„Through Treacherous Crypts and Darkest Dungeons …"
The reliefs on the walls of the crypt only below the ceiling were peculiar enough to catch her interest. Of course most of them was wiped to almost completely plain stone by the influence of time, or covered by a sticky veil of giant spiders' web that made their lair so close to the vampires, both multiplying to threatening numbers, but the large part of the in-wall sculptures survived, and still described the burial rituals from the times when these crypts were only being built. Daria wasn't sure, but it might have been the Bhaal's holy symbol, a scull surrounded with tears, sculpted above the entrance to the inner crypts, massive stone doors that no living creature could open. But then again it could be only her imagination. She was a bit oversensitive on the subject after all.
Spiders were chitterling in the darkness, but these didn't pose any danger to them, none much bigger than the elf's palm. The giant spiders and their many cousins, even one wraith spider, were already only ugly carcasses they left on their way to reach these gates. It was the inconvenience of the road they were assigned by the Shadow Master, as the second group to attack Bodhi's lair from below. The third group followed their track to secure the gates and make sure no undead escapes from the assault, while the first was waiting on the surface of the Graveyard District, waiting for the first light of dawn, a signal to begin their attack.
"They will attack us instantaneously the moment we open the door" Daria pointed out.
"I know what I'm doing girl" Haz, the elderly human mage and the leader of their group in one person, grumbled at her, but moved their positions to closer to the walls, with his expression saying clearly that he was going to do it anyway. Daria's companions and three other Shadow Thieves that together formed the second group moved at his command.
The leader of the third group was a calm assassin, Zynthis. He and nine other professional assassins and trap-masters were waiting in utter silence for the signal to attack that was to be passed to Haz telepathically. According to the plan they were only to help in the initial attack on the lair, and then stay and guard the gates, while the first group wandered into the tomb to meet up with the first in a chamber, which Daria divined to be where the coffins in which the vampires slept were placed.
Daria finished studying the reliefs and joined her team, knowing that the dawn was coming near. The claustrophobia didn't bother her anymore. After her obligatory stay in the Sphere she got used again to the close spaces.
The party seemed tense and ready. Valygar stood calmly with his katana's drawn, glaring at the stone golem Haz brought to open the gates for them from time to time. Yoshimo stood next to him, with his hand close to the quiver full of arrows enchanted with fire bought specially on the occasion. Jaheira was keeping an eye out for Minsc, who seemed to be on the verge of berserker's rage, eager to cut vampires to very small pieces. Viconia for once didn't bother anyone, muttering her prayers in a corner.
Xan stepped nervously between Daria and the stone gates. He surely wasn't going to watch another vampire attacking her. Tender feelings woke in the sun elf's heart as she watched the enchanter, but among the Shadow Thieves, minutes before an attack on a vampire's hideout there was no time for affections.
A vision of the sunrise Daria saw very sharply. A thief, leader of the first group, gestured to a mage standing by his side to send a message to groups below.
"Get ready" she whispered in the dead silence of the tomb. Haz threw her an irritated look, but didn't have time for a vicious comment, because the telepathic signal reached him. He ordered his golem to open the gates, grumbling something incoherent under his nose.
The golem, heavy beast made of stone, didn't bother with the handles. It charged at the gates smashing through them with all its weight and the noise that obviously woke the dead from their slumber. A cloud of dust unmoved for almost a century rose to cover everything from the view and got into their lungs. No one dared to charge blindly in to the undead nest after the golem.
The screen of vision was clearing slowly. From the twirling bits of dust emerged a silhouette of a golem, defending itself from shadowy figures, leaping at it from every side. Heavy stone fists were always too late to hit an agile body of a vampire, moving in the graceful dance of a hunting predator. The two groups stood silently for a second, mesmerized by the undead's grace.
The charm was broken immediately when vampire's long nails left a long line on the golem's torso, a slash that would easily gut a man. The thieves and Daria's party moved silently to join the battle.
A deeper look into vampire's eyes might hypnotize, but the thieves didn't stop to take deeper looks. They attacked from the shadows, stabbing vampires in their backs, and disappeared again in the darkness that spawned them with a trained precision. Not all Daria's companions had their ability, but instead they had magical helmets and swords, which shielded their minds from unwanted intrusions. They were to take the brunt of the fight.
Minsc moved ahead, breaking through to the besieged golem, hacking and slashing through everything that got in his way. His berserk's cry shook the walls of the crypt and seeded fear in the dead hearts of his enemies as he cleaved through them with speed and fury he could only unearth when fighting their kind. Fire spells and arrows sowed chaos among the vampires who tried to surround him.
The battle was fierce, but short. It ended rapidly with the death of the last vampire, which disappeared becoming a cloud of white smoke the moment Minsc's sword pierced its heart. There was only one casualty on the side of the Shadow Thieves. Haz, the leader of the second group, was to remain in the crypt forever.
Daria's team exchanged looks of distrust with the remaining three thieves that were assigned to help them, while Zynthis and his assassins secured the chamber and prepared it to be defended in case any undead slipped through Daria's group on their way, or decided to come from the lower crypts. The leader of the second group was dead and there was no chosen substitute.
"What do we do now?" the blonde trap-master named Krin asked a question that was the closest thing to a declaration of loyalty he could say.
"We go left, as planned" Daria pointed the narrow passage out of the chamber. "This way we'll meet with the first group in half way, in a chamber with the coffins in which the vampires sleep during the day. Then together we'll return here and go right, to the lower catacombs." She glanced at the passage leading right.
The three thieves nodded and melted into the darkness of the tomb. They'd come, should they be needed.
Infravision was useless when looking for the undead, since none of them produced any heat, so they had to light the torches they had prepared and use the spells. Daria walked in the front of the group trying to scope every shadow with True Vision her divinations granted. She even tried to keep an eye out for the ceilings, looking for vampires hidden there in forms of bats.
A second attack came while they were crossing another chamber, filled with luxury couches and pillows sewed with golden thread. Daria didn't give a warning, busy puking after seeing a bath full of human blood and if not for Valygar standing on the guard they'd be taken completely by surprise. And even though the ranger did shout the warning the swarm of vampires and their fledglings attacked with astounding fury striking with feral blows the enchanted armors of the warriors only barely resisted. Most of the attacking undead were already wounded, most likely escaping from the assault of the first group, but in only served to brace their blood lust, making them hungrier and more vicious.
"We have to hold!" Daria screamed when her companions and the thieves began to be pushed towards the exit, even though her own magical defenses were already fading in a threatening speed under random slashes from the enraged undead. "The first group is coming! We have no chance if we'll be pushed to the corridors!" Fighting one-on-one only Minsc would have a chance to defeat a vampire, but even he would be blocked in a tight corridor with a low ceiling. Not to mention that no arcane support of archery could help when the enemies were so close. Their only hope was to hold.
Always on the move, cutting or clubbing the undead flesh her companions began to form a circle, shielding each other's backs, with Xan and Yoshimo in the middle, protected from the undead's grasp as they shot and chanted. Jaheira's favorite fiery sword appeared in her grasp, lighting the chamber with its living fire and making all the undead flinch from her. What was mad fighting to survive gradually became a coordinated defense.
Daria couldn't break to the circle, separated from her friends by a blood-hungry vampiress with promise of quick death gleaming in her red eyes. She didn't attack the diviner at once, looking at her like a cat wanting to play with a mouse.
"Come…" she purred and leapt at Daria. The diviner answered her sending a spray of fire into her face, making the vampiress shriek in agony. Daria didn't stop to look how much damage she dealt. Her last stoneskin finally gave up and staying in the chamber without any protection would be like going for a drink to a night bar with a vampire. She turned on her heel and began to run though one of the corridors before any other blood-sucker had any chance to seize her.
She heard steps behind her, loud steps of someone alive running, not the quiet shuffle of a vampire almost gliding above the ground. She slowed down to check who it was, or rather slowed down because she was already too exhausted to keep up the tempo. If she was to have any chance in a fight stopping was the only alternative she considered.
"It's me, Krin. I got separated too" the sound came from the darkness when the steps quieted. Only using a True Vision Daria managed to distinguish thief's silhouette, even though an enchanted brooch she wore held a quite strong Light enchantment. "It's not the corridor we came from, but it slides downward, so it can't lead to the surface. Where are we?" he asked.
The diviner quickly scanned through what she remembered from her divinations about the place. "We must have broken through a secret passage. These are the lower crypts! We're in great danger!"
"Indead you are" a low feminine voice came from the shadows, with a light trace of mock, as if its owner found a particularly interesting bug and now was planning an equally interesting way to crush it. As one, Krin and Daria turned to face its owner. The thief tried to draw his sword…
"Too slow!" The vampiress shot like a lightning from the shade, cutting his throat before the blade left its sheath. She held up to now limp body of the thief and moved her lips to the bloody wound. And began to feed.
Daria looked at the vampiress entwined with her victim, too terrified to move, her legs heavy as if made of lead. She would end like that in a moment, not fast enough to escape. In panic she considered for a moment to throw herself with her fists at the undead, but that'd be purely laughable. She had no spells to harm such a foe, no weapon, no means to defend… 'There is one spell!' she recalled quickly.
The diviner began to chant madly, gesturing with her trembling fingers and singing the words of the spells with her quivering hoarse voice, only barely squeezing them through her clenched throat. Mere seconds was all she needed for a chance to win her life, before the undead predator finished its disgusting feast.
She finished. Magic light flashed three times lighting the chamber opening before them and then… faded to nothingness. Daria saw the vampiress looking at her with amusement on her slim beautiful face, blood dripping from her chin. She could kill the elf easily before she managed to finish her chant, but she wasn't going to spoil the game so soon. She casually placed her bare foot on Krin's body lying on the floor of the crypt.
"Daria… why the tricks? I was hoping we could have a nice civilized conversation." The vampiress licked fresh blood from her lips, with her eyes piercing through the elf before her with both viciousness and amusement. "I know so much about you… Your every little nightmare and fear, every skeleton you hide in your closet… I know how everything slides through your fingers… even Imoen did." Daria barely heard the words, deafened by her loudly beating heart.
In one fast movement the vampiress shot forward to grab the diviner by her throat and lift her in the air, only Daria already wasn't there, frantically dodging the outstretched clawed arm and rolling under it to stand behind the undead with longsword drawn from Krin's sheath. Daria raised the weapon in an offensive stance she'd never suspect herself of knowing.
"I happen to know few facts about you too, Bodhi" Daria muttered, finally fighting the fear.
"Oh… A kitten wants to play." Bodhi bared her long pointed teeth and attacked again with her nails, sharp enough to cut through a stone golem. Once again Daria dodged with equal speed, using the sword to cut low, forcing the vampiress to back off.
"Then play we will" Bodhi hissed, now aiming to more than just scare her opponent. She bounced lightly from the ground jumping into the air to fall on it prey. Daria moved from her way, but the undead mistress immediately followed her, attacking with a series of lightning fast slashes.
A light sway of hips in the right moment, bending two inches left and then down - Bodhi's long nails didn't even leave a single tear on Daria's long and loose robes when they danced the mortal dance astounding to a common man, when every misstep meant death. The diviner read her foe perfectly, dodging every slash and cut, already preparing for another before it even came. Her longsword was useless on such a close distance, but defense wasn't enough if the elf wished to walk out of this fight alive and waiting before Tenser's marvelous alteration loses its strength wasn't the wisest of choices.
Battle raged in Daria's veins as instincts she never had, guided the weapon she never knew how to wield to strike her opponent. She raised Krin's sword in a sudden counter-attack, cutting deeply into vampiress thigh with strength of a magical berserk's rage. Cold liquid poured from the wound, but the diviner didn't stop the move, spinning in place and lifting the blade to decapitate Bodhi. The vampiress fell backward literally last moment, bounced from the ground with her hands and ended the cartwheel few feet further.
"A good game, godchild!" She laughed, seeming delighted despite dark blood streaming down her calf. "…though it bore me already. We shall meet again." With these words Bodhi disappeared, taking a form of a bat.
Daria followed the vampire-bat's flight with her eyes, but she couldn't chase a night creature in this form. Magical energies were still flowing with her blood adding strength to her muscles and sturdiness to her bones, but soon they'd extinguish, leaving her defenseless and she'd rather be among her friends by then.
"Labelas Enoreth guide your soul" the elf whispered over Krin's body, bloodless just as Haz's. Even if resurrected only bleak existence of a vampire would await them. Daria cast a last glance behind her and began to run, this time in the direction of her companions.
When she reached her friends the battle raging in the chamber has already ended. The place looked like if a carnage took place there, with walls and floor sprayed in red, but Daria didn't have the chance to scope it fully because Xan took her in a tight embrace the moment she entered, burying her in his purple robes. She returned the hug feeling his heart slowing its rhythm from maddened beating to hasty tempo, while her sped up even more after the run. Their skin was connecting, his face being so close to hers and Daria began to feel her cheeks burning. She tried to look over Xan's shoulder to see the rest of her party…
"No, don't look" Xan obscured the view, standing before her face. Only now she realized he's injured, a long cut on his arm still bleeding. She touched his arm making Xan grimace in pain and directed her minor healing abilities coming from her heritage to stop the bleeding and close the wound.
Xan sighed, apparently relieved of the pain, and looked at her with a bit more awareness. "Daria… we… we had casualties."
"Jaheira…" Daria instantly knew, recalling the horoscope she made for her foster mother. She pushed through the enchanter, looking around the room crowded with the living and noticing… noticing…
Jaheira was lying motionless before a wall, along with two other thieves from the first group, placed there by their comrades. Her magical armor withstood the attacks of the undead only breaking once, revealing a vulnerable spot at druidess' side, enough for a clawed hand to use a moment of her unawareness to kill her. Now she was just…
Daria walked up to where the druidess was laid on stiff legs slowly refusing to carry her. She fell on her knees and touched the cold thing that had been Jaheira, that had been a mother for her. She felt like a rat closed in a burning box, trying to deny something she couldn't escape from, something that was hurting like a living fire, killing her inside.
Someone's careful arms began to guide her away from Jaheira. It sobered her enough to realize that it wasn't possible she'd let something like that sip from the net of her divinations. She always knew when something bad was going to happen to her friends. They could trust her! She would keep them safe! She promised! And if she wouldn't… there was the emergency plan. She shook the arms holding her off, trying to get to her pack. Xan tried to hold her again, keeping her in place despite her attempts to break free.
"Leave me alone!" she screamed in his face. He let go. She saw so much pity and hurt in his eyes that what was left of her sanity woke to release the tears from her eyes. She searched through her pack, struggling with all her strength not to collapse at the spot and burst into miserable tears.
The last chance, what remained if she would fail, if the worst happened. She never had to use it, she didn't even know if it worked. A spiral white rod, enchanted piece of wood, said to be able to bring back the dead, bought on her first visit in Adventurer's Mart. Daria pointed it at motionless body of Jaheira, her hands stiff like a stone in fear that if she trembled she'd waste this one spell, the last chance, and she spoke the activation word.
The scent of powerful healing magic filled the air and a blue-white glow surrounded the half-elf. And then Jaheira sat rapidly, taking a sharp inhale of air, with her wide eyes looking for the vampire that killed her. Then she noticed she was sitting on the ground and that the hole in her armor showed healed scar tissue on her side.
"What…?" she asked astounded.
The Rod of Resurrection fell from Daria's hands and she leaped at Jaheira, holding her while laughing like a maniac and crying at the same time. The whole party stopped the dispirited process of bandaging each other's wounds and casting healing spells and cherished a little miracle, one of very few moments to celebrate in adventurer's life.