At first, they were tempted to dismiss the noise as a trick of their ears or perhaps a distant threat. But the rumbles grew louder and closer until they could feel the vibrations in their teeth.
"Did we…did we do it right?" Aerie asked nervously.
Lidia turned towards the door and readied Azuredge. "I have a feeling we're about to find out."
Valygar said, "If undead were overrunning my house, I'd be more generously inclined towards anyone killing it for me."
"Here they come!" Mazzy called, raising her bow and notching a tawny-feathered arrow to the string.
Two creatures appeared on the other side of the tiled floor. They may have been two human skeletons once, but now were warped and twisted, a mishmash of once-peacefully sleeping bones bent into a form out of their natural shape. They were much taller than any human, but their height was diminished, for they were hunched over like two stalking wolves. They wore no armor and carried no weapons, unless it was the massive mantis-like blades that replaced their hands.
They lumbered across the tiles, their feet clacking against the metal, clicking as they activated several tiles at once with each step. They had no regard for the correct path and pattern to follow, but it didn't matter. The eruptions of flame that engulfed them had no more effect than a hot breeze.
"Aerie, move back," Lidia said. "I don't think magic is going to work this time."
Mazzy fired an arrow. It found its target, but it glanced off a skeleton's head. Azuredge put a crack in the other skeleton's ribs but sunk no deeper before being summoned to Lidia's hand. The two skeletons continued to move inexorably forward, and as they crossed the room, Gorion's Company retreated towards the altar.
Lidia put Azuredge back into her belt and focused within, ready to fend off the skeletons as she had the shadows in Imnesvale.
When the skeletons were a pace or two from the, she focused intensely, lifted her hand, shouting: "Back! Back to where you came from!"
The resulting flash of light spilled through the entire room. In a moment, a second flash followed. The holy symbol of Helm glowed in Anomen's hand as he also attempted to repulse the undead. A third flash of light followed, accompanied by Aerie's clear voice.
None of them had any noticeable effect. The massive skeletons were utterly silent, but they shuffled into the room, one first, then the other.
The Company moved back from them, then stopped. There was nowhere else to go. Their backs were to the wall.
Lidia readied her staff and struck, aiming for the skeleton's head and relying on the staff's length to reach. It didn't even touch the creature before it glanced off, nearly throwing Lidia off balance.
Chaos broke out. Everyone rushed forward — some to one skeleton, some to the other. Some of their weapons glanced off these creatures, while others barely made noticeable dents.
The skeletons raised the massive blades at the end of their arms and made broad sweeps, forth and back, just missing their targets. The only saving grace is that these things were slow and lumbering, but the Company couldn't evade them forever.
Minsc gently set Yoshimo in a corner. He turned, his eyes taking on a bright fire, raised Larry and bellowed: "Kill, says Boo! Kill, does Minsc!" He clutched the sword by the blade, his gloves protecting his hands. He swung the sword, its pommel connecting with one of the skeleton's long blades. The mantis-like appendage broke off and clattered to the ground.
The skeleton gave no sign that it noticed or cared. Both it and its companion continued to attack with an unnerving silence. But Lidia had gotten an idea.
Instead of swinging with her staff or trying to break the bones with Azuredge's blade, she started beating on the skeleton in front of her with the end of the axe handle. She managed to land a crack on its arm, and then—
Everything was covered in darkness, as though a massive blanket were suddenly descending upon them. A palpable fear crept over the entire group, and they retreated to the walls, hoping that the skeletons would be as blind as they were.
Lidia couldn't see anyone, including the enemy in front of her, but she reached for the river rushing through, pictured her companions in her mind, and cast a ward against fear. She kept her arms up in a guard and raised Azuredge, throwing her will towards its light. It remained snuffed out in the darkness.
She tried to pick up where everyone in the group was by sound alone. Anomen was casting a spell of some kind in one corner, Aerie was shuffling along the wall, Minsc was bellowing and fumbling in the middle of the room, Mazzy and Valygar were trying to taunt the unseen skeletons into coming towards them.
In the tiled room, a deep roar issued from a great throat. A chill crept into the room.
Lidia shouted: "Stay away from the doorway!"
Clicks rose from several rapidly tiles, and then whooshes from erupting pillars of fire. A lesser, more annoyed-sounding roar came forth, and slowly, the darkness began to lift, like foul smoke cleared by a draft.
Still, Lidia heard it first before she saw it: one of the skeleton's massive talons rushed towards her head.
She turned aside, and it missed her face by inches, slicing open her gambeson instead. She swung the wrong end of Azuredge, putting a dent in the long, cruel blade on its arm.
Too late, she noticed the other talon rushing towards her. But in the fading darkness, a shimmering hammerhead glowed, blocking the skeleton's weapon inches from her face.
She shouted in approval. With a spell, Anomen had temporarily turned his frustratingly non-magical mace into something that could harm the skeletons.
By the time the darkness wholly lifted, it was nearly over. The skeletons remained standing, with chips and cracks in their bones, but their weapons were gone. They futilely tried bringing the stubs of their arms down upon the Company's heads, but to no avail. They were bludgeoned with every magical blunt object their opponents could think of until they broke apart, mere flotsam upon the ground.
Miraculously, no one had taken any serious injuries, despite briefly being in as much danger from each other as from the skeletons. Minsc had a few scratches on his head, but he didn't mind. He'd left his berserk state and held himself up proudly, refusing healing. "Another scar to show Minsc's prowess in battle! This is a great victory!"
Lidia knelt down next to the skeletons. "What were these?" she asked to no one in particular. "We couldn't turn them, and non-magical weapons couldn't harm them."
"Or spells." Aerie sniffed the air, her nose wrinkling. "That…that smells like a preservative on them." She gingerly lifted a jawbone. "And look."
Lidia examined it more closely. The bone had been connected to the skull with a screw.
"A construct of some kind seems the most likely," Mazzy said. "Animated by magic, possessed of unnatural strength…"
Valygar muttered something disapproving under his breath.
"That sounds like something a mage would make, not the Shade Lord," Lidia said, and Aerie nodded in agreement.
"Then what was the source of that foul darkness that covered us?" Anomen asked.
They looked towards the doorway, which now was empty and silent.
"I saw nothing," Mazzy said, "but I have a guess."