Storm Island Expedition

City of Bones

"Ow" was the first thing to come out of my mouth.
When I awoke, I was sore all over.  It took me a minute or two to get myself upright.
Did a few tests of my body; plenty of bruises, luckily nothing broken.
I looked up and realized just how lucky I had been.   The hole I fell through was nearly forty or fifty up.  A few bruises are better than a broken neck.
When I got up, I inspected the walls, but they were too smooth to climb up.  Sadly, I didn't have any rope or a grapple on me, so I didn't have an alternative to getting back up there.
Despite the low light, I could see a tunnel I could crawl through.  I hunched down and took a peek into the tunnel, and saw a faint light on the far side.  The tunnel would be a long crawl, but I could make it. My hope was that it opened up to a bigger cave system or even to the outside.
After making a crude torch and lighting it, I started the slow crawl to the other side.

A few feet from the edge of the tunnel, I felt a tremor.  I quickly braced myself, but after just a brief moment, the tremor passed.  Just as I started to crawl again, I felt another tremor, then another.  Dirt from the tunnel started to shake loose, so I quickly rushed the last few feet and to the light on the other side.  The tunnel collapsed just as I made it out.  "Guess I'm not getting out that way."

The light I had seen was emanating from a series of torches and magical orbs scattered about.   It lit up my area revealing a wide tunnel stretching in just two directions.  I didn't hear any distinct sounds or wind or water coming from neither direction, nor any markings to give me a clue of which way to go.  Not even any footprints or tracks.  So given the simple choice of 'left' or 'right', I chose 'right'.

After several minutes of walking, I reached a dead end.  The tunnel simply stopped into a rounded out end.  I saw some discoloration on the ground, and what appeared to be foot prints on the first few paces from the end.  The wall was just as hard and smooth as the first tunnel I ended up in.  I took a couple of swings at the edge with my pickaxe, but didn't even make a scratch in the wall.
With no idea how thick the wall was, I simply turned around and headed the other way.  First, walked past the cave in of my original little tunnel, and then by countless little light sources.  I had walked for what felt like hours before I reached what looked like a body.
A few steps closer revealed it to be a skeleton.  It didn't appear to have any weapons or armor, and I had no idea how long it could have been down here, or how it got here.
As I got even closer, the skeleton stood up and faced me.
"Great, a fight with the undead.  Not what I needed right now." I mumbled to myself.
The skeleton seemed to stare at me for a moment, and then waved a hand.  "Hello."
"What?"
"I said 'Hello'."
"Uhm, I heard you .. just ... why did you say 'Hello'?"
"Well, I'm the town Greeter.  It is part of my job.  Someone comes to our town, down the tunnel, I say 'Hello' to greet them."
"Uh ... OK.  Hello to you too."
The skeleton gave a creepy looking smile.
I got a little worried.  "You're not going to attack me, are you?"
The skeleton scratched its head, and looked at me puzzled, "Why would I attack you? That's not part of my job description.  If I did, I would be a town guard."
To think, in all my years of roaming about, any reanimated skeleton I had heard of would attack on sight.  This was the first one I knew of that was ... friendly.
"You said there was a town."
"Yes."
"Can you take me there?"

The skeleton looked at me a little more closely.  "Dunno.  Only skeletons come down this way.  You are the first one I've seen come down here like you.  Greeted two recently, few others before that.  But you, never seen someone like you before."
"Never?"
The skeleton thought long and hard.  "Nope.  You the first."
"So, can I go to town?"
"Uhm, not sure.  Like I said, only skeletons go this way.  You don't look like a skeleton."
Thinking quickly "Uhm, well ... I do have a skeleton."  I pointed to a few bones on my body.
"Well, I guess that's alright then."
A few more skeletons walked up, this group however was armed.
"Oy, what's going on here?" asked one with armor and a sword.  It looked like the leader.
"Oh, hello Guard.  This is a newbie.  Just got here. I greeted him."
The guards looked me over.  "Alright, but who are you?"
I couldn't think of a good response.  "I'm ... a ... visitor?"
The guard looked at me blankly.  "Not sure I've heard of a Visitor before.  We need to take you to the Town Coordinator."  The rest of the guards quickly formed around me.  Seems I had no choice on my escort.
"Welcome to Town!" I heard the Greeter call out one last time as we headed into town.

As we walked through the streets, I wasn't just amazed at the size of the town, but also the inhabitants.  Skeletons, nothing but skeletons going about as if it was a normal city.  Chatting or working, some even seemed to be playing in the streets.  I should guess after seeing a port town full of ghosts, a city of skeletons shouldn't be too surprising.
Most of the residents didn't really seem to notice me or the guards.  They just stepped aside and let us pass.  I don't think I recall any of them even stopping to gawk or point at me.
Most of the skeletons looked human shaped.  A few looked small; I thought maybe they were dwarf sized, or worse, children.  There were others clearly a head taller with one eye socket.