Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:43 am

Book 3: Chapter 27

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It took close to twenty minutes for the poisonous gas pumping out of the altar to cease and when the spluttering flame finally died out, the door opened with the sound of grinding stone. The staircase made a reappearance as well, dropping back down and granting access to the upper levels from which they had come. What concerned Viper and the others, however, were the burly undead who stomped into the room, presumably to take care of their corpses. Instead, they were met with flame and blade, quickly dispatched by the team with a few fierce thrusts. Wiping black ichor from his sword, Viper eyed the damaged remains of the undead he had just slain.

"These ones seemed different," he said, examining them closely.

"I noticed that as well," Cynen replied. "I would guess that they were caretakers of some sort, rather than raised undead."

"What's the difference?"

"Well, raised undead, whether zombies or skeletons or wraiths, which are the three main categories, tend to have greater levels of decay, and their bodies have less fluids. These undead are quite messy, the result of having transformed directly from a living human into a zombie, granting eternal life, or something like it, and in the process, trapping all of the fluid inside."

"Huh, that's an interesting distinction. What's the advantage of transforming directly from a living being?" Garrett asked through Viper.

"Greater intelligence and autonomy," Cynen replied. "That's why I said these zombies are likely caretakers. They would still be able to complete tasks that a raised zombie would never be able to handle."

Pushing the corpses into a pile, Cynen lit them with a snap of her finger, and soon they had transformed into ash. Viper led the way through the newly opened door, heading deeper into the crypt to continue their exploration. The passage curled around to the left, curving along with the angle of the room they had just been in, until they were heading north once again. After navigating 30 feet of smooth stone passage, the passage angled to the right, and they found themselves facing a long hallway. Before he entered it, Viper stopped and looked around.

"What are the chances that this hallway is trapped?" He asked.

"Pretty good," one of the assassins replied, pointing. "We see footsteps only in certain spots, and fairly thick dust in others."

"Got it. Go ahead and check for traps. Let's get this clear."

At the other end of the passage was a large room with an ornate looking door, and what appeared to be a sprawling altar set against the far wall. Thanks to the light flooding down from the torches that flickered up near the ceiling, the entire thing was well lit, and it was easy to see even before they had traversed the passageway. Sure enough, it only took a few moments for the red-masked assassin to report back that he had found some traps. A combination of pressure plates and tripwires made the passageway difficult to navigate, but with some work, they managed to get down it without triggering anything. The assassins were particularly adept, and Viper could move fast enough that none of the traps were of any particular danger.

The problem was Cynen, Gale, and Core. All three of them lacked the agility or speed to naturally bypass the traps, and though Cynen could probably burn her way through all of them, that simply wasn't very efficient. Still, by working together, they managed to make their way to the large, well-lit room at the other end of the hall. Here they found the altar they had spotted before, along with two 12-foot statues. As soon as they stepped into the room, the statues began to come to life, causing the team to raise their guard and get ready for combat.

Like the jackal-headed statues they had encountered guarding the front of the tomb, these statues had the bodies of giants but from the neck up appeared to be birds with long, thin beaks and four beady eyes set above them. There were no other feathers anywhere on their bodies, but their fingers ended in sharp, talon-like claws, and they each wielded a wide-headed axe that appeared to be made from a dozen feathers welded together. Once again, Garrett, who was controlling Viper, noticed the thick mental energy that shrouded their weapons and armor, quickly realizing that they were dealing with low-grade, mysterious artifacts once again.

"Be careful of their weapons," Viper said. "They're likely to produce some sort of secondary effect."

As if to prove his words, one of the bird-headed statues let out a caw and lifted his axe, unleashing a slash that shot towards Gale. It was as if a wind had stirred with the fall of the weapon, a terrible cutting wind that ripped towards Gale at an unbelievable speed. One of the red masked Assassins pulled the surprised Grave Walker out of the way at the last moment, losing a corner of his cloak, in the process. As the shredded fabric drifted to the ground, the team's eyes widened.

"Whatever you do, don't get hit by that," Cynen said, her voice grim.

Somehow, the axe was producing a ferocious wind that ripped apart anything it touched, and the team members could just imagine what would happen to their flesh if it was hit with such an attack. His sword drawn, Viper dashed forward, unleashing a stab as he coated his blade with the energy from his soul spark. There was a screech of metal as the bird-headed statue blocked with his axe, deflecting the stab a few inches to the side and causing it to skip off of the heavy breastplate the statue wore.

With considerable speed, its axe hacked down, but Viper had already moved, circling around to the back of the statue and attempting to cut into its leg. Though his empowered blade tore a gash across the statue's stone leg, the wound hardly seemed to faze the monster, who turned and slapped at Viper with the side of his axe. Dancing backward, just out of reach, Viper intended to lunge forward once more, targeting the statue's eyes, but the wind created by the wide axe head buffeted at him, throwing him back toward the wall.

Cynen had already engaged the other statue, her fist flaring with green flames as she hammered a blow into the statue's side. Staggering slightly, the statue responded by attempting to cut her in two, but one of the red-masked assassins blocked the blow, forcing the statue's axe out of line, and Gale and Core both rushed forward to engage. Though they hadn't discussed it, the team seemed to have a unified plan. As Viper kept one of the statues occupied, the other five members threw themselves at the bird-headed statue, chipping away at it with energy-coated weapons until it was a sorry sight to see.

It soon became apparent that the statues needed a good wind-up to activate the ripping wind off their axes. The entire team stayed close, pressuring the statue at every turn and not allowing it to swing its weapon freely. Still, the bird-headed statues were fierce, and more than willing to use their stone fists and feet to attack as well. Seeing the bird-headed statue lifting its arm to unleash a chop at Gale, Cynen lunged forward, her fist hammering into the statue's side. So far, most of the blows that had landed had been absorbed by the gleaming breastplate, a mysterious artifact that the statue wore. But now its gleam had faded, and as Cynen's hand smashed into its chest, the artifact lost its shine altogether, cracking as its defensive ability was broken.

Immediately, the others redoubled their attacks, causing chips of stone to fly from the statue as it was pummeled to the ground. Sensing a chance to end it, Gale let out a shout and lifted his spear high, hoping to pierce it through one of the four glowing eyes that decorated the bird statue's face. Just as he was about to bring his spear down, a terrible roar filled the room. From the other side of the room, the statue who had been chasing Viper this entire time, turned and unleashed a massive attack. The rest of the team was able to get out of the way, but Gale was caught directly in the path of the raging wind that sprang up. Horror filled his features as he felt the air around him starting to tear apart, but he was already entirely committed to his attack, and wasn't able to stop it in time.

Just before the raging wind slammed into him, he saw a flash of crimson cross the corner of his vision as one of the red-masked assassins jumped in the way, taking the strike on his behalf. At the same moment, his spear finished its descent, sinking deep into the statue's eye. With a shriek, the light fled from them, and the statue fell inert. Hit by the full power of the tearing wind, the red-masked assassin was torn to pieces almost instantly, blood spraying through the air as his flesh was ripped apart. His body slammed into Gale's side, knocking the Grave Walker to the ground, even as his strike slew the bird-headed statue.

Everything happened so fast it was impossible for the others to react. With a roar of rage, Cynen scooped up the fallen statue's axe, leaping across the room to deliver a powerful strike to the remaining statue. With cold, glittering eyes, it lifted its own axe to intercept her attack, but Viper's blade shot towards its face from the side, forcing it to shift the axe to block his strike.

Green flame surged from Cynen's hands, covering the axe as she brought it down. The feathers that made up the axe head were dyed pale green as she brought it down on the statue with tremendous force. The tearing effect that it caused sent green flames ripping through the statue's arm and chest, shredding it into pieces that crumbled to the ground. Panting heavily, Cynen brought the axe down a second time, crushing through the statue's head and burning away the corrupt life force that powered it. Wild-eyed, she spun, but Viper's words stopped her in her tracks.

"He's dead."

The red-masked assassin, or at least what was left of him, lay on the ground near Gale, whose face was white as a sheet. There was no way that Gale would have survived the strike, and the assassin had taken it head-on. The assassin must have known that in taking it head-on, he was throwing his life away. A somber silence filled the room. Gale, unsure what to say, looked badly shaken. It was Viper's cold voice that snapped everyone back to reality.

"We all knew the risks coming down here," he said, walking over to the assassin's body.

Even as he controlled Viper, Garrett examined the remains of the red-masked assassin. He had been the one to command the assassin to sacrifice himself for Gale, but the loss of the five-petaled flower stung. He could see its mangled remains among the body, mixed in with the tattered flesh of the corpse. Mentally, he paused for a moment, thanking both the assassin and the flower for their service.

With the statues destroyed, the team finally had the opportunity to examine their surroundings. The only thing of note was the large altar set against the wall, and the only thing of note on the altar was a simple stone that looked to be half of a tablet. It had etched symbols on the back, and after studying it for a moment, Viper nodded.

"This looks to be half of a key," he said.

Garrett could detect the thick mental energy that the tablet contained, and so he had Viper put it away in his pouch.

"I can't believe we lost someone for that," Cynen said, her voice grim.

"It is unfortunate," Viper replied, nodding, "but I have a feeling that we wouldn't have gotten very far without this tablet."

There was nowhere else to explore down this path, and so they retraced their steps, carefully navigating across the long trapped passage and re-entering the room with the gas trap. It didn't trigger the second time they walked in, and they soon made their way upstairs, returning to the main passage where they had turned left and taking the other passage that led to the right. The hallway they entered was short and ended at a door. After checking it for traps, Viper led the way through. As soon as the door had opened a crack, Cynen summoned her flames, and Viper raised his sword. Both could hear the sound of enemies on the other side. As the door opened fully, a dozen large skeletons with abnormally thick bones, armed with great swords and wicked-looking axes, rushed through.

It appeared that they had been waiting for the team to arrive, a sign that Agma-Yoth not only knew they were coming but was beginning to rally the defenses of the tomb against them. Viper's blade drew a figure-eight in the air, cutting the legs from one skeleton, blocking a swinging sword from another, and tearing through the skull of a third. Cynen, who was behind him, stepped forward and to the side, blocking the passage as they formed a wall.

She was still carrying the feather axe that she had taken from the bird-headed statue. With a roar, she brought it slashing down at an angle. Her flame flared along the axe as it sucked energy from her soul spark, sending a blast of air ripping down the passageway. Terrible shrieks of metal and cracking bone echoed loudly in the passage as the fierce attack smashed through the enemy.

The blow took a considerable amount of energy, and as she panted, leaning against the wall for support, Viper stepped forward. His long silver blade stabbed out with uncanny precision, piercing into the eye sockets of the skeletons who managed to survive the onslaught, extinguishing the undead flame that animated them.

The horde of skeletons was dealt with quickly thanks to Cynen's aggressive strike. However, glancing at her, it was clear to Garrett that she couldn't do many more of them. There was a certain paleness around her eyes that wasn't common, and for a moment, Garrett grew concerned. When he brought it up, however, she laughed and waved it off.

"It's an effect of using the flame," she said, snapping her fingers to summon a wisp of green flame. "It's not particularly healthy for living creatures. I just need to rest."

After cleaning up the passage, the team continued on, heading down a long hallway that twisted and turned to the right and left. They moved slowly, always checking for traps, but didn't find anything they had to be concerned about. They ran across a few side passages as well, but after exploring them briefly, realized that they dead-ended at rooms that looked like they had been ransacked already. Thick layers of dust covered everything, and after examining them and coming up with nothing, Viper suggested they move on.

"They were probably cleared out by thieves a long time ago," Cynen said as they left the rooms, "but likely these were chambers used for the Acolytes who guarded the tomb originally. They would have needed a place to sleep and prepare meals and the like. Now that they're all undead, however, there's no need for such places anymore."

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