The Find of a Lifetime Chp 1 & 2

Chapter 1

Yaser Grubbo watched them from the shadows, those three pale skin invaders. With all their shiny pokers and crackling magics they had fought their way deep into Yaser’s home. The stout one had sliced through Orgimer the foul, the slim one had burned the face off of the fire spitting serpent in the upper chambers and the tall one had kept them all from getting skewered on the traps. 

The memory of Orgimer looking down in disbelief at his sudden lack of an arm filled Yaser with a particular delight. It was he who had driven Yaser down in the depths all those many years ago. Down here with the whispering shadows and their promises. 

Promises that Yaser planned on collecting on very soon. The slender human had a small bottle that glowed with an intense swirl of green and white light to Yaser’s eyes. He just had to bide his time, wait and watch until they were distracted. With the stout one making so much noise, it wouldn’t be long.

The three stood on the edge of a large stone, brick chamber, the stairway at their backs and small globe of light illuminating them perfectly but rendering the chamber’s pillars and walls in shifting shadows. 

“We’re close now. I can feel it. I Barnaby Norhald swear it.” The stout one stomped forward, his body mostly hidden by a shield as tall as he was, a rune etched hammer held in his free hand.  

“I assume that means we’ve now reached the undead portion of our program?” The tall one sighed, rooting around in the quiver on her hip and pulling out a silver arrow that glowed with a warm, soft light that gave Yaser the shivers. 

“Hold on burning up that arrow, Cinder, we only got one, lets save for it whatever’s guarding the burial room.” Said the slender one with the big book and the shiny potion strapped to her waist.

“The next room could be the burial room.” Cinder whispered but put the arrow back, instead knocking an arrow that glowed less intensely. All of them carried enchanted weapons. They were powerful. They had to be to make it this far. Perhaps one of them would prove worthy.

Yaser slipped back down the hallways as the invaders, the flickering lights in the eye sockets of skeletons scattered paid him no attention. At the grand intersection, he nimbly stepped over and weaved under the many nigh invisible silk strands that would alert the eight legged horror to prey. The shadows gibbered in the back of Yaser’s mind as he pressed on a discolored brick in the wall. The loudest being the shade of the once important pale skin that lay in the sarcophagus further on. It was a mean, demanding thing, as Orgimer was. Its screeching fell away as the wall swung open, pushed away by another whisper with a gentle pulse of power. Just as cold and dead as the others but this one had a nobility to it, velvet over a clawed, bone hand. 

“My lady.” Yaser said with relief as he hurried through the hidden doorway and it closed behind him. “Invaders are here and they have what you need. I must prepare you.” 

Points of light glowed to life, revealing an octagonal room that had once been a study. In that moment, between light and dark, something huge shifted and stretched before disappearing entirely. Mold ruined books lined the collapsing bookcases. A huge desk along with a throne-like chair dominated the center of the room. Behind it loomed the preserved heads of beasts from the nightmares of the daylit world above. A long face with a spiraling horn. A beaked thing with cruel teeth, a red skinned thing with tusks and curling horns and a human head wearing a golden hat. All these things had their own whispers but the lady drowned them out, same as she pushed out all the others that nattered away in the old halls. 

“Hurry, hurry, hurry.” Yaser muttered to himself as he whipped a short rod from his tattered cloak and pointed it a clear spot on the floor. A blue beam shot out and illuminated a tile. With a careful movement of Yaser’s wrist, it lifted into the air, revealing a dark hallow below. From this Yaser gathered a bundle wrapped in a pure white cloth. The lights pulsed. 

“With your help, they will. Yaser is sure of it. Do not worry. Yaser will follow. Yaser will keep you safe.” The goblin whispered to the bundle as he reverentially carried it over the desk. “Even in the burning day. Yaser swear it.” 

The lights flickered once more. Yaser nodded and unwrapped the bundle, unfolding a luxurious fur cloak, its black dusted with swirling stars. He passed his hand over it reverently, inhaled to gather his courage, then picked it up and carried it to the display wall. Using a cobbled together ladder, he hung it between the heads. Its soft light was completely unlike any other Yaser had ever experienced. Warm like daylight but did not burn his eyes. It did not belong here among the dead. 

Yaser’s ears caught the muffled report of steel and the clatter of bones. The right time approached. He bowed deeply to the cloak, now restored to the place of honor he had found her in. 

“Yaser will return.” With that, he reached into the shadows and stepped into them.  

Chapter 2

Illiana tossed a bolt of fire at a skeleton that raised a bow toward Barnaby. It went through the left eye socket of the grinning skull and exploded. Sans skull, the skeleton fell to the ground like a marionette with it’s strings cut. 

“Nice shot!” Cinder grunted beside her as she stabbed a glowing arrow into the rib cage of bone dog that had tried to take the group from behind. In front, Barnaby whistled a cheery tune as his hammer cleaved through any skeleton that dared approach.  

“Thanks!” Illiana said as she gritted her teeth in concentration as she mentally clawed the energy for more bolts from the depths of her soul. Breaking through the magical resistance of the salamander had put her on the edge of magical exhaustion. The bolts she could probably handle, but another big spell would be asking for a crippling migraine or worse. 

The mob of skeletons seemed to be endless in this hallway. The only thing that prevented them from being completely mobbed was only two of them would stand abreast. 

“Feel the justice that is K’arl the Just!” Barnaby cried, striking the skulls from two skeletons at once.

“We really need to find you some better catch phrases.” Cinder said as both she and Illiana fired projectiles over the knight’s shoulders. They staggered the next pair of skeletons allowing them all to take a few steps forward.

“Smiting evil is the only catch phrase I need!” Barnaby charged, slamming his shield into both skeletons before they could recover. They toppled into the fellows behind them, causing a domino effect.  

“Ah ha! Smashing time!” Barnaby laughed, raised his hammer and prepared to charge. 

“Wait!” Cinder leapt forward, grabbed the armored shoulder and yanked him back. Off balance, he stumbled backwards. 

Inches in front of him the walls on either side of the hallway slammed together, pulverizing the hapless skeletons to bone dust. 

“Well I’m not sure the backup plan would have brought you back from that one.” Illiana commented, patting the revival potion on her belt as the two stone pillars slowly inched apart. 

“Now charge as soon as you can fit through, before it resets fully.” Cinder said. 

“What if there are more of those?” A touch of fear entering the knight’s voice. 

“Unlikely. The archmage doesn’t seem to use the same trap twice. I’ll be watching for something to smash us from above tho.”

Illiana again marveled at Cinder’s skill at saving their collective asses. Every time she did that the butterflies in Illiana’s stomach got worse. 

“Yes I shall too!” Barnaby said, resettling into his combat stance. 

The trap seemed to take something out of the skeletons too, they almost seemed resigned to getting bashed by Barnaby’s hammer. Illiana wondered if the undead could… play dead? They reached the end of the hallway and it spilled into a wide open chamber, decorated with rubble. They stood on its threshold, pondering the danger that made Illiana’s hair stand on end. Squinting, she could just make out another door frame across it. Then two more on the sides. A compass point cross section. 

Cinder however stared upwards at the black void above the room, no ceiling in sight. 

“I don’t like it.” She said.

“Illiana can you float the light higher?” Barnaby asked.

“S-sure.” Illiana gestured to the little globe of light. I flew about ten feet into the air but its light utterly failed to penetrate the blackness above. 

“Lets move along the wall and be cautious.” Cinder said. 

Barnaby nodded, hoisted his shield and walked gingerly as he could in his rattling armor. He didn’t feel the half dozen strand of silk his movement broke. Once again, the eyes that peered down on them from the blackness was impressed with their caution and professionalism. The Knight walked just far enough from the wall so the less armored women could hug it. Nothing moved until a pillar of rumble forced them away from the wall.  

The attack came blindingly fast but not from above, rather the center of the floor heaved upwards as a massive spider surged from under its trap door. Its body the size of an ox, its many legs the thickness of a mature trees. Two pairs of hooked claws grabbed hold of Barnaby’s shield, slamming it downward as the spider reared over it and drove glistening fangs scything down into his shoulder. With a scream, his hammer swung, shattering one fang.  

The battle was joined. The spider shrank back, a dagger blooming in one of her black eyes. Yet it had been a long time since meat had wandered this far down and she counter with a wild spray of sticky webbing that trapped Cinder to the wall. Illiana spun away from the strands, the spell that she’d been holding in her mind flowing through her lips and weaving fingers. Planting her feet, the last scraps of her mana pooled in between her hands and then thrust them at the spider. 

That moment was what Yaser had been waiting for, the eerily perceptive Cinder struggling to cut through webbing with a knife and while Illiana was totally focused. 

As thunder and lightning flew out from Illiana’s hands and into the giant spider, Yaser dropped from the magical darkness that covered the ceiling. He plucked the swirling white and green potion from her belt. Then he booked it, beelining for the hidden door to his lady’s chamber. 

Illiana immediately felt the pull on her waist as her lightning bolt scorched the spider’s head, causing several of its eyes to explode.  

“Hey!” She shouted, catching sight of a short, black-cloaked figure running from her. Where the hell had that come from? “Pickpocket!” 

“I see him!” Cinder shouted, a dagger appeared in the figure’s shoulder, it staggered but didn’t stop running. 

The blinded spider gave a hissing shriek and charged in Illiana’s direction. She staggered back, wooziness making the world tilt and spin around her. 

“Beast! I smite thee!” Barnaby cried. 

Light bloomed and Illiana saw the runed hammer fly across her vision, smashing into the spider’s oncoming visage. 

 It crashed to the ground, skidding until its smoking head was within an arm’s length. Its one intact eye dim and sightless.