Chapter 17

Nothing but the never ending catacomb tunnel, and skulls. Skull after skull after skull. The shadow of the tunnel stayed ahead of our green light, always out of reach, always illuminating the same repeating skulls.

At some point it had become so disorienting that we stopped for a breather. Not to mention that having to maintain conjuring Ancienne’s Nature was physically exhausting. In those brief moments of respite we paused in total darkness. Nothing kept our calm except for whispers. We talked for comfort and to fight back trepidation.

“Any class you prefer crawling with?” Foli said.

“Uhm, I’m pretty open to all the classes really. Only had a problem with this warrior once, but I think it was just him, you know?”

“Yea I get it. I was in a trio with a mage a bit ago. That was not a fun run.”

“Why?”

“Controlling type. Didn’t listen to me or our rogue at all. Took first pick of loot because he felt he deserved it, blah, blah, blah.”

We whispered on as we crept further along the tunnels. The unending monotony was beginning to really get under our skin. Our pace increased and we were nearly jogging now.

“Hold on, hold on,” I said. “I’m feeling really weird, let me check something.

I flowed my mana into a bottleless ball of sloshing essence, then expanded it to form a medium ring. Our health bars came up near the bottom of the inner ring, skewed to the left.

“Aha!” I said. “I knew it!”

“What?” Foli said, coming round to look at our health.

Pulsing over our health bars were two purple brains. Black lightning bolts were blinking around each one. Each bolt faded to black, then illuminated to purple again, before repeating the process.

“We’re afflicted by something,” I said. “Not sure what it is.”

“Fear?” she said. “Insanity? I feel like I’m going insane down here.”

“Honestly, I have no idea, but this is good.”

“Good? How?”

“Well, now that we know we’re afflicted, we can be more aware if it starts to have an effect on our actions. We’d been cautious up until now. There might be a trap ahead or something and the dungeon wanted us to freak out and start running. I don’t know. I’m just trying to be helpful.”

“No, no you’re right,” she said, “at least we know.”

Without another word, we moved on at our normal pace. We shortly arrived at another crypt. This one was larger with almost twice as many dugouts filled with resting skeletons. The plan was to attempt a surprise-attack..

We eliminated a few before the others came to life. Foli continued bashing about with Oak Beard active. With my flagstaff, I kept a good distance from the brass short swords. We stayed together this time and fought nearly side by side. Foli’s Oak Beard arms and fists were massive and covered a lot of space so I stayed back just a bit.

Everytime she pulled back to prepare for another attack, I would stab with the end of my flagstaff, or swing it in a short arc. I was able to dispatch a few this way. The horde of skeletons pushed through with eagerness and I had no choice but to fire off Fist of Wind a few times. While this kept them at bay, giving Foli a chance to recover for her next onslaught, I watched my mana nearly deplete. I had one Fist of Wind left in me.

The battle raged on while we rotated through our tactics. One by one, brass swords clattered to the floor of the crypt. Bones piled over brass weapons and over skeleton kin. I took down the last skeleton with a short swing of my flagstaff. Broken in half, and not quite deceased, it wriggled on the floor, swinging it’s sword arm and scraping an elbow against stone. I whacked at it with my staff until it moved no more.

“I’m out of mana—3 points left,” Foli said, slumped down against a column, catching her breath.

“5 left for me,” I said, and fished out 1 of 2 mana potions.

“No, save those. I’ve got something that’ll help.”

Foli flowed her mana out in what would have been a circle. Instead, a small dash of blue bar-—3 points worth—hovered at the top.

“Elder Azure’s Totem,” she said.

The crypt floor cracked at her feet. The ground rumbled. Plates of stone snapped to pieces. Then, from the damaged floor, up sprang a structure of indigo crystals. Branch shaped bars of these crystals leaned together to form a mini tent. A soft glow emanated from each bar of the totem. It’s base burst into deeply blue flames that burned in slow motion.

As we were cast in the darkest blue I’d ever seen, I watched Foli’s mana bar slowly begin to increase. I cast my manar bar in circle form and observed mine refill as well.

“Wow, that’s awesome,” I said. “How long will this take?”

“What's your mana pool?”

“30.”

“Around an hour.”

“An hour!”

“We’ve got time, and we’ve just cleared the crypt, so hopefully we can refill in peace. Is that ok? Would you rather rush through? I think it’s better to save your potions. They cost a couple silver a piece right? My spell just costs time and a single mana point—and also, it’ll give me time to absorb all these bones.”

“Yea, no, I don’t mind at all honestly. Wish there was something I could do except guard though.”

For the next hour, the crypt was filled with blue and green lights. I rotated between guarding each tunnel mouth on either side of the crypt, and taking a few breaks here and there to rest. I inspected my flagstaff to find more damage on the eyelet handles at the top, and the pole of the flagstaff as well. Durability would have to be an investment for sure.

All that was left after Foli’s absorption were 24 brass swords. “Takes A LOT longer to absorb metals,” she explained.

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We continued on through the new tunnel with the Ancienne’s Nature bar our guiding light. Our eyes had acclimated to the stark darkness of this dungeon, and we could discern more detail. Our health bars were still afflicted with the purple brains pulsing with black bolts, but there was nothing we knew to do about it.

The tunnel began to curve more than at any other part so far. After a brief journey of this, we emptied into a large crypt. A crypt of pillars and spilled coffins and dirt in place of stone.

The boss’s lair.

Torches were alight on wrought iron sconces that adorned decorative pillars. Foli stopped flowing her Ancienne’s Nature bar. We heard humming in the crypt, but saw no boss, no skeleton horde, no monster.

Digggggg, diggggg, diggg. Digg, digggg, diggggg.

We crept further into the crypt, nearing the first coffins. Coffins that might have been stacked at once, but had fallen over and been left neglected. Careful not to touch any, we peered over them.

There was a hole in the ground. A stout fellow was in the hole staring absently at the dirt beneath his feet. He did not move. He held a crude shovel in his hands and he resumed his humming without motion.

Diggg, diggg, digggg. Diggg, diggg, digggggg.

His song was a plaintive dirge. It carried a haunting melody, buried in the deep of his throat.

Diggg, digg, digggggg. Digggggg, diggggggg, diggg.

His shovel struck the ground between pebbles and dirt with such speed that Foli and I jumped. She gave a light shriek and we fell back into deeper shadows. The shoveling promptly stopped and the hunched man could be heard shuffling about in his pit.

“Who goes there?” he whispered. “Someone’s come to die? I’ve got empty coffins. I’ve got graves to dig.

Foli held her own mouth closed. When she looked at me, her eyes said, “sorry!”

There were no two ways about it now. It was time to fight this hunchback tombkeeper. Foli cast her mana bar in a wide circle and said, “Spinx Wasp! Oak Beard!”

Her mana depleted to near zero. Half of it formed an egg before her, and from it, inverted the form of a metallic blue wasp the size of my chest. It buzzed with violent vigor and from it’s abdomen glinted a menacing stinger.

She was then encased in a green gel that formed Oak Beard’s raging face and massive hands. Foli charged.

“He’s gone,” she said, glancing back at me from the edge of the hole.

We scanned the crypt. We listened with held breath. Not a stir. Not a peep. Only the bits of dust that shook from the lip of a coffin lid. A coffin right behind Foli.

Foli!” I said.

The coffin lid burst apart and from it’s velvet lining came the unfurling form of the tombkeeper. He laughed maniacally and shouted, “They said I died!”

He leapt up, shovel in hand, swinging at Foli with all his might. His eyes were blind-white, and as he moved, gray hair trailed the border of a balding spot atop his head. Foli was struck in the back and her health bar took a massive hit.

I swept up my flagstaff and slammed it down. It pounded with a quick thud against the crypt floor. 10 points of my mana bar struck out like a viper to the bottom of the flagstaff, where it burst in a pinch beneath the rune.

The Five of Gryf Ribbon leapt out like a throttled silver snake and a pair of small wings fluttered over Foli. In the same instant, Fist of Wind tumbled through the air and bashed into the hunchback. The life Life-steal enchantment brought the rune of Fist of Wind to hover over Foli. With those two forms of healing, her health bar was back to full.

Foli gathered herself and charged the hunchback. Oak Beard raged without volume and her fists clashed against quick swings of the boss’s shovel.

Coffin lids all around us cracked open with a cough of dust. From the gaps came skeleton parts. First legs, then knees, then hands and arms, then skulls and shoulders, then ribs and brass blades.

Rehk! Kehk! Kehk! Kek!

Rouhk! Kuh! Kuh! Kuh!

Foli’s Sphinx Wasp dove into action and flashed to the exhumed skeletons. I kept an eye on both Foli and her wasp’s health bar as I beat back encroaching skeletons. Her wasp was having a hard time striking with it’s stinger, but Foli was doing a fine job keeping the boss preoccupied. He was taking hit after hit, hardly able to return an attack.

Then he scampered away and jammed the bit of his shovel at the lip of a coffin lid. He leapt up, and when he descended, all his might was put into breaking open the coffin lid.

Foli charged after him.

“They said I died!” the boss called again in a voice bent with a broken throat. He fell back, performing a trust fall into the coffin. The lid slid closed of its own accord.

Foli slammed her glowing green Oak Beard fists down onto the coffin and it splintered in two. There was no sign of the boss in the rubble.

I was further preoccupied by skeletons drawing near and struck out with my flagstaff. Flashing green light told me that Foli had switched to fighting the skeleton horde.

While we were successful in fending off and defeating the few skeletons that ambled about with malice, the hunchback’s dirge began to drone from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Digggggg, digg, diggggggg. Diggg, digggg, digggg.

There was an explosion behind me. Bits of coffin material blew past me. The blade of the boss’s shovel smacked the back of my head and I fell to the ground, incapacitated by pain. Foli’s wasp was above me then and I could make out the violent thrumming of the wasp’s wings, mixed with the cries of agony from the boss.

Skeleton feet rushed toward me. I shoved a fist into my bag and smashed a potion bottle. The pain was instantly gone and I rose to my feet, meeting the blade of a brass sword edge on my way up. It struck me on the shoulder with a loud thwack and I felt blood run down my arm. I dropped my flagstaff. Foli burst into the encircling skeleton horde and held them off while I smashed another potion in a fist and retrieved my weapon.

I cracked the flagstaff against the ground again. Five of Gryf and Fist of Wind activated. I aimed the tumbling ball of wind for the skeletons driving Foli back and they burst to pieces on impact. Foli took the 10 healing from both spells, while I received only the Life-steal.

The ancienne’s Sphinx Wasp joined the fray by her side. I heard the boss’s humming echo formless in the crypt. A wheezing accompanied it, as though the dirge too was damaged.

Digggg, digg, diggg. Diggg, diggggg, diggg.

Back on our feet now, Foli and I turned the tide of battle. The procession of undying skeletons trickled slowly enough that we could manage a few moments to handle them. We took turns to pick them off while defending each other against the boss’s pop up surprise attacks.

Again the hunchback uncurled from beneath an exploding coffin lid. He came up, shovel swinging, aiming for the back of Foli’s head.

“Fist of Wind!” I called and sent the whossing fist careening towards the boss.

The spell interrupted his swing and he tripped back, falling heavily to the floor. Foli spun and pounced upon him, driving her fists to smash him to smithereens.

Digggg, digg, diggg…

Foli didn’t stop her relentless bashing until the hunchback disintegrated away with a thousand burning strips of flesh and clothes and gore and bone. It’s humming died, leaving us in softly flickering torchlight.

We made our way to each other’s side and kept a wary eye to the few remaining coffins with intact lids. The Sphinx Wasp buzzed about, randomly striking with vengeance at skeleton parts and tumbling in a brawl with the inanimate debris.

A stone wall crumbled apart at the far end of the crypt. We braced against what might be another onslaught of skeletons, but no monsters came through. There was only a gold column of light, and within it, a chest.

“We did it,” Foli whispered as though this crypt were sacred grounds.

Her Oak Beard spell fell away and she flipped open the chest. I was glad to find mana crystals along with 9 other items.

“You take what you want first,” I said.

“I’ll take the robes,” she said, pulling the dark fabric from beneath everything else.

“I’ll take the scroll,” I said.

It continued on until nothing was left. Foli was now in possession of the robes, an old book, a handful of arrows, and a small ruby. I myself had the scroll, a small pouch of copper pieces, a small bouquet of dried flowers (must have been blue at one point), and a bundle of fur.

After Foli absorbed the skeletons, we drank a potion each, and returned through the dungeon tunnel. The tunnel, having changed, spit us out at the mouth of the dungeon.

On our return trip to the guild, we reminisced over the good times we’d had together, and the scary times we’d had together. Her Sphinx Wasp kept pace with us some of the way, then fell apart as though it were a broken mirage.