Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 2.16.

Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 2.16.

Slowly and reluctantly I open my eyes, the eyelids still heavy and full of sleep, however my internal clock signals that it is time to wake up. Still, I take my time stretching and rolling in the comfortable, large bed. The beds in Five Flagons are noticeably much more springy than back in Mithrest and we certainly tested that quite extensively this night… I recall that fondly as my gaze glides across the form of the sleeping woman, curled up in the bed, the touch of her body warming my left side. In the dim light that fills the room, I cannot tell whether Jaheira is still asleep or not, but she quickly clears my nescience by rolling closer to me to whisper softly… “Let’s get ready. The task ahead of us brings me no pleasure at all and can be dangerous, so we better be done with it quickly.”

“Mmmmmmph,” is all I can manage in response as my thoughts are diverted from the task ahead by the closeness of her warm body… she really is an extraordinary woman, I sink deep in thoughts. She can be so fierce an strong in battle or in a heated argument, yet in our moments of intimacy she can be soft as a kitten… the strength of her arms, enough to strangle any living human being… yet still capable of the gentlest caress…

“Obviously, it is again up to me to pull this sorry group of adventurers together,” her remark snaps me out of my half-dreaming state. “I will go and see that everyone is ready to move out in a quarter of hours time… that includes you too, dreamer!”

 

Indeed, Jaheira’s words come to fulfillment once again as we head out of the Five Flagons. Everyone is ready and prepared, except for Nalia who is half-asleep and looking quite exhausted for no apparent reason. It’s a beautiful morning, but no one seems to be wearing a happy smile on his face. Sun is already high above the horizon and the rays of sunlight warm our bodies, but do not particularly ease our minds as we reach Mae’Var’s guildhouse. I am quite satisfied about our timing, as attacking in the dark of the night would not be very beneficial to us, but more to the thieves and assassins who are used to operate in the dark. An early morning is just about the best time to make the strike, as they might be slightly more relaxed after spending the whole night without any interruptions.

We hold a small war council before entering the building… “Nalia, Jan, cast your protective spells,” I give instructions in a business-like voice, “Yoshimo and I will be flanking you two, I think I better stick to my sword in these tight halls… Jaheira, we will need something to detect invisibility…” Everyone nods to indicate that they understood the commands and both our mages proceed with their spellcasting.

After receiving confirmation that we are ready, I slowly open the main doors and stick my head inside. There is no living being inside or at least I cannot spot anyone, even Gorch is not behind the counter. Carefully we thread inside and once we are all there, Jaheira utters a few rhymes to grant us with an invisibility-detecting spell.

Carefully we cross the room towards the door leading to the back rooms, but as we are in the middle of the room, suddenly several black-clothed figures appear from behind the bar counter and attack us swiftly, their short swords and daggers raised. Obviously, we have prepared for a surprise, but still this sudden strike catches us a bit unaware as I, more with luck than with skill, dodge the assassin’s sword and Jaheira blocks her assailant’s sword with a shield. Yoshimo is unlucky as he receives a stab with a dagger in his shoulder, only quick reaction from Nalia, now completely awaken by this sudden attack, saves him from further trouble as she sends an arrow that swiftly pierces the assassins leather armor and causes a fatal injury to the thief. A couple of moment’s later Yoshimo’s blade puts him out of his misery…

Meanwhile, my own opponent, all though being quite quick and agile simply has not enough pure strength to deflect or block the vicious swing of my sword with his shield as my Chaos sword catches him in his midsection, just above his hip, almost separating the man in two… I look over to see how Jaheira is doing – her opponent is frozen still from being hit square in the face by Jan’s Flasher Bruiser Mate and I see her moving gracefully and almost standing up on the tips of her toes as she completes the swing of her scimitar that makes the thief to lose his head…

I am about to open the door leading to the backrooms as Jan signals me to stop. Carefully he approaches the door and motions for me to back away. He pulls out a small object from his belt and leans down to the floor. I finally understand what he is doing as I see that he has placed a small device that looks like consisting from several mirrors to the gap that is formed between the doors and the floor. He continues to observe for several minutes, adjusting and directing the mirror so that he is absolutely sure to have seen every corner in the room behind the doors. Finally he raises to his feet and with a gesture indicates that there are six people in the room behind the door. Raising the finger to his lips, Jan makes his way back to where we stand and whispers. “They are all bunched together, just like griffins in the time of mating… I think a fireball would be appropriate… now if you would open the door in the same moment as I finish the incantation…”

“I’ll do it,” I say without blinking an eye. I have full trust in little gnome’s skill as silly he can be, he can be trusted with the most risky of tasks.

“Be car… watch it,” Jaheira murmurs as I tiptoe towards the door and place my hand on the candle. Jan begins the chanting and very soon I see a flash of fire appearing in front of Jan and a huge fireball flying my way… in the last possible moment I yank the door wide open and the fireball disappears in the thief-crowded room.

All we hear is a small “whoosh” as the fireball explodes and then… the screams of the unfortunate, burning men are loud enough to raise dead as we quickly move in the room and see the havoc raised by a single fireball spell. Four of the man are dead on the spot and the other two are running around the room screaming in intolerable pain as their clothes are burning… in panic they have forgotten the magical ritual of “stop-drop-and-roll” and thus we help them by ending their suffering with our sharp and shiny objects.

“If we planned on surprising Mae’Var, then this plan has backfired,” I declare, pointing with my head towards the stairs to basement.

Carefully we descend down to the basement; the air in the basement is not only warm and damp but reeks of blood and carrion. As we advance through the passageway leading along the prisoner’s and torture object’s cells we stumble upon at least four or five terribly mutilated bodies. It seems that Mae’Var has been doing some interrogation about the missing documents and when I see the tortured bodies – hands missing nails, bodies with missing limbs, heads with empty eyeballs… I hear a gurgling noise behind me and when I turn around, see that Nalia has dropped on her knees and is vomiting. Sensing that she is not going to be of a lot of help, I lead her back towards the stairs.

After returning to my friends, we resume our progress through the passage way and reach the end of the passage that leads to the torture chamber itself. Mae’Var is there and six or seven of his lackeys as well, including a priest… Mae’Var is standing solemnly, his hands crossed on his chest.

“Come for me, have you?” he speaks, ”I should have guessed that it was you all the time… still someone might have used your appearance as a cover-up. Well, truth doesn’t matter to the dead, does it? And speaking of death…”

And then all the hell breaks loose once again… if I had any moral disagreement for killing this man, seeing the ease with which he has tortured and killed his loyal underlings, removes the last bit of remorse in me. With my Chaos sword raised I rush towards Mae’Var, attempting to separate him in two with one swing. He manages to protect himself by absorbing the blow with his shield - still the impact is so strong that he stumbles few steps back. Behind me I hear Jaheira chanting furiously, and Jan is yelling for me to retreat to the passageway as I am at disadvantage in the open room. As Jaheira completes her prayer, the floor in the room transfers into a green mass of magical vines that entangle the hapless assassins as they struggle to get to us. Meanwhile, we switch to our bows and fill them up with arrows, starting from the potentially more dangerous follower of Cyric. Amongst the enraged and furious cries of Mae’Var and his lackeys, I hear someone chanting in a slightly trembling feminine voice and feel a wave of heat as a fireball flies past me and explodes in the middle of the room causing more agonizing yells from the black-clothed assassins…

Those, who have not been killed by the blast instantly, can count themselves very unlucky as they now burn alive being entangled in the wines as they cannot extinguish their burning clothes… Nalia is on her knees again, vomiting from the sight of destruction caused by her spell.

After the fires have abated, Yoshimo and I carefully walk into the room – the sight makes my belly to churn… The groans coming from one of the terribly burned bodies indicate that he is alive – I can barely recognize him, but that is Mae’Var himself. He has sustained such terrible injuries that unless healed he will die in slow and very painful death. All though that would be no less than he deserves, I motion Yoshimo to show him some mercy…

With brooding expression on my face I walk upstairs, Jaheira, supporting Nalia who almost hangs on her shoulder, follows me with Jan and Yoshimo bringing up the rear.

“What are you standing around, I for one want to get out of here as quick as possible,” Jaheira speaks impatiently seeing that I have stopped walking.

“I must check what has happened to Edwin,” I retort, “he was not amongst those slaughtered below…”

“He is probably already twenty miles from Athkatla, if I know him,” Jaheira snorts, “but if you wish to walk into more traps, then I suppose that is your right to do so…”

“Why would Mae’Var place any ambush on the second floor? No, that is unlikely… it should be safe,” I try to reassure her, “besides, don’t you think that we could make good use of Edwin’s skills, if he would to join us?”

Jaheira’s face goes pale for a moment as she speaks in a low, even slightly trembling voice. “You… aren’t serious, are you? Tell me that you were only joking… be it a very tasteless joke.”

“I had no idea that he annoyed you so greatly,” I remark innocently.

“Bah, I am not even going to lower myself to recite all the insults he addressed me… he even told me that I have a…” Jaheira stops at half sentence, the memories likely embarrassing her.

“Yes?” I ask impatiently, “What was it?” But Jaheira does not reply, only turns her back to me in disapproval…

“All right, I promise then not to take him with us, but could we at least go and see whether he is all right?” I ask in a soothing voice, but she does not honor me with a reply, instead just heads over to the staircase leading to the upper floors. Quickly, we follow her and as I reach the end of the stairs, I see Jaheira standing on the doorstep and viewing the room. I come to stand alongside her and witness another sight of deadly destruction… I turn around and tell Yoshimo to escort Nalia outside and he gladly complies with this task.

The room is hardly recognizable from what we saw earlier – whatever furniture there was, now is completely torn apart just if a miniature tornado has been raging in here, even tearing down the partition walls. And there are bodies as well. Many of them. And in various twisted, bent positions, many of them missing limbs – a lot of unrecognizable body parts are scattered around the room… but all of the victims have that one, characteristic expression of pure shock, fear and incomprehension in their eyes.

“This has “Edwin Odesseiron was here” written all over it…” Jaheira mutters under her breath.

“You mean Eddie and his Pit Fiend, most likely…” I recognize that this destruction could only have been caused by a powerful demon.

I slowly scan the room, but cannot recognize Edwin amongst the victims.

“Stay here, I will check the upper floor,” I order making my way through the debris towards the stairs.

“I am going with you,” Jaheira speaks adamantly and Jan follows her, likely feeling unseemly being left alone with so many dead.

I am not surprised to find that the third floor has been left untouched and after checking the smaller side rooms we do not find any trace of Edwin.

“I told you so,” Jaheira lectures me, “that slippery weasel is long gone, only leaving his demon friend to play with the thieves. Quite characteristic, won’t you say so?”

“Reminds me of my cousin Filbert,” Jan chuckles, “he also had a demon friend… Sparky, he used to call him… now Filbert wanted to teach Sparky to hunt griffins, you see… but his plan of education was a flawed one. You see, he wanted Sparky to start small and work his way up… so he taught him to catch mice which was very good indeed, knowing how detrimental mice can be to turnips… then Sparky moved on to rats… then the cats followed and so on… it was supposed that the griffins are at the end of this chain, but cousin Filbert forgot one tiny little detail…”

“What detail?” Jaheira asks half-amused, half-annoyed.

“Eh… that gnomes are placed before griffins in this food chain… poor cousin Filbert…” Jan sighs.