Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich did his best to focus his senses to the absolute limit, looking for anything that might threaten the party.

Cole's vision was obviously the best in the darkness, being a halfling but his sharp senses were not to be underestimated either. Besides the dark was not so prevalent thanks to the many moss lanterns here.

"Well, watch out for the glass shards everyone, we don't want to cut down anymore of our numbers." Aldrich joked, but no one laughed. It's fine not everyone had his superior sense of humor either.

"Cole look for the secret door to the cave below and we'll watch your back." He instructed.

"How many secret doors have we been through now? It's like we're in a dungeon or something." Cole chuckled.

"Yeah, that is true so this is what an adventure feels like… like crap." Aldrich snorted.

"You said it!" Hellen chimed in.

"Based on the shape of the room the door should be behind the wine racks." Cole pushed some stuff and pulled others and in record time a secret door was revealed.

"Wow, you really know your stuff," Nathan exclaimed.

"Nah, this one is amateurish, anyone who made it here would have been able to find it no problem. If you're serious about looking."

"Hey, don't tell me you're an actual thief?" Aldrich asked after some deliberations, one cannot be that good at this otherwise.

"W-what? Thief? R-ridiculous! I work in the inn, you've been there, I obviously wouldn't have the time, besides I wouldn't steal anyway I am from a respectable family" Cole started sweating and throwing excuses one after another.

Aldrich gave him a look that said 'come on bro'.

"Fuck it," Cole cursed and walked out of the secret door first. He must've realized that the more he tried to explain the more he implicated himself.

The path opens onto a tall, cathedral-like room, its floor white with guano and crawling with beetles. Overriding the pungent odor of the guano is the smell of the sea.

"Doesn't seem like there's any 'great evil' as far as I can see," Nathan didn't like that they listened to the ghost for some reason, "it's a monster we have no reason to trust it."

Aldrich liked that Nathan didn't say anything when they were up there but when they got far enough he chose to reveal his real thoughts. This meant that he didn't want to cause friction when they were in close proximity to a potential enemy.

But—

"Look up and don't freak out." Aldrich told the rest of the group at which point they looked at the ceiling and saw the bat colony, since this was daytime the bats were roosting. There were two particularly large—no giant bats in the center.

However Nathan's statement still held true, this wasn't the great evil, it couldn't be. The bats were normal animals and posed no danger the giant bats were only a grade zero level two monsters.

They were dangerous but they weren't capable of magics nor could they orchestrate a scheme like that. Hmm, anyhow they probably weren't far.

"Hellen can you shoot one of the giant bats?"

,m Hellen had retrieved her bow and arrows like he got the spear before they descended into the sea cave.

"I can." Hellen said confidently.

She nocked an arrow and shot, the arrow hit the mark and the giant bat squealed as it fell down startling the colony. The bats flew everywhere making an annoying noise all the while.

However they suddenly attacked the party from all directions, diving in the air Aldrich sliced a few of them. But his real target was the giant bat who was roaming around the edges of the cave.

Aldrich didn't wait, he took the initiative while the others were taking care of the rest he used the rocks of the cave as a lever and jumped.

The bat was taken by surprise but it was fast in the air much faster than Aldrich expected it to be. It managed to evade the attack but before it could go anywhere else he hurled the spear at it and skewered it at once.

The force was so powerful it traveled in the air for a few meters before falling down. The rest of the bats scattered after that, however thanks to the direction of their escape he knew that there was more to this cave.

Where he thought the cave ended there was actually a narrow tunnel that was hidden by the darkness and the natural curves of the cave walls.

The others all noticed too and converged together, without saying anymore useless words they advanced.

"Oh! Shit!" Nathan dodged a fallen rock, it seemed like the rocks of the cave were extremely brittle in this tunnel, even a small bump might break some rocks.

After walking out of the narrow tunnel they came upon another cave, this wide cave has a high ceiling and is half filled with water. A crescent of sandy shore surrounds the

lapping water.

In this cave there was a medium sized ship currently docked in a small one-ship dock. It was not in great condition, the ship proudly displayed a pirate flag. A skull with two bones making a cross under it.

It was not empty either, the whole place was brimming with pirates loading cargo from the ship in barrels and crates.

The strange thing was the absolute silence between the pirates. They weren't talking or bickering nor cursing of complaining at all. The only thing that broke that silence was a man.

In this cave there was a huge rock. The top of a rock breaks the water's surface. It is carved with a number of strange glyphs and a rough depiction of a three-eyed, tentacled, fish-like creature.

A pair of manacles dangles from the rock and one man was hauled up there and chained with a system of pulleys and gears. The man was screaming for he was cut at the abdomen and small fishes were feasting on him.

Right across them, while all the pirates worked, only one man sat on a high-backed chair similar to the one Ayemon had in his study, the man whom he could only see his back watched the show as the fish devoured the man little by little.