Pheston led the way up over the snowy hill, guiding the party deeper into the mountains and towards an old ruin that creeped out from over a ridge up ahead. It was made of a dark stone and was capped by a stone archway with the head of a dragon carved into it.

“There won’t be a dragon inside, will there?” asked Marina anxiously.

“Not a chance,” chuckled Pheston. “It wouldn’t fit through the door, Marina. Not unless it was raised inside, but that’s unlikely, isn’t it?”

“Yes?” she asked uneasily.

“There is no dragon,” said Teleri resolutely. “But that does not mean we should lose vigilance. Remember that we are following tomb raiders. And I will also remind you that we are not getting paid for this additional service to the people of Millstone, who may not have even visited their dead ancestors for decades, perhaps even centuries.

“You don’t know that,” said Friedrich, marching ahead. “And once we deal with the raiders, we might find something useful ourselves.”

“Friedrich!” bellowed Pheston, grabbing the young man by the shoulder. “You can raid whatever ruins, crypts, and tombs you please back in Mercia, but we are not stealing from the dead of Corobath. Are we clear, young man?”

“Clear,” said a wide-eyed Friedrich, never having been yelled at by Pheston in such a way. “Only loot the tomb raiders for their possessions and not anything they’ve stolen.”

“Good,” said Pheston with a smile and clapping Friedrich on the back. “It’s important we keep ourselves on the straight and narrow, Friedrich, lest we become just like those rotten demons of Keldracht.”

“And you’re sure there are no dragons here?” asked Marina, looking to Pheston.

“Reasonably confident,” said the smith.

“That doesn’t help…”

Friedrich took his minotaur form and led the way along the snow. He was the first to cross the ridge and headed for the steps leading up to the entrance of the old tomb. As he drew near, he saw the charred remains of a campfire underneath the archway, where it was shielded from the snowfall. Whoever had slaughtered the trolls had been here recently.

Marching up the steps, Friedrich looked around to make sure that nobody was hiding nearby and that they weren’t being followed. Teleri did the same when she reached him and then confirmed that she didn’t see anything either. Marina and Pheston meanwhile were looking at the campfire, but were unable to discern how long it had been there for. Their best guess was that it had been snuffed out in the last hour or so.

“In we go then,” said Pheston, walking to the large stone slab that was the door and giving it a shove. It grinded open and the four slipped from the dazzling white of the snow-covered mountainside and into the dim tomb.

The entrance chamber was lit with by a lone torch sitting above five packs which had been left behind as their owners ventured elsewhere. At the far end of the room was a much larger archway leading to a staircase downward. Scattered across the room were a couple of fallen pillars and broken chunks of stone that told Friedrich that this tomb was much older than he first presumed.

Unable to ask in his current state, he waltzed over to the packs, stepping over the rubble, and tossed three of them to his companions. He tore the remaining two open and started sifting through the contents, finding all manner of supplies from ropes to what he presumed to be healing potions; there was even a small packet of wrapped dried meats that smelled delicious. Friedrich held it up to the light and could see the granules of salt sitting on top. He threw a piece into his mouth to test it.

“What are you doing?” cried Marina, running over and smacking the rest of the pack from his hands with her staff. “It could be poisoned!”

Friedrich grunted and nodded in satisfaction.

“I’ll take some of that,” said Pheston, walking over to the pack and scoffing down a couple of pieces of the preserved meat. “Not bad! Heavy on the salt, I suppose, but needs must and all that.

“The pair of you are animals,” sighed Teleri. “In any case, I see nothing out of the unusual. Shall we proceed?”

Friedrich led the way down the staircase with his fists clenched. He was about halfway down when one of the steps crumbled beneath his immense weight and sent him tumbling down to the bottom. Had he been in his human form, he would have been in a lot of pain, but he stood up and brushed himself off.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Are you alright?” asked Marina, hurrying down after him.

He snorted before following the passageway around. It was much darker down here and Marina conjured her lightning elemental, Shockwave, to light the way for the explorers. A short way along the passage, they found a stone coffin propped up against the wall with its lid tightly sealed.

“Good,” muttered Pheston. “These ones are not desecrating graves for a couple of gold pieces. That means there’ll be a lot less mess for the people of Millstone to clean up once we’ve brought the looters to justice.”

“Are we sure they’re looters?” asked Marina.

“What else would they be?”

“Maybe they’re down here trying to help, just like we are? Maybe they want to make sure that undeath hasn’t taken the bodies in the crypt?”

“So naïve,” said Pheston, shaking his head. “I know looters and these people reek of looters.”

Teleri raised an eyebrow. “How could you possibly know their intentions when you’ve been deprived of human contact for fifty years?”

“Forty. And my gut doesn’t lie to me. These ones are tomb raiders, mark my word.”

“I will choose to trust you, but if you are wrong, you will never again be steering our actions. I do not enjoy the prospect of killing innocents by accident.”

“I wasn’t going to kill them before questioning them,” said Pheston, affronted. “Give me the benefit of the doubt on that one, eh?”

“Fine,” said Teleri, giving Friedrich a prod. “Let’s get this over with quickly.”

As the quartet continued following the crackling lightning elemental, they watched the side passages and chambers for anything unusual. Much to their relief, all was quiet. There was not as much as a body out of place or a broken coffin lid. It was as though nobody had passed through this way with any intention of causing trouble, but still they remained cautious.

“Spiderwebs,” said Marina, wrinkling her nose. “I don’t like spiders.”

“Corobath is notorious for big ones, is that not the case?”

“Big ones, poisonous ones, ones with swords for arms, ones that teleport,” said Pheston. “They like to nest in places like this where they think they won’t be disturbed.”

Marina grew more horrified with every word uttered and clung to her staff in terror. There came a clicking sound and she leapt onto Friedrich’s back, clinging to him tightly. He reached around and grabbed her by the cloak, setting her back on the ground. He gave her a thumbs up and ran on ahead.

As he ran down the passageway, a small cluster of five spiders about the size of his shield came scuttling along. They beaned back on their four hind legs and launched thick webbing at Friedrich, who punched it and found his fingers now stuck in a fist.

An arrow whizzed past him and pierced one of the spiders through the head, sending a splatter of blood across the floor. Friedrich leapt and threw his elbow down, squashing one of the insects and covering his arm and side in its innards. A lightning strike erupted from Marina’s staff and another shot from within Shockwave, killing two more spiders. As Pheston swung his hammer high, another arrow sped past him and killed the final spider.

“Rats,” he said, kicking the corpse, disappointed that Teleri was quicker off the mark.

“Apologies,” she told him.

“No matter, at least we’re still whole. Wouldn’t mind a bigger one to fight and claim a bit of glory for myself.”

“Don’t say that!” squealed Marina.

Friedrich turned back into a human to rid himself of the spider’s blood. “How many more do you reckon are down there?” he asked, pointing his sword at the passageway which curled around to the left.

“Dozens,” said Teleri. “Yet these creatures are still alive and there is no sign of the tomb raiders. That is most peculiar.”

“Indeed,” said Pheston quietly. “I don’t like the look of this one bit. Something’s afoot.”

Friedrich marched down the corridor with his shield raised and his sword ready to slice apart any creature with more than four limbs. As he rounded the corner, a large chamber revealed itself. It was covered in thick spiderwebs and there were five human-shaped figures upon the wall wrapped up in spiderwebs so thick that not even an inch of flesh of cloth was visible. Surrounding the chamber were the dozens of spiders Teleri expected.

“Question answered!” called Friedrich, charging into the room and bringing his sword down upon the first spider as it tried to pivot towards him.

Marina, Teleri, and Shockwave launched their attacks at the spiders, sending a barrage of arrows and lightning strikes that splattered innards all across the floor. Pheston charged in with a big smile on his face and swung his hammer viciously, smashing spider after spider into the ground while Friedrich fought alongside him, cutting them to pieces.

The two warriors quickly found themselves covered in webs but, before they were bound too tightly, Friedrich turned into the minotaur again and broke free. He ripped the webs from Pheston and transformed back into a human before continuing the fight.

Not long afterwards, the spiders all lay dead and in pieces on the floor while the party rushed over to the bound figures tied to the wall. Every one with a blade cut through the webs while Marina and Shockwave carefully sent jolts of electricity through the sticky strings binding them to the wall.

Friedrich was the first to free one of them, only to find the petrified face on a dark elf staring back at him. “He’s dead,” said the young man.

“So is this one,” said Pheston, revealing another elf.

“This one too,” said Teleri.

“Mmm!” came a sound as one of the bound figures hit the floor upon being detached by Marina.

Friedrich hurried over and cut a hole for the dark elf to breathe from. “Thank you,” gasped the man. “But you’ve made a grave mistake coming here.”

“What do you mean?” asked Friedrich as he continued to cut the elf free of the webs.

“She will come back. You must run!”

“Who?”

“The Queen of Spiders!”