Mission One Complete

After a moment of reflection, Abner carefully studied the hall that he and his companions had braved so many dangers to reach.

It was vast, roughly half the size of a football field. A row of pillars stood on either side, one gold and the other silver, divided by the central axis and set in opposition. Each side was distinct, in the classic style of the Solomon Empire.

Strange patterns covered the pillars, abstract on one side and realistic on the other. A closer look revealed star charts and the symbolic images they represented.

At the far end of the hall was a huge mural depicting the boundless universe, with galaxies and spiral arms...

The two dead knights stood on opposite sides of the central axis, not far from the mural. Neither looked at the other. Both had turned toward the same spot on the painting.

That eerie tableau was reason enough for suspicion. Everything else of value in the hall had long since been cleared out, even the knights' Beyonder Characteristics, yet their bodies remained...

That was why Abner had immediately suspected this was, in essence, a ritual. Even after a thousand years, it might still be unfinished. Otherwise, however badly the Loen Royal Family had behaved, it would never have left two knights loyal to it lying here unburied...

"So someone really did get here first, and they cleaned the place out..." Roselle said dejectedly after searching with his Archaeologist abilities. "Am I not the hero of this era?"

But he soon rallied and muttered, "No, there must be another secret here... I need to keep looking."

He turned to Abner, who was deep in thought, and asked expectantly, "What have you found, our dear Doctor Strange?"

Abner came back to himself. He decided to complete the sixth