Natural Born Matt

There was magic in this world once, but they stole it all away.
 
The brothers took a much-deserved rest, keeping a set of watches (but nothing of note occurred during them) before climbing to the next level. This treacherous gallery of traps appeared to be designed so that someone (or something) could watch the terrible tribulations of those on the level below them. Would the brothers find someone awaiting them above?
 
The next door did not appear to be locked or trapped. In the center were three robed figures, squatting in a circle muttering to themselves. When the newly renamed Tarfic yelled: “They would appear to be wraiths!” the three figures stirred and floated towards the brothers.
 
A series of magic missiles, healthy draughts, gropes of opportunity, and more occured as the brother struggled to cut down the apparitions in the ridiculously close quarters combat. The cramped, dusty hallways were not exactly ideal for tactical maneuvering. Tage leapt over their ghostly heads, his shadow blade glowing with an unusual light. Cutting through the creepy shadows of the wraiths, he danced backwards as the rest of the brothers entered the fray.
 
John melted the first in a delightful shower of healing energy, while Yuttosk ran the other through with his trusty spear. John finished the third with a brutal elbow to the chest, revealing that they had been sitting around a fancy looking blade. How fancy was it?
 
It was a plain looking iron blade, wrapped in bear leather: the smooth, flat blade gleaming in the torch light. The rapier seemed like a perfect fit for Thylek. It turned out to be: True Death a +2 Undead Bane Rapier, which Thylek immediately tossed his former trusty blade to the side in favor of this fancy new one. Sst indicated that she was irritated by Thyleks choice of action, but made no overtly hostile actions as a result.
 
Tage hurled shurikens at the floor, ceiling, and wall before the group moved on into the next room. His caution proved not necessary, as the group trudged onwards. The next room was quite large, containing a number of closed sarcophagi: their faces gouged out by claws, the burial masks ruined forever.
 
Korric leapt into the room, touching the burial masks of the sarcophagi and seeing just how badly clawed out they were. Then he pried one open, the foul dust of the grave pouring out: and the hollow nature of the room inside with sarcophagi as doors was revealed. The half dozen ghouls within let out a savage moan, hungry for flesh.
 
A shower of glorious healing tea bathed three of them, rendering them no longer a threat. Thylek leapt into the fray, humming a song about undead, cutting its head right off. Korric rushed in cutting down another. Yuttosks fearsome spear cut down the final ghoul, and the wizard discovered the bony remnants of his former comrades.
 
 
Another room contained a pair of parallel sarcophagi with foul looking faces on the lids. Korric opened one, and found: A skeleton inside, as well as an empty corridor. The next room was a kitchen! A dwarf skeleton with a cleaver embedded in his chest lay on a table in the center of the room. Nothing else of note awaited within, and so they proceeded.
 
The pantry they checked next was filled with destroyed frescoes and a destroyed dome atop the room. Another layer appeared to be above with a tunnel to explore upward from. The brothers took note and pressed on. In the next room was a statue of a man with a Gulls head. The group pressed on, into a large brilliantly lit hall with a stream flowing North to South, lush tropical plants also grew along both sides of the stream. An enormous bronze bowl was filled with all sorts of delicious foodstuffs. The fruit in the bowl floated up to the top of the Palm Trees.
 
Tage hurled a storm of shurikens at the evasive, flying fruit. Korric offered a meager prize, to the first one to consume the fruit. Tage could not resist the juicy temptation, and John joined in for the sake of brotherhood. Tage held a banana, while John grasped a juicy orange. In tandem they took a delicious bite. All the other brothers besides Korric and the wizard, including the two Gith sampled the delicious ‘Fruit Flys’ flying fruit.
 
The fruit was the most delicious they had ever tasted, so they harvested the remaining ‘livestock’ for later. .
 
The next room contained a statue of a woman with a cats head. Inside was a small sum of silver. The group pressed on, finding yet another pantry and kitchen, which were quite abandoned. Devoid of any delicious food or interesting stuff. The brothers crept southwards, finding themselves in a hallway with another set of wraiths. Thylek sauntered into the hallway, past the other brothers who had taken up a defensive position and gave it a solid thrust with his new blade.
 
Q took both of them under his command, claiming in Gith that they were simply ‘Insurance’. Seeing through the threat of potential problems later, the brothers quickly leapt into action. Q indicated he had the situation ‘under control’, but the brothers worried over the wraiths powers should the control of Q be lost ‘by accident’ or in fact, by design.
 
Tage attempted to ‘use the power of Amon-Re’ to remove the taint from the foul ghost. He failed twice in a row, then finally threw his hands up in a fit of despair. Foiled again, by the machinations of Q. A pack ghouls came running down the hallway, drawn by the commotion!
 
The wizard mentioned that they were mentioning insurance, and asked what the insurance was for. The brothers pretended not to catch on, feigning worry that the Gith might in fact be traveling insurance claims adjusters seeking to determine new premium rates.
 
Korric indicated he had a desire to cleanse the ghoul problem by himself, and Thylek elected to make a serious point with the wraith that Tage had been unable to high five with the might of Amon-Re. It withered away into shadowy bits.
 
Would Q be pushed over the edge? Had he reached the end of his patience?! Would Sst in fact turn on her once ally, and in fact prove that she was a brother at heart? Had the wizard accidentally ignited the powder keg that the group had been carefully passing back and forth for weeks?
 
Sst murmured to Q: “You are outnumbered.”
 
“I am outnumbered?!” he hissed back, hand on the hilt of his silver sword.
 
The wizard gleefully translated, indicated that they appeared to be having a disagreement of sorts. Yuttosk found this turn of events especially hilarious.
 
Koric continued to cut down ghouls, testing his mettle against the horde. Shortly after, a pile of ghouls remained.
 
In the tension-filled room: glaring and staring, hands on the hilts of weapons. .
 
Q wanted to know why he couldn’t have a pet, and Tage claimed the group didn’t trust them. He insisted that since he had not killed their new pet- the wizard, they should not kill his.
 
Thy’lek sauntered towards the remaining wraith, twirling his sword in one hand and whistling. The wizard assured the group that he would not ‘accidentally hurl a fireball’ at them, since he had in fact attended wizard school. Koric returned to the group, unaware of the absurd levels of tension building up. Between the Gith themselves, and the party and the Gith.
 
Once more, with feeling Tage invoked the might of Amon-Re, and was not able to give the wraith a high five. He didn’t catch him down low either (Missed for incorporeality twice in a row). Amon-Re had abandoned him. Q indicated how Amon-Re was a false god, and useless in this case. Eventually, Tage used all the rest of his energy reservoirs to finally touch the ghost: Dematerializing the last ally of Q, who looked on flabbergasted as the ninja had eventually done something useful. After several minutes of being useless.
 
The next room contained a pair of parallel sarcophagi, empty of valuables or anything else of interest. Pushing on, they discovered another octagon room: this was filled with ghouls: They were encircling a central figure who was valiantly swinging her sword at the eight dark robed creatures. Some of these ghouls then turned to the party, while others remained hostile to the central figure.
 
Sst made it clear in a whisper to John that “His time will come soon, just a little bit longer.” John winked in response, whether it was dust in his eye or something else was hard to say.
 
The ghouls continued swarming the fellow in the center of the room. Half of them ran towards John who was blocking the door, and the other half continued ravaging the lady in the rooms center. Yuttosk ran one of them through with a spear, and while this was happening: Tage declared the wizards new name was in fact ‘Kiss-Kiss’. Koric ran one through the Rive, and Thylek sauntered in thrusting with Truedeath. He noticed the figure in the center of the room was a lady in distress! So he was on a horse headed towards her immediately. He ignored the claws of ghouls on the way, cutting one of them down.
 
John lobbed a healing potion at the woman in distress, also dousing one of the ghouls in a melting holy bath. Yuttosk ran another ghoul through, and a mere pair remained around the woman. Tage and the wizard, along with Q remained locked, in a triangle of tension. Koric cut down the final ghoul, and the woman was all that remained. Thylek threw his jacket down to cover the ghoul blood and offered her a hand up.
 
It seemed that the woman was in fact bearing a holy symbol of Heironeous, and wearing a signet ring of one of the nobles from the Reich of Jymlünd. After she had recovered from her ghoul bites, the brothers asked her some questions. She was gracious, and glad that she had been offered some help. Quite attractive, a blonde paladin of a foreign god; the gentleman was quite enamored. She did not appear to be a time stranded traveler like Kiss-Kiss. Heironeous had ‘told her to enter the temple, and cleanse it of the evil that is here’.
 
She had killed many of the walking dead, but it seemed that more and more were being created all the time. Probably by some malevolent force, turning would-be tomb robbers into minions to protect against further incursions.
 
‘You can not keep this one as a pet!’
‘I am no-one’s pet!’
‘Heironeus puts the food in your dish.’
Ignoring him, she continued: ‘All I was going to say is I could have easily worked with such noble men like yourselves, except that you ally yourselves with the most evil. And so, I can not. I appreciate your help, and if our paths cross again: I: The Lady Robby-Margot, and my trusted steed Friday shall see how things go.’
 
Thylek bid her adieu, and she wandered away looking for evil to slay. The brothers moved on into another room. They found themselves in a room full of priests cells: Rotting drapes offering limited privacy, and in the center of the room were a pair of potions. Scooping them up, John indicated they were potions of Wight Control. Nothing else of value or interest was found in either room full of cells.
 
The next hallway contained a series of verses: “Above our thoughts now master sleeps, in dreamy realms and skies so deep. The high priests worked a wonder great, and sealed him up unto his fate.” Perhaps the source of power they sought was yet further up, they did know the way, and this floor was almost explored. “The former high priest of Amon-Re turned himself unto an undead, and was now making more undead!”
 
A statue waited at the end of the hallway: Old worn prayer rugs neatly placed about the room. A giant gemstone glimmered in the forehead of the statue, and a compass rose was carved into the floor. It sure seemed like something would happen if you tried to remove the gemstone from the statue, but he disabled the trap from the gem.
 
John pulled the massive glass diamond from the statue, activating a loud alarm. He removed the head from the statue disabling it, and they proceeded to use the secret door behind the holy river to ascend to the next level.
 
Tage refused to be the first to move against the Gith, but the time was soon coming where things would come to a head. The final level was sure to be treacherous, especially since whoever lived up there would be ready and waiting for the brothers. Could they prevail?
 
The brothers found themselves in a round room, ascending the water elevator of sorts into the next level. A strange rapping was heard through a dome to the North. The not-so-secret door revealed a gnome with a spoon. He spoke with a lisp, indicating he had been here for years: Tunneling and tunneling. He was a spoon expert, wielding a war-spoon. Irritating to say the least, he was not especially helpful. So incredibly unhelpful, except for the tunnel that he had dug behind him. His bandolier of spoons proved that he was a brother at heart, and so they could not leave him behind. They would not leave a brother in need. His name was Pritt, and the brothers instantly trusted him: Following him through his tunnel.
 
A rough cavern awaited a dark shape awaited in the cavern in stony silence. Rive was excited, vibrating in Korics hand. A clay golem awaited within, red eyes glimmering in the darkness. Q immediately decapitated the gnome with his silver blade.
 
John screamed out his anguish, the blood of a brother running down the traitorous Q’s blade.
 
Koric rushed in, the erect blade in his hands penetrating the thick skin of the golem. Sticky liquid clay poured forth, covering Koric in a thick grey slime. Suddenly the others knew what Rives voice sounded like, as his cries of joy and elation were quite loud indeed.
 
Tage stepped into the shadows, lurking towards Q with vengeance in his heart and a calculated rage in his eyes.
 
The wizard would not prove helpful in this moment. Knowing that his magics aren’t effective against the golem.
 
Sst threw her whirling blade at the creature, but it proved useless against its thick hide.
 
Thyleck knocked it off his feet, making it easier to hit for the others.
 
Koric gave it a final slash, severing the neck of the creature and spraying a geyser of sickly grey fluid all over Yuttosk and himself.
 
John stood over the now headless body of their newest, and now dead brother. He turned to Q, and threw a bomb at him, suggesting he ‘Stick around’ to see how things turned out. While he wasn’t started on fire, blinded by the light, or stuck in place, the match had been lit. This powder keg was about to blow.
 
Kiss-Kiss was in shock at the sudden turn of events!
 
Sst was more than ready to move up in the ranks, hurling her spinning blade at Q.
 
Thylek dashed in, his blade at the ready.
 
Tage snuck forward, slicing at Q from the shadows with strangling energy wrapping around his throat. He shrugged it off, and slashed at Tage: cutting him deeply, and teleporting away.
 
Koric rushed up, but did not cut into Q. Thylek also closed ranks, preventing John from using any especially useful alchemical tricks against this dangerous foe. Yuttosk slipped his spear through the defenses of Q, impaling him into the wall. He would indeed: “Stick around”.
 
His body was looted, and processed by John. The brothers steeled themselves for the journey ahead, one brother less: but one treacherous ‘ally’ less also.