Outpost: A LitRPG Adventure (Monsters, Maces and Magic Book 1)

by Terry W. Ervin II

  The husk mummy stood, unaffected by Ron’s attempt to repel it.

  “Your powers are feeble, druid.” The husk mummy murmured another spell. Ahead of Glenn, Kirby froze in mid stride. Glenn felt a wave of agitation, where his muscles tightened and joints began to lock. But the feeling faded. He must’ve made his saving throw versus the Arrest Movement Spell. He remembered saving throws from his D&D gaming back in junior high.

  It appeared he was the only one unaffected by the magic, as Ron stood immobile as well.

  Glenn decided to fake being affected. He guessed the undead creature had more spells on hand. Plus, she had those nasty claws. Maybe, if the undead creature turned her back, he might get in an attack or two with his cudgel. It had silver, which was supposed to affect magical creatures. The undead monster was dry and brittle. Maybe it couldn’t handle much more damage than a skeleton.

  That’s what Glenn told himself. Deep down, he feared taking on the horrific creature all by himself. But, that’s just what he might have to do.

  The husk mummy crossed the room, heading toward Ron. The creature’s gait was steady, although somewhat rigid. Glenn noticed equally nasty claws projecting from the monster’s sandaled feet, although they were broader and shorter. Wearing boots was definitely out of the question.

  Glenn nearly shook his head to clear stupid thoughts. He was afraid that he was so scared, he was losing the ability to think straight. At least he had the sense of mind not to move.

  The creature reached Ron and stopped in front of him. “Feeble druid, what made you believe you were a match for me?”

  Then she stepped around the warrior druid, to Derek and Stephi. “Ah, warrior, your powerful skeletal structure will be a nice addition to my army. And you, my fair elf maiden, lovely as you are…” The husk mummy ran the claw of her index finger along Stephi’s cheek, down her neck and around her chest, keeping its arm away from the lantern she’d handed Derek. “I shall use you as a recruitment tool, to secure more living followers, and keep them happy.”

  Neither the statement nor the touch elicited a word or reaction from Stephi. She, like Ron and Derek, were truly frozen—stuck…arrested. The same was likely of Kirby.

  How long did the spell last? A few minutes? Hours? Forever, until the husk mummy undid the enchantment? If the magic didn’t end soon, it was up to Glenn to save himself, and his friends. No way he could outrun the creature, even if it moved stiffly. Clawed feet or no, she looked faster than his short legs. Plus, she probably had more spells. Like a bullet, those moved faster than anyone could run.

  Glenn regretted using his sanctuary stone back in Three Hills City. Derek had been right. They’d need it. Stephi and Kirby hadn’t even gotten the chance to use theirs.

  Kirby and Glenn were next. The husk mummy made her way over to them. Her interest fell upon Kirby first and, as she strode past, she showed Glenn her back.

  It was now or never, he thought. Without a word—a shout or battle cry would betray his ability to move—Glenn swung his cudgel with all his might.

  Crack! Ribs beneath the tattered robes and leathery skin shattered. Silver worked!

  The husk mummy staggered a step to the side and turned to face Glenn as he swung a second time. This blow caught the creature in the shoulder. But the mummy had braced herself, accepted the damage. She thrust her clawed hand forward and clamped down on Glenn’s throat.

  Glenn tried to dislodge her grip by slamming his shield upward. That failed and the grip tightened. He swung his cudgel, but the monster was ready, and caught the haft, below the silver, in her other clawed hand. Apparently the shoulder wasn’t nearly as damaged as Glenn had hoped. Probably rolled another one for damage.

  She lifted Glenn off his feet, bringing him to eye level. He saw, dangling around her neck on a gold chain, an ivory skull with black diamonds for eyes, and chipped bits of onyx on the side, where ears would be.

  Glenn barely had time to register what he’d seen—the magical pendant they were looking for. The mummy’s eyes were pitch-black pools filled with menace and hate. The teeth, sneering between desiccated lips frightened him. What if she bit off his nose?

  Instead of that, the husk mummy began to tighten her grip, squeezing off his air.

  Almost on instinct, Glenn muttered the short incantation to heal himself.

  The mummy flinched, expecting a spell to strike her. When none came, she hissed laughter and clamped down tighter, working her claws into the flesh of Glenn’s throat while trying to crush his windpipe.

  Glenn’s magic flowed, stiffening and repairing his windpipe, and the superficial neck wounds.

  “You are a healer, little gnome. How unexpected.”

  Glenn tried to wrest his cudgel from the mummy’s grip, to no avail. She was far stronger with more than enough leverage.

  His magic flowed, but he knew it wasn’t a bottomless well. He felt the power of his magic nearing its end.

  He slammed the monster in the head with the rim of his shield. The husk mummy took it like Sylvester Stallone getting punched by a toddler. He wasn’t nearly as strong as Derek and his shield held no magic or silver.

  From down the corridor came an echoing, screeching cry. High pitched. The mummy looked away to see what approached, but kept her grip on Glenn’s cudgel and tightened her clawed fingers around his throat.

  Petie flew into the room, circled and then dive-bombed the husk mummy. The blue jay’s beak was even less of a threat than Ron’s spear or Glenn’s shield. There were no eyes to jab or vulnerable flesh to tear.

  As his spell strength ebbed, inspiration struck Glenn. He let go of his cudgel, and reached into his satchel, beginning to feel the pain in his throat, and the complete loss of air.

  Petie dove again and swooped away, still crying out. Glenn could understand the bird’s warning. “Away! Go away. Away. Go away!”

  His foe distracted by the bird and starting to utter a spell, Glenn saw his chance. He released his shield and removed the cap of his everlast candle. Before the husk mummy recognized her peril, Glenn put his left arm around the creature’s shoulder for leverage and punched his fist holding the lit candle into her ribs, right where his cudgel had shattered them.

  With speed that astonished Glenn, the husk mummy hurled him away, but not before he let go of his candle, leaving it inside the monster’s hollow torso.

  Gasping for air, Glenn got to his feet and charged the husk mummy.

  She ignored the gnome, ignored the dive-bombing blue jay, and tore her cruel claws into her abdomen. “What treachery have you attempted, gnome?”

  Already the effects of the magical candle’s flame were apparent. Wisps of fiery light and tendrils of sooty smoke rose from within the shattered cavity.

  Glenn couldn’t allow the creature any time to extract the candle. He went in low and took the mummy down like a stubby cornerback cutting out the legs of a lanky linebacker. The mummy fell to the ground and Glenn found himself next to his discarded cudgel.

  He picked it up and turned; the mummy had pulled his candle from within her gut and hurled it away. Flames licked across the leather skin of the opening, like a blow torch had been fired up within a creature made of paper mache.

  Glenn slammed the business end of his cudgel down on the mummy’s head as she screamed and tried to roll and smother the flames. The monster’s shrill cry sounded like a dull band saw trying to cut into a steel gas can. He ignored the chilling cry that rang in his ears, and chased after the monster. He slammed his cudgel down and missed, hitting the stone floor. It nearly jarred the weapon from his hand, but he kept after the desperate creature, swinging his weapon again. His swing clipped the burning creature across the shoulder.

  Then he saw it. The gold of the necklace. With the mummy preoccupied with the flames, Glenn took a chance. He reached in and snatched the necklace from around the monster’s neck.

  Heat from the flames singed Glenn’s hands. He tossed the necklace away from the mummy and stepped back. The undead
creature looked like a roaring campfire. He backed away further, fearing she might lunge at him—latch onto him with her clawed hands. If that happened, the dying mummy wouldn’t let go. Together they’d burn to death in a final, spiteful act.

  Not wanting any of that, Glenn scooted further away.

  Glenn coughed. The sooty smoke stung his throat and smelled like burning manure mixed with plastic. Suddenly he was afraid the smoke released by a burning undead creature might be toxic, deadly. Who know how the game world worked?

  Glenn nearly had a heart attack when Kirby’s hand patted him on the back. “You did it, dude!”

  Chapter 29

  The massive hug from Stephi almost made challenging husk mummy on his own worth it. Almost. Really, it’d been nothing more than a desperate bid for survival.

  The spell holding his four friends immobile dissipated less than ten seconds after the fire had destroyed the mummy. Several feet from the ash remains, Glenn’s everlast candle continued to burn.

  Ron complemented Glenn on his resourcefulness. Derek even had a good word for Glenn, saying, “Good job, gnome, you really lit that undead bitch up.”

  After Ron retrieved the ivory necklace and verified it was magical using a Detect Enchantment Spell, Kirby said, “We should look for treasure. Kalgore, you and Lysine should check out the thrones.”

  Ron frowned. “I should have withheld,” he said while sprinting over to the dais. He failed to reach the onyx throne and examine it with his enchantment-detecting sight before the spell duration expired.

  Kirby stood right behind Ron. “No problem, dude. We got what we came for. Anything else is a bonus.”

  Ron sighed, and gestured toward the thrones. “Proceed, Gurk. But you and Kalgore demonstrate caution. Neither I nor Jax has the ability to heal injuries.”

  Kirby nodded before he and Kalgore began conferring.

  Ron pulled out his booklet and pencil, and said, “Jax, you and Stephi examine the coffin and surrounding area. After I sketch this room, I shall seek potential secret doors and compartments.”

  Stephi, with her familiar on her shoulder, followed Glenn to the coffin.

  “I think it’s a vampire,” he said. “Staked and beheaded.”

  “From what Lysine and Gurk said, vampires are dangerous. Not to insult your effort, Jax.” She tousled Glenn’s hair. “A vampire’s got to be a lot more dangerous than that husk mummy.”

  Glenn elbowed her in the hip. “No insult taken.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I was wondering why an undead necromancer priestess would want something to make her invisible to undead. I bet it allowed her to get the drop on the vampire, and kill it.”

  “Isn’t a vampire already technically dead?”

  Glenn stepped closer to the coffin. “Yeah.”

  “This is kind of creepy,” she said, kneeling in front of the vampire’s remains. Her familiar flew from her shoulder to land near the steps.

  “I think creepy is something we’ll need to get used to, Marigold. At least until we’re able to get back home.”

  Glenn began prodding the coffin with his cudgel. “What exactly are we looking for?”

  Stephi said, “Something like this?” She picked up a gemstone the size of the nail on her little finger. “It changes color, when I turn it.”

  Glenn said, “Let me see. I took a gemstone appraisal skill when rolling up my character.”

  She handed it to him and he took a careful look. “Alexandrite. Very high quality. More valuable than most diamonds its size.” He handed it back to her.

  A massive grin split the elf’s face. “Creepy or not, let’s keep looking.”

  After several minutes examining in and around the destroyed vampire’s bones, but leaving the stake in the rib cage, and making sure the decapitated skull kept away from the rest of the bones, they moved, tapped and prodded the coffin.

  “You probably wanna be careful, Kalgore.”

  Kirby and Derek were atop the dais. Derek had his hands on an arm of the throne. “It’s too big to haul out. If it breaks, who cares?” Flexing and heaving, he toppled the onyx throne from its perch. It crashed down the dais onto the stone floor, the brittle stone breaking into several large and a number of small pieces. “Oops.”

  Ron, examining one of the pillars said, “Caution rather than recklessness.”

  “See,” Kirby said. “Told you there wouldn’t be anything.”

  Glenn turned back from the two on the dais, gestured to the coffin and asked Stephi, “Think we missed anything?”

  “What about the water dripping down the wall?”

  “Water?” Glenn asked. Several tiny rivulets were streaming down from where the ceiling met the wall. He hadn’t seen any water seeping through the stone the entire time they’d been in the underground outpost. That wall had been dry a moment before. “Hey, Lysine. Marigold found water dripping down the wall here. I think it just started.”

  Ron glanced their way, then examined the wall nearest him. “I observe the same here.”

  “You know,” Glenn said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “we’re under a swamp.”

  “It is possible,” Ron theorized, “when the undead priestess was slain, a consequence was the termination of an enchantment keeping the water at bay.”

  “Or,” Kirby said, thumbing over his shoulder at Derek, “muscle brain, here, did it when he broke Hades’ throne.”

  “What? You don’t know that.”

  Kirby looked up at the ceiling after feeling a water drop land on his head. “I do know, unless we figure a way to breathe under water, we don’t want to be down here long.”

  Glenn agreed. Already the size and number of rivulets had doubled. He started hustling over toward the steps. “I’m for leaving now!”

  Everyone followed the gnome without question.

  “Kalgore,” Ron said. “Once we get past the pit, carry Jax.”

  Everyone made it across the stacked planks. Glenn didn’t hesitate to swallow his pride. Being carried was better than drowning at the bottom of an outpost dungeon.

  Derek didn’t bother with a smart remark. He knelt down. “Climb on.”

  Glenn climbed on his back, piggyback style. He reached around the scabbarded sword with his right hand and stuffed the fingers of both hands in the gap between the breastplate and chainmail along the back of Derek’s neck. “Go!”

  He didn’t need to tell the muscular warrior twice. Ron led the way, followed by Kirby and Stephi, who carried their lantern.

  There wasn’t any need to refer to Ron’s diagrams in his little book. By the time they reached the jail room, the water was already up to their ankles. The injured men shouted for help.

  Ron took the keys from Kirby. “I’ll catch up.”

  “Whatever, dude.” Kirby led the way.

  Glenn tossed Ron his everlast candle.

  By the time they reached the spiral stairwell and began counting steps, Ron had caught up to Derek and Glenn.

  “Goblin’s can’t count,” Kirby shouted down.

  The meaning was clear. One of the released goblins had stepped on the trap stair. Some force had driven a hollow shaft with a razor-sharp tip through the goblin’s leg, just above the ankle. What would’ve been a crippling wound for a healthy person—if the bleeding could be stopped—proved fatal for the goblin. He’d bled out.

  No one stopped to confirm the actual cause of death. Everyone except Glenn was breathing hard from exertion. The steps were slick with water and required everyone’s concentration.

  Outside, near the entrance, sat two piles of bones with rusty shields and maces.

  Derek lowered Glenn to the ground and the four runners took a moment on the small hillock to catch their breath.

  “Do you want to see if that skinny lizard man is still around?” Kirby asked. “There might be some horses and treasure there.”

  Ron’s face pinched in thought. He looked up at the night sky. “It is barely midnight,” he said. “Six hours until Jax, Mar
igold and I can replenish spells.”

  “That’s a ‘No,’” Stephi interpreted. “Let’s find our—what do you call him—henchman? Get out of this swamp and back to town.”

  Chapter 30

  The ride out of the Dark Heart Swamp was faster than the trudging march in. For much of the journey, Kirby and Glenn rode on a pack pony, guided by a rope attached to Ron’s horse. Derek did the same for Stephi, whose long legs looked ridiculous. She, Kirby and Glenn agreed that training for the skill in horse riding and handling was important. If their henchman Blizz could manage it, so could they.

  Along the way, Derek reminded everyone, especially Glenn, that the gemstone Stephi found was party treasure. It was not the property of one individual, especially to be set into a ring or made into a necklace. Nobody argued. The quality was such that the alexandrite gem could fund food, housing and improve the weapons and equipment everyone had. Even purchase Stephi access to learn more spells, offering more than a single option.

  Luck was on their side as they made it back to Three Hills City without incident and with days to spare before the timeframe to revive Kim expired.

  An hour before noon, the group made it to the Glade House. Ron paid Blizz the balance of his fee for services, six silver. The half-goblin animal handler smiled, having earned his danger pay.

  “You all ever need another handler, I’m your man.” Before turning to lead his donkey away, he peered up into the shadow of Stephi’s hood and winked.

  Ron took their new mounts to the stable across the street from the boarding house. Derek accompanied him. Glenn, Kirby and Stephi went to check in with the Glade’s proprietor, and drop off most of the party’s gear.