Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Missing Sorceress (TS) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Silverfish scanned the group. This was not the group that Enna had ended up in, so she might still be safe. Retsy was almost swooning from fright, Katerei looked downright miserable, Cat didn't have her shoes, and she seemed to be somewhat attached to the uncouth things. Only Brianna seemed relatively fine.

"There was once a young girl who lived in a small cottage. She had lived there for as long as she could remember, but one fateful night in october a stranger came knocking on her door. She opened the door, and he shoved his way in. The next morning, the neighbor boy came over to play, and the stranger killed him too. An hour later, the little girl's father came home from a long journey and when he saw all his family, and the neighbor boy dead on the floor, he killed the stranger with great wrath."

Retsy stared at Silver in horror, and he realised that he had spoken. "Sorry."
Then he laid-down and went to sleep, until the others found them.

This post has been edited by Jehezekel: 19 February 2007 - 08:27 PM

At last, Sideline and the rest found the others. After making sure that everyone was okay, they sat down and discussed what to do.

From his hiding place nearby, Rapierian listened in exasperation. He supposed that he'd have to give them a little bit of help...

Almost on top of the group, the ceiling of the cave suddenly groaned and began to collapse, sending everyone scrambling out of the way. From the crumbling ceiling, a rock staircase swung down. Cautiously, Wizard emerged and looked up the flight of steps. It led up into a dark area with no lightning.

"It seems to lead to somewhere inside the Stronghold," Wizard observed. "Either Tavara's or Rapierian's doing, no doubt. Do we take it?'

Stealthily, Rythan slipped up the stairs.

"Nothing up here," he reported.

Suddenly, the walls of the cavern groaned again and began to shrink, preventing anyone from getting on top of them again and forcing the group up the flight of stairs and into the waiting darkness...


Outside, Selax and Kitran each continued to wait in his respective location. Soon, each knew he would have a chance to enter...

This post has been edited by Selax: 09 March 2007 - 01:23 AM

The party emerged from the cavern, astonished that night had fallen, it had not seemed like so long down in the maze. The more experienced party members identified the door beside them as the door to Tavara's study.

Silverfish placed blockades at either end of the alleyway, to keep the undead from interfering. Enna was not so glad to have her guard back as Silver was to have his charge back, but she was happy to hear the stories he told her.

Outside, Kitran had tired of waiting. He knew that the group would not simply turn the artifact over to him: they'd have some kind of plan. Therefore, he planned to slip in and steal it himself using the confusion that the group created. He summoned three lesser daemons to himself to serve as distractions, so he could enter the Stronghold. He was uncertain what to do with Katherine: taking her in was a risk and leaving her outside, even hidden, was a risk. The members among the group could certainly locate her. In the end, after weighing the pros and cons, he decided to take her with him.

Kitran ordered the three other daemons into attack. He knew they'd be overwhelmed and killed, but he only needed a brief distraction to cover his entrance.


The three daemons charged in the through the open doorway. (Tavara's magics were such that this was really the only means of entry.) They quickly slaughtered the remaining scylla and burst into the ranks of undead behind the inner wall. Kitran used this momentary chaos to slip quietly in through the door and secretly make his way toward Tavara's study through the tunnels...


Selax too used the distraction to slip into the building. Unlike the others, he didn't know about the tunnels, so he figured that he might still have to wait until the group made their move to reach them. Either that, or he could help the three daemons fight the undead (he'd heard Bellerophon and his companions had fought through but believed it was likely that Tavara had increased his security since then), make sure that they died in the fight, and make his way to the others. Fading into the shadows along the sides of the back doorway to the inner confines of the Strongholds, he watched the daemons and undead fight, weighing his options. For the moment, he was shapeshifted to look like the wall. As always, such a thing was quite hard to maintain, and he knew that it would not hold up to magic or even simply more careful scrutiny.


Outside Tavara's study, the adventurers suddenly heard the sounds of conflict and looked at each other in confusion.

"Did they find Rapierian?" someone asked.

"I don't think so," Wizard replied grimly. With his telepathy, he had a good guess as to what being had entered the Stronghold. "It's daemons. I think that our 'friend' Kitran is making his move."

"Then, he too will die, grated a sudden, cold voice that seemed to sting the ears of all who heard it.

The door to the study swung open, revealing the arch-lich Tavara sitting on his throne. He was surrounded by liches, daemons of his own, and undead. On his lap sat a spellbook and in his hand was an amulet. Mockingly, he held up the amulet and hissed, "Looking for this? Pity that you've found it...now, you must die. Take them!"

The minions charged, and Tavara raised his hands, preparing a spell to destroy the group. Seeing this and hoping to catch Tavara off-guard, Wizard launched a telepathic attack on the lich, momentarily distracting him.

Then, the wall behind Tavara burst apart, and Kitran charged into the side of the room opposite the group. However, the adventurers were cut off from the two by the minions that now attacked them. Roaring, the daemon charged into the startled lich...

This post has been edited by Selax: 09 March 2007 - 01:26 AM

Kerran, realising that the skeletons and undead would be immune to his spells, stayed towards the back of the group. He knew he'd be useless in a melee, and he didn't know what else to do.
Spying stones lying around, probably from the collapse of the cavern ceiling, he grabbed a few and hurled them towards the fighting undead, hoping to at least distract them, with minor success.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Cat was in the thick of the melee, scratching, biting and kicking every skeleton within reach. While bites and scratches didn't even slow them down, a well placed kick could shatter a few bones.
She brought some of her new techniques into play, and was quite pleased at the efficiency of a few, one which launched an undead into a mob of skeletons. The resulting confusion enabled her to dart in and finish a few off before they recovered.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Starfall was doing her best, but she wasn't wonderful with her staff and could really only hold a couple of skeletons at bay long enough for someone else to deal with them. When three came at her at once, she realised she was definitely out of her league, and began to retreat slowly, fighting all the way. Unfortunately, some of the debris lying around was right behind her, and she didn't see it in time. She landed on her back, and couldn't get up before the skeletons converged...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Enna, upon hearing Tavara's spooky voice, grounded. The resulting magical explosion turned three nearby skeletons green, and another, closer one suddenly turned on its comrades. Giggling with delight at the green skeletons, she sensibly made her way towards Kerran and helped supply him with rocks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Wolfie, on the other hand, was fighting near the edge, darting in occasionally to grab a skeleton or undead by the leg and dragging it out of the fight before finishing it off. His technique worked well, although he sustained several minor wounds from blows too quick to dodge.
Eventually, he became tired with his minor, one-on-one fights, and worked his way into the thick of the battle. Many undead suddenly found themselves falling as his jaws closed around their legs.

Silverfish screamed in pain from Enna's magical explosion, but stood firm, and when Enna joined Kerran, Silver attacked Tavara like a whirlwind.

Tavara, meanwhile, continued his battle with Kitran, batting Silverfish aside when he came too close.

Through telepathy, Wizard realized that Katherine was somewhere in the room.

But where?

After a moment, his senses narrowed in on Kitran, and he realized that the daemon was using some kind of illusionary spell to hide his hostage.

"He has Katherine!" he called to Sideline, pointing at Kitran.

Wizard reached out with his telepathy, attempting to wake the sleeping sorceress...


Suddenly, through the fog in her brain, Katherine heard a voice.

Katherine, wake up! it called.

Who are you? she asked.

My name is Wizard, and I'm part of a party from Cademia here to rescue you by Akheron, the voice replied. We're in Tavara's study, fighting with his guards. A daemon has you and is fighting with Tavara.

Hearing the situation jerked her closer to wakefullness and reminded her of a danger.

Wizard, does Tavara have a spellbook and an amulet? she asked urgently.

Yes, came the reply.

You have to recover the amulet! It's why Akheron sent me here! You must destroy the spellbook as well! Tavara plans to use it to conquer Cythera.

Mentally, she sent him details of Tavara's plan. He signaled his understanding and then pulled her mind out of the morass in which Kitran had trapped it.

Then, she woke up.

Katherine found herself tied up and in a sack that was being bounced all around. She figured the daemon must be carrying it over his shoulder. She was careful to not let him know immediately that she had woken up. Instead, the sorceress began to work on freeing herself and waiting for a moment of escape...


Wizard mentally relayed Tavara's plan for the spellbook to the others. At the moment, however, they were all too busy with Tavara's minions to consider attacking the lich himself.


Meanwhile, Selax continued to wait for the daemons and undead to finish one another. The daemons were doing well, but they were faced with overwhelming numbers. The elemental decided to make his way into Tavara's sanctuary and allow the two sides to kill each other. Cautiously, he began to move toward his objective.

This post has been edited by Selax: 09 March 2007 - 01:28 AM

Brianna's new dirks darted and spun about her in her expert hands, the presence of so many undead once more causing dull, violet flashes to flicker the lengths of the curved blades, as it had done when she found them. The knives cut through undead flesh and bone far more easily than the apparent edge should have allowed. Blood marked her face and sleeves from a dozen or more small knicks, largely caused by flying fragments of bone. She was deathly afraid, but her Ranger's discipline held.

Sideline growled in frustration, unable to breach the wall of undead bodies to reach Kitran and Katherine, and unsure of what he could do if he did. A skeleton darted towards Starfall's prone form. Sideline spun away from it, swinging his ebony sword two handed, to catch it from in front, under its chin. It's head flew back towards Tavara, as its body collapsed beside the juvenile copper elf. The Scribe moved into the space Sideline had opened, brandishing his staff in defence of the girl.

Sideline switched his sword to a one-handed grip and swatted at another attacker, while he fumbled in his pocket with his other hand. He pulled out something small and dark, with angular edges that glinted in the faintly flickering lamplight.

"I need some real light, dammit," He yelled.

The Scribe extended his staff. "Calan!" he cried. Instead of the suffuse glow it had emitted the last time, the staff blasted a bright, focused beam straight from the top.

Sideline thrust the tiny gemstone into the beam. The crystal split the light into a myriad of bright rays, flickering over the massed undead bodies. The dead flinched away, giving forth banshee wails as if they were in pain.

"Rythan," Sideline called, "now's your chance!"

Starfall had her eyes closed, waiting for the undead to strike the final blow. But it never came, and she cautiously opened her eyes to see them backing away from - she squinted in the bright light - something Sideline was holding over the Scribe's staff?
Getting up to take advantage of the slight lull in the battle, she swept at the nearest skeleton with her staff, and managed to connect with enough force to knock it over.

This post has been edited by CrazyChick: 03 March 2007 - 02:48 PM

The clashes of battle rang out through the large chamber as the gathered adventurers fought against a horde of demons and the undead. Flashes of light sparked yellow, red, or violet throughout the dim hall as magicks ran rampant through the conflict. At the center of the chaos danced a pair of fell beasts

Pearl white horns set upon its skull in a ring like some profane crown, dressed in dark robes befitting the reaper himself, with a crimson sash draped over his shoulders nearly to the floor, bearing arcane onyx runes, Tavara the Arch Lich flowed in single combat against the formidable demon Kitran. Though the effort he used against this powerful foe was clear it was also apparent that the surrounding chaos delighted the Lich to no end as he cackled darkly through vampiric ivory fangs the fires of his eyes burning like the furnace of nightmares. The demon made another powerful swing with its great claws, but Tavara flowed around the blow and delivered his own, his skeletal fist encased in a dark gauntlet whose finger tips ended in silver claws. As he landed the blow there was a yellow flash and sparks arched over the demons body with a sudden jolt, every one of Tavara’s attacks was magically charged.

An immense white erupted from one side of the chamber as one of the mortal mages cast a spell against Tavara’s undead. His minions shied away from the holy light, and he hissed in defiance of it. The Arch Lich gazed at the man, the audacity, to cast such a spell here in the seat of Tavara’s power. The very air of the chamber seemed to crackle with the Lich’s fury and small bolts of yellow static arched from every surface. Tavara extended his open palm and pointed it at the Elvin sorcerer whose staff shined ever brightly and uttered a single word, {DIE}

Kitran saw an opening in Tavara’s defenses and he took it, slamming an explosively powerful blow into the Lich whose guard had dropped for but a moment. Tavara’s arm went wide just as he fired off his spell— KRRRAAAAKOOOOM!! a thunder clap erupted through the room as a great pillar ripped through the ranks of the undead mere yards to Scribe’s left and tore into the floor sending bits of stone in all directions. When that light faded all that was left of the undead who had stood in its path was several clouds of ash.

Scribe was surprised by the suddenness of the massive attack, but he was unharmed and recovered quickly, able to skillfully maintain his spell. As he looked back to Tavara and Kitran he saw a dark figure streaking towards them and silently he willed the man to succeed.

Rythan was upon Tavara and Kitran before either of them acknowledged his presence. Where he came from his arrival would have elicited immediate fear from dark creatures such as these, but he was new to this realm and some things just had to be taught. Kitran swung at the assassin, as if to bat him away out of hand, but Rythan ducked the blow and raked his gauntlet blade across the demon’s forearm in one fluid motion, sprinting passed the demon. Kitran grunted in annoyance for having missed, but looked at his arm to see that he had been cut, those were no ordinary blades.

The dark warrior leapt upon Tavara, but the Lich flowed away from his attack easily and he only managed to slash across the front of the creature’s robes. While he cut deeply and would have landed a crippling blow to another opponent the Arch Lich was not a creature of flesh and blood, and so suffered no injury at all. Rythan landed beyond the Lich, beginning to turn around as he saw bolts of static jumping along the floor. As he turned to face Tavara he saw the creature holding its palm out towards him, behind it he saw Kitran with the perfect opportunity to land another blow against the Lich, but the demon only smiled darkly and let Tavara finish the spell. Rythan barely had time to lift his arms in defense when— KRRRAAAAKOOOOM!! A crackling pillar of magical energy engulfed where he had stood, decimating the stone beneath him. At the head of the pillar a ball of yellow energy arched high across the chamber before slamming into the ground. As it collided with the stone the residual magic peeled away and a dark figure slid far across the room. Tavara took one too many moments studying his handiwork as Kitran had already predicted and so the demon was able to land another blow.

Smoke rose from robes whose edges were singed and smoldering, but only their edges. Rythan pushed up from the floor, standing a bit unsteadily, and looked down to his clenched fist. Resting in his palm was an arcane amulet with two indents for fitting a set of unique stones; success.

An undead warrior lumbered over to him, his senses still dulled from that last attack, but just before it could strike a large black wolf tackled it to the ground and set about tearing the creature apart with its powerful fangs. Thankful for small wonders Rythan gazed about the continuing battle. In the chaos that had ensued and with the distraction of his brief conflict with Tavara and Kitran the spell book was no longer directly guarded, and Sideline, Brianna, and Silverfish seemed in the perfect positions to make their move…

This post has been edited by Ragnar0k: 01 March 2007 - 04:50 PM

Silverfish climbed out of the ribcage he'd fallen into when Tavara knocked him away, the lingering burn told him that the skeleton had been animated when he collided with it. He gathered his wits about him, and sent out a tendril, to try to steal the book from Tavara.

Suddenly, the door to the room burst open. In tumbled a mess of undead, a daemon, and Selax. The elemental finished off the daemon and the remaining undead and stood in the doorway for a moment taking in the situation.

Could you help us rescue the lady that the daemon is holding? came Wizard's voice in his head, indicating Katherine who had managed to slip out of the sack when the spell was broken by the light and was now clinging to the back of the daemon.

Quickly, Selax, Sideline, and Wizard made their plan to save her and help the rest destroy the book...


Kitran and Tavara continued their battle, smashing everything that was unfortunate enough to get in their way.


As Rythan began to recover and come to his feet, something abruptly struck him, knocking him back to the ground and sending the amulet flying off into the darkness near one of the walls...

This post has been edited by Selax: 09 March 2007 - 01:28 AM

Realizing that he wasn't powerful enough to attack Tavara, at least without a master plan, Silverfish started flaying the normal undeads instead.

Wizard’s mind fought wildly to distract the arch-lich Tavara. Why are you doing this? he asked himself. What hope have you against Tavara? Fortunately for the old man, Kitran was still dueling with Tavara, a fact which saved his life more than once.

Selax and Sideline edged around the room, cutting down undead with each step. Their plan was simple. Wizard would divert Tavara’s attention enough to keep the fight between Kitran and Tavara going long enough for Selax and Sideline to steal up behind Kitran. Then Wizard would cease to assault Tavara and shoot a wave of telekinetic power at Kitran, one targeted to knock Katherine off of his shoulder and into the waiting hands of her rescuers. It should work, Wizard had assured them. I hope.

All was going well, until Tavara finally decided to swat at the fly buzzing around in his mind. The skeleton turned, his robes flowing so fluidly over his skeletal form and his motions so perfectly mimicking human movement, that he almost seemed a mortal man. The eyes, though, the eyes were the focus of Wizard’s mind. They burned deeply and eternally, emitting an aura of death around them. The arch-lich lifted his hand, static leaping about it threateningly.

Wizard watched in horror as the sparks grew in strength, steadily growing into a solid, pulsating orb of light. The spell had only taken a second to prepare, but Wizard’s mind was focused so intently that it lingered over each moment of the brief time. He would have moved, but he found himself uncontrollably locked where he stood. Move! he argued in his mind. No came the defiant reply.

With a look of twisted satisfaction, Tavara unleashed the lightning he held in his hands. Yet, it did not fly as a mere ball of light, but remained on his hands for some moments after it began to fly through the air toward its target. Within a moment, it had stretched into a full bolt of lightning, a charge connecting the Wizard and Tavara.

The first surge of electricity struck him and then another and another. Wizard’s body convulsed wildly as wave after wave of evil energy poured through his body, igniting each nerve and scorching each muscle. He gazed on as the dark energies continued to fly at him. After the initial energies had been absorbed by his limp form, the final wave sent him hurtling back against the wall. After a very abrupt stop, Wizard’s body slid slowly to the ground.

Selax and Sideline had reached Kitran by this time. Now they had a problem: Wizard seemed to be unconscious,again. “We need a new plan,” Selax commented. Just then, Sécundus ran through the hole that was in the rear wall, Kitran’s personal entrance. Recognizing Sideline, he exclaimed, “Here you guys are! One moment I was following along fine, the next, I turn around and everyone vanished. It wasn’t until this guy came in that I could follow.” He made a gesture at Selax, who merely stated, “I don’t need to know who you are, but you have good timing. You will help us distract that lich over there.”

“Okay, I guess. Hey, how did you guys get into a fight with so many undead?” he questioned, glancing around the throne room. Selax and Sideline just rolled their eyes.

* * *
Within a minute, a new plan had been formulated to retrieve Katherine. Silverfish, Brianna, and Rythan, all being on the nearest side of the sea of undead monsters, were recruited to help, and it was put into action.

“This is going to hurt,” Sécundus muttered as he crept up behind Kitran, who was still exchanging blows with Tavara. He suddenly popped his head out from behind the looming daemon and shouted at Tavara, “Hey, ugly, give me your best shot!”

Now Tavara was not dumb or gullible, but he figured that he might as well destroy this nuisance while it was an easy shot. He made a sudden gesture, and a bolt of some kind of magic flew into Kitran as Sécundus ducked behind his hulking form. As Tavara unleashed the magic missile, Silverfish, Brianna, and Rythan charged his back. He turned to face them.

* * *

Sécundus was cringing behind the daemon, but fortunately the creature was too preoccupied trying to reach Tavara to bother with him. When Tavara turned to face the new threat, Kitran made his own move.

Sideline was standing back on the sidelines when he saw his cue. Tossing the Truelight gem, an artifact he had found in the stronghold’s dungeons, through the air to Sécundus, he began to run. His hands now free, he made a running leap for Kitran’s back. The Truelight gem glided through the air, and came to rest within Sécundus’ firm grasp. Luckily, Kitran had not seen it. Now within a few yards of the daemon, the gem worked its magic and pierced through the creature’s illusion, revealing a sack hanging helplessly over his shoulder.

The illusion broke just in time; Sideline flew through the air himself, getting closer to the sack. His jump had been perfect, and he grabbed the sack as he tumbled to the ground behind the daemon. Kitran, noticing his prisoner gone, turned and roared in fury. Then Selax performed his role. He charged from where he had been by the wall into Kitran. The daemon was surprised and successfully knocked to the ground by the elemental’s impact.

* * *

All this while, Tavara had been dealing with his assailants. Rythan slashed at him, only cutting his robes again as the lich deftly moved out of harm’s way. Silverfish pounced on his face, but was batted away by some magical attack. Brianna’s blades nearly cut Tavara’s arm to the bone, but he repelled her and sent her flying across the room. Rythan made another attempt to strike, but was sent hurtling into the wall near Wizard. One by one, the three ended up on the other side of the room fighting undead again.

* * *

Selax, Sideline, and Sécundus darted away with Katherine as Kitran regained his footing. He was about to go after them, but Tavara, with his own impeccable timing, returned from dealing with the three distractions. He struck Kitran with a bolt of lightning, which didn’t affect the daemon nearly as much as it had Wizard. The two returned to their fighting, although Kitran was much less pleased with the circumstances this round.

* * *

A tingling sensation. . . everywhere. . . that same repetitive tingling. It seemed relaxing. Wizard opened his eyes, at least, he thought he did. He was conscious again, wasn’t he? He knew he was alive. . . the tingling throughout his entire body. Why was everything dark? Oh, yes, his eyes were still shut, he had merely been returning to consciousness the first time. But what had happened? Where was he? He was so comfortable, he wasn’t sure he wanted to move.

Slowly, the fog in his brain cleared and his senses returned. He was in Tavara’s stronghold, no, his throne room, and they were fighting to free the sorceress Katherine from the evil daemon Kitran’s grasp. But what of Tavara? His spell book, the spell that would turn the whole of Cythera into undead soldiers. He had to be stopped.

Wizard opened his eyes truly this time. He watched as the group carried out its plan. Katherine was safe! Tavara still held his spell book, though. Maybe I can do something about that he mused. Tavara may not even know I’m still alive. He pulled himself to his feet. His body protested most unhappily, but the old man pushed himself on.

He waited, gathering his strength, when an opportune moment came. Tavara was expending strength again on another lightning spell, this one directed at Kitran. Wizard lifted his hand and began to mentally search for the spell book somewhere in the folds of the arch-liches robe. When Tavara released his spell, Wizard gestured and released his own telekinetic force that would draw the spell book to him.

It worked! The book whizzed through the air like a lightning bolt itself and appeared in Wizard’s hands.

Rythan was getting back to his feet by this time. He immediately ascertained what Wizard held and grabbed the old man to push him to cover. Tavara had noticed. He turned to shoot another magical bolt at the pair, but Rythan forced them onto the ground. Kitran struck the lich again, Tavara returned his attention to the daemon.

“Let’s get out of here!” Rythan shouted to Wizard, trying to lead him away from Tavara.

"No," Selax replied. "We do not have the artifact yet. What did you do with it?"

Rythan opened his mouth to explain when a new voice, coming from the darkness where the amulet had fallen, cut him off.

"Oh, it's where it belongs now," the voice said, breaking off into a fit of howling laughter which reverberated around the room and easily rose above the sounds of the battle. Indeed, the battle actually ceased as the combatants turned to regard this new threat.

From the shadows where he had stood hidden since Kitran's entrance, Rapierian stepped into the dim light. The amulet was not in sight, the necromancer having already taken care to hide it under his robes.

"YOU!" Tavara roared in fury and raised his hands to attack; however, Kitran took advantage of his distraction to knock him back, delaying his attack for a moment.

"I'm indebted to you all for your aid in reaching this point; I could never have done it on my own. Of course, I am also owe my good friend Kitran for his assistance in the recovery and delivery of the flame-colored gem. In a strange twist of fate, I've had the third part—a blue gem—in my possession for years, a family heirloom," Rapierian said, laughing agian. "Although I must admit, I didn't even know my old master here had a part of that which I sought."

"'Old master'?" Katherine murmured. "You! Your the human Tavara mentions in his notes, the one who helped him finalize work on that spellbook."

Rapierian nodded. Several of the adventurers had begun to sneak closer, planning to deal with the necromancer if possible. However, Kitran gestured and a force-wall sprung into existence, cutting the room in half and dividing the adventurers from Tavara and some of his liches, the daemon, and Rapierian. Tavara and his cohorts actually strengthened the wall, obviously intending to deal with Kitran and Rapierian themselves.

"Indeed, so I did. That was one of the points that I decided my goals were different from those of a lich bent on a revenge he shall never achieve, and I looked elsewhere for what I sought. I found what I wanted in the form of a new benefactor, who directed me to recover this artifact. Again, I thank you all for your kind assistance—"

Tavara leapt on his former student, blasting him to the ground.

"TRAITOR! TRAITOR! You shall die! As shall all others who have betrayed me!" the mad lich roared.

At this point, the room erupted into chaos once more.

The artifact—called the Amulet of the Dead—augmented to some extent its user's power and enabled Rapierian to throw Tavara off of him. The other liches moved forward and encountered the massive form of the daemon, who fell upon them in a vicious assault.

The adventurers were set upon by the undead and daemons with a renewed frenzy.

Around them, the room began to rumble dangerously from the all forces in play within.

"We have to get out of here!" someone yelled over the tumult.

"We cannot," Selax said. "We must not let that artifact remain in the hands of that one."

On the other side of the wall, Tavara and Rapierian had locked hands and had begun to pour their powers directly into each other. The forms of the lich and the necromancers were rippling madl, as each sought to tear the other apart; before the eyes of the group, Tavara's bones seemed to decay to dust but at the same time to return to bones, while Rapierian seemed to be pulled apart but at the same time to pull back together again. Kitran was struggling under the assault of the liches but was holding his own well enough.

The adventurers struggled toward the force-wall, trying to find some way around the wall. Tavara noticed them and screeched, "Oh no you don't! Go back to where you came from, insolent pests!"

With that, he teleported the group back to wherever they had come from, only then realizing that they still had the spellbook. The arch-lich roared in fury—how dare they actually hurt him and get away with it!—and renewed his attack on his former student...


The adventurers blinked as the teleportation effect faded and were surprised to find themselves in Cademia.

"Do you think that traitor made it?" one of them asked, although no one was really surprised about Rapierian's treachery.

"It would be safe to assume it," Sideline replied grimly. "Even if he didn't, Tavara will have the artifact and we will be perhaps worse off."

Although she too was dismayed at the outcome of events, Katherine decided to take what they had won. She took the spellbook from Wizard, threw it up in the air, and vaporized it with a fireball. She shook her head and said, "I should get back to Akheron and tell him what has happened. He may want to move to someplace else for the time being."

Selax went off into the shadows near the Tavern, and several heroes offered to help Katherine retrieve Akheron and return to the city as soon as possible.

Having rescued the sorceress, destroyed Tavara's foul spellwork, and discovered the nature of at least part of Rapierian's goals (although the necromancer had perhaps escaped with his prize), the weary group headed back to the Tavern to plan their next move.


In a place that was but was not of any world—for it, the Ethereal Void, was the container of all worlds—Selax stood and talked to another.

"Regrettably, I failed to retrieve the Amulet in time. It has fallen into the hands of one of his agents."

"That is indeed bad news; however, from what you have told me and what I have seen, the Cytherans are known for their heroism and triumph against overwhelming odds. If handled correctly, I think they shall be able to handle this one or settle for sending in a few more agents...if the worst comes to pass, we could always run the risk and intervene more overtly..."

"I hope that you are right, Tomsan. If you were forced to bring your forces into Cythera, the consequences could be dire," Selax replied.

For some time, the two sat there, lost in thought...already forming plans for the future.


Far to the north, in the mountains near Land King Hall, two figures pushed their way up the slopes of a high mountain. The mountain was a strange place—a place of legends and strange tales to the inhabitants of Cythera. It was said that the sun had never shone there (no matter what the season) and that anyone who actually tried to climb the mountain had never returned.

Aat the very summit of the mountain was a large, desolate valley. Perpetually covered in snow, the valley had only one noticeable feature—a large hill surrounded by a wide chasm in the center. There was no bridge over the chasm and never had been. One could only enter if allowed. Even those who could fly would fall if they attempted to cross the chasm without being permitted or wielding a greater power than the he who had first cast the spell.

On the top of the hill sat a large, seemingly empty fortress. The snow around the fortress was filled with the silent figures of undead and such, waiting for orders.

The silent ranks of the undead army parted to let the two dark entities enter the fortress proper. As they made their way toward the gate, Rapierian turned to Kitran and said, "Well, that went as well as could be expected."

The valley, filled with the quiet of death and with the undead, rang with his mad laughter...

This post has been edited by Avatara: 09 March 2007 - 04:26 PM