It is close to midnight. I rarely stay up this late but could not find the courage to write these words. I will start at the beginning.
I skipped half my exercises this morning. I knew this was a bad thing to do but I needed to stop by Thornkeep Mercantile to pick up some equipment before our next romp into the dungeon. I purchased 10 silver crossbow bolts and 10 silver arrows. Fortune favors the prepared mind after all. I passed these out to my 6 friends and we began our premorning discussion.
The rest of the group grew very excited as Skylar and I informed them about the werewolf. Normal people would have gone all quite with dread at this sort of news. Lets face it. Villagers, farmers and other folk are the first ones to be eaten by these things. But adventurers, we actually live to hunt the Dragon, Giant and occasional wereywolf.
These things makes us happy.
I also informed them that with some help from an apprentice at the Golden Tower I was able to repair the hairline fracture in the power Crystal we had recovered from the goblin digging machine. We hope to use it to activate one of the constructs in the Accursed Halls.
So it was with a spring in our steps and happy talk of who the werewolf may be that we made our way down to the levels below the Accursed Halls. We stopped at the door in in the room whose floor was covered with stars and planets. I had deciphered the writing above this door and informed the party that it said in ancient Azlantian, "Here There be Enigma's."
We opened the door and started across the bridge. Once again the Ghost of Abraxus appeared and asked in his three languages, "In whose name do you seek the Enigma Vaults?" We gave the proper reply of "Mer Anthomon." and proceeded across to his threat of, "You may pass. But touch nothing less you be purged."
The room with the swinging bridge was just as we had left it. It gave us no trouble and we proceeded past it and descended a steep flight of steps.
At the bottom we found a door and a lever.
Now levers and buttons are things you don't mess with in dungeons unless you have to. Everyone knows this. You also don't pick up ducks or chickens, but that's another story. There is no better, quicker or messier way to die than to play with these things. So we ignored the lever and opened the door instead.
It revealed a circular room with no floor. Above us a familiar bridge spanned the room linking two doors. Across from us was another door. "Hey!" said our cleric Abrandon, who was guarding the rear of the group, and pulled the lever.
I prepared myself to dive for cover as a loud grinding noise began. The bridge above us slowly winded down to span the length of the chasm before us. It was indeed the same bridge we crossed above with Abraxus on it, but there was no sign of the Ghost Demon as we proceeded. I lit a torch and peeked over the edge. The floor was perhaps 30 feet below us. The door on the other side was huge and ornate. Above it was the words in ancient Azlantian. "The Hall of Great Enigmas."
Shakes knelt and listened, and after a moment stood and stepped back saying. " I heard a woman's voice say, 'Get ready'."
We started to prepare our weapons and spells , when Aramel looked over to Mordin and said, "I think that's a wizard in there."
"Uh oh." I said to Abrandon next to me. "That kid will never learn."
And neither would Mordin apparently, as he kicked open the huge doors and screamed at the top of his lungs, "DIE WIZARD SCUM!"
Draco, Abrandon and I stayed in the doorway as the rest of the group charged in after our barbarian. The room was huge and museum like. Large pillars held up the vaulted ceiling above us. There were displays up and down the length of the room and at the end. We had no time to take more than a passing notice of these things as we were faced by a half dozen opponents near the doors we entered.
Five of these were man sized and demonlike, armed with spears. The last was a slender, short haired woman in black leathers. She pointed at us and screamed, "Kill Them!" Four of the demon thingies charged as one held back, I recognized what he was doing, as I do it all the time. He was gathering in his will for a spell. The demon raised his hand and pointed in our general direction. I raised my shield to block whatever blast of energy he was sending our way and yelled, "Look Out!"
The area of melee right in front of us went black with a magical darkness. I had expected a blast of fire or lightning, but from the sounds of melee and grunts of pain coming from the area of darkness this was probably way worse. Shakes yelled, "Need help! Can't see!"
"Hang on!" Abrandon yelled back. "I can fix that!" My torchlight couldn't penetrate the magical darkness and the sounds of battle were intensifying. I didn't think our guys in there had time for our slow ass cleric to cast his slow ass light spell. So lickety split I cast one of my own on my torch and flung it into the blackness before me.
My magical light canceled the magical darkness and vice versa. The torch remained lit and shed its radiance on a chaotic combat scene. "That's just great!" Our Cleric yelled at me. "One of the only things I can do besides heal people. And you take that away from me? Thanks a lot."
I shrugged apologetically. I really didn't have time to worry about our medics hurt feelings right then as I raised my heavy crossbow and looked for a shot of opportunity. Now that our guys could see, the fight was turning in our favor. Shakes hands and feet were a blur as pummeled his opponent. The demon he faced was completely off balance and I could tell it wasn't going to recover before my friend broke every bone in its body. Skylar's sword, The Demon Slayer, was living up to it's name as he was cutting his opponent to ribbons. Aramel had used the magical darkness to his advantage and somehow had gotten behind his opponent and plunged his sword through its back. The one who had cast the magical darkness was a little apart from the others. I shot him in the gut with my crossbow and then Draco blasted him with a spell, finishing him off.
Mordin almost casually split the skull of the demon he faced, then looking around he yelled, "Where did that witch bitch go?"
I didn't think she was a witch, but I looked around also and wondered where she had went. We didn't have to wait long. She came out of the shadows right behind Shakes and punched him in the back. My friend spun and karate kicked her right in the face. She did a back flip, landed in a crouch and smiled as she wiped blood from her mouth where Shakes had kicked her.
Shakes staggered and slumped to one knee. He grabbed his back where the woman had punched him and his hand came away red with blood. "Assassin." He said, pointing to where the woman held a punch dagger in her hand.
Mordin and Skylar cut down the last two remaining demon creatures at nearly the same time. The assassin was surrounded. It looked like this fight was about over and I nearly got out the words 'surrender or die', when she did a somersault over Skylar, ducked Mordin's axe and fled down the hall. Draco clipped her with a firebolt but it didn't even slow her down.
Mordin gave chase.
I was having flashbacks to our second trip into this dungeon. A time where Mordin chased a pair of skeletons through the Accursed Halls above us. He ended up in a coma with his soul missing. Still I wasn't letting my berserk friend chase this assassin, who knew where, by himself.
I gave chase also.
Looking over my shoulder I noticed Abrandon, Aramel and Skylar bent over Shakes, examining his back. Draco was following Mordin and I at a cautious pace. The barbarian and the dark clad woman quickly out distanced me even though I was giving it all I had. We ran through the museum and up a short flight of stairs. Rounding a couple of corners, I began to worry our friends would not find us, when our flight came to a sudden end.
Mordin ran through a door to our left and yelled, "Got ya! What the hell?"
I skidded to a stop next to the doorway and did a quick peek around the corner. Then peeked again to see if I really saw what I thought I saw. The barbarian and the assassin were in the middle of a strange room locked in battle. The room was about 30 feet wide by about 30 feet long. There were open cages in all four corners. A long table along the back wall had a grisly display of body parts and internal organs upon it with books and parchments.
Mordin and the woman were not alone.
I will do my best to describe it. The thing was about the size of a large man. It hovered in midair on a set of wings like those of a dragonfly. Its body resembled that of a giant wasp except that its stinger was hooked and sharp like a blade. It had eight arms but only six ended with what looked like hands. The first set ended with a pair of pincher's like those of a crab. Its head was large, green and bulbous. It had no eyes, ears, mouth or nose that I could see. It wore a belt that held wands, scrolls and various tools.
It turned its head in my direction, then cocked it as if sizing me up, then, quick as a striking snake, it had a wand in one of its many hands and vanished.
"Uh oh." I thought out loud. "That's some sort of wizard." and then I yelled to the barbarian. "Mordin that was some sort of wizard!"
"I know!" he growled. "I'll get to it right after I finish with her." The berserker swung his battle axe at the assassin, who ducked low, almost flattening herself on the ground, and rising just as quickly she punched the halforc in his calf with one of her daggers.
Mordin laughed and spit at her as he yelled, "Your poison toothpicks aren't going to work on me girly."
"Poison?" I thought. And my friend Shakes took one of those nasty punch daggers in the back. I left him. And he could be dead now. I have skills at making poultices and drawing out poisons. I could have stayed and helped, but instead I followed Mordin willy nilly through the dungeon again.
A red haze filled my vision as I looked upon this lady assassin. I called forth my power and it was full of vengeance.
I blasted two holes clean through her chest.
She slumped to the ground obviously dead.
Mordin, still full of the berserk rage that drove him, narrowed his eyes at me and said, "You stole my kill."
Uh oh.
Mordin had murder in his eyes. I knew right then, at this moment, either the halforc or I was about to die.
Luckily for one, or perhaps both of us, there was an evil, invisible, flying, insectoid, wizard that intervened.
Out of nowhere two giant spiders appeared between Mordin and I.
Never thought I would be glad to see giant spiders, but I was.
"Mordin!" I yelled. "That evil wizard is summoning giant spiders!"
"I see that! I'm not blind!" the barbarian pointed his battle axe at me and continued, "That wizard is mine! You can have the giant spiders!"
"Gulp!" I gulped.
There was two of those monsters! And they were bigger than me! And no doubt quicker! And I had the sneaky suspicion they were intelligent also, as they both turned sixteen eyes towards me and sixteen legs tensed as if to jump.
Its funny how spiders each have eight legs and eight eyes, and humans have two legs and two eyes, but dogs and other canines only have two eyes to go with their four legs. And cats also. Seems like a pattern has been disrupted there somehow. Anyways....where was I?
Oh yes... I readied my morningstar and braced my shield for the attack of the giant spiders when Aramel somersaulted over one of my shoulders into the room, and Shakes did the same over the other.
"Shakes your alive!" I cried.
"Of course." said Abrandon, huffing and puffing as he ran up behind me. " I can cure anything."
Skylar was the next one to run past me into the room and Draco skidded to a stop behind the cleric.
I looked back at the giant spiders as they turned this way and that, and when one looked at me, I shrugged and said to it, "Doesn't feel good to be outnumbered, does it?" I swung my morningstar at it and broke one of its massive forelegs. The spider retreated a step or seven, not so anxious to engage me anymore. Skylar, Shakes and Aramel took one down quickly. Everything seemed like it was going well when another combatant materialized out of nowhere.
It looked like a cross between a wolf and a giant porcupine.
"Where the hell did that thing come from?" Yelled Aramel.
"There is an invisible wizard in there somewhere." I replied pointing into the room where Mordin was swinging his battle axe at shadows.
"I didn't here anybody casting spells." said Draco from behind me.
""He doesn't have a mouth." I said. "and he flies around too."
Shakes started hunting the invisible wizard around the room also, listening intently as he traversed the room. Aramel and Skylar engaged the wolf porcupine in hand to hand, leaving me the remaining spider.
"Ouch!" yelled Aramel as he slashed the spiny wolf thing, taking several painful quills in his arm. At the same time the spider I was facing turned and slung a web at the kid, snaring him with it. Aramel had my torch in his left hand though. He must have picked it up in the museum where I had thrown it, and he used it to burn the webs away.
I took this opportunity to skip forward and brought my morningstar down with all my might right between the eight eyes of the giant arachnid. I am not weak. I don't work out every morning to impress the girls. I don't have the brute strength that Mordin has, no where near in fact. But that giant spider did go 'squish'.
"I AM A GREAT WARRIOR!" I screamed. Raising my morningstar above my head.
"Feels good doesn't it!" Mordin yelled from across the room.
Indeed it did feel good. The adrenalin rush was profound. I looked around for another opponent to smash. The wolf, hedgehog thing, was caught between Aramel and Skylar and was taking hits and bleeding out fast. I watched the air around the room, hoping the insect wizard would appear so I could charge forth and smash him.
And then, it did.
The thing appeared right behind Skylar and picked him up. The scout tried to fight but the multiple legs of the thing held him fast and spun him around to face it. In the time it took me to catch my breath, the thing suddenly had its hands full of strange knives, needles, and other strange instruments. It cut Skylar's chest open, extracted something from his chest, and sewed him back up.
And then it dropped him whimpering to the floor.
I swear, we all stood there for a few seconds. Stunned.
Even the wolf thing stood there and stared. Aramel, always the opportunist, lunged forth and skewered the thing.
Mordin yelled a battle cry and swung his axe at the hovering wizard, but it evaded it easily. Draco blasted it with fire but it had minimal effect. I shot it with a magic missile, my normally devastating spell only put two small holes in it that oozed green blood. Abrandon ran forward and cast heal spell on Aramel, causing the quills to fall to the ground and the wounds they caused to magically close. Shakes became a blur as he jumped and kicked and punched at the thing in the air. As quick and skilled as Shakes was, the thing was quicker. It blocked and countered everything Shakes threw at it. Almost like he knew the moves before Shakes performed them. Skylar rose weakly from the floor, determination on his face, his hand pressed to his chest where the thing had performed its lightning fast surgery. The Sword of Zog was in his other hand.
I gripped my morningstar and prepared to charge. We had the thing outnumbered seven to one and I was determined to get a few blows in before it died.
The wizard struck first.
With the speed of a humming bird it swooped in and picked up Aramel as it had Skylar. Only this time it didn't do any of its lightning fast surgery. Its pincher's went to work with deadly precision and swiftness.
One of Aramel's arms flew off to land on the table across the room. Another was tossed into a cage to my left. Both his legs hit the floor.
And then the kids head rolled over to the clerics feet to stare up at him.
As the thing casually dropped Aramel's limbless, headless torso to the floor amidst a shower of blood, I heard Abrandon whisper, "But I can't cure that."
"NO SHIT!" I cried.
I looked at the carnage the thing had wrought. I looked at the morning star in my hand. "No way Jose!" I said as I retreated to take cover behind Draco. I shot it with another magic missile as I did so.
I heard Draco cast his Power Word Pain at the creature. It fluttered its wings a little. Shakes once again attacked, and once again the creature blocked all his punches and kicks with ease. Skylar feebly swung the Demon Slayer at it. It ducked easily. Abrandon stood there looking down at Aramel's head, saying over and over again, "I can't cure that."
"Medic!" I yelled. "Get your head in the game!" Abrandon came to himself then, and shaking his head he reached for and cast a spell on Skylar's sword. It glowed red with power.
"Cut it with that and it will die." he said.
"Easier said than done." I thought.
The creature was pinned between Mordin, Shakes and Skylar, with his red glowing sword. And not a one of them could lay a blow upon the thing as it blocked, parried and ducked everything they had. Draco hit it with another word of Pain. I shot it with another magic missile. Draco looked over and said, "I'm out of magic."
"I have two magic missiles left." I replied.
Even as we said these words the thing swooped down and picked up Mordin as it did Aramel. Its pincher's went to work again, only the halforc was not as small and skinny as the kid was. Still the claws were deadly efficient, a cut opened up Mordin's throat, another penetrated his armor and went in about where the barbarian's heart would be.
The berserker was dead, but no one told him.
With a scream of rage he brought his battle axe down on the things back and green ichor splashed across the room. The wizard dropped Mordin to the floor, and for the first time looked hurt. The barbarian twitched a little and lay still. The cleric tried to get to him but had to fall back as pincher's snapped menacingly before him. I blasted it with another magic missile. Skylar tried to hit the thing with that enspelled sword but he was just too weak from whatever it had done to him. Shakes was not giving up. He threw everything he had at the thing. His fists looked literally on fire as they blurred towards the creature. For all his martial arts training though, this thing was better. It's eight arms were more than a match for my friends two.
And then it pulled a wand from its belt.
A blast of sonic energy radiated out from the thing. It knocked Abrandon and Skylar on their asses. Made Draco and I cover our ears in pain. Shakes was blasted against the wall, but he landed on his feet and hands against it like a spider, and then leaped through the air to once again engage the monster.
I swear. They were Kung Fu fighting in midair. For what seemed hours, to the ringing in my head, but had to only be a few seconds. Abrandon and Skylar were struggling to rise. Shakes and the thing continued their dance across the room. Their arms and legs a blur of counters and punches that the human eye or mind could not possibly follow.
And yet mine did.
I could see a pattern here. The wizard was setting Shakes up for a dramatic finish. It was working him into a position for its pincher's to go to work.
I seen it.
Shakes seen it.
My friends eyes met mine across the room and they said to me....run....
The things pincher's went wide and prepared to go to work.
NO!
I stepped forward and fired my last magic missile.
I aimed my shot perfectly. My bolts struck the thing when it was most distracted, going in for the kill on Shakes. Both bolts hit it in the neck and penetrated up into its brain.
It dropped to the floor.
The wings twitched a little, causing Skylar to stab it with his still glowing sword, releasing some sort of energy inside its body.
The thing was dead.
But so were Aramel and Mordin.
I don't remember leaving the dungeon.
I don't remember how I got here to my room in the Goldcloak tower.
But I do remember the look on Aramel's face as his head rolled to the the clerics feet.
Goodnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment