“I still say you are still inordinately pleased with yourself.” growled Langley.
As they marched through the jungle, the foliage had thinned enough for the party to use a visible trail. Athasen had taken advantage of the easier journey to flip through one of their prizes from the wizard’s tower, an old spellbook from the long-dead mage; a treasure uncovered by the Harpers before the naga had claimed them and now given to Athasen in gratitude for their rescue.
“I thought we agreed this wasn’t about me. My success, yours, any one of us is glory to be shared among the whole. It’s how we stay alive. It’s how we win.”
“Oh, I’m just teasing.” retorted Langley, although her tone made Athasen doubt that. “Although you did get the lion’s share of the loot from that place.”
“Only because I’m the only wizard here.” Athasen smiled slyly. “I can’t imagine that one thousand gold the Harpers promised for their rescue doesn’t please you.”
“I don’t have it yet.”
“And the stronger we are, the more likely we’ll all live to collect it.” Athasen clapped the spellbook shut and returned it to his satchel. “You hardly have anything to be ashamed of. Your own skills are extraordinary.”
“Hard won.” admitted Langley. “My family was disgraced and later slaughtered. I’ve learned what I learned to survive.”
“We may not be so different then. I grew up a slave gladiator, my blades and my magic were meant to amuse crowds of screaming bloodthirsty spectators. If I killed and made it look good, I lived. Sometimes, those old habits die hard.”
“You draw too much attention to yourself.” critiqued Langley. “You’re like the goblin that way. Brave to the point of foolhardiness.”
“It keeps you alive.” retorted Athasen. “How can I lead if I do not prove to my allies that I am willing to take the same risks as they? Perhaps even greater risks.”
“You’ve been lucky to survive. I, for one, don’t count on luck.”
“Oh, I’ve had my moments. Times when I’ve been knocked senseless to the ground by a well placed blow.” Athasen chuckled to himself, remembering well his former companion Uog and his accursed throwing hammers, weapons that had struck him down by “accident” more than once. He hadn’t given thought to Uog in years. Once his best friend, the betrayal brought on by those hammers and the demon who’d offered them still felt bitter in Athasen’s heart.
“I wouldn’t find such a fate amusing personally.” critiqued Langley, confused by Athasen’s sudden nostalgic mirth.
“We all have two choices in life.” Athasen mused. “You can live in fear of death or learn to laugh in its face. It comes for us either way. We all stand before Kelemvor eventually, so I prefer to laugh rather than cower.”
The woods parted into a large clearing. The floor of the clearing was littered with hundreds of bones of every creature imaginable: goblins, humans, giants, animals, all were there.
“I wonder if they laughed in the face of death.” joked Zangdrax grimly. “This place reeks of unholy magic.”
“I don’t see anything moving.” said Fejj, drawing a bow.
“Neither do I.” said Allar, similarly armed. “But I do see something interesting.” He began to advance slowly and cautiously into the clearing.
“Be careful.” warned Zangdrax. “I don’t like this.”
Allar moved some distance into the clearing, stowed his bow, and began digging under a pile of giant bones. He pulled out a small wooden object, a fetish idol of some sort. The fetish glinted with red light, giving testimony to the rubies it was studded with. “Treasure.” he exclaimed. “This is probably worth a fortune.”
“If it’s not cursed...” Zangdrax began pessimistically. He did not get to finish his sentence before the giant skeleton from which Allar had drawn the fetish began to rattle.
“Oh, shit.” said Athasen, drawing a sword. He began casting a spell.
Both Langley and Fejj loosed as the giant stood up. Three others behind it began to rattle as well.
Suddenly, a giant spectral hand emerged from the ground. Athasen clenched his fist in pantomime and the hand grabbed hold of the giant closest to Allar. With his foe now held in place, Allar was able to stumble away. Bones began to crack as Athasen squeezed his hand harder, causing the spell to crush the giant.
“Nice trick.” said Zangdrax, charging forward towards one of the new giant skeletons that had just stood up. Hoggle did likewise, swearing in Goblin and swinging his axe. Hoggle’s blow shattered the skeleton’s shinbone and the monster stumbled and nearly fell.
“Make you shorter. Eventually, you shorter than me.” howled Hoggle with glee, swinging at the skeleton’s other shin in an effort to repeat his success.
Athasen laughed and moved his spell to the next foe. The spectral hand was just about to grab a second giant when he heard a shout from Fejj. “Look out!”
Athasen had only a moment to turn and see a massive bone club impact his face. Everything went black.
---
Athasen exploded back to consciousness in a world of pain. Zangdrax was kneeling over him, a glowing light coming from his hand. “Don’t move.”
“Not the first time I’ve received magical healing.” Athasen groaned. “I take it we won.”
“Not easily, but yes.” said Zangdrax. “You may be quite skilled with a blade, but you’re a mite fragile. And stuff that big hits hard.”
The pain began to fade and Athasen sat up. The shattered remains of the skeletons lay strewn about. Allar was holding the fetish he’d found, now broken into the several pieces as Fejj was helping to pry out the rubies.
“Breaking the fetish kept the skeletons from animating. Simple solution really.” said Langley, explaining further. “Had we realized it earlier, we might have kept you from going down.”
Athasen came to his feet. “Enough about me.” he growled, mildly embarrassed at his performance. In days of old, it was not unusual for Avouz to be knocked out by a mighty foe, but in the many decades since his adventuring career began, it had happened less and less.”
Athasen looked around the clearing. “This was a trap. We were meant to find the fetish. Meant to pick it up.”
“And meant to die by the skeletons.” added Langley. “Obviously. Your point?”
“Unlikely for a trap to just be here randomly. It was guarding something. Look around everyone. See if there’s anything unusual in or near this clearing.”
“Like this?” said Hoggle, pulling a bit of shrubbery aside. Concealed underneath was a small stone cairn.
“Exactly like that. Good eyes, my goblin friend.” said Athasen as the party began to circle the small cairn. It was about four feet in height and perhaps ten feet in diameter.
“Is there a door?” asked Allar, as he joined the search. “A way inside?”
“Yes,” said Zangdrax. “On this side.”
The rest came around to join the kobold paladin. The door was small, but still large enough for a typical person, and angled against the sloped side of the cairn, implying it led underground.
Zangdrax and Hoggle tugged at the door and their combined strength overcame any resistance. The door swung open and a blast of cold foul-smelling air came forth.
Athasen shivered. “Something familiar about all this.” He muttered under his breath.
“All I know is that it’s cold and smells bad.” said Fejj. “Probably just some forgotten tomb.”
“No, there’s dark magic here.” said Athasen.
“Even more reason to leave things alone.” retorted Fejj.
“Where’s your sense of adventure? Come, we’ve come this far.” Athasen ducked down and went inside the door.
The rough stone steps on the inside of the door indeed led downward into the earth. The passage was steep and narrow but passable. After nearly 100 feet, the stairs came to an end in a circular hallway. Although he could see in the dark thanks to his elven ancestry, Athasen lit a torch to get a better view of things.
The rest of the party emerged from the stairs as Athasen moved about the circular hallway. At each of the four cardinal directions, there was an alcove. In each alcove was a human corpse, but each corpse was different. One was skeletal, another mummified. The remaining two were well preserved, but one was bald and the last merely pale white, rather than the usual ashen grey that bodies became after death. Across from each alcove, the wall was decorated with hundreds of human mouths.
“What is this place?” asked Hoggle.
“I don’t know.” said Athasen. “There’s clearly an inner chamber behind this wall, but we are denied entry.”
“It’s a puzzle.” said Zangdrax. “Each body is missing something different. One hair, another flesh.”
Athasen moved next to the bald corpse and cut a lock of his hair with his dagger. When he did so, the mouths on the wall began to smack their lips in a near deafening cacophony. He tossed the hair to the wall and the mouths gobbled it up. There was a loud grinding noise behind the wall as the mouths fell silent.
“Alright, that’s the trick. Give the walls what the body lacks.”
“You really want me to cut my flesh off to feed the wall?” asked Allar.
“While I’m sure that would work, perhaps something else might suffice.” said Zangdrax. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a stick of jerky. “Flesh.” He said as the mouths began their chatter. He tossed the jerky to the mouths and the wall made the grinding noise again.
“Okay, those were the easy ones. What do these two lack?” asked Fejj. “One’s just white and the other all dried up.”
“It’s dessicated. Lacking water.” said Athasen. He pulled out his waterskin and the mouths began smacking their lips. “Easy.” He splashed the water on the wall with the expected result.
“And the pale one.”
“I fought a vampire once.” said Zangdrax. “This was what his victims looked like.”
Athasen nodded. “Yeah, I remember also. This body has no blood.”
Hoggle slammed his face against the stone wall, bloodying his nose. He ran his arm across his face and splashed the blood. The grinding noise began and doors opened between each pair of the mouth-covered walls.
“Well, perhaps a big overdramatic,” Athasen said to Hoggle. “But...”
“Not stupid if it works.” interjected Hoggle.
“Hard to argue with that logic. Let’s see what’s inside.” said Zangdrax. The kobold darted inside the newly opened door. The others followed.
On the floor was a carving of a skull, Orbiting the skull were six drops of blood. “I know this symbol.” said Athasen.
“Bhaal, god of murder.” added Zangdrax. “Odd to find a shrine to him here in Chult. The gods of Faerun were forbidden from this land.”
“Only so long as Ubtao was here. He’s been silent since the Spellplague.” added Fejj.
“Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum.” quoted Athasen, remembering a favorite line of his mentor Alandar. “One god goes missing. Others take his place.”
“Didn’t Bhaal also die?” asked Langley.
“In the Time of Troubles, yes.” said Athasen. “But he foresaw his death and sired many children, known as the Bhaalspawn, who safeguarded his essence. When they died, Bhaal was reborn.” Athasen didn’t bother to mention that not all of Bhaal’s divine essence was returned to him. Some was taken, by Avouz’s other mentor, the necromancer Haplo.
“I don’t like this place. God of murder doesn’t sound like someone I want to tangle with.” said Allar.
“As Athasen said above, where’s your sense of adventure.” retorted Langley. She leaned down and wiped some of the dust from the skull’s mouth. There was a flash of red as the rubies that made the skull’s teeth were revealed. “Now that’s what I’ve come for.”
“All of us.” said Fejj. “Can you pry them loose?”
“Treasure here to make you the envy of Calimport, Waterdeep, or Neverwinter. Or all combined.” said Langley, digging at one of the rubies with her dagger.
“And likely to be defended.” said Zangdrax cautiously.
Sure enough, the rubies shot out of the skull’s mouth, knocking the surprised Langley onto her rear. They flew out the doors and into the bodies in the alcoves. The bodies animated and stood on their feet.
“It’s never easy, is it?” grumbled Langley.
Hoggle roared and drew his battleaxe. He charged the first zombie, the exsanguinated one, and slammed his axe into its chest. The goblin jumped up and slammed both feet into the zombie, knocking it back into the hallway. It slumped to the ground and the ruby fell out of its mouth.
“They don’t seem so tough.” said Allar. He loosed his bow at another, the bald one, but the arrow bounced off harmlessly.
“Juju zombies.” said Athasen. “Only magic or magic weapons can harm them.”
Langley came to her feet and fired her crossbow at Allar’s target. The bolt struck home in the forehead of the bald zombie and it fell to the ground dead. Its ruby rolled free as well.
Athasen turned and drew his sword at the skeleton. A red fire burned in its eyes. “And you’re no zombie at all, juju or otherwise. I know your kind, monster. A skeleton warrior.” said the seasoned adventurer aloud. He slashed at the skeleton, but the undead parried his blow with a blade of its own.
Behind him, the rest of the party quickly dispatched the thrid and final juju zombie. Athasen cut low, taking the legs out from under the skeleton. As it dropped to the floor, Athasen clove its skull in two with his blade. The red fire turned back into a ruby and clattered free.
“That was easy.” said Hoggle, satisfied with their work.
“Yes, but a casual explorer would have died a very horrible death here.” said Zangdrax. “The lot of us have been adventuring for many years and nearly all of us have a magical weapon or some sort. A Chultan villager or anyone else who was like to find this site would not have fared nearly as well.”
“No villager would have gotten past the giants above.”
“That fetish we found was no symbol of Bhaal. Perhaps the two weren’t related after all.” mused Athasen. “No matter. We’ve gotten what we came for.” he said, picking up the ruby at his feet. “Let’s move on.”
