The Fae paused and for a moment allowed everyone their full faculties. The looks of shock and surprise on everyones faces made the Fae break out in genuine laughter. As his laughter died down, he pointed at everyone in turn, and with each point another persons mind once again succumbed to the magic so freely spread around the room.

  —---

  There wasn’t much up top to see,

  A house sized dip covered in scree,

  With a tunnel entrance going deeper,

  The only guard was a zombie creeper,

  Easily dispatched before it saw,

  A target on which it could gnaw,

  Taking a lantern from the miners hut,

  Leaving the door properly shut,

  Into the depths of the ground he walked,

  The Harps quiet hum the only thing that talked,

  Down he went until the Suns light fled,

  Into his vision the surrounding shadows bled,

  As the tunnel turned he came face to face,

  With three skeletons moving with great pace,

  The tight passage limited their means of attack,

  So only one could approach from the pack,

  What ensured was like a fencing match,

  Until a blow the Skeletons skull did catch,

  The other two quickly followed suit,

  Staying the entire time completely mute,

  As he continued down the air got thicker,

  His lanterns light did more than just flicker,

  Quite regularly the light projected was diverted,

  As if the rules of reality were being subverted,

  Moving not much faster than a crawl,

  Listening for any creatures call,

  With every step it got harder to breathe,

  His instincts screaming, he had to leave,

  But with his harp sword plucking his heart strings,

  His courage rose with every note it sings,

  Twice more he met and faced more undead,

  At sword point towards their true deaths they were led,

  Then he entered a cave quite large,

  In which he found the person in charge,

  They had drawn a magic circle on the ground,

  In the middle a dead body was nearly bound,

  Along the edges were plenty of dead,

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Corpses just laying with faces of dread,

  With a shouted word that sounded wrong,

  The World responded with an unnatural song,

  Coalescing around the circle, dark smoke formed,

  Into the body it vigourously swarmed,

  The Hero had seen enough and struck,

  But today he didn’t have much luck,

  A barrier appeared blocking his way,

  Grabbing and forcing his blade to stay,

  The mage turned around without any haste,

  Certain that they wouldn’t be turned into paste,

  Only three foot tall, and quite stocky,

  His face was bulbous and quite rocky,

  Wearing a robe of the reddest wool,

  The way he stood he thought it was cool,

  They asked the Hero, why the interruption,

  He didn't like the attempted disruption,

  Not that it mattered he'd mastered the spell,

  Next stop was a quick trip into Hell,

  But to stop the Hero from interfering once more,

  He'd be drowning him in the surrounding gore,

  With a chant and a wave the mage disappeared,

  From the deeper mines many undead appeared,

  With the mage leaving his sword was now freed,

  Now was time for his first heroic deed,

  With every slash and stab the undead fell,

  Yet still their numbers continued to rise and swell,

  This continued until he lost his sword,

  Stuck in the head of one of the horde,

  While dodging and running he searched the corpse pile,

  Spotting a large shield made him smile,

  Hardened wood surrounded with a band of steel,

  It was satisfyingly heavy to touch and feel,

  Smashing in heads with his impromptu slammer,

  With the finesse of a great Warhammer,

  With every blow a sweet smell spread,

  A hint of rosewood over mass of dead,

  The shield was unleashing a calming effect,

  To force any fear to move and eject,

  He made his way back to his sword,

  Smashing through many with his new board,

  The sword was stuck within a head,

  Of a zombie that was quite clearly dead,

  Using the shield he smashed it free,

  With another wave coming it was time to flee,

  Back to the tunnel he retreated with pace,

  As from deeper within the undead did race,

  Ready to use the the narrow confines,

  Of the passages leaving the open mines,

  To slowly whittle away the dead force,

  Until he won was what he planned of course,

  Not allowing any to pass was his aim,

  He would face all the undead that came.

  —---

  The Ladies had ruled out men and elves,

  And had searched the books from many shelves,

  Next they were checking the evil Hell,

  To find the scent left by the unknown spell,

  All the while humming a melodic song,

  That contorted the air in a way that's wrong.