CH49

"Mommy, mommy, time to get up!" Alexis climbs up onto their bed and pushing on Rikki to get her to wake up since yelling at Rikki while standing next to the bed hadn't worked.

"Alexis? … What are you, …?" Rikki is trying to wake up.

"Wake up mommy!" Alexis keeps pushing.

"Ooohhh, too early." Kate moans out and rolls over away from all the noise.

Alexis simply changes mommies and starts pushing on Kate. "Wake up mom!" Alexis now gives all her attention to Kate.

"Alexis it's too early." Kate does her best to roll away.

"The roof is filled with birds mommy." Alexis has a secret.

"PIGEONS!" Rikki bolts up right and grabs the bed sheet to cover herself since yet again her and Kate are naked with Alexis in their room, having been too tired to remember to lock their bedroom door.

"We'll be right there baby, you go up and keep them company for us." Rikki needed Alexis gone so they could get up and get dressed with at least some dignity.

"Ok mommy." Alexis climbs back off the bed and runs upstairs.

"We have GOT to remember to start locking the door." Rikki tells both of them getting Kate to nod her head.

Rikki and Kate are dressed and up on the roof finding Dara already up here along with dozens of pigeons. "They saw nothing all last night and up to when they left to come here." Dara tells them.

"So they're all still there?" Rikki questions.

"Why? … Luke is right. He should have moved everyone even if he didn't leave a token force behind as bait." Kate didn't understand. "He's knows someone did this and was powerful enough to do it. How smart are these undead, would they have been able to ID us for him?" Kate was starting to get worried now.

"Skeletons and zombies no. Bodak and Vampires yes." Amity walks up behind them.

"He knows us or at least what some of us look like." Rikki didn't like where this was going. "Is he powerful enough to find us?"

"He hasn't interacted with us so scrying is out, but he can be guided to where we are just like Giles got us to his undead." Amity tells them.

"So he is out there right now headed this way. How do we throw him off or even keep him out?" Rikki asks.

"So what? We let him pick when and where and let him kill all of us?" Rikki still didn't like this.

"Can we create a trap" Kate asks.

It took two hours, one of which was used to pray and recover their spells and for Giles to study his spells and they had a plan.

"Grams, are we going back to the zoo tomorrow?" Alexis asks Johanna knowing that they had already spent the entire day at the Zoo.

"Of course sweetie, we can go back to the Zoo tomorrow. Right now you need to eat your dinner." Johanna picked up the menu and looked at what was available. It had been a while since she had ordered for a 5 year old.

El Galleon

411 Crescent Avenue, Avalon, CA 90704

It wasn't Johanna's first choice and even though she had a car thanks to Rikki, however she didn't know the area. Still this place had soup and sandwiches which should be good enough.

Johanna had questioned why here, it was a really long ways away, but that was the point. Johanna also had a great deal of money.

"Vampires can't travel across running water so being on an island is the safest place from them." Rikki explains. "Please take good care of my baby. You stay close and guard them girl" And Rikki had disappeared using word of recall to get back home after getting them using a transport via plants spell after kissing Elka.

Johanna hadn't liked the sound of anything Rikki had asked of her. It had sounded to, … final.

Johanna thought she knew what to order as she watched Jim come back from the restroom. Johanna didn't know how the others convinced her husband to come, but she was glad that they did.

Bracken had started walking the second the sun had gone down and now he was standing outside of a multi-story house. "Go around back and kill anyone you find." Bracken orders and the 22 wraiths, 8 vampires, and 6 Bloodmote Swarms that had come with him, to all fly over the top of the house and down into the back patio to enter the house.

Bracken walks up to the front door and smiles, he can already smell them inside and can smell their fear. Thinking this might actually be fun, Bracken simply walks through the front door without opening it and enters the foyer area.

However what he sees is not what he was expecting. The room just the other side of the door was filled with mirrors. Lots and lots of mirrors, some of which made him look incredibly thin while still others made him look short and fat. No doors, just mirrors.

What he didn't see were all the tiny splits between each mirror. It was one of these splits that allowed Dara to see and cast Bracken's first 'welcome to our home' spell, and then slip back through the partially open door behind her.

Sunburst - Sunburst causes a globe of searing radiance to explode silently from a point you select. All creatures in the globe are blinded.

Thanks to the countless mirrors the burst was reflected off the mirrors only to be reflected again and again, since the effect had an 80' burst and the room Bracken was in was roughly 20' round.

This had the effect of burning out Bracken's original eye, leaving him blind in that eye. Otherwise he was unaffected. (think seeing a nuclear bomb go off while you are staring straight at it).

Vecna would have laughed at their childish antics. It was a neat trick, but nothing more than that, and he quickly cast a spell using a flick of some of his fingers.

Shatter - Shatter creates a loud, ringing noise that breaks brittle, nonmagical objects; sunders a single solid, nonmagical object.

This had the desired effect of breaking all of the mirrors in the room, allowing him to see the walls behind them, along with the three secret doors that were in those walls.

Since he could smell fear behind all of the secret doors he picked one and walked over to it, only to feel the floor under him give way, and Bracken starts sliding down a chute to a different room.

As Bracken slides he passes over a 'Symbol of Stunning' that Amity had cast on the slide.

Symbol of Stunning - This spell functions like symbol of death, except that all creatures within 60 feet of a symbol of stunning instead become stunned.

Bracken had only just quickly recovered from the spell when he emerged into a different room and landed sitting down in a very short room with a long sharp wooden spike shoved up his ass.

Bracken extracted himself from the wooden spike while Vecna healed his wounds. This left Bracken on his hands and knees in the short small room as he crawled to the only other door leading into the room, which was obviously a secret door.

As Bracken touched the door to open it this caused another spell to go off that Amity had place earlier.

Symbol of Weakness - This spell functions like symbol of death, except that every creature within 60 feet of a symbol of weakness instead suffers crippling weakness.

Bracken however shrugged off the effects of the spell and entered what to him was an unusual room.

It was large, at least 60' x 80' or more and had several trees in pots along with plants in the same pots or alone in pots. Plants of several different types actually.

Bracken scanned the room with his one good eye and saw 2 secret doors on the far side. As Bracken walked to one of the far doors he passed one of the pots with just plants in it and brushed his withered hand across the top of them and smiled as he watched the plants instantly wither away and become dust.

He still had the touch!

What he doesn't see is Rikki and Dara in the room.

Tree Shape - By means of this spell, you are able to assume the form of a Large living tree or shrub or a Large dead tree trunk with a small number of limbs. The closest inspection cannot reveal that the tree in question is actually a magically concealed creature. To all normal tests you are, in fact, a tree or shrub, although a detect magic spell reveals a faint transmutation on the tree. While in tree form, you can observe all that transpires around you just as if you were in your normal form. You can dismiss tree shape as a free action.

While in tree form each of them cast a spell.

Splinter Bolt - You extend your hand toward your foe, flicking a single sliver of wood into the air,
and a splinter larger than a titan's javelin whistles through the air. (In this case a small branch instead of a hand).

The result was to watch Bracken being impaled by two pieces of wood in the back the size of a telephone pole and have him pinned up against the far wall.

Dara and Rikki wasted no time in casting yet another spell.

Summon Nature's Ally VII – Dire Tiger each. Dire tigers grow to be over 12 feet long and can weigh up to 6,000 pounds.

Rikki and Dara stayed only long enough to change back into their true form and cast another spell.

Transport via Plants.

This spell allowed them to move instantly to another room that had the same plant in it.

The Dire Tigers naturally began attacking Bracken, clawing him to shreds, up until Bracken turned into a mist and fell to the floor and slipped under the door and into the room beyond, where he reformed back into his human form and healed his wounds.

Everything else up to know had been an annoyance, now however he was seething mad, as his red flaming eye turned an ever darker color of red.

This room is 15' x 80' with a small concealed door that is behind a simple standing 3 panel curtain, behind which Amity is standing and immediately casts a spell when she sees the mist come into the room from under the door.

Storm of Vengeance - This spell creates an enormous black storm cloud. Lightning and crashing claps of thunder appear within the storm. Each person beneath the cloud will be deafened for 20 minutes. The storm ends just at the edge of the curtain Amity is standing behind.

If you do not maintain concentration on the spell after casting it, the spell ends. If you continue to concentrate, the spell generates additional effects in each following round, as noted below.

2nd Round (6 seconds per round)

Acid rains down in the area.

3rd Round

You call six bolts of lightning down from the cloud. You decide where the bolts strike. No two bolts may be directed at the same target.

4th Round

Hailstones rain down in the area causing bludgeoning damage.

5th through 10th Rounds

Violent rain and wind gusts reduce visibility. The rain obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet.

Amity watches as the acid rain begins to eat away at Brackens clothing, turning them into rags. Two bolts of lightning light Bracken up, however they don't appear to cause any damage.

The hailstones are next and appear to simply bounce off of him. With only rain and wind next, Amity waits until Bracken is half way across the 80' section of the room before stopping concentration on the spell and slipping away through the door behind her.

Bracken stepped around the curtain and found the door behind it easily and opened it easily. Stepping inside he found a room that exactly matched the room Bracken found the room the mirror was in at the time. He had long since found that the mirror was gone now and properly deduced that these people had something to do with it.

Since he hadn't as yet found its new location he needed to keep at least one of these people alive so he could torture its present location out of them, and do so happily.

Standing in the very center of the pentagram that was in the center of the room was Giles, standing calmly.

"I will take great pleasure extracting the information I need out of your withered and battered body." Bracken's mouth up turns at one corner, since he really was looking forward to making this man scream for mercy and put an end to his waste of a life.

"I believe you are mistaken." Giles quietly answers.

Bracken however wastes no time and casts a spell.

Crushing Hand - This spell functions like interposing hand, except that the hand can interpose itself, push, or crush one opponent that you select.

Interposing Hand - Interposing hand creates a Large magic hand that appears between you and one opponent. This floating, disembodied hand then moves to remain between the two of you, regardless of where you move or how the opponent tries to get around it.

Bracken watches as the hand wraps itself around Giles and begin to crush him.

Bracken was thinking this is far too easy when he sees Giles casting a spell while his movements are in no way impeded by Bracken's hand.

Time Stop - This spell seems to make time cease to flow for everyone but you. In fact, you speed up so greatly that all other creatures seem frozen, though they are actually still moving at their normal speeds. You are free to act for 1 minute of apparent time. Normal and magical fire, cold, gas, and the like can still harm you. While the time stop is in effect, other persons are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell. A spell that affects an area and has a duration longer than the remaining duration of the time stop have their normal effects on other creatures once the time stop ends.

In this one minute of time Giles casts several spells before his time runs out. Giles saves his last spell for the split second the time stop spell ends.

First up is Delayed Blast Fireball - This spell functions like fireball, except that it is more powerful and can detonate up to 2 minutes after the spell is cast. Giles chooses for it to blow after the spell he will be holding is cast.

Second up is Mage's Sword - This spell brings into being a shimmering, sword like plane of force. The sword strikes at any opponent within its range, as you desire. The sword cannot be attacked or harmed by physical attacks, but dispel magic, disintegrate, a sphere of annihilation, or a rod of cancellation affects it.

Third up is Forcecage - This powerful spell brings into being an immobile, invisible cubical prison composed of either bars of force or solid walls of force. This version of the spell produces a 10-foot cube with no way in and no way out. The walls of force are see through.

The fireball and sword are inside the cage with Bracken.

The last and fourth spell is Polar Ray - A blue-white ray of freezing air and ice springs from your hand.

This spell is the spell Giles holds and prevents from activating until if or when Bracken escapes from the forcecage.

Giles watches as time starts up again and the sword is working at hacking away at Bracken. Since Giles didn't see any blood it was safe to assume that it wasn't working. Giles didn't think it would, still it was worth a try.

Then Giles watched the fireball blow and fill the forcecage with fire. After the brief flash it looked like that had at least some affect and then suddenly Bracken was gone and standing next to Giles, who said the last word of his spell he was holding and watched Bracken turn into a popsicle.

"At least something seems to be working." Giles commented, mostly to himself. Only to watch Bracken thaw quickly and reach out with the left hand of Vecna to grasp a hold of his arm. Only to watch his hand go straight through Giles like he wasn't there.

Giles had already cast a spell before Bracken ever entered the room.

Project Image - You tap energy from the Plane of Shadow to create a quasi-real, illusory version of yourself. The projected image looks, sounds, and smells like you but is intangible. The projected image mimics your actions (including speech) unless you direct it to act differently. You can see through its eyes and hear through its ears as if you were standing where it is, and you can switch from using its senses to using your own, or back again. If you desire, any spell you cast whose range is touch or greater can originate from the projected image instead of from you.

"Oooo, missed me. … My turn." And Giles casts another spell.

Flesh to Stone - The subject, along with all its carried gear, turns into a mindless, inert statue.

Giles watches as the beginnings of Bracken turning into stone begin, however they are soon reversed. This is followed by Bracken twitching some fingers on his left hand. Since Giles has to firsthand knowledge of what this means he is relieved when nothing appears to happen.

"That won't work here." Giles bluffs, and since he still sees nothing, he is relatively sure that he is right. And since his image is still there, Giles casts yet another spell.

The image of Giles pulls out a gem and casts his spell.

Trap the Soul - Trap the soul forces a person's life force (and its material body) into a gem. The gem holds the trapped entity indefinitely or until the gem is broken and the life force is released, which allows the material body to reform. If the trapped creature is a powerful creature from another plane it can be required to perform a service immediately upon being freed. Otherwise, the creature can go free once the gem imprisoning it is broken. If the spell fails, the gem shatters.

Giles watches his gem shatter in his hand and decides it is time to change tactics and his image turns and runs for one of the three secret doors that is in this room and literally disappears through the door without opening it.

Bracken is tiring from these games. Why can't these people just admit defeat and allow him to kill them and become part of his undead army. Can't they see the futility of their actions? He is Vecna, a god!

Bracken steps over to the secret door that Giles had walked through and opens it easily. However after he opens it he finds a wall behind it. It was a fake door that went nowhere. However that door was trapped and the floor opens up under him causing him to fall into the room below.

This room is MASSIVE! It has 50' ceilings, and is easily 80' x 90' along the walls. Bracken picks himself up off the floor and is immediately greeted by two Elder elementals courtesy of Rikki and Dara.

Summon Natures Ally IX – one huge elder fire elemental and one huge elder earth elemental.

Both immediately start taking swings on Bracken, trying to either burn him into toast or flatten him like a piece of toast, burnt to a crisp or not.

All of the elementals attempts fail when both Rikki and Dara, who are watching from the sides, see Bracken suddenly appear in the middle of the room instead.

This got both of them to curse silently. "Damn teleport at will." Knowing from Amity that Vecna has it.

However there was one more person who was also watching and she didn't have any spells that could possibly affect him. She did however have an M-16, this time with armor piercing rounds and a hidden cross to shoot through.

Kate lined up the back of Bracken's head and took a deep breath and slowly squeezed the trigger, watching the bullet enter the back of Bracken's head and out the other side.

"YES!" Kate pumped her fist. Got you, you piece of shit!

Kate's joy was short lived when Bracken's arm with the hand of Vecna on it smashed through her cross and started reaching out for her, scaring the crap out of Kate and getting her heart to start racing.

This however got Henry into action as he coiled up and leaped out of Kate's bra and bit Bracken on the arm, pumping as much of his venom as he could into his body, before letting go and start to fall to the ground, before Kate recovered and caught him.

Rikki had seen it all and was now scared so she cast a spell hoping it would get Bracken away from Kate, since she could see that Bracken had breached the secret door she was behind. Just like the door her and Dara were standing behind. Along with other secret doors that all the others were standing behind.

This room was going to be their next to last line of defense if they failed to stop him here.

Summon Nature's Ally VIII – Huge Greater Air Elemental.

The air elemental appeared next to Bracken and changed into a whirlwind that sucked Bracken up into it and started spinning him around inside of it.

Rikki didn't wait after that, couldn't wait. Rikki knew Kate wasn't dead because if her own heart hadn't stopped than Kate's heart hadn't stopped either, but that didn't mean she wasn't hurt.

Rikki opened her door and raced across the room to get to Kate's door and open it, finding her just the other side with Henry in her hands. Rikki wrapped her arms around Kate and used the closeness to calm her racing heart. "Are you alright? … Are you hurt? … Did he touch you?" Rikki started firing off questions.

Henry dove back down into Kate's bra to keep from getting crushed. "I'm fine, he didn't touch me. … Henry bit him." Kate pointed out.

"WAY TO GO HENRY!" Rikki gave it a few seconds of thought about trying to dig Henry out of Kate's bra so she could kiss him, but decided against it.

Rikki stepped back outside with Kate in hand, finding everyone else out from behind their doors watching the air elemental still spinning, allowing an occasional glimpse of Bracken whirling around inside of it.

Luke was the only one close with all of his weapons out waiting in case Bracken escaped.

"He almost got me. …. Henry bit him and then, … this." Kate motioned to the still spinning air elemental.

They all stood there thinking up what to do first and waited until the spell Rikki had cast ran out of time and left Bracken lying on the floor.

"WOW!" Everyone said almost at the same time. As everyone looked at a bloated and misshapen body of Bracken lying on the floor.

"What's wrong with him?" Jordan asked.

Luke kneeled down and pocked him with his short sword. "You said Henry bit him right?" Luke looks up at Kate and watched her nod her head. "It looks like he had an allergic reaction to Henry's venom." Luke offers his opinion.

"Seriously? … He has taken some of the most powerful spells we have and he's killed because of an allergic reaction to snake venom." Amity starts chuckling, it was just so, ….

Luke lifted up his bastard sword and brought it down swiftly and hacked off the left hand of Vecna from Bracken's body.

Godfrey was next as he used one of his daggers to dig the left eye of Vecna out of Bracken's body.