Chapter Three
Surprisingly enough they survived the massive horde outside. Unfortunately the waypoint hadn't. So what should have been a half hour running battle, ended up being a three day journey that was spent primarily running.
 The worst moment for Ledain was when the blade of his sword snapped in half under a particularly vicious blow from a four armed monstrosity. Dodging and weaving, he managed to avoid the blades of the thing long enough for Tylassa to turn it into a feathered pincushion from her arrows. Without any other weapon that Ledain could use, Tylassa gave him the Sunblade to use until he could find something better. The sword became his when it was obvious that somehow the man and blade became bonded. The bond made itself evident when Tylassa got stunned by a large monster wielding what looked like a human body wrapped up in a chain, in desperation Ledain threw the sword at the creature. Much to his surprise, the blade flew back to his hand.
Just as the sun was setting on the third day, the two exhausted fighters finally came across a functional waypoint that allowed them to get to the safety of Lut Gholein. Completely worn, the two got rooms at the closest available inn, managed to remove their armor, then slept for two solid days. The next few days they only woke up enough to attend to various bodily functions, and slept some more. A week after returning to the port city, the two had finally recovered enough to begin planning the next step. While both wanted to go back into the desert and finally rid it of the tainted denizens there, both were keenly aware of the amount of time they had lost during their recovery from their trek back.
 Full of regrets, Ledain booked passage to Kurast, while Tylassa organized their supplies in preparation of the upcoming journey. During the majority of the two week trip to ancient city of Kurast, Tylassa was hanging over the side of the ship, her normally tanned complexion a decidedly unhealthy looking shade of green. Her adventures the past year and a half had made her forget the miserable trip via ship that she had taken from Skovos to a small port in Westmarch. Ledain did what he could to make her as comfortable as possible, all the while wishing he had devoted more time to the healing arts besides developing his martial prowess.
The hellish trip (even though the seas were calm and gentle, with a good strong wind, the kind of weather the sailors longed for, but rarely had) was soon over, but not quickly enough for Tylassa. The former paladin and the young amazon had developed a strong friendship during the short time they had become a team, and he was lightly teasing her about her weak stomach when they debarked from the ship. The jokes fell to horrified silence as they looked upon the remnants of the once proud city. Most of the docks were falling apart from neglect and decay, few of the fine buildings were standing, many were gone, replaced by shacks that could barely remain standing. Behind them the sailors began to pray fervently to their gods, half in Common, half in their native tongue.
 They had known that as they followed the tracks of the Greater Demon they hunted, things were likely to get worse, but how bad, neither one had anticipated. To the surprise of the sailors, the two merely picked up the packs containing their belongings and supplies, and silently headed into the ruined city. Shortly after they had found a shack that no one was occupying, where they had setup their main operations, they were approached by the city elders. It seemed that the wards that had been set up around the last remaining safe zone were slowly fading under the onslaught of the roving bands of monsters which had been part of the cause of the destruction of the city. By things not said by the elders, and the undercurrents between them, both Ledain and Tylassa knew there were things that no one wanted to say, or admit to. Tylassa wanted to confront the elders, but being the more patient of the two, Ledain managed to keep her from doing anything rash. "We'll learn what we need to know soon enough", he cautioned.
 It didn't take them long to find the artifact that the high priest of the city needed to reinforce the warding that protected the barely standing walls around the docks, the outing also gave them a chance to get a feel for the lay of the land. Once the protection spells were reinforced, the two warriors went back to their main task.
Once again equipped for battle, they ventured out, this time being able to stay out in the jungle days at a time, due to Tylassa's knowledge of such terrain. It was during one of their forays that they found the main portion of fallen Kurast and what they found in those gloom shrouded ruins was chilling. The main forces that had caused the proud and wondrous city to fall, wasn't the roaming bands of monsters, but the followers of the church of Zakarum itself. Ledain especially was horrified, having been a former paladin, the man felt as if he'd been delivered a death blow, for he had hoped they might have been able to gain assistance from the holy city of Travincal, which was near Kurast.
 It was in the moment of weakness, as Ledain tried to come to terms with the grim knowledge they had learned, that he was sudden grabbed, the Sunblade falling from his hands, Tylassa was so completely overwhelmed that she couldn't aid her dear friend immediately. Once all the blasted little monsters were dead or fled, she was horrified to see that there was no sign of Ledain, save for the sword that had once been her mother's. As she picked up the greatly dulled sword, she screamed in anguish and rage, believing the sword grieved for it's master. In response to her emotion, the blade tugged in her hands, as if to lead her. Every step she took, following the weapon's lead, the blade brightened slightly.
 How long she followed the sword's lead, she couldn't say, but by the time the blade had regained it's former glory, she was at the steps of an ancient and crumbling tower. Without thinking about it, she kicked in the rotting wooden door and only her battle-honed reflexes saved her as a several glittering bolts flew overhead. Quickly springing to her feet, she sliced in half the thing that had flung said bolts. Looking at the remains of the beautiful, bat-winged woman, Tylassa spit out a fairly pungent curse, and went hunting.
Several hours later, the floors of the tower were littered with the bodies of the slain succubi and a few of the lesser demons they were in control of, but still no sign of Ledain. Sitting down on a crumbled piece of masonry, she started to clean the blade of the sword, looking down at the faint glow radiating up from it, she finally asked "I don't suppose you know where I can find him?"
In response the light from the weapon flared so brightly, that she had to shield her eyes. When the flare died down, there was a hole going down through the floor. With a sigh, Tylassa tucked the sword into the sheath at her belt, pulled some rope, fastened it, and starts to carefully go down. "Next time, just lead me to a place you can make a convenient hole, instead of making climb down, k?" She wasn't sure how to interpret the flicker of light she got in response, and decided to let matters lie.
The smell that hit her from the depths of the hole hit her as if it were a physical blow. Wrapping a damp cloth around her nose and mouth, Tylassa drew the sword, and almost got sick from the sight before her. Decomposing human remains hung from shackles attached to the walls and on various pieces of torture equipment. As she went along, she realized many of the victims were still alive and with a start, she realized that all of the victims were men. With silent tears trickling along her cheeks, she did the only thing she could do for the poor men: give them a quick, merciful death.
 Finally at the end of the hall of horrors, she found Ledain. Shackled to a wall, his head hanging down either in defeat or unconsciousness, she could see he'd been stripped to the waist, his torso and arms covered in wounds that were unhealthy looking shades of green and oozing a black pus-like liquid. In front of him was another succubus, her head close to his body and to Tylassa's angered gaze, looked as if she was about to bite the man. Before the demon had a chance to do anything else, Tylassa swung the now brightly blazing sword, neatly decapitating the succubus. With another swipe of the blade, the shackles holding the clearly unconscious man parted easily, and she barely caught him in time. The moan of pain that came out as she grabbed him harder than she meant to, made the woman wince in sympathy.
 Tucking the sword into her belt again, she pulled out a portal scroll, tossed Ledain's armor and other belongings through the portal, then as gently as possible, Tylassa helped Ledain through the portal. Once back in the docks of Kurast she collapsed the portal with the flick of her hand, then hired one of the few children that were running around to carry some of the items back to the small building that was their main camp. All through the day (she'd brought him back around dawn) and most of the night she did what she could to bring down Ledain's fever, but nothing worked. The only relief she could give him was to lance the festering wounds, let them drain, then put a healing ointment and clean bandages on them. And wait.
Previous      Stories     Next