Valygar reached for his hunting knife with a slightly shaking hand. It wasn't much of a weapon to use against an unnaturally strong wizard, but it was better than nothing. He stared at his nemesis and raised his knife, beads of sweat damping his forehead. "Now it ends, you corrupt husk of a man. Your life or mine shall end today, but make no mistake; you will die today."
"Nice and foolishly brave, mortal," Lavok smirked as he swung at his relative. He barely dodged the blow in time, but even Valygar could tell that the wizard was merely toying with him. The ranger took a risk and lunged for the necromancer's unprotected belly in an attempt to gut him. He managed to make only a shallow cut that barely broke the skin. Lavok winced and kicked his foot out, knocking the knife out of Valygar's hand in the process. The ranger caught the foot and twisted it, yanking it hard. He heard ankle bones snapping, but had little time to think about it as both men fell to the ground. They both grasped the staff the wizard was holding and wrestled with each other for dominance.
Unfortunately, Valygar wasn't quite strong enough and he lost his grip on the weapon. He saw the butt end of the staff coming for his throat and he knew he had only a split second to do something or forfeit his life. Groaning with the effort and tossing aside all dignity he rolled a few feet to the side and out of harm's way. He ended up on his belly, and he glanced up to see a furious Lavok approaching him. The wizard was limping and his face was twitching in a strange manner as he approached him. Then a dark, screeching cloud of fury attacked the necromancer, causing him to drop his guard and forget about the ranger for the moment.
"What is going on?" Valygar muttered as he struggled to a kneeling position. He saw the thieving crow Blackie recklessly and almost needlessly attack Lavok in the face, trying to keep him distracted. The ranger risked a glance over his shoulder to see what the others were doing and saw that the elder paladin was methodically and skillfully chopping a skeletal creature to pieces. The blue haired bard-which Valygar couldn't bring himself to trust-was dancing about the room, blades flashing and looking like he was having a good time.
Valygar tore his gaze from the scene and searched the floor frantically for his discarded sword. It had been in the family for a long time and it was to be the blade that would end the menace to his bloodline that was Lavok once and for all. He couldn't find it and he glanced at his nemesis, who had just about driven away from him what had to be the most annoying bird in Faerun. Then the wizard smacked Blackie with his hand in the same manner one would swat a fly and sent the feathered pest squawking and flying away. The ranger steadied himself for the inevitable clash.
"Valygar!" a voice rang out behind him. The noble twisted in position, although he didn't turn so much so that he lost sight of his foe. Andaire was at the foot of the stairs and squatting on the ground. She had something on the floor, something polished and slightly glowing which she slid towards the ranger. The object skidded across the floor tiles with a metallic scrape. Valygar stopped the object's slide with his left hand and found himself in possession of the party leader's own blade. It had a different balance than his family sword did, but he wasn't going to allow hinder him. He had little time to protest such a loan as Lavok came at him with a vengeance.
He grunted and lifted up the blade to meet the polished wood of his ancestor's weapon. The sword held and he concentrated on not only to survive the fight, but to win it. A sing-song chanting wafted through the air and then Lavok flashed a pale rose pink for an instant before his eyes. He grunted and swung the sword from overhead in an apparent attempt to split the wizard's head open, and when Lavok raised his staff a little above the level of his forehead in a protective gesture, Valygar changed the direction of the blade in mid swing and felt the rune-etched metal dig deep into flesh. The wizard glared at his opponent, his face twisted with hate. Then the expression changed to one of horrified relief before the angry face returned as the man dropped his staff with a clatter and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.
Valygar just stood there and looked at his foe. He had won, yet somehow the victory didn't satisfy him. An unearthly screech filled the air and Lavok twitched violently. The ranger could almost swear he saw a translucent black mist rise from the wizard's body before disappearing, but he decided it was his overworked imagination coming into play.
"It is done," the noble said flatly.
Andaire didn't really like being frozen in one spot at all, and if hadn't been for Keldorn's timely intervention with a plea to his god, she might have stayed where she was longer than she wanted or needed to. Her brain hadn't been frozen during that time however, and neither had her crow, so she sent the bird over to help Valygar if he could. Blackie had done what he does best and made a pest of himself, and while he had been harassing a wizard the half elf and her tiefling companion had been freed by the paladin. She had fallen back on her own magical talents to help Valygar by stripping Lavok of his magical protection, although she hoped that the noble wouldn't be too upset that she used magic to aid him.
Now, it was done. The skeletons had been reduced to scatterings and splinters of bone and Valygar stood uncertainly over the body of his ancestor. To Andaire's surprise, the mage was still breathing for she could see the rise and fall of his chest. Without discussing it the rest of the companions joined Valygar, and when he glanced in Andaire's direction he wordlessly handed her sword back to her. However, she wasn't quite relaxed enough to sheath it yet. She saw Valygar look around for his family's blade and he found it not too far away from where Lavok had fallen. Just as the morose ranger reached the necromancer's body again, the wizard spoke, which startled everybody.
"Wh-where am I?" Lavok said wearily, much in the same manner that one might do after waking up from a long rest. "The...the force that possessed me is...is it gone?"
"What is this, some manner of trick?" Valygar growled as he let the tip of his sword hover mere inches above Lavok's unprotected neck. "I'll not be fooled by the likes of you."
"Wise decision," Keldorn observed, keeping a close eye on the proceedings.
Despite the danger he was in, Lavok shifted so that he was more or less looking Valygar in the face. He frowned with uncertainty and said, "Who might you be? I...I can barely see you and yet you look strangely familiar to me."
Andaire wondered if Valygar would run his ancestor through right then and there. Part of her was curious and practical, knowing that the wizard had to remain alive long enough to get the group home. The other part of her was cheering the ranger on and hoping, no relishing, the thought of ending a more or less helpless person's life and to hear their death rattle as breath left their body. The half elf didn't trust herself to speak at the moment, so she kept her words and feelings to herself.
"I am your descendant, Valygar Corthala," the ranger said sternly. "We, no I am the last of the Corthala line, thanks to you and the family's curse of magic. I will not allow you to take my body to extend your life. Since you yet live, I shall end it now!"
Lavok sighed regretfully and replied, "Corthala...yes, I remember this now. My family, you are my family. Oh, I am dying, Valygar Corthala, of that you can be certain. Nothing would bring me greater relief."
"No matter where one may roam or how long one breathed, death comes to us all and even our bodies decay as we lie in the grave," Haer'Dalis commented, although everyone ignored him.
Andaire saw Valygar blink at the reply. He glared at the necromancer and shot back, "Eh? I warn you, necromancer, I shall not be fooled by your trickery!"
"Nor do I intend to fool you, young one. I have been imprisoned in my own mind by that… that strange force for what seemed to be an eternity. Death would be a blessing," Lavok wheezed.
Valygar looked skeptical and no one in the room could really blame him for it. He appeared to be torn with indecision and confused by what was happening. "Are you trying to tell me that you are not evil? That you are not the sorcerer who preyed upon his own family as a ghoul would and sucked the hope right out of the bloodline? After all, you are the one whose legacy has haunted my family these past centuries."
The necromancer shook his head, regretfully it seemed. He kept his hand pressed to the side where Valygar had injured him and his fingers were smeared with a red liquid. He tried to breath deeply, coughed and chided his descendant. "No, no. I am he. I am all those things that you have said and more. Make no mistake, I preyed upon my own family like a leech fattened with blood that still wants to eat. I have spent half an eternity keeping that force from prying the secrets of the sphere from my mind. Yes young one, I was possessed by an outside force and that possession was due to my folly and arrogance. I could not unleash it upon... my home. Thank you for ending its existence."
Valygar stared hard at the wizard and shook his head as if to clear it. He snarled, "This punishment is your own fault then! This end of your life regret doesn't redeem you one bit!"
"Indeed I am the author of my own misfortune," Lavok smoothly agreed. "I have had years of pain and anguish to consider my sins, and my sins are many, I can't deny that. I can offer to you nothing other than my sorrow, Valygar, if I have brought you pain. That and to show you the way home. I can do that much for you at least."
Valygar swallowed heavily as he was at a loss for words. He gave Andaire a look that said his foe was supposed to spit his defiance in his face, not to agree with him that he was evil and that he regretted his actions.
Lavok saw his relative's reaction, but his coughing spasms became worse and he was unable to speak. Knowing that it was a risk on her part, Andaire placed her hand on the necromancer's arm and asked her goddess to heal the man's wounds. His skin closed up and his breathing eased, but something told her the wizard wasn't going to last a week. She hoped to be able to keep Lavok alive long enough for the party to return home.
The necromancer sighed and managed a weak smile though he lay where he was. He nodded at each one of Valygar's companions and said to the ranger, "If I could go back in time and warn my arrogant, younger self that the sphere was a mission of pride doomed to failure, I would have. I would ask one thing of you, Valygar Corthala, although I know you have no reason to grant it to me. No, no reason at all."
"I… that is, what is it?" the noble wondered.
"If, no when you return home I'd like you to take me outside so I can die under the sun of the world I was born in," Lavok requested. "It's been so long since I've seen the skies of Athkatla I've almost forgotten what they look like. I'm dying, nothing can really prevent that now but I really would like to return home one final time."
"Is this a trick?" Valygar wondered.
"No, it's no trick young one," Lavok replied. "It's just a request of an old man that doesn't deserve it."
Valygar stared at his ancestor for seemingly a long time before he said, "I came here expecting a monster and I found something else. You are not what I expected and I shall do as you ask. Now, how do we return home?"
This time Lavok risked bringing himself to a sitting position before he said, "This will take some explaining, so listen carefully."
"This must surely be Hell," Anomen commented as the group gathered outside the sphere.
"Nay," Haer'Dalis corrected him, and for once it wasn't mocking. "You speak of Baator, where devils do live. Yet because the necromancer, who surely is a living example of entropy, said that we do hunt demons, then this is a layer of the Abyss."
"How do you know…?" the squire began, but then he thought better of it. "Though it galls me, I have to admit that you might know what you speak of."
"Was that a compliment? Will wonders never cease!" the bard replied, grinning.
Jaheira exchanged a significant look with Keldorn and sighed. The druid said, "This place reeks of wrongness, though I suppose we are the intruders here."
Keldorn nodded in agreement and said, "I wonder what it says about me that I have been to the Abyss while I yet live? Torm take me, this place is steeped in evil."
"This is an ugly, mean place and I don't like it," Nalia whined. "It's so ugly, dark and creepy."
Minsc patted the noble on the shoulder and told her, "Minsc will protect little Nalia from evil, but there is so much evil to kick that Minsc doesn't know where to start kicking!"
Nalia smiled weakly at the big ranger. Her cat, wiser that she was, took one peek out of her mistress's backpack and promptly hid herself.
Valygar said nothing and neither did Yoshimo. The knights from another world had been convinced to stay behind as well, although it took a while to convince them to do so. Viconia was not witness to the journey as she had stayed behind to guard Lavok on Andaire's orders. The half elf never explained to anybody else why she did that, but she knew that there was no one else who would be more alert for signs of treachery other than the dark elf, and would be willing to take the appropriate steps.
This place, this layer of the Abyss, was unlike any land Andaire had ever seen. It was totally alien to her and she knew it, yet a part of her resonated with this plane. The sky was a dark red-black that looked somewhat like congealed blood, and there were streaks of a dark, sooty orange and lighter red in it, almost like the sky had open, bleeding wounds. The ground was rough and lumpy black, with some of the larger boulders gleaming smooth and black. Other rocky formations were dull and of a mottled brown, black and grey material. Fungi grew in ragged rows and clumps, with some varieties glowing an unhealthy green and red respectively. There was also a pervasive bad smell in the air, almost but not quite like rotten eggs and salty brine. A tiny winged creature took one look at the group of adventurers and promptly left the area. The overall feeling was one of gloom and despair topped off by an underlying sense of fear. In short, this was a place no living creature could or should visit if they could help it.
Andaire felt something different. True, she felt distinctly uncomfortable in this place as everyone else in her party did, even the resident bard. However, a part of her resonated with this slice of the Abyss, finding it familiar and comforting and she tried to shove that feeling aside. She looked around slowly and said, "This place is too flat, but oh it feels like home to me."
Blackie looked at her oddly, his beady little eyes full of puzzlement as to why the half elf would say such a thing. Everyone else looked at her as if she suddenly grew another head; however Minsc and Jaheira watched her with concern. The half elf looked at her companions and shrugged her shoulders. She was in no mood to explain herself to anybody. She was irritated and wanted nothing more than to hurry up and return home.
"I hate to say this," Valygar began, "But where are we to find a… demon?"
Andaire thought about it for two seconds and said, "Haer'Dalis, you will have to be our demon scout as it were since you likely have met such creatures before. So go, find us a demon, but just one mind you."
The tiefling's eyes danced and he replied, bowing, "This hound shall lead you to what you seek."
The half elf nodded and said, "Let's go. Don't want to spend any more time than we have to here."
Everyone walked slowly on the platform that encircled part of the sphere. There was a rough crevice beneath the walkway and while it wasn't that deep, it was deep enough and full of sharp edged rocks which would cause and injury should one fall on them. Andaire led the party with the actor by her side. Behind her strode Nalia and Yoshimo, followed by Minsc and Jaheira. Anomen and Valygar came next, followed by Keldorn who had placed himself at the rear of the group. As the adventurers reached the end of the walkway and stepped on what passed for level ground, they saw nothing, but a high pitched chitterling was coming from behind rocks and fissures. Soon the noise reached a level that everyone could hear and about four winged creatures sprang out from behind a rock. Some had tiny little horns on their head and some did not, but all had leathery bat-like wings, fangs and dimly glowing eyes.
"This is the last thing we need, the bloody pests," Andaire growled as she gripped her sword and engaged the enemy.
The half elf reached the monsters first and swiftly cut a wing off of a teeny demon that had gotten too close to her. While the rest of the group scrambled to reach the monsters, Andaire watched the lopsided creature flop helplessly on the ground. It tried to fly, it really did, but with only one wing and ichor dripping from the stump if the other one it could not take to the air. Instead, it jumped on the foot of Haer'Dalis and started to rake its little claws along the actor's flesh, and the man in turn shook the thing off of his leg and gave it a good, swift kick. The creature slammed into the ground, shook for a few seconds and then it was still.
Nalia gripped her staff tightly and stood her ground. She used no magic, for she had been asked to save what spells she had for the big demon they were supposed to find. Her cat however, had no restrictions placed on it. Mimi wiggled and scrambled out of her resting place in the noble's pack and landed softly on the ground as only a cat could. She arched her back and hissed, her fur standing up on end. Then without warning she leapt in the air and jumped on a strange, fat red and quite large worm slithering on the ground. This particular worm had tentacles surrounding a round mouth filled with many sharp teeth. The tabby grabbed the thing in its mouth and shook it violently. More came crawling towards the mage, but Blackie decided that he had to join in on the fun and so he pecked the worms to death. Yoshimo frowned and squashed the things with his boot and sliced them with his katana when stepping on them failed.
Anomen shoved his way to the front and placed himself next to Andaire. He concentrated and faced off against the biggest of the flying pests. This one had a forked tongue and said something to Anomen in a strange tongue. The squire didn't know or care what it said, and he made sure it was too busy trying to dodge his blows to talk anymore. The cleric smashed his flail into the body of the creature and heard and indignant squeak. Then Haer'Dalis arrived and slashed at the beast at the same time Anomen scored a good hit. The thing sprayed fine droplets of a dark fluid as its body dropped to the ground in a sodden heap.
Valygar didn't swear as he hunted down and fought another of the small demons. In fact, he said nothing as he parried with the monster. This one might have been stupid, for to prevent the ranger from cutting him with his sword, the demon latched onto the blade with all of its legs and claws, and even its tail. The strategy worked up to a fashion as the weight of the creature unbalanced the ranger's sword arm and he really was unable to slice the thing. So the morose noble took the easiest solution and swung the demon laden blade at a rock. The creature gave an exclamation of surprise as the steel edge it clung to bit deep into its flesh. Minsc took the opportunity to rush over to Valygar's side and hit the monster with great force, force that was unnecessary as the unfortunate creature broke into a few pieces.
Keldorn was the last to leave the sphere's walkway, and so he wasn't able to get to the front of the line where Andaire was busy dispatching the last of the small demons along with the aid of Jaheira. However, the paladin was able to squash the odd worms that had come crawling out of the ground, and for some reason the things seemed to shy away from him. It mattered not for they became reddish brown goo in the span of a few minutes.
Andaire stood where she was for a few seconds. The battle hadn't even winded her and she was actually disappointed that there weren't any more enemies to destroy. It had felt good to her, this rush of battle and her growing skill and she felt that she could conquer anything.
"My lady, perhaps we need to move cautiously, if we can," Anomen said, interrupting her thoughts.
The half elf was ready to snap at the interruption, but at the last minute she held her tongue. She sighed and tried to control the irritation she felt. She reasoned she was tired and frustrated and that was why she was on edge. She managed a weak smile for the cleric and the druid and shook her head. "No, we can't afford to waste time. We do attract attention here and I would much rather face one large demon than several large demons."
Anomen looked like he was about to say something but then Jaheira interrupted the speech. She was looking in the relative direction of the sphere with a disapproving look on her face. She cleared her throat and said, "Child, do you feed your bird properly? He has the most questionable of diets."
Andaire raised an eyebrow and looked in the direction that the druid indicated. Blackie was busy being his usual disgusting self by goring himself on the remains of the flattened red worms. The remains of the… things were somewhat jelly-like and dripping.
"Ugh, I just lost my appetite," Nalia complained, though there were quite a few party members who felt the same way.
"That foul crow would do very well for himself here," Anomen growled.
"You speak the truth for once," Haer'Dalis said in agreement.
Andaire closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them she got the bard's attention and told him, "I'll call my crow over to me, and when I do I want you to find us a demon, a big one but not too big."
The actor nodded, Blackie was recalled but not without a few complaints muttered by the bird, and the group was on its way to find a demon to hunt.
