Demon in Chains. Guardian and the Serpent.
It was by far the largest and most lavishly decorated room in the Ghostly Citadel they had explored, and Rownan knew that the moment he and his group had set foot in it, more undead would crawl from their hiding places and attack.
Of the group of forty undead that had attacked the raiding party minutes before , comprised of zombies, ghouls, and skeletons that were in the room, only eight zombies and two giant skeletons remained.
In a nearby corner, Cicily was flanked on both sides by zombies, yet she had no trouble in dispatching the undead. Her body moved in a fluid motion to avoid the zombie's claws. She then turned and made several sweeping motions with her sword, dismembering rotten body part after body part. When she was finished with her dance, the dwarf gave a little blush, seeing that she had cut both zombies to pieces.
On the other side of the room, Ash, Rownan, and three ogres were fighting the remaining zombies. Streaks of red and purple light flew past them and struck two of the zombies, turning them to dust.
Looking over his shoulder, Ash saw Melinda hunched over and panting, exhausted from the spells she had just cast.
He smiled warmly at her, to which she responded with a look as cold as stone. Next to her, Roxi channeled the energy of her goddess. She released ray of silver light that moved through the air and engulfed the two large skeletons in total brightness. The light vanished in the blink of an eye and the skeletons were no more.
Roxi looked over at Melinda. The wizard was now on her stomach, breathing heavily. The half-kender walked over and gently cupped the mage's hand with hers.
"Having a little trouble?" taunted a deep and very unintelligent voice from above. One of Rownan's ogres decided to taunt the Melinda.
Roxi gritted her teeth, and shot a closed right fist upward, hitting the ogre with all of her strength and anger.
The ogre flinched at the cleric's attack. Though she had only jarred a few of his teeth loose, the ogre wasn't...his thoughts were interrupted as a sharp pain went through the back of his neck, followed by the smooth flow of blood and then the cold feeling of metal ripping through his flesh.
"Now you weren't thinking of hurting my lady were you?" Timber asked in a sly voice. The elf wiggled around his rapier while waiting for an answer. When the ogre wouldn't comply, Timber pushed his weapon deeper, hearing the ogre gasp for his last breath.
Pushing the body of his fallen foe aside, Timber looked at Roxi. "Nice punch. You must have had a lot of practice," he said as he pointed to his forehead, indicating the many times the half-kender had struck him, for reasons he obviously deserved.
Yet Roxi couldn't even think of striking Timber at this moment. Not after he so courageously came to rescue her and their friends. She even thought of giving the elf a kiss, but it seemed that it would have to wait, for someone else wanted to greet the elf.
"You escaped!" Ash said in disbelief. "But how? The guards were in place? How in the Nine Hells did you get here?"
"By walking here of course you ass of a kender's grandmother," Timber responded, pointing his blood stained rapier at Ash's chest.
No one heard Timber's reference to Ash (except for Roxi, who immediately took back her nice thoughts about the elf) for his voice was drowned out a loud roar that went through the room.
A grotesque six armed creature with the muscular chest and torso of a man, and the head of a jackal entered the room. Its bright green eyes looked down at the ogres, then at not so ugly intruders.
"What in the abyss is that?" as Rownan as he drew his large hammer.
"That must be the guardian," Timber whispered, watching Roxi run over to Melinda and move her to a shadow covered corner. Then he heard Rownan make the call to attack.
Timber saw Ash pointed his rapier just as the ranger was about to join Rownan's men. "And where do you think you're going?
Ash scowled at the elf. "Destroying this creature is of much more importance than our petty conflict. Surely our battle can wait."
Timber grunted in disappointment, but then looked back at Roxi who gave him a look that she agreed with the traitor.
Together, Ash and Timber charged at the Guardian, avoiding the stream of flames the beast shot from its mouth. They were joined by Cicily, who rolled past them and grabbed onto the beast's right leg, stabbing him with her sword repeatedly. Ash and Timber went underneath the monster and attacked the Guardian's shins. Ash's twin axes spun his axes wildly, hacking away flesh and muscle while Timber's rapier drew thin trails of blood as it cut down to the bone.
Over in the corner, Roxi stood by Melinda, who had passed out moments after the Guardian entered the room. Though she desperately wanted to help vanquish the monster, she knew she couldn't leave the prone wizard alone. Then she remembered she had two spells she could use, one to protect Melinda, and another to help the others.
Once more the cleric channeled the power of her goddess. The first spell she cast was a Sanctuary spell on the mage, to keep her protected from any attackers, be they undead or part of Rownan's group. She ruled out the Guardian, since he appeared to have his hands full at the moment.
The cleric cast one more spell, this one on herself. "This Bless spell should give us just a little more strength to help fight the Guardian."
Before going out into battle, Roxi got on her knees. "Mishakal, pleasure watch over Melinda. And if it's not too much trouble, please aid us in anyway you can."
With her prayer finished, Roxilandra Shanklebee grabbed a large axe, that she had to lift with two hands and walked over to join the battle, while trying to not drop the axe along the way.
Taking several more steps on the enormous pile of bones, Dorm and Lynsey saw a beautiful woman chained to the wall, her shackles and chains made from bones. The woman appeared to have purple skin, with large leathery wings and devilish horns that protruded from her head. Dorm noticed that she wore a very revealing gown made of thin black silk.
"A succubus," Lynsey whispered, following her instincts to draw Redcrosse.
Noticing the two humans walking towards her, the succubus smiled. "Yes, please finish me. Too long have I been down here as that vile wizard's prisoner and phylactery."
Lynsey and Dorm looked at each other. "How can you be Fastal's soul gem?" asked the ranger. "From what I've read about liches, they usually use gemstones or other items as hiding places for their souls to use once their skeletal forms are destroyed."
The succubus closed her eyes. "When that wizard summoned me, I promised to give him immortality, which I did...but my generosity came at a heavy price. He claims that he fell in love with me, but what person rapes and ravages the body of the one they love? What person embeds a large emerald in the body of their loved one." Her seductive gaze fell on Lynsey. "One good strike to my chest and my ribcage would collapse, crushing the emerald." The ranger nodded and looked at the chains. "You must have tried killing yourself before. That is why he has you chained here."
The demon nodded. "You must kill me now. There is no telling when he'll come. He knows you're here in this room."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Lynsey said as she put the sword near the demon's chest, but pulled back when the bones from underneath her began to shake.
All three of them looked over at the staircase, seeing an enormous white serpent come from under the bones. The serpent appeared to be compiled of hundreds of skeletons, including the skeletal form of Cas'tin Fastal, which was embedded on the serpent's forehead.
Fastal's laughter echoed through the room as the serpent slithered towards Lynsey and Dorm with great speed. They jumped away as the serpent snapped at them with its body jaw. Using what strength and speed he could gather, the ranger climbed onto the serpent's moving body and onto its back while Lynsey attacked with Redcrosse. Flames jumped from the sword's tip and burned the serpent. The serpent retaliated by snapping a the red haired woman once again. Lynsey screamed as she felt two sharp fangs went through her armor and right arm.
While Lynsey struggled to get her arm loose, Dorm tried his best to keep his balance on the serpent's back. He looked forward, seeing he had a clean shot of the succubus.
For the first time since receiving it, he grabbed the bow from off of his shoulder and took an arrow from the quiver. He knocked the arrow and aimed it at the demon. Just as he released it, the serpent convulsed, knocking the ranger to his back. Dorm never saw if his arrow struck his target, but his ears heard the lich's loud agonizing scream.
He quickly sat up, seeing his arrow sticking out of the demon's chest, which was leaking a small trail of blood and crumbs of green stone. He then heard a cracking sound from in front of him.
The sharp tip of Redcrosse ripped through the serpent's skull and the skeleton threw its head back, then collapsed to the ground. Dorm jumped from the serpent's back and ran over to Lynsey, who was clutching her bleeding right arm.
"Thank you both," the succubus said as Dorm put Lynsey's good arm around him. "As my last act on this material plane, I will send you to your friends." Dorm looked at the demon, wondering if the demon was truly grateful for her rescue.
Before he could say goodbye, he and Lynsey were teleported out of the room and into another battle.
One moment the Guardian was fighting off Rownan's men, impaling one ogre with the three set of claws on the right side of his body. The next moment, he was gone.
The lich's agonizing scream continued to echo throughout the citadel. Rownan and Ash looked around, finding the mutilated bodies of ogres and zombies everywhere. Rownan sighed. Except for Ash, none of his men remained.
Ash held his side, which had been ripped open by one of the Guardian's claws. "You and I still have business," Timber said as he spat blood at the traitor.
Ash took his hands from his side and drew both battle axes and swung them at Timber's face. The elf jerked his head back and attacked with his rapier forward. He brought his weapon across Ash's face, making a thick scratch across the cheek and nose.
"They're fighting aren't they." Roxi said when she noticed the ranger and Lynsey in the room. The cleric gently took the wounded warrior into her arms, then looked at Dorm. "Why does it have to be like this?"
"Because of their pride," Rownan answered as he stepped next to Dorm and Roxi. "Look at them. Their foolishness will only get them killed." Dorm looked over at the battle. Timber continued to block three of Ash's next attacks with the quickest of movements. Ash went for one more swing with the axe in his right hand, the blade digging deeply hard in the left shoulder of his former friend.
Dorm looked back to Rownan. "Is it your foolish pride that keeps you from attacking us?"
The commander shook his head. "No, just the fact that you out number me. I assure you Dorm Silverfalcon, you and I will get our chance for battle." They looked over to watch what they believed were the final moments of the combat.
Ash came in low, bringing is axe in an X formation, but Timber lunged left and stabbed his rapier deeply through the side of Ash's neck.
Feeling the rapier's sting through his flesh, Ash looked at Timber with an expression filled with pain and sorrow.
In his last moments, Ash Werewood brought the battle axe in his left hand to his throat, the edge barely touching the hairs on his neck. Looking at Rownan, Ash brought the sharp edge across his throat, his life blood spilling across the floor.
"I'm not sorry for what I did," Ash whispered as he fell to the floor. "Only that I lost so much doing it."
Ignoring the reactions of the cleric and the ranger, Rownan walked over and picked up the body of his fallen comrade. He looked at Timber, then at Dorm. "You should leave this place. I fear the lich will gather his strength."
As Rownan walked out of the room, Dorm turned to Roxi. "The dwarf?"
Roxi shook her head and pointed over to Cicily's body, which was sitting up against the wall, three large holes in her stomach.
"I guess that's it," Dorm said as Timber came over. "Is Melinda dead too?"
"Oh no," whispered Roxi as she let go of Lynsey and ran over to the corner. "She's still sleeping, but I'll need some help getting her up."
"I'll do it," Timber said in a low voice. The ranger sensed the elf was not happy about how his battle with Ash had turned out.
Dorm looked at Lynsey, whose arms was still leaking a little blood. "We'll have to get to Castle Eastwatch, but first let's bury Cicily in the mountains." The ranger sighed as he walked over and gently picked up the dwarf's body, which began to wiggle.
"Stop it that...tickles," whispered the dwarf in a painful voice.
"You're...you're not dead," Dorm said in alarm.
Cicily's eyes looked up at him. "Of course not you ninny. And what's this about you burying me in the mountains. I only have one place that I want to go to and that's back to Eastwatch. After all, how else am I suppose to get paid."