Love Conquers Pt. 2

CHAPTER 5

    “Hey you, you’re finally awake,” Meredith said as I woke up in a comfortable bed, shirtless and bandaged a day later. Even though I’m Blended, I still had the deep wound on my side. I must have taken more hits than I realized...

    “Yeah, thanks,” I responded.

    The rest of the conversation went about as you expect, “Where’s the bodies,” “Are you okay,” “What’s with the sword,” etcetera.

    The important thing is that with all of my gold royals, magic vest and dagger, being wounded and unconscious, and her having that sword, she didn’t finish me off or take any of my valuables or anything! Meredith could have easily finished me off and tossed me in with the other bandits, taking all of my things for herself. I figured “What the hell,” and decided I could trust her.

    After she filled me in on what happened, basically she got rid of the bodies, took their stuff, and took care of me, she tried to push her sword off on me.

    “It’s called Justice, and it served me well in my days as a Crusader.”

    I declined of course, I wasn’t about to sully a holy blade with my less-than-perfect lifestyle. Besides, she needed it to defend herself in the future! She knew how to use it, she was just a little out of practice. 

    I told her as much, and she didn’t argue with me.

    “So it’s settled,” I said. “You keep Justice, practice some more, and I’ll be on my way out to pay some fine folks a visit!”

    She tried to stop me, after all I had just woken up and had a pretty bad wound in my side, but I wasn’t having it. Vet needed me, and fast. She relented when she realized I wasn’t going to be swayed, and gave me one of her most precious drinks: a healing potion. It must have cost a fortune to someone like her, but she refused to let me go without it.

    I conceded, and drank it. I felt most of my wound heal up, along with some aches and pains I hadn’t noticed before. I wasn’t back at full fighting capacity, but it would have to do. At least getting some sleep helped restore my connection to the Dream, so I had all of my magic back. I thanked her for everything and left, sneaking a pile of gold into her cashbox on my way out.

    -------------------------

    The trail I was following grew a little cold, but luckily they were still morons and I was able to follow with a bit more effort and intuition than last time. I narrowly avoided a couple of their traps on the way through the woods, almost losing a leg in one. That was on me, these guys were so dumb I wasn’t expecting them to have any traps laid around.

    Apparently at least one of them was halfway intelligent. That complicated things, I’d have to be a bit more careful from then on.

    Eventually, I came across a guard. A single guard, out in the woods by himself, after moonset. Granted, the guy was an Outer Elf so the lack of light was less of an issue, but unfortunately for him I honed the skills I learned as a Sneak by deceiving the Outer races.

    It wasn’t too hard to get the drop on him and take him out quietly. He wouldn’t be the last taste of blood Razor got that night…

 

CHAPTER 6

    I knew I was on the right track, so I kept heading towards their hideout, watching for any more patrols. After a few minutes, I got to the top of a hill and finally found their hideout: a secluded cave with a small fortified camp outside. They had some wooden walls set up, really more just tree trunks stuck in the ground close to each other, a half-finished lookout tower, and a good chunk of cleared land, all the way to about 40 feet from the walls.

    There were 2 guards, both Outer Elves. I could hear them chatting about something and it looked like one was getting ready to leave. I drew my bow, grabbed some of the arrows I lifted from the patrol to add insult to injury, found a good spot, and waited. 

    After a couple minutes, one of the guards left. I waited for him to get around one of the tents to ruin his line of sight, then took my shot. Now I don’t know how much you know about Sneaks, but we are trained very specifically to deliver lethal blows to unaware targets. Anatomy and marksmanship were two of my very favorite subjects in that regard.

    I loosed my shot, and the arrow struck true: right through his heart. The guard was dead before he hit the ground. I had to move fast and get the other one before he wandered off. I ran down the hill as quietly as possible, got down to the guard, and pulled him around the wall so no one would see. I sheathed the bow and grabbed Razor, then quickly caught up to the second guard.

    He was a lot taller and faster, but he was just strolling along. One quick jab to the ear and he fell in a heap. My instructors said that when you take out the base of the brain like that people can still see and think for a minute or so, so I made sure that he knew it was me, a lowly Outer Gnome. He was paralyzed but I’m positive he was very angry…

    As I was dragging him into a nearby tent, I heard a loud laugh come from inside the cave. I stopped, Razor in my hand, guard collar in my other, and listened. I waited what felt like hours, but there were no more sounds coming from the cave, at least none that I could hear.

    Guard’s body hidden, I checked each of the other tents outside. Most had packs inside, nothing really worth taking, but no more bandits. There were 4 large tents but most of their space was filled with junk and furniture, so there was no real way to tell how many bandits were around. I figure at least 7 total, given the 3 I’ve already taken out, the jokester and his audience in the cave, and the 2 that Vet’s guards killed a while back.

    With Razor in my right hand and bow in my left I ventured into the cave.

 

CHAPTER 7

    Just inside the cave mouth was a sheer cliff with a rope ladder. It was fastened at the top only so going down it would make a lot of noise as it clattered against the rock wall. Stealth was most important, second only to speed, so I used some of my magic to Levitate, allowing me to silently float down the 12 foot drop. I reached the bottom and dropped the last inch as soon as I stopped Focusing on my magic.

    Before me was a T-intersection. Behind me was the ladder, to the right a curving passage with light and noise coming from further in, and to the left a dark and silent passageway. Going to the left would allow me to get some more information about the layout without alerting anyone, so I decided to do a quick scout in that direction.

    That tunnel curved slightly downward for almost 100 feet before it opened into the complete blackness of an unlit cave chamber. My Darksight only reaches so far, so I couldn’t make out much without light. I decided to crack an Arclight and toss it into the chamber. It stuck to something, hanging in the air about 45 feet in front of me. Near the edge of the pool of light I saw some spindly looking legs retreating to the darkness. Giant spiders.

    Having solved the mystery of why that side was uninhabited, I decided to have mercy on the nest and head back the way I came. The right side tunnel split again after a slow curve deeper into the hill, with one passage leading down through a narrow slot into a chamber filled with the sound of echoing splashes and the left leading to a short man-made hallway that turned sharply to the right. There was no light coming from the slot and I could not hear anything besides the waterfall, so I crept down the other tunnel.

    Shortly after it turned right, there was an open wooden door that went into a carved chamber full of tables, chairs, beds, footlockers and other furniture. I could see what appeared to be the leader standing in front of 2 others, his foot on a chair in a dramatic pose mid-story. The other 2 seemed engrossed, and there was one other chamber off to the left, which was dark and closed.

    Then I saw her. Vet. She was chained up against the back wall, a little bruised and shaken but otherwise seemed okay. She was slumped with her head down so had not yet seen me, so the element of surprise was still mine. I devised a quick plan to get her out, and readied myself.

    Razor slid silently into its sheath, and I drew three arrows into my right hand. I made a mental note of how the three were positioned, and mentally took the shots a few times. I took a deep, slow breath and calmed myself. Now or never.

    I began my spell, stepped around the corner, then dropped a huge sphere of magical Darkness on the three, blocking their sight of me and each other and blocking my sight of them. I shot an arrow where I had mentally pictured each of them sitting, then hastily dropped my bow, drew Razor, and ran up into the sphere.

I stopped short of the sphere just as Shithead #1 wandered out, and quickly dropped him with a surprise strike to the heart. I didn’t hear anything so I dropped the sphere to checkon the other 2. Shithead #2 sitting at the table was slumped back, an arrow protruding from his eye. Captain Shithead, however, was waiting for me.

Just as I dropped the spell, he fired a crossbow at point-blank range. Burning pain tore through my body as the bolt slammed into my side, just next to where I was hit the previous night. The force threw me to the ground, away from the last bandit. I struggled to my feet as quickly as I could just as he was readying a second shot. 

I dove behind the first bandits body, the bolt smacking into his back with a meaty thump. The leader, now quickly backpedaling to a safer distance and readying another shot, was too far to reach with Razor and my bow was back near the entrance, across 10 feet of open floor. That’s when I noticed it:, an Arcanium Revolver on the dead bandits hip.

“One shot left in there, you better make it count,” Captain Shithead taunted as he saw me reaching for the gun.

He was right, these things are not the most accurate but are quite powerful, so if I had a chance to aim it, I could take him out in one shot. If I miss, he has all the time in the world to finish me off. He was moving towards Vet, he knew why an unknown Spellthief was attacking his compound and would try to use her as leverage for his life.

I stood up and aimed. I did my best to ignore the pain as another crossbow shot tore into my thigh, and pulled the trigger. The cavernous and sparse room amplified the noise, turning the loud crack into a ear-splitting boom. The shot hit him in the chest and knocked him off his feet. I threw the pistol down and limped over, hearing the wet and ragged gasps as he struggled to rise to his feet. I reached him as he got to his hands and knees.

He was struggling, using his crossbow to push himself up even as blood was pouring out of his chest and mouth. Our eyes met. He knew he was dead. As he shakily reached for a dagger on his hip  I swung out and gutted him with Razor. He fell to the ground again, clutching his insides.

“Puh-please… the bag in the c-corner… potion… help me….” he begged, coughing up a wad of blood. 

I briefly debated it. After all,they hadn’t mistreated Vet as far as I could tell, and the rest of his gang was already dead. He wouldn’t be a threat to anyone. Then again, I did still have a pair of his crossbow bolts sticking out of me. I leaned down close to him.

“No,” I whispered. I put him out of his misery with a single long slash from Razor.

 

CHAPTER 8

The gunshot must have awoken Vet.

“Nail? You came for me!” Vet said, strong but soft.

I managed a pained smile as I limped over to the bag Captain Shithead pointed out. “Just a minute baby, I need to make sure I don’t bleed out.” Sure enough, there it was. A health potion, bright red and clearly labeled with a reputable crafter’s mark. I ignored the meager amounts of pilfered gold and silver and downed the vial in one gulp. 

A strange tearing sensation rippled through me as the alchemy worked its’ magic, partially healing my side and leg. The bolts were still stuck in me as I prefer they get removed by someone who knows what they’re doing. The bleeding ceased and the pain mostly subsided, so I was able to at least hobble over to Vet without too much limping. 

“You came for me Niles,” Vet exclaimed, using her pet name for me.

“I couldn’t just leave you here, then I wouldn’t have a worthy 3-Dragon opponent.”

She smiled. I used the key from Captain Dead Shithead to unlock her shackles, barely catching her as she fell forward. She could barely walk, it looked like she was dehydrated and starving. 

I helped her towards the door as best I could. It was slow going but she’d make it fine…

Then I heard it. The side door that I completely overlooked. It slammed open and the cowardly little lizard man hiding inside shot at me with a dart. He missed, hitting Vet in the rear. She yelped and stumbled, surprised by the sudden pain, dragging me down with her. I looked at the little monster behind us, and caught him dipping a dart and loading his blowgun. Poison.

He fired at me, the shot going a little wide as I tumbled to my left. He readied another shot, and I grabbed Razor. I feinted, trying to avoid the next shot, but he called my bluff, pausing for a moment then hitting me square in the chest as I raised my dagger. I could feel the poison coursing through me even as I released Razor mid-throw.

The magic blade sliced through flesh and bone with little difficulty, finally stopping hilt-deep in the little creatures’ forehead. It slumped, obviously dead, and I ripped the little dart out of my chest. Something was gnawing at me, but the poison was already slowing my mind… VET! 

I turned to Vet, saw her struggling to get back on her feet, tiny dart still stuck in her cheek. I dizzily walked over, nearly tripping in the process, and tried to help her to her feet. She shakily pushed on my shoulders, getting a foot under her. I reached back and removed the dart quickly, hopefully she received a small dose of whatever poison he used.

She passed out, too heavy for me to carry in my weakened state. I searched frantically for another potion, maybe an antivenom… but darkness took me.