Following is Chapter 11 of the long-awaited sequel to the Skirmisher Publishing LLC fantasy novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis! Herein one of our heroes leaves the others for a short time and discovers the presence of some troublesome Dwarves, whereupon the party begins to plan for the inevitable encounter with them ... Join alchemical rogue Paros, Elven barbarian Parthenia, wizard Pumayo, and moon priestess Selene in their Return to the Necropolis! 

Read "Return to the Necropolis: Chapter 10"

For the second time, Parthenia found herself in the bowl-shaped depression at the head of a ravine carved into the ridgeline that formed the western boundary of the necropolis. She clambered up out of it so that she could head due east, straight toward the rising sun, which she could see rising over the Bay of Kos, and expected that would bring her down near the grass-covered flagstone plaza in front of the black marble temple of Hades. Her reckoning was good and in about twenty minutes she found herself standing in front of the ominous-looking structure. The others were not there but she had no cause to worry about them yet and decided to go over to the edge of the hillside shelf upon which the temple was located and, after laying down to reduce the chance that she herself might be spotted by anyone, survey the overgrown cemetery.

Parthenia could see the hundreds upon hundreds of tombs, mausoleums, cenotaphs, and other structures spread out in the half-mile-long, quarter-mile-wide area below her. She knew there was much game and many edible plants among the meadows, groves, and other prolific vegetation that choked the cemetery, but that other creatures and hazards also lurked in the shadows, and she contemplated in which areas she would be most likely to find the one but not the other. As she scanned the valley, many parts of it still in shadows or pockets of mist not yet touched by the rising sun, she suddenly saw movement several hundred yards distant!

Right away the Elf could tell that she was not looking at a herd of deer, which was one of the things she hoped to see, as a single doe could provide the party with adequate meat for a week. What she saw was more humanoid in nature and moved more slowly and deliberately than deer, and at first she wondered if some of the undead monsters that haunted the cemetery at night had not yet retreated to the darkness of the many open tombs. But the figures she could make out, five of them, did not move with the lurching gait of the mindless zombies, and seemed more plodding and purposeful. They were, in fact, cloaked and hooded against the morning dew, and in the early light Parthenia could make out the glint of armor and weapons. The figures seemed somewhat stouter than Humans and the barbarian could see substantial beards poking out from under some of the hoods ... they were Dwarves! By the gods, it was the damned Dwarves! And they were tramping directly toward the path that led up to the temple and apparently on route to it. As soon after dawn as it was, Parthenia thought, they must have camped not far from the necropolis and, as soon as the sun came up and the undead retreated, headed into it.

Parthenia glanced back toward the temple and was pleased to see Paros and the others just now coming through the open door. She signaled them that she had spotted something and then waved the rogue over; he hastened to join her, dropping to his belly before he would be silhouetted to anything below and crawled up to lay beside the Elf, who quickly pointed to what she was watching and conveyed her thoughts on it.

"Those little bastards will be here in just a few minutes," Parthenia hissed to her friend. "Let's set up an ambush and take them out now."

"No!" Paros whispered back. "No, let's see what they are up to and what we can learn from them first. They do not look heavily burdened right now, so maybe they are coming to collect our treasure from wherever they have hidden it. Let's watch them, and maybe let them get worn out a little, and then strike when it is to our advantage. They do outnumber us and I would like to even the odds a little before going head-to-head with them."

Parthenia somewhat reluctantly agreed to this, the idea of deferring until later a fight that she could have now being distasteful to her, and the two of them crawled back a little ways from where they had been laying and then got up and ran over to their companions. Paros and the Elven warrior quickly explained the situation to the other two and then hastened them inside; their planning would undoubtedly involve more discussion and require more time than they had before the band of Dwarves arrived and they did not want to get caught in the open. Closing the doors behind them, they hustled through the hall of statues, down the stairs into the chamber of the Styx, and through the secret door. Before passing through it himself, Pumayo lifted the serpent Kidna up onto a small rocky shelf, well above the casual eye level of a Dwarf; he wanted to leave his familiar in this area to monitor the activities of the intruders and, while the snake was extremely adept at hiding, also wanted to reduce the chances she would be harmed in any way. The party then retreated up through the smashed-in door to the vandalized laboratory.

"Your snake will allow you to see when the Dwarves come down the stairs?" Paros asked the wizard.

"No," Pumayo replied. "But she will allow me to sense when they have arrived, when they have moved on, and whether it looks like they will come through the secret door. Then, later, she can tell me herself any details of what she saw."

"She is smart enough to understand the things she sees?" Parthenia asked.

"She is fully as smart as many people," Pumayo said blandly without looking at either of the women.

The party then furtively formulated a plan while they waited for the Dwarves to arrive, ready if needs be to quietly exit via the door that led through the empty mausoleum and into the cemetery. Parthenia thought all of this overly cautious, but Paros and Pumayo were very much in favor of sizing up the other party as much as possible before engaging them.

While they waited, the four companions discussed the specifics of when, where, and how they wanted to confront the enemy party. The Dwarves did not appear to be heavily burdened, so it seemed obvious that they were either returning to the catacombs to retrieve the treasure from wherever they had themselves hidden it, or that they had already carried off some or all of it and were now returning for the balance of it or to do some tomb raiding of their own. It would thus seem wisest to wait until the Dwarves had loaded up with loot, from the original hoard or a new one, and to hit them when they were heavily laden and carrying what the party wanted. They discussed the possibilities for where this might be best accomplished and some of the things they could do to tip the odds in their favor. Presently, the adventurers realized they had been discussing the options for much longer than they thought they would have had time to but that the Dwarves had still not come down the stairs.

"Maybe they decided to leave," Selene said. This certainly was physically possible but did not make a whole lot of sense and none of the others considered it likely. Parthenia in particular, however, was starting to get rather impatient, and was considering stripping off her heavy armor, heading through the door to the outside, and sneaking around behind the Dwarves to see what they were up to. Before she could do this, however, Pumayo's face became alert and he held up a hand.

"They are coming," he said. What had taken them so long the party did not know — maybe they had stopped to eat — but now the companions all became vigilant and waited to see whether or not they would hold their position or slip out of the room. Once again, however, they waited much longer than they had expected, while Pumayo remained attentive to the emotions of his familiar. Then, after a long, tense, fifteen minutes or so, the wizard's face relaxed. "They have continued onward, across the stream and into the catacombs."

This information allowed the party to make a plan of action predicated on the idea that the Dwarves would be able to cross back over the stream, as they themselves had been unable to do before. This would be a matter of willpower, and the companions postulated that the stout little people had a number of factors in their favor and thought it likely they would be able to muster enough resolve to make the return. As they had learned, the less time one spent in this underworld the easier it was to leave it, Dwarves were especially noted for their determination, and if they were seasoned adventurers that would boost their chances even further. So, it seemed probable that some or all of them would be able to cross back over. And, if not, then the companions could simply wait until the Dwarves turned into shades and then go over and collect their loot without any sort of a fight.

Operating under the assumption that the Dwarves would conduct their business in the catacombs as quickly as possible and then depart, the party began to lay the preparations for their attack. 

Read "Return to the Necropolis: Chapter 12"