Night of the Living Bones (18 pages)
While still in Europe for the psychic convention (see The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor #6), Dr. Spektor and his secretary, Lakota Rainflower, explore the underground site of an ancient castle to which Spektor has been drawn by a "psychic impression." Spektor sees some inscriptions that make him think they may have found a temple of the Dark Gods, a race that inhabited the earth long before the appearance of humankind. The duo find two curious artifacts: a glowing spike that seems to tingle to the hand and an oddly almost-human skull. A sudden cave-in forces the two explorers to flee, Spektor dropping the skull as they run. Outside, Spektor speculates that the Dark Gods themselves may have caused the collapse of the structure, to prevent their secrets being discovered.
As Spektor and Lakota jet back to America, the buried skull begins to take on flesh and body, and is finally reanimated as the sorcerer Ostellon, Master of the Living Bones. Ostellon realizes Spektor is the descendant of his ancient adversaries Tragg and Dagar, and he makes a pact with the Dark Gods to destroy the latest in that family's bloodline.
Examining the mysterious spike in his laboratory at Spektor Manor, Dr. Spektor is distracted by the sight of a dark figure materializing in Graceland Cemetary. He and Lakota rush to investigate, and see Ostellon raise an army of skeletal slaves. Ostellon confronts them, and Spektor and Lakota find themselves under attack by the undead skeletons. The pair are captured and taken to sinister Mount Algol, where Ostellon has conjured his ancient palace into being.
Ostellon tells Spektor how he had met defeat at the hands of Tragg with his stone axe and Dagar wielding an enchanted mace, and how he plans to make Spektor and Lakota into his living dead slaves. As Ostellon begins to work his magic on Lakota, Spektor realizes that the spike artifact, which he has in his pocket, must be a spike from the very mace that Dagar had used, which had been granted him by the Warrior Gods, eternal enemies of the Dark Gods. Spektor breaks free of his bonds, and uses the power given him by the magic spike to decimate the skeletal legion of Ostellon's undead slaves.
Ostellon attempts to use his evil potion on Spektor, but the Doctor hurls the magic spike into Ostellon's cauldron, and the mixing of Warrior Gods and Dark Gods magics causes Ostellon himself to be destroyed. Ostellon dissolves until there is nothing left but the ancient skull. As Spektor frees Lakota, the Dark Gods appear in spectral form and warn Spektor that their servants will soon destroy him. Ostellon's palace then vanishes, and Dr. Spektor and Lakota make their way home, feeling an uneasy dread from the Dark Gods' words.
Burial at Fallen Leaf (7 pages)
A Lakota Rainflower solo story.
On a Sioux reservation, medicine man Bearclaw collapses and dies as he completes an ancient tribal dance. The next morning, Bearclaw's close friend Lakota Rainflower discovers his body and summons her father Chief Ironbow. In accordance with the late medecine man's wishes, he is given a traditional Sioux burial, with his belongings suspended on a scaffold. Chief Ironbow gives Lakota a necklace from among Bearclaw's possessions, which angers Red Dog, who is next in line to be the tribe's medicine man.
That night, Lakota is mysteriously awakened from her sleep with the knowledge that Bearclaw had actually been murdered. She is drawn to the scaffold containing the dead man's belongings and selects some of the objects located there. Though she does not believe in magic, Lakota is somehow moved to perform a ritual to speak with Bearclaw's spirit. Red Dog arrives and demands the necklace from Lakota, threatening to hurt her father if she resists.
Suddenly, an apparition of Bearclaw appears to Red Dog and pursues him. Lakota fetches her father and some other members of the tribe. Red Dog confesses that he murdered Bearclaw using poison in the medicine man's incense. As Red Dog is led away to the authorities, Lakota reveals that she herself did not see Bearclaw's apparition, and that she believes Red Dog's behavior to have been motivated by his own guilty conscience.
Notes: When the Dark Gods reveal how Dr. Spektor has earned their enmity by thwarting their designs, there is a one-panel cameo of the Frankenstein monster, Baron Tibor, and the mummy Ra-Ka-Tep besieging the Doctor.
Tragg and Dagar also each make one panel cameos when Ostellon recounts his defeat at their hands.
In her solo story, Lakota Rainflower's age is given as "about eighteen." Since her story is set four years in the past, Lakota's age is "about twenty-two" at the time of the Ostellon story.
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