Chapter 5
The Head of the Snake
This trek would be a lot easier with something to occupy my mind–something not named Shadowheart, at least, Tav thought. He kicked a fallen tree branch absentmindedly, then sighed. I can't deny how I feel about her, but I have to be realistic. It won't work. We're both better off forgetting it happened. He sniffed at himself, amused. So stop thinking about her!
Annoyed now, he shook his head and tried to focus on his surroundings, realizing that, lost in thought as he had been, he had not noticed that the pines and maples lining the road had given way to new, almost intimidating foliage.
Coarse-barked, barrel-chested trees the width of a small house stood sentinel along the road. Their giant trunks could have been kindling for a giant's fireplace, their four-pronged leaves a gnome's doormat. Tav could see branches stretching across the road, one, two, three, even four hundred feet up. While not as sturdy as their mother trunks, some of the larger branches could have passed as pine trunks on their own, so it was no wonder that Tav found fearful wonder in such beasts being moved by the faintest breeze.
He stopped in his tracks and allowed himself this one peaceful moment, basking in the knowledge that something so grand, so awesome, and yet so simple could exist. He smiled to himself.
"Bah! Half-elf! This is no time for romance!" Lae'zel called to him as she drew near.
Tav ignored her.
"Lae'zel, dear, that's not what romance is," Astarion corrected her.
"I care not, elf." Lae'zel approached Tav briskly. "What," she hissed, "has caused this lapse in your attention?"
Tav looked at her. "I was admiring the trees. And," he added as Lae'zel opened her mouth, "I care not what you think. I admire that even tree branches the size of tree trunks can be moved by the wind."
"Um, Tav?" Shadowheart said quietly as she joined them.
He stiffened, then turned to look at her.
"There's no wind," she said.
Silence enveloped the group like a cloud. The only sounds audible were the rustling of leaves up high above as the tree branches gently bounced up and down. Tav almost thought he could hear a gentle stomping high above, almost as if–
Something small, thin, and dreadfully fast caught Tav's eye. "Look out!" he yelled as he threw his shield above Shadowheart like a disc, snaring the arrow meant for her head. The shield bounced and rolled away with a clang, coming to rest on its back.
Reflexively, Tav and Lae'zel moved to Shadowheart, who knelt to create a space under her shield for them, just as multiple war arrows slammed into the shield with various tones of thud. As the last arrow thudded into the shield, Tav glanced around for Astarion. Gone, he thought. He sure loves his invisibility. Let's hope he makes good use of it.
"You could've taken my head off!" Shadowheart yelled at him as he unslung his spear.
"You could've died!" he yelled back, half-laughing.
She tilted her head. "That's true."
Tav felt his eyes linger on hers a little too long, but he simply could not help it. She could've died, he thought. Lae'zel's exasperated sigh tore him from his musings. He noticed she had drawn her massive greatsword and had started applying some kind of oil to the blade.
"Drow poison," she said, answering his unspoken question. "What doesn't kill them makes them sleepy."
Shadowheart let out a bark of laughter. "That was actually funny," she admitted.
La'zl finished dowsing her blade in the poison, then put the bottle back on her belt. "After the battle, when we lick our wounds, I will teach you how to be a comma-dee-in, Shadowheart."
Tav raised an eyebrow. "Comedian," he corrected.
"You still can't do that right," Shadowheart sassed him, smiling.
Against his better judgment, Tav smiled back. "If that's sorted," he said, "then shall we?" He gestured towards the branches, which had grown ominously still.
Lae'zel smiled. Not a smile of joy, though, but one of a viper preparing to strike. A dangerous look shadowed her face. "Follow my lead," she hissed. Her predatory gaze tracked over the nearby landscape, missing no detail. "There," she said, pointing farther down the road.
As Tav and Shadowheart followed her gaze, Tav perceived a faint shimmer in the air, just off the road and to the right. A part of the tree's trunk appeared as a blurred smudge on the coarse, irregular bark. Well hidden.
"A doorway?" he asked.
"Our objective," Lae'zel affirmed. She raised herself to a crouch. "Follow." Without further warning, she sprang from underneath Shadowheart's shield and rushed directly to the side of the road. As if the unseen attackers had been waiting for that very thing, a bolt of fire struck the ground just below Lae'zel's feet, sending her into a somersault.
Shadowheart looked at Tav. "We could've all just hobbled to the cover of the trees under the shield," she observed.
"Let her have her moment."
"Well? Shall we hobble?"
Tav winced as an arrow struck the shield, reminding him of his own mortality. "Let's hobble swiftly."
And so they hobbled–swiftly–to the edge of the tree canopy, where Lae'zel awaited them. She went to speak, but Astarion–appearing seemingly out of nowhere–interrupted her. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat, and having breaths wracked his whole body.
"Scores of them," he wheezed, placing his hands on his knees and dry heaving. "Scores of goblins. Swordsmen, mages, archers…the whole variety, godsdammit." He retched again, flecks of saliva and alcohol landing on Shadowheart's greaves. She muttered a word and it vanished.
"We're not half-bad, but that may be too much for just our blades and magic," she said.
"We'll have to get creative," Tav added.
"Sanctum!" Shadowhart yelled without warning, and a golden shield flashed around Tav, catching another bolt of fire. "Can we please have this conversation somewhere else?" she urged.
Without a word, Lae'zel leapt further into the treeline, the others following right behind her.
The party had snuck their way to the illusory doorway, then up a spiral staircase inside the tree, to be met with a swarm of cleaver-wielding goblins guarding a bridge across the road, three hundred feet up. Nothing a well-placed Thunderwave couldn't handle. However, the real test to this point had been the trolls. After crossing the bridge, the tree canopies had merged into a singular, unified, arboreal camp. Outside the camp had been three large trolls, each armed with a massive, wooden club decorated with skulls and beads. No party member had escaped unscathed–Shadowheart in particular suffered, narrowly avoiding the full force of a troll's swing. Tav had heard the telltale crack as her chestplate broke under the club's force. But bloodied and battered, they all four made it out, now to be confronted with what Tav hoped was the final challenge in this gauntlet.
Breathe, Tav, breathe, he thought to himself. He wiped a mix of gore, blood, and sweat away from his eye, smudging his cheek with it. He stood beside Shadowheart, their backs pressed against a wooden wall, a door directly to their left. Lae'zel stood with her back to the wall on the other side, breathing evenly. He heard Shadowheart's breath hitch and turned to see her cough up some blood. He stretched out a hand and opened his mouth to–
"Aegis," Shadowheart muttered, and a blue glow emanated from her hand. She stood straighter, and her breathing slowed. "I'm fine," she stated.
"As you say."
Without warning, a form materialized beside Lae'zel–Astarion, back from scouting the way ahead. He smiled wickedly at the small group.
"The head of the snake rests in its throne room," he said. "Remember Dror Ragzlin? That goblin leader we butchered?"
"I butchered him," Lae'zel corrected him.
Astarion scowled. "Yes. Whatever. I was eavesdropping, and I learned that his sister is in charge of this little camp here. Mar Ragzlin is her name. However–"
"Then this shouldn't be too bad," Tav interrupted. "We walloped her brother; we'll wallop her."
"Did you just say 'wallop?'" Shadowheart asked under her breath.
"However," Astarion continued, "there are too many goblins in there. There's no way we're killing them all."
Lae'zel frowned at that. "How many?" she asked gruffly.
Astarion thought for a moment before answering. "Somewhere between fifteen and twenty, but closer to twenty," he said.
Tav stood quietly, his back against the wall, pondering this new conundrum. As he puzzled over it, he looked to his right, at Shadowheart, to see her brow furrowed, one hand on her chin. He leaned over to her. "Any ideas?"
"The makings of one," she whispered back. "If we can't safely fight them in a pitched fight, we'll need to get creative." She looked Tav dead in the eye. "I'm thinking about using that magic item we just got."
Tav raised his eyebrows. "The Displacer Gloves? They only have two charges left." He paused and looked past her, thinking. "You may be on to something, though…If you place the first portal beside Mar Ragzlin and the second high on the wall…" He tailed off, a wry smile cramping its way onto his face.
"...and then you Thunderwave her into it–" She paused to chuckle silently.
"Splat," they said in unison.
"But how will we get me close enough to her?" Tav wondered, frowning.
Shadowheart smiled and looked pointedly towards Astarion, who was watching them with a quizzical look.
"What?" he whispered loudly across the doorway to them.
Tav smirked in recognition. "We'll need your scroll of Dimension Door. We have a plan." He motioned to Astarion and Lae'zel, beckoning them over. He took out his knife and knelt, tracing a large square on the ground. "Astarion, how high are the walls in the throne room? And where is Ragzlin's throne?"
"It's a pretty high ceiling–fifty feet, maybe a bit more?" He knelt beside Tav and pointed towards the back of the crude square. "Her throne is centered against the back wall."
Tav looked at Shadowheart. "And what's the portal range to cast and travel?"
"Sixty foot range for casting, one hundred twenty foot maximum range between portals."
"Perfect. So here's the plan: Astarion, you'll Dimension Door all of us maybe ten feet to Ragzlin's side. As soon as we're there, Shadowheart places a portal beside her, and its connecting portal as high up the wall as she can. Then I Thunderwave her in, and–" he looked up at Shadowheart expectantly.
"Splat," she finished with a smile.
Lae'zel frowned again. "A fine plan, Tav. But are you suggesting I stand by and watch the three of you?"
Tav shook his head. "Not at all. I can only get Ragzlin and the goblins beside her. Once the surprise wears off, do what you do best. And thank you, but the idea was really Shadowheart's. I hadn't considered using the Displacer Gloves like that." He shot a glance at Shadowheart and noticed her blushing–she looked away quickly, and he hid a smile before feeling heat start to creep into his own cheeks.
"I see," Lae'zel replied neutrally. "Well, Shadowheart, it seems you are not completely devoid of skill."
"Yes. It does seem that way," Shadowheart responded drily.
Lae'zel smiled her hunter's smile. "I look forward to cutting down each and every piece of filth Tav doesn't push down Shadowheart's hole."
Tav felt himself stiffen at her words, and he noticed Shadowheart had done the same. No one spoke as the formless tension grew thicker.
Lae'zel looked from Shadowheart to Tav, then to Astarion. "What?" she spat.
Astarion giggled awkwardly. "Ahem, um, let's just get the attack on, shall we? Shadowheart, Tav, you ready?"
Tav stood back to his feet and looked to Shadowhart to see that her face was even redder–and seeing her like this only made his ears burn hotter. Yep. Me too, Shadowheart, he thought. "You ready?" he asked her.
She flinched "What? Oh. Yes." Her confident smirk returned, then she tilted her head teasingly. "For Shar."
Tav rolled his eyes. "For Selûne." He watched Astarion get out a dusty, crinkled scroll with arcane glyphs on it, each glowing a faint but shimmery blue.
Astarion traced a finger over the glyphs, muttering to himself. "Alright, here we go." He looked from Shadowheart to Tav. "Be ready…Dimensio ostium!"
A faint electric tingle, a flash of blue and white, and then Tav found himself and his companions surrounded by goblins, a single female hobgoblin among them, ten feet in front of him. Mar Ragzlin.
Her skin was the color of fresh blood, and she wore a scimitar on her left hip, belted to scrappy armor that looked like it had relocated from a butchered corpse. She was altogether intimidating to look at, and a bit coarse on Tav's eyes. However, intimidated or not, it was time to end this threat.
"Iter!" Shadowhart called, pointing one gloved hand behind Ragzlin and the other up high, where the wall and ceiling met. Afterwards, two magic portals formed, each bordered by a softly glowing blue ring. They hummed faintly, their noise soon drowned by the cackling of all their enemies.
"Are these the upstarts that killed my brother?" Ragzlin growled to no one in particular, scowling. She unsheathed her scimitar and brandished it high with a bloodcurdling roar, echoed by the goblins around her.
"Yep," Tav answered as he began to wave his hands in the symbol representing Thunder.
Ragzlin crowed, "Then die, you filthy–"
"Tonitrum!" Tav interrupted, thrusting his hand toward her and the four surrounding goblins.
With a cry, all five of them flew backwards–right into Shadowheart's portal. Tav, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Lae'zel all craned their heads upwards to watch Ragzlin and the others plummet to thor doom, resulting in an unpleasant, meaty–
"Splat," whispered Shadowheart with ironic elegance.
Tav let out a single chuckle, then raised an eyebrow at Lae'zel. "Your turn."
With a smile and a shrring, La'zl unsheathed her greatsword and, with a single, mighty cleave, bisected the two goblins behind her at the waist. Whirling on her back foot, she pivoted and parried a cleaver, then followed up with an upwards slash, gouging a deep furrow in the goblin's armor and chest. Her blade glinted red in the torchlight.
Having seen their leader and companions executed in a matter of seconds, the eight surviving goblins turned towards the front of the room and ran–or tried.
"Turbatio!" Astarion yelled, smiling wicked. Instantly, seven of the eight stopped in their tracks, adopting various behaviors–four began attacking each other, and three froze, looking around and muttering aimlessly. The eighth continued running away but could not resist looking behind him one last time. Shadowheart's bolt of fire hit him square in the face.
Tav ran towards the group of the and brought his hands to his chest. With a cry of "ducens lucem!" he thrust them forwards quickly, propelling a bright orb of light towards one of the goblins. With a radiant blast, it exploded on the floor just beneath his target. "Blast," he muttered.
Lae'zel smirked. "Spells are nothing to a greatsword, istik," she said. With a mighty leap, she landed in front of the three. With one chop, she decapitated one, then, with a second slice, cleaved another across the chest. With a mumble, the second fell to the ground, sleeping. Lae'zel looked back at Shadowheart. "See? What doesn't kill them makes them sleepy," she stated, grinning.
Stirring from his confusion, the remaining goblin of the three struck back at Lae'zel, slicing her arm. Her vambraces took the brunt of the cut, though the tip of the cleaver caught her hand, earning a line of blood and a hiss from the githyanki.
Two goblins lay in spreading pools of blood, slain by their own comrades. Frowning, the two still standing shook their heads, managing to clear whatever confusion had overcome them. One's jaw dropped. "Oi! Grob! This one 'ere made us kill our mates!" he yelled, pointing his scimitar at Astarion. "Get 'im!"
Together, the goblins ran at Astarion. With a puny and yet undeniably agitated cry, they slashed him on his arms, knocking his shortsword to the ground.
"Oh dear," Astarion muttered. Picking up his weapon, he bowed to the goblins dramatically. "Ta-ta," he said gracefully before running away.
"Tav!" Shadowheart called over to him, pointing at the two goblins that had approached her and Astarion. "I'm going to get away from these two and blast that on by Lae'zel. Can you finish these off?"
"Great idea, Shadowheart. Yeah, I got 'em!"
Without hesitation, Shadowheart sidestepped away from the goblins who had hit Astarion, which prompted each to attack her. Whether by skill or dumb luck, both goblins managed to hit her square in the chest–right where the troll had crushed her breastplate. With a cry, Shadowheart dropped like a stone.
"Shadowheart! It can't be!" Tav yelled, his voice breaking. "Damn goblins. Quasso!" he yelled with venom, pointing off to the goblins' side. A purple, glowing circle briefly materialized around them, Shadowheart and Lae'zel just outside its perimeter. With a thunderclap, rock, wood, and goblin exploded.
"Tsk'va!" Lae'zel exclaimed, turning her attention to the last goblin. "May the lich queen accept this blood offering." With a single swing, La'zl decapitated the sleeping goblin.
As soon as the last enemy fell, Tav ran to Shadowheart's side. "Aegis," he whispered, touching his hand to her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open as she inhaled a long, stuttering breath. She smiled faintly at him.
"Tav…" she started, deliriously leaning into his touch before vomiting blood all over his arm. Her eyes closed again, though Tav was able to discern the soft rise and fall of her bloodied chest.
"It's alright, Shadowheart," he whispered to her unconscious form. "I'll take care of you."