[While on a rescue mission gone crazed, a holy warrior and a rogue fight bandits, demons, and the urge to rip each other's clothes off.]
The mission, rescuing a princess, could be going better.
Séa is an earnest paladin, honest and gullible. Tash is...
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True to prediction, Zorexis took grave offense when Séa demanded his key. His initial flash of heat chilled to frigid formality. Icily, he surrendered his magic key to the implacable paladin.
She reflected, I'd probably feel like a thuggish jerk if this were a regular person. As it is, though, I have to hold myself back from smashing him for no reason whatsoever except that he's a demon. I guess I'm prejudiced. The question is, is my prejudice justified or not?
The pair of women left Ghomarck snoozing on the settee. Once outside, they engaged the magical barrier.
They sourly regarded Dooch's red-lit den of squalor and its two exits. Séa wore her refurbished breastplate over her gambeson. Her fingers traced the unfamiliar decorations that swooped over the metal like swallows in flight. "Up first, or down?"
"Up," Tash said. "And I lead the way."
"Yes," Séa said offhandedly. It barely needed to be said. Of course the silent rogue would precede the metal-shoed paladin.
Off they crept. The bilious red glow faded into the comparative darkness of the stone staircase. The stonework of the steps had cracked and eroded. Their footfalls seemed only the latest of the tens of thousands that had worn the steps smooth. A landing marked a right-hand turn and more stairs.
Séa tried to concentrate only on staying quiet, but Tash's sinuous movements dented the purity of the paladin's intentions. The rogue glided catlike, bent low, face questing forward. Séa's rear view of the performance caused her to catch her lower lip between her teeth.
A greenish glow awaited them as they neared the top of the next flight. Tash pressed a hand downward to signal extra caution and slowed. Almost on her belly, she cautiously lifted her eyes above level of the final stair. Moving with exaggerated stealth, Séa slithered beside her. Both grimaced at the sight of the open hall that lay before their eyes.
The swirling green glow emanated from an installation at the cavern's center. Luminous Abyssal runes spiraled around an oval frame that stood twice as high as a man. A cloudy green glow obscured its otherwise empty center. Four black-armored sentinels loomed at the corners of the installation, each steadying a wicked polearm whose black blade speared upward. Two braziers flanked the oval portal, but they held, not fire, but heaps of glowing gemstones. The cavernous room seemed half-supported by slender dwarven columns, but many of the stone pillars had fallen.
A green-black humped form of monstrous proportions ceaselessly stalked among the broken columns that littered the floor. As the women watched, the creature circled in front of the portal, appearing in silhouette. In shape something like a deformed dragon, the greenish light glinted from its reptilian scales. Uneven spines marched in a drunken row down its back. Its six feet gave it an undulating, alien gait. Its gaping mouth worked as if it cried out in perpetual pain.
