Latest Updates
PoesJournalEntrySixteen
Back to Poes Adventure Journal
Ahh, Alia! Seeing you again…it filled me with purpose. Frack the Queen and Her heroes and Her fates. I will do this thing, but not for Her. I will see these people to their fates for you. For us. To spare all children a world of darkness and pain. And in the small hope that She will see fit to hold to her promise to bring us together at the end. You were right, of course. I had succumbed to the cold, calculating power of the Queen. Frack that. Your love has warmed me and even now as I clutch this crystal prayer bead I can feel your presence giving me strength to see this through. It’s a strength I suspect I will need if recent events are any indication…
We’d just finished off the fowl creature and were regrouping inside the temple when Kleister mentioned that his spear was getting agitated. Putting aside the oddness of talking to an otherwise inanimate wood and metal object, this was a bit disconcerting because it usually meant that some kind of dragon or dragon-spawn was near by. That’s when the annoying high pitched squeak of a kobold voice sounded from the darkened hallway. I don’t speak whatever language those little buggers do, but I recognized the tone. Condescension. That meant only one thing – the little fracker was under the direct control of a dragon. Sunny quickly translated for us. Diamond had commanded that we must die and the kobold was offering us an honorable death. Apparently in the name of someone – or something – called Chill Chill the Unspoken. Heh. A named minion. I hoped Diamond wasn’t too attached to him.
Our dwarf and Ron shouted some taunts back at the kobold and this Chill Chill fellow. Guss and I took up more defensive positions at the doorway. Just in time, too – almost as soon as we’d stepped back into the doorway, a huge, gnarled, creature appeared out of the darkness. As it rushed towards us, we all took swings at it. My blade bounced right off of its hide, scattering small chips of what appeared to be ice from the creature’s sinewy arm. No one else fared much better. Frack. Our line held though, thanks to Guss, who shrugged off a blow from the white creature’s huge hammer and stood fast. Behind me, Ron shouted, “Get back troll!” and unleashed a blast of thunder into the beast’s chest. It staggered under the force of Ron’s magic and stumbled back into the dark hallway.
Stone scraped behind us. Frack. Luckily, it was simply Kobe coming to our rescue. I grinned. The bigger they are, the harder it is for them to hit Kobe. With my little buddy in the fray we stood a decent chance of making it out of here alive. The troll returned to the room as Kobe slid into our front line next to Guss. This time, the troll wasn’t alone. What’s better than one tall, white-skinned monstrosity? Two, I guess. The new troll and I exchanged swings – his maul smashed down into the ground beside me and my blade skittered off his icy chest. Kobe didn’t miss though – he buried his dagger in a soft spot in the creature’s left leg. The gash Kobe’d made closed up before our eyes. Frack. Guss and I both landed solid hits on him. The wounds we inflicted healed almost immediately as well. Frack. At this rate, we were going to be here a while. Or, well, maybe not. An even larger troll shoved into the room. I heard Sunny gasp behind me. The poor bastard’s mouth was sewn shut. This was Chill Chill. Now I got it – “unspoken” was unusually accurate in this case. Heh. Cold emanated from him waves, shivering even me. Ron stood toe to toe with the sad creature, took a painful looking blow from the beast’s maul, but burnt the thing in return. Kobe ran straight at him, skipped up his leg and lunged towards his face, cutting one stitch free. Beros stepped into a breach that had opened in our line – I’m not sure who was down – and fired at Chill Chill from close range. Chill Chill roared in pain and swung wildly at the elf with his hammer, slamming it into the wall where the elf had just been standing. Under the heroes’ onslaught Chill Chill started to actually look hurt. They were opening wounds faster than his unnatural power could heal them back up. Canny fracker that he was, he retreated…
We all took a quick breath. Sunny began talking in some language I didn’t understand. Again, the gist of her words was clear. Let’s just say, if she’d talked to me like that I’d have been hard pressed not to go after her. And In consider her a friend of mine. Chill Chill either didn’t hear, couldn’t understand or had a lot more self control than I do. Maybe the other two trolls who’d also retreated to the hallway were holding him down or something.
Anyway, a quick breath was all we got. A four armed skeleton stepped out of the darkness and attacked. As we engaged it we could hear the kobolds chanting in the hallway. Healing someone. Frack. Not much we could do about that though, being up to our ears in skeletons. Having four arms was simply an unfair advantage. One of them pushed my blade off guard and then landed four solid blows with his swords. I was bleeding heavily and burning from the skeleton’s fiery aura. Kliester grabbed the back of my coat and pulled me out of the front line. The skeletons did what the trolls had failed to do – they broke through our line, overwhelming us with their whirling blades. As the battle swirled into chaos inside the temple, Ron stepped to the doorway and hurled a blast of thunder into the dark hallway. I guess he hoped to buy us some time to destroy the skeletons and reform the line before the trolls came at us again. He was nearly successful, but just as Sunny blasted a skeleton into a pile of bones and Guss cut down the last two a troll squeezed into the room. The creature easily pushed Kobe out of the way. Its ugly twin joined it a second later. And a second after that our good friend Chill Chill returned as well. Yippee for them. Guss wasn’t having any of this. He thrust his sword through the chest of the first troll. Its eyes rolled up into its head and it fell on its face. One down. Beros was beside me, firing arrows at the other troll as it closed on us. At the last second, I dodged in front of Beros, deflecting the hammer blow that would have crushed his skull. The troll barreled into me, clubbing me with the haft of the weapon as well. Beros at least slipped away unscathed.
Ron came to the rescue again, speaking some arcane words and firing a blast of magic at the trolls…well, and Guss of course. When the smoke cleared they’d all been teleported somewhere else. I looked around for Guss or Our Dwarf…no luck. I did notice that the troll Guss had killed was moving though. Frack. It stood up, the hole in its chest nearly mended. Guss was really not going to be happy about this.
Beros and Sunny turned quickly on the rejuvenated troll. Arrows and fey magic felled the creature for a second time. Kleister stepped up and dumped oil on the carcass. Then lit it. That’‘d better be enough, I thought, or we’re in a heap of trouble. I headed for the door, hoping to keep Chill Chill and the other troll from reentering the temple. Kobe and Guss joined me. The two beasts pushed past us. Guss was undeterred by this and seconds later, shouted a battle cry and pushed Chill Chill back into the hallway.
That’s when the real shock troops entered the battle – the kobolds. Heh. Little frackers were suddenly everywhere. I tried to shove one back into Ron’s magical stinking cloud, but failed. Ron meanwhile, faced off against Chill Chill. His magic brought Chill Chill to his knees but Ron paid for it. As Chill Chill fell, he lashed out with his hammer, clipping Ron on the side of his head. Ron collapsed in a heap, but a dwarven soul shot from the altar area and he was soon back on his feet.
Kleister yelled at me, pulling my attention away from Ron. He pointed out an opening and I took it, smacking one of the kobolds with my sword. Two of the little frackers quickly retaliated. And before we could stop it the kobold priest healed his minions and the last troll. I wiped blood from my face. At some point I must have taken a blow to the head. That explained the wooziness. Heh.
Our dwarf charged back into the fray, and as he passed me I felt his radiant power strengthen me. I shook my head, clearing it a bit, and took stock. I was in pretty bad shape. But Chill Chill was down for the count, the skeletons had been destroyed, and only a single troll and a handful of kobolds remained. None of the heroes were down, though several looked pretty banged up and everyone was bloodied. At the rear of the temple at least one dwarven voice droned on – so the ritual continued. I had no idea how far along it was, having lost track of all time in the heat of battle. I threw my arm up as Ron exploded in fire to my left, setting several kobolds aflame. Bet they liked that. Heh. The heroes began concentrating on killing the kobold priests, though something he said put the fear into our dwarf, who fled past me and back into the hallway. Frack. That left a clear lane for the last troll and he took it. The creature stomped forward, dazed Kobe with a kick in the head and then killed him with a vicious blow of his hammer. The troll roared in triumph, but the last dwarven soul not doing the ritual shot from the altar and raised Kobe.
I moved to aid Kobe. He was alive, but just hanging on and still within reach of the troll. Guss, fighting alone to my right against a swarm of kobolds took two sword blows and fell. Beros managed to bring down the kobold priest with a pair of well placed arrows. Our dwarf regained his composure and charged back into the room yet again. As I reached Kobe, the troll roared again and charged Sunny. The creature ran her down. She didn’t get back up. Frack. Two down. I chose fast and charged the troll, trusting that Kleister would take care of Guss. My blow was too weakened to damage the creature, but I did at least get its attention. I heard Ron and Beros both firing missiles and then a squeal behind me cut short. The last kobold priest was dead. The troll’s hammer smashed into my chest. Struggling to breathe I took a quick look at Sunny. She was bleeding out. Frack. I tossed my sword down, knelt beside the young woman and did my best to stabilize her. It’d have to do. Kleister was already yelling at me and the troll was on the move again. Grabbing my sword I dove in front of Kleister, blocking the troll’s advance. Our dwarf struck the troll from behind and I saw an opening. I lunged…
...and there you were. Alia. My love. I dropped my weapon. It was you…exactly as I last saw you. Your wedding dress billowing in an unfelt breeze. Before…
“Poe…”, you said. “You look…sad.” I laughed. You had no idea. You smiled, too.
Blinking back tears, I started to apologize.
“Aw, shut up,” you said. “I know everything. I don’t care anymore. Seeing you like this…so cold.”
You shook your head. “I miss us. I miss our dreams.”
You stopped, looked past me and sighed. “She took that from us. And I hate Her for that.”
I’d never heard such venom in your voice.
“But She’s wrong, Poe. And deep down She knows it.
‘There’s no fate but what She makes’”, you spat the mantra at me. “It’s a lie.”
I stared at you, amazed.
“Yeah, I’m mad.” you said. “I hate Her, but I get it. Things have to get worked out. Right now, they’re just plain wrong. And these heroes are supposed to fix it.”
I chuckled ruefully at that and started to speak. You cut me off.
“I know…”, you said. ”...they’re not always as focused as they could be.”
That made me laugh outright. It felt good. You even smiled a little.
“Poe, remember our dreams? A son of our own? What would his life have been like? Thousands of little boys are growing up in fear and pain. These heroes might put an end to that. That has to happen, not just for us. But for all of them…”
Your eyes glistened. “Poe, I hate seeing you so cold. I remember your laughter, your love, your warmth. It’s why I chose the dim witted, dreamy third son of a priest to be my husband.”
I collapsed to my knees, sobbing. You dragged your hand across your face, wiping away tears.
“You need that warmth Poe, and the power of that love. Our love. She doesn’t see it, but I know. It’s a power even She cannot give. But I can…”
You reached out and touched my arm. Enfolding the prayer beads wrapped around my wrist in your two slim hands. They began to burn.
“I love you Poe. Finish this. And then come back to me…”
...I awoke in the temple. Kobe’s worried face hovered above me. The little guy looked worried. I looked at my prayer beads – one sparkling crystal bead shining amongst the dull black ones. I smiled up at Kobe. Not today little buddy. Not today…
Poe.
