As Dave slowly trudged up the
stairs, he lamented the absence of the intrepid (and forever-merry) halfling
rogue, Jeff, who had been the only party member able to keep the peace between
the squabbling adventurers. But sadly, Jeff came down with dysentery a week
prior. If it hadn’t been for Cloud turning up at the last minute, all too eager
to the join the party on their adventure, they would’ve been a body short.
Halfway up the stairs, he heard a
piratey shout, “All hands on deck! We’re being boarded!” Boomer. Dave
bounded up the stairs two at a time, following the clamor of battle. As he
reached the top of the stairs, there was a flash of light and a loud explosion.
Wasting no time, the minotaur healer rushed through the wide-open double doors
in front of him and took in the scene. He was in an armory. To his left and
right were armor stands and weapon racks full of assorted gear. On the opposite
wall were several large stained-glass windows and an ornate display case
containing a flintlock pistol, several throwing stars, and a katana with a
shiny black blade and a gold hilt with a ruby set in the pommel. The katana’s blade
was etched with several glowing, green runes. Directly above the display case
hung a large tapestry depicting a knight in black armor wielding that very
sword as he cleaved through numerous foes with ease.
In the center of the room stood
Hamawk, cackling in delight as he dueled with another pair of ghosts. Striding
confidently toward him was a bearded, grizzled, veteran ghost clad in armor
that had obviously seen many battles. He was holding a well-worn shield and
wielding a chipped sword.
Cowering in a corner, Boomer was
struggling to fend off a pair of ghostly warriors with a spear he had snatched
from a weapon rack. A few feet away was a blackened, slightly smoking blotch on
the floor, no doubt the birdman’s handiwork.
Dave eyed the enchanted katana
again. He had never wanted to be a healer. Orphaned at a young age when his
entire village was slaughtered by a band of adventurers, he was taken in by a
kind family of human clerics. However, they would never be able to instill the
knowledge, traditions, and training of the monstrous minotaur race. Dave was
born to be a warrior, and now was his chance to become one, no longer standing
invisibly on the sidelines waiting to thanklessly patch up everyone’s boo boos.
Lowering his head and drawing in a deep breath, the minotaur roared as he
charged horns-first into the display case. The cabinet exploded into a shower
of splinters and sparkling glass needles. Reaching into the heap of debris,
Dave snatched the magical katana and raised it over his head.
The ghostly veteran slowly turned
around to face him, assumed a defensive stance, and grinned. With a barbaric
roar, the minotaur barreled toward the ghost, not noticing the symbol of an
eyeball engraved in the ruby set into the hilt of the raised katana, and the
faint crimson glow beginning to emanate from it.
“Ha!” shouted Hamawk as he thrust
out his metal hand and grabbed hold of the ghostly sword swinging down at him.
Before the ghostly warrior had time to react, the goblin struck the end of its
sword with his enchanted mace, hammering the pommel right through the
apparition’s chest. Its mouth agape, the ghost uttered a final “Wut?” before
it, and its weapon, faded into nothing. With a cocky laugh, Hamawk quipped,
“Nailed it!”
The second ghost, who had been
patiently waiting behind the arrogant goblin, finally saw its chance and swung
its battle axe downward with both hands. Hamawk, who seemed to have a sixth
sense, swiftly somersaulted backward and shattered the spirit’s kneecaps with a
swing of his mace. As the ghost collapsed onto its mangled knees, Hamawk
finished it off with a brutal, metal-fisted uppercut to the jaw.
Stretching out his left hand,
Boomer conjured a transparent barrier which deflected a spirit’s sword with a
“Ping!” before vanishing. His other opponent opportunistically swung its flail
toward his head, but the bird man vanished in a small puff of smoke,
reappearing behind the two ghostly warriors. Grasping his spear in both hands,
Boomer stabbed the sword-wielding specter in the back, sending it stumbling
forward. As the flail-wielding spirit spun around, Boomer took his left hand
off the spear and unleashed a narrow blast of fire toward his assailant,
sending it stumbling backward. Together, the two ghosts rushed at Boomer. The
first one swung its sword at him, but he managed to block it with his spear.
The other ghost attacked with a swing of its flail. The chain wound around the
shaft of the spear, and with a jerk, the weapon was soon liberated from
Boomer’s grasp. With a startled cry of “Stiffen the wombats!” Boomer spun
around and made a beeline for the remains of the shattered weapons cabinet.
Dave ferociously slashed downward
with the katana as he reached his foe, but the spirit easily sidestepped and
slammed his shield into the minotaur’s back as he charged past, sending him
sprawling to the floor. Snorting furiously, Dave picked himself up off the
ground and ran back toward his opponent. He attacked rapidly, first with his
sword, then with his horns, then with a powerful hoof kick, all of which were
dodged. Before the ghost had time to dodge a fourth attack, Dave landed a
vicious katana strike against its shield, cleaving it in two. Unfazed, the
spirit contemptuously sliced Dave’s shoulder on his lumbering follow-through,
sending the katana clattering to the floor, its gem glowing a little more
brightly than before. The minotaur staggered forward a couple of steps, then
dropped to one knee, clutching his bleeding shoulder.
“Rookie mistake!” mocked the
ghostly solder, striding toward him. Dave frantically began chanting a healing
spell to close up his wound. Before he could finish, the grinning ghost slashed
down at his neck.
Clang! A metal hand appeared between Dave
and the ghostly blade, stopping the weapon in mid air. “Not today, punk,”
growled Hamawk, a dangerous smirk on his face.
Snatching the flintlock pistol from
what was left of the display cabinet, Boomer spun around and fired right into
the head of his closest pursuer, who silently faded out of existence. His
beady, black eyes gleaming in triumph, the bird-man pointed his gun at nis
other assailant and click! Nothing happened. Boomer stared in horror at
the smoking pistol in his hand as he was kicked into the pile of rubble by the
remaining ghost.
“Beshrew thee!” crowed Boomer,
firing a bolt of lightning from his hands, instantly removing the ghost from
this world and flinging an armor stand into the opposite wall, charring its
path with a long, black smear.
With a grunt, Hamawk wrenched the
sword from the ghostly warrior’s hand and threw it across the room, where it
vanished before hitting the wall. “You lose!” Hamawk shouted, slamming the head
of his mace into the specter’s midsection. It collapsed to its knees with a
howl.
Dave finished the healing spell for
his shoulder and hurried to pick up his katana, the ruby glowing brighter than
ever. The fallen spirit laughed grimly and explained, “You may have defeated
me, but we were all doomed from the moment that foolish minotaur picked up the
sword.” Examining the katana more closely, for the first time Dave noticed the
eye etched into the ruby and the crimson glow emitting from it.
“What’s that supposed to m--",
Hamawk demanded before he was cut off by a small bolt of fire slamming into the
back of the ghostly warrior’s head. The spirit slumped forward and disappeared.
Boomer crossed his arms, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. Hamawk rolled his
eyes.
As the three adventurers stood
there, glancing nervously around the room and wondering what the fallen spirit
had meant, they felt an evil presence watching them. A few moments later, Dave
turned to see a massive, levitating eyeball staring at him through the far
window.
Suddenly, the window threw itself
open and stretched until its dimensions grew just enough to allow the eyeball to
drift through the opening. The three adventurers exchanged worried looks as
Boomer stepped back and Dave and Hamawk positioned themselves in front of him. From
all around the room, motes of dust streamed toward the giant eye, coming
together to form into four fist-sized, levitating eyeballs. The smaller eyes
paired up, one set charging at the goblin, the other at the minotaur. Hamawk
viciously swung his mace at one eye, but it nimbly flew out of the way.
Grinning, Hamawk proceeded to snatch it out of the air with his metal hand and
squeezed. When he opened his fist, a pile of dust sifted through his fingers.
He dodged the second eye’s charge and smote it with his mace as it tried to fly
past, returning it to the dust from which it was formed.
Dave swung wildly at the first of
his assailants, stumbling forward as it dodged to the side. Pressing their
advantage, one eye slammed into his side, the other into his back. Snorting
with rage, the furious minotaur wheeled around and kicked the ocular menace
behind him into a wall, where it crumbled into nothingness. Before he could
swing at the other eye, it retreated to a safe distance.
With a series of frantic hand
motions, Boomer sent a bolt of fire hurtling toward the giant, terrifying eye
looming before his friends. A blue, glowing rod of energy fired from the eye’s
saucer-sized pupil, intercepting the spell in an explosion of sparks.
The monstrous eye swiveled to face
Dave, or rather the katana in Dave’s hands. As it darted toward him, the
minotaur readied himself to impale the grotesque orb like an olive on a stick.
Suddenly, the gem on the hilt of his sword began flashing green and his hands
were bathed in tongues of verdant fire. He dropped the sword and stumbled back,
staring dumbfoundedly at his charred hands as the eye bore down on him. Dave
closed his eyes.
“Haaaahh!” Hamawk yelled as he
shoved the minotaur out of the way and outstretched his muscular arms to meet
the ocular impact. Dave opened his eyes to find the smirking goblin steadfastly
blocking the eye’s path.
The eye’s pupil dilated and issued
a blast of green fire, which struck Hamawk in the chest and sent him stumbling
backward. The eye seemed to retreat slightly before charging forward and
ramming into the unprepared goblin. Hamawk was hurtled several feet in the air,
slammed into a weapon cabinet, and slumped to the floor. As he struggled to get
up, the case began to tip over with an awful creek before crashing down upon him
with a sickening crunch.
Boomer stared disbelievingly at the
toppled cabinet that lay atop Hamawk’s crumpled corpse. With a cry of “Man
overboard!”, Boomer turned toward the massive eye, which was now staring at him
and fired the most powerful lightning blast he could muster. A blinding flash
of light emitted from the bird-man’s palms as an ear-splitting crack rang through
the air. Almost instantly, the pupil of the giant eye constricted and fired another
blue rod of energy which intercepted the lightning, but harmlessly fizzled
away. With a tremendous boom, the bolt struck the eye head-on, engulfing it in thick,
black smoke. The last remaining minion eye flew toward Boomer, but it was met
with a bolt of fire and instantly turned to dust.
Clasping his badly charred hands
together and muttering a short spell, Dave healed his burns and sprinted toward
the fallen weapon cabinet. With a roar, he heaved the cabinet upright and
tossed some weapons aside to reveal Hamawk’s mangled form. Placing his hands on
the fallen goblin, he used the last of his magical energy to infuse Hamawk with
lifeforce and heal his most serious wounds.
The freshly-resurrected goblin
struggled to his feet in a momentary daze and groggily asked “What happened?”
His memory quickly returned once the smoke cleared to reveal a singed, but
mostly unharmed, giant eyeball, the front of which was now split open to reveal
a gaping maw full of terrifying, sword-like teeth. A guttural roar emanated
from the monstrosity a moment before a torrent of green fire slammed into
Boomer’s hastily-summoned, magical barrier. The bird-man’s eyes widened as his
invisible shield dissolved before him in a matter of seconds. Dave and Hamawk
watched in horror as their companion was engulfed in cursed flames. A split
second later, Boomer appeared in the entryway, his extremities singed and
smoldering. “Abandon ship! Abandon ship!” he shouted as he darted out the door
and vaulted over the railing down to the first floor.
Hamawk spotted his mace lying on
the floor across the room, a little past where the eye was levitating.
Snatching a shield from a nearby weapon rack, he made a break for it. “Hamawk,
no!” Dave shouted. The goblin charged single-mindedly at the beast, his head
tucked behind the shield strapped to his enchanted metal arm. A cyan glow
emanated from within the monster’s cavernous maw and a barrage of neon energy
rods began bombarding Hamawk’s shield. As he neared the eye, the heroic
barbarian flung the pitted, charred, and bent shield into the jaws of the
hovering monstrosity and skillfully slid underneath it to reach his enchanted
mace. When he lifted his weapon off the floor, he heard the horrific creak of
bending steel as the great eye almost effortlessly crushed the shield between
its jaws.
The monster spun to face Hamawk.
Grinning viciously, the goblin pulled his metal arm back, then unleashed a
powerful uppercut aimed at the huge eye’s mouthful of teeth. But he was too
late. The monstrosity opened its mouth and welcomed the flying fist into its
cavernous maw, then clamped down on the enchanted arm. Floating upward, the eye
thrashed the dangling goblin around like a ragdoll. Hamawk repeatedly swung his
mace in desperation, but only a fraction of the blows connected, and they
accomplished little besides making the beast angrier.
Dave grabbed a battle axe from a
nearby weapon rack, leapt into the air with a ferocious roar, and swung his
weapon at the monster’s exposed backside. But before the blow could land, one
of the eye’s pink, ropey tendrils wrapped itself around the blade’s haft. As
the minotaur hung from his ensnared weapon, the eye spun around and released
its grip, sending the healer hurtling into a wall and slumping to the floor in
a daze.
With one final effort, the great eye snapped cleanly through Hamawk’s enchanted arm. The dizzied warrior dropped unceremoniously to the floor. The monster turned its attention back toward Dave. As the eye bore down on his friend, the humbled Hamawk stood up, stared at his mangled stump for a moment, and sprinted out the door. Hearing a loud gulp, the goblin dared one final glance over his shoulder. Dave was nowhere to be found, and the monster was lazily drifting toward the enchanted katana that lay on the floor.
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