10) Bernard’s scar

The dead black skeleton waded into the mushrooms. With each of its steps throwing up a cloud of dusty pollen that hung in the still air far longer than it should have. Whatever effects the spores may have had remained unknown due to the undead not being in the habit of breathing.

Kev looked longing back in the direction of our ship. "One flare right into that. The fuel-air explosion would clear it all out."

I shook my head at him. “Or we can just have the skeleton keep moving around until everything is shaken loose, then look for loot on anyone that died out in that mushroom patch."

Our captain’s eyes lit up. Easy money was always a motivator for him.

When I asked Erin to call her minion back I expected her to yell for him, but instead, she just waved at it and it came back on its own. She glanced over at me. "He doesn't use words, but he gets my meaning. I don't even really need to wave."

The skeleton took another hour of milling back and forth until there was no further sign of anything clouding the air. During which time I had to hear Sue sigh over and over again. More loudly each time until Sandra sighed and told her. "Just go ahead and complain so you can be done with it." Which earned her a death glare from the grumpy green giantess, but it did shut her up.

Finally, I pulled out a plastic bottle of water from my school bag that I spilled onto the front of my shirt before holding it out for someone else to grab. "Wet down something you can put over your mouth, black bones seemed to have shaken loose everything out there. But we should still be careful."

Rob called out. "Hold up, I got three dust masks that should work too." He kept one for himself and handed the other two to Erin and Sandra. Sandra even thanked him for it while Erin acted like she was doing him a favor by taking one. Everyone else had to settle for using their shirts except for Kev who actually had a handkerchief.

I nearly tripped over the bones of some immense sized person who had died in the mushroom patch, the first of several mortal remains. Erin pointed at some of them while speaking behind the mask which muffled her voice. I nodded when some of her comments came at me while Sue filled up a white plastic bag with one set of shiny almost prismatic looking bones at the necromancer's direction.

I guess she wanted a spare skeleton.

We managed to collect three more vials, as well as a variety of coins before we gave up on looking for anything more. Kev somehow found a saber made of some almost gold looking metal with smooth red gems all over the hand guard. "Score!" No one tried to take it from him, it's not like anyone could use it all that much better them him. So finders keepers and dibs were going to be the standard protocol for loot.

The stairs leading up the crack in the cliff face were dusty and steep in spots. Which explained the whole iron ring with the remains of the rope safety rails.

Up top, I could see a rough stoney slope leading up to a tall narrow cave entrance in a wall that went up higher than our light could reach, even with our eyes adjusted for the darkness. Two sort of Incan or Aztec looking carvings of two monkeys or apes stood to either side of the crack, each well over two stories tall.

I pulled my shirt down, fairly certain we were well beyond any remaining spores. “I’m fairly confident we’re aren't going to have to fight those.” Sue huffed like she was disappointed while Kev muttered something about still not trusting them.

Then I took a moment to cough up all the water I had been breathing in through my shirt.

The vials showed a guy that looked like he was covered in leeches. It failed to respond to anyone, but Stist called it a bark shell vial. There was another healer one, and a burning passion vial that responded to Kev. Stist said it made people more attractive to the opposite gender of their own race and some others.

Sandra started in on the lizard woman about what she meant by gender but was sternly told by Sue. "She said gender which is either an innie or an outie and has nothing to do with personal identity. So drop it, now.”

Kev just grinned and began singing “Love potion number nine...”

That got everyone moving toward the cave. From up close Sandra’s crown showed the wall in front of us curving out to form the ceiling of the small state sized cavern that constituted the newbie starting area.

It probably wasn't really that big, but still to quantify it by any lesser comparison would be a disservice.

I took a moment to wonder why the so called gods set this up for. What use did they have for old timey sailors?

Rob looked around. “So… Marching order?”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Sue walked past the rest of us. “Point, unless someone is set up to check for traps?” Erin waved her hand up high, then pointed at her skeleton. “He is!”

I nodded. “Black bones up front by at least ten feet. Then Rob and Erin so she can direct the skeleton. Then Sandra followed by Kev. Then me. I know I'm the healer but I'm the best choice for the rearguard."

Since no one immediately objected, Sue began to head toward the entrance, while Erin’s skeleton raced forward nearly soundlessly to take the lead.

Rob looked ahead. “Just so we’re all on the same page. What are we up to here, and what’s the plan.”

Sue held up three fingers. “Find our way to Bernard.” she lowered one finger. “Gank his undead ass.” She dropped her second finger. “Loot.” Then she dropped her third finger.

The crack in the cliff led down a long hall that the skeleton walked down without incident, but as soon as Sue stepped into the halls, lines of golden light began to creep up from the floor in ornate patterns, turning the entire worked stone hallway into an abstract looking light show.

Rob looked around. “This place is like the club, it's totally lit."

He never stops. But at least Sue doesn't either as she followed the skeleton up to the entrance to a larger room that it stopped in the middle of. "There's a bunch of bodies covered in cobwebs and dust. If this was a horror movie I would be worried they were all going to start moving as we tried to get across the room."

Erin spoke up. “Blacky didn’t activate the lights either, so we don’t know if he would get them to do anything on his own.”

I glanced over at Rob. “Rob? Can you call up one of those flamethrowers the guy with the Bond villain name made?"

He shook his head. "No, I never handled one. The best I can do is a blow torch. And it's Elon Musk, but I thought the same thing about his name when I heard about him for the first time."

I mulled that over and began to push my way forward, which wasn't an issue since despite our single file order the tunnel was more than wide enough for two people. "Sorry, coming through. I want to see what we're dealing with."

The room looked like it had been some sort of dining or meeting room with three big tables, each one large enough for a dozen people if they squeezed together on the small benches. As well as a six person table on the far end with chairs on the opposite side and either ends, but none in the front.

Barrels and tables with boxes on them were lined up on either side of the room with bottles, extra plates, and mugs as well.

The former inhabitants, about a dozen or so, sat around the larger tables or had fallen partially or entirely to the floor. In addition to the… fourteen dead guys in pirate looking gear were three large monkeys. That I could see. The bodies were small enough that more of them could be about the room.

Of more concern were the webs covering everything in the room, and the last corpse at sat head table that had a five pointed star like blade on the end of a long handle clutched in his bony hands on the table in front of him.

The open arches to each side of the room and the still intact door on the back wall to one side of a good sized fireplace were also worrisome considering I didn’t have a clue what was beyond them without stepping into the room to take a look.

"Anyone else worried about what made those webs like maybe the flying spiders acting like bats and covering the ceiling of this room.”

Rob, being practical looked around. “I don’t see any dropping like bats would make.”

I glanced around. "Do any of you girls have a mirror on them? We can have the skeleton hold it to give us a look at the ceiling without going inside… Why are you three glaring at me?”

Sandra had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot. “I do have a compact with me, but why did you have to ask if the girls had one? Why not just ask if anyone had one?”

I threw up my hands. “Okay, you have a point. But maybe have this conversation later?”

She huffed but dug out her mirror. Black bones held it in its hand and at Erin's directions and hand gestures, it managed to show off enough of the ceiling to relieve my paranoia.

At the very least there weren't any ceiling bat spiders, in this room.

Sue looked around with a bored look. “So, are we going in or not.”

I held up my hand. “I vote we send in the skeleton with Rob’s blowtorch and set all the corpses on fire. Then we head out and let the smoke clear out.”

Sue had obviously been looking forward to a fight, but she got outvoted. Even Erin agreed to burning the possible undead. “Cremation is always a tasteful way of laying the dead to rest, and besides their bones look boring.”

With Rob's blowtorch in both of its hands, the skeleton set to firing up the remains of the clothing covering each corpse which quickly spread to engulf the remains in the dry air this far from the Dark sea.

It needed both hands since Rob called up the largest blowtorch he had ever handled, and as it turned out an animated skeleton without any muscles was not all that strong. Erin twisted her foot around on the ground as her minion struggled with the tool. "...so weak. I got to pick out bigger bones next time."

Sue watched as the bodies went up in flames, along with the aged, dry rotting tables and benches. Then she turned and gave me a dry look. "Did you notice the lack of those red bars showing how hurt things are or identification name tags?"

I shrugged. "Health bars. They're called health bars."

Then the skeleton the star shaped mace thing stood up from the high table, it stood quickly enough to its full, well over six foot height. Knocking its chair to the ground behind it as it turned and beheaded our skeleton with one swing of its weapon.

The words Captain Bernard, undead and forsworn appeared in red above him.

With two health bars.

His crew members began to arise, Skeleton Corsairs above their heads in read, as did the monkeys. All five of them.

Skeleton Hunkeys. Sue sputtered. “Hunkeys? Really?”

I took a few steps back. "Spirit weapon. Notice the health bar now, and how they're all down

a bit already?"

Sue punched her fist into her other hand. "Notice how I fight with my bare hands, and now I have to punch burning skeletons. But that's a conversation we should have later."

At the moment, I was on the left, Sue was in the middle and Kev was on the far side. We had all taken several steps back as the burning undead began to gather up in the entryway of the room. All of them were forced to bunch up so that they could only come at us three at a time.

Yes, I planned that. But I lucked out that Sue had backed up with me and Kev. Our Captain and I had fought together enough in mock battles to work together without the need to call everything out. But I couldn't always count on the three new people to do so as well. Or really, not always Kev either.

Then Kev drew his sword out which immediately burst into flames. He eyeballed it in delight, then looked at the burning skeletons advancing toward him and slumped his shoulders. "Of all the magical swords I could get for this particular fight..."

Behind the mob Captain Bernard stood. Star weapon his right hand, Rob blowtorch blowing out a seven inch blue flame in the other.

He looked at the three of us up front, each of us right in the eyes.

"Hold up!"

I heard rob behind me. “He speaks? Cool. Parlay!”

The undead captain ignored us. "Pull your weapons out idiots. If you don't have one then grab the thigh bones from the black one. Then push them outside so we can use our numbers. Push!"

See, directions help.

There was just enough time for Erin to shout. “Not Blacky! Noooooo!”

Then they were on us.