"Clever stunt. Even if they spot the door, they'll have trouble getting through." As they descended, he glanced at the relatively unadorned walls around them and the narrow stairs going down. "Servants' passageway?"
"Originally. The additional security measures were put in place by past Cothmores, in case the people revolted down here during Bolat's visits." Drysia hesitated for a moment. "There's a lot of secret rooms and passages on their maps as well."
"Color me surprised." He concentrated as they reached a landing, with further staircases extending both up and down. "If I remember the official maps right, down is to the area where the servants' quarters, kitchens and such are, while up is to the lords' chambers and other rooms."
"The stable area isn't far from the noble area. From there, we should be able to get back out into the labyrinth proper and head back to report to the guild."
"Mmm." Elmerin reached into one of his larger item bags and pulled out his spear. "We'll likely need to rest on the way out. I can only recover so much mana while moving. But let's get out of range of those Dragon people first."
"Don't do anything stupid."
"You first." Elmerin used his spear to gesture up the stairs.
Drysia's eyes narrowed. The tone was perfectly serious… if it had been even the slightest bit mocking…
As they headed up the stairs, Elmerin assessed himself. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this low on mana. But then, he usually kept to lower- and mid- level spells and kept plenty of mana potions in reserve, often taking them two or three at a time. He even made his own at times, even if they didn't have the same specs as the ones the Crafters Guild sold.
But he hadn't started yet on the stockpile of goods he planned to for Bolat's visit. Add in the unexpected appearance with the Diamond vine monster and having to cast three high-level spells in close succession, and it was no wonder his mana had run low.
Checking on Drysia, a couple steps up, to make sure she wasn't looking back, Elmerin opened his item box and slipped out an older potion. Quickly drinking it, he dropped the empty vial back in the item box. Drysia would have questions if she spotted the label, and she likely wouldn't be fooled by "I inherited the potion" -mana potions eventually destabilized if not held in a suspension spell.
"How big do you think this Red Dragon group is?" Drysia suddenly asked.
"Hard to tell." Elmerin thought. "What's more important is they have some serious money. Not only the equipment the guards outside had, but the items and spells layered on the undead. There's a lot of ways a pissed-off magician who knows what they're doing can sabotage their spells, but those were clean. Someone got paid for that." He frowned. "That much money can mean a merchant or someone of noble rank."
Drysia frowned. "The soldiers I fought had adamantine in their armor. I know Korrum doesn't have adamantine mines. And some of their swords had a shell pattern."
"Adamantine… that's Dvergr, Khrysta, and Krilinat, off the top of my head. The shell pattern on the swords the undead carried was from Dorosea. With that kingdom it means both elven magic and dwarven skill -and a lot of money. Five of their middle-range swords would buy Cothmore county, minus the labyrinth and capital."
"And someone with that much money is willing to use… that magic." Drysia shuddered.
"Necromancy." Elmerin's voice was grim. "The only sorcerer who was ever able to use it without getting corrupted was one of the Summoned. He still died young." He looked up at Drysia. "The potential for the dead becoming corrupted is why we burn our dead."
In a world where corrupted magic, nevermind the energy from Bolat, could pool and revive the dead even without outside help, and magics could not only do so but trap spirits and mutate corpses into monsters, the dead were cremated to protect not only the bodies, but those around them. A Master Healer or a head priest with Appraisal or Life Detect was supposed to make the declaration, but that sometimes fell to the wayside in poorer or more rural areas. If a body needed to be preserved for an investigation, the Watch Guild and various lords maintained rooms heavily guarded with both personnel and spells to prevent revivications. In a pinch, the users of certain fields of magic could create a "doll" -a perfect nonliving replica of the body's state at the moment of the doll's creation- for later reference.
It was rare that most people had to deal with dead bodies in a state of decomposition. Even adventurers -the Adventurers Guild passed out suspended time item bags for free that were only to be used to bring back the bodies of adventurers who died in the course of their work. Although bringing back dead nonadventurers in them was fine. But using them for monster parts would get a fine.
A thought occurred to Drysia. "How did you know what that smell was? It didn't smell like rotting animals that much."
Elmerin's face hardened. "You do not want to know."
Drysia was prepared to argue, but looking back at the expression on his face told her Elmerin was not going to talk. After a moment, he spoke again.
"I wonder how long these Dragon guys have been working. Long enough, and they'll have possibly been able to raise a lich. If that happens, then we have real trouble. The last lich I know of was during the Demon Wars -one of the Demon King's top lieutenants."
"The Demon King's was Diamond grade. Assuming these Dragons have been active ten to fifteen years, they may have been able to push one to Sapphire grade, but it's more likely to be Emerald at most. Assuming they did make one. But a lich makes certain necromantic tasks easier."
"Shit."
"Agreed."
*******
Characters in this chapter:
Elmerin
Drysia
Spells in this chapter:
Life Detect: Can detect life signs from anything that counts as "living". Will not pick up undead at all. Until it reaches experienced Level 7 or 8, can only be used at very close range.
Suspension spell: Removes the item or being enwrapped in the spell from the passage of time. Extremely difficult to cast and maintain with just magic alone; a magic circle, glyphs, or runes are usually used to cast and maintain the spell. Part of the problem is the spell draws a small but continuous amount of mana until it expires or is dispelled; circles or other written tools can be set to draw the magic from the immediate environment, or even the target of the suspension, rather than the caster.
Items, magic:
Adamantine: Iron ore that has been heavily infused with clean magic. The magic allows the metal to bend and break the physical and chemical laws non-magic iron and steel operate under.