Accompanied only by the sound of their own footsteps they continued on. The trees got more sparse as they got closer to the foot of the mountain and they were able to see the sun already hanging low in the sky and setting further towards the west.

Having no issue with seeing in the dark, thanks to his Tiefling nature, Sharai easily led the way with Eve remaining close enough to feel his body heat. It had become colder and she wondered if it would rain during the night.

While they both were dressed warm enough, Sharai always had a higher body temperature than she. Something which she often made use of by huddling close to him during cold nights. The man never seemed to mind though and would just wrap her up in his arms.

It took perhaps half an hour of walking until they reached the foot of the mountain. They already had been walking upwards and the ground had become rockier with small boulders they had to go around, but there still were large patches of grass. Now there was a wall of stone in front of them, seemingly jutting out of the ground as if it were planted there.

The two of them gazed up the rock, then glanced at each other. According to the map the dungeon was supposed to be near. Scanning across the rock face of the mountain, they could find no signs of an entrance being near. It was likely for there to be a cave mouth or such, but if it was, it remained hidden.

"Shouldn't there be an opening around here?" Sharai said. He reached out to trace his long, but strong fingers over the rock. The Ranger whipped out their map in order to check their map again.

"The dungeon was discovered recently," she said as her eyes roved over the map. "Logically it must have a hidden entrance or it would've been found decades ago."

"You're certainly the brains of us," Sharai said with a teasing grin. "So what do you suggest?" 

"You're asking that to the person who has a hard time making decisions without using a coin toss?" The Ranger said complaining. She gazed up at the rocky surface of the mountain, then shrugged noncommittally. 

"I'm not climbing up there. And we can't see anything here, so we'll either go left or right around it and hope to find something. But we're not splitting up. Don't even think about it."

She reached in a pocket of her coat and retrieved a small, golden coin. "Heads for left, tails for right."

"Lazy as always, Miss!" 

Sharai placed his large hand on her shoulder and gave a gentle shake. Eve sometimes wondered if he was touch-deprived as a child. That could explain why he always was so tactile with her. 

She didn't mind it much since she came from a very warm home herself. Hugs and casual touches had been the norm with both her parents and siblings. Her oldest brother had always pretended to be disgusted with it, which always made it fun to tease him with kisses on the cheek.

Perhaps when they were done here, she could persuade her friend to go visit her parents. He'd never met them before, but she had told him a lot about her childhood. And in her letters home, she'd mentioned him enough times that her father once called him her lover.

She'd swiftly put that thought to rest in her following letter and had not mentioned it to Sharai at all.

"Go ahead, give it a toss," he said.

With a practiced move, the coin arched through the air and spun a few times around its axis. She snatched it out of the air again to slap it onto the back of her hand. When she revealed the result it showed heads.

They headed south while keeping an eye open for anything that could hint towards there being an opening. Rotten branches crunched underneath their boots and Eve was glad for her 'walking cane' branch, which she could use to poke unsteady looking ground.

Sharai suddenly halted as he noticed something in the long grass below a tree. He crouched down in order to have a closer look but seemed disappointed at his find.

"What is it, Sharai?" Eve asked.

Sharai picked it up to show off to her. It was a bolt, completely corroded by time and moisture and large enough to span his entire hand. Eve now stood behind him and leaned over his shoulder to inspect the bolt.

"Could it be part of a large door?"

Sharai threw the bolt aside with a muttered: "Useless," to which she poked his shoulder admonishing.

"Not useless," she pointed out. Her mind already whirling with possible scenarios.

"It could have been part of a door," she pointed out. "And now I'm thinking about it, if there is a door to this dungeon, could it be that it's not in the mountain wall, but rather the ground? Like a trapdoor of sorts?"

This appeared to be something the other hadn't even considered. He glanced into the direction where he so carelessly had thrown the bolt. "Oh yeah, I was thinking the same," he fibbed. 

"Let's check the ground too, just to make sure," Eve suggested with a sigh. "I just wish things would go easy for a change."

The area around them teemed with plantlife. It had grown all over the place, covering the ground, sparse trees, and the rocky patches there were to be found among the shrubs. It seemed to compete with each other trying to grow the highest.

Large sections of the mountain were covered with vines in various browns and greens, making the rock near impossible to be seen. They had to push aside the greenery and fight their way through it in order to really see what was there.

After poking around for a while with her branch, Eve noticed a section over the rock wall where the vines were dark shades of brown, almost shriveled black. The grass in front of it had also turned an ugly shade of brown. It was as if any life in this small section was slowly dying.

The grass cracked dryly under her feet as she neared it. She crouched down and swept with her free hand over the dark grass. It was coarse and dry to the touch.

"Grass usually turns brown when the soil doesn't contain enough food or water," she said loud enough for her companion to hear. "Then again, there are also dozens of diseases and fungi that can cause this. Or cinch bugs and grubs." She glanced back at Sharai, hand still hovering over the dry, brown grass.

"What would you put your coins on?" she asked with a small smile.

"You know I don't do coins, Miss. However, this smells like undead business to me." 

Sharai came to stand beside where she was couched and reached out to the vines. The sound of the dry little leaves brushing against each other brought shivers down their shines. It sounded almost like whispering.

While removing some dead vines his hand reached deeper until his arm was up to his shoulder hidden among the vines. With a broad grin to Eve, who now rose to her feet again, he moved aside the vines and the two peered into the opening he'd created.

The first thing they noticed was an old-looking iron gate in the rock wall, rusted red and broken inwards. Behind the gate, an uneven stairway seemed to head down. Sharai would have to stoop slightly in order not to scrap with his horns against the arched roof.

"Well, I guess we found our way in!"

He nudged Eve to follow him as he went past the rusted gate. 

"It might be too dark inside for you though, Eve," he said after peering down into the tunnel. He took out a torch, lit it and passed it onto Eve. "Let me go first and be your shield. We don't know what we might encounter inside."

The Ranger let out a snort at the 'let me be your shield'-line, but accepted the torch with her free hand since she still had a firm hold on her branch.

On top of having to hunch down, Sharai also had to walk slightly sideways so he wouldn't get stuck with his axe.

After only thirty steps, the tunnel leveled out. It felt more like a hallway here with painstakingly carved straight walls and an arched ceiling that had wooden supports to prevent any kind of caving in. Sharai was finally able to walk up straight here.

The hallway went straight for about fifty steps where it split off into two different directions. Sharai tilted his head to the side when they heard a faint rattling noise, trying to ascertain where it came from, then motioned to the left so Eve would know.

Eve was still holding the stick she found earlier on the forest floor in one hand and now the torch in her other. She wondered if it would be smart to abandon the branch in favor of her pistol, but decided not too.

She was fast. If needed, she could very swiftly drop the branch to draw her pistol. She stayed behind to give Sharai more space as he took his axe from his back and leaned forward to peek around the corner for the source of the rattling.

Compared to the hallway they were standing in, this one looked more worn down. It had large cracks in the walls and the ground was uneven with pieces of rock crumbled on the ground.

The hallway continued on for a bit with until it curved to the right. A warm light emanated from beyond the curve and that also seemed to be where the source of the rattling noise came from.

Sharai peered at the spot, watching the shadows move on the ground of two perhaps three figures. They looked distorted and when they stepped around the bend, and he could see them clearly, he realized why.

With jerky movements, two skeletons came into the hallway and then turned around to face where they had come from. There they remained but kept showing weird twitchy movements, some of which created the rattling sounds. Both held swords, old and chipped, but still dangerous looking nonetheless.

"Walking bones," Sharai whispered just loud enough for Eve to hear. "You think they still got brains to shoot? Or is it better to just pulverize them?"

"Who knows," the Ranger whispered back and petted the muscled arm of her Barbarian friend. "I think this calls for your branch of violence."