Chapter 37: Battle of Shadows
The victorious Knight Captain of Crossroads Keep, Tamil Farlong, stood with a look of grim determination on her face before a circular ring standing in the air. Behind her was a small army, the companions who had followed her from one danger through the next all the way from West Harbor and Neverwinter. The Luskan ranger, Bishop, was conspicuously absent, though the bard had never been foolish enough to consider that man worthy of her trust. The sorceress Qara was the other former follower of hers who was now aligned with the enemy, bound in a shadowy unlife to service of the King of Shadows.
Foremost among her allies was SG-1. Without them, she might not have made it. Without them, even if she had still made it, it would not mean nearly as much to her. And now they stood there alongside Khelgar, leader of the Ironfists, Neeshka the part-fiend rogue, Grobnar and the Construct bound to him by fate and destiny, Sand the sarcastic elven wizard, Casavir the noble paladin, and two more recent additions to the cause: Ammon Jerro and Zhjaeve. The warlock, Ammon Jerro, had been working against them until they realized that they were both unknowingly fighting the same foe, narrowly escaping catastrophe. Zhjaeve was another unexpected ally, one who looked much like a githyanki but was not, who joined them just after Neverwinter forces took Crossroads Keep. Old companions and new, they were all there standing together before the Illefarn Song Portal preparing to do battle with the powerful force of darkness that had drained the life from the land, caused the dead to walk, and sent an army to destroy their homes.
"You are all certain you want to do this? The defenses of Neverwinter and the Keep could use any of you..." she offered.
"Bah. You think I came all this way with you just to miss out on the biggest fight this side of the Hells? No way am I missing out on this!" Khelgar proclaimed first. The rest of the group added their own assent.
"Samantha Carter, know that the King of Shadows will oppose your attempt to penetrate his domain. But with the Tome of Iltkazar, your will, and the power of the Song Portal, know that you can overcome his power." The voice of the githzerai priestess was calm, confident, and repeating the obvious as she very often did. The group had gotten used to her habit of giving everyone their personal "daily affirmation" without prompting. Most of the time everyone just tuned it out. Zhjaeve meant well. They supposed she did at least, you could never tell.
With a sigh, Dr. Carter concentrated. It took six musical notes to open the Song Portal and point it to the location of the Illefarn ruins that Garius had made his base. Of course, the corresponding gate on the other side had long been destroyed, but with the knowledge of the Tome, her understanding of physics, and the innate power of the book, she was able to force open a rift in space. The hard part was pushing the other side of the rift to point not at the old Song Portal location, but at the inner sanctum where they were receiving a signal. The gateway flooded open, and with an effort of will and magic, Sam knew she had altered the end-point.
"Okay, it's working!" Sam called out as the magical portal stabilized.
"Last one in is an orc-loving bastard of a troll!" Neeshka called out and rushed to the portal. Khelgar was a step behind her, followed by the warlock and the gitzherai.
Just as they were about to enter the portal, Sam felt strong nudge back her way. Her eyes widened, realizing something on the other side, most likely the King of Shadows, was influencing the portal. She cursed mildly, not being one for heavy swearing, and struggled to push the end point of the portal back to where she wanted. "Wait!" she called out.
But it was too late. Not only had the first four gone through, but Casavir and Sand had just stepped through as well. Sand's head had whipped back around, his eyes widening with alarm as he disappeared from sight.
.
Ammon Jerro knew something was wrong as soon as he arrived on the other side of the portal. He had been dealing with planar binding and portals for decades and the manner in which they exited had been wrong, somewhat uncontrolled. Something had interfered with the portal's functioning. That did not bode well.
The old warlock frowned at his surroundings. He was on what looked like an ancient arrival platform within an ancient Illefarn ruin. It was an entryway into the secret temple where the blocking wards would not prevent magical transport either in or out. Large glowing pillars of crystal cast an eerie blue light over maze-like platform, illuminating the area. Skeletons of fallen warriors, clearly elves and dwarves judging by the size and structure, littered the ground. From the positions of the bones, it was clear that some of them had died fleeing something, while others had turned to face whatever it was that was pursuing them. The outcome, however, was clear. The living had lost.
"Eh, what happened?" the gruff voice of a burly dwarf, one still living and breathing, asked from beside the warlock. Khelgar. "Weren't we s'pposed to be right in the middle of this place fightin' for our lives?" The dwarf was alright, in Ammon Jerro's book, but not much on the brains side of things. At least he would be a powerful ally in what was to come.
"Know that the King of Shadows has disrupted the portal meant to bring us to the center of this fortress. But know, too, that despite his efforts to prevent us from reaching our destination, we are still here."
And the gith was there, too. Ammon Jerror grit his teeth at the sound of her grating, "know"-it-all voice. He had put up with her for the sake of his alliance with the Knight Captain, but he was growing tired of dealing with the githzerai cleric. Worse, it seemed she was one of the few who had arrived with him in the King of Shadow's lair, and they had a quite a distance to travel before they would reach their destination.
"Hey! Where's Daniel!" came the shrill call of tiefling, Neeshka. Yet another of the companions the warlock couldn't stand. But she was right. Neither the Knight Captain nor any of the humans from the other world had come through. The paladin and the arrogant elven wizard were also missing.
"It appears that our forces are divided," Ammon stated flatly. "I believe the portal created by Miss Carter," the warlock refused to call the humans by their military titles, not respecting the a military on some distant world nobody had heard of, "managed to push further through the boundary after we went through. I believe the remainder of us are further inside the compound."
"Know that you are correct. I can sense the presence of the Kalach-cha deeper within these ruins. She still lives, and so does our hope. Know that we must make haste and—"
"Then what are we standing around for, let's get going!" Khelgar all but roared.
"While I agree about getting to Daniel sooner rather than later, Khelgar it won't do us any good if—" whatever Neeshka was about to say was cut off in mid-sentence as she suddenly vanished. There was no flash of light. No sudden flame. She was just gone.
"What the hells?" Khelgar exclaimed.
"The King of Shadows has taken her. We must move quickly."
Khelgar was already racing ahead. The hard-headed dwarf would normally have listened to the calls from his companions to hold up, but he was not about to let his friends walk into danger without him there with them. The gith and the warlock were not his companions by choice, while those who were ahead were those who had stuck by him through his trials and periods of self-doubt. He'd shave his beard before he allowed that to happen, and he'd eat dragon dung for breakfast before he'd shave off his beard. In hindsight, he'd realize that wasn't the best of reasons for not listening.
But the chittering of bones on the cobblestones of the walkway he was on informed the isolated trio of a swarm of incoming spiders. Deadly bone spiders. Unfortunately, his decision to run off ahead left him in an exposed position and his companions without a front line defense.
Ammon Jerro frowned. Such opposition was not a serious threat, but they just didn't have the time to be wasting around. The final battle could begin at any moment.
"Hezebel! Blooden!" the warlock commanded in his deep, rough voice.
The two creatures of the lower planes arrived in two bursts of fire. They were both beautiful, scantily clad women. Hezebel was a brunette with white, feathery wings, an Eyrines. Blooden was a red-head succubus with black, bat-like wings. Both were wickedness incarnate, the only thing they would love more than to corrupt the innocent and spill blood would be to destroy each other. They're gazes locked with hatred in their eyes. All that stood between them and murdering each other were the oaths they had taken to the warlock and his commands that they not harm each other.
"You two, destroy these pests," Ammon Jerro said gesturing towards the creatures surrounding them. "I mean the bone spiders. NOT the dwarf or githzerai."
The pair scowled at being ordered about. For millennia men had to beg the two rivals for favors and power, and the demon and devil would grant them such power at the cost of the men's' souls. The warlock had bargained well, though, and he had wrung promises of obedience from them that they could not break. He had sacrificed his soul, his innocence, and all hope of redemption to gain this power over them, but it rankled that a mortal could command them as he did, no matter what price had to be paid to obtain their obedience.
On the other hand, he was letting them out of their summoning circles for a little destructive mayhem. Sure, it was only a few spiders, but that was better than—
The pair vanished just as Neeshka had.
Ammon Jerro cursed. It should be impossible for those two to slip the bonds with which he had bound them. But he had no time to think about such things. His companions were being pressed by the spiders; they had limited resources and could not afford to expend their most powerful magic or all their strength on minor enemies such as these. The elder Jerro quickly focused on one of the skeletal corpses lying about and with a burst of dark magic forced it to rise in undeath as his ally.
The battle was protracted, but the end was inevitable. The spiders were no match for Khelgar's furious hammer, but they were resilient and it took several hits before he finally smashed them apart. On the other side was Zhaevee, the githzerai priestess who had little strength to speak of and whose magical might would need to be held in reserve for later. But between her and the skeletal warrior Ammon had summoned to aid her, they managed to hold the swarm of pesky creatures at bay while the warlock blasted them with dark blasts of eldritch energy. Finally, the walkways were cleared and the trio plus a new skeletal minion walked towards the doorway leading inwards towards the Shadow Reaver, Black Garius, and his dark master.
Before they actually reached the door, though, there was a burst of flame directly in front of them. The succubus queen, Blooden, and her rival, the Eyrines Hezebel stood before them once more.
"So, you have returned. And I thought I was going to have to go to the Lower Planes and drag you back when all this was over," the warlock remarked fixing them with an odd stare.
"Oh, we've returned, alright, Ammon Jerro," Hezebel said with a voice that sounded like silk.
"Returned to rip you apart and send your soul to the Hells where we will suck on the marrow of your corpse!" Blooden finished with a swipe at the man she had called Master.
"And when we finish with you here," Hezebel continued, aiming a sword-strike at the dwarf, "we will free all the others in your 'Haven' and then pay your lovely morsel of a grand-daughter a visit."
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Casavir and Sand found themselves emerging from a roiling pool of black shadows.
"Oh, my, I do hope the others are all alright," Sand muttered to himself. Someone unaccustomed to Sand's mannerisms might have thought he was speaking sarcastically by his tone. That was because even when the elven wizard actually meant what he said, his voice just naturally sounded as if he was less than completely sincere.
"It seems that the portal was somehow diverted," Casavir noted. "Perhaps the black cloud of shadows is responsible for our not arriving directly at our intended destination."
Sand rolled his eyes at the paladin's statement of the obvious. "Well, we can't be too far from our target. These are the Illefarn ruins we were attempting to penetrate. I can feel the magic of this place all around us."
"Then let's make our way to the center of this lightless place and bring justice to it. Perhaps we will arrive in time to assist with the destruction of the King of Shadows."
Sand nodded. Heading further into a deathtrap laden enemy base wasn't his first choice of action, but running away in cowardice was frowned upon socially, so he would need to just get over it and march forward towards certain death. It wasn't that the elven wizard lacked courage; his having come on this suicidal mission when he could easily have simply not volunteered proved that. It was that he had an over-abundance of common sense, something your typical sword-toting hero almost always lacked, but sarcastic wizards generally had plenty of. When was charging at the big giant evil menace the smart thing to do?
Sand cast a series of protection spells on himself as well as a couple on the paladin, which was good because a few steps later a sense of doom began to pervade the room. All around them the forms of powerful undead priests began to rise up. The pair could see the bandages preserving their power and life force holding the mummies together. Powerful undead mummies. Somehow, they had managed to stumble into the chamber of Illefarn's long dead high priests and the long dead high priests were not very happy about that.
Sand didn't waste a breath. He immediately began chanting his most powerful offensive spell: Meteor Swarm. A series of burning orbs of rock and flame hurtled down from the cavernous ceiling, pounding into the decaying, undead forms with incredible force. Eight of the massive orbs struck violently into the ground, turning the surface of the ruins into flame everywhere but in a small circle around himself and his plate mail wearing partner. The blast caused the entire area to shake. Despite the devastation of his spell, though, Sand could see the mummies continuing to rise up and turn their malevolence towards the two stranded companions.
Casavir knew his own holy connection to Tyr would not be enough to turn away their unholy link to whatever force had called them back from the dead. Against lesser undead creatures his faith alone could banish them, or send them stumbling back away from his companions. These undead priests had faith and power of their own and would easily resist his efforts. So, instead of wasting his energy trying to rebuke or turn them, he focused the energy of Tyr on himself and his hammer then charged at the nearest mummy, intent on ending its existence. Between the power of Tyr and the inherent enchantments on his flaming war hammer, he succeeded in making his intention reality. A few powerful swings of his weapon and the creature, already weakened from Sand's meteor swarm attack, crumbled back into dust, its power shattered beyond recall.
The mummified priests responded with a series of unholy words that were caustic to the ears of all unbelievers of their dark faith. After uttering their unholy words they summoned shadow hounds. Sand was blinded by the backlash of the priestly magic, unable to see them to strike or even defend himself. So, the wizard disappeared, leaving Casavir as the undead creatures' sole target.
Facing such enemies alone was no bother for the paladin, though he was surprised the wizard would abandon him. Still, he could not allow these abominations to continue to exist. With a prayer to Tyr on his lips, he spun to charge at the next of the enemy, but was blocked from his target by a pair of shadow hounds. He smashed through them with might augmented by his belief, but was blasted repeatedly by columns of flame and divine energy from the mummies. No matter what his determination was, he wouldn't last long enough to destroy all of the mummified priests. But, he would do his best to take at least one more of them down before he fell.
A powerful burst of energy tore through the air. Casavir felt nothing but a positive charge and saw a flash of white light. The mummies, however, moaned loudly and staggered from the force of the blast. One of the creatures even fell to the ground, no longer moving. It was a spell designed specifically to destroy undead. Casavir turned to see that Sand had reappeared, no longer blind and with a spell mantle up to absorb incoming attacks. The wizard had apparently only turned invisible rather than flee. With one of the hounds which had impeded his progress fading back into shadow at the death of its summoner, Casavir was able to reach the next of the undead priests and interrupt its magical castings with a hammer blow to its rotting jaw.
The mummies sought to bring Sand down, battering him with a barrage of columns of flame from the heavens, but the only effect was for the wizard to flinch away, but unharmed. His magical protections had severely weakened, but they had managed to absorb each of the flame strikes that his opponents had sent his way. In retaliation, the elven mage turned the shadowy chamber into the brightness of noonday.
Even Casavir felt the impact of the sunlight spell, the blinding brightness painful even to him, but far, far less than it was to their undead enemies. The powerful spell destroyed two more of the mummified priests, leaving only one more opponent, as soon the paladin put the coupdegrâce on the one he was facing with a hammer shot that shattered what remained of the former priest's backbone. The final priest attempted to heal itself of the damage it had sustained from Sand's previous spells, but it would prove to be pointless as the paladin and mage ended its existence quickly and without needing to resort to many more powerful spells.
Breathing heavily from the exertion and the feeling of adrenalin in his blood, the elven wizard walked over to his human friend. "Here," Sand said, offering a flask to the paladin. "This will heal your wounds. You will need your strength before we reach the rest of our companions, I am sure."
"I thank you, but there is no need. I will be made whole through the strength of Tyr." With that, the holy warrior said a prayer and laid his hands over his injuries. Within seconds, there was a powerful glow and the damage was undone. Sand shrugged and pocketed the potion once more, sure they would need it before long.
Sand renewed his protections against magical attacks before they moved on. While the spells that had been sent his way were not particularly strong, they had weakened his spell mantle to the point that even a low level bit of magic would have torn what remained of it asunder. He knew he couldn't afford to walk blindly through these ruins without such protection.
He was proven right when the sound of laughter and mocking applause greeted his ears as he and Casavir entered the next chamber. A tall figure with black robes and a flaming skull in place of a head greeted them from the opposite end of a narrow bridge spanning a small chasm filled with water. The sound of the laughter was chillingly familiar to him, even if the person it belonged to looked nothing like he remembered.
"Qara," Sand spit her name out like it was a dirty word.
"Oh, look, if it isn't the hedge-wizard with the dinky little shop in the Docks," the girl mocked. If anyone in Faerûn was more sarcastic than Sand, it was this girl. If Sand despised anyone worse than Luskans, it was this girl. If Sand was afraid of the consequences of losing a magical duel against anyone, it was this girl.
But the girl looked nothing like she had when she had entered his shop and expressed her disdain for studying magic through books. It seemed long ago when she had worked with Tamil Farlong while the current Knight Captain of Crossroads Keep was still a mere City Watch sergeant and Sand was just beginning to teach magic to Daniel. Qara had been youthful then, with a spark of innocence in her eyes, even if it was an innocence strained by her lust for power and penchant for fiery destruction. Even at that time Sand feared the girl would turn her powers to destructive ends. But the woman who stood before Sand now was not even human anymore. Her skin had burned from her face leaving nothing but a flaming power for her eyes. She was cloaked head to toe in a black robe and her soul was bound over to darkness. After being dismissed from the companionship of Tamil's group she had joined Black Garius and then shared his fate when their ritual failed. She was a Shadow Reaver.
"What a pleasure to see you again, Sand," she mocked. "And Casavir, the too-holy-for-a-sorceress paladin, glad to finally have a chance to repay you for the cold way you treated me."
That last comment raised Sand's eyebrows. Apparently, the girl had had some sort of crush on the stern older man before she had gotten booted from the group. The elf doubted the man had ever even known she had felt that way, much less intentionally spurned her. Of course, considering just how immature the sorceress had been, it was not unexpected that there was some bitterness on her part even though Tamil had given her a more than fair share of the coin when they split ways. If Sand had remembered correctly, the reason for her dismissal was over some kind of callous disregard for the group's safety.
"Stand aside, Qara," Casavir said calmly. "We have no quarrel with you, only with Garius and his attempt to bring the King of Shadows back to this plane. We need not be enemies. It is within your power to break the hold the King of Shadows has on your soul."
The dark figure laughed again. "Break his hold? Even if that were possible, why would I ever want that?" she sneered. "Not only has my King made me immortal and endowed me with powers that a book loving, pointy eared loser like Sand or a pious jerk like you could never hope to understand, he has made me his consort! Do you understand that? I am His and in his own dark way, he is even mine! I want nothing more than for him to continue to hold me in his shadowy embrace."
Okay, she was clearly insane.
"Then we will be forced to destroy you," Casavir sighed.
"Oh, good luck with that, foolish paladin," Qara the Shadow Reaver said mockingly. "My powers are beyond yours and unlike those other Shadow Reavers that you managed to destroy, and unlike even Garius, you have neither my True Name nor anyone who would even know how to pronounce it if you did. And you face me here, in the heart of my Master's domain and think to win?"
Qara chuckled and made a gesture. A pair of blade golems appeared before her on the bridge. "I will enjoy watching you die."
.
Major Samantha Carter stood in front of the portal with sweat pouring down her cheeks. Battling to keep the end point of the portal fixed was taking all of her concentration. She was attempting to bind the end point long enough for them all to get through, but the force pushing back against her was just as persistent as she was. It had already been a few minutes since half their group had gone through to who knows what end.
"Come on, Carter, we don't have all day. How hard could this be?" Jack complained jokingly.
Sam shot him a look that could melt boulders. Ironically, that emotional reaction strengthened her will enough to anchor the end point of the portal back in place. "Okay, I got it."
"See," Colonel O'Neill said cheekily.
Tamil was the first through, followed by the three members of SG-1 not holding the portal open. Then Grobnar and the Blade Golem construct he had repaired followed behind. Sam Carter was the last through the Song Portal. She prayed she had succeeded in penetrating the defenses of the place and that they would arrive in time to prevent the King of Shadows from re-entering the world. If that happened, she had no idea whether they could stop him or not.
.
Tamil emerged from the portal with the brilliantly gleaming Sword of Gith in one hand and a shield in the other. She sucked her breath in at the sight before her. Garius and two other Shadow Reavers were standing around Neeshka who was writhing in agony inside what looked like a glowing summoning circle. Her screams were echoing throughout the chamber.
The rest of the team were close behind the Knight Captain, Carter coming last as she had been needed to keep the portal open. As soon as Daniel saw what was going on he pulled out his handgun and began firing at the black cloaked skull heads in front of him, shattering their concentration and causing one of them to scrape a foot over the outline of the magical symbol.
"Get the hell away from her!"
Their bindings broken, Neeshka managed to pull herself out of the broken circle and scramble away from her captors.
"Do not run, Neeshka," Garius commanded. "The blood that bound you to our circle will bind you again just as easily. You must have some truly interesting heritage for the magic of this place to work on you."
Daniel stared at them in cold fury. "You will not touch her again, Garius."
Neeshka had hesitated, but only for a second. She hurried over to rejoin her companions. Teal'c immediately cast a healing spell on the tiefling.
"You will pay for your insubordination later," Garius remarked darkly. He was angry that his attempt to break the girl had been interrupted. He was sure that if he had more time he could have instilled a sense of obedience into her. Still, he had unfinished business to complete before he turn his attention to that little problem. "But I am prepared to offer mercy to the rest of you."
"Mercy?" Tamil scoffed. "I've seen how 'merciful' you can be with the dead of Ember and all the pawns you casually tossed away. Nobody here, other than the flunkies you brought with you, would be fool enough to fall for any of your promises."
"Ah, quick to pass judgment for the entire team, are we?" Garius' voice was a honeyed, wheedling sound. In life he had persuaded a great many to follow him. He was confident he could do so now, as well. "I have not yet made my offer and already you fear to let your 'allies' here what I can do for them."
The black robed former-Luskan wizard turned to SG-1. "I can offer you something you all desire greatly. A way home."
Sam scoffed at the man. "You don't even know where our home is, much less how to cross between different worlds."
"Ah, but my Master knows the point at which you came through to our world and with that knowledge, the tome you have in your possession, and the portal in this very room we can do just that. Think of it! All of your loved ones just a few steps away…"
Daniel smirked. "In other words, you want us to tell your Mr. Dark Shadow Life Sucker Master where our home world is so he can invade that as well. Uh… No thank you."
Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Tempting offer, really. But we really are gonna have to decline. I believe the Lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow are next?" Then he turned to Carter. "You did bring your ruby slippers on this trip, right?" She shot him a half smile for his effort.
A voice rang out from behind them. "I don't know about the lion or scarecrow, there, Jack," a familiar voice called from behind them. "But you were right about the tin man." Bishop walked into the open with a smug look on his face. It was one of only two expressions he had: it was either that or dour. "Construct, Ranger-mansaysfollowme… comehere."
At that command, the large construct with a massive blade for one arm immediately started off to join the ranger who had placed it under his control. Grobnar shouted out, "Wait! No! What are you doing? Come back, Construct!" The large golem ignored the gnome as if he didn't exist.
"You see, Grobnar, you just don't have the strength to control something that powerful and dangerous. So, I thought I'd take it off your hands. Thanks for giving me the password to take control of it. I couldn't have done it without you." The ranger smirked and turned his glare on Samantha Carter. "Bet you never saw this coming."
A mocking half-smile lit up Major Carter's face. "Well, Grobnar, do you want to do it, or should I?"
The gnome's look of panic dropped away and he shrugged his small shoulders. "Oh, go right on ahead. I'll have enough fun just watching." The gnome began whistling a little tune. Suddenly, Bishop didn't feel much like smirking.
Carter gave a nod then turned to the Construct and spoke in English. "Construct: Root. Delta Carter Sigma 36-36. Command override." The golem froze, then turned towards Sam and raised its bladed arm in a salute. Carter gave another short series of commands. "Access controller accounts. Delete Ranger-man account. Access safety protocols/invalid target list/Bishop. Delete from folder and move to strategic protocols/active target lists. Reset. Enter tactical mode 3."
At Carter's command, the golem gave another salute and turned to move away from the ranger who had tried to wrest control of him.
"Construct! Ranger-mansaysfollowme.Comehere!" the man shouted as the construct now completely ignored him. It reached a point halfway between the companions and their opponents and turned to take up an aggressive looking stance.
Now Sam was outright grinning. "Actually, Bishop, you were rather predictable. And I'd like to thank you for bringing the tracking device I planted in your clothes back to Garius' hideout. It made it much easier to pinpoint exactly where the center of this place was."
Garius shot Bishop a deadly look. "You will pay for your carelessness, ranger. But for the time being you are still useful. Be sure that at the end of this confrontation that you remain so."
"I'd be careful about threatening me, if I were you," Bishop warned in a low voice.
The sound of Tamil chuckling drew everyone's attention back to the bard. "I'd offer Bishop a chance to betray you and join back up with us, Garius, which would make the irony of you trying to break up my team even more hilarious—if it weren't for the fact that I just can't stand that man. Please, keep him," Tamil said with a wicked smile forming on her face. The Knight Captain was ready to put an end to the troubles that had beset her. It was all finally coming to a head. All the pain in her life, all the deaths and loss she had suffered, it had a name and face and she was ready to stab it to death with the sword in her hands.
Garius did not look pleased, but considering that his head was a skull with magical flames for facial features, that came as no surprise. With a gesture, he activated a series of walls of force that trapped SG-1, Grobnar, and Tamil within the entryway they had arrived in. "So sorry for that," he said insincerely, "I can't risk any damage to the portal this close to my Master's arrival on this plane. I'm sure you understand."
A pair of shadowy blade golems emerged to battle the Construct which had been repaired by Grobnar and completely overhauled in terms of programming by Sam. It had been the only member of the party which had not been trapped within the invisible walls of force at the beginning of the battle. Black Garius and the other two remaining Shadow Reavers in the room turned their attention to the group that was now trapped while Bishop started to fire arrows through the barrier.
"Hmm, looks like magic and projectiles can pass right through, but people just cannot physically move past it," Tamil mused. "And apparently fireballs can get by, too," she quickly added as she dodged out of the way of an incoming blast.
"Great, we're stuck in here with an enemy that can throw lightning and fire around, but we can't get to them. Could it get any worse?" Jack asked melodramatically.
That was the moment Garius decided to summon the Balor demon he had contracted for the battle into the middle of the group.