Journey to the Unknown

by Jaclyn Cadell

  All of these purchases took a lot of money, but they expected to refill their money belt when they returned to the church cellars. They were still somewhat tired from the fight with The Butcher, and it was getting late in the day, so they decided to spend the night in the inn and return to the church the next day. They bid Wilmer a good evening and returned to the inn for supper and a romp in bed before going to sleep.

  The next morning they felt much better. Alison was sure that it was the effects of the release provided by the sex they had enjoyed as much as it was from the resulting deep sleep, but whatever it was, they were ready to face anything as they left for the short walk to the church. Emett had put the food pack in with his weapons, so they were practically unencumbered as they walked to the church.

  They went directly to the vestry and found the purple glow just where they expected it to be. As a test, Emett went alone through the portal, waited a minute or so, and returned to Alison in the vestry. She reported that the glow had disappeared as soon as Emett had stepped through, but now was back, so she concluded that the portal was, indeed, activated by use at the other end and was probably how the undead left the cellars to attack the town.

  They both went back through the portal and resumed their search for monsters and for the cause of the attacks. They quickly cleared the last of this level, but found stairs going down to at least one more level below where they were standing. They took these steps and found a bit of a change in the nature of their surroundings.

  This level, the fourth that they had visited, was not finished to the standards of the previous levels. The ceiling and walls were still of stone, but they were not polished, and the floor was a kind of dirt or clay. It was hard packed, but it was not of the quality of the stone floors above. Nevertheless, there was no shortage of enemies to fight, except that there were fewer undead and more goat-men.

  Emett was glad that he had switched to the battle ax, since the cutting edge seemed to provide more of a psychological lift as it cut through the flesh and bone of the goat-men, as compared to the results of a blow with the mace. The battle ax was quite heavy, but remarkably well balanced, so that it was easy for him to use with the kite-shield. Most men would have needed two hands to wield the ax, but Emett's great strength made it a one-handed weapon for him.

  Alison's exploding fire balls were very effective against masses of the goat-men. She still had to use more than one fire ball for completely satisfactory results, but the sorcerer's robe helped her to make less demands on the energy from her staff. Thus, she was able to go longer between drafts of the manna potions.

  They had lost count of the number of the goat-men that they had killed, and they were still on the level they had entered over an hour ago. This level did not seem to cover more area than the one that they had just left, but there were many more monsters to fight on this level. They had found several chests of gold, so they had recovered almost all of the money that Emett had spent on new weapons. This was getting to be a very profitable trip!

  They began to see bats, but they weren't bothered by them. Actually, they were pretty sure that the bats would leave them alone, since bats don't normally fly at humans. Ah, but this was not the Earth they had left in the whirlwind! As they walked down a long corridor, they were attacked by a swarm of bats. Emett quickly exchanged his battle ax for a short sword which he could swing faster than he could the ax, but he still had trouble swatting a bat with it.

  On the other hand, Alison's exploding fire balls were devastating to the bats. Only one explosion was needed to knock a swarm of bats from the air. She wiped out 5 to a dozen bats with each exploding fire ball, and she was their major protection from the swarms of bats for the rest of their adventure. All that Emett was able to do was to shout warnings of new bat swarms approaching and then make sure that he did not interfere with her line of sight. Things did get hectic, but Emett thought that they were not in any real danger from the bats; but he later found out how wrong he could be.

  They finally cleared this level and found the stairs down to the next level. The new level had the appearance of the previous level, until they came to a special section of the cellar. They went through a door and were immediately swarmed over by a multitude of skeletons. Emett switched back to his mace, but this one was supercharged with a spell to increase it's degree of damage 5-fold. This meant that Emett could eliminate a skeleton with only one swipe of his mace, provided that he could hit the damned thing. Somehow, these skeletons were more agile than the others that he had previously fought, and they could make effective use of their shields to deflect his blows.

  They must have stumbled into the crypt of an important individual. This set of rooms was built to very high standards of design and polish. The ceiling, walls, and floor were all of polished stone and most of the walls were painted with intricate murals illustrating a royal court of some note. Also, magical torches were placed about the walls to give off plenty of light to make it easy to see the murals, but not to cause them to glaze over with soot.

  There was plenty of open space in the crypt and no sarcophagi were to be seen scattered about the floor. However, the mass of fighting skeletons seemed to make up for the absence of the coffins. These skeletons acted as if they had come from trained soldiers or bodyguards; they were too skilled with their shields and swords to be simple conscripts.

  Slowly, but surely, Emett and Alison were able to kill off the attacking skeletons, but it was becoming a physical and emotional strain as the battle continued. At last, they came to the end of the attacking hoard and were able to rest for a few minutes. They snacked on bread and cheese and watered wine to build up their reserves. Hat advised that they both drink some of the manna potions, even Emett could use the recharge.

  They had recovered a bit and were looking around for treasure and some indication of who it was who had been buried here. They did find some gold and a few magical items, but nothing that they could really use to advantage. They finally came to some very ornately decorated doors on which was emblazoned one word: Larron. They pushed the doors open and, again, were met by a swarm of fighting skeletons.

  Alison lay into the skeletons in front with her exploding fire balls and was able to hold them at bay. Emett noticed a giant skeleton at the rear of the swarm, wearing a crown and swinging a monster-sized two-handed sword. The sword had to be 7-8 feet long, but the giant skeleton was swinging it with ease. This was obviously King Larron and the key to the skeletons' fighting spirit.

  Emett jumped over the heads of the intervening skeletons and landed beside the giant with the monster sword. Somehow, a laugh isAlisond from the giant as he raised his two-handed sword. "Prepare to die!" he said as he swung the sword at Emett. Emett was prepared for this and jumped back far enough to escape the sweep of the sword, then, before the giant could recover for a backswing, Emett rushed in and hit the skeleton in the knee with his supercharged mace.

  The giant's leg did not shatter, but he did fall down. Before Emett could do any further damage, the giant skeleton rolled out of reach and regained his feet. This time, the giant raised his sword to chest-level on Emett and pointed it forward as the giant ran toward Emett, planning to skewer him on the massive sword. Emett deflected the sword with his shield and swung a mighty blow with his mace at the giant's head. Emett made contact, but it was like hitting a stone wall! There was a cracking noise and a small crack did appear in the giant skeleton's skull, but it did little to slow the monster.

  The giant did not fall down, but turned around to charge again. However, this time, it swung it's sword in short arcs in front of its body, giving Emett no easy way to get close enough for another swing of his mace. Emett quickly looked around and saw that Alison had the attention of the skeleton army, but had the situation well in hand, so Emett could continue to concentrate on King Larron. Emett backed in a great circle while he planned his strategy.

  The King seemed to have a fixation on using his sword. If he would drop it and rely on gra
bbing Emett in his arms, the skeleton was undoubtedly strong enough to kill Emett with one squeeze. This was the basic flaw in the skeleton's attack that Emett planned to exploit. The skeleton was still chasing Emett around the circle and swinging his sword. Emett thought that he could time a run at the skeleton to arrive just after the sword had passed dead center. This would give Emett a few moments to strike before the skeleton could bring the sword back across it body, because the massive sword had too much momentum to be overcome before its direction could be reversed.

  Emett put this plan into motion and charged King Larron at just the right moment. He didn't run straight at the skeleton, but just to one side so that he could escape by running past the giant before it could react. As soon as Emett got close enough, he swung his mace at the giant's skull, trying to hit in the same place as before. The strategy worked, but there was little to show for the effort, beyond a slight increase in the size of the crack in Larron's skull.

  Emett tried this tactic two more times, with the same result. He was afraid to try that exact same charge again for fear that the giant had worked out a defense. Instead, Emett leaped at the skeleton's body and swiped at its skull as he passed in the air. Success! This must have been the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. This time, the giant's skull cracked and fell off his shoulders. What followed had to be seen to be believed. The skeleton seemed to unzip, one joint at a time. Bones fell off, from the top to the bottom in a cascade of rattling pieces; it must have taken 15-20 seconds for the collapse to be complete, but the final result was a pile of bones lying on the floor like a pile of sand dropped by a petulant child.

  As this happened, the remnants of the skeleton army also collapsed in the identical manner. It was truly a sight to behold!

  Chapter Six

  Emett asked, "Hat, who was King Larron?"

  I have no idea. He must have been from an era long before my creators were born.

  Emett picked up the monster sword and asked for an identification.

  That sword no longer has any magical properties. The magic vanished with the destruction of King Larron.

  Emett grinned and said, "Easy come, easy go!" He dropped the sword and walked away. They explored the remainder of the cellar level and went down one more set of stairs. They had hardly stepped off the stairs when they were beset by a swarm of large bats. Alison went to work immediately blasting them out of the air with her exploding fire balls. Emett watched the battle and thought that there must be an easier way to do that job. A possible form of defense did occur to him, but he had sense enough not to bother Alison while she was actually engaged in a fight.

  Emett was watching the progress of the fight when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck. He swatted the area and struck a large bat that was trying to take out a section of his neck. Emett was so strong that he killed the bat, and it fell at his feet with a mixture of his blood and its blood running from its mouth. Alison completed her fight shortly afterward and turned to face Emett.

  When he came into her view, Alison screamed and immediately flung a healing spell at Emett. The spell took effect as he was about to topple over, but it cured him at once. Emett shook his head and asked what had happened. Alison said, "You were covered with a green aura. Didn't you see it?"

  "No, the last thing I remember was a bat biting me on the back of my neck. Its bite must have been very poisonous to have gotten through the protective spell coming from your ring. Thank you for saving me."

  "It was my pleasure," Alison said with a grin, immediately followed by a frown. "Those bats are a hell of a lot more dangerous than we realized. I've got to come up with a better way of fighting them."

  Emett said, "I got an idea while I was watching you work. Can you create a fire wall that they can't get through? One that would go from floor to ceiling and wall to wall should block them."

  "Yeah, and if I can get it to move toward them, it might drive them off and away from us. Let me talk it over with Hat. Maybe we can come up with something."

  "OK, you better do that right now. I'll keep watch while you work."

  Alison and Hat talked for what Emett thought was a very long time, but, in fact, it was only about 15-20 minutes. Alison turned to Emett and said, "I think that Hat and I have come up with a workable spell. Watch out as I give it a try. You won't be burned, but we may attract some unwelcome attention." She pointed her finger at a spot on the floor and commanded, "FIRE WALL!" An inferno sprang out of the floor and reached the ceiling. It stretched from wall to wall and remained in place. Alison pointed her finger at the wall of flame and commanded, "MOVE AWAY!" It started to move away from them at a slow walking speed. Anything combustible in its path was burned to a small pile of ashes. The fire burned for 90 seconds before it suddenly disappeared.

  "SPECTACULAR!" cheered Emett, and Alison replied with nothing more than a simple "Thank you" and a proud grin. That fire wall should solve a lot of problems as long as they were in a confined space, though its usefulness might be limited in an open space. They both were anxious to see what the spell could do against more bats and Earth-bound creatures, such as skeletons and goat-men.

  They continued their exploration of the cellar and found a portal location. They marked it in their memory and resumed their search for monsters. They looked in through a doorway and saw a large group of demons, but no overseer, and these demons were dressed in brown, instead of red. Neither one had time to speculate on the difference between this group of demons dressed in brown and the previous groups dressed in red. Whatever the difference might be, Alison barely had time to initiate her fire wall before the first demons reached them. Once the fire wall was established, she commanded it to move. There was a lot of yelling and screaming among the demons as they were consumed by the fire wall. Emett slew 3 of the demons who had been too close to them for the fire wall to destroy, but the spell was a roaring success. They picked up the gold that they found amid the ashes of the demons, and Emett congratulated Alison again on the success of her spell.

  From then on, while they were on that particular level, Alison's fire wall spell was their main means of attack/defense. Its only drawback was that it destroyed absolutely everything that would burn. They were not able to recover potions or magical items after the fire wall had been used. After some discussion, they agreed that the spell was too good to monkey with; they would just live with the consequences.

  The fire wall worked so well that it did not take very long for them to clear this level. They decided that they deserved a break, so they used the portal to jump back to the surface so that they could drop by the inn for a beer. By the time they got to the inn, the tavern section was full of late-afternoon customers, and they all wanted to hear of the couple's adventures below the church. Emett and Alison told their story and were treated to beer and supper by the grateful townsfolk. They spent some more time in the tavern socializing with the other customers before retiring to bed for a romp before sleeping. This adventure of clearing the cellars below the church had certainly become a lot of fun in a lot of different ways.

  The next morning, they returned to the vestry and the portal. A jump to the cellar they had left the day before put them in position to continue their war against the undead and other monsters. They had no idea how much farther they had to go before they found the root of the trouble; none of the people they had talked to so far had any notion of how many levels there might be to the cellars.

  This level was still clear of monsters, so they found the stairs and went down one more level. The nature of this level was more primitive in appearance than the previous one. The walls of the various rooms were made of unfinished stone blocks, and the floor and ceiling were of raw limestone, laid down as nature had dictated. The first batch of monsters they encountered was a gang of goat-men who were not afraid of the fire wall. The goat-men acted as if they were completely immune to the effects of fire or cold, so Alison had to resort to lightning balls. These did the job, but were
harder to use than the exploding fire balls or the moving wall of fire.

  Alison had to work quickly to get off enough lightning balls to make a significant difference, and most of the goat-men were actually destroyed by Emett's battle ax. Not only did Alison hurl lightning balls at the goat-men, but she also had to provide boosts to Emett's stamina. Swinging that battle ax non-stop was damned tiring!

  Fortunately, the fire wall still worked against skeletons, zombies, bats, and demons. Alison was kept busy destroying rank upon rank of attacking monsters; where were they all coming from? The two heroes found the answer to that question on the next level. They had covered about half of this level when they came upon a room holding a group of evil wizards. The room had a large open doorway, reminiscent of a barn door, and skeletons, zombies, and demons poured through this doorway as fast as Alison's fire wall could kill them.

  Emett noticed that there was a second, regular doorway at the other side of the room, and he could see a way to go around the outside of the wizard's room to reach it. He told Alison where he was going and slipped around to this door.

  Emett stepped through the door and was greeted by an astounding sight. The wizards were making magical gestures and saying magical phrases, causing the skeletons, zombies, and demons to rise from the ground and charge at Alison. There were six wizards, and none of them were carrying conventional weapons, so Emett switched to a two-handed sword, a claymore, with augmented striking force and a magical ability to freeze anyone struck, but not killed, by the sword for about 10 seconds, giving time for a second blow.

  Emett had not been noticed by the evil wizards as he entered the room, so he was able to swing his sword at the nearest wizard without hindrance. The massive sword hit the wizard just below the ribs and cleaved him into two pieces. Immediately, half the standing skeletons simply vanished back into the ground. The remaining wizards were so intent on their own labors that they did not notice any change in the situation. However, Emett's second swing of his great sword took off the head of another wizard, and this caused blood to jet over some of the other wizards standing nearby. Not only that, but the rest of the skeletons disappeared.