We arrived back at camp and it was indeed under attack. Had there been enough to time to heal, I think they would have been doing better, but I could Gerrex bleeding freely and Brey's helmet was gone and his hair was flying like a medusa's serpents and he fought off our enemies. Charles was nowhere to be seen. The wererats were back, and they being assisted by another flying menace, three gargoyles swooped above our camp, diving down to attack or to drop stones down on my friends. I sent a mental message to a very worried Dimitri to let him know we were near. I saw a small smile appear on his haggard face in the light of our enchanted lanterns.
I undid the rawhide lashings of my Girdle of Hill Giant Strength and gave it to Lee as I said to him, "Take this, it is enchanted and will give you great strength!"
He did as he was told and I once again looked upon my beleaguered friends and I suddenly got angry. I mean I felt the kind of anger that makes you want to grab your enemy by the throat and throttle them just to see the fear of their own death in their eyes.
"Fireball spell on the three gargoyles," I said to Helena in mind-speak. She let loose one of the two Fireball spells I had stored in her ring, and I released my own a heartbeat later. The two fireballs detonated close together, but a second apart, the double hammer of the spells caught them unware and filled the dark skies above with two fiery, but short-lived suns that lit the small glade with their sudden light. Even with their natural resistance to magic, the gargoyles could not resist that much damage delivered so quickly. Two of them fell, close enough to the party that the magic weapons they possessed could deal with the stunned gargoyles. I could see that the Venetti were not using the black arrows of the Death Knights, which meant their supply of htem was probably exhausted. The third gargoyle was able to remain in the air and shook its head to clear it and then spotted us and dived straight at us with a terrible grating scream like stone dragging across stone. He was met in the air by Brother Lee, who did a fantastically high spinning jump, aided by the magic girdle I had given him, and he brought the haft of his enchanted staff down so hard upon the gargoyles skull that its stony flesh cracked at the impact and brought it straight down to earth while Lee landed softly on his feet. The battered beast tried to rise up, but Brother Lee began to twirl his staff and struck so fast and furious the monster had no time to recover as it was beaten to death.
Once more I mentally give the command to use a Fireball Spell to Helena, but this time on a knot of wererats to our right thirty yards (27m) away, who were much softer targets, and the whooshing boom of their detonations threw several of the wererats into air, their arms, legs, and hairless tails all akimbo from the blasts. Helena suddenly jumped in front of me as I turned to a second knot of wererats to our left and a killing arrow aimed straight at my throat was deflected away by her magical necklace as she interposed herself between me and the arrow. I bent down and kissed her cheek from behind and said, "Thank you."
I was just able to cast my Haste Spell on Lee as he ran past me to engage that second band of wererats. I would swear on the grave of my mother, he looked like he was enjoying himself.
Helena fired off a lightning bolt at the wererat with the bow and his fur burst into flame when it struck his chest. He was not dead, but he was hurt. Lee, only slightly less fast than the lightning bolt, or so it seemed, hurled himself into their midst, swinging his staff in blurry arcs. His attack, so sudden and so ferocious, sent them scurrying away like the rats they are.
The other two gargoyles have up their lives quickly enough under the onslaught of our compatriots and for the moment, we had breathing to room to recoup. I shouted for everyone to regroup behind our camp's bank and ditch. Soon, we were all together smiling at each other. Charles was down, but still alive with an arrow that had taken him with a nasty wound in his wrist just below the cuff of his chainmail, but was unwounded otherwise. Everyone else was winded, and only slightly wounded, their magic armor having protected them to a great degree, except for Gerrex, who looked pale and worn from blood loss. Now that he was able to sit and rest, the blood stopped flowing. Amenaruu had one healing spell left, a Cure Light Wounds Spell, and he used it on Gerrex and some of his color came back and he nodded thanks to the priest, who just smiled.
If they were mostly intact, they were still a ragged bunch, but they were happy to see Helena and me but they were extremely puzzled at meeting a new member of the party and losing Chai. I promised them an explanation soon as I slowly took off my torn and much abused gambeson with Helena's help and tossed it in back of the little wagon.
"No," she said, "I can fix it."
She chanted her simple canticle of Mending and soon my gambeson was in serviceable condition once again. Godfrey and the two Venetti that had fallen in our previous were lying in the back of the big wagon resting as they had been the most seriously wounded. But they were looking better and I figured they would be all right by morning light.
"Are you going to live, Godfrey?" I asked in a lighthearted tone to our wagonmaster.
"I reckon I will," he answered, "but it was a narrow path I was walking there for a bit."
"I reckon we were all on that same path with you, but it all worked out for us," I answered him.
"Do you think those damn rat-men will come back?"
"Chai told me they had a master, 'the ruler of this valley' is what he said, they will be back if he orders them to come back. We can also expect others to come as well. Rest, drink, and allow your rings to heal you, for we must be ready if they do.
"I am right curious as to what you two have been up to," Godfrey said looking askance at Helena and me.
"Give me a moment and a cup of wine and I will tell you what I can of the story," I said in way of reply.
"Before you tell your story," Dimitri said to me as he motioned for me to follow him over to where the body of the illusionists was lying not far away, covered by his own cloak. The magic carpet and the leather strung ocarina for summoning Air Elementals lay near the small wagon. I would have rather sat down and rested, but it seemed important, so we went over to the corpse. We heard Charles yelp in pain as Amenaruu removed the arrow from his wrist as we went to the corpse. When Dimitri pulled back the cloak I found myself looking into the dead face of Drow, one of the denizens of the Underdark, the great world spanning labyrinth of caves that lay like worm rot under the ground.
"Another damn Drow," I said with a sigh, but not really surprised at the revelation considering what Chai had said about them being resistant to the madness of the Mind Flayers.
Dimitri pulled back the collar of the dead Drow to show the now familiar purple mark on his left breast.
"A member of the Cult of the Illithids," I said softly and Dimitri, a veteran campaigner who had heard the legends, snapped his head up at me.
"Mind Flayers?" He whispered the question in fear.
"That is what Chai told me," I replied. "He says they have a new power they discovered in some dark hole and intend to use it against our reality, to reshape it into their nightmare vision."
"What is a 'Mind Flayer'?" Charles asked loudly as he approached us holding his right hand up to keep it from throbbing. The rest of our party stopped what they were doing and looked up at us when they heard that word.
"Telling of them will take some time," I said to Charles, "and it is not a pleasant tale."
We returned to dubious defenses of our camp and Helena and I explained what had happened to her and why. I could see Brey looking sad and pensive when I explained how Leeanna's death had affected Chai, and he sat silently with his brow furrowed and dark. Dimitri was angry at Chai's betrayal, and I did not blame him, and he loudly claimed we should have killed Chai for the deaths of our companions back on the prarie. Charles seconded that idea very vehemently.
"And you should have given me a warning about him!" Dimitri said with an edge of anger in his voice pointing his finger at me accusingly. "It was an ignoble thing you did to me."
I shook my head, "There was what I knew, but could not prove. I did not want to create suspicion and animosity toward him if he was innocent."
"You dunderhead," Dimitri chastised me some more. "That bastard might have killed you and we would not even have seen it coming and do not tell me it was to preserve the party from infighting or some other tripe, you kept it to your because you like to keep your secrets to yourself."
"Indeed, the wizard has kept many secrets from us during our trials," Charles said darkly, "and he makes judgements about our enemies that rightly belong to all of us."
"You are right," I stood up and said to them all. "I was foolish to keep it to myself. I will endeavor to be more forthright about such things in the future. As far as killing him, I had more right than anyone else to do so, for they were my friends he struck down as well, just he struck me down with a dagger in the back and left me for dead in the sewers of Gensmot. He also made another attempt to kill me at the battle at the ford. He used an invisibility potion in order, I believe, to strike a blow against me during the battle, but his plans were interrupted by some attacking Gnolls he was forced to deal with, thus ending the invisibility effect before he could land his blow. But he was once my boon companion, my brother adventurer, who saved my life a dozen times over and I, his. That is not something you throw away lightly. This path that we walk, it has little to offer you but a bloody death in some stinking hole in the ground, unless you walk it with true companions who can watch your back. We will all fail, that is why we walk together so we can be strong when the another is weak. Chai in his grief was overcome by a great evil. It might well have happened to me, so I gave him his life back just like I would do for every single one of you."
I sat back down and everyone was silent for some time until Godfrey said something about getting some more wine and the conversation started up again. Our talking took us into the early morning hours and we lost sleep, but we knew we were not going to sleep anyway with our enemies still out in the darkness beyond our lights and most certainly watching us. But we did gain our health back hour by hour. Even if we had not already been attacked twice, I think no one really wanted to sleep because they felt too vulnerable here in this cursed place. Even though the clouds above had become tattered, letting a modicum of pale moonlight in for us to see, we all felt better when the dawn came without another attack and the shadows we found ourselves watching suspiciously crawled back under whatever was casting them upon the ground.
Amenaruu and I recharged our spells quickly, and I put a Fireball and a Lightning Bolt and one of my Magic Missile Spells into Helena's Ring of Spell Storing. From now on, Godfrey and his men would stay with the wagons and the adventurers would go forth to retrieve the Bloodstone. I figured we would be at the tomb, assuming it had not been hidden by some mountain landslide during the last eight hundred years, by midday. Going on foot we changed our marching order. Gerrex still scouted ahead, but not so far that we lost sight of him. In front, but to each side so that they formed a triangle pattern, were our two fighters, Brey went on our left and Charles to our right. Behind the "triangle" of our fighters the rest followed close behind in a diamond formation. Amenaruu was the leading point of the diamond with Dimitri opposite of him in the back watching our back trail. I was on the right and Helena on the left. If we entered any ruins, Dimitri, our delver, would trade places with Gerrex since that was Dimitri's specialty as our party's delver.
As we marched up the Ashie Valley, the dread we felt increased noticeably. It made us silent and edgy but we did not slow our pace. We were close enough to end of our goal that we would neither be deterred from going forward nor would we dawdle, so eager were we to be free of this quest. So we went forward, a grim and determined crew passing by the relics of the past, jumping at every little sound as we went until we reached the end of the valley. The ruins gave way to a path that went up into a grove of giant hemlock trees that looked half dead in the gray light and grayish white cobwebs filled the spaces between the branches and small animals lay dead and twisted in their gossamer threads. Under those great trees was only shadow and dread. We rested before the climb up and drank deep from our waterskins, more from reluctance from not wanting to enter the darkness under those ancient trees than anything else. But I did not want our courage to fail this close to the end of our journey and I ordered everyone up and to go forward.
We went up the hill until the trail flattened out and we could see down the long dark tunnel made by the branches the formed an archway over head a cave and in front of that cave was an crude altar of piled stones and a pale sickly green fire burned upon it, cast no light it seemed to relieve the darkness of this place. We stopped at the entrance to take stock of what we saw.
"This is the source of the curse that infects this valley," Amenaruu stated with certainty.
There were stones carved with crude ancient runes every few feet (every meter +/-) and I translated them in my head and said, "This place has been dedicated as to the god Kur the Malignant."
"We will face a great evil here," Amenaruu said with a grim sigh. "I think it best if I go first, for what lies inside in more likely to be in my realm of expertise than yours, my friends."
I had no argument to bring against his reasoning and so I motioned him forward toward altar and the cave and we followed, our feet treading on the dead hemlock needles on the ground. Before being fouled by Kur's hand, this must have been a sacred grove.
As we entered the great room, we heard whispering and even groaning that got louder the closer we got to the altar. Then forms emerged from the shadows that made our blood run like ice in our veins. They were pale translucent figures of blood covered men and women, each with their breast cut open and their hearts removed. Their pale faces were tormented and filled with hopeless despair as they reached their grasping hands out to us.
"Ghosts!" Whispered Brey loudly and we all stopped in our tracks without thinking as terror came upon us. Even Gerrex was shaking at the horrid sight. I was too frightened to count but there must have been many dozens of people, dressed in peasant's clothes, baker's frocks, and the clothing of the wealthy, but all dead and angry.
"Courage!" Shouted Amenaruu as he held up his holy symbol that spread a golden light all around us. The ghosts backed away from that light.
"By what right do you bring another god's light into this place?" A cold voice demanded angrily, it was not a living voice, but it could be heard quite audibly coming from the cavern in front of us. The small flame burning on top of the altar started swaying as if a breeze was playing angrily with it, but the air was still in that dead place.
"Come out of the darkness and find out for yourself," Amenaruu countered with brazen confidence.
There was movement and chatter of a chain being dragged as a figure came out from the darkness of the cave, it had once been human in fine green robes and it wore a twisted iron image of what I guessed to be Kur the Malignant on its breast. But the think coming toward us was not human, it was dead and the robes were a shroud that covered a desiccated corpse. The parchment-like skin was pulled tight over the skull like old brown leather and sickly green flames burned in the hollow eye sockets where once there had been eyes of a man.
"Priest," I said softly to Amenaruu, "this is a lich."
My companions, may the Aten bless them, did not run away at the sight of this undead thing. I believe that if any one of us had made a move to turn and run, the rest would have followed them, and I would have been right behind them.
"Indeed," agreed the lich in dead, threatening voice, "that is what I am, a perpetual priest to the terrible Kur and I will burn your hearts upon his altar."
"Serpis," I said aloud for some reason as the name popped into my head. "You are Serpis, the one who cursed this land eight hundred years ago when King Crecie's Dread Army defeated King Ivanisla. You gave the Hand of Vecna to King Crecie."
"Eight hundred years?" The lich said softly to itself. "So long?"
The lich then seemed to gather himself and demanded of me, "Who is it the names me?"
The voice had power, and whether I wanted to or not, I was going to answer the lich, but Amenaruu spoke up instead.
"The question is," Amenaruu said in voice that seemed to have taken on a unearthly quality of its own, "is why a priest must be chained to his own altar."
It was then I noticed that around the skeletal ankle of the lich a golden chain was fastened that ran to the a ring set in a large stone of the altar.
"To show my willingness to obey my god, little priest," the lich seemed to snarl. "I am blessed to serve him for all time, ever obedient and ever present at his altar to give him the praise he is due."
"You are not blessed," I said out loud, and regained some of my courage in doing so. "You are cursed. That is why you were willing to help the Illithid, because if they succeed, they will use their power to un-make you. You helped them so you could escape this altar of despair even if it meant the end your existence."
The green fires in the eyes of the lich blazed as it stared at me and the ghosts that surrounded us wailed with such a cacophony of horror and grief we were all shaking like leaves in the wind, except for Amenaruu.
"What do you know of being cursed, mage?" Demanded the lich, Serpis. "I have served faithfully for these past eight centuries."
"Then you have seen your god for what he is," Amenaruu stated, "and from the flame burning on that altar, your god is weak for that kind of god needs the faith of his worshippers to have power and therefore cannot be truly divine. He exists because of your belief in him, and the belief of these victims of your altar, but it is a miserly glory he has from you. You must possess the power to break that feeble chain that holds you but you do not break it. You wear it as your pride and as your folly. It is both a badge of rank, and an implement of servitude and deep in you, you know that it is a judgment you feel you must bear for your sins."
"You know nothing of the Magnificent Kur!" Screamed the lich and he thrust out his hand with a spell that would have destroyed anyone but Amenaruu, or a priest like him. As it was, Amenaruu staggered back to steps as if struck by a strong man, but he shook of the mystical blow and strode forward, holding his holy symbol before him. The lich, even though is face could show no expression, somehow expressed surprise that Amenaruu was still standing.
"Do not be so hasty to get rid of us, Serpis," Amenaruu said calmly. "Humor me for a moment, and then I will show you something worth your time. Surely boredom must be your greatest enemy here in this dead place. Play with your victims a little longer, Oh Great Priest, just for your amusement, if nothing else. In exchange for what I will show you, all that I ask is that you raise your right hand up with the palm facing me."
Dimitri and I looked at each other completely baffled by what Amenaruu was doing and I wondered if he had gone insane, but lich just looked at him without speaking for several long minutes before he raised hand as he had been instructed.
"Good," said Amenaruu, "that tells me everything I needed to know. Your false god could not strip your will from you for if he had done so, you would not have been able to freely give your service to him. So he left your spirit in that shell to suffer and to serve so he would always have someone to keep him in existence and that chain is a reminder of the sins you committed in his name and it is his lie that you cannot break it. He promised you power and immortality, but he did not tell you the cost, such is typical of his ilk. But I too, made a bargain with you, I will fulfil it now."
The light began to flood out of Amenaruu's holy symbol like sunlight in the desert it bathed the lich in its golden rays and the lich tried to hide its eyes behind his skeletal arms.
"Your will is still your own," intoned Amenaruu is voice resonating with power, "and you can bend your will to your repentance. The tears you have shed for the blackness of your sins are but drops in the ocean of the Aten's mercy. Deny your false god and repent and you shall be released from this foul place."
Another light began to glow around the lich, a green sickly glow that made itself into a half-seen image of a horned being with a thick, grotesque face twisted in anger and hate.
"Aaaaghhh!" Screamed the lich as he twisted as if he was in great pain. "Your light is burning me! I cannot escape my servitude!"
"Your servitude is a lie!" Shouted Amenaruu. "Repent of your sins and they will bind you to this foul god no longer."
"I am chained by my sins," whimpered the lich as if he were being lashed by each word he spoke. "And your light will destroy me!"
"Lies!" Shouted Amenaruu. "You foul god is lying to you! Break yourself free and except the Mercy of the Aten and you will live again, the true life of a spirit perfected for his light only burns away the blackness of your sins that stain your soul and leaves the eternal spirit alive!"
The air was filled with a tense energy that thrummed so intensely from this mystical battle we were watching unfold as Amenaruu fought against this ancient god that it made my teeth hurt with its vibrations.
"Repent," came a whisper, not from any of us, but from one of the ghosts that surrounded us. It repeated itself, making the word into a chant that was soon picked up by the other ghosts as they turned from us to face the lich.
"Repent. Repent. Repent." The unearthly voices carried softly, but firmly through the grove.
Finally with a great screech of pain the Serpis the Lich cried out, "I repent! I repent! Save me from my cruel master!"
The scream that came from that dying god haunted my nightmares for years, but its form was blasted apart as the last its believers gave up his belief and the corpse that once held the imprisoned soul of Serpis, the High Priest of Kur, crumbled to the ground and for the briefest of seconds, there stood before us spirit of man with a look of wonder and peace upon his face before he disappeared from our sight and both the golden light of the Aten and the sickly green light of Kur died out.
We looked around at the ghosts that surrounded us and they no longer had their fearful visages. Their clothes were now spotless white and the any signs of wounds and blood were gone and their faces, once twisted in cruel suffering, were calm. One by one they crossed their arms over their chests and closed their eyes and faded away until only we the living were left in the grove.
