Cythera Chronicles: The Fate of Tavara

The wind howled and the waves battered the shoreline, as Tavara stood, overlooking the ocean. He was determined not to let his reign fall here, as it had in Abydos. He knew it would not be easy. He had infuriated the people of the sea with his vile experiments. It was more than just that, though. He had drawn the wrath of the Tyrant upon himself, as well. He coughed as he walked back to the temple. He had drawn nearly all he could from his own body.

Aeacus greeted Tavara as he returned. "Tavara! It is good to see you again. The weather is worsening."

"I know," said Tavara. "Our former allies are preparing their assault. We must stop them here. We will not fail as we have before."

"Let us prepare our men. We will need all of the power we can muster if we are to hold off this force," Aeacus said.

Tavara and Aeacus gathered all the mages and warriors of the temple. Once all of their followers, about fifty in total(half mages, half warriors), were gathered before them, Tavara began his speech. "Ahead of us is much glory. We will finally be free from oppression. But before these good time will come difficult times. The undine would see fit to rob us of our birthright. This is the place where we must make our stand. This is not going to be an easy battle, but we must prevail. We will prevail! Right now, we must make the final preparations to defeat our foes." The crowd erupted into a cheer. As the followers calmed down, they began filtering out. The warriors followed Aeacus into the training room, while the mages followed Tavara.

Aeacus addressed the warriors. "We will be the first line of defense against the oncoming assault. We must guard the mages against the attacks from the beasts of the water. They alone weild the power necessary to defeat our enemies." The warriors donned their armor and prepared their swords. As they did so, the call came out from a watchman, "They are here!"

The warriors, clad in enchated iron armor, assumed their position as foul creatures emerged from the sea. Polyps and hydras came on to the ground moving straight towards the warriors. Deep in the water could be seen the undine, guiding these beasts. Tavara's mages took their places behind the swordsmen. The warriors sliced madly at the rapidly approching creatures, but there were too many monsters, and not enough men. The mages began casting fireballs and lightning upon the polyps and hydras, but for every one they struck down, it seemed that two more crawled out from the water.

Tavara himself cast a spell he had been working on. A ring of fire appeared on the ground. The fire flared up to the ceiling of the temple. Slowly, the fire receded and revealed an enoromous red figure, eight feet tall. The creature Tavara summoned rushed to the front ranks of men, and began striking down the oncoming monsters. 'Excellent,' Tavara thought to himself.

The battle raged on for hours. Slowly, Tavara's followers became fatigued. Though a dozen men had fallen, they were finally starting to win. Tavara stood far in the rear, watching as his followers threw off the assault of the undine. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, Tavara felt a sharp pain through his back and chest. He looked down to see the tip of a glowing sword retract through his ribs. Tavara fell to the floor. As he glanced upward, he saw six soldiers pass him by, leaving him for dead. He cast as much healing magic as he could on himself, but it would not be enough. Using a spell, he contacted four of his best wizards. The mages came rushing to Tavara's aid.

"I have been badly wounded," Tavara said to these, his most trusted followers. "I had not expected the Tyrant to attack so soon. We could have handled either the sea or the tyrant alone, but together, we are doomed. We must flee to our mountain stronghold while we still can." Tavara quickly jotted down a note and handed it to one of the mages. "Get this to Aeacus... and tell him I will miss him." The mage that Tavara selected ran back into the fray in an effort to find Aeacus. The others carried Tavara away to the mountains, torrential rain beating down upon them.

The soldiers sent by the tyrant were wreaking havoc with Tavara's mages, having caught them off guard. As the mages turned their attention away from the sea and towards the soldiers, Aeacus' warriors became overwhelmed with polyps streaming from the water. Without healing from the mages, the warriors were quickly reduced from fifteen to almost none.

The brave commander of the tyrant's forces wielded the sword of heroes. With it, and his five soldiers, he decimated the mages. He lost two men to the magic of the wizards, but not all the soldiers were expected to survive. As he struck down one of the last mages, he realized the folly of attacking when he did. The followers of the cult were the least of his worries. The creatures of the sea turned on him and his soldiers. Polyps swarmed around his men, battering them with their hideous tentacles. A huge hydra grabbed the commander himself around his chest with one of its tentacles. The commander tried to slash at the hydra with his sword, but the crushing force of the tentacle caused him to drop the sword of heroes on to the ground. The hydra forced the commander into its mouth, devouring him whole.

Aeacus had retreated to his room, driven back by the creatures of the water. Few had survived, and those that did would soon be killed. A mage rushed through the door, breathing heavily, and delivered Tavara's message. The mage left to rejoin the hopeless fighting. Aeacus read the message as polyps burst through his door. The polyps killed him with barely a fight. He understood Tavara's note. It read: "The outer temple can fall, but we must preserve the Inner Brotherhood at all costs."

Tavara sat alone, at the heart of his stronghold. He watched through his crystal ball as his temple fell. Tavara knew that there was only one way to carry on now. He drank the bitter concoction he had prepared. He had sacrificed himself for this infusion of magical energy. Tavara was now a lich.

[This message has been edited by Slayer (edited 12-05-2000).]

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