Lwaxy
Cute but dangerous
At this part of the story (between the last part and this the food came and we had quite some wine with it) none of us was quite sober anymore. It didn't really matter though, as the not-so-heroes got what they wanted. Kinda.
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Out of the room through the north east exit, then following the corridor around a right corner, they were soon facing yet another door. This one was closed, and Zaza and Teltz took a while to make sure there were no traps, much to the dismay of the others. "It is just a door," Cajun kept complaining about the hold up.
Finally, Teltz allowed them through, which caused Bjön to rush past them, following the amulet's increasing glow. The bard shrugged. "Paladins," he sighed, so that only the others could hear.
The vaulted ceiling of this vast chamber showed significant signs of damage, with numerous cracks along its surface. In the center of the room, a 10-foot-wide bridge crossed a deep chasm. On the other side, a pair of stone statues watched over the end of the bridge in front of a set of grand brass double doors. The statues depicted villagers holding shields and spears.
"I still say it is a waste of work power and money to build so much – underground, at that – for a few dead people. The murals and all could have been placed in a museum," Cajun stated.
Zaza was already sneaking around in the room, doing what she could do best – scout out how to do or avoid mischief. At the bridge, she cursed. "Another of those pressure plates here," she said. "Probably going to drop us into the pits when we step on it."
"Can we get around?" Samin carefully followed but made sure to stay a god bit behind her.
"Very carefully, around the edges, maybe, at least your dad, Mook and me. I doubt the paladin could make it." She gave an apologetic smile to Bjön in his armor. "Armor can be so much of a hindrance unless in battle."
"What about me?" Cajun asked, but immediately knew the answer. He wasn't that agile, he used to fall off almost any tree over any creek when they were out in the woods in summer.
Zaza didn't even answer. "We'd need to tie a rope around each one crossing, and then it is not sure we won't fall and accidentally activate it."
"Why not activate it to begin with – throw something on again?" Samin wondered. "That way, we'll at least know where exactly to step when the floor falls away."
"Not that bad an idea," the paladin nodded. "Maybe the first one over can tie a rope to one of those statues. One of you arcane types have any spell to fly or levitate over?"
Samin shook his head in regret. "I used my fly spell earlier, and my hawk would need to be close for me to be able to do it, anyway."
"What could we throw on, though? There is not enough rubble here," Bjön mused, checking the room. "We certainly can't spare any more gear."
"Can't we jam it? Maybe I can dissolve the whole plate and the mechanism with my acids. No mechanism, no opened pit of doom." Cajun went through all his vials he kept carrying around most of the time to check their details.
"It's a stone plate so I don't think acid would do us any good." Zaza looked across the bridge and back at the trap. "It might not even cause the bridge to open up. Maybe it does something totally different."
"Which would still not be something enjoyable, I'm sure." Samin's father was now standing next to Zaza to have a look.
"Maybe I could throw you over," Cajun suggested to Zaza. "I've thrown you farther before."
"Yes, on soft ground. I don't want to break anything hitting a stone floor. Not so worried about me now, huh?"
Cajun blushed, despite knowing his sister was half joking. "Well, I'm out of ideas then."
"Dadawin could j-jump over," Mook offered. "I just don't th-think he c-could tie a r-rope anywhere. And he won't make it with me riding him"
From somewhere ahead of them, soft crying could be heard. They looked at each other, racking their brains for a solution to this problem. It seemed simple enough, and yet they felt stuck.
Suddenly Samin spoke up. "If your wolf jumps over with a rope tied to the harness, then he can pull the rope from the other site and we'll hold it from here, so you and Mook can move over, you are good enough with that stuff. Then you help the wolf and then Bjön and Cajun walk over, they are heaviest and need support from both ends. After them, I'll follow Then we send Dadawin back with the rope and dad can come over and then..."
Teltz' face brightened. "Son, that's genius, that can work."
And it did. Exept from a bit of chaos about went when and Cajun having serious troubles not stepping onto the plate, they all got across fine. While Zaza gathered the rope and Mook cuddled the wolf, Teltz pointed to the ground. "There are bones here."
Cajun blinked. "Yeah, well, it is a crypt, after all."
"No, I mean, bones here. On the ground. They look like they have been smashed, and much like the bloody skeletons we saw earlier."
"Not good." Bjön quickly came closer and sprinkled the remains with holy water, just to be sure.
"Good thinking, but who placed them here?" Something must have attacked them and it sure wasn't the people from Kassen,they never made it here. And it can't have been too long ago. How long, do you reckon, do they need t, well, reform?" Teltz asked Bjön.
"I am not sure. About an hour, I think, maybe double that."
"Right. I sure don't wanna be caught by whatever took them apart. Let's be very careful!"
The brass doors leading to what they hoped would be the final room must have recently been opened. Dust and a dead rat had been pushed aside by them, and there was a barely recognizable footprint of a rather large boot. "I'm going in," the paladin said, breathing heavily while grasping his amulet.
"You haven't done this alone before, am I right?" The bard knew he was, but he needed the young man – not much older than his own son, he reckoned – to feel confident. When the dwarf shook his head, Taltz motioned to everyone. "And you won't go alone now. You'll go in first, we'll be right behind you."
"We don't even know if we found the heart of the matter yet," Cajun mumbled. But by the glow of the paladin's amulet, they all knew they were very close.
Bjön pulled the handle. The wide brass doors swung open on silent hinges to reveal a vast crypt. The only light emanated from a torch mounted above the crypt, flickering with a pale golden fire. Tall pillars
marched across the chamber, ending at a dais on the far side, on which was set a large stone sarcophagus. A single form rested beside the coffin, that of a comely woman in tattered clothing. She appeared to be asleep or unconscious.
"The Everflame," Zaza concluded. "Finally."
Kassen's tomb was open and the lid was lying close to it. A dry, mirthless laugh was heard from the dark recesses of the tomb.
"Ah, here w-we g-go," Mook growled in a foul mood, still wet, if not dripping anymore. "J-just l-like the o-old stories. The v-villain a-always makes a b-b-big show and fills old r-rooms with evil l-laughter." She seemed to have lost all fear or respect of whatever undead was lurking within here.
"Yeah," Cajun added, doing a good job to mask his fear. But his hand gripped his hammer tighter. "Let's see if whoever it is now goes on about perfect plans of world domination."
“So, Kassen’s heroes have come to fight me again. You will make fine minions in my army of the dead. Come and meet your fate.” With that, a wicked-looking skeleton strode into view, wearing polished mail and brandishing a cruel sword in both hands. A cold blue flame burned in its empty eye sockets. It really looked like something out of the winter evening stories. Just a lot more fearsome. The thing was wearing some sort of fancy hat and bracers, and tattered robed were floating around it.
"Not fit for a fancy dress contest," Zaza said with only a slightly shaking voice.
"I think it is your fate that will be sealed." The voice of the young paladin was steady and confident. "You couldn't even touch me, you are just a skeleton."
"Who are you, anyway? Or rather, who were you?" Samin racked his brain for an answer to the undead infestation.
"I think I know," his father spoke up. "That's the foe Kassen defeated, what was his name again?" Teltz had not forgotten, but an angry foe was a less dangerous foe, undead or not.
"The robber with his gang of cutthroats, right," Samin remembered and quickly getting what his dad was trying to do.
"I am Asar Vergas, rightful owner of the riches Ekat Kassen stole from me. I am no robber!" The large skeleton came towards them, and now schemes were moving in the shadows of the crypt, trying to circle the party. "And this time, Kassen's heroes will fall!"
"Kassen's heroes?" Zaza took an involuntary step closer to Bjön. "We are nobody's heroes. Kassen is dead. We are just here to get the light of the Everflame – you know, tradition and all that."
Behind her, Cajun started to laugh, only chuckling at first and then bursting out into full laughter. "Asar?" he asked between gasps. "That's really your name?" He didn't know all that much of his unknown father's language, but he knew as much. "Asar," he explained, "means ass in Orcish, and I don't mean no donkey."
"4 skeletons," Samin declared, having paid more attention to the closing in minions of this wannabe evil ruler. "Could be worse."
Bjön was slightly confused, as it appeared, by this exchange of words. It was clear that he was expecting some sort of heroic showdown. Things weren't developing the way he had planned at all. So his mind focused on the minor skeletons advancing. "Could you do that slippery spell again?" he asked Teltz.
"Yeah," the bard nodded. "You may wanna pick them off one by one." He bumped his elbow into the ribs of the still chuckling alchemist. "Help him!" With a few words, the spell was cast and the skeletons were falling down faster than the zombies did.
"You dare make fun of me?" Vergas' skeleton form stopped dead, and the blue light in his eye sockets flickered. "Me, who was the real force behind the fortune Kassen made? I will obliterate your town with..."
"Yeah, yeah," Mook interrupted in a loud voice. "Look, man, you are a d-d-darned sk-skeleton now. All undead b-bones, no m-meat. So -you want s-some sort of r-revenge, but w-what for and w-who from? K-k-kassen is d-dead and u-unlike you he didn't th-think t-to just show up again in a stinky f-form." She frowned. "Wh-what woke you, a-anyway? A-and where have you b-b-been b-between your, well, d-different ff-orms of existence? Wh-what's the m-meaning of life and d-death? Is th-there really a p-point to any o-of this?"
"Kassen, he is a coward! He was woken by the theft as well, but he stays hidden, of course. He..."
"Theft?" Zaza interrupted.
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton being hacked apart.
"The plunderers your town sent..."
"Plunderers?" Samin fell in. "To this crypt? Why would we plunder or own hero's crypt? Only a brainless skeleton could get that idea."
Vergas stopped and let his menacingly glinting sword drop low. "I assumed..."
"You assumed," Cajun said from the shadows with a chuckle. "Never assume, makes an asar out of you and me, you know?"
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton being reduced to pieces.
"The crypt was robbed, certainly not by us. Sorry it woke you but we can fix that. Can't you just go back to wherever you were before?" Samin was curious. "And yeah, where was that again? Were you in your god's realm or...?"
"ENOUGH!" The sword came up again and the skeleton jumped towards Samin. "I'll get my victory this time."
Samin ducked out of the way, partly horrified and partly annoyed. "Victory? We aren't even battling you, what kind of victory is that? No brain or not, you must see that you are talking nonsense." Frantically, Samin attempted to stay right in the back on the skeleton.
"And you get the wrong people, too," Teltz stepped into the skeleton's view to make it leave his son alone. "We didn't rob the crypt and aren't any heroes of anyone, so you are behaving irrationally. Well, should be expected, coming back from the dead to be like this must be mind addling." Carefully staying out of the sword's reach, Teltz danced backwards towards the Everflame, Asar following him.
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton getting disjointed.
"A-and if you g-get what y-you want, then wh-what?" Mook asked, now holding her spear in hand just in case. Not that there was anything to stab it into. "I m-mean you are no longer l-living, s-so what g-good does any money or p-power do you?"
"Yeah, no wine, no women, no food... maybe song, although I am not sure how you could enjoy music without ears – hey, how do you see and hear anyway?" Teltz had no trouble staying out of the reach of Kassen's enemy.
"So some of the robbers," Zaza tried to bring the topic back to what interested her, "were quite zombified and awfully stinky last we got rid of them. You didn't get them all, right? Any idea where they did come from or planned to go? So we could try get the stuff they stole back – or them at least?"
From his point, Teltz could see that Kassen's body was still in his sarcophagus. "At least this one's quite dead, still."
"I don't think the hero of our town would do us any harm." Somehow, the halfling's voice sounded a tad sarcastic.
"He is no hero, he is a thief." Asar stopped going after the bard and turned in a circle, holding his sword out so no one could come near. "He stole my part of the loot we got when we were traveling together."
"Loot, as in, plundering crypts and dungeons? Stealing a dragon's heard earned hoard?" Samin offered, slightly out of breath.
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton doing what the skeletons before it already did.
"What? No, that was not what we... yeah, sometimes," Asar admitted. "Only from tainted locations, though."
"Tainted locations like this one now? You are aware what you are doing now isn't good in anyone's book, or even neutral. Undeads are an abomination to nature." That was Bjön, being dead serious. "You emanate an aura so evil my amulet picked it up a few miles from here." He pointed the the unconscious girl. "And you kill and abduct people."
"See, if you want to make it known Kassen wasn't all that much of a hero, give us the details and we'll tell the story." The bard peered into Kassen's sarcophagus again, eying the longsword the corpse held. "But you are much better off dead than undead."
"Not that much of a hero? Hah, he was last in and first out in every encounter, and..."
A blueish ghost with a short beard and long flowing robes appeared. "I assure you I was not! Asar is just a jealous man feeling under-appreciated because he didn't even use his brain much when he still had one."
"Kassen, I assume?" Teltz sighed.
"The very same," the ghost bowed while the skeleton's eyes flared up and sent tiny sparks of light flying.
"Erm, why don't we let you two talk it out, take the girl and the flame and go?" Cajun suggested hopefully.
"Hah, Kassen doesn't fight alone, he always needs someone else to get the hot potatoes out of the oven for him..."
The amulet around the paladin's neck flickered. Irritated, Bjön stared at it and then back at the spirit – technically rather a manifestation than an undead, or so he had been taught – and the skeleton. "What is happening here?"
Teltz took a few quick steps towards the girl and checked her over. From his pouch, he produced a few herbs and put one leaf under her tongue and another under her nose. Her breathing became more stable and her pulse was better, but she didn't quite wake up yet. He would have to carry her. He was about to call out for help from Samin when he found his son wasn't in view anymore. Neither was Zaza.
With the minor skeletons gone and Kassen appearing, Samin had seen it fit to follow an urge he had had since entering these final rooms. Followed by Zaza, who had learned to trust the weird instincts – for a magi type – of her friend, they moved over to one of the adjacent rooms into what looked like the crypt of Asar's former men. The central sarcophagus had been disturbed, its lid lay broken on the ground in front of it. The corpse of a masked man was beside it.
Samin was quickly going over to the body, trying to ignore the stench. "Looks and smells awful," he commented. Picking up a map that had fallen out of the tattered grey robes, he motioned for Zaza to help him.
"Ew, I hope it's worth it. More than the tiny magic crystals and bits of gold you usually find." Zaza tried to not look at the iron mask or anything else as she nimbly went into the pockets and the ripped open backpack of the dead guy. "A wand, a horn, spellbook... oh and money. New gold coins! Don't tell the paladin," she smirked.
"We can count that later. Anything else?"
"Nah, but that's quite something. Let's get out of the smell and see if the others are done with the two... whatever they are."
"You know, while we are at it, remember this?" Samin held up the key they had retrieved from the water earlier. "We haven't found out what to do with it yet."
"Maybe ask the girl? She must know because if they have not placed it, it would long be gone, no?" Zaza went ahead and peeked back into the main room, where Samin's father was dragging the sister of the madman upstairs towards the brass doors.
The dwarf was standing between the two awoken beings, and it looked like he was trying to negotiate some sort of agreement. Cajun was sneaking up to the Everflame and light it.
All of a sudden, the skeleton frame of Kassen's adversary, murderer of the townsfolk, collapsed among his attire, sword and strange hat toppling to the floor. Bjön jumped backwards and bumped into the half-orc who was returning with the lit lantern of the Everflame.
Kassen's spirit let out a benevolent laugh. "Thank you for your help in this matter. I am sorry people had to die. For your future undertakings, I have some things for you to assist."
Future undertakings? Zaza's ears perked up. Bjön, she noticed, looked somewhat disappointed and almost cross-eyed. She could not see why; if with the help of Kassen or without, he had been able to rid the world of an undead abomination.
"What things?" Cajun asked, eager to get his hands on anything helping him in smithcraft or with his alchemy studies.
Kassen reached around himself – well, his body, anyway, - and somehow, despite being incorporal, managed to produce a set of things before fading from view with a bright smile. "The scales of my armor will help you in your greatest need," he whispered as he disappeared.
"Oh r-really?" Mook's voice sounded somewhat bitter. "What else is there?"
"A bashing shield, an elemental Gem..." Samin, taking stock of it all, let the latter, together with the loot from the guy in the next room, vanish into the last things they had gotten. "... and a bag of holding." Mook had quickly grabbed the shield, she had planned on getting one of these for a while, very helpful when fighting with a spear.
"Where'd you get that from?" Teltz, just getting back from making the still unconscious girl comfortable at the exit, stared at the pilfered goods.
"Next room, weird guy with an iron mask killed by the undead," Zaza explained. "Your son's got a knack, as usual, for finding the valuables."
"As if you d-didn't." Mook grinned, counting the scales. "One m-more than we are." Without asking if the other might have been meant for the girl at the door she tied it around Dadawin's neck. "He's part o-of us too," she said.
They all took a scale and then turned to leave. The reality of it all had not quite dawned on them, it appeared to Teltz, as Samin and Zaza involved Mook and Cajun in a plan to try out the key they found earlier at the door they had left unchecked upstairs.
When they reached the door, the girl, Dimira, was finally waking up, eyes wide in fear and all confused. "It's all Cajun tried to assure her. "The ass is gone, and your brother is waiting for you upstairs."
The reaction of the girl was one of disbelief and joy – what was to be expected. What was not expected was that she would jump up and run out across the bridge over the pit. ""Wait there is a..." Zaza started. With a click, the mechanism engaged. "...pressure plate," the halfling replied, expecting something bad to happen to the just rescued girl.
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Out of the room through the north east exit, then following the corridor around a right corner, they were soon facing yet another door. This one was closed, and Zaza and Teltz took a while to make sure there were no traps, much to the dismay of the others. "It is just a door," Cajun kept complaining about the hold up.
Finally, Teltz allowed them through, which caused Bjön to rush past them, following the amulet's increasing glow. The bard shrugged. "Paladins," he sighed, so that only the others could hear.
The vaulted ceiling of this vast chamber showed significant signs of damage, with numerous cracks along its surface. In the center of the room, a 10-foot-wide bridge crossed a deep chasm. On the other side, a pair of stone statues watched over the end of the bridge in front of a set of grand brass double doors. The statues depicted villagers holding shields and spears.
"I still say it is a waste of work power and money to build so much – underground, at that – for a few dead people. The murals and all could have been placed in a museum," Cajun stated.
Zaza was already sneaking around in the room, doing what she could do best – scout out how to do or avoid mischief. At the bridge, she cursed. "Another of those pressure plates here," she said. "Probably going to drop us into the pits when we step on it."
"Can we get around?" Samin carefully followed but made sure to stay a god bit behind her.
"Very carefully, around the edges, maybe, at least your dad, Mook and me. I doubt the paladin could make it." She gave an apologetic smile to Bjön in his armor. "Armor can be so much of a hindrance unless in battle."
"What about me?" Cajun asked, but immediately knew the answer. He wasn't that agile, he used to fall off almost any tree over any creek when they were out in the woods in summer.
Zaza didn't even answer. "We'd need to tie a rope around each one crossing, and then it is not sure we won't fall and accidentally activate it."
"Why not activate it to begin with – throw something on again?" Samin wondered. "That way, we'll at least know where exactly to step when the floor falls away."
"Not that bad an idea," the paladin nodded. "Maybe the first one over can tie a rope to one of those statues. One of you arcane types have any spell to fly or levitate over?"
Samin shook his head in regret. "I used my fly spell earlier, and my hawk would need to be close for me to be able to do it, anyway."
"What could we throw on, though? There is not enough rubble here," Bjön mused, checking the room. "We certainly can't spare any more gear."
"Can't we jam it? Maybe I can dissolve the whole plate and the mechanism with my acids. No mechanism, no opened pit of doom." Cajun went through all his vials he kept carrying around most of the time to check their details.
"It's a stone plate so I don't think acid would do us any good." Zaza looked across the bridge and back at the trap. "It might not even cause the bridge to open up. Maybe it does something totally different."
"Which would still not be something enjoyable, I'm sure." Samin's father was now standing next to Zaza to have a look.
"Maybe I could throw you over," Cajun suggested to Zaza. "I've thrown you farther before."
"Yes, on soft ground. I don't want to break anything hitting a stone floor. Not so worried about me now, huh?"
Cajun blushed, despite knowing his sister was half joking. "Well, I'm out of ideas then."
"Dadawin could j-jump over," Mook offered. "I just don't th-think he c-could tie a r-rope anywhere. And he won't make it with me riding him"
From somewhere ahead of them, soft crying could be heard. They looked at each other, racking their brains for a solution to this problem. It seemed simple enough, and yet they felt stuck.
Suddenly Samin spoke up. "If your wolf jumps over with a rope tied to the harness, then he can pull the rope from the other site and we'll hold it from here, so you and Mook can move over, you are good enough with that stuff. Then you help the wolf and then Bjön and Cajun walk over, they are heaviest and need support from both ends. After them, I'll follow Then we send Dadawin back with the rope and dad can come over and then..."
Teltz' face brightened. "Son, that's genius, that can work."
And it did. Exept from a bit of chaos about went when and Cajun having serious troubles not stepping onto the plate, they all got across fine. While Zaza gathered the rope and Mook cuddled the wolf, Teltz pointed to the ground. "There are bones here."
Cajun blinked. "Yeah, well, it is a crypt, after all."
"No, I mean, bones here. On the ground. They look like they have been smashed, and much like the bloody skeletons we saw earlier."
"Not good." Bjön quickly came closer and sprinkled the remains with holy water, just to be sure.
"Good thinking, but who placed them here?" Something must have attacked them and it sure wasn't the people from Kassen,they never made it here. And it can't have been too long ago. How long, do you reckon, do they need t, well, reform?" Teltz asked Bjön.
"I am not sure. About an hour, I think, maybe double that."
"Right. I sure don't wanna be caught by whatever took them apart. Let's be very careful!"
The brass doors leading to what they hoped would be the final room must have recently been opened. Dust and a dead rat had been pushed aside by them, and there was a barely recognizable footprint of a rather large boot. "I'm going in," the paladin said, breathing heavily while grasping his amulet.
"You haven't done this alone before, am I right?" The bard knew he was, but he needed the young man – not much older than his own son, he reckoned – to feel confident. When the dwarf shook his head, Taltz motioned to everyone. "And you won't go alone now. You'll go in first, we'll be right behind you."
"We don't even know if we found the heart of the matter yet," Cajun mumbled. But by the glow of the paladin's amulet, they all knew they were very close.
Bjön pulled the handle. The wide brass doors swung open on silent hinges to reveal a vast crypt. The only light emanated from a torch mounted above the crypt, flickering with a pale golden fire. Tall pillars
marched across the chamber, ending at a dais on the far side, on which was set a large stone sarcophagus. A single form rested beside the coffin, that of a comely woman in tattered clothing. She appeared to be asleep or unconscious.
"The Everflame," Zaza concluded. "Finally."
Kassen's tomb was open and the lid was lying close to it. A dry, mirthless laugh was heard from the dark recesses of the tomb.
"Ah, here w-we g-go," Mook growled in a foul mood, still wet, if not dripping anymore. "J-just l-like the o-old stories. The v-villain a-always makes a b-b-big show and fills old r-rooms with evil l-laughter." She seemed to have lost all fear or respect of whatever undead was lurking within here.
"Yeah," Cajun added, doing a good job to mask his fear. But his hand gripped his hammer tighter. "Let's see if whoever it is now goes on about perfect plans of world domination."
“So, Kassen’s heroes have come to fight me again. You will make fine minions in my army of the dead. Come and meet your fate.” With that, a wicked-looking skeleton strode into view, wearing polished mail and brandishing a cruel sword in both hands. A cold blue flame burned in its empty eye sockets. It really looked like something out of the winter evening stories. Just a lot more fearsome. The thing was wearing some sort of fancy hat and bracers, and tattered robed were floating around it.
"Not fit for a fancy dress contest," Zaza said with only a slightly shaking voice.
"I think it is your fate that will be sealed." The voice of the young paladin was steady and confident. "You couldn't even touch me, you are just a skeleton."
"Who are you, anyway? Or rather, who were you?" Samin racked his brain for an answer to the undead infestation.
"I think I know," his father spoke up. "That's the foe Kassen defeated, what was his name again?" Teltz had not forgotten, but an angry foe was a less dangerous foe, undead or not.
"The robber with his gang of cutthroats, right," Samin remembered and quickly getting what his dad was trying to do.
"I am Asar Vergas, rightful owner of the riches Ekat Kassen stole from me. I am no robber!" The large skeleton came towards them, and now schemes were moving in the shadows of the crypt, trying to circle the party. "And this time, Kassen's heroes will fall!"
"Kassen's heroes?" Zaza took an involuntary step closer to Bjön. "We are nobody's heroes. Kassen is dead. We are just here to get the light of the Everflame – you know, tradition and all that."
Behind her, Cajun started to laugh, only chuckling at first and then bursting out into full laughter. "Asar?" he asked between gasps. "That's really your name?" He didn't know all that much of his unknown father's language, but he knew as much. "Asar," he explained, "means ass in Orcish, and I don't mean no donkey."
"4 skeletons," Samin declared, having paid more attention to the closing in minions of this wannabe evil ruler. "Could be worse."
Bjön was slightly confused, as it appeared, by this exchange of words. It was clear that he was expecting some sort of heroic showdown. Things weren't developing the way he had planned at all. So his mind focused on the minor skeletons advancing. "Could you do that slippery spell again?" he asked Teltz.
"Yeah," the bard nodded. "You may wanna pick them off one by one." He bumped his elbow into the ribs of the still chuckling alchemist. "Help him!" With a few words, the spell was cast and the skeletons were falling down faster than the zombies did.
"You dare make fun of me?" Vergas' skeleton form stopped dead, and the blue light in his eye sockets flickered. "Me, who was the real force behind the fortune Kassen made? I will obliterate your town with..."
"Yeah, yeah," Mook interrupted in a loud voice. "Look, man, you are a d-d-darned sk-skeleton now. All undead b-bones, no m-meat. So -you want s-some sort of r-revenge, but w-what for and w-who from? K-k-kassen is d-dead and u-unlike you he didn't th-think t-to just show up again in a stinky f-form." She frowned. "Wh-what woke you, a-anyway? A-and where have you b-b-been b-between your, well, d-different ff-orms of existence? Wh-what's the m-meaning of life and d-death? Is th-there really a p-point to any o-of this?"
"Kassen, he is a coward! He was woken by the theft as well, but he stays hidden, of course. He..."
"Theft?" Zaza interrupted.
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton being hacked apart.
"The plunderers your town sent..."
"Plunderers?" Samin fell in. "To this crypt? Why would we plunder or own hero's crypt? Only a brainless skeleton could get that idea."
Vergas stopped and let his menacingly glinting sword drop low. "I assumed..."
"You assumed," Cajun said from the shadows with a chuckle. "Never assume, makes an asar out of you and me, you know?"
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton being reduced to pieces.
"The crypt was robbed, certainly not by us. Sorry it woke you but we can fix that. Can't you just go back to wherever you were before?" Samin was curious. "And yeah, where was that again? Were you in your god's realm or...?"
"ENOUGH!" The sword came up again and the skeleton jumped towards Samin. "I'll get my victory this time."
Samin ducked out of the way, partly horrified and partly annoyed. "Victory? We aren't even battling you, what kind of victory is that? No brain or not, you must see that you are talking nonsense." Frantically, Samin attempted to stay right in the back on the skeleton.
"And you get the wrong people, too," Teltz stepped into the skeleton's view to make it leave his son alone. "We didn't rob the crypt and aren't any heroes of anyone, so you are behaving irrationally. Well, should be expected, coming back from the dead to be like this must be mind addling." Carefully staying out of the sword's reach, Teltz danced backwards towards the Everflame, Asar following him.
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton getting disjointed.
"A-and if you g-get what y-you want, then wh-what?" Mook asked, now holding her spear in hand just in case. Not that there was anything to stab it into. "I m-mean you are no longer l-living, s-so what g-good does any money or p-power do you?"
"Yeah, no wine, no women, no food... maybe song, although I am not sure how you could enjoy music without ears – hey, how do you see and hear anyway?" Teltz had no trouble staying out of the reach of Kassen's enemy.
"So some of the robbers," Zaza tried to bring the topic back to what interested her, "were quite zombified and awfully stinky last we got rid of them. You didn't get them all, right? Any idea where they did come from or planned to go? So we could try get the stuff they stole back – or them at least?"
From his point, Teltz could see that Kassen's body was still in his sarcophagus. "At least this one's quite dead, still."
"I don't think the hero of our town would do us any harm." Somehow, the halfling's voice sounded a tad sarcastic.
"He is no hero, he is a thief." Asar stopped going after the bard and turned in a circle, holding his sword out so no one could come near. "He stole my part of the loot we got when we were traveling together."
"Loot, as in, plundering crypts and dungeons? Stealing a dragon's heard earned hoard?" Samin offered, slightly out of breath.
CLONK! The sound of a skeleton doing what the skeletons before it already did.
"What? No, that was not what we... yeah, sometimes," Asar admitted. "Only from tainted locations, though."
"Tainted locations like this one now? You are aware what you are doing now isn't good in anyone's book, or even neutral. Undeads are an abomination to nature." That was Bjön, being dead serious. "You emanate an aura so evil my amulet picked it up a few miles from here." He pointed the the unconscious girl. "And you kill and abduct people."
"See, if you want to make it known Kassen wasn't all that much of a hero, give us the details and we'll tell the story." The bard peered into Kassen's sarcophagus again, eying the longsword the corpse held. "But you are much better off dead than undead."
"Not that much of a hero? Hah, he was last in and first out in every encounter, and..."
A blueish ghost with a short beard and long flowing robes appeared. "I assure you I was not! Asar is just a jealous man feeling under-appreciated because he didn't even use his brain much when he still had one."
"Kassen, I assume?" Teltz sighed.
"The very same," the ghost bowed while the skeleton's eyes flared up and sent tiny sparks of light flying.
"Erm, why don't we let you two talk it out, take the girl and the flame and go?" Cajun suggested hopefully.
"Hah, Kassen doesn't fight alone, he always needs someone else to get the hot potatoes out of the oven for him..."
The amulet around the paladin's neck flickered. Irritated, Bjön stared at it and then back at the spirit – technically rather a manifestation than an undead, or so he had been taught – and the skeleton. "What is happening here?"
Teltz took a few quick steps towards the girl and checked her over. From his pouch, he produced a few herbs and put one leaf under her tongue and another under her nose. Her breathing became more stable and her pulse was better, but she didn't quite wake up yet. He would have to carry her. He was about to call out for help from Samin when he found his son wasn't in view anymore. Neither was Zaza.
With the minor skeletons gone and Kassen appearing, Samin had seen it fit to follow an urge he had had since entering these final rooms. Followed by Zaza, who had learned to trust the weird instincts – for a magi type – of her friend, they moved over to one of the adjacent rooms into what looked like the crypt of Asar's former men. The central sarcophagus had been disturbed, its lid lay broken on the ground in front of it. The corpse of a masked man was beside it.
Samin was quickly going over to the body, trying to ignore the stench. "Looks and smells awful," he commented. Picking up a map that had fallen out of the tattered grey robes, he motioned for Zaza to help him.
"Ew, I hope it's worth it. More than the tiny magic crystals and bits of gold you usually find." Zaza tried to not look at the iron mask or anything else as she nimbly went into the pockets and the ripped open backpack of the dead guy. "A wand, a horn, spellbook... oh and money. New gold coins! Don't tell the paladin," she smirked.
"We can count that later. Anything else?"
"Nah, but that's quite something. Let's get out of the smell and see if the others are done with the two... whatever they are."
"You know, while we are at it, remember this?" Samin held up the key they had retrieved from the water earlier. "We haven't found out what to do with it yet."
"Maybe ask the girl? She must know because if they have not placed it, it would long be gone, no?" Zaza went ahead and peeked back into the main room, where Samin's father was dragging the sister of the madman upstairs towards the brass doors.
The dwarf was standing between the two awoken beings, and it looked like he was trying to negotiate some sort of agreement. Cajun was sneaking up to the Everflame and light it.
All of a sudden, the skeleton frame of Kassen's adversary, murderer of the townsfolk, collapsed among his attire, sword and strange hat toppling to the floor. Bjön jumped backwards and bumped into the half-orc who was returning with the lit lantern of the Everflame.
Kassen's spirit let out a benevolent laugh. "Thank you for your help in this matter. I am sorry people had to die. For your future undertakings, I have some things for you to assist."
Future undertakings? Zaza's ears perked up. Bjön, she noticed, looked somewhat disappointed and almost cross-eyed. She could not see why; if with the help of Kassen or without, he had been able to rid the world of an undead abomination.
"What things?" Cajun asked, eager to get his hands on anything helping him in smithcraft or with his alchemy studies.
Kassen reached around himself – well, his body, anyway, - and somehow, despite being incorporal, managed to produce a set of things before fading from view with a bright smile. "The scales of my armor will help you in your greatest need," he whispered as he disappeared.
"Oh r-really?" Mook's voice sounded somewhat bitter. "What else is there?"
"A bashing shield, an elemental Gem..." Samin, taking stock of it all, let the latter, together with the loot from the guy in the next room, vanish into the last things they had gotten. "... and a bag of holding." Mook had quickly grabbed the shield, she had planned on getting one of these for a while, very helpful when fighting with a spear.
"Where'd you get that from?" Teltz, just getting back from making the still unconscious girl comfortable at the exit, stared at the pilfered goods.
"Next room, weird guy with an iron mask killed by the undead," Zaza explained. "Your son's got a knack, as usual, for finding the valuables."
"As if you d-didn't." Mook grinned, counting the scales. "One m-more than we are." Without asking if the other might have been meant for the girl at the door she tied it around Dadawin's neck. "He's part o-of us too," she said.
They all took a scale and then turned to leave. The reality of it all had not quite dawned on them, it appeared to Teltz, as Samin and Zaza involved Mook and Cajun in a plan to try out the key they found earlier at the door they had left unchecked upstairs.
When they reached the door, the girl, Dimira, was finally waking up, eyes wide in fear and all confused. "It's all Cajun tried to assure her. "The ass is gone, and your brother is waiting for you upstairs."
The reaction of the girl was one of disbelief and joy – what was to be expected. What was not expected was that she would jump up and run out across the bridge over the pit. ""Wait there is a..." Zaza started. With a click, the mechanism engaged. "...pressure plate," the halfling replied, expecting something bad to happen to the just rescued girl.