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Into the Icy Darkness: The Great Demon War
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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1327164" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p><strong>Into the Icy Darkness</strong> – part 2 of 3</p><p></p><p>Tess awoke early in the morning to the incessant nudgings of the small yellow creature they’d rescued the day before… she’d taken to calling him, “The Cheat” after a small creature she’d seen in a play back home. He’d taken to the name well, and was proving quite lovable in his thankfulness for their intervention.</p><p></p><p>”Rise… rise golden one!” he called, nudging her again.</p><p></p><p>“Rmph,” Tess mumbled, as the rising light of a yet unborn dawn began to course through the trees. “Its early,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.</p><p></p><p>“Yes… but early start means I get you to the mountain sooner! So you don’t have to sleep in the mountain with nasties!”</p><p></p><p>Tess nodded sleepily, and nodded to Lucius and Shaun, who had taken last watch, to start waking the others. Grumki grumbled loudly about being woken, grumbling that the “strength of Kord <em>does</em> require sleep!” With some coaxing the party was to its feet, and The Cheat happily led them forward, even as the distant rumble of hordes of creatures leaving the mountain from the main entrance continued.</p><p></p><p>As the sun barely climbed into the sky, the party dodged rocks and boulders, making their way up the side of the mountain till they neared a small black spot in its side… the entrance of what appeared to be either a small cave or abandoned mine shaft. The party stopped in confusion however when they spotted two roughly humanoid figures besides the hole, one on each side.</p><p></p><p>Shaun immediately ducked behind a rock, as did Rogar and Tess. Siabrey’s clanking did not help her hiding cause, while Grumki did not even try to hide, rumbling, “the strength of Kord does not require hiding!”</p><p></p><p>The two creatures spotted the party, and began scampering down the hill. The party quickly noticed that while they had many human features, there were large, insect-like mandibles on either side of their mouth, and two rather strange knobs arose from the sides of their heads.</p><p></p><p>Tess watched Shaun used his ventriloquism ability to make his voice sound behind the creatures. The creature to the left turned and began looking up the hill in confusion, while the right one glared down at the party. The party launched arrows at the distracted creature (both were araneas), hitting it hard.</p><p></p><p>The creature spun around at being hit, and launched a sticky web at the party, catching Grumki and Lucius, holding them in place. The second creature then charged down the hill at Grumki, biting his stuck form hard, attempting to pump poison into his body. Grumki’s body twisted in pain, but managed to avoid being poisoned.</p><p></p><p>As Lucius and Grumki struggled to get free, Tess opened her mouth, and the notes of her harp cascaded through the air. Her first note was a carefully placed song strike, its notes aimed at the wounded aranea up the hill. As belted off a high C in her soprano, the creature began to shake violently, the arrows in its body writhing through its flesh, cutting it to pieces.</p><p></p><p>She then spun towards the aranea directly in front of Grumki, as the creature reared back to try and bite him again. Her voice slunk for a split second back to low F, and then rose thunderously, her voice slowly crawling up the scale as the volume of her crescendo blasted through the air. The aranea shuddered, broke off his attack, and stumbled uphill. He only managed to get a few feet before his head, vibrating violently, exploded as her voice reached high C again. While the results were rather gruesome, she gave a little grin as the other party members stared at her in awe.</p><p></p><p>“Its all in the voice,” she said with a smile.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Searches of the aranea’s bodies for items or clues proved useless, and Siabrey saw Shaun growl a little in frustration. She cut open their bellies, to see if there was anything there… a move she’d repeated with all the monsters the group had killed. The response this time was the same as before… groans of distaste, and people staring away. Nothing.</p><p></p><p>”The Cheat,” as Tess was calling the little creature told them he was afraid of going inside unless it was absolutely necessary… but he would be more than willing to stand outside, and should something threaten to come in, warn them. Tess thanked the small creature, and Siabrey followed suit, commenting that he was very brave for helping them.</p><p></p><p>As the party gingerly stepped inside the cave, Siabrey took point, and her red eyes couldn’t see anything until Tess lit a sunrod and stuck its unlit end into her backpack. The light was there just long enough for Siabrey to get a momentary glimpse of a hail of icicles as they peppered her, hurting her upper arm and an exposed part of her leg (5 points damage). Lucius quickly came over with his staff and healed her.</p><p></p><p>Pushing onward, it was both she and Shaun that noticed a section of the ice covered floor that was discolored. It was small enough the party was able to walk around it, and continue onward. Little did Siabrey or any of the others know they had just avoided a cold trap, which would have dropped the temperature in the tunnel from the already cold 30 degrees to around –20 degrees.</p><p></p><p>The party pressed further, Grumki now accompanying Siabrey in the lead. The two rounded a corner and narrowly avoided a massive blast of cold from a trap at the end of the short hall. Siabrey voiced major concerns about taking point for a bit, yet the group pressed onward… till they noticed up ahead was a slope of some kind.</p><p></p><p>”Can you see anything?” she nervously asked as Rogar and Shaun crawled ahead to take a look.</p><p></p><p>“It’s a set of stairs… they’re mostly stone, very little ice or snow on them… should be fine,” Shaun called back. Siabrey and the rest of the party came up, and no sooner had she placed her foot on the first step of the 40 foot tall stairs, than a loud roaring echoed through the cavern.</p><p></p><p>Before their eyes, spigots burst from the sides of the walls, and water flooded onto the cold stairs… and within seconds, the stairs were coated with nearly 5 inches of ice. Siabrey slipped, landed on her back, and went sliding down the stairs quickly. She attempted to pull out her dagger to try and slow her descent, but by the time the weapon was drawn, her legs hit the flat bottom of the stairway with a <em>thud</em>. Two more <em>thuds</em> echoed from beside her, as Tess and the normally sure-footed Rogar landed beside her.</p><p></p><p>“Allo?” she heard Lucius’ worried voice call from above, and she quickly responded with an, “Ouch!” She twisted herself around, and saw him, Shaun, and Grumki scuttling down the stairs… half walking, half tiptoeing. IF her legs didn’t hurt as much, she probably would have burst out laughing. Once again, Lucius went to work with his staff, fixing up the injured.</p><p></p><p>Sufficiently mended, the party continues onward, as Siabrey hears Tess remarked they must have come, “at least half a mile,” into the mountain. So far the group had seen nothing, and Siabrey was starting to get annoyed.</p><p></p><p>“Where is <em>anything</em> in here?” she hissed quietly. Her wish for something to happen came true, as Shaun suddenly hissed for silence. The noise of growling and scurrying rose from slightly ahead of the party, echoing along the icy walls, and Siabrey began to make out a faint shape… a large, low shape. With teeth.</p><p></p><p>The shape quickly materialized into the shape of a giant lizard, perhaps 10-15 feet long, with blue, leathery skin and enormous, sharp teeth. Siabrey had never seen anything like this before, and she was shocked as an arrow from her bow went into the creature, <em>and then came back out</em>, as if the creature hadn’t been harmed. Shaun’s arrow, with its flame, seemed to have an effect, however.</p><p></p><p>More arrows clattered up the hall, none hitting the monster. Seeing her bow was ineffective, Siabrey flashed her katana out, a feeling of warmth coming from it to her hands. With a yell, she launched herself at the creature, weapon high in the air. Her ears barely caught the noise of Grumki’s voice rumbling, “The strength of Kord has a target!” and the heavy footfall’s of the half-orc close behind her.</p><p></p><p>As they charge, the creature lashes out at Grumki visciously, biting him hard, and slashing him with 3 of its four sets of claws. While the creature is distracted, Siabrey’s blade sings through the air in a lightning thrust from a down guard position, cutting into the creature’s neck, and up into its innards. Its left side seems to slump, as it dawns on Siabrey she must have partially paralyzed it (critical hit).</p><p></p><p>Grumki was not about to take a mauling sitting down, or standing up, and let out with a load roar of anger as he brought his warhammer onto the creature’s head. An enormous series of sickening <em>snaps, cracks</em> and <em>pops</em> reverberated through the air as the frost salamander’s head was crushed in, the blow so vicious that its body flew several feet to the side of the passageway.</p><p></p><p>Siabrey, heavily panting, gave Grumki a grin, and the half orc, bleeding as Lucius ran up to him, grinned back.</p><p></p><p>“You see how the strength of Kord does not require accuracy?” the creature beamed as his wounds were healed.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Shaun wondered what the heck he had gotten himself into an hour or so later, as the loud roaring nosie the group had been hearing for the past 15 minutes continued to grow as they ventured further and further into the cave. The party had gone through numerous twists and turns again… but there had been no traps, and no enemies… yet.</p><p></p><p>As Siabrey and Grumki push ahead, they reach another turn in the path, and Shaun hears Siabrey’s annoyed voice hiss, “I’m tired of going around corners blind,” as she readied her katana again. Shaun and Tess both shoved up towards the front, but Tess reached there first, handing Siabrey her mirror. The fighter leaned the mirror into the next hall, and drew it back very quickly, a pale (for her copper tone) rigid look on her face. Her katana came out again… enough signal to Shaun to ready his bow.</p><p></p><p>A scuscerating noise came echoing down the other corridor, and within seconds, to large, winged creatures, seemingly made entirely of ice, burst from around the corner. Shaun let loose immediately, as the noise of Tess’ song echoed through the air. Siabrey slashed at one of the creature’s legs, and a gentle rain of ice tinkled as bits of the monster fell away under her blow. Shaun’s arrow, meanwhile, burned a large gouge into the creature’s shoulder, and its noises grew louder in anger or pain.</p><p></p><p>The two creatures seemed to each have swords made of ice, and one of them slashed into Siabrey’s left shoulder with a vengeance after he katana nearly removed its leg. Siabrey visibly winced in pain, and staggered back slightly.</p><p></p><p>Shaun was taking aim at the creature when he was pushed hard from the side, and a man he didn’t recognize stormed by. Shaun had never seen Lucius’ face so dark and angry, and before Shaun could correct his aim, Lucius’ bastard sword struck the creature so hard in the side that its ice body shattered into a thousand pieces.</p><p></p><p>Shaun started to correct his aim to shoot at the other, just as Tess let out a sonic dart which shattered the other creature’s arms, and Grumki’s warhammer found more targets for Kord, sending the pieces of that ice demon skittering all through the hall.</p><p></p><p>Siabrey then suddenly winced in pain again, and let out a visible gasp. Lucius was immediately at her side, as she hissed between her breath, “The ice! Get the ice out of there!” </p><p></p><p>Shaun went over to try and help, only to see Lucius’ hands nervously fumble about. With a firm, but gentle arm, Grumki pulled Lucius aside, and with his big, bumbling fingers, pulled each ice shard out of her wound, and prevented them from burrowing further into her body (the monsters were ice demons, as seen in <em>Dragon</em> magazine). A clearly very worried Lucius spent some time healing her, as the rest of the party slinked around the corner, to see the hall ahead was empty.</p><p></p><p>Save for a blue light coming from another hall or room at the end.</p><p></p><p>“I know you are here, little ones,” a loud, firm voice echoed in Shaun’s head. By the confusion in the others, he guessed they had heard the same.</p><p></p><p>“You who would steal my power, and give it to that treacherous wench to the south!” the voice’s edge became sharp and bitter. “You have your change now, to join me, and share in the rebirth of my power… or die.” The light from the end of the hall grew far brighter, its bluish hue illuminating that the far end of the hall sloped upwards from about 30 feet high where the party stood to nearly 150 feet high at the far end.</p><p></p><p> Shaun was utterly frightened, but mustered up as much bravado as he could. “Your descendant, or were you too ill-equipped to have such?” he barked, and saw the faces of Tess and Siabrey wince at his insult. Lucius’ face is dead pale, and Shaun sees a worried Siabrey get close to him.</p><p></p><p>A roar came from the room at the end, into their view came an image from their nightmares.</p><p></p><p>A glowing blue figure, seeming around 10 feet tall, with 20 foot wide wings, flew into the hall. His body was that of a moderately muscled man in his prime, colored blue with ice. His face, however, was frighteningly devoid of a mouth or a nose… instead only two enormous, blue sapphires stood in place of eyes, and long, thin strands of diamonds stood in place of his hair. The figure flashed some arcane signals over himself as he flew out… and the party responded.</p><p></p><p>Shaun drew his bow, and despite the fact that his target was 100 feet away, despite the fact that it was dark, despite the fact that he was shaking to his very core at seeing this… <em>thing</em>, his conscious mind only saw one thing: The small depressing between the two humps in the creatures chest where the sternum would be on a human. The end of his arrow burned bright, as the world slowed to a crawl, and he let loose.</p><p></p><p>The arrow flew straight and true, along the way being joined by Siabrey’s first shot as well, and the two arrows slammed into the creature Ananias side by side, causing the massive demon to reel from the blow. Arrows from Lucius, Grumki’s crossbow, and even Rogar’s crossbow slashed into the creature as well. (DM’s note: Um… yeah… double criticals from Shaun and Siabrey. The party did extremely good… dealing 78 points damage in their first round with only normal weapons…)</p><p></p><p>Ananias roared, and it became all too apparent that Ananias had cast <em>haste</em> upon himself. He first extends an icy, bony finger towards the first person to anger him… Siabrey. A blinding ray of light slashes towards her, and within a second, she is encased in 5 inches of solid ice… able to breath, but nothing else until she broke her bonds. (Freeze Ray, described in <em>Dragon</em> magazine)</p><p></p><p>Next, Ananias opened his hands, and the frigid air around them quickly condensed into 6 large icicles, perhaps one inch thick and six inches long, than then lash out towards the party: two towards Siabrey, two towards Grumki, and the rest towards Shaun. Shaun is hit in the shoulder by one, and finds himself reeling. Grumki is hit by two, and the ice around Siabrey parts so that the icy missiles impale her as well. (DM’s Note: A little spell-like ability I made especially for this bad boy)</p><p></p><p>Finally, Ananias turns his right hand into a fist, and from below the first to a position nearly 9 feet above it, the air begins to congeal…</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Tess rocked in her boots at the sight of the monstrosity in front of her, and what it had done in the space of a few seconds: immobilize the party’s best fighter, impale half the party with ice missiles, and now it was calling forth something unholy in its hand.</p><p></p><p>To make matters more annoying for Tess, the creature was far beyond the range of any of her musical magic… and thus she relied on her harp to reply, sending another arrow towards the giant creature, even as Grumki paced angrily, the creature out of range of his warhammer.</p><p></p><p>Ananias then opened his mouth, and a frigid cold blast thundered up the hallway, and Tess was forced to close her eyes as icicles tried to form on her eyelashes, and she felt her hair start to freeze. She managed to hold her ground, despite her body’s screaming pain at the bone-numbing cold. IN his left hand, she saw more icy missiles form, and then fly outward, several striking her, a few striking Shaun, and others striking Lucius. And then her heart stopped.</p><p></p><p>The writhing form of chilled air in his right hand finally formed… into the largest sword she had ever seen… larger than even the legendary fullblade. It was transparent, and a sickly icy blue… a pure icy blade of death.</p><p></p><p>She watched with some worry as Grumki decided to be useful and run over to the struggling Siabrey, in an effort to help free her. Lucius dashed over to do the same, as she looked with fury at Rogar slipping off towards a little rise in the ice along the wall. She watched him intently for a split second, as he lowered himself down, and pointed his crossbow outwards… towards Ananias, but curiously not <em>at</em> him.</p><p></p><p>She drew her harpbow again, and let loose another arrow, which again found its target.</p><p></p><p>Ananias then did the unthinkable, in her mind.</p><p></p><p>The massive creature, which looked to only be able to fly ponderously through the air, slashed forward at lightning speed, till it was only a mere ten feet from the party. Grumki rushed ahead of Tess and began trying to swing at the demon, only to be no avail (he was flying too high up). Tess gave a dark grin, and her high C soprano echoed through the hall as a crescendo came leaping towards Ananias. Comapred to her earlier results, these were disappointing.</p><p></p><p>The demon’s left wing shuddered a bit, but most of what happened was him turning exclusively to her, and filling her with 5 of the icy darts, almost knocking her to the ground. Others once again sliced through the magical ice holding Siabrey, cutting deep into her, the ice encasing her now growing red with blood. The massive sword then hung, for a moment like a terrible storm, before flashing down, barely missing Lucius as he hurriedly worked to free Siabrey.</p><p></p><p>To her left, Tess heard Shaun’s low voice singing a soft song of healing on himself, as he pulled several of the icy darts from his body. She heard Lucius’ shouts and cries to the trapped Siabrey, as well as the cracks as he continued to swing at the ice around her in vain. Rogar was still silently waiting on his perch, while Grumki continued to swing in vain. Tess’s ears then heard the roar of another frost salamander, and her tired and strained eyes spotted one coming out of the same room that Ananias emerged from. Her body ached from the icy missiles embedded in it, and from the frigid cold that still shook its core.</p><p></p><p><em>This is it,</em> her mind thought blandly, quietly, <em>I am going to die</em>.</p><p></p><p>Her morose thoughts did not stop her from preparing another song… but her voice was interrupted by another one.</p><p></p><p>“I’ve got you!” she heard Rogar’s voice say softly, and she was momentarily pulled into seeing him load his crossbow, aim it at the oncoming frost salamander, and pulling the trigger. The shot ran amazingly true, and the salamander collapsed in the throes of death with only one bolt in him. Before her mind could wonder too loud about this welcome, yet disturbing development, another voice echoed through the hall.</p><p></p><p>“Get away from him!” she heard Lucius’ voice call loudly, and she glanced over to see that his face was bound in fury, his veins enormous, nearly exploding from his neck and his forehead…and that he was <em>floating</em> upwards in the air… maybe 20 feet off the ground. She started to back away, until Ananias moved for her.</p><p></p><p>Evidently, her song had hurt him more than he liked, as he shuttled back to nearly 100 feet away, far outside of her range. Her eyes were locked on Lucius though, as a small, little glow grew in his hands into a glowing bead, white as snow. He flashed his hands, and the bead flew out towards the demon. Time stood still, as the bead hit the creatures forehead, and with a very audible <em>tink</em> bounced to its shoulder, then rolled up along its wing. </p><p></p><p>They <em>felt</em>, rather than heard, the resulting explosion.</p><p></p><p>Ananias momentarily disappeared as a 20 foot wide ball of fire gave the entire hall a bathing in blood red light, and everyone in the party hurriedly dodged falling icicles from the ceiling. Through the roiling smoke caused by the blast, Tess could see Ananias crash to the ground, minus his entire right wing. His left wing still flapped crazily, and the mighty demon amazingly arose partially, enough that he opened his mouth yet again.</p><p></p><p>Another frigid blast shredded through the body of Tess and all others present, and was followed momentarily by 4 of the ice arrows assaulting Lucius so viciously that he fell from his perch, landing awkwardly and barely conscious. Tess shook as another crash went through the air… this time it was Grumki’s hammer breaking the ice around Siabrey. The fighter’s cry of fury rose in Tess’ ears, as arrows flew at the monster.</p><p></p><p>Tess’ body was barely standing; what parts of her were cut open by the ice assaults of the creature were frostbitten and had icicles hanging from them from its breath attacks. </p><p></p><p><em>If this is my end, I shall have an end worth remembering in song!</em> her mind snarled, and with effort, she coaxed her tired, worn frame into a trot, and then a run, at the partially prone monster.</p><p></p><p>”Fa’rallan,” her tired voice said, barely audible, “you shall have another chance at making a good prank today, should I live!” Her blade flashed in the air… and while Fa’rallan was an annoying creature at times, she understood the gravity that her new master might die… and the dagger remained silent.</p><p></p><p>A roar echoed behind Tess, and she realized that the heavy footfalls behind her was Grumki, running at full tilt towards the prone demon as well. The distance rapidly fell, and when they were a mere 20 feet away Ananias raised a battered hand, sending two more of the ice daggers into Grumki, who fell to the ground, conscious, but bleeding and in deep pain.</p><p></p><p>Tess charged onward, her mind focused, and unthinking. No war cry rose to her lips, no memorable last phrase, just a simple, focused goal held her concern: Kill the Demon. Her voice carried high, not in song, but in a scream… as she plunged Fa’rallan into the neck of the massive abomination. </p><p></p><p>A loud, joyful shout of “ZAP!” echoed through the halls, mingling with her scream and the new dying gurgle of a demon, before all fell silent as Ananias moved for the last time; a nervous twitch as Tess twisted the knife deep into his throat.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Siabrey shivered as she knelt next to the slightly moving form of Lucius. Her heart had tumbled with him as he fell, and now all the naysaying in her mind had long been destroyed. He was very slow to rise, his form a shattered visage.</p><p></p><p>Ice missiles had shredded his upper left arm and shoulder, down across his bicep, and into his belly. Icicles hung from his eyebrows and hair, and were drapped about his arms as if they were other pieces of clothing. His eyes were momentarily unfocused, until they made contact with hers. A quiet rush of relief flashed through them, wide and deep, as the same reaction coursed through her veins.</p><p></p><p><em>I almost lost you!</em> her mind screamed as she hugged him, her own wounds quite vicious and bloody. Above the pain of moving or looking around, all her mind continued to scream was, <em>I almost lost you! Lucius, I almost lost you!</em></p><p></p><p>The rest of the party was not in much better shape. Shaun was filled with icy darts, and his clothing was encased in a light covering of ice from the monster’s breath; Grumki was only now just beginning to rise from his brush with death at the mosnter’s last blast; Tess’ clothes, even from this distance, could be seen to be covered with a mixture of blood and ice; while Rogar, unharmed by the ice shard assaults, had horribly discolored skin from frostbite, his face gaining an icy beard. (DM’s Note: Tess was down to 6 HP out of approx. 40, Lucius was down to 4 out of 47, and Grumki was down to 7 out of 52. The rest of the party had at least lost 50% of their HP).</p><p></p><p>Her hug with him was cut short, as he gently pushed her away, and with a grunt, picked up his staff. His voice said the command words quietly, and soon she felt warmth returning to her body, and the wounds in her side, chest, and belly begin to close up. </p><p></p><p>”Heal yourself,” she instructed quietly, but Lucius ignored her, moving on to help Tess, and then Grumki. It was then that Siabrey caught that his normally fire red hair was actually rather yellow and white in places, and that his skin was the deep red, as if infused with massive amounts of blood. She was about to chastise him again as he moved to Shaun when Tess caught her attention.</p><p></p><p>”Lucius… I think… used something… evil… in the battle… its called bloodleech,” Tess said quietly. “I don’t think it was intentional… but he looked like he released it when he released the fireball… when he was in a rage. It literally sucks life out of the opponent… he weakened Ananias for us… but the fact that he <em>did</em> this scares me…”</p><p></p><p>Siabrey nodded, concern deepening in her. </p><p></p><p><em>He went into that rage over you… over the monster hurting you. You owe him your life… and much more…</em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Shaun, Grumki, and Rogar meanwhile had piled ahead to the room Ananias had emerged from, to see if they could find the diamond they sought for so long. What they found was a treasure chest.</p><p></p><p>Gold, platinum, and copper coins were piled high in the room, along with numerous gems and artifacts beyond belief. A rich tapesty was found, depicted a battle. A portait of a woman, (not the Countess) was found as well. In addition, a javelin with runes, a quiver with 20 white arrows, and a black dagger were found. Rogar quickly pocketed the black dagger, as the rest of the party slowly came in.</p><p></p><p>The diamond in question was found rather quickly, and looked just as described… an enormous half sphere, the size of two men’s fists put together, and when Siabrey attempted to see if it was magic, she almost had to turn away the brilliance was so strong. Other massive gems were found in the room as well, though unfortunately these all burned the party’s hands. Grumki, the only cleric present, pronounced them evil, and set to work using Kord’s strength to crush them to a pulp.</p><p></p><p>After the party had looted the place as much as they could, and destroyed what items were evil that they couldn’t take with to be exorcised, they set out. Debate raged along the way out of the caverns of where to go… </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>AS the party exited the mountain, Tess and Siabrey both noticed… with some alarm, that the army of horrids that had been streaming from the mountainside had vanished… leaving an enormous path through the forest, easily some 100 yards wide.</p><p></p><p>Curious, Tess then pulled out the changing idol, and her face fell pale. She then showed Siabrey the idol, which looked even more like his mother from her guesses. The head of the idol was still down, so no clear look was visible of the face, thought he long hair and feminine figure was rapidly narrowing down the possibilities of who it might be.</p><p></p><p>”We need to tell Lucius… we can’t hold back any longer,” Tess said quietly. “He needs to know the apparent danger his mother is in.” Siabrey nodded, but her mind, filled with emotions already, was unsure of where to even begin.</p><p></p><p>“Um… Lucius?” she said quietly, with a little relief as she saw him finishing healing himself last, “I.. we… need to talk to you.” He nodded slowly, his eyes showing that he knew something was wrong.</p><p></p><p>”Lucius… the army we saw earlier today… they were.. they were…” Siabrey’s voice trailed off, she had no idea how to finish the sentence. Fortunately, Tess understood how, and did it for her.</p><p></p><p>”They were headed towards Holstean, Lucius.”</p><p></p><p>Siabrey clasped him close to her, and felt his shoulders go lax. He began to sink towards the ground, and she followed him down, holding him tight as they went. </p><p></p><p>”I don’t know if your mother is calling them to banish them away, if she is calling them to create an army, or if they are marching to war… I wish I knew Lucius,” Tess said quietly and full of the most gentle tones she could muster. Lucius began to shake, though he stood strong, and no tear fell from his sorrowed eye, and Tess reached out and pulled him close.</p><p></p><p>”I’m sorry,” she said quietly. She then let go, and looked at Siabrey. Her head gave a small jerk towards Lucius, a request Siabrey had no intentions of not obeying. </p><p></p><p><em>I’ll be by your side! Don’t worry Lucius… I’ll never leave you behind!</em></p><p></p><p>She grabbed Lucius, and held him close, rocking him back and forth as his world slowly began to crumble.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> Tess and Siabrey initially favored riding hard towards Holstean. Shaun and Lucius, however, remembered that Hidalas was in Kulloden, at the Church of Hieroneous, and proposed going there to ask him what he had found. The party agreed, on condition that they ride ceaselessly.</p><p></p><p>A full day of constant riding in, Lucius had to be strapped to his saddle, and it wasn’t until nearly a full day later than the tired status of the horses forced the party to make camp. Tess insisted that camp be brief.. no more than six hours. Lucius asked if he and Rogar could take last watch, so he could get some sleep… and unofficially so Grumki could spend the night up with Shaun.</p><p></p><p>It was Siabrey who, deep into third and last watch, awoke to the noise of a horse’s whinny and the thunder of hooves. Her unfocused eyes looked around, and spotted Lucius, prone face down. On the back of his neck was a strange, sticky white substance that was starting to cake. She quickly scraped most of it off with her knife, and noticed with alarm that while he was breathing, Lucius did not move at all.</p><p></p><p><em>Poisoned</em> her mind screamed, as her own echoed through the forest, waking up the others.</p><p></p><p>Shaun’s voice immediately exploded with “Ilia!” as he recognized the deed. There was general confusion for a few moments</p><p></p><p>It wasn’t for a few minutes till party members realized that Rogar’s horse was missing… as was Rogar himself…</p><p></p><p>As was the diamond they had fought so hard to recover…</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 1327164, member: 15043"] [b]Into the Icy Darkness[/b] – part 2 of 3 Tess awoke early in the morning to the incessant nudgings of the small yellow creature they’d rescued the day before… she’d taken to calling him, “The Cheat” after a small creature she’d seen in a play back home. He’d taken to the name well, and was proving quite lovable in his thankfulness for their intervention. ”Rise… rise golden one!” he called, nudging her again. “Rmph,” Tess mumbled, as the rising light of a yet unborn dawn began to course through the trees. “Its early,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. “Yes… but early start means I get you to the mountain sooner! So you don’t have to sleep in the mountain with nasties!” Tess nodded sleepily, and nodded to Lucius and Shaun, who had taken last watch, to start waking the others. Grumki grumbled loudly about being woken, grumbling that the “strength of Kord [I]does[/I] require sleep!” With some coaxing the party was to its feet, and The Cheat happily led them forward, even as the distant rumble of hordes of creatures leaving the mountain from the main entrance continued. As the sun barely climbed into the sky, the party dodged rocks and boulders, making their way up the side of the mountain till they neared a small black spot in its side… the entrance of what appeared to be either a small cave or abandoned mine shaft. The party stopped in confusion however when they spotted two roughly humanoid figures besides the hole, one on each side. Shaun immediately ducked behind a rock, as did Rogar and Tess. Siabrey’s clanking did not help her hiding cause, while Grumki did not even try to hide, rumbling, “the strength of Kord does not require hiding!” The two creatures spotted the party, and began scampering down the hill. The party quickly noticed that while they had many human features, there were large, insect-like mandibles on either side of their mouth, and two rather strange knobs arose from the sides of their heads. Tess watched Shaun used his ventriloquism ability to make his voice sound behind the creatures. The creature to the left turned and began looking up the hill in confusion, while the right one glared down at the party. The party launched arrows at the distracted creature (both were araneas), hitting it hard. The creature spun around at being hit, and launched a sticky web at the party, catching Grumki and Lucius, holding them in place. The second creature then charged down the hill at Grumki, biting his stuck form hard, attempting to pump poison into his body. Grumki’s body twisted in pain, but managed to avoid being poisoned. As Lucius and Grumki struggled to get free, Tess opened her mouth, and the notes of her harp cascaded through the air. Her first note was a carefully placed song strike, its notes aimed at the wounded aranea up the hill. As belted off a high C in her soprano, the creature began to shake violently, the arrows in its body writhing through its flesh, cutting it to pieces. She then spun towards the aranea directly in front of Grumki, as the creature reared back to try and bite him again. Her voice slunk for a split second back to low F, and then rose thunderously, her voice slowly crawling up the scale as the volume of her crescendo blasted through the air. The aranea shuddered, broke off his attack, and stumbled uphill. He only managed to get a few feet before his head, vibrating violently, exploded as her voice reached high C again. While the results were rather gruesome, she gave a little grin as the other party members stared at her in awe. “Its all in the voice,” she said with a smile. Searches of the aranea’s bodies for items or clues proved useless, and Siabrey saw Shaun growl a little in frustration. She cut open their bellies, to see if there was anything there… a move she’d repeated with all the monsters the group had killed. The response this time was the same as before… groans of distaste, and people staring away. Nothing. ”The Cheat,” as Tess was calling the little creature told them he was afraid of going inside unless it was absolutely necessary… but he would be more than willing to stand outside, and should something threaten to come in, warn them. Tess thanked the small creature, and Siabrey followed suit, commenting that he was very brave for helping them. As the party gingerly stepped inside the cave, Siabrey took point, and her red eyes couldn’t see anything until Tess lit a sunrod and stuck its unlit end into her backpack. The light was there just long enough for Siabrey to get a momentary glimpse of a hail of icicles as they peppered her, hurting her upper arm and an exposed part of her leg (5 points damage). Lucius quickly came over with his staff and healed her. Pushing onward, it was both she and Shaun that noticed a section of the ice covered floor that was discolored. It was small enough the party was able to walk around it, and continue onward. Little did Siabrey or any of the others know they had just avoided a cold trap, which would have dropped the temperature in the tunnel from the already cold 30 degrees to around –20 degrees. The party pressed further, Grumki now accompanying Siabrey in the lead. The two rounded a corner and narrowly avoided a massive blast of cold from a trap at the end of the short hall. Siabrey voiced major concerns about taking point for a bit, yet the group pressed onward… till they noticed up ahead was a slope of some kind. ”Can you see anything?” she nervously asked as Rogar and Shaun crawled ahead to take a look. “It’s a set of stairs… they’re mostly stone, very little ice or snow on them… should be fine,” Shaun called back. Siabrey and the rest of the party came up, and no sooner had she placed her foot on the first step of the 40 foot tall stairs, than a loud roaring echoed through the cavern. Before their eyes, spigots burst from the sides of the walls, and water flooded onto the cold stairs… and within seconds, the stairs were coated with nearly 5 inches of ice. Siabrey slipped, landed on her back, and went sliding down the stairs quickly. She attempted to pull out her dagger to try and slow her descent, but by the time the weapon was drawn, her legs hit the flat bottom of the stairway with a [I]thud[/I]. Two more [I]thuds[/I] echoed from beside her, as Tess and the normally sure-footed Rogar landed beside her. “Allo?” she heard Lucius’ worried voice call from above, and she quickly responded with an, “Ouch!” She twisted herself around, and saw him, Shaun, and Grumki scuttling down the stairs… half walking, half tiptoeing. IF her legs didn’t hurt as much, she probably would have burst out laughing. Once again, Lucius went to work with his staff, fixing up the injured. Sufficiently mended, the party continues onward, as Siabrey hears Tess remarked they must have come, “at least half a mile,” into the mountain. So far the group had seen nothing, and Siabrey was starting to get annoyed. “Where is [I]anything[/I] in here?” she hissed quietly. Her wish for something to happen came true, as Shaun suddenly hissed for silence. The noise of growling and scurrying rose from slightly ahead of the party, echoing along the icy walls, and Siabrey began to make out a faint shape… a large, low shape. With teeth. The shape quickly materialized into the shape of a giant lizard, perhaps 10-15 feet long, with blue, leathery skin and enormous, sharp teeth. Siabrey had never seen anything like this before, and she was shocked as an arrow from her bow went into the creature, [I]and then came back out[/I], as if the creature hadn’t been harmed. Shaun’s arrow, with its flame, seemed to have an effect, however. More arrows clattered up the hall, none hitting the monster. Seeing her bow was ineffective, Siabrey flashed her katana out, a feeling of warmth coming from it to her hands. With a yell, she launched herself at the creature, weapon high in the air. Her ears barely caught the noise of Grumki’s voice rumbling, “The strength of Kord has a target!” and the heavy footfall’s of the half-orc close behind her. As they charge, the creature lashes out at Grumki visciously, biting him hard, and slashing him with 3 of its four sets of claws. While the creature is distracted, Siabrey’s blade sings through the air in a lightning thrust from a down guard position, cutting into the creature’s neck, and up into its innards. Its left side seems to slump, as it dawns on Siabrey she must have partially paralyzed it (critical hit). Grumki was not about to take a mauling sitting down, or standing up, and let out with a load roar of anger as he brought his warhammer onto the creature’s head. An enormous series of sickening [I]snaps, cracks[/I] and [I]pops[/I] reverberated through the air as the frost salamander’s head was crushed in, the blow so vicious that its body flew several feet to the side of the passageway. Siabrey, heavily panting, gave Grumki a grin, and the half orc, bleeding as Lucius ran up to him, grinned back. “You see how the strength of Kord does not require accuracy?” the creature beamed as his wounds were healed. Shaun wondered what the heck he had gotten himself into an hour or so later, as the loud roaring nosie the group had been hearing for the past 15 minutes continued to grow as they ventured further and further into the cave. The party had gone through numerous twists and turns again… but there had been no traps, and no enemies… yet. As Siabrey and Grumki push ahead, they reach another turn in the path, and Shaun hears Siabrey’s annoyed voice hiss, “I’m tired of going around corners blind,” as she readied her katana again. Shaun and Tess both shoved up towards the front, but Tess reached there first, handing Siabrey her mirror. The fighter leaned the mirror into the next hall, and drew it back very quickly, a pale (for her copper tone) rigid look on her face. Her katana came out again… enough signal to Shaun to ready his bow. A scuscerating noise came echoing down the other corridor, and within seconds, to large, winged creatures, seemingly made entirely of ice, burst from around the corner. Shaun let loose immediately, as the noise of Tess’ song echoed through the air. Siabrey slashed at one of the creature’s legs, and a gentle rain of ice tinkled as bits of the monster fell away under her blow. Shaun’s arrow, meanwhile, burned a large gouge into the creature’s shoulder, and its noises grew louder in anger or pain. The two creatures seemed to each have swords made of ice, and one of them slashed into Siabrey’s left shoulder with a vengeance after he katana nearly removed its leg. Siabrey visibly winced in pain, and staggered back slightly. Shaun was taking aim at the creature when he was pushed hard from the side, and a man he didn’t recognize stormed by. Shaun had never seen Lucius’ face so dark and angry, and before Shaun could correct his aim, Lucius’ bastard sword struck the creature so hard in the side that its ice body shattered into a thousand pieces. Shaun started to correct his aim to shoot at the other, just as Tess let out a sonic dart which shattered the other creature’s arms, and Grumki’s warhammer found more targets for Kord, sending the pieces of that ice demon skittering all through the hall. Siabrey then suddenly winced in pain again, and let out a visible gasp. Lucius was immediately at her side, as she hissed between her breath, “The ice! Get the ice out of there!” Shaun went over to try and help, only to see Lucius’ hands nervously fumble about. With a firm, but gentle arm, Grumki pulled Lucius aside, and with his big, bumbling fingers, pulled each ice shard out of her wound, and prevented them from burrowing further into her body (the monsters were ice demons, as seen in [I]Dragon[/I] magazine). A clearly very worried Lucius spent some time healing her, as the rest of the party slinked around the corner, to see the hall ahead was empty. Save for a blue light coming from another hall or room at the end. “I know you are here, little ones,” a loud, firm voice echoed in Shaun’s head. By the confusion in the others, he guessed they had heard the same. “You who would steal my power, and give it to that treacherous wench to the south!” the voice’s edge became sharp and bitter. “You have your change now, to join me, and share in the rebirth of my power… or die.” The light from the end of the hall grew far brighter, its bluish hue illuminating that the far end of the hall sloped upwards from about 30 feet high where the party stood to nearly 150 feet high at the far end. Shaun was utterly frightened, but mustered up as much bravado as he could. “Your descendant, or were you too ill-equipped to have such?” he barked, and saw the faces of Tess and Siabrey wince at his insult. Lucius’ face is dead pale, and Shaun sees a worried Siabrey get close to him. A roar came from the room at the end, into their view came an image from their nightmares. A glowing blue figure, seeming around 10 feet tall, with 20 foot wide wings, flew into the hall. His body was that of a moderately muscled man in his prime, colored blue with ice. His face, however, was frighteningly devoid of a mouth or a nose… instead only two enormous, blue sapphires stood in place of eyes, and long, thin strands of diamonds stood in place of his hair. The figure flashed some arcane signals over himself as he flew out… and the party responded. Shaun drew his bow, and despite the fact that his target was 100 feet away, despite the fact that it was dark, despite the fact that he was shaking to his very core at seeing this… [I]thing[/I], his conscious mind only saw one thing: The small depressing between the two humps in the creatures chest where the sternum would be on a human. The end of his arrow burned bright, as the world slowed to a crawl, and he let loose. The arrow flew straight and true, along the way being joined by Siabrey’s first shot as well, and the two arrows slammed into the creature Ananias side by side, causing the massive demon to reel from the blow. Arrows from Lucius, Grumki’s crossbow, and even Rogar’s crossbow slashed into the creature as well. (DM’s note: Um… yeah… double criticals from Shaun and Siabrey. The party did extremely good… dealing 78 points damage in their first round with only normal weapons…) Ananias roared, and it became all too apparent that Ananias had cast [I]haste[/I] upon himself. He first extends an icy, bony finger towards the first person to anger him… Siabrey. A blinding ray of light slashes towards her, and within a second, she is encased in 5 inches of solid ice… able to breath, but nothing else until she broke her bonds. (Freeze Ray, described in [I]Dragon[/I] magazine) Next, Ananias opened his hands, and the frigid air around them quickly condensed into 6 large icicles, perhaps one inch thick and six inches long, than then lash out towards the party: two towards Siabrey, two towards Grumki, and the rest towards Shaun. Shaun is hit in the shoulder by one, and finds himself reeling. Grumki is hit by two, and the ice around Siabrey parts so that the icy missiles impale her as well. (DM’s Note: A little spell-like ability I made especially for this bad boy) Finally, Ananias turns his right hand into a fist, and from below the first to a position nearly 9 feet above it, the air begins to congeal… Tess rocked in her boots at the sight of the monstrosity in front of her, and what it had done in the space of a few seconds: immobilize the party’s best fighter, impale half the party with ice missiles, and now it was calling forth something unholy in its hand. To make matters more annoying for Tess, the creature was far beyond the range of any of her musical magic… and thus she relied on her harp to reply, sending another arrow towards the giant creature, even as Grumki paced angrily, the creature out of range of his warhammer. Ananias then opened his mouth, and a frigid cold blast thundered up the hallway, and Tess was forced to close her eyes as icicles tried to form on her eyelashes, and she felt her hair start to freeze. She managed to hold her ground, despite her body’s screaming pain at the bone-numbing cold. IN his left hand, she saw more icy missiles form, and then fly outward, several striking her, a few striking Shaun, and others striking Lucius. And then her heart stopped. The writhing form of chilled air in his right hand finally formed… into the largest sword she had ever seen… larger than even the legendary fullblade. It was transparent, and a sickly icy blue… a pure icy blade of death. She watched with some worry as Grumki decided to be useful and run over to the struggling Siabrey, in an effort to help free her. Lucius dashed over to do the same, as she looked with fury at Rogar slipping off towards a little rise in the ice along the wall. She watched him intently for a split second, as he lowered himself down, and pointed his crossbow outwards… towards Ananias, but curiously not [I]at[/I] him. She drew her harpbow again, and let loose another arrow, which again found its target. Ananias then did the unthinkable, in her mind. The massive creature, which looked to only be able to fly ponderously through the air, slashed forward at lightning speed, till it was only a mere ten feet from the party. Grumki rushed ahead of Tess and began trying to swing at the demon, only to be no avail (he was flying too high up). Tess gave a dark grin, and her high C soprano echoed through the hall as a crescendo came leaping towards Ananias. Comapred to her earlier results, these were disappointing. The demon’s left wing shuddered a bit, but most of what happened was him turning exclusively to her, and filling her with 5 of the icy darts, almost knocking her to the ground. Others once again sliced through the magical ice holding Siabrey, cutting deep into her, the ice encasing her now growing red with blood. The massive sword then hung, for a moment like a terrible storm, before flashing down, barely missing Lucius as he hurriedly worked to free Siabrey. To her left, Tess heard Shaun’s low voice singing a soft song of healing on himself, as he pulled several of the icy darts from his body. She heard Lucius’ shouts and cries to the trapped Siabrey, as well as the cracks as he continued to swing at the ice around her in vain. Rogar was still silently waiting on his perch, while Grumki continued to swing in vain. Tess’s ears then heard the roar of another frost salamander, and her tired and strained eyes spotted one coming out of the same room that Ananias emerged from. Her body ached from the icy missiles embedded in it, and from the frigid cold that still shook its core. [I]This is it,[/I] her mind thought blandly, quietly, [I]I am going to die[/I]. Her morose thoughts did not stop her from preparing another song… but her voice was interrupted by another one. “I’ve got you!” she heard Rogar’s voice say softly, and she was momentarily pulled into seeing him load his crossbow, aim it at the oncoming frost salamander, and pulling the trigger. The shot ran amazingly true, and the salamander collapsed in the throes of death with only one bolt in him. Before her mind could wonder too loud about this welcome, yet disturbing development, another voice echoed through the hall. “Get away from him!” she heard Lucius’ voice call loudly, and she glanced over to see that his face was bound in fury, his veins enormous, nearly exploding from his neck and his forehead…and that he was [I]floating[/I] upwards in the air… maybe 20 feet off the ground. She started to back away, until Ananias moved for her. Evidently, her song had hurt him more than he liked, as he shuttled back to nearly 100 feet away, far outside of her range. Her eyes were locked on Lucius though, as a small, little glow grew in his hands into a glowing bead, white as snow. He flashed his hands, and the bead flew out towards the demon. Time stood still, as the bead hit the creatures forehead, and with a very audible [I]tink[/I] bounced to its shoulder, then rolled up along its wing. They [I]felt[/I], rather than heard, the resulting explosion. Ananias momentarily disappeared as a 20 foot wide ball of fire gave the entire hall a bathing in blood red light, and everyone in the party hurriedly dodged falling icicles from the ceiling. Through the roiling smoke caused by the blast, Tess could see Ananias crash to the ground, minus his entire right wing. His left wing still flapped crazily, and the mighty demon amazingly arose partially, enough that he opened his mouth yet again. Another frigid blast shredded through the body of Tess and all others present, and was followed momentarily by 4 of the ice arrows assaulting Lucius so viciously that he fell from his perch, landing awkwardly and barely conscious. Tess shook as another crash went through the air… this time it was Grumki’s hammer breaking the ice around Siabrey. The fighter’s cry of fury rose in Tess’ ears, as arrows flew at the monster. Tess’ body was barely standing; what parts of her were cut open by the ice assaults of the creature were frostbitten and had icicles hanging from them from its breath attacks. [I]If this is my end, I shall have an end worth remembering in song![/I] her mind snarled, and with effort, she coaxed her tired, worn frame into a trot, and then a run, at the partially prone monster. ”Fa’rallan,” her tired voice said, barely audible, “you shall have another chance at making a good prank today, should I live!” Her blade flashed in the air… and while Fa’rallan was an annoying creature at times, she understood the gravity that her new master might die… and the dagger remained silent. A roar echoed behind Tess, and she realized that the heavy footfalls behind her was Grumki, running at full tilt towards the prone demon as well. The distance rapidly fell, and when they were a mere 20 feet away Ananias raised a battered hand, sending two more of the ice daggers into Grumki, who fell to the ground, conscious, but bleeding and in deep pain. Tess charged onward, her mind focused, and unthinking. No war cry rose to her lips, no memorable last phrase, just a simple, focused goal held her concern: Kill the Demon. Her voice carried high, not in song, but in a scream… as she plunged Fa’rallan into the neck of the massive abomination. A loud, joyful shout of “ZAP!” echoed through the halls, mingling with her scream and the new dying gurgle of a demon, before all fell silent as Ananias moved for the last time; a nervous twitch as Tess twisted the knife deep into his throat. Siabrey shivered as she knelt next to the slightly moving form of Lucius. Her heart had tumbled with him as he fell, and now all the naysaying in her mind had long been destroyed. He was very slow to rise, his form a shattered visage. Ice missiles had shredded his upper left arm and shoulder, down across his bicep, and into his belly. Icicles hung from his eyebrows and hair, and were drapped about his arms as if they were other pieces of clothing. His eyes were momentarily unfocused, until they made contact with hers. A quiet rush of relief flashed through them, wide and deep, as the same reaction coursed through her veins. [I]I almost lost you![/I] her mind screamed as she hugged him, her own wounds quite vicious and bloody. Above the pain of moving or looking around, all her mind continued to scream was, [I]I almost lost you! Lucius, I almost lost you![/I] The rest of the party was not in much better shape. Shaun was filled with icy darts, and his clothing was encased in a light covering of ice from the monster’s breath; Grumki was only now just beginning to rise from his brush with death at the mosnter’s last blast; Tess’ clothes, even from this distance, could be seen to be covered with a mixture of blood and ice; while Rogar, unharmed by the ice shard assaults, had horribly discolored skin from frostbite, his face gaining an icy beard. (DM’s Note: Tess was down to 6 HP out of approx. 40, Lucius was down to 4 out of 47, and Grumki was down to 7 out of 52. The rest of the party had at least lost 50% of their HP). Her hug with him was cut short, as he gently pushed her away, and with a grunt, picked up his staff. His voice said the command words quietly, and soon she felt warmth returning to her body, and the wounds in her side, chest, and belly begin to close up. ”Heal yourself,” she instructed quietly, but Lucius ignored her, moving on to help Tess, and then Grumki. It was then that Siabrey caught that his normally fire red hair was actually rather yellow and white in places, and that his skin was the deep red, as if infused with massive amounts of blood. She was about to chastise him again as he moved to Shaun when Tess caught her attention. ”Lucius… I think… used something… evil… in the battle… its called bloodleech,” Tess said quietly. “I don’t think it was intentional… but he looked like he released it when he released the fireball… when he was in a rage. It literally sucks life out of the opponent… he weakened Ananias for us… but the fact that he [I]did[/I] this scares me…” Siabrey nodded, concern deepening in her. [I]He went into that rage over you… over the monster hurting you. You owe him your life… and much more…[/I] Shaun, Grumki, and Rogar meanwhile had piled ahead to the room Ananias had emerged from, to see if they could find the diamond they sought for so long. What they found was a treasure chest. Gold, platinum, and copper coins were piled high in the room, along with numerous gems and artifacts beyond belief. A rich tapesty was found, depicted a battle. A portait of a woman, (not the Countess) was found as well. In addition, a javelin with runes, a quiver with 20 white arrows, and a black dagger were found. Rogar quickly pocketed the black dagger, as the rest of the party slowly came in. The diamond in question was found rather quickly, and looked just as described… an enormous half sphere, the size of two men’s fists put together, and when Siabrey attempted to see if it was magic, she almost had to turn away the brilliance was so strong. Other massive gems were found in the room as well, though unfortunately these all burned the party’s hands. Grumki, the only cleric present, pronounced them evil, and set to work using Kord’s strength to crush them to a pulp. After the party had looted the place as much as they could, and destroyed what items were evil that they couldn’t take with to be exorcised, they set out. Debate raged along the way out of the caverns of where to go… AS the party exited the mountain, Tess and Siabrey both noticed… with some alarm, that the army of horrids that had been streaming from the mountainside had vanished… leaving an enormous path through the forest, easily some 100 yards wide. Curious, Tess then pulled out the changing idol, and her face fell pale. She then showed Siabrey the idol, which looked even more like his mother from her guesses. The head of the idol was still down, so no clear look was visible of the face, thought he long hair and feminine figure was rapidly narrowing down the possibilities of who it might be. ”We need to tell Lucius… we can’t hold back any longer,” Tess said quietly. “He needs to know the apparent danger his mother is in.” Siabrey nodded, but her mind, filled with emotions already, was unsure of where to even begin. “Um… Lucius?” she said quietly, with a little relief as she saw him finishing healing himself last, “I.. we… need to talk to you.” He nodded slowly, his eyes showing that he knew something was wrong. ”Lucius… the army we saw earlier today… they were.. they were…” Siabrey’s voice trailed off, she had no idea how to finish the sentence. Fortunately, Tess understood how, and did it for her. ”They were headed towards Holstean, Lucius.” Siabrey clasped him close to her, and felt his shoulders go lax. He began to sink towards the ground, and she followed him down, holding him tight as they went. ”I don’t know if your mother is calling them to banish them away, if she is calling them to create an army, or if they are marching to war… I wish I knew Lucius,” Tess said quietly and full of the most gentle tones she could muster. Lucius began to shake, though he stood strong, and no tear fell from his sorrowed eye, and Tess reached out and pulled him close. ”I’m sorry,” she said quietly. She then let go, and looked at Siabrey. Her head gave a small jerk towards Lucius, a request Siabrey had no intentions of not obeying. [I]I’ll be by your side! Don’t worry Lucius… I’ll never leave you behind![/I] She grabbed Lucius, and held him close, rocking him back and forth as his world slowly began to crumble. Tess and Siabrey initially favored riding hard towards Holstean. Shaun and Lucius, however, remembered that Hidalas was in Kulloden, at the Church of Hieroneous, and proposed going there to ask him what he had found. The party agreed, on condition that they ride ceaselessly. A full day of constant riding in, Lucius had to be strapped to his saddle, and it wasn’t until nearly a full day later than the tired status of the horses forced the party to make camp. Tess insisted that camp be brief.. no more than six hours. Lucius asked if he and Rogar could take last watch, so he could get some sleep… and unofficially so Grumki could spend the night up with Shaun. It was Siabrey who, deep into third and last watch, awoke to the noise of a horse’s whinny and the thunder of hooves. Her unfocused eyes looked around, and spotted Lucius, prone face down. On the back of his neck was a strange, sticky white substance that was starting to cake. She quickly scraped most of it off with her knife, and noticed with alarm that while he was breathing, Lucius did not move at all. [I]Poisoned[/I] her mind screamed, as her own echoed through the forest, waking up the others. Shaun’s voice immediately exploded with “Ilia!” as he recognized the deed. There was general confusion for a few moments It wasn’t for a few minutes till party members realized that Rogar’s horse was missing… as was Rogar himself… As was the diamond they had fought so hard to recover… [/QUOTE]
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