An old scene taken from a earlier chapter of my on-going serial…I’ve been doing a spot of editing and realised that this is pretty on-topic, since attacking dragons without preparing properly is definitely something of a mistake. Warning: Character death.
Eye of the Dragon
The adventurers of Kane Theaza’s group approached the huge red dragon cautiously, staring at it with mixed reactions of shock, surprise, amazement and wonder. Most of them had never seen anything quite like that before in their lives.
Benny nodded to himself. He had realised as soon as they had met the noble who had sent them on this chase that there was something strange about him, something not quite human. He hadn’t quite been expecting a dragon though. “Firkraag.”
“That’s Firkraag?” Cory stared up at the red dragon in amazement. “Seriously?”
“Yes, it is indeed I,” the dragon’s voice echoed through the room. “I should have known better than to think that I could fool one of your…obvious skill, Scarface. Yes, your name and deeds are well known to me.” He turned and addressed Kane. “You have come as I wanted, Bhaalspawn. It has been an interesting game, but to tell the truth, I tire of it.”
“So do I,” Kane narrowed his eyes, his fingers absently circling the hilt of his sword. “Tell me, why have you done this, Firkraag? Why have you forced this confrontation?”
“For my amusement and my curiosity more than anything,” Firkraag admitted. “I know what you are, Kane Theaza, and I thought that you may be an interesting subject to study. I could keep you here if I desired, but there is something else I’m interested in. Your conflict with Irenicus. Yes…that is something that I should very much like to see.”
“What do you know of Irenicus?” Kane demanded. “Answer me, Firkraag! What do you know of that sadist?”
“Nothing that you do not already know yourself,” a low rumble of laughter broke from the dragon’s chest. “I have no dealings with the creature; I am merely interested in seeing your dealings with him. Now that will be something to see. You can go now.”
“You trick and manipulate us for your own purposes and then expect us to walk away?” Now it was Kane’s turn to laugh, hardly able to believe what he was hearing. “No, Firkraag, that is not the way it works. Not with me, not with any of us.”
“Come now,” Firkraag shook his large head. “I know of you, I have heard many tales of your past deeds and I don’t doubt that you are a very powerful warrior. As is your friend Scarface, one of the most famous assassins in Faerun, or so they say. But do you honestly think yourselves powerful enough to beat me?”
“Rather overconfident, aren’t you?” Viconia sneered. “Many have underestimated us and fallen.”
“But they were not I,” Firkraag pointed out. “I have given you the chance to walk away and I would advise you to take it if you wish to live to fight another day. Think very carefully before you do something you regret.”
“That’s not the way I work, Firkraag!” There was a faint hiss of steel as Kane pulled his swords from their scabbards. “You manipulated me and my party for your own purposes and I dislike being used like that! I swear that you will regret the day you decided to mess with me!”
“As you like,” the dragon sounded more amused than anything else, confident of a quick victory. “I suppose I should have expected nothing else from one of your kind. Let us battle.”
Unlike their battle with the shadow dragon, the adventurers had little chance to prepare themselves and this put them at an instant disadvantage as Firkraag brought up several protection spells before attacking them. Edwina protected herself from fire, threw out a few spells to strip Firkraag of his spell protection and then stood back in a corner of the room and bombarded the dragon with a constant stream of magic missiles. The warriors, including Viconia, did as they had done in the last dragon battle and surrounded the beast, hitting it with everything they had. Unfortunately they soon discovered that Firkraag was even tougher than the shadow dragon had been and most of their weapons did little more than mild scratches. The dragon seemed more amused than angry by their attempts and was obviously holding back on his attacks, at least until Yoshimo stuck his sword through his wing and Korgan did some damage to one of his legs. Then Firkraag began to get angry.
Using his wing attack, the dragon knocked Kane, Benny and Viconia off their feet and sent them crashing into the wall before sending a fireball after them. The two men just managed to roll out of the way in time, although Viconia got slightly burnt on her side. With the three of them temporarily down, he swung his heavy tail at Yoshimo, who tried to duck but didn’t quite manage it. It caught the bounty hunter on the side of the head and he flew across the room, crashing into the rocky wall. There was the sound of snapping bone; then he dropped to the ground and didn’t move.
As Kane and Benny came back into the battle, Firkraag used another wing attack, this time on Kagain and Korgan, who had previously been attacking him from the side. As the dwarves hit the wall, he swung his tail again and knocked down one of the pillars, sending it crashing down onto their head, burying them beneath a pile of rock.
“I’m running out of spells!” Edwina called over, sending another round of magic missiles slamming into Firkraag’s side. The dragon visibly flinched, although he had the upper hand in the fight, he had still taken a fair bit of damage. “My magic isn’t going to last much longer!”
“We can’t win!” Cory shouted desperately, just dodging Firkraag’s claws as the dragon swiped at him. “He’s too strong! We can’t win this, Kane, we have to run!”
“Not a chance!” their leader said at once. “Kane Theaza never runs from a battle. You run if you like, but I intend to destroy the bastard or die trying!”
“You always were a stubborn bastard!” Viconia yelled at him, ducking as the dragon decided to turn his attention to her. “You know that we won’t leave you!”
“Stop shouting and keep fighting!” Benny ordered. “Don’t let your guard down; just concentrate on what you’re doing!”
Firkraag chose that moment to target the shapeshifter with another wing attack, and this time Benny left his sword where it had fallen and took out one of his many daggers. If things went on as they were, he knew that they would probably all end up getting killed and he didn’t plan on letting that happen. He waited until Firkraag brought his head down to snap at Kane, aimed carefully and then threw it. The dagger, covered in powerful poison, hit directly in the Firkraag’s eye and the dragon threw his head back and roared in pain. Taking his time, aiming carefully, Benny then did the same to Firkraag’s other eye. With the dragon blinded and in great pain, the powerful poison hurting his body from the inside, the adventurers grouped together and made one last attack. Firkraag tried his best to fight back, but it was useless and a moment or two later, he finally fell.
“That,” Kane started as he slumped against the wall and tried to get his breath back, “was one good battle!”
“Dangerous, more like,” Cory muttered, wiping the blood and sweat off his face.
“Thank the gods that someone is capable of thinking on their feet,” Viconia slipped her arms around Benny’s waist and gave him a quick kiss. “Blinding the dragon, that was a clever idea.”
“It was nothing,” the assassin gently pushed her away and turned to the others. “The situation was getting pretty desperate and so I just did what I had to do. Kane, are you all right? Edwina, Cory?”
“Fine,” Kane told him and the other two nodded. They were tired, damp with sweat and bruised from being repeatedly thrown again the wall, but none of them had received any serious injuries. “Oh Mask!” he cursed suddenly. “Yoshimo and the dwarves. Benny, see to Yoshimo, the rest of you come and help me dig out Kagain and Korgan.”
The rubble that had been the pillar wasn’t very deep and it didn’t take them long to reach the two dwarves. Korgan was just awake, although very groggy, and Kagain was still unconscious. Cory helped Korgan to his feet and Kane lifted Kagain, silently thanking the gods that he wasn’t too heavy.
“Yoshimo?” he asked Benny, who had left Yoshimo where he lay and come back over to join them. But he already knew what the assassin was going to say.
“Dead,” Benny shrugged, his eyes emotionlessly. “I reckon that blow he took broke his neck. From the looks of it, there’s nothing that can be done for him. It would have been a quick death though.”
“Very well,” Kane glanced briefly at the unconscious dwarf in his arms, his expression as emotionless as that of his teacher. They had both seen too much death in their lives to be particularly affected, even by the passing of one of their companions. “It was going to happen to one of us sooner or later, I suppose. Not pleasant, but death comes for us all at some point. At the moment, I’m more concerned with the living. Let’s just get out of here before anything else happens.”
Eye of the Dragon (On)
Started by
Guest_Silver_*
, Mar 11 2005 10:27 AM
4 replies to this topic
#5
Guest_Silver_*
Guest_Silver_*
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- Guests
Posted 12 March 2005 - 09:23 AM
Taking on Firkraag before you're ready counts as a biiiiiiiiiiig whoops in my book. Good chapter/story
-Blue
Tahnks. And yes, it was a pretty big mistake - but that's Kane for you. Make him angry and he's strike out rather than walk away, however dangerous such an action is.
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