A feeling of watchfulness and perhaps even of fear pervaded the open space between the end of the path and the entrance to the tombs.

They approached the yawning doorway, moving as a unit, but well-spaced so that, if they were attacked suddenly, they wouldn’t be at risk of hitting each other with their weapons. Behind them, on the low mounds from which the first wave of zombies had appeared, the leaning standing stones still glowed their sickly green color.

The remains of two huge, ironbound doors hung crazily from the doorposts of the entrance to the tombs. They looked as if they had once been made of stout oak timbers, but the tombs had been built so long ago that even these huge thick planks of wood had rotted with the passing of the centuries.

Rusted hinges held the remains of the doors up, but even if the doors had been closed, they were so rotten they wouldn’t have blocked access to anyone.

“These tombs have lain open for a very long time,” Zorea said. “This is a relic from the old-world, back in the days when magic was more common and people used the powers they were born with. That’s the magic I inherited, and that my mentor, Nala, was teaching me before she became ill and died before she’d completed the training. That’s the tradition that this sword comes from, the ancient magic of the old world.”

She held up the Soulstone blade, and it glowed a pale yellow as if the very blade itself anticipated coming home to a place that had been built by the same culture that had created the sword.

Zorea’s face was grim and determined, but her eyes sparkled. “Let’s go,” she said, and led the way into the tombs.

Beyond the door, they were plunged into darkness. Elman produced a couple of torches made from pitch pine with oiled rags tied tightly to the ends of them. Saul was all in favor of this. He knew that using his Light Globe spell at this point would cost him a valuable casting, and he wasn’t keen to waste a spellcasting at this stage in the adventure.

Brand and Elman worked together with tinder and flint to strike sparks and get the torches flaring, then they held up one torch each, stepping out on each side of the party. They held their lights up, Saul and Zorea coming up in the middle and a little behind them.

They found themselves in a wide entryway first, with the doorway behind them. The walls were roughly carved, cut from the very rock of the mountain itself, but the floor must once have been well-laid flags. Now, however, the ravages of time had done their work, and the flagstones were slippery and uneven. Some were cracked, and some were completely gone, showing the damp black soil underneath. There was a smell of mold and decay in the air, and that sense of present watchfulness they had first felt outside was almost oppressive in here.

Three corridors opened out of the hallway in which they stood. The passage on the left plunged straight downward, the passage in the middle went straight ahead, while the one on the right climbed steeply upward.

“What do you think?” Saul asked the others.

Zorea squinted. “There are runes over the middle and right passages,” she said, “but none on the one on the left.”

Saul narrowed his eyes. “Let’s give that one a try first,” he said.

They stepped into the left-most passage. It went down with a steep slope and was only broad enough for three of them to walk side by side. Brand and Elman went with Saul, holding up the torches, and Zorea brought up the rear.

The passage continued straight on for a while, but then Saul saw something gleaming on the wall.

“What’s that?” he said. “Wait a moment.” He held up a hand, and the others stopped, while he moved forward warily to examine the gleaming thing on the wall.

It was a rune, about three feet across and contained within a circular band. At first, it looked as if it had been painted onto the wall with gold paint, but the closer he got to it, the more he realized it was actually floating a few inches from the surface of the stone wall.

“It’s some kind of trap,” he said quietly, feeling the watchfulness of the place getting to him again.

“I’ve heard of things like this,” Elman said. “In old underground tombs and dungeons and places like that. They have these runes that set off deadly traps if you step on them, falling blades, trap doors that drop you into pits full of spikes, jet of flame, that kind of thing.”

“Traps,” Saul said. “Well, I think we’re up to that. Step back.”

The others moved back a short distance, and Saul picked up a rock and flung it at the rune. The rock hit the rune and bounced. A ripple ran through the rune as if it were reflected on water and Saul’s stone had broken the surface, but nothing else happened.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What do you think?” Saul asked.

“I guess it has to be something living, something animated to set it off,” Elman said.

Saul frowned. “I’d rather not waste a spellcasting on a monster to trigger this trap but, at the same time, I guess that the presence of the rune means there’s something worth getting at down here.”

“I agree,” Brand whispered.

“It feels different down here,” Zorea put in. “I can feel that presence still, but there’s no sign of any of the runes, and the evil magic that was present outside doesn’t seem to be down here.”

“Very well,” Saul said.

The Rock Troll was probably a bit too big to use down here, and though he considered using the new Metal Mage summoned creature, he guessed this wouldn’t be a particularly robust creature. On balance, he went for Mud Golem.

He added a School of Metal combination for the golem and cast the spell nearby. The creature slid up out of the ground, a faceless, stealthy humanoid dressed—courtesy of the School of Metal combo—in a fine suit of chainmail and steel plate.

The golem had no facial features visible, but Saul knew it could perceive the world despite this. Saul felt a line of connection between himself and the creature. Along this line of communication, he sent the thought that he wanted the golem to move forward and trigger the trap.

The golem, being a creature of pure magic without any desire to preserve its life, moved forward immediately and without hesitation. Saul and his team stepped back, waiting to see what would happen.

As soon as the golem’s foot touched the rune, there was a loud snap like a tense steel cable breaking, and three huge stone spikes fired out of the wall to the golem’s right, slamming into the wall opposite.

The golem, however, was too quick for the trap. Swift as an eel through the webs of a fishing net, it slid forward, and the spikes missed it by an inch. Saul was impressed with the summoned creature’s speed and agility. The spikes held their place for a moment, then slid back into the wall with a clang.

There was no sign that they had ever been, and the rune was gone.

“I’m glad you’ve got these kinds of helpers!” Elman said with a laugh. “Your summoned creature is so quick!”

Saul nodded. Elman, buoyed by the success, started forward, but Saul held a hand up.

“Not so fast,” he told Elman. “We don’t know for sure that the danger is completely over yet.”

He focused on the golem, asking it to step back toward them and see if the trap was still active. The golem moved with an almost leisurely pace back across this space where the rune had just been. Nothing happened.

Still warily, and as quickly as they could, they moved across the part of the corridor that had been set up to trap them. As they passed, Saul saw something on the wall where the trigger rune had been just a moment before.

“Look at that!” he said in surprise, gazing at a faint golden radiance starting to show itself on the wall again. “The rune is coming back!”

“I think this place has some kind of ability to regrow its traps and monsters,” Zorea said. “There’s something in here, some kind of presence that’s challenging but not necessarily malevolent.”

“Spikes through the wall seem pretty malevolent to me!” Brand said with a laugh, and Zorea grinned and gave him a dig in the ribs.

“You know what I mean, silly,” she said, then grew serious again. “There are traps here, and challenges, but the feeling in this place…can’t you sense it?”

Brand looked around the dank stone corridor. “I guess so,” he said after a moment. “But whatever it is, I still don’t want to get on the wrong side of it!”

A ripple passed through the air of the corridor, and Saul felt strangely certain that it was a ripple of amusement as if someone was laughing silently.

“What was that?” he said.

“The spirit of this place,” Zorea answered with a smile. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but there’s something happening. Let’s go on down.”

They advanced down the corridor, feeling curious as well as wary. Saul led the party now, and he’d taken the torch from Elman to light his way. The mud golem, dressed in its steel mail and plate, followed along beside him docilely, available to trigger any new traps they might come across if needed. The corridor went down and down, and then suddenly turned a corner and opened out into a wide chamber lined with oblong alcoves. Here, there were carvings on the walls and ceiling, depicting battle scenes, maps, monsters, and all kinds of strange pictures in the flickering light of the torches. Saul gazed around in amazement.

“Look at this place!” he said in a hushed voice.

“This must be the burial chamber of the old ones,” Brand replied, holding up his torch. “They were good at stone carving.”

They did not have much time to admire the scenery, however. There was a sudden crackling noise, and blue light glowed out from several of the alcoves. With a rattle and a clatter, several long, white objects fell from the alcoves and scattered themselves on the floor.

Saul and his Squad drew together in the middle of the room as the blue light shone on the piles of white things.

“What are they?” Zorea asked, peering into the darkness.

“Bones,” Saul said. “And they’re putting themselves together.”

The blue light moved purposefully around the piles of bones, and they rose into the air, drawing themselves together until they formed recognizable figures.

“Skeletons!” Elman said, sounding afraid for the first time since they’d met him.

“And not any old skeletons,” Saul added. “Look, they’re armed and armored!”

He was right. The skeletons, as soon as the blue light had put them together, suddenly manifested suits of rusty chainmail and ragged leather. Long, jagged swords of a kind completely unfamiliar to Saul appeared in their hands. Some of them carried axes, and others carried bows.

“Look out for the archers!” Saul warned as the skeletons armed with bows started circling round the outside of the chamber. In their eye sockets burned a cold blue light.

That’s a different light than the red one that was in the eyes of the zombies outside, Saul thought. These skeletons are animated by a different kind of magic!

That made little difference to their effectiveness, however. The skeletons were out to kill, and the Fire Squad was forced to scatter as a volley of black-tipped arrows flew through the air toward them, clinking onto the cold stone floor even as the skeleton archers loaded another round into their bows.

“Brand, Zorea, get behind the main force and take out the archers,” Saul ordered. “Elman, with me. Let’s smash up some skeletal warriors!”