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The sand was the worst part. The heat was uncomfortable, the bugs insufferable, but the sand in his boots and his pockets and all over the place was downright unbearable. "Confounding..." he muttered the beginning of a string of curses as he ran his hands along the rune-carved wall, his eyes squinting in the low light as he stared at the worn inscriptions. The sand blowing in his face every time a rogue wind penetrated the tomb's corridors was bad enough, but years of it had worn down the carvings in some places, making it difficult to read in rather crucial points.

The Temple of Kanthis in the deserts of upper Caradda were a veritable treasure trove of magical knowledge- the Summoners of Ashai had once based the operations of their infamous coven there. But lessons in history weren't what had brought Andryn Denodred to Caradda. It was rumored that the temple held the secret to the location of the Staff of Locusts, a powerful relic blessed by the entity Ashai and carried by the High Summoner in ages past. Summoning relics had been forbidden in the Third Era after the abuse of their power had began to cause rifts which allowed otherworldly beings to freely cross into the world. The rifts had long since been closed, but the practice still held potential for abuse. However, the ban on summoning had recently been lifted by the Colleges for the sake of study, and most of the knowledge of the art had been lost. An artifact like The Staff of Locusts could vastly improve the understanding of how an item could be linked to the dimensional nexus.

Andryn sighed, closing his notebook and tucking the piece of charcoal he used for writing into a pocket in his belt. He'd been squatting down on his haunches for several minutes now, and he placed his hands on his knees to push himself to a standing position with a grunt. His legs were sore, his eyes were dry, and all his writing and scribbling was starting to cramp his hand. The translation of old Upper Kingdom heiroglyphs was a very slow and frustrating process, and languages weren't Andryn's forte. With a groan, he reached to rub at his lower back, sore from being hunched over for so long, before shaking his head and turning down the corridor and to the exit, where the other members of his expedition had set up camp outside so he could go over his notes and compare his findings to previous excavations in the area. The camp bustled with the feet of many- a few had come to find treasures of silver, gold, and gemstone, and a few trinkets had been found inside, leading them to believe that more lay within.