From: Mike Whitaker <MIKEW@SDL.MDCBBS.COM>
Subject: STORY: Midnight's Bane - part 16
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 21:47:14 GMT

	"Watch the prisoners!" called Hawk as he attempted to block the nearest
creature. "A little magic might be useful at this point!" Drax gasped in
astonishment and then reached into his belt pouch for a spell component.
	"Friends of yours?", enquired Angron brusquely of the female captive,
and, without waiting for an answer, swept the feet from under the male
prisoner, knocking him to the ground, before drawing his mace.
	With blinding speed the left-hand creature rushed the slim figure of
Anya, lashing out with one of its razor sharp claws and effortlessly knocking
her short sword out of her hand as she tried to parry, before leaving a deep
gash in her shoulder and bringing her to her knees with the force of its
blow...
	Swiftly, Drax pulled out from his pouch a pinch of powder, and uttered
"Kithkari uth sedulari, en karath altelev", pointing at the second creature.
	Nothing happened.
	Its baleful stare turned on him for a moment, and it extended a long
serpent-like tongue and hisse at him. Drax paled a little beneath his tan, and
wrenched his gaze away, swearing softly under his breath...
	Hawk stood his ground and raised Midnight's Bane to face the right-hand
creature. The sword cut through the air, the runes on its dark steel blade now
clearly visible, leaving faint glowing red trails as he swung it at the
night-blue creature towering above him. One of the lower arms raked his face as
he cut up at the monster, the strange blade biting deep into its chest...
	Angron rushed Anya's opponent, crossing in front of Drax, swinging his
mace in a wide arc. A lazy, almost dismissive swipe from one of its lower arms
knocked the bard into the wall and she slumped to the ground, momentarily
stunned. The priest barely ducked under a lightning-fast sweeping blow from a
huge ivory claw stil dripping with Anya's blood, and struck home with a fairly
heavy blow with the mace, which seemed not to slow the creature at all...
	Hawk's opponent threw its head back and emitted an almost human cry of
pain. From behind the ranger, Drax extended his hands towards the creature, his
lips forming the syllables "Kalith karan, tobaniskar". He smiled in grim
satisfaction at the bluish darts that streaked from his fingers toward the
monster. Again the beast screamed in pain...
	The other creature's blood-stained claws slashed out again, once,
twice, in rapid succession. The first blow the grey-clad priest parried, and
somehow managed to land another hit with his mace, but the second knocked him
half off balance with the sheer weight of the blow, forcing Drax to jump aside,
and Angron almost tripped over the prone body of the male prisoner, who was
very sensibly staying down. The female prisoner stood rooted to the spot as the
creature covered the distance to her in two strides, transfixed by its gaze,
her lips slightly parted, her breathing heavy. From her lips came a softly
whispered "yes...oh, yes..."
	Midnight's Bane thrust again, Hawk's gauntleted hands gripping the
hilt tightly, the sword almost an extension of his outstretched arms. It sank
deep into the creature's stomach, and the huge beast toppled backwards with a
final anguished cry...
	Angron and Drax watched in horrified fascination as the creature bent
its head to the woman's upturned face. Suddenly there was a blur of movement
behind it, and Anya leapt for its unprotected back, burying eighteen inches of
steel deep into its vitals. It fell to the ground, narrowly missing the woman,
and lay still. The woman toppled to the cavern floor in a dead faint...

	Hawk paused to draw a couple of breaths, then glanced down at his sword
blade, upon which the flowing runes still glow a fiery crimson, when a woman's
scream of pure terror rang out from what sounded like a few yards along the
passage up ahead.
	"Another one!" he cried. "Move!!".
	Ten yards up the passage, Hawk paused by a suprisingly well-concealed
opening on the right and swung Midnight's Bane in an arc. As the sword pointed
down the opening, the runes glowed brighter, and the rest of the party followed
him at a run down a short but high passage that opened out into a chamber, lit
by some dimly phosphorescent lichen in addition to Angron's moonstone. Against
the far wall, another of the nightmarish creatures stood poised over a huddled
figure on the floor - as they entered it whirled, eyes glowing and long
snake-like tongue protruding, and rushed them. Hawk met it partway in a half
crouch, Midnight's Bane braced two-handed just in time to meet its charge. The
onrushing creature took the full length of the sword in its lower abdomen and
toppled forward onto the slightly off-balance Hawk, crushing him beneath it as
it fell. There was a moment's stunned silence in which the only sound was a
faint whimpering from the huddled form in the corner, before Hawk's muffled and
shaky voice came from beneath the fallen creature.
	"Get this damn thing off me..."

	A tally of the party's wounds revealed Anya to have a deep and
unpleasant shoulder wound, which fortunately appeared not to have caught
anything vital, and general battering from being smashed into the wall. Drax
was unwounded, and Angron had a long but thankfully shallow cut across his
ribs. Hawk had a number of nasty cuts and a slightly strained wrist but nothing
serious, and to everyone's relief, the red runes on his sword's blade had
vanished. The male prisoner remained grimly silent, whle the female one was on
her knees, sobbing hysterically and rocking herself from side to side.
	Hawk removed the fur-lined cloak he bought back in Sasarka, and moved
over to the curled up form at the back of the cavern. In a foetal position,
arms covering her face and whimpering softly, was an attractive red-brown
haired girl in her early twenties, naked except for a silver chain, with no
visible catch, round her neck, part of which was covered with still wet blood,
She had a number of grazes on her arms, legs and body, rope burns on her
wrists, and fresh bloody lacerations across her palms and fingers, as though
she had been trying deparately to break the chain around her throat.
	"Angron, could you guard our backs while we examine what's happened
here?" The gray-cloaked priest was ministering to the bruised and bleeding Anya,
healing the unpleasant wound in her shoulder. She winced at his touch, and
grinned wryly at the rest of the group.
	"I thought I was coming along to keep you guys out of trouble." The
tall ranger smiled at her.
	"You took some battering back there, but you came back like a phoenix.
I'm impressed, and glad you're on our side! Could you examine our female
prisoner for any signs of physical damage, and try to get some sense out of
her, or the man? From the way she acted, she knows what those creatures were,
and it would be in our best interests to know what she knows. In this place a
little knowledge could do us more good than twenty blades!" The bard nodded.	
Turning back to the red-haired girl, he slipped an arm gently under her
shoulders and attempted to raise her up to wrap the cloak around her. In a
blind panic she attempted to fight him off with her bleeding hands...	
	"....No... please, no... I've given you the pendant...make it stop...."
Hawk caught her gently but firmly by the wrists, talking to her in a reassuring
tone all the while, until she eventually calmed down, her breathing still harsh
and uneven.
	There was a long pause as her breathing steadied, and then she looked
up at Hawk out of deep green eyes, face red with something akin to shame. "You
can let go of me now." Her voice was controlled and emotionless. She wrapped
the proffered cloak about her shoulders, wincing with pain as the garment
caught her lacerated hands, then stopping to inspect the damage to her palms.
She raised her head quickly, as though about to say something, as Hawk took her
hand in one of his, and then let it fall again resignedly as the ranger
proceeded to clean and bind the wounds. When he had finished, there was a long
silence as she sat, head bowed, cloak pulled tight about her, before,
eventually, Hawk heard her murmur "thank you".

	Drax went to each of the dead creatures and examined them closely.
Finally, on one of them, he used the enchanted dagger to pry loose one of the
ivory claws, with some difficulty as they are over two feet long, then returned
to where the party is recovering. As he did so, he saw Anya talking softly to
the female prisoner.

	"You'll get nothing out of her, I'll warrant. I do not think she knew
the beast at all..., indeed had it not been for you," he indicated Anya with a
nod of his head and flashed her a grim smile, "then I fear that this one would
have been the creature's first kill." Leaning against the wall and sliding down
it to rest on his haunches, Drax held up the ivory claw of the beast. "Nay,
the girl knew not what the creature was. Instead I believe that the thing
possesses a hypnotic stare..., one that freezes its victim or worse, makes the
victim yearn for the creature's touch." The tall mage stopped for a moment and
hid his face in his hands, and after a while murmured, almost too quiet to
hear "It almost got me too..." Looking up at all gathered round, with a grim
expression, he said "'ware the eyes of the Demon" in an ominous tone.

	Anya talked reassuringly to the female prisoner for a while, watched
dispassionately by the man. At length she stopped crying and calmed enough to
tell Anya in no uncertain terms to leave her alone, and retreated into an angle
of the large cavern, sitting in a brooding silence. The bard shrugged
philosophically and turned to watch the man for a moment, placing herself
between the two prisoners and the rest of the party. After a minute or two, he
man caught her eye, looking slightly worried.
	"She gonna be alright?" She glanced at the woman, then nodded.
	"Mostly the shock, I think. What *were* those things?" The man frowned.
	"Don't rightly know. Man called Fered and some odd-looking mage or
priestly type turned up to talk to the high priest not so long back - seems
we've got a common cause of some sort." He looked across at the vast bulk of one
of the creatures. "Scare the willies out of me, though."
	"This high priest," enquired Anya, "is he the fair-haired man who was
with you?" The man laughed.
	"Lady's chains, no!" Anya raised an eyebrow at the curious oath, but
said nothing. "That's Merin - he's not high priest - not yet, anyroad. You'd
know the high priest if you met him - my advice'd be to avoid him though; he's
cruel, that one." The woman glared at him.
	"You should not speak ill of a high priest of the Lady." Observing the
woman now watching them intently, Anya lets the conversatin drop for a while.

	After recovering his composure somewhat, Drax joined Hawk, and smiled
encourgingly at the girl. "Let's see what we can do about ridding you of these
shackles." A thought suddenly struck him and he looked back to where the two
prisoners were. In a tone just loud enough for his companions to hear, he
murmured "I'll wager that this poor lass is the one whom fair-hair and his
companions sought... In fleeing from them, she was probably captured by those
creatures, though which fate would have been worse is anybody's guess." Having
said so he reached cautiously for the chain about her neck, then pulled his
hand away sharply. Hawk looked worriedly at him. "Something blocking my magic."
explained Drax. The woman looked up at him, face expressionless.
	"I'm not surprised. That's what it's doing to me." Drax raised an
eyebrow.
	"You're a mage?" She nodded. "What did they...?" Drax checked himself
before overwhelming the woman in a storm of questions. A corner of her mouth
twitched in a rueful smile, and she studied Drax, the watching Angron, and,
last and longest, Hawk, through intense green eyes, before apparently reaching
a decision.
	"You deserve my story, at least in part." Unselfconsciously she
adjusted the cloak, then began. "My name's Tanya. I was kidnapped by..." she
checked  herself before continuing "...followers of the cult here, early
yesterday morning, from the high temple in Alcar. I don't know exactly why,
except that they wanted the....an enchanted pendant I possessed." Hawk looked
hard at her, frowning, and eventually she glanced up to meet his gaze, and
then, obviously unconfortable, down again. "I know," she murmured softly, "I'm
not telling the whole story. I don't know if I can trust you, and..." the last
words came out in a rush "...there's more to it than just my safety. Maybe, if
you ask your priest, he might be able to tell you more about the cult." She
gazed up at the cavern roof for a time, then carried on. "I told them they
couldn't use the pendant unless I gave it to them. Anyway, they took all the
rest of my possessions, and my familiar, and left me with the pendant and this
damn chain. They left me for most of yesterday, till eventually they came back,
along with this...thing...I guess it must have been some kind of
doppelganger... wearing my things." She shuddered at the memory. "After they'd
shown me this, they took it away and..." her voice dropped "...they brought in
a Lifestealer..."	
	"One of these?" Hawk asked gently, indicating the creature's
body. She nodded wordlessly and took a long and shaky breath before continuing.
	"I know what they can do to you...." The control she had kept on her
voice finally broke. "I gave them the pendant." For a moment she buried her
face in her hands. "I....I couldn't...."
	"I understand," said Drax, softly. Her head snapped up.
	"Do you? Do you know the whole of it?" Her voice shook with passion.
"Can you imagine standing there and *wanting* that thing to kiss you? And then
*wanting* to go out and find a human mate so the two of you can make another of
its kind....?" Her words trailed off into silence. When next she spoke, it was
muffled by her arms, so that Hawk and Drax had to strain to hear her. "I found
out afterwards that...that the priest wouldn't have let it touch me......but I
couldn't stand any more..."
	"No-one's blaming you," said Hawk soothingly. Tanya looked at him, face
haggard and drawn, eyes unreadable, her voice thick with bitterness and
self-loathing.
	"I finally realised yesterday that there were things more important
than my own life. And that when it came down to it, the reason I always put
myself first wasn't that I wanted to be independent..." she choked back a sob
"...but that I was nothing more than a coward." Hawk shook his head and smiled
reassuringly at the young woman.
	"You have a strange definition of being a coward. Your wounds show that
you put up with a lot: more than most would have. No, you aren't a coward. Far
from it." Tanya shook her head, and didn't meet his smile for a long while.
Eventually she looked up, eyes brimming with unshed tears, and, in almost a
whisper, said "Maybe... maybe you're right. I just don't know what I am any
more." Hawk said nothing, but returned her gaze until she bit her lip and
looked away, then he looked at the now still form of the Lifestealer for a
moment, and broke the uncomfortable silence, directing the next question at
both Drax and the girl.
	"What do you know of those creatures, then? Where did they come from,
and can we expect any more to grace us with their presence?" Drax shook his
head.
	"Unfortunately I know naught of these creatures except what we have
gleaned here today. I suspect, however, that they are somewhat magic
resistant." He looked enquiringly at Tanya. The girl wiped a hand across her
eyes, leaving a smudge across her cheek, and seemed to pull herself together.
She gave Hawk an odd little grin with scant humour in it.
	"I don't think they are magic resistant. They're not from this world,
and they aren't demons. And yes, there are probably more." The girl's
expression was grim. "A lot more." Angron muttered an oath under his breath in a
tone of dismay. "I don't know exactly how many, but south of here there's
the...thing...they arrived in. I've seen it from a distance, and our guess was
many thousands." Drax whistled softly. "Two things though:" Tanya continued,
"the high priest - I think his name's Erion - said something about having
studied one of them and made some notes - I'd not mind getting my hands on
them. Secondly," - the girl's eyes glittered savagely - "the bastards burn
beautifully." She tugged futilely at the slender silver chain around her throat.
"Can't you get this damn thing off me?" Hawk smiled.
	"I'll try." He drew the dark steel sword again. Still, the runes on
its blade were invisible. With Tanya's cooperation he attempted to break the
chain using the edge of the blade, but to no avail, bar nicking Tanya's neck
slightly - the red-brown haired sorceress had the grace to apologise, albeit
with an awkwardness which suggests it came hard to her, after swearing at him
for it. She pulled at the fine links.
	"It's strange - it's such a light chain, yet where it touches me it
feels like lead..." She looked at Drax for confirmation, who nodded.
	"That well describes how it felt to me also...as if it were somehow
dragging my hand down, and my magic with it."
	"Angron?" The priest looked over as Hawk called his name. "Do you know
any more about the temple in Alcar?" He shrugged.
	"It's the high temple to Heslor, the FireLord - it is supposed to be
one of the cities that fell to the demons, but if what Robyn told us is
true..." He cast an enquiring glance at the girl. "Maybe Tanya can tell us
more?" Hawk nodded.
	"Do you have any idea which temple our prisoners are associated with?"
The priest frowned.
	"Cherri did give me permission to tell you about the Lady, whose name
we don't speak, if necessary - now seems like a good time. I'd like to hear
what our prisoners have to say unprompted first though - really I'd like to
separate them, but I wouldn't like to split up unless we're sure there are no
more of those things." Angron eyed the blue steel of Midnight's Bane, still
unsheathed across Hawk's knees. "Do you know why your sword was reacting to
them? Have the runes ever glowed like that before?"
	Hawk shook his head. "I have," he paused, searching for the right word
before continuing, "possessed the sword for some time now, but the runes have
never appeared. I know something of its history and as such I am not surprised
or worried in any way."

	Anya quietly beckoned Drax over and imparted what she had found out
from the male prisoner.  In a quiet tone of voice, so as not to be overheard by
either prisoner, she indicated, "He seems to have had a slight change of heart
about talking to me.  Rather than have a number of people descend on him, and
possibly change his mind again, why don't I pose whatever questions you can
think of to him?" Drax frowned.
	"Hmmmmm.  I think that it might well be a good idea to separate the two
for a few moments.  I should like to question the female prisoner as to her
thoughts during the creature's attack.  Perhaps we can learn of a way to
overcome its charming gaze."  Looking worriedly about the cave walls, the mage
hastened to add "However it should only be for a short while and even so we
should maintain a watch on both entrances."

	Hawk helped the bruised and stiff Tanya to her feet and escorted her
back into the main cavern, where she sank down wearily against the wall at the
eastern end. Drax and Angron took the female prisoner into the side cave, while
Hawk stood guard at its entrance. Anya escorted the male prisoner to the
western end of the cave, where she could watch the entrance. She cleaned her
short sword, humming softly, for a minute before speaking to him.
	"Are there many of you in Irongate?" He shrugged.
	"Couple hundred. Dozen priests, couple of mages."
	"All priests of the Lady?"
	"Yeah, all of them serve Arien." The name fell into a sudden silence.
It seemed to Anya that the cave had grown dark for a moment, until Tanya's
voice cut, harsh and angry, across the cavern.
	"Do not use that name!" The prisoner fell silent. Anya looked across at
the sorceress.
	"Why?" Tanya hesitated, as if considering.
	"It is past time your priest told you, I think. I will not - it is not
for me to tell."

	Angron returned, looking irritated. Hawk directed a questioning glance
in his direction.
	"Waste of time," growled Angron. "Yes, she's a follower of the Lady we
do not name." He unconsciously touched the crescent moon symbol of Lyra about
his neck. "She's also fanatically loyal to the priests here, and won't reveal
anything at all." Drak followed him out, marching the female prisoner in front
of him, and the party regrouped in the main cavern. Tanya caught Hawk's eye, a
challenging glint in her green eyes.
	"So - what are you going to do with them? And me?"
	"I suggest that it is high time that we know who and what we are
dealing with.", Drax said grimly. Looking to Angron he continued "If Cherri
has given you permission to tell us of this 'Lady', then please do so. I
should like to know whether her followers are in league with these hideous
creatures. If they are then perhaps we should 'return' these two" - he glanced
contemptuously at the prisoners, "to their goddess.  I have no stomach for
murder, but neither can I condone consorting with creatures the likes of
those."
	Hawk took some rations from his pouch and offers them along with some
water to Tanya. "Yes, Angron. I believe it is time you told us all." His tone
was slightly threatening as well as angry. "We've been in the dark too long."
Angron looked hard at the ranger.
	"Very well, it is, as I said, time you knew more. However I will not
apologise for not telling you earlier, for reasons which will become clear.
	"You know of 9 gods - Mikannan, the Creator, Tal, god of knowledge, and
messenger of the gods, whose pegasi we rode here, Kerilla, the Healer, Heslor,
the Sunlord, Sarak the Hunter, Sterma, Lord of Fate and Chance, Malana, goddess
of emotion, Verdana, goddess of nature, and Lyra, Lady of the Moon." Angron
fingered the holy symbol about his neck.
      	"However, there is also a tenth - the Mistress of Time, whose name we
do not speak. Her symbol is the hourglass that the priest who escaped broke to
cast his spell.
	"She seeks the end of time, when the whole world is one - no light, no
heat - no life. Long years ago, beyond the memory of man, she warred with the
other gods, and the Nine cast her down and bound her in a lonely place under
the northern ice. They could not defeat her utterly, for without time we could
no more live than a fly trapped in amber lives because it has avoided decay. So
unable to end Time, we seek to postpone the end of time." Tanya looked up at
Angron at this, the light of some new understanding obviously dawning across
her face.
	"Every time her name is spoken by a follower of the Nine, another one
of her chains is broken, and she works with illusion and deceit for the time
when she will be free." Anya, listening intently to the priest's  explanation,
nodded at this, glancing over at the male prisoner.
	"It is because the speaking of her name breaks her bonds that knowledge
of her is kept secret, even from junior priests, and why I was told not to tell
you this until it became necessary. It has been suggested that we could better
fight her if her true nature was known to all, but the priesthood, trained to
fight an enemy who seeks change through deception, will not lightly abandon a
system that seems to work.
	"The Dark Hunters, the demons of legend, are her children, spirits
brought to this world through sacrifice, but the creatures we fought do not
seem to be demons, for all they fight in her cause." Once Angron had finished,
there was a silence as everyone took in what had been said. At length the bard
said softly,
	"I understand the need, at times, for not releasing information.  I
hope that, in this case, the temple did not make a mistake in that decision."
--
This story is a compilation of a PBeM campaign, by:

	Mark Little ...................	Hawk
	Janet Huss .................... Anya
	Rob Holden .................... Drax
	Alan Braggins ................. Angron

	Mike Whitaker ................. GM and random cruelty to NPC's

Back episodes of Midnight's Bane are available by anonymous ftp from:
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