Into the God Trap Part 5: Section 4
If the two whom we killed were part of the original Company of Seven, along with the body on the floor, then that meant there were only four more left. Shendra said they had the remaining key fragments and since there were none in the room, it meant that three of the doubles, Murlynd, Keoghtom, Nolzur, or Zagig, must have the other three fragments. And that they were more than likely roaming around here somewhere.
That did leave the question as to why did Iggwilv kill Tasha’s double? Raven and Victor, having spent some time in the library and streets, were a little more familiar with the history of this world than the rest of us. It seems Tasha herself was evil so it stands to reason that her double would not be. Also, as an interesting revelation, it turns out the original Iggwilv was actually Tasha. That might explain why her image was shattered as well. This world is far too strange and confusing to argue with, so I will just digest this information and let it be.
At least we found the orb we had been searching for before this whole evil-simulacrum-trying-to-become-real-and-take-over-this-world thing came into play. As Cast reached for it, we all let out a yell. Didn’t he remember what Mordenkainen had told us? Hadn’t he seen the evil doubles we just fought? He stared at us for a moment and said, “But I’m not good or evil, what could it replace me with?” Actually the thought of two Casts running around was even more terrifying than an evil Cast, so we continued our protest. Cast took his filcher out of his bag and asked it to retrieve the orb. When no harm came to the shadowy homunculi, we breathed a sigh of relieve and Raven put the orb into his bag.
He stood there a moment in thought and asked, “Why don’t we just take this to Mordenkainen and get out of here? All he wanted was the orb and then he’d send us home. Why not leave now?”
While this is sound logic, for me, there are a few flaws. I don’t know this Mordenkainen and while I don’t want to take on a powerful wizard, I would much rather at least talk to Call...I mean Murlynd and the others to see what they think. I don’t know this Mordenkainen and I don’t trust him that much. Plus I can’t leave this entire plane to be plunged into chaos with this whole Iggwilv mess. Besides, if we get stuck here we’re going to have to clean this up anyway, why not make it a little easier?
It seems that everyone else feels the same way, and we all stated as much. Even I like to be the hero from time to time. It makes for an interesting story and something to try to top. Victor tried to appeal to Raven’s sense of justice and righteousness. Raven still looked like he wanted to go home. I looked at Raven and half smiled as I reminded him that if this Iggwilv imposter was half the witch she thought she was imagine all the magic items and treasure she might have. Raven returned my look and smile and the matter seemed settled.
We exited the room and just as we hit the entrance to the hallway, we heard a massive horn blow and saw faint firelight coming from the passage with the stairs. Knowing it was more than likely one of the missing doubles, it was a little distributing. Raven and Victor went invisible and told the rest of us to hide in the passage leading to the painting room. They were going to scout ahead. We hunched down slightly past the opening of the passage and waited. Drums beating and people chanting could be heard quite clearly from where we stood as we exchanged nervous glances.
This tension might explain why I jumped clear to the ceiling when Victor’s voice suddenly came out of nowhere. He and Raven appeared and told us that in the room below the stairs four barbarians, painted and rather fierce looking, were chanting and thrusting their hands into fire. They were being lead by a man on a catwalk about ten feet above them. They also appear to have a skeletal black dragon with them. Now at this point I clearly remember the plan being the following: Bella would take out the barbarians while Raven snuck around to get into position and Victor blasted the man on the catwalk. Since I had the only weapon that could truly harm undead things, I would keep the dragon busy until Bella could come and deal with. Kiris and Cast would support with fire power and mace action. I do remember Cast saying something about maybe being able to wall up the dragon, but as far as I knew, it wasn’t a plan, but more of a suggestion. We had just stopped discussing our plan when we noticed how quiet it had gotten. No more chanting or yelling, this was probably not a good thing.
We stood still as statues, but it was too late. Out of the corner our eyes, we saw a shadow creeping along the wall and a barbarian hunched close to the ground. He looked at us and ran back down the stairs into the other room. “So much for surprise,” Bella roared and charged ahead into the battle.
As we cleared the bottom of the stairs we could see the small hoard of barbarians and the dragon, and that the one who had been leading them was now standing on the ceiling. Things can never be simple can they? Bella charged the barbarians and took a very nice chunk out of what had been one of their arms. Raven vanished as the man on the ceiling began moving his hands as if he were casting something. Kiris came up along side Bella and bashed one of the barbarians over the head. Victor took to the sky and fired a bolt of acid at the ceiling climber. I, thinking I knew what the plan was, took off after the dragon. I still am not sure what on this plane made me think I could keep on undead dragon busy, but I knew it would look really cool if I managed to jump from the catwalk onto its back and, run up the spine, and smash its head. Unfortunately, all I head was Cast chastising me for looking a little upset. I guess when I wasn’t paying attention, which does happen from time to time when there are war chants and drums filling my ears, I missed the part about changing the plan. Now Cast was in the middle of casting a spell and I was right where it was going. He shook his head, turned to face the other direction, and walled in the man on the ceiling. Later on, this would prove to be almost disastrous.
Now everyone was free to battle the barbarians and the dragon. Victor began blasting the barbarians with his acid and arching it quiet nicely. One shot was hitting at least two sometimes three of them. Bella and Kiris were making a nice pile of barbarian corpses. One of Bella’s swings took off the rest of the arm she had originally taken a piece of. The barbarian screamed and fell to the ground. I made my leap off the balcony, connected with the monster, and felt not much of the damage I knew I should be able to do go through to it. “Great it’s not undead,” I shouted and hit is again with my mace. Cast’s eyes went wide as he stared at it for a moment, then the wall where it looked like the chains that had held it connected. “It’s a construct,” he shouted with a little too much glee and dove towards it with his arm outstretched. His hands glowed blue for a moment and when he removed them from the skeleton, there was quiet a bit of damage to the things legs. Bella drove her sword deep into the neck of one of the barbarians, then turned, blood trailing from her weapon, and plunged it deep into the neck of the other. One more swing of her sword and he fell like his brothers. Kiris and her impressive new shield managed to take down the last and she and Bella turned their attention towards the dragon.
Victor, who had a bird’s eye view of the battlefield, realized something wasn’t quite right. He looked around the room and shouted, “Has anyone seen Raven?” Victor turned, faced the wall, and cursed at it. I now feel awful, if I hadn’t been in the way, Cast wouldn’t have cast the stone wall and trapped Raven with whichever double we were dealing with. I hope he’s still alive. Victor pointed at the wall and bamphed behind it.