By ArchangelUK
I do not own Dungeons & Dragons (advanced, animated or otherwise). Of course I also would not say that 'he who owns nothing will find in his heart that he owns all'. For you see, that would make me the Dungeon Master and quite frankly the whole 'Hulk Hogan Hair' thing doesn't appeal to me. THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM THE DISCALIMER OF… Dungeons & Dragons!
Pt 2: The Lady In Red
Eric Montgomery, deceased. August 13th 1988 (ERT).
Cause of Death:
#1 – Burnt to a crisp by fire.
#2 – Poisoned by noxious green gas.
#3 – Struck by lightning.
#4 – Turned into an ice cube.
#5 – Turned into a statue by volcanic ash.
#6 – Eaten alive.
#7 – Stomped on by a great five headed monster.
At this moment Eric wasn't quite sure which it would be, his mental list headed by the words 'delete as appropriate' might well have both referred to his method of death or simply Tiamat's current thoughts regarding him. Not being the most observant out of the group Dungeon Master had annoyingly kept referring to as the Young Ones, the Cavalier had not noticed the great Dragon Queen was not attacking. Then again he was cowering behind his shield having backed onto the disturbingly sticky steps of the Skull Cenotaph.
"What are you doing in this holy plaaaayce?" The serpentine voice of Tiamat's central head demanded, the voice which reverberated deeply around the red and yellow streaked stone walls sounded as though all five heads were speaking through the one mouth. Or rather, it was the same voice five times over with very slight differences.
Eric despite his terror nearly laughed, holy place? That could be debated. Instead of a discussion though he closed his eyes and squeaked. "Who me?"
"You!" Tiamat bellowed, stepping a pace forward which made the floor shake and quake violently. "You have disturrrrbed the sacred shrine of the Skull Senotaaaaph. Why are you here?"
Eric winced, Tiamat's voice was difficult to listen to at the best of times which coincidentally were the times he heard it the least. That hissing really got on the nerves. He ran his tongue around his surprisingly dry lips and peeped over his shield. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know this cenotaph thing was a holy place, I mean it doesn't exactly look like a holy place. I mean perhaps it is if you're a big fan of the whole bones and blood look if you, erm, you know, know what I mean. I didn't mean to intrude or anything if this is some kind of private dragon thing, that's if it is, or if it's not… heck I don't know." His bumbling explanation didn't seem to be appeasing Tiamat, in fact it seemed to be making her angry. She took another pace and with two flicks of her tail closed the two giant doors behind her, Eric gulped audibly. He was now trapped inside with Tiamat.
"You will face the consequences of your trespassss!"
"Lemmie guess, death?" Tiamat's response was a howl which made Eric actually drop his shield to cover his ears such was the volume. "Of all the times in my life, why did it have to be now that I get finally something right?" He cried out above the noise, "Thanks a lot Dungeon Master; I'll think of you when the different bits of me are slowly being digested."
Tiamat suddenly stopped her roaring and looked at the Cavalier curiously. "The Dungeon Maaaaster? What do you know of the Dungeon Maaaaster?"
"Precious little." He muttered savagely before thinking better of it. "He told me to meet him here." Eric replied, recovering possession of his shield and standing up. "He left about 10 seconds before you put in an appearance; apparently I'm supposed to wait for some young female to turn up and… oh."
Eric had been pale before and now was the whiteness of ice.
"If you aaare the one the Dungeon Maaaster
brought here then I am the one you seek and you are the one I seek." The
dragon's forked tongue flicked out between her two front teeth in a snake
like hiss.
"Brilliant!" Eric grinned forcibly, walking towards the doors that
despite being closed had a gap in the bottom big enough he reckoned to nip through
if he was agile enough. "Well now I've found you and you've
found me, we'll make a date of it sometime but now I must be going as
I'm sure my friends are waiting for me. Nice seeing you, toodles!"
He gave a cheery wave and made to make a bolt for it.
"You are going nowheeeere!" Tiamat said, in a commanding tone and made to step forward again but this time Eric swore she appeared to stumble. "You are to…" She began again but this time did definitely stumble, "Y-you…" The dragon swayed briefly before collapsing on her right hand side with an almighty crash. The green and white heads had to move pretty fast to avoid being crushed by Tiamat's rather significant body weight.
As the dust settled and the Cavalier could once again see Tiamat the shock of the sight rendered him completely speechless for at least two or three minutes. When he finally recovered his wits, he found only two words able to pass his lips.
"Dear God…"
From this position it was obvious why Tiamat had collapsed, her lower torso and left side that were previously hidden from him were a mess. A great many scales were missing and in their place were scabbed up wounds, it wasn't difficult to realise these were claw marks. The worst of which stretched all the way up from her belly to the neck of Tiamat's black dragon head which also possessed a trio of bite marks. Eric dropped his shield which clanged against the chalky white steps and despite his better judgement half walked half ran over to the stricken beast.
"Who did this?"
Tiamat grimaced and Eric moved around to face her main head, on closer inspection her fuzzy orange mane was caked with her blood. Her wing was a mess too, how she'd been able to fly here was a mystery to Eric and a testament to the strength of this beast he and all the realm has assumed to be unbeatable. He watched as the blue horned head nussled the now lifeless black one and tried to get it to respond. It's eyes opened weakly, tears of pain were there but weren't shed. The blue head again nudged it, but there was still no other response. The look of panic on that blue head would forever be etched in the young Cavalier's mind.
"Who did this? What did this?"
"When… you destroyed the abomination known as Deamodragon." Tiamat replied wearily, "A number of scalesssss were left behind from its destruction. The wizard Kelik took them and made from it a clone which he has taught to obey him absolutely, even the effect of your weapons would not-" Tiamat took a deep and painful breath, "-be sufficient to break his spell."
"Kelik? That slimeball, I thought Venger had got rid of him."
"He livessss." Tiamat confirmed, "The tri-headed Deamodragon clone that he has created is far stronger than the original creation of Vengeeeer."
"Sronger than Venger's mess up? Oh boy!"
"Kelik has named it Tannhauser, it has taken over the Dragon's Graveyard and many of the dragon territories." Eric hadn't ever come across any dragon territories but realised that it taking over the Dragon's Graveyard was a very bad thing.
"And you fought it?" Tiamat's eyes glowed a dangerous yellow, "Okay, okay of course you fought it… but..." Eric gestured at her wounds. "Dang."
"It is, too strong for me." Eric started to feel the world tumble down around him, the frankness and honesty of that bitter admission chilled him to the very core.
"Then why do you need me?"
"You must go to the Dragon's Graveyard alone." Again a pause, a deep ragged breath. "And defeat Tannhauser."
"WHAT?!" Eric screamed, "Why alone? I can't handle that thing alone - I can barely handle keeping this stupid armour from going rusty!"
"The scales that were taken had been exposed to the power of your weaponssss; as such Tannhauser's creation, combined with his exposure to the powers of the Dragon's Graveyard have made it immune to the power your weapons posessss." Tiamat struggled to get the words out. "The Dungeon Maaaster assured me the one who stood the best chance of defeating the abomination would be here."
"Why me?"
"The only creature that has the power to destroy Tannhauser is Tannhauser itself." Her eyes fell on the Cavalier's shield, "Alone you have a better chanccccccccce of surviving, you must repel enough of the beasts power back at it to destroy it."
"But why alone." Eric gritted his teeth, "I don't have any offensive weapon to fight off anything else Kelik has lurking there, just this stupid shield. Why can't I go to Tardos Keep and grab some Dragon's Bane and destroy it like we did it's Daddy."
Tiamat closed her main eyes as beads of sweat rolled down her slightly squashed looking face and grunted negatively, "As with the power of your weapons, the scales that survived also survived the wrath of the kreknor." Eric assumed that this was what the dragons called Dragon's Bane.
"Don't tell me. It's immune to that too?"
"Yessss." Tiamat sighed; her voice only seemed to hold a singular voice now, that of the main head. "Alone you will attract less attention; the other pupils of the Dungeon Master would not survive its onslaught long."
"I… see." Eric walked up to the black head which looked at him and emitted a low moan. Without even thinking about it the Cavalier rubbed its snout reassuringly.
A grunt and scuffling drew the attention of the pair as a green thing, muttering very unsavoury words about doors, gaps and stupid robes dragged itself up from under the gap in the door Eric had been aiming for, dusted itself down and adjusted its glasses.
Presto blinked twice. "Um, what the heck is going on?"
AAUK: For those wondering ERT means 'Earth Realm Time'.
Tiamat: Pleasssssse Review!
AAUK: What is it with you and exssssssssstending words?
Tiamat: It is the way I ssspeak. It's to give a realisic emphasssis on the way my voice is in the seriessss.
AAUK: That's as maybe, but could you do it less in the next chapter?
Tiamat: If you insssssist.
AAUK: [Wipes face clean] Anyone got an umbrella or something?
ArchangelUK 0:oS