Adrian: Baldur's Gate

Dark.

Dark and Cold.

"Can you see anything Viconia?" Adrian's voice said.

"Not much." Her eyes were glittering red orbs in the dark, naught else to be seen. They hadn't brought torches. They hadn't anticpiated the need.

Adrian had made an error, an oversight.

"Tiax?"

"Tiax sees uniform blue," the Gnome muttered sulkily.

"Edwin, Xzar, mage lights."

The lights, red from Edwin, blue from Xzar, made an eerie purple twilight around them. It wasn't much, but better than nothing.

"Sorry, Viconia." Adrian didn't bother to apologize to Tiax.

The Drow shrugged. "Can't see undead anyway."

"There will surely be some," muttered Xzar.

Adrian allowed him self a small, hard smile. "We have ways of dealing with them. And my last power dream gave me some ability in that line as well. Xzar, summon your pet. Viconia, Tiax, bring out your dead. They will form a cordon around us."

Soon the party was surrounded by a vanguard of loyal undead. Both Viconia and Tiax assured Adrian that they could turn additional undead as needed. They had both grown in power; it was more than possible.

But they had an additional problem.

Hssssssssss....

"Dopplegangers," said Tiax and Xzar in unison. Viconia's eyes narrowed.

"Here they come!" cried Edwin.

Dopplegangers, and those undead their Greater kindred had taken under dominion, slammed into the party's own cordon of undead full force.

Adrian cursed, he couldn't aim his crossbow through their own undead. The mages had the same problem. They could only wait until the enemy reached them. The battle was relatively silent, the sounds of bones crashing and dopplegangers hissing the only noise.

"What am I thinking?" Adrian almost bellowed in frustration. "Turn their undead! Turn them! Turn them!! TURN THEM!!"

Viconia and Tiax began to chant. Adrian closed his eyes and drew upon this new power for the first time, spreading his hands out.

The hisses of the dopplegangers became alarmed as their own undead turned against them. The tide turned. The hisses became howls of fear and pain.

Edwin punched a fist in the air. "Yes!"

Xzar nudged him. "Shut up."

Edwin glared at him, then looked at the expression on Xzar's face. Of understanding. Of cunning. Of course, Xzar understood the dead all too well.

Edwin shut up. Xzar was right, he needed to not disrupt the concentration of the clerics and Adrian.

When it was over, most of their own undead were down. The surviving dopplegangers fled howling into the darkness.

Adrian had never been afraid of the darkness, but now it was a cloak for his enemies. It wasn't over. They'd be back. And down here, there was no shortage of corpses to draw upon.

Then there was the twang of a bow, the clash of weapons.

"Someone else fighting them?" Viconia whispered.

"Let's go see," said Adrian.

The party moved on.