Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Tales of the Legacy - Concluded
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 2887519" data-attributes="member: 5203"><p><strong>The Price of Victory</strong></p><p></p><p>So, you may have noticed a slightly increased update schedule recently. This is because it seems that our DM's seven month hiatus may be coming to a close soon, and so in preparation I'm trying to work through what I have left from before we stopped. The forthcoming story actually spurred a number of players to write their own side-stories, which I will post here after this (not necessarily today, though).</p><p></p><p>-----------------------------------</p><p></p><p> “Autumn, we’re ready when you are.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn looked up from her desk, and nodded at Kyle, who was standing in the doorway.</p><p></p><p> “I’ll be right there.”</p><p></p><p> She looked down at the sheet of parchment in front of her, still mostly blank. She’d woken up early this morning to write a letter to her father, Zanich. She’d used up most of her spare time writing out the wedding invitations in the last week, and hadn’t had the time for a more personal letter. But she’d found there was so much to say that she was having trouble starting the letter. She was also distracted by the task ahead of them today. Finally, she capped off her ink vial, and closed up her desk. She could always write the letter after they got back.</p><p></p><p> Autumn stood, and picked up her greataxe, which was leaning against the desk. She joined Kyle out in the hallway, and they proceeded down the hall toward Autumn’s offices.</p><p></p><p> “Finish the letter?” Kyle asked.</p><p></p><p> She shook her head. “When we get back. Did you send the invitation to my other father?”</p><p></p><p> Kyle also shook his head. “When we get back. I figured you’d want to be there if Phanuel gives me an immediate answer.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn nodded. Phanuel was the celestial who had sired her during a love affair with her real mother, Lysanne Coviere. He was a planetar and a servitor of Krûsh, and thus sending him a traditional written invitation was at best impractical. Kyle had obtained the <em>sending </em>spell in a magical trade with the local wizard’s guild, and intended to contact Phanuel with it in order to invite him to the upcoming wedding.</p><p></p><p> They entered the office, where the rest of the Legacy was already waiting. Autumn turned to Lanara. “Well, I’m glad to see you’re back. How did it go?” Lanara had been away from the manor for several days, after learning that she was booked to appear in three different places in Vargas at the same time, and she’d arranged none of them herself.</p><p></p><p> Lanara snorted. “Turns out it was impersonators. Bad ones, too. Can you imagine? Good thing I caught wind of it, or who knows what they might of done to my reputation!”</p><p></p><p> Kyle shrugged. “Well, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”</p><p></p><p> Lanara smirked. “I’d prefer gifts and candy, myself.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn sank into the chair behind her desk. “All right then, on to the plan?”</p><p></p><p> Kyle cleared his throat. “We know the Night Blades are small, about fifteen to twenty members total. Their leader, of course, is Count Robar, the former steward of Vargas. Over half of the guild is just plain thugs, and the rest is leadership and the actual assassins. They seem pretty weak in the area of arcane magic, so we shouldn’t expect fireballs or anything. They may have some divine magic on their side, though.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle pointed at the map of Vargas on the wall. “They have three different safehouses in the city, here, here, and here. They’re connected by underground tunnels that lead into the sewers, which is how they move about.”</p><p></p><p> “We’re hitting those two, right?” Lanara asked, pointing at the map.</p><p></p><p> “That’s right. This safehouse, the one that’s a few blocks from here, is in the upper class part of town, and most people believe it’s the residence of a wealthy spice merchant. We figured it would look bad to kick in his door and start swinging. But the information we got from the Black Hand tells us that more than likely the grunts are hanging out here, in a warehouse in the merchant district. The higher-ups will be closer to this one, an abandoned shack in the slums.”</p><p></p><p> “So Togusa, Xu and I will hit the warehouse,” Raxael drawled. “We keep the riff-raff busy, while the rest of you hit Robar.”</p><p></p><p> “I’ll remain here at the manor,” Maddie said. “That way I can be available to whichever group needs me. Plus, if something else comes up in the city while Autumn’s gone, I can deal with it until you get back.”</p><p></p><p>“And,” Lanara added, “if you’re not out there in danger, then Raz will relax and concentrate on killing assassins.”</p><p></p><p> “Excellent,” Autumn said, standing up and putting her greataxe over her shoulder. “If there’s nothing else, then let’s go.” She stopped, and looked around the room. “I just realized something. Where’s Imrahil?”</p><p></p><p> “Oh, we distracted him,” Lanara said. “Figured you’d enjoy an afternoon of mayhem without an Imperial Guardsman drooling down your neck.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn smiled.</p><p></p><p> Razael and Xu left first, on their way to rendezvous with Togusa and a small squad of the city watch near the warehouse. Autumn and her companions left about a half-hour later. They made their way down the streets of Vargas toward the slums in the southwest. People in the streets made themselves scarce as the party came through; after months of living in fear, they knew when trouble was about to erupt.</p><p></p><p> They finally came to the safehouse, a ramshackle building that listed slightly to the left. Osborn made a quick inspection of the door, and pronounced it safe before slipping on his ring and vanishing.</p><p></p><p> Arrie pulled out her enormous war mace and handed it to Autumn. “Would you like to do the honors?”</p><p></p><p> Autumn grabbed the war mace and swung it as hard as she could. The door shattered, sending bits of wood flying everywhere. But just as Autumn handed the mace back to Arrie, they saw that the cloud in the doorway was not composed of dust and wood slivers as they’d thought, but of a bluish-white mist that was rapidly coalescing into a fearsome visage. Standing just inside the doorway, the skeletal creature was bipedal, and stood about nine feet tall. A scorpion-like tail swung menacingly over its shoulder. Glowing blue eyes leered out of its skull-like head.</p><p></p><p> “It’s a bone devil!” Osborn’s voice came out of thin air.</p><p></p><p> Arrie and Autumn immediately rushed forward into the house to engage the devil, enduring the creature’s vicious claws and teeth. Arrie was struck in the shoulder by the barbed tail, but fortunately pulled free before it could inject its venom. Screeching in fury even as its wounds closed over, the devil gestured, and a sheet of ice appeared across the door, blocking Kyle and Lanara from entering the house. But it hadn’t been fast enough to prevent Osborn from getting in, and moments later the hin struck, stabbing the devil from behind with his short sword and piercing its entrails.</p><p></p><p> The bone devil lashed out furiously at its enemies with teeth, tail, and claws, inflicting fearsome damage. The ice wall suddenly cracked and shattered as Lanara blasted it with a <em>shout </em>spell, clearing the way for Kyle to send a black tentacle through the doorway that snapped at the devil with a trio of snake-like heads. The biting heads seemed to do little to harm the outsider, however, and with a scowl Kyle ended the spell.</p><p></p><p> Autumn grew tired of toying with the devil, and summoned divine power, infusing her greataxe with holy energy before laying into her enemy again. Blue-black ichors spilled from the devil’s side as her axe bit deeply into its torso, and it screamed in pain as the holy energy burned its infernal flesh. The bone devil reeled, nearly senseless, and was quickly finished off with a sweep of Osborn’s sword.</p><p></p><p> “Wow,” Lanara said, stepping through the doorway and looking down at the dissolving corpse of the outsider, “When they say ‘no visitors’, they really mean it, don’t they?”</p><p></p><p> “I think it was a magical summoning trap,” Osborn said. “Hard to find those.”</p><p></p><p> “I thought you said they didn’t have a lot of magic, Kyle,” Arrie said.</p><p></p><p> “They don’t have a lot of arcane magic. Summonings can be done by priests as well as mages.”</p><p></p><p> “Summoning a osyluth is no small feat,” Autumn pointed out.</p><p></p><p> “Well, at any rate, here’s the trapdoor,” Osborn said. He pointed to the rather obvious seams in the floorboards. Lanara’s shout had shaken the house so badly that all the grime and dust concealing the door had been knocked loose. After a quick inspection, Osborn pronounced the door safe to open, although this time Kyle opened it with a <em>mage hand</em> just to be safe. The door opened to a short ladder leading to a tunnel. The acrid stench of sewage wafted out of the opening.</p><p></p><p> “I’ll scout ahead,” Osborn said. He activated the magic in his armor that allowed him to sense his surroundings rather than see them, and dropped into the tunnel below. Arrie, Autumn, Kyle and Lanara followed after him.</p><p></p><p> The tunnel led to a series of passages, which interconnected with the city sewers. Not having any idea of where the Night Blades might go, Osborn navigated by pure instinct, trying to second-guess which direction an assassin might go in the maze of tunnels. He figured that once he started finding more traps, he would know he was getting closer.</p><p></p><p> Osborn did find traps, but not quite in the way he’d hoped. About an hour after they had entered the tunnels, he hit a tripwire submerged in rancid water, and was sprayed with a fine mist. Coughing and sputtering, Osborn stumbled back toward the party.</p><p></p><p> “Insanity mist,” Kyle said, recognizing the smell from when the Scion-Watchers had attacked Autumn and himself at the Imperial Palace. “Fortunately, it looks like you managed to hold your breath in time.”</p><p></p><p> “How can you tell?” Osborn asked.</p><p></p><p> “Because you still have enough brains left to carry on a conversation with me,” he replied.</p><p></p><p> “Okay, then, let’s move on, this time with Osborn being more careful,” Arrie said.</p><p></p><p> Unfortunately, he wasn’t careful enough. Another twenty minutes further on, Osborn failed to notice a line of arcane runes scratched into the wall, and when he walked past them, there was a sudden burst of colored light that hit them all. Kyle felt a toxic venom force itself into his veins, weakening him. Arrie was blasted with an electrical jolt, Autumn barely resisted being petrified, and Lanara was scorched slightly. As the party got their bearings, they noticed that Osborn was laying face down in the sewage. Arrie was the first one to his side.</p><p></p><p> “He’s… dead,” she said quietly, feeling for a pulse and finding none. “They broke him.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle came over and examined Osborn’s body. “Poison,” he said. “Like what hit me, but he got it worse.”</p><p></p><p> “Poison?” Arrie asked. “From what? That light?”</p><p></p><p> “It was a <em>prismatic spray</em>,” Kyle said. “Powerful spell, more than what I can manage.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn grabbed Kyle’s shoulder and spun him around. “I thought you said they didn’t have powerful magic, Kyle!” She said angrily. “What do you call this?”</p><p></p><p> Kyle stood up and stared at Autumn. “Now,” he said slowly, “is not the time. I need to go quickly.” Kyle bent over and picked Osborn up, heaving the dead hin over his shoulder. “I’ll be back in a while. Don’t move from this spot.” Kyle spoke a few arcane syllables, and reality bent around him. A second later, he and Osborn had vanished, and there was a splash as the murky water rushed in to fill the holes left by Kyle’s boots.</p><p></p><p> The three women waited in the dark tunnel for over an hour. They barely even spoke to each other – partly out of fear of giving away their position, but mostly out of worry for their friend Osborn. Eventually, they heard the sound of splashing water, and soon Kyle came out of the tunnel. Guardsman Imrahil was following close behind him.</p><p></p><p> “Osborn’s fine now,” he answered the unspoken question. “I brought him to Maddie and she restored his spirit. But he’s very weak, and needs to rest. Fortunately, he seems to be on very friendly terms with a few of the women on your staff, Autumn, so I think he’ll be well cared for. I was about to leave when Imrahil here found me. He was unhappy that we’d snuck off without him, so I told him he could come with us to help. Figured with Osborn gone, we’d need the muscle.”</p><p></p><p> “How did you find us?” Autumn asked. “I have no idea where we are.”</p><p></p><p> “<em>Locate object</em> spell,” he said. “I keep one on a scroll for emergencies.”</p><p></p><p> “What object?” Lanara asked.</p><p></p><p> “Autumn’s wedding ring,” Kyle said. “It’s not just for keeping eligible noblemen from hitting on her, you know.”</p><p></p><p> “All right,” Arrie said. “Are we sure we want to keep going? Without Osborn, we have no chance of finding any other traps, or really of even knowing where to go.”</p><p></p><p> “We probably should,” Autumn sighed. “No doubt the Night Blades are aware that someone is down here setting off their traps. If we give up now, by tomorrow they’ll have hidden themselves and we’ll never get them out of the city. They probably expect the prismatic spray trap finished us off, so we may have some element of surprise left still.”</p><p></p><p> “Okay, then,” Arrie shrugged. “Let’s go.”</p><p></p><p> “I’ll take the lead, Your Highness,” Imrahil said.</p><p></p><p> As they began to walk down the tunnel again, Autumn fell back next to Kyle. “Kyle, when I yelled before, I wasn’t…”</p><p></p><p> “Angry at me, I know,” Kyle said. “It was the situation. And to be honest, I think we underestimated how much the guild is willing to spend on their defense. A trap like that would probably cost about fifty thousand gold to create. I just hope they can’t keep this up too much longer.”</p><p></p><p> Without Osborn leading the way, the search for the Night Blades took far longer. Their trek through the sewers became an exercise in random decisions. After a couple of hours, they realized that they were going the wrong direction, mostly because they had not encountered any more traps. After an hour of backtracking to the location of the prismatic spray trap and choosing a new passage to explore, a few minutes later Arrie triggered a fusillade of poisoned darts, none of which penetrated her armor.</p><p></p><p> “That’s it?” Arrie said, plucking darts out of her clothing. “That’s the pansy-ass thing they have to follow the ‘multiple rays of doom’ trap?”</p><p></p><p> “No, I think that this ‘pansy-ass thing’ was supposed to precede the prismatic spray,” Kyle said. “I think the guild figured that intruders would come through here, spring the darts, and anything tough enough to handle them would be dealt with by the spell trap later on.” Kyle pointed down another tunnel. “Which means that I think we should head that way now.”</p><p></p><p> The party slogged through sewage for another twenty minutes or so, before Imrahil signaled for a quick stop.</p><p></p><p> “Faint light, up ahead,” he whispered. “The tunnel opens into a larger area there.”</p><p></p><p> “After you, dear sister,” Autumn said. Arrie unfurled her spiked chain and started to ready herself to charge in.</p><p></p><p> Kyle put a hand on Arrie’s shoulder. “Wait a minute. Let’s be smart about this.” He cast a spell, and was suddenly surrounded by over a dozen floating eyeballs. “Spread out into the illuminated room ahead,” he told them. “Examine everything you can without being seen by any living creatures in the room.” The eyeballs flew off down the hallway, twirling and spinning as they vanished into the gloom.</p><p></p><p> “Kyle, that’s really creepy,” Arrie said. “Welcome to the family.”</p><p></p><p> The eyes returned a few moments later, and Kyle stood silently while he absorbed the images from the magical sensors.</p><p></p><p> “It’s a four-way junction,” he said, “about fifty feet across. There are four people waiting in the center of the room. Two of them are orc-touched, with a pair of axes each, and the other two are elf-touched with pairs of short swords.”</p><p></p><p> “A welcoming committee,” Lanara said. “And here I forgot to wear my best hat.”</p><p></p><p> “Do you want me to soften them up a little first?” Kyle asked.</p><p></p><p> “Please do,” Autumn said.</p><p></p><p> “Okay. Rush in when you hear the bang.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle cast a <em>shatterfloor </em>into the center of the junction. There were cries of surprise and pain as the floor shifted and collapsed, and the concussion sent a wave of foul water rushing out through all the corridors, washing sewage over the party up to their waist.</p><p></p><p> Arrie was the first into the room, water spraying onto the walls as she ran. But as she entered the junction, she slowed her advance, suddenly wary of any further deceptions by the Night Blades. She took a moment to call upon her psionic powers to bolster her fortitude, pouring her feelings of rage and fury into her powers to further amplify them.</p><p></p><p>Imrahil tried to take up a defensive stance in the tunnel to keep anyone from getting at the duchess, but Autumn shouldered past him to join her sister, who was being charged by the assassins. With a grunt of frustration, Imrahil ran up to stand beside them. Behind them, Lanara’s battle song echoed through the stone passageways, and Kyle threw out a spell that enveloped the five of them in flickering blue flames that seemed to leap out at anyone who swung a weapon at them, pulling the heat out of their limbs.</p><p></p><p> At first, the battle seemed to be going in the party’s favor. Autumn smote one of the orc-touched, felling it, and although the other orc-touched flew into a frenzy, he seemed unable to land a telling blow on Arrie. What they failed to notice was that the two elf-touched combatants had been subtly drawing the attention of the party toward the outer edges of the combat, maneuvering to the sides. Within moments, the center of the room was open and unobserved.</p><p></p><p> There was a flicker in the air, and a shrouded figure suddenly appeared next to Arrie. His attack was timed to strike a split-second after a flurry of axe swings from the orc-touched, and so Arrie was not in a position to block the dagger or move out of its way. The blade slipped in under Arrie’s chin, and neatly severed the artery in her neck. Arrie twitched, and went slack, falling face first into the filth.</p><p></p><p> Autumn saw her sister fall, and had to suppress a scream. She managed to get a look at Arrie’s attacker, and saw that it was Count Robar, recognizing him from an old oil painting that had been in the manor. But this Robar had a strange, wild look in his eyes, and she could feel a palpable aura of malice emanating from him that she’d never felt from any mortal foe. Her eyes blazing with rage, Autumn stepped forward to attack Robar, heedless of the fact that she had placed herself in the midst of her enemies. Her axe bit deeply into the Count’s body, but amazingly he seemed heedless of the injury. He glared at Autumn, and spat out a strange hissing scream at her.</p><p></p><p> Kyle, who had also seen Arrie fall, rushed through the middle of the combat to her side. He knew that if Arrie had any chance at all or surviving, he would have to act quickly. He knelt down in the filthy water and pulled her up into his lap, and tried to staunch the bleeding, but the blood was flowing too fast, and his hands were too slick to apply the proper pressure. Suddenly a shadow fell over him, and he looked up to see the orc-touched looming over him. The axes came down, and Kyle knew only a moment of pain, then darkness. But with the orc-touched’s attention diverted, Imrahil was able to dart in and force-feed a healing potion to Arrie, enduring an blow from an electrically-charged short sword while he worked. The wound closed up, and Arrie started to breathe again, though she did not regain consciousness.</p><p></p><p> Lanara used a <em>dimension door</em> spell to move to the other side of the junction, and then unleashed a bolt of sonic energy at Robar, but the master assassin leapt nimbly out of the way, and the bolt impacted the wall, leaving a sizable crater. Weaving back into the fray, Robar slashed at Autumn with another poisoned dagger. The wound howled with agony as infernal power poured through the blade, searing her flesh and spirit, and she felt the venom on the blade sapping her strength. He then danced back out of the reach of Autumn’s axe, grinning wickedly, and vanished again.</p><p></p><p> Autumn looked around the chamber, and for the first time saw that Kyle had fallen next to Arrie. Still believing her sister had been killed, she focused on her fiancé, and saw he was breathing shallowly. She quickly moved to his side to help him, but realized that she would leave herself vulnerable to attack. Though one of the elf-touched assassins had broken off and was slowly approaching Lanara, the other elf-touched and orc-touched were nearby, and Imrahil had just taken a near mortal wound from the berserker. She also knew that Robar was still out there somewhere, waiting to strike again. She decided they needed help, and started to concentrate.</p><p></p><p> There was a sudden slight breeze as the empty air near Autumn was suddenly filled with hard granite, and the huge form of Duke Kythrian stood guard over her. The elf-touched tried to get past the guardian to get at Autumn, and was rewarded by a pair of stone fists hammering down that shattered both his shoulders. In the back of the room, Lanara managed to fire off a <em>dispel magic</em> before the elf-touched closed in on her, sending a burst of anti-magic into the center of the room. The spell stripped Imrahil’s <em>fire shield</em>, but it also had the intended effect; Count Robar’s invisibility was dispelled.</p><p></p><p> Autumn barely had time to get the healing potion into Kyle before Robar leapt at her. He endured attacks from both Imrahil and the guardian to strike, seemingly unconcerned with his own safety. Muttering strange arcane words as he struck, his dagger seemed to shimmer and become insubstantial the moment before he struck. The blade went through her plate armor as if it weren’t there, and she felt the sting of his corrupt power lance through her again. She came to her feet, and started to advance on Robar, but suddenly the room was plunged into darkness. With an angry wave of her hand, she dispelled the field of darkness with divine light, and saw that the Count was moving toward one of the other tunnels to escape. She looked around long enough to see Imrahil hack the last orc-touched in half, and to see Lanara warding off the elf-touched with her rapier, before she began the pursuit.</p><p></p><p> Robar saw her closing, and leered. “<span style="color: Red">Before I leave this world, sentinel,</span>” he hissed, in a voice that was clearly not entirely his own, “<span style="color: Red">I will see everything you love destroyed!</span>”</p><p></p><p> He pointed at Autumn, and a bolt of pure malice coalesced and launched itself at her, seeming to ooze through the air. The bolt struck her in the chest, and Autumn felt the chill of pure evil tearing through her soul. But strangely, the vile energy seemed to dissipate harmlessly.</p><p></p><p> “You’ll have to do better than that, devil!” She swung at Robar again, severing his arm at the elbow. He seemed unconcerned, and even started to laugh manically. He turned again to flee, but in the corridor behind him, there was a sudden noise, and Kyle was standing there, blocking his path. His breath came in ragged gasps, but he held his ground, gripping his staff in white knuckles.</p><p></p><p> “We’re not finished with you yet,” Kyle growled. He knew that Robar had to be stopped, perhaps more than Autumn realized. He had seen the spell that the Count had used, and remembered reading about it in the spellbooks of Sauroth and Neville. He knew why Autumn hadn’t been hurt by the spell.</p><p></p><p> Robar’s laughter grew louder, and he raised his hand to blast the upstart mage. But he lurched as Autumn brought her greataxe around in an arc, burying it in the former mayor’s chest nearly six inches deep. She pulled her weapon free, and was ready to swing again, but then stopped.</p><p></p><p> A foul red light was spilling out of the massive wound left by Autumn’s axe. The light intensified, and started to pour out of Robar’s other wounds, as well as his eyes, mouth, and ears. With a massive explosion that knocked both Autumn and Kyle to their feet, Robar’s body was torn apart into large chunks of flesh. Standing where Robar had once been was a huge, grotesque creature, covered with greenish-black scales. Huge leathery wings flexed as it leered at Autumn. The creature quickly stepped forward and planted a clawed foot on Autumn’s arm, preventing her from standing or raising her weapon. The fanged, horned head leaned in close to hers.</p><p></p><p> “<span style="color: Red">You have removed one tool, sentinel,</span>” it said in a mocking whisper. “<span style="color: Red">But there are so many more, so many willing tools. You will never know what face I wear when I come for you.</span>”</p><p></p><p> Then the devil’s forked tongue snaked out, and lapped at the side of Autumn’s face. It was a rough, degrading gesture, a sign of the creature’s contempt. It considered her little more than an object, an annoyance to be dealt with and discarded. Its aura assaulted Autumn with every foul emotion she could imagine; malice, lust, cruelty. Then, in an instant, it was gone.</p><p></p><p> Kyle rushed over to help Autumn up, though he was barely standing himself. The last assassin attacking Lanara had fled down another tunnel. “Goat-raping bastard!” the bard shouted after him, “don’t come back or you’ll get more of the same!” The guardian, with no more enemies near the Duchess, stood inert, and Imrahil fell to his knees, nearly ready to collapse from exhaustion and blood loss.</p><p></p><p> “What was that thing?” Lanara asked.</p><p></p><p> “A cornugon,” Autumn said. “A very powerful and foul devil.”</p><p></p><p> “Very foul,” Kyle said quietly. He couldn’t bear to tell Autumn about the spell yet. There were more immediate concerns.</p><p></p><p> Autumn fell to her knees, suddenly overcome by both grief and fatigue. “My sister…”</p><p></p><p> “Is alive,” Imrahil said weakly. “She will need more healing, but the Imperial Princess is not dead.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn let out a cry of joy, and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Thank you, Bail! Thank you!” She grabbed Kyle and pulled him down into a hug, sobbing with relief. Kyle embraced her, saying nothing. Lanara caught the strange look in the wizard’s eyes, and cast a curious glance at him.</p><p></p><p> Kyle, still saying nothing, only held Autumn tighter.</p><p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center">* * *</p><p></p><p> Autumn blinked as the curtains to her room were thrown open, letting sunlight pour into the room. She looked up at Aleria, who was crossing the room heading for the washbasin.</p><p></p><p> “Is it morning already?” she asked groggily.</p><p></p><p> “Afternoon, actually, Your Grace,” she said filling the basin with warm water. Your windows face west. And I should let you know now that you have slept for two days; it’s the twenty-fourth.”</p><p></p><p> “Oh.”</p><p></p><p> It had been almost sunset by the time they had returned to the manor. Autumn had carried Arrie’s unconscious body back herself, followed by Kyle, Lanara, and Imrahil. Razael and Xu had already returned, having successfully completed their part of the mission. Togusa had gone back to the Watch barracks with the remainder of his squad. Autumn had paused at the gate only long enough to have a pike brought out to her, upon which she mounted Robar’s head. She had left instructions that a sign be placed underneath it:</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Impact'">Robar, former Lord Mayor of Vargas, has been found guilty of Treason, Conspiracy, Consorting with Fiends, Murder, and has been identified as the leader of the former assassin’s guild, the Night Blades. He has been stripped of all noble titles and lands, and has been executed for his crimes by order of Autumn Verahannen, Duchess of Vargex, Lady Mayor of Vargas.</span></p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p> It wasn’t until she had made sure that Arrie and all of her friends had been seen by the healers that she consented to be treated herself. She was quickly rushed off to her bedroom, and was quickly overcome by fatigue. She had fallen into a deep sleep, disturbed occasionally by vague dreams of being struck by the cornugon’s vile spell, and hearing a far-off cry of pain.</p><p></p><p> “Where’s Kyle?” Autumn asked, noticing the empty spot in bed next to her.</p><p></p><p> “I’m not sure, Your Grace,” Aleria said. “He has been by your side since you returned, though he was scarcely well himself. But I’ve not seen him since this morning.”</p><p></p><p> “And the others?”</p><p></p><p> “The Imperial Princess has fully recovered, thanks be to Erito for that, as has Guardsman Imrahil. The others only suffered relatively minor injuries. Your friend Osborn will take a few more days to recover, I’m told. He’s been moved to his house, though I understand that a few of the ladies among the staff are going to check up on him regularly.”</p><p></p><p> “I’m sure they are,” Autumn smiled. “And what of the city?”</p><p></p><p> “Word has spread far and wide of your assault on the assassin’s guild and the treachery of Robar,” Aleria said. “The city has been very peaceful since then.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn nodded her approval, especially on hearing Aleria describe the leader of the Night Blade as ‘Robar’ and not ‘Count Robar’ – she was certain that Lanara had been hard at work while she had slept.</p><p></p><p> “Well then, perhaps I can use the time to catch up on my correspondence,” Autumn said. She sat up in bed, propping herself up with pillows. “Aleria, would you bring me my lap-desk with pen and ink? And there’s an unfinished letter on my desk, please.”</p><p></p><p> “Of course, Your Grace.”</p><p></p><p> She was halfway through her letter when Kyle came into the room, followed by Arrie. She noticed that Kyle was dressed in his adventuring gear, staff in hand, but that Arrie was in normal clothing.</p><p></p><p> “Good afternoon,” Kyle said, sitting on the edge of the bed and giving her a quick kiss. “Feeling better?”</p><p></p><p> “Much better,” she replied. “You two?”</p><p></p><p> “Still hurts to talk a little,” Arrie said, rubbing her throat, “but considering the alternative…” she shrugged.</p><p></p><p> “No problems here,” Kyle said.</p><p></p><p> Autumn actually thought he looked a little pale, but said nothing. “So, are you going somewhere, Kyle?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes, actually. I’ll be gone for a few days. Something I need to take care of while I have a chance, before we go after the next guild.”</p><p></p><p> “Anything serious?”</p><p></p><p> “No, just tying up some loose ends from a while back. More of a personal thing.” Kyle reached over and grasped Autumn’s hand. “But I’m glad that you woke up before I left. I was hoping I’d get to talk to both of you.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn looked up at Arrie, curious.</p><p></p><p> “Don’t ask me,” Arrie said. “He found me in the hall and asked me to come with him. I’d figured he’d want a little more privacy.” Arrie looked at Kyle, and winked. “You do know that I don’t go in for this kind of thing, right?”</p><p></p><p> When Kyle didn’t even crack a smile, Arrie’s face also went somber. “Oh, it’s one of <em>those </em>kind of ‘we need to talk’ moments.”</p><p></p><p> “Kyle, you’re scaring me a little,” Autumn said.</p><p></p><p> “And I wish I could tell you that what I have to say isn’t going to be scary, but I can’t.” Kyle waited for Arrie to sit down in a chair near the bed before continuing. “Do you remember the spell that the cornugon cast on you, Autumn? The bolt of corruption?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes, I do,” Autumn said, and in her mind she replayed the strange dream she’d had of a far-off dying scream. “I think I should be grateful the spell failed to have any effect.”</p><p></p><p> “That’s the problem,” Kyle said. “It did.”</p><p></p><p> “Oh. Well, is it like the defiling touch of the Corrupters?” Autumn had experienced that touch personally, back in M’Dos. They had left a stain on her soul that, left to fester, might have caused her to abandon the cause of good, but fortunately it was detected and expunged from her spirit early.</p><p></p><p> “No,” Kyle said, shaking his head. “The spell is known as <em>love’s pain</em>. I’ve seen references to it in some of the spellbooks I’ve collected. It’s a horrible, depraved spell.”</p><p></p><p> “What does it do?” Arrie asked.</p><p></p><p> “It enters the mind and spirit of whoever it is cast on. It doesn’t harm them, but it finds the person to who you have the strongest emotional bond, the person who means the most to you, and it hurts them. Badly.”</p><p></p><p> The color drained from both sister’s faces. “But Kyle,” Autumn said, “you’re fine, and so is Arrie. Who else…”</p><p></p><p> “I wondered that myself at first,” Kyle said. “I would have guessed the spell would have struck one of us. But there’s a lot of different kinds of love, you know.” He squeezed Autumn’s hand tightly. “It’s not going to be a very long list, though.”</p><p></p><p> Arrie suddenly gasped. “Father!”</p><p></p><p> Kyle nodded. “Could be. Or your brother, Aiden. Or Autumn’s natural father, Phanuel. Or even Auror – for all her faults, she’s still your mother.”</p><p></p><p> “But Kyle,” Autumn said, as she felt her heart starting to hammer in her chest, “we would have heard something by now if something had happened.”</p><p></p><p> “Would we? If something happened to your family, it’d take at least a week for a messenger to arrive with the news, or possibly longer. If it hits Phanuel, we’d probably never find out about it, though given his nature I doubt the spell would cause any serious damage. And to be honest, I don’t know how the spell works, or how long it takes. For all I know, even Arrie and I aren’t safe yet.”</p><p></p><p> “But there’s something you can do, right?” Arrie prompted.</p><p></p><p> Kyle shook his head. “No, there isn’t. The spell will run its course, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. There’s no way to even tell for sure who it will strike. Right now, all we can do is wait. But you should prepare yourself for the worst.”</p><p></p><p> “The worst?” Autumn said, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. “You mean…”</p><p></p><p> “Whoever is afflicted with the <em>love’s pain</em> spell is probably going to die.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn felt tears falling down her face. Looking over, she saw her sister struggling furiously to keep her own tears under control.</p><p></p><p> “That son of a bitch,” Autumn said, with an eerily calm voice. “When I catch up to that cornugon, he’ll pay for what he’s done.”</p><p></p><p> “I know he will,” Kyle said. “But for now, you should try and rest. I’ll be back in a few days.”</p><p></p><p> Autumn felt a pang of sorrow and sudden loneliness, but nodded. “Hurry back.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle stood and crossed to the door. Arrie, who had been sitting quietly for a while, suddenly stood and followed him out. She caught up to him a short distance down the hall. Grabbing him by the shoulder, she spun him around and stepped up close, jabbing a finger into his chest. The handful of servants in the hallway found other things to do.</p><p></p><p> “Wait a minute,” she said, her voice calm but with an edge of restrained fury. “What, exactly, do you think you’re doing leaving Autumn at a time like this?”</p><p></p><p> “I’m not leaving her, Arrie,” Kyle said calmly. “I’m going away for a little while to take care of some things. By the time any news arrives, I’ll be back, I promise you.” He tried to step back, but Arrie kept in step with him, until his back was against the wall. It was rather more forceful than Kyle was used to seeing Arrie act.</p><p></p><p> “Why now? What is so gods-damned important to you?”</p><p></p><p> “Why now?” Kyle repeated. “Because the world does not revolve around us, Arrie. It moves on whether or not our friends and relatives are killed, whether by evil spells or the blade of a cultist, and we can’t just sit here and hope everything turns out all right.” He paused long enough to let his words sink in a little before continuing. “Because I made a promise to myself, long ago, that for the first time in my life I’m able to fulfill, and now may be the only chance I have to do it before we are mired so deep in preventing the second Cataclysm that we’re barely able to come up for air. And because I have faith that Autumn is strong enough to handle this whether I’m at her side or a thousand miles away, because she knows that I will always be with her.”</p><p></p><p> There was a long silence between the two. Then Kyle looked down at Arrie’s finger, still pushing into his chest. “Are you going to put that away, or do I have to make you?”</p><p></p><p> A little of the fire left Arrie’s eyes, and she withdrew her hand. “Sorry,” she said, “But really, Kyle, don’t be ridiculous. There’s no way you could…”</p><p></p><p> Kyle barked out a few short arcane syllables, and his hands flexed at his sides. It took Arrie a half-second to realize what was happening, not expecting anything like this from Kyle. She called on her mental reserves to bolster her willpower, but she felt the spell slipping through, stronger than she expected. Arrie tried to jump back, but suddenly found she couldn’t move. Gently, Kyle reached out, lifted Arrie’s rigid body a few inches, and set her down slightly farther back, so that he could more easily move away from the wall.</p><p></p><p> “First of all, I’m sorry about this,” Kyle said. “But I needed to make a point. The time has long passed when we can solve every problem with brute force or think our opponents are going to do or be exactly what we expect. The battle with Robar should have proven that. Our battles now require a different set of skills. In many ways, Arrie, you’ve already begun to adapt. But sometimes the best thing we can do is just wait, and I think that’s where you have problems. That is what we have to do now, Arrie. Wait. Wait for Osborn to heal. Wait for the cornugon to reappear. Wait for Aran to contact us again. Wait to find out who dies, and what we can do about it when it happens.” Kyle leaned in close, and whispered, “The trick, Arrie, is knowing that ‘waiting’ doesn’t have to mean ‘doing nothing’.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle took a step back from Arrie, and a faint smile appeared on his face. “You should go back to your sister now,” he said. “I’m sure she’s going to want to rewrite that letter she’s sending to Zanich, and I’m sure she’d appreciate some support. You know I’m never any good at knowing what to say.” He leaned in and kissed Arrie on the forehead. “Goodbye, Arrie. I’ll see you soon. We’ll get a drink together when I get back – I have the feeling you and I should catch up.” With that, he turned and walked down the hall. By the time Arrie was able to move again, a few seconds later, she knew he was gone.</p><p></p><p> She stood in the hallway for a moment, looking down the hall in the direction Kyle had left, and then slowly turned and made her way back to Autumn’s room.</p><p></p><p></p><p>--------------------------------</p><p></p><p>Yeah, a pretty dismal night, this was. Especially Osborn, who not only missed every Search check, but missed the save against the prismatic spray. As I recall, at one point both Arrie and Kyle were at negative hit points (Arrie was one point away from death), Imrahil was at single digits, and Autumn was in the twenties or thirties. Not having Razael or Xu there didn't help matters much, either. The vile spell was just insult to injury.</p><p></p><p>For the sake of full disclosure, I should say that the final conversation between Arrie and Kyle never actually happened in game. If he'd actually cast <em>hold person</em> on her while we were at the table, she probably would have had an attack of opportunity, and had a good chance of resisting the spell. But in my version Kyle wins, so I like it better. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>(Love ya, Ariadne!)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Delemental, post: 2887519, member: 5203"] [b]The Price of Victory[/b] So, you may have noticed a slightly increased update schedule recently. This is because it seems that our DM's seven month hiatus may be coming to a close soon, and so in preparation I'm trying to work through what I have left from before we stopped. The forthcoming story actually spurred a number of players to write their own side-stories, which I will post here after this (not necessarily today, though). ----------------------------------- “Autumn, we’re ready when you are.” Autumn looked up from her desk, and nodded at Kyle, who was standing in the doorway. “I’ll be right there.” She looked down at the sheet of parchment in front of her, still mostly blank. She’d woken up early this morning to write a letter to her father, Zanich. She’d used up most of her spare time writing out the wedding invitations in the last week, and hadn’t had the time for a more personal letter. But she’d found there was so much to say that she was having trouble starting the letter. She was also distracted by the task ahead of them today. Finally, she capped off her ink vial, and closed up her desk. She could always write the letter after they got back. Autumn stood, and picked up her greataxe, which was leaning against the desk. She joined Kyle out in the hallway, and they proceeded down the hall toward Autumn’s offices. “Finish the letter?” Kyle asked. She shook her head. “When we get back. Did you send the invitation to my other father?” Kyle also shook his head. “When we get back. I figured you’d want to be there if Phanuel gives me an immediate answer.” Autumn nodded. Phanuel was the celestial who had sired her during a love affair with her real mother, Lysanne Coviere. He was a planetar and a servitor of Krûsh, and thus sending him a traditional written invitation was at best impractical. Kyle had obtained the [I]sending [/I]spell in a magical trade with the local wizard’s guild, and intended to contact Phanuel with it in order to invite him to the upcoming wedding. They entered the office, where the rest of the Legacy was already waiting. Autumn turned to Lanara. “Well, I’m glad to see you’re back. How did it go?” Lanara had been away from the manor for several days, after learning that she was booked to appear in three different places in Vargas at the same time, and she’d arranged none of them herself. Lanara snorted. “Turns out it was impersonators. Bad ones, too. Can you imagine? Good thing I caught wind of it, or who knows what they might of done to my reputation!” Kyle shrugged. “Well, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Lanara smirked. “I’d prefer gifts and candy, myself.” Autumn sank into the chair behind her desk. “All right then, on to the plan?” Kyle cleared his throat. “We know the Night Blades are small, about fifteen to twenty members total. Their leader, of course, is Count Robar, the former steward of Vargas. Over half of the guild is just plain thugs, and the rest is leadership and the actual assassins. They seem pretty weak in the area of arcane magic, so we shouldn’t expect fireballs or anything. They may have some divine magic on their side, though.” Kyle pointed at the map of Vargas on the wall. “They have three different safehouses in the city, here, here, and here. They’re connected by underground tunnels that lead into the sewers, which is how they move about.” “We’re hitting those two, right?” Lanara asked, pointing at the map. “That’s right. This safehouse, the one that’s a few blocks from here, is in the upper class part of town, and most people believe it’s the residence of a wealthy spice merchant. We figured it would look bad to kick in his door and start swinging. But the information we got from the Black Hand tells us that more than likely the grunts are hanging out here, in a warehouse in the merchant district. The higher-ups will be closer to this one, an abandoned shack in the slums.” “So Togusa, Xu and I will hit the warehouse,” Raxael drawled. “We keep the riff-raff busy, while the rest of you hit Robar.” “I’ll remain here at the manor,” Maddie said. “That way I can be available to whichever group needs me. Plus, if something else comes up in the city while Autumn’s gone, I can deal with it until you get back.” “And,” Lanara added, “if you’re not out there in danger, then Raz will relax and concentrate on killing assassins.” “Excellent,” Autumn said, standing up and putting her greataxe over her shoulder. “If there’s nothing else, then let’s go.” She stopped, and looked around the room. “I just realized something. Where’s Imrahil?” “Oh, we distracted him,” Lanara said. “Figured you’d enjoy an afternoon of mayhem without an Imperial Guardsman drooling down your neck.” Autumn smiled. Razael and Xu left first, on their way to rendezvous with Togusa and a small squad of the city watch near the warehouse. Autumn and her companions left about a half-hour later. They made their way down the streets of Vargas toward the slums in the southwest. People in the streets made themselves scarce as the party came through; after months of living in fear, they knew when trouble was about to erupt. They finally came to the safehouse, a ramshackle building that listed slightly to the left. Osborn made a quick inspection of the door, and pronounced it safe before slipping on his ring and vanishing. Arrie pulled out her enormous war mace and handed it to Autumn. “Would you like to do the honors?” Autumn grabbed the war mace and swung it as hard as she could. The door shattered, sending bits of wood flying everywhere. But just as Autumn handed the mace back to Arrie, they saw that the cloud in the doorway was not composed of dust and wood slivers as they’d thought, but of a bluish-white mist that was rapidly coalescing into a fearsome visage. Standing just inside the doorway, the skeletal creature was bipedal, and stood about nine feet tall. A scorpion-like tail swung menacingly over its shoulder. Glowing blue eyes leered out of its skull-like head. “It’s a bone devil!” Osborn’s voice came out of thin air. Arrie and Autumn immediately rushed forward into the house to engage the devil, enduring the creature’s vicious claws and teeth. Arrie was struck in the shoulder by the barbed tail, but fortunately pulled free before it could inject its venom. Screeching in fury even as its wounds closed over, the devil gestured, and a sheet of ice appeared across the door, blocking Kyle and Lanara from entering the house. But it hadn’t been fast enough to prevent Osborn from getting in, and moments later the hin struck, stabbing the devil from behind with his short sword and piercing its entrails. The bone devil lashed out furiously at its enemies with teeth, tail, and claws, inflicting fearsome damage. The ice wall suddenly cracked and shattered as Lanara blasted it with a [I]shout [/I]spell, clearing the way for Kyle to send a black tentacle through the doorway that snapped at the devil with a trio of snake-like heads. The biting heads seemed to do little to harm the outsider, however, and with a scowl Kyle ended the spell. Autumn grew tired of toying with the devil, and summoned divine power, infusing her greataxe with holy energy before laying into her enemy again. Blue-black ichors spilled from the devil’s side as her axe bit deeply into its torso, and it screamed in pain as the holy energy burned its infernal flesh. The bone devil reeled, nearly senseless, and was quickly finished off with a sweep of Osborn’s sword. “Wow,” Lanara said, stepping through the doorway and looking down at the dissolving corpse of the outsider, “When they say ‘no visitors’, they really mean it, don’t they?” “I think it was a magical summoning trap,” Osborn said. “Hard to find those.” “I thought you said they didn’t have a lot of magic, Kyle,” Arrie said. “They don’t have a lot of arcane magic. Summonings can be done by priests as well as mages.” “Summoning a osyluth is no small feat,” Autumn pointed out. “Well, at any rate, here’s the trapdoor,” Osborn said. He pointed to the rather obvious seams in the floorboards. Lanara’s shout had shaken the house so badly that all the grime and dust concealing the door had been knocked loose. After a quick inspection, Osborn pronounced the door safe to open, although this time Kyle opened it with a [I]mage hand[/I] just to be safe. The door opened to a short ladder leading to a tunnel. The acrid stench of sewage wafted out of the opening. “I’ll scout ahead,” Osborn said. He activated the magic in his armor that allowed him to sense his surroundings rather than see them, and dropped into the tunnel below. Arrie, Autumn, Kyle and Lanara followed after him. The tunnel led to a series of passages, which interconnected with the city sewers. Not having any idea of where the Night Blades might go, Osborn navigated by pure instinct, trying to second-guess which direction an assassin might go in the maze of tunnels. He figured that once he started finding more traps, he would know he was getting closer. Osborn did find traps, but not quite in the way he’d hoped. About an hour after they had entered the tunnels, he hit a tripwire submerged in rancid water, and was sprayed with a fine mist. Coughing and sputtering, Osborn stumbled back toward the party. “Insanity mist,” Kyle said, recognizing the smell from when the Scion-Watchers had attacked Autumn and himself at the Imperial Palace. “Fortunately, it looks like you managed to hold your breath in time.” “How can you tell?” Osborn asked. “Because you still have enough brains left to carry on a conversation with me,” he replied. “Okay, then, let’s move on, this time with Osborn being more careful,” Arrie said. Unfortunately, he wasn’t careful enough. Another twenty minutes further on, Osborn failed to notice a line of arcane runes scratched into the wall, and when he walked past them, there was a sudden burst of colored light that hit them all. Kyle felt a toxic venom force itself into his veins, weakening him. Arrie was blasted with an electrical jolt, Autumn barely resisted being petrified, and Lanara was scorched slightly. As the party got their bearings, they noticed that Osborn was laying face down in the sewage. Arrie was the first one to his side. “He’s… dead,” she said quietly, feeling for a pulse and finding none. “They broke him.” Kyle came over and examined Osborn’s body. “Poison,” he said. “Like what hit me, but he got it worse.” “Poison?” Arrie asked. “From what? That light?” “It was a [I]prismatic spray[/I],” Kyle said. “Powerful spell, more than what I can manage.” Autumn grabbed Kyle’s shoulder and spun him around. “I thought you said they didn’t have powerful magic, Kyle!” She said angrily. “What do you call this?” Kyle stood up and stared at Autumn. “Now,” he said slowly, “is not the time. I need to go quickly.” Kyle bent over and picked Osborn up, heaving the dead hin over his shoulder. “I’ll be back in a while. Don’t move from this spot.” Kyle spoke a few arcane syllables, and reality bent around him. A second later, he and Osborn had vanished, and there was a splash as the murky water rushed in to fill the holes left by Kyle’s boots. The three women waited in the dark tunnel for over an hour. They barely even spoke to each other – partly out of fear of giving away their position, but mostly out of worry for their friend Osborn. Eventually, they heard the sound of splashing water, and soon Kyle came out of the tunnel. Guardsman Imrahil was following close behind him. “Osborn’s fine now,” he answered the unspoken question. “I brought him to Maddie and she restored his spirit. But he’s very weak, and needs to rest. Fortunately, he seems to be on very friendly terms with a few of the women on your staff, Autumn, so I think he’ll be well cared for. I was about to leave when Imrahil here found me. He was unhappy that we’d snuck off without him, so I told him he could come with us to help. Figured with Osborn gone, we’d need the muscle.” “How did you find us?” Autumn asked. “I have no idea where we are.” “[I]Locate object[/I] spell,” he said. “I keep one on a scroll for emergencies.” “What object?” Lanara asked. “Autumn’s wedding ring,” Kyle said. “It’s not just for keeping eligible noblemen from hitting on her, you know.” “All right,” Arrie said. “Are we sure we want to keep going? Without Osborn, we have no chance of finding any other traps, or really of even knowing where to go.” “We probably should,” Autumn sighed. “No doubt the Night Blades are aware that someone is down here setting off their traps. If we give up now, by tomorrow they’ll have hidden themselves and we’ll never get them out of the city. They probably expect the prismatic spray trap finished us off, so we may have some element of surprise left still.” “Okay, then,” Arrie shrugged. “Let’s go.” “I’ll take the lead, Your Highness,” Imrahil said. As they began to walk down the tunnel again, Autumn fell back next to Kyle. “Kyle, when I yelled before, I wasn’t…” “Angry at me, I know,” Kyle said. “It was the situation. And to be honest, I think we underestimated how much the guild is willing to spend on their defense. A trap like that would probably cost about fifty thousand gold to create. I just hope they can’t keep this up too much longer.” Without Osborn leading the way, the search for the Night Blades took far longer. Their trek through the sewers became an exercise in random decisions. After a couple of hours, they realized that they were going the wrong direction, mostly because they had not encountered any more traps. After an hour of backtracking to the location of the prismatic spray trap and choosing a new passage to explore, a few minutes later Arrie triggered a fusillade of poisoned darts, none of which penetrated her armor. “That’s it?” Arrie said, plucking darts out of her clothing. “That’s the pansy-ass thing they have to follow the ‘multiple rays of doom’ trap?” “No, I think that this ‘pansy-ass thing’ was supposed to precede the prismatic spray,” Kyle said. “I think the guild figured that intruders would come through here, spring the darts, and anything tough enough to handle them would be dealt with by the spell trap later on.” Kyle pointed down another tunnel. “Which means that I think we should head that way now.” The party slogged through sewage for another twenty minutes or so, before Imrahil signaled for a quick stop. “Faint light, up ahead,” he whispered. “The tunnel opens into a larger area there.” “After you, dear sister,” Autumn said. Arrie unfurled her spiked chain and started to ready herself to charge in. Kyle put a hand on Arrie’s shoulder. “Wait a minute. Let’s be smart about this.” He cast a spell, and was suddenly surrounded by over a dozen floating eyeballs. “Spread out into the illuminated room ahead,” he told them. “Examine everything you can without being seen by any living creatures in the room.” The eyeballs flew off down the hallway, twirling and spinning as they vanished into the gloom. “Kyle, that’s really creepy,” Arrie said. “Welcome to the family.” The eyes returned a few moments later, and Kyle stood silently while he absorbed the images from the magical sensors. “It’s a four-way junction,” he said, “about fifty feet across. There are four people waiting in the center of the room. Two of them are orc-touched, with a pair of axes each, and the other two are elf-touched with pairs of short swords.” “A welcoming committee,” Lanara said. “And here I forgot to wear my best hat.” “Do you want me to soften them up a little first?” Kyle asked. “Please do,” Autumn said. “Okay. Rush in when you hear the bang.” Kyle cast a [I]shatterfloor [/I]into the center of the junction. There were cries of surprise and pain as the floor shifted and collapsed, and the concussion sent a wave of foul water rushing out through all the corridors, washing sewage over the party up to their waist. Arrie was the first into the room, water spraying onto the walls as she ran. But as she entered the junction, she slowed her advance, suddenly wary of any further deceptions by the Night Blades. She took a moment to call upon her psionic powers to bolster her fortitude, pouring her feelings of rage and fury into her powers to further amplify them. Imrahil tried to take up a defensive stance in the tunnel to keep anyone from getting at the duchess, but Autumn shouldered past him to join her sister, who was being charged by the assassins. With a grunt of frustration, Imrahil ran up to stand beside them. Behind them, Lanara’s battle song echoed through the stone passageways, and Kyle threw out a spell that enveloped the five of them in flickering blue flames that seemed to leap out at anyone who swung a weapon at them, pulling the heat out of their limbs. At first, the battle seemed to be going in the party’s favor. Autumn smote one of the orc-touched, felling it, and although the other orc-touched flew into a frenzy, he seemed unable to land a telling blow on Arrie. What they failed to notice was that the two elf-touched combatants had been subtly drawing the attention of the party toward the outer edges of the combat, maneuvering to the sides. Within moments, the center of the room was open and unobserved. There was a flicker in the air, and a shrouded figure suddenly appeared next to Arrie. His attack was timed to strike a split-second after a flurry of axe swings from the orc-touched, and so Arrie was not in a position to block the dagger or move out of its way. The blade slipped in under Arrie’s chin, and neatly severed the artery in her neck. Arrie twitched, and went slack, falling face first into the filth. Autumn saw her sister fall, and had to suppress a scream. She managed to get a look at Arrie’s attacker, and saw that it was Count Robar, recognizing him from an old oil painting that had been in the manor. But this Robar had a strange, wild look in his eyes, and she could feel a palpable aura of malice emanating from him that she’d never felt from any mortal foe. Her eyes blazing with rage, Autumn stepped forward to attack Robar, heedless of the fact that she had placed herself in the midst of her enemies. Her axe bit deeply into the Count’s body, but amazingly he seemed heedless of the injury. He glared at Autumn, and spat out a strange hissing scream at her. Kyle, who had also seen Arrie fall, rushed through the middle of the combat to her side. He knew that if Arrie had any chance at all or surviving, he would have to act quickly. He knelt down in the filthy water and pulled her up into his lap, and tried to staunch the bleeding, but the blood was flowing too fast, and his hands were too slick to apply the proper pressure. Suddenly a shadow fell over him, and he looked up to see the orc-touched looming over him. The axes came down, and Kyle knew only a moment of pain, then darkness. But with the orc-touched’s attention diverted, Imrahil was able to dart in and force-feed a healing potion to Arrie, enduring an blow from an electrically-charged short sword while he worked. The wound closed up, and Arrie started to breathe again, though she did not regain consciousness. Lanara used a [I]dimension door[/I] spell to move to the other side of the junction, and then unleashed a bolt of sonic energy at Robar, but the master assassin leapt nimbly out of the way, and the bolt impacted the wall, leaving a sizable crater. Weaving back into the fray, Robar slashed at Autumn with another poisoned dagger. The wound howled with agony as infernal power poured through the blade, searing her flesh and spirit, and she felt the venom on the blade sapping her strength. He then danced back out of the reach of Autumn’s axe, grinning wickedly, and vanished again. Autumn looked around the chamber, and for the first time saw that Kyle had fallen next to Arrie. Still believing her sister had been killed, she focused on her fiancé, and saw he was breathing shallowly. She quickly moved to his side to help him, but realized that she would leave herself vulnerable to attack. Though one of the elf-touched assassins had broken off and was slowly approaching Lanara, the other elf-touched and orc-touched were nearby, and Imrahil had just taken a near mortal wound from the berserker. She also knew that Robar was still out there somewhere, waiting to strike again. She decided they needed help, and started to concentrate. There was a sudden slight breeze as the empty air near Autumn was suddenly filled with hard granite, and the huge form of Duke Kythrian stood guard over her. The elf-touched tried to get past the guardian to get at Autumn, and was rewarded by a pair of stone fists hammering down that shattered both his shoulders. In the back of the room, Lanara managed to fire off a [I]dispel magic[/I] before the elf-touched closed in on her, sending a burst of anti-magic into the center of the room. The spell stripped Imrahil’s [I]fire shield[/I], but it also had the intended effect; Count Robar’s invisibility was dispelled. Autumn barely had time to get the healing potion into Kyle before Robar leapt at her. He endured attacks from both Imrahil and the guardian to strike, seemingly unconcerned with his own safety. Muttering strange arcane words as he struck, his dagger seemed to shimmer and become insubstantial the moment before he struck. The blade went through her plate armor as if it weren’t there, and she felt the sting of his corrupt power lance through her again. She came to her feet, and started to advance on Robar, but suddenly the room was plunged into darkness. With an angry wave of her hand, she dispelled the field of darkness with divine light, and saw that the Count was moving toward one of the other tunnels to escape. She looked around long enough to see Imrahil hack the last orc-touched in half, and to see Lanara warding off the elf-touched with her rapier, before she began the pursuit. Robar saw her closing, and leered. “[COLOR=Red]Before I leave this world, sentinel,[/COLOR]” he hissed, in a voice that was clearly not entirely his own, “[COLOR=Red]I will see everything you love destroyed![/COLOR]” He pointed at Autumn, and a bolt of pure malice coalesced and launched itself at her, seeming to ooze through the air. The bolt struck her in the chest, and Autumn felt the chill of pure evil tearing through her soul. But strangely, the vile energy seemed to dissipate harmlessly. “You’ll have to do better than that, devil!” She swung at Robar again, severing his arm at the elbow. He seemed unconcerned, and even started to laugh manically. He turned again to flee, but in the corridor behind him, there was a sudden noise, and Kyle was standing there, blocking his path. His breath came in ragged gasps, but he held his ground, gripping his staff in white knuckles. “We’re not finished with you yet,” Kyle growled. He knew that Robar had to be stopped, perhaps more than Autumn realized. He had seen the spell that the Count had used, and remembered reading about it in the spellbooks of Sauroth and Neville. He knew why Autumn hadn’t been hurt by the spell. Robar’s laughter grew louder, and he raised his hand to blast the upstart mage. But he lurched as Autumn brought her greataxe around in an arc, burying it in the former mayor’s chest nearly six inches deep. She pulled her weapon free, and was ready to swing again, but then stopped. A foul red light was spilling out of the massive wound left by Autumn’s axe. The light intensified, and started to pour out of Robar’s other wounds, as well as his eyes, mouth, and ears. With a massive explosion that knocked both Autumn and Kyle to their feet, Robar’s body was torn apart into large chunks of flesh. Standing where Robar had once been was a huge, grotesque creature, covered with greenish-black scales. Huge leathery wings flexed as it leered at Autumn. The creature quickly stepped forward and planted a clawed foot on Autumn’s arm, preventing her from standing or raising her weapon. The fanged, horned head leaned in close to hers. “[COLOR=Red]You have removed one tool, sentinel,[/COLOR]” it said in a mocking whisper. “[COLOR=Red]But there are so many more, so many willing tools. You will never know what face I wear when I come for you.[/COLOR]” Then the devil’s forked tongue snaked out, and lapped at the side of Autumn’s face. It was a rough, degrading gesture, a sign of the creature’s contempt. It considered her little more than an object, an annoyance to be dealt with and discarded. Its aura assaulted Autumn with every foul emotion she could imagine; malice, lust, cruelty. Then, in an instant, it was gone. Kyle rushed over to help Autumn up, though he was barely standing himself. The last assassin attacking Lanara had fled down another tunnel. “Goat-raping bastard!” the bard shouted after him, “don’t come back or you’ll get more of the same!” The guardian, with no more enemies near the Duchess, stood inert, and Imrahil fell to his knees, nearly ready to collapse from exhaustion and blood loss. “What was that thing?” Lanara asked. “A cornugon,” Autumn said. “A very powerful and foul devil.” “Very foul,” Kyle said quietly. He couldn’t bear to tell Autumn about the spell yet. There were more immediate concerns. Autumn fell to her knees, suddenly overcome by both grief and fatigue. “My sister…” “Is alive,” Imrahil said weakly. “She will need more healing, but the Imperial Princess is not dead.” Autumn let out a cry of joy, and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Thank you, Bail! Thank you!” She grabbed Kyle and pulled him down into a hug, sobbing with relief. Kyle embraced her, saying nothing. Lanara caught the strange look in the wizard’s eyes, and cast a curious glance at him. Kyle, still saying nothing, only held Autumn tighter. [CENTER] * * *[/CENTER] Autumn blinked as the curtains to her room were thrown open, letting sunlight pour into the room. She looked up at Aleria, who was crossing the room heading for the washbasin. “Is it morning already?” she asked groggily. “Afternoon, actually, Your Grace,” she said filling the basin with warm water. Your windows face west. And I should let you know now that you have slept for two days; it’s the twenty-fourth.” “Oh.” It had been almost sunset by the time they had returned to the manor. Autumn had carried Arrie’s unconscious body back herself, followed by Kyle, Lanara, and Imrahil. Razael and Xu had already returned, having successfully completed their part of the mission. Togusa had gone back to the Watch barracks with the remainder of his squad. Autumn had paused at the gate only long enough to have a pike brought out to her, upon which she mounted Robar’s head. She had left instructions that a sign be placed underneath it: [FONT=Impact]Robar, former Lord Mayor of Vargas, has been found guilty of Treason, Conspiracy, Consorting with Fiends, Murder, and has been identified as the leader of the former assassin’s guild, the Night Blades. He has been stripped of all noble titles and lands, and has been executed for his crimes by order of Autumn Verahannen, Duchess of Vargex, Lady Mayor of Vargas.[/FONT] It wasn’t until she had made sure that Arrie and all of her friends had been seen by the healers that she consented to be treated herself. She was quickly rushed off to her bedroom, and was quickly overcome by fatigue. She had fallen into a deep sleep, disturbed occasionally by vague dreams of being struck by the cornugon’s vile spell, and hearing a far-off cry of pain. “Where’s Kyle?” Autumn asked, noticing the empty spot in bed next to her. “I’m not sure, Your Grace,” Aleria said. “He has been by your side since you returned, though he was scarcely well himself. But I’ve not seen him since this morning.” “And the others?” “The Imperial Princess has fully recovered, thanks be to Erito for that, as has Guardsman Imrahil. The others only suffered relatively minor injuries. Your friend Osborn will take a few more days to recover, I’m told. He’s been moved to his house, though I understand that a few of the ladies among the staff are going to check up on him regularly.” “I’m sure they are,” Autumn smiled. “And what of the city?” “Word has spread far and wide of your assault on the assassin’s guild and the treachery of Robar,” Aleria said. “The city has been very peaceful since then.” Autumn nodded her approval, especially on hearing Aleria describe the leader of the Night Blade as ‘Robar’ and not ‘Count Robar’ – she was certain that Lanara had been hard at work while she had slept. “Well then, perhaps I can use the time to catch up on my correspondence,” Autumn said. She sat up in bed, propping herself up with pillows. “Aleria, would you bring me my lap-desk with pen and ink? And there’s an unfinished letter on my desk, please.” “Of course, Your Grace.” She was halfway through her letter when Kyle came into the room, followed by Arrie. She noticed that Kyle was dressed in his adventuring gear, staff in hand, but that Arrie was in normal clothing. “Good afternoon,” Kyle said, sitting on the edge of the bed and giving her a quick kiss. “Feeling better?” “Much better,” she replied. “You two?” “Still hurts to talk a little,” Arrie said, rubbing her throat, “but considering the alternative…” she shrugged. “No problems here,” Kyle said. Autumn actually thought he looked a little pale, but said nothing. “So, are you going somewhere, Kyle?” “Yes, actually. I’ll be gone for a few days. Something I need to take care of while I have a chance, before we go after the next guild.” “Anything serious?” “No, just tying up some loose ends from a while back. More of a personal thing.” Kyle reached over and grasped Autumn’s hand. “But I’m glad that you woke up before I left. I was hoping I’d get to talk to both of you.” Autumn looked up at Arrie, curious. “Don’t ask me,” Arrie said. “He found me in the hall and asked me to come with him. I’d figured he’d want a little more privacy.” Arrie looked at Kyle, and winked. “You do know that I don’t go in for this kind of thing, right?” When Kyle didn’t even crack a smile, Arrie’s face also went somber. “Oh, it’s one of [I]those [/I]kind of ‘we need to talk’ moments.” “Kyle, you’re scaring me a little,” Autumn said. “And I wish I could tell you that what I have to say isn’t going to be scary, but I can’t.” Kyle waited for Arrie to sit down in a chair near the bed before continuing. “Do you remember the spell that the cornugon cast on you, Autumn? The bolt of corruption?” “Yes, I do,” Autumn said, and in her mind she replayed the strange dream she’d had of a far-off dying scream. “I think I should be grateful the spell failed to have any effect.” “That’s the problem,” Kyle said. “It did.” “Oh. Well, is it like the defiling touch of the Corrupters?” Autumn had experienced that touch personally, back in M’Dos. They had left a stain on her soul that, left to fester, might have caused her to abandon the cause of good, but fortunately it was detected and expunged from her spirit early. “No,” Kyle said, shaking his head. “The spell is known as [I]love’s pain[/I]. I’ve seen references to it in some of the spellbooks I’ve collected. It’s a horrible, depraved spell.” “What does it do?” Arrie asked. “It enters the mind and spirit of whoever it is cast on. It doesn’t harm them, but it finds the person to who you have the strongest emotional bond, the person who means the most to you, and it hurts them. Badly.” The color drained from both sister’s faces. “But Kyle,” Autumn said, “you’re fine, and so is Arrie. Who else…” “I wondered that myself at first,” Kyle said. “I would have guessed the spell would have struck one of us. But there’s a lot of different kinds of love, you know.” He squeezed Autumn’s hand tightly. “It’s not going to be a very long list, though.” Arrie suddenly gasped. “Father!” Kyle nodded. “Could be. Or your brother, Aiden. Or Autumn’s natural father, Phanuel. Or even Auror – for all her faults, she’s still your mother.” “But Kyle,” Autumn said, as she felt her heart starting to hammer in her chest, “we would have heard something by now if something had happened.” “Would we? If something happened to your family, it’d take at least a week for a messenger to arrive with the news, or possibly longer. If it hits Phanuel, we’d probably never find out about it, though given his nature I doubt the spell would cause any serious damage. And to be honest, I don’t know how the spell works, or how long it takes. For all I know, even Arrie and I aren’t safe yet.” “But there’s something you can do, right?” Arrie prompted. Kyle shook his head. “No, there isn’t. The spell will run its course, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. There’s no way to even tell for sure who it will strike. Right now, all we can do is wait. But you should prepare yourself for the worst.” “The worst?” Autumn said, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. “You mean…” “Whoever is afflicted with the [I]love’s pain[/I] spell is probably going to die.” Autumn felt tears falling down her face. Looking over, she saw her sister struggling furiously to keep her own tears under control. “That son of a bitch,” Autumn said, with an eerily calm voice. “When I catch up to that cornugon, he’ll pay for what he’s done.” “I know he will,” Kyle said. “But for now, you should try and rest. I’ll be back in a few days.” Autumn felt a pang of sorrow and sudden loneliness, but nodded. “Hurry back.” Kyle stood and crossed to the door. Arrie, who had been sitting quietly for a while, suddenly stood and followed him out. She caught up to him a short distance down the hall. Grabbing him by the shoulder, she spun him around and stepped up close, jabbing a finger into his chest. The handful of servants in the hallway found other things to do. “Wait a minute,” she said, her voice calm but with an edge of restrained fury. “What, exactly, do you think you’re doing leaving Autumn at a time like this?” “I’m not leaving her, Arrie,” Kyle said calmly. “I’m going away for a little while to take care of some things. By the time any news arrives, I’ll be back, I promise you.” He tried to step back, but Arrie kept in step with him, until his back was against the wall. It was rather more forceful than Kyle was used to seeing Arrie act. “Why now? What is so gods-damned important to you?” “Why now?” Kyle repeated. “Because the world does not revolve around us, Arrie. It moves on whether or not our friends and relatives are killed, whether by evil spells or the blade of a cultist, and we can’t just sit here and hope everything turns out all right.” He paused long enough to let his words sink in a little before continuing. “Because I made a promise to myself, long ago, that for the first time in my life I’m able to fulfill, and now may be the only chance I have to do it before we are mired so deep in preventing the second Cataclysm that we’re barely able to come up for air. And because I have faith that Autumn is strong enough to handle this whether I’m at her side or a thousand miles away, because she knows that I will always be with her.” There was a long silence between the two. Then Kyle looked down at Arrie’s finger, still pushing into his chest. “Are you going to put that away, or do I have to make you?” A little of the fire left Arrie’s eyes, and she withdrew her hand. “Sorry,” she said, “But really, Kyle, don’t be ridiculous. There’s no way you could…” Kyle barked out a few short arcane syllables, and his hands flexed at his sides. It took Arrie a half-second to realize what was happening, not expecting anything like this from Kyle. She called on her mental reserves to bolster her willpower, but she felt the spell slipping through, stronger than she expected. Arrie tried to jump back, but suddenly found she couldn’t move. Gently, Kyle reached out, lifted Arrie’s rigid body a few inches, and set her down slightly farther back, so that he could more easily move away from the wall. “First of all, I’m sorry about this,” Kyle said. “But I needed to make a point. The time has long passed when we can solve every problem with brute force or think our opponents are going to do or be exactly what we expect. The battle with Robar should have proven that. Our battles now require a different set of skills. In many ways, Arrie, you’ve already begun to adapt. But sometimes the best thing we can do is just wait, and I think that’s where you have problems. That is what we have to do now, Arrie. Wait. Wait for Osborn to heal. Wait for the cornugon to reappear. Wait for Aran to contact us again. Wait to find out who dies, and what we can do about it when it happens.” Kyle leaned in close, and whispered, “The trick, Arrie, is knowing that ‘waiting’ doesn’t have to mean ‘doing nothing’.” Kyle took a step back from Arrie, and a faint smile appeared on his face. “You should go back to your sister now,” he said. “I’m sure she’s going to want to rewrite that letter she’s sending to Zanich, and I’m sure she’d appreciate some support. You know I’m never any good at knowing what to say.” He leaned in and kissed Arrie on the forehead. “Goodbye, Arrie. I’ll see you soon. We’ll get a drink together when I get back – I have the feeling you and I should catch up.” With that, he turned and walked down the hall. By the time Arrie was able to move again, a few seconds later, she knew he was gone. She stood in the hallway for a moment, looking down the hall in the direction Kyle had left, and then slowly turned and made her way back to Autumn’s room. -------------------------------- Yeah, a pretty dismal night, this was. Especially Osborn, who not only missed every Search check, but missed the save against the prismatic spray. As I recall, at one point both Arrie and Kyle were at negative hit points (Arrie was one point away from death), Imrahil was at single digits, and Autumn was in the twenties or thirties. Not having Razael or Xu there didn't help matters much, either. The vile spell was just insult to injury. For the sake of full disclosure, I should say that the final conversation between Arrie and Kyle never actually happened in game. If he'd actually cast [I]hold person[/I] on her while we were at the table, she probably would have had an attack of opportunity, and had a good chance of resisting the spell. But in my version Kyle wins, so I like it better. :) (Love ya, Ariadne!) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Tales of the Legacy - Concluded
Top