Chapter Forty-three

Stealth and Silence


I shot forward as fast as I could go, hoping it wouldn't pursue. After a moment I looked back to see what it was doing. Not only was it following me as fast as I was moving, there were two more with it. Even if I hit one with an arrow, I'd still have two on my tail, potentially catching me if I fired. This was one time I was not glad to be alone.

I continued forward as fast as my broom would take me. They didn't let up, and even seemed to be slowly gaining on me. One let out a moan, which shook me to my core. I stopped looking back and kept moving, trying to get to my friends before I was overtaken.

I found about where my friends should be and dived through the mushrooms. I wasn't as agile as I'd hoped, and bounced against a mushroom top. I started spinning and almost lost my broom, but pulled it together and righted myself just above the ground.

My friends were around me, their faces etched with concern. I'd just come through at full speed, nearly falling from the sky, and the sound of wings beating was following me. I landed and turned to face the thing that was chasing me.

I heard spells being cast, and people gathering closer to me. I saw it just between the mushrooms and cast my mark on it. Two arrows into the air, two arrows into the wings.

It flew between the mushrooms, with the other two coming around the other sides of the mushrooms. They had a smoky essence and it was hard to see exactly where they were. They looked like giant flying sheets with tails and glowing eyes.

The one in the middle was struck with a bolt from Sindus and it swooped in towards me. An errant firebolt and firey orb flew just past it. I was glad to have my friends fighting beside me, even if their first shots didn't connect.

It swung its tail at me, which I was able to dodge. In dodging the tail I left my shoulder open, and it latched on with its teeth. My mind flashed again to the sight of a dragon claw digging into my shoulder. Dragons, griffons, spiders, and now this thing, they all liked to attack my shoulder.

I struggled to get it off, but it wrapped its massive wings around me, preventing me from moving. I felt nearly as helpless as when I'd been wrapped up in webs. My head was the only thing not enveloped. At least I could breathe.

I struggled against it, but had to pause to keep my footing as Keothi's hammer bounced off of its leathery back. I could see Ari'yasa wrap one with her thorny whip, and it dissipated into smoke as she pulled back on it.

I could feel heat on my back from a firebolt behind me, but not enough to burn me. I heard Kutsool next to me. "Kima, you get that one, I'll get this one."

He came into sight, swinging his axe into the creature that was wrapped around me. I could feel the blade come through, slicing my arm as well. I winced in pain and pulled away.

I felt a bolt pierce my back. It had gone through the wing and hit me as well. "Okay guys, please be careful!"

I tried again to break out again, but it was wrapped around too tightly and dug its teeth in deeper. I moved my arm around and slowly pulled out a dagger. I heard Naidaroe behind me. "Tawariell, you will be free!"

The creature started to release its grip on me, and I slashed at it with my dagger. Keothi hit it with his hammer, which stopped it. It tightened itself back around me and I was stuck again. Kutsool raised his axe to swing again, but hesitated. He shook his head sadly. He wasn't going to risk hurting me again.

The creature struck Keothi with its tail, then briefly let go of my shoulder and let out another moan, right in my ear. It made me mad this time. I wanted this thing off of me.

I could hear Sephra behind me, and the creature lit up with a bluish-green light. Keothi also was glowing as he positioned himself in front of me, wrapped his arms around both the creature and I, and slowly pried the wings open. I was free!

He tried to bite the creature, but more smacked his face into it. There was no good spot to try biting. A blade cut through it, and I had to dodge out of the way. The creature screamed out in pain. It couldn't last much longer.

Lightning hit it right in the core, spreading through its entire body. Keothi let go to avoid the lightning, and it fell to the ground. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I knew we had to go, but I wanted something off of this formidable foe to remember the battle. I checked its tail and found a sharp barb on the end. I wouldn't want to make a necklace out of that, but I might be able to use it on a weapon, maybe my quarterstaff.

Melima cut a square of skin off of its back, then tried to find something to put some of its black blood into before giving up. Ari'yasa claimed a tooth from it. Sindus asked to see the tooth, then gave it back and walked off. He turned back to us. "We've got to go, there's growling."

We left the creature and changed our direction towards the temple again. We'd made noise twice now in a line, so we needed to change the line we were making. I had Sindus use the dust to cover our tracks again.

We were pretty quiet, despite some loud armor. I didn't think we would be heard. Kima agreed with me that we should go past the temple, to approach it from the north side.

The mushrooms were less dense as we got closer to the temple, and I couldn't hear the growling anymore. We were safe for now, but they were probably still searching for us.

We needed to see if there was any way to get in the temple. We decided that I would take Sindus on my broom to look at the temple. That way I'd have someone to shoot at anything following us. We'd be slower, but I felt safer this way.

Sindus took some of the exploding pearls from Melima and we both got on my broom. I was scanning the skies as well as trying to see the temple. I was glad Sindus was looking as well, even if he couldn't see as well as me.

The temple was flat and square at the top. Sindus said he saw something moving on top. There was a set of stairs at the front, and Sindus saw stairs going down in the middle of the roof.

There wasn't any way in from the back. We got just a little bit closer. There were two creatures patrolling on the roof, Sindus thought they were illithids. There was a bit of a step on the back, it wasn't smooth like we had thought, but it would take some effort to climb. The steps looked to be just shorter than me.

We went back and told the group what we had seen. Sindus wasn't happy with the situation. "Is this really important that we go to this temple?"

"We have to destroy the evil that's within it," Kima said.

"Do we have to? We've already let someone else go that's pretty bad."

"We've already come this far! We might as well get it done and over with." We discussed our next move and took a little time to rest. I treated my wounds, at least protecting them from further injury.

Sindus took one of the pearls and tried to attach it to a bolt. Once I noticed what he was doing, I suggested he ask Naidaroe for help. She was talented with rope, knots, and lashing, and I wanted to do the same to some of my arrows eventually as well.

They made two, then I heard Sindus grunt. I looked up to see one of the pearls falling. I saw it going off, singeing Naidaroe's hat and making a large bang.

Naidaroe's hand slipped right underneath it, catching it safely before it hit the ground. I'd just imagined it going off. They didn't try to make any more after that.

We talked about ways to make us more stealthy, either our cloaking spell or my silence spell. We also discussed how to take out the guards once we got to the top. Sindus reminded us that he had the orb that we could quickly take out one of them.

Someone asked what we'd do if we were spotted, retreat? Or charge? It was unanimous that we'd charge, we might not have another chance if we didn't get to the top.

It was suggested that Sephra disguise herself and be a distraction at the front of the temple. We weren't sure if she'd know any languages spoken by what she'd impersonate, probably an illithid.

Kima spoke up at this issue. "I heard an illithid speak to my mind in what I think was Undercommon. If she disguised herself as an illithid and spoke Undercommon she might be able to get away with it."

While this was true, it would put her at risk, and I wasn't sure that I was okay with that. Plus, she would be unable to help us once we got inside. We decided to just go up together, we didn't want to bring any attention at all to the temple if we could avoid it.

We agreed to go up in two rows of four, Kutsool would carry Kima. We tried to arrange it so stronger people were next to weaker people so they could help if needed. I kept to the back row since I had a longer-ranged weapon.

Ari'yasa cast the cloaking spell again, and we moved towards the edge of the forest. I saw two duergar coming around the corner of the temple, patrolling. I signaled for everyone to hold.

They slowly walked the edge of the temple and paused at the center. Kima's armor made it hard for her to be stealthy, and I was afraid they'd noticed us. I read their lips from behind my mushroom. "Did you see anything?"

"I thought I saw something. Did you see something?"

"I don't know. Ugh. Let's keep going, I hate this shift."

They kept going and finally rounded the corner. We'd have to be aware of them too as we went up. Sephra was charged with checking the top for the guards. We'd hide against the wall until she gave us the signal to go up to the next step.

Most of us made it up the first step without problems, except for Sindus and Keothi, who struggled to get the right grip. We made it up a few more steps without problems. The stones got a little bit shorter as we got further up. Sindus started having problems again, and I was struggling on one of them.

Sephra and Ari'yasa were struggling, and Ari'yasa couldn't make it up one step for a moment because Sephra was floundering so much in front of her. I saw one of the guards at the top and signaled to hide. Kima shoved Sephra into the wall, clanking her armor.

I cast my silence spell, deadening the noise immediately. It was uncanny how quiet it was, I couldn't even hear myself breathing. I almost felt more exposed because I wasn't able to sense what was going on around me by sound anymore. Most of our spells couldn't be cast now, but we wouldn't be heard either.

I could tell everyone was breathing more heavily, not worried about what noise they were making. I was getting up a lot easier now, being able to flip myself over the steps that were now slightly shorter. Ari'yasa pushed Naidaroe up the steps. She'd been doing really well, but was getting tired.

There was a bit of a wall at the last step that we were going to have to get over. Keothi put the immovable rod about halfway up for people to use as a step. We were all going to have to go up at the same time. I straddled my broom from two steps down, getting ready to move my silence spell with me to cover our sound up top.

I glanced down to the bottom, watching for the other patrol. They weren't back yet. We motioned to figure out if we were all moving at once, or Sindus first. He was skilled at assassinating, and had the orb we were going to trap one of the guards in. We agreed Sindus would go, then the rest of us a moment later.

Keothi stood slowly to see where the guards were. He indicated that one was against the far wall to our left, and the other was in the middle on the right wall. Sindus made his way to the floating rod, and Keothi helped him over the wall. We waited a moment, then all moved to get over the wall.

I flew over everyone as they filed to the rod to get over. I landed in the middle of the roof, right next to the entrance of the temple. Sindus pushed the orb into one of the illithid guards. The guard vanished, and Sindus fired a bolt at the other guard.

The bolt went right through his neck, and I took a couple of shots at him. My first arrow landed right above his breastplate, near where I guessed his heart would be. The lack of sound from my bowstring threw me off though, and my second arrow sailed over his head.

Melima moved her hands to cast a spell then stopped when no sound came out. She instead threw a dagger, which the illithid dodged, and it went over the wall on the other side.

Keothi was now at the illithid's side and pounded into him with his hammer. He wasn't going to let the illithid use its mind powers on him like the last one. His third strike was square in the chest, and the illithid's eyes rolled back as he fell over the wall.