The Lich Queen's Eye

[Warbringer]

Act VII Temple in a Temple (Part I)

Thianallis Nightshade moved through the jungle ahead of the rest of the group, moving from shadow to shadow with practiced ease, despite the steep incline. From time to time he looked for signs of passage or ambush, but in terrains such as these his training was of little use. Still, at least on his own he could move in relative silence.

After climbing for over three hours the ground started to level out. Nightshade slowed his pace, careful not to signal his presence.

Up ahead, a great building made of a pale yellow stone rose form the jungle floor. Unlike the buildings in the valley, the building, the temple according to the psion, stood in good repair.

The space before the temple had been cleared and four primitive huts had been built. Nightshade studied the huts, looking for signs of movement. He saw none.

His eyes carefully traced a path from the huts through the clearing, into the jungle. Where would I hide, he asked himself. A deep patch of vegetation just before the jungle broke into the clearing; a dense gathering of the broadleaves to his right, no more than 30 paces away; a drop in the height of the vegetation to his left, indicating a hollow of some sort; All good places. Behind him, the warforged continued to trample his way up the mountain.

Mithros cringed with every footfall the warforged landed. But there was nothing he could do about it; it would be easier to teach a stone to swim than teach Tzzt stealth. He remained alert, checking every little leaf movement, every sound form the jungle floor, every subtle shift in color and shade. It was exhausting, more so then the physical toil of climbing through the jungle.

The ground leveled off. The temple broke through the jungle ahead. Raising a hand, he moved slowly forward, the flick of the wrist to the side he signaled ambush.

Three arrows hurtled at him but, reacting deftly, Mithros rolled to his right ending in a fighting crouch, his sword now in his hand. Two arrows sailed through the spot where he had been walking.

The third arrow shattered against the warforged extended hand.

As one the party reacted.

Tzzt charged towards the vegetation. Mithros moved to the flank, looking to sneak around the ambushers flank. Kateria, dropped into a crouch her bow in hand, a spell in mind waiting to see what Tzzt flushed out. Kierrna waited safely away from the melee.

As Tzzt stampeded into the vegetation three lizardfolk, leapt from their hiding place, thinking their trap sprung. Instead, Tzzt struck one of the creatures from a distance, his great chain whipping out to strike the lizard in the face, crushing bone as the heavy chain struck it in the nose, but the lizardman continued to charge despite a mouth full of blood.

Katiera loosed an arrow, striking on of the other lizardman in side, but her arrow failed to lodge itself in its target. From high in the shadows, two arrows with charcoal grey feathers struck the final lizardman in back, toppling the beast to the jungle floor.

As Mithros prepared to charge out the jungle, flanking the lizards, he noted a strange smell from the jungle behind him; a smell of rotting flesh; a smell of death, of undeath.

Spinning, his sword cutting a wide arc, he to turned to see two lizardfolk of grayish colors almost upon him. One was snarling at him, staring at a large bloodless gash in its hand were his sword had struck.

'Ghouls,' he whispered under his breath, defending himself as they leapt.

Kateria notched another arrow to her bow and moved towards the combat. Her shot flew
true striking the lizardman she had already wounded in the throat. Amazingly, he did not fall, but instead turned and started to run towards the huts.

Katiera's cursed. A spell started to form quickly in her mind, but before she could cast it, Tzzt?s great chain flew out, striking the lizard in the back of the head, dropping the reptile.
Kierrna watched the fight unfold, preparing an infusion for Tzzt should he need it. Back from the heat of the battle, she did not hear the undead abomination move up on her; barely felt his diseased claws sink into her back. She started to scream, but no sound came, her throat constricting, her lungs freezing as the paralysis spread through her body.

Frozen, she could only stare forward, unable to move, unable to even to blink. Had she not been paralyzed, her heart would have stopped as the ghoulish lizardman came into her vision, his face inches from hers, his fetid breath upon her.

He sniffed her. He licked her slowly; tasting her, enjoying the warm salty taste of living flesh, his tongue lingering on his teeth. Then he was upon her, his teeth sinking into the exposed flesh of her neck, tearing, chewing. It pulled back, its grey face colored red with fresh blood; her blood. Kierrna screamed a silent scream.

Mithros slashed at the undead, his whirling double scimitar opening a dozen cuts across the foul creatures. But creatures that do not bleed do not bleed to death. He however bled from a dozen scathes and bites that covered his arms, and his enemy had him flanked. This was a battle of attrition he could not win.

Two gray plumed arrows struck the ghoul through the neck, causing it to stagger; two glowing magical bolts followed the arrows, causing the ghoul to fall.

With only one enemy to worry about now, Mithros quickly felled the ghoul his scimitar blades biting deep and with force.

Tzzt smashed the final lizardfolk to the ground with his battlefist, Kierrna?s magic coursing through him, filling his body with a hatred for the lizardfolk, making him their truest enemy. Battlelust coursing like warm blood through him, Tzzt turned around looking for enemies to destroy.

He saw Kierrna, saw her soaked in blood, her blood, saw the creature biting her, eating her!

A dark rage took over the warforged. The world became grey like shades of steel. He charged, moving faster than even a Valenar?s war horses. Within seconds he had covered over fifty feet, smashing in the ghoul, both of them tumbling to the ground. The warforged started to pummel the ghoul with both fists, his adamantine fists smashing flesh and bone.

Long after it was dead Tzzt kept pummeling until nothing but the gore of bloodless flesh remained.

Mithros hurried over to the gnome, blood flowing slowly from her neck. Reaching her, he laid her stiff body down on the grass, and taking on the curative potions he carried, poured it directly into the gnome?s wounds.

'Come back Kierrna,' he whispered. 'Tzzt, can't lose you.'

Behind him, he could hear Tzzt sparking, the great warforged warrior shaking with fear.

'Fixy friend get up, fixy friend get up, fixy friend get up...'

Kateria, rushed over to the warforged side. Recognizing the ghouls, and with some understanding of their effect on the living she counseled Tzzt.

'Shhhhh, Tzzt. She'll be Okay,' she soothed him, stroking his three fingered hand. ?Just like sleep. She?ll get up soon'

'Fixy friend sleep?' he asked hopefully.

'Yes Tzzt,' Kateria responded.

Kierrna stared up at the scene, her heart breaking watching Tzzt in torment. He shouldn?t have to see me like this; it?s too much for him. Gods, she realized, what if I should die on this fools errand.

As the paralysis finally wore of, Kierrna was crying, tears streaking the blood stained cheeks.

 

[Warbringer]

Act VII Temple in a Temple (Part II)

'You are sure the huts are empty?' Mithros asked.

'I see no signs of movement,' Nightshade answered.

Mithros looked back across the clearing to the temple.

'Tzzt, you're with me,' Mithros instructed. ' The rest of you follow about thirty paces back. Nightshade, watch thier backs.'

Thianiallis nodded in agreement. It was a standard plan, though he'd have been more comfortable if the psions had have been here to sweep the temple first. He waited until the ranger and warforged where thirty paces before signaling for the others to follow them across the opening and starting to climb the half dozen giant steps. Walking backwards, he carefully watched the jungle for signs of other lizardfolk, his bowstring taught. He didn't like being in the open, he felt vulnerable without his shadows, naked.

Mithros climbed the giant steps, each of the three foot risers almost level with his hips, requiring him to leap between the steps. Beside him, the seven foot warforged took the steps in his literal stride.

Reaching the top, the ranger looked across the portico, past the broken columns that laid toppled, their capitals long shattered, to the great gaping entrance that stood over thirty feet high. No door barred their way.

Mithros signaled for the warforged to wait while he investigated the entrance, drawing his blade as he approached the dark shadows of the temple, and checking the portico for signs of travel.

Numerous claw prints traversed the portico in many directions. Patrols came and went from the temple with regularity, and for quite some time. Layered upon the claw marks he saw the prints of weighted booted leading into the temple, the dense heel mark a clear sign of the weight of armor, the small angular nicks indicating some resting on the hilts of their swords, blade down; Mithros estimated a dozen or so warriors entered the temple, but did not appear to leave.

Hidden within the multitude of tracks the ranger found two of particular notice. One set, barely hidden, were large, indicating a humanoid of seven feet of so, but the marks where deep, as if the creature that made them was made of metal. The last set, he almost missed, though not smaller than the others, they left almost no sign of passage; the pink skins that the chieftain had told Kierrna and other about.

Mithros peered through the great door way, the late afternoon sun already behind the temple, the chamber beyond lost in shadow. Mithros squinted, his elven eyes trying pick out details in the shadow, but there was not enough light for even his heightened vision.
Slowly, he stepped into the shadow.

Kierrna and Kateria reached the top of the stairs as the ranger disappeared into the darkness, the elf helping the gnome scramble up the giant steps.

As Mithros vanished, Kateria cursed under her breath, frustrated that he had not waited for the rest to reach the top of the stairs. The sun would set soon, and she was concerned about continuing the day?s quest after sun fall, especially with undead around.

As if to echo her fear, Nightshade, pulled her sleeve and signaled the sound of an approaching patrol coming from the direction of the huts. Quickly, she signaled for the party to move on to the portico and drop to the ground, hoping that the elevation would give them some cover from those below.

Beneath her she could here the lizardfolk talking, and from the sound of their voices they were not coming towards them, but heading into the huts. She quietly crawled up to the portico edge and as the last of the lizardfolk entered the largest hut below, she finally released a breath she did not realize she had been holding.

The impromptu plan had seemed to work, until the sound of echoed out of the chamber.
Jumping quickly to her feet, Kateria shaped a spell in her mind, and before the lizardfolk could respond she filled the hut they had entered with sticky web.

The others had also reacted swiftly, Tzzt disappearing into the temple, Kierrna and Nightshade moving quickly to the fray. The cry of ghouls stopped the gnome in her tracks.

The ranger had responded quickly to the ambush, feeling the ghouls? presence before they had a chance to pounce. The blow from his scimitar would have crippled a living enemy, but the ghoul kept coming. His blow landed, he stepped back towards the doorway to stop the creatures surrounding him.

The second ghoul indeed had tried to flank him, but his defensive posture forced it into a clumsy attack, that he easily parried aside. The ghoul pounced again, but never landed a blow as Tzzt?s great chain struck it in mid air, the metal links wrapping around its waist, pulling it to the ground.

The ghoul tried to claw its way back to the ranger, but Tzzt dragged the hissing undead slowly towards him, and once it was within his reach, pummeled it with his great fist.
Spinning on his heal, Mithros twirled the double blade scimitar, the decapitating blow killing the ghoul instantly, undead or not.

The undead cleared, the rest of the group moved into the temple hall, the gnome providing light with one her alchemical inventions. the pale blue light barely reaching the temple ceiling, forty feet above their heads.

The antechamber was huge, the pale blue light from the artificers barely illuminating the temple ceiling, forty feet above their heads. Eight massive columns rose to the ceiling, supporting its great weight, ancient faded murals on their surface depicting long lost gods, the images on the ceiling indicating that these titans supported the world on their shoulders.
'Wow,' Kateria commented. 'The murals look like they were painted yesterday.'

'The paints probably used an alcatemporal base,' Kierrna replied.

'A what?' the elf quizzed.

'Anti fading,' the gnome smiled.

Mithros, signaled for the two to stop talking, moving towards the wall near the entrance where the ghouls had come from. A section of wall had collapsed, revealing a passage that lead away into the darkness, a secret passage that once let the temple guards appear behind any causing trouble in the temple.

But now, the passage's secret lost, it offered a way into the heart of the temple. Mithros stared down the passage, the smell fo death still lingering in the sate passage.

'Kierrna, do you have any more of those little lights of yours?' Mithros asked the gnome. 'The ones that roll.'

Rummaging through the pouches, that always seemed to contain more items than their size could ever hold, she pulled out a small a small red ball and shook it vigorously.

Mithros took the glowing sphere, and kicked it down the corridor, its shallow light bathing the walls a soft pink hue.

The ranger turned and started at the gnome, whom giggling, simply mouthed 'Sorry, wrong bag.'

 

[ragboy]

I've only read the first scene, but looks fun so far. Keep up the good work!