Tales of Fantasy, Fables, and Fiction

by Thomas H. Tribble

  His ever faithful companions were, as usual, behind him. His broad shoulders, thick armor, and generally slow reaction time made him a logical shield to peer around. Gomer was staying particularly close behind him making sure to actually move silently and be on the ready to retreat at a moment’s notice. Gomer was good at many things but being a paragon of fearlessness was not amongst his more sought after talents. And, why should it be? He was a small man with amazing reflexes, a keen eye, and a generally lethargic attitude towards tedium. Adventuring was where it was at for him. Let the strong swordsmen and powerful mystics run the show. Eventually they would come to a door they could not bull open or a safe that the book learned knew to be too deadly to even fix one's gaze upon and then see where they would be without his craft. Up a creek, that's where.

  Lotus kept to the back of the party to keep an eye out for anything they might have missed in the last hall they had just fought their way through. She noticed Gomer peering at her again so she discretely made sure her chain maille was on straight. She readied her mace and silently hoped that her Deity would offer her some degree of aid so she could heal her companions, as that need would surely arise momentarily. She flexed her perfectly toned arms and abs which were apparent even under her tight fitting armor. A slight breeze blew through the corridor catching her hair and subtly blowing it out of her face ever so slowly. The torchlight really did set off her strong chin and perfect complexion causing her pale green eyes to smolder as if in the light of a thousand full moons. Her supple thighs and taught, round buttocks crouched slightly to fully ready herself for whatever was about to happen. Her pouting, full breasts heaved only just noticeably under her ample breastplate. Artists have painted this scene many times over but the fact of the matter was that in this, or any other such realm, Lotus was considered a fairly average looking woman. The concept that a battle hardened Cleric of a religious order that disdains immoral behavior and has little need of personal grooming items should be a rough looking or haggard in any way is simply an idea that has not occurred very often.

  The passageway opened up into a large, tiled room. It was drab and cold looking which was very out of place in the earthy cave that surrounded it. Just in front of the doorway lay an inlaid seal covered in mystic runes. At the rear of the room was a crystal case of some kind. However, the party's collective eyes were drawn forward because in front of it was treasure chests with their lids open so that their contents gleamed. But, in front of all of that was a problem; a big problem that fit the description of an upper echelon Demon.

  All Demons are made, more or less, of the same stuff. They all start out as the souls of dead miscreants or lesser, nastier things that wind up in the black, fetid reaches of the Abyss. There the food chain, or death chain to be more precise, allows the very worst of these entities to progress and strengthen themselves over the long years, always at something else's expense. Think of Hell as a large, poorly lit poker game where the players are the pot, cards, and lingering cigar smoke. Don't even bother pondering who or what the 'House' is, you do not want to know. Needless to say, however, a highly ranked Demon did not get to be what it was by being nice or forgiving.

  The Demon moved towards them for a moment and stopped. Clearly, it had no intentions of leaving whatever was behind it unguarded. The weapon it held was very large and, as you would expect, nasty looking. It raised a horned hand and pointed to the hallway.

  Nostromo said in a quiet voice to those behind him, "His way of telling us to leave, I suspect." Then, he spoke directly to the creature, "Excuse me, I don't think so." And, with that, he nodded to the figure that still stood in the passageway.

  The Elvin Lady Maewyn stepped out of the shadows from just behind Lotus and into the torchlight of the corridor. Her eyes shown a brilliant violet even from beneath the thick robes that covered her head to toe. It is a common misconception that all heroic women dress in low-cut bodices, revealing leggings, and suggestive maille-skirts when in battle. Well, a few of them do, but the vast majority of your more serious adventurers dress somewhat more practically. The only thing a bustier will do for a maiden is to distract her male cohorts while she is jumping about during a melee. Also, there is the issue of chaffing to consider. Add to this that fact that nine out of ten of your non-human opponents are not going to care what someone is wearing while they are under attack and the whole concept of revealing battle gear becomes even more ludicrous. Also, Elf women do not tend to be particularly busty generally leaning towards the lithe. At any rate, Maewyn stepped out of the shadows.

  In her hands was a beautiful longbow made of some exotic, pale wood. Nocked in it was six arrows, each a deep red hue. Before the Demon could react, she fired the salvo. The beast leapt back and howled in pain. The fight was on.

  Nostromo ran at the creature with his huge two-handed axe splitting the air and cutting into the Demon's thick hide. Maewyn was making her way to the back of the creature and was now holding a unique looking short sword. Gomer was standing by the doorway looking at the chests of gold. His mouth was open and small pits of drool were forming as its corners. A very loud howl from the Demon roused the Thief from his trance and he decided to work his way to the back of the room drawing as little attention to himself as was possible. Lotus had already run past the small man and was attacking the creature from a position triangular to her companions.

  The Demon made a large, downward slash with its razor honed weapon at Nostromo, who Gomer was careful to be nowhere near at the time. The attack ripped into Nostromo's armor and tore flesh. Maewyn lunged at the beast and managed to make a small cut in its hide. Instantly, the Demon used its weapon to lunge back at the Elf maiden, though its attack did little more than knock her backwards and off balance. Gomer was also careful to be nowhere in the vicinity of this foray as well. Now Lotus used what she saw as an opening to club at the back of the creature with her mace, but her attack only just missed. Getting an effective strike in on this thing was going to be a task, she reckoned just as the beast's tail lashed out at her, missing Gomer completely as he was nowhere near Lotus, causing a large gash to open up on her shoulder.

  The fight was interrupted, however, when Gomer intoned, "Guys, there is GOLD here!! Don't you see it?" Nostromo, Lotus, and Maewyn stopped their fighting for a moment and just looked at Gomer. The Demon also stopped for a moment and looked over at the Thief while a blank look crossed its face. Then, after a dull second ticked by, the Demon lashed out at the little man unimpeded, because Gomer was nowhere near anyone else, and slammed him into the nearest wall all but rendering him unconscious.

  Nostromo leapt at the beast and managed a full power slash with his huge axe. He was rewarded for his efforts by the drawing of black blood and by having the Demon's weapon strike him with full force in return. "Clearly," though Nostromo just before the huge axe like-mace-battering-ram type weapon struck him, "this is going to be painful." The blow creased his armor and allowed the blood pouring from this newest cuts to run between its seams and down to the tiled floor.

  Maewyn had moved further away from the creature and, somehow, already had her bow readied. She fired two arrows simultaneously into the creature's neck as Lotus ducked around the Demon's mass to attempt another strike. The beast ignored these attacks however, and focused on slaughtering Nostromo who seemed staggered. But, just as the Demon raised its black weapon high over its head for a death blow, Gomer appeared over the beast's open back, sword poised and aiming for the spine. In fact, the Rogue had performed a complex acrobatic feat and leapt up high for a surprise attack. His blow did not in fact kill the Demon outright though it was severely injured now. Also, the creature's attack on Nostromo had been compromised so that it was lessened to the point of not killing him.

  "Oh, that worked!" said Gomer more than a bit surprised. "Usually that sort of thing kind of..." but he was interrupted when he noticed the Demon's tail coming for his head and he attempted to duck out of harm's way. Lotus performed a very precise strike at the
creature's back and was rewarded by the drawing of its dark blood. The Demon roared and spun around to confront the maiden but was met with two more arrows launched from Maewyn's bow. Still, the beast slashed its angry weapon at Lotus opening up a wound on her taut stomach and sending her flying backwards almost out of the room entirely.

  By this time, Nostromo had recovered his senses enough to realize that for all the small cuts they were making on the creature, each of its blows were nearly fatal. Should he or any of the them die in the next few moments, the fight would not end well for the others. "Gomer, let slip your namesake!" he yelled for all to hear. Everyone immediately moved away from the creature and it turned to face Nostromo who was himself backing away quickly preparing for the blast he knew to be forthcoming. It would sear the beast's hide and rip into its vitals leaving this Demon at the very end of its bitter life.

  But, nothing happened. Another long moment passed and, when no attack came, the creature ran towards the Fighter with rage in its burning eyes. "Throw it!" yelled Nostromo but Gomer just stood there. In his hand was a large, almost angry looking ball that sparkled dimly and seemed about to burst forth all by itself.

  "But, this cost two hundred and fifty rilks... and it is my last one. I think we should save it for...." but the Rogue was cut-off as Nostromo decided to duck behind Gomer in an attempt to evade the massive weapon being impelled at him by the black entity now heading directly for the smaller man. In a single, well executed motion, Gomer leapt backwards, jumped up, took two wide strides horizontally along the wall away from the Demon, tossed the ball he carried directly at the beast's chest, and dove behind a chest.

  Upon impact, the ball erupted with not only a red hot, contained fireball, but it also let off a concussive blast that affected everyone in the room. Nostromo had the wind knocked out of him through his breastplate but the others were behind the mass of the beast and remained relatively unharmed. The monster, of course, took the brunt of the force and, though not more than severely staggered per se, was obviously far closer to death.

  A few more arrows, two more axe slashes, another back stab, and a final, solid blow from Lotus's mace put the creature into its grave. Demon's do not exactly ever cease to exist with death being merely the opening of a doorway back to the Abyss for them, but they certainly do become less of a threat when their bodies are destroyed beyond a usable point. The term "giving up the ghost" applies even if their ghost is a shadow-like mist of pure dread instead of a pale and floating apparition.

  "Okay, who else is about to pass out?" asked Nostromo, "Lotus, please heal us as you can and then we should have a better look at the treasure and whatever is in that glass case." His eyes met Gomer's and he mumbled, "Your last one. Right."

  The Cleric tended to the wounded, although Gomer had already begun to check the chests for traps and secret compartment that might be hiding more of his beloved gold. The crystalline case is what held Nostromo's attention. As soon as he was fit, he went to it and looked it over. Maewyn had already begun studying the case and had a very serious look on her face. "What have you found?" asked the Fighter. Ancient, or for that matter, new runes were not his area of expertise so he tended to just frown at them to see if any of the symbols moved or did anything else hostile looking.

  Maewyn answered, "This is a stasis chamber. Within it lies a man apparently in a magicked slumber. I cannot make out what is on the pendant around his neck, but I do not like the looks of it. I have grave misgivings about him as my heart tells me to leave this alone."

  Nostromo looked the figure over and said, "That's probably just because he is naked and you are just a shy Wood Nymph at heart," he quipped; to which everyone, even the completely distracted Thief, groaned. "Still, you have to wonder who..."

  "Or what," added Gomer.

  "... or what," continued Nostromo, "would be worth hiding down here under the watchful eye of a Demon. It arouses the curiosity somewhat." After a moment's thought, he added, "But, after that business with that Golem we awoke last year, I think we will let sleeping mysteries lie."

  Lotus had completed healing herself and was reading the inscriptions on the case when she said, "It is written that he is a wealthy prince." Gomer quickly appeared at Lotus's side and began trying to decipher the runes.

  "Where does it say that? How wealthy?" the Rogue asked.

  Lotus pushed him out of the way and said, "It doesn't say that. It looks like the same thing is repeated on each panel but in varying tongues. This one is Wood Elvin and that one is old Dryad, which I am somewhat familiar with. This panel is written in modern Dwarfish so that puts this case at less than two thousand years old."

  Maewyn read the Common Tongue inscription aloud, "'Herein lies the last Prince of the Hawthghor; the last of the Lordly House of Piercathon.' They were a fairly wealthy clan but disappeared some time ago. Good riddance, I say. They were notoriously unfriendly xenophobes who have not been missed. It continues, 'Touch not this case for it can only be opened by providence.'"

  "I don't feel very provident so I also vote to ignore the case also. Besides, I don't get the feeling that schlong-boy there is going to help us carry any of this gold out of here," added Gomer as he held up a pendant that had been on top of the last chest of treasure. "Can anyone tell me if this is magicked or not? Actually, it looks just like the one Sleeping Somber is wearing. How odd."

  Maewyn's face went blank and she said in as clear and plain a voice as she could muster, "Do not even think about putting that on. Magic or not, gold or not, we are leaving that here! The symbol on that was the sign of a very powerful and loathsome Lich Lord from a very long time ago. Better yet, just give it to me." Gomer knew better than to argue with women so he gave her the pendant in the hopes of finding it in her pockets at some later time.

  At the mere mention of the word 'Lich', meaning an undead skeletal Magician, Lotus went pale. "You don't think that he is a Lich, do you?"

  "No," Maewyn was quick to reply for she knew of Lotus's aversion to the undead. "Do not worry," she added, "Demons and the undead rarely get along. I am sure we are quite safe from the non-living for now."

  Nostromo and Lotus busied themselves looking for any weapons amongst the stash. The few that were there were either decorative or plain, no master craft works seemed present. The man in the case might have been rich, but certainly had not been trusted to defend himself. Although, Gomer did find a jeweled dagger under a false bottom in a chest. The gems were not extremely rare, but the piece was certainly no ordinary blade. Lotus had been watching him and immediately suggested that it be put into the community stash to be part of the settling of treasures later. The Rogue was not known to overtly steal from fellow party members, but keeping an eye on his activities around newly found treasure never seemed like an unreasonable thing to do. Also, he might have enjoyed the attention.

  Finally, not being able to put it off any longer, Nostromo drug the Demon's corpse into the hallway just in front of the seal carved on the floor and proceeded to open up its stomach. Occasionally an adventurer could find a valuable trinket in such a bad smelling place but whether or not the deed was actually ever worth the doing was certainly up for debate. "Some day," the Fighter mumbled to himself, "some day I will be wealthy enough to never even consider doing this again."

  The beast's stomach was indeed devoid of value, but Nostromo noticed something glinting in the torchlight further up in its chest cavity. There was an object embedded in the creature's heart! It looked like a platinum medallion. With more than a little effort, he did finally pry it free and it found its rest in the palm of his hand.

  Unfortunately, the loosing of the trinket caused the unexpected to happen. Actually, once what happened next did happen, it was pretty well completely expected to happen. The idiom, "it figures," sums up the following series of events. Providence, fate, and bad luck are often mistaken for one another and, if one adventures long enough, the only question becomes, "bad luck for whom?" As the events unfolded, the answer to t
hat question was certain to become public knowledge.

  The crystalline case silently rotated upright, its transparent cover seemed to dissolve into a mist, and the man inside opened his eyes. Everyone in the party had stopped breathing while this happened. It is not that they were stupefied or frozen in terror. They had faced horrible adversaries and performed countless mind numbingly brave if, rather, ill conceived things for years. Their lack of response is best attributed not in the waiting for the next inevitable shoe to drop or in their being unsure of whether that shoe was to be a house slipper or the proverbial boot up the backside. No, it was due to them wondering how Gomer had caused this to happen, and failing a conclusion to that, wondering that if the Rogue had not caused this to happen, could it really be that bad? As the man stepped out of the case, his eyes began to glow a deep red. So, having received an answer to their quandary, namely, "yes, this could be that bad," they were now free to act again.

  Nostromo stepped forward towards the man, his axe at the ready as the others took up positions around the room. The man looked at the Fighter and smiled. He gently placed his thin hand on Nostromo's shoulder and said, "Do you have any idea how badly I could mess you up right now?" Then, with an obvious lack of effort, Nostromo was shoved aside into the nearest wall. The man walked towards Maewyn who let two arrows fly.

  The arrows struck the man but they glanced off of skin and he did not even seem to notice them. He stopped just in front of her, smiled a thin smile, then calmly reached out and took the pendant from her belt where she had hastily tucked it. All the while, she just stood there waiting to see what he was going to do next. The man looked at her closely then said, "You look oddly familiar, Lady. A purple eyed Elf... not a very common sight. How odd."