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Chapter
4
" One Step Forward, Three Steps
Back "
page 19 ' A Falling Angel With The Final Pebble '
The Party were able to get some rest during the night
and decided to check around the area before going out.
So Cade took Myr's raven out with him as he snuck through
the grass and up a tree so he could release the raven
to check around. Raid, the raven, checked over the hill
and Cade was about to check the other direction when
Myr and the rest walked out to tell him that a camp
was found. Enutrof and Conti circled around the east
side with Cade and Raid circling from the west as Kai
moved through the trees in a direct route. They were
able to find out that these guys, although dressed very
plainly, seemed to be the same ones who they saw in
East Cameron, Micheal's men. As Myr and Elly were waiting
back at the cave enterence Moray snuck up behind them
grabbed Elly and placed a gun to her head telling Myr
to drop his weapons and give up.
Cade was already comming back to the cave as Myr sent
his raven to warn Kai. Cade, unfortunitally, didn't
have any warning and came up behing Myr about to warn
him of what was happening until he saw Moray and his
three flunkies, all with rifles. With some pecks on
the shoulder and a short flight to near the cave Kai
was able to pick up on what was happening when he saw
everyone down there. Moray sent one of his men to check
inside the cave and another one up the hill to warn
the camp. As soon as Enutrof heard the yells he cocked
and realeased an explosive arrow right into their camp
taking out four of them and hurting another three. Not
ever wanting to see a weapon pointed at a ladies head
Kai jumped from the tree falling down trying to stun
Moray, he didn't. But he was able to hit Moray with
enough force that he lost his balance. Cade went for
his crossbow to shoot at one of the riflemen as Myr
Slept another one. The man that was checking the cave
came out to report that no one else was there and then
joined the fight by dropping Myr's life by more than
half. Myr then unloaded a bunch of magic missiles at
the rifleman who was comming back. That was when Moray
regained his composure and demanded that they stop and
surrender, the Party of course said no. So in response
Moray doubled a lightning bolt at Elly, Cade, and Myr,
with Cade the only one missing his reflex save.
Near the camp Enutrof cast a 'vine' spell to slow down
the movements of everyone in that camp. He then was
able to release a few arrows dropping a couple of the
hurt men. The returned fire and hurt Conti and slightly
Enutrof so Conti decided to start moving around so she
could close in. Enutrof agreed but as she was halfway
around Enutrof got hit by three arrows, even from his
half hidden posistion, and fell down. Conti saw this
and returned to him double quick. She knew that they
had to get out of their so she grabbed Enutrof in her
mouth so she could drag him away from danger. Some more
bullets whizzed by her head until she was finally hit.
Not wanting to let go of Enutrof she tried even harder
but was hit a few more times. When Micheal's men caught
up they decided that a large plump Dire Wolf would be
tasty so they buried a half-dozen more shots into her
to make sure she was dead.
Kai was able to tumble away from the guys and run away
with only a graze on the shoulder. Kai was able to make
it some three hundred meters away before he realized
that Micheal's men weren't chasing him anymore. As he
was turning around to return and follow them he accidently
tripped on a large rock. That was what he though until
he turned and saw what he tripped on, Berlin's body.
It seems that the dwarf had been there for no more than
a week, robbed of all of his posestions. But Kai had
no time for that and had to return.
After chaining Elly, Myr, and Enutrof to the back of
the wagon he tied Cade up and threw him into the wagon
along with Conti. Cade attempted to heal her but then
realized that she was already to far gone. When Moray
and his men camped for the night they skinned Conti
and had dire wolf meat for a meal. Even with some five
men guarding the Party Kai was able to run up and cut
Cade down from his upside down perch on the tree. Kai
suffered a few wounds but was able to run off with the
halfling in hand. With that action Moray got angry and
quickly packed everything up including the rest of the
Party on the cart and started to move away. Kai and
Cade followed and Kai used his pistol to do gurilla
tactics on the guys shooting one of them with the pistol.
Moray realized who it was and threatened Myr's life
by pumping him full of magic missiles and knocking him
out and down. "in like seven minutes your friend
will bleed to death. Give up and I'll save him. Cade
and Kai knew that there was nothing that they could
do, but Kai still tried anyway. He first tried to bargin
with Moray by saying untie everyone and we'll go peacefully,
which didn't work. He then used the spy orb to contact
Micheal, who was even more persistant that they give
up and cut communications short when Kai tried to bargin
again. Cade knew Myr didn't have much time left and
surrendered to Myr would be saved. Soon after Kai came
out of the woods to give up.
Cade, Elly, Enutrof, Kai, and Myr were all tied in the
cart as they saw the first glimpse of some high stone
walls surrounded by a moat, Micheal's castle. Moray
uncahined them and put the Party into what seemed to
be a make shift jail. It was one large room with guard
standing another floor up waiting for a chance to use
their rifles. Cade wondered over to some of his halfling
friends to see what was happening, the one halfling
told him that it was good to be small, you're never
picked first." With that Moray walked in on the
second floor followed by Micheal who examined the crowd
pointed to the Party and said, "Them. All of them".
the halfling leaned over, "Unlucky for you that
you weren't even here for a night."
Micheal had them line up to exit when another prisoner
tried to exit instead and was shot down for his troubles.
Outside Micheal approached the Party, with some goons
to back him up. "Walk with me," he said as
he started to walk east, "I know who you are. You're
from 'The End of the World', right? You see I know that
because I had a few of your friends as guests not too
long ago. It was a little rude of them to have left
so quickly. Then even procurred my wagon and some horses,
so rude. And because of them I'm going to have to do
something that I never thought that I'd need to do."
Micheal continues, "But that aside, we were in
the middle of signing an alliance between the two of
us when they left. so, I'm hoping we could pick up where
they left off. So I'm going to put you in a more exclusive
room because all I want to know is where is the location
of 'The End of the World'." The Party pleads ignorance
as Micheal leads them into his four story tower. That
was until Kai told Micheal that all he needed to do
was click his heals together and say 'there's no place
like home'. With that Micheal nodded to Moray who released
the pit where the Party fell twenty feet down. As the
grating is pushed over the lid of the hole Micheal looks
down and says, "Why don't you stay here and think
it over. Oh and say hello to your roommate for me and
then understand how serious I am."
Everyone's eyes turned to one corner of the cell where
they saw a human girl who is clutching her legs and
gently sobbing. Elly approached her and when she saw
how ragged this girl was Elly mended her cloths to give
her some decency. Kai said hello and asked her name,
Diana was her answer. The Party asked why she was there
and she told them, "I used to be Micheal's lover,
he wasn't always like this but over time he changed.
I got more scared of him as each day passed. When a
band of adventurers (Rend, Aisa, Zanz, and Profit) were
brought here by Micheal I saw my chance for freedom
for me and my child. But Micheal shot me down and they
left without me, they I found myself here. He keeps
asking how I could betray him and saying how I must
be punished." Diana then looks up to see the long
tube that reached out to the sky. A little bluebird
landed on the upper lip, "I envy the birds, they
can fly anywhere they want. She likes to perch their
and sing so I named her Melody."
Because there were guards watching them the Party was
unable to do anything until noon the next day when Micheal
came for them. Unlocking the cell he used levitate on
them to raise all of them out of it. Micheal then walked
outside with the Party, getting separated from Diana,
and over to a beautiful black stallion. "Beautiful
Stallion isn't it?" asked Micheal, "Nice main,
great teeth, and very strong," he finished as he
slapped it on its ass. Kai saw that he had tied a rope
to the horse with the other end attached to Diana's
neck so he quickly jumped at it to grab the rope and
slow the horse.
Elly screams out, "You bastard! Don't, let her
down!"
Micheal replied that he would which suprised Elly until
he continued, "Just tell me where 'The End of the
World' is."
Elly screams with some tears starting to come, "I
don't know! She hasn't done anything, let her down!"
Micheal raises his hands high, "Hasn't down anything
my dear girl?" his voices raises in pitch as he
continues, "She has betrayed me, her god! She is
my JUDAS. And its all because of you people at 'The
End of the World'. We could have worked together against
our common enemies, but NOOOOO you think that you're
so high and mighty, untouchable, and better than everyone
else." Diana continues to wiggle on her neuce as
Kai tries to cut the ropes with karate chops.
Cade looked up at Micheal, "Isn't that what you're
doing thinking that you're better . . ."
Micheal intterupts, "No, I am better. You just
think that you are." Kai is able to cut the rope
that he then grips hard on so he can gently lower Diana
down.
Elly starts to get very angry as he blood starts to
boil and she lets it out, "You're Not Better Than
Anyone! In fact I've seen hundreds of you poor little
lost boys striking back at the world that hurt you.
Get over it, Life's hard. You just have better toys
then all those other children, but that's all you are,
A CHILD!" Elly then looked over to see Diana lowered
to the ground so she ran over only to be stopped by
some of Micheal's men. Kai was able to tumble around
them to get to Diana to check to see if she is alright.
"I'm sick of this," said Micheal, "No
one escapes punishment kill her!" With that Kai
grabbed up Diana and started to run as the bullets started
flying. Two struck Kai before he got around the corner
behind a building. He put Diana down and saw that she
was hit by one of the bullets, after checking her pulse
he found her dead. He then jumped up to a roof to get
away from all of the guys chasing him down.
Micheal looks at the rest of them and states, "I
loved Diana more thatn anything and look at what I did
to her, just because she betrayed me by releasing some
of your friends. I have no feelings for you and right
now you're in my way so think about what I'll do to
you." He looks over at Elly who is being brought
back, "Now I believe that she was telling the truth
that she didn't know anything. So tomorrow she'll be
punished then the next day I'll choose another one of
you and the day after until I get my answers. Last time
I relied on your compassion for others, this time I
won't make that mistake." Micheal then had them
led back to their hole for a cell. Kai jumped off the
roof walked over to Micheal tried to punch him and missed.
Micheal made a sword appear and in two swipes took Kai
down. Kai was then placed with the rest of the Party
after he was healed back to barely being awake. The
Party tried to think of some ways to protect Elly including
sending Myr in her place after she altered her form,
but to no avail.
Noon rolled around again as the sun could be seen directly
above the Party and like he promised Micheal came back.
Like before he trotted them out into the central square
so everyone could watch. As Micheal made his speech
to his men about those who are against him will be stopped
the drawbridge lowered then the porticullis raised up.
In walked ten of Micheal's men with a prisoner. Their
eyes filled with black oil as they explained that they
found this traveler in the woods and brought him to
Micheal. The whole time Dio had been looking over at
one of those Gate Portals that sat on the eastern side
of Micheal's castle. Like being drawn to it Dio started
to walk off. "Keep your prisoner in line,"
yelled Micheal. The men told Micheal, "He's not
our prisoner. He's our Master," right before they
pulled their rifles up and started to fire at Micheal
and his men. Dio's slaves took down a couple of Micheal's
men as they took down nearly half of them.
The Party saw their only chance to escape and Cade ran
down to the south-east side to the cart that had all
of their stuff. Dio approached the Gate lifed his arms
and circled then around. Some dark lightning came streaming
from his hands to the Gate which lit up. A large pool
of swirling water formed in the center of the Arch and
Dio started to walk towards it but not before Kai could
jump through. Seeing their only exit Enutrof, Cade,
and Elly packed the boxes on top of each other as she
cast levitate on them so all three of the chests could
easily be pushed through the Gate.
An array of colors and flashing lights assaulted their
eyes and senses as they tumbled along their path. Suddenly
light as they were thrown out the other end to roll
around and crash into each other. Under the pile Kai's
jar of Saki comes rolling over to him so he grabbed
it and took a big swig. The Party saw someone standing
in front of them and as they raised their eyes up they
saw it was a man wearing a toga. Dio's started to clench
his teeth as his anger started to rise. When they finally
reached the top of his six foot one inch figure they
saw his blond hair and recognized his face.
Looking down at them Sebastian says, "Kill them
all!"
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on Saturday January 31st, 1 - 6 pm |
page
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