Ruins in the River
Jack climbed through the watery tunnel, his breath nearly gone as he navigated through touch and the dim light that only his sensitive half elven eyes could see, not looking down to where his light enchanted rod had fallen, not wanting to see what lay beneath him. It was not only because of what he saw down there in the depths of the river, but also because if he turned back now, he'd surely drown as he'd come too far to go back now, and now, reaching the air pocket was his only chance.
Jack bolted from the water like he was being chased by a sea serpent. Within a moment he was free from the underground pool, climbing over the ledge and rolled onto his back into the dark underground cave he'd followed his friend into. For a moment, Jack gasped for that sweet, dank cave air while his heart pounded in his chest and he blinked away the water obscuring his vision. The cave was dark, but every second was punctuated by the sound of steel striking stone, and with that sound, the cave would light up with a dim flare of sparks. Looking over, Jack could see his human friend, Jill, trying to light up something. Having caught his breath, Jack stood up and raised his hands. Rather than let her continue to light what was likely her wet torch, Jack ruffled into his bag and pulled out a small vial of phosphorescent moss, and then said the magic word to cast the spell light upon himself. In an instant, everything was bright as Jack became the sun of the little world of the cave.
"There are zombies in the damn water," Jack grumbled as Jill gave him the briefest of looks before standing up herself.
"Well yeah, you didn't think they climbed back up that hole when the night was over, right?"
"Well, I… no not really, but why the hell, ugh. Never mind," Jack said, scratching behind his pointed half elven ear in a bit of embarrassment for not realising that obvious fact, before looking around the cave once more. The ceiling of the cave was some kind of large, solid stone slab, with stone pillars holding the ceiling up. Those pillars and the ceiling slab was probably the reason why there was this cave in the first place. Ahead of them Jack could see some more stonework, large stone bricks that took up one entire wall of the cave, a slab that acted as the foundation that the pillars sat upon, and in the middle of that wall, there was the entrance of the crypt where the zombies in the river had come from.
Thank the Gods that zombies can't swim, Jack thought for a moment, still trying to shake that moment when his magical glowing rod had slipped from his neck, and had revealed the zombies in the river's depths. They'd stood there, watching him while their empty eye sockets, their pale skin bulging from the water soaking into them, their arms up, but unable to touch him as he'd frozen for a moment still high above where they stood, and was nearly taken away by the lazy current of the river, towards the shallows. Where the zombie could have reached him.
"Why are we here again?" Jack asked as he looked back at the water, a shiver going through him that wasn't from the cold. Jill let out a small chortle before answering.
"Because you wanted that crazy wizard who decided to build his house on cursed land to teach you a spell?"
"Oh yeah, right," Jack said as he twisted his clothes, water dripping from them liberally before he eventually gave up. Sighing, Jack snapped his fingers as he cast a "Cantrip," the easiest of spells that could be used for just about most very minor things, on himself draining the water from his clothes and the pack on his back. The majority of the water pooled at his feet before the natural gentle incline of the cave caused it to flow into the pool that led to the river. Now he was just damp instead of utterly soaked. After a moment of looking back at Jill and beyond towards the open entrance of the crypt, Jack reached into his pack and grabbed a little bag of stuff they were both very familiar with. Unfastening the bit of twine which held the pouch closed, Jack pulled out a pinch of the diamond and granite dust. Seeing what he had, Jill walked up while taking off her glove and held out her bare hand for him.
"Dust time~" Jill said in a quiet sing song voice as Jack started to cast "Stoneskin," a spell which made the recipient practically invulnerable to anywhere from one to sprinkling a little of the expensive dust on her skin as he completed the incantation and his gestures. Were they not literally in front of some haunted crypt, he might have been tempted to be a bit more childish, and toss it in her face as he completed the incantation since it would still work. Now, however, wasn't the time for such childishness. After he finished enchanting her, Jack performed it on himself, letting the dust fall on the back of his hand before casting "Stoneskin" upon himself.
"Alright then, let's go," Jill said, giving one last smile before it slid off her face as they turned to the entrance of the crypt. They entered with Jill taking point, walking along the walls of the crypt and passing by the various alcoves in the wall. All of these recesses still contained the remains of the dead within, the occupants having turned to brittle bones as scavengers had eaten away at them. Unlike Jill, Jack merely stood in the middle of the hall as they moved forth, not bothering to hide like Jill was.
The crypt itself looked ancient as a thick grey film of dust covered everything, except for the path they were following. In the halls they traveled, there was a clear sign of movement as a trail of the undead feet gave a clear path towards their origin. None of the dead near the entrance had been raised, and it seemed that only those who were deeper within had been pulled from their deathly slumber. As they kept going, the two adventurers reached an abrupt point where the corpses were far better preserved than those near the entrance. Instead of skeletons which had been haphazardly shoved into the alcoves, these dead had been long mummified in some way, their shrivelled lifeless skin taut against their bones. Something else Jack noticed was how so many of them weren't even in their alcoves anymore but thrown around the halls. While a few lay untouched except for maybe a moved head, or their hand hanging out of a recess, there were others which had just been dumped on the ground. However, whatever had done this to them had to have been long ago, possibly before this place had sunken into the ground judging by how even the corpses in the ground had a layer of dust as thick as a slice of bread. Jack and Jill didn't know too much about this place or the ancient traditions of the people here, but many lands buried their dead with valuables, and yet they could see none of those here, merely corpses left behind after they'd been looted.
The two stopped a moment as they came to a four way intersection, and just stared down the four hallways they could see many more alcoves, and many more corpses laying about. Jill looked to Jack, seeming to want to say something, but unwilling to disturb the silence. Jack swallowed, before looking around again, and taking a deep, shuddering breath. He didn't mean for it to be shuddering, but the stillness of this place, the fact that there were so many corpses, and so many potential undead that could just wake up, it was unnerving. Stepping close to him, Jill spoke in just the barest of whispers.
"Should we turn back?" she asked, nearly inaudible, but Jack shook his head, and instead grabbed his scroll case, popping the lid on it and pulling out a scroll which the far more experienced wizard from up above had given them.
"If anything happens, if there's a necromancer down here like we think, I'll cast this, and it should dispel any protections on him, or end any spell. After that, you can shank him, or I can hit him with a lightning bolt,"
"But what if he's got a ton of undead with him and he sicks them on us, or a bunch of them rise up while we're trying to find the source?" Jill asked.
"Then I'll cast Wraithform on myself, and Invisibility on you, and we'll run for it," Jack replied. They were a mage and thief respectively. Direct confrontations which didn't end in the first few seconds were not their forte.
"Like always?" Jill asked, and Jack nodded.
"Like always," he whispered back in affirmation, before they continued forward, Jack pulling from his bag of material components some gum arabic encasing an eyelash, and a vial containing a wisp of smoke with gauze wrapped around it. The former was meant to make Jill invisible, while the later was meant to fuel his "Wraithform."
The trail of disturbed dust continued further into the crypt, every once in a while, they'd find an intersection, and there was even a set of stairs that they passed which likely led upwards into more of the crypt. As they had before, the bodies began to change, though unlike before, it didn't suddenly shift from dead and decaying skeletons to finely preserved corpses. Rather, now, some of the nooks in the wall were empty, completely devoid of bodies, with less and less corpses littering the halls which might have been their inhabitants. They didn't notice it immediately, but as they continued on, Jack realised that there weren't even enough corpses in a section to fill each of the alcoves, and there were even spots where the dust was far lighter.
Those missing must be those in the river, or the ones that attacked last night.
As they continued their way through the crypt, upon rounding a corner, they realised that they could see a bit of light up ahead, coming from somewhere deeper in. Tucking the gauze wrapped vial away securely into his breast pocket, Jack whispered his friend's name before pausing. When she stopped as well, Jack began casting "Invisibility" on her, touching her with the eyelash wrapped in arabic gum and watching as she faded from his very eyes. Still holding the gum, Jack pocketed it, and pulled out his vial, to once more hold it with his scroll, while from another pocket; he pulled out a short sea green glass wand, fur wrapping around it's base which Jack used as a handle.
Walking forth, Jack continued down the path, watching for the sight of dust being disturbed by his invisible friend, trying to make sure he didn't run into her, but he couldn't see much. What he did notice however, was that down this hallway, there were no corpses. It was empty.
This must be the place. The dust was heavy in the air, rather than all on the floor. Right before the entrance, Jack stopped, and tucked the wand into his belt so he could draw it and fire quickly if he needed to, before unfurling the scroll. Despite all the dust, Jack breathed deeply, and let out a shuddering breath, before rounding the corner.
The first thing that Jack saw as he looked into the room, was what looked like an inky black void floating in mid air in the center of the room. It was like someone had dropped a thimble of ink into water and the void was suspended there. Despite how the thing was completely black, light seemed to emanate from it, bathing the room in an eerie blue glow. Like in the hall, none of the alcoves had corpses in or near them, they were all gone. The words to cast "Greater Dispel Magic" on the scroll died on his lips as he looked around some more, before noticing that a shadowy impression, not a creature as far as Jack knew, was floating around the room. It almost seemed like it was orbiting the inky black blot in the center. Jack grabbed his rod, but waited a moment, watching to see what the shadowy thing would do.
Despite standing in the door way, in full view, the thing didn't seem to acknowledge him. Rather, it continued to orbit the darkness, ever so slowly drifting first towards him, but then drifting away as it continued it's way around. Jack almost put away his glass and fur wand to grab a piece of parchment to sketch the thing, when as the shadowy thing started to pass behind the black void, Jack suddenly saw it come into focus.
The inky black blot in the middle of the room that was emitting light, almost acted like a kind of looking glass. As the shadowy thing passed behind the inky blob, it seemed to reveal itself, to the point that Jack could see its true form, or what he assumed was its true form. Jack could see a white robe which cloaked its form and underneath the robe, he could see a pitch black skeleton. Every bone looked like it was carved of ebony, and the bones themselves almost seemed to eat the light cast upon them as well, all except for the lights in the skeleton's eyes. As the thing was passing by the black splotch in reality, it suddenly stopped, and the shining lights in the eye sockets of the skeleton grew brighter as it saw him. The black skeleton watched him, just as Jack was watching the skeleton; the two were rooted, stuck in place as they stared at each other. The light in the skeleton's eyes, however, started to dim back to how it was before. As the two stared, the creature raised a hand which was covered in a thin glove with a shining metal ring twinkling on its ring finger, and reached into its robe. The creature withdrew a small candle, and between it's finger it pulled up a small bag from it's draw strings, though the bag looked like it was seeping with some black fluid.
Lich! Jack couldn't help but think as he began to rapidly read the scroll and with his free hand he made the gestures necessary to cast the greater dispel magic on whatever that black void was.
Not fast enough though, as there was a sound, and from around the scroll, he could see something emerge from what must be a portal. Maybe its hand, or the candle, or something as whatever it was darted from the portal as Jack finished his incantation, pointing his fingers at the portal as he pronounced the last word, intending for the portal to be sealed. Within a second, the portal disappeared, and so did the shadowy impression of the Lich. What remained, however, was the shadowy bit flying near the ceiling. Jack looked at it a moment, before it fell down into the ground, sinking in easily, before the tiles started to turn black and expand outwards until it'd created a hole in reality barely large enough for a man to fall through.
Dropping the now discharged scroll, Jack began to rapidly cast "Wraithform" upon himself so that whatever summoned undead may hopefully not realise he was in fact living. As he finished the gestures and incantation, he uncorked the bottle, and for a moment he smelled a whiff of their camp fire before the smoke disappeared. He felt himself beginning to change, and as he watched, his hand quickly turned translucent, just as some creature began to emerge from the darkness.
Long limbs reached out of whatever modified summon monster spell the Lich had used, and rising from the depths of the black circle, a mop of scraggly black hair emerged, with glowing white eyes like the Lich's peering out from the wild hair of whatever coal skinned creature the Lich had summoned. In one hand, the creature held a short sword, and using just its arms, it pulled the rest of its body out of the floor, standing head and shoulder's taller than Jack himself.
Other than her knife, the creature wore a very short dress that looked like it was dipped in the darkest of ink as she tilted her head at Jack. The glowing white orbs which were its eyes narrowed a moment, before it surged forward. Jack tried to dodge back, but the creature was faster and with all its strength, it jammed the knife into him. Instead of penetrating, the knife clanging off his skin and sparked as if it'd just impacted against solid rock. The creature's head tilted again obviously confused, before there was the sound of a blade cutting through flesh and bone. The creature shrieked as it fell to one knee as Jack pulled his fur and glass rod, stepped to the side, and aimed the rod at the creatures head while Jill quickly dived out of the room, leaving her short sword in the beast's knee.
"Fulgur!" he cried out as lightning blasted out of the rod, and slammed into the creature. It's shriek grew ever louder as it's hands came up, and light seemed to be erupting from it's mouth and eyes, while the lightning continued on past it. The room lit up in a flash of light as the thick bolts of lightning flashed around the room, bouncing around and turning the place into a death trap for those who might have been standing in it.
The creature fell back, it's hair burning and the beast itself fried to a crisp. Though, the glow of the creature's eyes remained despite its death. Perhaps the eyes had some kind of magical properties to it, or maybe it was some kind of lingering magic from the Lich which had summoned it.
"Can we leave now?" Jill asked from the floor looking up at Jack. Jack himself couldn't help but let out a nervous giggle, even though there was nothing funny about their situation.
"Yeah, sure, let's go."
