From: Mike Whitaker <MIKEW@SDL.MDCBBS.COM>
Subject: STORY: Midnight's Bane - part 18
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 21:48:25 GMT

	Around two dozen paces further down the passage, they came to a door
across the end of the passage, shut. Beyond it could be heard the faint murmur
of voices.
	"What now?" asked Tanya softly. She bared her teeth in a humourless
smile. "What I'd give for my pendant back, or a fireball."
	"You know it?" enquired Drax, equally softly.
	"Yes," hissed Tanya. "But I can't bloody well cast the damn thing at
the moment, can I..." There was a pause, as she looked away briefly, then back.
"I'm... I'm sorry... " She looked down at her feet. "I didn't mean to snap..."
	Angron withdrew from the door, out of hearing range. Turning to look at
the rest, Hawk motioned for them to walk back a little and keep quiet. Taking
one of his daggers from his belt, he handed it to Tanya.
	"If things get bad, keep moving and don't look back. The dagger should
help if you get into trouble. Stick close to me for now though." He frowned.
"This could be the 'dozen-or-so' guards we heard mentioned. The last thing we
want to do is to start a noisy battle down here and get caught by
reinforcements coming up behind us. Also," he looked at Tanya, "not everyone is
in a fit state to fight. Subterfuge may prove better than a sword blade." He
moved threateningly to the prisoners and took out Midnight's Bane. "I think
you two are about to earn your keep. I suggest that we get these two to go
first and convince whoever, or whatever, is on the other side of the door that
we are with them and that there's nothing wrong." Anya watched Hawk and the
male prisoner carefully.
	"I think the man will cooperate with us."  She directed her attention
to him. "You understand that your life depends on it ... you will cooperate,
won't you?" She appeared to be wrestling with a thought, and finally beckoned
Hawk, Drax and Angron close.  Very quietly, she confided, "I've cast a charm
spell on him."  Deliberately she caught Drax's eye, and said, "Once we're out
of danger, I owe you an explanation." Hawk passed no comment, but turned to
Tanya.
	"Tanya, stick close to me, and cover up." As the others discussed plans
for the prisoners, Drax paced angrily to and fro, half a mind on the ensuing
discussion and the other half frantically seeking some answer to the current
dilemma. Angron watched him for a moment, then looked across at Tanya, who was
weighing Hawk's dagger thoughfully in one hand.
	"We're in no condition to take on a dozen guards without that magic -
but we can't go back either. However, if whoever that was meant the necklace
literally has to be touching your skin, we might have a chance." Tanya looked
puzzled for a moment. "Try wrapping the chain in cloth, and see if that helps.
If so, I can at least cure you. And if the necklace will make anyone grasping
it immune to hostile magic cast at them as well, it may be a blessing as well
as a curse." Drax stopped pacing and crossed to his pack where he rummaged
about until he found a well-worn shirt, as Angron continued. "I would like to
hear more of this Company of the Phoenix, and how you came to know of She we
don't name, but I fear we have no time now, any more than we have the time to
try and persuade you we are who we claim, sent by the temple in Sasarka, and
can be trusted. Even if they will not let those creatures out again, no doubt
human search parties will appear before we have time to even rest, let alone
relearn spells."
	"Here," said Drax to the sorceress, "Try wrapping the chain in this."
Tanya, with his assistance, fumbled with the shirt. After a couple of moments,
in which Drax carefully arranged the cloth under the fine chain that encircled
her neck, and Tanya commented wryly that she'd rather be *wearing* the shirt,
there was a few seconds' silence, broken by Tanya swearing softly. "It didn't
work?" asked Drax, disappointedly.
	"No, it worked," replied Tanya, "but my familiar isn't anywhere
around." She rubbed a hand across her forehead. "Gimme a couple of minutes to
straighten my head out, huh?" Drax turned away and paces the corridor, as
Angron turned to the female prisoner.
	"You know we are determined to enter this place, and that taking you
with us would probably make our task impossible - we will have to surprise
guards who are waiting for us, or bluff our way past them - can you give us any
reason why we should let you live?" Something in the mage snapped, and he
growled the name "Sirina", before rudely shoving the priest aside, drawing the
enchanted dagger from his belt and pressing it tightly to the female prisoner's
throat.
	"Tell me all that you know about the bitch Sirina and how we may gain
entry to the temple or be prepared to meet your Lady " the mage snarled. "We've
no time to babysit the likes of you and we've already done more for you than
would have been done for us were the tables turned." The woman's eyes widened
in apparent alarm. She drew a long breath, watching Drax's knife-hand at her
throat... and then screamed at the top of her lungs. Drax whipped the blade
from her throat and plunged it into her chest over her heart, twisting it once.
The scream choked off and she fell forward, a dark red stain spreading slowly
across her tunic.
	The male prisoner pulled free of Anya's clutching hand, turned to look
at her with a hurt expression on his face, and charged for the door, shouting
at the top of his lungs. Grimly, Angron moved to pursue, and caught him up in a
dozen strides. A scant dozen yards from the door, close enough to hear a
familiar voice yelling orders behind it, he brought the fleeing prisoner down
with a single precise blow of his mace, murmuring a soft prayer to his goddesss
as he did so. Anya took a long shuddering breath, the dagger she had drawn
still poised to throw, then quietly sheathed it.
	With an unsteady hand, Drax cleaned his dagger and returned it to its
scabbard. Looking at his companions, the mage trembled, visibly upset. Offering
his hand to Angron, he said "Please accept my apologies, Brother Angron. The
madness was upon me ere I knew it and I surely meant you no disrespect." Seeing
the expectant look upon their faces, the mage's face tightened. "The last voice
we heard.., the woman?.., Sirina?.., She is my stepmother!" Anya put her arm
around Drax, murmuring comforting words to him, and assuring him that he had
done the party a favor by eliminating the most likely source of problems.
	"Later, damnit," snapped Tanya, moving toward the doorway. From beyond
the door, a familiar voice was raised.
	"You in there! Throw down your weapons and come out, and you will not
be harmed." They looked at each other, Drax still trembling slightly.
Perspiration was beading on Tanya's brow, and her face was pale as she thrust a
cupped palm out in front of the mage, her voice low and urgent.
	"Dust of evocation..." Drax looked at her in surprise.
	"Can you cast....?" His question was cut short by the door being opened
at the end of the passage - beyond it there were two crouched figures with
crossbows, but no-one else visible. Tanya's mouth was set in a grim line as she
replied to the mage's unfinished question.
	"Let's find out."
	Seeing the open door and the bowmen on the other side of it, Drax
paused in the act of passing a pinch of fine powder to Tanya, instead
gesturing with his left hand, begining to incant words in the mage's tongue.
Simultaneously Angron, one hand grasping his holy symbol, started to utter the
words of a spell as Hawk and Anya both crept forward. The two guards both
fired, one at each spellcaster. The female guard's bolt passed within a few
inches of Drax's face, failing to interrupt his casting, whilst the second
caught Angron in the upper arm. He broke off with a grunt of pain, as Drax's
spell finished, blocking the doorway and part of the room beyond with a tracery
of sticky webs. Reaching quickly into his pouch, the mage withdrew another dose
of the dust and passed it to Tanya as the two guards frantically re-cocked
their heavy crossbows.
	"Here", he said, "that may not hold them very long and we need room for
a backblast from your spell at any rate." Tanya looked along the passage, and
stiffened as she heard the fair-haired cleric's voice raised in the words of a
spell. Grinning slyly, Drax added "With any luck, they will need to bring up
their reinforcements to get through the web. If you can catch more of them with
your spell, it may even the odds somewhat." He glanced at the sorceress, who
had been ignoring him, eyeing up the size of the room and the corridor. "How
big a backblast do you expect?" Tanya shrugged.
	"Not very. Hawk - FREEZE!" The tall ranger stopped, some ten feet from
the door, as Tanya began to spellcast, her voice rising in volume in
competition with the cleric's chant till a streak of fire flashed from her
outstretched hand, just as the webs, to Drax's alarm, began to dissolve. The
male guard screamed as the line of fire hit the back wall between him and his
companion and exploded with a deafening roar, blossoming into a ball of searing
flame and heat that expanded to fill the room. A wall of flame rushed up the
corrdor, and Hawk felt its intense heat on his face, diving backwards as the
fireball died out some two feet in front of where he had been standing.
        Tanya put one hand out to steady herself against the wall, and mopped
perspiration from her forehead with the other, her face pale.
	"That's it - I can't cast anything else."
	Hawk and Angron headed through the door in the wake of the fireball,
followed more cautiously by Anya and Drax, with Tanya bringing up the rear. The
square room beyond contained several charred bodies, and a couple of groaning
prone forms. Still standing were the fair-haired priest and two guards, all
looking somewhat the worse for wear, but ready with weapons drawn. On the same
wall as the passage the party entered by, on the left, was an open door with
stairs up, and on the left hand wall two more closed doors. The three advanced,
Angron taking one guard, and Hawk the other and the priest.
	In the doorway, Anya, throwing dagger ready in one hand, turned to the
ashen-faced Tanya.
	"You OK?" Tanya grimaced.
	"No, but I'll survive." She leant on the wall for support. "We want to
go upstairs - the other doors are the dungeons, I think."
	Hawk parried the cleric's mace with a sweep of Midnight's Bane, pulling
the heavy-ended weapon to the floor and unbalancing the priest. With his dagger
he parried a clumsy cut from the guard, who seemed to be fairly badly injured,
judging by the way he was wielding his sword, and swung the blue-steel bladed
longsword back and across, opening a red slash across the guard's throat. The
guard sank to the ground, choking and coughing on the blood that filled his
lungs, as the priest recovered his balance. As Hawk turned to face him he
sneered.
	"You may win here, but you'll never escape Irongate."
	Angron wielded his mace with practised skill against the remaining
guard, despite his wounded arm. The two men circled and tested each other's
defences for a few seconds, and then there was a flurry of blows on both sides,
and the guard fell to the floor, his face a smashed ruin.
	The priest blocked Hawk's first sequence of attacks, barely getting the
mace in the way of Midnight's Bane. He took a step back towards the stairs,
and then flung the mace in desparation at Hawk and turned to run up the steps.
Hawk ducked to avoid the hurtling mace, only just keeping his balance, and a
throwing dagger spun over his head and buried itself between the cleric's
shoulder blades, to the accompaniment of a satisfied 'Hah!" from Anya as the
cleric pitched forward onto the stairs and slid slowly back down to end up in a
lifeless heap at the bottom.

	"Where now?" asked Hawk, turning to Tanya.
	"Up the stairs," replied Drax, glancing at Tanya, who nodded. The five
headed upstairs, Hawk in front, Drax lending a hand to the obviously ailing
Tanya. At the top of what was quite a long flight of stairs, they emerged on a
corner, with corridors ahead, and right. A door stood open on the left up
ahead, and to the right they could hear the sound of several sets of approaching
running footsteps.
	"Try the door," snapped Angron. Hawk sprinted to the door and peered
round it cautiously, then beckoned. Angon covered the door as the rest of them
enter the room. It was a large room, looking from the furnishings to be the
high priest's study. Apart from the large desk, on which are a number of papers
and two slim  hide-bound books, the most significant feature was the small
altar, draped in black, and a large mirror, oddly showing no reflection. As
they took this in, and Anya moved towards the desk, a voice in the corridor
snapped  "Inside". Everyone turned to the door, weapons drawn.
	Angron backed into the room, followed by a woman, dark-haired and
attractive, holding a wand in an outstretched hand pointed at him. She pushed
the door shut with her free hand as Drax growled "Sirina". To her credit, her
face registered the merest flicker of surprise, then looking Drax straight in
the eye she let the wand fall to the ground between her feet and showed her
empty hands to them all.
	"Listen to me, if you want out of here alive."
	Anya, dagger still in hand, decided that this was best worked out
between Drax and Sirina.  She continued towards the desk for a glance at its
contents. Drax scooped up the wand which Sirina had just dropped, then stepped
back and stared at her impassively while Hawk searched her for concealed
weapons, retrieving the dagger at her belt, then turning to Drax.
       	"She's your relative. What do you think? Personally, I have a very bad
feeling about this: not more than twenty minutes ago she was talking about our
capture, and now ... Why should we trust you? Why the sudden change of heart?
Never trust a traitor." Drax acknowledged the ranger's words with an almost
imperceptible nod of his head before addressing Sirina in an ice-cold tone.
	"Give me one good reason why we should listen to you?" Sirina smiled
at him.
	"Because there are anything up to a hundred guards and several priests
looking for you, who might come through that door at any moment. And because I
know how to use that mirror, which can take you any place within twenty miles
of here."
	Hawk motioned the room to silence. Running footsteps approached,
then receeded, downstairs by their sound. The ranger listened a moment longer,
then nodded to Drax. Angron opened his mouth to say something, but caught Drax's
eye and remained silent as he continued, meeting Sirina's cool gaze.
	"And what do you want in return for that knowledge?" Sirina watched for
a few seconds as Anya picked up the two books and swept up a sheaf of  papers
from the desk, and then quickly across at Hawk who was still covering the door,
before turning back to Drax, still with a faint grin playing across her full
lips.
	"You to leave with those books. Oh, and the return of my wand and
dagger."
	"What kind of game are you playing, woman?" She smiled at her stepson.
	"My own." She glanced across at Tanya, leaning weakly on a chair back.
"If I were you I'd hurry up and decide - your friend over there doesn't look
like she's going to get much further." Drax glared at the woman.
	"Then tell us where her familiar is, and how we remove the pendant."
Sirina tossed her head back, shaking aside the hair that was falling into her
eyes.
	"My dear boy, you always were full of questions." She favours him with
another mocking smile. "Her pet snake is with her doppleganger, wherever that
is by now. As for the chain, if you really want it removed, ask the high
priest - I don't know."
	Hawk raised a hand again. Oustide could be heard voices, fairly close at
hand but muffled by the door, and then that of the high priest, soft yet
deadly, and somehow carrying.
	"So search the dungeons and the passage. Search everywhere. They can't
have gone far. And find that damn witch." Sirina fixed Drax with a level gaze.
	"The mirror. Or whatever fate he has in store. Your choice." 		
	"We don't really have much of a choice about using the mirror.
However," Hawk paused and looked over at Tanya, "we could try to get the High
Priest before we leave and make him take that necklace off your neck. I'm
willing to remain with Tanya to do that and then follow the rest of you through
the mirror. What do you think." Listening again at the door for the sounds of
approaching footsteps Hawk finished with, "Whatever we're going to do, we'd
better do it quickly." Angron stared at him incredulously.
	"You want to take on a High Priest who is searching for us on his own
ground when we are just about out of magic? You have got to be joking!" Hawk
stared impassively at Angron and drew Midnight's Bane from its scabbard.
	"I've yet to meet a magic-user or priest who can cast with an inch of
steel between his ribs. This might be the only chance we have to rid Tanya of
that necklace. If that's the case then I'm willing to take the chance. You
don't have to." He pointed to the mirror, then turned to Tanya. The sorceress
looked up at him, her face pale, her knuckles white where she gripped the
chair back for support, and shook her head.
	"It's not worth the risk. Let's just get out of here. Please."
	Drax looked about the room as the ranger and cleric exchanged words,
noting the cleric's bandaged arm, Tanya's worsening condition, and last of all
Sirina's now-serious face.
	"No,", the mage snapped, "Angron and Tanya are right in this.  We would
be hard pressed to take the High Priest fully prepared. In our present
condition and without magic..." Anya nodded solemnly in agreement. Turning to
the group, Drax held out his hand to Hawk for Sirina's dagger. "Besides, if we
act quickly, we can use this to our advantage and throw off the pursuit.  From
the sound of things, the High Priest has no great love for Sirina either, so I
doubt that she will be quickly volunteering the fact that she aided in our
escape."  Facing Sirina, he said "Two questions before we go... One - where
will the mirror take us? and two - What is so important in those books that you
would risk the wrath of the High Priest to aid in our escape?" Sirina took her
wand and dagger from Drax's outstretched hand.
	"Those books? You'll find out - but watch out for glyphs on them." She
smiled at Anya, who suddenly seemed to be holding the books with a great deal
more care, then took four swift strides across to the mirror. "As for where
you're going..." Anya looked questioningly at Sirina.
	"Is it possible to send me through far enough....?" Footsteps outside
the door made her pause. They stopped, and the high priest's voice could be
heard clearly.
	"Sharyn, bring your section here, now." Sirina laid a hand on the frame
and muttered a few magical syllables in a harsh whisper, then concentrated for
a second. The strange surface of the mirror rippled, and then cleared to reveal
a blask ash plain, upon which were patches of snow. Chill air blew into the
room through the mirror.
 	"Go!" Drax moved towards the mirror, turning to his stepmother as he
did so, his voice a forceful whisper.
	"Where?"
	"Northeast - 15 miles. Go, damn you!" Drax stepped over the bottom edge
of the mirror frame and into the mirror. Angron, behind him, could see his
back, and the footprints he was leaving in the ash of the Black Plain, as he
followed him, supporting Tanya. With a last glance at Sirina, Hawk and Anya
followed, the ranger's voice low and grim.
	"I'll be back." Anya flashed him a brilliant smile and a thumbs-up
gesture. Sirina, too, smiled at him, while reaching into a belt pouch, and as
they stepped through, he heard her purr softly "I'll be waiting."	
--
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 pyrotechnics

Back episodes of Midnight's Bane are available by anonymous ftp from:
Machine name: 		quayle.mu.wvnet.edu	
Internet address:  	129.71.32.151