The Emerald Queen

Weapons drawn, the company stood ready facing down the Emerald Queen. Sweat covered their faces from moving through the old ruins, with dirt and dried blood marking their skin and clothing. The woman, tall and thin, let out a chuckle, holding her whip in her hands. Though Arisa, Silas, and Emmy kept their eyes low, they could feel her gaze on them, boring deep through their skin and into their being. As her laughter stopped, her voice said chimed in a sing-song manner "Soon you'll all join my collection!" She let out a short chuckle again before continuing, this time in a serious manner, "and join me here for my eternity. Thousands of years have not dulled my love of collecting valuables, and trust me when I say nothing is quite as valuable as life."

The party remained silent. Emmy's eyes moved across the floor tiles, an odd otherworldly purple in hue, to the statue that was once her close friend Xarus. His face was a cross between pain and resistance, as if until the final moments he had attempted to guard himself. Anger welled up inside of her. "We will kill you, and he will return to us." She gritted her teeth and clenched her hands tightly around the hilt of her sword, her large muscle bulging from the strain of anger and frustration.

"He's right. Killing you will be simple, I promise we've killed more dangerous" Silas kept his eyes down as he spoke, thinking of the best plan of action moving forward. She seemed to be tending to wounds when they arrived at the top of the stairs, and her clothing had minor scorch marks on them down to the feet; Xarus had done what he could. Now it was their turn to finish it.

The monster laughed, letting go of the other end of her whip and letting it fall to the floor, the handle still in her hand. She lifted her longbow to her back and fixed it into a nook in her armor, bringing the quiver to the side opposite her sword. She reached and drew the blade, and for a moment it appeared wreathed in flame. "No, mortals. My life is unending. That is both my gift and curse. And now, you will be given your own immortality at my hand. Statues. A memorial to your pathetic lives." She crouched into a running stance, and in the blink of an eye was darting forward to the band of heroes. Arisa notched an arrow, Silas readied his magic, and Emmy grit her teeth, sword in hand. It had begun.