Death of Thaxll'ssilya

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This is my first attempt at writing a creative story on my own, outside of school. Please keep in mind that I finished writing this at about 12:30am, so it won't be too good.
My main character in this story is Keswyn Skymane, a chaotic good elven swashbuckler who dual wields Daystar and a short sword (+2). And Thaxll'ssilya is referred to as "Thax" for short.
Questions, comments and criticism are welcome!

Keswyn opened his eyes and looked around at his friends. Anomen had had the last watch and had begun waking the rest of them. He had a difficult time trying to wake Minsc, as every time he reached down to pat him on the shoulder, Boo would try to bite his hand. Keswyn was worried that Anomen might lose control, and he was proven correct as Anomen cursed and began kicking Minsc in the side –– Boo had bit his finger for the fourth time.

“Why do you attack me? What have I done to you?” grumbled Minsc as he woke up.

Anomen responded rather vehemently, “Your blasted rodent keeps biting me Minsc, and I do *not* appreciate it. Would you mind stuffing it in your pack when you sleep?”

“NO!” Minsc shouted at Anomen, as he pulled himself to a sitting position to glare at him. Anomen glared right back. The situation might have taken a turn for the worse had Aerie not called out to Minsc to help her up just then.

“My witch beckons.” proclaimed Minsc to Anomen as he stood up and walked to where Aerie had been sleeping, to help her up.

Keswyn shared a glance with Valygar and Haer’Dalis at this repeated show of animosity between Minsc and Anomen, they knew it would likely get worse in the days to come. They sighed collectively and stood up together. As soon as Haer’Dalis had made it to his feet he rushed over to Aerie to discuss spell strategies, though they weren’t quite sure which spells would prove most useful against a dragon. Valygar walked to Anomen and motioned for Minsc to join them, and they discussed battle plans.

Keswyn leaned against the wall, glanced at the stairway they would soon be climbing and fingered the Rod of Resurrection he kept in his cloak pocket, knowing that he would soon need it. They were going up against a mighty shadow dragon that had easily massacred Mazzy Fentan’s renowned adventuring party. He felt a rising surge of fear, but he quickly suppressed it; his friends will need him at his best in the upcoming battle.

“We are ready!” Minsc declared to the party, “Boo is a little nervous, but he knows we will slay this dark monster in the name of righteousness.”

Aerie shifted uncomfortably at Minsc’s bold declaration, but Haer’Dalis whispered something to her, and she seemed to relax. Keswyn did not hear Haer’Dalis’ words, although he did note Aerie’s reaction with more than a little jealousy, Haer'Dalis had a way with words that he could never compete with.

“Let us go then, no sense in staying here if we are indeed ready to meet the monster.” Anomen replied.

“Gods help us if we are not.” whispered Keswyn under his breath, so quietly that even he barely heard his own voice.

* * * * *

The time came all too soon for them to leave their relatively safe campsite, deep in the ruins of what had once been a temple of Amaunator. Keswyn led the way up the stairs, followed closely by the rest of the party.

They reached the top of the stairs soon enough and they came to a large hall of sorts, but there seemed to be a curtain of deep shadows that covered more than half of the hall. They all knew that Thaxll’ssilya was somewhere in those shadows, but they couldn’t see him. Thax could not see them either, since Keswyn was carrying a shadow stone that would protect them all from the dragon’s sight until they attacked him.

Aerie cast a spell to summon a fire elemental to their aid. During the time that she was locked in a mental challenge with it, the party was preparing themselves; putting potions where they could be reached most easily drawing their weapons. Aerie’s mental duel ended very suddenly and the elemental charged towards her. As the elemental was charging towards them, Minsc lifted his hand to direct the spell in his ring at the elemental and said the triggering word. There was a bright flash and the elemental stopped, Minsc had gained control of it through his ring! He commanded it mentally to explore the shadows of the room, and Aerie summoned another elemental, an earth elemental this time.

As this new elemental rose out of the ground, the fire elemental had reached the wall of shadows, and it had stopped walking. As the party watched, the elemental’s flames went out and it crashed to the ground. A sense of dark foreboding washed over all of them now, and they clenched their weapons a little harder.

This time, Aerie’s mental duel ended well and the elemental responded to Aerie’s mental commands. She ordered it to follow Minsc and she then started walking along the wall of the hall, to her left. Haer’Dalis went to the right and passed a stairway that led upwards. He passed the entrance quickly, and stayed close to the wall. Keswyn then took to the shadows and walked directly to the back of the hall. He was the first to see Thax and he almost stopped as he saw the size and magnificence of this beast. Fortunately, he didn’t feel any of the awe-inspired fear that was said to accompany seeing a dragon. He stopped just behind the dragon, at the end of its massive, serpentine tail.

Aerie cast her third spell of the day, a version of invisibility that let her stay invisible, even after attacking an enemy. She stepped within sight of the dragon and cast another spell, this one designed to lower a creature’s resistance to magic. As Aerie’s spell washed over the dragon, Minsc, Valygar, Anomen and the earth elemental began their charge towards the dragon.

The dragon was wrapped up in a spell of its own; one that would dispel invisibility. Minsc gulped down a potion of strength and roared a challenge to the dragon. Valygar and Anomen had agreed to attack the dragon’s left side, and Minsc and the elemental attacked the right side and they followed their plan to the letter. Aerie launched an arrow of acid at the dragon’s head on its right side, at the same time that Haer’Dalis threw a magic missile at the dragon’s left shoulder blade. As both spells hit home, Thax called forth some spells he always kept prepared for adventurers. The most potent of these was a spell that protected him from magical weapons. Fortunately, Aerie had prepared a counter-spell, which she cast as soon as Thax’s protections took effect.

During this rush of activity, Keswyn called upon his sword, Daystar, to produce a powerful Sunray spell to destroy Thax. The Sunray did not have its intended effect, but it did wound Thax to the point of causing him to roar in rage and pain, and swing one of its gigantic claws at the elemental. The creature shrieked as one of its arms fell to the ground and shattered.

Valygar and Anomen were busily hacking away at a large scale on Thax’s belly, but they had yet to break through it. Minsc was having more luck, but he was attacking the dragon’s head. Thax was trying to grab Minsc in his mouth, to tear him apart in front of his friends’ disbelieving eyes. Minsc would have none of it and was leaving large cuts in the dragon’s face as it came close. Thax decided that this large human was proving to be more trouble than he was worth, so he got up on his haunches and started flapping his enormous bat-like wings. Minsc was thrown back into the wall above the stairway they had used to enter this hall. The dragon then finished the elemental off with another swing of its claw that severed the creature’s head. Thax turned to Valygar and Anomen and flapped its wings again, throwing them into the wall behind Haer’Dalis. Aerie was still shooting off spell after spell against Thax in the hopes that she might hurt it and catch its attention.

Keswyn had taken to stabbing and hacking at Thax’s haunches. He had found a weak spot on the dragon and was stabbing his swords into the wound, slowly making it grow in size. Minsc came running back at Thax with his sword raised and a howl. Thax almost smiled as he drove his claw through Minsc’s chest, he didn’t even have time to realize what had happened when Thax pulled his claw out and waved it at Anomen and Valygar, as they were also sprinting at him.

Just then, Keswyn crawled beneath Thax and drove both of his swords into the beast’s underbelly. Thax screamed in outrage and pain and slammed his belly to the ground in a vain attempt to squash the impetuous elf that had dared wound him so. Keswyn dove into a roll that brought him behind Thax again, but Thax was waiting for him and as he came to his feet he found himself being buffeted by powerful winds and he flew through the air to crash into a pillar in the very back of the hall.

Aerie was running out of spells and she began to fear that she might have to attack Thax with her mace, an act she knew would result in her demise. Fortunately, she did not have to resort to such drastic measures just yet, as Anomen and Valygar reached the dragon and resumed hacking at the scale they had managed to crack. Under their renewed efforts, the scale broke and they managed to pierce the dragon’s thick flesh. Thax was enraged and turned its full attention on these two warriors. Mighty Thax was beginning to feel the effects of this battle, as he swung his head to look squarely at Anomen, and his head slammed into Anomen’s poisoned morning star. Thax screamed at this human and brought his claw to bear as he pulled his head up and away.

Thax swung his claw at Anomen, who tried to parry the blow. Anomen realized his mistake as the dragon’s claw broke his arm and his neck almost as soon as he had raised his arm to parry. Anomen’s corpse landed at Haer’Dalis’ feet and he tried not to retch as he looked into the lifeless eyes of his friend. His eyes filled with tears as he looked back to the dragon.
Valygar fell into a roll to avoid the dragon’s back swing, and rolled beneath the behemoth. He stabbed his sword into the wound Keswyn had opened. By now, Keswyn had recovered from his collision with the pillar and dashed back to the dragon’s backside. He leapt and thrust his swords into the dragon’s rear end. Thax bellowed and turned to bite the elf in half, but Haer’Dalis saw his opening and fired his last magic missiles into the dragon’s face. The spheres of red energy burned into Thax’s eyes, nose and mouth and his skull seemed to collapse, as in fact it did. Those last magic missiles were too much for Thax; they burned their way through his facial orifices and into his brain, which was then incinerated.

The almighty Thaxll’ssilya was dead. Keswyn could barely believe his eyes and by the looks on the faces of his friends, neither could they! Valygar let himself fall to the ground in his exhaustion and Aerie followed his example. Haer’Dalis just stood where he was, gaping at the shadowy beast he had slain. Keswyn could not let himself rest yet, he had to resurrect Minsc and Anomen.

He drew forth his Rod of Resurrection and said the triggering word, along with the names if his dead friends. Their lifeless corpses were suddenly alive again. Two loud raspy intakes of air marked the return of the warrior-cleric and the ranger.

Minsc’s words as he returned to life were a sure sign of his return, “Aerie? Boo? Are you there?.”

Aerie got to her feet and ran to her protector, “I’m here Minsc, no need to worry.” Boo also seemed to squeak his encouragement to Minsc.

“Is that rodent still alive?” asked Anomen in his unusual accent, “I would have thought it died with Minsc.”

“You mean, ‘you hoped it died with Minsc.’” laughed Keswyn.

The party shared a laugh at this and Keswyn was still chuckling when he began to inspect the dragon's corpse. He found several items on the beast’s body, among them a scroll for something called the “Crom Faeyr.” He was also able to pry a scale off of its body without damaging it, 'Cromwell will be seeing them soon' he thought.

The six of them regrouped at the newly discovered stairway and the thought occurred to them that this adventure was not quite over…

I'd really like to hear your opinions of my story, and whether it was good, decent or outright bad (or something in between).

[This message has been edited by Faerus Stoneslammer (edited May 26, 2002).]

 

Pretty darn good actually, i read t all the way to the end without skipping a bit, which is more than i can say for most stories on this board.......including my own!

Post again when you face Firkragg!

 

/me claps. Very good story

 

Not bad at all. Not bad at all.

*applause*

 

V Good

 

Good job, you wrote a good story! I thank you for giving me some delight at this dark helpdesk

 

Good job. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were an author. Bravo!

 

Really good, write some more for the other dragons.

 

Not bad ^^

[Edit] Ha, how on earth did I post in a thread this old? Sorry ! Ignore