Snakes Amongst the Ruins...
Continuation of Eleasis 22, 1372…
The eight companions made their way through the forest of grand manses that made up this part of the city. They mused that this must once have been a noble quarter due to the extravagance of the homes; merchants usually weren’t so apt to spend their coin on such frivolous opulence. Even the surrounding yards, now overgrown with grass, dandelions and other flora, contained exquisitely crafted porcelain and marble fountains shaped like fairies, unicorns, and other beautiful woodland denizens; and surprisingly most of the fountains still bubbled with fresh clear water. Furniture and sculptures of similar design and craftsmanship lay scattered about the empty yards covered in ivy.
Holly and Morn scouted thirty feet ahead of the others moving along the smooth granite walls of the manses like shadows. The clatter of Vaevictus’s heavy armor was the only sound in the otherwise ominously quiet city.
Morn kept looking over his shoulder every time he heard the scraping of a greave or the rattle of a pauldron. “That’s going to be a problem.”
“We’ll be ok. Just keep sharp” said Holly. She had traveled with heavily-armored knights many times during the War in Cormyr. She knew such armor wasn’t very quiet, but it was handy at turning sword blows when battle inevitably came.
“I’ll keep sharp, but that armor is certainly going to attract unsavory attention” said Morn.
“I figure it will give us a chance to clean Myth Drannor up a little before we reach the temple” said a grinning Holly.
“You really are too brave for your own good aren’t you?” Morn chuckled.
“Runs in the family” she replied nonchalantly.
“Do you hear that?” said Morn. He stopped and cocked his head sideways listening intently, “Strange words…”
Holly stopped and held up her fist, “I do hear something…sounds like hissing.”
The other six companions halted upon seeing Holly’s raised fist. Their eyes roved over the nooks and crannies of nearby manses.
“Something must be amiss. Look about and be ready” said Vaevictus.
“I’m always ready” said Kaela, “but I don’t see anything, too many shadows. Phallon, do you see anything?”
The shadows cast by the manses and foliage that dotted the landscape of Myth Drannor did little to hinder the vision of the half-dragon or dark elves. Still they saw nothing but bright stone walls and the dark vines that covered them.
“I see nothing” said Phallon.
“Nor I” said both Thourne and Uthar’zen.
Celtavian’s eyes were frozen on a point in space ahead of Holly and Morn. “Art is being used ahead. Seek cover quickly …”
Too late. The blue-eyed mage watched as an emanation of bluish energy flowed through the Weave congregating like water in a pool. Moments later the bluish energy erupted like a geyser crashing into him and his companions washing over them like an ocean wave.
“Fireball…we’re being attacked” screamed Kaela, her crimson robes burned as she feebly attempted to cover her head.
“Spread out…make it difficult to strike us all” Celtavian said calmly. Through the grace of Mystra, he was unharmed.
The twins drew their bows, “Ahead, a snake floating in the air…”
“A snake with a human head…” said Uthar’zen. Quick reflexes had saved him from the fiery blast.
Vaevictus roared and rushed towards the flying snake.
The flying snake was a dark naga. The lower half of its purple snake body was coiled like a rope ending in a sharp stinger, its upper half, upon which sat a grotesque human head with yellow reptilian eyes and a flickering snake tongue, was swaying back and forth. It cackled and ascended up and away over the roof of a two story manse slightly ahead and to the right of Holly and Morn.
“What in the Nine Hells was that” said Morn utterly surprised.
“I don’t know, but I’m going after it” said Holly.
“Don’t be hasty, Holly” said Morn.
Holly touched two fingers to the Symbol of Shaundakul on her right gauntlet, “Shaundakul, Rider of the Winds, Your servant has need of the winds this day, carry me into the sky…for duty…with courage…to honor the Helping Hand.” Shaundakul answered his servant posthaste. The wind came, her cloak fluttered, and she rose into the sky carried by the winds obedience to her god’s will.
Morn watched in awe, “Praise Shaundakul.”
Holly pursued the snake. As she came over the roof’s horizon small missiles of force struck her bruising and battering her body. The dark naga was not alone; two others similar to itself slithered along the roof’s edge. Their attention turned towards those on the ground.
“There are more” she shouted.
“Holly, get down here now” roared Vaevictus.
“I’m ok. Be warned there are more.” She ignored Vaevictus’s pleas to retreat, “I’m going after them.”
Kaela looked up eyes wide with worry, “Damn crazy girl. She is going to get herself killed.”
“Kaela, can you get us up there?” said the twins.
“No. I do not know that incantation yet” said Kaela.
“Let’s climb up” said Uthar’zen.
“I’m skilled enough to climb the building” said Morn.
“I’m not” said Kaela, “Let’s find stairs. That will be easier.”
Kaela, Vaevictus, Morn, Celtavian, and the twins scoured the walls of the nearby manse looking for a door while moving in a westerly direction around to the front of the building. As they came around the side of the manse, they were met with another fiery attack. Two dark naga’s hissed their heads visible peaking over the edge of the roof.
“Another two, this place is crawling with snakes” said Vaevictus.
“We have to get inside the building” said the twins, “hurry, and search for a door.”
“I’m going to go up the side” said Morn, “I’ve got to help Holly.” He drew a rope with a grappling hook attached from his magic haversack.
“Alright, we’ll keep trying to find some stairs. There has to be a way other than flying to reach the top of this building” said the twins.
“I’ll distract it” said Celtavian confidently, “I can withstand its Art.”
* * * * *
No one thought the blue-eyed mage insane, so they did not try to dissuade him from this seemingly foolish course of action. He walked sure and upright into the middle of the overgrown yard in front of the manse. Wand in one hand and staff in the other, he spoke a single arcane word causing four magic missiles to shoot from the wand while using the staff as a prop hoping it might be misconstrued as having more power than it did.
The four blue force missiles followed opposing parabola-like arcs eventually meeting upon impacting the dark naga. It grimaced and with a few arcane words erected a shield of force. The shield was a counter to the wand’s magic, and he had little other Art at his command, certainly nothing that could challenge the Art demonstrated by the snake. He was a sitting duck.
The dark naga hissed and swayed launching a series of spells.
Thourne watched in abject horror as Celtavian was engulfed in the blast of a fireball after being struck by a flock of magic missiles. She couldn’t believe he was still standing. “I have to help him. He must be hurt.”
“He said he could withstand…Thourne…wait…Thourne!!!” said Phallon.
Thourne disregarded her sister and ran full speed across the grass yard. “Celtavian, I am here”, she proclaimed upon reaching the blue-eyed mage.
“Thourne, why did you come? It is too dangerous for you out here in the open. I am fine, please return to the others and find a way to the roof” said Celtavian, not a hint of emotion in his voice though his eyes conveyed concern for the silver-haired drow woman.
Thourne looked him over, not a scratch, “By Eilistraee’s sword, you are unharmed.”
“By the grace of Mystra I am protected. You on the other hand are not, please return to the others” said Celtavian.
“I’m staying. My kind are resistant to magic in all its forms. I’ll help you distract it” said Thourne.
“So be it. Move away though, so it cannot strike us both with fire. I will try to keep its attention on me.”
Thourne moved a satisfactory distance to Celtavian’s right and harried the snake with arrows.
Uthar’zen had not followed the others around the side of the manse. Instead, he had proceeded to climb the nearest wall. Halfway to the roof, he clung to the wall like a bug; his fingertips searching for cracks in the stone that could be used as handholds. “I must practice climbing a bit more often.” He tried to get his fingers in a crack a few inches beyond his reach. The sound of exploding fireballs could be heard around the corner. “Damn, I’m going to miss the fight.”
Holly and the flying dark naga were like two wasps in aerial combat. She swung her greatsword awkwardly trying to defend and attack at the same time. The dark naga lashed out like a viper trying to sink its poison stinger into Holly’s honey-colored flesh.
Holly’s skin and hair were burnt, but her injuries did not dissuade her from chasing the dark naga all over the roof. Its spell assault had lessened leading Holly to believe that its Art must be exhausted and it had only its poison stinger as a threat
“Sliisssss…finish this human…hssss…sssheee hassss proven sssstronger than I expected…,” the flying dark naga hissed.
“I am busssssy Nolisssss…hsssss…one of the humanssss is climbing to the roof. I must sssstop it” said Sliiisssss, one of the dark naga's on the roof.
“Hurry…thisssss human is dangeroussss” said the flying dark naga.
Holly smile amused, “That’s right. I am dangerous.”
Morn swung the rope like a bola and tossed the grappling hook onto the roof. It landed with a loud clunk on the stone. He slowly dragged the rope until it firmed. The hook had caught on something. He climbed up hand over hand.
Morn was halfway up the wall when he saw a dark naga’s head appear. He climbed faster. It smiled wickedly and began to bite the robe with its sharp fangs.
Morn made it within arm’s reach of the roof when the dark naga bit through the final few strands. He yelled as he fell towards the earth landing with a dull thud. The soft grass of the yard cushioned his fall. He didn’t waste a second lying on the ground, he popped up and headed inside to look for stairs, ‘I’ve got to get to the roof, Holly needs me’ he chided himself, ‘Damn snake’.
Kaela had cast an incantation to increase her footspeed. She ran into the two story building far outdistancing Phallon and Vaevictus and found stairs leading up right away. She took the steps two at a time coming to a short flight of stairs with a trap door at the top that surely led to the roof. “Wait, I’m hurt” she remembered feeling the burn of her wounds. She plucked a few vials containing curatives from her potion belt and flicked the lids off with her thumb quaffing them as quickly as she could. The pain of her wounds lessened and vigor returned to her. “Now I’m ready.” She ran up the stairs and burst through the trapdoor.
The spellbattle between Kaela and two of the three dark naga’s begin in earnest. Kaela flung lightning in answer to their fire. Magical missiles arced back and forth glancing off shields of force. Kaela badly injured both of the dark naga’s, but was herself driven down the stairs where she fell burned and barely conscious.
Celtavian watched the roof in awe. Art danced across it like bards on a stage. Arcane power surged and diminished as though each spell were part of an ill-conceived symphony with a chaotic tempo. Bizarre, unpredictable fluctuations in the Weave caused spells to change during the nearly instantaneous travel from their point of origin to their point of impact: Magic missiles became small gems; fireballs became small hurricanes causing chunks of rubble to fly about like wind strewn leaves. The instability of the Weave in Myth Drannor was bewildering.
‘First hand study of wild magic’ he thought to himself, ‘I will have to record my findings. I’m sure they will interest many a mage.’
Suddenly, a particularly large Weave fluctuation rippled out from the roof to where he and Thourne stood. It roiled over them and they fell into the air like dropped stones. Their they floated helplessly a good seventy feet from the ground.
“A reverse gravity…very interesting…it seems that magic can be both changed and augmented …Thourne, I can’t reach you, but if this magic fails I will cast feather fall to soften your fall” said Celtavian.
“Celtavian, the spell duel has stopped. The flying snake is coming back. Holly is no longer chasing it” said Thourne feeling dizzy and a bit sick from the sudden change in altitude.
“Fight it as well as you can” said Celtavian, “I have some Art at my disposal if worse comes to worse.”
Phallon and Vaevictus reached the flight of stairs leading to the roof. There lay Kaela burnt and barely aware.
Phallon knelt next to her, “Go on Vaevictus, I will heal her, you must kill those snakes before they slay the others.”
“Are you sure Lady Phallon? I can heal her as well” said Vaevictus.
“I am sure. Go” said Phallon. She prayed to Eilistraee and laid her hand upon Kaela’s face.
Blisters upon skin disappeared. Kaela’s eyes fluttered. “Must help, Holly’s all alone” she said weakly.
Vaevictus stood for a few moments looking upon Kaela. Upon hearing her weak words, he took to the stairs running straight onto the roof. Slithering towards him was a dark naga intent on finishing Kaela. It was shocked for a moment, and a moment is all it took for Vaevictus to hack its snake flesh. Where a human neck should have been its head lolled to one side barely attached to the remaining stalk of its body. It writhed for a few moments, and then lay still.
Vaevictus turned towards the other dark naga. It unleashed a spell. The half-dragon felt his feet leave the ground. He floated helpless as a bobbing apple a good distance above the roof.
Kaela quaffed more curatives and Phallon sang songs of healing. It was not long before the lady sorceress was ready to head to the roof again.
“Let’s go Phallon. I feel much better” said Kaela as she went up the stairs.
Phallon needed no urging. She drew her blade and followed Kaela.
As soon as the two ladies set foot on the roof they were swept into the sky. Both spun heel over heel until coming to rest thirty feet above. They weren’t too far from Vaevictus and spread about the sky like floating dolls were all their companions (save Uthar’zen who was still trying to climb the wall), a dark naga’s corpse dripping blood, a living dark naga hissing curses, and still another living dark naga flying about unhindered.
“This is quite a mess” said Kaela.
“Yes, it is” agreed Phallon.
Holly halted in mid-flight confused by the sudden turn of events.
The flying dark naga wasted no time furthering the distance between itself and the sword wielding human.
The other living dark naga floated in the air as unable to move as her companions. It began launching spells intended to slay.
Holly flew towards it attacking viciously.
Kaela, not yet depleted of Art, did not float idly awaiting death from the dark naga’s spells. She flung green acid darts at the snake every time it started to cast.
Unable to defend itself from both Holly’s sword and Kaela’s acid darts, the dark naga was slain. Its flesh melted and several notches were hewn from its hide.
The flying dark naga fled. It warned others of its kind about the eight companions, telling them that a powerful a group of adventurers wandering in their territory should be avoided if one did not want to come to an early demise.
Holly carried most of her companions to the ground, and Celtavian made use of a feather fall to see Vaevictus did not have an unpleasant fall.
Exhausted physically and magically, the eight companions found safe refuge for the night in the basement of an old manse an hours travel from where they fought. There they passed a watchful, uneventful night.
Continuation of Eleasis 22, 1372…
The eight companions made their way through the forest of grand manses that made up this part of the city. They mused that this must once have been a noble quarter due to the extravagance of the homes; merchants usually weren’t so apt to spend their coin on such frivolous opulence. Even the surrounding yards, now overgrown with grass, dandelions and other flora, contained exquisitely crafted porcelain and marble fountains shaped like fairies, unicorns, and other beautiful woodland denizens; and surprisingly most of the fountains still bubbled with fresh clear water. Furniture and sculptures of similar design and craftsmanship lay scattered about the empty yards covered in ivy.
Holly and Morn scouted thirty feet ahead of the others moving along the smooth granite walls of the manses like shadows. The clatter of Vaevictus’s heavy armor was the only sound in the otherwise ominously quiet city.
Morn kept looking over his shoulder every time he heard the scraping of a greave or the rattle of a pauldron. “That’s going to be a problem.”
“We’ll be ok. Just keep sharp” said Holly. She had traveled with heavily-armored knights many times during the War in Cormyr. She knew such armor wasn’t very quiet, but it was handy at turning sword blows when battle inevitably came.
“I’ll keep sharp, but that armor is certainly going to attract unsavory attention” said Morn.
“I figure it will give us a chance to clean Myth Drannor up a little before we reach the temple” said a grinning Holly.
“You really are too brave for your own good aren’t you?” Morn chuckled.
“Runs in the family” she replied nonchalantly.
“Do you hear that?” said Morn. He stopped and cocked his head sideways listening intently, “Strange words…”
Holly stopped and held up her fist, “I do hear something…sounds like hissing.”
The other six companions halted upon seeing Holly’s raised fist. Their eyes roved over the nooks and crannies of nearby manses.
“Something must be amiss. Look about and be ready” said Vaevictus.
“I’m always ready” said Kaela, “but I don’t see anything, too many shadows. Phallon, do you see anything?”
The shadows cast by the manses and foliage that dotted the landscape of Myth Drannor did little to hinder the vision of the half-dragon or dark elves. Still they saw nothing but bright stone walls and the dark vines that covered them.
“I see nothing” said Phallon.
“Nor I” said both Thourne and Uthar’zen.
Celtavian’s eyes were frozen on a point in space ahead of Holly and Morn. “Art is being used ahead. Seek cover quickly …”
Too late. The blue-eyed mage watched as an emanation of bluish energy flowed through the Weave congregating like water in a pool. Moments later the bluish energy erupted like a geyser crashing into him and his companions washing over them like an ocean wave.
“Fireball…we’re being attacked” screamed Kaela, her crimson robes burned as she feebly attempted to cover her head.
“Spread out…make it difficult to strike us all” Celtavian said calmly. Through the grace of Mystra, he was unharmed.
The twins drew their bows, “Ahead, a snake floating in the air…”
“A snake with a human head…” said Uthar’zen. Quick reflexes had saved him from the fiery blast.
Vaevictus roared and rushed towards the flying snake.
The flying snake was a dark naga. The lower half of its purple snake body was coiled like a rope ending in a sharp stinger, its upper half, upon which sat a grotesque human head with yellow reptilian eyes and a flickering snake tongue, was swaying back and forth. It cackled and ascended up and away over the roof of a two story manse slightly ahead and to the right of Holly and Morn.
“What in the Nine Hells was that” said Morn utterly surprised.
“I don’t know, but I’m going after it” said Holly.
“Don’t be hasty, Holly” said Morn.
Holly touched two fingers to the Symbol of Shaundakul on her right gauntlet, “Shaundakul, Rider of the Winds, Your servant has need of the winds this day, carry me into the sky…for duty…with courage…to honor the Helping Hand.” Shaundakul answered his servant posthaste. The wind came, her cloak fluttered, and she rose into the sky carried by the winds obedience to her god’s will.
Morn watched in awe, “Praise Shaundakul.”
Holly pursued the snake. As she came over the roof’s horizon small missiles of force struck her bruising and battering her body. The dark naga was not alone; two others similar to itself slithered along the roof’s edge. Their attention turned towards those on the ground.
“There are more” she shouted.
“Holly, get down here now” roared Vaevictus.
“I’m ok. Be warned there are more.” She ignored Vaevictus’s pleas to retreat, “I’m going after them.”
Kaela looked up eyes wide with worry, “Damn crazy girl. She is going to get herself killed.”
“Kaela, can you get us up there?” said the twins.
“No. I do not know that incantation yet” said Kaela.
“Let’s climb up” said Uthar’zen.
“I’m skilled enough to climb the building” said Morn.
“I’m not” said Kaela, “Let’s find stairs. That will be easier.”
Kaela, Vaevictus, Morn, Celtavian, and the twins scoured the walls of the nearby manse looking for a door while moving in a westerly direction around to the front of the building. As they came around the side of the manse, they were met with another fiery attack. Two dark naga’s hissed their heads visible peaking over the edge of the roof.
“Another two, this place is crawling with snakes” said Vaevictus.
“We have to get inside the building” said the twins, “hurry, and search for a door.”
“I’m going to go up the side” said Morn, “I’ve got to help Holly.” He drew a rope with a grappling hook attached from his magic haversack.
“Alright, we’ll keep trying to find some stairs. There has to be a way other than flying to reach the top of this building” said the twins.
“I’ll distract it” said Celtavian confidently, “I can withstand its Art.”
* * * * *
No one thought the blue-eyed mage insane, so they did not try to dissuade him from this seemingly foolish course of action. He walked sure and upright into the middle of the overgrown yard in front of the manse. Wand in one hand and staff in the other, he spoke a single arcane word causing four magic missiles to shoot from the wand while using the staff as a prop hoping it might be misconstrued as having more power than it did.
The four blue force missiles followed opposing parabola-like arcs eventually meeting upon impacting the dark naga. It grimaced and with a few arcane words erected a shield of force. The shield was a counter to the wand’s magic, and he had little other Art at his command, certainly nothing that could challenge the Art demonstrated by the snake. He was a sitting duck.
The dark naga hissed and swayed launching a series of spells.
Thourne watched in abject horror as Celtavian was engulfed in the blast of a fireball after being struck by a flock of magic missiles. She couldn’t believe he was still standing. “I have to help him. He must be hurt.”
“He said he could withstand…Thourne…wait…Thourne!!!” said Phallon.
Thourne disregarded her sister and ran full speed across the grass yard. “Celtavian, I am here”, she proclaimed upon reaching the blue-eyed mage.
“Thourne, why did you come? It is too dangerous for you out here in the open. I am fine, please return to the others and find a way to the roof” said Celtavian, not a hint of emotion in his voice though his eyes conveyed concern for the silver-haired drow woman.
Thourne looked him over, not a scratch, “By Eilistraee’s sword, you are unharmed.”
“By the grace of Mystra I am protected. You on the other hand are not, please return to the others” said Celtavian.
“I’m staying. My kind are resistant to magic in all its forms. I’ll help you distract it” said Thourne.
“So be it. Move away though, so it cannot strike us both with fire. I will try to keep its attention on me.”
Thourne moved a satisfactory distance to Celtavian’s right and harried the snake with arrows.
Uthar’zen had not followed the others around the side of the manse. Instead, he had proceeded to climb the nearest wall. Halfway to the roof, he clung to the wall like a bug; his fingertips searching for cracks in the stone that could be used as handholds. “I must practice climbing a bit more often.” He tried to get his fingers in a crack a few inches beyond his reach. The sound of exploding fireballs could be heard around the corner. “Damn, I’m going to miss the fight.”
Holly and the flying dark naga were like two wasps in aerial combat. She swung her greatsword awkwardly trying to defend and attack at the same time. The dark naga lashed out like a viper trying to sink its poison stinger into Holly’s honey-colored flesh.
Holly’s skin and hair were burnt, but her injuries did not dissuade her from chasing the dark naga all over the roof. Its spell assault had lessened leading Holly to believe that its Art must be exhausted and it had only its poison stinger as a threat
“Sliisssss…finish this human…hssss…sssheee hassss proven sssstronger than I expected…,” the flying dark naga hissed.
“I am busssssy Nolisssss…hsssss…one of the humanssss is climbing to the roof. I must sssstop it” said Sliiisssss, one of the dark naga's on the roof.
“Hurry…thisssss human is dangeroussss” said the flying dark naga.
Holly smile amused, “That’s right. I am dangerous.”
Morn swung the rope like a bola and tossed the grappling hook onto the roof. It landed with a loud clunk on the stone. He slowly dragged the rope until it firmed. The hook had caught on something. He climbed up hand over hand.
Morn was halfway up the wall when he saw a dark naga’s head appear. He climbed faster. It smiled wickedly and began to bite the robe with its sharp fangs.
Morn made it within arm’s reach of the roof when the dark naga bit through the final few strands. He yelled as he fell towards the earth landing with a dull thud. The soft grass of the yard cushioned his fall. He didn’t waste a second lying on the ground, he popped up and headed inside to look for stairs, ‘I’ve got to get to the roof, Holly needs me’ he chided himself, ‘Damn snake’.
Kaela had cast an incantation to increase her footspeed. She ran into the two story building far outdistancing Phallon and Vaevictus and found stairs leading up right away. She took the steps two at a time coming to a short flight of stairs with a trap door at the top that surely led to the roof. “Wait, I’m hurt” she remembered feeling the burn of her wounds. She plucked a few vials containing curatives from her potion belt and flicked the lids off with her thumb quaffing them as quickly as she could. The pain of her wounds lessened and vigor returned to her. “Now I’m ready.” She ran up the stairs and burst through the trapdoor.
The spellbattle between Kaela and two of the three dark naga’s begin in earnest. Kaela flung lightning in answer to their fire. Magical missiles arced back and forth glancing off shields of force. Kaela badly injured both of the dark naga’s, but was herself driven down the stairs where she fell burned and barely conscious.
Celtavian watched the roof in awe. Art danced across it like bards on a stage. Arcane power surged and diminished as though each spell were part of an ill-conceived symphony with a chaotic tempo. Bizarre, unpredictable fluctuations in the Weave caused spells to change during the nearly instantaneous travel from their point of origin to their point of impact: Magic missiles became small gems; fireballs became small hurricanes causing chunks of rubble to fly about like wind strewn leaves. The instability of the Weave in Myth Drannor was bewildering.
‘First hand study of wild magic’ he thought to himself, ‘I will have to record my findings. I’m sure they will interest many a mage.’
Suddenly, a particularly large Weave fluctuation rippled out from the roof to where he and Thourne stood. It roiled over them and they fell into the air like dropped stones. Their they floated helplessly a good seventy feet from the ground.
“A reverse gravity…very interesting…it seems that magic can be both changed and augmented …Thourne, I can’t reach you, but if this magic fails I will cast feather fall to soften your fall” said Celtavian.
“Celtavian, the spell duel has stopped. The flying snake is coming back. Holly is no longer chasing it” said Thourne feeling dizzy and a bit sick from the sudden change in altitude.
“Fight it as well as you can” said Celtavian, “I have some Art at my disposal if worse comes to worse.”
Phallon and Vaevictus reached the flight of stairs leading to the roof. There lay Kaela burnt and barely aware.
Phallon knelt next to her, “Go on Vaevictus, I will heal her, you must kill those snakes before they slay the others.”
“Are you sure Lady Phallon? I can heal her as well” said Vaevictus.
“I am sure. Go” said Phallon. She prayed to Eilistraee and laid her hand upon Kaela’s face.
Blisters upon skin disappeared. Kaela’s eyes fluttered. “Must help, Holly’s all alone” she said weakly.
Vaevictus stood for a few moments looking upon Kaela. Upon hearing her weak words, he took to the stairs running straight onto the roof. Slithering towards him was a dark naga intent on finishing Kaela. It was shocked for a moment, and a moment is all it took for Vaevictus to hack its snake flesh. Where a human neck should have been its head lolled to one side barely attached to the remaining stalk of its body. It writhed for a few moments, and then lay still.
Vaevictus turned towards the other dark naga. It unleashed a spell. The half-dragon felt his feet leave the ground. He floated helpless as a bobbing apple a good distance above the roof.
Kaela quaffed more curatives and Phallon sang songs of healing. It was not long before the lady sorceress was ready to head to the roof again.
“Let’s go Phallon. I feel much better” said Kaela as she went up the stairs.
Phallon needed no urging. She drew her blade and followed Kaela.
As soon as the two ladies set foot on the roof they were swept into the sky. Both spun heel over heel until coming to rest thirty feet above. They weren’t too far from Vaevictus and spread about the sky like floating dolls were all their companions (save Uthar’zen who was still trying to climb the wall), a dark naga’s corpse dripping blood, a living dark naga hissing curses, and still another living dark naga flying about unhindered.
“This is quite a mess” said Kaela.
“Yes, it is” agreed Phallon.
Holly halted in mid-flight confused by the sudden turn of events.
The flying dark naga wasted no time furthering the distance between itself and the sword wielding human.
The other living dark naga floated in the air as unable to move as her companions. It began launching spells intended to slay.
Holly flew towards it attacking viciously.
Kaela, not yet depleted of Art, did not float idly awaiting death from the dark naga’s spells. She flung green acid darts at the snake every time it started to cast.
Unable to defend itself from both Holly’s sword and Kaela’s acid darts, the dark naga was slain. Its flesh melted and several notches were hewn from its hide.
The flying dark naga fled. It warned others of its kind about the eight companions, telling them that a powerful a group of adventurers wandering in their territory should be avoided if one did not want to come to an early demise.
Holly carried most of her companions to the ground, and Celtavian made use of a feather fall to see Vaevictus did not have an unpleasant fall.
Exhausted physically and magically, the eight companions found safe refuge for the night in the basement of an old manse an hours travel from where they fought. There they passed a watchful, uneventful night.
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