Chapter 20
The retreat back through the walls of the Academy of Shapers and Binders to the portal was accompanied by the hissing of Wyverns as the light of the burning building disturbed the closer ones and their objections disturbed their neighbours. They seemed content to just hiss back and forth rather than leave their nests in the growing night so the short journey was uneventful. As they reached the little dead-end valley, and Blake restored the portal to a useable size, he hoped this was the last time he would see this place where so much of this had started. Where his abductors had arrived through the portal from the collapsing fortress of the King of Shadows. Where Ammon Jerro had been felled to have his soul removed for Blake to later trade to Mephasm. Above which the deal had been done between that Arch-Devil and Neeshka that had required that trade and spoiled the plans of the Red Woman.
Nightfall had made no difference to the gloom of the Shadow Plane. Blake sighed as he led the way out of the Room of Doors and looked across at the portal back to the normal Mulsantir. "We should rest, my body is weary and my spells running low. We have fought through a Thayan Academy, the guards of a dead god, and through a Sanctum."
"Agreed," nodded Gann, "as much as the spirits have blessed me those blessings are running thin."
"I told Magda 'farewell', but I am willing to admit that was premature," Blake mused, "if we want to risk her questions."
"You and I sleep on the floor anyway," replied Gann, "though I expect you think, as do I, that your lady's comfort is worth the embarrassment of your admission and the risk of more questions."
"I only need a nap," Neeshka said, "and I'd rather snuggle like we do in camp than be alone in a bed anyway."
"Let's find another place though," nodded Blake as he looked around. "Portal here, Gargoyle corpses and the portals in that room, evidence from the Red Wizard corpses in the main room, and the table where they cut me open in the other."
They moved to and out through the front doors of the Shadow Veil Theatre and into Shadow Mulsantir. The first time Blake had visited here he had not been too troubled as it seemed no more hostile than its better lit counterpart. However since then he had made his peace with the besieging bear-god and the hostile Witches and so this felt more of a contrast and he felt his lack of full armour. Despite Okku's contempt for such attitudes they cautiously explored and managed to avoid any more fights before they found a promising looking house.
Neeshka picked the lock and inside they found a small room with a couple of pallets. "This seems defendable," Neeshka commented, "and those," she added, pointing at the bedding, "look clean." She stopped and bent and looked more closely. "Or as clean as the ground normally is anyway."
"Not something I'd want to sleep on without our camping equipment," nodded Blake, "but this should be cosy."
While Blake and Gann made up the two separate beds Neeshka went and relocked the outer door. The pallets were not wide but as far as she was concerned that was an advantage as she didn't want her harbour-boy getting away. Okku settled down in the hallway outside the small room as a formidable barricade and Neeshka finally gave in to the temptation to give him an ear-rub. He rumbled in surprise but did not protest overly as it was only a short assault on his dignity. Back inside the room she helped her harbour-boy to make them a comfortable nest.
As they were indoors and protected from the weather Blake took a chance and stripped down further than normal. Unfortunately Neeshka saw this and decided to follow his example. The sight of her would have been enough to make it difficult to relax into sleep but when she folded herself into his arms under their covers this became even more challenging. There was a perilously thin line to walk between the temptation to start stroking and caressing her, which would be difficult to stop even with Gann in the room, and the risk of Neeshka feeling rejected if he didn't relax and cuddle back. Thankfully her gentle breathing and contented sleeping face helped control his lust as tenderness and a desire to not disturb her mixed with his desire for her.
Though delayed when sleep did come for Blake it was deep and restful. He woke up to find the door out into the hall open and the sound of voices that showed Gann had already got up and was chatting with Okku. A warm shapely weight was still pressing against him and as his eyes turned that way Neeshka took the chance for a kiss. The voices from the hall faded as Blake's attention focussed on her lips and her body against his. For a long moment he, and she, almost forgot they were not alone and were in an abandoned house in the Shadow Plane. Or rather for that long moment those things didn't seem to matter.
With a great effort of will Blake ended the kiss and pulled back away from his beloved. "I think we need to get dressed."
"But will your armour fit?" Neeshka asked with a grin. "You seem to have developed a swelling overnight." One slender hand darted down beneath the covers and Blake twitched as her fingertips brushed that development.
"That…" coughed Blake, "that did not take as long as overnight to develop."
"I noticed," Neeshka said, raising one eyebrow almost as high as the base of a delicate horn. "Prodded into me quite suddenly it did, and with so little provocation."
After a while of Blake lying rigid, and hoping the rigidity would leave one part of him, Neeshka had pity and disentangled herself from his arms. Her pity did have limits however and she could not resist putting a little extra sway and dance in her motions as she got dressed. Blake tried to not watch too much and to concentrate on sorting and donning his armour but this was more difficult than even when he'd first awoken with the curse as she clouded his mind so much more. Like back in the barrow though the ease of long practice stood Blake in good stead and as clumsy and distracted and slow as he felt it was still not that long before he had his plates over chainmail over padding and was ready.
"Ah, good morning, or afternoon," Gann said in greeting as Blake stepped out into the hall, followed by Neeshka. "It is hard to tell on this plane what the time but we are glad you could finally join us." A smile took the sting out of Gann's words but they did make Blake did wonder how long he had slept for.
"Sorry for the delay," said Blake finally.
"We thought you should be well rested, little-one," Okku rumbled. "The fighting ahead could be the hardest we have encountered."
Neeshka blushed as she wanted to protest that Blake was not, or did not have, a 'little-one' or to comment about something else having been one of the hardest she had encountered. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been if Okku had said 'faced' as that brought to mind one way she could have speeded the reduction of the swelling. But then a play on how to pronounce 'encountered' also occurred to her and her blush deepened to a bright red that was visible even in the gloom of the Shadow Plane. Blake glanced at her in concern as for once his mind hadn't followed the same ribald paths as her since he was thinking more about matters concerning The Lady of Strategy, the Red Knight, than The Dancing Lady, Sharess.
"Thank you, my friend," replied Blake, hoping Neeshka was feeling well, "and especially for your patience considering we are so close to, perhaps, your oath being complete and that you do not sleep."
"I do not intend to make a habit of patience," Okku murmured, "but over our travels I have learned that sometimes, very rarely, it can be wise."
They gathered and folded their bedding and double-checked each other's arms and armour before Neeshka unlocked the outer door. Whatever dark creatures skulked in the side streets of Shadow Mulsantir did not venture out onto the main road to hinder their passage so they soon reached the Death God's Vault. Inside they found that as they'd expected the door to the lower level was open.
Blake looked down into the darkness below for a few moments before he spoke. "It seems Kaelyn did not restrain herself, or was not restrained by her siblings from using the key we gave her."
"Was there any doubt?" asked Gann. "She was willing to attempt to outstare a ghost to try to get answers and that key."
"I'd have been very surprised to find this door locked, and to have to see if the actual Sword of Gith rather than its replica would open it."
Remembering the warnings they had been given about how the lower level had been sealed since the death of Myrkul and that great danger was down there this seemed a good time to ensure they were as completely prepared as possible. Gann's spirits did not care how he was attired and it had been nearly two-thirds of a tenday since Blake had praised Mystra and Azuth for granting him success in making his armour as irrelevant to his spell casting. Blessings from the spirits and power from the magical weave washed over the group as the two worked to supplement their own and their friends' abilities.
This was quite lengthy as some of Blake's spells he normally made at the start of the day, using a lot of extra power to make them linger, and the rest and Gann's blessings were made closer to when trouble was expected. Here though trouble and the start of the day had coincided. Blake flexed his shoulders a little as he adjusted between only having the aid of his magical equipment and having the spells and blessings as well. Then he started the descent to whatever was still below.
As the doors at the bottom of the passage down slid open it seemed they might have been a few minutes cautious in their preparations. The Vampires scattered about the chamber were scattered about the chamber and many of them in more than one piece. Blake still felt suspicious however as undead could be hard to destroy without reducing them almost to mincemeat and there were enough spells that dealt in illusion for that to be a separate school of magic. No ambush was sprung though as Blake came down the short flight of stairs from the door or as he looked around from where he stood on the chamber floor.
"Hmm," Blake mused, "those look fresh. Or freshly destroyed rather than freshly dead at least."
"Our Dove has shown impressive skill against so many," said Gann, genuine admiration in his voice as he took in the scene.
"Agreed, but look here." Blake crouched slightly to point at one dismembered Vampire. "This has been cut rather than crushed."
"And catch," called Neeshka as Blake straightened.
Despite his shield and sword, and his surprise, Blake managed to hold on to what Neeshka had thrown to him. He looked at the Vampire head and what was jutting from both eye sockets, and by blinding had probably helped the decapitation. "Arrows," he commented.
"So, some powerful cutting," Gann said, "perhaps from a large sword, and some accurate and effective bow work."
"It seems her siblings overcame their reluctance," sighed Blake, dropping the Vampire head, "that she was right in thinking they would insist on aiding her. And that she overcame her reluctance about not wanting them to defy Kelemvor or their Grandfather. So we might find all three of them staring at the Betrayer's Gate."
"I hope not," Neeshka muttered.
Blake nodded to her. There seemed no particular reason to hope to see Kaelyn again and the pain she and siblings' caused Neeshka with their presence was a good reason to hope not to. Talking to the half-celestials who affected Neeshka worse than the itching Casavir's Paladin Aura had produced would be a distraction they did not need when things seemed to be getting so close to being resolved. Looking around the chamber Blake listened to the feelings each doorway produced in him and hoped they were guiding him correctly towards the Betrayer's Gate.
"That way I think," Blake said, pointing as they entered a musty corridor, "that looks like the corner I saw in the Slumbering Coven Dreamscape." He turned and looked to Neeshka. "My love, can you look discreetly around it and check for surprises?"
Neeshka hesitated as the patterns in the dust suggested people had gone the other way. It looked undisturbed where her harbour-boy was pointing but she still sheathed her rapier and crept forward. As she reached the corner she silently drew her mirror on a stick from her bag. She cautiously poked this forward near the floor and then tried raising and lowering and twisting it. She frowned as she tried to interpret the shapes she could see and then returned her mirror to her bag and crept back to where the others were waiting.
"I could see movement," Neeshka said quietly, "and I don't think it was those three. But it was hard to tell as it looked like there is a sunken floor."
Blake winced as he realised he could have warned her of that. "Sorry, if the dreamscape was accurate…"
"Which it was," Gann added.
"Then the Betrayer's Gate is tall enough to need stairs down to the floor of that chamber," continued Blake. He paused in thought. "Which may be something we can use as though they are quite broad they are not broad enough that enemies could get past or outflank Okku."
"And we could not get past him either," Gann pointed out. "Though at least here in Myrkul's vault rather than his skeleton I can lay my spear aside and use my bow and our delectable Tiefling could use hers again."
"While I can use some spells," Blake nodded. "If Okku is holding them partway up the stairs then we should be able to see over him or from left and right. So you and Neeshka should be able to loose arrows into their flanks."
"And if they do not come up those stairs, little-one?" rumbled Okku. "What does your penchant for planning suggest then?"
"Something to your approval," Blake smiled, "we charge. We get down to the bottom of the stairs where you and I have enough room to both fight and the others enough height to be sending arrows down into the foe. All assuming of course that these are foes."
"Which seems fair to assume in this place," sighed Gann, "and unfortunately often fair to assume in the travels we have taken together."
Gann leaned his spear against the wall and freed his hands to string his shortbow while Neeshka drew hers from her magic bag to do the same. With these in their hands and quivers of arrows at their belts they and Blake and Okku moved forward as quietly as could be expected. That there was no sound of any response despite the noise of a man in full plate armour and of the tread of a god-of-bears suggested that Neeshka's stealth had been very much more than sufficient. They paused at the corner to exchange final looks and then charged.
As they came into sight Blake saw the burning red eyes of two Vampires fix on them and those undead start to counter-charge. Their great speed and their lack of weapons and armour suggested that somewhere in their long centuries of existence they had received training in Monk arts. Okku still managed to reach the stairs before they could rush up them though and his snarling form stymied their advance. Gann was moving a little slower as he was trying to carry his spear and shortbow, rather than one being slung, but as he reached his position and dropped his spear his first arrow was only a moment behind Neeshka's.
The Vampires had evaded Okku's first wild swings and even his more controlled follow up attack. One hand of the Vampire to Okku's left came up and snatched Neeshka's arrow as it came in towards its head from its right. This distracted it enough that as Okku's huge paw swept back his claws grazed it and tore its clothes and inflicted some shallow scratches through its undead flesh. Okku growled in frustration at the stalemate between him not being able to hit them and them not being able to risk coming close enough to hit him.
Blake looked down past Okku and cursed under his breath as he saw two armoured shapes and two Mummies plus what looked like a Lich hanging back behind them. At least nothing there seemed fire immune and it did look like he could hit all six of the subordinate undead without also hitting Okku. Blake concentrated and bent the weave to his will with his words of magic. It was unsurprising to the bear-god when the individual fireballs of a spell of Firebrand streaked past and over him and into the foe.
Unfortunately this spell was not as effective as sometimes. The heat that conducted through the Death Knights' armour where they were struck had little to work with as bone did not burn well and their flesh and armour padding had long since rotted away. The Vampires still had flesh to burn and had no armour to protect them but they were fast enough to almost avoid the fireballs and to completely avoid any serious injury from them. But Tymorra had not utterly ceded to Beshaba here as the Mummies were not fast enough to prevent themselves from being struck squarely and their dry flesh and wrappings ignited. Flames and smoke joined the dark energies already swirling around them.
With satisfaction Okku took advantage of one Vampire's preoccupation with avoiding the spell and managed to land a more solid blow on it. Its, literally, unnatural reflexes let it roll slightly with the blow but it was still smashed away and off the side of the stairs. Fortunately for it a diet of blood and being sustained by the energies of unlife did not require much of a digestive system so its guts had already shrivelled rather than Okku's blow finding intestines plump with use. Though that was little compensation for the mistake of being more concerned with avoiding the spell than the claws of a bear-god.
The Lich hissed something unintelligible and the other Vampire jumped off the other side of the stairs. It landed rather more gracefully than its fellow undead as the two Death Knights started to advance to replace them. Unlike other Death Knights they had faced these were armed with scythes rather than swords and this gave them a longer reach than Okku. As they began sweeping these ahead of them the bear-god pulled his nose back from one blade and roared in frustration. He did not want to risk having one of those embedded in each flank again.
Meanwhile the Vampires moved swiftly one to the side of each Mummy. Their hands blurred as they patted and struck at the flames to extinguish them and this speed let them avoid most of the burns that might produce. Looking rather charred the Mummies staggered under this barrage of slaps but then concentrated and summoned negative energies to 'heal' themselves and the Vampires. Undead flesh knitted back together beneath burnt wrappings and shredded cloth and the wounded Vampire's movements became swifter again, though not quite as swift as before.
The edge of this 'healing' washed slightly over Okku but compared with the bear-god's near inexhaustible might the effects were negligible and his colours dimmed only for a bare instant before his power reasserted itself. As the noticeably eroded Mummies started to shamble forward to support the Death Knights the Lich began to chant from behind the two Vampires. Blake recognised the spell a moment before dust started to swirl around their feet and the ethereal form of a giant woman burst from it to release its Wail of the Banshee across them. Although they all survived it was still very unpleasant to have it done to them rather than Blake doing it to their enemies.
"Enough!" Okku roared, throwing himself forward despite the scythes.
This seemed to take the Death Knights by surprise and they were bowled back down the stairs into the Mummies behind them by the force of the bear-god's charge. Okku trampled his way across the resulting heap of undead and Blake quickly cast a Cacophonic Burst before they could get themselves untangled. This proved why it could be an advantage having a variety of spells. Whereas the Firebrand was more effective against the Mummies the Cacophonic Burst worked better on the Death Knights as their armour with its rotted away padding transmitted the sound to shatter old brittle bones.
Unfortunately this was balanced by it affecting the Mummies less since their wrappings and their remaining flesh, despite its dryness, muffled the sound and they cared little about the damage this muffling did. All four undead were still visibly slowed though as they shoved at each other and Blake began down the stairs. They had not been so swift that this was as essential as if Blake had managed to catch the Vampires but it was still useful and satisfying. Gann and Neeshka dropped their shortbows and released the quivers of arrows from their belts. As Gann reached for his spear from against the wall Neeshka dashed after her harbour-boy, drawing her rapier from its scabbard as she went.
The Lich started backing away from the rapidly approaching bear-god and his Vampire minions tried to stop or slow Okku's charge. He shrugged off their blows as they easily kept pace with him despite the flurries of punches they were sending into his flanks. Ignored how the small bruises of discoloration where these struck had begun to dot him as if he was a Leopard. That undead insult to the cycle of life had tried to kill the little-one and put Okku's oath to naught when this was almost fulfilled and he let his rage at this fuel his determination.
As a Death Knight started to rise Blake's sword came down and met its neck. The sharp edge of his blade easily cut through the old battered chainmail and the undead bone beneath to send the helmeted head clattering and bouncing across the floor. Blake was close enough he'd needed to strike with near the base of his blade, barely past the blunt section, so he was too close for the other Death Knight to use its scythe well. It dropped the weapon and punched out at Blake who learned from this as the dull old blade scraped across his shield that the undead had the same sort of close in weapon as Blake had given Neeshka. Thankfully the Death Knight was less skilled with it and seemed to have spent no time honing that blade over the centuries it had been trapped.
Okku rumbled in satisfaction as he finally caught the Lich and pounced forward to knock it backwards under his forepaws. With the strength its unlife gave it the Lich punched at Okku's descending head and managed to knock the bear-god's jaws aside. The Vampires continued to punch at Okku's flanks and rear and it was fortunate he no longer breathed or the blows coming in just behind where his ribs had been would have driven that breath from him. That they could not wind him did not make this harmless though as now they were no longer having to chase him they could punch even more rapidly and fresh blotches were being formed before those from the previous attack could fade.
"That's my trick!" Neeshka hissed, stabbing her Rapier out at the Death Knight who'd scraped her harbour-boy's shield. It managed to jerk its head to one side but the fine tip of her blade and the magic discharging from it still carved a chunk of bone from its skull-face.
One of the Mummies to Blake's right grabbed at him and managed to brush his sword arm. Blake staggered a little as the undead again summoned negative energies, but this time directed them into him. Seeing this Gann smiled and made a request of the spirits. The positive energies of life bloomed out from him into Blake and the undead, healing him and hurting them. The other Mummy staggered and almost fell back onto the floor, but it managed to remain upright as its sunken eyes fixed on Gann with hatred in them.
Meanwhile Okku was still trying to bring his jaws down to bite at the Lich and that powerful undead was wrestling against him. It had managed to get both of its hands free and to shove their thumbs into the corners of Okku's mouth. Spirit-flesh wrinkled as it pushed against skeletal thumbs and they matched their strength that was opposed in both direction and source. One had infused itself with its own dark magic to avoid its death and the other had died and been infused by the worship and respect of others to let it rise in a multitude of colours. As Okku pushed and wrestled his head the Vampires continued to circle and strike at him.
The rightmost Mummy that had glared at Gann muttered the words of a prayer of Righteous Might through its desiccated throat and grew as some god, perhaps the remains of Myrkul, answered. To Gann's relief this answer was in a more normal manner than back at the Sunken City and the Mummy did not increase in size to such a vast extent. It was still large enough though to provide him with the same problem as when fighting the Shambling Mounds that it would be easy for his spear to become caught in that tangled mass.
Neeshka's full lips thinned in annoyance as she stabbed again at the Death Knight's face. She needed at least some vulnerable spots to strike at for her speed and precision to be of more use than simple brute force. But they kept on fighting things that Khelgar and his Hammer of Ironfist would have been good at just smashing through. The only place she could stab at this thing was in its face and neck in the hope to decapitate it or destroy its skull. There was no flesh beneath its armour to wound even if, as she was confident she could, she found the chinks in that armour to stab through it.
"Swap," Blake said from her right.
Trusting her harbour-boy Neeshka moved instantly into the centre of their line. Her rapier razored its way across the still normal sized Mummy's bindings and it sagged a little as those were cut and it was denied their support to hold itself together. Meanwhile Blake used the distance Neeshka had driven the Death Knight back to the left and that his larger heavier sword could more easily damage that undead's armour. He swept his bastard sword in at the Death Knight's waist and then dipped it suddenly to strike instead at the knee. Despite the magic of Blake's weapon and the state of disrepair of the armour it did not cut through the plate just above that joint but the metal did crumple in and bone beneath it shattered to send the Death Knight to the floor.
Gann had retreated a little way up the stairs to redress the sudden difference in height between himself and the Mummy. It had not followed as those treads were now a little too small for its feet and it could still reach him as it moved along the side of the stairs. Gann's spear was flicking out and stabbing hole after hole in the giant undead but it seemed untroubled by these attacks. Suddenly though it fell backwards as Blake repeated his previous attack, but here there was no armour and the Mummy's attention being elsewhere had let him make this a less subtle blow. With the momentum of the few quick steps he had taken past behind Neeshka and those advantages he managed to take the Mummy's lower leg off.
"Thanks," Gann nodded.
With that he trotted down the stairs and to the left where the disabled Death Knight was trying to rise. It was dragging itself towards its scythe to use that as a walking stick but Gann reached it before it reached that. His spear stabbed down and into the back of its neck, piercing the old chainmail and finding the narrow target of the vertebrae beneath. Gann felt what he thought was two of these being popped apart but mistrusting a single wound he thrust a few times more to enlarge the hole in the chainmail and break or separate more of the undead's skeletal neck. He then glanced across the room and hissed between his teeth at what he saw.
"Old father bear is in trouble," warned Gann. "He has once more taken the pain on himself to spare it to us."
Blake turned from where he had been slicing at the enlarged Mummy and saw what Gann meant. Okku's colours were not swirling with their usual vigour and the assault he was under was relentless as the Vampires proved how much stamina their unlife gave them and maintained the pace of their attack. Blake reached into his pouch and withdrew one of the flasks of Alchemist's Fire he had not used in the Thayan Academy. He dashed it down onto the sprawled out giant Mummy and then uttered a curse that impressed even Neeshka with its vehemence.
Not much remained inside the Mummy's wrappings from how it had dried out and from the surgery to mummify it and Blake had forgotten the intestines were normally removed. When you wanted to preserve a body you did not want its own digestive juices, created as they were to break down meat, to be released inside it along with the partially digested food. Unfortunately this meant Blake had managed to find a part that was nothing but cloth and void beneath and the flask was cushioned enough to not break. So he aimed more carefully and threw a second one to shatter against the Mummy's jawbone.
Blake started across the room towards Okku as behind him the larger Mummy's head started to burn and wisps of flame rose from where droplets of Alchemist's Fire had splashed. The Vampires noticed and turned to bounce lightly on the balls of their feet, ready to strike at Blake or defend themselves against him. Gann joined Blake and, after a final slash at the other normal sized Mummy, so did Neeshka. It had been fun throwing her remaining flasks of Alchemist's Fire to all ignite at once inside the Soul Depository but it might also have been fun to have one left for a Mummy here. Once they had a moment though that problem could be easily solved by a single smile to her generous harbour-boy.
"Neeshka and I will keep them busy," Blake muttered in a very low voice, "you try to heal Okku."
"As easy as dreaming," murmured Gann back, adding after a pause, "or maybe not quite so easy. They are noticeably swifter than all of us save your graceful lady."
With a nod Blake advanced and despite being ready and that Vampire being the one still slightly slowed by Okku's attack he still barely managed to get his shield in line against the attack. The other Vampire managed to snap a kick into his knee from the opposite side and his leg crumpled despite how much of the force his armour and spells absorbed. They did prevent any serious injury though so his being off-balance was only temporary, unlike what he had done to the Death Knight and Mummy, but he also knew a follow-up blow would not be long in coming. Blake managed to prevent himself falling or staggering too much and to sweep his sword out in a counter-attack.
Though he did not managed to make contact he did fend off the Vampire long enough for Neeshka to return to her habit of saving him. This was frequent enough a habit she might have become annoyed with it if he did not have the same habit in return. She was just as fast as this unslowed Vampire and her Rapier gave her greater reach than its fists did. Her sword flicking out ahead of her like a serpent's tongue she easily started driving it back to the right away from her harbour-boy. Blake took the moment to recover his balance as he hunkered down behind his shield against the other Vampire and then he also begun to move forward, his slower but broader attacks pushing the Vampire ahead of him to the left.
Gann made a dash between his friends as they opened the gap and asked the spirits for their aid in healing Okku. Rather than guide this directly into the bear-god he let it ripple across the area; partially to attack the Lich with it but mostly because he could do this from slightly further away. As soon as the spirits responded Gann retreated and felt his caution had been fortunate as the left-hand Vampire tried to lunge past Blake at him. It had to dodge back itself as Blake's sword thrust out and came closer to hitting it than it had come to hitting Gann.
Okku felt the fresh strength coursing through him and the slight wobble in the Lich's arms as it was hurt by those same energies. That seemed as far as it was affected but that was enough for the bear-god, now undistracted by the patter of punches like rain upon him, to take his chance. Okku pulled his head back and the Lich came up off the floor with this as it did not want to lose its good grip on Okku's mouth. The god-of-bears started shaking his head and the Lich about, but it held on like a tick despite how it was being swept across and battered slightly against the floor. Okku considered rearing further back to let him bring the undead clinging to his mouth down again with more force, but knew the Lich would likely release its grip and try to punch him or to escape to get distance for spells.
A flush of annoyance crept up Blake's neck beneath his chainmail hood. That he had almost failed to prevent Gann being struck was irritating but what made it even more so was that undead did not tire. Blake had enough extra speed and agility from his spells that most living monks would have to work hard to keep up with him but that was less advantage when that hard work did not lead to his foe slowing with fatigue. He did see a chance though from where he was managing to herd it and with one final sweep of his sword the Vampire dodged and found itself where it had a pillar to one side and a sarcophagus behind it. Blake moved forward to keep it bottled up and the Vampire hissed and exposed its fangs in defiance.
Gann dashed past behind Blake and towards the Betrayer's Gate again. Okku heard the footsteps and recognised them. They were not light enough to be the Tiefling, there was not enough clanking for it to be the little-one, and they were not as rapid as those irritating Vampires might be. He pushed his head down hard and the Lich returned to holding Okku's jaws back. Then as they again tested their strength and the Lich's own efforts fixed it in position between Okku and the floor Gann managed to get around to where he could see that undead. His spear stabbed down between Okku's paws into the crown of the Lich's skull and through the ring of the crown on the Lich's skull that it had managed to retain despite the wrestling. Its undead hands finally released their grip on the sides of Okku's mouth and its arms fell back onto itself and the floor.
The robes of the Vampire facing Neeshka were beginning to look tattered as she sliced away at them and the undead flesh beneath. It might not bleed from these wounds but the deeper ones she'd inflicted had sliced through muscles it still used to move, even if those were fed by unlife and blood rather than food. With another stab and twist of her wrist Neeshka drew the fine point of her Rapier across the undead and added another of these more serious wounds. As unnaturally tough as it was her sword was even sharper. She vaguely noted the 'whumph' of the previously intact flask of Alchemist's Fire bursting as she readied for her next slash.
Blake was trying to keep the other Vampire trapped but when it saw Gann attack the Lich it jumped onto the sarcophagus and then off that to vault over the fence between the pillar and the wall. Taken by surprise as the foes he had fought tended to keep their feet on the ground, even if they didn't actually have feet, Blake reacted a moment too late. He cursed as the Vampire cleared the spikes on the fence and his sword passed uselessly through the Vampire's wake. Gann heard the grunt of frustration and the noise of the Vampire's jump and landing. He hurriedly turned and stabbed his spear out at the swiftly approaching undead only for it to twist aside and grab the spearshaft. It wrenched at Gann's spear and pulled him further off the balance he had partially lost in the speed of his turn. Blake was charging in behind the Vampire to attack it but Gann's gaze went past him and back towards where they had entered.
"To your right and behind!" Gann warned.
Taking heed of the warning Blake turned and found the Mummy that Neeshka had only disabled had managed to lurch almost onto him. Disdaining subtlety for speed Blake simply hacked his sword down and through the unarmoured undead's shoulder. Fragile old cloth and flesh and bone parted beneath the edge of Blake's well-crafted sword and the severed arm twitched as it fell from the magic that had discharged into it. As Blake brought his sword back to slice into the Mummy's waist and partway through he hoped that Gann could survive until this undead was dealt with.
Neeshka stabbed 'her' Vampire in the eye and then as it reacted to that pain she stabbed it in the other eye. It reeled back clutching at them. Blood did not leak from between its fingers but light did as the glow in the now ruined eyesockets intensified again. Whether the physical eyes would reform or just the glow, and whether the Vampire would still be able to see through magic if it was only the latter Neeshka did not know. But for now the Vampire seemed to be blinded and vulnerable. She couldn't slash across its throat because of how the pointed cheek-guards on its helmet came down in front of its chest but she could stab again into the gap between them and its neck.
With a snarl Okku reared up off the Lich who was only feebly stirring and lunged to aid Gann. This time the Vampire did not roll with the blow and as Okku's claws tore across its gut and smashed it back Gann staggered as well with how the Vampire managed to keep hold of the spear. Bracing himself Gann tugged against that and managed to pull his weapon free and to slice the Vampire's palms as they slid down the shaft and across the sharp edges of the spearhead. As the undead went one way Gann took a few steps the other before he could stop himself, but then he glanced down with a smile.
Dipping down and swinging her leg around to hook her foot behind its ankle Neeshka tried to sweep the legs of the blinded Vampire out from under it. Unfortunately the Vampire was too agile and managed to keep its balance and kick down at Neeshka. Even without sight this kick was still on target but that skill was to the undead's misfortune as Neeshka had brought her small shield and the spike sticking out of the centre of it into the way. The impact jarred along her arm but the Vampire embedded the spike into its own foot.
Blake lopped another chunk off the Mummy and it tried to 'inflict wounds' on itself. It could not replace the missing parts that way but it could repair the damage caused by the magic discharging from Blake's sword as he cut those parts away. It chanted and the negative energies began to flow to its command. The distraction of its chanting proved fatal though, if such a word could be applied to such as it, as Blake brought his sword back and swept its head from its shoulders.
Trusting Okku to continue to deal with that Vampire Gann continued the motion of pulling his spear back into a piledriver blow down with the iron-banded butt onto the Lich's skull. Unlike most things it had not been killed by being stabbed in the top of the head, merely stunned, and it was just starting to sit up when the iron bands crunched into its forehead. The crown it was wearing bent under the impact and absorbed a little of the force by doing so. Gann pulled his spear back up and then drove the butt down again to further bend the Lich's crown and fracture its skull.
Neeshka heaved and twisted. She was slender but she was strong, especially with the aid of her belt, and managed to get the Vampire to topple as its foot ripped free of her shield's spike. Uncoiling like a striking snake she pounced with her tail streaming behind her and landed with one knee into the small of the undead's back and her bracer blade slicing into the back of its neck. The blade did not wound the blinded Vampire seriously enough for it to lose its unlife and neither was it winded by the knee since it did not breathe. It twisted under Neeshka to try to turn and punch at her but she brought her shield and the tines on it into the side of the Vampire's neck with a quick left cross.
The other Vampire tried to stagger away from Okku but the huge wound across its guts and the other, more grazing, wounds the bear-god had inflicted had slowed it so greatly it could not avoid being struck again. Okku's blow looked almost a gentle one with how little effort he seemed to put into it. But with the might of the bear-god behind that paw even the Vampire managing to avoid some of the impact did not save it from being casually swatted off its feet and into the nearby wall. It bounced off this and tottered forward again. Okku snapped his jaws forward and they closed on the arm the dazed Vampire's reflexes brought up in a block.
Gann started to bring his spear-butt down again but then as he caught sight of the approaching Blake he remembered what he had said in the Sunken City and again when looking at the dead Founder. With a smile Gann commented, "I hope I have not destroyed this?"
Blake smiled back, briefly. "My curse can still feel the spirit," he replied before crouching slightly to address the Lich. "Go to your rest and may your judgement be righteous so you gain the reward… or punishment… you deserve."
Standing from what she hoped was now just a mangled corpse Neeshka was surprised to see the tentacles of her harbour-boy's curse forming from the shape behind him and starting to wave. Then, like Gann, she remembered Blake's warning that if you simply smashed the body of a Lich, as she had this Vampire's, then its soul would escape to its phylactery for a new body to be grown for it. There was a blur between Lich and tentacles and the undead became simply dead.
Okku wrenched back, stripping foul undead flesh from the arm as his teeth scraped across the bones beneath, and then whipped his head around in a circle. There was a squelch of dislocating bone and the Vampire's forearm came off in Okku's mouth as the rest of it was flung back against the wall. Okku spat out his foul mouthful and then reared up onto his hind legs and unconcerned about the sharp looking edges to the Vampire's helmet drove his paw forward and flattened its head between that and the almost as unyielding stone of the wall.
Looking around the chamber Blake decided to double-check whether all those undead were truly destroyed. That nothing remained of that Mummy but smouldering ashes and that that Vampire's head was now thinner than a rat felt no guarantee. He wandered the room and let the tendrils of the hunger roam out over the corpses to confirm they were just corpses. As the curse 'looked' at them so did Blake with his eyes. The only wounds on these previously undead corpses were those they had just inflicted and there was no other evidence to suggest Kaelyn or her siblings had been here.
"Strange," Blake commented as he completed his self-appointed task. "It has been long enough since I gave her the key in the form of that replica Sword of Gith that it seems she would have found this room."
"Would have been nice if she'd destroyed these as well," winked Neeshka. "Would have saved us some trouble."
"Or prevented us some challenge," Okku rumbled.
Blake shrugged. "Tymorra already blessed us with the other Vampires being removed, I don't want to push your Smiling Lady too far."
"At least your Lady of Strategy helped you out," Neeshka replied, before adding with a grin. "Your plans didn't go wrong for a whole minute… at least!"
"Then your goddesses have blessed you," nodded Gann. "And I hope they appreciate how you work together."
"Matter of perspective, my friend," Blake shrugged again as he moved to examine the Betrayer's Gate itself. "Some would say if you plan well you make your own luck, others that if you are lucky then you can be more spontaneous."
The gate loomed above Blake as he approached it and inside him the curse wriggled as if it was a happy cat and the gateway to the Realm of the Dead a window through which a sunbeam was beaming down on it. However there was also an eagerness to get through it as if that same cat had seen something to hunt and kill on the other side of the glass. In general shape the true Betrayer's Gate was the same as the one dividing the levels of this Vault but the markings across its surface were different and seemed to possess a life of their own. Something about the gate felt very wrong as if it was something that should never have been created or should never have been possible to create. Blake looked at the thin slit down the gate and pondered removing the Sword of Gith from his pack and inserting it. The curse exulted at that idea and Blake's stubbornness rebelled against that urging.
"Ahh," Blake breathed. "Akachi's remains are eager, and maybe it how that makes me less so, but the thought occurs that we now have two Spirit Essences."
"You are again reconsidering Nak'kai's offer?" asked Gann.
"If we are to go to the plane of death, which we are, then it makes sense to me we should be as prepared as we can. Even if there are no other Liches in this vault there is likely at least one undead of sufficient power to be suitable. Or eight of lesser power to have their essences combined, if need be."
"Perhaps," mused Gann dubiously, "though we cannot be sure how many… other than these… would have survived the visit of the Dove. As I recall you mentioned something called 'The Lamentations of the Dead' as being of use to her, and that scribe confirmed it was in the archives here. So she would, perhaps, have explored in search of that."
"That would explain the scuff-marks in the dust going the other way," Neeshka commented absent-mindedly as she looked at the Betrayer's Gate. Then she looked surprised at how surprised her harbour-boy looked at this. She'd thought he'd decided to ignore them rather than having completely missed them.
"Hrnh," grumbled Okku, annoyed at the hesitation. "Let us just go and end your hunger, little one. The realm of the dead holds little that could frighten me, with or without any ritual fuelled by the essences of those too weak to defeat us."
"Very well," Blake nodded, deciding to not check the other way down the corridor first.
"Are you committed to this then?" asked Gann, sure of the answer.
Blake replied by pulling a rug wrapped bundle out of his bag. "Gann, you have followed me this far," he replied, untying the cord around it, "you do not need to risk more for my sake."
"We are only facing death, possibly followed by a soul-dissolving oblivion," Gann pointed out, raising one eyebrow, "no, that seems a small thing to risk. I am with you until the end spirit-eater."
"And I am with you to the end harbour-boy," added Neeshka, daring Blake to even attempt to dissuade her. "I'm not letting you face this without me."
"Thank you both, and thank you Okku," Blake smiled as he finished unwrapping the Sword of Gith. "I would hope to spare you all this danger, but this will be difficult enough even with all our efforts combined. In some ways one of us remaining behind in case we fail and a new spirit-eater arises would be wise, but…" Blake paused and sighed. "I think one of us remaining behind would make that failure more certain."
"Huh little-one," rumbled Okku, "and an attempt to persuade one of us to remain would also be a certain failure."
"Damn straight!" Neeshka agreed.
"Indeed," said Gann more calmly.
"Well, the Fugue Plane awaits," Blake sighed again, adding in a resigned tone. "So let's be about it."