Avery stopped himself before heading into the tunnels, needing a few items to be prepared. He grabbed a lump of driftwood and stripped some material from the pirate’s gear to make a simple torch. He lit it from the cooking fire the pirates had created.
He also looked at the pile he had made from the pirate’s gear and selected a few items. A nice sword with a well-worn leather grip and a belt to carry it in. He also took a small but sharp dagger and added it to the belt.
Feeling a little more prepared for whatever he might face, Avery gave things a quick once over and finally grabbed a water flask. He then lit his torch and headed down the steps.
It was instantly clear that this was a man-made carving into a natural tunnel. The steps were slippery with mildew and moisture from the sea. There was also some kind of fungus growing on the walls that reflected a little of the light from his torch, allowing him to see better than he expected.
There wasn’t much in the way of options about which way to go so Avery simply continued ahead when he reached the bottom of the stairs. The tunnel was high enough that he could walk comfortably upright and was a consistent size, adding to the feeling that someone had taken a natural feature and made it more suitable for people.
He walked at a steady pace for around 10 minutes when he heard a noise. He paused, trying to decide what he was listening to but couldn’t decide. The noise was a combination of water sounds but also a dry, crunching sound that somehow reminded him of cracking bones.
Avery continued to walk and the tunnel ahead opened up to a cavern. It was around twice his height and expanded just beyond the torch’s glow so he couldn’t see if there was an exit on the other side.
And it wasn’t empty. Standing in the centre of the room were four zombies and a skeleton.
Avery studied them for a moment. Undead weren’t unfamiliar to him, he’d met many sentient undead before. They were common at the many ports around the kingdom and were sometimes even seen working on the ship if the captain didn’t have a prejudice against them.
But within seconds, he realised these were sentient undead. These were the far less common variety - feral undead. Created by a necromancer for some reason, these beings had been left or abandoned here with no real control and no ability to think for themselves.
And that was why when the zombies saw him, they began to snarl and growl like rabid dogs. Which was a sure sign they were going to attack. As if urging them on, the skeleton banged one hand against the sword it was holding.
“Thanks, Armood,” Avery muttered and pulled out the sword he had liberated from the pirates.
There were two main types of feral undead that he’d encountered. The first were the types that had been made with specific spells. These spells were hidden within the undead and the only way to stop them was to destroy the spell within. They could be messy to deal with, time-consuming and generally a pain in the arse.
The other type was made to be the equivalent of a guard dog. They didn’t have any complicated spells and weren’t even really sapient. Simple decapitation did the job nicely with them.
As the first zombie reached Avery, he swung the sword, momentarily appreciating the balance on the blade. It connected perfectly with the side of the neck and took off the head in a single sweep. The zombie crumpled to the ground in a pile of parts and goo.
So these were the second type of zombies, Avery thought. That’s at least something.
He decapitated the second and the third zombies without too much effort but the fourth one was a little craftier. It didn’t just run straight at him but instead dodged his sword, trying to take a bite of out his sword arm as it passed.
Avery kicked it backwards, causing it to stumble back towards the skeleton which had no far shown no interest in engaging with him.
The zombie snarled again and ran at him. He swung again but the aim was a little off and his sword stuck into the zombie’s shoulder. It tried to grab him again but he managed to pull the sword free. His second swing was better and finished the job.
Avery turned to face the skeleton which was holding a single rusted sword. It had dull glowing green eyes but otherwise wasn’t in the best condition, making Avery think it was also a simple type of undead. The skeleton raised its sword above its head as if preparing to strike.
He raised his sword, preparing to combat it but it seemed the skeleton had some kind of intelligence. Rather than rush at him, it simply dropped the sword to the ground and kept its arms in the air in a gesture of surrender.
Avery studied it for a moment, looking for signs of deception. As if sensing he wasn’t convinced, the skeleton abruptly dropped into a pile of bones on the floor.
Shaking his head, Avery walked up to it and nudged it with one foot. “I know you are still in there, your eyes are glowing,” he told the pile of bones. “If you try anything when I walk away, I’ll take you apart permanently.”
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The pile of bones gave a little shudder as if somehow acknowledging what Avery had said.
Deciding it was the skeleton’s version of admitting defeat, he sheathed his sword and continued across the cavern to the exit and back into the tunnels.
----------------------------------------
The tunnel on the other side of the cavern was much the same as the one before it. The fungus on the walls created a subtle glow from Avery’s torch and he could see a bit further ahead than normal.
Which was how he spotted the slight indentations in the wall of the tunnel that he instantly recognised as a spear trap. He paused for a moment and spotted the plate in the middle of the tunnel that triggered it so he stepped over it.
A few moments after clearing the trap, he heard the sound of the spears extending and striking something. He spun around to see the skeleton from the cavern standing on the trigger plate, spears sticking between bones in various places.
“What are you doing? I told you I’d take you apart if you tried to come after me,” Avery said.
The skeleton instantly returned to a pile of bones.
He shook his head and wondered why the undead was following him. But also realised that he couldn’t exactly ask it, the creature didn’t seem to have much in the way of communication skills.
But at least it wasn’t carrying a sword any longer so it was more like a lost dog following him than something with malicious intent. He hoped.
Avery continued, dodging a basic spear pit trap and reflecting that whoever created the traps was a fan of spears or had a lot of them on hand. This time, the trailing skeleton managed to cross the trap without triggering it, whether through some sense of watching Avery or just blind luck.
He made his way around another two spear traps of different styles, both of which were easy to negotiate. The skeleton seemed to have some degree of animal intelligence and was also able to get through the traps, although it kept its distance from Avery, something that suited him just fine.
The tunnel curved slightly and he found himself facing a slightly more complex trap. Before him was a combination lock of types that probably once used some kind of key to easily turn the three parts into a set combination.
But Avery didn’t feel like messing around to look for the keys or something to lever it with. He punched through the opening with an enhancement spell on his arm and found enough to grab the mechanism, turning the first one to the left. As a sailor, he knew the combination instantly, recognising it as one of the less popular constellations that sailors often used to navigate with.
Of course, as the third lock clicked into place, he suddenly became aware that there might have been more than one reason people were meant to use keys to open the lock. Because, as the doors blocking the tunnel ahead opened, a giant door behind him slammed shut. The skeleton, who he had started to think of as Gutless, jumped and narrowly missed being made into a permanent pile of bones by the door.
“That doesn’t look good,” Avery commented then realized he was talking to either himself or a pile of bones that couldn’t answer him.
He went to step forward but heard a strange noise. He looked back to see the skeleton move closer for the first time, reaching where he stood. But more worrying, there were yet more spears starting to protrude from the newly appeared wall. And it seemed to be moving closer to him.
“Shit,” he said with a little feeling.
He took a step forward and immediately felt the floor give out. He pushed himself backwards, colliding with Gutless who fell into his defensive pile.
Avery looked ahead and could see a pair of levers a distance along the tunnel. Unfortunately, they were also ahead of the rapidly widening gap in the floor and a look down showed him another cluster of spears, facing menacingly up at him.
“Real shit,” he said with a lot more feeling.
He pushed with his wind essence but the wind coming up from the missing floor was too strong for it to have any effect.
A quick glance around and he spotted a decent-sized stone on the floor. While his aim wasn’t the best, he backed himself and pitched it at the lever. It hit a glancing blow but not enough to move it so he looked for another missile. He considered his sword but the way his luck was going, decided it would probably slice through the lever and condemn him to a painful death.
Then he looked at Gutless, still in a pile to his left. He reached down, grabbed the skeleton’s skull and pitched it at the lever. It hit the lever but again didn’t have enough momentum to move it all the way up.
He also noted that as the skeleton’s skull flew across to the lever, the rest of the body followed after it. “Neat trick,” he reflected and crossed the restored floor. “Not sure how that is going to help me survive though.”
Gutless jumped up to his full height, arms aloft in some sort of celebration at making it across the gap. As he did, he hit the lever and pushed it up. The spears stopped, the wall ceased moving and the floor slid back into place.
“Not bad,” Avery admitted walking across the restored floor to where the skeleton was standing. “Come on then.”
Avery continued along the tunnel without any further traps, Gutless keeping a short distance behind him. Finally, he reached a door and was somewhat unsurprised to see Armood sitting on what looked like a beach chair, asleep.
He opened his eyes and his massive grin appeared. “Avery! Good to see you made it through those silly traps. Nothing to worry about, were they?”
Starting to feel there was a theme to these conversations, Avery went along. “No, they were child’s play.”
“Let’s head inside then,” Armood announced, standing and gesturing at the door, his chair vanishing as he did.
“What’s inside?” Avery asked suspiciously.
The grin didn’t falter. “Open the door and let’s see.”
Avery stepped forward and saw the door was a simple wheel lock so he spun it and pulled open the door. The room behind the door was similar in size to the cavern where he had encountered Gutless and the zombies. But this room was entirely empty.
Armood walked into the room and looked around for a moment before walking a little to one side. He bent down and picked up a single gold coin.
“I wondered where that went,” he remarked, sliding it into a shirt pocket.
“That was what we were here for?” Avery said, befuddled.
Armood looked up and frowned. “The coin? No, don’t be silly. I just forgot I left that here. We are here for him,” he replied and pointed to Gutless.
Avery turned to look at the skeleton who looked around, realised it was the focus of attention and abruptly turned into a pile of bones.