Location: A mountaintop on the Gossamer World of Hezra
My Search had brought me to a mountainous region of a world known by the locals as Hezra. The fortress looked like it had grown from the mountain or had been carved out of it by the wind and the rain, not by the hand of man. Inside this "Impregnable" fortress so the stories said was held a mysterious captive. Some said that she was a beautiful Princess, others that she was a powerful Sorceress. Either way the rumours had eventually reached my ears and here I was.
Getting in wasn't easy, it wasn't supposed to be. there was only one winding road up the mountain and three granny's with brooms could have held it against an army of thousands. I, however wasn't an army. I have had to learn how to fight but I prefer not to. I always prefer Brains over Brawn, for one thing its easier on the upholstery.
As the sun began to descend behind the mountain peaks, the wind shifted and I finally made my move. I ran towards the edge of the cliff and threw myself off. I dove down briefly before the hanglider caught the air currents and I rapidly rose into the air. The Winds buffeted the hanglider and it took all my concetration to not get smashed back into the sides of the mountains. In the rapidly oncoming gloom I fought the wind to keep my coarse, the fortress was coming up fast. As I swept towards roof of one of the towers a guard looked out at the wrong time, I kicked out and he was swept off the battlements, his falling screams lost in the wind. I fired my piton and it embedded itself into the stone as I landed. My feet skidded on the slick stone as I fought my momentum, the wind and the hanglider. Just as I was going to be swept off the roof, the rope attached to the pitton ran out and I was jerked back. I had made it. I took a load of deep breaths before a massive grin creased my face and I had to fight down the urge to scream in triumph.
I turned to the trap door in the floor, it was locked of coarse, not that it really mattered. I commanded the door to open and it did. I get on well with doors. As I opened the trapdoor, the guards below looked up in time to see me drop a small metal canister, it bounced a couple of times as it hit the floor and I shut the trapdoor to let it finish doing its job as I rummaged in my bag for my gasmask. After a couple of minutes I opened the door again and peered down, the room was thick with white smoke and collapsed guards. Humming to myself I climbed down the ladder and checked on the guards, they were sleeping nicely. Morph Gas is quick acting and leaves you with one hell of a head ache but it leaves you alive.
I skipped over downed guards and went to the door, I quickly peered out but no one had escaped or had heard anything. I concentrated and made a couple of passes with my hands whilst muttering and watched as I faded away. Now Invisible I stalked through the fortress, dodging guards and servants all the while getting closer to my target.
The Tower was guarded but I waltzed passed them and snuck up the stairs. For some odd reason Argentus was humming the Mission Impossible theme, I worry about him sometimes. At the top, two guards were stationed outside a locked and barred door. Bingo! I carefully pulled out a couple of poisoned darts and snuck up on them. Carefully I reached up and scratched one of them in the neck and then as I became visible and swung around and stabbed the other guard. They barely had the time to see me before their muscles contracted and locked. Spasm is a nasty and fast acting, it locks the body into different shapes depending on a persons strongest muscle groups. One of them had curled up in the fetal position and the other had his arms and legs splayed as if he was doing jumping jacks.
I examined the door and could see that it was magically warded, no big surprise there then. Getting passed the Wards wasn't too difficult, it was just time consuming and I half expected an alarm to go off at any time but it didn't. Eventually I had unravelled enough of the Sorcery on the door to stop it exploding in my face when I opened it. Inside was a plush cell but it was a cell none the less. A young woman with red hair looked up from the bed as I entered.
"Morgan?" I asked my heart in my mouth.
She smiled at me as she stood up and came towards me, a hand reaching out.
I suddenly heard Argentus Growling in my mind. I stopped and waved a hand over my eyes whilst chanting a couple of words. When I looked again, Morgan rippled like a reflection on a pool of water and then broke apart to reveal a humanoid shaped hole in reality.
"Oh Crap!"
I dived away from Its out swept hand and drew Argentus. It continued to move towards me, all attempts to try and fool me gone as it shrieked. Alarms began to ring and the door slammed shut and glowing barriers appeared over it and the window. I could probably get past them but it would take time, time I probably wouldn't have what with the Creature I was now trapped with trying to eat my Existance. I dodged another swipe and lunged as it went past. It shrieked but I wasn't sure if I had done any raal damage. I could probably keep dodging this thing but it was a small room and I'd eventually run out of room and also other guards were on the way I was sure.
So the door and window were barred, alarms were ringing... the time for subtlety was gone, time to make a new exit. I turned towards the wall and gestured, words of power spitting from from lips. A blast of force ripped from my hand and smashed against the stone blasting a hole in the wall. I now had a way out but my Sorcery had cost me. As I finished casting I felt a searing pain across my back as the Creature struck me and tried to erase me. Only the fact that my patched jacket was more than it appeared saved me. I lashed out with Argentus, causing it to retreat in pain as I stumbled towards the shattered hole. Seeing me trying to escape it rushed at me again, It ran onto Argentus but its momentum forced us both to fall out the hole. We seperated as we fell, its shrieks lost in the wind and
I tried desperatly to force away the pain and cast a spell. Just in time I spat out another word of power and the wind gently picked me up and cast me back into the sky. As I flew away to lick my wounds a thought kept running through my head. It was a Set Up!, A Trap! Good that must mean I'm getting closer.
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