After the battle with the bullete:

At the current battle:

Standing next to Valaith Thurston feel the burning energy of the dwarven sword running through his body. 

"You face me spawn from Hel!!" he says trying to interpose between him and Val. He share a fast glance with the goliath and dart his eyes towards the undead dwarf less protected side. He wasn't only trying to protect her, after all the battles together he hopes she take the hint and takes advantage of that to surround their enemy.

Jex has an arrow notched as soon as he returns to the shadows. He aims carefully, waiting for the better moment to fire. 

When the undead dwarf staggers form the last attack of the norscan he fires his arrow that flies true, hitting the undead at the neck, almost severing the bone marrow. The dwarf turns his head towards him, but when the cold and dead eyes reach the point where Jex fired he was gone, hiding in another point, cursing in silence for not having the kill as he had expected.

Valaith was barely holding her ground against the brutal onslaught from this Dwarven guardian’s burning light! As the last attack burns through her, she finds her stomach lurching and churning. As her companions rally, she fights against the pain all around her as she raises Rook for one more attack. She slams the weapon into the dwarf with a brutal hit that causes the guardian to crack and fracture; she smiles grimly, but her eyes widen in surprise as something seems to be holding this unnatural guardian together…

She quickly casts her eyes about the room and they fall upon a brazier next to the sarcophagus burning with the same blue glow as the dwarf’s eyes. That was it! The source of its power!! “The brazier! Destroy the brazier, quick!” With trepidation she holds her ground against the guardian, hoping against hope that her friends can finish it off before it finishes her off, but she will not let this thing go after them.

The Dwarf howls a silent scream of fury at Val as Rook slams into its side and another burst of radiant light flashes brilliantly from its glowing blade. Aiden, Thurston, Valaith and Vark shield their eyes in time, but Jex and Valen are temporarily blinded by the guardian's radiant aura.

Val's words carry above the storm and Aiden conjures a thunderclap -- a pinpoint of sound, centered right on the glowing brazier. The metal sconce shatters, and jagged metal pieces of shrapnel clatter to the stone floor, followed by a puddle of blue flame that splashes out and goes out. The room is plunged into darkness except for a dim red glow from the ruby...

The codex finds no resistance. Neurons in Vark's head fire off at an impossible rate as the tidal wave of information floods his system. Tears stream from his ruby eyes and red sparks zip up and down his nervous system. As exhilarating as the experience is, there's no way he can process more than a fraction of the arcane database now. As the initial download subsides, Vark removes his hand, palm singed and smoking. He staggers to his feet and turns back to the battle with a manic smile on his face. "It worked! He was right guys! Matthew was right!" The warlock takes a step forwards and floats off the ground and his expression is still one of ecstatic bliss as he begins chanting. The incantation conjures a great black cloud above his friends and their adversary. Flashes of crimson alight within the swirling bank of darkness, just as he'd envisioned before. His words reach a crescendo as he continues drifting ten, fifteen, twenty feet up into the air. At last he shouts with cathartic glee and a deafening blast of ruby lightning crashes down out of the pitch black heavens. Thankfully for Thurston who is right next to the bolt, Rikkazarik absorbs some of the elemental lightning. But the dwarven guardian takes the full brunt of the attack, its body going rigid before bursting across the floor into a mess of calcified rubble. Still he grins, even as he descends back to the stone floor and the whirling storm above dissipates. "That was... that was incredible! I feel amazing! Val I told you it was worth it, those dragonborn don't stand a chance and-and I can help Aury and- and I think you all can use it too! I need to study it more- it- there was a lot. I saw uhm a huge snake and an iron city and ANGELS! Oh man Seid is never going to believe this!" Despite the new surge of power, Vark does still need to stop his racing stream of consciousness to catch his breath but it's clear he'll keep going if no one interjects.

As the guardian falls, the ruby pulses behind Vark and a line of red energy shoots up out of its top like a beacon. Light spills from the stone on all sides, projecting images and text in a harsh angular script onto the walls on all sides.

Atop a mountain, an armoured Dwarf wielding a blade does battle with a robed man who flies.

Where a river meets the sea, two Elves ride on a single horse to face a dragon so colossal that its wings block out the sun.

Across a field of hardened lava, Human knights charge from ships to face a shield wall of Dwarven infantry.

At the peak of a single mountain spire surrounded by a forest of dead trees, a dragon breathes lightning down an Elven woman standing besides a cauldron.

Additionally, four other symbols are prominent; a three pointed star, a five pointed star, a seven pointed star and a nine pointed star.

The cube of the codex is difficult to behold, appearing almost as a cube within a cube, within the first cube. Its dimensions warp and twist the eyes perception and its sides ripple, as though it is made up of a million smaller codices.

Thurston, enduring the lighting that still crosses over his shoulders, turns to Val and offers her hand

"You ok? You are impressive. I mean... that was impressive." he tries to correct and blushes " If not for the foul magics that fueled him he would have fallen from that last blow. I think even a dragon would have fallen for such an attack! Please... allow me to call for Thor's aid and heal you... " 

With that he channels the last remant of Thor's healing power into her, trying to close her wounds.

Jex looks on at Vark's new power and confidence with concern and suspicion once again. The expression lasts just a second though and in the darkness in imperceptible to any who were not looking for it at the moment he lands. Instead, the assassin walks over to join Thurston and Val, checking his friends are ok and able to stand. "That was something a little too risky. There were fights here that we may not have won on another day, and I doubt we have faced everything this place has to offer, we should leave quickly and quietly to avoid attracting further attention. Can you walk?"

Valaith breathes heavily in the aftermath of the battle, her skin burnt in many places from the radiant energy that burst from the guardian's sword. She smiles and nods at Thurston and Jex. "I am okay, I can walk, but I may need a few minutes to catch my breath." She glances over to Vark with skeptical eyes as more power flows into him from this alien figure, Matthew. She shares a concerned look with Jex and Thurston, but forces a small smile to her lips as she nods to Vark. "Good, we must not forget we have left them alone for far too long. I tire of doing the bidding of this Matthew. We must follow our path now. You can tell him that the Acharnost are not his errand boys."

She gestures towards the found relics in a clear attempt to steer the conversation away from that topic. "At least, perhaps we can now convince these dwarves that Sheercleft could use their help in building defenses. These would be good to use toward that goal, I feel that Brundir should lead that conversation. It should be clear to you all that they do not trust me. All they can see is my blood." She rolls her eyes and spits blood from her mouth onto the stone floor.

Aiden's storm fades with the light from the brazier and his eyes return to their normal grey-blue. 

On a whim, he opens his senses to feel the planar energy surrounding the ruby. An acrid scent wrinkles his nose...sulfur...the energy coming from the ruby carries a powerful fiendish aura. He listens to the speeches of Valaith and Jex. "At any rate, Jex is right. We should leave this place," he says. "No need to bite off more than we can chew."

As the group is taking a short rest, Valaith recalls several questionable vials the group recovered from the goblin warband and removes one from a pouch on her belt. She unstoppers the cork and sniffs the content, which smells distinctly like vanilla. Her face registers surprise as she tips the contents back and the flavor does not her expectations. As she watches her burns lessen in degree she also feels a very strong wave of dizziness hits her hand and she sways slightly as she tries to blink away the vertigo. Almost as quickly as it hits her, the feeling is gone and she shakes her head to clear it. "That was interesting."

Vark takes in the scenes on the wall with awe, trying to take note of every detail so that he can talk to Seid about it later. When he finally pulls his eyes away and looks back at his friends, there is a slight hurt in his eyes. The silence and suspicion he is met with aren’t surprising, but it stings nonetheless. “I didn’t even want to come here in the first place. I wanted to go find Aury first.” The matter of fact statement is muttered to himself as he begins walking back towards the ruby. “I don’t think we can leave yet. I connected with the codex but the Rhunki said we have to take it. Uhm... Jex? Do you want to scout out that room over there while I figure this out?”

Vark touches the surface of the codex and a pulse of energy ripples across its surface from his fingers. He can feel the tens of billions of connections contained within the ruby firing signals back and forth, as though the runestone has a mind of its own. Reaching out for the multitudinous strands with his own arcane senses, the sorcerer feels some part of himself intuitively clench down, as though pulling them all together. All over the exterior of the codex, seams open up as the enormous cube begins to divide into many smaller cubes, all folding in on each other, until it has rapidly shrunk down to a single block small enough to fit in the palm of Vark's hand.

Thurston share worried looks with Jex and Val  when the cube shrinks and fits into the half-orc hand he says in low voice, somber... 

" It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over such a little thing."

he pauses for a moment " like those little arms of that ugly flying creatures... " he turns to his two friends, moving his two hands really close to his chest as if he was trying to reach for something " seriously what they can grab or hold with such little things they had for arms? Ridiculous... "

He turns to the rest. " So! Vark is that it? You ok my friend? Good." he taps the half-orc shoulder . "Let's get out of here! I am thirsty and that jordhai spoiled my skin!" 

Jex slides off as Vark continues to work on the Ruby, slightly irritated to be ordered around as such but at the same time glad to leave and get his thoughts in order. He reappears in a short amount of time though. "There's a teleportation circle there, similar to the one beneath Sheercleft, just one or two symbols around it are different. Perhaps the heroes who defeated those fiendish siblings kept a way to connect between where they hid the stones to make building these places of protection easier. Or so that they could get back out once the sealed the places. I fear for taking this out of here and what we unleash by helping them all back out of their magical prisons. Spanglehelm and his friends went to huge efforts to make sure they would remain locked away. Perhaps we should at least keep that gem somewhere Matthew cannot just claim it from?"

Vark stares down at the codex in his hands, still processing all of this information. The relic has begun to calm down, but as Jex returns and tells of the teleportation circle the dizzying matrix begins to stir again. The codex flickers as this happens and a synchronized red light begins to flicker in Vark’s eyes as the gem routes information directly into the warlock’s brain. “The codex can be used to activate the circle. We could use it to teleport back to Sheercleft actually, I remember the symbols there... but... well actually we’d probably have to clear it out from that side first since we blocked it.” The light fades from his eyes and he turns to Jex. “This is staying with me,” he draws the ruby in closer to himself in a protective gesture. “It’s leverage. If Matthew wants it so bad then... well we’ll be able to negotiate. I think I’m going to talk to him again once we’re back and if... well if anyone else has questions too then maybe we could ask him together?” He looks at everyone now, hoping the offer of inclusion would ease some of the group’s suspicions.

"It would be as much leverage in the hands of Val or Thurston." Jex presses further. "I know you will not give it to me, my words have cut you too often though I've done nothing but look out for everyone's interests. I accept you would not trust it to me, but to them, there is no reason for you not to show some faith. Unless it is that you are no longer in control here? "

Vark rolls his eyes. “You’ve done nothing but try and tell me what to do.” he snaps. “It’s only leverage in my hands because I’m the only one who even kinda understands it. It was calling for me, the Rhunki even said so. Plus if you were listening to me, I said I think I can teach you all how to use it... I just need more time to study it. Which is why I want it back later, but... if it’ll get you to leave me alone then here,” With a frustrated thrust he extends the codex for one of the others to grab, meanwhile glaring daggers at Jex. “Take it.”

Jex visibly relaxes as Vark holds out the stone to allow another to take it. "Very wise."

He turns and walks away. "I don't think that's fair, but you feel how you feel. I won't tell you to be careful any more."

He claps his hands together three times back and forth. Holding them up empty he walks off towards the exit