The rotten hand drew back and the chest slammed shut.

"What the hell was that?" Kar cursed again, his spear shaking.

The chest slammed open again and the stench of decay filled the room. It was a lich, wrapped in rotting leather clothes, a pissed off look on his face.

"You thieving wretches! Just as I'm about to take over the kingdom, some bloody hero barges in and tries to stop me!' The lich's voice was harsh and throaty; he spoke with an accent that Kiph had never heard before. 'I'll just have to kill and add you to my army to keep you from spreading a warning…" The lich hissed, his hands making an arcane gesture, a magic missile shooting towards Kiph. His own enchanted armor took the missile well, but he was still blasted into the wall, he could feel at least four of his ribs break.

Kasmar swung the hammer in a brutal arc, smashing the lich aside in a shower of mold and dust. The gaunt, skeletal lich smashed into another wall, Kiph could hear bones breaking. The lich stood back up, one arm snapped back at the elbow. The lich growled ferally, and cast another spell, sprinkling an egg shell while wearing a glove of snakeskin. It was a spell that Kar did not know. A ghostly, giant hand gripped Kar in a vice-like grip, crushing him in its grasp. He screamed as his arm broke. Kiph stood up, his broken ribs aching and threw three knives as the lich. Every knife punched home into the lich's chest and stomach. The spell-casting lich lost his concentration and the fist disappeared with a wisp of smoke. Kar fell, cradling his arm. Kasmar snarled and swung the magical hammer at the wall. With a crack, the hammer crushed some of the stone around the window. He swung again, frantic now that the lich was getting up again, three knives sticking out of his chest.

Jexi stood over Kar and brandished her holy symbol, a leering, two faced mask and called out, "Undead creature! I command thee to leave!" her voice was harsh and unnatural lightening flashed in the sky but the lich just reeled. Kasmar swung his hammer again and again, the stone shattering and the window bars punched out, falling to the ground from two hundred feet up. Kiph frantically patted himself down, trying to find a rope, but the bloody rope was still on the other ledge!
"I don't have a damned rope!" he shouted to the others, his voice frantic, he did not want the lich to kill him.

"You scrawny bastard!" shouted Kasmar as he spun and stood next to Jexi, his new hammer at the ready.

"All of you, jump out with me!' shouted Kar as he picked himself up, 'I know a spell that'll make us fall slower!"

Kasmar snarled at the wizard as he smashed the lich with his hammer. Again, the sound of bones breaking could be heard, but the red fire still burned in the lich's eye-sockets. The door slammed in again, and the smell of burning wood entered the room. Either the lich would kill them, or the guards. "Why should we trust you?" he yelled.

"You're gonna die anyway, you buffoon!" retorted the wizard, pain etched on his face.

"I'll go!" shouted Kiph as he threw another knife at the lich.

"I'm in!" added Jexi, while she supported the wizard's weight.

"Fine, let's go!" shouted the fighter as he dived out the hole, pushing the other three with him. Kiph screamed as his broken ribs ground together. The wizard was shouting something and Jexi started to fall slower. Then, Kiph, who felt a strange, floating sensation as the spell hit him. Then, Kasmar and finally Kar. The foursome slowly floated down, almost two hundred feet. Kiph looked up, and saw strange, bale-fires eminating from the store room they were in.

Kiph and Jexi landed lightly on their feet, while Kar and Kasmar landed roughly on their asses. Kar again shouted, "Gather around me!" the wizard's hands formed another gesture while dropping an eyelash, covered in some substance. A hazy sphere formed around the four, an invisibility sphere, thought Kiph, on a different job he had been with a wizard who used it.

"Everyone stay within ten feet of me and we will all get out of here just fine." The wizard hissed.

Two hours later, at their bolt-hole in the Foaming Mug inn, a tavern of some ill-repute, the four discussed what happened, and more importantly, what to do with the loot. The low table in the middle of the room was bent inwards from the weigh of the stuff.

"Alright, so, since Kasmar took that hammer, he isn't in the first round." Kiph said, it was standard procedure, after all.

"Fine, fine." Kasmar grunted, the war-hammer propped on his shoulder.

"Okay, then. Let's start with the gold." Kiph continued, his deft hands dividing the stack of coins neatly into three piles. Eagerly, he leaned forward to snag his stack when Kar grabbed his wrist.

"What about the take from those jewels?" the wizard hissed, his eyes squinting at the thief.

"Oh, my goodness,' Kiph exclaimed with mock seriousness, 'I forgot all about that." The thief reached inside a pocket and pulled out a small sack of silver coins and added those to the stacks.

As Jexi leaned in to grab her pile, the cleric winked at Kiph, a slight smile on her face. Kiph's heart beat faster and he winked back. The cleric sat back and removed her bag of holding from her belt and shook it out onto the table, numerous weapons and trinkets falling out to spill across the small table.

Kar spread his hands out and incanted a spell, one that revealed magical auras and effects to him. In his eyes, every weapon on the table fairly glowed with magical energy; some of the trinkets hurt his eyes to look at.

"So, um, pick and choose, everything's magical or enchanted, so just be fair." The wizard spoke as he picked up two rings, one was for sure a ring of water walking, the other, he thought to be a ring of wizardry, but he wasn't sure. Whatever.

Kiph grabbed an ornate saber and a supple pair of gloves. He strapped the saber to his back and slid the gloves on, loving how they made his hands feeling nimble and light.

Jexi reached across the table to grab an amulet and a long rapier, the favored weapon of her god. She strapped the rapier onto her waist and hung the amulet around her neck, marveling how energetic and tough the amulet made her feel.

Kasmar leaned forward and swept a cloak off the table and draped it across his broad shoulders and fastened the clasp. It didn't look like a magic cloak, but it was warm. Then, he grabbed a thick belt and looped it around his waist; it looked unusual and made him like he could lift two hundred more pounds.

Kar was reaching forward again, his eyes set on a brooch, the likes of which he had never seen, when horrible screaming came from the floor below, and the sounds of fierce fighting. Smoke began to creep under the door.

"I think it's time to scag it!" Kiph shouted over the noise of the battle below. The innkeeper burst in, his arm bloody and his clothes smoking, his eyes frantic.

"The dead! The dead are coming…" his voice cut off suddenly and he fell forward, an arrow cut through his back. A skeletal warrior stepped through the smoke, still clad in the armor of the Dukes guards, a bow grasped in its fleshless hands.

Kasmar leapt up and smashed the warrior down with his hammer. "Get the hell out the window!" The warrior shouted, as another bunch of warriors surged up the stairs, to get smashed apart by the tall fighter.

Kar smashed the window with the butt of his spear and leapt out, ropes flying behind him, to land unceremoniously on rump with a thud. Kiph let Jexi jump out next, the two locking eyes for a moment before the cleric jumped out, to land on the wizard, who was just starting to stand up. Kar yelled in pain again, the rapier on the cleric's waist stabbing into his leg.

"Come on, Kasmar! Quit playing hero and run away!" the thin thief shouted as he stabbed a skeleton that had gotten past the fighter.

"Fine!" Kasmar knocked the thief out of his way and took a running leap out the window, followed closely by Kiph. A mass of arrows followed them out, to impact in the building across the street.

No more screams echoed out of the inn, which was a blazing inferno now. Town constables were running down the streets towards the inn, as concerned citizens tried to form bucket brigades to put out the fire. None knew about the skeletons inside. The group tried to look inconspicuous as they strolled down the street, determined to put as much distance between themselves and the inn.

Kar leaned in, his voice a harsh whisper, "Did we get what was left of the loot?"

"No, we didn't, Kar.' Kiph snapped back, 'we were too busy trying to save our own asses after you ran like a coward."

"Yeah, you bastard. You didn't even grab your stuff." Jexi said, while holding up the wizards pack. Kar stretched his arm across Kiph and grabbed the back, a sheepish smile on his face.

Kasmar spun in front of the other three, his hands out to stop them. His voice was set when he spoke, "We're going back into the castle."

All three spoke up at once, sighting numerous reasons why they shouldn't go back into the castle. Kar silenced them with a glare.

"The skeleton that was wearing the Dukes colors is why we're going back in. The lich obviously has taken over the Dukes army and we gotta stop him before he gets too powerful."

Into the eye of the storm

Shaking his head, Kiph climbed down the ladder, into the sewer tunnels that lead to the Dukes castle. In his hand, he had a torch, in the other, the saber they had stolen. With a splash, the thief jumped down into the knee deep water that flowed ever so slowly towards the coast. Behind him, Kasmar and Kar started down the ladder. The big fighter had tied a sunrod to the haft of his hammer and Kar had cast a light spell on himself. Kiph had gotten over his anger at the wizard, but transferred it to the fighter for making them do this. I mean, the lich is a problem, he thought, but someone else's problem. Jexi was last down the ladder; she dragged the cover back over the entrance. The shaft of weak light was cut off abruptly; it had taken almost until dusk to find an entrance. Kiph leaned over and kissed the cleric before setting off ahead of the group to scout.

He doused his torch and drew his favorite kukri, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom before he went too far down the tunnel. He went about thirty feet, and whistled three times, the signal for the others to advance. Kiph kept going, barely lifting his feet to stay quiet. A sloshing, like a group of people coming down the sewer, caused him to stop and slide into a little alcove set into the tunnel, a sunrod grasped instead of his kukri. He was ready for whoever it was. Hopefully the flare of light would cause the others to catch up with him.

The footsteps were closer now, about ten or fifteen feet away. Kiph wouldn't tell who or what was making the noise, but they couldn't be allowed to live. There was no light coming from the group, so Kiph waited until he heard their footsteps before slashing with his rapier. With a scream of pain, the shape fell, clutching at the long gash in his chest. Kiph smacked the sunrod and the tunnel burst into light, momentarily blinding him. Blinking the dancing lights out his eyes, Kiph did not except what he saw. It was a bunch of highwayman or robbers, laden with coins and other objects, obviously looting. The other four robbers reeled from the light and Kiph did not miss his opportunity. He smashed the first one across the face with the hand-guard of his rapier and kicked him in his groin. Moaning, his face a smashed wreck and clutching at his groin, the robber fell in the water, trying not to drown.

While his attention was elsewhere, another of the robbers stabbed at Kiph with a short sword. The thief danced back, hoping his armor would stop the sword. The robber froze suddenly, and then fell forward, a bolt protruding from between his shoulder blades. Glancing down the hall, he saw Jexi lowering her crossbow. Kiph saw Kar was casting a spell, the wizard's gestures and words alerting him. The thief spun back inside the alcove, crouching in a corner, the water up to his neck. With a shriek and stench of burning flesh, the lightening bolt shot down the tunnel, catching every one of the robbers in its electrical embrace.

Flesh tingling from the lightening bolt, Kiph stood up, twitching occasionally, water dripping off his armor. Running up to him, Jexi and Kar patted down the small electrical fires on his clothes.

"Kar, don't use a lightening bolt if I'm in the water!" Kiph snarled at the wizard, his rapier stabbing forward to punctuate his words.