And good for not casting light into the cavern since they had the door open a crack. A narrow line of cool air drifted through, carrying the damp smell of stone and faraway water. More important, any movement in the dark beyond would trigger the outside torches to flare to life.
They had unrolled their bedrolls to keep off the cold stone and sat where they could watch the gap in the door and talk through what came next.
Jo sat with her knees drawn up, elbows braced on them. She looked over at Harry. “How do you know how to do… what you just did?”
Harry rubbed a hand along his jaw. “The world… the plane I come from, doesn’t have magic healing. We have to do it the hard way.”
Stan let out a low breath. “No magical ’ealing? Sounds rough. Ain’t like anyone ever ’eals the likes o’ me an’ me mates.” He held out his arm and flexed his hand, “Well… ’til now.” His gaze moved across the others. “I’m sorry… If I hadn’ used the potion, Toby could’ve drunk it.”
Jo shook her head sharply. “No, Stan. You can’t blame yourself for that.”
Cedric sat closest to the door, the dwarven warhammer resting beside his knee, keeping an eye on the gap. “It was the right thing to do. Without your assistance in the fight, more of us could have been hurt or killed.”
Harry met Stan's eyes. “They’re right. It’s not your fault. And Toby should be fine. He’s not out of the woods yet though. I expect he’ll have to deal with some fever.”
Stan frowned. “Why’re we takin’ Toby out to the woods?”
Harry blinked. “What? No… that’s just an expression where I’m from.”
Stan shook his head and turned to Jo. “Has odd ways of speakin’, he does.”
Jo kept her voice low. “What do we do now?”
Harry glanced toward their bound prisoner, slumped against the wall and half asleep. “Stan, could you wake up Nick please?”
Stan leaned over and gave him a gentle poke with the butt of his spear. “Oi, boss wants a word.”
Nick pushed himself upright, blinking slow and unfocused. He brought up his bound hands, scrubbed them across his face, and squinted at Harry.
Harry leaned forward. “How long before we can expect Korven to send someone?”
Nick let out a low grunt. “We only ’ad a dozen with us… and you kilt or captured five.” He paused, working that out. “That don’t leave enough to send after ya and escort him back.”
He frowned, staring at the floor like the numbers might rearrange themselves. “An’ he’ll want an escort. For sure.”
Another slow blink. “I’d figure… soonest is three days.”
He lifted his hands and tapped his temple. “They’ll be pushin’ now ta make it home in one go, what with Korven hurt.”
Nick shifted, then kept going. “He could send Cap’n Walls right off with some men… but I’m thinkin’ he’ll want ta wake some of his specials first.”
He nodded once, certain of that part. “That’ll take a bit.”
He scowled and took a long breath.
“An’ then another day ta get here.”
Harry frowned. “His specials?”
A quick flash of fear crossed Nick’s face. “Aye, the Dead Wardens. Horrible undead things. Dead bodies all mixed together, heads an’ legs stickin’ where they got no business. He uses ’em to punish us… or the villagers… or if the village gets attacked.”
“Wait.” Jo held up a hand to get their attention. “What attacks the village?”
Nick shrugged with a stiff roll of his shoulders. “Always sometime in the winter the woodland beasts come in a wave. I reckon they get hungry.”
Jo narrowed her eyes. “What kind of woodland beasts?”
“Hexapanthers mostly,” Nick said. “Sometimes a few bears.”
Jo gave a small nod, one hand drifting back to touch the bow jutting over her shoulder.
Cedric shifted beside the door. “Will Korven be able to wake these abominations if he does not have his magical rod?”
A surprised look flickered across Nick’s face. “I think so, but I don’t rightly know.”
Harry glanced between the others. “Where is it?”
“Hold on.” Jo sprang to her feet. “I think it’s still at the top of the stairs.”
Jo ran to the doorway and slipped out. The rest of them waited, listening to her boots on the stairs above. After a few minutes she came back into the room, holding the rod still clamped in Korven’s severed arm. As she crossed to them she worked at the stiff fingers, trying to pry them off the haft. “He don’t want to let go.”
She handed the whole thing to Harry and sat back down.
Harry held the rod gingerly. “I should identify it, right?”
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Everyone nodded.
:: Skill [Identify]: Successful (Active, cost: 1 vitae) (60 seconds remaining)
H: 99 | V: 78 | TM: 29%
The rod flared bright in his vision, light spilling off it in pulsing layers. A message settled into place.
:: Obsidian Rod of the Master’s Will: Allows the wielder to command and animate undead creatures. Range and potency increase with user level. Unseals Korven’s Secret.
Harry exhaled. “We may be in luck. This is for animating and commanding undead. He might not be able to send those Warden things.”
Nick shook his head faintly. “I think it’ll just take longer. I sometimes seen him command the dead without usin’ the rod.”
Cedric rested a hand on the warhammer beside him. “We should attack before he can prepare…” He looked down for a moment, then lifted his gaze to Harry. “Before he has any more undead.”
Harry shook his head. “We can’t move Toby for at least a day. Really a month, but a day at minimum.”
Cedric exhaled through his nose. “We have a bit of time.”
Harry held up the rod and dangling arm. “What do I do with this?”
Jo pointed toward his chest. “Will it go in your inventory? That way, so long as you’re alive, Korven can’t get his hands on it.”
Harry blinked. “Oh yeah, my inventory. What happens to it if I die?”
Jo shrugged. “It all falls out.”
System, how do I use my inventory?
A five-by-three grid snapped into his vision, fifteen empty slots.
:: System: Will the object you are holding to be placed into inventory.
Harry lifted the rod and without thinking pushed it forward. It vanished from his hands with a soft ploop and appeared in the upper-left slot as a tiny likeness. When he focused on it, a label formed: Obsidian Rod of the Master’s Will and the left hand of Korven.
He reached up and willed it to return. It popped into existence just above his palm and dropped into his hand with the same sound.
Harry broke into a laugh, pushing the rod in and pulling it back out again. Ploop. Ploop. Ploop. Ploop. Ploop. “This is nuts! Just gone into thin air?” Ploop. Ploop. Ploop. Ploop. “Do you guys hear that?”
Jo rubbed her forehead. “All we hear is you gigglin’ like a bride on her wedding night.”
Harry stopped playing with the inventory and grinned at her. “Sorry. But that is crazy. I have fourteen more spots, what else should I put in there?”
Cedric straightened a little. “Same items will stack even if they are not exact. If we gather all the chainmail hauberks upstairs, they will take one slot and bring the most gold when we leave.”
Harry blinked. “Won’t that get heavy?”
Cedric shook his head. “Nay. Your inventory will not encumber you.”
Jo gestured behind them to the heap of gear around the altar table. “You should take as much of that as you can.”
Harry nodded. “You’re right. I’d hate to do surgery like that again, but we should be ready.” He looked around the embalming room. “And the water. I’ll fill both barrels and take those.”
They got up and experimented. The pot and burner slipped into the inventory together, and anything inside the pot went with it. They filled it with the scalpels, clamps, tubes, and the rest of the tools. Harry added his own medical kit as well. They agreed the others should keep their own kits in case they needed them and Harry wasn’t around.
Harry and Cedric headed upstairs to check the cache, leaving Jo and Stan to watch over Toby, Nick, and the cavern door.
They worked through the piles of gear, stacking what they could. Thirty-five chainmail shirts collapsed into one inventory slot, twenty-five longswords into another. They kept going until twelve of Harry’s fifteen slots were filled.
Cedric gave a small nod. “Some will have to be left behind as we gather new loot. But no reason not to take what we can now.”
They turned to head back downstairs when Harry stopped. “Hold on.”
He pulled the rod and attached hand out of his inventory. Even when he willed only the rod to return, the severed hand came with it, fingers curled tight around the haft.
Harry moved to the center sarcophagus on the right. “This is the key. Should we open it?”
Cedric stepped beside him. “Aye. We need to ensure it is not holdin’ a danger that will come upon us while we rest. But we should let the others know first.”
They went back down, told Jo and Stan what they were about to do, and returned to the sarcophagus.
Harry set the rod into the carved circular recess in the swirling pattern at the front. A heavy grinding click echoed through the chamber.
Cedric stepped to the side of the sarcophagus and pushed with one hand. It swung smoothly aside on hidden hinges, revealing a narrow stairway leading down, much like the one they’d opened on the other side.
They exchanged a quick look, and Harry eased himself down the steps.
At the bottom he found a larger chamber, roughly twenty-five feet across. No gear. No shelves. Not even a torch to flare to life. One wall opened into a tunnel running off in the direction of the cavern. Dust blanketed the floor thick and undisturbed, no hint of recent passage.
Harry came back up and told Cedric what he’d found.
Cedric frowned. “A back door maybe?”
“Maybe,” Harry said. “But if so, no one’s used it in a while.”
“Without the rod, it may be locked at the other end as well.”
Harry shook his head. “I hope so. I’d prefer if we saw anyone coming through the cavern.”
Cedric gestured toward the stairs. “Did you see a way to open it from the inside?”
“I didn’t look. Hold on.” Harry went back down.
This time, now that he was actually looking for it, the large lever was obvious at the base of the stairs. He came back up and handed Cedric the rod. “Yeah, I think so. Close it on me. If I don’t come out in five minutes, open it back up.”
He went down again. Cedric slid the sarcophagus back into place. Harry threw the lever. The mechanism unlocked, and the sarcophagus slid open without having to be pushed.
They closed it up once more and went down to the embalming room.
After hearing about the tunnel, Jo stood and looked out into the cavern, “If they come… we can go in, lock it behind us and take the tunnel.”
Stan rubbed the back of his neck. “If the rod’s the key, can we use it for a hidey hole now? Toby’d be safe enough.”
Cedric nodded. “That is a solid plan. We can explore from there and prepare an attack. First, we have to know where the tunnel leads.”
Harry looked around at them. “Alright. We’ll stay here a day to let Toby mend, then move to the hidden room. The question is… do I explore it now or wait until we move down?”
Cedric didn’t hesitate. “Go now. For all we know there is a cave bear living down there, and we would be feeding Toby and ourselves to it.”
Stan blinked. “Oh… yeah. I’m thinkin’ ya go now, yeah?”
Harry nodded. “Alright, but before I go, all of you come here. You need to learn how to change Toby’s IVs and what to watch for.”
Stan frowned. “Why’s it called an ivy?”
Harry stared at him. “What? No…”
***
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