Cards Reshuffled

There are many terrifying sounds in the world. The roar of an angry dragon. A sword being drawn directly behind you. Somebody you love screaming with pain. But sometimes, it is the most mundane and simple sounds possible that are the most frightening of all. Such as the sound of a door opening…or a door closing.

Excerpt from ‘Ruminations Of A Master Bard’

Zaerini reacted instinctively at seeing the writhing mass of spiders come flooding towards her. A large ball of flame leapt from her outstretched palm, landing in the middle of the arachnid horde, and the flash to her side told her that Edwin had acted at the same time. The spiders screeched in shrill voices as they burned, and there was a horrible stench rising from the blackened bodies. Many of the spiders had been neatly burnt to little crisps by the combined magic of the Red Wizard and the bard, but a large number still remained, and by now they were too close to risk any more massive damage spells, there being a high risk of hurting the other party members instead. Rini prepared to switch from magic to blade, but just as she was about to draw her sword something large, hairy and many-legged dropped from the ceiling, clinging to her back. Making a startled gasp of surprise, she automatically tried to pry the thing off, but it clung firmly to her, refusing to let go. Then she felt a sting at the back of her neck, and a burning pain, followed by an intense wave of nausea. Not poison again…stupid old disgusting spiders… Her vision was getting blurry, making it impossible to focus on casting spells, and the pain was getting worse. She was dimly aware of the sounds of combat going around her, but not of any of the details. And still the spider was stuck to her neck. Frantic to get it off, she slammed her back into the stone wall of the corridor, feeling the beast twitch, and then something thick and sticky running into the back of her tunic. Yuck, she thought as she slumped to her hands and knees, heart racing furiously under the poison’s destructive influence.

A spider approached her, its many eyes glinting black in the faint light, and she tried to get her sword out, but she was slow, so slow, and getting weaker all the time. And then a mace slammed down on the spider, flattening it into something that resembled a black, hairy pancake, if you could imagine a pancake oozing thick yellow fluids and having long legs sticking out of it. A voice chanted something, there was a steady hand on her forehead, and then she felt the mists in her head clear, and she was looking into Anomen’s face, his blue eyes dark with concern. “My lady!” he said. “How do you feel?”

“I’ve been better…but I could have been worse.” The bard smiled briefly. “Thanks, Anomen.”

Smiling in return, the priest helped her to her feet, and since he was strong, and she was lightly built, she was practically lifted off the ground. As she got her bearings, she scanned the melee for the rest of her companions, her eyes worriedly searching for one above all the others, enough so that she failed to notice the Helmite still holding onto her elbow, hovering protectively over her. Please don’t let Eddie have decided that he wants one of these critters for a pet…Then she heaved a sigh of relief as she saw the wizard hurrying towards her, his robes stained with spider gore. He was looking just as anxious as Anomen had. “Are you all right?” he asked as soon as he reached her. “I saw you fall, but before I had the time to reach you that obnoxious paladoofus-in-training was already yanking you about.”

“I’m fine. And Anomen healed me, you know. Be nice.”

The wizard looked as if he smelled something bad. “I suppose he has some uses then. Much the same as a compost heap. It fills a function, but you would not want it in your living room.”

“I suppose you would have simply let her die while you thought of a wordy excuse for failing her,” Anomen retorted.

“Take that back, helmet-head!” Edwin snarled.

“I will ever stand fast against evil, functioning as a shining beacon of light against the darkness!”

“Oh, I’ll make you a shining beacon all right! A few glowing coals stuffed inside that empty head, that should do nicely…”

Rini put her palm against her face for a few moments. Much as I care about them both, there are moments when I’d like to slap them silly. “Guys,” she said, trying to sound patient but not being entirely successful. “I’m alive and well, all right? Stop sniping at each other, we have a job to do, remember?”

“Aye!” Korgan agreed. “The book of Kaza is waitin’ for us, and I do nay wish to stand about with these two laddies fightin’ and squallin’ like bleedin’ babbies until me ears are ready to drop off.”

“Yes!” Minsc said. The large ranger had been a little ahead during the fight, stomping spiders flat beneath his large feet, as well as spitting them on the Sword of Chaos. Probably a good thing, Rini thought. If he had seen her hurt, he’d have been likely to react with extreme violence. “You should both try to be sensible like Minsc. Would you like Boo to help teach you about keeping calm?”

The looks on Edwin’s and Anomen’s faces were priceless.

Eventually the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. Presumably there was a roof somewhere above them in the darkness, but it was so high up that it couldn’t be seen. Narrow walkways led here and there, and in the center of the cavern was a curious structure, that looked very much like a silken cocoon, one large enough to contain a medium sized house. “Korgan?” Zaerini asked. “Do you suppose your book might be in there?”

The dwarf gave the structure a penetrating look, pulling thoughtfully at his braided beard. “I would nay think so…yon book should be inside the tomb proper. That be lookin’ more like some beastie’s hidey-hole. Still, we should be takin’ a look inside. Might be good treasure there, an’ it’ll keep the critter what lives there from ambushin’ us later on. Far better we ambush it first.”

“Oh,” Jan said, “now you’re sounding a bit like my cousin Porky. Well, his real name was Georgie, but nobody called him that.”

“He was fat?” Rini asked.

“No. Just had a swollen head. Anyway, Porky was very keen on preventing stuff. He shot the grocer to prevent him from overcharging for the turnips. He punched out the next-door neighbor to prevent him from disturbing him. He poisoned his horse to prevent it from looking at him funny. Eventually he went too far though.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Jaheira sighed.

“Clearly because you are a perceptive woman, Jaheira! So, Porky eventually decided that the whole world hated him and was out to get him, and by that point he was right of course. He barricaded himself in his house, with an arsenal of weapons, prepared to kill anybody who came close, collapsing the walls of certain rooms behind him. Sadly, he had forgotten to arrange for supply lines from the kitchen, and he soon found himself with no food or water. He couldn’t get out the door, and he’d put bars on all the windows too. Then, he thought himself saved, as he saw somebody passing by outside!”

“And?”

“And it turned out to be the grocer that Porky had shot earlier, and the man pelted him to death with rotten eggs. Suffocated on his own vomit he did, extremely tragic.”

“Right…” Zaerini said. “We’ll just press on for now and worry about whoever lives in that cocoon thing later, shall we?”

Soon enough the adventurers found themselves outside a locked door leading south, and Korgan triumphantly declared that now he was certain they were on the right track. Once Jan had dealt with the lock they entered, finding themselves in a very strange place. It was a long hall, with many narrow doors along the stone walls. Beautiful mosaics on the floor depicted strange faces and animals, portrayed in a style she couldn’t quite place. Everything was very silent, and there was an anticipatory feel in the air, as if the place was waiting to see her next move. She took a few careful steps forward. Nothing happened. A few more steps. Still nothing happened. A few more steps. And then there was a horrible sound, the worst sound possible under the current circumstances, a sound to send a cold shiver of fear along her spine. It was the sound of a large number of doors opening all at once.

Some of the creatures that came lumbering towards her from the suddenly open doors she recognized. There were a few gray skinned zombies, awkwardly dragging rotting limbs across the mosaic floor, leaving little bits of flesh behind here and there. There were ghouls and ghasts, flesh eating undead creatures that looked even more inhuman than the zombies did and that had very sharp claws. Then there were other creatures, which she hadn’t seen before. Shadowy figures, swirling patches of darkness with only vaguely humanoid forms. Wraiths. This is not shaping up to be a good day.

The attacks were coming from all sides at once, and there was no time to prepare properly. As quickly as she could she chanted a spell, and the world seemed to slow to a crawl around her as her speed of movement increased, as did her friends’. Edwin just had time to get another Fireball off, and a pair of ghouls fell, shriveled into blackened husks. Then the Red Wizard had to narrowly dodge the attack of one of the shadow creatures, and only his swift conjuration of a few goblins saved him. The small yellow-skinned creatures soon died, but they bought the mage enough time to get out of range. Rini concentrated, sending a couple of Magic Missiles into the fray, and one of the shadows screamed and puffed into an inky black cloud of smoke as Jan joined her efforts. Jaheira’s staff was moving almost too swiftly to see, and the druid had a snarl of disgust on her face as she battled the unnatural creatures around her. Korgan and Minsc were close by, both of them roaring enraged battle cries as they plowed through the enemies, sending chunks of dead meat flying everywhere. The tide of the battle certainly seemed to be turning. Anomen was holding his Holy Symbol of Helm aloft, chanting a prayer to his god, and the weaker of the undead were nervously retreating from him, one zombie even suddenly exploding with a surprised squeak.

And then there was somebody gripping her by the throat from behind, making her quite lose her breath, and sharp teeth were biting into her skin, drawing blood. There was a loud rush in her ears, accompanied by a muffled thumping sound. The sound of her heartbeat, she realized, growing slower…fainter. The pain at her throat was cold, so very cold, and she could feel her vision going. There were lips next to her skin, lips like icicles, and something was sucking at the wound. Sucking…my blood. She tried to struggle, to resist, but her limbs were growing weaker by the moment, and it was hard to think properly. The thing that was holding her was dragging her backwards, towards one of the doors, clearly intending to get away with her before her friends had the time to discover what had happened. She couldn’t even scream. Or at least…not with her mouth.

Softpaws! Get help!

The cat’s presence in her mind was a wordless hiss of anger and fear, but she thought she had got the message through. Then she felt herself lifted off the ground, strong arms carrying her, and her head lolled backwards, hot blood trickling down her throat. The upside-down world her fading eyes were seeing danced about her, reduced to incomprehensible swirling colors. Vaguely she was aware of her hair hanging down behind her. It had got longer during her stay in Irenicus’ dungeon, and she hadn’t had time to cut it yet. Funny, the things you could notice when you were about to die.

Somewhere behind her people were screaming, but the words were only a roar in her head, a roar choked off by the thunder of her heart, and now the door was slamming shut behind her with a sound like the stone slap closing off a tomb. The thing that was carrying her was running far too swiftly for a human, taking her deeper into the shadows beneath the Graveyard District. No. Not human. Vampire. I’m alone in the dark with a vampire…and I am already wounded.

Then the darkness closed in on her mind and she knew no more.