After another day travelling south they’d found a village under Alliance occupation. Followed by nothing but more deserted coastline. It was looking increasingly unlikely they’d find a boat north of Mezora.
Which was clearly making N’ratha and Pin nervous. Still, that was a conversation for tomorrow. For now, everyone was tired and just wanted to eat. Though they were pushing on a bit further to try to find some shelter. None of them wanted to sleep in the open of this treeless empty coast.
Thankfully, just as they were on the edge of giving up, they found a rock outcrop with a cave in the side. Illyxa and Pin both paused on the edge, feeling the rock face looked like it had once been carved. Something had gotten to it, likely dragons, but they could still make out just enough to tell it had long ago seen the impact of dwarven chisels.
As much as Illyxa hated dwarves, she was pretty sure this tunnel had been abandoned for centuries. Maybe longer. Which left her feeling secure in the guess they weren’t going to run into any of those square headed jerks.
They set up the cooking fire near the entrance, then put their sleeping bags a bit deeper. Enough to be safe if a storm rolled in. Illyxa headed further down, to check for any possible threats. Giant spiders, slimes, metalmunchers… all sorts of things would love to live in a deep dark cave like this.
Before she found any creatures or an end to the cave, she found less worn carvings. While she couldn’t read much dwarven, and especially not this old of dwarven, she could still tell what she was looking at. The carvings of skulls and the symbol of Nyl, goddess of death, told her all she needed to know.
It was a crypt.
She knew Hyi would panic if she found out, so Illyxa decided it was best not to tell anyone. She’d just set up a few warding spells here, to let them know if anything came out, and then turn around back to the camp. Because, sure, she wasn’t as easily frightened as Hyi, but that didn’t mean she wanted to go messing around in a tomb.
Tombs were where you ran into—well, hopefully they’d be on their way before having to worry about that.
She turned around and headed back to the camp, where Gragya was explaining a goblin recipe to Pin. Illyxa waved off questions about what she’d found, just saying ‘more cave’.
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They’d eaten and gone to sleep. Things had seemed fine.
And then the storm had woken them up. Not a rainstorm, but a sandstorm, blowing into the cave. The party were forced to retreat from the whipped grits of sand by heading deeper into the tunnel.
After an hour or two of waiting for the storm to subside they were instead left staring at a pile of sound that had now completely filled the tunnel entrance.
“There’s no way to know when the storm ends now,” Fuan muttered.
“I could try blasting it away?” Illyxa offered. “Then we’d know.”
“This cave is ancient,” Pin said. “I doubt it would survive any sort of blasts… even wind magic might be risky.”
“Well what else should we do? Start digging?” Illyxa countered.
“That might take a while. I don’t have a shovel,” Gragya said.
“Yeah, that’s the problem. None of us do,” Illyxa muttered.
Pin, however, had turned around, walking a few paces down the tunnel with a magical light above him. “It’s a dwarven ossuary…”
“Pardon?” Hyi asked.
“A tomb,” Illyxa muttered, watching as the elven woman’s face turned grey with fear.
“We’re… it’s a…” she mumbled, before turning and starting to shovel at the sand with her hands. “We need to get digging…”
“No, no. We can keep going,” Pin replied.
“Into the tomb!?” Hyi yelped.
“Ossuary,” Pin corrected.
“I’d prefer not to accept my fate quite so easily,” Fuan muttered.
“No, no. Dwarves have a very old superstition that if your destination is the ossuary you will stay there, but if it’s but a stop on your journey you will be safe,” Pin explained, casting his magic light across the various carvings of skulls. “As such, there’s always multiple exits and entrances. We just have to go through and get out on the other side.”
“I suppose it will at least provide some variety compared to the desert,” Fuan said.
“I think I prefer just trying to dig our way out,” Hyi said, her voice shaking.
“There might be treasure down there,” Illyxa said, mostly to herself. “Not gold or gems, but… art.”
Dwarves didn’t like to bury treasures of the earth they’d spent a lot of time digging up, but wooden or leather artifacts were common (if any had survived this long). There might be some carved stones she could yank. Or carved bone. That was something else dwarves liked to do.
“Ancient tomes or runic power carvings are also possible,” Pin said, tugging further on her interest.
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“I do thinking walking beats digging,” N’ratha said in a quiet voice.
Hyi let out a sad noise as she realised what everyone was deciding, but hurried along when they all started to leave. The group walked quietly enough as the tunnel sloped downward. The wall carvings were mostly geometric. A simple rectangular pathway. Every so often there were stone skulls carved into the walls, sparse enough they seemed meant as reminders in case you’d forgotten where you were going.
Illyxa was not liking how long they were walking before finding anything, however. She was fairly certain the ossuary proper would be roughly at the halfway point, so every minute they spent walking meant an added minute on the other side. The longer they walked the longer they’d have to walk.
“So,” Gragya said, at last breaking the silence. “What’s special about an ossuary that makes it different from a crypt?”
“Ossuaries are for bones and only bones,” Illyxa replied.
“Generally with the bones being used as decorative or even architectural elements. Dwarves like to show off their craftsmanship, so of course they go for the showiest ways to store the dead,” Pin added.
Gragya nodded slowly. “So… there’s definitely going to be a necromancer living down here, isn’t there?”
“Not necessarily,” Pin said. “It’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. They might not have found it.”
“Let’s hope so,” Gragya muttered. “Hate necromancers. They’re so rude… using your clothing against you.”
“Using you—” N’ratha started to say, before giving both goblin cousins a once over.
The others did the same, and were generally left with the same take away.
“You know, you could just not use bones as accessories,” Fuan said.
“Not use—not use bones as… do you even hear yourself?” Illyxa replied, horrified. “Bones are of great cultural significance to goblins.”
“And they look cool,” Gragya added.
Illyxa nodded. “And they look cool.”
No one else had a counter argument, so the group returned to silence.
The tunnel eventually opened into a natural cavern. A subterranean canyon with no visible bottom and the far side distant enough to barely be illuminated by the glow of their magical lights. The ceiling above was also barely visible, the faintest hint of a few stalactites.
There was a path running to their right, leading yet deeper. It was clear there were some doubts leaking in about the idea there was going to be an exit, but Pin headed off with insistence. And so the rest followed the adorable Halflet’s lead and continued down the thin cliffside path.
At least there were still markers along the path to tell them they were on the right path.
“Wait a moment,” Illyxa muttered after they’d walked for a few minutes. “Our lights… they’re not reaching the other side anymore.”
“It must have gotten wider?” Pin said.
“No…” Illyxa muttered, looking back along the path. “It’s dark too fast behind us too.”
The other turned to look, realising she was telling the truth.
“Wraiths,” Hyi whispered.
Illyxa nodded. They wouldn’t break through the light for now, but if there were more of them out there…
“You can’t punch wraiths,” Gragya muttered, grabbing at her forearm and looking down at Illyxa. Or, more specifically, grabbing at the bandaging wrapping her arms.
Fuan stepped forward, letting out a small blast of magic. It crackled against the edge of the shadows. The impact seemed minimal.
“There’s layers of them,” he said.
Illyxa let out a quiet goblin curse as they realised the space in front of them was also becoming unnaturally dark. There were enough of them out there that there was only one type of magic that could easily clear out so many of them.
“I need everyone to close their eyes,” she said.
“What?” Fuan asked.
“Wraiths hate light. The spell I’m going to do will make a lot of light. So, protect your eyes by closing them,” she hissed.
The others seemed reluctant, which was fair. Closing your eyes when surrounded by enemies was rather counterintuitive, after all. Yet they nodded, closing their eyes.
She stepped forward, whispering ancient words to herself. Goblin translations of old Celestine. Until, at last, it was time to release the magic she’d pulled together. “Ta’ehpuang!”
With that, there was a burst of light, enough that it would have blinded her if she’d not closed her own eyes at the last moment.
Opening them again, she saw the wraiths scattered. Most had been destoryed, but the remainder had gathered their darkness together. Forming nearly corporeal structures. She hissed further goblin phrases not to be translated in front of younger readers before releasing a series of solar burst spells, blasting at the densest clumps.
The wraiths shrieked unearthly wails, which were joined by crackles of further magic as Fuan opened his eyes to add further attacks. Pin joined in as well, playing a song that somehow created a burst of magical twinkling lights. N’ratha used her breath weapons to blast any wraiths that attempted to charge.
After a few moments, the wraiths began to retreat down into the depths of the cavern.
“Yeah! And don’t come out anymore!” Illyxa shouted over the edge of the pathway.
They spent a moment catching their breath, but then headed off down the path once more. They were all feeling more than a little tired, having not had a proper night’s sleep nor a chance to restore their mana stores with morning rituals. All of which left everyone hoping that was the last trouble they’d encounter.
As they were starting to debate the option of resting and eating more than jerky, the pathway headed into the cliff face. Into a large carved chamber. The ceiling was low, but it was exceptionally wide. Pillars dotted the chamber every half dozen paces or so. Pillars covered in bones. Many of the bones were intricately carved, while their placements were clearly measured out. There was a complex symmetry to every pillar’s decorations.
“This is sooo creepy,” Hyi whispered.
“Not going to argue that,” Pin replied in a quiet voice.
Illyxa wandered over to a pillar, studying the skulls. She was curious if the carvings on the bones were enough to make it worth stealing.
That plan was interrupted by a distant and echoing laugh filling the chamber.
“Necromancer,” Illyxa hissed, rushing back to the group.
Torches lit up on the pillars around them for several dozen paces.
“Necromancer,” Gragya added.
“Bones. Off,” Illyxa said, rapidly yanking off any part of her outfit that involved bones and skulls.
Gragya did the same, the pair then rapidly shoving everything into a back and pulling it tight.
Hyi pulled up a shield a moment later, the others circling around her and Illyxa. Around them the bones decorating the pillars began to almost pour down the pillars, turning into a pile on the ground. The bones then began to pile together, forming up not just dwarven skeletons, but others piling together to create great beasts of bone. Lumbering giants the size of ogres or trolls made of a dozen or more skeletons.
“There’s so many of them…” Hyi whispered.
“Must be thousands of skeletons out there,” Pin added.
Gragya rolled her shoulders before turning back to the group with a grin. “Eh, we’re fine. I mean, what are bones famous for doing?”
The others stared at her. Well, the others other than Illyxa, who was struggling to tie up the now squirming bag of decorative bones she and Gragya had just removed.
“Uh… being spooky?” Hyi offered.
“No?” Gragya said, obviously not having expected that answer. “Breaking.”
She then turned and rushed into the horde of skeletons, her fists smashing into skulls, ribs, and limb bones with an impressive fury. It was clear she was glad to have something to punch.