Ewtain and Vultressant were both up, or possibly still up, when Vanya was awakened by the smell of meat. She was stiff in a few places, but she felt as if she had slept well. She moved her legs and smiled gleefully that she was still able to move the limbs that had been useless since her accident. The lights in the room were as bright as they had been when she had fallen asleep, and she wondered at the slow-burning fuel that was powering them. She felt famished; she had not eaten at all the night before, and she rummaged through her pack and found some dried fruits as well as some vegetables. Was she supposed to be a vegetarian? Her favorite meal was pork roast, but the thought of that dish made her feel a little woozy now. Maroftis had been eating meat the night before, or at least she thought he had. It was fairly revolting watching him eat, so she hadn’t gotten a great look at his meal, but she believed that it was some meat, and it even looked like it had been raw. He was eating more now, and that was likely the smell that overpowered the room. She ate some of the fruit, enjoying its sweet flavor. She felt a strong need to relieve herself, so she started up the stairs.
“Vanya, where are you going?” Vultressant asked.
Vanya did not sense alarm in his voice, but there was a certain command to it that made her feel like she had been misbehaving or something. “I need to use the bathroom,” she replied a bit defensively.
He nodded. “If you have to do anything more than just piss, we dug a hole behind the first tree due north of the entrance—take a right when you exit the building if you need to use it. Also, there are some leaves that we piled next to the hole that you can use when you’re done. If you prefer to use the stream instead, be careful not to fall in.” The last he said with a smirk that she didn’t think was meant for her, but no one else made any comment, so she just nodded and went up the stairs. Vanya was glad that Vult had just been looking out for her and not trying to boss her around. He did have a tendency to try to control things, but he’d always been nice to her.
The sunlight was warm and bright, and it was refreshing outside after the night in the crypt. The larger sun was already up, and the smaller one was just coming over the horizon. Maybe this was second dawn, if that could be a thing. She opted for the hole since she didn’t feel right using the stream as a toilet; they had been using it for drinking water and would be doing so again, and the fact that everything would go downstream was beside the point. She hunkered down and did her business, using the tree as a backrest to stabilize herself. She felt a bit bad for not offering to help with the watch last night, but she’d been exhausted, and it hadn’t even occurred to her the night before. People had been doing things for her for so long that she’d gotten used to it. She decided to not be a burden and to do her share in the future.
She finished relieving herself, reached for a leaf to wipe with, and then went to the stream to rinse her hands and face. What she really wanted was a hot shower. Even when she had been able to walk, she’d never been a fan of hiking. Between traveling and sleeping on the floor of a dusty old dungeon, she felt pretty gross and thought about looking for a place to wash up. She considered the stream but didn’t want to stray from the group without the ability to protect herself. She also wanted to stay outside and look for herbs or other possible ingredients for potion making, but the same fear kept her from doing so. She sighed and made her way back to the entry room.
When she was almost down, she began to hear Ewtain’s voice. “Still no sign of a respawn. Do you want to hit the closer of the two doors now?”
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“I think that we should try it,” Taloc replied. “We have daylight now, and if we need to run, we should have an easier time of it. I’d like to find civilization as soon as possible, but this might be a good spot to get some experience.” He noticed that Vanya had gotten back, and continued, “We’re all here, so why don’t we buff up and give it a go?”
With no objections, Vanya started casting her blessing spell on the group, and Vultressant began casting as well. Vanya planned on casting her ward undead spell just before they opened the door to get the most of the spell’s duration while still protecting them before they encountered anything. The rest of the group prepared themselves for battle.
When they arrived outside the door, Vanya cast her warding spell. She noticed a blue glimmer surrounding Vultressant. Ewtain opened the door, and Maroftis went into the room first, followed by Isla and Taloc. Each of them was carrying a burning knife that had been coated in the fuel used to light the place, and they quickly sought out any light fixtures that might be within. This was a room and not a corridor, but it was much smaller than the room that they had already cleared out. It was also shaped like an L, but it was only about a third of the size. There were a few skeletons that Maroftis engaged in the small entry area, and once Isla had lit a wall light, Vanya could see nearly a dozen more of them. There were also two other figures that were covered in wrapping and looked to be mummies.
“We should have no problem with this,” Maroftis said while hacking at a skeleton and swatting his tail at one that was attempting to move past him. “The two mummy guys are tougher than the skeletons, but they con way lower than the big skeleton did.” Vultressant did his best to paraphrase this quickly for the group.
Vanya concentrated on staying close enough to the front line to make her ward useful. Only one of the skeletons tried to flee this time, and Ewtain cut it down as it fled. Vult had also stayed back as the other four spread out to engage the skeletons, who were moving much more quickly than the two wrapped figures. Other than Maroftis, the others in the melee were taking more of a defensive approach to help them take as little damage as possible from the skeletons.
There was a streak of light that flew by Vanya and erupted into one of the mummies as Vultressant sent a bolt of fire at the undead being. The wrappings that were hanging off of the thing burst into flames, and it made a terrible noise—sort of a cross between a scream and a howl. The other mummy moaned, “Noooo!” and began to shamble a bit faster, now angling towards the Wizard who had just blasted its crypt mate.
Isla finished off the skeleton that she’d been engaged with and moved to intercept the mummy. When she got to the thing, it swung its arm at her with a speed that Vanya had not expected was possible given its slow gait. Isla was just quick enough to get her shield between herself and the incoming arm, but it struck the shield with tremendous force, and Isla flew back several feet, landing on her back.
Vultressant shot an arrow into the mummy as it neared him, but if it did any damage at all, the mummy showed no signs of it. It was getting close to him, so Vanya also tried to shoot her bow at it. She was hoping to be able to damage it, but she believed that distracting it might be the best that she could hope for. She focused, and a target appeared on the side of the mummy. She fired, and like Vultressant’s, her shot also landed, but it also appeared to have very little impact on the mummy’s health. When the mummy reached the Wizard, it swung a bandaged fist at him, and it struck his shield spell. The fist bounced back, and the effect on the shield looked like one of the toy “lightning” balls that had electricity crackling through it.
While Vultressant did not received any damage, he was pushed back by the blow. He dropped his bow, and he was attempting another bolt of fire spell when the mummy struck him again. Although the shielding absorbed most of that attack, Vult was struck on the shoulder. He managed to maintain his focus, and his spell struck the mummy in the chest, causing it to scream as it burned.