The house serving as the base for the creatures which had attacked Tamil's hometown and pursued her on the road to Neverwinter was unremarkable and easily overlooked. It appeared to be some sort of older boarding house near the warehouse district between the docks and the Merchant Quarter. Tamil, SG-1, and the other friends they had made on this adventure had passed that very house many times while working with the Neverwinter City Watch, thinking the building just another abandoned structure. Now they knew it housed those responsible for tragedy that tore at Tamil Farlong's heartstrings.
Neeshka was the first to the building, expertly disabling the locks on the front door. Tamil was the first through the door, followed by Khelgar, Jack O'Neal, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, and then Neeshka bringing up the rear once the rest were through the doorway. Tamil hadn't asked the others to join up as this was not really their battle, aside from Elanee who was helping Casavir and Grobnar settle into the inn. The members of SG-1, Khelgar, and Neeshka had all been attacked by those minions who were once more trying to strike at their friend and so they had a stake in this operation. But that was nothing next to what Tamil Farlong felt as she entered the domain of her enemy.
The bard unsheathed her weapon, the Astral Blade taken from the bandit chief back at Fort Locke and prepared herself for the battle to come. Daniel took the opportunity to begin quietly chanting spells he had spent hours learning and then practicing. One by one he touched his friends, encasing them in a magical barrier that would turn aside attacks. When he finished with that he spoke an incantation and suddenly there were four Daniels standing next to each other, all moving in perfect synchronization. Jack looked at his long time friend and quirked his eyebrows. But when Samantha Carter started chanting and multiple images of her appeared around him, his jaw dropped.
"Aw come on! This is really getting ridiculous!" he said in mock complaint. "Carter, I thought you were opposed to the whole magic thing." On some level he really did feel he was being left out of things, but for the most part he was joking.
"I'm not fully convinced this isn't some kind of advanced technology, but I have to admit I have no idea really how I'm doing this without it being magic." Major Carter's voice came simultaneously from all the images so that Jack had no idea which was really her and which were just mirrored versions. "But in a situation like this, I'll take all the protection I can get."
In addition to the mage armor placed on everyone by the archeologist-turned-magician, Teal'c also invoked the blessing of Tyr on everyone present for more protection. Sam and Daniel added another magical shield for themselves each; ones Jack remembered Qara saying could only work on the person who made the spell. Tamil intoned a spell of her own and she was surrounded by an aura that made her seem to come into focus, as if she were larger than life. Then she started humming a tune that sent shivers of energy through each of them as if they had heard their national anthem.
Usually, Neeshka would lead the way into an unknown environment to make sure there were no traps, but Tamil wasn't waiting. As soon as the group was all set, each one glowing with the magic protecting them, she kicked open a door and charged forward to face those who had been dogging her steps. She immediately came face to face with the pale, greenish gray-skinned humanoids she had seen leading the attack against her home. Her eyes narrowed as she struck out at the first surprised githyanki.
It was a vicious, bloody battle. Tamil engaged with several of them at once, her blade piercing through one of the creatures in front of her. Several others moved to surround her, but they approached recklessly and her blade caught one as it came on. In addition to the githyanki, with their protruding chins and oversized teeth, there were also lesser foes she recognized as bladelings, which along with the grey dwarves had made up most of the attacking force which attacked West Harbor. Tamil's heart was filled with rage, reliving the moments of battle where her people were senselessly attacked without warning or parlay.
The creatures she faced were dangerous, far more so than the foot soldiers who had attacked the village of West Harbor on that dark day just a few months ago. They were more skilled with their weapons and physically tougher. But then, so was Tamil Farlong. The long road and intense practice she had engaged in had honed her skills both with blade and battle songs to a fine point, and she was driving that point straight through the hearts of those that had hurt her. In some ways, they were responsible for making the instrument of their own destruction.
Khelgar Ironfist was a tenacious fighter, and brutal in his use of his axe. Usually Tamil had a hard time keeping up with the burly dwarf. But the Ironfist clan warrior was having a hard time matching Tamil's savagery augmented by the heroism she had imbued herself with. Her human body was not nearly as tough as his, but she was not slowing as she took cuts and hits from her attackers. Of course, she was giving far worse than she was taking, and their opponents began to fall to the ground with twisted screams of hate on their lips.
Jack, Daniel, and Sam came into the room seeing the melee and initially didn't really see how to help. Teal'c aimed his Ma'tok staff, but could not see a clear target. That was, until reinforcements for the creatures started coming in through the doorway ahead. As bladelings or their masters carrying large great swords rushed through the entrance, they were picked off one by one by zat fire or a plasma blast.
Tamil finished the last of her standing opponents and stalked off to find more of them. The rest of the group had to hurry to keep up. She was soon not disappointed as several of the githyanki and bladelings poured in to continue the battle. When a large number of enemies managed to surround the party, entering the room from two different entrances, Tamil suddenly disengaged from her attacker and with a dazzling flourish spun her sword into her shield-hand while sliding a lute around to her front hip. She strummed a short sequence on the instrument while singing a eerie tune that could only be a curse. Waves a music-borne magic radiated from Tamil, crashing discordantly into every hostile creature around.
Jack didn't hear the tune, except for a sudden deep note, but he could see the effect. All the spike-faced creatures and humanoids that looked like post-Apocalyptic zombie people with giant teeth seemed to stagger in pain. Even after the short riff from the beautiful woman had ended, even when she was again slashing and stabbing with her blade, Jack could still see that the effect of whatever it was she had done was still hampering the movement of the creatures.
One of the bladelings stabbed Daniel Jackson through the stomach, only for him to simply vanish. A few steps away, the real Daniel pointed his zat at the smaller spine-faced brute and blasted it. Then seeing a pattern in the combat where several enemies roughly formed a line down the room, he chanted quickly and pointed his finger in the direction of the enemy. A bolt of lightning shot out from his fingers, striking through all of them with a crackling power.
The power of Tamil's Curse Song set the enemy back on their heels and the bard pressed the attack without hesitation or remorse. "This is for Pierson!" Tamil growled as she stabbed one of the githyanki through the neck. "This one is for Vera!" she said grimly as she slashed through a bladeling. One of the creatures with a large two-handed sword was backing away from Khelgar, who was busy finishing off one of the bladelings. Tamil Farlong took the opportunity to stalk it down and stab it straight through the gut, look it in the eye, and add, "And that, was for Amie, you big-toothed, grey-skinned bastard!"
All of Tamil's companions were taken aback by her savagery. They knew she was tough and a far cry from being a shy little girl, but they had never known anything bloodthirsty about her character. Even that rather minor profanity was unlike her generally well-spoken manner. They all knew that her apparent refinement was a matter of natural grace, but so was the carefree zest that so often infected the group, even the more reserved of the companions. The attack on her home had struck her deeper than they had known.
There was one more room in the back section of the house, and when Daniel opened it, thinking it had to be empty, he very quickly closed it shut again and hoped none of the thirty or so githyanki had seen him. "Um, guys, lots of bad guys in here."
Neeshka, seeing Daniel's reaction, gave him a mischievous smile and went to take a look herself. "Next time, let me check for 'bad guys'. Wouldn't want to… whoah. You're right. LOTS of bad guys in there."
"Lots, you say?" Jack walked over rather casually. "Alright. I'll take care of this one." He opened the door and threw in three grenades.
After a powerful explosion, a few greatly weakened 'bad guys' staggered out of the room choking on black smoke. They weren't in any condition to avoid being stunned by zat'nik'tel fire. Khelgar, Tamil, and Neeshka looked at Jack with wide eyes waiting for an explanation.
"Grenades," he said. When he got something that resembled a "why didn't you use them earlier?" stare from them, he explained. "We've had these all along, but not many of them. After we brought back that crate of 'blast globes' though, Carter promised she'd be able to use the chemicals to make some more."
With the back areas of the place cleared out, the group walked down the halls to the front section. There was a single room with a giant portal shimmering strangely to a place far away. One of the creatures stepped through the portal followed by a giant metal golem with long blades for arms. The golem slashed the creature, quickly dispatched another two githyanki in the room, and then turned its attention on Tamil and SG-1.
Three zat blasts in succession did nothing to it.
"Uh oh," Jack said simply.
But Khelgar and Tamil didn't hesitate to run up and engage the monstrosity. Teal'c leveled his staff weapon and fired a blast at it. The golem staggered back. It looked like the thing was going to continue fighting, but then it suddenly turned and ran back through the open portal. Then the portal exploded.
"Just to make sure my eyes aren't lying to me - a huge suit of armor did smash through here, attack the githyanki - and us - then we drove it back to the portal?" Khelgar asked.
"That was a robot!" Carter exclaimed. "I knew it was alien technology causing this all along!" She ran over to the remains of the portal. "Hopefully we can learn more about this gate. I bet if we can find who made these robots we can find our way back home."
Daniel rained on her parade. "Sam, that was a magical robot. They call them golems. Though, I don't remember reading about that particular kind. They move autonomously using spirit energies and enchantments, not circuitry and microprocessors."
They rounded up the stunned githyanki, bound them, and took them to the Merchant Quarter headquarters of the City Watch. They were met by Captain Brelaina and an officer under the command of the Neverwinter Nine. After some wrangling about jurisdiction and properly following orders, the githyanki were turned over for questioning. It would turn out to be a moot point. They would say nothing, other than those who killed themselves shouting out, "For Zeeaire!"
They had never heard the name before, but they would hear it again soon.