‘Aw right, ah’ve got a plan. Noo if onyone has onythin’ they think they can add tae it feel free tae speak up, but this is whit ah think. First, we have Adriana use her light spell on aw oor weapons an the like so we’ve got a shot o hurtin’ this beastie. Then ah go in first an try an get the Shadows attention, then Dal comes up from behind. Baye, Delde an Adriana stay near the entrance tae the room an fire everythin’ yies have got at the thing when yie see it. Then we just hammer doon on the thing until its deed. Reason ah think we should do it this way is ah figure ah’m the one who got the best chance o survivin’ a hit from the Shadow an Dal’s gonnie be motivated tae no get hit again. Sides, we’re both better up in melee than at range, an this way the Shadow’s less o a threat tae the rest o yie. If it goes bad then we’ll aw try an pull back tae the entrance an hope it hasnae learn hoo tae leave a room yet. Ony questions or other ideas?’.
‘It is not a question, but I have to say that I dislike how you are putting yourself at a greater risk than the rest of us. I am also trained in combat and am in the same sort of armour as you, should I not also stand closer to the Shadow? After all, if it has three targets to worry about should it not have more trouble hitting any of us? And if something goes wrong then I would rather be in a position where I could be of more help rather than just run away’.
‘Ah respect yer will tae fight an ah’m no tryin’ tae diminish yer contributions. It’s just a matter o tactics. Yer one o the best ways we can hurt this Shadow along wae being the best healer oot o all o us. Yer too important tae risk getting knocked oot early on in the fight, even if a think yie’d be a good help. There’s also the matter that the more o us there are aroond the Shadow the harder its gonnie be fer Baye tae shoot wae her arrows. She’ll need as clear as a shot as she can get wae aw the smoke in there so the less folk aboot the better’.
Baye gave a nod in approval to Igmars statement. It wasn’t something Delde had taken into account due to the fact that her spell was guaranteed to hit so long as she could see the target, but it made sense to her. Adriana seemed to accept this reasoning as well, though she still looked pained over the thought of having to stand at the backline of the fight.
‘Onyway, let’s get oor weapons enchanted or whitever need tae be done so we can hurt this Shadow. Oot o curiosity’ Igmar looked to Delde and Adriana. ‘Does armour an the like actually dae much gid if this thing cannie be hit normally, ah mean can it just go through whitever ah’m wearin’?’.
‘I’m not an expert but I’d say keep it on just in case. It probably won’t hurt to have it on’.
‘Ah wisnea gonnie strip off afore a fight! But ah was wonderin’ if this here tower shield would be o ony use tae me?’.
He gestured to the oversized shield that he was lugging around still. Adriana had sat hers down as soon as she had the option of doing so. Delde had to admit she wasn’t sure, she knew magical armour would be useful against the intangible nature of the Shadow, but not whether more mundane defences would work. She looked to Adriana for advice, but she seemed equally stymied.
‘Honestly, I’m not completely sure, but I’d say if you feel more comfortable with it you should use it’.
‘Aye. Ah’m no the best wae shields if ah’m honest. Ah prefer bein’ able tae manoeuvre more an have’n the option o shovin’ who ah’m fightin’, but ah doubt ah’ll be able tae do much o that in this fight. Ah’ll use it fer the noo an see hoo it goes’.
‘I will begin to cast my spells upon everyone’s weapons. If anyone has any additional preparations, I would recommend performing them now’.
On that the cleric began uttering her incantations over Igmar, Dal, Baye and her own weapons. Delde politely refused an offer to enchant her staff with light, as far as she was concerned if she found herself in a situation against the Shadow in which she was reduced to only wielding her staff it would be unlikely that she would have much of a chance of victory anyway. Delde also felt somewhat uncomfortable with all the bright lights around them now. She knew it was foolish to hope to hide in the darkness and smoke from the Shadow, but holding a bright beacon would only make herself more of a target she reasoned.
Delde also chose to sit her backpack outside of the doorway that led to the smoke-filled chamber. She didn’t want Onyx to get harmed by a stray attack from the Shadow or end up unwell due to inhaling too much smoke.
She looked at the doorway they would be passing through soon as Adriana continued to cast her cantrip. The door was ajar now from when they had rushed through it last. Had one of them attempted to slam it shut in a panic as they exited, or was this the Shadow’s doing? In either case it had done nothing to stop the smoke from crawling out and staining the mural with greasy soot stains. The acrid stink of the smoke stung her nostrils even from here and her stomach churned when she thought about the corpses that were continuing to fuel the fire.
Normally Delde would be suspicious of how a fire could continue to burn for days on end with no obvious continual supply of fuel, but in this case she wasn’t. The shear amount of necromantic magic in the crypt could have had something to do with it, or the fire pit may have been designed or even enchanted to keep fires sustained for far longer than they would normally be capable of. And of course, there was always the option of the Shadow itself tending to the blaze, nurturing it to ensure that any living thing entering its chamber would be incapable of surviving for long.
‘Delde’.
The wizard turned and looked down to see Baye offering her a wet cloth. For a moment she wondered why the halfling was giving her such a thing until she realised that both she and the rest of the party had or were in the process of tying it around the lower halves of their faces.
‘Oh. Thank you’.
Delde leaned her staff against a wall and attempted to tie the wet bandana over her mouth to help keep the smoke out. But she simply could not manage it without her hair getting it the way.
‘If I may be of assistance’.
Delde accepted Adriana’s assistance as she handed over the cloth with only slight reluctance and the well to do young cleric accomplished the task with ease and a beaming smile.
‘Thanks’.
‘It is no problem whatsoever; I am happy to help. If you would like later on, I could show you some alternate hairstyles that could help ensure that your hair doesn’t get in the way’.
‘Swap hairstyle tips later. Let’s get this over with’.
Baye’s hard voice cut through their casual chatter and reminded Delde of the gravity of the situation. Both women nodded in response and mentally prepared themselves.
‘Aw right, ah’ll go in first, then Dal, then the rest o yie. Ah’ll try an get is attention on me an keep it on me, but if it looks like it’s comin’ fer yie’s just pull back. Yer oor best shot o killin’ this thing’.
Igmar gave them all a short solemn nod and fully opened the door, letting the smoke billow out before stepping into it. A second later Dal followed him, then the rest of them did. The short corridor before they came to the chamber proper was still the same as it was when they had first entered, the same ruined mural, the same stink. But the understanding of the threat before them made it all seem that more grim and ominous now. Every breath taken was tainted by the stench of burnt corpses, every whisp of smoke contained a deadly threat, and the soot-stained mural only seemed to make the warring armies look more akin to shadowy demons than men and women.
They stepped into the room with the burning inferno and instantly could see Igmar and Dal. The gnome was hugging tight to the eastern wall, but the dwarven fighter, taking his role as primary distraction seriously, stood out in the open. Of the Shadow there was no sign, but no one was a big enough fool to believe that it had left or died. Was it wary of them now that it knew they could hurt it, or was it just looking to have them asphyxiate on the smoke before moving in for the kill?
Whatever the reasoning behind its actions the Shadow wasn’t making its move against them yet and that was a problem. Delde’s throat was already burning due to the smoke and heat from the blazing fire in the heart of the room and it was taking all her self-control to not burst into a coughing fit. She didn’t know about the others, but she couldn’t last much longer under these circumstances.
‘COME ON OOT YIE BIG FEARTIE SHADOW! WHIT’S WRONG!? YIE CANNIE STAND THE THOUGHT O A PROPER FIGHT!?’.
The dwarf’s words rang out and echoed off the soot covered walls but there was no response to them, at least none that Delde could see. She strained through stinging eyes to catch even a glimpse of their foe. That was all she needed, just to see him and get a target.
‘WHIT!? DINNIE TELL ME YIE FELL INTAE THE FIRE AN OFFED YERSELF RATHER THAN FACE US!?’.
Still nothing. Delde gripped her staff tightly. There! No, just more smoke. Her eyes were starting to water now.
‘AYE, BIG BAD SHADOW WHEN YIE CAN SNEAK UP ON SOMEONE! BUT WHEN THE FIGHT COMES TAE YIE, YIE JUST RUN! YIE WERE PROBABLY HIDIN IN HERE FRAE AW THE OTHER UNDEAD ABOOT! PROBABLY WERE FEART O THE BLOODY GIANT BUG OOTSIDE HERE AN AW! YER NO A MONSTER YER A COWARD! OR WORSE THE GHOST O A COWARD! PROBABLY LIVED A COWARD’S LIFE, DIED A COWARDS DEATH, AN NOO YER GONNIE SPEND THE REST O YER UNLIFE A COWARD!’
The utter contempt that was in Igmars voice as he attempted to antagonise the Shadow was surprising. He was either a good actor or the Shadows refusal to face him in battle was a real insult to him. Dwarves were renowned for their honourable and stalwart natures so perhaps the creature’s subtlety was a sort of cultural insult to him?
It looked for a moment that Igmar was preparing to say something else when he suddenly cried out. Not in fury but in pain, and through her eyes which felt as though they were being scourged with needles, she could make out a form before him. It could have passed for human or elf at a distance, but it was clearly thinner, more drawn out, with joints that weren’t where they should have been, a pitch black, funhouse mirror effigy of human or elven form. The Shadow had returned.
She hadn’t seen it, but from the way Igmar appeared to waiver Delde assumed that the Shadow had managed to successfully hit him. She had been examining the room in excruciating detail for any sign of it and the Shadow had managed to sneak up on her companion and attack him without her noticing anything. The only good thing she could take from the situation was that their front line had not been killed outright by the attack, although Delde had to admit she had never seen Igmar look so staggered in a fight before.
A streak of light shot past the wizards face as she for a second feared that they had managed to trigger some hidden trap before noticing Baye already notching up a second arrow to fire. It had taken Adriana some time to enchant each of the diminutive ranger’s arrows individually, so she only had twelve of them done. From the way the glowing arrow shot through the Shadows head Delde could see that she had no intention of wasting any of them. In a mortal creature the blow would have been fatal, but the Shadow didn’t react as the shining projectile went through its head.
No, perhaps it flinched there just as the arrow struck it. Delde hoped that it had. She needed to believe that Adriana was correct in her assessment of how the light cantrip would interact with the Shadow’s own intangible state. If she was wrong, then their ability to harm the undead creature would be significantly reduced to just the two of them. Delde didn’t know if they would be enough.
‘Hey! Remember me!?’
The shout and a second flash of light alerted Delde to Dal’s strike against the Shadow. He had been keeping his short sword sheathed to make himself less of a visible target but now, with his opponent clear to see he had rushed behind it. He drew his blade and slashed through its lower body in one elegant motion, but the sword just seemed to swing through the air holding the Shadow. If it was hurt the monster gave no response to the attack. It did however turn the part that seemed to be its head towards Dal and looked down at him. Even without recognisable features of a face and through the concealment of the thick smoke Delde could detect the scorn the Shadow held for the gnome.
‘Ah’m no deed yet either!’.
The dwarf cried out as he swung his newly gained dwarven war axe underhandedly at the shadow. Had it been a being of flesh and blood the unconventional strike would have left a deep wound in its leg or potentially a more intimate place, but as it wasn’t the glowing axe instead went straight through the length of the Shadows form, exiting from its head.
Igmar stood taller than he had when the Shadow had first hit him. Had the dwarf been feigning his injury to lull the monster into a false sense of security, or had he just found his second wind? Whatever the case was he had successfully drawn attention from the Shadow back to himself. Not an appealing position to be in Delde mentally noted, but it did mean that the plan was working well.
But for the moment she pushed that thought and all others to the side, what she need to do was focus, because now she had her target. Calm. Cold. Calculated. She drew forth the arcane formula in her mind and willed the magic around her into the form she chose. Stretching forth her left hand Delde felt the magic of the spell begin to manifest, and with a gesture and a final eldritch word three blade like magic constructs manifested before her before flying forth in a wide arc to stab into the Shadow.
This, the creature reacted to, with each blow of her magic missile spell making it jerk with the force of a sledgehammer. The half elf allowed herself a thin smile as she witnessed the results of her studies, both into the spells of wizardry and into the undead. It felt good to be proven right.
At that same moment a wave of warmth that soothed the soul as opposed to the stifling heat coming from the fire in the centre of the chamber. In her absolute focus Delde had failed to notice Adriana also channelling her own brand of divine magic through her invocations to Sarenrae. Her magics effects though were undeniable as she saw some colour come to Igmar’s face and his stance seemed more firm as the healing light washed over him. As nobody else was badly hurt the healing aspect of the holy magic didn’t affect anyone else. But to the Shadow this was another powerful attack that it could not avoid.
A noise erupted from the black figure. It reminded Delde of the sound of shattering glass, save that typically that sound was brief, but this cry was longer and lower. As if a person had broken a mirror but somehow stretched the process out to last for a minute rather than a second. A change had come over the Shadow now as it began to lash out at Dal and Igmar with its arms, which flailed more like tentacles than true arms now. Where once it had seemed to attempt to ape the movements of people, now it flowed and writhed like the foul smoke that constantly belched from the fire. Igmar and Dal struggled to avoid getting hit, the gnome through nimble dodging, the dwarf through hiding behind the massive tower shield. Gone were any previous efforts to “play” with them, now it looked like the Shadow sought nothing less than their swift deaths.
Despite the terrifying display of fury from the Shadow though, Delde felt a surge of exhilaration. She wasn’t some battle-hardened warrior, and her experience in combat was only in what she had gone through the past few days with her companions. But there was no doubt in her mind that the Shadow had not cried out in rage or anger, but rather pain.
They had hurt it.
Badly.
There was no other reason for the creature to suddenly begin lashing out other than that. It knew that they could kill it and it was afraid of that. If they kept pushing, they could win this fight.
‘We’re hurting it! We need to keep it up!’
Delde yelled out in joy.
‘That’s the plan’.
Baye replied from beside her whilst firing of another arrow. This one Delde noticed the Shadow made a point of avoiding. It was simultaneously a good and bad sign. Good, in that it was further proof that their attacks were harming it. Bad, in that the Shadow was making more of an effort in this battle, they wouldn’t be able to count on the undead monster not taking them seriously anymore. If they wound up having to make a break for the exit it would most likely attempt to pick them off in the process of their escape.
Dal and Igmar were continuing their assault against the Shadow, taking advantage of the fact they were flanking it to ensure that it could neither escape nor fully dedicate itself to one of them without leaving itself open to attacks from the other. However, in its new more aggressive state the Shadows actions were faster, more erratic, lashing out in all directions with no discernible strategy behind it. It made fighting it more difficult as both Dal and Igmar were slowly being forced into being more defensive and had less opportunities to strike out at their opponent. And in a room filled with choking smoke a battle of attrition was firmly in the Shadows favour.
But although the fight seemed to be reaching a standstill between Baye, Dal and Igmar and the Shadow, with neither side able to get a good hit on the other Adriana and Delde held the advantage. After all, so long as it was within range of the cleric and in sight of her neither of their attacks could miss.
Once again Delde cast the magic missile spell and once again the arcane projectiles slammed into the Shadow with a satisfying degree of force. Between its impact on the Shadow and how quickly it defeated the illusionary orc at the start of the journey, this spell was quickly becoming her favourite due to its effectiveness. She was also aware enough during this casting to notice Adriana becoming more animated as she cast as well, as she continued to praise her goddess whilst calling forth incessant benedictions.
‘May the might of Sarenrae flow through her humble servant! Through me let her merciful light heal the wounds of the pure hearted! Whilst the fire of retribution scourges the unrepentant and abominations of undeath alike!’.
Delde momentarily wondered whether Sarenrae would consider her to be “pure hearted” enough to heal, or if she would be deemed one of the “unrepentant”. The worry passed though as she once again felt the southing warmth of light pulse out from the cleric at her side. Sarenrae seemed to view her as being good enough to not warrant punishment at least.
Stolen story; please report.
The unnatural cry rose from the Shadow once again, louder this time, to the point where she almost had to cover her ears to block out the vicious sound. But Delde was convinced that she saw its form waiver this time. It was getting weaker, closer to returning to the death it had escaped. They just had to keep pressing the attack. Dal and Igmar might have been more vulnerable to the Shadow than it was to their attacks, but with every casting of Adriana’s healing magic they were restored, and the Shadow was further wounded. The long battle of attrition might have been the Shadows intent but if she and her companions could pile on enough damage to it quickly, they would be able to overwhelm it and defeat the Shadow before the smoke became too much of an issue for them.
Unfortunately for Delde the smoke was already starting to take its toll on her as she began double over as deep, hacking coughs burst forth from her. Her lungs and eyes were burning as fiercely as the fire in the centre of the room, she desperately wanted to run out of the chamber and escape to the sweet, clear air of the Fangwoods. Delde stood her ground though and instead leaned her back against the wall to help keep herself steady. She would not run, not when they were so close to victory, she was sure they just needed a little more time.
Forcing her watering eyes open she examined how the battle was progressing and looked for any sign that the others were succumbing as she was to the environment. To her slight shame only Dal appeared to be in poor condition as he coughed repeatedly into his left hand, as the other held his sword. Even then, the gnome didn’t seem as badly incapacitated by the smoke as she was either, he was just the only other person that showed visible signs of it affecting him.
Igmar suddenly dropped his tower shield to the side and grabbed his dwarven battle axe with both hands before swinging it straight through the upper torso of the Shadow. He did so with such force that it even parted the smoke surrounding it for a moment before the dark cloud returned. And as he did so Dal delivered a similar strike to the creature’s lower torso, not gutting it as it might have done to a physical foe, but as the Shadow screamed out again Delde could tell that the two were beginning to get accustomed to the monsters’ movements. It might have been a difficult opponent to fight but it was not imposable.
Another glowing arrow shot through the choaking air and went straight through the incorporeal undead chest as well, the projectile carrying on its trajectory not slowed by the creature in the slightest. Delde heard the arrow shatter against the southernmost wall of the chamber so great was the power behind it.
‘Tch. Not goin’ to be able to use that one again’.
The halfling ranger at her side muttered in a voice dripping with annoyance.
Delde didn’t respond though, she was too busy looking at the Shadow. It had been too focused on the melee fighters that it had failed to dodge the arrow, but more importantly she saw that just when the Shadow noticed the attack it tried to twist out of the way. It failed having spotted it too late, but its reaction showed that it was vunrable to all their attacks now, but also gave Delde hope that the monster might be starting to weaken and wain from all of the damage they had managed to inflict upon it; like a man losing blood would eventually struggle to stand. She wasn’t sure if that was how undead like the Shadow functioned, but she hoped that it was.
Now though, the young wizard realised that she was reaching an impasse. She could only cast the magic missile spell twice a day without rest and she had used both castings already. She could attempt an offensive cantrip but that would come with the added problem about having to aim it. The last thing the melee fighters needed now was having to deal with friendly fire, Baye was a far more experienced fighter at range and even she had struggled to hit an opponent without putting her companions at risk.
Delde wasn’t a fool, she knew her limits. She’d known them for a while. Frankly there was little more she could contribute to the fight now. She really should have just left the chamber, poured some water on her face, attempt to collect herself and wait for everyone else to finish off the Shadow. It was the logical move to make, a few days earlier and Delde wouldn’t have even bothered thinking about it. But now the thought of just abandoning her companions for expediency’s sake, even when she could realistically do little more to assist them seemed abhorrent to her. They were a team now; they had been through so much together in such a short period of time. She was watching them all pushing themselves to their absolute limits. To not do the same seemed… offensive to Delde’s sensibilities.
She wanted to help as well. She had already managed to achieve so much over her time with them that she had never expected herself to do. What was one more thing? It had struck Delde as supremely childish at the time, something that she never would have done had any of the others of the group seen her, save Onyx who stood as a mute witness to what she did as she prepared her spells for the day. She could only cast two spells of the first level a day without rest. She knew this fact well. But still, it hadn’t stopped her from preparing a third casting of magic missile when she did the others. It was more a ritual of good luck than a real attempt to try and have a third casting prepared. Delde had secretly hoped that the Shadow would be dead or fleeing by the time she had cast the spell twice, but now she figured she had nothing to lose in the attempt.
As she had done before, Delde repeated the incantations, the hand gestures and focused on the arcane formula in her mind. She forced out any doubt or hesitation. There was only her will and her intent. Nothing else.
So intense was Deldes concentration that the feeling of surprise never even came into her mind as she felt the magic flow and manifest in the same three blade like constructs that she had already created twice before in this battle. Pride began to bubble forth to the surface of her mind as a slim smile grew on her face as they flew towards the Shadow for the third time.
The creature saw them coming this time, either it had been waiting for them or it had just got lucky. Either way the Shadow desperately attempted to leap away from them, but it was an utterly futile effort. One of the key aspects of the magic missile spell was that all projectiles fired would unerringly strike their designated target no matter how nimble or fleet footed they were. There were of course many means of protecting oneself from the spell, but it was very clear now that the Shadow lacked any means of implementing such defences. All that it managed to do was give Igmar an opening to deliver another devastating two-handed slash from his war axe, this one going through the head and torso. And as the blades of her spell stabbed into it with unerring accuracy the Shadow’s form waivered more than it had throughout the entire battle.
But it did not die.
Instead, it made to flee, heading deeper into the chamber and attempting to blend in with the smoke. Delde could still make out its form, but only barely. This was bad, if the Shadow disappeared and began using hit and run tactics then it could draw the fight out for longer than they would be able to endure in the room. Technically it didn’t even need to attack them, it could simply hide and wait them out as the smoke and heat overcame them.
Delde was again struggling to breathe, she was forced to use a minor prestidigitation over her face to push the smoke away from her mouth. It only lasted for a second or so, but it gave her enough time to get a breath of breathable air that she held onto. She knew she wasn’t going to last much longer, and she was well and truly out of useful magic she could bring to bear. She could see her dwarven and gnomish companions rushing after their fleeing opponent, their glowing weapons beacons in the dark smoke, but the Shadow was making no effort in attacking its pursuers. Escape, and victory through attrition seemed to be its only goals now.
Baye fired off another arrow at the Shadow that looked like it may have been a glancing hit, but with all the billowing smoke it was difficult to make out. Adriana rushed forward as well and for a moment Delde feared that she had been overcome with zealous fervour and was attempting to challenge the undead in melee alongside the others. As she stopped in the centre of the room and held the holy symbol of Sarenrae aloft through her fears subsided. Instead, she was quietly impressed with how well the pious young cleric was maintain her composure. After all it had entirely slipped her mind that her healing magic could only effect beings in a limited range. But from her current position that range included the entire room.
It was certainly a bold risk to take, they had agreed that Adriana should stay further behind to avoid having their best healer incapacitated or even potentially killed, and her being in the middle of the room made her an easy target. Still, in Delde’s opinion it was the best option to take; it would ensure that the Shadow would be harmed by her magics no matter where it hid and if it did come forth to attack her it would reveal itself for everyone else to retaliate upon it. Of course, Delde had little in the way of means of retaliation for the moment, but she was confident that the Shadow was close to death now. It’s desperate actions all but confirmed it.
‘May the Dawnflower hear my prayer in this defiled crypt! May your light guide the poor souls taken before their time and may your fire purify their violated remains! And on this day let the twisted abominations of undeath here know that the suffering they propagate shall not go unpunished!’.
As her holy symbol blazed with power, another burst of soothing healing magic poured out from Adriana and for a fleeting moment Delde could have almost forgotten the physical pain she was in. Pain that the Shadow was evidently feeling as it screeched out once more as it erupted from a thick cloud of smoke and charged at the cleric of Sarenrae that had harmed it so thoroughly. Delde could see its form flicker and waiver as it moved towards her, not running as a person would but more flowing through the smoke. Its shape was beginning to change now as well as the one humanoid appearance of the Shadow began to devolve into something more akin to a writhing mass of shadowy tendrils. Whatever the motivating force was behind the Shadow was, a vengeful spirit of one of the fallen bandits entombed within the crypt, the tormented soul of one of the former townsfolk, or just the manifestation of so much death and necromantic magic, it was apparent that it was beginning to break down.
To Delde it seemed that the Shadow had lost what capacity for thought and reasons that it had, as in the process of rushing towards Adriana it went past both Igmar and Dal, both of whom had their weapons drawn. She couldn’t imagine that the creature could not see them in the smoke, their weapons were too clear an indicator of where they were with the light cantrips still on them. But as it moved past them the two ran their blades through its shapeless mass almost imposable to miss the mindless undead.
The darkness composing the Shadow was faint now, but it still held onto its form and continued its relentless charge at Adriana. Another arrow shot out and struck it, going through the largest point of the undulating mass. The inky blackness of the Shadow was now fainter than the smoke around it, but still it moved towards the disciple of Sarnerae, retaliation its only purpose now.
With her most useful spells exhausted Delde found herself at a loss for what to do. She couldn’t harm the Shadow, not with what paltry magics she had left at her disposal, and even if she had a weapon capable of harming the Shadow, which she didn’t, Delde lacked the skill to be able to reliably hit a target moving so fast. She regretted not using her wand to give Adriana and her other companions some added defence. At the time she wanted to preserve its precious limited charges for when they got deeper within the crypt, suspecting that the intelligent undead Roldare had warned them of would require all their resources. She had thought that they would be able to overwhelm the Shadow quickly and defeat it when it lacked the element of surprise on its side. Regret and doubt wracked her mind as she watched the Shadow barrel towards Adriana.
Yet despite the dire circumstances Adriana appeared to be in she showed no trace of fear on her face. Instead, she wore the same serine bright smile that she always did. Delde couldn’t see it through the once soaked bandana around her lower face, but she could tell it was there from what expression she could see. But as it approached, she lowered the holy ankh of her goddess and drew her scimitar from its sheath, the light from her cantrip still glowing after being covered. With it clutched tightly in both her hands she raised the sword high and braced herself for what would come next.
Delde watched the scene unfold, eyes burning, lungs on fire, the roar of her blood in her ears, and her heart pounding out of her chest. Helpless to interfere.
Another screech from the Shadow, louder but also different from the others. It sounded like an amalgam of breaking glass and nails on a chalkboard. A threat, a war cry, a death rattle? Delde couldn’t tell. In any case, it signalled a burst of speed from the creature as it dashed straight at the cleric.
Still Adriana looked calm, the very picture of certainty. As the flailing mass of shadowy tendrils approached her, she took one step forwards, and with it swung her blade straight down through the monster, clanging as the blade struck the stone floor. As she did so its form seemed to consume her, then dissipated. The Shadow which had pushed them to the very brink of their limits was finally dead.
Adriana ripped away the cloth from her mouth and held her scimitar triumphantly aloft.
‘In the Dawnflowers name I – Cough’.
Her victory cry was interrupted due to her own coughing fit, which Delde felt spoiled the mood only a little and in truth she was somewhat grateful to not have to listen to her proclaim the greatness of her goddess, even if her patron’s power did prove to be the deciding factor in the battle. She also felt reassured to know that she wasn’t the only one who was suffering due to the environmental conditions of the room. Fortunately, with the defeat of the room’s sole inhabitant, resolving that would be a trivial matter in comparison.
‘Aye, aye. Yer goddess fairly helped oot quite a bit wae that fight but let’s get oot o this room fer a bit first. Then yie can praise her aw yie want’.
The rest of them all followed Igmars advice and left the smoke-filled chamber to catch their collective breaths and enjoy the cooler temperature. The musty air of the crypt had never tasted so sweet to Delde as she breathed it in. She poured the last of the water from her waterskin over her face and made liberal use of the prestidigitation cantrip to refresh and clean herself, an act she did with the others as well. It seemed only right to use her minor magics to help the others after enduring such an intense combat.
After the battle for their lives against the Shadow the matter of dealing with the fire in the room was childishly easy. The went to the room with the pool an filled up their waterskins before returning to the room and dowsing the raging fire with it. Delde made use of her ray of frost cantrip to help speed the process along as well, but with no other undead or creatures of any kind, nor any traps hidden in the room there wasn’t any real need to rush.
The only difficult things about the room were dealing with the massive cloud of smoke that erupted from the quenched fire, something that none of them had thought about, and the remains of the fire. Or to be more accurate the remains within the fire. The identities of those who were thrown into the fire were lost to the blaze; only their vague humanoid forms revealed that they had been people at all. It had been a sobering moment for everyone after the elation they felt from their hard-fought success over the Shadow, to realise how many had died in the room they had just fought in. To see what would have been their own fate had they not won.
In amongst the ash and charcoaled remains of the fire they found a scorched and blackened but otherwise serviceable key that looked to be the size appropriate to open the lock on the door they wanted to pass. Another surprising and frankly rather annoying discovery was a dagger, one that Delde was quick to identify as being magically enchanted. The fact that it was unmarred despite being within the fire for so many days was an obvious giveaway. Had they known about the presence of such a weapon they could have made good use of it in the fight against the shadow. Still, what’s done was done and they had emerged victorious regardless of the presence of the enchanted dagger. The magic on it was relatively weak anyway so it was unlikely by Delde’s estimations that having it would have been a significant boon in their favour anyway. In the meantime, it was decided that Dal would wield the magic dagger, him being the one most experienced with such weapons. He was quite pleased with his newest acquisition, although he seemed conflicted over which of his two newly acquired weapons to wield as his primary weapon. He settled on having them both on his belt, the short sword on his left, the dagger on his right. Delde idly wondered if he was going to attempt to duel wield his weapons the next time they got into a fight, she had read about people fighting like that before, but it was something she had never seen herself.
‘So, we all alright to move on?’.
Baye still had her bow drawn with an arrow in hand, which given how deadly their last fight was Delde could understand her alertness. The stern-faced ranger constantly monitored their environment, looking for any sign of a potential ambush even though they had already cleared all the rooms they had access to now. She supposed it was better to be safe than sorry.
‘Aye, we’ve got the key noo so it looks like we can finally get doon tae the lower level noo’.
‘Excuse me for asking this Delde, but will still be able to cast spells in your current capacity? I know that you cast many powerful charms against the Shadow in our last fight and I would not want you to find yourself overwhelmed due to our pushing you onwards. I am sure we could all do with a rest for a moment’.
Technically the spells that she used in that fight were of the evocation school not the enchantment, but outside of the clerics incorrect use of magical terminology she appreciated her concern. It was true that she had used up all of her more powerful spells and her cantrips were weaker, but she wasn’t too concerned.
‘I’ll be fine, I can still cast some lesser magics to assist and I have my wand as well. So long as I stay close to the backlines of any fight I won’t be in any danger. And if we do start to get overwhelmed, we’ll just pull back, it seems to have worked for us so far’.
Everyone seemed to accept her response and headed onwards, but Delde couldn’t help but wonder why Adriana had become so much less… enthusiastic over pushing onwards. She was the one at the start who had wanted to go deeper into the crypt as fast as posable to save any survivors. Now she was suggesting taking breaks and resting? Delde didn’t understand her.
Confusion lingering in her mind, the group proceeded to the locked door in the pool room, and after Dal gave the door another cursory examination, he open it to reveal… a small empty room. To be fair it was not entirely empty, it contained a single stone bench on the centre of the room and there was a passage at the bottom of the room that went on further south so at least it wasn’t a dead end. But after the extreme battle they had gone through and some of the other trials they had faced to finally enter the locked room only to find it empty felt rather… anticlimactic.
‘I’m not going to lie, I was kind of hoping for another treasure room or something, you know after fighting off that Super Shadow I feel we earned it’.
‘Super Shadow is the worst one yet’.
‘No, the worst name for it is to just call it a Shadow! Shadows are already a thing! It should be called something different!’ Dal threw his hands up in the air. ‘Fine, keep calling it a Shadow! But one day I will come up with a better name and then everyone in the world will agree with me that calling that insanely dangerous monster just a “Shadow” was dumb’.
‘Ony traps or the like inside? Feels a wee bit odd after everythin’ we’ve fought through fer it tae just be a… whit is this? A waitin’ room?’.
Cautiously stepping inside, it they looked around for any clue as to the purpose of the chamber. Dal appeared convinced that the bench held some secret and began tapping it, examining its base, anything to divine its purpose. But it just seemed to be a bench.
Delde on the other hand was more interested in the walls, specifically the mural on them. The bench looked like it was positioned to allow a viewer to sit and reflect on once specific scene that was far larger and more detailed compared to the rest of the endless mural throughout the crypt, even if time had caused it to fade somewhat. It depicted Kassen, in studded leather armour, bow on his back, short sword in hand and what Delde judged to be the leader of the bandit army, a figure in chainmail wielding a vicious looking long sword. The pair were locked in mortal combat and appeared to be at the climax of a long fight. The two were in the process of stabbing each other in the chest with their respective weapons, this must have been the final duel between the two of them that ultimately resulted in the two men killing each other that led to the end of the battle Delde mused. She wasn’t sure if this had happened or it was just an artistic embellishment, but she had to admit it made for a dramatic scene.
The was one detail that she picked up on that struck Delde as odd about this mural however. With its larger figures and greater detail, she noticed that both Kassen and the bandit lord were wearing amulets that were very similar to each other. They were on simple gold chains, and both consisted of a large ring made of a greenish metal, with several spurs coming off at different points of them. It reminded her of a compass, but the points of the amulet didn’t match up with the points of a compass, or for each other for that matter. They were similar but distinctly different from each other. An unusual feature to include on the mural.
‘Adriana? You know a lot about the legend of Kassen and the great battle. Do you know if there was some link between the bandit lord and Kassen? It’s just those amulets their both wearing, they seem very similar to each other’.
The cleric walked over to the mural and looked at where Delde was gesturing as the others continued what seemed to be a pointless search of the room.
‘Hm, that is unusual. I cannot say that I have ever heard of their being some prior relationship between the two men and I would be very shocked to learn that the great hero Kassen willingly associated with bandits and the like. Perhaps they or someone they were close with crossed each other at some point in their lives? Such as if the bandit lord had a brother or sister in crime whom Kassen was forced to slay? Or maybe the bandit lord murdered Kassen’s mentor and took his amulet as a token of his foul deed? If that was the case, then it is possible that the bandit lord may have had some ulterior motive in attacking the village in the past’.
‘Either that or those kinds of amulets were just in style back then’.
Dal quipped as he came up from behind them.
‘Yeah, looks like there’s no traps or treasures here for us, just an uncomfortable looking bench if we’re feeling like a sit down. Anyways, we’re heading off now’.
He gestured to the dark passageway where Igmar and Baye were waiting for them. Taking their que, the cleric and wizard joined with the rest of the party and headed down the hallway, their shadows dancing along the muraled walls as they went.