Episode 13: The Grave Order & Aleph Zero

General Summary

Dance of Death Saves Maharlitech Conference

~ continued on page 13

by Verity Spindlebrush

The Returners prepared for a ruckus they could hear beyond the door to the main hall. One of Jackie Daytona's vampire roommates summoned a strange spirit to counter the Grave Order's many undead servitors, while the other Returners hid their presence in preparation for an ambush.

Taela prepared the Returners for deadly battle with their Triple B Guildmates, and Gundar invoked a rule of reciprocity: only do what harm they intend upon us. The Returners agreed, and the door to the main hall was opened.

There, a knuckle of goblin defenders were guarding a Blue Moon Goblin, Of the Hope the Way kin to the Final Boss of Jennook, Of the Forge the Spark. The guards were entangled with the Grave Order's undead minions, and Halorin warned the Returners they were not part of, and should not make themselves, the Order's business.

Taela couldn't care less and fired a sparking arrow shot that wounded the Order's Jedar and shattered his skeletal armsmen. The Returners' vampire leapt up and crawled along a wall while he drawled out that the Grave Order was correct: their goblin pursuit was none of our business, on account of none of those goblins having activated a beacon for help.

That clever blue goblin Way instantly held up a fancy ident-a-hedron device, with the beacon all aglow.

Gundar strode forth to tango with Halorin, his first steps fazing the Order's defender. Halorin tried to ruin Gundar's perfect face with a shield slam, but our hero performed the perfect drunk drop—rolling with Halorin's push and bringing his feet up to slam the consciousness out of the human like the beer out of so many upturned flagons.

Mycete the mushroom whore shot her spores all over the goblins, but it was not enough to put them down. Jackie Daytona kept on the saxophone, playing to push back more of the Order. The Order saw its reinforcements dwindling, so Lystheris summoned a massive horror stitched together from many dismembered corpses. It smelled as bad as it looked. Jedar also summoned more skeletons.

The Returners responded quickly. The vampire dropped down like a grenade of sunlight, evaporating the skeletons. Gundar leapt over Halorin's body to grab the stitched horror and fling him with an unstoppable hip thrust into the magma spring. Taela's arrows and Jackie's music pushed the horror back. The goblins fled, and the horror tried to flee as well—but the strange spirit clawed him down, then belched as the poor souls entrapped within faded to the ethereal.

The Order realized they were outmatched. Lystheris ordered a retreat. Halorin raised himself with a flash from his strange pendant and declared he would aid the retreat—but was sent back to unconsciousness by Taela's panther, Salamin.

Mycete rambled on about making everyone opposed to the Order undead hosts for her Amber Decay and hurled spores that took down this humble reporter. I cannot tell the rest, save for the divine life-giving touch of Gundar Starveil returning life to my body and spirit.

I could see the Grave Order all defeated. Only Lystheris had fled magically beyond a gate, but a simple song from Jackie opened the way, and she was slain shortly thereafter.

Taela ordered the bodies destroyed. Gundar questioned the required reciprocity. The vampire noted that burning the bodies was the equivalent of being animated as undead. So, the Grave Order—and their plans to turn us all to corpses—were instead turned to magma ash.