The dig site looked much as it did before, although the undead seemed to be labouring less, some shambling around aimlessly, others still and unmoving, arms limp, staring endlessly into nothingness. The sounds of their movement were eerie, tools striking against stone and dirt, grit hissing and sliding as it cascaded back into place, some of the zombies simply heaping dirt into piles, then moving it back whenever it slid back down.

I think there’s an entrance over that. Or at least… Janaxia’s speech was interrupted by a loud hiss of air, followed by the sounds of body-parts sliding apart and hitting the ground. It would appear to be trapped, but I’m sure we will be able to manage.

Stathis moved forward, chopping through a zombie that lurched at her – the ones here seemed to all be in “work” mode rather than fighting, making them even slower than normal to react. Parth walked silently close by, her blades out, using them to slice at anything that drew too close, but it was almost worryingly easy to approach the entrance. Was this a trap?

The dirt slipped underfoot, broken apart by all of the zombie’s working, soft and friable. The entrance was over-dramatic – a stone archway carved with countless ridged spikes, looking like a viciously fanged maw that would bite any intruders. Even the floor had more of the spikes – Stathis braced herself to step over them, before Janaxia tapped her on the shoulder and stepped forward.

A faint red glow appeared from between the spikes, lines of light wafting out from the tips and forming into a mist. Janaxia moved her fingers through the air, red light trailing afterwards, a mind-numbing symbol hovering there for a second. The light was drawn towards it, making it glow more brightly, more mist trailing up Janaxia’s arm, like it was sniffing at her. She kept twisting her hand and arm, letting it twine around her, face tight with concentration as she continued to draw runes into empty air.

The spikes groaned, the stone bending with ear-rending scrapes, retracting into the stone.

‘That should be disarmed now. An old family secret. Older than I thought, if this was left by Kinnevar. After you, Stathis – after all, you are wearing all of that metal for a reason, aren’t you?’

‘Could anyone have gotten in before us?’

‘If they were determined, yes – those lights are painful, but not necessarily fatal. So caution seems advisable.’

Stathis took a deep breathe and then advanced, stepping over the threshold slowly, shield held high, ready to throw herself aside in the case of something being activated. But nothing happened, at least that she could see. Ahead of her was a long stone passageway, with more runes daubed onto the wall with charcoal, not worn away despite the centuries this place had been left unattended.

‘Janaxia, can you see anything?’

‘Simply more of the passageway. And it appears to be steeped in magic, although that is scarcely a surprise.’ Her eyes reflected what little light there was, eerie emerald lights glinting for a second. ‘Ophalissia, if you would protect me?’

Snakes rustled and hissed as the medusa answered. ‘Yes, Lady Janaxia. It would be an honour.’

Parth moved past Stathis, her feet utterly silent on the stone ground, using one of her swords to carefully scratch one of the runes on the wall. Sticky tar came off, marring her blade before she wiped it clean. ‘Showing, but no power. Aesthetic over effect.’ She glanced at Janaxia, before moving on ahead, pushing herself against the walls and blending into the shadows, hard to keep track of as soon as she moved even slightly ahead.

Stathis followed along behind, Vrintar close by, with Janaxia and Ophalissia taking up the rear. Even Vrintar was light on her feet, leaving Stathis feeling heavy and clunky in comparison! The thick stone walls made any sound echo, rebounding ahead of them into the darkness – achieving an ambush would be almost impossible, if there was anyone or anything down here.

The passageway went steeply downhill, air cooling and then reaching a stable, comfortable temperature. The darkness made Stathis’ head spin, her mind forming shapes from scraps and snatches of shadow, almost swinging at nothing several times. She tried to listen for Janaxia’s footsteps – with her ability to see in darkness, she’d have the easiest time seeing what was happening!

A low, dull light shone from somewhere, seeming to emanate from the air itself, doing little to help Stathis’ vision. She heard the impact of metal-on-stone from somewhere ahead, and increased her pace, turning around a corner to find Parth staring at a stone portal – a large disc blocked their passageway. Parth crouched and ran her finger along the ground, dust sticking to her hand.

‘Recently opened, recently used.’

It was covered with unsettling almost-text, the Unreadable Tongue covering it, making Stathis’ head hurt even more. Janaxia stared at it with interest, running her fingers over the surface before nodding. Several parts of the disc were stained, blood dried into crusty scabs, Janaxia looking at the stains with distaste. It seems as though they attempted to brute-force their way through. Hmm, well, I suppose if they can heal the damage it was effective.

She tapped part of the disk, seemingly at random, then another part, and then a third. Stone scraped, the disc rolling backwards, cooler air rushing from the other side, making Janaxia’s hair ruffle.

As it moved, a figure could be seen on the other side, illuminated by a cold, red light shed by a gemstone suspended from the ceiling. It was one of Juliette’s vampires, still dressed in foppish frills, a rapier leaping into their hand.

Stathis charged, letting her power flow into her blade, as they jumped aside with superhuman speed. The passageway was only just wide enough for two people, Parth sliding around and fighting by Stathis, both her blades swinging through the air.

Metal screeched as they parried one of Stathis’ attacks, the glow of her blade making them wince and turn their face aside. They grimaced, showing their fangs, and then Parth stabbed them, easily slicing through their clothing and into their skin, twists of silk falling to the floor. Behind them, Stathis could see that the passageway opened up into a larger space, filled with shiny metal – arms and armour, scattered about the place seemingly with little care. There was no time to properly assess how much gear there was though, the vampire jumping upwards and twisting so that their feet pushed off against the ceiling, using the force to propel themselves downwards with a brutal thrust. Stathis deflected the force of the impact with her shield as some of Janaxia’s bolts shot past, flying harmlessly into the darkness. They had to try and deal with this one quickly, before they fled or called for aid!

She raised her sword, the vampire taking the bait and thrusting forward. Their blade skipped off her armour before finding purchase, digging into the metal, but it also exposed them to attack, Stathis swinging back. Her sword flared, light reflecting off the heaps of metal and catching them across the chest, leaving an ugly red-and-black sear-scar.

‘You! You will not escape this place!’ They tried to retreat, but Parth was too fast, using both her swords to hem them in and keep them distracted, despite them healing from the wounds being inflicted.

‘Death to death.’ Parth’s blades dug deep, stabbing into dead flesh, cold, black blood splashing outwards. Stathis could hear Vrintar moving around behind herself, trying to get around and attack herself, but there wasn’t enough space. She battered forward with her shield, the vampire getting hit and knocked backward, before aiming with a lunge, trying to stab them through the neck.

They were too fast, twisting aside, but not fast enough to avoid the strike entirely, the blade stabbing into their shoulder, stabbing through flesh and into bone, melting through their undead body. They jumped backwards, body melting away into silvery mist, Parth and Stathis both swinging their swords through the haze. With an evil cackle, it skimmed away, followed by more of Janaxia’s bolts, which simply passed through it without effect.

‘Shit. So much for an ambush! Did you see where it went?’ It had vanished out of range of Stathis’ vision.

Sadly not. Although there does seem to be significant material to help with our defensive efforts. Unless I am very much mistaken, a large amount of this is enchanted.

Without the immediate danger of being attacked, Stathis had more time to examine the piles and piles of metal. Suits of armour had been piled up, breastplates, greaves, leather bracers, all just in a disorganised heap. She picked up a leather breastplate – it was excellently crafted, and looked as good as new, with delicate gold-and-silver runes picked out on the inside. Next she looked at a sword, sliding it from a gaudy sheathe, bright yellow tassels and blue crystals hanging from bright red wood. Something she couldn’t read was written along the blade, but it had a keen edge and was well-balanced.

‘So you think everything down here is enchanted?’ She looked around – just in this chamber, she could see dozens of sets of armour and weapons, and if they were piled up atop even more, then this would be enough to outfit several platoons. And if there was even more down here… ‘Even the Iristari barely have this much! Unless they’ve managed to acquire even more since I last looked over the paperwork, anyway.’

Metal scraped, making Stathis jump and spin around, casting the sword aside to draw her own. Vrintar had reached into one of the piles and was now holding a long-handled battle-axe, the blade keen and topped with a spike. A flowing, water-like pattern flowed along the metal, making it shimmer like a stream whenever it was swung.

‘A suitable weapon, I think.’ She swung it at a wall, the metal colliding with the stone. When she drew it back, Stathis could see that it had sliced a neat chunk out of the stone, while the blade itself seemed unmarred.

Janaxia was looking around, eyes roaming over the equipment. ‘Enough to outfit an army… Or at least a small army, I suppose. Although no arrows, unfortunately.’ But we should press on, lest our foes gain any advantage. It is to be hoped that there is nothing excessively potent stored elsewhere in here, at least that isn’t further sealed. Although if anyone were to notice anything that may be of use to me, do kindly speak up.

Everything around looked metal, rather than wood, but Stathis made a show of looking through the pile, trying to see if there was anything she could use. A metal shield was beneath several maces, the front scoured clean of any symbol. She unstrapped her own and replaced it – at least this one was fully intact! It was lighter than it should have been, the material magically light, far quicker to move.

Ophalissia hunched over the pile, her hood rippling. She held up a wavey-bladed dagger, a snake-head emerging and running a forked tongue over the metal, before she discarded it, taking up a savage-looking metal spike attached to a basket hilt.

‘Legends speak of potent treasures. We should advance, but with caution. Magic lies heavy in the air here, and traps and wards in wait for us.’

Stathis nodded. ‘Yeah, this amount of stuff isn’t going to be completely unguarded. I’m surprised we’ve not hit anything more ourselves – although maybe Juliette and her followers have disarmed or triggered some of them? They heal fast, so they might just run into them and not care. They’re going to know we’re here though.’

At least there was light here, with gemstones dangling from the ceiling, shedding gem-hued light – there didn’t seem to be any consistency, some areas lit with blue, others in red or green, casting eerie-tinted shadows across everything. Each chamber they entered was filled with more equipment – disorganised heaps of arms and armour, or several dozen amulets in a tangled mass, their chains wound together. It was probably for the best that Semari wasn’t here – if she was, she’d be playing with and poking everything, and at least a few of the items here were almost certainly cursed, or had some annoying properties if used.

Janaxia pounced, her clawed hand stretching towards a golden mass, pulling out a small disc of golden, a ruby in the centre. An amulet of protection. And a rather fetching one, as well. She tied it around her neck, her clothing altering to make space for the new addition.

‘Well, it looks good, I suppose. But they’re going to be geared up as well? They’re too damn fast, makes them hard to hit! When we fight, we’re going to have to try and take them each down, one at a time, I think. If we split our attacks, then we won’t get anything down. And I think I’m the only one that can do anything about permanently.’

‘Light to slay death.’ Parth’s voice came from an emerald-tinted patch of shadows, her shape just barely visible. ‘A final conquest.’

‘Let’s hope so! Don’t want to have to keep fighting them, a lot easier if we can just get rid of them.’

Although the layout of the caverns was getting more complex – ahead of them, rather than a single passageway, there was a branching junction, more chambers all filled with glittering equipment. Stathis kept a watch over Parth as she carefully examined the area, trying to search for a track.

She looked up, hesitating, before pointing down one of the passages.

‘You sure?’

Parth shook her hand in a wavering fashion. ‘Death walks lightly.’

‘That’s unfortunate. We don’t want them getting out of here. And we’ve not got enough people to leave a guard without risking them being overwhelmed. Splitting up would be a bad plan as well. Dammit!’ She looked over the branches she could see – all of them twisted and turned out of sight, quite possibly joining up somewhere out of sight, but their foe could be down any one of them.

‘We’ll go down this one. Everyone stay together. At least there’s enough room to move down here.’ Although there was so much stuff that footing was a problem, and dripping and falling onto a stack of magical swords probably wouldn’t end well. Parth continued to scout ahead, Ophalissia nocking an arrow, raising it to her head and letting another snake-head lick it, covering the metal with a thin sheen of venom. Would that even work on vampires? They had a lot more flesh than a skeleton, but were still dead.

As they walked, Stathis tried to keep an eye out for any mysterious clouds, in case some of the vampires tried to ambush them that way. But the air remained clear, lit only by the glowing gems as they progressed onwards. Where the walls were visible, there were covered with more of the rune-shapes daubed into place.

They entered a larger chamber, this one dome-shaped, with a cluster of mage-lights in the centre, shedding prismatic hues and making Stathis’ eyes hurt. They gemstones flashed, Stathis raising her shield in case of attack, as the light brightened. Metal scraped and rattled, shapes emerging from the metallic piles, weapons and armour flying together to form figures, fully armed. A dense haze started to flow from the gems as well, twisted and tainted by the different coloured lights, distance stretching and warping.

Stathis couldn’t tell if that was a magical effect, or just confusion caused by the lights, but readied herself for combat. ‘Everyone, try and stay close together!’

She brushed shoulders against Vrintar, Parth already lost to sight, a twist of mist that might have been Janaxia close by. A suit of armour clanked towards her, missing one hand, but the other was holding a heavy mace, which it swung at her. Janaxia;s eldritch blasts peppered it, black energy ripping over the armour without seeming to have any effect, before Vrintar’s new axe collided with it, metal screeching against metal. Her blow opened up a gash in the armour, making it clear there was nothing inside.

The mist got thicker, the colours swirling and making Stathis’ eyes ache, as another animated suit of armour walked into sight. They’d have to try and get through this quickly, and then catch up with the vampires!