Isa read the words from her notebook with a mixture of excitement and dread. “‘Enter the tomb of Menesia, last king of Kelima. Prevail against the shadows, bring light where once was darkness. Destroy the heart of the tomb. Reward: Consult the goddess.’ What does that mean? ‘Consult the goddess.’ Is that the reward or Ysel will tell us the reward?”

Lund shrugged. Alice said, “What’s the other one say? The captain’s notebook?”

Isa picked up the dead man’s notebook: “Enter the tomb of Menesia, king of Kelima, deliver true death to him, recover the crown and urn, and return immediately to Stonegrime. Reward: Hand of death, 1,000 gold, and one viper vial.” She looked at the group. “What’s that mean ‘true death’? Since when did quests become riddles?”

“Sounds like your man there, Menesia, is undead. Maybe a skeleton, maybe something worse.” Mery held out her hand for the notebook in Isa’s hand.

“Worse?” Isa gave her the captain’s notebook. “How worse?”

“Maybe a mummy, maybe a lich. But the urn….? Mummy probably, and this Ben Rucker, he was going to fight him.” Mery waved a hand in the air. “With help from half a dozen friends. So let’s see who this Ben Rucker is that he’d fight a mummy.”

“I don’t think I ever fought….” Alice’s voice trailed off.

“Most people haven’t fought a mummy,” said Dulrak. “Not exactly scattered like leaves on the ground. I’m no fool, but the idea of the dead walking, well that raises my hackles. Makes me want to do it, to fight. And the quest,” Dulrak leaned an elbow on one knee, “it says ‘destroy it.’ The tomb or the mummy?”

“What are you saying?” Mery looked up from the notebook.

“He’s saying we should go kill this thing ourselves,” said Lund.

“How do you kill a mummy?” Isa asked. No one answered. “Mery? You must know some stories…. Isn’t there a play about a mummy king? There’re movies, there has to be….”

Her voice trailed off as Mery shook her head. “Sure there are some tales, maybe a play or two, but my family never bothered with it. The costumes - a little elaborate for my mum’s tastes, and the subject matter, well that was a little too intense for the little ones. We usually did lighter fare. Family audiences, you know. History, comedy, the occasional star-crossed lover. But I really don’t think we need to go mucking around in a tomb.” She looked at Lund. “Seriously? Fighting the undead, it’s a fools game.”

“Why?” Alice and Isa spoke at the same time.

“They’re hard to kill, being dead already.” Dulrak shifted on his seat. “And well, for instance, if there are skeletons down there--”

“And why wouldn’t there be?” Mery injected.

“If there are skeletons,” Dulrak went on, “you need to smash ‘em. Your staff will do it, my hammer. But yon greatsword? What’s a blade against bone?”

“Fire’s good for regular undead,” Lund added. “Or lopping off their heads, of course.”

Alice looked from Lund to Dulrak. “Right. OK. Do you have any fire spells? Do you have any fire spells?” She turned to Isa.

Isa had been listening to all the back and forth, the 4 voices chorused from determined to incredulous. And where did she fit in? What did Isa want?

On the one hand, she craved adventure in the same way she had when she was sitting around a table at Marissa’s apartment. What treasures might be nestled in a king’s tomb? Maybe Ysel meant for them to enter the tomb - the goddess must have, otherwise why the “consult the goddess” reward? But nothing in Isa’s life in Portland had prepared her for a moment like this. Their little tabletop adventure group rarely debated the merits of an encounter; they sallied forth into whatever peril Michelle had prepared for them, but then, the worst that could happen in the game was you’d have to re-roll a character. Here, the stakes were real.

“Are we crazy?” Isa said aloud. “Are we really going to do this?”

“We could vote,” Lund suggested.

“We don’t even know where the entrance is,” Mery pointed out. “This is not exactly a Dockma-level map here.”

“Yes! Of course.” Alice reached for Isa’s bag. “If it’s visible, Dockma will have mapped it.”

“If it’s visible, it would have been looted well before now,” said Mery.

Lund spoke up suddenly. “Why were they here then? This Rucker and his crew, why were they here?”

Dulrak started to laugh. “Clever lad, clever, clever lad! Where’s the entrance? We’re probably sitting on it!”

“Ah fuck,” Mery muttered.

“Look,” said Isa, “I don’t relish the idea of going into a tomb. But it seems like it’s - I dunno - fate, maybe? And these are bad guys right? This king and uh, whatever else is down there.”

“Yes,” Dulrak said quietly. “Most assuredly.” He smiled at Alice. “And to answer your question, I don’t have fire spells as such. I can summon some small fire elementals. They can wreck a room, I know. And I have this.” He smiled and patted a flask on his belt. “Alchemist’s fire.”

“I have sacred flame. Ysel gave that to me. I can do it over and over. It’s a cantrip.”

Dulrak grinned. “Can you turn the undead yet? What’s your level, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“I’m a new cleric. Very new.”

“But steady,” said Mery. “And a good fighter.” She smiled at Isa. “And this little disaster you’re dragging us into, if we survive, you’ll like as not level up, won’t you?” She stood and slapped her thighs. “Are we ready? Let’s go see about this tomb.”

“Wait,” Isa held up her hand. We all got a little banged up in that fight. We should rest and heal.”

“Is there such a thing here as a short rest?” Alice looked at the Varanese. “It’s something we have in--”

“In your game back home?” finished Mery. “The storytelling game no one plays.”

“A small rest, a nap or quiet contemplation can ease the mind,” said Dulrak. “We think of it as a gift of the gods. If no one was badly hurt….”

Lund shrugged. “I took a few hits, but a little nap should fix me up.”

“That’s fine then,” said Dulrak. “A small rest. Who wants tea?”

***

They rested about 2 hours, and then with the sun just over the horizon, it was time to do battle. During their small rest Isa had stretched out on her bedroll and let her mind drift. Her thoughts turned to Oaks Bottom, back home in Portland. She ran the trails in her mind, seeing the path dip and turn, cresting and falling with the lay of the river land. Sunlight sparkling on the Willamette River, a breeze shifting leaves and wildflowers.

Suddenly she sat straight up and looked at her girlfriend. Alice sat with her hands wrapped around a cup of tea and a book resting on her lap. Peck, the crow perched on her shoulder. The others of the group were scattered around the room, quiet and still. Isa got up quietly and sat beside Alice. “Why did you go to Oaks Bottom Sunday?”

“What?” Alice placed a hand on the book as if to mark her place and looked at Isa.

“Sunday. Why’d you go to the park? You were gonna go home. I had to work on my paper, and you were gonna go home. But you didn’t go home.”

“Why does it matter? If I hadn’t been there, you’d be here, without me.”

“No, maybe neither of us would be here. Don’t be weird. Did you… I don’t know get some feeling that you had to go to the park? You weren’t dressed for a run, so don’t use that excuse.”

Alice closed the book. “Excuse? Excuse? What are you saying, Isa?”

What was she saying? That Alice had gone there with intent to-- what? Get kidnapped? How would she have known? “I’m not saying anything. It’s just weird, right? How we both ended up there.”

Peck cocked his head to stare at Isa with one beady black eye.

“I was bored. I called Marissa,” Alice said. “I asked her if she wanted to get a coffee at that little place up on Division.”

“The one with the fountain? I love that place.”

Alice sighed. “I miss home.” She put her head on Isa’s shoulder, and Peck squawked and flew off to perch on the jagged edge of the crumbling wall.

“Yeah, me too.” Isa put her hand on Alice’s leg. Why fight about stupid Oaks Bottom? We’re here; we’re together. Everything else is just details. She gave a quiet laugh and said, “I could do with an Americano about now. What’s up with this? I thought it was your spellbook.”

Alice chuckled. “I leveled. Level 4. Whoopie.”

“Babe, that’s great! Nice. So do you have more spells or….?”

“One more spell and looks like yours truly is a little healthier and nimble. My stats, they are a little better.” She opened the book. “And with mage armor, I’m just that much harder to hit.” She shook her head. “It’s surreal to look at these numbers and think that they’re real. They are real.”

“Yeah, I know. I thought about that a lot last time I was here, and I guess we have stats back home - real stats I mean. We just don’t have it laid out in a handy notebook. What I would give for a quest log sometimes, right?”

“Speaking of that,” Alice flipped to the back of her notebook. “The wording here says ‘enter the tomb and destroy it.’”

“And all its artifacts,” added Mery from her spot on the ground.

“So maybe it’s empty, the tomb. Doesn’t say fight monsters and then destroy the mummy king’s tomb.”

“I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in wording,” said Dulrak. “There are monsters. Undead, creeping shadows, maybe rats, maybe scorpions, and most likely, old King Menesia himself. We’ll just take it slow, methodical, yes?”

“Yes.” Alice sighed and closed her own notebook. “I’m ready.”

“Did anyone else level?” Isa looked at the group. “Alice leveled.”

“Well done,” said Lund. “Let’s make sure you survive to get to the next level. You and Isa stick together. I’ll lead, with Mery. You two and then Dulrak. Does that work?” He looked over Alice’s head to the dwarf.

“Yes. If you come to a branch and you’re unsure, I can ask Selvank for guidance. Not saying He’ll answer, but I can ask.” He picked up his quarterstaff. “I asked Him about the entrance, and again not saying that I’ll get an answer, but I have a thought. There are some stones just outside. I thought they were pavers or maybe bits of the building that had been covered in sand, but now I wonder.” He looked at the staff in his hand. “Let’s see if we can knock on the front door.”

Hit Die Rolls:

In 5th Edition you can take a short rest and regain a few hit points by "spending" hit dice. You can read more about the rules at Roll20.

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Resting#content

Hit die rolls:

Mery = current HP 27 (d8) roll 4 so new total HP = 31

Isa = current HP 30 (d10) roll 1 & roll 4 so new total HP = 34

Alice = current HP 13 Alice leveled. New MAX = 31. Used Recovery/Short Rest to gain max HP so new total HP = 31

Lund = current HP 32 (d10) roll 2 & roll 9 so new total HP = 43

Dulrak = current HP 63 (d8) roll 3 so new total HP = 66