12 Unity, 6107 RTR (Jun 14, 2005) The best laid plans of skeeks and squirrels can still end in chaos.
(Amelia) (Axel) (Gunther) (Morgan) (Madame Natasha) (Olivia) (Stonebarrow) (Sylvania) (The Return of Valicross)
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    Weapons Bunker
    This large underground stone room has been stripped bare, with the mounting points for shelves and weapons racks still visible on the walls. A wooden partition has been set up to divide the room, providing a curtained doorway to the back half. Before the partition are a bed, a washbasin and some temporary cabinets full of medical supplies, turning the armory into a mock-infirmary.

Even underground, our fearless (well, sorta), band of town defenders can hear the storm raging outside. It began just before dawn, and has continued with its intensity throughout the early morning. The air is hot, still, and vaguely unpleasant. Natasha kneels in a corner, eyes closed and in meditation. In front of her floats a small blue circle of energy. Within the circle is a black and white image of the world just outside the door, where Natasha set up a spiritual envoy to spy for people approaching. So far, all they see is a lot of water and the occasional burst of light from the lightning above.

When she isn't pacing back and forth with nervous energy, Amelia pauses to examine the spy-view from the lantern outside. Behind the partition, Nene and Bebe keep Axel company while laying out their arrows, and keeping Gunther's special crossbows at hand.

"Is he here yet?" Gunther asks from underneath the blankets. It's about the twentieth time he's asked that so far this morning.

"Not yet," Amy replies to the Kadie.

Axel seems to be having just as much fun with the otters as he was with the blue flames. Perhaps it's because otters are a lot like fire; they move erratically, they're fun to watch, and they occasionally destroy things.

Like Amelia's reflection, Morgan paces back and forth in front of the hidden coffin. He seems to be mumbling something about artifacts and preparation. Swirling ominously around Morgan is what looks like a very unpleasant sort of Creen – or the ghost of a Creen, anyway. Translucent with blazing purple eyes, rows of teeth on a dog-like face, and taloned claws no Creen has, it looks fit to gnaw on something and itching to do it. Morgan's magic at the ready.

"It's hot under here," Gunther complains.

"It's for the good of the town," Morgan says automatically between his mumbling, sounding distracted.

"Well, it isn't really any cooler out here," Amy nearly snaps, then stands near the bed to fan Gunther with her tail.

"Do you think he'll actually come today?" Gunther asks, peeking out. "From the sounds of things, it's raining hard. Might be too hard to travel well in."

Unlike the others, Axel shows no signs of discomfort from the heat. He's not sweating, but he is actually smiling. Considering his history of self-immolation mild heat might be a bit tame for him.

"He'd have wasted his advantage in setting up the weather like this if he didn't come," Amy says.

Morgan stops, kneeling down to check the coffin again. "The weather is a good sign he'll be coming," he says.

"You're not opening this thing while I'm on it, are you? I do not want to be grabbed by whatever slurping tentacle beast you may have in it," Gunther warns Morgan.

"Not unless you take up necromancy," the dark squirrel man replies.

"Don't give him any ideas, Morgan," Amy warns, half-seriously.

"I prefer to put things together that don't rot and stink," Gunther notes, then sticks his tongue out at Amelia.

Morgan laughs softly. "Gunther has never needed ideas before," he jokes.

Meanwhile, Axel has taken to peering very closely at the feathered end of some arrows. He compares them to his own feathers, turns the arrows over, and continues to seem quite fascinated by them for several minutes.

"Be careful of the tips," Nene tells Axel. "They've been blessed against the undead, but might hurt you too."

The tip gets an especially suspicious look from Axel before the bird-man gingerly puts the arrow down about as far away from himself as he can reach. After a moment he says, "Doctor Pike might know," as he looks around absently.

"Someone approaches," Natasha intones quietly, sounding distant and hollow. Gunther's ears perk and then he quickly disappears under the blanket.

"Doctor Pike?" Morgan glances in Axel's direction, and raises an eyebrow. His attention is diverted to the door briefly, and then he's waving people to take their positions as he hurries to his own.

Amy goes over to peer into Natasha's magic sphere to see who is approaching.

In the picture, two figures approach, then stand before the door. The image is blurry, but one looks rather like Olivia. The other is a much more shadowy figure, cloaked and hidden. After a moment of standing there, the two enter the hallway. Nothing else can be made out in the picture and then it suddenly snaps out of existence. "So, it begins," Natasha says, eyes narrow.

"You may want to hide in the back, Natasha," Amy notes, then goes to stand by the bed with her weapon in hand.

The air around Natasha shimmers and ripples as she stands. "As you wish," she says simply, then goes behind the screen, leaving Amelia, Gunther, and Morgan, on the other.

Stationed at their knotholes, Nene readies her bow while Bebe picks up the crossbow and moves closer to the doorway.

Morgan doesn't pick up a weapon. Amelia understands this is because, from her experience, Morgan has never been much of a warrior. "I fight with my magic," Morgan would insist, but Amelia might suspect he's just afraid of nearly shooting his tail again.

Axel remains with Nene, and he has a crossbow in hand. It's even facing the right direction.

And before the tense group, the iron doors swing open slowly. Standing before them is Olivia, and right behind her is a shadowy, cloaked, figure. His arms are raised, the hands crackling with dark energy. "Drop your weapon, half-wit," the figure hisses in a grating voice not unlike nails on slate. "Or I shall destroy this one before me."

Amy narrows her eyes at the figure, but lowers her halberd to the ground slowly, asking, "Who are you and what do you want?"

Olivia stares helplessly at Amelia, doing her best to look as if she's deeply ashamed of herself. She even hangs her head, for emphasis.

"Oh, just your immortal soul. But I'll settle for you kneeling before me, for now," the figure replies. "First, I must feast upon the wounded one."

"Let Olivia go first," Amy demands.

"Why should I? She amuses me," the figure notes, cackling, one hand coming down to wrap around and grab Olivia's cheek roughly. "Now, you step away from the one on the bed, please, and face the wall."

Leaning back from her spy-hole, Nene notches one of her arrows and whispers to Morgan, "I think I can hit his raised hand." She looks to the witch as if only awaiting permission to try.

Morgan raises a hand to indicate Nene hold. He then points to the floor five feet from Gunther, nods to Nene, and shifts his stance to get ready.

The otter blinks, and re-sights to the indicated spot.

Olivia starts and then cringes at the figure's touch but doesn't try to move away – not that she could, as things stand now. "I'm so sorry, Amy," she whispers. "I-I shouldn't have helped him… "

Amelia glares at the necromancer, and says, "What if I don't? You like Olivia, would you really kill her so easily?"

Natasha stands motionless behind the screen, her eyes closed and her ears forward. "Something isn't right. Too much iron here, can't focus enough," she whispers to the others.

"Oh, well, if you insist," the Necromancer says with a shrug. His hand on her cheek moves to her neck and grips down tightly, cutting off her ability to breathe! Thankfully, to Olivia, it at least doesn't feel like he's crushing anything. Olivia realizes she now only has a few minutes before she's going to pass out.

Amelia drops down and grabs up her weapon in that instance, and rushes forward. Standing so close to the iron doors, she hopes the sorcerer's spell will be disrupted or at least inaccurate. She just needs to get Olivia out of Gunther's line of fire…

Morgan reaches up to rub his head as Amelia taunts the necromancer it to trying to kill Olivia. He points Nene towards the robed man and whispers, "We may have to go prematurely. Attack when I begin," he tells her.

And all chaos breaks out. As Amelia gets close, she sees something huge surging in from behind the Necromancer. And it plows into both the Necromancer and Olivia, sending them both flying into the room. The Necromancer releases his grip on Olivia's neck and lands in a heap to the side. Olivia slams into the partition with a dull thud and slides down the wood. Amelia, though, was completely missed! And now, everyone can see just what it was that plowed into the two … it's Bravil, carrying … well, the remains of something. He snarls, leaps up, then just down, punching his fist into the thing he's carrying, smashing it against the floor accompanied by the sounds of crunching bones. He breathes heavily, his large form sprouting half a dozen rotted and broken arrows.
With Bravil's arrival and the necromancer's subsequent displacement Morgan begins to cast his spell, directing Nene to attack while the black robe if off balance.

Amelia is surprised by the arrival of the giant Jupani, but doesn't lose sight of her main goal. She stops and turns toward the fallen Necromancer, but instead of trying to impale him, she tries to tear his hood off with her blade… just to make sure it really is the necromancer and not a trick. Behind the partition, Nene gives up trying to find where her target went through the knothole, and heads for the door. Bebe is already pulling the curtain aside so she can aim the Gunther-build crossbow.

Olivia rolls onto her stomach, panting heavily, trying to get her breath back. She looks up at Bravil shakily. "Wh-what is that… he's got?" she asks, trying to see through her blurred vision. Then she remembers her mission of locking everyone in with the necromancer and tries to get to her feet.

Gunther rolls off the coffin and crouches, crossbow swiveling as he tries to target the Necromancer… And he spots it the exact moment Amelia's halberd pulls away the hood. A rotting visage looks back at Amelia and the stench of decayed flesh fills the air. One eye in the decayed skull spins and looks at Amelia, the eye glowing slightly. "Tsk, you should have struck, not peeked," it hisses and that one glowing hand suddenly arcs with a bolt of black energy. It slams into Amelia making her stagger, but the weak feeling doesn't seem to last long at all. The attack … had no power behind it.

Olivia pulls herself up by the wooden wall just in time to see the rotting corpse's face revealed underneath the hood. "Oh no!" she gasps. "It must be one of his zombies! He's not here at all! Which means… " Then her voice trails off and the insides of her ears go completely white.

Bravil coughs and staggers towards the two. He's wincing, yet still growling. The splattered pile behind him looks like the well squished remains of some sort of corpse.

"Shred him," Amelia gasps as she finds her balance. Bebe bounds out and aims her crossbow at the necromancer's face and gleefully pulls the trigger. Nene, however, comes out and aims her bow at the rampaging wolf.

Murmuring something that sounds vaguely like a call for help to "this place," Morgan's spell shoots off like a bat out of hell. It flies through the barrier he's behind and races for the necromancer.

Gunther also unloads with his crossbow. All of them hit their mark. The sounds of shattering bone and tearing flesh echo throughout the chamber. Then Morgan's spell lands, actually picking up the arrow decorated remains, and slamming them against the wall as well. A blackened, cracked, disc rolls away from the corpse. And now, even Natasha comes out from behind the blind. "He hasn't changed," she hisses, eyes narrowed. "Always testing, always getting others to expend their major attacks first… "

"That'd have been something you should have mentioned earlier," Morgan says as he steps from behind the barrier to look.

"Bravil, STOP!" Amy yells at the wolf, bringing her weapon up again.

"I did," Natasha hisses at Morgan.

The Skeek closes her eyes in horror. "His hand felt like a skeleton's on my shoulder, when we were walking down here," she moans. "I should have realized then, but his dream-form was so thin and bony that I just assumed… " Then she looks to Natasha with an expression of despair. "It means he's going after Djivan and my parents now, if he's seen all that just happened. He told me… he told me that he'd kill them in front of me if I betrayed him."

It doesn't even take Amelia telling Bravil to stop. Once the necromancer goes down, the wolf drops to his knees. "No' under control," he rasps and waves his hands weakly now. "Long-ears an I' fightin' outside. He brough' friends. Saw dem from de Gnarly Tree when mouse lead him here. Followed, alerted dem. Dey zombies shoot me, but, heh, bein' big helpful sometimes."

Amelia doesn't lower her weapon just yet. "We need his full attention then," she states, "before he can go after Olivia's parents and Djivan. Get out here, Axel!"

Natasha's eyes go wide with horror as she really sees Bravil. She rushes over to him and drops down to her knees. Shakily, she reaches out and touches his face, saying, "You shouldn't have. They could have … may have … killed you," she says, swallowing. Bravil smiles weakly, saying, "No' point' in me livin' if vou die."

"I must have missed it," says Morgan, who's now watching Bravil. "My mother is likely helping the town. I'll have to remain here with Bravil and treat his wounds while." He also nods to the bed, indicating he has to be ready at the Sealing Box.

Gunther walks over to the rotted remains of the fake Necromancer and kicks the head. "Jerk," he growls. And then noticing the cracked disk, he reaches down and picks it up…

Axel pops up from behind the barrier, looking expectant. He's got his crossbow in hand and everything.

Olivia's head whips around to face Gunther now. "Hey, be careful with that!" she cries. "We don't know what it is!"
"Give that to Natasha, Gunther," Amy says, then turns to Natasha. "If you can't track the necromancer through that object, we'll have to go to the backup plan. You'll have to do that energy transfer thing again with Axel, but this time it has to be enough to bring you to the edge of death."

Too little, too late. Gunther screams and grabs his wrist in pain. The disc emits a burst of black energy and launches Gunther back into the far wall. He slides down it and collapses on the floor.

"Dear gods, what next… !" Olivia wails and hurries over to where Gunther is collapsed. She rolls him onto his back and checks to see how badly he is hurt.

Axel squawks in alarm as Gunther is wounded, and the bird-man races towards the fallen child. At the same time Morgan gives a tired sigh of exasperation and also runs for the child. They nearly collide but Axel stops when he's told to do something else.

Cursing as Gunther goes down, Amelia rubs her forehead. "Natasha, how close does he have to be to control his zombies?"

"Not close if he's using a focus," Natasha hisses, fur puffing out now. "He never used a focus before, this is new."

Gunther is now, well, breathing, at least. He's no longer conscious, though, and lying in a small heap. The skull of the fake Necromancer cackles. "There, that's what I really needed. Thank you so much, boy, for telling me where the wounded one is. And thank you for having minds so easy to read once they contact my focuses. I think I shall go check on him. I'm sure my little friends outside can entertain you. You've all been quite entertaining. The best time I've had in years." And then the skull just starts laughing maniacally.

Amelia grabs up the skull, and yells at it, "Can you hear me you moldering old bastard?"

The single eye swivels and locks on Amelia's face. "Why, yes, yes, I can, half-wit," it says.

"Then you come and face me right now," Amelia growls, "or you can try to manage without Natasha as your key sacrifice."

Morgan kneels down and checks Gunther's pulse, then his forehead, before looking for signs of broken bones. "You're just like your brother," he sighs.

"Heheh, I just have to wait till they have to move on. I can always collect her later," the skull cackles. "Time, after all, is on my side. You Kadies are so cute when you're angry."

"Nene!" Amy barks, then turns the skull so the eye can see the otter aim her arrow at Natasha.

Gunther's pulse is fine and he has no broken bones to speak of, thankfully. Near his hand is a blackened and cracked disk with several rather evil runes inscribed on it. Some of which Morgan recognizes.

The witch goes "hmm," after seeing the disk. He pats Gunther affectionately, moves him to a more comfortable position, and then turns around to kneel down and examine the disk.

Axel, on the other hand, has taken to hiding behind Nene as best he can without being in the way of her shot. The eye of the talking skull apparently unnerves him greatly, for his feathers are all puffy and he's trying to make himself look smaller. Difficult for one of the tallest people in the room.

Except Nene finds herself with a small problem. While Amelia was talking to the skull, Natasha has gone. Bravil is looking towards the iron door with a forlorn expression, ears wilted. And as strange as it may first seem, the huge wolf looks on the verge of crying. "She go' to fight him at de dam. Dat where he go, right?. She go to die with him," he says. "She go to put an end to dis. She whisper to me to tell you she sorry for evert'ing … for dis nightmare."

Amelia curses again, and then smashes the skull against the wall as often as it takes to pulverize it.

Olivia looks startled when she realizes that Natasha is gone, and desperately appears as if she wants to say something. But, being so near the accursed black disc that hurt Gunther – and does heaven knows what else – she holds her tongue for the moment.

"Hm. Ah," says Morgan after a moment. "No one touch this. Amelia, if you get a chance, smash it." He waves vaguely at the disk. "Bravil, come here and let me look at you."

The wolf pushes himself to his feet and lumbers over to Morgan. As he sits down heavily, it's obvious he has to be in some serious pain. His back and arms are dotted with broken arrow shafts. "No more zombies out dere. Me an long-ears get them. Clear. Go. Save Natasha? I no' important," he says pleadingly.

With the skull smashed Axel seems less sheepish and, much like Natasha, suddenly departing. By the sounds of the soft thud of his bare feet he seems to be running for the exit.

Amy wipes the remains of the skull off her hands with a bedsheet, then goes over and brings the mace end of her halberd down on the disc. "Nene, Bebe," she says, "You follow Axel and guard him from zombies. I'll carry Gunther, Morgan and Bravil can bring the box as soon as Bravil's up to it. We're going to the dam, right now." The Kadie looks at Olivia, and asks, "Are you going to go to Djivan or your parents?"

Olivia springs to her feet now that it's safe to talk. "I'm going to get them both," she says immediately. "Force them into getting to safety if I have to. Where should I send them? Here, or someplace else? The Weavers' won't be safe now, I can tell you that."

"If we don't stop the necromancer, nowhere will be safe," Amy says, frowning. "Take them to Isolde at the Gnarly Tree."

Morgan looks Bravil up and down – mostly up, and up, and up. "This is going to take some time," he admits.

"Sorry," Bravil says and shrugs, "No' tiny child like you."

Olivia nods and pulls her rain-cloak back around her. "I will. Then I suppose I'd better stay with them – I don't know how much of a help I'm going to be in a battle with this monster. I may be a liability again. Rather not have that sort of bad luck strike twice."

"Tell my mother I'm down here and that I'll be bringing the Sealing Box when I can, Olivia, and that I may need some of the blue cream," Morgan adds before standing up and standing perplexedly at all the wolf's arrow wounds.

Olivia looks to Morgan briefly. "Blue cream… oookay. That's weird, but I got it."

Amelia slings the unconscious Gunther over her shoulder, and picks up her halberd. The otters have already grabbed their bows and ran out after Axel. "Don't worry, Olivia," Amy says. "We've still got the home-ground advantage on this monster."

Outside there's a sudden whoomp of air being displaced, followed by several more that speed up rapidly. Nene and Bebe exit only to find Axel's footprints ending abruptly and several feathers on the ground.


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GMed by Jared

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