Nameless: The Challenge

[Day 21 of Blaugust 2015!]
[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

Nessa was still hugging Nerith's dead body when an apparition of a red robed man appeared before them.

"There you are, impudent intruders," it spoke. "How dare you enter MY tower and disrupt MY plans! You know there is no escape. Give up now and I may yet be merciful."

"Oh, there's the coward," said Tanglor loudly while pointing his axe at the still speaking illusion. "Prepare to go to hell!"

The apparition stared in amazement as the bearded man began hacking the air where it stood and laughed.

"You fools dare to challenge me!? Very well, I shall await for you at the top of the tower. Defeat me, and freedom is yours."

As the ghostly figure vanished Tanglor looked around confused, but a reassuring pat on the head from Amber settled him down. Behind her, Nessa stood up quietly, wiped the tears from her eyes and then with a blade in each hand marched down another unexplored passage. The rest of the team followed in silence and eventually found another staircase, this one made of marble, leading higher up the tower.

The next floor was also almost entirely adorned with marble and had a taller ceiling, but was devoid of all decoration and furniture, bar the emplaced crystals that filled it with a bluish light. They had only taken a few steps in when suddenly a heavy, unadorned marble slab sealed the passage behind them as floating laughter filled their ears. Not bothering to even check how to reopen it, the group pressed on and upon turning the next corner they were shocked to see a large, bearded face staring back at them from down the hall.

With crazed eyes the giant began to move closer at a frightening pace despite crawling on all fours to fit in the passage. Before San Raal could utter an incantation it suddenly threw one arm forward, reaching much farther than any of them realized it could, and crushed the mage flat into an unrecognizable splat on the wall with it's mighty fist. The rest of the team immediately went into action, hacking and attacking the now outstretched limb. While Sharon used all of her dexterity to climb atop it and try run to the back of its neck. The giant saw this and shaking vigorously at the right time, caused the girl to scream, slip and fall... right into his mouth where he bit down hard, over and over, crushing her into pieces before swallowing her down.

This distracted him though, and it was all the time Drisana needed to slide rush under his throat and hack at it. In a panic, the giant tried bring his other hand forward only to have Tanglor cut across the palm with his axe, followed by dismembering a few fingers. Eventually Amber managed to do what Sharon could not, reaching the giant's back and with one double handed stab, severed its spine - killing it instantly.

Victorious, the tired but shaken survivors continued on their journey up the tower.

Nameless: Not Everyone can Evade

[Day 19 of Blaugust 2015!]
[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

While the ominous clicking eventually faded behind them, at the top of the stairs was a well sealed stone door - one that didn't have a lock for Sharon to pick so San Raal expended more magic to blast it open and right into a room of armored soldiers and clerics of Shadowstar. While both groups were caught unprepared, Nessa's managed to react first - charging headlong into the enemy and killing many before they could even draw their weapons. Those that did were quickly over powered by her companions or stabbed in the back as they tried to flee.

It slowly dawned on them that they were back at the prison level of the temple, and following the now guarded stairs back up eventually found themselves at the entrance foyer of the temple once more, easily dispatching the squads of guards in their way through sheer combined skill and might. Upon seeing the door Amber almost made the fatal mistake of trying to touch it, only stopping short thanks to Drisana's warning. After once more using magic to collapse the passage to the cellar below, San Raal confirmed the door had the same type of trap he couldn't disarm from the prison.

With only one way to go, the group headed up into what seemed to be the cleric quarters but thanks to the ruckuss they caused downstairs it seemed that this floor was pretty empty, yet at the same time also devoid of usable windows to escape through. Sharon was just openly cursing the architect of such a place when a strange, floating, spherical creature composed of eyes and teeth quietly turned the nearby corner and upon seeing them, grinned.

Amber quickly pulled Sharon back as a beam of light shot from one of its eyes, scorching the area she had just been standing in. The blonde lady then quickly herded the rest of the team around the corner as another scorching beam missed by a few inches. "We can't fight this thing up close," she explained while moving. "The poison they breathe out fills their body and lets them levitate, but it also causes them to explode if pierced properly."

"Not a problem," San Raal muttered as he turned back with a ball of conjured lightning in his hands. Before Amber could stop him, he launched the spell as the creature hovered into view but to his horror the lightning bolt simply reflected off the hideous beast and back at the party - causing them to dodge every which way. Now caught flat footed there was no way they would be able to dodge another of the monster's beam attacks.

Without warning the creature exploded into a gaseous green mist with a large pop as a flying "spear", in reality a metal bar that had one end sharpened, pierced it from the side. Nessa had flanked it somehow caught it off guard. With the immediate threat over everyone began getting back on their feet. Everyone but Nerith who remained seated against the opposite wall. Her blackened, over-cooked face was still smoking when Nessa returned. Breaking into tears at the sight, Nessa hugged her dead sister tightly. Not everyone could evade the lightning bolt.

Nameless: Already Dead

[Day 18 of Blaugust 2015!]
[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

"Over here," called Sharon to the rest of the group spread out in the dark chamber. She and the blonde, leather clad Amber were standing in front of a strangely shaped hole in the wall that looked big enough to crawl through. Without any other exits, the simple Tanglor volunteered to go in first with a rope attached to his waist to what actually was a network of tunnels. Eventually he popped his head up into another large and dark chamber and gave the signal for the rest of the team to follow.

Having all crossed without incident, they began exploring the clearly abandoned area, making foot prints in the dust that had settled on the old stone pathways. Nerith caught herself being relieved upon encountering a regular, non animated, skeleton rotting against one of the walls. It was then that they heard the clicking, slow and distant at first, but as the clicks began to multiply and echo in the darkness the adventurers quickly formed a circle, making sure that everyone had ample firelight to see what might be coming.

"This way," urged San Raal as he noticed a draft gently sway the fire from his torch. With the clicking getting louder, the mage decided to conjure up another ball of fire to throw forward into the darkness at it had worked so well before. This time, the flame exploded into huge, black chitinous creatures - ants that stood as big as a horse. To make matters worse the force of the blast collapsed the ceiling ahead of them, forcing them to double back in search of another draft. That's when the ants began attacking en masse.

It was all they could do to push the overgrown insects back. Strangely they seemed to attack in waves, giving the adventurers room to maneuver during each lull. It was during one such lull that a single ant managed to catch Shorn by surprise, impaling his left ankle with its mandibles. Clearly it could have just severed his foot but instead it began dragging him away from the light. The panicked man screamed for help as he tried to dig his fingers into the ground.

Seeing his plight, Calandra immediately left her position to rush to his aid, swinging at the black ant with her great sword but failing to connect as it simply let go and retreated into the shadows. At that very moment another wave came forth, not just separating the team from their two companions, but effectively pushing them apart. As before, the ants withdrew once more giving Amber the opportunity to throw her torch towards Calandra's position.

There the woman sat, crying from the pain of having one of her legs severed clean off. Shorn was clearly dead, having even less limbs to speak of. Nerith stepped forward but was kept in place by her sister. The ants were baiting them.

"There are stairs going up, around... thirty meters from us," squeaked Sharon as she peered down another hall where she had thrown her torch.

Seeing the indecision from Drisana's team, San Raal muttered a quiet incantation and pointing two fingers at Calandra, shot a beam of light through the woman's face, making it explode and killing her instantly. Shocked all eyes turned to him as he defiantly returned each of their gazes.

"She was already dead."

Not being the place to argue, the remaining adventurers quickly fled to the stone staircase Sharon had found and began climbing. After a certain distance up, San Raal threw another fireball back down blocking the passage with debris to hopefully block their pursuers or at least buy them some time.

Nameless: Preparation is the Key

[Day 17 of Blaugust 2015!]
[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

Deep in the abandoned, underground prison, the nine adventurers made their way towards a large gilded door that was barricaded from their own side. From it emanated an off putting feeling, one that made each one of them tense.

"There were fifty of us when we set out from Deepwater. Ten of us made it here. We lost half our number when we tried to get through those doors," said Calandra ominously.

"Who sends out fifty people to go looking for missing people?" scoffed Nessa much to the chagrin of her sister. Calandra just smiled softly.

"When one of those missing people is the child of nobility, fifty is actually a small number."

Having reached the door now, all of them readied their weapons... none of them edged or bladed, and instead used makeshift equipment from discarded furniture and dismantled metal bars from the prison cells. As Calandra gave the signal, Shorn and Tanglor dismantled the barricades off one side and opened it. Beyond was only darkness and silence but Drisana thought she could see shapes moving in there.

San Raal stepped forward and whispering an incantation flung suddenly flung a great ball of flame through the portal, lighting up the army of skeleton soldiers milling around in the darkness and destroying a small batch with the sheer force of the spell. Agitated, the hordes began to march through the open door but were being clubbed into dust as they marched through the narrow passage. They were the reason why this temple had been abducting people and spiriting away corpses: to construct an undead army.

Ever so slowly the numbers of the skeletons decreased at the cost of only minor injuries to the defenders and after a long, arduous battle all the adventurers remained standing over the large pile of broken bones and dust. Despite being sore and tired they quickly worked together to clear the corpses from the door so that it could be sealed and barricaded once more before taking the time to properly rest, tend wounds, and collect equipment from their long dead adversaries.

Only when they were properly rested did they open the door once more, and this time with torches held high, they ventured out into the inky black darkness.

Nameless: Captives

[Day 15 of Blaugust 2015!]
[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

With the main entrance magically sealed and a surprising lack of large, openable windows, the girls were left with few options. While Sharon voted they try go higher to find another exit, the others out-voted her in descending to the lower levels to try free the other captives. There was strength in numbers after all. At the end of the large cellar was a spiraling staircase leading deeper underground. More of the armored guards patrolled here so they were very careful to move quietly without torch light and only engage stragglers in quick, silent skirmishes if necessary.

Eventually they came across what seemed to be a strangely unguarded but empty prison block, yet all the gates were locked and the ones blocking the torch lit hallways needed to be picked or broken open. As they turned a corner they suddenly found an occupied cell, and from behind the bars stood Cecilia. After exchanging a moment of shock, Cecilia spoke "You don't look like guards, who are you?"

"C...Calandra?" asked Sharon meekly from the back of the group. The woman nodded, shocked that the strangers knew her name.

"Your twin sister hired us to rescue you," explained Drisana as Sharon went to work again on the lock. "I'm sorry to say she... she didn't make it."

Sharon stopped her work as she noticed other figures in the room behind Calandra.

"They are what's left of my group," said the woman as she looked back at them and signaled them closer. "Shorn, Tanglor, Amber, and San Raal."

It occured to Drisana that unlike Insal, all these people were actually still armed, albeit poorly. She put one hand on Sharon's shoulder to prompt her to continue picking the lock but also squeezed gently to her know that she should do it slowly. "How did you get stuck here?" Drisana asked politely.

"Same way you did," muttered Shorn, a bearded stocky fellow. "We walked in."

Seeing the blank expressions on their faces Shorn just laughed and unlocked the cell door from his side, "Some rescue you are!"

At this the girls jumped back, weapons at the ready but Calandra quickly moved between the two groups, hands raised to prevent any violence.

"Please calm down. We were ambushed just before dawn in the nearby forests and those of us that surrendered were forced to help carry our dead down here. Eventually the soldiers let their guard down and we managed to take some of their equipment and flee here. We didn't know why they didn't follow us, but it soon became clear when we tried to leave."

"The first one who touched the door went BOOM!" exclaimed Tanglor with expressive hand gestures. Like Shorn, he was also a stocky and bearded fellow though apparently more simple.

"A magic trap," coughed the thin and dark skinned San Raal who seemed to be doing the worst of all of the captives, leaning heavily on a broken table leg he was using as a cane. "One that is difficult to dispel."

"You've been in here for how long... surely there's another way out?" spat Nessa in her usual non-polite manner. The other group looked to one another before Shorn spoke up again. "Oh, we found one but you're not going to like it."