They took a town portal back to the rogue camp, the men having already found the waypoint in their search for their loves. It was already morning, but getting on with the day was on none of their minds. Martenus followed Annor to her private tent, leaving Thane and Meize with their shared tent all to themselves.
And, exhausted as they were, they first took full advantage of the privacy.
A scratching on the canvas woke them a short time later. It was Martenus and Annor come bearing a late lunch for all of them. Thane and Meize quickly dressed then welcomed the others in.
Annor pulled the sorceress aside. "I see things have made an epic change for the better."
"I couldn't be more happy," was all Meize was able to reply before the men drew them into their own conversation.
"Annor and I were thinking," Martenus began as they sat down to share their meal, "that we should just relax the rest of today, get a good night's sleep tonight, and then head back in for the final leg tomorrow."
"I'm sure that's perfectly acceptable." Thane turned to Meize for her approval. "I don't think there's any tactical advantage to going in now instead of tomorrow."
"We need to come up with a game plan for facing Andariel. We know her main attack is poison, and we've reserved charms, amulets, and the like to defend against it. She's also going to have a small army down there defending her.
If Thane has as many minions as he can control up and running, Meize uses her best carpeting attacks to support them, Annor picks off clean shots to defend my back while I run in to hack and slash with Thorns cast… and then we concentrate our efforts on Andariel… we should win."
"And make sure we all have at least a couple of town portal scrolls on hand." Thane playfully scowled at Meize. "If we get separated, we go back to town and wait. No more barricading ourselves in remote corners of the catacombs. Understand?"
"Trust me," she swore to him, left hand in the air, right hand on her heart, "you'll never catch me without a scroll again."
"And you, too." Martenus pointed his knife at Annor.
"Anything for you, my love." And she stuck her tongue out at him, which he promptly tried to bite off.
They finished eating, and then the couples retired back to their own privacies. Meize set up a hot bath and had no troubles convincing Thane to join her. They lovingly scrubbed each other from head to toe, then simply relaxed in the soothing, aromatic bubbles.
Meize eventually teleported the bathtub out of the tent, but the lovers didn't rejoin the rest of the camp again that evening.
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They arrived back in the catacombs again early the next morning. The men knew where they were going to find the stairs to the third level, and they made it there quickly and with little difficulty. The third level was another tortuous maze, but the gods were smiling on them this time when they found the stairs down to the final level within an hour.
They descended and knew they had arrived somewhere important now. The stairs came out into a grand room. Tattered tapestries still hung on the walls, candles dimly flickered in ornate holders, and a rug of once priceless beauty, now caked in centuries of blood, lay before a dead hearth. The room was completely empty, but the feeling of foreboding weighed heavily on them.
There was a door near the other end of the room, and they slowly opened it. They were relieved that this still wasn't Andariel's throne room, but it was occupied by a hoard that guarded a large set of double doors—doors that would surely lead to Andariel.
They were all afraid, and the room was cleaned out far too quickly. They wasted several minutes procrastinating the opening of the doors, but eventually it had to be done. Thane's skeleton mages crashed through and began firing at everything that moved. They cleared out a wide berth around the doors, but they also attracted the demon queen herself.
Andariel rushed at the heroes, spewing her poisonous breath and swinging wildly with her taloned hands. Thane's skeletons, their first line of defense, were helpless against her. His golem took a better beating, but it too quickly succumbed.
Meize and Annor had mercilessly bombarded her from afar, and their attacks were starting to show, but they suddenly had to defend themselves against an insistent group of Dark Ones and zombies that had come charging out of the shadows to defend their queen.
Martenus stepped in where the skeleton minions had failed in their physical attack on her, while Thane snuck around behind and lured her attention away so that the paladin could find an opening.
It was a gruesome battle taking every ounce of their might, but finally, with a last swipe of Martenus' sword, Andariel died. He dropped to the floor in exhaustion as her body vanished, taking all of her evil magic with her. With great effort he summoned his Prayer aura, and then collapsed into himself. Annor limped over and fell beside him.
Gaining strength from the reflection of his aura and knowing they would be okay, Meize began to look at the mess around her. There was a small pile of treasure where Andariel had last stood. She smiled to herself, surprised Thane hadn't pocketed it all already. And that left her wondering where he was.
"Thane?" She called. There was no answer. Had he gone back to the camp ahead of them? She began to pick her way through the debris looking for a sign of him. Nothing moved. She began to worry as she spotted one after another of his skeletons in shattered piles.
Finally, on the floor behind Andariel's throne, she found him. He was stretched out on his back, his pale complexion sickeningly sallow, sweat pouring off his brow. She dropped to her knees beside him and grabbed his hand.
He smiled at her weakly. "Poison. Too much."
"Do you have a healing potion left?" She wiped his damp hair away from his brow with her free hand.
"Used it."
Tears started to form as she realized she didn't have a potion left either. "We have to get you over to Martenus. He's cast his Prayer aura."
He gently squeezed her hand. "Too late."
"No it's not." She pulled at him. "Get up. We can make it. You'll be fine."
"Just leave me. It'll be all right. I promise." He closed his eyes, his breathing suddenly becoming very shallow.
"No! I won't leave you!" She pounded on his chest, frantic. "There's still time!"
"Go back… to the camp."
"I'm not going to let you die!" She cried.
"It's okay… trust me." He turned his face away from her.
"No! You can't die!" She pleaded. "I love you!"
"Don't let… them take… my stuff. Still need… it…" And he simply died.
Sobbing, Meize clutched his still body to her breast, rocking back and forth, lost in her despair.
This was how Martenus found her a short time later. Too shocked and too fatigued for emotion, he simply sat down behind her, resting his cheek against her back, and swayed with her. Annor came and sat down next to him, resting her head in his lap. They stayed that way for an unknown length of time, too numb to move. Meize eventually fell into an exhausted stupor. Martenus loosened Thane's body from her arms and helped her to her feet, guiding her into the portal back to the camp. He sent the rogues back to retrieve the body for a proper burial, then continued straight to their tent where he helped Meize lie down and then collapsed next to her. Annor, not wanting to be alone in her own tent, curled up on the other side of the numb sorceress.