Part V

Note: Belak’s dialog is taken directly for The Sunless Citadel written by Bruce R. Cordell.

            To be honest, I don’t know what happened next. There was a bunch of noise as fighting took place. I kept trying to get free but to no avail. I think the plants were mad at me for all the plant people killing I’d done. I have to admit that I’ve been quite blood-thirsty, but given that they are plants, I’d guess I’d be sap-thirsty.

            Suddenly the plants let go. I stood up just in time to see a large frog jumping my way.

            There wasn’t even time enough to swear before its tongue lashed out at me and I was inside the frog.

            Now I know what you’re thinking, eww, but it is actually quite warm and cozy inside a frog, you should try it sometime. It was quite nice, well, except for the burning of its stomach acid.

            I decided that I didn’t want to be digested. My friends needed my help. I kicked, scratched, and even yelled. I must have upset the frog’s stomach because I was then vomited out onto the ground.

            I hopped as far as I could, then ran away.

            Not the noblest of actions, but I’m a wizard, not a knight. I’m more dangerous at a distance.

            I turned in time to see Lyrie slashing and killing the frog as she yelled, “Don’t go eating my friends.”

            Erky and Zylena were all engaged in combat with the plant creatures and the two gray-skinned humanoids. The normal-looking human was stuck in grabby and grasp-y plants just like I had been. I wonder what he did to make the plants mad.

            “Don’t hurt Sharwyn,” Lyrie yelled at Erky and Zylena.

            Now I recognized her, Lyrie’s cousin was the gray-skinned elven female. Her time at this sunless citadel had not done her any favors. She needed to get some fresh air. She also seemed quite grumpy as she flung spells at my friends. The gray-skinned human had drawn a sword and fought with Zylena.

I cast Flaming Sphere to help my friends out. I moved the sphere around the garden taking out the plant-people and the gray-skinned human male. Lyrie’s cousin, Sharwyn, was soon knocked out and tied up by Lyrie and Zylena.

“Hold a moment, you know not what you do?” the man captured by the grabby plants yelled.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am Belak, called the Outcast. My circle expelled me, the fools.”

“I can’t imagine why they’d do that,” Lyrie said.

“They kicked me out because I dared to expand nature’s reach in ways they couldn’t grasp. I have found what I sought in the Gulthias Tree.”

“What’s a Gluthias Tree?” I asked.

“It’s beautiful, no?” Belak asked.

“No,” I said as I looked at the twisted and cadaverous-looking tree.

“It lives though it looks dead,” Belak continued ignoring my response. “In an age long past, someone staked a vampire on this very spot. The stake took root. And so grew the Gulthias Tree, reverberating with primal power for those who can tap it.”

I knew the creepy tree needed to be destroyed. I sent my Flaming Sphere to engulf it.

            “Stop hurting my tree,” Belak said.

            “Surrender,” I said.

            “Never.”

            “Then I guess the tree needs to be destroyed.”

            My Flaming Sphere consumed the ugly tree and Belak tried desperately to escape the grabby plants.

            Sharwyn escaped her bonds and moved to attack me. I kept my concentration on my spell and tried to stay away from her. The tree cracked as flames consumed it. Lyrie’s cousin gasped and Belak broke free of the grasp-y, grabby plants. Lyrie, Zylena, and I threw everything we had against the crazy druid and he died.

            Lyrie’s cousin collapsed into a heap. Zylena healed her, but she still looked terrible.

            “I don’t think you healed her well enough,” I said.

            “Whatever happened to her is beyond my abilities to cure,” Zylena said.

            “There is a way,” Lyrie’s cousin gasped.

            “There is?” Lyrie asked. “What is it, Sharwyn?”

            “I heard him talking about the supplicants. I will die if I am not cured.”

            “What is this cure?” Zylena asked.

“It is a potion that he keeps in his library,” Sharwyn gasped.

            “Library?” I asked.

            “We’ll need to find this potion,” Lyrie said as she picked up the sword that the fallen human had wielded.

            “Library?” I asked again. They had obviously missed the most important element of what Sharwyn said. Belak has a library. More importantly, Belak is dead, so that means I can get more books for Lyrie’s parent’s library. You know, my library.

            “Sharwyn, where is your brother?” Lyrie asked.

            “Library?” I asked a little louder.

            “He’s dead,” Sharwyn said. “Belak killed him.”

            “Belak doesn’t deserve a library, because he is so mean,” I said more to myself, but I made sure to say it loud enough so that the implications of what I was saying were heard.

            “Let’s make sure there is nothing else in here that can hurt us,” Zylena said.

            “I bet it’s safer in the library,” I said.

            “Erky, help my cousin walk,” Lyrie said.

            “To the library?” I asked.

            “Yes,” Lyrie said. “To the library.”

            The key that we found on Belak opened the locked door just outside in the hallway. The floor was covered in dirt and plants were growing out of it basking in the light from luminous fungus on the ceiling. Rough-hewn bookshelves and a poorly crafted desk sat in the middle of the room. There were a couple of tomes and some scrolls carelessly tossed on the shelves. I picked up a volume with the title of Druidic Theories of the Cycles of Life and Death. I knew exactly where I would place it in Lyrie’s family’s library.

            “What does this say?” Zylena asked as she showed the cover of another tome to me.

            “Treasures of the Fire Lords, it is in draconic,” I said.

            She opened it and the room exploded in a cold shock. We all stood stunned for a moment, well maybe a couple of moments. I noticed that I could see my breath.

            “Is everyone all right?” Lyrie asked.

            We all nodded.

            “What happened?” Lyrie asked.

            “Zylena opened a book,” I said.

            “Maybe we should leave the books to Hops,” Lyrie said.

            “I agree,” I said.

            Zylena shrugged and handed me the book. I reached to open it back up.

            “Is that wise?” Lyrie asked.

            “No,” I said and opened the book anyway. I really wanted to know what treasures the fire lords loved so much, but the pages were blank. All of them. I checked them twice.

            There were a couple of scrolls with cleric spells, I handed them to Zylena.

            “This is kind of a disappointing library,” I said. “There are only two books and one of them is blank.”

            “This is not the library,” Sharwyn said.

            “It’s not,” I said.

            “No, this is his study.”

            “We need to get to the library,” I said.

            We headed back in the direction that we had come from. There was a door that we had not checked near where the skeleton gardeners had been. We did our usual checking and then opened the door to broken stone bookshelves. Damaged books and burnt pages were strewn around the room.

            “I should’ve known,” I said. “A creepy druid wouldn’t know how to properly treat books.”

            I sifted through the debris trying to find any scrap of undamaged paper. I was able to find a scroll inscribed with Melf’s Acid Arrow, which I thought might be useful someday. Then I found it. An undamaged book bound in dragon scale buried in the wreckage of the library. I carefully wiped away the soot and dust from its cover. The book was written in draconic and full of lore about dragons. It was so beautiful that I hugged it. I would have to create a new section in the library with books that I had found. I would have to clear some shelves and re-organize the books to make the new section. I would place it right in front of my desk so that I could look at it and keep it dust-free.

            Lyrie, Zylena, and Sharwyn were happy about finding some sort of potion. I was happy for them, but I had found a book. I gently place the tome in my backpack right next to my other two new books.

            Sharwyn looked better after drinking the potion. I don’t think she’ll slow us down anymore.

            “We should go,” Lyrie said. “And go quietly so as not to disturb anyone else down here.”

            We tip-toed back to the well shaft we had drifted down and quietly made our way back up it. We made it back to the room where we had met Po, I mean Meepo, and where we had released Calcryx.

            “I want to check in with the kobolds,” I said.

            “Why?” Lyrie asked. “Do you miss Po?”

            “No,” I decided not to correct Lyrie about Meepo’s name. “Do you remember the key on the kobold leader’s throne?”

            “Yes,” Lyrie said.

            “I want it,” I replied. “We deserve it, after all, we did reunite them with their dragon.”

            “Why?” Lyrie asked.

            “I think it opens that door with the dragon sea turtle thing-y in the first hallway.”

            “I guess we can,” Lyrie said.

            “Besides, what could go wrong?” I asked

            The door to the kobold section of the citadel stood open. No more fires lit the rooms and hallways. The hallways were littered with debris and parts of kobolds.

            “I don’t think the reunion went well for the kobolds,” Lyrie said.

            We peeked into the main hall where the leader of the kobolds had been. Sitting on the throne was the white dragon wyrmling, Calcryx. The wyrmling was barely visible in the soft glow of a dying fire, I could just make out that the key was still there.

            “Stay here,” I said to my friends. “Let me go talk to him.”

            Before anyone could reply, or stop me, I stepped out into the hall.

            “Hello, great and mighty Calcryx,” I said.

            “Hello, little bunny,” the wyrmling replied as it continued to lounge on the throne.

            “I see you’ve found a new place to live.”

            “It is comfortable, with plenty of food,” Calcryx said as it pointed at the door behind me. I could hear the sounds of the desperate kobolds behind the door.

            “That’s great, we are glad we could help.”

            “True, I could not have done it without you,” Calcryx said.

            “We deserve a reward,” I said.

            “What kind of reward?”

“I think the key in the throne would be enough,” I said as I pointed to it.

            Calcryx craned its head on its long neck to look at the key in the mouth of the carved dragon.

            “This key?” Calcryx asked.

            “Yes. I will give you this jade dragon figurine, that I found, to you.”

            “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

            I made the long trek down that long hall to place the jade dragon on the dais. Calcryx dropped the key into my hand.

            “May your reign be long and fruitful,” I said, then I made the same long trek back while walking backward.

            “We can’t leave it alive,” Lyrie said when I rejoined my friends.

            “I agree,” I replied.

            We made a plan and got into position.

            Erky, Sharwyn, and I stood at the end of the hallway leading into the great hall nearest the throne where Calcryx lounged. We waited for the signal to move.

            I heard the signal, the door to the kobolds opened at the other end of the hall. The kobolds’ screams of terror shot through the quiet of the sunless citadel. I could hear Calcryx get down from its throne and wall down the great hall to investigate. When I thought it was safe to, I opened the hood to my lantern and gave us just a touch of light to see by. I caught a glimpse of its tail as Calcryx had passed by the end of the hallway.

            I led Erky and Sharwyn down the hall. Gumdrop flew into the hall and took position next to the vacated throne. I cast Flaming Sphere, catching the wyrmling in the spell’s blistering heat and lighting up the hall. Before Erky or Sharwyn could do anything, Calcryx turned with lightning-fast reflexes and used its freezing breath weapon on us. I was luckily able to avoid a direct hit as I was behind one of the entwined dragon pillars. Erky and Sharwen were not so lucky and both fell to the attack.

            The light winked out because I lost concentration on the Flaming Sphere.

            Light came from the hallway and Zylena came running into view to help Lyrie’s fallen cousin. The movement caught Calcryx’s eye, too. The wyrmling roared and charged the firbolg and our two fallen compatriots.

            I stepped out from behind the pillar and unleashed three Magic Missiles, but my attack did not slow the dragon. Zylena ducked under its attempt to take her head off. The firbolg cast another spell to heal Erky.

            I did not have much magic left, but I could not let my verbally challenged friend fall. Plus, we’d just saved both Erky and Sharwen, I couldn’t let them die either. I fired three more Magic Missiles and the dragon fell.

            The room fell silent.

The door at the end of the hall closed and I looked to see that Lyrie closed it. I walked over and leaned against the dead dragon, relieved that the fight was over and we’d all survived, then I heard a whistle. And the dragon moved.