From: cgirard@neumann.une.edu.au (The Blade of Malchrntyne)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [T&R] 4.9: Day of the Dead
Date: 18 Nov 92 02:26:47 GMT


>Rollik's eyes swept the room, searching for possibilities. His eyes were
>irresistibly drawn to the far side of the room, where a giant decorative rope
>was tied to the third story and stretched to the ceiling far above.
>	"I guess I'll just have to wing it" he said. 

	Timelord dropped his cloak and moved silently to his right, towards
the nearest staircase leading to the lower levels.  A guard was ahead of him;
with the speed and silence of a cat he moved up behind the guard and wrapped
his arms around his neck, cutting of his airways.  After a brief struggle
Timelord lowered the lifeless form to the floor and continued.
	He cast frequent glances around himself, but the shadowy figures of
the guards seemed completely engrossed in whatever was happening in the 
middle of the room, and hadn't noticed him.
	In a few minutes he had reached the floor level of the chamber.
He stood concealed behind a large pillar, planning his next move.
	Apart from the ten mages, the ground level seemed empty.  Reaching
behind his neck Timelord drew his wakizashi, took a few deep breaths, and
plunged towards the mages at a dead run.
	Immediately there were several deep but faint thumping sounds.
Instinctively Timelord dove and rolled sideways to avoid two of the crossbow
bolts, then swung his katana to deflect a third.  Springing to his feet,
he crossed the last few yards to the centre of the room and swung at the 
nearest mage.
	His sword was of the finest steel, sharpened and polished to a
hyper keen edge, but even that could not account for the ease with which
it passed through the body of the mage.  It sliced through, meeting no
resistance, and after the blow the cloak crumpled to the ground, containing
nothing but dust and a few shards of ancient bone.
	Instantly a blast of raw power threw Timelord backwards across
the room, crashing him in the far wall with stunning force.  For a moment
he was unable to move, such was the force of the blow.  As feeling came
back to his limbs he groaned and got shakily to his feet.
	A hideous laughter filled the room, coming from he apparition 
above the centre of the room.
	"I knew Mouzdin-Zor was lying," laughed Ak'lssh, "that Drow couldn't
speak the truth to save his life.  So you and you friend have returned to
try to..."
	The voice broke off suddenly.  Then it returned, hissing with anger,
tinged with a trace of fear.
	"You have it with you!" Ak'lssh whispered.  "I can feel its presence!
No matter," he continued, louder, "it will do you no good.  I will deal with
both of you my way!"
	With that a door, partly concealed in the shadowy recesses of one
wall creaked open, and through it shambled six forms, filling the room with
a familiar charnel house reek. 
	"Face my deathwalkers!" shouted Ak'lssh triumphantly.
	The six deathwalkers fanned out in a line, moving slowly but
inexorably towards Timelord.  The form in the middle looked familiar, and as
they came closer Timelord realised it was Mouzdin-Zor, now an animated corpse,
come once more to try to kill him.
	Timelord sheathed his wakizashi and stepped forward, his katana at
the ready.  	
	The deathwalkers began to form into a semi circle, intent on trapping
him in the middle.  Seeing this, Timelord attacked the nearest deathwalker,
slicing through its right arm and into the torso.  He then ducked past it,
and turned quickly.
	The deathwalker bent over and picked up its severed limb, wielding it
like a club.  Timelord paled, realising that mere dismemberment was not
going to stop these creatures.
	The deathwalkers turned towards him, then as if responding to some
unseen signal, attacked him as a group with frightening speed.
	Timelord swung savagely at the rampaging figures, but was knocked over
by the strength of the deathwalkers, his katana shocked from his grasp.	 
Flipping himself backwards and to his feet, Timelord launched a roundhouse
kick to one deathwalker, then reflexively kicked backwards, catching a second
in the chest.  A putrifying hand grasped his shoulder, and Timelord spun 
around, one hand knocking the hand off his shoulder and the other employing
a vicious knife-hand strike to the deathwalker's temple.  The skull caved in,
and Timelord launched into a series of back flips, ending on his feet next to
his katana.
	He now faced four deathwalkers; Mouzdin-Zor, an undead ninja with a
curious reversed L-shaped wound in its stomach, and two others.  The other
two lay on the ground, one missing most of its head from Timelord's savage
roundhouse.  Timelord shouted his battlecry, and attacked.  A lightning
straight punch dispatched a third deathwalker, while his sword bereft another
of its head.
	Two left.  Timelord circled warily, sensing that these two, the ninja
and the Drow, were the strongest, the most powerful of the deathwalkers.  He
slashed at the ninja, but the blow was easily dodged and Timelord was sent
staggering backwards as the deathwalker let fly with a snap punch.  Mouzdin-Zor
moved in for the kill, but Timelord threw his katana, catching the undead Drow
just above the bridge of the nose.
	One.  Timelord dropped into a fighting stance, left leg advanced, hands
raised.  Living against the dead; the two fighters moved warily, each waiting
to see who would make the first move.  Seeing again the curious wound, 
Timelord realised that this must have been the ninja that so nearly killed
Rollik when they had been separated in the Labarynth.
	The deathwalker moved forwards, faking a front kick, and launched a
series of punches at Timelord.  He blocked them easily, countering with a side
kick that crunched into the creature's chest.
	It did not seem to feel the broken bones; Timelord suspected that it
was long past feeling anything.  Again it attacked, this time with a series
of spinning and leaping kicks, forcing Timelord backwards.  A glancing blow
knocked him to the ground, and the deathwalker leaped at him, jaws agape.
Timelord gathered his legs underneath him and thrust upwards savagely as the
deathwalker landed on him, throwing the ninja through the air.
	Timelord rolled to his feet just in time to see the deathwalker land
on the nimbus of power that lay in the centre of the ring of mages.  With
a savage explosion the deathwalker exploded on contact with the nimbus.
	"Impressive," came the voice of Ak'lssh as Timelord retrieved his
katana.  "Most impressive.  I would have thought that my deathwalkers would
have been more than a match for you.  I see that more..drastic..measures will
be required."
	With that there was a thunderous crashing sound.  Spinning to face
the sound, Timelord saw that something had just burst through one wall of the
chamber.  As the dust settled, Timelord saw what the "something" was.
	Roaring with fury, the undead stone giant charged.



 The Blade of Malchrntyne (CJ)| There comes a time when the jewels cease to
 Drummond College A100        | sparkle, and the gold loses its lustre, and
 x 3069                       | the throne room becomes a prison - and all
 There can be only one.       | that remains is a father's love for his child