From the Gate into Insanity
Or
The Ballad of Reggie and How he Got These Idiots to Safety
The skies were tight with choking fire, though miles away or somewhere close by a whisper broke the hold of the trance he didn't remember being in. The smell of sharp acrid acid and deep inhaled smoke barely registered as he picked himself off the cold, wet floor.
He was in a strange alive ship that was being attacked by what sounded like dragons.
"Well this sure is the weirdest dream I ever had".
He quickly took a quiet look around, even as the odd sensations of wriggling filled his mind, and his vision swam.
"Kay…maybe I drank too much?"
The headache grew worse even as he walked up towards a pool of orange ooze that gave off the smell of liquid acrid filth. Yeah stay away from the death juice…
The interior of this whole place was odd even for his probably drunk mind to make up. The odd urging to move further into the ship though swarmed his aching mind. So towards the door that was not a door is where he went. The 'door' itself looked like something from inside a body, and opened up in three parts letting him flint into the next room.
The first few steps led him onto a platform that held a red machine, so he pressed it. Why not? It couldn't make anything worse. Could it?
As the platform rose he heard a voice crying out, one that sounded in sharply in his head, 'Please, free us from this prison!'
That was enough to set the once-Paladin charging off the edge of the platform as he jumped without thinking to the ledge above. His one hand pulled him up and he spied a body bound to a table with crimson jars filled with floating liquid along the sides of it.
"Please, come quick. You must save Us!'
"I'm coming kay!" He jogged down to close in on a body that did not move. Instead it seemed that the man or Elf on the table was not the one crying for help.
It was a brain.
And it could talk.
He gagged as he got closer, even as the brain of the man struggled into his grip, trying to call to him.
"Please, use your hands and break Us free!"
"Are you…alive?!"
"Yes, free Us, and Us will help you!"
He gazed down, holding onto the skull with one hand and placed the other now shaking one over the brain. He grafted his fingers into the depths; the feeling of a wet slime lingering on his already cold hands did not help him. But with a last pull the brain was freed and released beside him.
"So are you named Us?"
"Yes. You helped Us. Us will show you towards the helm! We must go there!"
He watched with mismatched eyes as Us ran on four legs almost like a dog and jumped onto the platform while begging him slowly to come with it.
He had to admit, Us was kind of cute..in a weird kind of sense, "Hey Us, my name's Reggie. Pleasure to meet you and I guess save you". The little brain devourer almost seemed like they were trying to wag an invisible tail.
He turned the machine on and they descended down, as he jumped off, he watched and stepped back as Us followed him. It reminded him of his old dogs growing up, well if you looked pass the dripping ooze and the odd skinless texture.
He ran into the open, amazement stirring into his eyes as dragons, large red ones like from the stories he heard growing up flew over his head. They made him feel smaller than he ever had, well expect for the moment he was kidnapped. He was already small by Halfling means, a Lightfoot who found himself a prisoner and charged for the murder of a man he had never seen once in his life.
But that all seemed ages away.
The dragons themselves held riders, though he could barely see what race they were from. As he ran deeper to try to catch a glimpse of who the riders were he heard a loud battle cry from up above.
"Chk, another thrall, what do you say? I can't wait for you to feel the rush of my…" She was barely able to finish when a horrible squirming sensation filled both of their minds. The loud painful cry of something that Reggie could feel deep in his head trying to pull her own towards it.
"Istik, what did you do to me?" She asked without hesitation, though her golden narrowed eyes only met the curiosity of his light pale green and hazelnut gaze.
"Look I'm..not a whatever a thrall is. I'm just trying to get the hells out of here!"
"So were also taken by the ghaik?"
"Uh..yes?!"
"I see, tsk'va. I only wanted to feel the sting of death when my blade runs through a ghaik's sorry head. But since you seem unaffected by them, come; let us do battle through this gh'ath together!" The taller green-skinned woman looked down at him, though she held more disgust and an expression of clenched teeth than a pleasant one of comradery.
Reggie saw her point her steel blade at a pair of Imps that were heading their way. Though he held no weapon, he quickly ran up and threw a blood-stained fist into the first one's face.
"Let us do battle! Vlaakith gha'g shkath zai!" She lunged straight at the second Imp even as Us prepared to claw at the third one that halted in mid-air. Swinging down her short sword and cleaved it down the middle of the now dead Imp.
Reggie saw Us kill the third, as he finished off the last one before it could fly away from him using his feet to charge and jump it. He was more concerned about getting the hells off this stinking ship of weird and painful delusions anyways.
"You fight small one! I shall remember this for next time"
"Can I ask what your name is at least?" Reggie wiped the blood off from his face, a face full of sun-kissed sun and enough freckles to make him seem strange to those of Baldur's Gate.
"No!"
"Whatever then, I'll just call you Stabby kay!"
"You will call me the blade that takes the last ghaik's head and the fury of a thousand stars that gleam my praise!" The woman looked towards those stars, but they weren't out to be seen in the middle of a war between hell spawn and dragon in the middle of actual Hell.
"That's an awesome line! Mind if I use that next battle?" Reggie asked, looting pretty much everything in his sight, and found a longsword and a crossbow for his troubles and three pieces of gold.
"One does not take unless they fight for it with their bare hands"
"You're very intense… I like you"
"Please save your praise of mouth for later. We have a helm to get too and the salvation of my own to meet".
Reggie stared at her as she moved off, and whispered back to Us as quiet as he could, "She's still being called Stabby for now! Not like she told me her bloody name yet…rude"
He saw her climb upwards as he followed along, it was hard as it was quite far up, but he managed. She seemed to be in a world away, staring up towards the roaring of those dragons. He guessed they were probably being ridden by her people, whatever her people were called. That must have been awesome, to get to ride an actual dragon into a battle.
It would certainly impress those who once looked up to him. It would probably impress a God..as well.
Only ever in his dreams though. It was not enough to get back what he had lost.
They finally reached a room but instead of those brain devourers in the captives it was circled with three almost dead human men and a blue glowing machine. Reggie looked to Stabby, but she was distracted by the side room. Staring off again, talking to herself and not really focused on him.
"I'm going to check that out over there, kay? Stabby you look after Us!"
"My name is not Stabby, istik. It is Lae'zel breaker of skies. Do not make me break you little one!" Laze'zel and her golden gaze bent downwards and picked Reggie up by the collar of his torn blue shirt, "Do not think me as weak again, chk!"
He glared back, teeth bared oddly for one of the Hin even as she spat down into his face. Reggie gripped her arm with his left hand, and bit down, drawing a few crimson beads out of her as she shouted some words and dropped him.
"Never call me little one and don't grab me!" Reggie again bore his teeth, standing as tall as he could and watched closely as she gripped her sword in one hand. She tried to ease the small break of pain away from her arm, "Look we may be in the worst stinky place ever, but allies are better than ripping away any chance you have of getting the fuck out of here. So either work with me, or go on your own"
He did not let her see him winch and he would not let her see him tear up. This was already a bad day..hells a bad month, rolling from a horrible two years. He did not need this Lae'zel to strike his last building nerve.
"Chk, fine. But know this…"
"Help! Someone please, help me! Please, get me out of here!"
His head whipped around faster than it should have, and he glimpsed a half-elf woman with dark hair and green eyes trapped in a pod much like he had been in. Reggie was at the pod quickly, the adrenaline rushing into his ears, making his heart pound hard within his chest.
"I'll save you..but how does this thing open?!"
"I don't know; maybe find a latch or a key or something? Just help me get out of here, please!" She shouted as she pressed her worn, oddly pale hands against the glass of the pod window.
He gave her a curt nod and sped over to the other door from where the poor half-elven woman remained stuck. Calling out to Us and leaning down to pet them.
Lae'zel..though he was still thinking of her as Stabby he got into the far room only to see bodies within the interior. He looted them in no time flat, but the oddest thing was that there was another one of those pods in the middle of a room with chairs that surrounded it. A woman was left inside, could he save her as well?
Reggie made for the back, though pressing his hand along the machine button near the back stairs he heard a sharp scream and then a loud pressuring hiss in his head. It sounded like..a mind flayer.
Not looking back, he trailed up the stairs and got to a large chest picking out some gold and found a rune slate along the body near that same chest. It looked like some sort of key with letters in some cursive language along its sides.
Now going slowly back towards the outer door, he stared back at that poor innocent woman, only to be met face first with a confused, towering trapped mind-flayer instead. He blinked even as the thing snapped at him through the glass. He ran, taking the rune with him and slamming in within the machine beside the pod.
The machine dimly lit up in a mixture of azure lights, and in his head he knew how to read the language along the sides, 'Release'. He pressed it deeper and the half-elf sprung out of her pod carefully and fell to her knees.
"Hey, I'm Reggie, this is Us, and this here is Lae'zel, but I call Stabby" He said as he gestured to each of them in turn, Lae'zel snarled at him and he heard her curse.
"Tas'ki, I will be the end of you tiny, piece of tsk'va"
"That's her way of calling me a piece of shit, it's how she says hello! Manners aside here, care to follow us out of this hellhole?" Reggie gazed at the half-elf, her light green eyes dazing at the pale but long strawberry blond hair swept into his eyes, blocking half of her from his view. She could barely see a small Halfling with light brown skin, freckles mixed across his face and a lot of crisscrossing scars near his throat, lip and through his left eyebrow.
She also did not look all that impressed.
"Name's Shadowheart; and you keep dangerous company Reggie" Her pale eyes darted onto the Githyanki woman, and back towards him. The little Halfling matched her gaze, but didn't smile.
His face went straight to the door to the near center of this room, "I want to get the fuck off of here before I end up one of their fun lil' tentacle boys. So let's make for that helm and vamoose"
Laze'zel followed behind them, baring her teeth and muttering under her breath. He figured it was about him being an idiot or something along those lines. Knowing her, and he barely did the woman held a sharp temper..and a bad tendency for cutting instead of usage of words.
Probably didn't have a lot of friends in her circle. Or maybe that was her way of making them?
Whatever it was he instead focused on getting into the helm, only to see a Mindflayer and a demon fighting closed off by Imps and Hellhounds.
"Get to that machine at the end it'll probably be the ticket out of here!" Reggie shouted, taking off his stolen sword only to watch has Lae'zel blocked his way and killed two Imps beside them. The Mindlfayer didn't seem to care much that they were there, only glazed at him through pale moon-lit eyes as it called for help.
He stopped and parried against a hell beast, Shadowheart ignited her hand and sent forwards a fireball..only for it to hit him in the butt instead.
Reggie was beginning to regret saving these two now.
When they finally got to the bloody helm he pressed it so hard that he could feel it jerk, as did this gods forsaken ship they were stolen away on.
As they all started to fall, he lost his balance and at that note, he hit his head on something sharp.
Then he did not remember how he woke up on a sandy beach without so much of a broken bone.
Maybe someone really was looking out for him.