We didn't make it through the adventure as expected, the battles took quite a bit longer than it seems, with the usual misses.
----------------------------
The dwarf pushed by the others, obviously impatient about Zaza's hesitations. "There are always lots of doors in dungeons and tombs," he stated with a certainty he acquired by listening to his family talking about their many adventures. He wasn't about to tell them he had only been in a dungeon once, and never in a tomb of any kind. With a gesture he thought would appear knowledgeable, he put his right index finger to his nose. The door looked simple enough; it would slide right when pulled by a small handle. He made a move to do just that.
Zaza sighed in a loud manner suggesting she thought the move foolish. "It's the middle of the crypt, as it seems, maybe it's protected and we should be more careful?"
"Nah," Samin grinned. "If there were real dangerous traps in here they wouldn't have sent us."
"But they all died before they finished dealing with the crypt, I guess," the bard countered. "Maybe there are dangerous traps in here they could not disarm, son."
At the mentioning of the two of them being related, the paladin raised his eyebrows but decided to inquire about it later. "The door looks simple enough. I can't see anything looking like a trap." Zaza behind him snorted, doubting the man's ability to find traps at all, but he didn't hear it. "There were no trapped doors in here until now, so why should this one be?" He winked at Zaza, but the girl was too tense to notice he was making fun of her. And if she had noticed, she might have exploded. Samir, who noticed both the teasing and Zaza's nervous state, decided to intervene by taking action. As foolish as it was, he had no other idea than to pull the door open. It took a bit of effort as he wasn't the strongest, but with only a minor squeak, it gave way to a seemingly vast room as dark as every other they had come through.
The squeak of the opening door echoed back from inside in a way suggesting it was a larger room, probably with higher and maybe even lower walls. An abyss, maybe? The dwarf, able to judge such sounds from growing up mostly underground, lifted a hand to stop them for a moment. Silently, he lamented his night blindness. With the other hand, he took another sunrod from the pouch at his waist, certain they would need more light now. Holding it into the opening, he could see the door led out to a wide ledge going round a hole in the ground. Something tall was to the middle of the room, barely recognizable.
"A tall wooden structure," Samir reported, being able to see way better in the dark. "It seems to have holes in it."
Bjön held the sunrod into the room as best as he could, and finally he was able to make it out as well. A single pillar in the center of the room supported this wide, domed chamber. The pillar was surrounded by a pit, but a stone bridge crosses the pit on the south side. Dozens of arrows jutted from holes in the pillar, facing every direction.
"Probably a trap," Zaza suggested. Carefully, she peered through the opening, but there was nothing moving, and the ledge around the opening in the ground at least seemed to be solid. "Maybe only one of us should step in with a rope tied around so no one falls down." There were, after all, ropes in their provided packs, and there must be some reason for those.
"As g-g-good an ideas as a-any," Mook agreed. Shew was about to tie a rope around herself, being small and light, but Bjön gently took the rope from her. "I will not allow anyone else to endanger themselves."
"Paladins," Samin's father mumbled barely audible.
Mook stared for a moment and appeared to consider whether she had just been patronized or not. Additionally, the dwarf was, while small enough, quite heavier thanks to the armor. But with all of them to hold on to the rope, especially considering Cajun's strength, it should pose no problem to reign the man back in. So she nodded and handed him the rope. It was not as if she was keen on putting herself in danger, and the wolf pressing his snout into her hand was another reason not to risk her life if someone else wanted to do it.
As Bjön went into the room, sunrod held high, the door suddenly begun to close behind him. With a shout of surprise, Cajun and Samin leaped forward to keep it open but they were too late. It locked with a rumble.
"Let's open it again," Zaza hissed, but she was interrupted by Teltz' laughter. "No, don't... I just remember something. I guess I know what this is. Remember the blunt arrows we found at the entrance?"
The youngsters thought for a moment, and Samin shook his head. Zaza and Mook nodded, though, they had seen the padded arrows around the dead bodies but had not paid them any mind. "Well, I heard talk of a rotating mechanism firing arrows when they talked about the crypt at the harvest festival. I guess we found it."
Samin nodded, putting the holes in the wooden structure into perspective in his mind. "But why leave the door closed?"
"B-because he is a s-self i-important p-paladin and has an a-armor to p-p-protect him?" Mook grinned
"Exactly." The bard's grin almost split his face in two, a scary sight in the pale light.
"You are evil, da," Samin chuckled. A moment later, they all laughed like mad, their inherent fear momentarily released as something else.
Bjön, on the other hand, didn't quite share the fun. No sooner had the doors slid shut without a way to open them from his side that the large wooden contraption in the middle started turning. Then the first arrows short out at him. With a clang, the blunted arrows reflected from his armor, not leaving any dents but still forcing him to stumble back to the wall. One hit him on the helmet and almost made him fall. And there were many arrows. Grumbling, knowing that the machinery would eventually run out of them, the dwarf turned his face to the wall and waited. It would have been easier to jump back through the door and wait it out had someone thought to do that... but maybe it was jammed?
Eventually, the torrent of arrows ended. Breathing a sigh of relief, Bjön turned around and had a better look at the room. He looked at the bridge going over the pit, likely a possibility to reload the mechanism but he had no intentions of looking any closer. His amulet indicated he had to move around to the south end of the room to find the undead he had been looking for even before he met the others. There was, to no big surprise, another door there.
After his encounter in this room, the dwarf was hesitant to walk on alone. The girl, Zaza, seemed to have some trap sense, and it was not likely the rest of the group was unable to get in here. He decided to wait. His head was itching, but taking his helmet off in this situation was probably not such a good idea. Grimacing, he hoped the others would hurry up.
A short while later, the door squeaked open again and Zaza's head peaked out of the corridor. "Is it safe yet?" she asked with a grin.
"Quite," the dwarf nodded. "I take it you had some idea what was coming?" Bjön directed his question at the bard.
"Well, yes, I remembered some talk at a festival. We thought you were fine with your armor." The look in the human's eyes was definitely not apologetic.
"Hrm, well, don't forget there are undead here, and at least one abducted girl. We better try to stick together from now on."
Zaza went pale, her skin taking a grey tone which was even visible in the pale light. She had all but forgotten about that, her scared mind pushing it to the back of her mind. "We better get going then, I guess," she mumbled.
The ajar door in the south led them to yet another large room. 4 pillars held up a dome-like ceiling, with the room shaped like a stepped pyramid with them entering from the top. A continuous carving of mourners ran along the walls here, leading to a staircase on the south side of the room. Dripping water could be heard from downstairs, and what appeared to be a distant moan. Two alcoves could be seen next to the staircase. The layout was somewhat confusing, but at least the polished walls reflected the light somewhat.
As soon as the group set foot into the room, however, the pillars seemed to be moving. It took them a moment to realize it was not the pillars, but 4 blood dripping skeletons. Zaza let out a piercing scream, she had never liked to see blood. Mook and her wolf took a step back and both snarled. Samin wondered aloud how those things could still be dripping blood when they were long dead and had no body. His mind could not wrap around this, probably out of the sheer terror of the encounter. It was like his brain froze until it could solve the one riddle.
Cajun and the paladin, however, both went forward with a battle cry. Like before, Cajun went right into it and whirled around, being surprisingly nimble in his aim to avoid the things while bludgeoning them. A bit more controlled than in his initial encounter in the entrance hall, he managed to hit at least half of the time, but to his surprise, the undead things did not seem to be particularly concerned about his hammer. Bjön had more success, his axe cutting the spine of one in half at first try – but the abomination would not stop moving. Instead, it tried to crawl towards Mook. "someone must have put them here," the bard mumbled absentmindedly, then he mumbled a few words while throwing something from his pouch. A glittering dust fell on the skeleton crawling towards them and on one of the two Cajun was fighting against. The abominations seemed to hesitate, unable to see their foes any longer. The standing one turned and grabbed, in the hopes of finding a new victim.
The amulet on the paladin's armor was suddenly glowing, directing a beam of bright multicolored light at the skeleton grabbing at him. The beam went right through the creature's arm, pulverizing it. Then Bjön turned the amulet, letting the light go over the rest of the once human body. A sickening smell of burning bones was now everywhere in the room, and the thing was gone. Before the amulet stopped glowing, Bjön, with some fast strides, stepped towards the two blinded skeletons and almost completely vaporized them as well.
"Hey," Cajun gasped, hacking an arm off his last foe. He had blood on his hammer which was running down the handle, and the thought of touching it made him sick. "What about this one?"
"Sorry, the amulet only works when I am in trouble of being harmed. I can't control the silly thing," the paladin admitted. His axe smashed the pelvis of the last skeleton, and a few hacks later, he chuckled at the bone parts while sprinkling some water from a flask on it. "Holy water," he explained. "Sometimes they come back otherwise."
Bjön seemed to worse for the wear, but Cajun was frantically cleaning his hammer my bouncing it on the ground and shaking the blood loose. He looked like he had just run a marathon in all his working gear under hot sun, and his breath was labored. Visibly shaking, he tried to smile at Zaza, who was not really paying any attention to him.
Samin finally stopped staring ahead, now that the abominations had ceased to exist. "Do we really want to go down there?" he said in a rather high pitched voice, his fear more than obvious.
"Do you hear that?" The boy's adoptive father was suddenly all determined. "That wail – what if it is from the girl we are seeking? What if she is still alive?"
Bjön stepped up ahead, and it was clear that he didn't intend to turn around. The others knew he would have come in here alone if they had not been there already. There must be more to him than a young dwarf with a powerful amulet. One by one, they followed him. "His amulet does not help us," Samin cautioned. "Easy to act the hero when you have something like that." But he, too, followed, if just to not be alone in the crypt. Their steps seemed to echo unbearably loud in this hall and down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs was a circular chamber with three passageways leading from it. In the center was small stone pedestal. The sound of dripping water could now be heard coming from the eastern passageway, while the stench of rot emanated from the west.
Zaza sniffed. "I now remember there are other tombs here but that of Kassen. Must be where the undead come from, but who made them?"
"More t-tombs?" The halfling was not sure if to hide behind her wolf or shelter him. "B-but who m-made the d-dead into m-m-monsters?"
"We'll find out." The dwarf pointed to an inscription in the floor, spiraling out from the pedestal. “To the south you might take your ease, to rest and reflect on Kassen’s deeds. To the east lies the wheel, to open the gate. To the west is the resting place of Kassen, hero of the Fangwood," he read aloud, following the letters with the sunrod.
"Does this make sense to anyone?" Cajun asked. "What wheel, and why would anyone want to rest down here?"
Bjön turned around once and then went east towards the dripping noise. A passage led him and the group now following him as if he was their leader – a typical paladin thing, if you asked Teltz – a slight slope down a corridor until it turned left and right. Here, it was flooded except a small part in the middle where their corridor entered. The water was not much at first, but one could see it getting deeper within the radius of the sunrod already. From the leaking ceiling, more water dripped slowly down. "One should make repairs eventually, lest the whole thing comes down," Cajun grumbled. "Or the whole crypt gets flooded. Imagine young people in a few decades having to dive for the everflame. If," he added after a moment, "it is even still here."
Quickly they went back to the stairs, and here the wolf took the initiative to whine and move toward the southern passage, from which no sounds came. The short passageway takes a bend before ending in a small chamber dominated on the far side by a silver fountain quietly burbling perfectly clear water. An inscription above the fountain reads “Kassen’s legacy lives on with his people. Drink and be refreshed.”
"Y-yeah r-right," Mook mumbled. "A-as if I'd d-drink anything from d-down here."
The wolf stepped to the fountain and wagged it's tail though, as if to indicate everything was fine. "We might need water later, so we better keep this place in mind," Teltz suggested, pushing his raven hair out of his face.
"Alright, but no girl here," Zaha whispered barely audible. "So we need to go where the stench is, after all."
"Figures," Samin muttered. He was not cut out for this, he was a book worm, eager to study, not to go underground like a mole. And offending smells often caused him to gag or faint, which had lead to a lot of jokes during visits to his friend's master's alchemy lab in the past. But again, being left behind was not an option, and even if his father would walk back with him, they would be only two spellcasters with no or rather doubtful magic at their disposal.
This time, the corridor opened up into a winding catacomb. The walls were skillfully carved with deep recesses where bodies might have once lain. All that remained now were cobwebs, dust, and the tattered remains of ancient clothing. The stench of rotting flesh was overpowering here, but the source was not evident.
"Are they still in... in their tombs?" Cajun asked. "Or did we fight their leftovers?" As he said that, he stepped into the doorless room. Immediately, shuffling sounds could be heard from behind the old coffins.
"Those are not skeletons," Teltz warned. "Those are..."
"Z-z-z-zo.." Mook started and hid behind Cajun and her wolf.
"Zombies," Bjön completed. "They look terribly bloated, too. Shouldn't they be more of a mummified kind, after all the time? Or fallen apart?"
"No idea," Zaza almost squeaked. "But there's 4 of them and they come closer. "What about getting back where we came from?"
"They look to be a lot fresher," Teltz analyzed. "Some grave robbers, maybe? No townsfolk clothes, that's for sure." He was pushed back into the crossroads by the others, the paladin bringing up the rear. The catacomb was a bad place to maneuver, they stood a better chance out there.
I'm not going close to those things," Cajun announced. "I'm not really a fighter."
"Can you do that sparkly thing again?" Zaza asked the bard. "Would help if they can't see a thing."
"Maybe. If we all get on the pedestal, maybe they will come all in one file and I can get them all. From what I know about zombies, they are just mindlessly following along."
"Quintessentially," Bjön nodded and jumped on the pedestal as well. The badly distorted and smelling animated corpses came closer. Mook vomited over the edge of the pedestal, looking decidedly green, as much as the others could guess in this light.
"We would make a nice group of legendary heroes," Cajun tried to joke, ignoring a shiver. "Can you imagine the story of Nan and the Liberators with them vomiting and shaking all the time?" No one answered him.
Teltz waited until the outstretched arms of the obscenely groaning monstrosities reached out for them before he did his spell again. This time, the glittering dust set on all of them, but they were not as deterred; two still tried to come up the pedestal. Everyone jumped down, Zaza almost falling in her own vomit. She caught her footing with difficulty, probably owned to her being so shaken.
Her trouble to stay upright caused a grin to spread over Teltz' face, and a moment later he was again mumbling something. Another moment later, the zombies following them started to lose their balance on a seemingly slippery floor. One by one, they tumbled down.
"Your holy water!" Samin suddenly exclaimed. "You have a lot, yes?" the voice of the mage apprentice was hopeful. "Can't you put it on your axe and make them stay dead once you hit them?"
Bjön frowned for a second, then he nodded. With a bit of difficulty, he put the remaining water from the small bottle he had opened earlier on the blade of his axe. Then he stepped carefully towards the zombies, attempting to stay just outside the slippery area the bard had conjured up. Dancing around them and avoiding their grasp, the paladin hacked them apart one by one. While it took longer than appreciated, the method worked and slim tendrils of smoke rose from the destroyed undead. To everyone's surprise, each of them exploded before falling apart. Some weird evil magic shot the rotten flesh and bones into several directions. Bjön's amulet glowed and seemed to erect a shield between him and the zombie leftovers, but Cajun, who stood protectively a good distance away in front of the others - just in case – got hit by a nasty piece of rotten flesh. Zaza went green in the face.
"Wash this off at the fountain!" Teltz commanded. Cajun was just all too happy to follow the order.
The stench at the crossroads was now almost unbearable. It was said that after a while you would get used to almost every smell, often within minutes, but this was definitely not true for rotting bodies. "I-I need some f-f-fresh air," Mook coughed.
"That will have to wait till later, I'm afraid. Not a good idea to go up there alone and I am not turning back before the girl, or what is left of her, is found." The dwarf already turned towards the catacomb they had found the zombies in.
Cajun was not the only one cleaning himself at the fountain; Samin, Mook and Zaza followed suit, though they had not been hit with any nasties. Careful not to dirty the fountain, they washed and had a little drink. "I feel all better now," Zaza exclaimed, her fear taken from her for now. Mook just nodded, giving the frightened wolf a bit of water as well. When they came back to meet Teltz, the human pointed to the catacomb. "Our invincible paladin, hero of all dwarfs is already in there," he sarcastically remarked.
"Well with that amulet, he better go ahead and clean the undead out for us," Zaza mumbled.
Mook seemed to want to say something, but it was obvious her stuttering prevented her to talk right now. Instead, she grabbed the wold by the scruff and directed him onward. Together, they followed Bjön, and the others shrugged in silence and followed her.
Bjön was going through a rotting backpack when they reentered the room. "Seems our suspicions were right; those bodies were only a few months old. There's a tattered map of the area here, marking the entrance to the crypt, some money and a healing potion. And a curious notice." The dwarf handed it to the bard.
"A notice of employment offered," Teltz said and scratched his head. "Someone employed those zombies - I mean before they turned that way - to come here and... do what?"
"That's what it looks like," Bjön nodded. "Any idea who would employ adventurers, or grave robbers, whatever you might call them, to come to the crypt of Kassen? Is there anything of real value here?"
Taltz snorted. "Unlikely, our town isn't rich, and hero worship nice and dandy but if there was anything valuable here once, it's now gone I guess."
"Maybe the emplyer didn't know," Samin suggested. "Is there a name?"
"No." Teltz put the notice away in his pouch. "We might want to send someone to the meting place mentioned to make sure it does not happen again. The mayor will not appreciate the place being robbed. Maybe even notify authorities."
"Yeah, as if anyone else cares," Samin sighed.
Zaza pointed to the open door in the south of the room. "Let's get away from this smell."
No one argued. But the sight and smell in the next room was not really better. A shallow reflecting pool divided this long chamber, running from one end to the other. The water looked cloudy and stagnant. What must have once been marvelous murals covering both walls was now scorched and ruined, the original subject lost in the destruction.
"A shame," Teltz growled. "Don't think it will be possible to repair these."
"What's with the pool?" Zaza wondered. "It's been completely ruined, too, just look – oh, no!"
From the murky pool's shallow reflection, her own but rotten corpse stared back at her, then it slowly turned and started attacking the others. Zaza blinked, and horror almost overcame her, but then she let out a deep breath and steadied herself. An evil illusion was all it was. From the corner of her eye, she saw the paladin, her half brother and Teltz react much the same way. Samin, though, staggered backwards with a gasp and panic in his eyes, and from the other side of her she could hear a scream clearly coming from Mook and a whine belonging to the wolf. As she turned to calm her friend, it was already too late. Mook took off between sobs and wails, her confused companion right on her trail. As Mook had no source of light – the paladin and the halfling holding the sunrods – they were soon out of sight. No doubt the wolf could orient himself by scent, but as a gnome, Mook was able to see quite well when there was little light but not without any at all. And all the sunrods were in Samin's pack.
Zaza was torn between following her friend and not leaving the protection of the paladin's presence. Without noticing, she had come to rely on him. Samin was sobbing to the other side. Samin's father and Cajun, the latter looking very confused, held down the three-quarter-elf to prevent him from running off as well.
"Not your fault, this pool is a trap." Teltz spoke as if he could read Zaza's mind. "Mook has Dadawin, he'll be able to guide her back to us once her panic wears off."
"How long will that take?" Zaza asked weakly.
"We'll see when he calms down," Cajun said, still restraining his friend.
"There's a portcullis here," Bjön said from the south of the room, holding the sunrod up so the other could see better. "There seems to be an unlocking mechanism on the other side. So as much as I want to get out of this room without having to go back, we have a bit of a problem here."
"Maybe... maybe I can open it," Zaza offered. She had, in the recent past, found out she had quite a knack for opening locks.
No luck with this door, though. There was, as they soon found out, no lock or keyhole. Just a lever set in the wall on the other side, barely viewable if you pressed against the wall to take a peek.
"That makes no sense," Samin suddenly said, still with a shaky voice but the terror had obviously left him. "There must be a way to get in from this side."
"Not in this room," his father shook his head. "Maybe we overlooked something outside."
"So back out after all, and then looking for Mook while at it?" Zaza suggested.
"No point in looking for her when she will have come to her senses now and is probably on her way back already. No, I was wondering if Zaza could squeeze through the bars. The lever looks workable enough." Bjön looked at her with a smile.
"I'll try," Zaza agreed. Once Mook returned, she wanted to be away from this place.