Death Hunters 01

      [Captain Kathara-Harana’s log.
        Since I began traveling with this party of adventurers only two weeks have passed. In this short amount of time I have been in more battles, seen more things, and traveled further than any previous point in my life that extended a time of two weeks. We have fought animals, bandits, dragons, various strange creatures, and even what I can only declare was a demon.

    It had been my intention to find the Golden Oracle, locate the Tiger’s Eye, and return it to its proper place. Unfortunately my ship was lost, and serendipitously enough another ship that would have been available was also lost at the hands of a Dah-Hoth of all things.

   The oracle had stated that a powerful entity that is pursuing another in the party is prohibited from coming to Aesperia; however it is free to send its own minions. I learned that this is indeed true, they related to me that one such enemy had confronted them before, and we have been at the inconvenience of thieves being manipulated by this entity as well as being forced to battle the aforementioned demon.

    The thief who had been traveling with us has left of his own accord to fulfill a contract, his own words. The sorceresses who lead the party are an interesting pair indeed; one dressed in black the other in white, one tall, one short, and one experienced, the other her student. I swear I am not making that up. Even for Aesperians they seem to be supremely gifted in their magic, the younger one even has a small dragon as her familiar, a true dragon the likes of which one would expect to see a much larger version of flying through the clouds of Nirvana.

    The older sorceress, although she doesn’t look old, has far more spells at her disposal than I would have ever been lead to believe possible for anyone. During our battle with the demon she had attempted to set up a trap, only to be surprised by a powerful spell that formed by her powers and the younger one’s spells fusing and defeating it prior to her being able to set off her trap.

    The younger one is clearly both her student and her biggest fan, if I could make such an assumption based on what I have seen. Although clearly young she shows an impressive level of calmness in battle, which is off-set by her youthful vigor outside of battle, granted she seems a bit shy around people she hasn’t been around for while, but makes a valiant attempt in professional situations.

   End: log.

   As Always I will be making copy of this log as well as sending a copy to you father. As you have seen in my logs, there appears to be a Dah-Hoth presence on Aesperia, the level of danger to this world is currently unknown, the individuals I am traveling with were as I previously told you stated by my ship’s scanners to be “super-Aesperians” and the younger potentially having Kuhrai heritage as well as an unknown genetic signature, so their tendency to overpower the Dah-Hoth may not be typical, for example a large number of people were assimilated by one in a town we traveled through before our party destroyed it.

    Professional reports aside, please give my best to mother.

   Love:
   Captain Kathara-Harana]

   Wiping a tear, or perhaps sleep, from her eye Cata rolls up the letter placing it in a plastic tube which she drops into a small blue vortex. She takes one last look around the cozy inn room before turning out the magical candle and retiring for the night.

   ******

    (Earlier) The Great Swamp, a name referring to a large number of smaller swamps, yet to be fair this land might as well be called one great swamp. This region which lies south of the forests and mountains that make up the greater whole of Eastern Ravashira, that lies north of the Hook Peninsula which is well known for its open marshland and orange groves, and borders right on the Archae Sea, this marshy, swampy area with its maze of solid ground actually has towns in it, and is now where the party finds themselves.

    Most people travel around the area known as the Great Swamp, usually by boat. Most people who do come to this area come from the south, from the coast, which is closer to the higher ground where the town of Okay-Folks resides, the town Rhulan, Hollia, Cata, and Betty would rather be in right now than stuck on some tiny island of dry land surrounded by trees and swamp. They had the night before been walking on a path, last night it rained, that path is not there now. Of course not all is lost, after all they can all fly. They would rather not waist magic carrying their loads over the tree line, especially in a region known for its very distinct dangerous monsters, in particular the swamp dragon, which has a fondness for birds. More reason why going around would have been a good idea.

   Of course all this and more is playing out in their heads as they pack up and head back the way they came to higher ground to take the longer way around this lowland along the merchant road, as opposed to the local between towns foot road they had been taking.

    *zzz-shap!*

    A smoldering hole is left in a tree just ahead of Rhulan, a small hole, but still a smoldering hole. The bolt that had caused Rhulan to pause finds its source in the murky waters.

   “damn.” says the small two fee tall or so rat like yet furless creature wearing similar armor to Impchin in its hissy voice, “The next one will take your head off, heh heh heh heh heh.”

    It focuses another bolt and throws it.

   *zzz-shap…fffit*

   Only for it to be absorbed by Hollia’s Saint’s Barrier.

   “This is a swamp.” says Hollia, “vile, evil, demon creature you want to set fire to the swamp don’t you? Just like that other monster. In the name of the goddess and all that is right with the world we will stop you and your evil masters from destroying our world.”

   “You’re really getting into this now aren’t you Hollia?” says Rhulan with a smile, “That’s the Lee…” shakes her head, “Lia, family for you, born adventurers.”

   *zzz-shap…fffit*

   Another bolt, uselessly hitting the same barrier, and another, and another, and another.

   “How can we fight back from a distance?” asks Betty looking down at her guns, either one of which could ignite the methane the previous night’s storm has stirred up from the swamp floor.

    Cata says, “draw its attention and I could sneak around and slice it in half.”

    “eh,” says Rhulan, “All it would take is that armor sparking or it sensing you at the last second. Honestly, surprised those bolts haven’t already set something on fire.”

    “I could use a sleep spell.” says Hollia.

    “Wont work,” says Betty, “that is a demon, sleep spells don’t work.”

   *VVVVVEEEET!*

   Hollia’s whole body shakes as her barrier dissipates, rubbing her arms in pain.

  “heh, heh, heh, heh.” Laughs the creature following what had been an energy blast from its mouth.

   *rumble*

   the very ground shakes as Rhulan clinches her fists and green bolts of energy fly from her hands to the ground. The sky darkens and thunder rolls.

    “That.” says Rhulan looking down at Hollia and back at the demon, “Was a very bad mistake. I was just going to leave you knocked out in the swamp, but now. Now I insist you die.”

    “Hah!” hisses the creature, “Fancy environment effects mean nothing to the great and powerful Mookatin, my demonic powers will shatter any holy powers.”

   “In that case,” says Rhulan…who pauses and looks around… “in…interesting…” a wicked smile crosses her face.

   “This area….the storm must risen enough to the surface for me to sense them.”

   “What are you babbling about hero?” hisses Mookatin, “weren’t you saying something about killing me?”

   Hollia rises to her feet, “I’m okay Miss Rhulan,” she says, “Just took me by surprise, I wasn’t expecting such a strong blast after all those weak bolts. I could try a wind bolt.”

  “Yeah,” says Rhulan as she lowers to the ground in a crouched position.

   “That’s right.” hisses Mookatin, “bow before your new master, heh, heh, heh, heh.”

   “Be silent you annoying beast.” says Rhulan as she stands with arms outstretched.

    “ooooh, what this.” says Mookatin, “Some fancy spell, magic means nothing to me either.” His body starts to glow red with a demonic protective aura.

   “Arise!” says Rhulan as purple energy flows from her body into the waters.

   “Zombies?” says Mookatin, as confused as Rhulan’s own party members.

   “Arise!” says Rhulan again, “Arise, by my own power that gave you life, arise once more to defend your empress. Arise ancient army, long forgotten in the waters, arise Alligator Men!”

   “Was that a spell?” asks Betty, answered only by shrugs from Cata and Hollia.

   *roar, roar, roar, roar, ect…*

   No less than fifteen alligator heads appear in the waters, and rise from the green dark surface. Humanoid alligator creatures wearing golden gladiator armor and carrying gold broad swords.

    As everyone stares at these slow creatures as they swing at Mookatin who easily dodges their strikes with his incredible demonic speed, Rhulan pulls out her egg-device and scans the Alligator Men.

   “gotcha.” whispers Rhulan to herself.

   “These are useless.” says Mookatin as he blasts one after another with his mouth beam, their bodies turning to dust with just one hit each.

   “My turn!” yells out Hollia enthusiastically, “Goddess Wind!”

   A great green horizontal cyclone blasts from her staff sending water, leaves, muck, and Mookatin flying backwards.

   He stands up and spits out a mouthful of decaying vegetation, “going to die for that trick bitch.” He hisses.

   “Hat Trick!” yells out Betty.

   A blast of salt water knocks Mookatin into a tree.

   “please don’t Miss Betty” pleads Hollia, “the salt water could hurt the local ecosystem, an adventurer must try to cause the least amount of damage as possible to the environment when battling.”

   Betty puts her hat back on as her hair winds itself under it by its own volition.

    As Mookatin unleashes another blast his beam is hit mid stream and held in place by another coming from Lin Lin. Lin Lin’s Devastation Beam is now just as strong as this demon’s energy blast.

    “Wind Sphere!” yells out Rhulan as she tosses a green bubble like orb that explodes in a cyclone of water and muck as it hits the water before Mookatin, Lin Lin’s Devastation Beam splits through the now un-backed up stream of energy and blasts another wave.

    As the muck clears Mookatin can be seen making a break for through the trees yelling out, “Better not sleep! I have your scent now, I’ll just kill you when you can’t fight back!”

   “Not if I can help it.” says Rhulan as she begins a spell

   “Spirits of Vengence
    Dealers of Death
    Takers of the final breath
    Track my enemy
    Take his life
    Follow him till death
   Grant my vengeance
   & be true
   Vengeful Tracker!”

   A whitish blue orb appears in Rhulan’s upturned hand and flies off, with out even needing to be thrown, in the direction of Mookatin.

   “Lets be off.” Says Rhulan.

   “Uh, what about that guy,” says Betty, “you know, I, uhm, I’m pretty sure he works for The Thing Named Jim.”

   “Don’t worry,” says Rhulan, “I got a good feel for its strengths and weaknesses, it wont be able to defend against that spell. The Vengeful Tracker is more than enough to finish that little assassin off.”

   Hollia nods thinking, “Another demon gone. The world is safer now.”

   As they head off back on their way, elsewhere in the swamp Mookatin stops and notices a strange light following him.

   “A will-o-wisp? A fog creature hunting me?” he says, as he throws energy bolts which pass harmlessly through the spell orb.

   “What the hell?” he says as he unleashes a blast of his energy breath.

    With his small rat like eyes blocked by his own attacks light he is unable to see that the orb is passing through the energy effortlessly, the two attacks not even encountering each other really. He stops with a *chuck* as the orb passes into his body. He hunches over clutching at his chest as though having a heart attack.

   “Damn…damn…damn…” he says as he falls face down into the water feeling as his own heart slows down, as his eyes grow heavy, colder and colder, slower and slower, darker and darker, until nothing…and yet a thought…or something more like a voice echoes
through his now empty shell, “Moo…ka..tin…tin..Tin Tin…Tin Tin…me…Tin Tin…”

   A green smoke flows off his body and circles into a ball above his body. This green ball, perhaps smoky, perhaps looking like green fire around a green orb flies further into the swamp, the eyes of various creatures, reptilian eyes the eyes of Acid Dragons, eyes from green wolves the Acid Wolves, and others watch the orb fly by. A green spark appears in their eyes, reflecting the ghostly green ball as it goes by.

    ******

    Okay Folks Town, a town positioned atop a man made structure of stone, the remaining base of a long forgotten castle, long forgotten by all by Rhulan who had a base out here where creative research was done on nano-bot machines, namely creating things such as Alligator-men. It’s a common job out here for adventurers of the towns built on these raised grounds to explore the underground passages, flush out some large creature that has taken up its den in one too close to a town, or simply to find lost children who play in them despite every other adult telling them not to.

   On the outside Okay Folks looks imposing, large wooden pole walls with sharpened points sitting atop massive stone blocks with stairs leading into the water. Thankfully after the storm they put out a wood bridge over the water to the nearest dry ground. Inside it’s a quant small town, largest town in the swamp though, but still a small town.

    They just managed to get to this town as the sun is setting. The inn is more than glad to take them in of course, with the storm the previous night adventurer travel out this way is down at the moment, and the main merchants roads both east and west are washed out, as are the foot roads.

    “This is as good a time as any,” says Hollia as they sit around eating, “to send a letter home. I mean if we’re going to be stuck here a day or two anyway right?”

    Rhulan nods.

    Cata smirks thinking, “not a bad idea.”

   A not too impressive meal, swamp eels, fried cat-fish, and crayfish. The menu claimed to have a soup made of acid blobs but the very idea of eating such a thing brings more thoughts of throwing up than enjoying a good meal for these adventurers. The inn its self is of course mostly empty, the only other people a few groups of adventurers who had also been stranded by the storm. They finish up and get to their rooms, Rhulan and Hollia getting one, and Betty and Cata getting each their own. The inn-keeper is more than happy, and there are plenty of rooms available. Before they settle in both Hollia and Cata in their own ways create messages to send home.

    ******

    In the light of day, well in the light of a very muggy day, they explore the town, seeing as they will be sticking around until the roads dry up or they get sick of waiting and just fly over the swamp. In either case they are going to wait until Hollia receives a reply, given past events the awaited reply is being waited on with great trepidation.

   Not that there is much to explore, in the light of day its clear just how small the town really is, some houses going back away with all the major stores right near the front of the town where visitors would come in. A local fresh fish stand, some trinket sellers, and of course a smaller adventurer shop with items, armor, and weapons being sold by three different people at their own booths; a very old fashioned approach as noted by Rhulan.

   As they day wears on and their exploration of the town takes them to the southern wall, where they found a nice little cheap eatery to have lunch, and back again. Upon returning around noon, preparing to check their reserved rooms at the inn to see if Hollia has received a reply yet they find a good deal of commotion around the adventurer shop.

   “What’s going on?” asks Rhulan as she spies an injured swordsman speaking with the town representative.

   “Oh, the last second guests from last night.” says the old man representative, “adventurers too I see.”

   “The animals have gone crazy.” says the swordsman, “My team just barely made it to this town twenty minutes ago, everything in the swamp a little further north has joined forces.” He shakes his head, “its completely un-natural, Acid Blobs, Acid Wolves, Acid Dragons, and even the biting insects have all joined up with one another, its like their soldiers obeying some master.”

   “Hmm,” says the representative, “I know, I know,”

   *clears his throat*

   He has an assistant place down a crate upon which he stands and speaks loud enough for everyone in the main shopping center to hear, “Attention all adventurers! While you wait for the storm to clear a new A-class mission, that is high danger, high experience, and high pay, has just come up. It seems some mysterious power in the swamp….”

   “Wait,” whispers the injured swordsman unable to speak louder than the representative thanks to his injuries.

   “Perhaps some wizard,” continues the representative, “some dangerous mind controlling monster, perhaps even something from the ruins beneath our very feet…”

   As he rambles on Cata asks the swordsman, “So you have any idea what’s really going on?”

   He looks about the group, “A bunch of girls shouldn’t be fighting in the swamp,”

   “We’re tougher than you might think.” says Rhulan,

   *shrugs*

   “Very well,” he says, “My team came from the north, the little monster lined up the animals from strongest up north to weakest closest to the town, this line up is really the only reason we could get too the town, they animals wouldn’t leave certain zones I take it, and they kept getting easier to beat and escape from the closer we got.”

   He shakes his head again, “I tell you, it aint naturally, its some small skeletal demon.”

   “Another demon?” says Hollia as Lin Lin chirps in her arms.

   “Another?” says the Swordsman wide eyed.

   “Uh, don’t worry about it?” says Betty as the group walks away, Hollia turning around once to say, “thanks” leaving the wide eyed surprised man to stand dumbfounded holding out his hand in protest wanting them to wait up and explain themselves, but to no avail.

    “Another demon?” asks Hollia as they walk towards the town gates.

   “excuse me miss,” interrupts the inn-keeper who had come outside to hear what the commotion is about, “are you still wanting your rooms reserved?”

   “Yes,” answers Rhulan, “just going to take care of this quickie job for you guys.”

   “Okay,” he says, “I’ll keep the rooms reserved until tomorrow morning then, but whether or not you come back before then I’m still charging you for the night.”

   Rhulan just shoots him a thumbs up as they walk to the front gates, which are opened by a pair of guards.

    “uh what if they don’t come back at all?” asks his waitress.

   “Oh their coming back,” he says, “They just left for that A-list job Magistrate Jeth is still jabbering on about. First out the door, either they finish it or they come back like those last guys.”

   He shakes his head, “adventurers, a crazy lot I tell you.”

    ******

    *fwish*

    The gelatinous jelly bean like green body of the acid blob slices in half at the edge of Rhulan’s black blade. Both halves land in the water with a splash and squirm to the bottom, undoubtedly going down to feed on the bottom vegetation in order to regenerate, overtime perhaps even becoming two new separate acid slimes.

    *zzzap*

    An Acid Blob having jumped, somehow, out of the water is zapped by Betty’s Blue gun.

   “Careful!” yells Cata next to her who is slicing Acid Blob after Acid Blob, “hit the water and you’ll shock all of us.”

   “Well I don’t have a sword!” she retorts.

   Cata eyes the sheathed sword at Betty’s side, a weapon she can’t recall Betty ever unsheathing, and eyes her, but has no time to say anything as she is too busy with Acid Blob after Acid Blob leaping out of the water. One grabs onto her arm which she flings off into the water reminding her to thank Hollia again for the acid protection barrier spell she cast before they started wading into the swamp.

    An Acid Blob leaps towards Hollia only to be swatted away by her staff and then turned to ice by a smaller Ice Serpent attack unleashed by Lin Lin, smaller that is than the one used on Impchin before. Hollia is very proud of Lin Lin, she has learned not only many new elemental attacks, but also how to control their strength for the situation.

    “The swordsman,” says Rhulan as she slices one Acid Blob and then punches another with her hand, “said the creatures are staying in zones, so…”

   She pauses to put her sword away back in its dimensional hold and start fist fighting the Acid Blobs away, “let’s make a break for it, these little,”

   *smack*

   She lands a particularly potent blow on one that actually makes it explode,

  “any who, these little things are just trying to tire us out, the real threat lies ahead.”

   They all nod, Cata hovers into the air, Betty hovers into the air,

   Rhulan says, “levitation,”

    and Lin Lin starts to orbit around Hollia as she too floats in the air.

    A swarm of Acid Blobs follows them, bobbing in and out of the water like dolphins, a motion and speed no rational person would have though Acid Blobs capable of. However after a few moments the Acid Blobs stop as though they had hit a barrier.

   “Thought so.” says Rhulan.

   *Roar!*

   They stop in mid-air as the water ripples.

   Two great green and ribbed sails appear, water cascading off of them as they rise into the air. The long green scaly body of an Acid Dragon beneath them.

   *groar, h-rawr*

    Roars and huffs the great beast from its rectangular head and semi-long neck. To Rhulan, Hollia, and Cata this is clearly an Acid Dragon, a larger than average specimen though, the usual one is only as long as a man lying down, this one however is as long as a house. To Betty though it looks like a creature she has seen in museums and books, a creature she believes is called a Dimetrodon, except this one is way bigger and has two sails sticking out at angles from each other rather than one pointing straight up, and she could swear the other creature’s neck wasn’t as long, but she can’t really remember that much about it. The size however tells them that the water beneath their floating forms has gotten considerably deeper than the area the Acid Blobs were in, something that gives Rhulan cause to pause.

    “Damn,” says Rhulan, “any spell big enough to take this thing out would alert everything to our presence, Betty go left, Cata go right, try and distract it but don’t let it spit any acid on you. Hollia’s spell might not work so well for something that big.”

   She turns to Hollia, “We’re going to need a sleep spell.”

   Hollia nods.

   Betty flies to the left, Cata to the right, jutting back and forth as the Acid Dragon looks one way and then the other with its un-naturally green glowing eyes unable to decide with its tiny reptilian brain who to attack first, snapping its jaws one way and then the other.

   Rhulan flies up into the air above the tree line, her hands before her, index and middle finger pointed to her chin from her chest in a gesture of meditation and focus.

   Hollia chants, as a green aura surrounds her, spinning as though following Lin Lin’s path.

   “Hypnos
    Morpheus
    Great lords of sleep and dreams
    Grant thy gift of silent rest
    To that which stands before us.”

    The green mist like energy of this spell blasts forth from the end of her cane and strikes her very large and very easy to hit target directly on the head.

   *ROAR!*

   The odd green glow vanishes from its eyes leaving them their natural yellow as it shakes its head and huffs. As it turns Betty and Cata are quick to fly out of the way of its massive sales. The giant sized Acid Dragon just manages to make it to shore before plopping down into a deep sleep.

   Rhulan floats back down, “A little resistant to that spell I’d say, but we have another problem.”

   “Yeah?” asks Cata.

   “This is a set-up.” she says, “I checked all the magic out here, there are no zones or anything like that. Other wise we wouldn’t have gone straight from Acid Blobs to an overgrown Acid Dragon.”

   “A trap? Really?” asks Betty.

   “you don’t think that swordsman do you miss Rhulan?” asks Hollia.

  Rhulan crosses her arms, “I don’t know about that guy back in town, but I can tell you this whole area is under a control spell, a strong one at that. Every last living thing is targeting us specifically. It’s not so much a guard spell, as an attack on sight spell. These animals would be normal until they see us.”

   “You can tell all that?” asks Cata.

   Rhulan nods as Hollia says, “Of course she can, Miss Rhulan is the master of magic.”

  Rhulan actually blushes at this comment, “Well, don’t know about master, but yeah I can tell both the type and trigger of just about any spell. But this one isn’t as strong as you might think, who ever cast it had to expose everything in its control to the spell light.”

   She pauses and shakes her head, “Which is weird that someone could do that overnight, I mean nothing was acting like this yesterday and we were in this same area yesterday, so it had to have been done last night.”

   “You think someone is following us and set this up?” asks Cata

  “Maybe The Thing Named Jim sent another minion to replace the guy we beat yesterday.” Offers Betty.

   “No matter what,” says Hollia, “we have to save this swamp from who ever or what ever is doing this to these poor animals.”

   Rhulan nods, “exactly, and seeing as this is all for our benefit lets not keep our host waiting.”

   They all nod and fly in the direction of the closest dry land, closest dry land that doesn’t have a three ton Acid Dragon sleeping on it that is.

    ******

    As they walk through the dark despite it being daytime depths of the swamp a minor creature repel spell of Hollia’s has kept the minor creatures, as per the spell’s name, at bay. This way they have been able to walk with out all the insects, leeches, snakes, lizards, and other ordinary animals from stopping what ever it is these things do on their regular schedules and attacking them. The need for this spell further solidifies the apparent fact that this is indeed an animals attack spell and not some carefully crafted guard of beasts positioned into zones. Either the swordsman was mistaken as his team fled, or perhaps was sent to set them up. In either case they follow behind Rhulan as she tracks the path of the spell. This isn’t exactly a comforting fact, sure it seems to lead them right to their quarry, but at the same time if feels like both a trap and at the same time implies who ever used the spell that is driving the animals to attack them managed to keep the spell going through a more or less linear path; a fact that Cata thinks had Scrags been there would have argued about going around the spell trail rather than right through it only for Rhulan or Hollia, or both of them explaining how its easier to track a spell in the spell than over or around it. Regardless either way the beasts affected by it wouldn’t have remained inside the trail but as per their natures wandered out of it, so either way they would be attacked.

   Cata shakes her head thinking, “arguing now with an imaginary Scrags,”

   *Rrrrrr*
   *Rrrrrr*
   *Rar!*
   *Rrrr*

  A back of Acid Wolves has appeared from the dense vegetation, their green shaggy coats and long tails perfectly camouflaging them to the swamp vegetation.

   “Acid Wolves.” says Hollia as Lin Lin takes up her position above her ready for battle.

  “Acid…wolves?” asks Betty, “Seriously? Acid…wolves? Is everything in this swamp acid this or that? I mean like Acid Slimes, er…Acid Blobs, Acid Dragon, now Acid Wolves? Really?”

   They all look at her and back at the growling beasts, their glowing green eyes betraying their influence under the spell.

   Rhulan shrugs, “Acid or poison, we are in more of an acid zone for the animals. Just be glad Hollia’s spells are up, both the acid protection and the repel, those tiny bugs buzzing around us are acid flies.”

   Betty actually rolls her eyes, but stops when she sees Hollia nod and Cata dip her head in agreement, “Acid…flies…” thinks Betty.

    One of the wolves lunges at Rhulan with a mighty growl only to be stopped in mid-air with a blue aura around it. Rhulan seeing the attack held out her hand saying, “Telekinetic hold!”

   And with a push of her arm says, “Telekinetic thrust!” tossing the wolf into the vegetation behind the others with a *yipe!*

   Another lunges at Hollia only to be sent flying by a green wind shaped like a drake, one of Lin Lin’s attacks.

   The others carefully circle them, the look about them clear they would rather flee than fight, but are compelled by the spell.

   “Careful,” says Rhulan, “their acid bite is able to eat through steel, they may very well be able to get through the acid protection spell as well.”

   Cata and Betty nod as they draw their weapons.

   Hollia chants,
   “Great Goddess of the Wind,
    Mighty Sylph of fury,
    Grant me thy strength,
    Goddess Wind!”

    A great green horizontal cyclone, the goddess wind spell, blasts the remaining Acid Wolves away into the swamp.

   The reprieve is short lived however as three times as many Acid Wolves come crawling out of the vegetation all around them.

   “Damn it.” Exclaims Rhulan, “guess I don’t have a choice, keep them busy for moment.” And she begins to chant.

   As she chants Betty keeps her right side clear by shooting her electric gun at the Acid Wolves, only temporarily sending them back with a *yipe* as they shake off the zap. Cata’s sword thrusts keep only with air as she sticks close, the same with Hollia’s wind bursts, and Lin Lin’s blue dragon fire issued from her mouth, a new attack, but not a very strong one, more likely than not a weaker short ranger version of her Devastation Beam. The Wolves are clearly trying to draw them away from their group in order to surround individuals, a typical wolf strategy when dealing with a group.

   Rhulan chants this whole while:

   “Goddess above all
    Seer of the truth with-in all hearts
   Reveal to those whose minds have been taken
   The truth they should know
   Dispel and negate, remove, and cure
   The control, the clouding of their minds
   Mind Control Breaker!”

  Rhulan holds the spell close to her for a moment, a tiny green glowing sphere as through compacting it, and focuses more energy into before

   *Hah!*

   She thrusts her arms, looking as if she had somehow actually ripped the spell in half in her hands and thrown it in all directions, actually making what should have been a small sphere flowing slowly into the mind a restrained individual into a massive shockwave far beyond the spell’s normal limitations.

   The Acid Wolves all stop, their eyes are clear now, and they wander off away from the group which for any natural mind is far too much trouble for far too little meat. Even the bugs aren’t buzzing around them, Hollia’s repel spell now a much stronger influence than the mind control spell.

   “Why didn’t you do that earlier?” asks Cata thinking back to the Acid Blobs, and the Acid Dragon.

   “Because,” says Rhulan with a sigh, “In order to make it work on everything in the swamp I had too boost it significantly, which as I predicted has had a second, and very un-desired side effect.”

   “You mean?” asks Hollia, her years of growing up in Stratalia allowing her to already know the answer.

   “Yep,” says Rhulan, “I just took out the spell trail we were following,”

   She points a little north and a little west, that’s the last direction I saw it in, but like a mist I couldn’t see it beyond physical barriers so who knows which direction it will turn past those trees up there.”

   “Don’t worry!” hisses a somehow familiar voice, “you haven’t farther to go, so come, come into my parlor said the spider to the fly.”

   “What’s that supposed to mean?” asks Hollia.

   “It means it’s a minion of the Thing Named Jim,” says Betty pulling out her red fire gun as well, “It’s a kind of joke from other worlds, it means it’s a trap, like a spider catching a fly in its web.”

   “Web equals parlor?” thinks Hollia, “wow Miss Betty must have been to some really weird places.”

   They run around the bend to find the land has run out, and before them is a black inky lagoon.

   “you may have freed my other pets.” Says the disembodies hissy voice, “but this one is right here with me, its still under myyyy controoolll, heh heh heh heh heh.”

  From the depths a massive skeleton emerges, the skeleton of an Acid Dragon, one just as large as the one they faced before, only…undead.

   “What the hell?” says Cata, “is that thing?”

   Betty just stares at it in disbelief, nothing is holding the bones together and there is green swirling fire where eyes should be.

   “A skeletal dragon.” Says Hollia, “by the goddess, an actual Skeletal Dragon.”

  “this,” says Betty, “this is an animal here.”

   “No,” says Rhulan, “it’s a ghost.”

   “A ghost!” says Betty pointing at it with her gun.

   “One,” says Hollia choking up the courage, “one out of every ten sail back dragons that lives past the age of one hundred becomes one of these after it dies.”

   “did you just say one of ten?” asks Cata, “not one out of a thousand, or a million Acid dragons.”

  “Doesn’t have to be Acid Dragons,” says Rhulan, “Acid Dragons are just one sub-species of the sail-back dragons found all over the world. Any one of them that lives past one hundred years has a one in ten chance of becoming this.”

   “you done with the exposition?” says the hissy voice from somewhere behind the dragon, “heh heh heh heh, you die now, magic weavers are useless here, your elemental powers are useless here, heh heh heh heh heh.”

  *gulp*

  “Its right,” says Hollia, “Skeletal Dragons are immune to both magic and elemental attacks.”

   Rhulan unleashes her sword from its pocket dimension, the blade glowing green with strange symbols on it as Rhulan chants something unheard, but her lips move.

   “go ahead,” says the hissy voice, “prove my point with your useless…”

   “Necro Arc!” yells out Rhulan as a green arc of energy flies from her blade with a mighty swing and smacks the Skeletal Dragon in the head.

   *groooar…graaaa….ki-raaan*

   the Skeletal Dragons makes weird un-natural sounds from a throat with out tissue with which to make noise, or lungs for that matter, as the energy of the Necro Arc swirls like water down a drain into the skull of the Skeletal Dragon. The fire in the eyes goes from green to red and then vanishes. The body plops down into the water as the bones come apart. The skeleton literally collapses with out any tissue or magic now to hold it together, the splashing from the bones almost a beautiful sound.

   The other stand in disbelief, even the voice has stopped.

   “As usual,” says Rhulan, “Text books written on how to fight monsters by people who have never been in the field just are no good. Its amazing how many typos and mis-informed things you’ll find in them that even the best students like Hollia here wouldn’t know were wrong.”

   Hollia looks up at Rhulan confused who continues, “Skeletal Dragons aren’t immune to ALL magic and elemental attacks, they are immune to ALL Elemental Magic, and Elemental Attacks. But they have one very un-expected Achilles heel, unlike most other undead or ghosts, the Skeletal Dragon is surprisingly weak against Necro Magic. It pretty much short circuits its own necro aura and sends the soul on its way to the next life.”

   She shrugs, “what else can you expect from an undead dragon that uses that black death fire as a breath weapon instead of necro fire.”

   This last bit only makes since to Rhulan and Hollia, no one else in the group gets what given Hollia’s wide smile and knowing nod must be a sorcery insider joke of some sort.

    “It doesn’t matter.” says the hissy voice, “I’ll take care of you myself.”

   Floating out of the water they see a very small humanoid skeleton, almost rat like, except that the head looks like the skull of a toad with a very wide mouth filled with needle teeth, and a very odd bony crest with saw like ridges along its edges and coming to a triangular tip on the back of its head.

   “I am Tin Tin.” he says, “you knew me as Mookatin, I will have my vengeance upon you.”

   “Mookatin?” says Rhulan, “whose that?”

   “D…Don’t act like you forgot!” screams Tin Tin, “I am the great and powerful demon you fought just yesterday!”

   “Oh,” says Rhulan, “but didn’t you have a rat head yesterday, I’d say you’re more of a toad now.”

   “I am Tin Tin!” screams the skeletal apparition.

   “It went crazy in death.” Says Hollia, “Poor demon soul, I will send you back to Hell where you belong.”

   Betty and Cata practically do a double take at Hollia’s words.

   She mumbles something under her breath and a great white and blue glowing sphere appears before her staff.

  Tin Tin shields his eyes…eye sockets…eye sockets with pin points of red in them, with its arm, “what…what is that?!” he screams.

   “Holy Exorcism!” yells Hollia as the sphere flies forward stopping just before Tin Tin and pulsating. With every pulse Tin Tin feels heavier; his body in fact shrinks down to the water and eventually falls in, sinking to the murky bottom just as the sphere dissipates.

   “Rest in peace,” says Hollia while thinking, “burn in hell demon, that’s what you get for making us have to harm all those poor animals.”

    ******

    Rhulan levitates the giant Skeletal Dragon skull from the swamp to take back as proof that they did the job, of course when they reach the town they won’t find any signs of this swordsman or his party, and the town representative will send out a team to verify that the swamp has been completely restored. But for the life of him he doesn’t know why he so quickly offered the job with out sending any town scouts to verify the danger. In either case they are going to have to spend at least one more night in Okay-Folks Town, after all Hollia is still waiting for a reply from home.

    Back in the murky depths of the swamp the remains of Tin Tin lie on the bottom, in his hollow empty eyes a dim red light appears, Tin Tin exists once more. To his fortune his body sank far enough and fast enough beyond the reach of the Holy Exorcism’s light to remove him completely from this world. The very murky depths he sank into in other words, what would have been his tomb became his salvation.

    He floats above the water his bones reassembling, even his skull spins about before settling on his neck.

   He hisses, “I will get you ne….”

   *shiiiiink!*

   “huh?”

   A red glowing hook on a red glowing chain has latched into his eye and yanks him from the swamp. A red glowing woman’s fist clad in black leather strikes him to the ground.

   He looks up to see a thin yet athletically framed pale woman, well pale minus the spooky red glow her body is giving off, clad in a very odd scantly clad leather outfit. More like a bikini made of leather really, high heel calf length boots, a bikini bottom with spaghetti straps, and something that really shouldn’t be supporting her c-cup breasts, something that looks more glued on than anything barely hiding her nipples from view and latched to her skin on the underside of the breasts forming a pair of points going down her abdomen stopping on either side of her belly button, her back is completely bare save for a pair of sheaths with no visible means to be held there for her hooks.

   The odd woman looks down at him with her pale eyes whose color is hidden behind the red glow of her body. She brushes an errant strand of bangs from her eyes, her short hair cut on what Tin Tin can only imagine is red, pink, or orange hair. Of course is little undead demonic mind checking out her body is short lives as she tugs her hook chain which comes to life like a snake and flings Tin Tin into a crystal in her other hand. His body distorts as it is sucked into it.

   “Too easy,” she says with a wicked smile twisting her full lips, “looks like some adventurers beat me to the dragon though.”

   As she turns to leave she pauses, she had after all despite her own taunting had actually watched the entire battle and thinks, “that woman with the sword, what an odd aura she had, I wander.”