Return to the Necropolis: Chapter 13 (Day 3)
Following is Chapter 13 of the long-awaited sequel to the Skirmisher Publishing LLC fantasy novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis! Herein our heroes examine the bodies of some slain opponents, are disappointed with what they find, but are heartened to learn that they still have at their disposal means for gaining information about their missing treasure ... Join alchemical rogue Paros, Elven barbarian Parthenia, transmuting wizard Pumayo, and moon priestess Selene in their Return to the Necropolis!
Read "Return to the Necropolis: Chapter 12"
To their surprise and disappointment, the party did not find any treasure to speak of on the quintet of slain Dwarves. Two of them were equipped with heavy panoplies and two with light sets of armor, and all had a variety of weapons and other gear, all of decent quality that would fetch some respectable coinage if the companions did not find anything else to carry back to Kos instead. And, other than a few things like holy symbols that radiated a vestigial magic, the Dwarves did not have any enchanted items upon them, although they did have a handful of potions and scrolls that would bear further examination. Even more importantly as regarded the party's plans to remain in the catacombs until they could acquire a decent load of loot, however, the Dwarves were well provisioned with food, about four days worth each.
"So where is our treasure?" Parthenia asked indignantly as the four of them regarded the meager pile of gear, personal possessions, and rations that they had stripped from the remains of the Dwarves. "This has all been a tremendous waste of time."
"Hardly!" said Paros, regarding the pierced and mangled bodies, which they had laid in a row beneath the relief sculpture of Thanatos the reaper, god of death, after looting them; at the other side of the chamber lay the bronze statue of Achilles, now hacked and battered upon the floor. "The fact that they will not now be able to do the same thing to us at some point belies that, and we have avenged their acts of wanton and impious destruction and prevented future ones. But what were they doing back in the catacombs for so long if not retrieving the treasure they stole from us? It is, unfortunately, too late to ask them any questions at this point ..."
"No, it's not," Selene chimed in. "I can still speak with them." This elicited some interest from the others, especially Pumayo, and prompted the priestess to confide that her most potent divinations included the ability to speak with the dead.
"Can you demand anything you wish of them?" the canny wizard asked. He had used his spell of shrinking to once again reduce the tower shield to the form of a brooch and was reaffixing it on the breast of his robe.
"I can ask them anything I want and, if their spirits are not agreeable to answering me, they can attempt to resist," Selene said. "If I prepare my spells accordingly tonight I will be able to question two of them, and put two questions to each. Whether we will get the answers we seek remains to be seen but I think it likely."
The next step toward retrieving their hard-earned loot accomplished, the party repaired to the vandalized embalming laboratory, wedged the breached door shut as well as they could with a work bench, and policed up the area as decently as reasonably possible. Then, while the women cleaned their weapons and made minor repairs and adjustments to their armor and other equipment, Paros and Pumayo placed the potions they had retrieved from the Dwarves on one of the workbenches and set about analyzing them. After determining with a fair degree of certitude that all five of the potions were healing draughts of varying potency, they divided them up amongst themselves and their companions.
By the time they had completed their various post-battle tasks, all four of the companions were starting to feel hungry, and so they spread out the Dwarven provisions and began fixing dinner.
"Ugh, I can't even tell what half this stuff is!" Parthenia lamented. She had already shoved aside a bundle of dried and salted meat she had been inspecting and had opened a metal canteen and was sniffing its contents. "This appears to be ale of some sort ... I think I will just drink my dinner tonight. Maybe the rest of this will look better once I'm a little bit drunk."
Paros examined the food Parthenia had temporarily rejected, tasted a piece of it, and then began to chew on some of it.
"Huh, tastes kind of like shellfish of some sort ... " Paros said contemplatively as he munched. He beckoned to the Elf for the flask of ale and, as he washed down the meat with it, reflected that they paired well together. They were, in any event, very dense comestibles, and after just a few mouthfuls each of those and the other items in the packets of food, the rogue was sated. He could see the women suspiciously and peevishly begin to nibble at the food and decided to withhold sharing his assessment that the preserved flesh was probably that of some large subterranean insect.
Dinner completed, the two spellcasters began preparing their spells for the next day, studying or praying as appropriate, while the barbarian drew her greatsword from its scabbard and began to sharpen it and work out nicks with a whetstone. For his part, Paros spread out one of the Dwarven bedrolls underneath his own and then drifted off on the hard floor as comfortably as he had since their return to the catacombs.
