Into a staircased side chamber he continued, the golems were occupied.. for now.
Up the stairs he ran, spiraling up and up. As he reaching the top landing, he slammed through the molding door and onto the upper parapets at the front of the keep.. Blinding sunlight filled his vision, a reminder of his awakening from the vault, and as it cleared.. the smashed and melted stone of the protective wall of the keep, littered with the long-rotted corpses of the fallen soldiers.
Half of the way along the wall, a siege ladder still stood against the stones. He approached it cautiously and tested the first step, it was strong enough to bear his weight. He began the climb down the eighty foot ladder and only twenty feet in, the stone wall shuddered and the sound he'd heard before of the golems blew through the doorway he had just come through.
He was only half way down before the golem reached the top of his ladder, and both of its powerful stone arms smashed the top of the wall clean off, raining broken stone down upon him and knocking the ladder away..
He fell.. He leapt from the ladder... He slammed into the ground and the world went dark.
When he awoke, his vision adjusted to the light once more. This time however, it was wooden ceiling. Turning his head to the side, he saw that he was now in a cell. He rolled to his side, encumbered by ethereal shackles that swirled about his wrists and ankles.
He rose to his feet, looking through the bars towards a dark hallway. Sighing heavily, he was at least glad to be out of the abandoned temple. But where he was, he did not know.
From the hallway, the footfalls of heavy boots could be heard, and a figure began to form. A swirl of spirits and flames encased in radiant red armor, etched with the figure of a tribal dragon with enchanted weapons at his side..
The sun was warm upon his pallid flesh as he marched..
And the shackles were not going to come off easily.
