There were thousands upon thousands of ravens in the tree. Some were perched on branches, others in nests, all of them watched us.

“Wow,” Maxwell said. “What is this place?”

“I looked from the ravens down to the ruins. I would guess it has something to do with Shad’ehki.”

Raven snorted a laugh. “It would be weird if it didn’t have something to do with them.”

We approached the ruins, the path leading us between a small berm. I didn’t even realize it was there until we passed through. It was far too straight to be naturally occurring. Evenly spaced mounds and fallen over stones were all around us, and the roots narrowed until we came to the building. I dismounted Shadow, the others dismounting as well. We let the mounts roam. They would not wander off without us.

As we entered, there was a sound of thousands of wings, and I looked up to see a cloud of ravens departing the tree. Thousands more remained looking down at us.

It was hard to tell what the ruins had been. The stone structures had collapsed and been covered in thick layers of moss and detritus from the tree. It was so thick, the only reason I knew it was ruins were the pillars of stone still sticking out of the moss.

I used Mercy in a wide shovel-like blade to scrape away the mostly moss coverings at what I thought was the center of a large structure. I quickly cleared a spot, Mercy clicking against stone underneath. Thinking to speed up the process, I released a torrent of death magic into the ground. It would cause the moss to decay and collapse. To my surprise, nothing happened. In fact, the moss seemed to fluff up a little.

That didn’t seem right, but when I looked at it closely, probing it with my magical sense, I realized it was a death-based. “This is the death biome,” I said, drawing the others’ attention.

“What?” Maxwell asked in surprise. “How is something like that here? I can’t imagine Olattee would’ve let it stay.”

“I have no idea. Help me dig this out real quick,” I said. “I suddenly want answers really bad.”

With Shamgar and Maxwell helping, Raven only sniffed when I asked her to help, we excavated the mound in no time. At first it looked like nothing more than a pile of stone bricks, but when we removed those, it revealed an altar. I placed a hand on it, sensing for whatever was there. It took a long moment before something triggered.

Dilapidated Altar

This altar has been abandoned and allowed to fall into a state of complete disrepair and is no longer a viable altar.

“This was a temple then, or at least some kind of shrine,” I said, looking out towards the swamp. “This must’ve been to Shad’ehki.”

“I found something over here,” Raven called. She was near where the roots came together into a point.

Following her voice, it didn’t take long for me to find an arched tunnel cut into the roots. Thick bark had grown over the years, narrowing the path, but it was still passable if I crouched. Shamgar tried to go first, but his bulk slowed him, and Raven beat him to it.

Following Raven in, it was only a few meters before it opened into a surprisingly large chamber that had either been carved out of the tree itself or was a natural hollow spot. Doors, twice as tall as Shamgar, were carved with ornate patterns depicting a humanoid figure with a large black beak on one side, and the same figure standing on a hill under a tree, hands stretched out as a flock of ravens circled on the other side of the door. I reached my hand out, already expecting what I would find.

Tomb of Shad’ehki

Dungeon Type: Lair

The raven god, like all gods, was once a mortal. Their final ascension to the divine required their death to be reborn as the harbinger of death. This is the resting place of Shad’ehki and a holy place for all followers of the raven god. This tree was his home and final resting place in his ascension to the divine.

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When Shad’ehki fell from power he was not completely defeated, he lingered on, the harbinger not so easily banished. Still, without the protection, this holy place was invaded and attempted to be claimed by another. They did not quite succeed. While Shad’ehki did lose the power of this place, the invader could not fully claim it as their own and were instead consumed.

Prove you are worthy before the harbinger of death and face the inevitable and defeat the guardian to reclaim this place, either in the name of the harbinger or for yourself. Be warned, claiming for yourself is not so easily done, only a true harbinger of death can take the raven god’s claim.

Once everyone had a chance to absorb the information, I pushed open the doors. Of course we were going to fight this thing. I didn’t think I wanted to claim the lair, but Shad’ehki was an ally, returning power to him had to be a good thing.

We entered the chamber, Shamgar leading the way. It was pitch-black at first, then sources of dark gray light flared around a conical ceiling. The floor was covered in smooth bark, textured enough so as to not be slick. It rose in an even slope toward the middle. There, a coffin made of black wood sat. The coffin cracked open, and a swarm of small ravens flew out and began to spin around it, a shape taking form.

The first thing I did was cast a powerful buffing spell on both Maxwell and Raven. It would grant them powerful resistances to death magic, and death energy to a far lesser degree. The only reason I had been confident in taking this fight, was that I was certain a death god would use a lot of death magic. I would be fine, Shamgar would be fine, but they would not.

The form finished taking shape, standing on the coffin, the swarm of tiny ravens disappearing inside of it. I didn’t have time to get a scan of it before it struck. It was tall and lanky, with birdlike feet and a scaled torso. Its arms had rows of feathers it used to propel itself forward. The head was mounted on a long skinny neck and had a beak that was longer than my arms.

Shamgar met its charge. The beak stabbed through his shield, penetrating Shamgar’s arm. Overall, the creature didn’t appear intelligent, even in the slightest. Nor overly strong.

His beak was stuck, but before Shamgar could land a blow, it braced its back feet on his shield and shoved itself back, pulling the beak free. Music from Maxwell spread over me as I cast a spell. Eldritch power crackled out, slamming into the strange bird creature. Raven also dove at it, but it nimbly dodged away.

My bolt drew its attention and it dove towards me. Mercy deflected its beak, but it still managed to score my armor, leaving behind sizzling venom. That wasn’t good. I was certain it was death-based, but venom often had a way of still working, especially if it was acid.

Shamgar had likely received a large dosage of it. As I tried to disengage from the creature, Shamgar arrived, slamming into its back and driving his hammer down. The creature screamed out in pain, its bones just as weak as a normal bird’s bones were. Raven joined in, her sickles tearing a nasty gash along the creature’s chest.

Suddenly it broke apart into a swarm of ghostly ravens that passed through us. Raven screamed in pain, the death magic tearing at her, desiccating her flesh. She disappeared into a shadow. The creature reformed atop the coffin, and I noticed the gashes left by Raven were healed. When it dove back down, its beak led the way.

I used the opportunity to cast a healing spell on Shamgar. I doubted my magic got the venom out of his body, but it would suppress the effect. If he had been living, I was certain more than just the caustic nature would’ve been causing problems.

Shamgar was wise to the attack coming his way, and he manipulated his shield so when the beak punched through, it did not strike his arm or body. Instead, he twisted and threw his shield. Caught by surprise, the toss took the creature flying across the room with it. When it struck the wall and slid down, I was surprised when I saw a rune on its back left by Shamgar’s hammer. He’d not hit it in the brief engagement, that meant the rune had carried with the creature.

“Shamgar, hit it with your hammer as many times as you can,” I called. “Not necessarily for damage, just enough to leave a rune behind.”

Magic flowed from my hands, amplified by Maxwell. A bolt of eldritch power crackled across the room, hammering into the creature just as it pulled itself back to its feet. A moment later, a wave of force slammed it back down as an attack came from Maxwell. It had been a long time since we’d fought with only a few of us. With less people around, his buffing magic wasn’t as useful, having grown used to buffing thousands. Clearly, he had learned a new way to use his strange harmonic magic.

Once again, the boss disintegrated into ravens. They swept around the room, passing through Shamgar and me. Maxwell wisely used his agility to dodge, and I was certain Raven was doing the same, though I did not know where she was.

I rushed forward, the ravens were no threat to me. As the figure reformed atop the coffin, I found Raven already slicing up with her sickles. This time she scored two long gashes along the back of the bird creature. Mercy stabbed through its chest. Shamgar arrived a moment later and began to strike as fast as he could with his hammer.

The creature broke apart, then reformed elsewhere, sporting four new runes. The battle became straightforward from there. Like I said, it wasn’t a very smart creature. Though it completely healed every time, it also seemed to be getting slower. When the entire bird creature was covered in runes from Shamgar, he struck his shield.

The boss screeched in pain as every rune flared with eldritch light and began to siphon its energy into Shamgar. It withered and tried to break apart. Even as it did the individual ravens were drained at an even faster rate. It finally managed to reform, but it could barely move. I let Shamgar have the honors of caving its skull in.