Shemeska
Adventurer
“I have more where they came from thankfully.” Odesseron said with a displeased look on his face.
The ogre had been a lucky catch, and it had proven invaluable in the excavation process. But, no problem, he’d find something to replace it with if necessary. But in the meantime, he glanced at one his apprentices and motioned them towards the tomb entrance with a quick jerk of his chin.
“Take some of the hobgoblins and clear out of the worst of the remains.” He ordered. “I don’t want to find a treasure horde and fall sick to disease.”
“Not to worry about that.” Victor said. “I don’t particularly care for your vocation, but no one is going to come down with anything. Not on my watch.”
The Thayan didn’t immediately reply, but walked down towards the tomb entrance, ostensibly looking for any signs of secondary traps. Inva however, was already there, gingerly stepping over a pulped limb of one of the crushed undead.
“Good news or bad news first?” She asked, stepping out from Odesseron’s shadow.
“That’s disturbing on some level you know.” He commented, “…reminds me of some of Zulkir Mythrellaa’s students.”
Inva raised an eyebrow, understood the reference after a moment’s recollection, and smirked knowingly.
“The bad news is readily apparent miss…” Odesseron bluntly stated as he looked past the initially illuminated portion of the tomb entrance.
“Yeah.” Inva said. “No other traps, but there was a second section of weighted blocks, and they sealed the passage.”
“Not for very long.” The necromancer replied, turning then to his own people. “Out of the way.”
Odesseron began to chant under his breath as the others approached where he stood, aware that whatever it seemed he intended to do, the passage would be open shortly and they might be needed.
And indeed, a split second later a coruscating green ray leapt from his hand and struck the blocks sealing the passage, turning them into naught but a few inches of fine gray dust.
“And thusly our way is opened.” He said with a boastful tone, motioning forward with the hand that still crackled with dissipating energy.
The Thayan had clearly intended to impress, and to some extent he had, but not to the same level that he might have hoped. While Odesseron was a higher level caster than his newfound allies, one of them, Inva, had previously been capable of hurling the same spell and likely would again if she concentrated on regaining that capacity. Even discounting Inva’s firsthand knowledge of the spell, both Phaedra and Velkyn had seen the spell, and more powerful ones than that, in frequent use by members of their own family. Velkyn’s father certainly, and maybe a few members of his mother’s extended family, put the Thayan to shame, and as for Phaedra, there was her father, to say nothing of other relatives on that side of the family.
“Impressive.” Phaedra said, giving a polite nod to Odesseron. “Don’t blow all your best spells now though. We may need it later.”
And by later, she was very specifically thinking about Severesthifek, whatever he or it was.
“Not to worry.” The red wizard said, shrugging. “I have more, and I won’t be using anything else unless it becomes needed.”
With that, Odesseron waved his apprentices forward, allowing them to direct his remaining undead into the darkened tomb. He waited till the others had mostly gone through, and then gingerly stepped over the bloodied remains of his servants, trying to avoid the muck.
The passage descended gently, sloping down into the gloom, only grudgingly yielding and giving way to the lights carried by its intruders. The first things to take form, looming out of the darkness were the statues. Two by two, stone figures of men and monsters stood silent guard within regularly spaced niches in the walls. Flecks of paint dotted their faces, their skin, and their clothing, carved and frozen in time, originally bright and lifelike, but long since ravaged by the cold and passage of years, leaving them now dark and blank, dead and sterile.
"I really hope that some of these things aren't going to animate." Garibaldi said, looking up into the face of stolid faced warrior carved from a block of ashen granite.
"I doubt it." Velkyn replied. "There's no magic on them. At least these."
"Ugly and ominous, sure." Inva said with a shrug. "But not dangerous. Though I suppose if you're up for it, we could tip one over on you and growl as it toppled forwards."
“No, that’s alright.” The fighter replied with a sheepish smile.
“Stay chipper.” Inva said, ribbing him. “You might have something fall on top of you trying to chew your face off in the dark if we’re lucky.”
Victor shook his head at the tiefling’s dark humor and passed his globe of light over the passage, trying to illuminate further into the gloom, temporarily ignoring the statues that Velkyn had dismissed as any sort of threat.
“I think I’ll skip the ravenous tomb guardians option too.” Garibaldi said.
"I didn't think so." Inva answered with a sly grin. "But you never know. Oh and the statues here, they’re framing sealed doors if anyone happens to be curious."
Heads of course turned and Victor stepped forward with his light, redirecting it and illuminating the stretch of wall between the first two statues. Both of them were carved to resemble human guards dressed similarly to the ghostly guardians seen watching over the mounds each evening.
"See what I mean?" The tiefling said, tapping the flat of her tail's spade against the surface.
The sound wasn't entirely hollow, but it was different than metal on solid stone. The wall was clearly different, and upon closer inspection the others could readily see what the tiefling had already noticed. The wall was discolored in a door shaped patch, nothing overt in the gloom of the passage, but in the full light of torches and spells, or the vision granted by drow or fiendish blood, the outline of something was clearly there, covered in plaster and tiles to match the surrounding stone.
"I already looked." Inva said.
"When?" The cleric asked.
"Already, when the rest of you were gawking at statues and stumbling around in the dark." She replied with a smirk. "What, you think I mention anything I notice just as soon as I see it? Not unless it's immediately important, no. But we have doors now, so there you go."
The doorway itself was small, nothing the size of a sarcophagus or anything larger than two abreast. But while it wasn’t the likely entry to the main burial chamber of the mound’s primary occupant, assuming that the mounds were intended to bury single specific persons. In fact, none of them were honestly aware of the funeral practices of the ancient Untherites, and it might be that they buried their honored dead in communal charnel houses, bone pits, or cremated the bodies, all of which would allow for smaller interment chambers within the mounds.
But regardless, they would gain that sort of knowledge by a thorough exploration of this, the first mound, using the experience to mold the way they would plunder any subsequent barrows.
"What do those markings say?" Victor asked, moving his light closer to a series of bordered inscriptions impressed into the plaster.
"Don't look at me." Inva said, "It's a bunch of names, people and places, and some generic prayers on the sides. I can't read much into it."
"So who wants to open it up and see what we've got?" Marcus asked.
"Please do." Odesseron said.
Velkyn raised an eyebrow.
"Context." The Thayan replied. "You want to know whose tomb this is, and you're looking for something specific. Break the seal and see what there is."
"I can't actually argue with him there." Inva said, tapping the plaster with her tail once more, chipping a few flakes off of it. "Victor, if you'd be so kind?"
"Me?" The cleric asked, slightly confused by the request.
“Yes you.” She replied. “Magic. Subtlety. The seal is stone under the plaster. You’re a cleric, mold it out of the way.”
“True. True.” Victor said, nodding to her. “I can do more than put the undead to rest.”
He paused and smiled.
“I just happen to like that.” He said, reaching out to touch the exposed stone and starting to chant a prayer.
The surface rippled like water as his fingers slipped into it with only a minimum of resistance, like a potter's fingers dipping into clay. Gently coaxing the rock, spreading his hands, the plaster shell crumbled and fell away as an opening appeared in the center of the rippled and folded back stone beneath.
"Alright, lift up one of the lights and let's see what we have." Odesseron said eagerly.
The room beyond the opening, though relatively small, sparkled with gilded grave goods. The small antechamber was filled with furniture, many of them decorated with stones or gold leaf, and dozens of ornate, translucent vases and vessels, filled to the brim with some unknown liquid, likely perfume or oil. It was not a royal treasury, but it was valuable nonetheless, and it was only the first room that they had opened.
"Nothing jumped out and killed us." Victor said, "This is good."
"Yet." Inva replied. "Nothing jumped out and killed us, yet. Give it time, let's be optimistic I say."
"Fatalistic more like it." Phaedra said.
Inva flashed a smile and looked down the hallway at the next outline of another door.
“See you there.” She said, moving down ahead of the others and appearing to largely blend in with the gloom.
Once the others warily moved down the passageway, catching up with Inva who was there waiting for them, they looked at the outline on the wall. What seemed to be a second sealed door was set between a pair of statues carved to resemble hawk or falcon headed men, dressed in the same ceremonial armor as the first pair. Gazing down like a pair of petrified Vrocks, they flanked the door and were situated in a way as to make Victor more than marginally paranoid as, like before, he sculpted a hole through into the room they symbolically guarded.
As soon as the seal was broken however, revealing another small chamber filled with silver, glass, and ivory objects, an obscured ward was triggered, resonating through the stone with a shudder like some stony death rattle.
"Damnit!" Velkyn cursed, bracing to counterspell if needed.
Marcus had already drawn a pistol from his belt and held it aimed down the passage, shifting an inch in each direction warily as he waited for something to emerge. Not to be let down, something did.
Abruptly there was movement within two of the recessed niches, a clatter of bones against metal, and a profuse cloud of dust was kicked up into the air, flooding the passage. Moments later, seen through light struggling against both the gloom itself, and the filtering, cloying dust clouds, two leering skeletal figures marched forwards.
The skeletal warriors were dressed in the style of the statues that stood guard over the tomb, and the specters who manifested above nightly. Their clothing had been reduced to rags, their flesh reduced to gnarled, desiccated lacquer over their bones, and their armor was rusted and brittle. But despite the decay of centuries, they moved forward with disturbing efficacy, and their weapons were as bright as the day they had been wrought in the forge.
With a sharp crack of noise, Marcus’s pistol belched flame and its heavy lead shot peppered the breastplate of the first undead. Though it had no flesh, the impact was hard enough on the armor that there was a distinct sound of stressed and cracking bone elsewhere on its body as it momentarily paused.
Marcus frowned at the effect, he’d been hoping for more, but regardless of expectations he still had time while the undead moved towards them.
“Reload it please.” He instructed Francesca, handing her the discharged pistol and taking and then aiming the one she carried. “We may need it later.”
The second shot struck as well, scoring blackened furrows across the undead’s bones and cracking its armor in several places. But still, without flesh to injure the solid shot was having little of its intended effect.
“Oh to heck with this.” Victor said as he reached for his holy symbol. “Don’t waste your shots.”
Noting what the cleric was preparing to do, even if he hadn't seen him in action before, the Red Wizard quickly motioned and called his own undead servants back from the front line of the fight. Shortly thereafter Victor stepped forward and brandished the golden symbol, shouting out an invocation to his goddess.
The delicate object shed light and washed over the undead, eliciting a stunted hiss and shudder from them both, and in the process illuminating the passage further, revealing another series of sealed chambers to either side of the gallery. To his chagrin however, while one of the tomb guardians slowed and then halted its approach, held at bay at least temporarily, neither of the undead was destroyed by the current of power he channeled from his god.
Taking advantage of the reduced number of active combatants, Garibaldi and Francesca both charged forward with blades drawn.
The long skeletal warrior not held in place by Victor’s power held its ground and hacked at Garibaldi, grazing the warrior’s arm as he largely deflected the incoming blow as Francesca cut at the undead’s legs.
Both on attacks and counterattacks against the tomb guardian, the difference between the two living combatant’s styles could not have been more different. Francesca relied on speed and finesse, using a much lighter blade than Garibaldi who used a heavier and in the current situation, much more effective sword.
"Be careful what you do cleric." Odesseron said in warning. "I have my own undead here as well, and I will not appreciate it if you accidentally damage them when you happen to be wrapped up in a moment of zeal."
Victor continued to hold his holy symbol, not giving the necromancer a response as the first of the skeletal warriors first faltered and then collapsed under the combined assault of the two warriors, plus a series of lower sphere but unerringly accurate magic missile spells from Velkyn and Phaedra.
Once the first undead fell, the motionless second one had little chance. Even though the attacks allowed it some limited ability to defend itself, it was largely a cringing, half-hearted defensive effort, not the plodding killing machine tactics it had been intended to use by its original makers. Less than a minute later, with only a few minor injuries to Francesca and Garibaldi, it too was dispatched.
"Skill or devotion, one or the other, I'll grant their priests that at least." Odesseron said, stepping forwards and examining the broken remains of the skeletal guardians.
"Khezen,” He continued, speaking to the apprentice wizard. “Gather some of the teeth and one of the long bones, I'll want to examine it later."
The younger red wizard nodded obediently and picked through the bones. Only after her master had passed did she glare at him with a smoldering level of spite that was not lost on Victor as the cleric healed Francesca and Garibaldi’s wounds.
It was an unfortunate situation, her apprenticeship was, something of a muddled admixture of excellent teaching and indentured servitude. When she was taught a new spell, when she was handed the materials to create an item and allowed to use the remainder for her own experimentation, she was able to ignore the latter situation, but at the moment she was crouching on the floor of a tomb, picking through the remains of a corpse.
“A pity I'm not an actual necromancer,” she inwardly mused, teasing apart the brittle ligaments of the corpse's knee. “I'm sure I'd be more grateful, except that my lover is half dead, and at the rate this is all going, I may end up there myself the rest of the way.”
Khezen glanced up briefly, feeling the eyes of one of her master's allies of convenience linger upon her. The drow, she assumed he was a drow at least, was watching her as she removed individual bones from the dead tomb guardian. It was disturbing actually, because his eyes glowed in the dark, though two of his other fellows, theirs did as well.
She didn't know what he was looking at, though she had heard stories of the... appetites... of male drow during their raids on surface elves. Perhaps... no, he wasn't staring at her in that way, he was watching what she was doing to the corpse with the same level of detail her own master did when he was observing her repeat a skill he had taught her. She wondered just how powerful a wizard he was, since she'd seem him hurl a few spells, but nothing showy.
Hopefully he hadn't seen her prying a few gemstones loose from where they'd been embedded in the skeleton's vertebrae, because undoubtedly she'd have to give them up if he had. Of course, eventually she figured that her master would betray them and take the contents of the tomb for himself, she was fine with that, it was expected. But she would have felt more comfortable with that eventuality if half the people he would be betraying didn't disturb her so. The drow, the demonspawn, the sorceress who was anything but human; disconcerting, all of them.
The moment Velkyn looked away, she cupped the stones in one hand and slipped them into a fold of her robe, inwardly smiling with greedy success as she then presented a few bones to her master.
As for Velkyn, he hadn't noticed her act of pilfering, and in truth he'd only started watching her when he saw the look she gave her master. From his own upbringing, the mage had a bit of an ingrained bias against the Red Wizards, and any hint of tension between master and pupils, especially given the way he treated them as expendable resources that he owned, was something to take note of. And even beyond that bias, the way Odesseron treated his pupils, it set Velkyn's teeth to grind. That level of callous disregard and disrespect was reprehensible.
"Shall we move on?" Victor asked.
"Very well." Odesseron said. "Proceed and I will follow. Perhaps the next chamber will have what you are looking for."
His last touch of optimism rang rather hollow, but regardless, they started to once again move down the corridor, wary now of guardians and not only traps.
More carefully than before, they traipsed slowly down the passage. Their movements disturbed the thin layer of dust that lay across the floor, sending it into the air where it swirled and moved like tiny animate creatures in and of themselves, dancing on the currents and eddies like grues or mephits hiding from the light. Was it not for the worry of things, real things, malign things, waiting for them past the edge of their light, the scene would have been almost a thing of beauty in its own right, but as it was the phantoms of dust and draft were anything but.
"Wait..." Phaedra said. "What the hell was that?"
There had been something in the dark moving furtively through the disturbed, illuminated dust. It was there for a second and then it was done, but it left her feeling cold nonetheless.
"What was what?" Velkyn asked. The sorceress wasn't her mother, in a number of ways, but in this case he was only thinking of the disturbingly prescient senses the latter possessed.
"I thought I saw something." Phaedra answered.
"What was it?" Victor asked warily, holding his light higher.
Barely there, a shadow on the blurry, twilight rim of the light's reach, something moved once again.
"No, there's something to it." Inva said, drawing her sword.
Then, almost as if on cue, they attacked. There were six of them that burst from the darkness, each a ragged shadowy figure in the rough form of a man, fingers trailing away in wisps of smoke like hooked claws, eyes like holes burnt in their fabric still ringed with a glowing, smoldering margin.
They fell upon the fighters first, clawing with immaterial hands at Marcus, Francesca, and Garibaldi. Voices cried out in pain as each strike passed through armor and flesh alike, leaving trails of pain like sword slashes, each surrounded by a numbing chill of death.
"Get back!" Victor shouted, reaching forward and tugging on Garibaldi's arm even as he raised his other hand and hurled a burst of golden light into the form of one of the attacking wraiths.
The creature hissed and crumpled inwards, but without flesh to show their wounds, it was impossible to tell how hurt it was.
Velkyn watched the wraiths attempt to circle around the group, likely to avoid the full brunt of the cleric's power if he directly invoked his god to banish them. Knowing that he lacked the strength to stand up directly to their attacks himself, the half-drow stepped back behind the range of the first wave of wraiths approaching from in front, and whispered the words of a spell.
Four of the wraiths abruptly stopped with a shriek, looking nothing so much as if a spectral hand had caught them by the napes of their necks and held firm, letting inertia drag their spectral margins ahead while their core remained stuck fast in mid-air.
Velkyn smiled, and along with the other Thayans at the moment who were cowering in fright, Kezen was certain that the drow was not only a wizard, but a necromancer in his own right.
The two of them still capable of moving lashed out at anything within range, shrieking in cold, mocking tones as more often than not, their opponents weapons passed cleanly through them without harm.
"To hell with this." Phaedra thought as she whispered a short, harsh phrase and sent a trio of burning spheres of light streaking into one of the wraiths.
Moments later Inva hurled a similar spell into the same wraith, though oddly hers cast no normal light, only a dull violet glow. But the effect was the same as the creature jerked and vanished, leaving only one of its kindred behind and mobile, the others ensnarled and helpless under Velkyn's magic.
Francesca backed away from the combat, clutching her arm and shivering from the first moments of combat, letting Marcus and Garibaldi move in together. The two fighters complied, blocking the wraith's path to their injured comrade, and though it lashed out at them almost immediately, they dispatched of it moments later.
Victor turned and glared at the remaining undead.
"May I?" He asked Velkyn.
"Go right ahead and be my guest." The half-drow replied. "They won't be going anywhere anytime soon."
Odesseron muttered something and motioned to his apprentices to move his own vassal undead back, anticipating what the cleric was preparing to do. It was a wise move on his part, though it also brought notice to him, and the fact that through two separate encounters with tomb guardians, he'd simply stood by and waited for someone else to take care of them.
"Boo!" Victor said with a chuckle as he held up his holy symbol.
He could have, and probably should have used a more formal prayer and invocation of his deity. But either through inner strength or his deity loathing the undead in most all forms, his rather informal declaration of deific power worked, enveloping the wraiths in a halo of burning light and leaving nothing behind.
Victor smiled and kissed the symbol of his deity in thanks, then went about the task of assessing obvious injuries and the less obvious harm inflicted by the touch of the undead. But while he was busy, their erstwhile Red Wizard companion was getting little thanks of his own.
"Thanks for all the help..." Velkyn said, glancing at the Thayan. "As a necromancer I would think that you'd be more than eager to help us out, considering that every damn guardian of the tomb has been undead so far. You haven't lifted a finger."
"I haven't needed to." He replied, curtly but deferential at the same time. "You and your companions have been more than capable of fighting them so far. I won't waste spells that may be needed later, against anything more formidable, when you've dispatched these guardians so far with little trouble. That attests more to your skill than to my being lax in any way."
Velkyn frowned and turned away, rolling his eyes as Phaedra shot a look of pure skepticism at the red wizard.
"Believe me." Odesseron assured them. "If I am needed, my spells will be at your disposal. Till then, please have patience with me."
They didn't respond to his assurances, only giving him peery looks or simply turning away and peering down the corridor.
"Greedy bastard won't lift a finger of his own if he can have others do it for him." Khezen thought to herself. "If it isn't attacking him, he won't help you, unless not acting endangers your continued use to him. He'll do what he needs to do so long as it benefits him, but he'll do the absolute minimum throughout it all. And I think you're all realizing this."
"Shall we proceed?" The necromancer asked, trying to break the silence.
"I'll be checking ahead for traps actually." Inva said. "I'm not at all convinced that the tomb architects would have just trapped the main entrance and the annex chambers."
"Sounds like a plan." Victor said, nodding to Inva and then turning to Velkyn. "What do you think?"
"I think I'd rather wait here a few minutes and see if anything else is lurking about, or might have been attracted by what we've been doing." Velk said. "Besides, I have the spell memorized more than once for a reason."
"I have my own version of the same spell." Victor replied. "Let me know if you need me to help at any point."
Velkyn nodded and began to softly recite the words to the incantation. It was not a very powerful spell, only of the first sphere of casting, but it was imminently useful in their position, especially if the undead were incorporeal and capable of lurking in spots not visible to normal sight.
The half-drow's eyes began to glow as the spell took effect and he slowly examined their surroundings again with his once again augmented senses.
"Assuming nothing pops out of the dark." Inva asked, tapping her tail spade against the wall.
"Except if it's you." Phaedra interjected.
"Point. Except if it's me. I tend to do that a lot." Inva clarified. "So if nothing but me comes popping out of the darkness, any opinions on what we do next? Keep looking at the side chambers as we find them? Send a few people ahead even if it's a quick way to get yourselves killed? Maybe one of you has a method of magically scouting ahead?"
In truth she herself did, or had. A pity really that it would be some time before she could cast the spell again, because that cloud of eyeballs, each capable of carrying her senses wherever they went, would have been damn useful. But thankfully, she wasn't held to any expectations of being her group's primary arcane spellcaster.
"I can handle it." Velkyn said, taking Inva's prod and running with it.
"What are you going to do?" Phaedra asked.
"Just a spell of clairvoyance." He replied. "Nothing spectacular, just something to look down the hallway, and, if I can, past the seals of any side chambers."
And so they waited as the half-drow slipped into a partial trance, mumbling to himself as his eyes seemed to glaze over and his sight extended and stretched out into the tomb where he knew the passage extended, and to where he reasonably could guess that there were opening space.
Down the darkened passage there were several more side chambers, each filled with various valuables and items needed by the dead in the afterlife, though truth be told, it was unlikely that the petitioners of Nergal's faithful would be enjoying their afterlife to any great extent. Unfortunately, as Velk scanned over the treasures of the dead, he was almost certain that the Codex would not be found in the current tomb; the grave goods were too mundane: furniture, food reduced to dust, artwork, moldered clothing, jewelry, bowls of evaporated wine and shriveled fruit, and an elaborate collection of tools, almost uniformly non-magical.
But on top of that, there was something odd at work as he extended his senses out by magic.
It was like an arcane static, or something vaguely similar. The further into the tomb he attempted to look, the dimmer, more corrupt, and less detailed his view became, almost as if something were interfering with his divination attempts. The annex chambers themselves were not warded from magical view, but there was something deeper into the tomb that was, by its very nature, causing difficulty.
Off put by what he'd felt deeper in the tomb, but uncertain as to its identity, he made no comment on it as he cancelled the spell.
"Anything interesting?" Inva asked.
"I think we've found out all we're likely to find in the side chambers here." Velkyn said. "They're grave goods, and valuable ones at that, but they aren't telling us much beyond the notion that what we're looking for probably isn't in this particular mound."
"And why is that?" Odesseron asked.
"It's not royalty and it's not the tomb of a priest." Velk replied. "They're respected and important, but the stuff we've seen here doesn't seem to point to anyone who might have what we're after."
Not that we really have much more than a vague idea what type of person it might be buried with in the first place. But I do agree with Velk. Phaedra said to her companions, leaving the Thayan and his apprentices out of the loop.
"So what do you suggest?" The Thayan asked.
"We skip over the remaining side rooms for now." Velkyn explained. "We clean out the open portion of the tomb now, and then come back and open, and presumably loot, the other chambers then. We'll find out more if we can find the primary burial chamber, which from the layout so far is straight ahead somewhere."
“I’m fine with that.” Inva said, giving a partial shrug accented with an idle flick of her tail. “Whatever you do though, I’ll be checking for traps regardless.”
“I think we can wait on the side chambers.” Victor said. “If Velkyn didn’t see anything of interest…”
“Not that treasure isn’t of interest mind you.” Inva quipped.
“I’m not suggesting that it isn’t.” Victor continued with a nod to the tiefling. “But it’ll still be there an hour from now, or a day from now, or even later.”
“Yeah, I don’t think we’ll have skeletons looting their own tomb, packing up and moving whenever we go to sleep.” Phaedra said, repressing a bit of a chuckle.
“Any objections?” Velkyn asked, waiting for the Thayan to grumble.
Odesseron said nothing though, only giving a nod and acquiescing to his new companions. After all, he was nominally on their side of the barrow complex, and till that point he’d had to do little effort in exchange for his portion of anything they found. The treasure would still be waiting for them later.
“I have to agree with you.” The Thayan said. “Please continue.”
Without complaint, but wary for more guardians, especially for any more wraiths or similar undead that might not necessarily be confined to lurking in open space, the group continued into the heart of the tomb. They slowly passed by another two sealed side chambers, with Inva making certain that there were no traps, and both Phaedra and Velkyn quietly watching the ebb and flow of magic for signs of active wards. Separate from them though, the red wizard largely was just there for the guided tour as he walked alongside them, letting his apprentices step in front whenever he seemed to feel that there might be impending danger.
"Hold up guys." Velkyn said, his eyes glittering in the dark. "There's some seriously potent magic up ahead."
"What school?" Odesseron asked, not obviously bothering to whisper a cantrip and examine it himself, though truth be told he might have been able to see it by virtue of an item or a permanent spell effect.
"Abjuration and a bit of conjuration." The half-drow answered. "And it's clerical in nature."
Odesseron gave a wry smile. "It would seem that our long dead, unwitting benefactors could do more than bind the dead to watch over them tombs perhaps?"
"A fiend." Phaedra said bluntly. "There's a Tanar'ri bound into the mound, and from what some of them have snarled, you're probably seeing where they have it physically bound."
Nodding at the sorceress’s notion, they warily approached the archway leading into the chamber at the hallway’s end.
“Don’t touch anything.” Inva said in warning as they crossed the threshold.
The room was large, easily thirty feet across as they stepped into it, their feet kicking up a layer of dust nearly an inch thick that caked the ground like a white capped sea. Breaking the surface like breakers on a reef, there was a circle of misshapen lumps of wane, spotted, and discolored wax, the remnants of burnt down candles, perhaps the fragments of a summoning circle's preamble.
“What’s that in the middle of the room?” Francesca asked warily.
“That’s what’s giving off the glow…” Velkyn answered.
Looking closer, that it had been, and still was a binding circle could not have been more obvious, given the body that lay naked and spread-eagled in its center, hovering a few inches above the floor, motionless. Covered in millennia of dust as she was, the woman was strikingly beautiful at first glance, and almost human except for the wings that sprouted from her back and hung limply, half folded onto the tomb floor below her. Upon closer inspection though, her skin shimmered with a thin sheen of scales, her open mouth betrayed overlarge canines, and over the long years of bondage her flesh had desiccated to some extent, growing stretched and tight across her bones.
The ogre had been a lucky catch, and it had proven invaluable in the excavation process. But, no problem, he’d find something to replace it with if necessary. But in the meantime, he glanced at one his apprentices and motioned them towards the tomb entrance with a quick jerk of his chin.
“Take some of the hobgoblins and clear out of the worst of the remains.” He ordered. “I don’t want to find a treasure horde and fall sick to disease.”
“Not to worry about that.” Victor said. “I don’t particularly care for your vocation, but no one is going to come down with anything. Not on my watch.”
The Thayan didn’t immediately reply, but walked down towards the tomb entrance, ostensibly looking for any signs of secondary traps. Inva however, was already there, gingerly stepping over a pulped limb of one of the crushed undead.
“Good news or bad news first?” She asked, stepping out from Odesseron’s shadow.
“That’s disturbing on some level you know.” He commented, “…reminds me of some of Zulkir Mythrellaa’s students.”
Inva raised an eyebrow, understood the reference after a moment’s recollection, and smirked knowingly.
“The bad news is readily apparent miss…” Odesseron bluntly stated as he looked past the initially illuminated portion of the tomb entrance.
“Yeah.” Inva said. “No other traps, but there was a second section of weighted blocks, and they sealed the passage.”
“Not for very long.” The necromancer replied, turning then to his own people. “Out of the way.”
Odesseron began to chant under his breath as the others approached where he stood, aware that whatever it seemed he intended to do, the passage would be open shortly and they might be needed.
And indeed, a split second later a coruscating green ray leapt from his hand and struck the blocks sealing the passage, turning them into naught but a few inches of fine gray dust.
“And thusly our way is opened.” He said with a boastful tone, motioning forward with the hand that still crackled with dissipating energy.
The Thayan had clearly intended to impress, and to some extent he had, but not to the same level that he might have hoped. While Odesseron was a higher level caster than his newfound allies, one of them, Inva, had previously been capable of hurling the same spell and likely would again if she concentrated on regaining that capacity. Even discounting Inva’s firsthand knowledge of the spell, both Phaedra and Velkyn had seen the spell, and more powerful ones than that, in frequent use by members of their own family. Velkyn’s father certainly, and maybe a few members of his mother’s extended family, put the Thayan to shame, and as for Phaedra, there was her father, to say nothing of other relatives on that side of the family.
“Impressive.” Phaedra said, giving a polite nod to Odesseron. “Don’t blow all your best spells now though. We may need it later.”
And by later, she was very specifically thinking about Severesthifek, whatever he or it was.
“Not to worry.” The red wizard said, shrugging. “I have more, and I won’t be using anything else unless it becomes needed.”
With that, Odesseron waved his apprentices forward, allowing them to direct his remaining undead into the darkened tomb. He waited till the others had mostly gone through, and then gingerly stepped over the bloodied remains of his servants, trying to avoid the muck.
The passage descended gently, sloping down into the gloom, only grudgingly yielding and giving way to the lights carried by its intruders. The first things to take form, looming out of the darkness were the statues. Two by two, stone figures of men and monsters stood silent guard within regularly spaced niches in the walls. Flecks of paint dotted their faces, their skin, and their clothing, carved and frozen in time, originally bright and lifelike, but long since ravaged by the cold and passage of years, leaving them now dark and blank, dead and sterile.
"I really hope that some of these things aren't going to animate." Garibaldi said, looking up into the face of stolid faced warrior carved from a block of ashen granite.
"I doubt it." Velkyn replied. "There's no magic on them. At least these."
"Ugly and ominous, sure." Inva said with a shrug. "But not dangerous. Though I suppose if you're up for it, we could tip one over on you and growl as it toppled forwards."
“No, that’s alright.” The fighter replied with a sheepish smile.
“Stay chipper.” Inva said, ribbing him. “You might have something fall on top of you trying to chew your face off in the dark if we’re lucky.”
Victor shook his head at the tiefling’s dark humor and passed his globe of light over the passage, trying to illuminate further into the gloom, temporarily ignoring the statues that Velkyn had dismissed as any sort of threat.
“I think I’ll skip the ravenous tomb guardians option too.” Garibaldi said.
"I didn't think so." Inva answered with a sly grin. "But you never know. Oh and the statues here, they’re framing sealed doors if anyone happens to be curious."
Heads of course turned and Victor stepped forward with his light, redirecting it and illuminating the stretch of wall between the first two statues. Both of them were carved to resemble human guards dressed similarly to the ghostly guardians seen watching over the mounds each evening.
"See what I mean?" The tiefling said, tapping the flat of her tail's spade against the surface.
The sound wasn't entirely hollow, but it was different than metal on solid stone. The wall was clearly different, and upon closer inspection the others could readily see what the tiefling had already noticed. The wall was discolored in a door shaped patch, nothing overt in the gloom of the passage, but in the full light of torches and spells, or the vision granted by drow or fiendish blood, the outline of something was clearly there, covered in plaster and tiles to match the surrounding stone.
"I already looked." Inva said.
"When?" The cleric asked.
"Already, when the rest of you were gawking at statues and stumbling around in the dark." She replied with a smirk. "What, you think I mention anything I notice just as soon as I see it? Not unless it's immediately important, no. But we have doors now, so there you go."
The doorway itself was small, nothing the size of a sarcophagus or anything larger than two abreast. But while it wasn’t the likely entry to the main burial chamber of the mound’s primary occupant, assuming that the mounds were intended to bury single specific persons. In fact, none of them were honestly aware of the funeral practices of the ancient Untherites, and it might be that they buried their honored dead in communal charnel houses, bone pits, or cremated the bodies, all of which would allow for smaller interment chambers within the mounds.
But regardless, they would gain that sort of knowledge by a thorough exploration of this, the first mound, using the experience to mold the way they would plunder any subsequent barrows.
"What do those markings say?" Victor asked, moving his light closer to a series of bordered inscriptions impressed into the plaster.
"Don't look at me." Inva said, "It's a bunch of names, people and places, and some generic prayers on the sides. I can't read much into it."
"So who wants to open it up and see what we've got?" Marcus asked.
"Please do." Odesseron said.
Velkyn raised an eyebrow.
"Context." The Thayan replied. "You want to know whose tomb this is, and you're looking for something specific. Break the seal and see what there is."
"I can't actually argue with him there." Inva said, tapping the plaster with her tail once more, chipping a few flakes off of it. "Victor, if you'd be so kind?"
"Me?" The cleric asked, slightly confused by the request.
“Yes you.” She replied. “Magic. Subtlety. The seal is stone under the plaster. You’re a cleric, mold it out of the way.”
“True. True.” Victor said, nodding to her. “I can do more than put the undead to rest.”
He paused and smiled.
“I just happen to like that.” He said, reaching out to touch the exposed stone and starting to chant a prayer.
The surface rippled like water as his fingers slipped into it with only a minimum of resistance, like a potter's fingers dipping into clay. Gently coaxing the rock, spreading his hands, the plaster shell crumbled and fell away as an opening appeared in the center of the rippled and folded back stone beneath.
"Alright, lift up one of the lights and let's see what we have." Odesseron said eagerly.
The room beyond the opening, though relatively small, sparkled with gilded grave goods. The small antechamber was filled with furniture, many of them decorated with stones or gold leaf, and dozens of ornate, translucent vases and vessels, filled to the brim with some unknown liquid, likely perfume or oil. It was not a royal treasury, but it was valuable nonetheless, and it was only the first room that they had opened.
"Nothing jumped out and killed us." Victor said, "This is good."
"Yet." Inva replied. "Nothing jumped out and killed us, yet. Give it time, let's be optimistic I say."
"Fatalistic more like it." Phaedra said.
Inva flashed a smile and looked down the hallway at the next outline of another door.
“See you there.” She said, moving down ahead of the others and appearing to largely blend in with the gloom.
Once the others warily moved down the passageway, catching up with Inva who was there waiting for them, they looked at the outline on the wall. What seemed to be a second sealed door was set between a pair of statues carved to resemble hawk or falcon headed men, dressed in the same ceremonial armor as the first pair. Gazing down like a pair of petrified Vrocks, they flanked the door and were situated in a way as to make Victor more than marginally paranoid as, like before, he sculpted a hole through into the room they symbolically guarded.
As soon as the seal was broken however, revealing another small chamber filled with silver, glass, and ivory objects, an obscured ward was triggered, resonating through the stone with a shudder like some stony death rattle.
"Damnit!" Velkyn cursed, bracing to counterspell if needed.
Marcus had already drawn a pistol from his belt and held it aimed down the passage, shifting an inch in each direction warily as he waited for something to emerge. Not to be let down, something did.
Abruptly there was movement within two of the recessed niches, a clatter of bones against metal, and a profuse cloud of dust was kicked up into the air, flooding the passage. Moments later, seen through light struggling against both the gloom itself, and the filtering, cloying dust clouds, two leering skeletal figures marched forwards.
The skeletal warriors were dressed in the style of the statues that stood guard over the tomb, and the specters who manifested above nightly. Their clothing had been reduced to rags, their flesh reduced to gnarled, desiccated lacquer over their bones, and their armor was rusted and brittle. But despite the decay of centuries, they moved forward with disturbing efficacy, and their weapons were as bright as the day they had been wrought in the forge.
With a sharp crack of noise, Marcus’s pistol belched flame and its heavy lead shot peppered the breastplate of the first undead. Though it had no flesh, the impact was hard enough on the armor that there was a distinct sound of stressed and cracking bone elsewhere on its body as it momentarily paused.
Marcus frowned at the effect, he’d been hoping for more, but regardless of expectations he still had time while the undead moved towards them.
“Reload it please.” He instructed Francesca, handing her the discharged pistol and taking and then aiming the one she carried. “We may need it later.”
The second shot struck as well, scoring blackened furrows across the undead’s bones and cracking its armor in several places. But still, without flesh to injure the solid shot was having little of its intended effect.
“Oh to heck with this.” Victor said as he reached for his holy symbol. “Don’t waste your shots.”
Noting what the cleric was preparing to do, even if he hadn't seen him in action before, the Red Wizard quickly motioned and called his own undead servants back from the front line of the fight. Shortly thereafter Victor stepped forward and brandished the golden symbol, shouting out an invocation to his goddess.
The delicate object shed light and washed over the undead, eliciting a stunted hiss and shudder from them both, and in the process illuminating the passage further, revealing another series of sealed chambers to either side of the gallery. To his chagrin however, while one of the tomb guardians slowed and then halted its approach, held at bay at least temporarily, neither of the undead was destroyed by the current of power he channeled from his god.
Taking advantage of the reduced number of active combatants, Garibaldi and Francesca both charged forward with blades drawn.
The long skeletal warrior not held in place by Victor’s power held its ground and hacked at Garibaldi, grazing the warrior’s arm as he largely deflected the incoming blow as Francesca cut at the undead’s legs.
Both on attacks and counterattacks against the tomb guardian, the difference between the two living combatant’s styles could not have been more different. Francesca relied on speed and finesse, using a much lighter blade than Garibaldi who used a heavier and in the current situation, much more effective sword.
"Be careful what you do cleric." Odesseron said in warning. "I have my own undead here as well, and I will not appreciate it if you accidentally damage them when you happen to be wrapped up in a moment of zeal."
Victor continued to hold his holy symbol, not giving the necromancer a response as the first of the skeletal warriors first faltered and then collapsed under the combined assault of the two warriors, plus a series of lower sphere but unerringly accurate magic missile spells from Velkyn and Phaedra.
Once the first undead fell, the motionless second one had little chance. Even though the attacks allowed it some limited ability to defend itself, it was largely a cringing, half-hearted defensive effort, not the plodding killing machine tactics it had been intended to use by its original makers. Less than a minute later, with only a few minor injuries to Francesca and Garibaldi, it too was dispatched.
"Skill or devotion, one or the other, I'll grant their priests that at least." Odesseron said, stepping forwards and examining the broken remains of the skeletal guardians.
"Khezen,” He continued, speaking to the apprentice wizard. “Gather some of the teeth and one of the long bones, I'll want to examine it later."
The younger red wizard nodded obediently and picked through the bones. Only after her master had passed did she glare at him with a smoldering level of spite that was not lost on Victor as the cleric healed Francesca and Garibaldi’s wounds.
It was an unfortunate situation, her apprenticeship was, something of a muddled admixture of excellent teaching and indentured servitude. When she was taught a new spell, when she was handed the materials to create an item and allowed to use the remainder for her own experimentation, she was able to ignore the latter situation, but at the moment she was crouching on the floor of a tomb, picking through the remains of a corpse.
“A pity I'm not an actual necromancer,” she inwardly mused, teasing apart the brittle ligaments of the corpse's knee. “I'm sure I'd be more grateful, except that my lover is half dead, and at the rate this is all going, I may end up there myself the rest of the way.”
Khezen glanced up briefly, feeling the eyes of one of her master's allies of convenience linger upon her. The drow, she assumed he was a drow at least, was watching her as she removed individual bones from the dead tomb guardian. It was disturbing actually, because his eyes glowed in the dark, though two of his other fellows, theirs did as well.
She didn't know what he was looking at, though she had heard stories of the... appetites... of male drow during their raids on surface elves. Perhaps... no, he wasn't staring at her in that way, he was watching what she was doing to the corpse with the same level of detail her own master did when he was observing her repeat a skill he had taught her. She wondered just how powerful a wizard he was, since she'd seem him hurl a few spells, but nothing showy.
Hopefully he hadn't seen her prying a few gemstones loose from where they'd been embedded in the skeleton's vertebrae, because undoubtedly she'd have to give them up if he had. Of course, eventually she figured that her master would betray them and take the contents of the tomb for himself, she was fine with that, it was expected. But she would have felt more comfortable with that eventuality if half the people he would be betraying didn't disturb her so. The drow, the demonspawn, the sorceress who was anything but human; disconcerting, all of them.
The moment Velkyn looked away, she cupped the stones in one hand and slipped them into a fold of her robe, inwardly smiling with greedy success as she then presented a few bones to her master.
As for Velkyn, he hadn't noticed her act of pilfering, and in truth he'd only started watching her when he saw the look she gave her master. From his own upbringing, the mage had a bit of an ingrained bias against the Red Wizards, and any hint of tension between master and pupils, especially given the way he treated them as expendable resources that he owned, was something to take note of. And even beyond that bias, the way Odesseron treated his pupils, it set Velkyn's teeth to grind. That level of callous disregard and disrespect was reprehensible.
"Shall we move on?" Victor asked.
"Very well." Odesseron said. "Proceed and I will follow. Perhaps the next chamber will have what you are looking for."
His last touch of optimism rang rather hollow, but regardless, they started to once again move down the corridor, wary now of guardians and not only traps.
More carefully than before, they traipsed slowly down the passage. Their movements disturbed the thin layer of dust that lay across the floor, sending it into the air where it swirled and moved like tiny animate creatures in and of themselves, dancing on the currents and eddies like grues or mephits hiding from the light. Was it not for the worry of things, real things, malign things, waiting for them past the edge of their light, the scene would have been almost a thing of beauty in its own right, but as it was the phantoms of dust and draft were anything but.
"Wait..." Phaedra said. "What the hell was that?"
There had been something in the dark moving furtively through the disturbed, illuminated dust. It was there for a second and then it was done, but it left her feeling cold nonetheless.
"What was what?" Velkyn asked. The sorceress wasn't her mother, in a number of ways, but in this case he was only thinking of the disturbingly prescient senses the latter possessed.
"I thought I saw something." Phaedra answered.
"What was it?" Victor asked warily, holding his light higher.
Barely there, a shadow on the blurry, twilight rim of the light's reach, something moved once again.
"No, there's something to it." Inva said, drawing her sword.
Then, almost as if on cue, they attacked. There were six of them that burst from the darkness, each a ragged shadowy figure in the rough form of a man, fingers trailing away in wisps of smoke like hooked claws, eyes like holes burnt in their fabric still ringed with a glowing, smoldering margin.
They fell upon the fighters first, clawing with immaterial hands at Marcus, Francesca, and Garibaldi. Voices cried out in pain as each strike passed through armor and flesh alike, leaving trails of pain like sword slashes, each surrounded by a numbing chill of death.
"Get back!" Victor shouted, reaching forward and tugging on Garibaldi's arm even as he raised his other hand and hurled a burst of golden light into the form of one of the attacking wraiths.
The creature hissed and crumpled inwards, but without flesh to show their wounds, it was impossible to tell how hurt it was.
Velkyn watched the wraiths attempt to circle around the group, likely to avoid the full brunt of the cleric's power if he directly invoked his god to banish them. Knowing that he lacked the strength to stand up directly to their attacks himself, the half-drow stepped back behind the range of the first wave of wraiths approaching from in front, and whispered the words of a spell.
Four of the wraiths abruptly stopped with a shriek, looking nothing so much as if a spectral hand had caught them by the napes of their necks and held firm, letting inertia drag their spectral margins ahead while their core remained stuck fast in mid-air.
Velkyn smiled, and along with the other Thayans at the moment who were cowering in fright, Kezen was certain that the drow was not only a wizard, but a necromancer in his own right.
The two of them still capable of moving lashed out at anything within range, shrieking in cold, mocking tones as more often than not, their opponents weapons passed cleanly through them without harm.
"To hell with this." Phaedra thought as she whispered a short, harsh phrase and sent a trio of burning spheres of light streaking into one of the wraiths.
Moments later Inva hurled a similar spell into the same wraith, though oddly hers cast no normal light, only a dull violet glow. But the effect was the same as the creature jerked and vanished, leaving only one of its kindred behind and mobile, the others ensnarled and helpless under Velkyn's magic.
Francesca backed away from the combat, clutching her arm and shivering from the first moments of combat, letting Marcus and Garibaldi move in together. The two fighters complied, blocking the wraith's path to their injured comrade, and though it lashed out at them almost immediately, they dispatched of it moments later.
Victor turned and glared at the remaining undead.
"May I?" He asked Velkyn.
"Go right ahead and be my guest." The half-drow replied. "They won't be going anywhere anytime soon."
Odesseron muttered something and motioned to his apprentices to move his own vassal undead back, anticipating what the cleric was preparing to do. It was a wise move on his part, though it also brought notice to him, and the fact that through two separate encounters with tomb guardians, he'd simply stood by and waited for someone else to take care of them.
"Boo!" Victor said with a chuckle as he held up his holy symbol.
He could have, and probably should have used a more formal prayer and invocation of his deity. But either through inner strength or his deity loathing the undead in most all forms, his rather informal declaration of deific power worked, enveloping the wraiths in a halo of burning light and leaving nothing behind.
Victor smiled and kissed the symbol of his deity in thanks, then went about the task of assessing obvious injuries and the less obvious harm inflicted by the touch of the undead. But while he was busy, their erstwhile Red Wizard companion was getting little thanks of his own.
"Thanks for all the help..." Velkyn said, glancing at the Thayan. "As a necromancer I would think that you'd be more than eager to help us out, considering that every damn guardian of the tomb has been undead so far. You haven't lifted a finger."
"I haven't needed to." He replied, curtly but deferential at the same time. "You and your companions have been more than capable of fighting them so far. I won't waste spells that may be needed later, against anything more formidable, when you've dispatched these guardians so far with little trouble. That attests more to your skill than to my being lax in any way."
Velkyn frowned and turned away, rolling his eyes as Phaedra shot a look of pure skepticism at the red wizard.
"Believe me." Odesseron assured them. "If I am needed, my spells will be at your disposal. Till then, please have patience with me."
They didn't respond to his assurances, only giving him peery looks or simply turning away and peering down the corridor.
"Greedy bastard won't lift a finger of his own if he can have others do it for him." Khezen thought to herself. "If it isn't attacking him, he won't help you, unless not acting endangers your continued use to him. He'll do what he needs to do so long as it benefits him, but he'll do the absolute minimum throughout it all. And I think you're all realizing this."
"Shall we proceed?" The necromancer asked, trying to break the silence.
"I'll be checking ahead for traps actually." Inva said. "I'm not at all convinced that the tomb architects would have just trapped the main entrance and the annex chambers."
"Sounds like a plan." Victor said, nodding to Inva and then turning to Velkyn. "What do you think?"
"I think I'd rather wait here a few minutes and see if anything else is lurking about, or might have been attracted by what we've been doing." Velk said. "Besides, I have the spell memorized more than once for a reason."
"I have my own version of the same spell." Victor replied. "Let me know if you need me to help at any point."
Velkyn nodded and began to softly recite the words to the incantation. It was not a very powerful spell, only of the first sphere of casting, but it was imminently useful in their position, especially if the undead were incorporeal and capable of lurking in spots not visible to normal sight.
The half-drow's eyes began to glow as the spell took effect and he slowly examined their surroundings again with his once again augmented senses.
"Assuming nothing pops out of the dark." Inva asked, tapping her tail spade against the wall.
"Except if it's you." Phaedra interjected.
"Point. Except if it's me. I tend to do that a lot." Inva clarified. "So if nothing but me comes popping out of the darkness, any opinions on what we do next? Keep looking at the side chambers as we find them? Send a few people ahead even if it's a quick way to get yourselves killed? Maybe one of you has a method of magically scouting ahead?"
In truth she herself did, or had. A pity really that it would be some time before she could cast the spell again, because that cloud of eyeballs, each capable of carrying her senses wherever they went, would have been damn useful. But thankfully, she wasn't held to any expectations of being her group's primary arcane spellcaster.
"I can handle it." Velkyn said, taking Inva's prod and running with it.
"What are you going to do?" Phaedra asked.
"Just a spell of clairvoyance." He replied. "Nothing spectacular, just something to look down the hallway, and, if I can, past the seals of any side chambers."
And so they waited as the half-drow slipped into a partial trance, mumbling to himself as his eyes seemed to glaze over and his sight extended and stretched out into the tomb where he knew the passage extended, and to where he reasonably could guess that there were opening space.
Down the darkened passage there were several more side chambers, each filled with various valuables and items needed by the dead in the afterlife, though truth be told, it was unlikely that the petitioners of Nergal's faithful would be enjoying their afterlife to any great extent. Unfortunately, as Velk scanned over the treasures of the dead, he was almost certain that the Codex would not be found in the current tomb; the grave goods were too mundane: furniture, food reduced to dust, artwork, moldered clothing, jewelry, bowls of evaporated wine and shriveled fruit, and an elaborate collection of tools, almost uniformly non-magical.
But on top of that, there was something odd at work as he extended his senses out by magic.
It was like an arcane static, or something vaguely similar. The further into the tomb he attempted to look, the dimmer, more corrupt, and less detailed his view became, almost as if something were interfering with his divination attempts. The annex chambers themselves were not warded from magical view, but there was something deeper into the tomb that was, by its very nature, causing difficulty.
Off put by what he'd felt deeper in the tomb, but uncertain as to its identity, he made no comment on it as he cancelled the spell.
"Anything interesting?" Inva asked.
"I think we've found out all we're likely to find in the side chambers here." Velkyn said. "They're grave goods, and valuable ones at that, but they aren't telling us much beyond the notion that what we're looking for probably isn't in this particular mound."
"And why is that?" Odesseron asked.
"It's not royalty and it's not the tomb of a priest." Velk replied. "They're respected and important, but the stuff we've seen here doesn't seem to point to anyone who might have what we're after."
Not that we really have much more than a vague idea what type of person it might be buried with in the first place. But I do agree with Velk. Phaedra said to her companions, leaving the Thayan and his apprentices out of the loop.
"So what do you suggest?" The Thayan asked.
"We skip over the remaining side rooms for now." Velkyn explained. "We clean out the open portion of the tomb now, and then come back and open, and presumably loot, the other chambers then. We'll find out more if we can find the primary burial chamber, which from the layout so far is straight ahead somewhere."
“I’m fine with that.” Inva said, giving a partial shrug accented with an idle flick of her tail. “Whatever you do though, I’ll be checking for traps regardless.”
“I think we can wait on the side chambers.” Victor said. “If Velkyn didn’t see anything of interest…”
“Not that treasure isn’t of interest mind you.” Inva quipped.
“I’m not suggesting that it isn’t.” Victor continued with a nod to the tiefling. “But it’ll still be there an hour from now, or a day from now, or even later.”
“Yeah, I don’t think we’ll have skeletons looting their own tomb, packing up and moving whenever we go to sleep.” Phaedra said, repressing a bit of a chuckle.
“Any objections?” Velkyn asked, waiting for the Thayan to grumble.
Odesseron said nothing though, only giving a nod and acquiescing to his new companions. After all, he was nominally on their side of the barrow complex, and till that point he’d had to do little effort in exchange for his portion of anything they found. The treasure would still be waiting for them later.
“I have to agree with you.” The Thayan said. “Please continue.”
Without complaint, but wary for more guardians, especially for any more wraiths or similar undead that might not necessarily be confined to lurking in open space, the group continued into the heart of the tomb. They slowly passed by another two sealed side chambers, with Inva making certain that there were no traps, and both Phaedra and Velkyn quietly watching the ebb and flow of magic for signs of active wards. Separate from them though, the red wizard largely was just there for the guided tour as he walked alongside them, letting his apprentices step in front whenever he seemed to feel that there might be impending danger.
"Hold up guys." Velkyn said, his eyes glittering in the dark. "There's some seriously potent magic up ahead."
"What school?" Odesseron asked, not obviously bothering to whisper a cantrip and examine it himself, though truth be told he might have been able to see it by virtue of an item or a permanent spell effect.
"Abjuration and a bit of conjuration." The half-drow answered. "And it's clerical in nature."
Odesseron gave a wry smile. "It would seem that our long dead, unwitting benefactors could do more than bind the dead to watch over them tombs perhaps?"
"A fiend." Phaedra said bluntly. "There's a Tanar'ri bound into the mound, and from what some of them have snarled, you're probably seeing where they have it physically bound."
Nodding at the sorceress’s notion, they warily approached the archway leading into the chamber at the hallway’s end.
“Don’t touch anything.” Inva said in warning as they crossed the threshold.
The room was large, easily thirty feet across as they stepped into it, their feet kicking up a layer of dust nearly an inch thick that caked the ground like a white capped sea. Breaking the surface like breakers on a reef, there was a circle of misshapen lumps of wane, spotted, and discolored wax, the remnants of burnt down candles, perhaps the fragments of a summoning circle's preamble.
“What’s that in the middle of the room?” Francesca asked warily.
“That’s what’s giving off the glow…” Velkyn answered.
Looking closer, that it had been, and still was a binding circle could not have been more obvious, given the body that lay naked and spread-eagled in its center, hovering a few inches above the floor, motionless. Covered in millennia of dust as she was, the woman was strikingly beautiful at first glance, and almost human except for the wings that sprouted from her back and hung limply, half folded onto the tomb floor below her. Upon closer inspection though, her skin shimmered with a thin sheen of scales, her open mouth betrayed overlarge canines, and over the long years of bondage her flesh had desiccated to some extent, growing stretched and tight across her bones.
