Soulstone_Oblivion

by J. A. Cipriano

  Crash cast Spectral Blades again, and George used Wind Blast to drive another against the center mast. Both of the enemy skeletons burst apart in a clatter of wet bones, but they pulled themselves together almost immediately.

  “Why won’t they stay dead?” Nova cried with an edge of panic in her voice, bringing her staff around in both hands. “Sparkle Death!” she shouted.

  The explosion of multicolored light was brighter than the last time she cast the spell. The thick beam shot straight up, and then split into six jagged bolts, each one hitting a skeleton. Bones and slime exploded everywhere.

  The massive attack only delayed the skeletons sorting themselves out and pulling back together by a minute or so.

  “Are you kidding me?” I said as I targeted one of the completed skeletons. “Turn Undead!”

  “Your spell has failed,” Elizabeth informed me. “This enemy cannot be targeted with Turn Undead.”

  “Damn it!” I said. “Okay, I guess these things aren’t actually undead or something.”

  “Great, that didn’t work either?” George said as he leapt up and blasted another skeleton with a shower of ice. The monster froze for a few seconds, and then swung its scimitar to free itself from the ice.

  Crash met one of the skeleton’s blades with his shield, the glowing circle of light from his Sacred Spiral bursting forth, reflecting back way more damage than he took. The skeleton burst into bones, scattering in a wide spray across the deck. They rattled in place and shot back together like they were made of magnets, reassembling the skeleton in seconds. “We really can’t keep this up forever!” he called as he blasted another apart with Spectral Blades.

  “Yeah, I know!” I shouted back as two of them advanced toward me from opposite sides. I drew my sword and swung hard at the one in front, sending its skull and half of its rib cage to clatter on the deck. As I shoved forward and started turning, the one behind me slashed out with its scimitar and caught me along the side. I felt the cut burning into me as blood dripped down my skin.

  “Look out, boss!” George shouted, bounding past me in a flash. “Wind Blast!” he yelled.

  Another skeleton that had been charging at me blew back and flipped over the rope railing, on the cannonball side. Seconds later, there was a loud splash.

  “Thanks, buddy,” I panted as I ran after the fallen skeleton. Maybe it was just a matter of knocking them overboard. As Nova and Crash called out more attacks behind me, I leaned over and saw the skeleton, apparently unharmed, surfacing from the water to climb up the side of the ship with its weapon clenched in its teeth.

  And I saw something dark, oblong and wooden floating on the lake below, about three or four feet out and tethered to the ship with rope.

  It looked like a coffin.

  Okay, so that was new. I would’ve noticed a coffin floating next to the ship when we boarded. As I looked further, I saw two more coffins in the water and guessed there were probably three on this side of the ship, and three on the other side. This was starting to make sense. There was a mechanic like this in a few games I’d played, where you had to destroy an object that the monster was connected to rather than the monster itself, so maybe destroying the coffins would work.

  I held a hand over the side. “Fireball!”

  The ball of flame shot from my hand and hit the top of the floating coffin. But as far as I could tell, it wasn’t damaged at all.

  “Your spell inflicted no damage,” Elizabeth chimed in of the blue, as if I couldn’t see that for myself. “This object can only be destroyed with specific quest items.”

  Great. So, we were supposed to destroy the coffins, but we couldn’t use skills. Ugh, I really hated badly designed quests. I’d just have to try using something that was already on the ship — like those cannonballs next to me.

  The skeleton climbing up the side had almost reached the deck again. “Star Scream!” I shouted, extending a hand to blast it back into the water. As the skeleton splashed back down, I turned, grabbed a cannonball from the stack and heaved it over the rail, aiming for the floating coffin.

  The heavy iron ball smashed through the wet wood, spraying jagged planks and splinters across the surface of the water.

  “Holy shit, what did you do?” Crash said. “One of these suckers just exploded into dust.”

  I heaved a breath of relief and turned back to grab another cannonball. “Coffins,” I shouted, pointing over the railing. “Floating in the water. We have to destroy them, not the skeletons.”

  “Okay, got it,” Crash said as he rushed toward me.

  Nova turned from exploding a skeleton and started moving, but there was another coming at her fast from the side. “Your right!” I shouted, throwing a hand out toward the enemy. Star Scream was still on cooldown, so I went with a weaker spell just to knock it off balance. “Energy Bolt!”

  Just as the blast of power hit the skeleton, a massive wave of ice covered it and fully halted its motion. “Yeah! Take that, you slimy sucker!” George called as his leap brought him to Nova’s side. “You guys do your cannonball thing. These paws aren’t made for weightlifting,” he said. “I’ll keep these bony bastards busy.”

  “Thanks, George,” I said as I grabbed another cannonball and walked the railing, looking for more coffins. Just as Nova reached the side and fumbled with one of the heavy iron balls, I spotted a floater and flung the one I held toward it, blasting the coffin into splinters.

  I heard another watery thunk, and then Crash cursed loudly. “I missed! And one of those things is climbing up the side, here,” he added. “Spectral Blades!”

  The bones of the exploded skeleton rained down into the lake with a series of plunks and splashes. Nova was still trying to lift one of the cannonballs from the stack. “Ugh, these things are heavy,” she panted. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to throw them.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Can you help George keep these guys busy?” I said as I glanced over the side again. “Crash and I got this.”

  “Yeah, sure we do,” Crash said as he headed back to the railing with a cannonball. He hauled back and threw with both hands, and there was a splintery crash from below. “Yes!” he shouted. “Just took out the little bastard trying to climb back up here. Dust to dust, asshole!”

  “Okay, good work! Three down,” I said. “I’m guessing the rest are on the other side of the ship.”

  “Yeah, they’re over here,” Nova said, peering over the opposite railing as George blasted another ice attack at a running skeleton. “I’m going to try throwing one of these barrels. They’re not huge, but they have some weight.”

  “Better go for it quick, because I’m out of juice!” George leapt over beside her and bared his teeth at the skeleton he’d just frozen, which was already busting its way free. “Come on, boss, smash these things faster.”

  “Working on it,” I yelled as I drew my sword and charged through an oncoming skeleton, exploding it into flying bones.

  Crash produced the Defender’s Sword and swung at the third remaining monster, smacking it into two halves that fell to the deck and burst apart. Both of us went back for a cannonball and rushed across the deck toward Nova and George.

  Nova had lifted one of the barrels, and a small spray of black, gritty powder sprinkled out from the bottom. “Whoa. I think these are filled with gunpowder,” she said. “They’re lighter than the cannonballs, too. I think if we can hit the coffins and set them on fire—”

  “Good plan. Easier than this manual cannon crap,” I said as I heaved the one I’d carried over the side, hearing it splash harmlessly in the water. My fire spells didn’t work on the coffins, but hopefully they’d work on the barrels since they were quest items. “Okay. You throw, I’ll ignite. How’s your aim?”

  She smiled briefly. “Not bad, I think.”

  I nodded and glanced back at Crash. “Can you keep them down for a few minutes?”

  “Yeah, just hurry,” he said as he brought his sword around and caught a ske
leton mid-strike, knocking its arm off.

  I turned back and looked at Nova. “Ready?”

  “Definitely. Here we go,” she said with a quick glance over the rail. She lifted the barrel over her head, tossed it over, and it flew on a straight course toward one of the floating coffins.

  I leaned over the rope, watching. The second the barrel cracked against the coffin, I thrust a hand out. “Fireball!”

  A ball of flame shot from my palm and hit the barrel. There was a massive blast as it blossomed into a sizzling, fiery explosion that tore the coffin apart.

  “Nice shot! Keep it up, boss!” George called excitedly. “There’s only two left.”

  Working together, Nova and I made short work of the remaining two coffins. Once we’d reduced all the skeletons to dust, the thick fog withdrew, the breeze refreshed itself, and the ship started moving again.

  I let out a long breath and plopped down on the deck as my side reminded me that I was in pain and bleeding. The adrenaline of the fight had let me mostly ignore the wound until now. “Well, that was obnoxious,” I said as I pressed a hand to my side and cast Heal. “Let’s hope there’s only one wave of those things.”

  The ship sailed on, into more of the unknown.

  17

  Not long after the skeletons bit the dust, everything started to get lighter. The cavern opened up into dazzling white brilliance, and the ship sailed through the opening and docked itself at the shores of a snow-covered wasteland. The landscape was dotted with craggy hills, pine trees, and a bunch of random mounds of ice.

  It looked like we were going on foot from here.

  We left the ship behind and started across the snow. I stayed alert for any movement, but for a long time, there was nothing but the four of us leaving tracks in the otherwise pristine ground covering. It was freezing cold, and the wind cut through my clothes and armor like a knife. I seriously hoped we wouldn’t be walking around out here for long.

  “Okay, this is boring,” George said as he hopped along beside me. “Let’s play a game. I spy something white.”

  I smirked down at him. “Snow.”

  “Fine. That was a gimme, anyway,” he said. “It’s your turn now.”

  “I’ve got one,” Crash said from slightly behind us. “I spy something black and white and dumb all over.”

  George flashed him a dirty look. “Ha-ha. I spy something tall and lame who’s only got one move.”

  “I spy us freezing to death unless something changes real soon,” I said as I shoved my numb hands under my arms. The Skeleton King’s gauntlets weren’t exactly made for warmth. “Maybe we should’ve bought more of those Destination Maps from Janno. I have no idea where we’re going here.”

  Nova hustled to draw even with us. “What’s a Destination Map?” she said.

  “It’s an item, a one-time map that shows you how to get to a single destination,” I explained. “First, it’s just a blank scroll, and when you tell it where you want to go, it draws a map.”

  “Huh. That does sound pretty useful,” Nova said. “Did you get it from a drop or something?”

  I shook my head. “We bought it in town. That’s how we found the dungeon.”

  “What shop did you get it from?” she asked. “I think I’ve been to most of them, but I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  “Actually, we got it from a food stand,” Crash said as he pulled his staff from his back. “That’s where I got this, too. Janno’s Fine Comestibles.”

  Nova frowned slightly. “Janno? I don’t remember seeing a food stand like that, but the name sounds familiar,” she said, staring at the staff. “It was something about a legend of Ruul. Janno ... uh, Mur-something.”

  “Hold on a minute,” I said. “It’s not Murnath, is it?”

  She smiled. “That’s it! Janno Murnath, the old king of the dwarves,” she said. “The legend goes that he was killed in battle a hundred years ago, fighting the Storm of Eternal Desolation. He — wait, how did you know the name?”

  Crash stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth hanging open. “Because this is the Elemental Staff of King Murnath,” he said hoarsely. “Dude, did we buy chicken dinners from a ghost?”

  “What ghost? You mean that creepy old dude back in town?” George put in. “Are you telling me that I ate ghost salad?”

  “You actually saw Janno Murnath,” Nova said, furrowing her brow.

  “We didn’t just see him,” I told her. “We talked to him, bought stuff from him. He has a food stand in town. But we were the only customers,” I said slowly, thinking back to how the whole thing went down. “Are you saying everyone else was ignoring him because they couldn’t see him?”

  “He’s been dead for a hundred years. This is the first time I’ve heard of anyone seeing him, ever,” Nova said. “Crash, do you mind if I take a look at your staff?”

  He shrugged and handed it over. “Go for it. It’s a terrible weapon, and I don’t really need it anymore.”

  She took it and looked closely at the worn wooden surface. “I think there’s something here,” she said as she ran a finger down the length of the staff. “Something carved into it. I know it doesn’t look like anything, but … let me try something. Detect Invisible.”

  Her hands glowed blue, and as the glow spread along the staff, lines of carved symbols appeared in the wood. “I think it’s Sign Language,” she said, squinting at the symbols. “Can you read it, Kahn?”

  I walked closer and peered at the carvings. “Maybe?” I said as I pulled up my inventory, went to the Trade Skills tab and queued up the Sign Language skill.

  The words on the staff swam into focus, more or less, and I read them aloud. “Adventurers, should your intentions be pure, the Dwarf King Murnath is pleased to offer his assistance on your noble quest. To summon Janno, tap the Staff on the ground three times and cast Invoke Spirit.”

  “Holy shit, the dude really is a ghost,” Crash murmured as he stared at the still-glowing staff. “But what the hell is Invoke Spirit?”

  “It’s a spell,” Nova said with excitement in her voice as she let the Detect Invisible spell fade, and the writing on the staff along with it. “I know that one. Are we going to try this?”

  “I guess it can’t hurt,” I said, just as mystified as Crash. Now I really wanted to know the story behind King Murnath and the Storm of Eternal Desolation, whatever that was. “Okay, let’s do it.”

  Nova gripped the staff in both hands and tapped it three times on the ground. “Invoke Spirit!” she called.

  Immediately, thick golden smoke poured from the top of the staff and projected itself a few feet away, forming a large billowing cloud. After a minute, the cloud dissipated to reveal Janno, complete with his food stand, stool and cane.

  “Greetings, my young adventurers!” the little old dwarf said casually, like he hadn’t just materialized in the middle of a vast snowy wasteland. His twinkling gaze fell on Nova, and he grinned his mostly toothless grin. “My dear, I must say that you are far lovelier than the person I sold my staff to. Oh, but there he is beside you,” he added, looking at Crash. “Are you enjoying your new weapon, young friend?”

  “Er, yeah,” Crash stammered. “Just found out about the … uh, the whole ghost thing, and the summoning — well, you.”

  “Indeed,” Janno said as his smile broadened and he turned toward me. “And you, my fine adventurer, seem to have many questions.” He folded his liver-spotted hands on the red gem knob of his cane. “What can I assist you with today? Perhaps you’re seeking another fine chicken dinner to sustain you on your quest.”

  “I’ll take one of those ghost salads if you’ve got any back there,” George said as he hopped toward the stand and sniffed it. “Or maybe just a carrot? Only I’m fresh out of Rhuvians. Mostly because I don’t have any pockets. I’m a rabbit,” he added in a loud whisper.

  Janno laughed, produced a carrot from beneath his stall and tossed it to George. “For you, my fine furry friend, it’s on the house.”


  “Yes! Score one for being adorable enough to get freebies,” George said as he picked up the carrot in his tiny front paws and started munching happily.

  “Enjoy,” Janno said with a chuckle. “And for you, adventurers? As you well know, my excellent chicken dinners are the finest in all of Ruul.”

  Actually, I wanted a little more than a chicken dinner. “Uh, we could use another Destination Map,” I said. “And maybe an explanation of who you are, exactly, and why a guy who’s been dead for a hundred years suddenly decided to start talking to a bunch of random nobodies like us.”

  “Ah, but our meeting has been anything but random,” Janno said, giving me a sly smile. “You will figure it out, in time. As for a Destination Map, I would be happy to furnish you with one for a mere 75 Rhuvians. A discount for a repeat customer.”

  I frowned. “You’re not going to tell me why, are you?”

  “I am afraid I cannot give you that information at this particular time,” Janno said as he reached beneath the counter and produced another stained scroll. “But the map, I can certainly sell you.”

  “Okay, fine.” I sighed, called up my inventory and transferred the Rhuvians. “What do you need money for, anyway? You’re a ghost.”

  “I may be dead, but I am still a dwarf. Our love of money is legendary,” he said, chuckling again. “Well, technically it’s our love of gold, but Rhuvians are an acceptable substitute.” He handed me the scroll and folded his hands on the cane. “Now, if you do not require anything else at this time, I will take my leave until my assistance is needed once again.”

  “Um. Yeah, I guess we’re good,” I said as I glanced at the others. George was still chowing down on his carrot, Crash hadn’t managed to reel his jaw back in yet, and Nova was staring wide-eyed like she’d seen a ghost. Pun intended. “You guys need anything?” I said.

  “Like, anything at all?” Crash said, shaking himself loose from his stare-a-thon. “How about some fur coats or a portable heater? It’s freezing out here.”

  “I may have something that will help you.” Janno went under the counter again and came back with four small vials of red liquid. “These Warming Potions will keep you at a comfortable temperature for up to one hour,” he said. “I will gladly sell them to you for a mere 25 Rhuvians apiece.”