~Allansia~

Several hours later the company had come into view of a lone, rocky crag towering above the trees of Darkwood Forest. At the top of it was a grim, evil looking castle that cast an ominous shadow of the group. Everyone had fully introduced themselves by now and Prince Barinjhar had been constantly talking since they left Chalice.
“To some extent, my friends”, he was saying. “I blame myself. Had I come out to meet her as I wished, I might have been able to do something to save her, but father persuaded me that the proper thing to do was for us to meet at the city gates. Due pomp and ceremony and all that, a nice spectacle for the people, gives them an excuse to stop work for a bit of celebration. Still, if these brave men could not save her, what could I have done?”
“Very little, I suspect, sire”, said Morval, bowing his head. “I stayed as close to the Princess as possible. We were on the main forest road, of course, the one that runs east of here, as it’s much wider and easier to spot an ambush. We saw the goblins coming a mile off and I had my men in position in good time. It’s almost a routine maneuver; they rush out, we ride them down; it beats me why they keep trying!”
Jerek smirked, understanding where Morval was coming from. With twenty disciplined men one could defeat an army of fifty goblins.
“Anyway, all was going well when suddenly there was a great scream above me”, continued Morval. “I looked up and saw a huge griffin diving straight for the Princess. Fortunately I still had my spear to hand, but not having time to charge I had no speed behind it and my thrust was deflected by the thick feathers on the belly of the monster. The beast took the Princess’ horse in the neck, killing it instantly, and as it did so the sorcerer – for he was riding upon its back – reached down and pulled the girl away. I thrust again and took a fair bunch of feathers from its tail, yelling all the while to my men to get bows, but the wizard had planned his attack well. By the time we had disengaged from the goblins and readied our bows, the griffin was away over the trees and out of sight. He’s a cunning opponent all right; we’ll have our work cut out to get her back.”
Jerek sighed, hoping they would shut up.
“Cunning he may be, Morval, but we have the gods on our side”, replied Barinjhar. “I wouldn’t fancy the chances of anyone assaulting that castle, even if he had a legion of dragons at his back. But our priests of Sindla tell us there is a secret entrance to the castle, hidden in the trees at the base of the crag. If this divination proves correct – and who am I to question the work of Sindla? – then while I distract the wizard with talk of ransom our friends here can sneak in and catch him unawares.”
“Tis a good enough plan, sire, and, as you say, one with divine blessing”, said Morval.
“Hush”, Barinjhar interrupted and pointed at a nearby tree. “This must be the gnarled oak of which our priests spoke. Aye, there appears to be a path through the trees here. Morval, you accompany our friends into the forest. When you report back that they have found the entrance, I will make myself known to the wizard and ask to speak with him.”
Thankful that the Prince had finally shut up Jerek dismounted his horse along with the others and began following Morval through the trees. They eventually reach the side of the crag and a small cave could just be seen amongst the growth. Jerek could see nothing inside for once the sun reached as far as it could go, it was pitch black.
Morval handed Jerek a torch; “Good luck”, and disappeared back into the trees.
Jerek peered into the cave. It was small and the heroes could only go in single file.
Jerek looked back at the group with a smirk; “Who wants to go first?”

The Prince was getting on Cains nerves. The constant chatter was driving him insane, and he was half tempted to rot the tongue out of the man's mouth just to get him to silence the talking. At least he had a general idea who he was going up against. The mage had plenty of allies, or power, to enslave the goblins and griffin. What he didn't mention was that once they started killing them, he could very well bring them back up to work for them. He muttered something really unflattering about the Prince's constant chatter as he dismounted and eagerly got away from the royal pain. Maybe he would get himself killed talking with this Xortan Throg. Speaking of which, once the escort left them at the cave enterance, which was ripe for easy ambushes, that much was obvious, he made his own comment about going in first. "Well, if I were, say, a Plate Clad crusader, I would go in first, but I'm not. So don't look at me. I'd be almost willing to bet gold that this is going to go wrong fast. Got to be a faster, safer way of going into this beyond single file, ripe to be picked off or ambushed in a fashion most of us are useless....." He began looking around their immediate surroundings, stretching his magical senses out while looking for odd runes or otherwise that would tell of something they didn't know of yet.

Shila was a very kind hearted person but the Prince was getting on her nerves and it took quite a lot for Shila to get mad but by the time they dismounted she was well on the way to being incredibly pissed off. She had disappeared for a few moments once they had left the city to grab her own staff and the few small items she had. Her eyes were to the ground when Jerek asked who was to go first and with a sigh Shila stepped forward. "I will go first, if just to get his annoying voice from repeating inside of my head. I don't kill people but even I would forgo my morals for the price of killing that one. He is up to something."

Shila muttered softly to herself before taking a deep breath in and looking around at where they were. She pulled the carved staff from her back and rested the end against the ground. She looked at the men. Shila moved against her staff and leaned against it, the long stick supporting her small frame.

 

Jerek looked at the Cain as he mentioned he was not foolish enough to go first.
"Awww, caves too scary for a mighty mage?" teased Jerek.
But it wasn't long before Shila volunteered, striding up to Jerek and grabbing the torch and entering the cave. Jerek raised his eyebrows, impressed by her courage. He decided to go in right after her, taking a quick wiff of her perfume in as she went by. Jerek decided he was going to portect this one so he could get the chance to bed her.
"I like your tattoos", said Jerek as they walked down the passage. "I recognise the style. Your from Port Blacksand?"
After ten minutes of constant walking and tripping Jerek was on high alert, having heard growls in the distance. All that could be seen was the shape of Shila and the glare of the torch. Everything else was black.
Shila smiled softly and nodded "Thank you, I've had them for so many years I almost forget about them. Yeah I grew up in Port Blacksland but the life of a thief means you don't get to stay in one town for too long. I don't mind though." Shila shrugged and continued to walk through the cave, she was adept at keeping on her feet and not stumbling too bad. She was used to moving in the dark and this was no difference besides the absolute darkness. She was already starting to regret her bold statement of going first. It was too late now as she heard a few growls, her hand instantly tightened around the staff in her hand and her eyes narrowed. She brought the torch in behind her, her eyes taking a few minutes to adjust to the dark.

She moved forward into the mouth or a large section of the cave. In this large sections was at least 100 goblins, with a gasping breath inwards Shila's eyes widened and she tried to mouth something but the Goblins were intimidating. "Uhm, uhm... Logaan save us." She tried to move backwards but her body ran into Jerek and she turned to look at him. "We have company."
Jerek looked over Shila and saw the goblins. Despite being so many he knew a group skilled enough could drive them off, being that goblins are tiny (smaller than dwarves even!), cowardly creatures.
"Don't worry, miss", said Jerek, trying to be impressive. "We'll be able to handle them."
Jerek slowly inched past Shila, brushing closely against her to his delight and drew his crossbow silently and fired, catching the goblins by surprise. Five of them fell before they came into contact with the heroes. Jerek drew his sword and shield and let out a war cry, charging and slicing the heads of two more. Jerek turned just in time to deflect a goblin charging. That's when he noticed the shaman preparing a spell. Jerek raised his shield just as the spell hit him.
"Cain, we need you!" shouted Jerek. "Women, protect yourselves!"
Jerek turned and thrust his sword into another goblin, now covered in blood. He looked around frantically as more and more goblins advanced.

 

Cain scowled slightly as everyone just poured in the single file passage, but managed a chuckle at the tease. Yes, he didn't feel like getting gutted before he could even poison anything, and he wasn't bashful about it at all. He could already tell things were going wrong, and had no problems with the thoughts going through his head. Time to introduce those who were less then knowlegable about his powers to them. He began muttering as he stalked into the tunnel, a sickly green energy building around his hands, spotting two goblins that were in small groups of them. Perfect targets, so he spat out harsh words that hurt to say, most Necromantic spells did hurt to say out loud, and weaved a ball of green energy and sent it flying, seemingly just entering the goblin's chest with no effect. Then it began howling and decaying rapidly, finally exploding and spraying the nearby goblins with acid, which had a rather chaotic as well as deadly effect. Next up, bolster their numbers, if necessary. He smirked as the acid ate away at the goblins, finally replying to Jarek's jest before. "Yea, big bad Necromancer too smart to go first. That's why, don't feel like getting hit with the splash of my own spell. Think we need more numbers, or shall I just leave the bodies where they lay? Oh, and the bodies are safe, the toxins would of worn off by now. Very potent, but short lived. I'll lead in the future though, seems hordes of enemies are here. I'm definitely going to have some words with that Prince talks a lot." He checked the area for any more hostiles, then would lead the rest of the way. He felt like ending any further engagements before they really got started, just to get to this Prince faster. He was almost certain that betrayal was in the works here.

Jerek bent over panting and laughing, half because of the victory and half because some of Cain's spell had burned his shield arm, forcing him to drop the shield.
"I think you should lead", said Jerek, looking for the nearest exit.
At the other end of the cavern was the only exit big enough for humans and elves to walk through. This passage gave way to a torch lit, man made passage, obviously apart of the sorcerer's castle. The passage was torchlit so they could now easily see. Jerek stood up straight, sseathing his sword and shield. After a while they ventured into the castle. They were continuously climbing stairs and turning corners. Lesser men might've found the climb hard but seasoned mercenaries would find it as a warm up before the real fight. As Jerek rounded a corner he jumped back in surprise.
"Sorcery", he whispered, unsure of what to do next.
A great fireball filled the passage ahead of them and looked as if it could tear the scales of a dragon. Jerek looked at the heroes, waiting for someone to take action.

 

Cain noted the wound on Jerek's arm and shrugged. Sad, but he was no healer, and it wasn't enough dead flesh to actually do much about. If his whole arm had died, he could do some work with it, but it wasn't anything worthwhile at the moment. After everyone got their rest, he stalked off, taking the lead before anyone else got any smart ideas. The passage was still too small for his liking, but then again, there was little they could do about that, so he stopped mentally complaining.

It had been too quiet, for too long. He hadn't picked up on any strange energies yet, but as soon as Jerek jumped back and mentioned Sorcery, he took the front and took a peak for himself, gauging the forces they were facing. Pyromancy, basic but dangerous in the right hands. But he sighed as if this was going to hurt, and turned to the others. "Alright, I have a cunning plan, but please stand back. I can't have interference living presences give off naturally, and subconsciously. Especially the Elves. Now, how to go about this one..." He pulled a book out, thumbing through it as he read for something that would be useful in this situation. He would need bodies to smother the flame, and the dead goblins below were out of reach. Guess he needed artificial bodies for this. Or some of his blood in this case. He drew his dirk, spilling some of his blood on a patch of ground he cleared and, after patching his wound shut, began drawing a rune that he was tracing from his book, onto the ground. He chattered while he worked, so they knew full well his plan. "Ok, so fire requires air to function. So, remove the fuel, we remove the fire. Even magically occurring fire needs some catalyst, and air is necessary. What this will do is summon a creeper, minor ghoul that can be called cheaply, although beyond menial labor, are useless. I will then mark it with a death curse that strips the air out of it's immediate location. Hopefully, this will kill the fire and allow us to progress. If it doesn't work, we may wish to find another way." The ritual would be ready soon, and he had no doubt that the others were probably losing any sort of trust that he could of earned with them. Oh well, sooner or later, they would figure that he wasn't all bad. Or not, what did he care. Jerek lent against the wall and checked the burn on his shoulder. The skin was blistering but he felt it would heal in time. But it wouldn't help them if they got in a fight soon. Jerek watched as Cain flicked through his book, noticing he was talking about dark arts. Jerek shrugged, not caring whether or not he used such magic. He considered magic a tool and respected anyone who could use it to that effect. Jerek grunted.

Shila had been in complete shock at the way that everyone had handled themselves with the goblins. She had never killed anyone and she did not intend to start now. She could defend herself no worries, but for a thief she had some morals left and one of those was to not kill anything. With a shake of her head, she had stepped through the dead goblins and followed her fellow adventurers. She was watching everyone, looking at them all. Some of them she had expected to be cold blooded killers, but some of the others she had not expected to be able to do it. Another shake of her head and a few strands of hair fell loose. Shila jumped at the sound of Jerek's voice and she finally broke from her own thoughts, moving slightly to look at the big fireball and Cain who were trying to handle it.

Shila moved over to another wall, trying to keep her distance from the rest of them. She was the only one who had been forced to come, but she was quite different from the rest. Her back rested against the cool stone of the castle wall. Her staff was solidly in her hand, her fingers turning white from how hard she was holding it. Her green eyes watched the floor for movement rather than everyone else. It was unlike Shila to be so quiet and anti-social.

 

Cain finished preparing the ritual. He muttered, making more runes in the air, and the ritual circle caught green flames, and burnt out, the spot seemed far to black to be burn marks. Then a pure blood construction slithered out of the hole, and it seemed to look normal black marks after the blood thing emerged. It seemed to incline its head to Cain before its two arm appendages hardened into spikes of coagulated blood. He stood, brushing himself off, before commenting off hand. "You can stop calling a spade something other then a spade. I'm a Necromancer, user of the Dark Arts, not some generic mage. Granted, ask any of my fellow practitioners and they would kill me on sight, but that's another story. The acid burns are completely natural, meaning that even though I conjured the acid up, it will act and heal like normal acid burns. And if your leg had been killed, I can bring it back as an undead limb that would still function. C'mon Gloop, I have a suspicion about that fire." He walked up to the fire, walked right through it without injury. Illusion, clever, much less energy and only someone suicidal would walk into it. Or a Necromancer who could pick up on that sort of thing. Bloody Hell, he loved his job sometimes. "Alright, its a bloody illusion, let's go comrades." Cain didn't even wait, strolling forward a few feet and stopping at a side door, pausing and pushing it open, looking in and seeing a Griffon and a good sized lizard. That...that was unexpected. So there had been a Griffon. He yelled back to them, a bit urgent, he had doubts the cages would hold long. "Hey, you may want to see this." Gloop seemed energetic, the blood trembling up and down its back, it was eager to serve and standing here really wasn't something it wanted to do right now.

Shila had been to busy staring at the ground and trying to figure out what was going on to notice the obvious smile Jerek had sent her way. She snapped her head up as she heard Cain call out that it was clear, and then about the Griffin. She had never seen a Griffin before and she thought this would be the best time. So with small shaky steps, and a few deep breaths, Shila made her way towards the illusion. With teeth sinking into her pink bottom lip she waved her staff through the flames and when it did not come out singed she closed her eyes and walked through the fire. With a sigh of relief she stood there, but her eyes widened as she saw Gloop. She wasn't used to seeing creatures like this, she was just good at picking locks and conning people. With an obvious discomfort she walked around the creature to look in at the Griffin. It was large and thrashing around in its cage. "I'm going to wait out by the fake fire." Shila nodded her head and slowly stepped backwards until her back was against solid rock. What had she gotten herself in for? She would leave all the killing and the strange parts up to the others, because it looked like they had dealt with it all before. Shila attempted to plaster on a friendly smile, but all she did was manage to show her fear. So she stopped trying to be as friendly as she usually would.

 

When Cain finally figured out the flameball was an illusion Jerek stood up and began to follow behind Cain, grumbling something about stupid mages pets as the groups new friend Gloop sniffed his crossbow.

"Hey, you may want to see this", said Cain.
Jerek peered over Cain's shoulder and saw the griffin and giant lizard, both caged. Agnarr was the Jerek raised an eyebrow."Sindla's blood! What are we? A petting zoo now?" asked Jerek, indicating Gloop and the lizard.
But upon seeing the heroes the griffin began bashing its cell door. It wouldn't be a matter of time before the griffin escaped its cage and began tearing the heroes limb from limb.
Jerek drew his crossbow confidently; "Well? Shall we?"

Cain casually watched as the others made their actions for or against taking down the Griffon. To be frank, he didn't think it was a real good idea angering it more so then it already was, being caged and everything. Even if they did kill it, there was a chance that he wouldn't be able to muster enough energy to raise it as anything effective. Raising human bodies was one thing, Griffons? Another matter entirely. Stories of undead dragons were mostly true, but what wasn't mentioned was the dozen or so sacrifices necessary to muster that sort of energy to bring the spirit of a Dragon back to actually serve the master Necromancer.

Jerek grunted; "I was just thinking of its hide, really. I hear they fetch a small fortune in Fang and Zengis, but oh well. What do you think, Ark? I suppose it doesn't matter as we'd be out voted if you sided with me."
Jerek lowered his crossbow, obviously upset at the fact he wouldn't get a decent challenge in this gods forsaken tower. Jerek watched his new friend. He could quickly see that the lizard was starting to warm up to him. Jerek preferred horses, though. Jerek looked at yhe griffin. The griffin wasn't giving up trying to bash the cage door down, now using its massive hind legs.
"Umm, guys", said Jerek. "If you don't want to kill the lizard I suggest we leave soon."

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Xortan Throg was looking out his window that overlooked Darkwood Forest. In the distance he could make out Yaztromo's Tower and the town of Chalice. Throg turned back to his All-Seeing Mirror, watching the heroes deciding whether or not to kill his prized possession. Throg's anger rose even more when the barbarian had stolenhis lizard, which took him months to acquire.
"Let me out! Let me out!" a muffled voice screamed from behind a nearby door.
"Shut it, Princess", scowled Throg.
Throg summoned his lieutenant, Gradthak the Ogre. Gradthak was one of the most famous mercenaries in all of Allansia (being the only ogre merenary) and found himself and his small gang of orcs in the employ of Xortan Throg.
"I here", stated Grudthak, his orc followers grunting in agreement.
"It seems we have some intruder, my dear Grudthak", grinned Throg. "The goblins failed me and if you truely want to earn your money kill the would-be-heroes."
"Grudthak kill pink skins", Grudthak nodded in agreement and led his orcs down into he halls of the castle to seek out these heroes.

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Barinjhar looked nervously up at the castle, his gaze turning towards Morval; "Well here goes."
"I, Prince Barinjhar of Chalice seek audience wth the sorcerer, Xortan Throg on the matter of Princess Sarissa", Barinjhar yelled at the top of his lungs.
The Prince, Morval and their escort waited for what seemed an eternity for an answer. One never came.
"I don't like this, sire", said Morval. "I am beginning to have doubts."
"You forget, Captain the gods are on our side", smiled Barinjhar.
Just as Barinjhar finished speaking the gateway into the castle courtyard opened. The horses the company was mounted on began to become restless, sensing the evil in this place.
"THE PRINCE COMES ALONE OR THE PRINCESS DIES!"
The company tried to look around for the origin of the voice but in their hearts knew sorcery was at play here. Morval tried to persuade the Prince not to go alone, but Barinjhar would not listen and as he entered the castle gates they shut behind him.

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Grudthak peeked around the corner, looking at the heroes, trying to remain as hidden as possible. The plan was simple. Wait for the heroes to reach the corner and jump them. The orcs were all ready, each holding a sword and shield whilst wearing plain leather armour. Grudthak however carried a large two handed club that looked as if it could break the neck of a manticore if used properly and he wore plate armour that covered most of his body. Grudthak's biggest weak spot wasobviously the neck as no suit of armour he found fit around his thick neck. Grudthak watched as the armoured human shut the door to the animal cages and barred it.
"Ready fight", stated Grudthak to his orcs

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"Let's go find some trouble to get into." Cain strode down the corridor, and swore in a language that even the elves wouldn't recognize, although it was obviously a curse, and a massive warclub smashed him across the midriff, throwing him clean past the group and smashing down next to the illusion fire. The orcs and Grudthak, bloody Grudthak, advanced around the corner, moving in on the others. He groaned again as he pushed himself into a sitting position, and checked himself over. Probably cracked, if not broke, some of his ribs, but that was the extent of it. Good thing that Ogre got a poor swing, or he would probably be unable to get up. Then he got angry, although it probably looked comical, it was real anger. Gods damned Ogre things he could pull a fast one on him then? Oh, he would show them a thing or two. He muttered under his breath, and Gloop, who had went unnoticed, shoved his claws into the back of one of the Orcs, causing it to scream as it was infested by Gloop, who in turn took over the Orc and, as obvious indicators of possession, had vine looking veins pop up around its head and running down its body, and it began to promptly kill the next orc before being turned on the rest of the orcs. He then started coughing violently, no way he was getting on his feet shortly, hopefully the others could handle this mess.

Jerek watched in awe as Cain flew past him, suprised he didn't hit another of the heroes whislt in mid air. He hardly had time to draw his sword before an orc was upon him. Jerek managed to raise his sword in defense just in time and twisted his sword sround, causing the orc to drop his weapon. Jerek pulled back and then thrust his sword through the eye of the orc, who howled in pain for a time before dying. Jerek pulled his sword out of the orc's skull and turned just in time to duck as the giant club swung in his direction. Grudthak swung again, this time hitting Jerek's blade and it went flying across the room. Jerek quickly drew his dagger and lunged at Grudthak, doing nothing as the small blade just hit Grudthak's armour.
"Ugh, ugh, ugh", laughed the ogre.
Jerek scowled tried crawling to his sword. Grudthak continued to laugh as he brought his foot down on Jerek's back, trapping him. Grudthak swung his club in a downward arc, aiming for Jerek's skull.

Shila looked up in horror as Cain flew past them, she was torn between staying away and trying to help him when she noticed that Jerek was trapped by the Ogre. Closing her eyes, taking a deep breath and tightening her grip on the staff. With a quick movement Shila moved towards the ogre and swung her staff upwards to meet the giant club that was about to smash down on Jerek. She wasn't as strong as the ogre so it didn't do much but it did knock him off the course and he proceeded to try and attack Shila, but she was quick on her feet dodging some of the blow before trying to retreat. She was not much of a fighter and couldn't last against a giant ogre so she just tried to avoid him. With a deep breath Shila sprinted down towards Cain, and the ogre seeing what he had done to the orcs wasn't tempted to mess with him.

So this is where Shila hid for the rest of the battle, checking Cain over to make sure he was okay.