Chapter 2

Jack and Nosef exited the pit along with the 10 skeletons that Nosef had in his entourage. They decided to clear out all of the local area before heading for the cemetery. This was pretty much a routine matter, but Jack wanted to practice with his atlatl on moving targets. He knew that he was solid in his targeting of stationary targets, but moving targets were harder to hit and the more practice he had with them, the happier he would be.

Meanwhile, Nosef planned to concentrate on trying to improve the defense he got from his bone shield. He knew that he was very vulnerable without a shield, and not much better with one. He was on the lookout for better armor, but, so far, the bone shield was working well enough, provided he renewed it fairly often.

They had finally come to the entrance to the cemetery, so they decided to go ahead in to see what they would find. They knew of Blood Raven and her skeletons and zombies, but they really didn't know what to expect. Blood Raven shot fire arrows, but who knew how effective those arrows could be. They were both a little nervous as they entered the burial ground, but they were both determined to see the cleansing through to the end.

At first, they met only zombies. Nosef's skeletons were quite capable of handling them when Nosef used his amplify damage curse. Nosef was losing only about one skeleton to every 10 zombies killed, and he was easily able to replace the downed skeleton as necessary, so he was content with progress so far. Nosef's bone shield had just been improved when it was tested by a fire arrow, the first one they had seen. The arrow exploded against the shield and took quite a bite out of it, so Nosef had to renew it right away. He just couldn't afford to take a chance with another hit in the bone shield's current condition.

Jack looked around and spotted Blood Raven lining up another shot on Nosef. Jack shouted for an amplify damage curse and launched an atlatl dart. The problem with these atlatl darts was that the release of fire or of lightning was an entirely random event, so there was no way to know which one a particular dart was going to fire off. This one was a fairly weak lightning jolt, so Blood Raven was mostly jarred by the effect of the dart, itself. However, the damage was amplified by Nosef's curse, so there was a small gain, there.

Blood Raven shrugged off the effect of the dart as she pulled it out and threw it away. One of the augmentations she received when she abandoned the Rogues and joined Andariel was a healing spell which worked slowly but surely. If she did not receive another hit within a few seconds, she would return to her original strength and vitality.

Jack recognized the possibility of this happening, so he launched dart after dart at Blood Raven as fast as he could aim and fire. Blood Raven dodged back and forth, so only a few of the darts hit, but she was not able to shoot while she was dodging, so that part of the fight was pretty much of a standoff.

Jack became the focus of the attacks by the zombies, since he was doing the most damage to Blood Raven, but Nosef countered that by having his skeletons surround Jack in a circle large enough that he had adequate free space to use his atlatl. Nosef was kept busy with animating new skeletons, renewing his own shield, and applying the amplify damage curse to Blood Raven.

Thus, Jack was the focus of the attacks by Blood Raven, and she was the sole target of Jack's atlatl darts. Jack could tell that his darts were beginning to have an effect on Blood Raven. She was not able to shoot off her arrows as fast as she had when the battle started, and she was now staggering every time she was hit by a dart. Her dodging speed had slowed considerably, and Jack's darts were scoring a higher percentage of hits. Jack was sure that it was now just a matter of time before Blood Raven was killed.

Jack was launching darts so fast that it was a very good thing that the darts renewed themselves as fast as he used them. He could afford the percentage of low power lightning hits because he was still scoring many hits, and every hit did some significant damage. The upshot was that Jack knew that he was going to win, it was just a question of how long it would take.

Finally, Blood Raven collapsed and died. When she did die, she released a series of bolts of chain lightning that killed every one of her zombies. The light show was spectacular and well worth seeing, but Jack and Nosef were both happy that there would be only this one opportunity to see it. When the lightning finally stopped flashing, a great hole opened in the ground and Blood Raven was swallowed like a fish taking a worm at the end of a fishing line.

With a sigh of relief, Jack sat down for a moment to catch his breath. Nosef took advantage of the respite to rebuild his stable of skeletons. Jack commented, "We seem to make a good team. Would you like to stick with me for a while. I feel almost a compulsion to clear the rest of the demonic invaders from Samsor."

"Thank you for the invitation. I was about to ask you if I might stay with you for a while longer. Between the two of us, we should be able to accomplish a lot more than we could each do alone."

"Fine, it's agreed, then. We need to go back to the Rogues' camp to see if Kashya has found us a suitable guide, yet. A guide would save us from a lot of floundering around. Have your skeletons join hands and you take one of them and my hand. That way, I can transport us all back to the Rogues' camp."

A moment later, they were standing in the camp, surrounded by a heap of disconnected bones. "Well, I guess I can't transport anything but living beings. Oh, well, live and learn."

The necromancer was somewhat disconcerted to see his minions disappear into a heap of bones, but he was philosophical about it. He would just restore them after they left camp.

At this moment, Kashya walked up and said, "Welcome back, Duke Argo. I see that you have found a companion. I hope he is more skilled than this pile of bones seems to indicate."

Jack replied, "Yes, he is. I'm afraid that the bones are my fault. I am not much of a wizard, and I did not realize the limitations of my transportation spell. Kashya, please meet Nosef, a valuable companion to have around when fighting demons and the undead."

There was some more general conversation, then Kashya said, "I have a guide for you. Please meet Aylia, one of my prized scouts and warriors. I think that you will find her very helpful, and she is skilled at fighting with fire arrows, so that should be of considerable help."

"Aylia, I am glad to have you as part of my team. I see that you are using a short bow. Are you familiar with the longbow as well?"

"Yes, My Lord, I am familiar with all types of bows. This short bow is adequate for defending the camp, but I would prefer to switch to a longbow before we leave on our quest."

"Excellent! I have in my pack a longbow with some magic attributes ... Ah, here it is. It enhances fire arrows to be explosive as well, and it has added accuracy and range. Please feel free to use it as long as you are with our team. Oh, and please call me Jack, anything else could get in the way of speedy communication during battle. Do you have any suggestions for our first action?"

"Yes, I do. I understand that you have defeated Blood Raven, but have you visited the two underground burial chambers which are part of the cemetery complex? There are reports that both chambers are full of demons and monsters, and I am sure that Lady Kashya would agree that they should be cleared before we go any farther."

Kashya vehemently agreed, so that was what they decided to do next. They joined hands and Jack transported them back to the cemetery. Nosef recharged his skeleton troop, and Aylia led them into the nearest burial chamber. They went down a broad staircase into a chamber which was lit by a dim glow emanating from the walls and ceiling. There wasn't a lot of light, but enough for their purposes.

They had reached a room with two sarcophagi, both of which had the lid pushed back. Both sarcophagi were empty, which boded ill for any living beings who ventured down to this set of chambers. The next room they entered had a couple of zombies which Aylia quickly dispatched with her explosive fire arrows. The next couple of rooms were empty, but for sarcophagi which were also empty.

The next room was different because there were several zombie corpses lying on the floor and a man sitting on the floor and holding his head as if he had the world's worst headache. Jack called out to the man so as not to startle him and possibly cause some misunderstanding. At the sound of Jack's voice, the man stood up and looked the team over carefully. He was a bit taken aback by the troop of skeletons, at first, but looked closely at Nosef and relaxed.