Ruby Slippers...?

Resting and healing up the group contemplates their morning as they return to care for their wounds, relax at their makeshift camp and bombard Lucy and Antoinette with questions.

They spend the day and night recovering, waking early, breakfasting and preparing for the day ahead. Lucy asks Amaril for the ruby ring he has, which he reluctantly passes to the young queen. “Thank you, Amaril,” she says solemnly.

Lucy hugs Antoinette before raising the ruby ring high in the air. From deep under the ground, a quaking begins. The grass quivers and the sound of obsidian breaking catches the hero's attention. "You are all brave," Lucy says, "You have all chosen to accept the quest to save the lady. It is time. Antoinette, are you ready?"

Antoinette nods, her sword gripped tightly in her hand.

Lucy stands and unseen by the others, kisses the ring. Then as they watch she throws it at the rotting tavern, "This ends here!" she shouts, as a massive; gargantuan-sized copy of the ring rises up from within the earth. The Tavern trembles and explodes outward in a mighty blast forcing our heroes to duck and deflect planks of wood, shards of glass and other debris as the ring emerges, rising over a fifty feet in the air.

A stairwell rising, and one descending, curls around a thick tangle of pure gold; spiralling steps leading to the unknown.

A massive platform crafted from a thick, solid slab of ruby boasts a belt of gold encircling the edge. Figures are etched into the gold, but from the distance and angle, our heroes cannot discerned them clearly.

The descending stairs, made of the same ruby stone as the platform and rising stairs, framed in gold, descend into a darkness that seems to forget light exists, although, a single dot of white seems to float in the centre of the void - a reflection? Or a source?

Lucy moves forward, ascending, her steps firm, her course steady as she rounds the spiral ever upward.

As they round the last step onto the platform, they are met with a both horrific, and ecstatic vision.

A domed area sits in the centre of the massive hundred-foot platform. Inside the bubble Ichabod and The Lady pace frantically. As The Lady spots Lucy she runs to the glass and pounds upon its thickness, tears streaming. Lucy and Antoinette do the same. Ichabod holds The Lady as she tires. As Ooma examines their features, she discovers Antoinette and Ichabod look enough alike to be twins. She tries to shatter the glass with her axe and is thwarted as the axe seems to hit an invisible barrier, preventing it from actually contacting the glass.

"Oh, how touching," a voice cackles suddenly. "A family reunion. Enjoy it while you can!" She disappears in a poof, and our heroes are faced with three undead spawn, with evil intent, in her place.

Before they are able to do more than show up, Martonis, his hatred of evil so great, casts a spell which turns them to dust, as if the sunlight had reached the room and dissolved them!

Unfortunately, the Lich is not so easily thwarted and snapping her fingers, three more appear the grins on their faces terrifying as they prepare to engage our group.

Martonis again blasts them, only managing to dissolve two of the three and an extraordinary struggle ensues causing the spawn, as her life(?) force drains, to resort to vaporising into a gaseous form and escaping back to her coffin to renew.

- The part that wasn't caught on tape… (or, okay; honesty – the following week that got mucked up and will continue next week…)

They watch as the spawn from hell wisps away. The sound of laughter reaches their ears. "I see you've brought powerful friends. No matter. You see, I have friends too. Many friends."

On the floor, about forty feet to the east of the dome, a large pentagram appears, the lines drawn with glittering gemstones. At the five outer points a, now familiar, dead creature stands. In the centre of the diagram a more decayed version, her eyes glowering. In each of the five sections, the slender outline of a snake or rat glows. Above the centre creature, circling in the lofty space, are bats of various species and sizes.

The five spawns look up and, for a moment, their faces hover as in life. Our party recognises Lady Arrowyn, Lady Triton, Vizier Scribbles, Tessalia, and Jahlo! Lucy gasps and shouts, "You beast! Let them go!"

The centre creature laughs, "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy," before turning to Antoinette. "Are you surprised, dear Antoinette?" Cwitrys gleefully taunts.

Antoinette's features harden, "No dear cousin, you have always been evil. If not for your ancestors none of this would be possible - them and their ancient curses! But it will end here. You will not release the Night Creatures. We will stop you!"

The Lich's laughter is crusty, unused and fades as our heroes realise this is going to be tough. "It is getting closer. You're running out of time." Her cackle hurts their eardrums. "And you dear Wik, come and join me in your rightful place. You have the staff, don't you?"

Wik looks up and stares at her, "No I don't. And I'll not serve you any further."

The Lich does not take kindly to this and sends a very weak jolt of frost to touch his flesh, "Are you sure, boy?" she narrows her eyes as she stares at him, willing him to look into her eyes…

Will Wik succumb to the Lich's will after all? Will Martonis fight to keep him from going over to the dark side? Will our heroes have a moral dilemma fighting, and most likely killing, (or being killed by) their former party members? Will the DM ever get these rules and orders straight? A battle to the end… or a clobbering?

o0o

XP:  March 9\16, 2016

Those at:

• Level 6 (and under) – 1500 XP
• Level 7 (and over) – 900 XP
• EXTRA-XP for those who write a story (with the Tavern at its centre...); journal entry (of usefulness); or an insight into their character’s back story... 50xp x character level, for one entry per week… (Remember, I don’t know what you need or covet if you don’t tell me...)

o0o

VIDEOVERSION\PROOF

o0o

fledgling Dungeon Mistress,

khrys...

~*~*~*~