Surprise! The First Demise

Authors Note:

As both a Dungeons & Dragons player and an author, I've decided to retell sessions of a recent campaign I've started with my friends. This is not simply a transcription. I have put this in my own voice based on the events that "happened" in the campaign session as I would if I were writing a fantasy novel through traditional mechanisms. I'll put this note at the start of any following episodes in case people are just tuning in. If you haven't read the previous episodes, please find them on my profile and if you're enjoying the series so far, please consider giving a like or a tip. It is much appreciated!

Episode 3:

Silhouetted by the small, dying campfire in the center of their cave dwelling, Imperius and Kalzamir stood facing the giant, mangled, humanoid dog of a monster at the entry. One fingered foot stepped directly over Kalzamir's trap as if it knew exactly where it would be. How? How could it know? Had it been watching them? Stalking them like prey?

A shiver rippled down Kadaici's spine. First priority was her survival. Hopefully her questmates too, but she had just met these people. They likely had no alliance to her, nor she to them. "Charm Person is a unique spell in that it has benefits both socially and combattively, essential for a noblewoman of your stature. Should anyone try to kidnap or assassinate you, Charm Person will make them far less aggressive towards you and more accepting of your suggestions, but ONLY TEMPORARILY. Then, they will know what you have done. Use it wisely, Kadaici. It is no love potion," the words of her tutor echoed in her mind as she developed a plan. She may be a storyteller by training, but she was a survivor by heart.

Focusing her mind, she stared at the back of the beast, willing her magic into action only to be startled back as the creature launched itself at Alexi, tearing him off the ground by the neck, blood splattering across the walls and glistening like liquid rubies. Kadaici snapped her fingers to activate invisibility instead. No way was she pissing that thing off. Nope. Nope. Nope! Hiding was a far better option. Sliding out of her makeshift room, she watched Kalen leap into the air, spinning as he cast Guiding Bolt in towards the nine foot wretch.

It reared up, writhing, but not letting go of Alexi, or the mangled corpse that was left. It ran out, deftly avoiding the trap again. Curious. Everyone chased it out, so Kadaici steeled her nerves and followed suit. Mantle of Inspiration was contingent on drawing her teammates attention to her, but she didn't want to be seen. Debating as she ran, she decided that if they could fight better, there would be less chance of her getting hit. Her golden tabaxi eyes glistened in the moonlight, drawing the attention of her team and the wave of emboldened comittment was almost tangible as it flowed from the group. Defend me. To the death if you must.

Simultaneously empowered by the high of using magic combattively and terrified by the fact that her most powerful attack was literally just insults on magical steroids, she screamed, "Hey, xuf-face! If rabies and the plague crossbred, it'd be you!" The beast hadn't said a thing and hardly even made sound, but it was sentient enough to stumble at the psychic damage of her cantrip. Smirking, she watched Imperius slice its rib cage, just a trickle of blood dripping from the wound as it dropped Alexi's remaining body.

Kalen let off another guiding bolt and the menace howled before running to the hills. Imperius started to chase it, but Kalzamir panted, "Let's hunt it in the daylight."

"Why?" Imperius grumbled, "We have a fresh trail!"

"We're all exhausted and my eyesight is piss poor in the daylight, much less in the starlight," Kalzamir stood up straighter, "Besides, the beast is not why we are here. Now we know what we're up against and it's wounded. If we fight it again, we should do it under better circumstances."

Kalen nodded, "We should probably check on Flynne as well."

"Nothing could have possibly got to him," Kadaici rolled her eyes.

Everyone gave her a quizzical look for a moment before she finally explained, "His room was towards the back like mine. You all were watching the front the whole night and would have seen him walk by you. Besides, it's rather hard to run from a monster by running towards a monster."

"Well, he seemed terrified of the thing. We should check that he's not still panicing or anything, at least let him know we're not dead," Kalzamir suggested.

"I mean, I guess?" Kadaici shrugged as the group walked back in the moonlight. The silvery trails of moonlight glistened on the eeriely beautiful forest around them. As they approached the cave, the embers of the fire illuminated the undisturbed trap and the dried blood on the walls. Shuddering, she stood behind Kalen as Kalzamir pulled back the leaf curtain to Flynne's room.

"What the..." Kalzamir entered and as everyone followed, Kadaici understood the puzzlement. There was no Flynne. How in the physics did he get out?

Looking around the room Kalen held up a note.

That was when Kadaici noticed, behind the pillow of his bedroll, was a hidden tunnel. "What the xuf is this and why didn't he tell us about it? What if we had needed an emergency escape?" Kadaici seethed.

"Who knows..." Imperius grumbled from the back. Kadaici had admittedly forgotten that the giant man was there.

"I wonder where it goes..." Kalzamir mused.

"We can go through and look," Kalen looked at Kadaici and shrugged.

She nodded as Kalzamir said, "We'll look for where you come out outside, because there's no way we'll fit in there."

Following behind Kalen, she ventured into the tunnel. It was narrow, but not too cramped. She could touch each side of the walls with her elbows still bent, but she kept her right arm by her side, because the wound of her missing hand was still a little tender to pressure. The darkness added to the sense of claustrophobia, but the floor was smooth. It was odd that there were no protruding roots or rocks, but Flynne had weeks to construct this, so he certainly had time to take care in crafting this passageway to seemingly nowhere.

Just as Kadaici thought the tunnel would go on forever, it started to turn upwards, spitting them out at the edge of the forest, the silent, strange forest. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she looked towards the cave entrance. She felt as if she were seeing through the eyes of the monster that had just run away. Was this where it had watched them from?

Upon seeing the towering bullish silhouette of Kalzamir and statuesque figure of Imperius, Kadaici yelled, "We're over here!" They turned and slowly walked towards them. Waiting, Kalen and Kadaici looked at the ground around them, noticing Flynne's small foot prints scurrying off into the forest.

Once Kalzamir and Imperius arrived, Kalen pointed to the tracks and asked, "Do we follow him?"

Kalzamir shook his head, "No, he'll come back. We know where the tunnel goes now. We'll ask him about it when we see him next."

"So, what do we do now, then?" Kadaici folded her arms.

"We need to find the wizard. I think we should rest til dawn and then search for him," Kalzamir proposed.

"Wizard?" Kalen asked.

"Yes," Imperius nodded, as if that somehow cleared up anything.

"The reason we came to this island is to get a syllable of Zeiss's true name so we can destroy him. There's a wizard here that knows one of them. Upon coming down the mountain, we saw an old man in a loincloth sled down the other side, so we think it might be him," Kalzamir explained.

"Hold up, you didn't mention you were taking down Zeiss," Kadaici gawked.

Imperius and Kalzamir looked at each other in puzzlement, "Is...that a problem...?"

Kadaici shrugged, "I mean, I guess not, he's just, kinda powerful, y'know?" Overthrowing Zeiss with help would be good practice for overthrowing her ex and taking back her kingdom, so she had no reason to bail now, but maybe she should have asked more questions before traveling with this group. Then again, she had only said she was joining them on the island for her own challenge. It may be a bit an assumption to think she would be traveling with them for their whole quest.

"So, you're still in? You'll help us take him down?" Kalzamir asked eagerly.

Kadaici couldn't help but smile at the offer. Kalzamir seemed so happy to have as part of the crew that it seemed odd. The genuine emotion he showed show frivolously puzzled her, but for now, she would take the flattery in stride, "Sure." Kalen also nodded and as the moon set on the ocean behind them, it seemed like the start of new things an a long journey.

As the pure moment of companionship faded into awkwardness Kadaici mumbled, "So...should we head back..."

Everyone nodded and began walking. Greeted by the bloodstained walls, Kadaici decided to do something about it. Repeating her Prestidigitation cantrip over and over, she cleaned the walls one square foot at a time. Slowly and systematically, the horrors of the night before faded away, or at least the evidence of them.

Taking a deep breath, she sat down with some of her remaining rations for a dismal breakfast. Rations were generally mediocre to begin with, but the crispy char on the edge of everything really did NOT help. She considered making some mushroom tea this morning, but decided her lucidity would be valued. Slowly munching on the dry, crispy nurishment in her hand, she watched everyone as they bumbled about preparing for the next step in the adventure.

The gentle scraping of weapons be sharpened, the scribbling of spell preparations, the hum of armor being polished was almost musical. She couldn't help but start to sing, "Four strong winds that blow lonely, Seven seas that run high..."

Kalen smiled, "I remember this song from when I was a kid."

Kadaici leaned back, "It sounds better with the lyre harmony, but that's not exactly an option for me at the moment."

Imperius chuckled and Kadaici spun around, "What're you laughing at?!"

"You're a bard...but you can't play because of your nub," he sneered. She rose to her feet claws extending from her left hand.

"And who's fault is that, huh? What moron goes up to a volcano and sets it on fire while they feel the air warming up?" Kadaici snarled.

"I mean, you watched and didn't say anything," Imperius closed the space between them, puffing out his chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought your whole shtick was being strong as a rock, not smart as one," she scoffed in a darkly, sing-songy tone.

Tightly gripping the stub of her right arm, Imperius chuckled, "I could put you in that corner and do whatever I pleased, you tiny kitten."

"Hey, break it up," Kalzamir approached menacingly. Being the only one close to Imperius in stature, it was clear why Kalzamir had quickly assumed the role of leader in this band of foreigners and misfits. Imperius let go of Kadaici and she backed away, hoping her glare masked the fear of deja vu.

She heard Kalzamir quietly telling Imperius off, but she scurried to what had been her room the night before to take some deep breaths and calm down. Given how stupid and blindly agressive he was, she hoped his threat had been purely violent, but after everything she'd been through, it was impossible not to fear the worst.

You're traveling with a group of men, what did you expect? Commoner men with the intent to overthrow the ruling Tyrant of a neighboring kingdom, no less. You really expected them to award you with a safety you didn't have in a castle? Pull yourself together! Only you can protect yourself, and you will do whatever it takes to protect yourself. Get it together. She took a deep breath, stood up, pushed her hair off her shoulders and determined she would face the day.

"We ready to go?" Kalen asked, accessing the remaining tension.

Kadaici nodded coolly, "Yup, what direction we headed?"

"Well, we saw him on the mountain and allegedly the wildlife is more managable out that way, so let's check there," Kalzamir said as he finished donning his full plate armor.

"Sounds like a plan," Kadaici agreed and they all headed out in the early morning light, the sun reflecting off the sea and through the trees.

The trek through the forest was surprisingly uneventful, almost serene even. While they didn't see any animals, there was a distinct hum of birds and bugs and critters. If they didn't know that there was a giant skeletal, humanoid dog monster out there somewhere among with other unknown but likely terrifying beats, it would be peaceful even.

They didn't talk much, just walked and watched the surrounding jungle for signs of danger. Kadaici kept one hand on her dagger at all times; Kalen's head was on a swivel; Kalzamir's great axe's blade glistened in beams of light as it rested on his back, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice; Imperius kept his sword in his hand. No one was prepared to die today, but everyone was prepared to fight.

Forest faded into a combination of sand and shale as they approached the base of the volcano. "Straight up?" Imperius asked.

"We don't know he went back up there. Let's look around the base to see if we can find some sort of trail to follow," Kalzamir bit his lip.

"What side did he go down?" Kalen inquired.

Kalzamir paused before sheepishly answering, "Opposite the way we went down..."

"Well, let's keep walking. Hopefully, if anything lives in this deserty part of the island, we'll be able to see it coming," Kadaici sighed.

Walking along the base of the mountain she saw where the tongues of solid, fresh volcanic licked at the eroded, broken shale before it faded into the sands of desert and beach. The temperature was comfortably warm as the sun caressed their skin and glimmered off the dark golden sand. Sounds of waves lapping at the shore mixed with the salty smell of ocean.

Imperius laughed and pointed out the crumbly crevice they pulled Kadaici out of, "I found your hand!"

Kadaici tried to leap at him, when Kalen held her back, "He's not worth it."

Kalzamir didn't say much and Kadaici could only see the back of his head, but she imagined him glaring at Imperius. Imperius just shrugged and they continued to walk onwards. Oh boy, did Kadaici hate the goliath at this point. Kalen was tolerable. Kalzamir was suspiciously kind. Imperius was as rude as he was dense.

Now seething, Kadaici could almost feel herself shaking in rage. Wait, no, she was actually shaking. "Do...you guys feel that?" Kalen's question had a vibrato to it as the ground beneath him rumbled.

Instead of answering, Kadaici just sprinted away from the mountain as far and fast as she could. No way was she getting trapped in a lava flow AGAIN. It was a miracle she didn't die last time. The chances of getting that lucky twice were low, and that's counting losing a hand as lucky.

At that moment, the ground exploded in front of her and she leaped to the side, landing with one leg out to the side, the other bent, her left hand propping her up in the middle as she stared at the grotesque, spiny, worm-like creature in front of her. As it writhed up out of its hole, its head blocked the sun behind it, giving her a perfect view of the four beaked maw filled with seemingly millions of razor sharp teeth.

Her miscalculation was driven home as the thing launched at her. Twisting away, Kadaici stabbed it with her dagger just in time to see Kalen's guiding bolt sizzle past her ear and towards the beast. Holy xuf, I don't know if I have the worst luck or the best luck in the history of ever, Kadaici thought to herself. She could hear Imperius and Kalzamir running towards her from behind. Opting for the psychic damage of her only offensive spell, she yelled, "I'm pretty sure you can't understand a word we say, but whether it's because of a language barrier or your intelligence, I have no idea." She wasn't sure, but it seemed to flinch, so she told herself that the magic element of her insult was at least somewhat effective.

Kalzamir swung his axe into its abdomin, prompting it to lash out and attempt to bite him, but you could hear it's teeth ping as they failed to breakthrough his armor. Imperius finished it off with quick swing of his sword, clean through the beast. Sand poofed into the air as it hit the ground and Imperius pulled the bottom half of the worm from its tunnel.

As the dust settled, Kadaici noticed Kalen wandering into the tunnel. She peered down, "Is there anything interesting down there?"

"No, not really," Kalen shouted.

"Should we explore it?" Imperius asked.

Kalzamir shook his head, "There could be more and there's no room to get a good swing if we encounter something. It's safer up here."

Kalen crawled out asking, "Onward?" Everyone nodded before marching forward, now wary of the ground. This island certainly had plenty of surprises. Nothing was quite the way it seemed, and that was becoming abundantly more obvious.

Looking carefully at the base of the mountain as they circled it, they found what they were looking for. Fresh footprints in the volcanic dust, walking up the mountain towards the mist and surviving trees. Almost in unison they all groaned. They were going back to the top and still had no idea how to get through the mist at the top, but it was obvious there was no other option. Looking at each other wordlessly, they took a deep breath and started the march up the steep incline of the smooth hillside.

The trek was much similar to the last, except for the blackened vegetation along the edge of the volcanic slide. As they approached the mist line, they stopped and stared at it. "I'm just going in," Imperius said before marching in like somehow it wouldn't spit him back out like it did before. It was maybe 5 minutes before he walked out the exact way he walked in.

"Congrats, you're an idiot," Kadaici snickered, arms crossed.

"Shut up," Imperius grumbled.

Kalzamir had apparently been tying a rope to a javelin and it was at this moment that he chucked it into the fog, holding onto the rope. "Kalen, take this."

Before Kalen could respond, Kalzamir was off into the mist and the three remaining stood at each other in bafflement.

"You know...he might be onto something...but how do we know if it worked?" Kalen asked.

"Great question," Kadaici muttered.

As if on cue, the string in Kalen's hand went taught as a javelin flew out of the mist. Diving out of the way, Kadaici stared in confusion as the rope went into the mist and the javelin came out from two slightly different points. Physics was broken. It was official. Whatever magic this was, it had broken physics.

Kalzamir came charging out, "Xuf! I thought that would work!"

"Maybe, next, let's not through sharp objects blindly into space?" Kadaici suggested before staring at the mist, puzzled.

"I have an idea..." Kalen muttered before walking into the fog sideways, like a bipedal crab. Kadaici actually couldn't help herself from laughing as the red demon-spawn shuffled into the impenetrable fog.

He, too, shuffled out sideways the same way he'd gone in moments before. Clearly there was powerful illusion spell at play here. That's it! Kadaici realized. Illusion magic changes how you perceive things. The more they focused on getting through the fog, the more they looked at the illusion, the more it spun them back out.

"If I'm not back in half an hour, walk through with your eyes closed," Kadaici directed before closing her own eyes and stepping through. Each step, she tentatively stretched out her foot, checking for obstacles before placing her foot down to take the next step. Slowly, she felt the cold droplets of mist fade off her skin in favor of the warmth of the sun. Tentatively, she opened her eyes, only to see before her, not her questmates, but an old man in a long robe, with a white beard nearly to the ground. She'd done it.

"You..." The old man snarled in a voice so nasally that it was hardly threatening, "blew up...my mountain!"

"Actually, that wasn't me. That was my idiot companions. However, I deeply apologize," extending her left hand, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kadaici."

"Hm..." the man paused, "Your friends...blew up...my mountain!"

This was clearly going to be more difficult than expected, so she put on her most sophisticated smile, turned on the social prowess of high society and pretended to sympathize, "Well, 'friends' may be a stretch, but I still apologize profusely on their behalf. I don't believe I got your name?"

He didn't answer her question, but instead responded with one of his own, "Would you like some tea?"

"Sure," Kadaici tried to keep her impatience and irritation buried well beneath the surface. This guy might have information. Best to humor him until the other came and ruined any rapport she had built with their brutish stupidity.

As the old man led her to the hut, she noted that it seemed remarkably undamaged for standing next to the crater of a volcano that had gone off just the day prior. Following him in, the entry room had an impossibly high vaulted ceiling that rose well above the height of the roof from the exterior. This man was a powerful spellcaster. There was no doubt about it. In awe she trailed behind him through the hallway to a quaint dining room. He gestured for her to sit at the table before bringing her a cup and saucer filled with a steaming beverage.

"So, what brings you and your companions here?" the man asked, still standing.

"Kalzamir, the minotaur, and Imperius, the goliath, are allegedly from another world with a mission to take down the tyrant Zeiss," Kadaici sipped the sweet beverage.

The old man nodded, "But what brings you here?"

"I simply want to improve my spellcasting abilities and expand my bardic knowledge to the combat arts," Kadaici smiled warmly, giving him the same answer she gave everyone else.

"I see," the wizard took a long sip on his tea, "You're a bard you say?"

"Yes!" Kadaici beamed, "Would you like a performance? I brought my lyre."

"Can you play a lyre with one hand?" the wizard quizzically raised an eyebrow.

Kadaici shrunk, "I suppose not. Apologies, it's a fresh wound. I could still sing if you like?"

The old man shrugged, but as soon as she began to sing, he walked out. Seething, she followed, just in time to see the rest of her party trod out of the mist and open their eyes. Oh joy.

"You..." the man snarled again, his intimidation impeded by the nasally quality of his voice, "blew up...my mountain!"

"Yes, we did," Kalzamir said so proudly that Kadaici had to resist the urge to fling herself into the pit of lava. Have they ever heard of tact? How did they plan to accomplish their mission before they met her? Why couldn't they at least pretend to be apologetic for their idiocy?

The old man shrugged and nodded, "Alright then. Would you like some tea?" What? How did the tone of the conversation change so fast? This geezer made no sense. Kadaici felt like she was losing her mind because clearly this man had already lost his!

The man turned around and led everyone back towards the hut. The astonishment on Kadaici's face must have been obvious because Kalzamir just looked at her and shrugged. Imperius and Kalzamir ducked slightly as they entered, but once everyone was inside, it was their turn to look astonished and how the inside didn't match the dimensions of the outside.

Returning to the dining room, the wizard again began serving tea, but when he approached Kalen, he didn't hand the saucer to him. Instead, the old man picked the cup off the saucer and flung it in Kalen's face. Shocked, Kalen wiped tea out of his eyes. A long silent moment passed as everyone tried to understand what happened before the old man yelled gleefully, "Tea fling!" Slowly, understanding, annoyance, and mirth spread through the group. The weird old wizard poured another cup and this time handed it to the tiefling at whom he'd flung tea, allowing Kalen to sip on it as his first cup's content dripped off his horns.

"So..." the old man placed his hands on his hips in a way that simultaneously mimicked a stereotypical teenage girl and seemed to brace a sore back, "What brings you here?"

"We are here in search of a syllable of the wizard Ziess's true name," Kalzamir bellowed confidently, "Our information leads us to believe you would have it."

"Oh, true names are a dangerous thing, you know!" The wizard scolded, "They can kill a man when they are said!"

"That's the goal," Imperius leaned against the wall in the corner.

"Oh..." the wizard seemed to get confused for a moment. The group waited patiently for a response but as time passed, they started to look at each other, wondering if they should remind him they were here. Suddenly, "Would you like to see my aquarium?"

"Sure," Kalen shrugged. At least one of them knew how to just play along and work with their mark.

As the old wizard lead them down the hall, Kalzamir leaned over and whispered, "Do you know this guy's name?"

Kadaici shook her head, "I tried asking, but at this point, I'm not even sure he knows."

Kalzamir just nodded and shrugged. Kalen, trying to get something useful out of this man, asked, "Can you tell us about this island?"

"What would you like to know?" the wizard chirped.

"What sorts of monsters might we encounter?" Imperius inquired.

"Oh, well there's sand worms, and ice worms, and forest worms, and by the mushroom biome there's mushroom worms!" It seemed a miracle that this man didn't trip on his extraordinarily long beard as he walked down the long hallway towards an alleged aquarium.

"Anything other than worms?" Kadaici asked, thinking back to the thing that jumped out of the sand at them.

"There's a leviathan crab on the shore by the forest, but Stevo may have already taken care of it," the man shrugged.

"Stevo?" Kalen tilted his head to one side.

"A previous adventure. Sert dropped him off too and he never came back," Kalzamir whispered as the wizard proclaimed, "Yes, Stevo is this sweet young adventurer who comes to visit me sometimes. It's been a while though..."

"Have you seen a large, gangly, dog-like beast that towers nearly 9-feet tall?" Kalzamir asked.

"Oh, you mean Fluffles!" Immediately the old man called over a fat, fluffy white cat.

"No, we mean enemies," Imperius growled.

"Oh, I have anemones, too!" That was when they turned the corner to see the almost forgotten aquarium. The man moved his fingers like he was conducting an orchestra of mice and the anemones floated out of their tank and paraded around the room, twisting through the group in show. It was admittedly beautiful and awe-inspiring. "So, how can I help you?" the man asked as the anemones floated back in their tank.

"We're trying to take down Zeiss. Do you have any of the syllables of his true name?" Kalzamir requested again.

"Let me check my tome!" He marched back down the hall, the way they had just come, "I'm so forgetful, I write down anything I need to remember."

"Do you write down your name?" Imperius sneered.

"Nope!" That honestly explained a lot.

Once they were back in the dining room, the man pulled a book off the shelf so large that it looked like it may have been difficult for Kalzamir to hold it, but this man's frail frame seemed to hold it with ease. "Oh look!" he exclaimed, "The third syllable of Zeiss's true name is 'zah.' Did you know that?"

That syllable had been given to the commonfolk for safe keeping. It was the one syllable literally everyone knew. Kadaici hailing from the Tabaxi corridor of Genta, far from Zeiss's reign, even knew the third syllable.

Calmly, Kalzamir replied, "Yes, do you have another."

"Oh, I can't tell you that," the wizard chided, "It says right here next to it, 'Don't tell ANYONE.'"

Imperius and Kadaici locked eyes. Somehow, despite their conflicts on the journey, she knew they were having the same idea. He nodded. She nodded. He dropped his sword, creating a loud thud and causing the china dishes to shake and clang in their display cupboard. Kadaici immediately snapped her fingers, turning invisible and sneaking behind the wizard to try and peer over his shoulder.

"My goodness, do be careful with your sword! Kadaici," she froze, "Where are you going?"

He apparently had true sight. He could see her through her spell. She let it lapse and pushed her hair out of her face laughing sheepishly, "I was just trying to find the restroom."

"Oh, let me show you!" He walked her outside and pointed at the lava pit, "There it is!"

Kadaici flushed red with anger and humiliation at her failure. The man went inside and she paused to seethe, allowing enough time to pass for her to "go to the bathroom." Once returning inside, Kadaici heard Kalzamir still trying to weasel the syllable out of this man.

"You have two syllables written down, yes?"

"Mhm!"

"One you can tell us..."

"Zah!"

"And one you can't."

"Draw!"

Everyone's eyes went wide realizing this man's dementia had let the information the needed slip as he read off his tome out of habit. Trying to divert attention from it Kalzamir continued, "And there's no way we can get you to tell us?"

"Nope!"

"Well, we best be going then," Kalzamir sighed.

"Good luck on your quest!" The old man smiled and escorted them out of the cottage, "And don't go blowing up my mountain!"

"We won't!" Kadaici promised.

After exiting the fog, the began the journey back down the mountain and Kadaici asked, "How did you get him to talk?"

"I just kept asking the same question different ways and hoped he'd slip up," Kalzamir chuckled, "Then I got lucky, I guess."

"I'd say so!" Kalen laughed.

Once they reached the base of the mountain, they decided to set up camp on the beach so they would have a clear view if the monster came back tonight. If the past few nights were any indicator, it probably would. The sun set and the evening began. Kadaici went to bed, waiting for her watch.

Apparently, Kadaici was a deeper sleeper than she had previously realized because when she woke up, she was much closer to the stars than when she had fallen asleep and there was an excruciating pain in her shoulder as sticky warm liquid poured down her side. As she opened her eyes, she was staring into the oddly familiar face of the creepy, white beast from the previous nights. Looking at her shoulder, she saw its teeth piercing through her flesh. As she questioned how she was still alive, she caught a glimpse of Kalen holding her ankle to perform Cure Wounds.

The least could do was pay everyone back with some extra energy. Through the blinding pain, she focused on casting Mantle of Inspiration on her teammates. I'm not sure if there's anyone up there, who it may be, or if they care, but if you could stop trying to kill me or ruin my life that would be excellent. Bonus points if I survive tonight. Kadaici thought as she heard Kalzamir and Imperius hacking at the animal's legs.

Desperately, Kadaici pulled out her dagger and stabbed at it's maw, trying to encourage it to drop her, but it only seemed to grip harder, so she cast Cure Wounds on herself, to keep her alive at least a little longer as blood stained her already charred clothes. If she died, it would not be for lack of trying.

Kalen cast a guiding bolt at the monster's leg, ripping it clean off. As it lurched backwards, no longer supported by it's leg, it threw Kadaici in the air. Swearing profusely, she righted herself, landing with catlike grace on the balls of her feet, one hand supporting her. With few other options, she tacked Vicious Mockery onto her swearing. The beast limped, trying to escape, but it was too late now. The party was angry. They were killing it now.

Kadaici charged at it with her rapier, spitting blood out of her mouth. Kalzamir hacked at another leg with his great axe, Imperius with his sword. Sparks flew as Kalen cast spell after spell at the grotesque beast. Eventually it fell to the ground, stranded and Imperius approached grinning. With one sweep of his sword, he beheaded the beast. No sooner did the head roll away from the body did it shrink until a small, frail human torso lay in its place. Looking at the fallen limbs, they too had shrunken down to human proportions.

Kadaici didn't want to look at the head, but she knew she had to. Slowly, she turned to look where it had rolled. Staring lifelessly back up at her through small, cold eyes...was Flynne.