Autumn 1372

"Now...now 'feed' isn't exactly what I had in mind, Love," she backpedaled, raising her hands in front of her in a calming gesture. "Just a little nibble is all... What? No?" Ashara was fighting a grin now. "How about gumming? Just one lick?"

After shuddering visibly at that thought, she chuckled and reached for Elric's arm to get a better look at the scratch. Another wound that would definitely need some attention later. Unless she missed her guess, she'd heard a grunt of pain from Durlan during that brief battle as well. And dwarves were not renowned as good patients... When it came to keeping her charges healthy and fit for adventuring though, Ashara could give any dwarf a lesson in stubborn!

"Okay," she conceded after wrapping a clean bandage around the wound, "since you've already taken one for the team, I promise not to purposefully throw myself in front of any ghouls. If however, we find that, unlikely as it may be, I have to resist some paralyzation effect as well, then I'll look forward to having you accompany me on a ghoul smiting expedition at some later date!"

Her eyes lit up at the idea and she beamed brightly at the half elf before turning towards the pile of corpses.

It was a pretty substantial pile too... There were a few well-gnawed upon bones that could have been original to the tower, but most of the bodies were a couple of months old. Still juicy and quite ripe. The bulbous corpse of the beholder she the found exceptionally disturbing.

Its eye was slightly shriveled and clouded over in death, eyestalks hung limply to the ground, though about half of them had been chewed off, and the flesh around the giant orb was dessicated enough for her to believe it had been there for a week or two. Kind of hard to tell precisely, since she seemed to have misplaced her field guide on beholder anatomy and putrefaction, but it seemed a decent guess. Unfortunately, all the chewing made it difficult to tell if it was the ghouls who killed it or some other assailant, but it most definitely had been killed!

Best to make sure under these circumstances... Victims that were killed by ghouls and not eaten could turn into ghouls themselves, but the process from death to unlife takes a day. These bodies had been here much longer than that, so Ashara was satisfied that more ghouls wouldn't be rising behind them.

Was a ghoul-beholder even possible?? That was a horrifying thought!

"So what are we thinking then?" She asked, poking at one of the full pouches of gold after she was finished poking at the beholder. "The looters take the weapons and armor, but leave all this money here to rot with the bodies... I'd imagine that all manner of intelligent beings live here in the ruins that have no interest in gold. Demons, phaerimm...worse. Are they arming themselves for something?"
She looked back to the giant eyeball and wished again that the ghouls hadn't done such a number on it. "Maybe whatever stripped these bodies also killed the beholder. A demon could kill a beholder a lot easier than a pack of ghouls..."

Elric shook his head and hid a slight grin. 'Gumming?' What would she think of next? Though put forth in a humorous way... he had no intention of intentionally seeking out ghouls to 'nibble' his wife... Too much risk, even for the Everdawn sword. The memory of being frozen and still seeing and feeling himself get eaten still haunted him. How much worse would it be if he was frozen and had to watch HER get eaten alive!!

With a shiver he pushed the thought from his head and came back to the present. "I think your right about the weapons... This place looks a bit ransacked even before it became corpse storage... That shelf over there... Looks a bit similar to one Therogeon has.

He pointed to a shelf in a broken cabinet with thin grooves carved into the wood. "Not as nice as this one... but he stores his wands in it. I'm thinking this is was the wizards version of an armory...

"And it's pretty empty." he said with a grimace. Whether he was more upset that there were no wands to take back to his friend... who in recent years seemed to be collecting them quite happily... or the thought that whatever killed the beholder and all these men had them, even he wasn't certain.

"There's a lot of guys here..." Jorelon commented. "And not all are recent... someone has been using this room for a while now..."

"Don't know 'bout you... But I doubt the only thing missin' is the magic..." The dwarf grumbled. "There's a LOT of weapons missin' from what I can tell..."

"Hmmm.. " The half-elf thought for a moment. "Two options then... Either someones building and arming a small army... OR... they took everything in the hopes it was magical. Admittedly they wouldn't be able to check down here..."

"I like it!" Jorelon quipped. "Let's go with option 2..."

"Hmmmph!" Durlan chuckled. "Let's be prepared for the first though! Somehow I doubt many of these ruffians had gear that could be mistaken for magic..."

Ashara uneasily peered over her shoulder toward the doorway. She didn't much like the thought that this room was being used as a corpse dump for someone trying to equip an army... Was the entire complex being used as a base of operations? Could they be down here now?

These notions sent her thoughts whirling in a thousand different directions. Who was equipping this army? And why?? If the ghouls and wraith were here when these people came down to dump the bodies, why didn't the undead attack them? Were the undead in league with these people? Neither wraiths nor ghasts were stupid creatures. Horrific... Disgusting... But not stupid. Were they being pacified by the delivery of corpses? She could understand how the ghasts and ghouls may be, but the wraiths enjoyed sucking life energy. The only reason that sprung to mind as to why a wraith would not attack these others was either they didn't have any life energy to suck, or...it was commanded not to by a higher order of undead...

It was possible that the ghouls were newer arrivals who just happened upon the feast, but the door was shut, which meant they were let in, or came from within the crypt itself. Maybe one of the bodies that had been dumped here had been killed by a ghoul and rose to unlife to feed upon his former friends!

And what of the bodies themselves? They were stripped not only of weapons, but of armor too! Humanoid sized! Not many demons wore armor that could fit a human, so it would stand to reason that the army being equipped was humanoid sized. Were they allying themselves of their own free will or were they simply thralls of a more powerful creature?

None of this was boding well...

"Guys, if we've seen all there is to see here, then maybe we should move on..." Ashara tried to keep the concern out of her voice. "We're still looking for the ring of course, but if there are...beings...using this particular room as a dump site, then maybe we will find more information about them elsewhere in the crypt. Might even find some of those responsible down here if they're using the place as some sort of headquarters."

Standing, the priestess moved closer to the door and looked out into the dark and ominous hallway. "I'd say that we should be especially cautious and try to be as quiet as possible," she sighed, looking down helplessly at her effective but hardly-stealthy mithril plate mail, "but we've already made enough noise down here to wake the... Um... Well, you know."

"You'll not be hearin' any arguments from me..." Durlan muttered as he scooped some of the money pouches into a bag, and tossed the longer spear to Elric. "Y'don't last long here by sticking around to long... Get what ya need... and Get out!"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Elric said snatching the weapon from the air. Considering the condition of the other broken and discarded stuff here, this weapon was indeed an oversight. Or cursed... Either was a possibility. Still worth salvaging if possible...

"So, Which way do we go? Two hallways heading south, one doorway heading West. Any could lead to what we're looking for... provided of course it's still here..." Jorelon added as an after-thought.

"Well... My opinion... would be to follow the path we 'were' on..." Erlic pointed back to the door to the west and the hall south on the other side of the gate room. "I'm thinking these two halls will somehow connect. So if we head down that way, we'll end up by the exit....

"Provided of course it's all clear. If not, we may be herding our opponents to our only means of escape, so I'm open for opinions."

Ashara turned back to the corpse pile to retrieve that masterfully crafted suit of studded leather, only to find that Jorelon had the same thought and was already lashing it to his pack. No sense in leaving armor to better equip whatever army was being raised here. Especially armor that was likely magical outside of the dead magic zone... These particular companions might not be able to use it, but certainly there were those at the Dawnspire who could!

"I think I'd also prefer to first check out the previous hallway." The priestess pulled her pack onto her shoulders. "Don't much like the thought of leaving unexplored areas behind us and circling back up to the exit sounds like an excellent plan! Granted, I'm pulling up the rear, so..."

She chuckled, waving her hand to indicate the jest before continuing.

"This is the third...maybe fourth passageway we've found leading to the south, if you count that secret door outside of the study, so really any way we go we could be pushing the bad guys toward our way out. Worse case, they seal the door shut on us. But that's not really much of a threat," she grinned. "We have Durlan here who believes shoving large slabs of rock is the best way to start a morning, and Elric of the unbreakable fist, who thinks nothing of punching through stone walls!

"Soooo by my thinking, we'd be out of here in a few hours tops!"

"Bah..." The dwarf smirked. "Less than that!" He looked up that stone ceiling quizically. "We ain't even that far down.. Myself, I'd guess at the most... Fifty feet"

The half-elf just chuckled. "Hopefully it doesn't come to that! I'm quite content with the stairs..."

Carefully he led them back past the ruined gate and slowed as he approached it. He'd been hearing rumors about the gates of Myth Drannor.. things, people, places... all within a couple of steps.

They were easily considered one of the most dangerous aspects of the city. And the most useful. Seekers had described how they were being chased only to suddenly find themselves on the other side of the city far from the harm that threatened them. There were also those who talkedd of party members who suddenly 'weren't there'. Disappeared from the path only to find their bloody shield somewhere else weeks later.

As he looked at the severed foot, he realized there were other dangers they presented... Hopefully a one time threat... but still..

"Anyone want to throw a wager that this thing once led to that Windsong Tower?" Jorelon asked as the procession passed by. Maybe someone tried using it without a ring?"

"Hmmph... " Durlan answered. "Or maybe the ring is on the other side of the gate..."

"That's pessimistic..." Elric said with a smirk. "Let's at least operate on the assumption that we CAN win... How, we'll come up with later!"

"I'll take that wager for however much you're interested in losing," Kaldric told the young cleric confidently, "and probably aggravate Lady Luck by gambling on a sure bet."

As he spoke, the Veil Initiate admired the pillars' architectural design and the arcane patterns set into them. The City of Song boasted a style that blended the natural world with the elegance and sophistication of a forward-thinking civilization. Her artisans' talents were unmatched across the lands of Toril, their dedication to perfection unrivaled. Pristine or in ruin, the differences could be identified with but a cursory examination of a simple pillar.

Love built her, he reflected, but intellect governed her. Fools could be found in every city, but in this one, at least, they could not be found among those in positions of authority. To understand that meant he could eliminate Windsong Tower as a destination for the collapsed portal. The Headmasters interred potent magical relics within warded vaults that hardly a handful of their own could enter! Certainly, when such exquisite protective measures were taken to maintain the safety of such treasures, the greatest treasure of them all---that being the Tower itself!---would not be compromised so ignorantly by the school's master through connecting an outside portal into its confines! The very idea was asinine.

Kaldric tore his eyes away from the pillars only to immediately come upon another magnificent find at the door they approached. "Wait. Wait!" he called, hurrying past the dwarf to place a hand on the half-elf's shoulder. He desired to stop Elric from touching the door, but ended up using the leverage to sling-shot himself beyond the warrior. Once ahead of the others, he properly inspected the many intricate symbols that covered every inch of the closed portal.

"Brilliant," the Veil Initiate praised as his gaze swept over the thousands upon thousands of characters immaculately carved into the door. He recognized half-a-dozen different languages represented in that space, half of which he couldn't read. Admittedly, that hardly mattered now, but taking into account their purpose it would have mattered greatly had magic remained active here! "A spell trap," he revealed, awestruck. "A series of spell traps, actually! Here, here . . . here and here," he pointed to each of the archaic runes whose expert positioning integrated seamlessly with the collection of mundane runic markings around them. "And these only in the languages I know, and am thus able to decode the strangeness of their order. These aren't even written in the arcane language! The perfect disguise. It would take a master linguist to sort through all this!"

He glanced back to the half-elf and offered a crooked smirk too small for his face. Indicating a neighborhood of runes with two fingers, Kaldric said, "This bunch has a series of Symbols---I can see four varieties---designed to incapacitate. Here we have a set of death spells---two area-effecting and two targeting Finger of Death incantations. This section releases paralyzing and incendiary clouds, while this one detonates two instantaneous fireballs and another set to delay." The wizard shook his head. "Yet the power of these spells isn't what I find most remarkable! Granted, it's impossible to say for sure being that we're in a Dead Magic zone, but I think we wouldn't have detected these even if I had the proper spell running to do so.

"Whatever the Gem-Mage kept behind this door wasn't supposed to be retrieved by anyone other than the Gem-Mage."

Dead magic or no, the half-elf found himself taking a step back from the trapped door. A little paler than he was a moment ago he turned to the others. "Is it safe now?"

Jorelon's only answer was to point at Elric's chest. Looking down he saw only the darkened Holy Symbol that Ashara had given him... Which meant... that the magic was quite dead here.

"Right... Well, I've had some history with 'Symbol' spells.. Very unpleasant." the bitterness was evident in his tone, but he still nearly spit the words out.

Durlan stepped up. "Whether it's dead or not... Let me take the lead on this one... It takes an extar heapin' o' magic to get through a dwarf's hide...

"Not that I'm thinkin' it'll be an issue..." He said as he approached the door. Carvings and runes were scattered about, but there was no lock on the door. Hesitantly he placed weathered hand and shoved. The door slid open easily.

"Ok... I'm thinking, that was a bit too easy...?"

Elric's face darkened as he thought of all the bad that could have happened if the Dead Magic hadn't descended here. "Whatever's back here.. This Arguth was apparently confident in his spells. And wasn't afraid to let someone 'try their luck' so to speak... In fact... Do you see any other traps up there?"

"That I do not..." came a muffled reply.

"All magic all the time..." Elric shook his head at the arrogance. Apparently the headmaster of the most prestigious tower around.... wasn't afraid of a simple Dispel. Though that made sense on some level... Therogeon had explained the difficulty removing the magic of extremely powerful mages... and if they could break his magic, what chance would a simple spike trap have.

"Still..." the half-elf grinned at the news, "I guess it makes our job a bit easier."

"Not jest ours... " The dwarf said as he stuck his head back into the hall... "Ten by ten room in here... then another wall... Someone, or something busted through. Ain't sure when... but don't look recent. Lot's off old Blood... "

"Busted in... or Out?" the priest asked exactly what was on Elric's mind. Durlan looked back for a moment and considered.

"In I'd say." Running his fingers through his beard. "Looks like we ain't the first to assume this was where the good stuff was... I ain't sure how ye were supposed to get in there... but it looks like a normal wall to me... but sure enough there's a chamber back there..."

All these powerful, apparently sometimes undetectable magical wards, broken gates, invisible bridges... The magic dead area was certainly working in their favor in this place, but Ashara was growing increasingly concerned about exploring such places outside of this kind of safety net! It wasn't yet known exactly where their search for the pieces of the Arm of Valor would lead them, and Morninglords had no access to Dispel Magic... The spell, Awakening, would spring all traps, magical and mundane but springing magical traps wasn't always the best of ideas!

She suddenly wondered if a disturbed ward would produce the intended results under the Mythal or if would that magic be warped as well... The priestess grimaced at the thought. Just as she was growing increasingly concerned about the magical danger within the ancient city, she was growing increasingly thankful that they had Kaldric along with them to aid in such situations! As the group moved into the room, she grinned at the mage who was bubbling with excitement. He and Therogeon would get along well!

The lantern light illuminated the small room, revealing to those of only human stock exactly what the dwarf had described. As the last person in, Ashara kept one eye on the door as she knelt down to examine the dark, rust colored stain covering a good portion of the floor. Blood... Definitely not ichor.

Someone or someones met a grisly end in here, but did the blood-letting happen before or after that wall was busted down? Had there been...something...sealed in that room?

"Hey boys?" Ashara rose to her feet while her attention split its time between her companions and the doorway that led to the yet unexplored hall. "If someone busted into that room, is there any evidence that they might have busted something out? Something unpleasant? Just...out of curiosity..."

Elric scanned the room with an appraising eye. Finally he simply shrugged.

"No way to tell... Whoever 'they' were... they found some resistance down here. I don't know if they met it here... broke it out of that wall.. or were chased here!"

Jorelon nodded his agreement. "And we'll probably never know... One thing about living here, you get used to unsolved mysteries..."

Elric carefully stuck his head into the next room and scanned it carefully for life.. or more specifically movement. He sensed neither.

"Whatever it was.. It looks like it's gone now." Slowly he led the way into the hidden room.

What the adventurers saw surprised them. A stone bier that had been intricately carved with the same runes as the door to this chamber and presumably the same curses. One particular rune struck the half-elf as familiar, the same rune that was on the outside door... The rune of Arguth the Gem-mage!

The crypt itself was in a sorry shape. Like the other they had found. There was no coffin, only bones scattered around. While the woman's bones were more... collapsed around the bier as if the body had simply been discarded... the Mighty Arguth was in a much worse shape. Bones and limbs were scattered and once fine robes were desecrated beyond believe. The bier, once protected, had been shattered open and whatever grand magic the mage sought to keep with him had been plundered.

Elric didn't know anything about this man, and the little he'd learned hadn't endeared the mage to him much... but his heart still wept to see anybody's physical remains desecrated in such a haphazardly manner.

Slowly the foursome began picking through the rubble in the room. Fragments of bone and fragments of stone. Whomever had come here held little regard for the Gem-mage and after plundering his riches and scattering his remains, Ashara wondered if that disrespect was repaid in the form of a grisly end before they were even able to get back out into the hallway.

She pushed aside some stones as she searched and turned up what was obviously the skull of the great mage, crushed into pieces either purposefully or carelessly.

"And this is why we are to be humble," she said softly. "This is why we should care for one another. Great nobles, powerful wizards, poor farmers, disease-ridden prostitutes..." Her hand closed around a pile of dust that once held some of the greatest secrets of Myth Drannor and she lifted it gently, letting the pulverized skull slip through her fingers. "In the end, we're all the same."

The priestess sighed sadly as she gathered the bone fragments into her hand and took them back to the stone bier. Perhaps this wasn't exactly what Arguth had intended for his interment, but at very least they could help put his remains back where they should be.

"How are you doing?" A quiet voice asked as, Elric gently laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. With the other, he reverently placed a broken bone next to the skull. The utter lack of respect for the dead upset him and he could tell she shared his feelings.

He could understand breaking into a tomb... He could even understand plundering it blind. That was just typical human greed. But this desecration?!?

"I just don't understand what would possess someone to do this?" He whispered softly in the torchlight. "Do you think whoever it was knew him personally... It looks like they must have hated him very much..." His mouth twisted into a tight smile. Rubbing some bone dust onto his pants."Not exactly how I expected to spend our time... Combing old desecrated tombs for a single ring..."

Scanning the carnage, she couldn't help but to agree with Elric's assessment. If they didn't know him and hate him, then perhaps they'd been angry about something else... Was the treasure in the bier not what they'd hoped? Maybe the Gem-mage kept all his most valuable things stashed away somewhere even more secret! Mages were often a paranoid lot...

There was no end to the parties that would be interested in the mage's treasures! Maybe even demons had come down here to retrieve the magics. They were angry creatures in general and would no doubt enjoy a good desecration.

It made her wonder how long ago this must have happened... The wards on the door hadn't been sprung, otherwise they would've left scorch marks and destruction throughout the hallway, which led her to believe that the ruin was already in a dead magic zone when it was looted. How long ago was that? Did the destruction of Arguth's tower cause the DMZ in this region or was this an affect of the Time of Troubles?

"I think Jorelon made a good point," Ashara sighed, taking solace in the weight of her husband's arm on her shoulder. "The who and why of this destruction is probably one of those mysteries we'll never have an answer to."

Unless, she thought to herself, those that did this were the same beings that were now equipping an army for an unknown purpose... Judging from the pile of corpses in the room with the ghouls, they cared little for life or proper burial.

"And you're absolutely right, Melamin," she chuckled gently, eager to derail that line of thinking for the time being, "this wasn't how I'd foreseen our adventure here! Certainly not after Vailis'...emphatic insistence that we stay out of the crypts!

"I kind of feel like I did when I'd sneak down the stairs to the kitchen back home to snatch a couple of cookies from the jar for Blueberry. He was a sick little bird!" she insisted, with eyes pleading for understanding. "He needed the cookies and he so hated to eat alone... But I knew that come morning, somehow my mother would know that I'd taken them!" She grinned, "I think she has some natural talent as a diviner. That's all I can make of it..."

Thoughts of home always brought a smile to her face. It had been too long since they'd been to Impresk!

Looking up at Elric, she carefully brushed a smudge of ghoul dust from his cheek with the back of her hand. "I'm sure Vailis will understand though, what with the fate of the Dawnspire on the line. Plus, we can bribe him from his annoyance with the Alliance dagger! Not to mention the inevitable song, but we've been rather busy over the last three days..." she grinned. "I don't suppose you've had much of a chance to work on lyrics yet."

"Bahhh..." Elric exaggerated a grimace though his eyes danced, "I can't think of anything to rhyme with 'Durlan." He grinned as the red-faced dwarf's head perked up and quickly returned to the search. A snicker in the distance said that Elric had been 'just' loud enough that all the others had heard him too... Just as he'd intended.

"The lyrics will come, either after I've had a chance to reflect a bit.... or at the worst possible moment. With me, it could go either way! Probably right in the middle of a fight with a demon or ten..."

He chuckled as he could still picture a young Ashara 'sharing' a cookie with an injured bird... She was right, Arryn must have counted those cookies or something... Even before he'd left they could never sneak 'anything' and get away with it!! He wondered if she still did that??

"And... Don't worry about Vailis. I doubt he'd have any problem with something like this..." he said trying to sound confident. "I think he was more concerned about what would happen if we came strolling back into Evereska with a dead moonblade, commonly known to have buried with a local hero of course... Sitting on our hip and the crown of Cormanthyr on our head!" He laughed a bit louder than he'd intended and lowered his voice.

"We just stopped worrying about assassins.. He doesn't want us to get on the wrong side of ANOTHER important family..."

"Yes, that would be most unfortunate," she nodded vigorously. "I don't know though..." Taking a few steps back, Ashara appraised the half elf with index finger tapping pursed lips. "It seems to me that your head would be well suited to a crown. A legitimate one however, not a scavenged one."

The priestess chuckled, though there was no jest in her voice or eyes at the comment, and she went off to gather together more remains to be returned to the stone bier.

"As for our dwarven companion, I'm sure there's something we can work out... Hmm...." After a moment of thought, her face brightened and she turned a mischievous grin toward Durlan.

"We spent some time aboard a ship named the Summer Breeze, where I assisted the cook while we traveled. The man constantly spouted lewd limericks as he worked. I learned quite a lot on that trip..." Her voiced trailed off and a fierce blush rose on her cheeks as some of those little poems were brought to mind.

"Umm...right. Anyway, let me try a less crude version for you!"

Ashara cleared her throat as she picked up the pieces of a shattered arm bone, and began her halted rhyme.

"I know of a hero named Durlan,
And no demon nor devil...deters 'im!
With all guarantee,
He...brings evil to knee,
When he sets mithril great axe to whirlin'!"

The wizard listened to the banter and rather poor poetry being recited by his fellows in the tomb and envied Arguth's current state. Admittedly, the discussion was certainly tolerable, but no one without the knack for it had any right trying to piece together eloquent words. He supposed his self-taught education in Espruarin poetical literature probably soured his appreciation for amateur work. None put together a finer verse than the elves, unless one preferred the harsher tonal qualities of dwarven pentameter! He'd never read a more stressed poem than Togar's Axe Got Gold. The things one found in Myth Drannor . . .

Having exhausted his area, Kaldric thought to pay the bier a bit more attention when a glimmer of something caught his eye . . . something yellow. Rubble and dust lay strewn about the edges of the tomb from whatever destruction had occurred before, and their flickering light had just managed to lick at an object normally hidden in the shadows behind a few displaced stones. Intrigued, he quick-stepped to the location and knelt down for a better look. There, on the segment of a finger bone, resided a dusty gold ring, unadorned as a village peasant woman.

"I have something here," he announced, taking bone and ring in hand. "My guess is that it's either what we came for," a grave smirk flashed across his lips, "or what we came for simply isn't here."

Concern at finding the item amidst a pile of rubble entered his thoughts, but he refused to let it show for the moment. If they were to be disappointed, might as well be where the sunshine could help lift their spirits, not in the bowels of the Gem-Mage's desecrated tomb.

Durlan blinked silently at her and it was hard not to notice the mage's sharp wince at her attempt at humor. Tough crowd! With Elric's acerbic reaction to her idea about the ghoul scratching and her jokes hitting the floor with a thud, Ashara figured it best to just keep her thoughts to herself under these strained circumstances.

"Well done, Kaldric," she said cheerfully, as her usual smile lifted the corners of her mouth once again. "Should we make our way out of the magic dead area then, or do we believe there might be more to learn here in Arguth's ruined tower?"

"Everything that I've come for seems to have been found," the Veil Initiate said. "The possibility exists that neither will do me any good, but hope remains that something will provide a clue or two on how to best stop the expanding Dead Magic. I believe we chose well in our explorations and discovered the most pertinent chambers for our purposes immediately. All we could hope to find with further delving would be trouble."

"I'd agree with Kaldric..." Elric spoke up still grinning from the impromptu limerick. Granted it didn't fit the tune he had in his head... but still, he'd heard worse. "As much fun as it'd be to explore, just to explore..."

"We do have other places to be." Jorelon finished the half-elf's thought.

"And I'm not convinced we're alone down here... Between the desecrations and the corpse piles... I'm not advocating 'looking' for trouble." He glanced back at the blood stained room behind them. "So far, we haven't found any demons..." Stopping suddenly he tried to classify the flying eyeballs..."Ehh.. many demons anyway."

Ashara moved about the room, and quickly finished gathering the pieces of the Gem-mage, laying them once again to rest. It was unlikely that his remains would be left undisturbed permanently here in the ruins, but she said a quick blessing over him just the same.

"Agreed," she nodded after listening to the men's comments, "and considering the situation, we don't have much time to dawdle! I believe the Abbess asked us to return to the Dawnspire once we were done here, and I'm sure she'll be glad to see us as soon as possible!"

"If we're ready then... Let's be off!" Elric turned to take his customary position and hop back through the rubble.

"Shut it!" Durlan whispered fiercely as he looked concernedly back whence they came.

Elric's brows furrowed and he nearly gave the dwarf an instruction on manners, when suddenly he heard it too. Clomping of Footsteps down the hall to the south. Hopping nimbly to the door he flattened himself hard against the wall and peeked out and felt his heart leap into his throat.

"Door!" A deep guttural voice spoke from the hall and Elric was scrambling back to the others as the footsteps outside sped up.

"Get Ready!! Looks like this isn't as easy as I'd hoped!"

"What'd ye see!" Durlan demanded, Ax already in hand.

"Ohh... Ogres... Orcs... and something I have NEVER seen before.. Two heads... Snake and Dog.

"Ohh.. and goes all the way to the ceiling! So.. umm.. Yeah! Gonna be interesting! If we get the option... this may not be a fight we want."

Barely had the words left his mouth when the door to the blood caked room burst open behind him!

The Veil Initiate attempted to see past the half-elf even as he gingerly wiggled out a specially designed metal vial. The orcs and ogres fought with one another to press through the door barely more than ten feet away from the one he and the martial artist stood in now. He wanted to get a good look at that hulking creature Elric warned about, but the mass of humanoids were simply too thick for any useful analyzing to take place. With his left hand, Kaldric grasped the half-elf by the shoulder and lightly pulled him into the tomb. "I humbly request you step inside a moment," he suggested somewhat urgently.

Though clearly unhappy about giving up his place in the protective forefront, the half-elf thankfully complied. The dwarf was still in the other room, but he hoped Durlan resided close enough that the vial's contents wouldn't encapsulate the warrior! "Closer to me, Durlan!" he called out in warning, lifting the metal vial up for the toss.

The mage waited as long as he could for the dwarf, but seeing the humanoids finally sorting out at the first doorway made time an issue. Rather than throw at a specific enemy, Kaldric targeted a spot where the floor and wall meet just left of the entrance and heaved. The unique vial flipped through the air, their artificial lighting from within the tomb glimmering brightly off its polished sheen, and bounced off the floor with a metallic ting. Upon impact, its top popped loudly, issuing a loud burst of pressure that at first seemed impotent.

Two seconds later, however, all the air in a circular nine foot area around the vial crystallized instantaneously, forming a layer of biting frost on the ogre in the doorway, and freezing the orc within the room and a second one behind the ogre solid.

"Don't touch the cold with your bare skin," he advised his companions, motioning toward the first orc. "It would prove quite painful."

A curt nod was the only response as the two warriors took that as permission to continue. Two orcs were frozen but that didn't seem to deter the oncoming horde. With the longer legs of the two Elric reached the biggest and most wounded of the ogres. His first swipe with the iron blade nearly opened the monster up and a spin that easily dodged the massive hand left him a clear shot at the spine. With a thud the ogre hit the ground never to move again. Much to the his companion's dismay.

"Now Don't ye be taken all the big ones!!!" Durlan called out as the giant fell.

"More where that came from!" the half-elf responded already flowing into the crowd of Orc that seemed to shove and push their way into the room. Sure enough another of the three Ogres came in and the dwarf whooped with glee.

Elric almost hazarded a grin as he kicked a blade out wide and answered with another foot that crumpled an orc. Backed into a tomb was no place he wanted to be.. but the dwarf seemed almost at home! Another orc attempting to take advantage of the distracted half-elf... an advantaged didn't exist.

When his sword hit the ground, the half-elf was already past him and slamming hardened fists into others with deceptive ease. Soon those who made it past scrambled to hit the dwarf... who proved no easier a target. One managed to score a light hit and Durlan looked at the offending orc with shock in his eyes.

"Wait yer Blasted TURN!!" Came the deep bellow as the stout warrior dodged the badly wounded ogres flailing fist. "Get to ye in a minute!!"

The small ten-foot square room that had previously contained naught but a bloodstain, now was crammed with both thrashing bodies and inert ones, plus a much...much larger bloodstain!

Whirling her sling in hand, Ashara hopped through the broken in doorway and loosed a bullet at one of the wounded orcs surrounding the half elf. A solid crack to the temple and there was another inert body to add to the pile.

She stepped back against the wall to the side of the doorway and fished out another bullet as she assessed the situation. Elric was surrounded...just the way he liked it, and Durlan was butchering wholesale the ogre in front of him. In such cramped quarters it was best if she just stay out of the way!

Behind her, Jorelon stepped through the doorway too, standing to the side just enough to give Kaldric a good view in the room and still provide the mage with some cover. He had a light crossbow loaded and taking aim, buried the bolt deep into the shoulder of the orc that struck his dwarven companion.

"Pick on someone your own size!" The priest shouted over the din as the pig-faced creature snorted, sending a gout of snot and blood from one of its nostrils. Wounded and annoyed it turned toward what appeared (accurately) to be an easier target...

Clad in ill-fitting armor, it was likely that these orcs and ogres were part of the group that was being outfitted for battle for some yet unknown purpose, or they were simply marauders looting corpses. Elric said he'd seen something....big out there... A commander perhaps? It was still too crowded to tell.

Then...slithering silently down through the top corner of the hallway entrance, a great serpent head appeared out of nowhere! It turned slowly to survey the scene as, from beyond the door, a terrible, guttural growl reverberated off the stone...

The Ogre that Durlan was playing with was coldly silent. The dwarf's boisterous insults seemed to be having no effect at all on it, though the gleaming mithril ax made up for it.

The dwarf was bouncing in for the death blow when his grin slipped. The giant may have been brought to one knee... but the look in his eye said that fight wasn't over yet. With a yelp he barely got his shield up in time to block the mighty backhand. Even with the shield in place, the blow rattled the dwarf's teeth and sent him staggering backward.

Bushy eyebrows came together and with a whoop he came charging back in. Shield knocking the defending hand away, the dwarf spun in the air with the full weight of dwarf and gravity adding to the momentum. Toughened skin and hard bone were no match for dwarven steel and the ogre's head flew clear across the room while it's body slowly slumped to the floor.

"AHA!!!!" Durlan cried in triumph. There were few things in the world that Dwarves hated more than ogres. Though orcs were high on the list too. Seeing the one had hit him turn it's back, by no means meant the battle was over.

"GET back here, ye scrawny oversized ham! I told ye, ye were next!!" The orc paid his words no mind and seemed only intent on the priest with the crossbow. He quickly joined his fallen comrades.

****

Elric grinned as he heard the whistle of a sling bullet smack into the orc behind him. Always good to know someone was watching over you. Also it left him with one less threat to deal with!

As one orc fell, another rushed in to take it's place. Orc and Ogre both charged right for him and Elric spun to the right of the ogres massive swing to catch the newly arrived orc off guard. Elric felt the sternum crack under the heel of his boot and as the creature fell, he knew instinctively that it wouldn't be rising again. Which left him the ogre.

As it's comrades seem to fall around him, the ogre showed neither concern nor interest at all. With a fixed stare it seemed to only want the half-elf. Unfortunately, the half-elf had other plans.

Reversing direction, he rolled from his most recent kill and spun hard sweeping with both sword and leg. The sword cut a gash across the ogres neck, though not deep enough to trouble it. The leg however shattered the monsters knee and toppled it to the ground.

Elric's brow furrowed as he realized the ogre wasn't screaming in agony. Not that he enjoyed that sound by an means... but he'd broken enough bones.. His own and others to know what to expect. Before he could process that, he sensed more than saw the movement behind him.

He had only gotten a glimpse at the time.. and still wasn't sure what he was looking at but quickly he snapped his sword around and as cold iron slashed demonic snake there was smoke and a distinct hissing noise.

Elric could feel his heart pounding with excitement. THIS... was something new!! The Molydeus was less impressed, and the half-elf quickly learned not to underestimate his new opponent. His strike had scored a hit it's true... but not deep enough to deter a demon of it's power.

The snake recoiled quickly and Elric moved to follow, when it struck back with a speed that stunned the Salk-sirra master. He felt the fangs dig deep into his shoulder and twisted fast. Groaning he leaped back from the door to relative safety. Sickly black venom ran down his back and the wound itself was bleeding freely. Probably for the best he quickly decided. Keep the wound cleaner that way...