When Isla was ready to travel again, the group headed back to the stream. They continued following it in the direction that they had been going, which, according to Taloc’s direction sense skill, was generally east. He had a minimap up on his display, and it showed where he and his five companions were currently located, but there wasn’t much on the map for where they had already traveled. Those locations had no details but were gray in color, in stark contrast to the areas that had not been discovered, which were black. It operated like a map with fog of war. He did keep the map active any time he was scouting. It was present in the lower right corner of his vision even when the rest of the HUD was not active. He did this just in case the map displayed other creatures that he might have missed otherwise.
After what must have been at least a few hours, they came across an area that was devoid of trees on the opposite side of the stream. They decided to cross and investigate the area. After they climbed up the bank on the opposite side, they saw a stone structure in the middle of the clearing.
Taloc scouted the perimeter of the trees before approaching the small building. It was made entirely of grayish stone, save for the door. There was a single stone block on either side of the door; upon each was what looked somewhat like a stone bird bath. The structure reminded Taloc of something out of a cemetery in New Orleans.
The suns were still present in the sky, although one looked like it was beginning to set. He didn’t know how much longer they would have daylight, and he wanted to make camp fairly soon. He decided to take a look inside and make camp here.
As Taloc went to open the door, Vultressant asked, “Really? We’re going to open the crypt?”
“We won’t know what this place is unless we go inside,” Taloc replied.
Vultressant gave him an okay, I’ll humor you look and said, “At least let me cast some buffs on us first.” The wizard cast a spell, prompting an icon to appear in Taloc’s display. When he focused on it, the description said, Fire resistance: prevents up to 30% of heat or fire damage. There was a countdown timer that looked to have started at ten minutes, so the buff had a long duration, which was excellent. Vanya also proceeded to cast a buff on each of them. When it was his turn, another icon appeared: Blessing: Increases all attributes by 2. That buff also increased his health and mana pools by 20 each; it also had a ten-minute duration. He had no spells, so he was not sure what he needed mana for at this point, but the rest of the increases would be useful. Vultressant then cast a spell that caused a blue glow to surround him briefly before fading away—probably a shielding spell—and said, “Ready.”
“I tried to detect traps,” Ewtain said, “and I didn’t find any, so I guess we’re good?” He shrugged.
Taloc shrugged back and went to open the door. It opened outward, and while it creaked when it moved, it did move easily enough. When the seal was broken, the musty smell of stale air wafted out of the opening. Taloc had the feeling that the door had not been opened in a very long time.
Inside, there was only a staircase leading underground. He could not see very far down until Isla, who had lit a lantern from her pack during the spellcasting, moved next to him. The stairs were wide enough for them to go down three abreast. He went down first, flanked by Isla and Ewtain. Ewtain and Isla each had the skill detect traps, so it made sense that they were in the front group. With two of them on alert, there was twice the chance that they would notice anything that might be waiting for them. The casters and tank were close behind them.
He was not counting the stairs, but Taloc estimated that there were around 60, and by the time that they arrived at the bottom, the temperature was much cooler than it had been on the surface. The precise stonework of the stairs, walls, and ceilings meant that the place was either manmade or magically made.
The room at the base of the stairs was square, with sides that were roughly 20 feet in length. In each corner of the room, there was an alcove that contained an object with a cylindrical metal base with faceted glass above it. Upon further inspection, there was a cap on the base that could be screwed off. They removed one, allowing an oily odor to escape. Taloc took out a small knife and dipped it into the opening. What came out was not liquid, but a gel that reminded him of Sterno. He touched his knife to the flame of their lantern, and the top third of his knife burst into a deep blue flame that burned higher than he would have expected. He brought the burning knife back to the oil. The gel ignited, and the device illuminated a large portion of the room. Taloc proceeded to light the other three, smothering the flames on his knife with a cloth after he was done.
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The room was now very well lit, and Taloc could clearly see that there was only one other path from the room, a corridor directly across from the staircase they had come down. Vultressant and Vanya had refreshed the buffs for the party while they were inspecting the room and getting the lights to work, so it was time to continue exploring.
“In? Camp here?” Maroftis asked, pointing at the ground for emphasis.
“We should probably explore this place before just setting up camp,” Vultressant replied. “Or we could just go back up.”
“This place could be huge,” Vanya said. “We’ve been walking for hours, and it might be better to tackle this place tomorrow.”
Taloc had been thinking about just that while he had been lighting up the room, but he felt that it would be better to check things out while they were tired as opposed to being ambushed while many of them slept. “We won’t know the size of this place without exploring it. It might be small and easily defensible. We should at least take a look.”
No one argued, and Ewtain offered to lead the way; he was the best choice for the job. The hallway out of the room at the stairs ended in a t-intersection. There was a door at the end of the right hall, and the left passage bent to the right a short way down, revealing two more doors and a hallway to the right. Another door was in that hallway.
After their preliminary search, they went back to their original room, where they felt safe discussing their next course of action. “Do we want to start opening doors now or just wait until tomorrow?” Taloc asked.
“We could check that closest door down the hall to the right and pull any creatures we find to this room,” Ewtain offered.
Taloc liked the suggestion. It made sense since that was a typical strategy in the online games that they played, but Vultressant voiced an objection. “What if instead of just following us to this room, some or all of them go to the other rooms and bring the house to us? We don’t know the rules of this place yet, so that strategy might not be very safe.”
“Why don’t we head to the first door we found and open it up?” Taloc asked. “If we encounter anything, we take care of it there if we can, and we fall back to this room if we can’t. If it looks like more than we can handle or if they get reinforcements, then we head back up to the surface.”
“We should also buff up again and light some more lanterns,” Vultressant added. “I don’t have one in my pack or inventory, though.”
The casters recast their spells, and two more lanterns were produced and lit. Once ready, they went back to the door that they had discovered first. There were no handles on it and no obvious trick stone that they could push to make it open on its own, so Ewtain and Taloc began to push the door. Ewtain was on the right, and his side swung inward, so Taloc moved over to that side as well. They made a fair amount of noise since there was some scraping involved, and when they shined their lanterns into the room, they saw several skeletons moving towards them. Most either wore tattered clothing or nothing at all, but there were two of them equipped with swords and mostly broken chain mail.
“Stay near me! I can ward against undead,” Vanya exclaimed as more skeletons came from another part of the room, which appeared to be shaped like an L. She promptly started chanting; when she had finished casting, another buff showed for each of them in the group window.
“The sword guys are a little tougher than the rest,” Maroftis said in Koraken, “but all are pretty weak opponents according to my assess other skill.” Vultressant translated this to the rest of the group.
The three lanterns were set down, and weapons were drawn. They had little problem dispatching the skeletons individually, but there were so many of them that they could not avoid all of their attacks, most of which were scratches from their skeletal hands. The warding spell appeared to be affecting the skeletons, since some of them stayed away or even ran in the other direction.
The party had downed over a dozen of the undead when an extremely large skeletal creature became visible as it walked towards them from the other part of the room.
Maroftis spoke again, and Vultressant translated. “He said that the big one is going to be a problem.”
This skeleton stood almost to the ceiling, which Taloc estimated to be nine or ten feet high, and its arms were so long that its claws—and they were claws, not simply skeletal hands—nearly touched the ground. Each arm ended in three long and pointy fingers that were more like talons. It looked part cadaver and part skeleton.
The thing let out a hideous laugh and said, “Foolish mortals! You should not have come here.” The words were in Common, but they were said with a gravely inhuman voice, and Taloc had to fight the urge to flee. A red debuff icon appeared on the bottom of the screen of his HUD, and when he focused on it, he found that his ability to attack had been hindered. Moving towards the creature, which according to the name that appeared above its status bars was called a skeletal champion, would require that he overcome his fear of it. He felt confident that he could move away from the huge skeleton, but he was trying with all his will to go forward without success.