1-3-13

The third floor of the Belford Mansion was a jumble of machinery. Here were large pipes that leaked mist which was the source of the plague of undeath in Karlaca. There were large gears that rotated in a rhythmic fashion, like the mechanical innards of a great beast. There were dials and gauges that neither Beryl nor Vic understood and there were glowing bulbs of different colors that dotted the walls and ceiling.

“This is it,” said Medina. “This must be the power source of the curse!”

“The focus,” said Beryl as she eyed a gauge beside her that had a needle swinging across ideograms she didn’t recognize.

Vic looked around and saw a few things he did recognize: a valve that said “intake” and a lever that said “release”. He had no idea what they were for or what they actually did but being painted in bright colors meant they were probably for something important. Although, he could admit that he knew nothing of engineering and such.

+++

Prince Gaius didn’t realize how far the fall would be and fell flat on his butt.

He was quickly helped up by Cindy and Kiana though his rump still hurt quite a bit. One of the lemmings with them raised his lantern to reveal where they were. It was a cavernous chamber that seemed as big as a town hall in and of itself. It was built completely of brick and smelled of rot and decay. Scattered all over the floor were piles and piles of bones and at one corner was a mountain of skeletal remains that stank strongly of death.

“Good lord!” Cindy groaned.

McGrath raised a torch of his own and looked about himself frantically while mumbling unintelligibly.

“You and me both,” Zobel said, raising his halberd again. “I don’t trust this place one bit either.”

Then, with little warning, the bones around them began to shake. They rattled and thudded as they struck one another and the walls. Gaius looked around himself frantically.

“Is it an earthquake?” Gaius asked.

“No,” Zenny said and pointed at the huge mountain of bones with her sword. “Look!”

The bone mountain continued to shiver violently and then a form rose out of it, followed by another. It took Gaius a few moments to realize that it was actually trying to get up. The enormous pillar of skulls and bones were actually its arms and that it was raising itself up on them. Soon it rose on a disproportionate number of legs that was composed of multitudes of skeletons locked together. The eye sockets of every skull in its body came alive with a deep purple flame that bathed the chamber in their baleful light.

“By the Creator!” Zobel said and the thing roared at them with jaws made of rib cages. “It’s a bone giant!”

Indeed, Zenny noticed that it was so large that it reached the stalactites pointing down from the ceiling.

+++

The mist on the third floor was low and stayed mostly just on level with their knees.

Beryl walked carefully, as if afraid that something might grab her from below. She kept her pistol-sword at the ready, prepared for anything. She still had one bullet in it after all and could still hold her own if worst ever came to worst.

“Place looks pretty solid,” said Earl, making all of them jump at the sound of his voice. “This is some really good engineering right here.”

“Count Belford was also quite the inventor,” Medina explained. “He would build many wonderful things. Once he even made gifts for his wife, or so Nadia used to tell me. At least, until the madness and his obsession with immortality took him.”

Then, something snaked across the floor that set them all on edge.

“Okay,” said Beryl. “What was that?”

“Be on your guard,” said Medina. “I have no idea what else the count may have created.”

And then a low moan that send shivers down Beryl’s spine issued from the misty bank of fog beneath them. Then slowly, a large form comprised of misty smoke emerged, faces forming in its roiling substance. It was so large that it covered much of the chamber and it issued another low moan that was composed of many voices.

+++

The mountain of bone roared, its voice was the sound of skeletons clashing and rubbing against one another.

It brought down one of its four disproportionate arms down on Zenny who rolled away in time and struck only the floor.

Kiana the spider fired at the enormous monster but only succeeded in dislodging some of the bones from its body. The monster only turned her way and roared again, nearly knocking her over. Luckily, Cindy the skunk was there with her own blunderbuss and opened fire on the great beast of bone.

It stomped on four disproportionate legs and tried to crush Zobel and McGrath underfoot but the rat and the scorpion were quick. Much quicker than the massive bone giant that wanted them dead. That said, they were equally weak against the bone giant and could only distract it.

Gaius did his best to keep away from it while reloading his pistol. One of the lemmings, the one carrying the Candle of Protection came closer to it waving the candle at the beast. He seemed to have thrown caution to the wind as he stood very close to the monster’s stomping legs.

“No!” Gaius shouted at the lemming as he aimed his pistol at the enormous monster. “Get back!”

The lemming was slain instantly when the bone giant stomped on him. There was just that horrific instant when one moment he was standing there and the next, he was under its enormous foot. The Candle of Protection he held fell away and was snuffed out on the dark floor.

The mist from above began to descend on where they were.

+++

Vic drew back as the monster of smoke and mist hissed and moaned at them.

The lemming was confused at first and then he remembered the valves and levers he saw earlier.

The poltergeist moaned again, louder this time, all the mouths in its form yawning wide. It seemed completely unaware of Vic and that was exactly the lemming wanted it. He rushed towards those same controls and pulled hard on the lever that said “release”.

While the poltergeist tried to batter down on a frightened Earl the beaver and Camia the parrot, it failed to notice that the mist was draining away.

It was only when the undead horror’s face was right up against Earl’s did it notice that it was being swept away like soapy water down a drain.

In almost no time at all, all the mist in the room had been drained away. The poltergeist too was soon swept towards a large pipe and was gone from sight. It moaned one more time, this time in horror rather than menace, but was then gone for good.

All that was left were the artifacts of the room including a brass table covered with notebooks and other pieces of paper. A large grandfather clock in one corner that reminded Vic of the one he saw at the Intoxicated Whaler. And then there was the enormous glass coffin at the center of the room that contained the mummified corpse of a jackal woman.