I do not own Dungeons and Dragons or any of the characters.


Reunited

"What the hell did we miss?" Jasper asked, staring at the massive mansion before them, almost entirely consumed in flames.

As they watched, a Red Dragon, one bristling with muscle, rather than the more robust figure of Themberchaud, burst up from the roof of the mansion near the heart, spewing flames down onto the mansion before turning and flying away. Jasper and the others stared at the mansion.

"What are the chances that Edgin and the others are trapped inside?" Aranea asked.

"Yeah, that seems like the most likely scenario," Jasper nodded. "Come on."

They headed to the front door and Jasper tapped the handle to test it for heat. If it had burned him, it wouldn't be safe to open, but it was relatively cool, so he kicked the door open. A moment later, a large group of servants came flooding from inside, fleeing the flames and collapsing sections of ceiling, Edgin and the others, as well as Randalla's escorts, hot on their heels. Jasper, Mia, and Aranea moved out of their way, and a moment later, everyone sprinted out of the mansion scarce seconds before the structure groaned and collapsed fully.

"Seriously, guys, what is it with you and Red Dragons?" Jasper asked. "First Themberchaud, now this? Who was this one?"

"She was disguised as a human," Holga spoke up between labored, exhausted breaths. "Goes by the name Aizagora."

"I see," Jasper nodded. "Any chance we won't see her again?"

"I doubt it," Doric sighed.

"Guess who she was meeting with, though," Simon said. "Karne."

"Karne?" Jasper frowned. "Damnit Edgin! Can't even rely on you to kill someone properly!"

"Hey, I stabbed him in the throat!" Edgin defended himself.

"You all know that man?" Ysuron asked.

"He was second-in-command of the Thieves Guild that the Hand of Glory replaced," Jasper said. "We thought we killed him."

"He claimed to work for someone known as the Zhentarim," the Drow that had been hostile to Jasper and Mia when they first met said.

"That complicates things a bit," Jasper sighed. "Shit. We'll need to talk to Jherek."

Mia nodded in agreement.

"Who are the Zhentarim?" Edgin asked.

"It's a very large, very powerful criminal organization," Mia explained.

"Which you probably worked for, right?" the Drow accused.

"Actually, we avoided them," Mia said. "We didn't want any part of the things they're into."

"Sure," the Drow scoffed. "Changelings with a conscience. That's believable."

"Vhaidra, be civil," Ysuron chided. "You don't have to like them, but you need to be civil. They're extremely skilled. If this Zhentarim is employing dragons, we may need them."

"Before anything else, let's get back to Baldur's Gate," the human barbarian with Ysuron and Vhaidra's group suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement and they all turned, heading back toward the city, everyone giving proper introductions as they traveled. The barbarian's name was Dorn Redbear. The female human cleric, who was built nearly as powerfully as Dorn, was named Allessia Faithhammer, and the dwarf rogue, who wore an eyepatch over his left eye was named Borador Goldhand. Edgin's group introduced themselves, followed by Jasper, Mia, and Aranea, and within minutes, Ysuron and Dorn began to ask Jasper and Mia a long string of questions about what they'd done, Jasper and Mia, as always, keeping their descriptions censored for Kira's benefit.


Jasper spun around the enchanted, animated armor, his Ironwood sword splitting the armor across the torso. As the armor collapsed, a mass of shining, orange magic escaped from it, then vanished, the armor clattering to the ground. There were all forms of armor, leather, scale, chain, even a few platemail. However, they were all there. Edgin's group, Jasper and his girlfriends, and Ysuron and the others, and between all of them, they were absolutely slaughtering the animated armor. As they fought their way deeper into Lyran's Hold, where Jherek had sent them after an artifact, a ball of copper set with topazes, animated furniture, desks, chairs, tables, even books, joined the armor, flying at Jasper and the others in an effort to bludgeon them to death. And then, there were traps. Black orbs on white stands that launched Fireballs similar to the trap pillars in the Thieves Guild hideout, arrow launchers, spikes coming from the floor. The deeper they went, the more dangerous the hold grew, but they continued. Eventually, they came to a room with a dozen Fireball traps and quickly but carefully made their way through the room. There were chests and weapon racks scattered around the room, but they all ignored them entirely, instead taking the quickest, safest path they could find to the door out of the house. Finally, at the deepest section of the hold, they found Lyran's study, only for the door to be magically sealed. On a desk beside the door, however, there was a scroll, in which Ysuran found out that Lyran's supposedly haunted remains were in the basement of the hold.

"So, we're off to the basement, then, huh?" Jasper asked. "Alright."

"Should all of us go?" Ysuran asked. "We waste a lot of time trying to maneuver the entire group. But if anyone else is after the Orb of Thunder, they may enter and take it while we try to reach Lyran and back again. Perhaps one group should go to face Lyran and the other should retrieve the Orb."

"Who's going to go fight?" Edgin asked.

"We will," Vhaidra said. "Most of your group aren't fighters by trade. We all were fighters before we were together, you were all thieves. The tasks have easy assignments."

"She's right," Doric nodded.

"We'll meet you outside," Mia promised.

The others nodded and left. Jasper and the others all waited tensely. Finally, as an hour passed, Jasper was considering going after them, only for Ysuran's group to return with a withered, desiccated hand wrapped in a rag.

"This should remove the barrier," Allessia announced, setting the hand on a pedestal in front of the door.

Instantly, the barrier shimmered and faded, and Jasper strode forward, leading the others up the stairs behind the door toward the private study. It was an open section of the tower atop Lyran's Hold that reminded Jasper heavily of the top of the Onyx Tower. However, it was smaller, and had two sections jutting out of the tower with a small set of stairs leading up to them where there were a pair of small cupola-like sections. Edgin went to retrieve the Orb of Thunder from one of the two cupolas, where it was set into a large, coppery machine. And as soon as he had, armored feet began to stomp up the stairs. Everyone turned, staring at the figures ascending the stairs. Two of them were humanoids, tall and broad-shouldered, wearing black and gold platemail and bearing a morning star and a large, round-topped, vertical kite shield. However, following them was a figure that answered so very many questions.

Sleyvas stopped short as he saw Jasper and the others from the swamp, then hissed angrily.

"You!" Sleyvas hissed accusatorially.

"Sleyvas," Jasper intoned darkly. "So, this was your play, was it? But you wouldn't be working with the Zhentarim. Your master is using them. So, then...your master wants the Onyx Tower."

Sleyvas growled lowly, but the fury in the snarl Jasper, Mia, and Aranea all let out drowned out Sleyvas's growl.

"Where is she!?" Mia snarled. "Where is Adrianna!?"

"Where is your master!?" Mia growled.

"You're going to tell us," Jasper said icily.

"Attack them!" Sleyvas ordered.

The two armored figures began forward, but it took only seconds for Aranea to bind them both in webs, allowing Jasper and Mia to almost instantly decapitate them. Sleyvas raised a hand, firing a barrage of Magic Missiles, obviously hoping to cover his escape, as he began to turn. However, before he could even turn fully to the stairs, he stopped, eyes widening in surprise as Jasper charged straight through the Magic Missiles. The spell burned him, blasted parts of his armor apart, but it did nothing to slow him. Sleyvas began to turn, raising an arm, only for Jasper's Ironwood sword to slice off the arm, then the opposite leg. Then, as Sleyvas crashed to the ground, pale, blue flames blazed to life in Jasper's hand, crackling loudly as Jasper slammed the flames into one severed limb, then the other, cauterizing both. Then, he slashed off the other arm before cauterizing it, too. Then, he let the flames go out before lifting Sleyvas by the throat.

"You will tell me where she is!" Jasper snarled.

He said nothing else. He didn't need to. Sleyvas knew what was in store for him, and instead of speaking again, Jasper slammed him to the ground, drawing one of his Ironwood daggers. Then, he knelt, driving it into Sleyvas's thigh. Sleyvas screamed, and within a second, Allessia moved to stop Jasper. She never reached him. Before she could take more than two steps, Mia had slammed her to the ground, holding her dragonbone dagger to Allessia's throat.

"You will not interfere!" Mia snarled.

Vhaidra stepped forward, only to stop with Aranea's spear to her throat. Within a second, both groups had armed themselves, preparing for a fight. However, all held off, even as Jasper stabbed Sleyvas a second and third time.

"He's not torturing Sleyvas for fun," Mia spoke finally. "Sleyvas manipulated us against Eldrith, and when we had defeated her, we were separated from three of our allies. One of them is as important to Jasper, Aranea, and I as we are to each other. We love her. She's being held by Sleyvas's master. Jasper will force Sleyvas to tell us how to find her. And if we have to kill all of you to get that information, we won't hesitate. She means more to us than all of you combined."

"Either you stand down right now, or you all die here," Aranea warned. "We won't warn you again."

"Make the smart choice here," Edgin warned, holding his rapier in front of Borador's good eye.

"You're gonna lose," Holga stated flatly, her axe raised and ready as she stared down Dorn.

"Just let us find our friends," Simon urged, holding a lightning spell between his hands and watching Ysuran who had prepared Melf's Acid Arrow, the spell hovering in front of his right hand, his left still holding his book.

For a long few moments, there was a tense silence from the group, all ignoring Sleyvas's continuing shrieks of agony. Then, finally, Ysuran and the others all stowed their weapons, Ysuran allowing his spell to fade before heading for the stairs down the tower, Mia allowing Allessia to go with them only after Allessia swore on her faith to leave.

"You had better hope we never meet you again," Vhaidra warned, being the last in the group to descend the stairs.

"Where is she, Sleyvas!?" Jasper demanded at last.

"We do not have them!" Sleyvas shrieked. "Sleyvas serves the Zhentarim! It was the Zhentarim who wished for Eldrith to be destroyed! The Zhentarim wished to control the Onyx Tower! The same tower where your friends perished!"

"LIES!" Jasper roared, stabbing Sleyvas again. "They escaped through a portal! Where are they!?"

"Sleyvas does not know!" Sleyvas pleaded. "Sleyvas believed they had perished! Sleyvas told the Zhentarim, his masters, that they had perished! Sleyvas does not know where they are!"

Jasper clenched his teeth, then straightened up, glaring murderously at Sleyvas. "Unfortunately for you, Sleyvas, I believe you."

With a smooth stroke of Jasper's hand, he'd freed his Ironwood sword from the floor and then freed Sleyvas's head from his shoulders. And then, Mia was holding him as he cried.

"We'll find her," Mia promised, though she was on the verge of tears herself.

"Whoever wants her probably has the other portal, so they want the tower, too," Edgin reasoned. "We'll probably meet them while working against the Zhentarim. And if not, maybe Karne will know where to find them."

Jasper nodded, stepping back from Mia. "Let's get back to Jherek. Maybe the Harpers have found something out."

The others all nodded, and together, they all left Lyran's Hold.


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