Rashemen - Book 3

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Atten felt dizzy. Everything was happening so quickly. He had no idea who was friend and who was foe. He did know that the unnaturalness of the undead was still everywhere in this place.

 

After some weird buzzing in his head, Sepp heard Delinos talking to him. Wracking pain made him cry salty tears. He rubbed his eyes vigorously, and when he pulled his hands away, they were red with blood, but he could see things clearly now. His body was covered in a film of thick, deep red blood. His olds friends were battling around him, fighting nasty undead things. He was still incased in a glowing blue bubble, which might not be a bad thing, as a huge dead leg swung by, but did not crush him.

He thought, "Delinos, Jex and I were in the realm of the dead, and we were pulled through a pool of blood. We emerged in a well, also full of blood, down those steps behind us. I think it's what the leader of these abominations draws his power from."

 

As the battle rage on, an loud laughter could be heard far above the fight. Soon after a full flock of new undead creatures surrounded the area.

"We gotta move"

Kongol yelled as it cut one of the creatures in half with his axe. While he continue to swing his axe left and right, trying to clear out the way. He saw a blue magical sphere, but only for a moment, after a quick flash on light a new shape emerged,

"Little halfling!!!" Kongol said as it approached him and once he got within range he swong his leg to kick the undead, which was about to kill Sepp.

 

Jex fell into his bloodlust. His blessed blades wreaked amongst the undead. Even though they appeared to be people, whenever a blade struck it opened the steaming wound that his blades caused on undead and fell creatures.

Around him lay the bodies of his foes. He heard Sepps shout and looked towards the door. The magic of his amulet had worn off, if it hadn't he would of been through the door without hesitation, but he was across the cavern, and had a score of enemies between him.

"Sepp you and the brothers drow get to the mage. The rest of us can handle this motley bunch."

 

Nakia's sling was like a part of herself, she didn't have to think about it and could use it with one hand. The fire bullets did a lot of damage but she didn't have many of those. Regular bullets were plentiful and certainly an inconvenience to the target especially when it was rather rotted and close to falling apart naturally.

Being ambidextrous she had her short sword in the other hand poking and slashing at spots that would normally be very painful. It annoyed the undead but didn't have quite the same effect it would on the living. A good whack to the legs would often topple a creature giving Jex and Kongol a chance to finish it off.

She was marginally aware that Del had joined the fight and the Paladin had recoved and was doing her thing. She didn't know if the others were around or not but concentrated on the enemy.

She intended to survive this fight; she must return home. It was a need and a force deep within her and nothing dead or alive would stop her.

 

The blue bubble around him slowly vanished. Many large dead creatures were flailing about the cavern, some with jagged bones protruding from their limbs. This was not a good place to be a naked small body of flesh and bone, without any armor, or even any clothes. Through his bare feet Sepp felt the stone, which was fully alive, despite the aura of death surrounding all the fleshy creatures in this area. He became one with it, easily and instantly, it seemed a much smoother process than the last time he really remembered doing it, but odd, haunting reveries flickered briefly in his mind.

He heard Jex shout a command to him. He could clearly feel the power of the well below them, and thought it might be a priority to deal with, but Jex was better in tactical situations, so he dashed up some stairs, with the drow brothers close behind, and was that Nakia following too, or just shadows in the dark?

At the top of the stairs was a thick wooden door. Sepp didn't take the time to see if it was open or locked, he just smashed through it. He broke into a dark and cluttered room. A man in black robes was there fumbling with a scroll. He glanced curiously at Sepp for a moment, then seemed to recognize something about him.

"Oh, you, little imp?" He sneered. "I'll have to be more careful who I summon next time. I DISMISS you!" He shouted at Sepp, waves of energy coming out of his mouth and flowing over Sepp.

Sepp could feel what was left of the sticky dark blood after his transformation melt off and evaporate from this plane. It was refreshing, like a nice dip in icy water.

"What?" the man gulped. "Why are you still here? I sent you back to your home plane."

"I am home," Sepp growled as he lunged at the man, Jex's dagger set to drive into his heart. The man didn't move at all, and Sepp went right through him, or at least where he appeared to be, and crashed into a bookshelf.

"Stupid demon!" voice of the man said from a few feet to the left. Sepp saw the tip of a wand glow, then more rays of energy than he could count flowed out of the wand and into his body, blasting off small chunks of stone all over. Sepp had wisely not grown any pain receiving nerves in the outer layer of his stone self, though he was sure to feel it when he turned back to flesh and bone.

That was IF he turned back to flesh and bone. The tip of the wand seemed to be growing brighter again. A few more shots and Sepp might just be a small pile of rubble scattered around this room.

 

Nakia saw Sepp and the brothers take off and followed them. When Sepp smashed through the door she could see a figure in the room speaking some gibberish and then it raised a wand and rays shot out at Sepp. Without thought or hesitation she lobbed a bullet at the thing's head causing it to jerk back. The second set of rays just barely missed Sepp and smashed into a wall leaving a nice large round hole. Another bullet followed closely behind the first striking the head. The man jerked back and turned toward the gnat that dared to bite him. He raised the wand and pointed in her direction so she ducked and rolled.

 

The Brothers darted into the room after Sepp, and with no hesitation began sealing and preparing the room. First, Kelvados cast a spell that created a seal around the room, so that none could escape using magic. Then, Delinos shrouded the room in a dense black fog.

The room was quiet as all were confused. Suddenly, the fog seemed to condense around the Brothers, and soon Kelvados blasted out of it, dual swords swinging madly in an intricate dance of death. The mage was taken aback, but soon regained his demeanor and blasted the drow with magic, with little avail.

Delinos then jumped out of the mist, as it disappeared, firing spell after spell at the mage. The mage once again lost his concentration and was forced to step back, closer to the wall, as the two Drow were relentless.

Delinos felt a strange burning inside of him as he fired off intricately worded spells at the mage, disarming him, and lowering his defenses. He felt.. a loyalty to Sepp, as he once did to his Matron Mother in the Underdark. But this loyalty was different, it was, friendly.. almost brotherly.


Kelvados felt similar, but his mind was elsewhere. He was using strange new techniques with his swords, and with his body, it was bending and twisting with no pain or ache, it was if he had no bones, just pure muscle. Their drive to kill this mage was unbridled and soon caused them to cut off the mage's power altogether.

As soon as the mage's power was drained, the brothers ceased their assault and froze, eyeing the mage, eyeing how his bruised lip quivered, and how his hands shook. Delinos suddenly smiled, a wicked smile, as his years of torturing and killing in the Underdark rushed back to him.

This will be payback, Delinos thought. This man will be tortured until he is no more. Some of his mind connection to Sepp lingered, but he did not care. Sepp could not stop him.

"Usstan orn drital wun dosst vlos, rivvil, lu' usstan orn tlu loff'ta wun l' lor d' dosst solen 'zil dos el, rin'ov ji retlah d' jiv'undus." Delinos spat, "Xal dosst quortek tlu rin'ov athiyk a l' ilythiiri!"

Delinos cast a spell that tortured the mind of the human, ripping down the defenses, destroying memories, and draining his intelligence. In a matter of seconds, the mage became a drooling, blubbering fool. Kelvados was slicing the skin on the man's arms and chest as Delinos continued his speciality.

 

Nakia stared at the brothers and the now idiot Mage then moved over to Sepp. First she checked him over for injuries then she grabbed him and shock him hard.

"Don't you never, ever do that to me again! We're going home to me burrow. Leave again I slice to bits, carry back in bag! You important to Hin. Need you. Now we gotta find clothes."

Avoiding the brothers and the mage she started looking around the room. She looked through the hole in the wall to another room but couldn't get through. Kelvados' spell still held. She thought that was a good thing. No point in the others seeing the brothers at their gruesome work.

She opened a few chests finding scrolls and potions but no clothes. Finally she sat down, pulled out her raggedy bag of holding and dumped things out.
Lots of gifts for her clan and other assorted odds and ends. Finally she found the package of her clothing. Not much there and it would be too small for Sepp. Ah, some cloth she had picked up at least Sepp could wrap himself in it. It was a nice plaid of green, red and blue with gold thread in it.

"Here Sepp, wrap this around you and check this pile of stuff for anything you need."

She pulled out some mead and cakes, offered them to Sepp and began to eat while waiting for the brothers to finish and free the room.

While she didn't actually approve of what they did she had seen so much that she tended to withhold judgement besides she could think of a few people she might like torturing to death. And she really hated necromancers. Dead things should stay dead.

 

Either someone had cast a very powerful slow spell or what it seem to be a never-ending flock of undead just stopped. Only a few daggling bodies kept on walking, which was not problem to work on, specially with the aid for the paladin and Jex.

To much of Kongol's discontent, the fight had finally ended. A view of dismembered arms, bones, twitching legs and half-cracked skulls laid all over the cavern floor.

"Peleane, we should look for Nakia, Sepp and the Drow bothers to be sure there okay. They might need your healing" Kongol said, while crushing bone as he walked.

 

Kelvados finished the torturing ritual by thrusting his sword through the under chin of the Necromancer.

"There, it is finished." Delinos declared as he released the holding spell on the room. Looking around, he grabbed a few of the books on the shelf, and, sensing their magic, stuffed them into his pack. He also cleaned up some of the mage's blood, as it was causing his boots to become dirtied.

Kelvados walked over to Sepp, a soft look in his eyes, "Sepp, abbil, you made us worry for you. Where've you been? And what's this well you told Delinos of?"

 

Jex walked from the battle area to the small room where the others were. "Nice outfit Sepp. I like the gold trim." He said with a smile, it was good to be with the others and not have to worry about his father.

Looking at the brothers drow and the mangled body of the necromancer "Thats a bit of work you to did, Reaching back to the homelands skills are we. Don't worry I won't judge. He wasn't exactly a good guy."

"Now what do we do?" He asked as he wiped the last bit of red goo from behind his ear.

 

Sepp shivered as he came back to himself. He looked at his skin, now flesh, with just a few slight scars where the rays had taken chunks of stone out of him. He didn't remember turning back to flesh, but he did remember being part of Delinos and Kelvados, and sucking the life force out of the mage to heal his wounds. And, more disconcertingly, he remembered enjoying doing it, revelling in the mage's suffering.

He hugged Nakia again, "Cousin, dear cousin, I'd thought I'd never see you again," he cried. A noise from the broken door made him look up and he saw Atten, and the giant who had kicked him long ago, now looking friendly, and a woman warrior he'd never seen before, and Del, all coming in the room.

"All the undead are destroyed," the warrior woman said. Then she shuddered in horror. "What evil has taken place here?" she demanded.

Sepp could feel the power of the well below them, but it could wait for awhile, people needed explanations.

"Sit down and make yourselves comfortable," Sepp said, grabbing five honey cakes from Nakia's pile of stuff. "I'll tell you what I remember."

"When the giant there kicked me, I tried to turn into stone, but only my brain was stone when his foot connected, and somehow the blow got me stuck like that. I remember following you all around for awhile, not being able to talk. Then this beautiful song melted my stone brain back into flesh, and I could talk again, but before I said anything to anybody, I saw my sister Drell bekoning to me. I know I should have realized it was a trap, because Drell is long dead, but I followed her anyway and she poked me with a wand and paralyzed me, took all my stuff except for my Mother's ring, and turned into me. Then two drow came and took me away. I think their names were Bregan, and Darth. Do you know those two guys, Delinos or Kelvados?"

"Well, they had this big spider centuar wrap me up in a silk coccoon and took me deep underground to a place called Donigarten, I think. Then I was in this weird cavern full of metal and glass stuff. There was a mind flayer there, but it was just the helper, the bosses were these three huge giant slugs."

"They did all sorts of experiments on me, mostly putting me in dangerous situations and trying to figure out why I didn't die. Then they were finally finished and were going to let the mind flayer eat me. That's when I tried to send a last goodbye wish to Nakia, but couldn't connect with her, as she seemed to be in a bubble of death, which is I think now the area around that well down there. So I tried to connect with Jex, but just as I was making contact he got pulled through some type of dimensional gate. I grabbed on to him and somehow came with him."

"I'm pretty sure now we ended up in the realm of the dead. We saw some entities there, but they didn't want to talk to me," he glanced at Jex but didn't say anything more.

"Then we found this pool of what looked like water, but I think now it is probably blood or ichor. And we could see this island being attacked. Only to us it looked like you all were demons and the mage and his zombies were good people. So we rushed through to help him. I'm glad we figured things out before we killed eachother."

While he had been talking he had been going through Nakia's stuff. Now the fabric around him was kind of held on with a short piece of rope, which also had a pouch hanging from it. He had found an extra sling, some bullets, a very hard small piece of wood that would be an okay club, several more honey cakes and cheeses. "Is it all right if I keep this dagger I got from you for awhile?" he asked Jex.

"Okay, I think we should go down and check out this well."

They all went down the stairs to the room with the well. It was full of deep dark blood, and hummed slightly with an ominous power. Sepp sent out his senses and examined the well and cavern.

"My guess is that this well is a gate to the realm of the dead, and that's how the necromancer was able to have so much power over the undead. We should destroy it, so no one else can use it, and things in this swamp can grow normally again. If we just smash this tower down, people will have a difficult time getting to it, but it will still be there. I wonder." He looked around at his friends, something in Atten's pack jumped out at his senses, glowing brightly.

"Maybe if a living thing were to go through, or even get near the gate, it would rupture. Though that would be a great sacrifice and I'm not sure that even all of us together would have the necessary power to close it. But Atten, do you still have that seed of the tree my Mother gave you after we returned the Earth's Heart? Maybe it would work, and not be hurt by the gate, but nourished. Just as the seed must die and be buried in the dirt before it can grow new life. And the sapling takes its life from the death of the animals and plants around it that have decomposed, maybe this seed could have the power to close this unnatural gate, and return this swamp to life."

"Of course, you should probably ask the seed if it would like to be here. But I think it might work, unless anyone has some other ideas about what we could do."

His stomach was starting to feel not completey stuffed, so he took out a cheese and nibbled on it.

 

"hey, Nature Boy, I think Sepp has a good idea there. You ask that seed if it's hokay and if it is maybe we can get some life back in this place." Nakia pokes at Atten just to make sure he is paying attention.

[ January 07, 2007, 23:38: Message edited by: Nakia ]

 

“Huh?” responded Atten quizzically. “You think I can TALK to a seed? That’s not how the living force works. Or not for me anyway. Remind me what you know about this seed and we can decide what we should do.”

 

"I'm pretty sure it's that seed trapped in amber that my mother gave to you that I sense in one of your packs." Sepp said. He touched the diamond on his ring, closed his eyes, and when he spoke, it was with his mother's voice.

"Long, long ago, when the Earth was yet young, and Nature just a babe, before the gods were born, and plants and trees were the prime life on the planet, there was a race of sentient trees. As the gods started creating their races, there soon became no where where these trees were safe, and they dissappeared. This seed trapped in the amber, still holding the potential of life, is the last. If anyone has the wisdom to guide this tree, to decide if and when it should be planted, it is you.”

He opened his eyes and spoke with his own voice.
"So, I'm thinking that this might be a good place to place to plant that tree. Just commune with it like when you use the power of a tree's bark for armor. Maybe the amber hardened around it is interferring with you. I can melt it away, if you want me to."

 

Kelvados listened intently, since leaving the Underground he had been amazed by the beauty of the new land, that's why he strove to learn it's secrets. This new information on the destruction of trees angered him. He realized that he had developped a soft spot for nature, he cared nothing for humanoid life, but when natural things were killed, it hurt him. Nature was so balanced, it didn't strive to be more supirior then the others. It didn't beg or weep to be saved, it didn't whine about it's condition. He did care for some humanoids, his brother, and the halflings, maybe even some of the others, but unneeded cruelty agaisnt the Mother was a sin, that he would hardly forgive, and never forget.

He listened on, hoping the Druid could revive this seed, of ancient trees.

 

While they waited for Atten to decide what he wanted to do Nakia settled herself and laid out a variety of food. They had all been traveling and fighting hard and she figured they could use a rest. She hoped that the comrades not with them were alright.

The food and small rest revived her and she decided to do a little exploring. She popped through the hole to the next room. It appeared to be a lab of some sort, rather gruesome but she check out any chests or boxes she found finding spell scrolls and books on magic.

On a table lay a body of an ogre and there were containers of various potions and ingredients for potions. She would let the magic users check this stuff out. There were some amulets and rings but she didn't like the feel she got from them. Things again best left to those experienced with magic.

Through a door she found some stairs winding up to a living area. She found clothes but much too large for Sepp. The top of the tower was flat with a short wall around it. She could look out over the swamp.

An insect buzzed up to her and she pulled back then realized it was alive. Now that was a good sign. Some life was slowly returning to the area but from the look of things she thought it would be a long time before the true swamp reclaimed the area.

 

Jex followed Nakia to the top of the tower. "I recall you saying something about returning to your hometown. Perhaps when we are finished with this tower we should make our way there."

Coming to the edge he looked down at the swamp. "I worry of our reception though with the brothers and myself, how will your people react, Nakia?"

 

"Though there is no love between the Hin and Drow neither is there hate. We are both children of the dark. The Hin live both below and above ground. Our personalities are very different and so are our gods. We have no evil gods."

She smiles with a twinkle in her eye. "However, our gods are not so serious as the humans'. They are family, much honored but still family not beings to be feared and bribed. But that is not what you ask. You and the Brothers will be welcomed to my home because you are my brothers."

She laughs and pokes Jex, "Just think of yourself as honorary halflings and be ready to be feasted. You'd better have a good appetite or the folk will feel insulted."

She grows pensive and stares off towards the west and speaks softly, "I must go home. I don't know why but it is more than just wanting to see my family."

She turns and looks up at Jex, "I feel there may be danger. Something is afoot and it may go back to the long ago past. I do not know but I worry. I have strange dreams."