Hunting the Undead and Uncovering the Tomb

Alessari is sticking a few paces ahead of the others, to keep an eye out for anything dangerous. She makes note of a few tripwires and pressure plates and marks them for her fellow crew members to avoid. Nothing else of note. No walls opening up, no demons rising from the ground. Until she turns the corner and stops. The relatively narrow tunnel widens out into a massive cavern. A small, trickling waterfall down one side. And a shattered ship at the bottom, half sunk into the mud. But neither of those are why the rest of her group have grown quiet. No, that would be the ghost. Her first suspicion is that it is the ghost of the pirate they were looking for, but that doesn’t seem right. He has a tomb, and those buried in tombs are rarely ghosts and can hardly ever leave those places if they do come back. “Den, Sari, how well do you think you can take out the corporeal ones without being noticed?” Felazo asks, breaking the silence.

The corporeal ones, that would be the strange shambling creatures. Should be easy enough. Their armor isn’t well preserved, and has several gaps. Should be simple enough. She looks over towards Den and nods. He nods back. Clearly he was thinking something similar.

“Good, if we stay up here, we should only have to deal with the ghost captain,” Felazo explains, “So do it quietly for as long as possible, and if you two need any help, give a shout and I can send our new expendable buddy here to do some damage and draw some fire while I draw the cursed pirate’s attention.”

“Fair,” Den says, slipping down into the cavern without a sound and barely any indication he was there, despite his size. Alessari gives Felazo another nod and drops into the rocks below. She can see the hint of Denlo darting between the rocks, while she heads in the opposite direction. She and Den may both be quiet, but she needs to find a vantage point for her attacks. There is a pair of stalagmites that are up against the cavern wall. Should work well enough posting up at one, she takes a deep breath and looks out, to see if Denlo is in a helpful position. She can’t see him. Hopefully she isn’t picking off his chosen foe. With a deep breath, she launches a pair of arrows into one of the creature’s eyes. One for each of the sunken holes. It collapses. She can feel some dark magic trying to take hold, but Nature won’t let it. Not until the fight is won. She wishes she could warn her deadly comrade, but that would reveal their attack. One of four down.

In a flash she watches as Denlo briefly appears behind the two undead that are doing their best to hammer some rotted wooden planks into the ship’s cracked hull, and with a pair of slashes they both fall. He drops back down into the mud and begins to slide through it. She can barely see the ripples that he is creating. Not a great sign. And her fears are warranted as the ghost captain seems to point at the ripples and shout. “To arms!” before noticing his fallen allies.

Felazo smiles. “Go, charge in buddy,” the elf captain tells his bound skeleton. And the armored skeleton begins to rush forwards into the cavern, much less gracefully than Denlo or Alessari had earlier.

Sister Hilan steps in front of Felazo and Ren. She asks, “Where are those two, anyways?”

No time to worry, though, Alessari thinks to herself. They should draw attention away from her. And there’s only one of the physically present undead left. With a deep breath, she takes the shot. It hits the creature in a weaker part of the armor, breaking through and sticking into its lower chest. The creature turns, noticing her. She takes her second shot, and it finds the flesh that just got exposed when she broke the armor. The arrow tears through its chest, taking some organ with it out the other side. That same energy washes over her once more. She feels sick. Rather than duck behind the other stalagmite, she turns, starts to retch, then vomits on the cavern floor. And feels much better.

The skeleton rushes across the rocks of the cavern to the ghost and slashes at it. But almost effortlessly, the ghost dodges away. The skeleton then readies itself to strike. With a single swipe of its cutlass, the ghost shatters the skeleton, sending the bones scattering across the ground. “Hey, I was starting to like that guy,” Felazo jokes from above. The Ghost rushes towards them, firing off a shot of a ghostly crossbow. Sister Hilan does Interpose her shield but the spiritual bolt makes it through, striking Felazo.

“That is it,” Felazo says as he goes to pull the arrow out and his hand passes through its fading form. He steps over and reaches into the mud below the tunnel. His eyes glow faintly and he mutters the ancient words, pulling from the earth a partially preserved head, which bursts into flame and begins to fly. “Kill it,” he tells the head. The head opens its mouth and a bit of purple flame launches out at the ghost, frying some hair. The head then rushes over to the ghost trying to ram into it, but the ghost continues to avoid every strike.

Denlo rises from the mud and launches himself at the ghost who saw him. As he arrives he swings with a wide arcing blow. The ghost moves, but that was always Denlo’s intention, as he twists the blade and the follow-through strikes the ghost. Then turning to open himself up slightly, he stabs through the ghost’s leg.

Alessari watches the attacks. Ghost. Ghosts tend to be pretty hard to hit with non-enchanted weaponry. But undeath is something that Nature has taught her how to deal with. Drawing a shaft back, she runs her finger along it. A vibrant green light begins to echo as she launches the arrow at it. The arrow manages to strike true, but as the life energy pulses out into the creature, the ghost maintains its form. Whatever purpose it has here is enough to overwhelm her little tricks.

Renalt strikes a chord on his lute, a deep, vibration that even to the others around feels strangely jarring. It does not seem to hurt the ghost, but the ghost does fully stop moving towards them and just stand there. The ghost does manage to shake off whatever Renalt just did, though whatever version of that tune it heard clearly rattled it. It takes a swipe at the skull. It cuts deep. He starts to fly away, through the skull, and Denlo cuts through his ghostly body. The ghost continues, stopping just beside Felazo and firing a bolt back at the skull. It explodes, sending fire and shrapnel all around. Denlo instinctively drops to the ground and the jagged rocks down on the ground protect him from the worst of it. With a grin, the pirate ghost readies itself to strike down Felazo.

Felazo is not having that. He reaches into the ghost’s heart and sends a pulse of dark, necromantic energy through it. It is surprised by this, starting to fumble about. Sister Hilan sees this opportunity and smashes it with her braced shield. It takes the impact and seems to shudder slightly. On the ground, Denlo finally takes a moment to vomit. Then, feeling refreshed he gets up, rushes over to the area below the tunnel, and attempts to launch himself off of one of the stones to strike the ghost. He lands harshly.

Alessari sees this opening. She takes a deep breath in. The ghost is too far away now, the life wouldn’t last. But she can still hunt it normally. Like she would any other creature that does not belong. She breathes out. And she launches the arrow. It starts to pass through the ghost, but not entirely. Partway through, the ghost seems to move, being pulled by the shaft. And it gets pinned to the wall. She watches an explosion of necromantic energy wash out from the spot as the ghost bursts. As it washes over their captain, he seems to grow quite ill. Beside him, sister Hilan also begins to look unwell. As the burst reaches Renalt, she watches a deep red flame burst out from his armor, burning away the curse. It passes over Denlo, who seems to wobble a bit as he gets up, but he recovers almost immediately. And before it can reach Alessari in her post, it fades away. “This doesn’t seem to be a tomb,” Denlo says to Felazo.

Felazo vomits but it does not help. Focusing on himself for a moment, he sighs. “I believe we may be cursed,” he says aloud as all five gather in the cavern.

“I feel fine,” Denlo says.

Renalt nods, “‘Tis nothing that can take a hold of my hallowed heart.”

Alessari looks curiously at him. “Your protection did not seem particularly holy,” she counters.

Renalt laughs but does not reply. Sister Hilan nods., ignoring the back and forth between Ren and Alessari and replying to Felazo, “I am not feeling myself, either. A curse would explain it. Might I suggest we stop by a city to take care of that prior to our next adventure.”

“That is a sound idea,” he says, “But let us find the tomb before concerning ourselves with such things.” He closes his eyes and notes, “And that is interesting,” pointing towards the figurehead on the broken ship. He turns to Denlo. “Do you mind if I create Sha-Denlo again, to remove that from the bow here and carry it back to shore?”

“Sure,” Denlo says, hesitantly. Felazo touches him, and the familiar shadowy form that looks oh so much like the masked Denlo rises up from his shadow. It gives Felazo a silent nod, and gets to work on the ship.

“So, there should be an entrance to the tomb around here,” Felazo continues, “We just need to find the part of this cavern wall that isn’t a cavern wall.”

Everyone begins to search, save Renalt. Ren heads directly for the waterfall. As he brushes the dripping water aside, a note plays. He does it in a different place, and a different note echoes through the chamber. The others rush over to him. “How did you know it would be here?” Alessari asks.

“I knew no such thing,” Renalt objected, “But where best to hide one’s secrets than behind a waterfall. Even one as forceless as this might be now, once this was likely a true current. Else how could such a ship find its way here.” Using the notes created by the waterfall, he begins to play the song he had been writing.

“I bet we need to play a dirge. His dirge. Do you know any ancient funeral dirges?” Felazo asks.

“A few,” Renalt replies, “Where shall I begin?”

Felazo thinks a moment. Denlo, realizing something, speaks up. “It won’t be a dirge.” Felazo cocks his head in confusion, so Den elaborates. “That ghost was a dwarf. The guy who’s tomb it is was a dwarf. It’ll be an ancient Kur-si’ika.”

Renalt nods. “Very well thought. I know only a pair of the Kuren-si’ika of old.” And he begins playing one of the songs of joyous death. Alessari listens and can feel it. It’s not a song of sadness, or of melancholy, but of hope. A hope for an ending. As the short song finishes, nothing happens, and, after a moment, Renalt starts playing a different song. While the first one felt like a tune with hope for an end, this one felt almost like a love song that belonged accompanying a comedic play. And as the song crescendoed, the stone behind the trickling waterfall began to split open, revealing a massive iron door with an engraved stone frame. The shifting stone did cause something above to move, as the waterfall turned from a trickle to a drizzle. Walking up to it Felazo smiles at his crew. “Time to see what’s inside,” he says. Before vomiting again.