Slibtu Licothrathdad, adventurer.
"I bet I can run to Dinnerwandered faster than you can!"
This was Ibu's challenge. I wish I hadn't taken it.
Almost the entire city is abandoned. Fruits lie rotting in the sun at the market square, decayed structures line every street, and what few residents remain shuffle about lifelessly. Their sunken eyes follow us as we pass.
"I think we should get out of here," she says, voice quivering. "Before something bad happens."
"We'll be fine." I subconsciously grip my axe tighter. "After all," a slightly twisted smile appears on my face, "that famous museum is supposed to be here, right? There's no sense in not seeing the sights!"
Having lived a short walk from this town all our lives, Ibu and I have heard every story there is to hear. About Nil Swifttoast, the legendary battle between him and Dishmab Northmanor. We've heard about the death of the entire staff by Freeman Uragathre. Even the maps stored there are almost legendary in their detail. It makes one wonder who keeps updating them...
We walk up the hill to the keep and start toward the entrance of the museum proper, but then we see something I hadn't expected. A barrel filled with blood, with a slab right in front of it.
"What does it say?" Ibu never did learn to read.
"It says it's the elixir of immortality, but it seems more like a warning than anything else. Let's keep going."
Walking into the museum, I am immediately struck by how dusty everything is. I walk over to a huge pile of books, but soon realize that almost all of them are records of incredibly mundane and self-referential things. One was a storage record about a storage record (about a book about a book about a tower) that was stored sometime hundreds of years ago.
Almost dizzied by the bland writing and realization that, no matter their power, necromancers have very little to do with their lives, I quickly turn my attention to the large map on the wall. Each fortress marked on the map has a number, with a key below it. All of the nearby fortresses have been looted already, but one wasn't. Combinelocks the Locks of Combinations still lies untouched. Well, so claims the map. It is just as dust-covered as the rest of the room.
"Ibu, gather your things. We're going on an adventure."