Graveyard

Aurei and her companions descend into the hold of the Airship to find and destroy those that lurk there.

55.

Graveyard

 

 

Descending the stairs, no-one spoke, all ears focused on the slightest sound.   At the bottom of the stairs was the hold of the vessel, a room that ran the length of the hull.   Aurei had expected some sort of richly appointed quarters, outfitted in dark and sinister décor.  

Instead all she saw was a hold full of dark black soil, several feet deep, and, along the sides of the hull, resting in the dirt, many, many coffins.  

“You should have fled while you still had your lives.” A man’s voice said from somewhere deep in the darkness.  “Now it is too late for you.”

There was a swirling motion on the earth in front of them and in a blink of an eye it changed to a large being, made of soil or mud, nearly as tall as the ceiling in the hold.

“Earth Elemental!”  Eleazar yelled, rushing in to attack, and they all followed his lead.

The slow moving Elemental raised his massive hands to strike, but the two Elves were much faster.   Eleazar swung his great sword savagely down upon the elemental’s arm and it fell off as dust.   Aurei slammed both of her swords down on the creature, her Drow sword doing little damage, but Egregie chipped a huge chunk out of the Elemental’s head.  As she swung at the creature, Lute brought his massive axe on the Elemental’s head, sending the creature dissolving into dust.  

Aurei began to say something about their victory over the summoned creature, but before she could say anything there came upon them two familiar forms.   It was Alis and Aeric, both looking glassy-eyed as they rushed forward, both charging at them with their swords drawn.

“Careful!”  Aurei yelled to her companions as they approached.   Again she and Eleazar moved against them.  

“Flat of your sword!”  He called to her and she shifted her swords so the edges were turned.   They moved in unison, dodging their friends’ swipes, and then slamming the flat parts of their blades into the half elves’ stomachs.   They doubled over from the force of their magically enhanced strength, but both tried again to strike at them, with no success.   Lute moved up to Alis and with the back of his hand whacked her on the top of the head.   It was an amazing stroke, for she went down flat, knocked unconscious, and the big Half-Ogre scooped her up and ran out of the room, propping her up against the side of the stairs, and removing her sword belt as he did.

 

Eleazar carefully swung at his lieutenant again, the flat of his blade clanging against the Half-Elf’s helm and knocking it off.   He staggered, and Eleazar smacked him again, mimicking Lute’s hand attack that had rendered Alis unconscious.   The blow knocked him down, falling face-first into the dissolved remains of the Earth Elemental.  

 

Lute had already returned by then and quickly dragged the wounded half-Elf out of the room, while Pectros removed his sword belt.   Aurei was feeling very optimistic about all of it, when the same voice came out of the darkness from somewhere in the room, laughing as he spoke.

“I’ve returned whom you have come for; I will give you one last chance to escape.   Take your friends and flee.”

“We can’t do that, we’re here to end this evil.”  The King said, cautiously walking forward.

“Very well, then.”  The voice replied and almost appearing out of thin air, there were, all at once in front of them, the remnants of the undead from the earlier battle on the deck of the ship.   They charged forward at Haroldris, who prepared to meet them, but before he could, Eleazar held up his sword and said, “In the name of Yesh, be gone!”

Immediately the undead burst into black flame and disintegrated.  

“Impressive, Paladin, but try it on him.”

Aurei and Eleazar glanced all around, not seeing anyone.  Those behind them came in closer to each other in anticipation of an attack.

It came from within their ranks.  Suddenly Sir Alvis’ form stiffened and he raised his Ice sword.   Apparently his Vampire master was, in fact, aboard the vessel.  

 

But Zeatt had been monitoring the Knight Commander since Alis and Aeric had attacked them.   With a sudden motion, she brought her Rod of Flailing down against his sword hand.   The flail hit his hand hard, knocking the Ice sword from his grasp.   He swung his armored fist at her, but she easily dodged and swung again at him, connecting with one of the two heads of the flail.  The blow knocked him to the ground, where Lute and Pectros tackled him to keep him still. 

As they dragged the man backwards, out of the room, she handed his sword to Pectros.

“Foiled again!”  The mysterious voice laughed, seemingly pleased at their resilience.   “I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this warm-up exercise.   Now we will get serious.   Rise!”

At his last word, all the coffins on the sides of the hull began to open.

“Eleven!”   Haroldris quickly counted, as Lute and Pectros raced back to join them.   Out of each of the 11 caskets came human forms, all with teeth showing.   As Eleazar again raised his sword to try to turn the undead, suddenly there was a tall human man standing in front of him with a long wooden rod, which he swung as Eleazar raised his sword. 

The rod smacked the holy sword, but seemed to do no harm.   The half-Drow was forced to pull away from his attempt to turn the vampires and attack the one directly in front of him.   The Vampire was too close to miss and Valere cut him deeply across the chest.   Aurei spun and brought both of her swords against the Vampire.   Her Drow longsword nearly took the fiend’s head off, chopping deep into his neck, but the Holy Sword achieved that end, sending his head bouncing off into the dirt.   Immediately his body turned to mist and drifted away.  

A female Vampire wearing a strange necklace suddenly plucked one of the golden charms from her necklace and threw it at Aurei.   The round charm morphed into a red fireball that hit her in the chest, and then suddenly disappeared with a pop.   The Vampire howled in rage and plucked a second globe, but Aurei had already moved in against her, swinging both swords as she avoided her gaze.

The Vampire dodged her Drow sword, but Egregie caught her across the gut, ripping deeply into her unarmored chest.

With a snarl, the Vampire lunged at her, her canine teeth flashing.

But Aurei’s armor held and her teeth scraped off the metal.  Aurei thrust her Drow sword at her, but the Vampire smacked the side of the blade with her elbow, knocking it from the Drow’s grasp.   Aurei ripped across with Egregie, the holy sword cutting completely through the vampire, who dissipated into mist, but not before she threw the globe in her hand at Aurei.   Like the first globe, this one changed in mid-air to a fireball, but this one exploded as it contacted her breastplate.   With a roar, she was engulfed in flames and she fell screaming to the earth, rolling in the soil to put out the flames.   Her Elven cloak was on fire, as was the Cross of Yesh necklace she wore, but thankfully her belt of giant strength, armor and swords did not melt.   

Eleazar saw and heard her fall and broke off immediately from a fight against another Vampire to run to her aid.  

 

“Aurei, are you alright?!” He managed to get out before the Vampire he was battling, jumped on his back, fangs showing, as he snapped at his throat.  Eleazar threw the creature off, and then chopped viciously at the Vampire, taking his head off, which sent the thing into a mist.

Quickly Eleazar knelt, relieved to find Aurei sitting up, singed but whole.

“So much for Magic resistance.” She said weakly.

He helped her stand up and ordered her to rest, but of course instead she scooped up her swords and joined him in the fray.

King Haroldris fought a Vampire that, like the one that had nearly killed Aurei with the fireball as well as the one with the magical rod, seemed more powerful than the others.

The King swung at the undead thing, but though hitting him, the Vampire seemed not seriously injured.   He suddenly caught the gaze of the King and Haroldris paused, lowering his sword as the Vampire hypnotized him.   The Vampire pointed to Eleazar and the King nodded with a distant look in his eyes and charged the Paladin.  

“Laz, look out!”  Aurei warned just in time as the King attacked, but she had no time to help or watch, for the Vampire now turned to attack her.

Meanwhile, Zeatt, Pectros, Rori and Lute were desperately fending off six Vampires.   Zeatt raised her hand and commanded, “In the name of Yesh, be gone!” but only two of the six Vampires turned and fled back to their coffins, only to be replaced by two more.

They circled them, held at bay only by their holy symbols.   Then the vampires sprang at them abruptly, as if by silent command.

Two jumped on Lute; he threw one off, but the second one grabbed him, sinking his fangs into the half-Ogre’s neck.   He ripped the creature free from him, slamming him hard into the soil.   But the vampire leapt back up and again grabbed Lute, biting him again.   Lute staggered, weakened.

 

While Lute was battling a pair of Vampires, two others were fighting Pectros.  The two came at him from two sides, knocking him from his feet.    One bit him on the neck, the other one ripping his chainmail gloves off and then biting his hand.   The Captain of the Guard passed out as the two Vampires drank his blood.

Zeatt’s vampire also lunged at her, biting her upper arm.   Zeatt swung furiously at the Vampire, one flail popping him squarely on the head.   The Vampire bit at her again, catching her on the chin and her eyes rolled up into her head and she slid down to the ground.

 

Rori kept her Vampire at bay with her Holy Symbol, and saw her companions fall to the Vampires.   She knew she had to do something, so she pulled her Wand of Illumination from her belt and as the Vampire leapt at her, she waved the wand.   There was a blinding flash of light and the Vampires in the room screamed in agony.   When her sight returned, one of the two Vampires attacking Lute was floating away as a mist and the others in the room stood stunned, giving her companions a chance to attack.