Sorry I'm so late posting this chapter but I've got some final exams nearing and I haven't had much time for writing. I've already got the next chapter on the way, so hopefully I'll manage to finish it quicker than this one... until then enjoy chapter 11.
They moved south, over the small range of hills appropriately named Dry Hills, without major incidents. They were attacked twice by small groups of Saber Cats, but disposed of them rather easily. After three days walking, they arrived to a large oasis. Several lakes allowed a sparse vegetation to grow there, creating a small green island in the middle of the endless dunes of the desert. According to Deckard Cain's map the Maggot Lair was located somewhere between the lakes. The group entered the tiny swamp-like oasis, and Melissa felt her left foot being surrounded by a sticky fluid.
"Yuck ! What's that ?" she asked, trying to wipe the revolting substance off her boot.
"I think you just stepped on some kind of egg." said Arcadio observing the green liquid.
"Ew... I'm already starting to hate this place." complained Melissa.
"Not to talk about the mosquitos..." grumbled Welfor smashing one which had just bitten his arm.
Sela meanwhile was trying to determine whether the water was potable or not. She seemed satisfied, and refilled their water supply, which was very diminished after almost a week in the sun-bathed desert. Melissa started walking toward the Amazon but her right foot hit something which definitely wasn't regular sand. "What now ?" she grumbled trying to pull her foot off, but only succeeding in losing her equilibrium and falling unceremoniously on the revolting substance. Melissa then called for help as she felt the ground beneath her give in before falling to the cavern concealed beneath the substance.
Sela had rolled her eyes when she first saw the clumsy Sorceress stepping on another sickening green puddle, and had turned to investigate some bushes nearby, searching for the entrance of the Maggot Lair, while Welfor and Arcadio rushed to help her. Slaylie was nowhere to be seen, which worried the Amazon. Melissa's cry of help didn't faze her but then she heard the Sorceress's tone change as she called her companions.
"Guys, come check this out" said Melissa enthusiastically. Even Sela was curious to see what could make her be cheerful after falling through a puddle of slimy liquid.
"Looks like you just found the entrance to the Maggot Lair." said Arcadio surprised, joining Melissa in the sandy hole.
"Lucky me." said Melissa sarcastically, trying unsuccessfully to wipe the greenish fluid from her clothes. "I only hope this isn't poisonous." she added worried.
"You'd better drink this vial, just in case." said Sela, handing her an antidote potion. "I can't see the Assassin. I reckon she ran away." said Sela
"Oh well, let her go..." said Arcadio indifferently.
Welfor meanwhile had been exploring the room they were in and came across a part of the wall that wasn't made of sand, but of the same greenish substance. By then the others had already joined him, and Sela tried poking it with her spear. It fell on the floor, revealing another corridor on the other side.
"Looks like those things are doors." said Sela entering the dark tunnel. She made the tip of her spear glow gold again.
"I only hope we won't be finding out just what this thing is." commented Melissa making her staff shine with a soft blue light.
"Probably just some kind of worm's digestive liquid." said Arcadio thoughtfully, as they walked down the dark tunnel..
"How nice.." muttered Welfor.
All was deadly quiet, until they stopped in front of another 'door' and heard the faint buzz of mosquitos on the other side of it. When they opened it a large group of them attacked the heroes. Weapons were useless against them, as the unfortunate fighters quickly realized. Melissa had to concentrate and make the temperature in the room drop in order to kill their tiny foes. Fortunately they found few groups of them, as the population of the Maggot Lair was mainly composed of sand maggots. However, they quickly realized that fighting in the tight corridors of the Maggot Lair was very difficult, as they had almost no room to maneuver. They would often struggle to kill all the young maggots while the larger ones continued generating more and more behind the mob. To make matters worse, the place was a real labyrinth, and after finding several dead-ends, the four of them didn't know which way to go. After much wandering and fighting in the tunnels, the heroes finally spotted a large room ahead of them. There was the largest maggot they had ever seen. Actually, it was so big that it seemed unable to move, therefore they weren't very worried when they approached the giant monster.
"Look, there's a chest." stated Sela. She opened it and retired the Staff from its inside.
"The Staff of Kings. Let me use it, please ! It has a huge magical power." pleaded Melissa.
"Alright, but try not to break it." said Sela. Though she was aware of the Sorceress's clumsiness the Amazon knew that she had never damaged her staff before, so she thought it would be safe to let her handle the Horadric artifact. As her three companions collected and shared the gold inside the chest Melissa decided to test her new weapon.
'Let's see if I can kill this beast' thought Melissa, whispering one of her incantations. Fire erupted from her staff toward the Maggot Queen. A horrible shrill shriek of agony startled all of them, as they were all covered with guts from the dying Maggot. When the shower of the poisonous substance was over, none of them seemed able to articulate a word.
"I guess we're in for another round of poison." commented Melissa guiltily.
The next morning, they left the dark tunnels of the Maggot Lair and headed to the last destination of their journey, the Lost City.
"According to what I've been told of it, the once mighty Darjullah was destroyed during the Sin Wars by one of the deadliest battles ever. It has remained a stronghold of Evil forces in Aranoch ever since." explained Sela.
"Hmm.... Then why did the Horadrim have to hide the Amulet in it ?" asked Melissa.
"They thought it would be more 'protected', if it were hidden where no one would find it." said Sela rolling her eyes. "Actually they only succeeded in ensuring that only the demons have access to that powerful artifact. What a bunch of fools, really...."
The three others nodded their agreement and proceeded walking. Although they had encountered little trouble in the desert, Arcadio was feeling slightly uncomfortable, as if something were watching them. He stayed alert, but didn't notice anything the next two days. Eventually, as the group neared the Lost City's area, he spotted a movement somewhere behind them. Without a word he jumped forward and was swift enough to catch Slaylie, who had been hiding under her shadow cloak.
"You again ? I've had enough of you !" stated Arcadio, pinning the Assassin to the ground.
"You're the first person ever who catches me twice off my guard... The shadow cloak really gets weaker by daylight." commented Slaylie good-naturedly.
Meanwhile Sela, Melissa and Welfor had reached them, and Sela immediately started interrogating the Assassin."Where were you, and why are you following us again ?" she barked.
Arcadio seeing that they were surrounding Slaylie let go of her."I wasn't interested in entering that stinky place, so I went to plunder a tomb nearby instead. As for why I'm behind you, I've told you, you're my best lead to the Seven Tombs.".
"Well we aren't heading there for now, so you may go." said Arcadio, who wasn't very fond of the Assassin either.
"That's ok, I'm not in a hurry. I'm sure you'll go there eventually." said Slaylie calmly. Sela was about to say something, but a flask was thrown at her feet, and the four of them had to retreat as poisonous gases filled the air.
"Incoming demons from the city." shouted Welfor, readying his weapons. They were however in a difficult position, as their enemies kept throwing poisonous potions to keep them at distance. Melissa shot spells randomly, but her aim wasn't good enough to hit at that distance. Welfor resigned in stepping forward and holding his breath he jumped on the group of Saber Cats who were bombarding them.
"I'll provide him some backup" said Slaylie quietly becoming invisible and going to Welfor's aid. Arcadio summoned a poison resist aura and protecting Melissa and Sela with it, rushed to the battle as well. All in all, it was an easy enough fight, and they managed to grab some intact poison potions. In the City itself however things got trickier as the demons hid in the houses and threw potions through the windows. They were often caught unaware and left choking in the middle of a poisonous cloud. Melissa replied with spells and the potions she could find, and proved to be more accurate throwing flasks than with her magic. They also encountered some groups of zombies, likely to be the corpses of the former inhabitants of Darjullah, but they were to slow to really be threatening. After much street fighting they eventually reached what must have been the governor's residence. Hoping to find some kind of map of the city which could help them find the Viper Temple, they entered. What had seemed on the outside as a large palace, was actually a single huge room which still kept some traces of its past. Some golden spots in the wall suggested that the must have been covered with gold at some time. Heads and limbs of statues and bits of paintings proved that it had once been a very prosperous town. At the far end of the room stood a throne, where sat a zombie, surrounded by a small group of courtesans. They rushed to them with amazing speed, and they would have been surrounded if Melissa hadn't quickly frozen the zombies with a frost nova. Welfor quickly chopped one's head off, though Arcadio had to duck under his shield to block a mighty attack from one of the monsters, while Sela was using her spear to keep the three zombies in front of her at safe distance. Meanwhile Slaylie had disappeared, probably to harass the boss, who stayed behind watching his fellow undead fight. Suddenly he groaned with pain, but was unable to find what had hit him, though the wound was very real. Only when he was struck a second time did his simple mind understand that something invisible was attacking him, and started randomly hitting around. Sela who had been dueling with a zombie was hit in her right arm, and dropped her spear. Cursing she grabbed a dagger which she always carried in her belt and thrust it with her left hand on the minions heart. Melissa had just killed her third when she came to Arcadio's aid, who was struggling to block the hits of two zombies at the same time. Welfor killed the last of his assailants, and rushed for the boss. He was both relieved and surprised to see it collapsing after a couple of hits. Slaylie reappeared by his side.
"He got lucky." commented simply the Assassin upon Welfor's look at the wound on her face. Apart from this and from Sela's arm, all of them were alright. Sela's spear had its tip broken though, but Sela nonchalantly replaced it with another, as she had bought some of them at Fara's.
"I think it'll just take a day or two to heal. But I can't hold a spear one-handed." said Sela sadly, drinking a red potion from her supply.
"Anyway we lost our time here, there's nothing which could help us find the Viper Temple. We'd better just keep looking around." added Arcadio, exiting the ruined palace.
By nightfall they finally found the Temple in the outskirts of the Lost City. It looked just like another Tomb like the ones they had seen in the desert, but it had two huge statues of claw vipers in each side of its entrance, a dark stairway that led them to a poorly-lit hall.
"Well, can't you summon some light here." asked Welfor to Melissa and Sela.
"We'd better not. We want to pass unnoticed." replied Sela curtly. No more was said as they moved forward down the hall. Slaylie was barely visible in the gloom, and she was intending to use that to her advantage. Soon they heard the first foes in front of them, and spotted several claw vipers apparently busying themselves around a snake's statue. Slaylie set some traps in the doorway and motioned for the others to retreat a bit. When they were all some yards away from the traps Melissa threw a fireball inside the room. They then heard the furious hisses of the claw vipers who rushed to fight their aggressor. As they passed the doorway a blast of electricity erupted from the tiny devices on the ground frying the creatures immediately.
"This is wonderful." said Melissa examining the trap. "Where do you buy those things ?" she asked eagerly.
"Sorry, the Charged Bolt Sentry'aa is a secret of the Order." said Slaylie mysteriously.
They kept going following the same pattern : Slaylie would throw her traps, Melissa would attract the enemies over them. Obviously Welfor, Arcadio and Sela were feeling rather left-out, as they only killed the few snakes lucky enough to escape the traps. Sela who had found some javelins she could throw one-handed wasn't totally disappointed when the enemies refused to approach them, despite Melissa's provocation spells.
"Looks like those things finally grew a brain." commented Welfor.
"Right. Assassin get your toys out of the way and let's get them the usual way." said Sela. As Slaylie dismounted her traps, Melissa peered into the gloom ahead, trying to find the reason for the vipers' caution. Suddenly a javelin hit the wall behind her, nearly hitting the Sorceress.
"Look out !" shouted Arcadio but he wasn't looking at her. Behind them a dozen of Claw Vipers wearing crude shields and weapons rushed to attack the group. At the same time other vipers were coming from the door where the traps had been set some moments before. Arcadio and Sela started fighting the enemies coming from behind, while Welfor aided by the invisible Slaylie stopped those coming from the front. Melissa remained in the middle helping her friends with various spells. It was only when she realized that their foes seemed to be unaffected by lightning that the Sorceress understood they weren't facing regular vipers. Welfor too had realized it too, for he had been painfully hit by a bolt of lightning after he hit a yellow-skinned snake, probably their leader.
"Watch out !" shouted the Barbarian to his friends who had meanwhile disposed of all the enemies on the other side. As Arcadio and Sela were rushing to help Arcadio and Slaylie take care of the last vipers, the boss turned and tried to run away only to be killed by one of Sela's javelin. The last foes were quickly dead too.
"Nice shot there Sela." said Melissa grinning.
"Thanks." replied the Amazon with a slight smirk of her own. Finally, Arcadio solemnly opened the chest in front of them and took the Viper Amulet from it.
"That's the last piece of the Horadric Staff." he said.
"Hey Melissa, what do you reckon is this ?" asked Welfor, approaching an heavily-decorated altar, covered by runes.
"Well... those runes usually stand for a darkness summoning spell. Or was it the chicken-growth spell ? I've never been any good with runes...." said Melissa gazing at the inscriptions.
"Better destroy it, just in case." Welfor then struck it with one of his axes, and the fragile altar collapsed after a flash of lightning.
"I'm not sure that was a good idea." said Slaylie as soon as her vision returned to normal.
"Let's go" added Sela curtly.