The Greystone Chronicles Book Two: The Dire Lands

by Dave Willmarth

  “Party pooper,” Max mumbled as he worked the lock.

  After a minute or so, he grinned, and pushed the door open. “Ta-daaaa!”

  The room inside was surprisingly well preserved. Clearly sleeping quarters, the room contained a bed, a wardrobe, an armor stand with a set of ceremonial armor draped on it, and a small desk. All were covered in a layer of dust, but were intact. Probably because in addition to the door, which had remained sealed, there was still glass in the single window. It must have also been magically protected.

  Max quickly looted the armor. The stats weren’t great, but it was a beautiful set, and there were always those out there who were willing to pay for style over function. Lainey moved to see if there was anything useful in the wardrobe, while Sasha peeked under the bed. Alexander searched through the small desk. Finding a coin pouch with some gold, he tossed it to Max. There were several sheets of old, brittle paper that disintegrated at his touch. Inside a lower drawer he found a leather-bound journal with a lock on it.

  “Max, buddy. Got another lock for you.” He handed the ranger the journal.

  Max just rolled his eyes. He produced a small lock pick and barely even looked at the lock as he worked his magic. The flap containing the lock mechanism flopped open, and he handed the book back to Alexander. “I’m going to search for secret compartments.”

  Alexander opened the journal and began to read. It seemed the commander’s name was Captain Artemis, and that he’d been sent by the king to command the keep’s guards. Not caring about the day to day thoughts of the man, Alexander skimmed to the back of the book, where he found a very interesting last entry.

  The bastard has been killing citizens of the keep, turning them into undead monsters. Two of my own men disappeared last week, then returned as walking corpses. I sent a messenger to the king, and he suffered the same fate. The baron must have more undead patrolling the road and forest.

  This cannot stand. Tonight I will kill this evil monster myself.

  Clearly, Captain Artemis had failed to kill the baron. Likely he became one of the undead, as well. Alexander hoped Fitz had put the man out of his misery.

  Sasha had pulled a small chest out from under the bed. It contained mostly personal mementos. Service awards from Artemis’ time in the guard, a ribbon from a young lady, letters from family and friends. And a fist-sized bag of gemstones. Alexander took the stones. Sasha returned the rest to the box and replaced it under the bed.

  The clothes in the wardrobe had not fared well, and had mostly fallen into rags at the bottom. There was a longsword, still in its sheath standing in the corner. Withdrawing the sword to confirm it wasn’t rusted beyond use, she handed it to Max.

  Finding nothing else, the group exited the room, closing the door behind them. Alexander had decided to deliver the journal and the gems to Captain Redmond, in case any of the commander’s descendants or relatives could still be found.

  Making their way back downstairs, they moved to the iron door leading downward. After a brief inspection, Max informed them that the door’s lock was not engaged. He suspected it was barred from the inside.

  “Stand back, and I’ll make short work o’ the door with me hammer,” Brick offered.

  “Thank you, buddy, but I’d rather not make that much noise if there’s something still moving down there.” Alexander patted him on the shoulder.

  Nodding in understanding, Brick stepped forward and placed his hands on the door. He closed his eyes and activated his shaping skill. After a moment, there were two small pinging sounds as the hinges opened themselves to release the pins they held. Brick asked Kai for assistance, and the two of them simply lifted the door from its place and moved back to set it against the wall.

  Spanning the doorway was a metal bar set into brackets bolted to the wall on either side of the doorway. Brick simply lifted the bar away, and the way was clear. The stone stairs led downward one floor to a mostly dark room.

  “One moment, please,” Kai said. Lifting the iron door, he moved to lay it on its side across the building’s open doorway that led out to the courtyard. “If the undead should try and enter, we will be able to hear the door fall to the floor.”

  Brick leading the way, the group made their way downstairs. The light from the floor above reached to the bottom of the stairs, but not much farther. Brick, with his dwarven dark vision, scanned the room. “It be empty as far as I can tell. Though there be another door in the back corner.”

  Max lit a couple of torches, handing one to Sasha. They spread out a bit, and moved across the room, all eyes searching for threats. Finding none, they continued on to the next door.

  This one was a simple wooden door, and was not locked. Brick positioned himself in front of it while Max pulled it open, torch held high.

  The door opened to a short landing, and another stairway leading down. To the left of the landing was a 10x10 room with stone workbenches. On the benches were vials and bottles filled with substances of varying colors.

  “An alchemist’s workshop?” Sasha ventured.

  “More like a necromancer’s,” Kai corrected her. “There’s a foul magic permeating that room. I shall burn the room once we’ve completed our work down here.”

  “If you must. But I’d prefer to leave it so that Lydia can investigate. She might find useful information or ingredients in here,” Sasha replied.

  “We shall see,” was Kai’s only response.

  The group continued down the stairs. This staircase went much deeper, and had curved around to angle back toward the main keep structure. When they finally reached the bottom, they found a corridor with several doors on each side. The doors had windows with iron bars across them. Prison cells.

  “We be about 5 levels down,” Brick informed them. “Right under the main tower.” Dwarves had an impeccable sense of direction and distance underground.

  With a sigh, Max said, “You all know the drill. We need to clear every room as we go.”

  So they began to search each cell as they passed down the corridor. Most of the doors stood open, and it took only a brief glance inside the eight foot square rooms to confirm they were empty. The few that were closed were not locked.

  Just in case, Alexander asked, “Kai, can you use magic to search for any hidden doors?”

  Kai snorted. “I am a dragon. Nothing is hidden from me. We find all the best treasure in secret rooms and buried under floors. If there’s a door, I shall inform you.”

  Under floors! Stupid! I hadn’t considered that! Alexander berated himself. He paused to close his eyes and reach out below him with his earth magic. He found solid bedrock directly below. Sweeping in a wide circle around them, he found no tunnels or stairways below. Only small drain pipes leading from the cells downward.

  “This is the lowest level. There’s nothing else below us but rock,” he reported to the group.

  They continued down the corridor, clearing cells as they went. At the end there was a large chamber with a stone table in the middle. Around the walls were hung an assortment of tools meant for torture. The table itself was stained black, as if from years of soaking up blood and bile.

  Passing through the room, not wishing to spend any more time there than necessary, they found a small guard chamber, with another door at the opposite end. The chamber was empty but for a rack of rusted weapons near the door.

  Max moved across the room and began to work on the next door’s lock. Alexander looked around the room. There wasn’t much to see. A table and four chairs, and a desk to one side.

  “There’s no dust,” Sasha thought out loud. “Upstairs, there was a thick layer of dust everywhere. But since we reached that lab, and all the way to here, there’s been no dust.”

  All of them paused to look around. Brick stepped back out to the torture room to confirm what Sasha had observed.

  “Aye, she’s right.” He took a cleaning rag from his bag, and walked over to the stone table. Running the cloth across the surface, he said, �
�Might be someone’s still using this place?”.

  Raising the cloth from the table revealed a dark stain. He held it up to show the others. “Blood. Ain’t fresh, but ain’t 200 years old, either.” He moved back over to Max, who had unlocked the next door.

  “Right,” Sasha said. “Standard dungeon procedure. Brick in front. Max you open the doors for him. Lainey, have a stun arrow ready. Alexander, burn the first thing that moves. I’ll add the vines. These are narrow corridors, so should be easy enough to group targets and burn them down. Kai, I don’t know what abilities you have, but I trust you’ll find a way to contribute.”

  The dragon nodded his head. “I will observe for a while, and determine how you interact. I will be there when needed.”

  Max threw open the door, which lead to a stairway going up. Brick began the ascent, the others following behind. There was a short flight to a switchback landing, then another short flight up to what Alexander thought of as the fourth dungeon level. The door at the top was unlocked and very slightly ajar. As Brick nudged it open, the hinges squeaked loudly. The sound caught the attention of some two-dozen living corpses that were shambling about the room in seemingly random order.

  The undead turned to shuffle toward the group, moving slowly. Brick hit the nearest with a holy smite, causing it groan in pain. The tank set up in the doorway, the others gathering behind. Alexander looked over their enemies as they approached, beginning with the one Brick had hit.

  Undead Hunter

  Level 45

  HP 1300/2400

  There appeared to a wide range of entities here. The closest was a hunter without a bow, carrying a long dagger. Behind him was a dwarf with a mining pick. There were warriors in plate and chain armor, what looked to be a barbarian with a two-handed axe, and a few mage types carrying staves. Though they were not casting, just moving forward with weapons raised.

  “Brick, move to a corner. We can’t burn them all here in the doorway!” Sasha called out.

  The dwarf stepped into the room, bashing at the undead hunter with his hammer, then moving to the side and backing toward a corner. He hit one of the casters on the far side of the room with another holy spell. All of the corpses in the room turned to follow the tank.

  Setting himself up in the corner, Brick bashed his shield against the closest foe, knocking it back and off of its feet. The two directly behind it both stumbled over the corpse as it struggled to rise. More of the undead moved in over top of them, and from both sides, pushing up against the dwarf, beating at his shield or trying to reach over it to grab at him. He dragged his hammer across the surface of his shield, activating its Serpent’s Screech ability. This sent the corpses into a frenzy, and they moved more quickly, pushing and shoving against each other to reach the tank.

  Sasha cast her aoe thorn trap right in front of Brick, thorns ripping into the dead flesh of arms and legs. Alexander cast wizard’s fire on five of the mobs. The fire quickly spread to the other undead, and to Sasha’s vines. Brick hunkered down behind his shield as the zombies burned.

  Max and Lainey began shooting arrows into the heads of each of the mobs. Alexander, deciding to experiment, moved to one side until he was lined up parallel with Brick’s shield. He aimed for a zombie in the middle of the most dense grouping, and began to pump mana into his Ray of Light spell. When he’d reached 300 mana, he released.

  The beam shot out from his hand, burning through half a dozen zombies before striking the wall behind. Those that were hit with the light spell died instantly, their bodies still fueling the wizard’s fire.

  Between the fire, the light magic, and critical hits from arrows to their heads, the undead were all fully dead in less than two minutes.

  Level up! You are now level 32!

  Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1

  You have 21 free attribute points available

  Brick emerged smiling from the pile, his shield having healed him from the fire damage. Max moved to loot the cooling corpses.

  “Impressive teamwork,” Kai observed. “I see what Sasha meant when she spoke of the damage you can do when you’re not holding back.” Sasha smiled and gave a small curtsey.

  “Did you guys notice the make-up of the mobs in here?” Alexander asked.

  “Yeah,” Max answered, still looting. “Hunters, warriors, miners, casters. They must have been adventurers that came here after Fitz cleared the place.”

  “But… how did they get in? And who killed them?” Lainey’s voice was just above a whisper. She was looking around nervously.

  Not having an answer, the friends prepared to move on. Max and Sasha picked up their torches, having dropped them as the fight started. They moved across the room to a door at the other end. This door was unlocked, and led to a short corridor that ended in another stairway leading up. On either side of the corridor were single closed doors.

  Choosing the left door first, Max pushed it open, and Brick stepped through, shield raised and hammer ready. The room held rows of iron cages, stacked against the walls and across the center. A quick count showed thirty cages in all. Each cage held an undead beast. Dire wolves, bears, tigers, raptors, even a bugbear. One long cage at the back wall held a 12-foot alligator.

  Undead Alligator

  Level 50

  Health 3000/3000

  “Well, this confirms that these undead were not killed here. Many of the animals are not found in this region. Alligators live only in the island and equatorial nations across the sea to the south. And bugbears are only found on the other side of the mountains,” Kai observed.

  Lainey continued the thought. “So somebody has been making these zombies, and transporting them here. Teleporting?”

  “More likely a portal. Much like the one you have in your compound. Only a being of great power could teleport itself between continents. And very few could do so with cargo,” Kai responded.

  “We need to kill all these animals. But let’s do it carefully. I want to see if I can work with their hides.” Lainey said. Drawing her bow, she fired a demon-bone arrow into the gator’s head. It was a critical hit, doing about 800 damage. She drew another arrow and paused for a moment. The arrow began to glow with a white light. Firing into the now thrashing gator’s head again, this arrow dropped its health down into the red. One more standard arrow finished it.

  Stepping inside to loot and skin the gator, she said, “I infused my Mend spell into the arrow, just like with my stun arrows. The light magic did way more damage.”

  Taking the hint, the others spread out and begin to slaughter the undead beasts in their cages. Max pumped arrow after arrow into the heads and faces of his foes. Brick used his hammer, which carried the blessing of Durin, and did holy damage in addition to crushing damage. Alexander cast bursts of Ray of Light with minimal charges of 30 mana into his first mob’s head. Seeing that it took off about 60% of the creature’s health, he finished it off with another one. The next mob he hit in the face with a 50 mana burst, and got an instant kill.

  Kai followed Alexander’s lead, deciding to try the burst casting. After just two tries, he was successfully killing mobs with every shot. Having a dragon’s massive mana pool, he was putting 100 mana into each burst.

  Level up! You are now level 33!

  Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1

  You have 21 free attribute points available

  Thirty mobs, all ten levels or more above them, was good xp. When the last of them was dead, the friends rested and recharged while Lainey skinned as quickly as she could. Max helped her out, looting each corpse before she skinned it. Her bag was getting full.

  “Lainey, remind me when we get back. We learned a little trick a while back. You can put one bag of holding inside another. So when you fill one bag, you put it into another, and it only takes one slot. There’s a limit of one, but it allows you to fill 199 slots instead of just 100. And the weight increase is minimal. We’ve got extras w
e took from those PWP morons who died at Whitehall.”

  Lainey, elbow deep in a dire wolf corpse, just grunted in the affirmative.

  As they waited, Kai asked, “Alexander. Have you learned the use of soul crystals in your enchanting trade?”

  “Soul crystals?” Alexander hadn’t even heard of them.

  Kai replied. “Aye. There is a spell that, when cast upon a dying creature, will cause their essence to be transformed into a crystal that is left behind at their death. These crystals can then be used to power enchantments. The stronger the life essence, the more power the crystal retains.”

  “I’ve seen a few o’ them in the auction house,” Brick added. “Never knew what they were, but they sell for thousands o’ gold each.”

  “Can you teach us this spell?” Sasha asked.

  “All of you?” Kai looked dubious. “You saw the pain that Lainey suffered…” he reminded them.

  “These crystals sound useful,” Sasha said “And Alexander is just starting to learn enchantment. If these crystals will help him increase his skill, then we need as many as possible. If we’re facing a group of mobs, one of us might not have time to cast the spell on each one. So it’s better if we can all do it.”

  “This spell is from the school of dark magic. Are you certain?” Kai asked again.

  “So, it be evil?” Brick asked worriedly. “I be a paladin of a god o’ light. I canno’ be casting evil magic.”

  “Dark is not the same as evil, good dwarf. Nor is light always good. Though many make that association. Dark magic is a tool, like any other. The portal you built with Fitz contained some dark magic. The spell within Lainey’s demon bow, the one that creates arrows, contains dark magic. Dark magic is often destructive, but it also balances light. Fire magic is destructive, yet few call it evil,” Kai pointed out. “If it would ease your conscience, then only cast the spell on creatures of darkness.”