After thoroughly looting the room (they didn't find much alas, only a couple of healing potions which were given to the mercenaries), they went back to the Pocket Plane and enjoyed a delicious meal, but as they were leaving the common room to go to sleep, Meg noticed that another of the challenge rooms was open. "Sendai's death unlocked another challenge for me, it seems", she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Seriously, can't I get a break?". "What do you want to do, my love?", Anomen asked, "Face it now, or wait until we have rested?".
"I…", she sighed, "Well, we did rest a little, so I'd say we kick the ass of whatever is inside there now and then we take a bath and get some sleep", she decided, "Lothar, you and your men can go: the challenges can't be faced by anyone else but me and my party". The general nodded, but there was a flash of worry in his eyes, "As you wish. But if you need help…". "The doors get sealed once we get inside, so you won't be able to come to our aid anyway. But I appreciate the offer", she added with a smile. "I see. Well, good luck then. See you in eight hours, maybe more if I decide to sleep in", he joked, waving and leaving to go to his room.
"Okay guys, let's do this", she said and her party members nodded and followed her inside the stone room. As soon as the last one of them stepped in, the stone slid sideways until the opening vanished, trapping them inside as usual and an impalpable white mist surrounded them. A small figure appeared from the mist, revealing itself to be a little girl of maybe three, with blond curls and big emerald green eyes, her adorable little face brightened by a happy smile, "Hi, Meg!", she chirped, waving a hand. The Ilmatari narrowed her eyes, "Hi there. Who are you?". "I'm your innocence! And I'm here to offer you to reclaim me!".
The Slayer snorted, Innocence? What use could you possibly have for that?, he spat, Look at her! Would you really go back to being a pathetic, wide-eyed, weak little bug like her? Please. If anything, you should be grateful that you got rid of that useless pest. She couldn't help agreeing with it, though she still felt a wave of nostalgia hit her as she looked at her toddler self: it would be nice to be so carefree and pure once again, to be able to forget all the horrors and misery she had witnessed during the years…
A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and turning her head, she saw Sarevok walking towards the apparition, his hand stretched slightly out and a glazed look in his eyes and she didn't waste any time in grabbing his wrist and gently pushing him back with her other hand. "Don't fall for it, Sarry, it's just a trick. They tried it on me once, they just want to mess with our head, make us lower our guard so that we'll be easy prey", she said firmly, giving him another push, this time stronger. The force of it snapped him out of his daze and his eyes slowly focused on her face, "Maggie?", he called, sounding as if he'd just woken up from a dream.
"Yes, it's me. The real me", she added, turning to glare at the small girl behind her, "And you, get lost before I kick your ass. I don't like it when someone messes with my brother". The toddler tilted her head to the side cutely, "I didn't do anything to him!", she protested as tears filled her big puppy eyes, "I'm a good girl, I don't hurt others, unlike you! You're mean!". "Yes, yes, I'm a rabid bitch who made a poor little girl cry, shame on me", the real Meg sighed and her eyes softened, "Look, I don't want to upset you, honey. Really, I don't. But I'm also not interested in reclaiming you, okay? I've come too far, seen too much…".
"But if you accepted the offer, you could go back to being me!", the apparition said, cheering up once again, "Wouldn't you like to be three again? To play hide and seek with your big brother and have him teach you the numbers and snuggle in his arms to sleep every night?". "It would be nice, but it's just not possible, little one", Meg said, kneeling down to stroke the toddler's hair tenderly, "I'm sorry, but much as I miss you, you belong in the past and I must live in and enjoy the present". The apparition pouted, "Oh. There is no place for innocence in the heart of an immortal, then? SO BE IT!", she suddenly roared and her form twisted and grew, until they found themselves looking at a copy of the Slayer.
Hey! I'm not that ugly!, the creature protested, offended, And what's that thing on its head anyway? My crest is spikier and my scales shinier! We've got more pressing concerns now, if you don't mind, the Ilmatari replied as she narrowly avoided a slash that would have taken her head off. Oh, right. Need a claw? No, thanks, I think we got it. Suit yourself. I'm here if you change your mind. The fight was, to put it mildly, a real pain in the ass: even if the fake Slayer was not even remotely as strong as the real deal, it was still a very powerful opponent and made the party members fear for their lives, but in the end, it was destroyed and vanished along the mist, leaving behind a bright room with soft grass covering the ground and a medium-sized lake in the farthest south corner of it. "Wow, this is so nice!", Imoen exclaimed, looking around.
"And I'm willing to bet that lake has healing properties like the pools in the other room. Not that we need it at the moment", Daniel commented, watching as his wounds closed on their own before vanishing as if they had never been there in the first place. "I…", Anomen flexed his hands, "I also feel a new power in myself". "So do I", Aerie nodded, "I think we have finally acquired the ability to summon a Deva". "Good to know, because we still have a Bhaalspawn Dragon to fight", Meg yawned and stretched, "Well, I'm done for today. See you in the morning, or after at least eight long hours of good sleep anyway. Goodnight guys", she waved and dragged herself out of there and to her room, where she crushed on the bed without even bothering to undress or get under the blanket and as soon as her head touched the pillow, she was out like a light.
oxoxoxoxoxo
Abazigail's lair was set inside a huge mountain, like was common for dragons, so they weren't too surprised by it. What surprised them was finding an odd-looking young man standing at the top of the staircase: he seemed to be in his mid twenties, with brown-greenish skin that reminded them of a lizard, narrow yellow eyes with a vertical pupil and short dark brown hair. "Who dares to disturb Draconis?", he spat haughtily, looking down on them from his pointed nose, "More emissaries from Balthazar, maybe?". "Actually, we…", Meg tried to say, but he cut her off with a loud sniff. "No…You're not in league with him. I sniff the mark of Bhaal on some of you. My father warned me about you".
Everyone stared at him in shock at those last words. "Wow, wow, wow, now slow down a minute, pal", Daniel said, raising his open palms, "You're Abazigail's son?". "Indeed I am and you will die by my hand!". "Well, that's not the kind of greeting I hoped to receive from my nephew", the druid sighed and summoned five Fire Elementals to aid in the fight. Draconis' body grew and grew and grew, until he was once again an imposing Brown Dragon, towering over them and with a malevolent look in his yellow reptilian eyes.
"Brown Dragons spit acid! Watch out!", Edwin shouted, pleased that all those hours spent studying the different types of dragons had not been in vain, then he shouted, "Code Pause!". At the signal, all the mages cast Time Stop one after the other, each one throwing first a contingency of spells to weaken the enemy, then a contingency of spells to cause as much damage as possible. Even so, when the last Time Stop ended its effect, Draconis was still standing. Weakened, yes, bleeding, yes, but not defeated, not yet.
His eyes glowed golden, a dead giveaway that he was using the small fraction of Taint he possessed, "You are shrewd…But it won't save you", he sneered, spitting a spray of acid and many mercenaries were hit by it, the magic protection shrouding them saved them from suffering heavy damage, but it still wasn't enough to avoid their skin from being covered in painful blisters and one of them lost an eye. In retaliation, the man raised his sword and ran straight to the left hind leg of the dragon, stabbing the blade in the paw again and again and again with a snarl, "You piece of shit!".
Draconis roared in pain, throwing his head back and that gave the rangers the chance to pepper his throat with arrows and crossbow bolts, some of which had explosive tags attached to them, courtesy of Daichi. The explosions were deafening, each one opened a gaping wound in the dragon's neck and the loss of blood was so massive that he began feeling dizzy, but he wouldn't give up, his claws swiping left and right, quick like strikes of lightning, his tail slashing and whistling in the air like a whip, each blow that hit home left behind broken bones and deep wounds, some of them grave, others straight-up deadly.
"He's nearly down!", Lothar shouted after what seemed like an eternity, seeing that Draconis was now having trouble breathing and that he was wobbly on his legs, "Don't stop now! We can do it!". His words inspired his men and they gave their all in one final attack, surrounding the enemy and hitting with all of their strength, the mages casting all the damaging spells they had left, even the feeblest like Chromatic Orb, because they knew that at that point even the smallest wound could be the last one and make him fall. Finally, when they were exhausted and in excruciating pain and had suffered nearly a dozen of losses, Draconis let out a high-pitched screech of agony and his eyes rolled back in his head, a small burst of golden fire being absorbed by Meg's body.
The corpse started falling and the party members and mercenaries hurried to get themselves and their fallen comrades away from him to avoid getting trapped and squished to death under the dragon. The impact of the massive body on the ground caused a small earthquake, some of them lost their balance and fell to their knees, but when the dust cleared, they saw it was over: Draconis was dead for good. Nobody spoke as the clerics moved silently from one corpse to the other, resurrecting everyone, using and exhausting all the charges in the Wand of Resurrection when their spells were not enough, then they set to healing the wounded.
Edwin approached the impressively huge archway that led to the entrance to Abazigail's lair, but frowned at seeing the magical barrier that blocked it, "Meg", he called. The Painberarer didn't look up from the ranger she was healing, "What?", she called back. "There is a barrier. Judging from the runes on the archway, we'll need Draconis to get through it". Now she looked up and a heavy and very colorful curse in Chondathan slipped past her lips, "Wonderful. We're locked out then", she grumbled.
"Maybe not", one of the mercenaries, a necromancer judging by his robes and the necklace of small mummified heads he wore, approached the door and studied the runes as well, then smirked, "Ah, I knew it: the barrier is tied to Draconis' blood and flesh. So if we take a part of his body, like his head for example, it will open for us". Edwin shot him a disgusted look and subtly inched away from him, "Yes, well, don't look at me: I won't cut that head off (I already have enough dragon blood on my robe as it is)".
"I'll do it", Sarevok said, marching to the corpse, then he cleaved the head with a single, powerful swing of his Sword of Chaos, "Done. We can get in". "Not now", Meg shook her head, "We're sore, out of spells and out of energy. Let's go back to the Pocket Plane to rest and eat, I don't feel safe at all resting here. Come on, take my hand, you know the drill", she said tiredly. Not even Anomen argued.