Cythera Chronicles: The Shadow Warriors: Chapter four

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Kaleeah

"What? Is he okay?" Rogan asked again.

"I don't know," Victor responded, still sitting next to Lukyan. Everyone gathered around him. The paladin didn't move at all, bur he was breathing.
"He is breathing," Rogan said with a smile, "Lukyan is a fighter, he won't die just like that."
"But he still needs some medical care, though," said Eyolf as he examined Lukyan further.
"Healing spells will have to be enough until we get home," Talos responded, "we have to get to Kaleeah now. If we are lucky, there's a doctor there who can help us out."

Rogan wiped the blood off his sword and went to examine the body of one of the attackers. The two swords were lying next to the black cloak. Rogan grabbed one of the cloaks and, to his great surprise, lifted it easily up from the ground, revealing nothing but grass. "They must have been demons of some kind!" Rogan said, "only the cloak and weapons are left."
"Hmm... strange," said Victor as he approached, "most demons consider melee combat crude and base compared to their magical skills."
"Let's just hope there aren't more of them out there." Rogan discreetly took the two swords and put them in the black sheaths that once belonged to the mysterious attacker.

After using some nearby logs to make a stretcher for Lukyan, the party packed up and prepared to enter Kaleeah. Being most muscular, Eyolf and Victor carried the stretcher while Rogan lead them through the terrain, chopping down obstacles with one of the swords he just got hold of. Gheed, obviously shocked from the recent attack, was right behind the stretcher, always turning his head, ready to hit the deck at any time necessary. The forest wasn't so dense anymore, but carrying Lukyan through the landscape slowed the party down a bit. Talos was in the back with his weapon drawn, watching the men's backs as they proceeded.

Nothing special happened during the ten-minute walk to the town. Everything was awfully silent as they approached the town gate. The gate was open, the large steel bars didn't block the entrance as they used to. "This does not bode well," said Rogan. He started to run towards the gate, followed by Victor. Talos and Eyolf walked as fast as they could with the stretcher, and put it down on the other side of the wall. Gheed stayed in the back, looking anxiously around himself at all times.

The men just stood there for a moment, examining the town. Not a single living thing in sight. The nearby houses were untouched, no signs of violence. Nothing at all, until Eyolf spotted a man some distance away, sitting in a chair next to a stone building. Everyone ran towards him, forgetting Lukyan for a while, and when they came close enough, they could see that the man was one of the town guards. His sword lay next to him on the ground, in a dark puddle of blood, and a large open wound in his stomach told the tale of a gruesome, painful death. The air was as filled with fear and the smell of death became more and more overwhelming for every second that passed. They just stood there for a while, looking at the corpse, looking at each other, looking around. Nothing but seemingly empty buildings.

"Damn," Rogan said, "the man back at the tavern wasn't hallucinating, that's for sure. What murdered this man also scared him to death."
"This must be the barracks," Victor said and looked at the building with a large metal door.
The door was locked, but Talos found a set of keys on the victim. A sickening smell of blood filled the air as he opened the door, revealing several dead guards on the floor of what used to be the barracks. "Looks like we found the rest of them," he said, making his way into the room and to another door on the opposite end which led out to the top of the wall. He quickly ran to the guard tower close to the entrance, where the gate was controlled, and discovered another body. Blood was all over the floor, a single crossbow bolt had pierced the guard's skull.

Talos went back to the group. "There's another dead guard up in the tower," he said, "they must have taken him out first and climbed the wall to open the gate."
"We might be dealing with the same creatures that attacked us back by the outpost," said Eyolf. He looked up at the guard tower, at least two and a half meter above ground. "Athletic bastards... we have to search this town, fast."
Victor volunteered to look after his friend. "No changes yet, but I think he needs something to drink," he said.
"We're a little short of supplies, but there must be a well around here somewhere," Talos went to see if he could find it.
Rogan, Eyolf and Gheed started to search the town. "Keep an eye on Gheed," Rogan whispered to Eyolf, "we wouldn't want him to desecrate anything or anyone... or steal something."
"No problem," Eyolf responded, "the bastard's so scared he won't just stroll around here all by himself... he'll probably be keeping an eye on one of us."

Rogan decided to head for the tavern. Kaleeah was not a large town, it reminded him a lot of Odemia. Searching it would not take too long, which was positive, given the thought that whatever killed the guards could return. He found a building with a sign next to the door... a picture of a glass and a piece of meat. Food was not really on his mind right now, but stocking up on some bread and milk was a good idea. When he tried to open the wooden door, it was surprisingly heavy. In fact, he had to use his whole body weight to force it open. When the door finally budged, a dead body dropped down in front of Rogan, who drew his sword instantly and quickly went into the tavern. There he found out that the dead man had been nailed to the door with an arrow. The arrow was still stuck in the door. He turned around and examined the room. It was a large dining area, with several small tables and one larger table. Four people, three women and one man, were still sitting on their chairs... dead. They all had large wounds which seemed to be from some sort of military-class bladed weapons. "Oh, God," Rogan said to himself. A sixth body lay in the doorway that separated the dining area from the kitchen. When Rogan went to examine the body, which seemed to be the innkeeper, he stumbled on another dead man lying between a couple of chairs. The stench of blood was almost unbearable, but he had to check the whole building.

Eyolf opened the door to the storage room. The lock on this large metal door was bashed in, and a dead guard lay in the middle of the room. Followed by Gheed, he started to open the wooden crates and chests in search for supplies. They found some bread and a couple of torches. Gheed also took some oboloi from one of the chests. "What kind of fools are these attackers to go through the hard work of slaughtering an entire village... and not even take the loot with them?" Gheed shouted loud into the air, with a sort of angry, disturbed voice.
"Fill the sack," Eyolf answered, "the 'loot' we are taking to the Judge in Cademia. Then the houses will decide what the money will be spent on."
"Probably be used for a large, new carpet in the Judge's private quarters, if you ask me..." Gheed said with a grunt, "politics, hah! These oboloi are better off in the pocket of a skilled trader."

"What's taking Talos so long?" Victor said to himself. "Don't worry, buddy, he'll be here any moment... I know you're going to make this just fine," he said to his unconscious friend. A few minutes later, Lukyan moved his head a little, followed by his left arm. He grunted, and got Victor's attention. "Very nice, you're better already!"
"Did we get them?" asked Lukyan, with a low, tired voice.
"I roasted the guy that got you," Victor answered, "they almost had us over-powered... but we got them all..." he paused for a second before he continued: "But there's some bad news... we're here now, and someone iced all the guards. The others are searching the rest of town as we speak. Talos went to find the well so we could get us a refreshing drink."
Lukyan closed his eyes again and sighed, "Let's just hope whoever did this spared the townspeople."
Victor looked at the gate for a few seconds, then looked at the ground. "I hope so", he said, "but it doesn't look good".

Talos fetched a bucket from a nearby warehouse and brought it to the well he just found. He fastened it to the rope and dropped it down into the dark well. But something was wrong... he did never hear a 'splash' from the bucket hitting the water. In fact, he heard nothing. "If the well was empty, I'd at least hear the bucket smashing into the stone floor down there," he said to himself. However, his thoughts were interrupted by a scream: "HELP!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!"
It seemed to be coming from the well. Talos looked down, but couldn't see anything. Again, a voice cried "HELP!"

"In the name of the Horned God, there are people down there!"

(to be continued)

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[This message has been edited by Slayer (edited 08-27-2002).]

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