Tomb of the Shadowsword

* Artwork
* Map

The Tomb of the Shadowsword is a series of catacombs that housed the eponymous warrior from Anorcor and his followers.

## Description

Located beneath a mountain with a bisected peak at the junction between the northwestern stretch of the Ironfangs and the Remnant Hills, the Tomb of the Shadowsword appears at ancient construction, easily over five hundred years old. Shaped primarily from sandstone, it serves as a contrast in many ways to the tombs in which the Dustlords were buried. While the Dustlords and their faithful were buried in high esteem, the bodies of Mordakhesh's acolytes are pilled high and stored in mass graves - and with time, merely more than sarcophagi filled with bones pierced through with twisted and rusted nails of iron - none so vicious as those through the eye sockets and the centre of their forehead. When these zealots were raised by Mordakhesh, these iron nails persisted, twisted through their undead forms.

The body of the Shadowsword himself was sealed within a sacrophagus covered in chains, his broken skeleton inflicted with the same desecration - as well as obvious signs of the wounds that slayed him.

As previously discovered in Anorcorian stone tombs, the walls were highly decorated with relief art depicting scenes of the Shadowsword's eventual fate.

## Notable Features

### Relief Artwork

Entranceway - "Cowardice"

This stone relief is completed in the same style of those seen in the tombs of the Dustlords, but its central focus appears to be shifted from the three Anorcorian individuals. The effiges used to depict the three Dustlords do linger and loom atop a distant hilltop but those in the foreground move with fear and terror, fleeing to the west as they follow a figure wielding a blackened longsword high. A great sandstorm rushes in pursuit, striking down those that struggle to match the pace of those in flight.

Left Corridor - "Enlightenment"

This relief shows a mass of people bowing in worship to a warrior wielding a blackened longsword. With sweeping gestures of fealty, they parade before the warrior, and upon rising from their bow, doing so with a third eye set within the forehead. Words spilled from their lips, some in the form of mighty rivers spreading across the lands, others as rich veins of ore beneath the earth - but each with the same purpose. Wherever the words moved, they left broken settlements of fractured glass in their wake.

Right Corridor - "Recompense"

In this relief a figure sweeps through a crowd of three-eyed individuals, an appearance he himself does not possess. With a whirlwind at his feet, a curved sword in his hand and a glimmering ring upon his finger, he wroughts a terrible vengeance on those surrounding him, placing a nail of twisted iron into each eye as the individuals writhe from the wounds inflicted by the honed edge of his weapon.

Inner Sanctum Doorway - "Folly"

This relief shows a warrior with the blackened longsword locked in a deadly duel with the khopesh-wielding Dustlord. Each weep from a thousand wounds shallow and deep alike, the floor between and around them slick with viscera. The warrior arcs his longsword, but does so too wide for the Dustlord closes the space. With a flash of his curved blade, he strikes off the warrior's hand, prompting two more figures to move to his side. One amongst them reaches out, only for a serpent to spring forth and sink its fangs deep into his neck. The third of the Dustlords moves now, a clawed hand pressed against the defeated one's chest. As the warrior pleas his final words, his ribs crumple, and from the cavity left his heart is drawn and placed in an urn that descends from upon high.  The storm of dust and sand raging overhead grows stronger as the offering is made, the Tempest sated by the folly of those that sought to rise against it.

### Shadowsword's Sarcophagus

Eight feet from east to west, this sarcophagus is more ornate than those surrounding it, but in a manner neither fanciful or revered. Lead inlays shaped as flaming chains wrap from four points at each corner, encircling the stone. While no glow emulates from them, the heat of the metal is plain to feel for any standing within five feet of the tomb.  Within are shattered skeletal remains, humanoid in their form. The bones are blackened, broken, the rib cage crumpled by a great force. In place of a more rounded skull, the head is instead tapered, with wide ovoid eye sockets and jaws graced with long fangs. The hilt of a longsword lies beneath the body, but the blade is nowhere to be found.

### The Seal

In the shadows at the far end of the Inner Sanctum, the etchings of a four-pointed star carrying arcane power had been hidden. Upon interacting with the symbol, an individual found themselves teleported into another chamber, the cool air within still and unventilated. Descending one of the two sets of stairs, any visitor found themselves standing before a huge wall decorated with the same four-pointed sigil. Set within were five Wayfinder Stones, seemingly inherently tied to the sanctity and the structure of the Seal. The entire chamber was a far stride apart from the construction and design of the rest of the tomb, suggesting it was constructed at a much later date and in terms of architecture, appeared identical to that located within the forest known as the Chittering Holt. Equally so, it appeared to be defended by individuals of the same organisation - all amongst them dressed in robes of aureate-yellow cloth.

Following the destruction of four of the Wayfinder Stones by Nakhelos the Sacrosanct using the Heart of the Prakhutu as a focus to amplify his necromantic abilities, only one remained at the centre of the wall - the stone itself fragmented and unstable. Upon removal of the final stone by Siebern Kuiper, the wall shattered entirely, revealing an empty chamber as the seal before it had - empty beyond a small mound of dust surrounding a notched and warped sword.

This disappeared with a second glance, and with it the chamber collapsed.