Iron & Gold
Because I’m doing Curse of Strahd with Iron & Gold, I thought it behooved me to try something with the system that wasn’t characters converted from Iron Gauntlets
The adventure “Dubin’s Tomb” is one of the two supplied in the rulebook. If you are planning on playing through it, don’t read this. Otherwise, go ahead.
Dublin’s Tomb[1]
Bree was tired of standing with her arms up in the cold sour-smelling cell. Her arms were shackled to the cell wall. She wasn’t hanging, at least: they had placed a stool for her to stand on, but her arms were still forced upright by the shackles. If she let them dangle, which she was forced to do occasionally, the shackles bit into her wrists, and her wrists and fingers were important in her line of work.
She was also not the only prisoner.
“So,” said the man next to her, for perhaps the hundredth time. “Whatcha in for?” As usual, he didn’t wait for an answer. “I got a bum rap, that’s what I got. It weren’t my fault the guy come home while I was rogering his wife.”
Bree knew from experience that she wouldn’t manage to get a word in. She had heard the story often now, except when the jailer came in and told him to be quiet.
That man was probably going to die. Lots of people committed adultery without judicial consequences but the woman’s husband was a tax assessor for the local duke.
Hell, she had checked to see if the courtier was going to be out for the afternoon, and it was Bree’s bad luck that the courtier came back for his gloves, only to find Bree just opening the lock-box.
On the sunlit side, this was her first offense, and they would only cut or maim one arm. Why, Old Khaver had one hand removed and he is very good with a lock. Bree had dexterous feet and she didn’t wear shoes, if she could help it. She could learn to use her feet….
Wouldn’t be as good as two hands, though, she reflected.
The man was about halfway through his description of the woman he had been with when the jail door opened. The man shut up, expecting another rebuke from the jailer, who walked in with a human courtier.
Not the one Bree had been stealing from, but instead a masculine-looking woman, in traveling gear: a cloak, riding trousers, a fine sword hanging from her belt, and short black hair peeking out from a fashionable cap. She wore the crest of the king—a wolf’s head on a blue background.
“Set her free,” the woman said in a contralto voice that didn’t brook disobedience.
The jailer walked over with the grace of a tree stump and fumbled with his keys, using hands about the size of Bree’s legs. A few moments later, Bree could lower her arms and she did — and immediately regretted it as hot pain shot through her shoulders.
“Come with me,” the woman said. Bree hopped off the stool, gasped at the feeling in her arms as she landed, and then followed the courtier to a separate room in the dungeon. The jailer left them alone.
“Bree Alkayn?”
Bree nodded. She hated having to look up at the other woman.
“You have a choice. You can come with me or they’ll kill you.”
“It’s my first offense. They’ll only maim me,” objected Bree.
“No, to get you free I had to talk up your abilities. If you don’t come with me, they’ll kill you. You’re too dangerous to keep alive.”
“Thanks. I guess,” Bree said. “Why are they letting me go with you, then?”
“We’re probably going to die anyway,” the woman said. “Coming?”
Can duck away when they aren’t looking, and with two hands. She’s got to sleep sometime, Bree thought.
“Get me my stuff and we’ll go,” said Bree.
“It’s already in the cart. We’ll meet the rest of our group and be off.[2]”
#
The courtier, whose name was Maltyn, introduced Bree to an elf, Rumal; a goblin wizard, Erlij; and a hulking orclin of calm demeanor, who called himself or herself Shepherd. A large wolf-like dog circled around the cart until the elf told him to calm down. The dog’s name was Thorn.
The barely-a-teen boy driving the cart was named Dab. In the cart were food and water and some undefinable supplies. There was a leather hauberk for her, which she had not owned. By the symbols painted on it — a wolf’s head on a field of blue — it must have come from the armory.
Maltyn said, “Here is the situation. There is a tomb relatively near — we’ll leave civilization quickly and get to the tomb by late tomorrow. For reasons of state, we need the crown in it.” Dab smirked behind Maltyn. “Here’s the deal: The crown goes to our king; I will take it. Everything else gets divided equally between the folk who go in and come out of the tomb. Dab is paid to watch horses and the camp while you’re in the tomb.”
Maltyn looked directly at the halfling. “Bree, if you’re thinking of escaping,, I suggest you don’t. I have inflated your reputation enough that you will find it very difficult to exist when you come back…at least not without me to mediate for you.”
“Not to mention that we’ll stop you,” said Rumal. He ordered the dog to keep Bree with the group.
“I wasn’t even thinking of it,” Bree said, although she had been thinking exactly that. “Seems unfair, though; I’ve never been in the capital before.”
“The truth gets its breech-clout on in the time that a good lie speeds to the border,” Maltyn said. “If you survive, I’ve given you quite a reputation.”
By nightfall, they were in the wilderness with a camp. Bree’s bedroll was too short for her — they had brought her a goblin’s bedroll — but on the plus side, Rumal turned out to be a decent cook.
When Bree awoke in the night to use the privy, the dog roused itself and watched her. In the light of the waxing moon, it stared at her.
Bree used the privy and then decided to test the dog. She started walking away from the camp. The dog was before her in an instant, blocking her path.
Well-trained dog, she thought.
Bree put her hands up in surrender and walked back to her new too-small bedroll.
Once she was in, Dab said to her, “Glad you decided to stay.”
She smiled. “Didn’t realize you were awake. Glad for real?”
“Sure. Nice to have someone else to talk to. Can’t talk to her because she’s maybe a traitor to the throne. Him?” Dab said of Rumal, “He’s too busy being in charge, and the goblin is eaten up with proving himself, so he’s not good company. Shepherd, he kinda scares me.”
“Traitor? What’s Maltyn’s thing?”
Dab lifted himself on one elbow. “Lady Maltyn? She’s House Oakred. The king’s house overthrew them in my great-grandfather’s time.”
Bree never paid attention, but she knew the name of the king’s house. “The king’s house is Theophen.”
“Right. Lady Maltyn’s father was trying to organize a coup; she was off at school helping the princess. Anyway, Lady Maltyn’s father was executed. Rumour is this is a test to see if she’s faithful to Theophen or Oakred.”
“Stupid kind of test.”
“Kings think differently than you or me.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” said Bree, and went back to sleep.[3]
#
The sun was half after noon when they arrived at a large mound, maybe three times as tall as Rumal and covered with bracken and bushes, rather than trees. It was maybe two hundred paces at its widest point.
“Here we are,” said Rumal. “If the clues you gave me are correct, this is Dublin’s tomb.”
The wind was blowing from the mound toward them, and Bree wrinkled her nose. “Whatever is on the far side, it stinks like a privy.”
“Marsh,” said Rumal. “But we’ll check anyway. Shepherd, ride around to check. Take Thorn with you. Thorn, protect him, boy.”
The orclin nodded and walked his horse off along one side of the mound, the dog trotting beside.
“We’ll find a spot to make camp,” said Rumal. “Tomorrow at dawn we’ll inspect the mound and find an entrance.” He looked at the sky. “Might be rain and we have no shelters; under the trees might be best.” He went a little into the trees and found a tree knocked over. “Perfect. We can lay some branches on this and have a cozy lean-to.”
“Crowded,” said the goblin.
“Can’t be helped,” said Maltyn. “You’re welcome to sleep out in the rain and get wet.”
The goblin shrugged and helped haul branches. She and the goblin could manage a single branch, while the elf chopped them from the trunk of the tree.[4]
When they had the shelter covered, Rumal said, “Now we dig out the interior to be a better size.”
“We couldn’t have done that first?” Bree asked.
“Wanted a safe place to be in case the rain came on.”
Dab grinned and nodded at Bree to say, “I told you so.”
Dab and Bree got under the shelter and started to dig, while Maltyn and Rumal discussed how to approach the tomb. Dab whispered, “Get your money up front, if you can. She needs that crown or she’s out of the court.”
“Made promises she can’t keep?”
Dab shook his head. “Her family was with the previous ruling family. They said they didn’t have anything to do with the civil war, so the king’s family let them stay, but her family has worn out its welcome.”
“Lots of people complain about the king, but lots of people always complain about the king.”
“I hear the king is worried someone shows up with the crown and tries to take the kingdom back.”
Bree digested this as she worked.
Before they were done, Shepherd rode up, with Thorn at his side, happy for the run. “Orcs,” said the orclin. “At least two, maybe more. Living in the tomb.”
Maltyn said, “How do you know?”
“Smell. Using part of the tomb as a privy.” Shepherd nodded at Bree, and then he grinned. “I asked.”
Bree said, “You asked?”
“In sunlight, I can pass for an orc. Pass long enough they don’t kill me.”
“The orcs are coming?” Rumal asked.
“No, waiting for us to talk.”
“Do they think we’re orcs?”
Shepherd grinned. “Told them you weren’t.” The orclin added, “They’ve got at least one bow. She was fletching arrows.”
Rumal said, “In case of trouble, we have only Erlij and my sling against arrows.”
“I’ll look up orcs right now,” said Erlij. He pulled out his spell book.
“Do you need light?” Maltyn asked the goblin.
“Not here, not now,” said Erlij, not unkindly.
“The orcs don’t want to fight,”said Shepherd.
Bree said, “Orcs? Who don’t want to fight?” Dab snickered at that thought.
Shepherd said, “Some money for information and they’ll let us go in.”
Maltyn asked, “They told you this?” Shepherd nodded.
“Very kind of the orcs,” said Rumal dubiously.
“Besides money, what do they get? It must be very dangerous inside,” said Maltyn.
“If we come out with something, they take it,” said Shepherd. “If we don’t come out, we’re dead. Easy win for them.”
“What if we talk to them tomorrow?” Bree asked.
“They know we’re here. Come out while we’re asleep and kill us.” The orclin spat to one side. “At a guess.”
He’s very cynical for a man of faith, thought Bree. Of course, she reflected, the only holy man she had really known was Godsmacked, back in the village she grew up in. (People just called him Godsmacked, and she didn’t remember his real name.)
Rumal shook his head and said to Maltyn. “Your call, boss.”
“I guess you better go in,” Maltyn said. “I’ll stay here and look after the horses.”
“They’ll kill you,” suggested Shepherd. Maltyn looked up. “They’re planning on killing the rest of us. Then they can sell horses and cart.”
“Will they kill me?” Maltyn asked Rumal.
“Probably. Odds would be in their favour.”
Maltyn said, “All right. We all go in, pay them off, and get as much information as possible.”
“All of us?” Dab asked. “Someone’s got to look after the horses and the cart.”
“You can use a sword. Dab can’t, I can’t, Bree can’t,” said Erlij.
Bree didn’t bother to correct the belief that she couldn’t use a sword.
Maltyn scowled. “We take our stuff. Dab rides back as far as he can get before full darkness falls. Noon tomorrow, he’s back here. Repeat that for a week or until we show up. Dab takes Thorn.”
“Really?” asked Rumal.
“Don’t want Dab alone without some protection.”
“Fine,” said Rumal.
Dab shrugged. “I’m paid for the month. Whatever you want.”
“Maltyn, maybe we can kill the orcs on the way out,” suggested Rumal.
“Don’t mock me,” Maltyn said. “I wasn’t intending to go in. I hope my presence isn’t a hindrance.”
“I hope so, too. You have all the money.”
A lot of the equipment turned out to be for camping and dungeon diving. They split it into packs but there wasn’t nearly enough personal-portable food. “We were supposed to use the cart as a base camp and make forays into the tomb, not go in and stay in,” complained Maltyn, though Bree suspected it was because she had to carry a pack, which she hadn’t been intending to do.
Rumal gave Thorn orders, and then the young man left.
Bree turned to Rumal. “How come he got the ‘Protect’ order and I got the ‘Guard’ order?”
“Different commands.”
#
They walked to the door of the tomb. Bree could see that it had been opened some years earlier. Three orcs were sitting outside and wearing armor: the biggest one, male, was glowering. The middle one, probably female, was fletching arrows. The last was a slimmer one, probably male, who was looking at a water-stained book. The reader stood as they rode up, then yawned. “Sorry. Call me Paldo. These are Mimis and Obor.” Mimis was the female fletcher; Obor was the hulking one. “Any reason we shouldn’t just kill you and take your stuff?”
“We’ll pay you,” said Rumal.
“Well, that’s a reason. How much?”
Maltyn and Paldo dickered, and they finally agreed on a price. From what Bree knew of bargaining, Maltyn got the better deal — and then remembered that the orcs were probably planning on killing them; this was for show.
“Tell you what,” Paldo said. “For an extra five gold, we tell you everything we know about the tomb.”
“An extra five? You tell us everything you know and you give us a tour of the spaces you’re living in.”
Paldo looked at Obor, who nodded. Paldo said, “You’ve got a deal.” He looked them up and down. “You’ve got your stuff? Pay up and let’s go.”
Maltyn sighed and counted out the amount of money: one hundred and five gold pieces.
He led them into the tomb. Bree was acutely aware of both Obor and Mimis behind them. Paldo was chattering on. “Good luck to you. It’s haunted, you know. We can hear things moving down the hall, past the bend, every night. I think it’s the spirits of the dead. We hear weeping and moans. Only at night.”
Rumal signaled to Maltyn and Bree to light their lanterns.
Paldo stopped at an intersection. “We use these first two rooms. I suspect they were some kind of prayer room, this being a tomb and temple and all.”
“What was in them before you moved in?”
“Garbage. Looted long before we came along. The six of us got here between two and three cycles of the moon ago.”
“Six of you? Where are the other three?” asked Maltyn.
“Two in the other room, and Little Sal, he went in deeper about a moon ago and never came back. That was after I fell in the pit trap — there’s a pit trap up the corridor. We use the corridor as a latrine.”
“I can tell,” said Rumal. Bree’s eyes were already watering.
“Anyway, there’s not much to these rooms except there’s a bottomless shaft in the one room.”
“Why not use that as your latrine?” coughed Bree.
“Oh, Mimis is pretty sure spirits live down there and we don’t want to get them mad.”
“May I see this bottomless pit?” asked Erlij.
Paldo said something in a harsh language to Obor, who replied. They went back and forth, and finally Paldo said, “Sure, but don’t touch anything. Especially not the chicken feet — those keep the spirits from rising up the shaft for us.”
Erlij said, “I promise not to touch anything.”
Paldo shrugged and led Erlij into the small room. It had the strong smell of an animal’s den. Beddings for half a dozen people were scattered around the floor, along with clothes and a few weapons. In the far corner was a square opening on the floor, the rim littered with chicken’s feet.
Erlij picked his way carefully along the floor to the shaft. Shepherd stood between the doorway and the goblin, so the orcs couldn’t rush the wizard and knock him down the shaft. Erlij looked for a long minute at the mists at the bottom. He reached into his pouch and found a coin of little value — an eighth of a gold piece — and said, “An offering for the spirits.”
“They probably prefer animals,” said Paldo.
“I have no animals,” said Erlij, and dropped it. He watched it fall and then came back.
Paldo said, “You weren’t going to touch anything.”
Erlij shook his head. “I didn’t. My coinage, and I dropped it in.”
“Feels like you touched something,” grumbled Paldo. “Anyway, you’ll never see it again. That pit is bottomless.”
The goblin nodded. “Mmm-hmm.”
“Like there’s no bottom,” Paldo said.
“I heard you,” said Erlij.
“It don’t seem like you did.”
While they were bickering, Rumal looked into the other room. It was smoky and dark: some combination of kitchen and living room. Rumal could see dice, a rack with chickens hanging from it, a circle of stones with the remains of a fire inside, and a kind of a larder in one corner, with a rude shelf set up and foodstuffs on it. Scattered around were worthless odds and ends that Rumal suspected came from nearby farms. Nothing of interest, really.
“Hold your noses,” said Paldo. “We’re going to the pit trap.”
Shepherd said, “A moment.” He prayed for a moment, and[5] then quiet strength radiated from him, giving everyone courage. Still, by the time they had navigated through the fresh and old feces, urine, and trash, Bree, Maltyn, and Rumal had vomited from the smell.
On the far side of the latrine, Paldo pointed out the pit trap and left them.
Rumal held the lantern close to the floor in several places and then said, “Covered trap. Step on it and it lowers.” He borrowed Shepherd’s staff and pushed down on the floor, making the cover sink a bit. When he pulled back the staff, there was a rumble and a click as the floor rose up. “Counterweight so it resets. Easiest way to disable it is from the other si[6]de.[7]”
“We’re not on the other side,” said Maltyn impatiently.
“I know.” Rumal looked through his pouch for two iron spikes — each was a simple hands-length of iron hammered to a point at one end. From his belt he pulled a mallet. “I might need your help, Shepherd. Depends how tough the floor is.” About a thumb’s length from the seam, he started driving in the spike at an angle. Finally he finished, and said, “Shepherd, would you do the second one?”
Shepherd’s spike went in faster.
“We’ll go from lightest to heaviest,” said Rumal. “Erlij, you’re the lightest. Take this rope with you. We’ll grab the rope as we cross and we can use it to pull ourselves across or pull someone up.[8]”
“I can create a rend,” said Erlij but only Bree heard him. Still, they made it across without incident.
As they approached the bend in the hall, a booming voice said, “Die, followers of evil, whose armies were crushed at the battle of Anselm’s Way by the right just hand of King Arndred.[9]”
Nausea filled her. “I don’t feel well,” said Bree.
Maltyn started to answer and fainted. Then Bree fell, too.
Rumal swore. He and Shepherd dragged them around the bend, then decided to go to the end of the hallway, where there was a door.
#
Bree opened her eyes. Shepherd was looking at her. He passed her one of the canteens. She took a drink and cleared her mouth of the taste of stale vomit.
Maltyn was still unconscious. Shepherd turned to look at her.
Bree got up. Rumal was looking at the door.
Solid granite. There were words etched into it, above a coat of arms: an oak tree on a field of red.
“No, I don’t know what the words mean,” said Rumal. “The coat of arms belongs to King Arndred, though. Maltyn told me they ruled the land before the Teophan house did, and in fact the Teophan house revolted against Arndred’s house and won.”
“Houses Oakred and Teophan,” said Bree.
“That’s right,” said Rumal.
“Oakred hated Teophan. Only Maltyn and I are wearing the coat of the house Teophan, and only we were affected.”
“Reasonable guess,” said Rumal. “This door has no keyhole or obvious lock.”
Bree looked at it.[10] Eventually she noticed the scrape marks on the floor. “It slides,” she said to Rumal. “See these marks?”
Rumal looked at the floor and then nodded at her. “You can be helpful. Thank you.” He turned to the others, and saw that Maltyn was now conscious. He asked Maltyn, “Would you look at this?”
Maltyn groaned and got to her feet. “That’s the coat of house Oakred.” She looked down at her jacket and its coat of arms, and she turned it inside out.
“Yes,” said Rumal. “Can you read the words?”
Maltyn’s lips moved as she sounded them out. “Uh, behold the…tomb? Tomb of King Arndred, hero of, a name, Ansed? No, Anselm’s Way.”
“Like the voice said,” Bree offered.
“Yes, that one,” Maltyn said sourly.
The other two had also come over and were watching.
“Shepherd, we think the door slides. Give me a hand, here.”
They put their shoulders to it, but it didn’t move.
“Maybe try the other direction?” Bree suggested.
This time, the door moved—slowly, but it moved.
They looked into the hallway. It was short, perhaps a few dozen paces, with alcoves on either side. The alcoves were littered with bones. Erlij said, “Two skulls, so two bodies, I think.”
“Any weapons?” Rumal asked.
“I don’t see any. Hold the lantern higher.” Bree had taken the lantern, and she did so.
“No, I don’t see anything.”
“Is it magical?”
“I can’t tell,” said Erlij. “That’s not the kind of magic I have studied.”
“So the skeletons might animate and kill us, or they might not. Tell me about the door at the other end.”
“Like this one, a stone slab, but with a keyhole and no writing. Same coat of arms, though.”
“All right. I’ll go in.” Rumal tied the rope around his waist. “If something goes wrong, pull me out.”
“It’s a room,” Bree said.
“Something killed those skeletons,” Rumal reminded her.
Rumal entered the room. He immediately started breathing heavily.[11] “Frightening,” he gasped. “It’s very…frightening. No reason, just…is.”
There was a rustling sound, like paper being crumpled. From the doorway, Erlij said, “Skeletons forming.”
“Can you….do something from there?” Rumal drew his short sword.
Shepherd prayed again, the same prayer they had heard before.[12]
Rumal swung at one of the skeletons[13] and hit it, lopping off an arm.
Shepherd stepped in and swung his staff at the other skeleton,[14] and missed as the skeleton dodged to one side.
Erlij found the right page in his spell book.
Maltyn said to Bree, “Help them!”
“I have no weapon,” Bree pointed out.
Maltyn drew her sword and stepped in. She froze as the fear took her.[15]
Rumal hit again[16] and took the other arm off. Both arms just lay there on the floor. The armless skeleton head-butted him.[17]
Maltyn[18] managed to get a grip on her fear and swung at Shepherd’s foe.[19] She missed, by a lot.
Erlij said a spell.[20] The skeleton facing Shepherd became more decrepit and worn. Shepherd swung[21] and the skeleton dodged into the swing. His foe punched Shepherd and hit his thigh.[22]
Erlij swore once and flipped pages, while Rumal swung at the skeleton,[23] and broke it apart.
The remaining skeleton tried to punch Shepherd again[24] and just barely missed.
Erlij repeated the spell, and the skeleton fell apart.
Rumal looked at all of them. “Well, that was exciting. Bree, steel yourself and check the keyhole.[25]”
Bree stepped forward and felt the wave of unreasoning panic, but Shepherd’s presence made it better, somehow. She set down the lantern and started investigating the lock with her wires. It proved to be complex.[26]
“Can I help?” Erlij asked.
“I wish you could,” Bree said. “Ah. That’s got it.[27]”
The door slid to the right all by itself.
“Both doors went to the right,” mused Rumal. “Does that mean that right is important or that right is where servants go?”
Maltyn said, “In my experience, servants.”
Once they were through the doorway, the fear effect disappeared, though Bree still felt jumpy. The hallway swerved to the left, straightened out. Just before a set of stairs leading down, there was an alcove off to the right, but it ended in a mosaic of the mighty King Arndred, astride a horse and in battle.
“We haven’t seen an alcove and mural like this before,” said Bree.
“It doesn’t go anywhere,” Maltyn said.
“We brought her,” Rumal told Maltyn. “Let her do her part.”
“She opened the door already.”
Bree had taken the lantern to the mosaic. Maltyn had a lantern, too, but it was dimmer near the stairs without Bree’s light.
Bree carefully examined the mosaic.[28] Then she examined beside the mosaic. Finally she pressed a mosaic tile at one edge that was at her head height.
There was a clicking sound and the wall opened up.
“And now I’ve opened another door,” Bree said.
Maltyn had the grace to hide her surprise. “Well, let’s look,” she said.
Rumal looked at Bree and said, “Good work. I’ve heard of doors like this sealing shut, so I’ll stay here and guard it. Show me the latch again. You folks can go in.”
Bree showed him the mosaic tile that controlled the door. She said, “But I can guard.”
“No offense, Bree, but from Maltyn says, you’re as likely to shut us all in there. Go in and look for something useful. I’ll watch, and I’ll yell if there’s cause.” He grinned. “I will take the lantern, though.”
“I was getting used to it.” However, she handed him the lantern and went in. Shepherd stayed outside with Rumal.
The room was oval, and really oval: round floors and ceiling as well as walls. There was the whiff of decay: the mummified bodies of several men were stacked against the walls. More were heaped in the centre of the room. If Bree had to guess, the ones against the walls had been placed there and later searched; the two mummies in the center of the room along with a small pile of junk came later. They didn’t get searched, or didn’t get searched in the same way.
Erlij was in the middle of the room, looking at the small pile of junk. He bent down and picked up something shiny.
He held it up, and Maltyn shone the bullseye lantern in his direction.
Erlij was holding an eighth of a gold coin.
“So this room connects to the bottomless shaft?” Bree asked.
“Yup,” said Erlij. “Can’t figure out why, but it does. That one” — he indicated the freshest corpse, not mummified nor dressed like the rest — “was a grave robber of some kind.”
“Well, so are we,” said Bree.
“I’m not,” said Maltyn.
“Just visiting the ancestors?”Bree asked.
Maltyn ignored her and looked in the bag of the grave robber. She pulled out a wooden disk painted with King Arndred’s coat of arms.
Bree said, “Hardly seems worth it for a grave robber.”
“I think we’re still in the part of the tomb that was explored and looted long ago,” said Erlij. “Looters have gotten everything that might be worth anything. Maybe a knife or two on the bodies, but I doubt there will be much else,” said Erlij.
Bree noticed that Maltyn took the bag of disks.
#
Bree had to pick the lock on the next door, but the door and the lock were typical instead of being magical.[29] The latest door opened on a stairwell that led down to a small landing with an alcove, and a hall stretching to the left and right. Rumal led the way.
The alcove in the landing held a marble statue showing some kind of warrior woman; the statue’s blade was coated in dried gore. The landing and halls were littered with corpses, most of them very old but one was the body of an orc and only a moon or so old.
“Little Sal?” Bree asked out loud, and knelt next to the orc.[30]
The statue began to move fluidly and held up her sword. Rumal was closest, Bree second closest. Bree scrambled backward, hiding the dagger she had found on Little Sal’s body. Rumal suddenly stopped and looked at the statue. “King Arndred, hero of Anselm’s Way,” he said.
The statue returned to its previous pose and stood immobile.
“And?” Maltyn asked.
“Statue spoke to me, to my mind, and wanted to know the name of the king.”
“Clearly that was the correct answer,” Bree said.
Shepherd grunted.
Rumal asked, “You said that right was usually for servants?”
“The right hand of the king is still a servant,” said Maltyn.[31]
“Then we’ll try the left hallway.”
That hallway turned and ended in a normal door.[32] Bree made short work of that one, too. She noticed something odd about them, and mentioned it. “I was wondering who was locking these doors. I mean, Little Sal came in but didn’t leave, and the door behind him was locked. Turns out there’s a spring or something so the door locks as soon as it’s closed.”
“Hard to run,” mused Rumal.
“Escape might be easy. I can create a rend,” said Erlij again.
Shepherd spoke over him. “Undead are here. Not just the skeletons. Ahead of us. I can feel it.”
Rumal said, “That’s why we brought you.”
“Ahead of us” was another door. The door did not slide: it was an iron-bound oaken door with a lock. This[33] one was easy for Bree.
Mindful of Shepherd’s words, all had weapons out before going through the door. There was a slight chill as they entered, but there was no sign of skeletons or zombies.
The lantern light showed painted wall murals, mostly scenes from the royal home: first, children played in a courtyard.
Bree stopped. “Do you hear something?”
“Aye,” said Shepherd.
“Me too,” said Erlij.
“The sound of children playing,” Maltyn said.
They moved forward. Next they saw and heard the royal family feasting by a fire. Next a father, presumably Arndred, petted his dogs. The next was about halfway down the corridor — both doors were dimly illuminated by the lanterns—the sound of splashing water accompanied a woman bathing in a porcelain tub. The same woman had clearly modeled for both the statue and the painting, but this version had a less war-like mien.
As they were walking by the bathing woman, something oozed from the wall. It was the woman, and she formed as a barely translucent figure before them, still naked and unbothered by it.
“How lovely to see you,” the woman said. “You can wait here; I’m afraid my husband is napping and cannot be disturbed.” She smiled graciously.
The party stopped.
“I don’t believe your husband told us your—” began Rumal.
“Queen Anne,” said Maltyn, and executed a deep and flawless curtsy. “Such a pleasure to meet you; I have heard so much about you.”
“How lovely to meet someone who knows her manners.” The queen gestured kindly.
“It would be remiss of me not to introduce my servants because I cannot keep them quiet. The quality of servants these days. Rumal, my steward; Shepherd, my footman; Bree, my lady in waiting; and Erlij, who does things that must be done.”
Queen Anne said, “Oh, servants. So hard to maintain.” She called for one (“Valyn!”), but no one appeared. “Not like when I was a girl.”
Bree realized, People have always complained about the quality of people and work. As if the past were any better. She curtsied, badly, as the Queen’s ghost’s gaze passed over her.
Even Shepherd bowed his head.
“Well. Because my husband can’t be disturbed, would you like tea? And I should introduce you to the children. I don’t know where they’ve got to.”
“Oh, they’re fine, I assure you,” Maltyn said.
The Queen stopped. “You know of my children?” She tittered. “The last people here did not know of them at all.”
“Three children, my Queen,” said Maltyn. “Aelfred, Harvam, and Ealfanna.”
“Yes, I see you do know them.” The Queen’s ghost took on a look of concern. “How are they? Where are they?”
“Oh, dear. You know it has been a bit of time that you have been waiting here?”
“A trifle. A few months at most.”
“Of course. Aelfred is a fine man, and will be a good king. Harvam is a sturdy backup, and I am sure that Ealfanna will bear find children some day, perhaps four who live.”
“Who live?”
Maltyn sighed deeply. “We know the curse of womanhood, even with the best alchemists and wizards.”
“True. Did you say you took honey in your tea?”
“I do not, but thank you so much for offering. It is Ealfanna I know the best, and she was…is…clever and wise and brave.”
The Queen beamed at her, and pointed to a crack in the wall. Maltyn spared a moment to move her head, indicating to Bree to get whatever it is.
“Oh, my husband will be so pleased to meet you. He has his doubts about Aelfred, but I am sure that you can set his mind at rest.”
“I shall try,” said Maltyn. She moved toward the opposite door, hoping to draw the ghost so that Bree could look.
“Oh, but we shouldn’t go in there; my husband is sleeping.”
Bree slipped her hand into the crack, which was wide enough for her to get her hand in but not so wide that she could move it. She could feel something metal inside. Bree used her fingernails to dig in the plaster, just a bit, and the metal thing became more obvious to her touch.
“Your husband is—” began Shepherd. The Queen stiffened.
“A great man, your husband,” said Maltyn. “Servants. I shall have him reprimanded when we get home.”
“We sometimes had servants skinned,” the Queen said helpfully. “Just a bit, but losing enough skin to sole boots focuses the mind wonderfully.”
“I’m sure it does. Who are your favorite servants?”
Bree jammed her fingers a little farther in. She couldn’t close her fingers around the metal thing, yet but she knew she could do it.
Suddenly the Queen was right in front of her. “Get. Your hand. Out. Of. My. Wall.”
“I can’t,” Bree lied. “It’s stuck.”
“Well, serves you right.” The Queen leaned back, smug. “I told you not to eat that jam and then try to load the monkey trap.”
This seemed such a left turn, that Bree stopped for a moment. “Pardon?”
“Such a scamp, Ealfanna. The others can help you pull free before your father wakes up.” The Queen spoke directly to Erlij. “Help your sister instead of always looking at your books. What will we do with you?”
“I don’t know, your Majesty,” said Bree. She had no idea what royal children called their mothers, but she was grateful that the Teophan crest was hidden against the wall.
“We have guests and you remembered to be polite. Good girl!” The Queen tried to pat her on the back and stopped at the last minute to walk back to Maltyn.
Bree exhaled. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath. She got the metal thing between her fingers and pulled gently. She didn’t bother to look at it once she got her hand out, but kept it clenched in her fist. It felt like a key.
Maltyn was saying, “No, my lady, you are confused. If we go through that door, we will wake your husband. What we need to do is go through this door to wait outside.[34]” Maltyn gathered the rest of the group and headed toward the door they wanted . “I’ll see myself out. Thank you!”
Bree[35] got the door open and they left as quickly as they could, only to find themselves on a platform that jutted out a little distance into a vast room.
The lanterns didn’t cast enough light to show the entire chamber. Bree could barely make out a door at the right end, the long end, but only because the door was gilded and stood out against the rock. The room was maybe a third as wide as it was tall, and they could not see the ceiling.
Filling the room was a boat. It was too far to jump to the deck, and the boat was listing in the waterless room anyway.
“Sailing into the afterlife,” said Maltyn. “The boat would contain everything the king needed in the afterlife.”
“Like a crown?” Bree asked.
“If his body is there, maybe. But I don’t think they did that, they just put most of his belongings on the boat so his would be a happy afterlife; the body or spirit would make it on its own,” said Maltyn.
“There still might be something useful,” said Rumal.
Erlij looked carefully; he wasn’t limited by the lantern in the same way. “Boat is still tied to the other door. There’s a drain or something at this end but the opposite corner of the room, down on the floor.”
Rumal eyed the distance. “Shepherd and I could jump, but probably better to use a rope. We’ve got several, so one can be used for this and left tied to the railing.”
“Surprised we don’t see Dublin’s rope,” said Maltyn. “Fellow who died in here. Diary from one of his gang led us to this.”
“Someone pulled it up?” Bree asked.
“Or they used a knot that stays under tension but can be shaken off when it’s loose. Had a need for it once or twice,” said Rumal. “Still, we’ll leave ours. No point in having to figure out how to get it back up on this ledge.”
Erlij opened his mouth and then shut it again.
Rumal took a rope out from his pack and tied a series of knots in it, looked at Erlij and Bree, took them out and re-tied them closer together. He took one of the iron spikes and drove it into the door, then made the rope fast to it. “We’ll just lower you down with a bowline,” he said to Erlij. “You can scout around. Run back at the first sign of trouble.”
“Trouble like undead,” said Shepherd.
He’s got ants in his breeches about undead, thought Bree about Shepherd.
“Warn us about any trouble,” said Rumal. “You’re the only wizard we have, but you’re also the only one who can see without a lantern.”
Rumal lowered Erlij down while Bree and Maltyn held the lanterns and looked for trouble.
The goblin got to the ground and he loosened the loop to slip out of it, but did not untie the loop. He wriggled free, gave a sign that he was okay, and immediately stooped down to see if the ground was dry.
It was.
There was a wide, long plank there, too. Bree thought that maybe it had stretched from the platform they were now on to the stern of the ship.
“Water ran out or evaporated,” Rumal said, “board fell loose, and the boat tipped over when it hit the floor.”
Erlij trotted over to the grate he had spotted. It was rusty and large, but maybe Shepherd and Rumal could move it, if necessary. He shook his head no.
He trotted back, checking the wall as he went, and then headed at right angles to the group, on the long wall. He stayed by the stone so nothing could attack him from one side.
Rumal in the meantime had spotted a sword on the listing deck. There were many weapons, jumbled and rusty against the gunwales because of the tilt of the ship, but this weapon seemed untouched by time or damage. He wished that Erlij would check the boat but the little wizard was checking all of the floor first.
Erlij reached the corner and turned. He was too short to reach the step that led up to the door; the only way that Rumal could see was pulling yourself onto the boat, making your way up the slope to the bow, and going hand over hand to the door. Rumal hoped there was some other way; that was going to be an ordeal.
Bree took advantage of the moment to finally look at the metal thing she had taken from the wall. It was, as she suspected, a small gold key. She tucked it in her pouch; she would need both hands if she went down on that rope.
Something crawled up from below-decks in the ship. It was withered and dried and missing one arm, but it had been a man. Bree stared at it, fascinated. She had never seen a zombie before, and there was such a sense of wrongness about it that she couldn’t stop looking at it.
A second followed. Then a third. All three slid down the sharply-tilted deck to the gunwales and started crawling out to the floor.
“Erlij!” Rumal called out. “Erlij! Zombies! At least three!”
The goblin appeared from behind the ship, running as hard as he could. He angled toward the rope, but then saw that one of the three nearest zombies had made it to the floor.
Two more appeared behind him: one was a dwarf missing her legs but with torn and rotted armor on her body; the other was a dead halfling missing an arm and a foot, so it shuffled.
“Zombies,” breathed Shepherd.
Erlij made an arc toward the hanging rope. Though he was short, he got there well before the biggest zombie, and threw his arms through the loop.
“Pull me up!” Erlij cried.
Shepherd hauled the goblin up.[36]
“Got you,” said Rumal as he helped Erlij onto the platform.
“I was trying hard not to touch anything, not to trigger anything, but I had to duck to get under the keel, and then they started coming out of a porthole.”
There had been five; now there were eight. From the sounds in the boat, there were more.
Rumal looked at Shepherd. “Can you protect us from them?”
“I can ask Tormin to intervene for us, but his ways our not our ways. He might grant us the boon of untouchable purity for a minute…which isn’t enough time to get down, get across, and get up.”
Bree asked, “How do we get up to that locked door?”
Rumal ignored her. He said to Erlij, “And your teleport is only good to get us back.”
“I can’t take us anywhere I haven’t been. I can create a rend to our campsite. In here, I can get us to the floor and the far corner, if you want, but I can’t get us on to the deck of the ship.”
“Then I guess we have to kill them again. If you teleport—”
“Open a rend, technically.”
“For Maltyn, Shepherd, and me. We’re the three fighters.” Shepherd looked offended. “You’re more of a fighter than the little ones are.”
Shepherd shrugged.
Give me a short sword and I’ll show you that I can fight, thought Bree, but it served her purpose to be left here. They didn’t have a short sword to spare, anyway. She chose not to mention the key, yet; she didn’t; know that it fitted the door, and if it did, she wasn’t necessary, and if she wasn’t necessary, she became expendable.
Another zombie joined the crowd beneath them.
“Behind the boat is tempting — choke points for the zombies — but there’s the whole seeing thing. Far corner gives us some distance to get ready, the people up here can still hold the lanterns, and three of us can protect a corner while we kill zombies.”
“I can’t hold the rend for the entire time you’re fighting zombies,” said Erlij. “No one can.”
Maltyn said, “Can you do anything before we go down?”
“I can set their clothes on fire. Uh, not the one that’s naked.”
“Go ahead. If we wound them first, that’s less fighting.”
Erlij looked at her for a moment, and then grabbed his spell book. “Different kinds of clothes, each requires different wording in the spell, so I can do sets of them.”
“Go ahead,” said Maltyn. Rumal looked at her, annoyed.
Erlij put a bunch of bookmarks in his spell book. “Ready.”
“Go ahead, I said.”
Erlij looked down at the zombies.[37] One burst into flames, and kept burning while Erlij confirmed the spell in the book. He managed to make the first one fall down, a blackened husk,[38] while flames spurted from the armour of another. He failed the third time[39] but made up for it quickly, and then a fourth one[40] caught on fire. The fifth, sixth and seventh were[41] easy. He looked at Rumal and said, “The others aren’t wearing anything flammable.”
Rumal nodded. “And a last request. Can you teleport us to that corner?”
“No. But I can make a rend and hold it open long enough for you to walk through it.” Erlij started flipping through his spell book. “If I have to hold it open…” He tried a spell and nothing happened.[42]
Annoyed with himself, he muttered, “Glottal stop after rend size component to make it bigger.” He said the spell again and two glowing rends appeared in the air, one on the platform with them and one in the far corner.
Maltyn, Rumal, and Shepherd walked through the ear rend and appeared on the floor.
Erlij sighed gratefully as he let the rend collapse. “That was tiring,” he said. “I can invigorate myself with magic but maybe we’ll wait a moment.”
“Can you do that for others?” asked Bree. “I kinda…twisted something looking for that secret door.”
Erlij chuckled. “We can’t have that. You need to be at your best up ahead.” He started looking things up.
The zombies still hadn’t noticed the three yet.[43] They had to yell to get the zombies’ attention. Then the zombies started shuffling over.
Watching them move, Erlij said a spell.[44]
The fighters had arranged themselves around the corner, with Shepherd against the far wall. Rumal was saying something, obviously trying to cheer up Maltyn, who looked sweaty and nervous.[45]
The first one reached Rumal,[46] He slashed twice, opening up the zombie’s leather armour. The zombie tried slashing him with a rusty sword anyway[47] but missed.
Maltyn stepped forward to hit hers.[48] She hit solidly and cut the bloodless limbs of the zombie; it failed to hit her.
Shepherd used his staff, and hit one that was farther from him.[49] The zombie managed to block the staff with its own corroded axe. It continued the swing and Shepherd just barely dodged.
Up on the platform, Erlij nodded and said a spell.[50] Bree immediately felt more refreshed.
Rumal finished killing his zombie, and looked around. Maltyn’s opponent was closer.[51] Maltyn had hit it twice and happened to cut the strap holding its cuirass on one shoulder, so the molded leather sagged.
Shepherd tried again.[52] He did worse this time, and the zombie gashed him on the leg.
That made up Rumal’s mind.[53] He hit the zombie twice, managing to avoid most of its chain.
Maltyn missed, but so did her zombie; Shepherd[54] hit his zombie, and the zombie missed. It turned around to face Rumal.
Maltyn made the last hit on her foe, and it collapsed. Rumal make short work of the zombie that had been facing Shepherd. Panting slightly, he said, “Let’s look at that leg.”
“Aye,” Shepherd nodded.[55] He showed Rumal the long ragged gash.
“We’re going to need to fix that. The only way I can think of to open that door involves climbing on the boat. You’ll need your legs.”
Shepherd prayed and laid his hand on himself. The wound closed, as if it were never there; the only evidence was the long tear in his trousers.
“Good.” Rumal gave the orclin a hand up. “Now let’s look at that boat. If you boost me up to the gunwales right there, I think I can get onto the boat.”
Bree and Erlij watched them head to the boat. Then Erlij said, “Oh, no.”
When Bree asked, the goblin pointed down to one of the burned husks.
The burned zombie was getting to its feet. As they watched, it left a blackened finger behind but it managed to stand up, and began to lurch toward the group.[56]
“Hey!” Bree shouted. “Hey! One of the burned ones is getting up!”
Maltyn turned to face them and saw the zombie walking. Rumal and Shepherd were caught with Shepherd trying to help Rumal up on the boat. Maltyn made a decision: she ran up to deal with the zombie.
“What is she doing?” Erlij asked. He started flipping through his spell book before the zombie was too far.
“She’s giving herself room to back up,” said Bree. “She’s going to need it, because that one’s getting up too.”
Erlij said a spell.[57] He grimaced with pain afterward.
“I hope that helped,” said Bree.
Maltyn had reached the first zombie. She delivered a wide slash.[58] Its leg twisted unnaturally and it fell to the floor, where it didn’t move.
In the meantime, the second burned zombie had found its rusty cutlass. “I need some help here!” Maltyn called.
Shepherd gave Rumal a last push to put Rumal up on the boat, then readied his staff as he walked up beside her.
“Ready.[59]”
She hit the zombie cleanly and he knocked its head off. The body toppled to the rough floor and there was the sound of the head hitting the floor near the wall.
Bree shouted, “Look out!”
The third flame-blackened husk swung at Maltyn,[60] but swung wide.
#
Rumal carefully moved through the detritus that had gathered near the gunwales, moving forward. He spotted a golden compass; he picked it up and put it in his pouch. He could climb the balusters of the gunwales rails as if they were stairs. Halfway up, he was satisfied that he could make it the rest of the way; best to go back and help his team.
When he turned, there were three half-people below him.
All had their legs and more torn off; they clearly moved by pulling themselves with their arms, so they were trapped in the vee of the deck and the railing.
They couldn’t get up to him, and he couldn’t get to the rest of his party to help them.
#
Erlij tried another spell, and it failed. “Too far away!”
Bree said, “If we splash it in oil, can you set it on fire again? Or that one down there that’s moving?”
“It’s close enough, and I have oil.”
“If I can hit it from this height, the flask will break. Then it’s soaked in oil.”
“Here.” The goblin handed Bree a flask of oil. She tossed it in her hand a couple of times to gauge its weight. She looked at the zombie; it was very slow at rising but it was rising.[61] She aimed for a moment and threw.
The flask hit the zombie and broke. Bree said, “Your turn.”
“Wait a moment, let it soak in. It burns better.”
Bree looked at the distance between them and said, “Not too long. We don’t want them attacked by a zombie on fire.[62]”
#
Rumal looked at the zombies (or half-zombies) on the balusters of the deck railing, and they looked at him, sensing his presence. He was only carrying a dozen sling bullets, and it took that many to put down a single zombie, so he wasn’t going to be able to hit them all. He was too high up on the railing’s curve to safely drop to the ground, though that at least was a possibility.
Huh. And the gleaming, probably magic, sword is right over there, behind them. Well, if I have to pick between being a dead owner of a magic sword and a live explorer without one, I know which I’ll pick.
He swung himself over the railing and hung there, then dropped. He landed safely, which pleased him. When he looked up, he saw that he had dropped in front of the three zombies they had killed before. Which had gotten up again.
#
Both Maltyn and Shepherd missed,[64] and the zombie managed to miss Maltyn with its club.
“This is not,” and Maltyn swung again[65] and was blocked, “like duels at court.”
Shepherd knocked the zombie solidly with his staff, and knocked the zombie a few paces to one side. “You ever win one of those duels at court?”
Maltyn said, “You shut up.”
“No blame. I’m not hitting either.”
#
Rumal[66] spotted a separated head on one side, and realized, That kills them, for good.
Could I decapitate one of the zombies and dodge the other two? The idea was laughable. Better join the others.
“Coming up,” he called to Maltyn and Shepherd as he ran closer.
“You have to cut off the head,” Maltyn said. “If you hit them.”
As Maltyn said that, she chopped the head off the zombie. Another shambled closer. Erlij said something, a spell, up on the platform, and there was a fwoomp sound and that zombie burst into flame.
“Three over here,” Rumal reminded them. He deliberately aimed to behead one of them, and put as much muscle into it as he could.[67] Its head came off, leaving them with a flaming zombie who had almost made it to them, and two other zombies who had found their weapons.[68] Both swung at him, and both missed, hitting the stone floor and breaking their weapons.
A rend[69] opened behind the zombies and Bree stepped out, knife in hand. “I can distract them,” she said loudly.[70] One zombie turned at the noise, and she prepared to dodge.[71]
Emboldened by the first hit, Maltyn hit the second zombie[72] but only mangled its neck, leaving its head dangling. Shepherd hit the head hard enough to knock it loose, and the zombie collapsed again.
Rumal managed to behead the second of the three zombies, and Bree dodged mightily.[73]
“The head’s way up there and I only have a knife. You’ll have to do the work,” Bree said.
Maltyn and Shepherd were at the sides and both missed, so Rumal stepped in[74] and cut its head off. “Gather all the heads together and the bodies in a different place,” ordered Rumal. “There are three more on the boat, but they all have legs missing, so they can’t move well.”
Once the bodies were gathered, Shepherd went to the impotent zombies on the railing. “Be ready to behead them,” said Shepherd, and used his staff to knock one free, into the space between balusters.[75] Both Rumal and Maltyn hit it but failed to behead it.
Bree stepped back. “Go ahead. I don’t have a sword.”
The zombie tried to drag itself toward Rumal, who was closest.[76] Now that it was closer, Rumal[77] cut off its head. Bree kicked the head to the other heads. Rumal looked up at Shepherd. “Ready for the next.”
The next two went just as easily.[78]
They looked at each other, then the boat. “I’m tired,” said Rumal.
“Me too,” said Maltyn.
Shepherd laid hands on Rumal[79] and then Maltyn; fortunately, they were just tired at this point. Rumal was about to get up on Shepherd again, when Bree said, “Why don’t we boost Erlij up there? Then he can create a rend that gets the rest of us up.”
“Because I didn’t think of it,” said Rumal. “We’ll have to do this slightly differently, though.” He put Erlij on his shoulders and then had Shepherd lift them both up.
Erlij scrambled onto the boat and looked for a suitable place for the rend to let people through. He picked one near the passage to the poop deck, where the raised stairs would stop people from falling,[80] and called down that he was creating the rend.
They came through the rend; Maltyn and Shepherd slipped, but managed to grab protrusions in the deck before they fell to the balustrade.
Rumal seemed to have no problem navigating the tilted deck;[81] Bree managed to keep her balance; and Erlij had not come through a rend, but had the chance to slowly choose his footing.
Bree and Rumal slowly made their way to the bow of the boat which was still tethered to the stair below the door. Bree[82] shimmied up the rope and made it to the door. The lock was still above her head, but not far — though her arms still ached when she held them up.
Fortunately, she had a key that might work.
She examined the lock — someone had already worked at it with picks — and explored the inside of the lock with a piece of wire, and then pulled out her collection of skeleton keys. The first didn’t work; the second didn’t work; the third was where she palmed the golden key into her hand and tried it.[83]
The door swung open.
Bree put away her tools and blew out the lantern, just as she had to climb the rope, then scrambled up.[84] She re-lit the lantern while Rumal was helping Erlij up. The goblin was slightly out of breath when he thanked Rumal, and he rested for a moment while Rumal climbed up.
Erlij then made a rend for Shepherd to climb through; a minute later, he made a rend for Maltyn.
“Sorry for the delay,” he said to Maltyn. “It’s tiring to hold them open.”
“Grateful,” said Maltyn. She looked at the room. The door opened onto a hall that stretched to the right and left. The far side of this entrance held an alcove with the broken remains of a statue. The walls were scraped and chipped; there was blood on the floor and on what remained of the statue’s sword.
“Left or right?” Rumal asked. “I assume that right is still for servants?”
“It is,” said Maltyn.
Erlij stepped forward and looked down the halls. “There’s a door to the right; we can check it later. And there’s an open pit trap to the left.” He walked to the edge of it. “With someone in it.” He turned to the others. “Tie me off and lower me down. He has stuff, and we have gotten very little in the way of reward so far.”
Rumal tied him off. From the pit, he called, “The spikes here are very close together. Bree might be able to do this, too. I’m going to open a rend for her. Bree, come down.[85]”
Bree carefully stepped through the rend and it vanished behind her. The spikes were a little less than a boot’s width apart, so it was awkward to walk but not impossible. The spikes themselves were about as long as her forearm: enough to go through a body, even someone the size of Shepherd.
“Over here,” said Erlij. She carefully picked her way over to him and the body of a man, who had clearly fallen legs first, died, and then slumped over. “I think we should assume that everything he has might be a relic of some kind, because he got this far. You should take his sword, anyway — from the way you handled that knife, I think you have some experience and you don’t have a weapon.”
“I do feel kind of naked without one,” she admitted. “In here, anyway.” She looked at the corpse. Mummified from years of being here, it sat there. She looked at the body. “He’s got a ring of some kind.”
“Take it.”
Bree squeezed between spikes and saw they ended shortly after his body. By the lantern light, she could see something written in blood on the floor beside a rotting leather bag.
“What’s that say?”
Erlij read it out loud.[86] “My name is Dublin Vies. May the Powers Below curse you if you do not bury me in hallowed ground.”
Bree said, “Sorry, Dublin. Maybe on the way out we’ll come and get you.” She transferred his bag into one of hers; she peeked at the contents. “Gold. That’s good.”
“That it?”
She checked his pouch. “A tinder kit. A bit of cheese in beeswax. He’s wearing a cuirass. Looks like leather to me, but it is finely made.”
“Can you get it off him? That’s a bit higher than I can reach comfortably.”
“I’ll try.” She found the buckles that held it on and undid them; she eased it off his body and tossed the cuirass to the bare area where his message had been written. “Boots are worthless, though. Big holes.”
“Then we don’t take the boots,” said Erlij. The two of them gathered the stuff together in the clear area and Bree strapped on the short sword.
Erlij created a rend[87] and they walked back.
“And what did you find?” asked Rumal.
“A bag of money, probably gold — I peeked.” She handed it over. “A ring which we presume is magical but we haven’t tried it.” Bree gave the ring, too.
“There is writing on the inside, which suggests it has a spell attached,” said Erlij.
“This leather cuirass. It’s too big for me, but one of you might find it useful.” She handed that over too. “And this short sword, which I am wearing because I can handle a sword and you didn’t see fit to bring one for me.”
“You’re a thief,” grumbled Maltyn. “Who expected you to be able to use a sword?”
“But I can, and we’re in a place where we might need an extra sword. We can redistribute it later, but I need it now.”
Maltyn started to speak, but Rumal said, “Agreed. One other thing. Maltyn was not planning on coming with us. Because she’s taking part in all of the dangers, I propose that she get an equal share of the treasure. She’ll start with the crown she wants — each of us will get one thing; perhaps for Bree it will be the sword — and then money and gems will be divided equally.”
Erlij thought about it, and said, “All right.”
Shepherd said, “Of course. It’s only fair.”
That left Bree and Maltyn, each of whom was waiting for the other to speak. Finally Bree said, “If she’s okay with it, I’m okay with it.”
“I am,” said Maltyn.
Bree shrugged and grinned. “I’d be shackled to a wall if it weren’t for her, so it seems reasonable to me.”
Rumal said, “Then it’s agreed. Now we have to figure out how to get past the pit trap.”
Bree said, “It doesn’t extend to the wall. There’s a ledge big enough for me or Erlij to go on.”
Rumal looked at it. “I can do that.”
Maltyn said, “You sure?”
“Yes. It will be tricky, but I can do it, and I have the strength to yank Erlij over, at which point he rends people over.[88]”
They worked out a system where Erlij was suspended the whole way, and Shepherd held a belaying rope so even in case of problems, he didn’t fall into the pit. It took a bit to set up, but it was eventually done. Erlij[89] cast the rend, and they stepped over.
From the hall, there was another door, easily picked;[90] that door opened onto an oval room with a vaulted ceiling. Thick dust covered every surface, cobwebs filled every angle. One wall held a tapestry of a grand battle (Bree figured it was Anselm’s Way, because this king didn’t seem to have done anything else). At the far end of the room was a depression in the floor; the depression held a large dusty shield at about knee height. That shield probably covered the coffin. The shield was also caked with dust, so it wasn’t possible to see what the symbols were or even what shape the shield was in.
“Spiderwebs everywhere,” murmured Maltyn. Bree and Rumal both looked at her, but when Rumal spoke, it was about something else.
“Erlij, you see in the dark. What do you see that the lantern light isn’t showing us?”
Erlij said reasonably, “How can I know that unless I know what you see?” Rumal started to speak, and Erlij cut him off. “I see a dusty oval room. It all slopes to a depression in the floor. There are dusty tapestries on two sides: One shows a battle scene, while the other shows a hunting scene. The king is present in both. I see the oak and the red field on both tapestries. There are no other treasures or racks or furniture.”
“Pity,” said Bree. “That’s what I see, too, in the lantern.”
“We have two lanterns,” said Rumal. “Let’s put them at either end of the room, one near the coffin, one by this end. Then at least we can all see.”
“Wait,” said Bree. “Before anyone else goes down there, Shepherd, would you walk around the room and hit each tapestry and the shield with your staff? If they’re trapped, the blows should set off any traps, and with the staff you’re not directly in front of them.”
Shepherd grunted and looked at Rumal.
Rumal said, “I think it’s a good idea. I’ll bring staves for everyone next time.” He got a lead bullet from his pouch and his sling and fitted them together. “In case,” he explained. Maltyn moved to the other side of him.
Shepherd shook his head in resignation and then started forward. Bree stopped him and handed him the lantern Rumal had been carrying. Shepherd shook his head again.
Shepherd moved cautiously around the empty room. He gave a hard whack to the battle tapestry; dust few off the cloth, a couple of cocooned small animal corpses fell to the ground. Shepherd paused for a moment[91] but nothing else happened. He poked one of the cocooned animals — it wasn’t possible to tell what kind of animal it had been — but nothing happened.
Shepherd let the dust settle a bit, and then walked to the side of the shield.[92] He raised his staff and whacked the shield in the center. Dust again, and a clanging sound; disturbed, the shield slid to one side.[93]
Then Shepherd dropped the lantern and his hand flew to his neck.[94] The lantern went out.
Of them all, Erlij and Bree both spotted the spider. Erlij yelled, “He’s been bitten! Spider bite!” Bree rushed forward, drawing her sword.
Rumal said, “Don’t attack Shepherd!”
Bree put her sword tip under the spider. It was big, bigger than a human’s head. She managed to flip it up[95] and across the coffin. “Erlij, kill it!”
Erlij said, “Rumal, you kill it. I’m going to tend to Shepherd!”
Rumal had been running toward Shepherd but he headed to the other side of the coffin.
Maltyn shrieked and faded back to the doorway.
The spider scuttled away before Rumal could get there, so he changed course again and tried to hit the spider; he missed, and the spider went up behind the other tapestry. Rumal kept hitting it[96] and finally the lump behind the tapestry was flattened.
Rumal folded the tapestry back and finally saw the squished body of the spider.
“Good work, valiant spider killer,” said Bree. “Where’s Maltyn?”
“She was right beside me,” said Rumal.
Erlij was still busy with Shepherd, finding ingredients for a potion. “Poisoned by the spider’s venom. I can make something that might help. What kind of spider was it?”
Rumal peeked at the back of the tapestry against. “Squished.”
Erlij sighed and added double of the amount of the ingredient he was currently adding.
After a minute[97] a quavering voice from the doorway said, “Is it gone?”
“It’s dead,” Bree told her.
“I can’t abide spiders,” said Maltyn from the hall. “Not a bit.”
“It’s dead. You can come in now,” said Erlij.
“Yeah. It was probably protecting its young or something,” said Bree.
Maltyn gave another shriek. “There are babies?”
“She was kidding,” Rumal said.
Maltyn stuck a head through the doorway. “There are no babies?”
“No babies,” said Bree, who didn’t know if there were babies or not.
Maltyn walked in gingerly. “You probably thought that was funny.”
“That’s not why I said it,” Bree responded. “But it was a little funny.”
A time after that, Shepherd could move again, though he complained of soreness in his shoulder.
“Spider bite,” said Erlij. “It will heal.”
“Sorry,” said Bree to him. She could live if Maltyn hated her but not if the other three did.
He shrugged and then winced.
“That’ll be better by tomorrow,” said Erlij.
“Tombs. You got to expect things,” Shepherd said to Bree.
They moved the big shield that had covered the coffin. While Shepherd rested, Bree carefully examined the coffin.
“No poison darts, no stilettos, no contact poison I can detect.”
“So it’s safe?” Maltyn asked.
“Didn’t say that,” Bree replied. “Could be traps I can’t detect, like magical traps. Maybe there’s a spring held down by the coffin lid, and when we pull off]the coffin it will uncoil and release darts, or the lid is a counterweight and when we remove it the coffin will rise to the ceiling. However, it looks safe and there are no seams that indicate the whole coffin moves.”
“Then let’s take off the lid,” Rumal said.
“Shepherd should rest a bit more,” said Erlij. “Come up here to the doorway and we’ll watch.” He and the orclin stepped out of the room into the hallway.
“Maltyn and I can manage it,” said Rumal. Maltyn looked at Bree and decided she wasn’t going to be shown up in front of a halfling thief, and walked to the end of the coffin.
Bree said, “Why wait out there?”
Erlij said, “If it makes doors slam shut, y’see. I’ve already been in the room, so I can make a rend.”
“The question didn't need answering, smart guy,” Bree said, and grinned. She moved to near the door but inside while Rumal and Maltyn strained to lift the lid. When she saw they were heaving it to the same side as the shield, she dashed forward and moved the shield out of the way.
Once the lid was fully off the coffin, a foul opaque gas filled the room.[98] Bree, Maltyn and Rumal coughed furiously in the cloud. It finally dissipated, and Rumal looked at the other two. “I’m okay. You okay?”
Maltyn said, “I don’t feel well.” She put a hand against her cuirass and pressed gingerly. The leather of the cuirass kept her hand from going farther.
Bree said, “I’m okay, I guess.”
Maltyn was looking in the coffin. “It’s empty.”
“Someone got here first,” said Rumal.
“Damn,” said Erlij. “Ninety gold isn’t really good pay for this kind of danger.”
Bree said slowly, “I don’t think anyone got here first. I don’t think the king was ever in that coffin.”
Maltyn said, “Explain.”
“Nothing looked disturbed, at least until we got here, right?”
The others nodded. Erlij and Shepherd walked closer, to listen.
“And Maltyn, you said the boat was stuff for the afterlife, right?”
Maltyn nodded.
“Okay, I used to know a guy who robbed tombs.” She saw no need to mention it was her uncle. “If someone is taking their possessions to the afterlife, the coffin is more comfortable. It’s their vehicle to the next world. It’s not a stone box, it’s a lined stone box.” She gestured to the coffin. “That thing there has never been lined.[99] It’s a diversion. It is meant to make us think that the body has been plundered.”
“So where do you think the body is?” Maltyn asked.
“Maybe that other door down the hall, maybe here behind a secret door. I don’t know, but we have to look.”
“I’d like it to be worth a spider bite,” said Shepherd.
“Let’s look. Inside the coffin first. Bring that lantern here.”
Maltyn got the lantern that Shepherd had set down and put it in the centre of the coffin.[100] Bree and Maltyn started examining the coffin interior closely, starting at opposite points and working until they were examining area that the other had looked. Eventually Maltyn worked something with her finger.
There was a grinding sound and the far wall moved slightly.
“Good work,” Bree said.
Maltyn grinned in surprise. “Thanks.”
Shepherd walked over to the wall and pulled on it. It opened up. Erlij looked and said, “Well, that’s trapped.”
Bree grabbed the lantern and walked over to look, while Rumal grabbed the other lantern and brought it over.
It was a small, circular room of marble. The far side of the room had a stairway.
The floor had a symbol of Lektyn, the local god of the harvest, etched into the floor. Bree looked up. The ceiling was flat, but there were small holes spaced evenly across it.
“I think Erlij is right. It’s got to be trapped.” Bree got down on her knees and looked at the etching.
Maltyn said, “That’s Lektyn, the god of the harvest and victory in war.”
“Appropriate for the winner of whatever that battle was,” said Bree.
“Actually, both sides worshiped Lektyn,” said Maltyn.
Bree reached toward the etching and then stopped. “That tingles,” she said.
“Trap,” repeated Erlij.
“So we don’t touch the image,” said Rumal.
“That’s fine for Maltyn, Erlij, and me, but you and Shepherd have big feet and that image comes pretty close to the edge.”
“You think something comes out of the holes?” Rumal asked.
Erlij nodded, and then remembered he was had to see. “Yes.”
Rumal said, “We’ll use that shield, hold that over us. And it will help on the way out, assuming we have things to carry.”
They carried the shield over themselves and charged through; spikes came from the holes in the ceiling and slammed against the shield, making Shepherd stumble as they ran, but they got through.[101]
The others carefully made it on the outside of the etching and they found themselves on the stairs behind the two people still under the shield. Rumal and Shepherd set down the shield carefully, so it didn’t slide down into the next room. They stopped and looked at the room in the lantern light.
The stairs led down to a large room, nearly square, with columns in each corner and a vaulted ceiling overhead. The center of the room held a stone coffin on a dais. Around it were things he might need in the afterlife: golden toiletry bottles on a gilded table; chairs; a gilded open carriage; a rack of weapons, mostly spears; a hunting bow, a small filigreed container for bowstrings, and a quiver of arrows. Each wall was painted with a scene from the life of King Arndred: The far wall depicted the epic battle of Anselm’s Way, which they recognized from the tapestry; the left wall seemed to be Arndred’s wedding to Queen Anne; the right wall showed a hunting scene.
Rumal said, “Stay out. We’ve already seen ghosts and zombies. Maybe there’s something else here.”
Shepherd sniffed. “Ghosts here.[102]”
“Good to know,” said Bree. “We never got into a fight with the Queen, so who knows if ghosts can hurt people?”
“Some can, some can’t,” said Shepherd.
Bree nodded. “Of course.”
“Assume they can; this is the real tomb, so they’d have it trapped and guarded.”
Everyone looked intently at the contents of the room.[103] Maltyn finally said, “The Queen came out of the mural. Maybe the King will come out of one of the wall paintings?”
“Okay, but which one?”
Rumal said, “Three of us have swords; each takes a painting. Be ready to help the one who needs it.”
Shepherd asked, “Me?”
“Anything you have hurt ghosts?”
“I’ll pray over your weapons.[104]”
Shepherd knelt and in turn, each person laid his or her sword flat over his knee and he blessed it.[105]
“Mine doesn’t feel any different,” Bree said.
“We’ll know if it hurts ghosts. Tormin works in mysterious ways,” said Shepherd.”
The three of them stepped into the room, each heading for one of the paintings. As they were walking to the paintings, each one oozed out a ghost, who stood translucent before them: the groom, resplendent in his finery, against Bree; the warrior, in armor and carrying a fine sword, against Rumal; and the hunter, also with a sword, against Maltyn.
“Back to back!” Rumal said, but there was too much stuff in the room to move immediately.[106]
The three ghosts spoke as one. “You have violated my tomb and must die!”
The groom ghost charged at Bree[107] and she gasped as he ran through her, despite her attempt to move out of the way.[108] She slashed at him as he ran by, and maybe hurt him: she saw streamers of ectoplasm follow her blade.
The warrior ghost attacked Rumal[109] and missed. Rumal counter-attacked[110] but his sword went into the ghost and out without the trail of ectoplasm that Bree had seen.
The Hunter ghost attacked Maltyn[111] and she never got to counter-attack; she fell unconscious.
Erlij’s eyes widened and he flipped pages faster.
Shepherd prayed for Tormin’s blessing,[112] and Maltyn awoke, but feigned unconsciousness.
The groom yelled “Huzzah!” before he charged back at Bree.[113] He missed, and she caught him a good stripe.
Erlij cast a spell.[114] The groom ghost vanished, oozing into the coffin, not the picture. “Help the others!”
“I’m not actually a fighter,” Bree said as she moved to Maltyn and the hunter ghost.[115] The ghost met her halfway, and slashed at her with his ghostly sword.[116] She fell to the ground, but Maltyn sprang up and hit him, trailing ectoplasm behind her blade.
Rumal managed to block the warrior king’s sword, but he did not even try to attack back, because he knew his weapon had no effect on it.
Erlij repeated his spell,[117] but this time it had no effect.
Shepherd wound his way to the coffin. The ghosts did not attack him, because they were busy. The warrior ghost attacked Rumal[118] but was blocked. “Any ideas?” he grunted.
Erlij said his spell again, and this time the ghost facing Maltyn gasped and oozed back into the coffin.
Maltyn made her way to the warrior ghost, and barely managed to hit it.[119] She did not manage to pierce even its ghostly cuirass.
“Help here,” grunted Shepherd.[120] He managed to push the stone lid off the coffin; someone with less strength would not have been able to do it.
Once the lid crashed to the floor, the remaining ghost oozed into the coffin, and the body of the king.
They sat there, gasping.
Erlij crept over to look at Bree.[121] He kept checking her.
Finally, Rumal said, “What a way to make a living.” He started to laugh.
#
Rumal presented Maltyn with the crown. Maltyn carefully stored it.
“Careful with that,” said Bree. “Rumour is if you don’t give that to the king, he’ll think you’re planning a revolution.”
“Or, if I don’t come back, that I died.” Maltyn looked at the others. “Still thinking about that.”
“Either way, we each get ninety gold, plus an item, plus a fifth of whatever we can sell these jewels for,” said Rumal.
“I do know a guy,” said Bree.
Characters
The characters all started as templates in the main rulebook. I altered Shepherd slightly to give him some kind of martial ability; I altered Erlij to reduce his Fabrica Mentus and increase his Fabrica Materia; I used extra points for all of them to make them more robust, and to add one or two points of composure in a couple of cases. The characters here are them as of the end of the adventure, with points spent partway.
Maltyn F2 A3 C1 R3 I3 (Human Courtier)
S: Dueling 5 (7-), Literacy 3 (6-), Etiquette 4 (7-), Leadership 2 (5-), Performance 5 (8-), General knowledge 4 (7-), Investigation 5 (8-), Negotiation 4 (6-), Subterfuge 6 (9-)
G: Biased ear, Irrational fear (spiders)
A: Chain mail, boots, and gauntlets W: Short Sword (2 INJ), Knife (1 INJ)
18 gold pieces, sack, wine, riding horse XP 12/21
Bree F3 A4 C1 R2 I3 Reaction 6+ (Halfling Bandit)
S: Athletics 5 (8-), Dueling 5 (8-), Stealth 6 (9-), Streetwise 4 (7-), Finesse 6 (9-), Investigation 6 (8-), Negotiation 2 (4-), Subterfuge 4 (7-)
G: Easily Obscured, Undersized, Meek Appearance
W: Knife (1 INJ), silver dagger (1 INJ), short sword (it heals the person who keeps it sheathed on his person by 2 FAT every hour) A: Leather Cuirass & Boots (1 FAT)
135 gold pieces, cloak, 3 sacks, stick of charcoal XP 20/21
Erlij F2 A3 C3 R3 I1 Reaction 5+ (Goblin Wizard)
S: Alchemy 6 (9-), Fabrica Ge 6 (9-), Fabrica Materia 6 (9-), Fabrica Mentus 5 (8-), Fabrica Sensus 5 (8-), Literacy 5 (8-), Composure 3
G: Night Vision, Light Sensitivity, Pack-Fighter, Undersized, Ugly, Descrying Reality
W: Knife (1 INJ) A: Leather Hauberk, Scale boots & helm
140 gp, 10 empty flasks, 5 flasks of oil, 2 packs XP 20/23
Rumal F3 A3 C2 R2 I2 Reaction 6+ (Elven Explorer)
S: Athletics 6 (9-), Animal Handling 5 (7-), Dueling 7 (10-), Survival 6 (8-), Riding 5 (8-), Stealth 5 (8-), Composure 3
G: Striking Appearance, Sure-footed, Animal Companion
W: Throwing axe (1 INJ), short sword (2 INJ), sling (1 FAT or INJ) A: Target Shield (1), Scale Hauberk, Boots, Gauntlets (2)
Tinder kit, Waterskin, Dried Foods, Bedroll, Pack, Riding horse, Guard dog Thorn, 2 gold pieces,1doz lead sling bullets XP 15/25
Shepherd F3 A2 C 2 R2 I4 Reaction 4+ (Orclin Holy Man)
S: Literacy 3 (5-), Performance 4 (8-), Blessing 6 (10-), Gospel 6 (10-), Legends 2 (4-), Sacraments 5 (9-), Consecration 5 (9-), Melee 5 (7-)
G: Poor vision, Resistant (cold), Musclebound, Faithful, Tactless, Constitution
A: Leather cuirass & boots W: Staff (2+1 FAT)
Lantern, 5 flasks of oil, Riding Horse, 55 gold pieces, Holy symbol XP 5/25
- Ring to see in dark - Shepherd
- Healing sword - Bree
- Crown - Maltyn
- Silvered Broadsword bonus of -1diff to hit Orcs, inflicting 6inj to Orcs and 4inj to all other species, and hums whenever an Orc comes within fifteen meters of it Rumal
- Jewelry (100 gold coins)
- 450 gold (Dublin)
- Cuirass of protection - Erlij
In the end, each will get about 110 gold coins.
GM Notes
