Running across the aisles, pushing their way through people, a group of hooded persons were running away from something. Not far behind, were coursing after them a unit of soldiers armed with magical weapons through the crowd.
- "Ylrar!-shouted one of the hooded individual carrying a huge bow on her back. You said this was supposed to go smoothly!
- Oh I'm sorry Miss Dopplletwat,-replied another one accompanied by a floating crystal. that I couldn't guess in advance that this fuckin' helm was protected with a Glyph of Warding of such complexity so be happy that we have the artefact at all!"
As the soldiers ordered the crowd to move away, multiple bursts of electricity detonated right behind the group, invoked through the tip of the soldiers' spears.
- "Might I suggest that we pursue this conversation later my comrades, and get out of here before more chaos ensues?-asked the tallest one."
They looked behind them staring at the guards chasing after them. The guards' gazes were filled with indignation and discontent.
- "Suggestion accepted!-replied one of them who raised his staff before striking it upon the ground, conjuring a fog making them vanish in the eyes of their pursuers."
At least he believed to have done so until the Fog vanished from an vast gust of breeze. The soldiers were accompanied by a mage.
- "Well, that's unfortunate-responded the individual wielding a staff.
- I really have to do everything!-stated out of anger the individual with the crystal."
The person turned around, her crystal lighted up as she took out of her cape a modified winchester who lit up of the same energized color as the crystal before shooting at the guards creating an explosion. The soldiers were unarmed but their mind seemed to be elsewhere as they lost grip of their weapon and started to stumble around aimlessly, some of the guards stopping to take care of them.
- "Oh great now you shot em you stupid toad-skin!-shouted the Bow Carrier.
- I swear to Mother Gith, I'll shoot you down next if you don't shut up!-replied the markswoman.
- Please calm down both of you-asked a voice resonating in their brain. They're still alive Astera, it was a psionic shot. Ylrar just left their minds … confused.
- Thanks babe-replied mentally the markswoman.
- sighs. Just tell your girlfriend to stop calling me a dopplletwat if she wants to live. And talk normally would you? I hate the sensation of you fooling around in my cerebral cortex.
- Duly noted-answered the fifth party with his real quivered voice before unsheathing his flesh-made great-sword and parrying one of the electrical bolts."
Suddenly as the fugitive group started to get closer to the gates of the city, the tension finally rose up. Miniaturized meteors fell down and implode before them, the Spellcaster chanting to evoke a barrier to protect them from the numerous blasts.
- "Didn't suspect them to know Melf's wizardry-remarked the Spellcaster toward the mage recognizing the spell as Melf's Minute Meteor.
- Oh please, Melf's talents might be mediocre at best but they are quite simple to learn I'll give him that."
The mage accompanying the soldiers had stepped forward toward them as the soldiers were surrounding the group.
- "I personally prefer Iggwilv in the matter of Oerthian Archmages. Her ingenuity was grandiose and it reflects upon her charms-continued the military mage as glitters of magic sparked between her fingers.
- Oh 'Tasha? Yeah she wasn't bad for the whiny bitch that she is but refrain yourself from insulting little Prince Brightflame-asked sarcastically the hooded spellcaster. He's our precious little guy down at Oerth. But there's even greater than both of em you know illiterate cow.
- And who would that be? I'd advise you to answer right now cause you won't be able to for quite some time-as whips of psychic arcane grew around her head like a halo, ready to lash out upon them as sentence."
The Spellcaster took off his hood revealing his visage, a man with grayish skin, tresses of hair as dark as the night, but what alerted them all was his eyes, his left eye lighting with a purpling passion, but his right eye. His sclera was engulfed in shadow, his iris seemed to sunk all it gazed upon in it's purplish abyss while his pupil was deformed, remnants of it scavenged across his iris. The right side of his visage was covered in golden markings who all seemed to had been traveling toward his eye while not moving at all. The sight of his face had stupefied the soldiers who for a mere instant let down their guard, while the mage gazing in the Spellcaster's right glare like if she was sinking in it lost her concentration.The Spellcaster raised his hand and his staff glowed of a gloomish light.
- "The best Archmage of all, all worlds included-started the Spellcaster. I'll utter it to you with these next words: I cast, Mordenkainen's Force Missile."
A crimson gleam appeared out of the hand of the Spellcaster, and as the gleam grew into an great sphere of pure force, the spellcaster closed his hand but raised his middle finger.
- "Now go fuck yourself!-he shouted before propelling with his middle finger the arcane missile at the mage."
While the spellcaster had been evoking his missile, the four other members all took off their hoods revealing their selves, taking off their hoods leaving only their long split capes. A woman in paladin armor wielding an armored recurve bow, but of double appearance. Half her body revealing her true changeling self : half red-haired with pinkish skin for her fake identity& half translucent white-haired with cracked white skin,her true self possessing an fey's ear to remember her origins; an Githyanki woman with green skin with taints of yellow, wearing an traditional githyanki armor covered in red opals, her eyes hidden behind her advanced psychotronic visor, charging her advanced psychotronic winchester firearm; an Mind Flayer Fighter, sprouting tentacles from his face, not walking but floating above the ground in armor both metalized to better it's durability and still fashioned in the arts of the Ilithid Empire, wielding his flesh-made great-sword covered in ethereal energy; And an Warforged made only of wood, protected by an exoskeleton of Densewood plates, wearing an enormous mantle of spring leafs and covered in moss while wearing for hair a foliage of autumn leafs. His staff made out of an oak tree branch had just been enchanted with his power ready to smack down those who'd dare approach him while channeling nature's talents within the palm of his left hand.
- "I at first proposed for us to avoid trouble, but it would seem trouble has found us-commented the Warforged Druid.
- I am starting to believe the universe is just allergic to us-replied in response the Ilithid Fighter to his companion."
The group clashed with the soldiers while also trying not to kill them. The changeling paladin using her bow as a club to knock down the guards while the githyanki artificer kept hitting head-shots with her psychotronic winchester to temporarily shut down their conscience. Meanwhile their Ilithid comrade was outnumbered seven to one but with a flick of his finger, ethereal threads of insubstantiality formed into what seemed like an echo of himself before both swung the sword using the back of the blade, rendering the guards unconscious. The Warforged Druid suddenly surrounded himself with a zephyr, warding off the soldiers around him before turning shaping into something different, his visage gaining a snoot, a fur of leafs covering his body and a hide of the same material as his exoskeleton until his body's anatomy resembled that of a bear made of wood. With the unaltered fury of an ursid tussled around the guards that dared get close to him.
Their spellcaster comrade, him was toying around with the adversary mage. She was struggling to hit him with her fire bolts while he kept blocking each using a shielding spell. The mage's exasperation kept growing until she started evoking an fiery orb, the heat of the spheroid inferno caused the nearby water fountain to bubble up until great amounts of water started evaporating in the air, the citizen in the nearby buildings catching fear as their windows started crackling and nearly melting.
- "Didn't know it was summer already-remarked sarcastically the Spellcaster. And seriously Fireball? A bit of originality please!"
The Githyanki Artificer took a clock out of her bag and looked at the time, suddenly her face changed expressions as she turned around toward the Spellcaster.
- "Henry! We got 30 Minutes before the appointment! Hurry your dumbass and stop fooling around!
- Stares at his companion shouting at him and sighs-Fine! Looks at the incoming fireball and practices a few gestures toward it. Dispel Magic."
The mage's fiery infernal ball simply vanished into thin air, she fell to her knees hopeless in face of the crushing defeat she and her team of soldiers just suffered. As they were running away, the spellcaster turned around towards her and the soldiers who started to get up.
- "Here's a little goodbye gift!-as he proceed to blow air out of his mouth guiding it with his hand while pressing a few runes on his staff and doing a hand sign.
Suddenly the breeze that had been breathed took form as threads of shadows pulled out of it forming an creature of such scale that it's mere presence would scare witless all those that contemplated it. A Shadow Dragon had taken form before their very eyes in the middle of the street market. All started running away as the draconian figure shouted as if preparing it's necrotic breath.
Meanwhile, a few districts away:
- "Seriously? An Illusory Dragon? Wasting an 8th level spell, to be exact the most powerful Illusion spell for some random guards?-questioned the Githyanki Artificer.
- What? It's funny-replied the spellcaster. Plus they wasted our time, I ordered the Illusion not to kill any of them with it's breath, and I mean it's kinda their fault they can't realize it's not a real one. It'll vanish once we're out of here and I stop doing this hand sign."
The Warforged took out of Henry's back bag a ball of astral energy.
- "C'mon. That's my key!-said the spellcaster. Could have done it myself.
- Keep on your precious prank spell, and as you said "it's funny"!-answered the Warforged."
The Warforged then threw the ball at the wall, the ball vanished into the wall creating a portal into the Astral Plane.
- "Let's go home everyone-vocalized the Ilithid of his shivered real voice."
They all stepped into the portal, as the portal closed reforming into a ball. And then it shrank on itself until none of it was left, as if it was never there to begin with.
To Be Continued in the next chapter :
Here is the First chapter of our long journey.
I hope you enjoyed it!
Also here's a few notes for informations that will be important to remember in the future and to understand a few characters' storyline: