* 2 * 2/22/13

On the way back, there was hardly any conversation. Bishop led the rest of the group; no one else had the energy to pay attention to where they were going. A thoroughly exhausted look from Lily concerned Casavir, though since he likely knew why she was feeling down, he didn't ask. Khelgar hadn't made a peep either; his eyes were focused hard on the ground and seemingly nothing could break his concentration. Ammon Jerro was entirely ignored by the party.

Before an hour had passed, Bishop put his hand behind him to bring the others to a halt. "Wait." He himself waited a few seconds. Then: "We're not alone."

Finally, Khelgar broke his silence. "Great, we can' even get back in peace." Truth be told, though, he was always armed and ready for a fight, even in such dark moments. Maybe this is what he needed to brighten his mood a little.

"What's there, Bishop?" Lily asked in a whisper.

"I don't know, but I've heard this noise before. Back in Jerro's compound." Ammon Jerro looked up at the mention of his name, then attuned his ears to try and hear what Bishop heard.

"The succubi followed us," he explained bitterly.

"Did you not have them under your control?" Casavir inquired.

"Ah, they hated me. Took any chance they got to get my head on a platter. Blooden's not with them, though. You'd hear her shrill laugh by now if she was. The broad can never keep quiet when she thinks she has the upper hand."

Khelgar sniffed haughtily. This wouldn't be a very good de-stresser of a fight, then.

"This is stupid. Let's ambush them instead," Bishop suggested. The others agreed.

"Bunch of novices," Khelgar grumbled under his breath.

As if called, a succubus took advantage of her higher ground and launched herself down at the dwarf. A small army of her female friends did the same shortly afterward.

Lily caught one in the face with her staff, and laughed. It may not've been an entirely appropriate act given recent events, but she needed to let off some steam.

Bishop shot a cascade of arrows at incoming targets. He seemed to be enjoying himself, as his angry expression had been replaced with one of sadistic pleasure.

Khelgar slashed one across the midsection with his dwarven waraxe; a lethal blow. He was almost elated when he saw a handful of the succubi regrouping to team up on him.

Before they got very far, though, Lily hit them with a fireball. Khelgar guffawed and huffed. "Sorry, Khelgar!" she called, giggling. Maybe this was, in fact, more than appropriate precisely because of Shandra's death; it gave Lily a reason to feel powerful again, not helpless.

Witnessing Lily's fireball, one succubus performed a short kind of dance before throwing what looked like snowballs at the sun elf.

But they were hardly benign. As soon as the snow made contact with Lily, the elf felt a shearing coldness surge through her body. She began shivering uncontrollably and dropped to her knees, letting go of her staff in the process and crossing her arms over her chest for warmth.

Ammon Jerro cursed at the succubus and acted quickly to neutralize the snow with Devour Magic. The succubus, in turn, began focusing on him. Lily looked in his direction and allowed herself a small grin as she slowly regained a normal bodily temperature.

Casavir had been taking down succubi at a rate of a few per second for the past minute. When he was free of his last burden, he rushed to Lily's side and helped lift her from her kneeling position. He kept very close to her, both in an effort to help her regain warmth and to defend from any other creatures that lunged her way.

Ammon had dealt the last succubus a deadly blow of Vitriolic Blast before she collapsed to the ground in a broken heap with the others of her kind.

"Hmph, at least it was somethin'," Khelgar commented, overall disappointed with the short tussle. "A couple hundred more of 'em would be welcome, though!"

"I'm sure you'll get your share soon," Lily teased, making the dwarf scowl.

"You stole those from me!"

"I was protecting you. I forgot that you don't like that, though. Sorry!" she laughed.

Khelgar frowned. "Let's just keep movin'."

The party stepped over the bodies of the vengeful – and very dead – succubi and resumed their course to the Keep.