The
lizardman stood in the center of the royal treasure vault. He uttered a string
of arcane words under his breath and the location and properties of all magical
items nearby were revealed to him. With another spell he telekinetically moved
aside piles of gold and valuables. From within the heaps of treasure, he
levitated two gems: one a dusty rose prism, and the other a pale blue rhomboid.
The lizardfolk grasped the gems in his hands and lifted them into the air
before letting go, causing them to begin orbiting his head.
He
released his concentration on the illusion, revealing his true skeletal form.
Valerach the Deathless watched in satisfaction as the two gems were sucked
inwards and fit themselves into two of the empty slots in his crown.
“What
is going on in there?” a guard shouted from outside the vault, having heard the
sound of gold sifting around.
“I
am just warding the vault, as the king requested,” the lich lied.
“I’m
coming in there!” declared the suspicious guard. Upon trying to open the vault
door, the guard unintentionally placed his hand on a nearly invisible rune. The
rune glowed brightly for a moment before blowing the guard and the door to
smithereens.
Valerach
laughed manically, chanted a series of magical words, and disappeared in a
flash of light.
--------------------
Stabby
and Raven strolled into a large room with six statues of ancient gladiators
lining the walls and a statue of a chimera in the room’s center, all of them
life sized. Standing at the other side of the room were Prince Argos the 6th
and Queen Argossa the 4th, discussing the commotion they had been
hearing outside. Wasting no time, Raven unfurled his wings and flew toward the
prince.
“Enemies
in the castle!” Argos yelled as he grabbed an ornate shield from his back and
an exquisite sword hilt from his side.
“How
dare you barge into the royal palace uninvited! I will make you pay for this!”
The queen furiously spat at the intruders.
“How
dare we, indeed! But ‘tis the scene outside that shall really make you
seethe!” Stabby the jester wittily remarked.
Raven
barrel rolled to the side as a blade of sunlight projected from the sword hilt
that Argos was holding. The owlin delivered a powerful kick to the prince’s
shield and a karate chop to his shoulder, but the blows were of no use against
the enchanted bronze armor and shield. Prince Argos retaliated with a flurry of
quick cuts using his Sunblade, one of which grazed Raven’s chest, leaving a
long gash in the front of his coat and a burn mark across his chest. The prince
slammed his shield into the owlin, knocking him to the floor.
Stabby
strummed a strange tune on his cittern and a shimmering lance of psychic power
shot from his forehead at the queen. Argossa was struck by the beam and collapsed
to the ground, dissipating into thin air. A moment later, the real queen
appeared behind where the illusion had just been. With a brief incantation and
a wave of her staff, she summoned a gargoyle, which rose from the floor and flew
toward the jester. Stabby leapt out of the way of the creature’s claws, but his
instrument was knocked to the ground. The jester drew his staff and slammed the
top-hat-wearing golden skull knob that adorned one end of it into the
gargoyle’s chest. Then gripping the decorative knob, he withdrew a rapier from
within the hollow weapon.
Raven
rolled out of the way just in time to avoid Argos’ stab, resulting in the
Sunblade plunging into the floor and leaving a small, scorched hole. As the
prince pulled his blade from the floor, the owlin punched him twice in the
stomach. Argos made no attempt to defend against this attack, believing it to
be unable to harm him. He was surprised to feel his lifeforce drain a little as
Raven used his ki to infuse necrotic energy into the blows. The plague doctor
pulled a syringe from his belt and attempted to pierce an unarmored part of the
prince’s arm, but Argos blocked it with a magical barrier.
Prince
Argos the 6th swept his sword down at Raven’s legs. The owlin
narrowly avoided the strike, but the edge of the blade grazed his leg in the
process. Before his foe could recover from the pain, Argos swung again, severing
Raven’s right arm from the elbow down. As the owlin screamed in pain, the
prince thrust his shield upwards and slammed it into Raven’s jaw, sending him
sprawling to the ground a few feet away and knocking him out cold.
Stabby
frantically parried and dodged the stone beast’s claws and fangs as he
struggled to find an opening. The jester finally found his chance and sliced
the beast across the side with a psychically-charged strike that cut its mind
as much as its stony hide. Argossa glared disdainfully at Stabby as she
summoned a giant spider in front of him. The jester ran in terror from the
beast and felt its terrible fangs pierce his back as he ran. After a few
moments of terror, he turned to face the creature and soon realized what it
truly was, an illusory manifestation of his worst fear that was attacking his
psyche. Now that he realized the deception, the spider faded and disappeared.
As the jester breathed a sigh of relief, the very real gargoyle lunged toward
him. The jester hurled his rapier through the air, spearing the stony
abomination between the eyes. The summoned monster snarled furiously as it
crumbled to dust.
“Sorry
for not arriving sooner, but I ran into some guards on the way here,” Mable
explained as she ambled into the room, wielding a bloody rolling pin. The
elderly woman stood, taking in the scene around her, until she saw Raven, badly
injured and sprawled on the floor. Mable’s expression became a stern scowl as
she sprinted toward Prince Argos. The chief enforcer swung her rolling pin at
the prince several times in succession. Argos blocked each swing with his Sunblade,
but the enchanted rolling pin was undamaged by the exchange, and the inhuman
strength of the blows sent him staggering back as he parried them.
Mable
used her free hand to grab the young man’s wrist and twist it until she heard a
crunch. Prince Argos cried out in pain and rage as his sword fell from his
hand. The elder lifted him up by his broken arm and hurled him bodily into the
nearest wall, leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the stone bricks.
As
he ran toward his dropped rapier, Stabby reached into his sleeve and pulled out
a dagger. He threw the dagger at Argossa before pulling out and throwing
another and another. Before the thrown blades could connect, the queen conjured
three duplicates of herself that moved in perfect sync with her. One of the
daggers missed completely, and the others each pierced an Argossa that
immediately vanished upon being struck. The jester dashed toward the queen,
brandishing his retrieved rapier. With a lunging stab, the bard pierced the
queen through the chest, only for her to dissipate into thin air.
With
all of her duplicates gone, Queen Argossa the 4th took a moment to
reassess the situation. With a short, magical, chant she conjured an invisible
dome of magical force around Stabby. The jester tried to run toward her, but
faceplanted humorously into the dome and soon discovered that his rapier was no
good against the barrier. With her foe trapped, Argossa pointed her royal
scepter at the chimera statue and shouted “Awaken!” The statue began to shutter
and shake for a few moments before the stone burst apart, revealing a real
chimera. The beast had the back half of a goat, the front half of a lion, the
wings of a red dragon, and the heads of each.
With
a loud roar, the chimera spewed a torrent of fire from its dragon head. Mable
dropped her rolling pin and grabbed one of the stone gladiator statues. She ripped
the statue from the floor and held it in front of her, blocking the flames.
Once the fire had subsided, she raised the statue over her head and hurled it at
the chimera. The creature was struck by the statue and slammed against a wall,
showering the room in fragments of stone, from both the statue and the wall.
While
Mable was distracted, Queen Argossa ran over to the badly injured Prince Argos,
grabbing his fallen Sunblade in the process, and placed her hand on his
shoulder. A quick spell later, the two of them were gone.
Mable
braced herself as the beast charged at her. The chimera tried to ram the old
woman with its goat head, but she grabbed it by the horns and stopped it in its
tracks. Mable wrestled with the beast for a few seconds before getting the
better of it and slamming it to the ground. The chimera sprang to its feet and
grazed Mable’s side with its claws as she leapt away.
The monster barreled toward the chief enforcer. With stern stoicism, she faced her charging foe, waiting until the time was right. At the perfect moment, Mable snatched her rolling pin off the ground and leapt onto the creature’s back. The elderly barbarian gripped its lion main with one hand while brutally bashing it over its three heads with her rolling pin. With a final, horrible goat scream, the chimera collapsed to the ground with a trio of caved-in skulls. Mable looked around the destroyed room and spotted Stabby cowering inside the invisible dome that he was still trapped in.
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