The Raid Dungeon Pt2

Spreading ut like a wave from around me, countless skeletons begin turning their heads or bodies in my direction before slowly separating themselves and rising to their feet.

There was an overwhelming, almost primal, impulse of fear wanted me to scream out like a little girl. However, I was too shocked to do anything but look around as hundreds grew to a few thousand standing skeletons. Then, once I finally had the attention of every skeleton in the cathedral, small white lights began burning in their eyes and thousands of arms raised to each point a single finger in my direction.

Instead of pointing at me, which might have made me shit myself, they were instead pointing toward the bell-house on which I was standing. The meaning was clear. I was expected to ring the eight-foot tall bell underneath me.

Did I actually want to ring the old church bell in the undead cathedral full of freaky-deaky fucks telling me what to do? Hell no, who in their right mind would do what the army of skeletons wants?!

[Ring the damn bell]

"Yes, ma'am," I sigh tiredly, suddenly losing all fear and even a little respect for the situation I found myself in as the authenticity and thrilling appeal just vanished with Melpomene's familiar voice. Hopping down from the bell-house, I unceremoniously turn around and pull a short length of decaying rope.

The rope was so old and ratty that it simply tore apart, barely managing to nudge the bell to the side I pulled without making a single sound. So, going with my gut, I deftly throw a jab that rocks the bell over to the other side and causes the tongue inside to loudly clang and peal.

The tone of the bell was incredible deep like a gong more than a bell but the sound itself was so powerful that it spread out in a blurred wave of energy. As the sonic magic passed over the skeletons, the Soulfire burning in their eyes brightened and enlarged considerably, filling their empty sockets.

Passing effortlessly through the walls, the sonic wave swiftly passes out of view. Now looking around themselves and at one another, the skeletons seems to become self-aware and even recognize one another. As well, Appraisal tags now appeared over their heads.

Instead of mob names like 'aged skeleton' or the like, each skeleton had a 'normal' person name for NPC but all had the same level of one-fifty. As well, they all were either part of a public organization or shared the same public title because under their names and levels were the words 'Tragic Terrestrial Spirit'. However, none of them seemed threatening.

Quickly sending a message and short video about and of the situation I had created, I briefly leap up and flap twice to exit the building through the bell hole in the roof. Once outside, I can see the front walls of the property where the siege had been taking place. I was already too late to watch the magic, though.

However, I was still in time to take a short video of the thick ash storms that had been left by the demons who were no longer anywhere in view. After meeting the boundary of the property itself, the sonic magic that obviously had divine influence probably 'dispelled' the demons.

Returning inside just a few seconds after flying out, I find that the skeletons were in the process of organizing themselves around the pews and bell house. As well, I found that there were more skeletons that I thought. From the back pulpit and choir area of the cathedral were now about a thousand more skeleton people. Unlike the ones that other naked skeletons, though, these were literally people of the cloth whose clothes were divine preserved through time.

The fabrics were faded and transparently gauzy, now, with and appearance similar to the Silk Sorcerers in the sepulcher dungeon. However, all of the skeletons carried themselves with the mindset and bearing of different kinds of normal people. The fact that they were all hugely above my level was irrelevant.

Sending a message that my newest familiar should be signaled to enter the raid dungeon, I raise my hands as a greetings to the skeletons and say only a little loudly, "My name is Life Hack and I am the Chosen of Melpomene. I'm not sure what is going on, but I came with a small company of elite private forces who will be arriving soon. Can anyone here assume a leadership position for all of you?"

A voice that was like of soft hiss of a whisper sounded in response, but just like with the lich lord the voice was only present in my mind. "I can speak for us, for now," a true ghostly voice responds, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to rise and my shoulder to cringe upward and inward.

Regardless, I still turned around to face the skeleton who spoke be reflex, finding my eyes making contact with solid white Soulfire of a shorter than average skeleton dress in the most elaborate layers of withered robes. "What can you remember?" I ask after seeing that all of the skeletons around him were also looking in his direction.

Ignoring the numerous eyes of their fellows, the lead skeleton says, "Our home was besieged by dark occultist forces who used most of our people as a mass sacrifice to open a doorway between worlds. To preserve those of us who could seek shelter as well as Sir Pence' forces, Gaia, Mother of Nature, reversed the chaos magic in their rituals to preserve our spirits."

"May I ask why they went with suck a route?" I ask curiously. "I am under the impression that most of you w-… are just normal citizens."

"All citizens of the empire must be ready to defend our empire," is the solemn whispering reply I received. "Many of us are simply those lucky enough to be here at the time or those fast enough to reach us. However, we were given this choice. Every man, woman, and child present chose to stay here rather that report to the heavens. What would you say is the strength of your private forces?"

"Equal or greater to all of you," I reply honestly. "We're all Travelers, if that means anything to you. Do you know anything about the current situation?"

Shaking his head with a slightly slack jaw that clacks audibly in the silence that follows my words, the priestly skeleton replies in my head, "We have only just awoke from a long sleep and have yet to step foot outside. You know more than I."

"I was afraid of that because I don't know sh- anything," I say with a light and sudden cough, reminding myself I was speaking for a goddess at the moment. "Let's go back to your time, you said Sir Pence was involved? The holy super knight?"

"If… yes?" The voice in my head starts to answer and then asks uncertainly. "Sir Pence, at the time, was quelling the cult directly in the lord's manor. He and his men should have had control of the grounds at the time. What does it look like from above?"

Rubbing the chin pad of my helmet's mask, I look thoughtfully up at the hole while putting pieces together. "The manor you mentioned is encircled by an unpleasant number of demonic outposts and strongholds containing numbers of demons between one and two thousand with even more undead among them. We're fighting uphill from the start, but from the defensive setting and relative complacency, I would say Sir Pence and his men have secured and held the manor grounds this entire time.

"The enemy is simply keeping them contained in that location… if they're that afraid of the lesser number of mortal elites, it means the demons must be in their true bodies and only have one life while Sir Pence and his people can come back to life just like my people," I go on, writing out a party message with these parts of the conversation. "Although… with such an advantage… the problem should be resolved. They must be anchored to the manor somehow… ah. They're controlling the gateway. They need us to close it."

"What do you need of us?" The priest asks immediately after coming to his own agreement with my conclusions.

"Organization," I reply promptly, nodding my gratitude for his assistance. "Divvy up the available people by professions, then volunteers, then families. I'm sure not everyone wants to actually face death again, even if you can revive again. All of you are, honestly, well above our levels, but the enemy is probably even higher. We'll need to work on outfitting you with equipment to balance things out and your craftsmen can help us achieve this quicker. You, in particular… how far can you communicate with your people?"

"I have no experience with which to answer your question," the priest replies with a brief shake of their head. Then, looking out over the gathered sea of skeletons that stretched for a few hundred feet out, he commands in an impossibly loud paradoxical whisper that darkens the edges of my vision as I only barely resist blacking out. "Please, hands,"

A single hand from every skeleton big and small alike arose, showing that roughly two thousand undead NPC within a few hundred feet of the priest could hear his call. I was outright mentally deafened. I could barely formulate thought beyond vision and the space between my ears was perpetually ringing with the sound of silence.

"My voice can reach around one or two hundred meters," the priest replies, using the sea of skeletons as an estimate of his 'voice'. "What do you require?"

"Pick out ten people from the clergy to pick ten people from the people to over see the division of professions and combatants and civilians," I reply as simply as possible for form a hundred man group to divide the few thousand present. "You, in particular, I was to take up top to see the city and help the leaders of my forces understand the situation. You'll be able to at least identify the different kinds of forces and potential factions based on the demons and undead present, if you or your people have that ability, Do you know anyone off-hand at this time with such ability?"

"I should be able to," the priest assures me while holding out their arm. "I was not only a great faith healer in my time but a wielder of the mystic arts. I am familiar with the dark arts of summoning because of this."

Holding onto their forearm, I leap up toward the ceiling and carry the priestly skeleton up onto the rooftop. Pointing out what was visible of the manor in the city center through the rubble, ruins, and the encirclement of burning scrap outposts, I say, "Take a good long look at all the information you can gather for a minute. Next, I'll take you up to the top of the belfry tower for a better view."

Currently, I just needed a second to collect my thoughts and read the messages coming in through the party channel while giving the priest a chance to do the same. Everyone had questions about what the hell all of my messages meant after the first message of 'met a skeleton army, this is dialogue'. Understandably so, I also had questions I still needed answers to.

After I received word that they my team and the rest of the lead party was going to start using the zip-lines, I take the undead priest up to the ruined top of the belfry tower. "Up here you can get a better idea for the numbers we're dealing with and I can oversee the arrival of my people. Let me know when you've seen enough."

Even as I was talking my party was already sliding down the zip-line at insane speeds, led by a space of two seconds between Stonewall and everybody else. Slowing themselves down through their own various means, Stonewall and then everybody else a few seconds later release themselves from the zip-lines over the cathedral roof.

As I had hoped, even Stonewall caused no noticeable damage. Considering proximity, I would have felt any loss in the cathedral's structural integrity through the already weakened tower. Stonewall merely bounced a foot or so off of the silk mat before rolling away with the others following suit.

Once they had landed, I turn to the priest skeleton who had surveyed their arrival as well and receive a rushed report, "There are three clans of demons present, the rest are abomination hybrids and undead. I estimate their numbers to be under two thousand from each clan and as many undead per outpost."

"Good, that's not as bad as it could be," I say as if none of the numbers actually mattered. "Now, while it's still just the two of us… with everything you've figured out about the situation, what dos the word 'Outsiders' bring to mind?"

The skeleton actually seemed to stiffen at my mention of the word, as if I had spoke some awful taboo. However, the priest merely turns away sharply to look back toward the cliff in silence. After a few moments, he whispers, "They are entities of Chaos which exist in dimensions outside of our own. Their might could be considered that of a lesser god. However, as they consume waste energy between dimensions and even weaker realms, they can become much stronger than our own gods.

"If you bring this up because they are behind the gateway, then things are much more dangerous than you can imagine," he goes on to say while raising a hand to his face as if to stroke a beard, only to find there was nothing there. Shaking his head, he says, "We need to get to the manor as quickly as possible and find Sir Pence. As you said, he needs us."

*