MysidiaDrakkenbane

“Are you sure this is the place?”, Mysidia asked as she stood before the slanted wooden doors.

“Yes. This was Stormguard. The people now call it Stormhold.”, James said next to her as they looked at the doors.

“I dunna like it. Fer one thing, it makes me dizzy standin’ here, all lopsided. Fer another, dead things should stay dead.”, Kryimsson said and rubbed his stubbled chin thoughtfully.

“A lot of things have changed since Luclin’s destruction.”, James noted.

Mysidia looked at the dilapidated stronghold with judgmental eyes. The entire structure looked like it was about to fall over. Old wooden doors were covered with slime and moss and in several places, you could make out where axes and various other sharp weapons, tried to break through. The area reeked of death and decay. Several of the boulders from the walls from various blasts, were slathered with lichen and buried deep within the ground. One could almost mistake it for uneven ground, rather than the boulders themselves.

The sound of undead milling around was all around you, enveloping you in the destruction that took place here. A cold and unforgiving wind whipped through the chasm they were standing in, as if some unheard of undead god threw on the theatrics for added atmosphere.

Kryimsson gulped softly as he felt the hairs on his neck rise. Mysidia looked over at him and placed a soft hand on his shoulder.

“It’s all right, brother. The sooner we get in there, the sooner we can leave. And..”, Mysidia said smiling brighter, “..the sooner we can head to Thundering Stepps and rejoin Machene.”

Kryimsson grunted disapprovingly. Kryimsson hated undead. It was unnatural and simply not meant to be. Mysidia knew his fear and comforted him as much as possible.

Mysidia reached for the door and gave it a good solid tug. The old rotted wood moaned as any undead thing would. A waft of must blew in their direction from inside and Mysidia held up her arm to block whatever dust and debris would be caught in her eyes.

“Shall we?”, James said and walked inside.

The torch James carried provided light, but seemed to crusade the efforts with futility to the unbending darkness. The darkness itself was unnatural. Mysidia surmised it having to do with the curse that was placed on the keep.

They saw an Erudite behind them talking with a small group of adventurers and Kryimsson seemed to relax a bit when he saw that they weren’t the only ones alive in that place.

The moment that Sir Valinayle started to talk to them, Kryimsson froze in his steps and the color ran from his face. He turned and saw the ghost motioning to them. Kryimsson’s eyes buldged and he promptly turned around and started to head out.

“Ah no. Ferget it. There’s no way I’mma gonna stay here with them…things. They’re dead anna supposed to be dead. So stay dead, dammit.”, Kryimsson said as he marched towards the entrance.

Mysidia’s hand snaked out and grabbed Kryimsson’s neckhole in his armor. She held firm, holding her place and Kryimsson stumbled in his steps. He turned around clumsily and a flicker of annoyance fired off in his stone blue eyes.

“Please, Kryimsson. I can’t do this without you and neither can James. I promise, we won’t stay here any longer than we have to. Please. You know I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t desperate…”, Mysidia said and gave him the “little girl” eyes.

Kryimsson tilted his head and looked scoldingly at Mysidia for giving him that look. “Yer cruel, sister.”

Mysidia gave him a bright smile and kissed his cheek. They all rounded together and made their way to the first hallway. Kryimsson looked around and saw the crawling slimes on the ground. He shrugged slightly and pulled out his two handed sword.

“Let’s get to business.”, he muttered.

************************************************** ****

Machene walked onto the docks of Greystone Yard and gave a good hearted laugh as Raevenwolf was finishing up her story.

“Raeven, let me buy you a drink. I haven’t laughed that hard in some time.”, Machene said giving a Raevenwolf a pat on the back.

“Aye, tha’ sounds like a good idea. Lemme finish up inventory and I’ll meet ya in.”, Raeven said and smiled.

Raeven didn’t know Machene for very long, but it was good to see the man laugh. He was always brooding about one thing or the other.

Raeven walked down the dock with her bag hefted over her shoulder. She passed by several stands with the merchants shouting their prices for their goods. When she passed a mirror, she wrinkled her nose a bit as she saw her skin was peeling from the sunburn she was healing from.

She began to rub at her nose when the merchant came up to her.

“Are ye gonna buy that, lass, or simply stare at yerself all day?”, a big red headed Barbarian said.

Raeven looked up and growled at the man slightly, obviously showing her distain. She huffed herself and turned around to see Pergy handing something over to Machene. Pergy’s face held a smile brighter than Raeven had ever seen.

Machene’s face suddenly drained of color as he held in his hand a tiny ring, it looked like to Raeven. His hands began to shake and he gave a numbingly shocking look to Pergy. Raeven walked up to Machene and placed a hand on his arm.

“Are ye alright?”, Raeven asked looking concerned.

Machene didn’t say anything at first. He just looked at the ring in complete disbelief.

“Where… where did you get this?”, he asked finally.

“A woman claiming to be your wife, gave it to me and told me to give it to you.”, Pergy said with a happy smile on her face. To Raeven and Pergy, the story made sense now. He had lost his wife and now, he found out that she was alive.

“That’s impossible.”, Machene managed to say.

“I don’t know, Machene. You never really talked about her before, other than you had one. But when she found out that you were still alive, she cried.”, Pergy said in return.

“Aye. She had the most unusual eyes for wood elf. Tall too… most wood elves don’t come in her size.”, the Dwarven quartermaster said as he heard the conversation in passing.

Machene looked down at the Dwarf with a questioning in his eyes. As if the quartermaster read his mind, he grunted and nodded.

“Violet. They were violet.”, he said and kept walking.

“She’s alive…”, he whispered. For a brief moment, everything stopped around him. He couldn’t hear Pergy or Raeven give him congratulations. He didn’t hear the seagulls screeching overhead or the sea lapping up against the shore. Nor did he hear the merchants still chanting the prices of their wares. The only words he heard were what the quartermaster said to him.

“Violet. They were violet.”

************************************************** **

Kryimsson, James, and Mysidia managed to make their way down into the lower parts of Stormhold and Kryimsson was trying desperately hard not to just turn around and bolt out of there.

“They give me the heebie jeebies.”, Kryimsson muttered.

“With your hate of them, I thought you’d enjoy smacking them around.”, James said walking behind the large man.

As far as looks go, Kryimsson looked like a Barbarian. He was big, broad chested, had huge shoulders, and seemed to tower over everyone else. His face, however, was very angular, too much so to be a pure Barbarian.

In truth, Kryimsson was half. His mother was Barbarian. His father was Rydian, which is the same father as Mysidia. They were half brother and sister. Kryimsson was very young when Mysidia was born. And it was ongoing joke with them since Mysidia always took the “older sister” role with him.

When they reached the chessboard room, Mysidia gasped as she saw someone laying on the ground, very much alive. She looked around for a moment to see if anyone was around to help him.

The room was completely abandoned, save a few crawling slimes slithering across the floor. The floors were uneven due to rot and the twisted magic that ran rampid through the hold. Each step creaked and moaned as if the floor itself had life.

The moment Mysidia placed a foot in front of her to walk, the boards creaked and the figure on the ground flinched slightly. She could see that the figure was in bad shape.

Slash marks riddled their backside and small pools of blood collected underneath their blue robe. From the size of the figure, Mysidia deducted that it was a man.

“Kryimsson, take a defensive position around me. I’m going to help him.”, Mysidia said and made her way over to the man.

Kryimsson held his sword at the ready, darting his light colored eyes around the creepy hall and prepared to slay anything undead that moved.

James helped Kryimsson cover Mysidia as he too, looked around ready to strike. Mysidia knelt down to the man and gently turned him over.

When she saw the man’s face, she gasped and her eyes bulged with shock. The words barely escaped her lips.

“Xerbius!”, she exclaimed.

Xerbius opened up his deep blue eyes and blinked a few moments, trying to shake the mental haze he was in. Once his eyes focused on Mysidia’s face, a warm smile spread across his.

“Thank the Seven Hammers, you’re alive.”, he said weakly. Mysidia smoothed some of his tousled hair away from his dirt smudged face.

“Close your eyes.”, she said softly and placed her hands over his bleeding body. She began to chant a few words quietly, and from what James could tell, it was in her native tongue.

A soft green light encased Xerbius’ body and the wounds began to close themselves. Whatever leaves that were scattered in the debris in the room, seemed to swirl up in an invisible small twister around them. Mysidia’s white streak seemed to glow with its own inner fire.

When Mysidia opened up her eyes, all of Xerbius’ wounds were healed and a sigh of relief spread over his face.

“Better?”, Mysidia asked smiling down at him.

“Much.”, he replied trying to get up. Mysidia held out her arm and began to help Xerbius up on his feet.

Once up on his feet, he gave Mysidia a very long bone crushing hug. Mysidia, not minding the hug, returned the favor.

“I thought you were dead.”, Xerbius said looking into her face.

“I thought I was too, for what it’s worth. It’s a long story, Xerbs. Once we get out of here, I’d be more than happy to explain it to you. But what happened with you? And why are you in here, of all places?”, Mysidia said looking around.

Xerbius laughed uncomfortably and scratched his head a little. “Well, that is a bit of a story in of itself, Sid. As for here, I was helping out a friend of mine get a pallidum torque for a quest of his. There were a few zombies that were giving me some trouble…”, Xerbius said and paused as he pointed to a few that happened to be dragging their legs behind them.

“Is that a fact?”, Mysidia said and smirked evilly. “Need some help?”

Kryimsson walked beside Xerbius and cracked his neck. He loosened up his shoulders a bit and tightened his grip on his two handed sword.

“Just like old times, Siddie?”, Xerbius said and grinned.

“Of course.”, Mysidia replied.

Mysidia unhitched her two handed staff from behind her and put her saber and shield away. She swung the staff over her head and flipped it so the flat of the bottom cracked onto the ground with a silence shattering echo.

The zombies all looked up at them and twitched their rotted out flesh. James stood behind the three of them cowering and trying to hide.

“Do you really want to start that kind of trouble, Sid? They don’t exactly look easy.”, James said with his voice quivering in fear.

“Yer in th’ best o’ hands, James. We’ve seen far worse than this.”, Kryimsson said.

“Battlefields worth, actually.”, Xerbius muttered.

“Aye. Those were the good o’ days!”, Kryimsson said and laughed.

Kryimsson swung his sword forward. Xerbius held his staff at the ready with a fireball quietly forming in his hands and Mysidia stood with her violet eyes blazing with the naturalist energy inside.

“Shame, shame. It’s not exactly fair if you call in your buddies, now is it?”, Mysidia mocked the zombies.

“I do like these numbers more, now that you mention it.”, Xerbius nodded.

“Let’s finish this.”, Kryimsson said and charged one of the zombies.

************************************************** *******
In the dead of night, Machene managed to stumble back towards his room. He had a grand old time bragging of tales of yesteryear with the adventures he had with his wife.

The stars were twinkling brightly against the black canvas sky and for the first time in a long time, he gazed up at them and smiled.

When he entered his room, he threw his gear down next to his bed and he slumped down sitting on the mattress. He opened up a tiny scrap of cloth he had stashed away on his person and gazed at the tiny ring held inside.

He smiled as he ran the finger over the glittering smoothness remembering the day he slipped it on her finger.

He took out a strand of catgut he had gotten from Raevenwolf and slipped the ring carefully on the strand. He then tied it securely around his neck. He gave it a kiss and slowly sunk down to his knees with tears of joy stinging his green eyes.

__________________