Dungeon Explorers (Tales of Magic and Adventure Book 1)

by Max Anthony

  “This must be the demarcation between permitted areas and the places where you’d get murdered for stumbling into,” said Rasmus.

  Viddo walked slowly towards the arch, with the palms of his hands ahead of him. His arms went through the archway without interference.

  “Nothing here,” he said. “Let’s check for traps.” He studied the stone for a few seconds, before turning with a satisfied look on his face. “It’s clean,” he announced.

  They stepped through.

  Nineteen

  The corridor ended in a room. It was a large room, with three additional exits. There was more of the stone furniture here – two stone chairs and a stone table.

  “This must be where the favoured few spent their time,” said Viddo. “All the best furniture, as you can see.” Then, he tipped his head to one side. Rasmus knew the look and stifled his response. “Something’s coming,” Viddo announced. “A dread knight from the sounds of it.”

  “They must have some way of tracking us,” said Rasmus, mystified as to how they kept running into these persistent undead.

  Viddo was already leaving through one of the doorways. “This is probably where they stay, when they’re not out looking for living creatures to kill.”

  Rasmus reduced the intensity of his light spell and hurried after the thief. He entered another large room, with even more stone chairs, all of which faced one wall. A meeting room, he thought.

  “Which way is it coming from?” he whispered.

  “Behind us – from one of the rooms linked to the one we just left.”

  Neither man asked if it would be wisest if they simply ran away from this area. By now, both had decided that the diamonds rightfully belonged to them and they were determined to ensure that they pocketed the pupils of this unknown god. Rasmus could hear the clanking sound now. It was difficult to pinpoint the direction and the distance, but it seemed like it was still several rooms away from them. He wondered if the creature knew they were there, or was just about its business, whatever that might be.

  All good thieves had an intuition that could lead them on the most expeditious route to riches. Viddo was no exception and Rasmus found he had to run to keep up. The thief vaulted over two stone chairs and exited what Rasmus had thought was the meeting room. Viddo then took a left-hand exit, followed by a right-hand one, his feet making no sound as he ran. Rasmus tried to keep his own footsteps muffled and though his magical boots seemed to help, he was still not as quiet as he’d have liked.

  “It’s here!” said Viddo excitedly. They’d found their way into another large room – twenty feet to a side and with doorways in three of the walls. There was no furniture, but next to the fourth wall, a narrow, steep set of stone steps led upwards for ten feet, before ending adjacent to a three-feet-square hole, with darkness behind it. Viddo darted up the steps, though Rasmus could see the thief’s eyes looking for traps as he did so.

  “Shit!” whispered Viddo, as he found an invisible barrier across the opening. “It’s the statue’s head behind here, but it’s blocked by another spell.”

  “I’ll get rid of it,” said Rasmus, preparing the last of his dispels.

  At that point, both men felt a sudden darkness approach. This wasn’t the same darkness of the dread knights – this was something older and something much more powerful. It was evil and it relished the sins of its past. Rasmus looked across the room to the far doorway. He saw a figure, six feet tall, but cloaked in wreaths of swirling shadows. The creature’s face was mostly hidden, but two empty skeletal sockets stared at them, infinitely deep and with a hatred for the living. Amongst the shadows, there were two spindly skeletal hands, seemingly floating and unattached. A metal stave with a glowing orb on top was clutched in one of these hands.

  Rasmus already had his final dispel on the tip of his tongue, and his surprise made him cast it at the lich instead of the invisible barrier across the opening. The creature had been a hugely powerful priest in life, but Rasmus was a hugely powerful wizard now. His dispel overcame the innate resistance of the lich and removed three protective barriers and one contingency.

  It is often thought that when such encounters take place, it is the evil creature which is in command of the initiative. As though such creatures have an in-built capability that permits them to always surprise the brave adventurers it meets. This is not so, and the slowness of the lich to react told wizard and thief that this was a chance meeting, rather than an intended one.

  After Rasmus’ dispel, Viddo was the next to react. In a blur of motion, he swung his crossbow and fired the already-chambered bolt. It was a snap shot, but the missile flew unerringly in the direction of the undead, catching it in the shoulder. Had Rasmus not dispelled its anti-missile shield just a split second before, Viddo’s attack would have glanced away without doing any harm. The lich hissed and fell back through the doorway, just as a Viddo reached for a second bolt. In the distance, both men could hear the sound of metal-shod feet coming their way at a greatly increased pace.

  “Dissolve this wall!” said Viddo, unsure of the correct nomenclature for Rasmus’ spell of stone separation and deconstruction. “But not the steps!”

  Rasmus didn’t consider it the most appropriate spell in the circumstances, but he was still doing his best to improve their teamwork. Assuming that Viddo had more in mind than his greed for the diamonds, Rasmus cast his spell at the wall surrounding the opening. There was a grating sound, followed by a deep, shuddering thump.

  In the single second it took for fifteen cubic feet of rock to dissolve, a black sphere of darkness drifted lazily into the room through the doorway behind which the lich had retreated. Rasmus knew what was coming, but didn’t have anything he could do about it. Death spell he thought, as the black sphere exploded soundlessly, filling the room with a flash of darkness.

  Rasmus felt nothing at all, but he didn’t die. Got lucky there he told himself as he ran over to the steps. Viddo hadn’t succumbed either. Magical combat could be brutal to the unlucky, especially when you got into the realms of the more powerful wizards and priests, who could cast spells that would snuff out life with the wave of a hand. As he climbed the steps, Rasmus erected an anti-magic field about himself. He was just in time – the injured lich emerged from the doorway and pointed a finger, sending out a thin, black line of magic, which would have contacted the wizard over his heart. The death ray did not reach its target, and the power of Rasmus’ anti-magic field blocked it, two feet from his flesh. The lich was intelligent and with thousands of years of experience under its belt. It tried to dispel the protective field around the wizard. Rasmus felt his spell shudder, but it remained intact.

  Viddo had not been idle and had sent another two of his bolts across the room. They’d both been deflected by an invisible barrier, telling him that the lich had already re-cast some of its protective magics. Viddo didn’t waste any more of the bolts on the lich, instead firing two more into the huge figure of the dread knight which had just entered the room. One bolt took it in the eye, while the second glanced off the top of its helmet. Viddo had gambled on a quick win by trying to take out both of its eyes, but his bet hadn’t paid off as he’d hoped.

  Rasmus reached the top of the steps and crowded close to Viddo, so that his anti-magic field would encompass the thief as well. The wizard looked at the hole his spell of stone separation and deconstruction had made in the wall. He was sure the force shield was still in place, but now that the stone around it had dissolved, it was no longer an effective barrier, since they could just climb around it. Rasmus found himself looking into the vast temple room. It took him a moment to realise what had happened.

  “You’ve dissolved most of the statue’s head,” said Viddo. “And the walkway that led to it.”

  Rasmus saw that the thief spoke the truth – there was a seven feet gap between the top of the steps and the statue’s thick neck. The head was gone, the front of it presumably tumbled below when the back half of it collapsed, but there w
as almost three feet of the neck remaining. There was a hole in the middle of the neck, suggesting that the statue was partially hollow. There was no time for further words and Viddo leaped cleanly over the gap, landing on one of the shoulders. He could have used the neck to steady himself, but he’d landed cleanly enough that he didn’t have to. Rasmus felt another assault on his anti-magic field and looked around to see the lich working on another spell, even before it realised that the first one had failed. To one side, the dread knight was almost close enough that it could start swinging its monstrously long sword.

  With his heart in his mouth, Rasmus jumped. He only had two steps in which to build up speed and wasn’t sure if he was going to make it. Fortunately, his boots of speed conveyed a permanent, if modest, boost to his stride and the wizard landed on the sloped part of the statue’s shoulder. He skidded as he landed and thought that he might tumble onto the dais below. There was a fine dust all over the area and his feet began to slip away from him. A strong hand reached out and grabbed his wrist.

  “Up you come,” said Viddo.

  There was no time for staring, but neither of the pair could fail to notice the worrying happenings below.

  “We’re in a bit of trouble now,” said Rasmus, staring aghast as the thousands upon thousands of grey figures swarmed through the exits from the worshipping chamber. He had no doubt who they were coming to look for.

  “You shouldn’t have destroyed the head of their god, should you?” asked Viddo. He was already climbing into the hollow neck of the statue.

  “Me?” asked Rasmus, hurrying over. “Don’t try and pin this one on the poor wizard.”

  “Quickly, inside!” commanded Viddo. Rasmus could only see the thief’s head now, and he appeared to be walking down some steps that led deeper into the statue.

  Rasmus scrambled over the smooth lip, in order that he wouldn’t get left behind. Inside the neck, there was the remains of a stone slab, which had presumably been to provide a platform for the priests inside the head of the god - before Rasmus’ spell had dissolved that head. There was a three feet square opening, with steps visible. The same fine dust which had almost sent him to his doom was here as well – it was all that remained of the stone after it had been dissolved.

  There was no sign of dread knight or lich, but Rasmus knew they wouldn’t have given up so easily. He fairly sprinted down the steps, not wishing to present an easy target. As he descended, a sudden thought entered his head. Where’re the diamonds?

  “The diamonds fell into this hole,” said Viddo - it was as if the thief had read his mind. “Or at least I think they fell inside,” he continued.

  “We’re in the shit, aren’t we?” asked Rasmus.

  “I’m sure we can talk our way out of it before it turns too nasty,” came the response.

  “I admire your optimism,” said the wizard, aware that Viddo was not being serious.

  Now that their cover was well and truly blown, Rasmus called on his spell of light once more. He didn’t want to have come all this way only to break his neck falling down a set of misaligned steps inside a hollow statue of a god no-one could remember.

  “I’ve seen buildings like this before,” said Viddo from below. “With little passages and walkways to allow the builders access to the higher parts and the roof. I didn’t think they’d be able to make it work with a statue, though.”

  “The people who made this have powers over stone far beyond anything we know,” said Rasmus. “And I still think there might be magic involved, though it’s not magic that I recognize.”

  After twenty-five steps, they came upon another platform. They found themselves in a space within the statue’s chest – the walls were curved at one side and flatter at the other. The steps continued downwards. Viddo frantically looked around him.

  “Damn!” he said finally. “No sign of the diamonds. They must have rolled all the way down into its feet.”

  There was a noise from above them and they saw another flash of darkness on the stairs.

  “Another death spell!” said Rasmus. “The lich must have cast that one in the hope that it could reach us down here.”

  “Can’t you cast a fireball up there in return?”

  “Not while my anti-magic field is still working. Nothing gets in or out.”

  “Into the leg with us!” proclaimed Viddo, uttering words that neither man had expected to hear said when they woke up that day.

  They hurried down the stone steps again, which now wound in a tight spiral. The treads were high and both men had to walk down sideways, in order to reduce the chance that they would fall. Above them, there was a rumbling sound as the lich tried to flush them out, unaware that the two adventurers had already descended from the chest cavity.

  Two steps ahead, Viddo halted suddenly. Rasmus was so focused on his task of climbing safely that he blundered into his friend’s back.

  “We’ve reached the foot,” said Viddo. The steps had ended and they were in a low, confined space, less than four feet high. There was another tight, square hole in the floor below them. Viddo crouched over the hole and looked down. It was a shaft of sorts, which had been cut through several feet of the stone, before it became several feet of open space. The light from Rasmus’ spell reached far enough for them to see that there was a ten feet drop to the surface below. Two items of indescribable value glittered and sparkled, seeming to magnify the light as it played over their thousands of facets.

  “They’ve fallen inside the dais,” said Rasmus. “We might be able to grab them and find a way out.” He looked into the shaft again, but the thick sides prevented him from seeing very far and limited his view to the two diamonds below.

  With nothing for it, Viddo lowered himself smoothly into the opening. He clung onto the lip for a brief moment, before he let go. Rasmus watched the thief land lightly on the stone below, cursing to himself that his own landing was going to be rather less comfortable. He hesitated briefly, before he heard Viddo whisper urgently to him.

  “Go back! Don’t come down!” he called.

  Before Rasmus could question this warning, he saw the beginnings of a dark shape appear on the steps above him. At the same time, his anti-magic field expired, leaving him without additional defence against the lich’s evil powers. With two equally unpalatable choices open to him, Rasmus jumped into the hole almost eagerly. He used his hands to grip the edges while his feet kicked at the open air. Then he let go, falling to the floor below. Viddo did his best to cushion the wizard’s fall, and they both ended up in a heap, with Rasmus additionally twisting his ankle badly.

  “I told you not to come here!” hissed Viddo.

  “There’s a lich up there!” said Rasmus. “And I’m running low on spells.”

  “Look at what’s down here, then,” said the thief.

  Rasmus did look. They were inside the thirty-yard high dais upon which the statue was standing. They were almost twenty-five yards above the floor, on a small, square platform. Neither man knew what this platform was for – probably something to do with the construction of the statue or the dais, since there were other similar platforms to either side. The spell of light didn’t reach right to the bottom, but even without having to stand up, Rasmus could make out an ocean of greyish-skinned figures beneath them. It wasn’t clear if these figures had always been inside the dais, or if they’d come inside when they’d seen the head of the statue disintegrate. His line of sight was blocked by the edges of the platform he’d landed on, but Rasmus was sure there’d be thousands of them.

  With the pain of his ankle screaming at him, Rasmus heard a whispering chuckle up above. A shape appeared at the top of the shaft.

  “Oh do piss off,” said Rasmus, muttering the briefest of spells. The dark shape vanished.

  “What did you do? Have you killed it?” asked Viddo.

  “No, it hasn’t been killed, more’s the pity,” said Rasmus. “I’ve just sent it off into an otherworldly maze for a period of time. It’ll find i
ts way out soon.”

  “Shame,” said Viddo. He slumped next to Rasmus, putting his back against the cold stone of the wall. “I don’t suppose you’ve got anything left that can wipe out all of these patiently-waiting undead, have you? They know we’re here,” he said, letting the wizard know something he’d already guessed.

  “I’ve got one fireball spell and one firestorm spell that I’d been keeping for emergencies. They won’t kill all of those undead, though.”

  “What about the wand we sound in the slug chest?” asked Viddo. He wasn’t one to give up.

  “I looked at it while I was hiding in that chimney,” Rasmus replied. “It can turn things into chickens. It has five charges remaining.”

  “Can you turn the lich into an undead chicken?” asked Viddo. “I’ve never eaten an undead chicken before.”

  Rasmus reached into his robes and pulled the wand out. He waved it in the air in what he thought was a menacing pattern. “It won’t work on the undead. They tend to be immune to a lot of spells.”

  “Didn’t we find a couple of vials of holy water back in the vampire’s lair?”

  Rasmus rooted around for them. They both knew that holy water was reasonably effective against weaker undead, like skeletons. Against something such as the dread knights or the lich, it would probably do little more than tingle. The wizard’s questing hand found the first of the vials. He’d tucked them away and had pretty much forgotten they were there – holy water was a low-level defence used by low-level adventurers against low-level opponents. However, there was something else in the same pocket as the vials – something else that he’d also forgotten about. He pulled out the four scrolls that had been in the slug chest along with the wand, boots and crossbow. These scrolls had been folded, rather than rolled up and Rasmus tutted at the breach of etiquette.

  “Let’s see what these are,” he said, unfolding the first one. He looked at the writing on the paper’s surface, moving his lips silently as he did. “A priest spell,” he said in disgust.