Chapter XI - The Face of Evil

"What was that?" asked Alyse softly in a nervous voice when she heard the door slam shut.

"I'd say that we're locked in" replied Llona quietly as she drew her two short swords and moved over to stand to the right of the open doorway.

"Right, let’s check what's in the next room" Shyne whispered.  

"Aren't we going to wait for the others to climb up first?" asked Grumpy in a low voice.

"No, the four of us will be able to handle whatever is through the door" said Shyne confidently.  "Gimp, how many creatures are in the room?"

"Just the one master" said Reggie in a patient tone from where he was hovering invisibly just above the door 'and I hope it rips your head off'

"Does it know that we're here?"

"I do not think so Master".

Just as Reggie finished talking a bright light filled the room beyond the doorway and all of them froze in place.

Shyne, unsure whether they had been seen, edged slowly towards the left hand side of the door.  After he had taken up position he motioned for the others to remain in place then he slowly peered into the room.  

A strange creature with ruby-red scales, a mandibled head, and four arms was sitting in an elevated chair behind a desk in the centre of the room, writing on a piece of parchment.  It was wearing a loose yellow cloak and there was a short sword leaning against each of the arms of the chair.  

Hundreds, if not thousands of sheets of parchment were scattered about the floor around the creature.  The truly amazing thing was that the walls in the room were somehow transparent, and Shyne could see the city sprawl around the obelisk.

The creature stopped writing, waved its two clawed right hands at Shyne and made a menacing clicking sound with its mouth.  Shyne quickly snatched his head back from the door.  

"What is it?" asked Llona.

"There is a creature in the room the like of which I have neither seen nor heard of before" replied Shyne as he drew his great sword from its sheath.  "It is very clearly evil so we must kill it as quickly as possible"

"How do you know that it's evil?" asked Alyse.

"Oh come on" said Shyne sharply, "it's got four arms and a head like a praying mantis, of course it's evil!"

"Looks are hardly evidence that something is evil!" Alyse objected.  "Just look at Grumpy, he's like a cross between a goblin and a mangy dog but he's most certainly not evil."

"Watch your tongue girl" said Grumpy indignantly.

"I'm telling you that thing is evil and I'm going in there to kill it.  Who's with me?" said Shyne.

"Count me in" said Llona with a grin.

"And me lad, even though you're a filthy no good Elf I believe you" said Grumpy as he took his axe off his shoulder and had a few practice swings with it.

"Ok then" sighed Alyse as she took her bow from her shoulder and knocked an arrow to the string. "I'll also join this stupidity but I'm not happy about it."

"Just make sure that you don't shoot me by mistake" said Grumpy.

"If I shoot you it won't be by mistake" Alyse snapped back.

"Ok here's the plan" said Shyne "On the count of three Alyse will shoot an arrow at it then we'll all charge into the room and attack."

"That's a brilliant plan" said Alyse sarcastically "did you think of it all by yourself?"

Shyne ignored the Ranger and motioned for the group to remove all of their excess equipment then move into position; Alyse and Grumpy to the right of the door and he and Llona to the left.

"Gimp, stay here and guard our rear" he said.

"Yes Master" replied the Imp from above the door frame 'I shall wear your nipples as earrings when you are dead' he chuckled to himself.

“One” began Shyne “two, THREE!” he shouted.

Alyse stepped into the doorway, raised her bow and fired her arrow at the creature sitting behind the desk.  The arrow flew unerringly across the room and slammed into its right shoulder, sending it sprawling backwards over the chair and onto the floor.  No sooner had the arrow left the bow than Grumpy was through the door bellowing at the top of his voice and running to the right side of the table, with Llona and Shyne a few steps behind and running towards the left.  Alyse cast aside her bow and drew her sword as she ran to follow the dwarf.  The creature, having quickly regained its senses, rolled across the floor and scooped up its swords before rising to its feet in a defensive stance.  It just had time to screech some something out in its native tongue before Grumpy launched a vicious swing at it with his great axe.  The monster danced nimbly to its left and parried the axe, before swivelling on the ball of its right foot and launching an attack that caught Shyne a glancing blow to the forearm, drawing a thin line of blood.  Screaming in rage Shyne swung his great sword at the creature but once again it deflected the blow.  

As the monster was distracted by Grumpy and Shyne, Llona seized the opportunity to strike and thrust a short sword into its red scaled hide.  The creature screamed in agony, whirled around and rained a series of blows onto its new foe.  Llona did everything she could to defend herself but it wasn’t enough, one sword inevitably snuck past her defences and plunged into her side.  Gasping in pain she backed away from the savage monster until her back was against the wall.  

“KILL IT! KILL IT!” screamed Shyne as he swung his great sword in a murderous arc, catching the monster in the right thigh and opening the flesh to the bone.

“BASH IT’S BLOODY HEAD IN!” roared Grumpy as he swung his axe in unison with Shyne and nearly severed one of its right arms causing it to drop a sword.

Screaming in agony the beast swung its remaining weapon at Grumpy, the blow crashing against his helmet and sending him reeling into the desk and leaving him dazed on the floor.  

Alyse’s eyes widened in shock as she saw her friend collapse against the desk and onto the ground.  Gritting her teeth in rage she leapt at the insectoid creature and drove her blade deep into its back.  A split second later Llona plunged both of her short swords into its stomach and wrenched them clear with a snarl.  They both watched as it slowly sank to its knees in front of them, then, with a primal scream Shyne leapt into the air and brought his great sword down onto its head, showering them all in a putrid grey matter as it exploded under the force of the blow.  

Still panting from the brief battle, Alyse ran to Grumpy's side and was relieved to see that he was slowly coming to his senses.

“That” said Llona through ragged breaths as she fought to stem the bleeding from her wounded side, “was one tough bug”.

Elvis was on the ground floor watching Slobba trying to open the door when he heard Nancy start to growl.  He turned around and saw the wolf sitting on her haunches about 10 feet from the end of the rope and staring up into the hole that lead to the level above.  Elvis walked over to the wolf, sat down beside her and began stroking her coarse dark fur.

“What’s wrong girl?” he asked in a soothing tone.

Nancy ignored him and continued to growl at the ceiling.

“What’s that Nancy?” Elvis asked “Alyse is stuck in the roof?  And she needs our help?”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he heard the unmistakable sound of Grumpy’s Dwarven battle cry, followed by what could only have been shouts made by Alyse and Shyne.

Slobba immediately stood up and sprinted towards where the rope was dangling from the hole.

‘He’s not’ thought Elvis to himself as he watched Slobba gather speed.

‘By The Living God he bloody well is!  He said to himself as he dove out of Slobba’s path.

‘I hope someone is still holding onto the rope’ thought Slobba to himself a split second before he leapt into the air with his arms outstretched.

There wasn’t.

An instant after his hands gripped the knotted rope Slobba knew that no one was holding the other end.  As if in slow motion his body, clad in nearly 60 pounds of plate armour, crashed into the stone wall that was only 5 feet from the dangling rope.  A second after that he collapsed to the floor and lay motionless as the rope began to coil about him as it fell from the hole in the ceiling.  Slobba groaned in pain as he opened his eyes just in time to see a large backpack fill his vision before it slammed into his face and broke his nose with a sicking crunch

‘I really need to start wearing my helmet’ he thought to himself before passing out.

Slobba didn't know how long he'd been unconscious for.  It could have been seconds, it could have been hours.  The one thing he did know was that his face hurt.  A lot.  As he rolled over and struggled to his knees a wave of nausea gripped him and he vomited onto the floor.  He grimaced as he tasted the blood from his broken nose creep back down his throat so he did his best to spit it out.  After a few attempts he managed to get most of the blood out of his mouth and he took a second to wipe away the tears from his eyes. 

To his right he saw Elvis convulsing on the floor next to Nancy the wolf.  Concerned for the welfare of his friend he used the wall to pull himself upright and staggered over to where Elvis writhed on the floor.

"Elvush" he said through swollen lips "are you ok?"

Elvis' reply was muffled as he appeared unable to breathe.

"Elvush! Have you 'een 'oisoned?" said Slobba before he rolled Elvis onto his back to see if he was injured.

Elvis' face was nearly purple in colour and tears were rolling down his cheeks and he continued to convulse for a few seconds more before he was finally able to speak.

"That........was the.......funniest......thing.....I have.....ever.....seen!" he managed to say before he burst into fits of laughter.

Slobba looked down at his friend as he rolled around the floor and briefly considered kicking him.  Suddenly the right side of his mouth lifted in a smirk and before too long, even though it caused him even more pain, he too was laughing loudly.

Oblivious to what had happened on the ground floor Shyne was putting the finishing touches to the bandage that he had wrapped around the wound on Llonas torso.  The blow that Grumpy had taken to his head had done little more than stun the Dwarf and he was already back on his feet and along with Alyse, was searching the room.

"Make sure that bandage is nice and tight" said Llona.

Irritated that she would presume to tell him how to fix a field dressing, Shyne applied tightened the bandage more than was necessary, causing Llona to hiss through her teeth in pain.

"Enough idiot!" she said savagely.

"Just following your instructions" said Shyne in a neutral tone.

"I can see the entire city from here" said Grumpy from the chair that he had set back on its feet and was now sitting in.

"I've found the parchment that the creature was writing on when we first entered the room" said Alyse as she walked over to where Shyne and Llona were sitting.

"Can you read it?" she asked Shyne as she handed him the parchment.

"Bah! I don't have to read it" he said dismissively "it undoubtedly contains details of its evil deeds".

"It wouldn't hurt to have a look" said Llona as she loosened the bandage to give herself a little extra mobility "it might give us some clue as to what is going on in this tower".

"Yes I suppose you're right" said Shyne as he scanned the piece of parchment "unfortunately it's in a script that I am not familiar with so I'm going to have to cast a spell on it to allow me to do so."

"Get hurry on then" said Grumpy gruffly "we've left Elvis and Slobba down below and we need to get back to them".

Shyne nodded his head in agreement before walking across the room and setting the parchment on the table.  Before he commenced casting his spell he took the time to survey the city that surrounded the tower.  He did not know what magic had made the walls transparent from this side, but it was certainly impressive.  All around the tower the lights of the city shone brightly.  To the North West he could make out the light house that stood at the entrance to the harbour, while to the East he could see the lanterns that lined the main road that lead through the city. 

'Yes, this tower is a wonder to be sure' he thought to himself before he commenced muttering the words to the spell while his fingers traced an intricate pattern in the air above the table. 

As the spell began to take affect the words on the parchment began to merge into each other before they separated once again, this time in the Elvish language. 

Shyne waited for a few seconds for his eyes to refocus onto the familiar script of his people before he began to read from the top of the page.

AT last! After 300 years of being imprisoned in this gaol I am about to be set free!

'HA!  I was right, he was imprisoned for committing an evil act!' thought Shyne to himself smugly before continuing on.

Oh how I have longed for this day.  I cannot wait to hunt down the Wizards from the Ministry of Winds and bring them to justice for the evil that they have wrought over the centuries.

'What the fk?' thought Shyne as he glanced nervously about the room before resting his eyes back on the parchment.

For years I have watched them as they have ruthlessly murdered all those that opposed their plans to bring about the fall of all civilisations on this fair island.  Oh how they have taunted me with their tales of how they hunted down my family and tortured them to death.

'Uh oh' Shyne said to himself silently as the colour began to drain from his face.

Oh joy, an Elf just poked its head through the door!  It is strange how it reacted so oddly when I waved at it and shouted my greeting.  Surely things have not changed so much that they no longer recognise a Noble warrior of Heironeous, the God of Valour?  Ha! Of course not, he's probably gone to tell his friends about me.  Speaking of friends, the first thing that I'm going to do when I leave here is look up my old friend Maheeds OhnFyre the Azer Warrior.  Together we shall hunt down the wicked Wizards and smite them with the iron fists of justice. 

I think I'll open an orphanage too.  Oh, I think they're coming back!

Shyne placed the parchment back onto the table and tried to gather his thoughts.  Before he had the chance to say anything Llona began to speak.

"I don't know what is on that parchment but it must be despicable, you're as white as a ghost" she said with a note of concern in her voice.

Shynes mind raced with a maelstrom of thoughts.  He'd just had a hand in killing a holy warrior of Heironeous, sometimes known as the God of Justice. 

'But it looked EVIL' he screamed inwardly.

"Out with it pointy ears, what evil was this creature planning?" asked Grumpy.

Grumpy's words broke through the chaos of thoughts and snapped him back to attention. 

"Err evil" he said haltingly "yes it was...ummm....plotting to errrr....destroy the city.....that's it...and it was also going to ahhhh.....rain unholy vengeance upon all those that.......that...... like the colour beige." he concluded quickly.

"Beige?  Are you sure?" asked Alyse with more than a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Oh yes positive" Shyne said in a rush as he picked up the parchment and thrust it under Alyse's nose while pointing at some of the text on it.

"Right here, I'll read it to you" he coughed "AND LO SHALL I CAST UMMM CAST MY VENGENCE UPON ALL THOSE THAT WEAR BEIGE!  DEATH TO THE INFIDELS!!!" he shouted with a flourish.

"I don't know" said Alyse uncertainly.

"Oh look who's the bloody Wizard here huh?!" Shyne began to rant ”Who's the one that can cast spells and read languages?  Me, that's who and I just read it to you straight off the page, he was going to visit great evil upon the world and we stopped him before he could do it.  We're bloody heroes, that's what we are!  Now let’s get the hell off this level and get back to Elvis and Slobba!" he finished with a snarl.

Alyse quietly wiped the spit from her face before nodding her head and walking out of the room.  The rest of the group followed quietly behind her.

Authors Note:  The reference to "Maheeds OhnFyre the Azer Warrior" is an in joke for some of the people that read this blog.  A few years ago I was in another DnD group and we used a portal to call forth prisoners from their cells.  One of the creatures that appeared was a type of Dwarf, except that it had flames instead of hair.  One of the party members immediately assumed it was evil and killed it.  Turned out that it was actually a VERY good creature and he'd made a big mistake.  In his defence its head WAS on fire so it really was asking for it.