Ashlyn regained consciousness very slowly. The first thing she noticed was the burning sensation of salt in the space between her mouth and nose, telling her that she had swallowed a lot of ocean water. The next thing she noticed was that she was aching all over. This was mostly likely a result of being dragged onto the beach by a strong current of water. A groan escaped Ashlyn. She opened her hazel eyes to see a clear blue sky above her. The disgusting smell of rotting flesh filled her nose. After a second, Ashlyn struggled to her feet. Waves of dizziness washed over her. She hunched over a bit with her hand on her head, trying to wait for the world to stop spinning. It only took a few moments for it to pass. She then took in her surroundings.
She was on a beach. The smoke from Selune's Ryu was still visible over the water. There was a forest to Ashlyn's left, and a man a few yards in front of her gazing out at the wreckage. She turned in a slow circle, searching for any signs of the rest of the crew. As she did this, she absently combed her fingers through her long red hair. Her hair was a thick, tangled mess and so full of salt and sand that it was scratching the small of her back where the current had torn her shirt. There was no one except that man around. Was she the only one that had survived the dracolich attack? The memory of Duncan pulling her over the side of the ship and into the water flashed through her mind. He had saved her.
A hand fell on her shoulder then. She spun around swiftly with her fist pulled back. She found herself looking into blue eyes for the second time today.
"Woah. Watch it." Duncan said, pushing her fist down to her side. "You might hurt yourself."
Ashlyn exhaled, half in relief and half in annoyance. Of course the first thing that he would say after they had survived something so terrible would be insultinig. He was so inconsiderate. And he, the inconsiderate and rude Lonewolf, of all people, had saved her.
Ashlyn gave him an odd look. She supposed that she should thank him. She wanted to know if he had seen any of the rest of the crew while he was sneaking up behind her. Instead of saying anything important or that mattered at all, she blurted, "Why did you save me?" Duncan's eyebrows shot up, then he narrowed his eyes at her and crossed his arms.
"You're welcome." It was clear to Ashlyn that Duncan thought her ungrateful, and Ashlyn was definitely not that. So, sighing heavily, she mumbled, "Thanks." After an awkward pause of staring into his smug face while waiting for a kinder 'you're welcome' that didn't come, Ashlyn glared at him. "Well? Where's the rest of the crew?" she asked, not bothering to be so kind. This question seemed to deflate Duncan. He frowned, and Ashlyn already knew the answer before he shook his head. So he didn't know. He was pretty sure they didn't make it. Ashlyn tried not to connect the rotting smell with the loss of their crewmates.
A moment of mournful silence passed before Duncan huffed, "At least we made it to land and both of us are alive. That's more than I had dared hope. Let's ask that guy where we are." With that, he headed toward the man that Ashlyn had seen earlier. The man was now watching them warily. Ashlyn began to realize that even though Duncan was being rude and smug about the whole thing, he had saved her life. And that put her in his debt. Not only that, but he hadn't simply abandoned her afterward. He had looked for her after the wreck and, in hindsight, had actually looked relieved when he found her alive. Sighing, she followed him.
"Hello," Duncan was saying, "I'm Wolf. I'm from the crew of the Selune's Ryu." The man's eyes flicked to Ashlyn.
"Oh. I'm Pink. Also a crew member. Um. You haven't seen anyone else around here, have you?" Ashlyn asked, her heart still clinging to hope.
"No, ma'am. But thank the gods that you two are alive. I was so afraid no one would survive as I watched the dracolich attack the ship." He paused, then continued to both of them, "I'm Private Wilfred. What would make you two sail to Neverwinter during times such as these?" So they were near Neverwinter. That was across the continent of Faerun from where Ashlyn was born.
Duncan and Ashlyn exchanged a look. Ashlyn was the first to answer. "Well… we're from Faerun, but a different part. We have been at sea for quite a while."
The look of defiance on Duncan's face said it all. Ashlyn knew that he was about to be rude again, but he spoke before she could stop him, "But I don't see how that's your business," Gods, this guy was so off-putting, Ashlyn could hardly stand it.
Private Wilfred hesitated and said, "Well welcome home… I suppose. I can guarantee you adventure if you stay to help. You may even find riches. You may have noticed that Neverwinter is under attack by a necromancer. Her name is Valindra. She conjured that has been assaulting the city with her legions of undead."
That must also be where that awful smell was coming from. That gave Ashlyn the tiniest feeling of relief. There was still a glimmer of hope that the crew hadn't all died. Who's to say how long Wilfred had been standing here? He may have missed them. An army of undead was bound to spread that terrible smell. Ashlyn wavered for a second. WIlfred said that Neverwinter needed help fighting the undead, but she was terrified of the zombies. Her nightmares were full of them. She chewed on her lip for a second before resolving herself to the greater good and the promise of adventure. She said to the Private, "We would be happy to help you in any way that we can." Duncan nodded in agreement, almost as if he had been waiting for her answer.
Grateful, Private Wilfred gestured behind him and suggested that they search the wreckage for whatever was left of their gear. Ashlyn's eyes followed the direction in which he had motioned and recognized the weathered boxes that had washed up on the shore from their ship. "You shouldn't be wandering around unarmed. It's dangerous." Private Wilfred explained, and then he said, "When you finish, head up to the camp at the top of the hill. They've got a nice warm fire up there. You'll feel better once you've dried off."
Ashlyn and Duncan made their way toward the washed up wreckage after thanking Private Wilfred for his help. "This is crazy, Wolf," Ashlyn mumbled as they opened the boxes on the shore. "We just fought a dragon. Our ship is sunk, and we have no more crew. What are we going to do?" She asked as she pulled robes out of one of the boxes, her voice trembling a bit.
Duncan sighed and answered in a low voice, "We'll be ok. Stop panicking." He paused for a second, contemplating his next words. "You could always just stay at the camp. Wouldn't want you hurting yourself. I can come to get you when I've figured something out." He offered her an orb and until then, she hadn't even noticed that her previous Orb was gone. Now she remembered that it had been crushed into dust before they had even jumped into the water. This one was cracked, but it would have to do. At her touch, the orb floated up by her head, level with her slightly pointed ears. She opened her mouth to protest Duncan's implication that she couldn't handle herself, but before she could say anything, he grabbed a tarp and held it up. "Go ahead and put your dry robes on." Ashlyn must have looked surprised because he smirked. "Come on, Pink. You will be warmer." Duncan had already equipped his extra pair of daggers to his belt, and while she hadn't been looking had pulled on his new robes.
Ashlyn narrowed her eyes in distrust. "Wolf," she threatened, "if you peek, a dracolich and a sunken ship will be the least of your problems." He rolled his eyes at this, making it quite obvious that he didn't feel threatened by her at all. Duncan must have known that she was serious, though, because he made a show of closing his eyes and pulling the tarp up far enough so that it was above his head, but still blocked her from the view of anyone else. Once she was done, they headed up the hill toward the camp.
As they entered the camp, soldiers turned to look at them, assessing them. This made Ashlyn nervous because Duncan was very intimidating. He had dark skin and dread locks that hung down on both sides of his face. He always carried himself with an air of 'I'm-better-than-you' while his hands always seemed to be ready to unsheathe his daggers at a moment's notice. Either Ashlyn's small frame and unintimidating stance cancelled out Duncan's daunting look, or the pair of them must be in worse shape than she thought. The soldiers didn't do or say anything. They simply returned to whatever they had been doing as if there hadn't been an interruption.
Ashlyn pointed to the campfire. She and Duncan went to stand by it. The warmth of it washed over Ashlyn as soon as they got close, and she could practically feel the rosiness returning to her pale skin. Her hair was almost dry, and it was beginning to feel much softer than she had expected, though she still needed a comb for the tangled mess that the sea had turned it into. She turned to look at Duncan, who was in the process of squeezing excess water out of his dreadlocks. As soon as they were both warm and relatively dry, they approached the man who seemed to be in charge.
"Excuse me, sir," Ashlyn said as they approached him, "I'm Pink and this is Wolf."
"Hello. I'm glad to see that someone survived that ship wreck! I'm Lieutenant Linkletter," He said as an introduction.
"You saw that from here?" Duncan asked, and when the Lieutenant responded with a nod, Duncan added, "Has anyone else come through here?" This earned a glance from Ashlyn. This was the first time he had even expressed interest in finding the rest of the crew. So he did care.
"Sorry, no. You lost some of your crew, did you?" Linkletter guessed. This lieutenant appeared to be a pretty perceptive guy. Within seconds he had been able to tell that they were from the ship wreck and that the people Duncan had asked about were their crew.
"It seems we lost ALL of our crew," Ashlyn responded quietly.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Lt. Linkletter said sympathetically, "Well go ahead and rest up, but please come and talk to me again as soon as you're ready. I'm afraid we need your help."
Duncan responded before Ashlyn could. "That's why we came. Private Wilfred told us that you need help and sent us this way." Linkletter smiled at this.
"That Wilfred is one promising young fellow. Well then in that case," He then plunged into a long-winded explanation of the state of the battle against Valindra. They had managed to fend off Valindra's main force, but the battlefield was scattered with numerous undead wandering around with little purpose. Apparently, necromancers were raising Linkletter's fallen soldiers to fight against them. Someone by the name of Acolyte Neyman was working on a ritual to lay the recently fallen to rest. Linkletter was worried that the undead forces were going to try to attack before the ritual could take place. He said, "I am needed here to make sure that Neyman is able to finish her ritual. Could you go to Dell McCourt's camp and inform them of our situation?"
"Of course." Ashlyn said, and as she turned to leave, Lt. Linkletter added, "Also, if you happen across any wounded soldiers, please help them and send them this way."
Ashlyn looked back at him kindly and nodded before leaving for the battlefield behind Duncan.
Right away they found a wounded man writhing on the ground in pain. He had a huge gash in his thigh and it had started to turn black. It looked like it was infected. Duncan ripped a strip of cloth from his shirt as he knelt down next to the man. He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of alcohol.
"You carry around alcohol?" Ashlyn asked in a disdainful voice.
"I'm a pirate." He replied acidly, as if that explained everything; however, Ashlyn didn't remember ever seeing Duncan drunk or even in the process of drinking. "This may hurt." He said to the man softly. The amount of concern in Duncan's face and voice surprised Ashlyn to the point that she was speechless. She was beginning to wonder why it was that she didn't like Duncan. Once Duncan had bound the wound, he looked up at her. "Well? Why are you just standing around? Help me help him up." Duncan demanded. Oh. That was why. Because he was so damn bossy. But now was not the time to have the discussion about the right and wrong way to ask someone for assistance. Ashlyn knelt down on the other side of the man so that she and Duncan could help him to his feet. They attempted to assist him back to Linkletter's camp, but the man brushed them off. He thanked them for helping, but said that there were men worse off than him out there and to go find them.
They continued to keep an eye out for people as they made their way to McCourt's camp. Duncan was too late getting to one man and he died right in front of them. Ashlyn sent a prayer to Ohgma before they continued searching. The undead were everywhere, although they were spaced out and wandering around in ones and twos. Duncan was a whole lot braver about fighting them than Ashlyn was. In one motion, Duncan would leap at them, tackle them to the ground and decapitate them like it was nothing.
When Ashlyn engaged in combat, she would simply shoot balls of arcane energy and beams of ice from afar. Although Ashlyn knew that that was how wizards were supposed to fight, she still didn't like how Duncan killed three zombies for every one that she killed, and she wished that she could join him up close. They found two more people before they got to McCourt's camp. Ashlyn and Duncan did their best with first aid before helping them get back to safety.
McCourt was waiting for them when they walked through the gates. "Thank you for assisting the wounded. They wouldn't have made it without you two." He must have been watching them.
"It's no problem at all, sir." Ashlyn responded, and Duncan relayed Lt. Linkletter's message to Dell McCourt, who nodded thoughtfully.
After a moment's deliberation, McCourt finally said, "I'll try to send some reinforcements with supplies to Linkletter as soon as I can, but we have some problems here too. We have archers being led by Private Hawthidon to try and drive off the Red Wizards who are summoning undead. They're running low on arrows. We need someone to scour the battlefield and recover as many arrows as you can."
"We can do that," Duncan quickly volunteered. Ashlyn could tell that he was eager to help, which further confused her. On the ship, he had always seemed dark and unapproachable and a lot of the times rude and bossy. She always avoided him because she couldn't take a two minute break from the hard work on the ship without him treating her like she was the laziest person aboard. He acted as though she went around asking everyone for special treatment simply because she was a girl when in reality, she had never asked for special treatment one time. Now, he wanted nothing more than to help people, and he was so concerned for these strangers' safety.
Ashlyn hadn't even noticed she'd been staring at Duncan until he met her eyes. He raised his eyebrow and said, "Uhh. You ready?" She mentally shook herself, nodded once and followed him back out to the battlefield.
The two quickly found a dead Red Wizard with three arrows in him. Ashlyn bent to pick them up when two undead came up behind her and tried to attack her. She yelped, but before they could touch her, Duncan was there. He lunged at the first and stabbed it multiple times in quick succession. Ashlyn marveled at his speed. He moved so fast, seeming to almost teleport from one to the other. In less than a second, he had already stabbed a dagger into the second creature's throat and was bringing the dagger down on the top of its head. Both of the zombies fell and Duncan looked down at Ashlyn. "What's taking you so long? They need those arrows as soon as possible."
Ashlyn blushed and glared at him. "I was just making sure you could handle yourself," she lied, knowing that she had been staring yet again. If she wasn't careful, Duncan was going to get the idea in his head that she was attracted to him. Ashlyn couldn't read the expression on Duncan's face. Was it smugness or annoyance? She wasn't sure but either way it irritated her. She got to her feet, stored the three arrows in her pack, and they moved on to the next arrow-filled body. As quickly as possible, they picked their way around the battlefield. It wasn't too difficult dodging the undead to get to the bodies, and Ashlyn was getting braver about fighting them when she had to.
By the time that they reached Private Hawthidon, they had collected eighteen arrows in all. As Ashlyn offered the arrows to the Private, he said, "Oh you found some! Thank you very much. Put them over there in one of the barrels near the archers." Ashlyn went to follow his directions while Duncan stayed to see what else they could do. Ashlyn could hear Hawthidon saying to him, "Thank you so much for the help." He explained about the undead on Sleeping Dragon Bridge, and how the bridge led to Protector's Enclave, the heart of Neverwinter. He warned that these undead were a lot stronger. "Go fend off the undead soldiers at the gate so can open it safely again."
Ashlyn bit her lip as she walked back to them. Duncan could see Ashlyn's hesitation, and he eyed her doubtfully. "You're not scared are you, Lady Pink?" The word 'Lady' was said with such a tone of sarcasm, Ashlyn knew that it was an insult. She gave him a hard look.
"Of course I'm not scared. I'm just… preparing myself. And I'm tired of your implications that my being a woman means that I can't handle myself, by the way. Cut it out."
He gave her that smirk that made her want to smack him. "Well let's go then," he said and bent into a half bow, holding his arms out as if to say 'after you'.
She exhaled angrily, and headed for the bridge with her nose in the air, Duncan at her heels. The undead swarmed them immediately. Ashlyn froze one of the zombies with a shard of ice, giving Duncan time to leap at it. He quickly sunk one of his daggers into its face and jumped off of its shoulders, aiming for another one, and landed on its chest dagger first. Ashlyn had been working on freezing a zombie with an ice beam. As soon as it turned to ice, Duncan rammed his dagger into the creature's solidly frozen stomach and it shattered. He then dashed to another one, evading a zombie that had come up behind him. While it was distracted, Ashlyn flung arcane orbs at it, causing it to stumble back a few feet. It hissed at her as the spells hit, and began targeting her instead. She teleported backwards a little ways while quickly throwing more arcane spells at it. It fell as Duncan finished cutting down his last zombie, and they were free to approach the gate. Surprisingly, Private Wilfred was waiting for them.
"Hello, Private," Ashlyn greeted him with a smile, "It's nice to see you again."
He nodded at them in greeting, and replied, "Glad to see you two made it safely."
Duncan returned Wilfred's nod, "Back atcha."
There were a lot of undead leading up to the bridge, and just as Hawthidon had warned, they were a lot stronger than previous monsters. It seemed that Ashlyn, Duncan, and Wilfred fought well together. The first thing that the trio encountered was a line of archers with bows ready to fire. Ashlyn launched missiles of ice at the zombified archers and then teleported backwards as they froze, allowing Duncan and Wilfred to rush the immobile monsters. While they were preoccupied with the archers, a group of undead soldiers charged at them. Ashlyn tried to fight them off, but was knocked to the ground by a shield. She quickly began to realize that her magic was not made to kill large groups of people, but rather to slow them down or halt them giving people that she was fighting with time to kill them. This was why it was so much easier for Duncan, and Wilfred as well, to take them out in larger numbers. Their fighting styles were made for that. She bought time until the other two could help by slowing the zombies with beams of ice. She followed the beams with arcane orbs, and managed to take down a few herself. It wasn't long before Duncan and Wilfred jumped in to finish the job.
They were almost to the bridge. Another line of archers was the only thing standing in the way. The three knew exactly what to do. An earsplitting roar echoed out of the gatehouse after the last few archers fell. Ashlyn turned in the direction of the sound to find a giant undead Harbinger stomping toward them. Ashlyn gasped and Duncan cursed under his breath. Wilfred, however, charged at the beast with a loud battle cry without waiting for Ashlyn and Duncan.
Ashlyn yelled "Private Wilfred!" at the same time that Duncan shouted, "No!" The Harbinger didn't even flinch. It simply swatted the Private out of the way as if he were a fly. Wilfred flew several feet before landing hard on his back, and sliding into the wall head first.
Duncan and Ashlyn winced in unison. Duncan growled, "Come on. We have to defeat this thing so we can help him." Ashlyn nodded once sharply, and together, they charged at the beast as well. When the Harbinger flung its arm out at Duncan as it had done to Wilfred, Duncan was ready. He jumped onto its arm and used it as a spring board to sink a dagger into its head. Ashlyn shot a beam of ice at it. It took longer to freeze the Harbinger than it had rest of the undead because it was so big, but after slowing its movement and attacks, eventually it was solid. While it was frozen, Duncan unleashed a flurry of attacks all over the Harbinger's body. The attacks were so fast, Ashlyn was only able to catch flashes and shadows of him. Just as Duncan landed the last blow and back flipped off the beast's chest, it broke free of the ice, sending pieces of jagged shards everywhere. Ashlyn teleported backward out of range, then ran in an arc around it, firing orb after orb of arcane magic at the beast. The Harbinger brought both of its fists down feet in front of Ashlyn. She would have been crushed by them, but she quickly teleported backward. She hurled three ice shards at it mid-dash while it was still bringing itself back up to full height, freezing its legs, then arms, then the rest of its body. It was now frozen, giving Ashlyn the perfect amount of time to charge her attack. She spread her hands wide, her orb floating between them. As she brought her hands together, she yelled, "WOLF, JUMP!" and slammed her fists into the ground just like the Harbinger had seconds before. Duncan leaped into the air just in time. One huge, jagged glacier exploded from the ground under it , knocking it airborne and sending it flying.
"Nice!" Duncan shouted as he charged at the beast while it was still on its back. Ashlyn could tell that it was almost done. It began to struggle to its feet before Duncan could get there, so Ashlyn shot an icy beam at it. This slowed it down enough that Duncan got to it before it was fully on its feet. He delivered the final blow with his dagger through its heart. With one final roar, the Harbinger toppled to the ground and grew still.
"Yes!" Ashlyn cried triumphantly. They heard a groan behind them. Both turned to find that Private Wilfred hadn't moved at all that whole time. They rushed to his side to hear him quietly whimpering as he struggled to breathe.
"That was a great fight, you two. I… should have been more cautious," the Private's voice was fading.
"Shhhh," Ashlyn said quietly while Duncan murmured, "Just lay still, Private. We'll go get help. Wait h—"
"No!" He was interrupted by Private Wilfred. "You… won't make it back in time. Go to the city… find Sergeant Knox. He is one of the best guards of Neverwinter. Tell him… Tell him what happened… ask him to please check on my mother from time to time. You guys have to protect Neverwinter. If we fail here… Valindra will rule. You have… to stop her…"
Tears welled up in Ashlyn's eyes as Private Wilfred's last breath left his body. "We have to stop her, Wolf."
"Let's go find Sergeant Knox," He agreed.
As they got to their feet, Ashlyn whispered, "I'm sorry, Wilfred," and Duncan added to that, "May Selune help you rest in peace."
Together, they opened the gates, and entered Protector's Enclave.