It's been nearly a year now since Heesh'Nha started exploring the lost underground city and the kobold population has been growing steadily as more of them seem to be drawn to Heesh'Nha's underground city and taking on her image, to the point where she can just picture the city in it's prime populated by serpents it made her a little home sick to see it all. Thankfully she has a lot of puzzles to keep her distracted trying to piece together the history and trying some experiments with the strange crystals. The crystals she found seem capably of absorbing large amounts of magic but she has no idea how to draw the magic back out again so they appear to be a dead end to use as a weapon so far. She made little progress on deciphering the written language during all this time, only having translated a few words so nowhere near enough to read the many texts she's found thus far.

During the excavation she had been growing more restless, hurrying her kobolds to dig in a certain direction, a large structure she assumes could be a palace or maybe a temple, as if something was drawing her there, not so much a voice but a feeling which interrupted her sleep many a time. When the dig finally reached the palace Heesh'Nha snuck out during the night to explore the building on her own starting with the upper levels she found what seemed to be the royal quarters which were strangely untouched as all the jewelry and clothing was still there as the owners had left them long ago. It was strange as she had seen this so many times in the city, as if everyone just vanished into thin air, or at least most everyone as some houses clearly had been cleared after whatever caused the population to vanish suddenly. Perhaps a magical experiment gone wrong with those dark crystals? Heesh'Nha made a note to be more careful with her own experiments with them unless she'd make the same mistake as these people if it was indeed the crystals. Downstairs she discovered the servants quarters, a meeting room of sorts and what seemed to be the barracks with most of the weapons and armor left behind and across a courtyard she saw what might have been a temple of sorts.

Eventually Heesh"Nha found a passage that led to some lower levels of the palace, most of it seemed to be for storage, strangely the food was still perfectly preserved as if it was a fresh morning delivery. She did notice some of those crystals lining the walls emitting a feint glow. Being in this storage she strated feeling a bit strange like all her scales tingled, even causing some lightning to spark along the spine of her tail. The sensation didn't last long but she considered leaving this place for a moment untill she felt that mental tug again coming from yet another level down. Cautiously making her way down the stairs she noticed something especially strange as near the end of the corridor of what seemed to be the palace dungeon there were lights burning. Pausing for a moment to listen there did not seem to be anyone there, but she picked up an unfamiliar scent, unfamiliar and yet familiar at the same time. The only sound coming around the corner was the soft chime of some chains in the wind, throwing a quick glance around the corner showed the room empty aside from some slightyly rusty chains attached to the walls and ceiling and a tattered bedroll near a shadowy corner of the room.

Though as soon as she walked into the room Heesh'Nha wished she had taken a better look at the shadows because they soon became alive, rising up untill they towered over her, taking the shape of one of the serpent people from the statues and murals she had seen around the city with two pairs of horns cresting it's head and a pair of dragon-like wings on it's back. She didn't have much time to think or observe as suddenly the being lunged at her with a roar only stopped in it's attack by the chains binding it to the wall and proceeded to hiss at her as Heesh'Nha stood there frozen with her hand inches away from her weapon as she stared into the being's blue eyes so similar to her own. Then it suddnely dawned on her that the language this being spoke sounded strangely familiar, though she did not understand the words it sounded like an ancient version of Sissaal, the language commonly used by serpent folk. Heesh'Nha managed to take one step back before she froze again unsure of what to do or say in this moment, then remembering one of the few words she learned from texts she raised her hand away from her weapon and pointed up saying the word for "tree" in Sissaal, hoping her guess was correct in the language being similar and perhaps get the message across she was from the surface above the city. It seemed to have some effect at least as the being silently stared at her in confusion untill she repeated the word again and the being lowered it's body to "sit" on a rock and speaking the same word. Seems that this ancient prisoner was at least capable of communication so perhaps she might be able to learn about this city's history from what may as well be the last of it's kind...

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Characters belong to me  Chakat_Blackwater