* 9 * 4/8/12

After asking around the Westcliff area for what seemed like ages, the group finally thought they had an idea of which village Casavir was at. The time they'd spent was not a complete waste, however; Neeshka managed to find quite a few valuable items and some gold when she went astray in several of the abandoned villages they'd passed through. Lily didn't even want to know if the tiefling had pawned them from chests, or from corpses.

It seemed that only a handful of people had caught a glimpse of a tall paladin warrior traveling with three women, and oddly enough, everything pointed to a village slightly off in the distance from whence no smoke or noticeable signs of destruction seemed to come. Bishop was especially disturbed by this, since he recalled Lily telling the party that the undead had burned some of the women's village down.

Something didn't seem quite right, which was all the more reason to find out what that was, given their friend was probably right in the center of it all.

"Just a little bit longer," Lily encouraged.

"I feel like my legs are going to fall off," Neeshka whined.

Khelgar was stern. "If you want to stay here, that's fine. At least now we have a solid lead, and we ain't waitin' any longer where there's nothin' to fight."

"This feels like some stupid backwards fairytale. Let's just get this over with and save the knight in shining armor," Bishop added, sarcasm filling his voice to the brim.

Neeshka sighed. "Fine, fine, let's go."

They moved toward the forest yet again. At least this time their destination was in sight, and Bishop would be able to tell them if they were headed in the right direction.

It seemed odd traveling without the paladin, like a trusty and silvery piece of the puzzle simply wasn't there. Lily felt especially off not having Casavir behind her (Ceye's note: If your character is female, Casavir will always protect you by coming to stand right behind you in the marching order, even after falling far behind. Check the game to see what I mean!). They all made a good team regardless, but Bishop's main proficiency was with a bow; he didn't seem to be very comfortable up in the front ranks. Besides, all he seemed to be doing was compete with Khelgar for kills, something Casavir never did, even though he was much better at it than the ranger.

Lily cast Haste on the party again, eager to get to the next village and recover the integral part of their team. She also admittedly wanted to go on missions that required less anxiety when it came to her friends' health, where the only time she'd be separated from a teammate was when they were temporarily hurt on the field.

They made good time with their speed buff, and there weren't that many creatures down this path from what they could see. Before they knew it, they had entered a clearing not too far from the village. They looked around. It seemed to be awfully quiet, too quiet for a place surrounded by forestry and wild animals.

Just then, a few women came forth out of the half-burnt, half-perfectly-intact village. It was them!

"Hey!" Lily called out. "What happened to Casavir?"

They ignored her. The middle one seemed to be mumbling something under her breath, and Bishop leaned in to try to hear her better.

Without warning, a swirling vortex suddenly hurled itself toward Lily. She could only gape her mouth in surprise before being engulfed by it. Where she, and it, had been, a kind of portal had opened, one that looked slightly familiar.

"Leader!" Khelgar shouted. He started angrily toward the women, intending to dispatch the source of the spell, but he saw three arrows in rapid succession sail past him and into the women's hearts, aided by Lily's Haste. As the three crumbled to ash, their transforming flesh betrayed what they really were.

"Succubi!" Khelgar grit his teeth and was about to curse, but just then Bishop ran across his field of vision and into the swirling portal. The dwarf's mouth hung open for only a second before he ambled after the ranger.

"Oh, really?! Now we're going into creepy portals?" Neeshka wailed. She watched them for a few moments before whining, "Don't leave me behind, guys!" She too followed Bishop, and the warp closed behind them.