Following is Chapter 8 of the long-awaited sequel to the Skirmisher Publishing LLC fantasy novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis!

Herein our companions suffer attack from the horrible denizen of a tomb they are attempting to rob and their fate is far from certain ...

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 7"

Selene and Paros both noticed the hideous, sickening stench of corruption at about the same time but, before either of them could react to it, a humanoid mass of cold flesh, fangs, and talons slammed into the priestess. From the corner of her eye, Parthenia had seen something erupt out of the open vault and shoot across the hallway, landing hard on Selene's back and driving her to the ground. As it grappled with her, the gray-skinned undead monster sank its teeth into the side of the priestess's neck, causing her to scream in fear and agony — and then, abruptly, to go limp and collapse to the floor. 

Horrified, Paros drew his sword and began to advance on the monster and, as he did, felt his breakfast shoot up into his mouth and then erupt past his teeth, spattering on the floor and dripping down his neatly-trimmed beard. He staggered forward and slashed weakly at the emaciated monster, the taut, withdrawn flesh of its face giving it a somewhat canine aspect. 

Parthenia, fearful that she might accidently strike one of her companions if she fired an arrow into the melee, dropped her bow, whisked her greatsword from its scabbard, and leapt forward into the fray. As she approached the ghoul-thing, however, she, too, was overcome by its stench, and staggered as if struck by an invisible hand, vomiting as she did. 

Snarling, the creature squatted in a defensive position near Selene, glancing hungrily at her but wary of the two sickened adventurers advancing on it with their blades. They could not easily flank it, as if either of them tried to get to the other side of the creature they would be exposed to its vicious attacks, so they simply advanced on it side-by-side. Now that they were able to look at it, they could see it was more-or-less male and that the only thing adorning its naked form was a pectoral made from wedges of red gold, smaller toward the outside and larger toward the middle, each set with a small bloodstone. Hanging from the mouth of the vault from which it had leapt were the shredded remains of the funerary robes in which it must have been buried. 

Paros lurched forward and slashed at the creature again with his short sword and this time managed to connect with it, although not to great effect; its flesh was hard and rubbery and the wound he inflicted oozed a little but did not actually bleed or seem to cause much discomfort. As Paros withdrew Parthenia lunged forward, slashing with the keen, narrow blade of her great two-handed sword, but the ghoul ducked low to the ground, neatly evading the attack and passing under the whistling blade. It then leapt like a dog straight at Paros and slammed into him, knocking him to the floor and snapping at his face and throat; the rogue managed to drive his sword up between himself and the monster and tried to push the monster away with his free hand, but could feel its rotting charnel breath bearing down on his face. 

The Elven woman pressed her attack, leaping forward in a berserk rage and grasping her sword like a giant dagger, one hand on the hilt and the other on the ricasso, the leather-wrapped area at the base of the blade, and thrust the weapon straight down toward the creature's back. The weapon pierced the tough gray flesh of the monster's upper back, toward the left side, and the enraged barbarian pushed down hard and rammed the blade right through it by about six inches, narrowly missing the rogue pinioned beneath the monster. It screamed in rage but continued to tear at Paros with its talons and to bite at his face, even as he tried to get the tip of his sword into contact with it so that he, too, could impale it. Before the rogue could, however, he felt the filthy claws tear into his arm — and then, even as he felt the hot agony of his flesh being shredded, he sensed his blood chill and his limbs grow heavy, and, like Selene, slumped limp on the floor, paralyzed and helpless.

Parthenia stepped back, wrenching the long blade from the ghoul with a jerk. As she did, it pounced at her, clawing and snarling, its talons seeking flesh unprotected by the ancient bronze breastplate that protected her and its fangs snapping at the opening in her crested Corinthian helmet. Screaming in rage, she began to slam the pommel of her greatsword into the monster's head and back as it tore at her, clutching the hilt in one hand and the ricasso in the other. There were a number of sickening crunching sounds as the butt end of the weapon inflicted telling damage on the undead creature and the Elf sensed that if she could keeping delivering such punishment to it that she would finish it off shortly. Then, she felt the monster's talons rend her exposed arm and, as her companions had before her, felt her blood grow cold and her limbs become limp. She attempted to rage through the paralysis but could not and, against her will, slumped helpless to the floor like her two companions before her. 

Victorious, the ghoul yelped in elation and then leaned down to begin feasting upon his still-conscious victim, who was helpless to do anything but look up at it. Parthenia was even more horrified and completely taken aback when she heard a sickening ripping sound and saw the monster's head split and then tear in half down the middle, as if an unseen, vertical mouth had opened at the top of its skull. It heaved forward, the widening opening in its head bearing down toward her face, and if she could have she would have screamed as it came closer and she waited for it to engulf her. Then, it slid forward and landed across her, dead and inanimate, and she could see Selene standing behind the sundered monster, her bare hand gently outstretched in the gesture she employed for healing spells. 

"You'll be alright in a minute," Selene said, kneeling beside her friend. "The effects of the ghoul's touch don't seem too last long, just enough for it to start eating whatever it has paralyzed. It was stupid and driven by purely by instinct, otherwise it would have slain the rest of us before settling down to feast on you. When I gained control of my limbs, I stepped up behind it and cast a curative spell upon, the energy that heals living flesh instead inflicting damage upon the undead."

"Selene!" Paros called, having also recovered from his paralysis and gone to check on the unconscious wizard. "Pumayo is badly hurt." The priestess hurried over to the prostrate man and laid her hands on him, evoking the syllables of a healing prayer that seemed commensurate with his wounds. She then attended to Paros, Parthenia, and herself and, by the time she was done, had used up most of her spells for the day.

Parthenia removed the attractive pectoral from the ghoul and then, after Paros searched the vault the monster had come from and determined that it was empty, the two of them stuffed the monster back into it. Paros then selected an intact stone and used a powerful adhesive of his own creation to reseal the tomb, as none of them wanted to look at it or suffer the effects of its nauseating stench every time they walked down this hallway.

Paros had hoped to clear out at least eighteen or maybe twenty vaults before the party became too worn to continue for the day and they had thus far only done a little more than half that many. And, while Selene had used up many of her spells, she had one more cure at her disposal and in a pinch they could fall back on healing potions. So, knowing that a limited supply of food was their biggest enemy, they decided to continue on for the time being.

The efforts of the next few hours, however, did not bear much more fruit and, while they only encountered one more manageable trap and no more monsters, they also only added a small votive statue — a family god in the form of an electrum warrior — to the serpentine ring and bejeweled brass pectoral.

Still, this paltry collection of objects was in addition to the items they had retrieved from the last sealed vault in the Anemoi tomb the day before, which were not without value, and one of which was apparently enchanted. The gold ring was mundane but beautifully etched with fine symbols evocative of the element of air and Paros was sure it was worth at least a hundred gold drachmas and could thus easily be liquidated for half that much. The statuette of the winged figure was a bona fide piece of treasure, crafted from platinum, rarer by far even than gold, masterfully fashioned, and set with tiny gems for eyes and other subtle little embellishments in other types of metals and materials; Paros appraised it as probably being worth a striking two-thousand gold pieces — which, when liquidated, would put a respectable two-hundred-and-fifty drachmas into each of their purses.

The carved lapis lazuli bottle had the least monetary value but had radiated an aura of magic when Pumayo cast the spell to determine this upon everything they had found up to this point (and was, in fact, the only item they had found thus far that did appear to be enchanted). The wizard had already suspected this, of course, and had spent some time playing with the item the night before. While the other party members had been somewhat disappointed to discover when its stopper was removed that the bottle was empty, Pumayo had been hopeful — albeit apropos of nothing — that it might somehow have the power to transmute substances put within it, and had experimented with it to determine if this were the case. When he had attempted to pour some water into it, however, it was somehow prevented from entering the bottle — and after some examination he perceived that a slight but steady current of air emanated from the container! Pumayo was as excited about his discovery as the women were indifferent to it, although Paros was politely interested in it, and no one objected to the wizard laying claim to the esoteric device. 

Read "Return to the Necropolis: Chapter 9"