A Familiar Story - 7. Death of a Family

“Knowledge may be power, but too much power is death.”

The next day we discussed how to face a necromancer while we walked. It took nearly four hours to reach High Hedge, following the road west out of town. You still hadn’t told me your reasons for studying transmutation, but I had my suspicions. We kept quiet about the subject around our companions, but there were other things to fill our minds. Like the razzleberry bush we ran into. I insisted you collect extra for us to munch on.

Aerin tossed a berry high in the air, Gaius swooping through the sky to catch it.

“You seem to be in a better mood,” Jaheira noted.

“I learned something last night. You can’t let the past rule your emotions. I let go of the lives I took.”

“I-it is good for...for...for your mind to be at p-peace,” Khalid smiled.

A loud clatter sounded in the air and the group froze, looking around. Gaius leapt off Aerin’s shoulder, the mage wincing slightly.

“Skeleton!” the dragon cried, his neck pointing toward the undead creature.

Aerin dropped a bullet in his sling, launching it at the skeleton. The bullet cracked through a rib before Jaheira smashed her club through the skull.

The creature fell, crumbling into dust.

“Necromancer,” Jaheira spat. “He’s just leaving the undead to wander. Anyone could have been killed by that skeleton.”

“W-we must keep...keep on our guard,” Khalid warned.

“He is letting them range freely if one has found its way this far north,” Aerin frowned as Gaius landed on him again.

Jaheira stepped off the trail, pointing through the forest to the south.

“I think this will be the fastest way to our target. Once he is dead, the skeletons should follow.”

Khalid followed his wife without question, leading Aerin to do the same. An hour off the road, they ran into a strange man wandering through the woods.

“Hey! Quit making so much noise! I can’t hear myself think!” he snapped.

“What needs thinking about in the forest?” Aerin asked.

“Actually the forest is one of my favourite places to think,” Jaheira replied.

“Charming,” the man smirked. “But I need to get on with this heist.”

Aerin frowned.

“I’ll admit I don’t care much for most laws, but that doesn’t sound very noble.”

The man waved his hand dismissively.

“You can worry about morality. I’m going to worry about getting my hand on that jewel.”

He hurried off into the forest, leaving the group staring at each other uncomfortably.

“Um, shouldn’t we go stop him?” Aerin asked.

“The way he divulges his secrets, he’ll probably be captured before he can even start,” Jaheira said. “We need to deal with this necromancer.

They stopped just south of the forest to rest, the sun dipping below the horizon as they set up camp. Aerin took the first watch, sitting with Gaius on his lap.

“So, are you ever going to tell me why you chose to focus on transmutation?” the dragon asked.

Aerin choked on his waterskin, spitting out the liquid. He glared at Gaius as he coughed.

“What? It’s a reasonable question.”

The mage set his skin aside, pondering the question.

“I don’t suppose you’ll accept that I want to fly through the air,” he muttered.

“Not when I know that’s a blatant lie,” Gaius denied.

“Fine. You started this whole mess anyway. If I can change your shape, you can do whatever you want.”

“So you did like what we did.”

Gaius sounded pleased with himself, pleased with the debauchery he had caused. Aerin was less so. What they had done was wrong.

“It’s not wrong Aerin. You liked it, I liked it. People won’t like it, but who cares about them?”

“And what about when I find someone I want to be with?” Aerin demanded. “Do I choose between a wife or my familiar?”

“I would hope in that case you would choose love. But can’t we worry about that later and just enjoy right now?”

Aerin was about to answer when he heard the crack of a heavy foot on pebbles. Standing quickly, he sent Gaius to wake the others.

Jaheira joined the mage as he loaded his sling, her mace in her hand.

“What is it?”

Aerin’s eyes picked out a monster stalking toward them, like a bipedal hyena.

“Gnoll,” he hissed, pointing.

“Let’s take him down.”

Aerin slung his missile, the stone striking the gnoll in the arm. The monster bellowed in rage, charging toward them.

Khalid stepped in front of the two, throwing up his shield to blunt the charge. The two fighters clashed, Jaheira circling to drive her club into the monster’s back.

Gaius flew at the gnoll, his claws cutting into the monster’s face before Khalid finished the fight with a stab to the gut.

“I-is everyone okay?” Khalid panted, wrenching his blade from the gnoll’s corpse.

“He didn’t hit a single one of us,” Jaheira said.

“Can we get him away from the camp?”

Khalid sheathed his blade and began dragging the body out of the camp. Aerin shuddered at the noise of the body dragging across the ground.

The fighter returned to the camp, a scroll in his hand.

“I-I believe you c-c-can make use of...of this,” he said, handing it to Aerin.

Aerin tucked the scroll in his pack, not in the mood to examine it yet.

“Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll take the rest of your watch,” Jaheira added.

“Thank you,” the mage nodded, heading for his bedroll.

He and Gaius curled up inside the bag, sharing the warmth of their bodies. It would take them a while, but eventually, they would fall asleep.

The trip into the canyons was difficult. More than once Aerin slipped and had to be caught by Jaheira or Khalid.

He was amazed at the beauty of the land around him, the sun making the canyons glow.

“We have to come back here sometime,” he said to Gaius.

The dragon flew a lazy circle over the mage’s head, his scales gleaming in the light of the sun. He spun around, his eyes focusing on a figure in the distance.

“There’s a man,” he called.

Aerin repeated the information, pointing in the direction Gaius indicated. They couldn’t see the figure yet, but the group turned toward it in hopes that they had found the necromancer.

A ragged looking farmer ran toward them, waving his arms.

“Hold! This madness may be catching!” he cried.

Khalid and Jaheira looked at each other in confusion.

“What madness is this exactly?” Aerin asked, Gaius settling on his shoulder.

“I’ve been a poultry farmer all my life and seen many kinds of chicken, but I found a fiendish hen that spoke to me when I picked her up! Either I am fevered or that chicken is possessed by a very demon from the ninth hell!”

He ran past the group in terror, nothing they could say calming him. Shrugging, Aerin began walking east, the others following him.

The sound of a growling wolf filled the air and Aerin took out his sling, loading it. That did not sound like a friendly wolf.

They found the animal cornering a chicken against the edge of a canyon wall, the rock nearly fifty feet high. There would be no escape for the chicken unless they helped it.

Jaheira stopped the mage before he could hurl his rock.

“Are you insane? What if that chicken is possessed?”

“If it was, don’t you think the demon would be defending itself?”

The druid lowered her hand, and Aerin took the opportunity to launch his missile. His stone hit the wolf in the side and the animal yelped, turning to flee. They hurried to the chicken, Aerin certain it was the one the farmer had spoken of.

“T-thank ye! Ye have saved me from a most gruesome fate!” the bird clucked.

“So it would seem. A trip through the bowels of a wolf sounds rather gruesome,” Aerin agreed. “Could you explain how it is you can speak?”

“It would seem I misread a polymorph spell, and I am unsure of how to undo it. I am Melicamp, a student of the mystical arcane in Beregost. I have not been home in over a month, since I misread that spell.”

“I have knowledge of magic myself. Can you not dispel this condition?” Aerin asked, sitting beside the hen.

“Well, ye see, I have not memorized the spell myself, and I do not have access to my spellbook,” Melicamp said, ruffling her feathers. “Ye are another student of magic. I don’t suppose ye have access to such a spell, do ye?”

“Unfortunately no. My own teacher was killed a few days past, and I was never taught the art of dispelling magic.”

“Damn. There’s no hope for it then. I must see my master. He lives in a tower to the west of Beregost.”

“Why haven’t you returned to him already? Even as a chicken it can’t take that long to reach Beregost.”

“Um, well, ye see, the relationship between master and apprentice can be strained often.”

“And you believe he will help you, even with this strain?”

“I am fairly certain, yes,” Melicamp replied.

“Very well, I will help you, but you will have to wait a while longer. We have business in the canyons.”

“This is acceptable. I will just bide my time in your bag until we reach my master.”

Aerin opened his bag and the mage-turned-chicken climbed inside.

“That was well handled,” Jaheira smiled at him as he stood up.

Khalid nodded his agreement.

“Gorion w-would be proud.”

“Thank you, but I haven’t done anything yet,” Aerin shrugged.

“Well, why don’t we go do something about the necromancer and then we’ll take this chicken home.”

Travel through the canyons was slow, requiring much backtracking as the group tried to find safe paths down the rocky walls that filled the place. It wasn’t long before Aerin was hopelessly lost. Even Jaheira seemed to have some trouble with their location. To their surprise, it was Khalid who stepped up and guided them through the canyons.

“I h-have not been here… here personally,” he said. “But… but it really is...isn’t much different from my home.”

They scrabbled down another drop in the land, Aerin spotting a young boy hiding in some brush. Approaching the kid, Aerin was surprised to hear a hiss.

“Shh! I’m trying to spy on Bassilus and his spooks! They’re funny.”

“I never heard of a funny spook. What makes these ones so funny?” Jaheira asked, stooping to the kid’s height.

“Bassilus keeps telling them all these stories but all they do is moan and groan like they ain’t listening.”

The kid smiled a toothy grin.

“I gotta tell my friend Nettie about this. She’ll think it’s hilarious!”

“You should do that,” Jaheira smiled at the kid, waving him back toward the climb.

The kid ran off, Aerin and Khalid staring at the druid.

“What? He shouldn’t be around that necromancer. This gets him away from here without scaring him. With the gods’ blessing, Bassilus will be dead long before he returns. A dead body is better than one who will drain your soul.”

“I love you,” Khalid smiled at his wife, embracing her.

Aerin cleared his throat quietly, not wanting to interrupt the tender moment. But they had a job to do.

“Let’s get this over with,” Jaheira said.

The necromancer was not far from the boy’s hiding spot. They could smell him before they saw him, surrounded by rotting zombies and skeletons. He spoke to them as he would old friends, begging the zombie for a tale of the old days.

“Stay this madness!” Aerin said, approaching the man.

Gaius flew into the air, agitated as Aerin stepped toward the necromancer.

“Who dares interrupt my conversation with my family! I’ll have your head if you harm any one of them!”

Aerin shook his head sadly as Jaheira and Khalid flanked him. Clearly, Bassilus was indeed mad. But maybe he could still reason with him.

“You mistake me for someone else. Perhaps you could come with us to Beregost and we can find your family.”

“No! You forget and I will make you remember Father!”

The mad cleric raised his arms and the undead rushed toward Aerin. The mage’s hands sprayed the colours of his spell, the magic washing over the undead and the cleric. It had no effect; Bassilus shrugging off the attack.

Khalid pulled Aerin behind him, beating off the meaty fists of a zombie with his shield. With a loud roar, Jaheira threw herself past the undead, allowing herself to be surrounded so she could reach their master.

Aerin frowned as he brought up his hands. There was only one other spell he could use today, a spell that was possibly even more powerful than his colour spray. There was no way Bassilus could defend against this assault.

With a word, a green bolt of energy leapt from Aerin’s hand, flying unerringly to strike Bassilus in the chest. The cleric stumbled, his own spell interrupted. Jaheira’s mace came down on his arm, shattering it in one blow, and the necromancer dropped to his knees.

Jaheira was swarmed with the undead in the next moment, barely able to cast a spell that healed the wounds she took a second before. Khalid yelled as he rushed through the undead to rescue the druid.

Aerin pulled out his sling, his magic gone for the day. Raining stones on the horde of undead, the mage tried to get a clear shot on the cleric. Gaius swooped at the cleric, his body shimmering as four illusionary dragons joined him. His claws dug into the necromancer’s face, cutting out his eyes, and Bassilus screamed as he dropped, the fairy dragon finishing him off with a claw to the throat.

Instantly the undead around the group began to crumble, bodies falling and rotting away. Aerin let out a heavy sigh as Khalid helped Jaheira to her feet. Druid and fighter embraced tightly, tears falling openly.

Aerin collected the holy symbol from Bassilus, removing a pair of gauntlets that hummed with their own magic. A warhammer was hidden nearby, Aerin’s senses picking the magic within it, and he collected the weapon, knowing it would be worth much.

And that was it. He had looted a dead body. There was nothing beneath him now, this was the lowest of the low.

Gaius landed on the mage’s shoulder, tail tucked around his neck.

“It is the life of an adventurer,” he said at the emotions he felt. “Use these items so you can survive.”

“It is a terrible fate for one to be driven so mad by their powers,” Aerin said quietly, staring at the body of their foe.

“Gorion was right. Sometimes too much knowledge can be a bad thing.”

We set up camp nearby, nursing our wounds. Jaheira was in a bad way; there wasn’t a single spot of her body that didn’t bear a mark of our fight. Even her strongest healing spell had little effect on her. Khalid wasn’t much better, but he insisted Jaheira patch herself up first.

Melicamp joined our group that night, bolstering our spirits with anecdotes of her time with her master. And by morning we were in better spirits, even if our bodies still ached from our trials.