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Library: Knight in the night: To the rescue

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Author: ritari
Date:Mar 11 2005

Knight in the night: To the rescue

Aidari stands in the central square his head bow down. He raised his
head and wiped his eyes with his hands and looked around. He saw houses
burning and corpses lying around. Images about his bride flashed to his
mind and rage started to build up.

After a short while Aidari calms down and starts to analyze the situation.
He checks the ground and notices foot prints that he thinks is orcs and
some others that he can't recognize. He knows that there is a orc cave few
nights to the south, maybe they were here. He thought about the previous
attacks they made against the village few years back but they always 
failed. This time they had someone else leading them.

Aidari enters his house and there was not much left. The charred walls are
still smoking and the smell of burning wood is everywhere. The sun
shines inside the house because there is no roof and it creates an
eerie feeling. Suddenly he hears some muffled sound somewhere and
runs out. He tries to listen carefully but the only thing he hears is
his heart pounding blood in his blood vessels. There is a little pause
and he hears the sound again, its definitely someone trying to call
for help. He runs to the direction where the sound came from and listens
again. Again he hears someone shouting help, it's very weak. This time
he can pinpoint the source to the healers house and he starts to run
there.

He slows down at the door and notices that the house is not as badly
burnt as the other houses. He thinks that the healer must have some magical
protection cast on the house. Then he Aidari sees Ceimo lying on the
floor almost unconscious.

Aidari considers carefully Ceimo's condition and asks "What happened
here?" Ceimo makes some noises and tries to say something "I've got some
healing potions upstairs.." and collapses on the floor. Aidari knows he
is in his best in situations like this that requires fast thinking and
grabs a blanket and covers Ceimo and heads upstairs. Everything is a
mess. He tries to think where the potions could be. He yanks some
drawers on the floor, checks the closets and everything and finds nothing.
He hears Ceimo shouting "The bookshelf.." and the voice fades away.
Aidari runs to the bookshelf and starts searching. Few minutes passes
and he starts to get desperate. He starts pulling all the books off the shelf
and panel swings opens in the wall behind the bookshelf. He crabs few potions
and heads downstairs, then pours some of the blue liquid in Ceimo's mouth.

Ceimo seems to get better with every heartbeat and he started talking. "The
orcs came with two drows and wiped our defences" Ceimo said a tear in his
eye. Aidari asked "All dead? and how .." Ceimo quickly interupted and said
"No No, I've got almost all children and women in the tunnel beneath my
house." Aidari made a look at Ceimo and he said "They got Hylsha, they
got your bride." and continued "but they kept her alive, I don't know why".

Aidari Helped Ceimo on his feet and they moved in the middle of the room.
Ceimo chanted few words and the hatch appeared under their feet and then
Ceimo said "You can open that hatch safely". Aidari pulled the hatch open
and people start coming out, they all were crying and down. Aidari and
Ceimo watched everybody get out from the tunnel. Then Aidari said "we need
to get going." Ceimo replied "It's suicide and you know that.". Then Aidari
fell into somekind trance and started to fix his gear and stare into
nothingness. Few hours passed and Aidari was still fixing his armour and then
he snapped out of it. Aidari said "I am hungry, let's eat. We are leaving
soon." Ceimo seemed puzzled and replied "Okay.". While they were eating
a bird landed on Aidari's shoulder and started watching while they eat.
Suddenly Aidari shook his shoulder hard and the bird fell to the ground,
just before it hit the ground there was a bright flash behind Aidaris back.
Ceimo rubbed his eyes and eventually got his vision back and behind Aidari
stood a mage. Aidari proudly said "Meet Meissi, he is a powerful wizard."
Ceimos eyes brightened and he merrily said "Hello, Meissi." then looked at
Aidari and asked "When do we leave?".

They were going with very fast pace, they had spare horses and they changed
to fresh ones when the other got tired. Meissi turned himself into an eagle
and scouted the area from the sky. No one has said a word after they left
the village. Ceimo breaks the silence and says "I think that Hylsha is the
only one they took." Aidari thinks about something and then replies "I don't
care." then Ceimo demands "I am not going anywhere if you're just trying to
get yourself killed." "No no, I mean we are going to save them all",
replied Aidari and continued "let's focus on the riding, shall we?".
Ceimo nodded and answered "Okay, this is not very easy, going this fast."
They stopped few times to rest and eat, but they never slept more than 3
hours.

They arrived to the entrance to the orc cave and strangely there were
no one at guard. Meissi cast some spell at them and they all felt
very refreshed. Aidari turned to Meissi and said "Thanks, let's hope
that this lasts long enough." Meissi nodded and said "When it drops
we get the drawbacks and feel more tired than we felt when we arrived
here." Meissi casted another spell and it conjured a glowing sphere which
floated in front of Meissi. Meissi said "this is for detecting the traps."
Aidari nodded and headed to the cave entrance pulling his sword from it's
scabbard. Ceimo casted few spells and those didn't seems to have any
sensations at all and no one asked what those were.

They moved inside and the sphere started pulsating softly, they all
stopped at once. Meissi informed "Nothing to worry, it's just detecting
the presence of evil." Aidari nodded and continued leading the way.
All of a sudden there was a door in the cave. The cave around the door
was smoothly carved to walls, ceiling and floor. Meissi's sphere revealed
the door had some magic on it, but no one couldn't find any traps in it.
Aidari tried to open the door but firmly stayed shut. They all tried their
best to open the door but with no avail. Then Aidari had something in mind
and said "Wait a minute!" then he walked to the door and sharply knocked
the door three times. The door swung open and Aidari grinned and said "You
gotta be kidding me." and entered the door. Two orcs attacked him from
left and right with their weapons ready.

Aidari had no problem pulling the sword for quick defence and parrying the
first blows. Meissi started casting something and after an instant
the ground started to burn beneath the orcs. The orcs seemed to
be in pain and confused. Aidari swung his sword and scored a
critical blow and the first orc and he collapsed on the floor. The second
one lost his morale and started running deeper into the complex.
Meissi quickly pulled a wand from his robes and pointed it at the orc
and mentally triggered it. A large transparent arrow appeared from
nowhere and it hit the orcs back and he fell down.

They rested for a moment and Ceimo suggested "Let continue with invisibility."
Aidari nodded and said "That's a good idea." Meissi made them all invisible
and they secured some of the stuff that would make too much noise. Then
they headed deeper in the complex. The walls, ceiling and the floor
has been smooth since the door. They walked deeper and passed few orc
camps unnoticed. They wouldn't have problem defeating them all but
this way they save time. They arrive at a clearing and they saw
few houses in there. Ceimo whispered "A damn drow city here." and
Aidari replied "At least it's still very small one.". They headed to
the largest house, which also resembled a temple. The invisibility
was still working and no one seemed to notice them, but they noticed
that the all the drow here were males. They arrived at the door and
waited few minutes and entered when there were no one to see the door
open. Aidari felt a sting in his leg and he slap it, it was a small spider.
He shrugged and continued.

They arrived at a big hall that was filled with orcs and they were
babbling something about spider queen. There was an altar at the other
end of the hall but they couldn't go there because the hall was packed
with orcs. They headed back to the entrance and Meissi pointed a small
closet near the door. They went in. Aidari turned to Meissi and asked
"Can you make us orcs?" Meissi replied "Of course" and continued
"We must walk close together and slow." Then he dispelled the
invisibility and turned them into orcs. Aidari moved to the entrance
of the hall and grunted something in a loud voice, some of the orc nearby
turned to him and seemed to ignore him completely. Then Aidari whispered
"Lets check the altar." and the others followed him. Aidari cleared the
way and pushed the orcs away and no one seemed to care. Aidari noticed
that the altar was for sacrificing humans to the spider queen and he saw
Hylsha lying in there in a white gown. He closed his eyes and opened
them in disbelief and there was no one lying on the altar. He felt
chilling pass through his spine, he shook it off and continued
to the altar. There was a doorway behind the altar that was covered
with a curtain. Aidari pointed at it and they entered and there was
a small corridor that led into a small chamber. Everyone got ready
for some action as they entered the chamber.

There was a muscular drow male standing in the middle and Aidaris
bride standing in the corner wearing a white gown. The drow said
"Drop the disguise you humans, I've been waiting for you." and
continued "Welcome to House Destana. I am the Lord Destana and
I am going to sacrifice this woman to the spider queen to gain
her favor." Aidari replied "Over my dead body!" and charged.
Lord Destana cried something and in an instant orcs started to
pour in. Aidaris vision blurred as he entered his rage and started
whacking Destana with his sword. Meissi assisted and shoot some
offensive spells he had memorized. Ceimo moved to stand next
to Hylsha to cast his spells. The fight goes on and on and Aidari
keeps fighting Destana and the orcs and same time trying to protect
Ceimo, Meissi and Hylsha. Then the unexpected happened, they felt
the spell effects wearing off that kept them refreshed. Everything
seemed to slow down and they all felt extremely drowsy. Ceimo dig a
scroll from his pocket and started to recite the words.
Aidari couldn't block the hits anymore and got some bad wounds,
then Ceimo was finished and suddenly they all were in some other
dimension, Lord Destana was there too, at least the orcs were all gone.
Ceimo had hard time keeping Aidari alive with his healing spells
and it seemed the end. Then a shadowy spider like figure
appears inside the dimension and shouts "You are a foul thing!"
and unleashes her wrath at him. Destana falls on his knees and they
hear lots of orcs screaming and earthquake rumbling. Suddenly
the dimension fades away and they are back at the chamber and
there are corpses everywhere and now they feel the earth shaking.
They start running out. They arrive at the hall and see it completely
collapsed, there was no way out. Then Ceimo shouted "Everyone get
near me, I try to teleport us out of here!" they all gathered
around him he started casting the spell. It was a long spell to
cast, the corridor started to collapse. Finally the spell hit in
and they all were safely teleported to the cave entrance.

Lots of dust came out from the cave as it was completely collapsed
and was sealed shut. Hylsha snapped out the trance like state and didn't
know what happened. Aidari, Ceimo and Meissi were lying on the
ground and they started sleeping a smile on their face.


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