Day 80 ~ The Temple Falls

Thane paused to catch his breath. Blood trickled down his arms, some of it his own but much of it his enemies. “Look at the gems! They are the size of quail eggs! It wouldn’t hurt to take just a few, no?”

“Help yourself,” replied Martin, “but there’s a good chance that eternal damnation accompanies anything of value in this hole.”

The dwarf pulled his calloused hand back a bit. He had witnessed too much damnation for one dwarf’s lifetime today. The evil priest of the temple had been captured but more trouble loomed on the horizon. Two score of undead were at this moment shambling back to the temple. Their leader, the evil priest lay in the corner, battered and tied with rope. No one could say what control he might still have over his undead minions.

Arden and Company were battered themselves. The taking of the temple was a brilliant tactical move. They had raced down the Trade Road, pushing their mounts to near exhaustion, arriving at the Caves of Chaos just hours before the evil priest and his men who had taken a route through the forest.

Arden had bet that the evil priest’s legions of undead would move even slower, and this was exactly how it went.

~~~

The Company snuck into the temple and found little resistance, two adepts and a handful of undead guardians. One adept was killed but the other fled into the crypt area. Fortunately, Nicodemus, Corwin’s black cat familiar, spied the adept and they trailed him.

The adept met his end but not before freeing a medusa who was chained in a cell. Arden and Thane bravely battled the creature and killed it. Arden was poisoned by a viper’s bite. The medusa attempted to turn them to stone, but both men averted their eyes just in time. [Both saved vs her gaze!]. There was more to explore in the crypt but that also would have to wait. The Company killed a gelatinous cube that blocked one hallway. Fire, arrows, and a well placed sword cut ended that problem.

Nicodemus had been sent to watch from a tree near the entrance. He alerted the Company when the evil priest and his men approached. Thane covered a hallway with caltrops and laid oil in a great pool near the spot where the Company waited.

In a short time, the tunnel erupted in flame and arrow fire. The evil men-at-arms pushed forward, but the Company was ready on both sides of an intersection. As some of the evil priest’s men fell, he moved up to use his snake staff on Arden. Corwin cast fear and many of the men fled, including the evil priest! Arden, Catamont, and Meklin all reached for the priest and grappled with him, pulling him back to them. Corwin used the robe of climbing to magically bind the priest. One adept and a handful of men-at-arms fled out of the temple, but the priest was captured!

~~~

Corwin scratched Nicodemus under the chin, “You’ve earned a week of fish dinners when we get back to the inn!”

Sir Michel stood nearby, his bravado gone and his armor filthy with gore. “Master Corwin, how long do you think it will take Sir Kent and the soldiers to get here?”

“We left in quite a hurry, young knight. I don’t believe they will be here before the horde returns.”

Arden pulled the evil priest to his feet, “That is why we are leaving too. Martin is exhausted, you are also drained, Corwin. If we are attacked in force now, we wouldn’t win. Let’s move out of here and gather our horses. They are tired as well. We will walk a little way towards the Overlook with our prisoner. With good fortune we’ll meet Sir Kent before that damned army of dead.”

“I just hope that he isn’t a magnet for that army,” Corwin whispered to no one in particular.

Game Notes ~ My goodness! The battle in the temple was a narrow victory. Corwin’s last spell, fear, helped rout the evil priest’s men-at-arms. They were well armored, the priest and the adepts had cause light wound spells, but nothing put the good guys down…close…but not down. There is still much more to explore in the temple, but the Company will need to rest awhile. I was thinking the evil priest would be fleeing, but the dice said he was going back to the temple once more. I imagined his adepts would be packing his bags for an escape when he returned. It was a surprise for him to see Arden and Company waiting for him in his temple!

More to come…