Part 2 - Snakes Nest 2e

Looking around Gage uses his flame to light the tunnel, realizing that it looks more like a hallway than anything. To his left he finds a set of stairs that go up into a mess of rubble and ice. There was a passage there at one time but now the tunnel was blocked off by some kind of cave in, the rocks being man sized at minimum with one exceptionally large one that was the size of a car. There was no guessing how long it would take to get the rubble out of the way to find a way out leaving Gage with one option. Go the other way. To the right the tunnel seems to go on for a while, stretching forward a left turn into the darkness.

Holding the flame high he brightens it, to see the walls, still stone but now carved with old depictions of a snake like monster, long and thin its head seemed to be covered by some kind of mask or helmet. "Hey Elan, what do you think of this?" Gage points to the pictures as he keeps an eye on the hallway.

"Uh, well I never took ancient cultures in college but it looks like this is what we are looking for. If this here," she points at the snake monster," is the hollow with the mask then this mask is the mask of greed. Look here." Elan points a little farther up the wall where the snake is coiled around what looks like a pile of gold plates, one plate in its mouth as if it were eating it. "The mask of greed makes you want to keep your wealth in your possession at all times so it looks like the snake is swallowing its horde."

Rock after rock Gage pulls them out of the way, stopping every few minuets to catch his breath. Eventually even Elan finishes admiring her pictures and helps him, his attention drawn to the pile in front of him. Looking back to check on her he laughs. "I thought that you were helping me." Elan stops what she was doing to look at him almost as if she were caught doing something she shouldn't have. She wasn't digging up rock for the sake of the finding a passage through, she was digging because the rest of her images were covered by the cave in.

"I was helping. I was just doing it from back here...in front of these drawings...with my camera..." Elan doesn't break eye contact with Gage as she raises her camera, snapping a photo of the wall again. "Uh huh. Well..." Gage turns back to the rubble in front of him and starts rolling the rubble out of the way in chunks, trying to at least not roll it backwards into Elan. Finally he forms a hole about three feet around and three tall,"You all ready? We can keep moving now so stay close and we might be able to keep this thing from collapsing on us."

Stepping forward Gage gets closer to the large double doors, 9' tall and over four feet wide each. The door themselves, made of some kind of metal, are oxidized to an odd green color with a rough texture covering what must have been at one point a shiny brass. The doors themselves have two large rings as handles, the first one having corroded through and fallen to the ground leaves only the second one. Grabbing the hand Gage waves Elan back,"I don't know what we are going to find so don't be standing in the middle of the doorway when it opens."

Pulling Gage hears the large door creaking at the seams but it only just shudders and sits still. The sound of water leaking out onto the floor makes him look down as a small spray of water starts to gush out from under the door. "It has water on the other side, get ready for it." Gage yanks on the door once more making it rip completely from the wall followed closely by a swarm of water that shoves the doors like a battering ram. Plowing him backward it is all he can do to catch his breath before the water submerges him and Elan both, the weight of the door shoving him down against the floor.

Conjuring a flame he looks around, the last of the water flows past them both, the level decreasing slowly until finally it settles down to nothing but puddles. Standing up Gage helps Elan up, one hand under her arm and the other on her waist, pulling her to her feet. Looking at her arm Gage recognizes immediately what's wrong. "Your arm is not broken. You dislocated your shoulder." Testing her arm tentatively he apologizes when she winces at the motion. "I can't pop it back into place, never done it before but-"

Gage is surprised with Elan's next line, it being much more of a tough guy line. "I can walk you through it. You just have to do-," Taking a breath she tries to stop her shaking so that she quits straining her shoulder," You just have to do what I say." The next few seconds pass in a blur as Gage pops her shoulder back into place with close direction and a quick hit from Gage's fist. A short yell from her makes this the first time that he, or she for that matter, has ever seen someone pop a joint back into place. It was not a pleasant event, the pop being enough to make his mouth water from the urge to get sick.

Rolling and flipping over and over its head comes into view, a golden mask with wide eyes and a massive grin on its face stares him in the face. Hello there...and who may you be? The snake slithers in a circle around the platform without losing eye contact and tilts its head.

"I am Gage. And who are you?" Gage walks forward, a flame conjured in his hand lighting the room enough for him to see the hollow. Walking forward Gage finds another disturbing fact, the mask while it has a large grinning face has a moving mouth. Under the mouth of the mask Gage can see a mouth full of layers and layers of serrated teeth like a shark mouth. The only part of the entire hollow that had any real detail was the mask, its golden face contorted into a constant grin but somehow malleable enough to move with speech.

"I am the first. I am the most important, the original beast. You are not all that you seem. I can smell you. You are-sssssss-wrath. I can smell him. I can smell me in your blood. We are all in your...blood," Gage starts to circle around it, watching the snakes head weave up and down as it lowers its body into the water.

Gage
Elan
As soon as the muk settles Gage is blind sided by a massive blow to his ribs, the tail of the snake whipping about with enough force to throw him against the far wall cratering into it a bit. Hitting with so much force Gage has the wind knocked out of him, his body going numb as the snake slowly slithers forward. "Why? sssssssssss. You have so much more power but you...choose not to use it." He could feel the tender cracking of at least one rib now broken, his back now bleeding again from the earlier wound.

"I suppose your right. I shouldn't be playing games right now. We are on a bit of a time constraint and I can't afford to lose to you. I kinda need the money and there are people that depend on me," Gage stands up, releasing his full bring as 'Greed' charges again. Flames erupt from his body, coating him in its red energy before extinguishing, leaving him blackened with glowing red eyes. His voice, now sounding like the voice of ten different men, speaks to the snake. "I am Gage and you have something that I want. I suppose you could call me greedy."

Searing pain follow the bite, his body going numb at the bite before he felt the pain spread followed by the numbness. It was a poison, spreading through his body like a plague before soon his entire body was still, his lungs barely able to move. "See little human. You are dangerous but your lack of knowledge isssssss your down fall." Leaning in the face opens up at the jaw, the fangs digging into his chest, ripping through metal armor and flesh like clay. At least what ever that thing it poisoned him with made him numb enough to not feel any of it mauling that was happening, the golden mask filling his vision.. The snake rears its head back, its mouth covered in blood and mush as a red energy trails from its mouth to his chest.

Leaving his torso this red energy continues to stream into the mouth of 'Greed' before it solidifies, hardening into a solid red mask. The entire time that this energy leaves Gages body he can feel his soul as if it were on fire. The pain was excruciating and if he was able to move at all he would have been withering on the ground so hard that he may break his own spine. Greed rears its head up, swallowing the mask whole, and makes the gulping motion of someone trying to eat something far too big for its size.