Book 2: Chapter 8: Older than Time

Book 2: Chapter 8: Older than Time

The cave was slick with water that trickled down the gently sloping tunnel. The air smelled earthy with a slight touch of damp. Thirty feet in, the tunnel reached a level slightly round chamber where the water collected in a shallow pool. There was a tunnel to the left that was a split in the stone barely wide enough for Frank to fit down.

I guess we go that way? Heather said as she looked down the narrow passage.

Frank sniffed the air and looked around. This place smells like my tunnels.

You mean they smell bad? Heather asked.

My tunnels dont smell bad, he protested.

They smell just like this, Heather said. Musty.

She watched him glare at her and turn to the tunnel and walked in.

So, is this natural? Quinny asked.

This looks like a player-generated tunnel, Frank said. You can tell because the floor is level.

So somebody must live here, Heather added.

Maybe, he replied as he looked around. But something feels wrong about it.

The arrived at a wider tunnel that opened up into a square stone room.

You were right. The cave led into the tower, Quinny said as they looked around.

The floor was made of smooth stone with piles of hay along one wall. There were three barrels that once held something that had long since rotted away. The barrels themselves were splitting with age and covered in dust. In one corner was a collapsed wooden table, and in another was a pile of bones. The only exit from the room was an archway in the far wall.

That's a skeleton, Frank said as she hunched over it. He picked up the skull and looked at it closely. There is no hair on it, so it isn't likely a player.

It's a summoned skeleton, then? Quinny asked.

Frank nodded then blew a breath over it, causing the dust on its surface to float into the air. But its been here a long time.

Why would it be here for a long time? Heather asked. I thought they poofed after awhile?

Frank tossed the skull down with a shrug. They are supposed to. Maybe this is a dungeon prop for a player above.

Lets look in the next room, Quinny said.

The next room was another square chamber with a stack of rotting boxes on one wall. There were four piles of bones here, one of which was widely scattered. On the far wall was as stairwell that climbed up to what they assumed was the tower.

Frank picked through the bones held a broken one up as he studied it.

There were killed, he said. Lots of the bones are broken.

These are covered in dust as well, Heather said. I dont understand why these are still here.

The wood in these rooms is so old it's rotting, Quinny pointed out. It's like this place has been here a hundred years.

Heather agreed that this place had to be very old, but the visitors arrived just ten years ago. This prompted a question she needed to ask. How old is New Eden now?

Frank scratched his head. Maybe eight years.

How long will it take Moons town to vanish? Heather asked.

Provided nothing haunts it, a year, he said.

So whoever made this tower must still be here, she surmised. Or it would have long since vanished.

But these boxes have been rotting for a lot more than eight years, Quinny pointed out.

Frank looked at the boxes and scratched at his head again.

They must have been added like that, he said. Whoever owns this place must have wanted the rooms to appear old.

I dont have any options to add old stuff to my tower, Heather remarked.

Frank shrugged and went to the stairs. Lets go up and see if we can find who owns this place.

Heather and Quinny agreed and followed him and stayed close behind. They arrived at a round room with a polished marble floor of green stones. There was a great wooden double door in one wall, and a stairway that spiraled up the wall like Heather's did. This one, however, had a carpet runner of rotting blue cloth on it. In six points around the wall were slender pillars and suspended from metal arms on these were lanterns whose light had long since gone out. The floor here was covered in dust like the rooms below and hadn't been disturbed in years.

So, a witch made this? Heather pondered as she walked across the floor to look at the silver runes more closely.

I wonder what this says, she said more to herself than anybody else as she knelt and ran her hand over the runes in the ring.

Heather, Frank called. Cancel your spectral sight.

But then I won't be able to see, she replied.

You can recast it. I need you to cancel it and tell me if you can still see the light.

Heather stood up and pulled up her panel to look over the spell. There was a single word to end the spell, and with a word, it was gone.

I can't see anything. This room doesn't even have windows.

Look up, can you see the runes on the ceiling? Frank asked.

Heather squinted in the darkness and tried to make out anything. No, its pitch black.

So the light and runes are dead, Frank said.

Dead? Quinny asked.

Go ahead and recast your spell, Frank suggested, and a moment later, Heather blinked, grateful to see again.

So, what do you mean the light is dead? Heather asked.

Undead can see spirits, Frank said. Ghosts that are normally invisible to the naked eye. The light in the room is only visible to undead and Heathers undead sight spell.

So, its a ghost? Quinny asked.

Frank shook his head. I think its some form of magic meant to hide something from anybody who isnt undead.

Or a necromancer, Quinny added.

What about the runes on the ceiling? Heather asked. Are those dead too?

Frank looked up and scratched at his head. They must be hidden the same way. The purpose they serve is meant to be hidden.

But who would go to all this trouble? Quinny asked.

Frank could only shrug.

Heather shook her head. Whats the point of lighting a room with a light only the undead can see, when the undead dont need light to see?

It has to mean something, he said he scratched his head.

This whole room has to mean something, Quinny said.

Heather looked around and noticed a small dark doorway on the other side of the room. She walked over to it and found a narrow stairwell up that seemed to climb the outside of the tower.

There's another stairway here, she said.

I guess we go up then, he replied, leading the way.

This is spooky and all but were not getting any experience for this, Quinny said.

We can always go back and fight the nillacs, Heather suggested as they climbed up.

They arrived in another high ceiling room. The floor here was rings of blue stone set in white. It was opulent with furnishing that had long since started to rot. This included a huge bed, a dresser, a standing mirror that had fallen and broken. Giant urns that once held plants. Tables, chairs, rugs, chest, and more bookcases. Laying on the floor near the center of the room was a skeleton in a rotting robe. He had the remains of a black beard glued to his chin by dead flesh. His arm was broken, and so too were several of his ribs.

This was a wizard of some kind, Frank said. Something came in here and killed him.

What kind of wizard? Quinny asked.

And why didnt he come back after he died? Heather asked. Why would he abandon his stuff?

Frank tried to turn the body over, but the bones came apart, and the black robe disintegrated. He fished through the bones until he found a necklace that he carefully lifted and held in the air for all of them to see.

Well, we know what kind of wizard he was now, Quinny said as they beheld the amulet of a silver skull set in a ring of black.

A necromancer, Heather whispered.