LXIII. Deathdrinker

The caravan entered the ruined town. Green Arrow promptly activated his winged boots, flew up over the town and took the point. As he looked down, he spotted the shadowy forms of undead creatures: spectres!

While Green Arrow was scouting the town, Lina shapechanged to solar form. Edward approached the first building at the edge of the town, a U-shaped structure, half collapsed, with a small courtyard between two wings, and peered into the tumbled-down east wall. Inside, he also spotted spectre. Just then, Green Arrow called out, "We’ve got company!"

Edward quickly protected himself with death ward, then advanced toward the spectre. "Why aren’t you resting in a grave?" the paladin questioned the undead creature. "What is your business here?" The spectre’s response was not what Edward expected: it immediately withdrew from the ruined building. Nothing of value was present in the building, so Edward moved on

Lina assumed the form of a nightwalker (much to Edward’s displeasure) and confronted another spectre. It too fled, at which point Lina reverted to solar form, appeasing Edward.

Past the northern outskirts of the town, Edward located a large graveyard. He went to investigate the cemetery, and encountered still another spectre. He tried to shake hands with the incorporeal undead, but the creature fled as had all the other spectres they had encountered so far. From his knowledge of religions, Edward determined that this was an ordinary spectre, nothing special about it.

A dozen or so yards down the road into the town lay another ruined structure, and the story repeated: spot spectre, advance, watch spectre flee. Across the street, in the rubble of another destroyed building, Edward spotted a different creature, this time what appeared to be a dread wraith. He attempted to question the wraith, but it fled as had all the other creatures.

Above the town, Green Arrow positioned himself behind the last wagons of the caravan. Nothing threatening was visible to the elven archer.

Another ten yards along the road into the town was a relatively intact home. In a bedroom, Edward found some fine furniture, as well a some hidden valuables, including a sword which he left for Lina. No spectres or wraiths haunted this building. Nor were any found in the ruined building to the rear of the home.

The paladin crossed to the north side of the street to investigate another intact home. He spotted another dread wraith inside the building. Like the others he had seen before, it fled from him. The living room and bedroom were well furnished. Several sets of expensive clothing, some reference books, and a fine tapestry were recovered and given to the merchants, who stowed them in one of their wagons.

Next door to the home was a weed-choked, dusty park, with a dried-up fountain. Edward spotted another dread wraith lurking behind the fountain. It quickly fled north across the road to another ruined structure. In the fountain lay a skeleton with a sword in its back.

The road through the town continued westward for a few yards, then began to curve to the south, eventually forming a large "U". A large building on the south side of the road, where the road began to curve, proved to have been ransacked.

Looming above the rest of the ruined town, to the west of the bend in the road, was what appeared to be a sizable temple. It had been defaced and vandalized to the extent that the deity to which it had been dedicated could not be determined. "Wonder whose temple this was?" Green Arrow pondered as the caravan approached the edifice.

As the party approached the steps leading up to the temple, a shadowy form took shape before them. A shadowy dragon form. A dragon ghost!

At the same time, dread wraiths and spectres emerged from their hiding places and fell upon the caravan, attacking the guards and draining their vitality. The ghostly dragon flew back from the front of the temple, then soared up forty feet over the party and breathed fire at Green Arrow, Lina and Edward, all of whom were astonished that a dragon ghost retained its breath weapon. The elven archer’s quick reflexes saved him from any damage from the fiery blast. Edward’s helm of brilliance completely negated the fire. Only Lina took any damage, and she rapidly recovered, being in solar form.

Two shots from Green Arrow’s bow struck the ghost, inflicting serious wounds. Quickly, the elf flew downward and positioned himself behind Edward. The mighty paladin, not at all intimidated by the ghostly dragon, charged through the air directly at the ghost, crying, "Time to meet Gabriel!" The ghost touch weapon devastated the incorporeal creature, which bellowed under the attack.

As Edward faced the ghost, the wraiths and spectres continued their assault on the caravan, draining still more life from the beleaguered guards. One of the wraiths turned its attention to Edward and landed a heavy blow. Fortunately for the paladin, his scarab prevented the wraith from draining him as well. Another wraith flew at speed toward Edward.

Now casting on the defensive, the dragon ghost dispelled Edward’s death ward protection, then flew over a large ruin to the east of the bend in the road. Edward got in an opportunistic blow, further wounding the creature as it flew by.

Green Arrow’s attack of opportunity also missed. But the elven archer was far from finished. He flew toward the temple, then turned toward the wraiths and spectres and unleashed a hail of arrows at the undead. Two of the wraiths and three of the spectres felt the sting of Green Arrow’s bow.

Meanwhile, Lina sent a maximized scorching ray at the spectres, torching two for serious damage, while the third evaded the attack. She then flew to the end of the wagon train to assist the guards, teamsters and merchants, who had taken defensive positions as best they could under the onslaught of the incorporeal beings.

Ignoring the pesky wraiths and spectres, Edward charged the dragon ghost again. This time, his furious assault on the ghost was enough to destroy it. As he did, an evil voice rang out from an unknown location. "So, you think yourselves mighty," the voice ominously observed. "We shall see!"

The wraiths now focused on Green Arrow, four of them striking the elven archer. He shrugged off the damage, and suffered no loss of vitality due to his own scarab, but swiftly withdrew fifty feet from the incorporeal creatures. The spectres continued to attack the wagon train’s guards, three of them draining still more life from their victims. Another scorching ray from Lina struck one of the spectres, but missed another two. She withdrew back over the U in the road to fly above the ransacked building.

Shouting his war cry, Edward flew straight at the dread wraiths, focusing on the first of the five. All were able to land blows against the on-rushing paladin, but again, his scarab prevented any loss of vitality. He slashed the first wraith, landing blow after blow that left the incorporeal creature tattered and heavily damaged.

And still the spectres continued to attack the hapless guards and crew of the wagon train, draining still more life energy from the guards. The wraiths, having withdrawn to the ruined structure south of the ransacked building, came under attack from Green Arrow. They survived the elven archer’s assault, but three quickly fell to Edward’s charge as he smote the evil creatures. The spectres were more fortunate, as another of Lina’s scorching rays failed to find their targets.

The surviving wraiths and spectres gathered to regroup between the two buildings in the U of the road. They came under fire from Green Arrow and Lina, and another dread wraith was destroyed. Edward added to the assault with a prismatic spray from his helm, but did little damage as most of the rays missed the incorporeal creatures.

An evil laugh came from out of nowhere. It was followed by the sudden appearance of a huge, horned creature with a huge, bloody sword. "Demon!" shouted Green Arrow. He was unable to identify the fiend any more precisely.

The demon immediately fell upon Edward, and landed four devastating blows on the mighty paladin, one striking deep into his shield arm. "Vaakh’lihgh’t has come for you! I shall drink of your deaths!" the fiend shouted. Some kind of deadly aura from the demon seemed to drain Edward of even more strength. The situation appeared desperate for Edward!

Things became more desperate as the last dread wraith flanked the paladin and landed an incorporeal touch, although, again fortunately for him, Edward’s scarab prevented any loss of vitality. The spectres rushed to surround him, and one struck him for more damage.

"Hold still!" Green Arrow called out to Edward. The elven archer then loosed a flight of five arrows of cure critical wounds! Instantly, the healing power of the arrows undid most of the damage the demon had inflicted on him. "Thanks, I needed that," Edward acknowledged.

The mighty paladin then turned toward his demonic foe. "Oh Hieroneous! Let Gabriel strike my foe!" he called on his patron deity, as the demon continued to laugh at him.

The demon apparently had never encountered a paladin before. Or at least, not a high-level paladin armed with a mercurial greatsword and the power of Hieroneous behind him. Three mighty blows connected with the demon, as the divine power of Hieroneous flowed through the sword to smite the evil being. The third blow pierced the demon’s evil heart and exited the back of the creature. His laughter died on his lips as his black blood gushed out of his body. "That’s not . . . right," the creature gasped. And then crashed to the ground, shaking the surroundings with his fall as he died.

Edward pulled his sword from the corpse of the huge demon and started to shout in victory. But his shout was cut off in mid-sentence. He felt a terrible stabbing pain in his back. Blood spurted from a puncture. Bright red blood, as if an artery in his back had been cut. He turned around to see a rapier being pulled back toward another ghostly figure, this one seemingly a former human. The last dread wraith again touched Edward for still more damage, as did one of the spectres.

Green Arrow pulled out two arrows of death and fired them at the ghostly assassin, but failed to destroy the ghost. He did, however, succeed in sending three more arrows of cure critical wounds Edward’s way, healing the paladin of some of the latest damage he had suffered. Now Edward faced his ghostly attacker. "Time to join your comrades!" he cried, and Gabriel claimed his third victim of the battle.

With the fall of their strongest allies, the remaining dread wraith and the surviving spectres quickly fled the scene.

Although the battle was over, Edward noticed that he continued to bleed. "Must have been something about that rapier," he said. So, while Green Arrow employed a wand of cure critical wounds to restore Edward to approximately full strength, Edward read a scroll of remove curse. This proved sufficient to stop further bleeding from the wound.

The teamsters and guards of the wagon train heaved sighs of relief at the end of the battle. "This should get business back to normal, gods willing," one of the merchants observed. While the crew returned to their wagons, now that the ruined city had been cleared of its evil occupants, the adventurers searched the remains of their fallen foes. Much booty was collected.

As he was searching the corpses, Edward suddenly stopped to listen. He heard a faint noise from somewhere above him, as if the sound of wings in the mountain air. He looked up.

Black crows were winging across the sky. Winging back toward the Sulhaut Mountains and Kanak. Back toward the Hellfurnace Mountains.

"Well, we’d better call it a night," suggested Lina. "Best idea I've heard today," agreed Edward.