore, but on a larger scale. The skeleton was large, much bigger than the average man.

Beside the skeleton was a large Sabre, also rusted, but the hilt was encrusted with jewels and even though they were covered in dust from the long time they had been inside, they still caught the light from the sun coming down through the roof. The lack of air being able to access the Coffin had preserved the skeleton and some of the key materials around the body.

The thing that caught their attention though was the skull. The skull was larger than any man that any of them had ever known, at least half a size bigger, with a square jaw that was slightly forwards in comparison to the rest of the skull. The teeth were also different, more jagged, with large canine teeth that would have come above the top lip and rested on the face of the person who owned the skull, up to at least being in line with the owners nose.

"Maybe the warriors in the images where real then." Gan Ning mumbled, looking at the giant person that was laid inside the stone Coffin.

"That is no normal man." Dion said in shock, "The bones are too thick, and those teeth are unnatural."

"It would take 3 men to bring someone like this down." Macro agreed. "And that Sabre is huge!"

Macro reached in and grabbed the jewelled hilt of the rusted Sabre, pulling it from the large stone Coffin. He had to remove it with some serious effort, before resting it against the side of the Coffin.

"There is no way a normal man could lift this!" Macro commented as he stretched his back and placed his hands on his hips, making sure he hadn’t pulled a muscle.

"I think that we may need to open some more Coffins." Dom said to the reluctant faces, "We need to clarify what else is in these or if this skeleton is a one off!"