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Chapter 20: What Fell with Netheril
The dawn was bright, clear and crisp with the promise of autumn's colder weather; as Elatharia and Edwin left the Planar Sphere, the Red Wizard was shivering visibly.
When they had reconvened in the library at dawn, the Red Wizard had been poorly attempting to conceal his nervousness. A few times the Transmuter had caught him staring at her, his expression unreadable – and she had found herself watching him in much the same way. But for now they had an agreement to uphold, and some companions to round up.
First, they headed under Edwin's insistence to the little cluster of rented rooms atop the Copper Coronet. They were accessible only via the roof terrace – and it was at the far end of this only recently cleared sprawl of tables that Korgan's home stood, past vomit and spilled beer that had not yet been cleaned by the unlucky tavern staff.
Seagulls were fighting noisily over scraps of discarded bread on the roof of the crooked row of shacks, but above that raucous choir could be heard the thunderous snores of Korgan Bloodaxe. Wrinkling their noses at the smell of the whole terrace, the two wizards stopped outside the open doorway of Korgan's simple abode, both filled with trepidation.
"Are you sure that he is a better bet than Haer'Dalis and Viconia?" Elatharia hissed, peering into the gloom and seeing a single table decorated with a half-eaten plate of…something and an empty flagon. There were no windows in any of these 'apartments', and through the doorway she could make out mouldering plaster half-heartedly covering mouldering wooden boards. Korgan's still-bloody armour had been discarded in one corner, by the alcove from which rumbled his snores. The handle of his axe was poking out from the closer end of that sleeping area, along with one booted foot.
"He and the bounty hunter will follow without asking questions," Edwin reminded her, giving the Transmuter a little push over the threshold and not following, "It is bad enough that you insist upon including the tiefling and drow in your other plans." By which he meant: Bodhi.
Haer'Dalis had stopped by at the doorway of the library upon his return to the Sphere an hour after midnight to tell them that he and Viconia would each be taking one of the rooms around the pond, out in the western globe of the complex. Edwin's half-grumbled comments when he and Elatharia had reconvened in Lavok's library in the morning had suggested that the tiefling and the drow did appear to have each chosen separate rooms around the pond. Having taken a chamber nearby, he did not appear to have heard anything to suggest otherwise.
The Transmuter steeled her nerve and forged forth into the cramped, dark room that served as Korgan's home. Trying not to breathe too deeply, in spite of the open doorway and the cold wind that whistled through the place, she peered through the gloom and witnessed Korgan's slumbering form. He was still holding a bottle of spirits, his beard still dripping with what was hopefully just the emptied remains of the container. His bed was nothing more than a pile of dishevelled sheets and he was lying horizontally across it, his shirt riding up and revealing a broad and terribly hairy back, a continuous expanse broken up by crisscrossing lines of innumerable pink-and-white scars. He grunted and squirmed a little when Elatharia had Edwin conjure a globe of light as bright as any he knew how to create. His snoring stopped for a moment…and then resumed.
"Korgan?"
A grunt, little else.
"Korgan!"
Nothing.
The dwarf turned over fully onto his face and refused to respond to shouted promises of gold, or more alcohol. Beginning to consider implementing one of her Shocking Grasp spells, Elatharia cast about for inspiration. Eventually, her eyes alighted once more upon the sight of the axe handle protruding from the bedding. She grasped hold of it and pulled. He spluttered a little and shifted, but continued to sleep resolutely.
Seeing Elatharia's train of thought, Edwin snorted. She was grinning wickedly herself when she at last managed to pull the axe free with some effort, staggering back as she raised it, and brought it crashing into Korgan's discarded breastplate. The clang of metal on metal tolled like a bell in the small room and the dwarf sat up suddenly, cursing. There were sounds of a wakening commotion in the neighbouring rooms, too.
"Moradin be damned, spellslinger!" Korgan reprimanded bitterly, dragging himself into a sitting position and glaring from beneath his bushy brows, rubbing his head, "What do ye want?"
"We have a job to do in the Graveyard," Edwin told him unsympathetically, leaning around the doorframe but not stepping inside.
"And what's in it fer me, Red Wizard? Not so many things to be killin' in a Graveyard now, is there?" Korgan pointed out with some shrewdness, rubbing his head and sitting back more fully against the wall that served as his headboard.
Watching the dwarf squint at her through the bright light with dawning concern over his possible helpfulness to their quest, Elatharia pointed out of the room towards Edwin.
"He will be paying you. A lot of gold."
"What?" Edwin's eyes widened in disbelief, but one look at Korgan reminded him that he had no choice. Eventually he threw his hands in the air and snarled something mutinous which Elatharia took to be an agreement, "Fine, fine, insufferable dwarf. (Let us hope he can keep his mouth shut, too…)"
"So this is t' be in secret from the weak-stomachs who ye like to keep flutterin' around ye?" Korgan assumed correctly, grunting unwillingly when Elatharia tossed his armour towards him.
"We're going to come back with Yoshimo, and when we do…be ready," Elatharia suggested as she nodded in answer to his question, backing out of the room with gladness, "Remember, the Red Wizard is paying."
The Graveyard was far less intimidating in the early morning. Every dark, posed statue and stone tomb lining the long, paved walkways was rendered sharply against the clear blue sky and the rising sun. Though mist still clung to the grassy verges and the air was still, sheltered amongst the high walls of the crypts and the scenic mounds, the ominous feeling of the night before was gone. Elatharia did however feel rather exposed as she and her three companions made their way through the newer section of the district. The place seemed deserted, and that set her on edge.
Edwin was determined, if a little jumpy. Beneath his long black cloak he wore his Red Wizard robes as he had when last they had been in the Graveyard together, his hood pulled low over his face. He strode at a swift pace down the narrow pathways – with Korgan stomping behind noisily in spite of the wizards' attempts to quieten him. Yoshimo flitted a few paces behind them, watchful and silent as ever.
They passed the little cluster of benches where Elatharia and Edwin had met Bodhi – and trod the overgrown steps which the vampire mistress had descended to greet them. Beyond lay a dirt path, all but covered by ferns and fungi, walled in by crumbling stone and looming trees whose broad leaves tickled Elatharia's face and snagged in her hair. Though there were no names on the vine-covered tombs they passed, cracked and half-collapsing into the undergrowth, Edwin's path was confident.
Eventually they stopped in front of the old crypts, a complex of crumbling stone that had been half-swallowed in plant matter and long abandoned. A perusal of the maps the previous night had shown to the two wizards that this area was large enough to fill a third of the rest of the entire graveyard. All of the scholarship, nefarious, coded and blood-spattered, suggested that the Nether Scroll of Athkatla was guarded by an ancient power somewhere in this crypt's depths.
"Shoddily made, and shoddily maintained," Korgan complained as he caught up with the two wizards, "Typical o' humans. No idea how they ought t' build wi' stone."
Edwin was inspecting the doorway closely for wards, and it was Elatharia who turned to look at the dwarf. Yoshimo was just picking his way far more gracefully over a cluster of roots. He was frowning slightly, his eyes scanning the trees around them.
"As long as the building doesn't fall on our heads or trap us inside forever, I've no problem with this," Elatharia shrugged, distracted by Yoshimo's watchfulness.
"Then I believe we should proceed," Edwin informed them all as he finally stepped back from the doorway, gesturing for Korgan to go first. The dwarf moved as if to pass him, but stopped at his side and turned to stare up at the wizard, axe planted between his feet.
"Not so fast, Red Wizard," Korgan disagreed, "I've a demand o' me own t' make now ye cannae back out."
"Oh? And what might that be? (As if he has not already demanded too much. Mercenaries would be cheaper, and perhaps less expendable.)"
"I'm goin' t' pretend I didnae hear that, because I'm about t' enjoy watchin' ye squirm," Korgan grinned – with very little mirth evident in his tone.
He paused for effect.
"The red dragon scales. I'll be wantin' me fair share. Fer armour."
"No! Unthinkable! Insufferable…" Edwin's anger flashed immediately, and Korgan shrugged. Picking up his axe, he turned about and started to stomp back the way they had come. Elatharia fought hard not to laugh.
"There is plenty to go around," Elatharia noted, "It can't be that important to keep it all."
"(Says a Transmuter whose profession requires her to throw away endless and uncalculated heaps of ingredients for innumerable and pointless alchemical experiments,)" Edwin huffed, somewhat inaccurately since Elatharia largely favoured the Turmish Transmutation Method – as taught to her by Gorion, a native of that country.
A moment more passed, with the Red Wizard rubbing at his forehead as if the concept she had suggested was physically painful. When Korgan had passed Elatharia and was almost out of sight through the trees, Edwin threw up his hands and snarled something in Mulhorandi before acquiescing.
"Fine! Fine! Wretched, uncivilised dwarf!"
"Good. Glad ye can see sense," Korgan affected a cheerful tone and turned back, hardly pausing before shouldering through the door and the darkness ahead, "Like I said – shoddily made and shoddily maintained…but good killin' grounds nonetheless! Ha!" his voiced echoed ominously and he paused, "I might be a dwarf well used t' the dark, but I cannae see a bloody thing down 'ere! Hurry up, spellslingers, afore I'm th' first t' die!"
"Perhaps that is the plan," Edwin muttered irritably, turning and following all the same with a globe of light already conjured in his palm.
Yoshimo paused next to Elatharia, placing a hand upon her shoulder that made her jump sharply, looking up at his serious expression.
"My apologies, leader," he promised, "I did not mean to startle you. But…be on your guard. I have an uncomfortable feeling that we are being followed."
"By whom?" Her thoughts immediately turned to the Shadow Thieves, and she scanned the trees automatically.
"I do not know," Yoshimo admitted, "But I will keep a careful eye behind us. We will not be taken unawares if I can help it."
"Good," Elatharia nodded, and hurried after the others into the darkness that had been newly lit by Edwin's conjured light.
Within stood a small cobweb-ridden chamber, its tiled floor cracked and breached by tree roots. Korgan was just peering through another doorway into deeper darkness and Edwin was looking around at the statues of robed figures lining the walls. He turned to look down at her with a violated hiss when she put a hand on his arm.
"We're being followed," she whispered urgently before he could complain, and that angry expression of his changed abruptly. He glanced over her head, back out at the Graveyard, with concerned eyes, his fingers brushing her arm as hers curled in his sleeve. "Yoshimo doesn't know who by."
"The Shadow Thieves?" Edwin suggested darkly, letting go of his conjured light and sending it to bob just behind them instead.
"Possibly," Elatharia nodded, "Though I would have thought here in the Graveyard we'd be under Bodhi's protection from that sort of thing. Is there anyone that you know who might be interested in what you're looking for?"
"No," Edwin denied immediately, but his expression showed his lack of certainty. He let out an exasperated breath and glanced down at her, wincing, "I suppose now is the time when you berate me for persuading you that you would not need any pointless Divinations today, yes?"
"It would be, yes," Elatharia bit back a laugh, "Except you never did persuade me, and I have a few that I can cast."
His dead-eyed glare held a flicker of amusement, and she grinned at him, nodding after where Korgan and Yoshimo were just stepping through the other doorway with the Conjurer's light drifting after them.
"Shall we?"
The crypts continued deep into the foundations of Athkatla, well beyond the current confines of the Graveyard. They were coiled, labyrinthine and crumbling, smelling of damp earth, mouldering cloth…and rot. As the group descended the steps ahead, fully intending to plumb these depths, there was an eerie silence which was filled only by the faint echo of their footsteps. Edwin's globe of conjured light swelled and brightened to try to allow a broader view of the ruined city of the dead, but it came up against thick, swirling dust. It was harder to breathe here, something which hardly abated as they reached the bottom of the creaking staircase and stood at the epicentre of a crossroads.
"Stop, friends," Yoshimo hissed, and all of them listened to him. He flitted past them, his grey and black clothes blending in eerily well with their surroundings, and stopped at the mouth of the nearest tunnel, this one looking a little newer than the others – since its frame still bore its original roses-and-butterflies pattern and had not been warped by years of pressure.
"What is it?" Elatharia whispered, wishing the bounty hunter could converse with her in drow sign language. Thinking of that, she sent a glare Edwin's way. It was becoming rapidly evident that the drow priestess would have been invaluable in this place. Who went into a crypt wherein a lich might dwell without a cleric? If nothing else she could have cast a Zone of Sweet Air around them to clear out the dust.
"There are tracks here," Yoshimo told her as she crept up to him, "I am no ranger, but it looks to me as if they are recent. Only…" he grimaced, "It looks as if whatever made them was dragging its feet, and that there are many."
"Undead," Elatharia spat the word like a curse, wheeling on Edwin and pointing at him accusatorily, "I told you we should have brought Viconia!"
"I say: what does it matter?" Korgan interrupted, his tone worryingly loud, as he hefted his axe, "So long as they fall like th' livin', we should keep on. Lead th' way, Red Wizard. I've me red dragon scale t' collect!"
"I find myself more inclined to agree with the dwarf (though he tries to rob me of my own fair spoils)," Edwin grumbled, rolling his eyes.
Elatharia was not so sure, already concerned about facing the lich who would be guarding the Nether Scroll, but she followed like the others into the more dilapidated corridor, wherein the smell of rot became choking and the dust was too thick for the light to penetrate properly. They had been walking for only a short time when she saw something shift in the gloom ahead and heard the scrape of something nearby. Reflexively she gripped Edwin's arm, pulling him up short beside her. He was about to berate her, until he saw her expression.
"What is it now?"
"There's something up ahead. Korgan!"
But the dwarf had already moved ahead a few more paces. When she saw him straighten in surprise, falling back a step with a grunt that sounded more than a little nervous, Elatharia stepped back from Edwin and reached into the Weave, her hands plucking at the air speedily to bring up a Fireshield.
"By the gods o' th' stone…I'll cleave yer head from yer shoulders, monster!" Korgan roared. It sounded like a warning, not a promise.
"No need, Korgan Bloodaxe," a smooth female voice promised, even as Elatharia heard the creak of Yoshimo's bowstring behind her.
The dwarf wheeled about as a female figure materialised from the gloom between him and the two wizards. He brandished his axe at her, too, but she just smiled, revealing two long canines beneath her thick, blood-red lips. Tall, thin to the point of emaciation and pale as death, it was undoubted that she was a vampire. Her red dress was a little frayed and dusty at the hem where it had been in contact with the ground, but she could have passed for a respectable lady at a glance.
"We have a common mistress, in Bodhi," the vampire promised, looking to Elatharia knowingly and drawing a surprised sound from Korgan.
"What is it that you want? We had no intention of infringing on your territory, regardless," Yoshimo insisted unexpectedly. Elatharia stiffened at his familiar words, casting a confused glance to where he was relaxing his bow behind her. His tone was formal, forced…but not alarmed.
"Of course, of course," the vampire smiled too widely, still looking at Elatharia, "I am not here to threaten, as you who have made your pact will know. In fact, quite the opposite. I am here to assure you that, so long as you stay within the boundaries of the old crypts and do not descend into the lower crypts, the undead that walk here are under Mistress Bodhi's command and will do you no harm. If you leave her area, however, the creatures that dwell within are far older and more lost than those pawns we use here. Have a care of them."
"We thank you for your fair warning," Yoshimo intoned before Elatharia or Edwin could speak, coming up to the Transmuter's side and nodding firmly.
The vampire inclined her head and sent a long, pale-eyed look to each of the companions.
"Our mistress wishes me to inform you that she will have need of your services tonight. Meet with me here, and I will take you to her."
Before anyone could answer, she flitted off into the gloom.
"So, I'm guessin' that's somethin' ye were goin' t' tell me, as a member o' yer team?" Korgan demanded, setting his axe before him and levelling a hard glare Elatharia's way.
"Tonight, actually," the Transmuter was hardly impressed by his threatening tone, since he would be getting no pay without her.
"An' yer Red Wizard hardly looks surprised. Typical wizards, trustin' each other when ye'll most likely be the ones to murder each other," the dwarf snorted, "Let's get this over with."
"I take it your…scroll…is in those lower crypts she mentioned?" Elatharia sighed, pointedly ignoring Korgan. She had seen the maps, but was not as familiar with the names of the areas as Edwin.
The Conjurer nodded, though his eyes were fixed hatefully upon Korgan's back. He did not bother speaking, and instead moved forward with greater speed. Elatharia caught Yoshimo's arm when he started to move past her.
"You sounded surprisingly familiar with her," she noted, and the bounty hunter looked back at her mildly.
"I am familiar with the less reputable members of Athkatla's less reputable societies, Elatharia," he explained, "All of them have given out bounties which I have collected in the past."
"Can I trust you with this information?"
"More than you think, most likely," he shrugged, smiling wryly, "I have no affiliation with the Shadow Thieves, if that is what you fear."
"Good. Are we still being followed?"
"I can sense nothing, but that does not in itself mean 'no'," Yoshimo admitted, "Stay watchful, leader. It is likely that the one who pursues us is more familiar with these tunnels, or with the inhabitants of this particular area of the Graveyard. If their intention is to attack us, or accost us…it will most likely not be here, under Bodhi's influence."
The vampire's promise proved true. As they walked down through the interlocking tunnels, past innumerable openings to ancient burials, the shuffling and groaning and stink of undeath grew ever more obvious. From half-seen forms shambling in the gloom, they found themselves passing right by the twisted forms of reeking ghouls, zombies…and darker things that seemed to have little presence in one's vision, but filled the air about themselves with a tiring, dragging feeling. Shades, and the like.
Korgan's brash manner quietened until he was stomping along beside the silent form of Yoshimo, both of them behind the two wizards. A glance back at him showed that he was wide-eyed and vigilant in a way that was probably quite admirable, given how drunk he must have been the night before. Edwin strode determinedly at Elatharia's side, but he held a cloth to his face and his brows were drawn together. When he caught her looking, his dark eyes seemed reproachful.
For her part, the Transmuter was intrigued. It was not often that she had a chance to see Necromancy in practice, since the monks at Candlekeep had been particularly keen to steer her away from that topic, and she soon grew used to the stink – unlike the others. She found that she could sense the zombies in particular before they shambled past upon their guard duties for Bodhi, their approach sending an uncomfortable shiver up her spine…and a little flare of golden light at the back of her thoughts.
The reminder of the power that taunted her thoughts made her giddy, and it also made her feel strangely unstable. The longer they walked through the old crypts, the more her realisation of this natural affinity with undeath grew. Elatharia's fingers itched with the need to try…something. She was so distracted that she almost walked past the turning that Edwin and the others took.
The Red Wizard caught her arm before she could go astray however, pulling her into the short corridor beyond. At the far end, Korgan and Yoshimo were just inching to the doorway which stood open, peering down into the darkness.
"We are in a crypt, Incompetent One," Edwin reminded in a half-whisper, shaking her a little, "This is not the time to become distracted by the power of your dead father."
"I'm not distracted," she denied feebly, though she looked up at him defiantly. He started to say something else, but his eyes flickered back to hers as if doing a double take. His grip tightened on her upper arm.
"Bhaal was a god of death, not the dead," Edwin sounded incredulous, his voice quietening further to a hiss.
'I think I can reach out to them with Transmutation,' Elatharia signed, and the Red Wizard's eyes widened. He pulled her a step closer towards him as if the information she was telling him needed to be hidden further until her leg bumped his. 'I feel Bhaal's power around them.'
"You think this could be useful…against what we might face?" Edwin asked, frowning as if he were forcing himself to concentrate. Elatharia nodded, and he started to smile.
"Enough o' yer schemin', wizards! Yer makin' me sick with yer…" Korgan started to complain loudly from the other end of the corridor, but Edwin interrupted him.
"We were discussing important tactics which fools such as yourself are not capable of comprehending (made as you are solely as fireball fodder)."
"Ha! Don't ye be forgettin' that dragon scale, Red Wizard!"
Korgan's chortle faltered when Elatharia looked around, back into the darkness of the main corridor. A moment later the crawling on her skin and the flickering behind her eyes proved correct; a zombie ambled past, half-seen through the drifting dust.
After that, they passed through into the lower crypts, and Elatharia was sure to cast her few Divinations as they did so. It had been a long time since she had been in such an environment – Ulcaster, south of Beregost, had been the last place in which she had encountered undead of this type. Her connection with Bhaal's taint had been nowhere near as strong back then. She had no way to tell how reliable this new ability for sensing the zombies and their ilk really was.
As Bodhi's servant had so enigmatically warned, their path from then on was not as easy. Still, only twice did Korgan have to hack his way past a zombie; it seemed that Bodhi's malevolent power was the main offensive necromantic force in these crypts. There had been traps left down here, however, and Yoshimo was kept busy in clearing the way for them. Perhaps they had been set by criminals hiding their stashes of stolen goods, or by families who did not want such thieves to take their relatives' burial treasure. Several times Elatharia nearly pulled a trip wire only to be saved by Yoshimo.
The dust was more settled down here, with far fewer signs of rot. There was just an all-pervading sense of age. It showed in the worn tiles beneath their feet and the collapsing walls around them which Edwin's conjured light illuminated in sharp contrast to the darkness beyond its sphere of influence.
When the golden light of Bhaal flickered hungrily behind her eyes, Elatharia stopped by the next adjacent corridor, turning back to look at Edwin. Wordlessly, she gestured in that direction and he nodded. Yoshimo seemed to watch this interaction as closely as Korgan, but his expression was far harder to read. At least the dwarf looked openly suspicious of the pair.
Edwin made a point of perusing the runes around the opening frame of the corridor before insisting that Korgan go first. When nothing happened, he glanced at Elatharia with a hint of a smile, and she realised he had not been sure of whether or not those wards were active or not. The dwarf did at least have more significant natural resistances to magic than the rest of them, but he was also far less effectively armoured against it.
For her part, Elatharia was far too distracted by the insidious power of Bhaal to even try to look reproachful. She suspected she would not have bothered overmuch even without it.
"It's a dead end, ye magic-addled fools," the dwarf grunted back from the darkness. His eyes flashed with a hint of redness in the lack of light – for the first time, Elatharia wondered if he could see in the dark much like Viconia and Haer'Dalis, and the lack of that kind of knowledge always unsettled her.
Edwin approached the dwarf, and with him went his conjured light. It showed that Korgan was correct; the next ornate archway had been blocked up with crumbling plaster. After a quick Abjuration which sent the runes around the frame hissing and popping into inactivity with little puffs of dust, Edwin rapped on the plaster with his knuckles. Korgan sighed. Then, with very little preamble, he swung in a neat arc and sent the head of his axe crashing through the plaster.
Coughing, the Red Wizard backed up rapidly from the rising white dust as the plaster lost its integrity and collapsed before him and the dwarf. When a light flared beyond, Elatharia fell into a well-practiced series of spells to augment herself even as Edwin did. Speed, strength, Fireshield. It was rather paltry compared to the series of contingencies which flared up around the Red Wizard thanks to his tattoos, rings, and familiar Abjurations. A few seconds of stillness followed, until Korgan cursed.
"Oh, gods damn th' both o' ye," he complained, backing up from the doorway even as Edwin stepped through.
The dwarf eyed Elatharia distrustfully when she moved to the Conjurer's side, peering into the chamber beyond. At first all she saw was a series of stacked sarcophagi lining the walls, and a glass cabinet before a stone table. The cabinet was empty and open, but for a few mouldering books and a small gilded box. Edwin was already a few paces inside, his expression hungry and utterly without fear. When something moved from behind the dirty tapestry beside the cabinet, Elatharia tugged at the cool air around her and twisted it into fire in her palms.
"H-h-have the Cowled Wizards found me at last?" a rough voice inquired as the Transmuter moved into the room fully, reaching Edwin's side. Korgan and Yoshimo followed with a great deal more trepidation. The words had been spoken in the rolling, tonal mass of syllables which it took her a moment to recognise as spoken Ancient Netherese.
"I think the Cowled Wizards have forgotten you," Elatharia suggested in the same language as the thing limped into view under its own summoned light. It was a more diffuse light than Edwin's, more like the spell that illuminated Lavok's library.
"That cannot be. Long have I lingered, but not as long as their memories. The months have been long in truth."
He stepped into the light, revealing his strangely cut, tattered black and gold robes and his withered, twisted body. His skin was cracked and shrunken against his bones, his lips gone and his sparse teeth dusty. But his eyes were bright, curious and all too human. This was a lich, not the pale imitation that Lavok's curse had projected. Bhaal's power roared in her veins.
This is a dead thing. It has cheated death. It is a dead thing, caught in my realm of death.
"Months?" Elatharia inquired conversationally, tasting the power crackling on her tongue. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that she should be fighting this, lest it take her over. It was hard to remember that, however.
"It has been months since the fall of Netheril, yes?" the lich sounded a little exasperated, and Elatharia wondered if that perceptive look in his eyes was not real. Netheril had been fallen for more than ten centuries.
"I will have the scroll," Edwin interrupted, the complex and irregular agglutination of the ancient language tripping off his tongue far more confidently than it had for Elatharia, and the lich looked to him with a curious frown. His voice was forced, but determined. "If you relinquish the scroll, there will be no need for a further disturbance of your rest. (Though you are hardly competent enough to befoul the memory of Netheril with your senile words)."
"Ah, so the Red Wizards have caught me at last. Needless to say, you will not have what I keep, Mulan thing. My apprentices were not buried with me for no reason."
As the lich seemed to gain a little coherence, the prickle of rising power swelled in the crumbling room. Three of the sarcophagi shattered and the mummified remains of those who had been interred in the tomb clambered forth, shrugging past Yoshimo's arrows. Korgan roared and leapt forth…and Elatharia had to think fast.
Her Invisibility spell cloaked Edwin and herself before either he or the lich could achieve a spell. It would force their adversary to call forth his own Abjuration even as Edwin sought to break through his protections. Without that, Elatharia would be of little use.
Yoshimo's katana rang free from its sheathe and the bounty hunter dived into the tangle of shambling arms and legs in time to divert one of the other mummies, even as the third brushed up unknowingly against Elatharia's Fireshield…and ignited. She stifled a laugh and tried to focus as it flailed away from her invisible form. She could hear Edwin's chant rising and falling beside her, even as the lich's own spell began to form between his withered fingers.
The two opposing Abjurations soared past each other, and she watched the lich's protections shatter around him like breaking eggshells even as Edwin popped into visibility beside her. He was already calling forth a fire-based spell but the lich was faster, sending a fire arrow his way which he barely dodged. But the creature was still vulnerable and Elatharia's paralysation spell crashed into him just a split second before his protections went back up. She hardly had time to gloat, however, for Edwin was calling forth his next spell and Korgan was currently chopping one of the mummies to pieces.
When Edwin's next spell failed, Elatharia realised that the lich had been more cunning than she had realised. Time stop was one of the most useful and terrifying spells a wizard could ever cast, and it seemed that this lich had cast it at some point before she paralysed him. With Edwin spluttering in shock beside her, she knew she had to act fast.
"Yoshimo! Korgan! Get back into the corridor!"
They barely managed it before the delayed fireball tore through the chamber, knocking Elatharia and Edwin both from their feet. The mummies burned and crumbled even as they attempted to follow the bounty hunter and the dwarf, and the cabinet doors slammed shut, its hinges blazing white hot. The lich stood unaffected, still frozen in place. And though both wizards were protected against the fire that rippled through the air for long, long moments, they were starved of air for that time too and were both wheezing and gasping when the flames subsided. All of the sarcophagi were smouldering ash, along with the mummies. Edwin's cloak was smoking, and he patted it out with a sneer.
Dazed, not yet fully aware that she had banged her head and her elbow upon her collapse to the ground, Elatharia dragged herself to her feet and attempted to cast. As she had expected, her spell failed. The lich's arms twitched. She could hear Korgan and Yoshimo coughing in the corridor outside. Edwin attempted to cast again, and failed.
"Kossuth be damned!" the Red Wizard cursed, staggered back when he realised the fully protected lich was fighting the Paralysis spell and both he and Elatharia could no longer cast.
Their spells may have been failing and the lich may have been awakening, Elatharia may have been feeling faint, dazed and struggling to breathe…but she could still feel the warmth of Bhaal's power in her veins. And she smiled when she reached for it.
Ah, the child of Bhaal has awoken…
This is to teach you humility…
You…will…learn…
The world span around her, memories tangled with reality. She lost focus on it and for a moment she saw a platform of stone spiralling endlessly within a void of nebulous black cloud. She heard a high voice humming tunelessly, saw a pillar of golden light rising up into infinity. She caught the faintest hint of a woman's voice, a pair of green eyes…and long curls of red hair.
It would have been too easy to forget where she was. But the pull of the lich's trapped soul, of his phylactery sitting there in that cabinet, reminded her of her purpose. The confusion fell from her like a shroud and she reached out to the soul which was caught forever in Bhaal's former domain, death, without ever achieving Myrkul's former domain – that of the dead. Kelemvor now commanded both, but that did not seem to matter.
The little box which held the lich's phylactery ignited as she overcame the spell which forced her magic to fail and her Fire Arrow soared into it. The lich staggered, and his spell protections fell away. For a moment he looked as if he might fall, and then he spread his arms to her with a sigh. She had taken his soul, and now he was powerless before what little strength Bhaal had given her. She called upon her knowledge of the less categorised aspects of Transmutation…and tore him apart.
As the dust settled and the smoke cleared, the ashes which had once been sarcophagi and mummies smouldering, Edwin inched forward across the room. For several long moments he stared down at the broken remains of the lich before looking back at Elatharia with a long, searching stare. He was breathing hard, and he had split his lip when he fell under the fireball's power. Dazed, Elatharia just watching him, leaning back against the wall and trying to catch her own breath.
"I know not what just happened, but I've a feelin' ye're more lucky than clever, spellslinger," Korgan grunted as he returned with Yoshimo, "The way ye were swayin' and twistin' about I thought that lich'd had ye fer sure."
"Whatever you did, incompetent Transmuter, you had better pray that the scroll is here," Edwin warned, tearing his stare from hers and casting about for some suggestion of where it might be.
After a moment of coherent thought, he grunted in memory and moved towards the cabinet. A little gingerly, he plucked a long urn from the shelf above the smouldering phylactery and opened it. His shoulders relaxed when he pulled a deep brown scroll from its depths, tied with a black ribbon. Though he did not check the item, he seemed satisfied that this was what he had been looking for.
"We should leave, lest she pull the crypts down on us," Edwin suggested now, nodding Elatharia's way, which drew a chuckle of agreement from Korgan. Yoshimo had turned back from the room at the last second and vanished back into the darkness of the corridor; the dwarf followed.
"Don't ye be forgettin' me dragon scale," he called over his shoulder.
Edwin paused in front of Elatharia as he tucked the scroll away into a hidden pocket of his robes, frowning down at her wordlessly for a long moment.
"I reiterate: I do not know what you did," he told her as she forced herself to stand straight, wincing when she realised that she had twisted her ankle. He steadied her automatically, his hand closing around her elbow before she could fall back against the wall, "It is not quite what I had in mind when I suggested that you actually use your heritage (she could just as easily have torn us apart!)"
"That's not much of a thank you, but I'll take it as one," Elatharia responded with a pained sigh, leaning against his arm heavily for a few moments before looking up from an inspection of her ankle.
"As if using me as a walking stick is not demeaning enough, you attempt to take all of the credit! Bah!"
His tone was far less fearsome than he had intended, and he glanced over her head as if checking to see that the others were out of sight with his conjured light bobbing after them. It suddenly occurred to her that this scroll was all that Edwin had wanted since she had met him in Athkatla. What happened now? He had claimed that he would help her once he had the Nether Scroll, but what did that really mean? He could leave at any point, surely?
"Edwin?" her voice sounded tremulous to her own ears, "What happens now?"
He looked down at her as if she were mad.
"We leave this crypt – which is no place for civilised conversation – and I begin my perusal of the scroll. While you go and play with the other idiots. Of course."
"No…I mean…what happens now?"
"Are ye followin', wizards? Or are ye finally doin' somethin' more interestin' than arguin' over magic?"
Both of them ignored the dwarf and his following grunt – assuming that he had no doubt turned back and decided to wait for them around the corner. Instead, Edwin blinked down at her without understanding.
The fizz of magic behind Elatharia and a shout from Korgan interrupted any epiphany that Edwin might have been about to have. She twisted about, limping heavily in time to see the silver sparks of a Dimension Door dying away, revealing an altogether too-familiar man. Though he was not dressed in the grey cowled robes which he had worn the last time she had seen him, Elatharia recognised this tall, thin man to be the leader of the Cowled Wizards who had attempted to arrest them at the Planar Sphere. What had his name been? Ah: Rayic Gethras.
His hard expression did not change when the two wizards backed up in surprise, his grey eyes without emotion. He brandished a wand in his hand, and a glance behind him showed that he had already used it once; Korgan was lying face-down on the ground, unmoving. He brought it to bear against Elatharia before any words could be spoken, and she did not even have time to curse before the spell hit her.
She stood as one frozen, the magic fizzling along the Robe of Vecna, and willed that he did not realise his mistake.
"I take it you are not thinking of arresting us this time," Edwin noted far more coolly than she would have expected, "As I see no lackeys following you."
"Edwin Odesseiron," Gethras greeted without even a glance at Elatharia, "You have some powerful people who want your head."
"I take it the price was too high for even one as principled and intelligent as yourself to pass up," the Red Wizard's heavily accented voice was dripping with sarcasm, "And that you have no interest in what is it that I just found."
"Correct," the Cowled Wizard nodded as if he did not understand the mocking nature of the words. He raised the wand again, as if he knew Edwin was out of spells. "Though I will take it from your corpse, no doubt."
Elatharia moved then, much to Gethras's surprise, throwing herself between Edwin and the wand so that the Robe of Vecna could absorb the Paralysis spell as it had before. For a moment the Cowled Wizard blinked in surprise, and then staggered back as Edwin managed to right himself in time to let off a number of magic missiles. The globes of energy did little more than throw him off-balance, but it helped – and they had little else left to them.
"Get the wand!" Elatharia exclaimed, gesturing at her injured ankle pointedly.
Edwin rolled his eyes before complying, leaping forward and grappling with Rayic Gethras. For herself, the Transmuter utilised a Larloch's Minor Drain and was pleasantly surprised when the pain in her ankle subsided – and Rayic yelped, losing his footing and falling to one knee. She had not expected him to be void of protection spells. Was he a Transmuter also? Or had he been unwittingly – and fortuitously – caught in the lich's earlier Abjuration? That would certainly explain that look of horrified surprise on his face.
Edwin staggered back, with the wand in his shaking hands, and only just remembered to turn it about to face his target before firing it. Gethras stiffened and fell to the side, eyes wide. The Red Wizard looked over his shoulder to share a look of disbelief with Elatharia at the wizard's hubris. Just exactly how unprepared was he?
The answer came as Yoshimo stepped out of the dark corridor, unnoticed in the fuss, and pushed his katana through the wizard's back.
"An enemy of yours?" the bounty hunter inquired calmly as he wiped the blade on the dying man's robes, raising a curious eyebrow Edwin's way.
"Wha-," Edwin panted, looking back at Elatharia with wide eyes, "He…"
"He was terrible," Elatharia nodded, starting to laugh, "After killing the worst lich I could have imagined, we meet the worst assassin of all time. I…I can't believe it…" her laughter only grew louder, and for a moment or two Edwin looked from the dead wizard to her, the wand in his shaking hands.
"He wanted to kill me!" he exclaimed, scandalised by her amusement, brandishing the wand at her as Yoshimo moved away to help Korgan to his feet, "Agh! I do not know whether to be offended or relieved that he was so incompetent!"
"Offended?" Elatharia could barely get the word out through her laughter. She took the wand from his hands, and he just stared at her. "Why? Because someone sent the world's worst wizard to kill you?"
"Yes," he snarled, as if that were the natural state of affairs, though his lips twitched. When she continued to laugh, his eyes softened a little.
"Well we didn't have any useful spells left, and you just fought him for this wand…so…" she was fairly crying with laughter at the memory of him grappling with Gethras, "Oh, gods, we need to get back to the Sphere. I have to tell Viconia."
Author's note: Dammit, Gethras - what timing!