Fetch Quest

Investigate the Voice in the Basement

In the morning, Lang hoisted himself onto the roof and set to work patching up the holes. Azazel spent her time at the furniture shop, deciding how she would like to decorate her home. She settled on basic furnishings for the time being. Some of the furniture was put in her pocket dimension but as that had limited space, the rest was transported with levitation magic.

Each bedroom now had a bed, and a small cabinet. Azazel also deigned to give Lang a desk so he could work on his cartography. The kitchen had a table, two chairs, and an iron stove. The living room had a small sofa and a bookshelf devoid of books. It wasn't much, but Azazel figured they would accumulate more over time. Their coin purse was also quite light at this point, so any more unnecessary expenditures would be unwise.

Inspiration struck her for a moment and she took the shepard's crook out. Even though she felt that it was useless, she had never seen nor heard of a staff that would summon a sheep. That was obviously because summoning a sheep for a minute had little practical application, but Azazel could concede that this item was unique. She placed the staff on top of the fireplace mantle. It worked as a decoration while also displaying the rare find. Azazel wondered what other oddities she could decorate the house with. There were a few items that she had kept but never used due to their relative pointlessness. Was this what Lang meant when he said he liked to collect things?

Azazel rifled through her pocket dimension as if it was a backpack. After a moment, she withdrew a rare candle she had found in one of the first dungeons she had explored with Lang. It never stopped burning, but the flame was a dark blue color so the item provided barely any illumination. As the woman placed her candle in the middle of the kitchen table, she felt a cold wind blow through her. She shivered and looked around. The windows and door were closed. Most of the holes in the roof were mended too so she furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Come to me," the hair on the back of Azazel's neck stood up as a whisper caressed her ears. She felt drawn to the floorboards of the living room as though there were something underneath them.

"Lang!" she shouted, "I think the house is haunted!"

"Do not call the hero," the voice whispered again.

"Lang!" she shouted once more, completely disregarding the voice. Whatever entity was beneath the floorboards was powerful, but its mind controlling voice didn't have much of an effect on Azazel. Lang entered the home and looked around. The entity seemed to retract its presence, leaving only a feeling of unhappiness in Azazel's mind.

"There's something under the house. It told me to go down and not to tell you," Azazel said, "You believe me, right?"

"Of course I do," Lang gave her a smile of absolute trust, "To think buying this house was a prerequisite for a quest." He almost looked pleased by this development.

"So what do we do?" Azazel looked to her companion for guidance.

"I guess there's nothing else for it then," Lang sighed as he knelt down on the floor. He used his dagger as leverage to start yanking up the floorboards. Before long, a person sized hole took up the middle of the living room.

"Well, well, well," the man muttered as he looked down into it. Azazel peered over the edge and saw a stone room beneath her.

"The mayor didn't tell us we had a cellar," the woman commented.

"Indeed he didn't," Lang agreed, "We'll have to have a talk with him after we get rid of whatever's down there." With that, he jumped down into the hole. Azazel conjured up a floating light and followed after him.

The cellar of sorts was empty save for cobwebs and a human skull in the corner. There was a single dark corridor extending further down into the ground and it seemed like the only way to go. As usual, Lang took point and crept down the passage. The two descended deeper into the earth, the air becoming cooler and the walls mossier. Eventually the cobbled stone passage led to a thick stone archway. Beyond it was a tall cavern with a sarcophagus on a raised platform in the middle. The stonework here was weathered and cracked, implying the advanced age of the tomb.