fresh stuff

	Deep inside the tower, magic stirred movement.  Ancient wards and barriers detected activity nearby, and defenses armed.

	Outside, Kyria finished her defensive spellcasting.  Both Paladins engaged their Sacred Weapons, while Luanea prepared to repel any undead they found.

	Doshellas tugged his hood low over his eyes.  “All right, I’m ready.”  He spun his daggers in his hands, already itching to fight.  Finally, after two months of travel, a battle they were prepared for.

	“Ladies Ryaire, Eilistraee, bless our steps and our hearts,” Cavria intoned.  “This morning, we fight for all, to defend the children of Toril from a fate worse than death.”

	“Let it be,” Axio added, flourishing his sword.

	Leaving the horses and cart behind, the party advanced.   Both Paladins mounted up on their spirit beasts, while Doshellas and Suivi took the fore.  Both men watched the sand between them and tower for any sign of footfalls.  The party advanced in a rough triangle, with the three stealth experts near the front, and the warriors with heavier gear in the back, and Kyria in the middle, spells ready.

	Minutes crawled by as they moved slowly over the sand.  The tower still did not appear before them.  Abruptly, Doshellas stiffened.  “There!” he hissed, pointing a knife at a spot on the ground.  Kyria reacted at once, flinging a wave of fire at the spot.  It burst into a roaring bonfire, and the group saw the outline of a skeleton, stumbling towards them in the flames.

	“Pick up the pace,” Doshellas said, and they did.  The whole group broke into a trot.

	An unearthly groan rose from the air around them.  Kyria’s hackles rose as she heard something moving, between them and the invisible tower.  Doshellas sheathed his knives and drew an arrow, nocking it to his bowstring.  His eyes darted around, looking for any more skeletons.

	Suivi got there first.  “There,” he said.  He gestured, and Kyria lit another bonfire on the spot.  The flames licked over another lurching skeleton.

	“Wonder how many there are,” Doshellas muttered.  “What is that sound?  That’s no unead.”

	“Could be an alarm,” Verashon said.  The sunlight was playing merry hell with his drow vision.  They had settled on a dawn raid, since no matter when they went in, the light would damage half their party’s sight.  The darkness would have blinded Suivi and cut off most of their ranged vision save Cavria’s, and the sun was dazzling the drow.

	Axio suddenly swung wide with his sword, bisecting another skeleton.  “How are they getting so close?” he hissed.  “Even with Divine Sight, they can hide!”

	Kyria lurched back as a bony skeleton caught her in the sternum.  Cavria leaned over and grabbed her invisible assailant by the ribs and pulled him apart.  “Crap!  Move!” Kyria said around her gagging throat.

	The party picked up the pace.  Luanea sent a jolt of silvery light along the blade of her bastard sword and launched the remains of one spindly body back in pieces.  Kyria reignited her flames and sent them ahead of the party, scorching the sand in their path.

	Eyes fixed on the party, living and dead.  An arrow tore out from the invisibility fence and caught Axio in the chest.  He snarled at the pain and cast his sight out over the scene.  “That was arrow fire!” he snapped.  “There’s a shooter in the Fence!”

	Verashon chopped twice, and one bony enemy fell.  “Where did it come from?”

	“Not sure,” Axio said.  Another arrow zipped past him to bury itself in the sand.  Axio squinted as he realized where it must have come from.  “That was from high ground!  Are we being attacked from the tower?”

	“I think so.”  Cavria raised her Holy Symbol.  “It’s time.  Turn Undead!” she called.

	A groan of confusion and pain rose from the invisible skeletons around them.  The strands of negative energy that held them together shuddered as the positive energy blast washed over them.  Some few withstood it, but most stumbled away, seeking escape.

	“That only buys us a minute.  Move!” Cavria called.  She clicked Fathom to greater speed.  The people on foot sped up.

	Another arrow flew in to impale Anholme.  Axio stumbled as his mount disappeared beaneath him.  The winged Aasimar rolled awkwardly and rose, glaring his rage into the invisible distance.  “Damn it!  Those are no skeleton archers, they’re too accurate!”

	Kyria reached into her reserve of magic and cast a wave of burning flame ahead of them.  Two skeletons burnt away from the blast.  “Okay, move!  Sprint!” she shouted.

	Axio sprang from the ground and took flight.  A sudden wave of arrows appeared between him and the ground.  “More than one shooter!” he shouted.  He bent his path the left, dodging another wave of missiles.  “At least ten!”

	Suivi broke out in a sprint as he spotted the source.  “Axio!  Ahead of you, thirty feet up, about a hundred feet away!”

	“Good eye!”  Axio beat his wings again and gained altitude.  This time, the arrows didn’t all miss.  Two made their cursedly lucky way into his armor, and one drew blood.  He grunted in pain, and his path faltered.  He wobbled in the air, but beat his wings again furiously, and rose even higher.  “There!” he shouted, and dove towards the spot Suivi had indicated.  Just in time, five more arrows soared out towards him.  He caught them on his shield and raised it like a barrier.

	He heard something shout, and then he collided with something yielding.  He landed heavily and swung his shield and sword in an instinctual circle, clearing himself some space.  The Invisibility Fence’s immediate effect near him failed, and he saw his attackers.

	There were five bigbears around him, dropping shortbows and picking up flails.  They were on a balcony of some kind, leading into a doorway, but whatever lay beyond was still inside the spell’s effect.  Axio grabbed one bugbear before it could finish drawing its weapon and hurled it back out onto the ground thirty feet below, then crushed the windpipe of another with a shield bash.  The others dogpiled him, pinning his wings.  Axio screamed in pain as he felt something sharp slide into the flesh of his right wing.

	Below, the others had broken into a run.  A bugbear came spinning down to slam into the sand beside them.  Cavria paused long enough to sweep her glaive through it as they passed, then they all heard the scream.  Adrenaline surged through her like lightning as she heard the sound.  The bugbears roared their battle cries and brought their flails down on the pinned Aasimar.

	Suddenly, not ten feet from them, a door materialized from nothing.  The group skidded to a halt as Suivi flung himself on the wood panel.  It didn’t budge.

	“Anybody see a lock?” he demanded.  He ran his hands over the seams, but there wasn’t even a knocker.  The door loomed ten feet over the tallest of them.  “There’s not handle!”

	“The hinges aren’t on this side.  It must open out… somebody has to be inside to open it!” Kyria said.  “Suivi, stand back, I’m going to try a spell.”

	Axio lashed out, slashing one bugbear down the midline.  The shaggy beast stumbled back, roaring in pain, and Axio rose to his feet.  Before he could swing again, a feeling of bitter cold tore through his back, and he made a strangled gasp of agony.  He looked back in numb shock to see a spurt of blood splatter on the wall of the balcony beside him, and his left wing flop to the ground, its glow fading.  He sank to one knee, and his weapons clattered from his nerveless hands.


	Below, Kyria cast the Knock spell, and the door’s far side made a noise as a latch disengaged.  She cast Mage Hand next, and the door lurched slightly towards them, enough to open the seam.

	Verashon shoved his short sword into the gap and levered, and the door budged a bit more.  He and Doshellas stuck their fingers into the gap and pulled, and the door creaked open.

	“INTRUDERS!” a voice yelled from above.  The party looked up to see Axio, clearly dazed, clutched in the hands of a bugbear.  The other two were leering over the railing beside the first.  Kyria;s hands went to her mouth as she saw what one was holding.

	“We’ve got your bird-boy,” one bugbear shouted.  “Leave this place, or we take the other wing off!”  The one with Axio’s severed wing tossed it down below, and it slapped onto the sand with a horrid noise.

	Axio twitched.  He fored his fading mind to stay alert.  The bugbear that was holding him up was standing on his sword.  If he could slump a bit lower, he could possibly reach it…

	Verashon and Suivi looked to Luanea.  The cleric’s eyes narrowed.  “Why?” she shouted.

	“Because you attacked us, elf!” the bugbear said angrily.  “Last chance!”

	Luanea met Axio’s eyes.  He blinked once and cast his gaze down at his feet, which she couldn’t see behind the stone floor of the balcony.  Luanea raised her sword high and cast a simple Light cantrip, and for an instant, all three bugbears were staring at her, not their prisoner.

	Axio moved.  He shoved his hand into the eyes of the one that had him in a death grip, and the other down towards the floor.  He stretched his fingers desperately towards the blade and closed them around the grip.

	Then something ice-cold parted his right wing from his back, and he screamed at the top of his lungs.

	Kyria gasped in horror at the sight.  The light suddenly went out from Axio’s back.  He lashed out at a bugbear and lodged his sword in its ribs, then rolled off the balcony.  The Aasiamar and the bugbear tumbled through the air, smearing blood on the side of the stone tower as they fell, and landed with a wet thud beside the door.

	Axio landed on top, but rolled insensate from the pile of broken goblinoid.  Verashon and Luanea grabbed his arms.  Cavria leaped down from her stag and dismissed him with a thought, then paused long eough to grab Axio’s sword from the dead bugbear.

	Doshellas waited until they were all inside before slamming the door.  The inside was a jumple of wooden boxes and dusty furniture, with a long stone ramp ringing the interior of the tower.  Two more bugbears charged out from behind the wood maze and lunged into battle with the two male drow.  Doshellas ducked under one swing and stabbed deep with his blades, cutting one open, while Verashon slashed the eyes from the second and finished it with a throat-level lateral slash.

	Both bugbears dropped dead to the floor, and Luanea spread her hands over Axio’s back.  She cast her Cure Wounds spell, and his flesh knit closed.

	Axio slowly rolled onto his side and looked up at the others.  “… Didn’t think there’d be… so many,” he managed.

	“Get up, soldier, we’re not done here,” Verashon snapped.  He hauled Axio to his feet.  “Up!  I don’t know why there are bugbears here, but-”

	“They took my wings, Verashon,” Axio whimpered.

	Verashon winced.  Cavria closed her eyes for a moment.  “I know.  Nothing magic can’t fix,” Verashon said bluntly.  He passed Axio his sword.  “Get up.”

	Axio forced himself to his feet.  His vision swam with pain, and he had to lean on the blade to keep his balance.  The group heard quiet footsteps on the stairs that led up to the next floor.  Kyria took a step forward and primed a spell.  A team of bugbears trooped down the stairs, and promptly fell to the floor below as Kyria electrocuted them all with a Lightning Bolt.

	Doshellas edged over towards the stairs and peered up.  “Shadows above,” he whispered.  “At least four more.”

	Cavria hefted her glaive.  “Behind me.”  She jogged over to the base of the stairs.  Luanea cast darkness on the spot where the spiral ramp vanished into the floor above, and lined up behind Cavria.  Suivi gave Axio one more look and moved up to the women.

	Verashon gripped Axio’s hand around the hilt of his sword.  “Hold the door if you can’t move,” he said.

	“…I can move stuff,” Axio mumbled.  Right on cue, they heard the sound of bony hands slapping the door from the outside.

	“Then you stay here and block the door.  We’re moving up.”  Verashon pushed a box out of the way and ran off to join the others.  Kyria gave Axio a quick peck on the cheek and ran to follow.

	Axio slumped over one box.  The pain was so intense that his vision was pulsing red.  He gripped the edge of the box and shoved it over the floor against the wood.  He staggered back and started moving another.  He was moving by rote.  He had to be safe.  He had to protect his friends.  He had to keep fighting.  He had to stay awake.

	He didn’t have wings any more.

	He didn’t like them.  They were big and shiny, they got in the way, they made it hard to sleep.  They were a sign of his future.

	His fingers felt like lead as he slowly dropped another box on the pile in front of the door.  Ryaire had never cared whether or not he wanted what was happening to him, though he would never have refused.  Now he couldn’t fly.


	Kyria sent a molten ball of rock into the midsection of a leaping bugbear.  She winced and felt her arm go numb as an arrow took her in the shoulder.  She whirled around and flung more flame at another Bugbear hiding in the shadows.  “Why are these assholes even here?” she snarled.

	“This place is ours by conquest, fools!” one bugbear snarled.  “The Cult is weak, and we are strong!”

	Cavria didn’t bother joining the repartee.  The glaive in her hands spun and whirled like a tornado, cutting armor and flesh.  The bugbears kept pressing them, trying to drive them back into the ground floor of the building.  Verashon and Suivi stood at the top of the ramp, holding the line, but they were covered in cuts and bruises.

	Kyria sent a wave of black mist through the ranks of the bugbears, sending two tumbling to the ground with terror etched on their bestial faces.  The ones left up broke.  The black-clad goblinoids ran for the back ramp, two by two, falling back in good order until there were none left.  Cavria and Luanea ran down the stragglers, reaping a toll.

	When the last of them were gone, up the stairs to prepare the next line of defense, the women fell back.  “Anybody hurt?” Cavria demanded.  Her heart was pounding.  She could feel the hate and fiery destruction of Asmodeus flaring up in her blood.  Her best friend was crippled.  She wanted to find the bugbears that had done it and rip their souls out.

	Kyria nodded.  “I took some bad hits.”

	Luanea leaned over and started casting healing magic.  Suivi swigged a potion.  He waved at Cavria, who nodded gratefully and ran past him on the stairs.

	She found Axio bent over a pile of boxes by the door, mumbling incoherently to himself.  The floor beside him had a few drops of blood and vomit.  She reached down and took his limp hand.  “Axio, stay awake,” she said sharply.

	He was crying.  She gingerly took his arm over her shoulder and took him away from the impromptu barricade.  They walked together over to the base of the ramp, and Cavria eased him down on his side.  “Okay, my friend, stay with me,” Cavria insisted.  “I need to pile boxes by the door, alright?  Can I leave to go do that?”

	“Okay,” Axio moaned.

	Cavria ran over to the door and picked up where Axio had left off.  Even with her fiendish strength, it was a chore.  Some of the boxes were full of random junk from the bugbears.  Luanea appeared at the top of the ramp and slowly walked down to where Axio had curled up in a miserable ball.

	She knelt by his side and rested a hand on his shoulder.  “Axio, let me help,” she whispered.  She cast her healing spell on him again, and the swelling in his back shrank.

	“Do you know Regeneration?” Axio asked dully.

	“No, I’m sorry.  Axio, I’m so sorry,” Luanea said.  She ran her hand over his cheek and wiped away some tears.  “Maybe Solen can do something?”

	Axio slowly sat up.  Pain drew his breath the whole way.  “I… doubt it.”  He splayed his hands over the stone wall of the ramp and forced himself up to two feet.  Luanea felt her stomach rise to her throat at the sight of the ragged, bloody stumps of his wings on his back.  They still moved with his shoulders and legs, as if he was trying to balance them.  “How bad is it?” he managed.

	Luanea had to look away.  “It’s bad.”

	Axio sighed heavily.  “Luanea… can you help me up to the others?”

	Luanea sheathed her bastard sword and grabbed his arm.  She helped him walk slowly up the ramp, to where the other four were picking the pockets of the dead.

	Axio managed to sink into a chair by the top of the ramp, then hissed in pain as the raw wound brushed the fabric.  He rose again and turned the narrow seat around, then sat on it backward, leaning on the back of the seat.  Verashon walked over.  “Axio, brother, you’re in no shape to continue,” he said worriedly.

	“I know,” Axio said.  His voice was thick with pain and shame.  “I can barely walk.”

	Cavria appeared at the ramp top.  “Was it like with mine?  You have to learn to balance?”

	“Yes,” Axio said.  When Cavria had had her own wings removed, her physiology had already adapted to the magic wings on her back, which had meant weeks of practice to get her natural balance back.

	The others look at each other.  Fighting on with Axio present was not going to happen, and he knew it.  He slowly crossed his arms across the back of the chair and rested his chin on his gauntlets.  “I suppose I should have known this could happen,” he said quietly.  “I never had armor made for them.”

	“We got thrown out of the city before you could,” Cavria said crossly.  “That’s not your fault.”  She looked over at the far ramp.  “All right.  We need to push on.  Axio, can you stay here?  Or Kyria, do you have a spell that will let him hide?”

	“No, I don’t,” Kyria said.  “But bugbears are ambushers, right?”

	“Yes.”

	“Then we have to press on before they regroup,” she said.  She turned to her friend and rested a hand on his shoulder.  “Axio, we need to go.”

	“I know,” he said dully.  He rested his sword against the side of the chair, and draped his fingers over the pommel.  “I can handle… a bugbear.  Maybe two.  If the skeletons outside punch their way in, though… we may be screwed.”

	“Then we have to win fast.”  Kyria cracked her knuckles and grabbed her spellbook.  “Time to move, guys.”


	The ringing sounds of combat upstairs faded as the rest of the party slowly moved towards the crown of the tower.  Axio closed his ears to the noise and tried to focus.  Bugbears were stealthy bastards.  He had to be sure that they weren’t sending anybody past him.  He had to pay attention.

	The lancing pain in his back was not making that easy, however.