“Hey guys!” I greeted Jon and Phoebe as they entered the café. “How are you doing in the game?”

“Jon hit max level a few days ago, and I’m only two levels away.” Phoebe replied.

“About one day left of travelling to reach your city. Did you guys ever name it?” Jon asked.

“Not to my knowledge. Are they saying anything on the forums?”

“Eh. You guys seem to have dropped off the map for a while. There was that little hiccup with the Breaking Dawn, but that died down quickly.”

“Bastards.” I muttered, still ticked off that they had killed Alnoss.

“How long until your revenge?”

“Not sure. I’ve got at least one more day over in the desert to get the lich. Then planning with Lolth’s forces.”

“Alright, we can chill at the city for a few days. That’s no biggie.” Jon said. “Are you going to switch back to days?”

“After the revenge. From what I am expecting, night will be the best time to strike.”

“Anything we can start planning?” Phoebe asked.

“Sure. Basically, it’ll be a smash and grab. But, I assume that Pelor can talk through his priests in the main cathedral. So, we’ll have to kill them before we start with the smashing. I want to leave the place a smoking hole in the ground. Ideas for that would be great.”

“What’s the name of your alchemist?”

“Djarleen. She can be a little rough around the edges sometimes, but just tell her I’m footing the bill. That’ll make her happy.”

“Alright, sounds good. I assume the drow can get us disguise cloaks, so you can at least count on Jon and I being there. Derrick, probably not.”

“Hard not to notice a giant on the streets. No matter how casual he is.” Jon chuckled.

“Excuse me, sir! Sir! You’ve gone and stepped on my cart!” I spoke in a mock falsetto.

“Ha! Man, he would be panicking about that. What if they put me in jail? Can I even fit in jail?” Jon chuckled.

“Alright, hopefully Derrick will be able to make the party. I’m heading into the game, you guys take it easy.” Standing up, I gave a farewell nod to each of them before logging back in. Time to hunt down a lich.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Well, here we are.” I said to Inkler as I surveyed the dried oasis ahead of us. The trip out was incredibly easy, as no desert creature dared to attack us. Toward the far side of the dried pool of water, there was an entrance carved into a hill. As we got closer, I could see the simplistic runes carved into the side. Skulls and bones. Smiling, we walked inside.

Zandkazaar’s True Tomb

Heroic dungeon

For slaying all three of the desert kings, you have unlocked the entrance to the true tomb of Zandkazaar. Beware the monstrosities within, for the careless shall become one.

The entrance hall had a double row of pillars in an Egyptian style, with shambling abominations shuffling between them.

Patchwork Flesh Golem

Heroic level 90

Crafted from bits of different creatures, the sight of these abominations is enough to weaken the resolve of lesser adventurers.

“What do you think bud? Take out the legs, then let you rip the head off?” Inkler growled his displeasure. “Yeah, good point. They probably taste as bad as they smell.” I activated [Mystic vision], and took a look at the golem. Unfortunately, the flesh prevented me from seeing the magical workings inside.

“Damn, we’re gonna have to do this the hard way. Let me try one solo first Inkler.” Activating stealth, I moved around so that there was a pillar between me the golem. This one resembled a man, but it had scorpion claws for arms and a lizard leg. I took the time while behind the pillar and activated the skills I thought I would need. “Thanatos, first kill is yours. [Reaper’s edge].” I silently crept close, one swing enough to take the head off the golem.

“Gaaahg.” I nearly vomited from the smell. As the golem fell over in death, the putrefied insides spilled out along the floor. It smelled of garbage left in the heat for a week. After a swift retreat to where Inkler was chuffing in amusement at me, I checked the popup I had gotten.

Thanatos finds your offering acceptable!

For slaying an acceptable offering, you gain 20 favor.

For slaying an offering at full health, you gain 20 favor.

For slaying a heroic monster, you gain 40 favor

For slaying a monster with Reaper’s Edge, you gain 20 favor.

Total favor: 1069/5000

Champions killed: 0/10

Elites killed: 1/1

Weekly kills: 25/25

“At least a hundred favor for each kill? This should be good.” I chuckled darkly. “Don’t worry bud, you can use distance attacks to cripple them if we get multiples. Until then, I should be good fighting them on my own.” He growled a little at that. “Look, it’s not that I don’t want you fighting. But these things smell terrible, and that’s with my horrible sense of smell. I dread what the smell will do to you.” That seemed to placate him a bit.

I stored all my gear, and walked over to the body. If this was just a golem, why did it stop when I decapitated it? Opening the head, I found an empty mana core there. In the body there was a golem reanimation core. Ah, that was it. The mana gem provided power while the reanimation core operated everything. Without power, the golem died. That seemed like a terrible design flaw, but I would never complain about the idiocy of my enemies. These cores were different from the skeletal reanimation cores I had come across, but the magic within had a similar feel. Probably just the difference between reanimating bone and flesh. I stepped back and equipped my gear again.

“Alright buddy, let’s destroy this one and move on.” As I placed a hand on the body, and activated [Consuming flames]. The green flames greedily consumed the body, and we headed on to the second golem. This one was walking on four legs, all of them insectoid. Two lizard arms came out of its back, and the neck was replaced with a scorprican’s tail.

“Damn, that one is fugly isn’t it? Let’s see what these new skills do. [Consuming flames].” A bolt of green fire struck the creature in the chest, igniting it.

“EEEEYYYYYYOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” The golem gave a groaning roar that sent shivers down my back and set Inkler’s armor plates to flapping. It spun around, lashing out with its legs. Stone shattered under the force as the golem hit a pillar. When the flames had finally died down, it had lost about a quarter of its life.

“Huh, scorched him a bit. I guess the animation magics fought off the flames.” I said, thinking out loud. “Let’s try this then. [Binding shadow chains].” Wrapped in the magical chains, the golem couldn’t escape as I charged in, hammer raised. “[Undeath smite]!”

Green flames wreathed my hammer’s head as I swung down with as much force as I could muster. I heard something crack inside the creature, as the flames seemed to pass through the golem. As it fell to my feet, I wondered just how powerful that strike could become. “Huh. Was the golem that weak? Or did I strike the core with that attack and get lucky?”

I opened up this body as well, doing another quick autopsy while breathing as little as possible. The core had shattered and was worthless, but it did answer my question from earlier. I paid particular attention to the joints of this one. How in the hell did he create joints in a creature in places that normally wouldn’t have them?

The answer was obvious once the flesh was peeled back. Brute force. The leg joints of an armored lizard had been thrown in where the shoulder blades had been removed. A cage of bones secured the new joints to the rest of the skeleton. Looking everything over, I shook my head. No way in hell these joints moved as fluidly as the real things. I wouldn’t be surprised if their range of motion was severely curtailed as well. For the insect legs, the internal organs had been removed and replaced with extra-long tendons that connected the legs to different bones. The body only gave a vial of putrefied ichor.

“Alright, let’s at least see if this stuff is flammable.” Tossing the vial at the nearest pillar with a torch, I watched as it shattered and dripped down. Sure enough, as soon as the ichor hit the torch it burst into flames. Foul smelling flames that released an oily black smoke. Inkler and I retreated in a hurry, coughing and hacking at the smell.

“Sorry bud, I promise it’ll be a last resort.” Inkler flicked me with a tail, as if to say I had better not need a last resort. The beetle oil was also flammable, but it burned a lot cleaner. “Ok. I think that’ll do it. Let’s see what’s in the next room.” As we neared the doorway, we both looked through.

Armored Scorpricalan

Heroic level 90

Fusion of human, scorprican and armored lizard, these foot soldiers form the basis of Zandkazaar’s army.

Standing in a square formation were 25 of the newest enemy. They maintained a humanoid shape, mostly. Four insect legs spread out from a human waist. The torso was human, but covered with armored plates. The right arm was that of the scorprican pincer, while the left arm ended in a shield of plates from the armored lizard. They also had a scorprican tail rising up from behind them.

“We need a distraction. [Shadowgheist].” Summoning my clone, I sent him charging in. While he distracted them, I used [Dancing shadow steps] to get around and behind the formation without being seen. The clone ended up dying without doing any damage, but it had done its job.

“Thanatos, the entire group is yours.” I whispered, taking out one of the inferno potions from my inventory. It shattered against the back of one of the central scorpricalans, unleashing fiery mayhem. The central portion of the formation took the brunt of the damage, most of them dying outright. The back two rows survived slightly better, as they had partial coverage from their shields. They still lost three from the closest row and one from the back row. The front two rows only had two badly mangled survivors. Inkler swept into the place and slashed through the neck of one almost immediately. He played cat and mouse with the second one as I started finishing off the six injured that were closest to me.

“[Binding shadow chains][Consuming fire][Undeath smite].” I didn’t hold back, binding one of the middle enemies while targeting the two closest with my other attacks. To my happy surprise, consuming fire ended up taking over the flames from the explosive attack, rapidly killing the monster. Once I had hit the closest enemy with an undeath smite, the remaining three tried to form a defensive wall with their shields. As they did so, I decapitated the one bound with chains. The one Inkler was toying with also ended up succumbing to the burning damage.

“Let’s see how they handle this!” I said, pulling out my arbalest and pointing it in the general direction of their heads. As expected, they hunkered down behind their shields, instinctively protecting a vital point. “[Reality slash].” Using the misdirection, I instead took the three down by targeting their legs. The middle one’s knees were completely severed, while the outer two only lost the majority of function in them. As they stumbled from the attack, I shot the one on the left in the middle of the body with an armor piercing bolt. That was enough damage to finish it. Inkler ended the fight by looping around behind the flesh golems and smacking the back of their heads with his paws.

Thanatos finds your offering acceptable!

For sacrificing a group of acceptable monsters, you gain 625 favor. (25 monsters x (20 favor +5 group bonus)).

For sacrificing a group of heroic monsters, you gain 1125 favor. (25 monsters x (40 favor +5 group bonus)).

For sacrificing a monster at full health, gain 340 favor. (17 monsters x 20 favor each).

Total favor: 3159/5000

Champions killed: 0/10

Elites killed: 1/1

Weekly kills: 25/25

“Well, looks like taking out groups is the way to go.” I mumbled after the notification. Another group sacrifice like that and I should be ready to advance in the church once more. “Now, which way should we go?” I asked, taking stock of the room. Straight through from the entrance was a stairway marked with a dish that had a flame on it. To the left of that was a stairway marked with a well, while the stairway to the right had a giant fang. Inkler sniffed at each passage, sneezing at the one marked with the flames and fang.

“Alright, the well it is. Lead on.” Following Inkler, we headed down stairwell number 2. It was odd for a dungeon, dropping half a level before continuing on for a bit and dropping again. We repeated this several times, circling counterclockwise after a while. We were on our guard, the lack of enemies unnerving. As we travelled along, the flat areas got shorter and shorter. Eventually we were in a spiral staircase. As we got lower, the walls started glistening with moisture. How far down did we have to go to cross the water table in a desert? Eventually we reached the bottom, and the reason for the well became much clearer.

In an open room, there was a massive lake. Dangling from the ceiling were several cocoons, they looked to be about Halfling sized. In the center of the lake was a tree with silver leaves, but that was all I could tell about it from this distance. Far closer was the oddest fairy I had ever seen. He was sitting in the lotus position, butterfly wings spread behind him. They were an ugly grey laced with streaks of purple for about three fourths of the length, and the top portion were a dulled silver.

Oberon

Corrupted Fairy King (84%)

Heroic level 100

The ruler of the Summer Court, Oberon was betrayed and has been fighting the corruption of Zandkazaar by himself in order to save what’s left of his people. In his current state, he only has access to 16% of his stats.

“I’ll not yield to you, lich.” Oberon stated in a calm voice. “Not while there’s breath in my body.”

“That’s a good attitude to have. Of course, he’s probably more interested in your dead body than a living one.” I replied, watching Oberon’s eyes flash open.

“You have the aura of death, but not necromancy. Odd. Who are you?”

“One who is hopefully going to end the lich. Permanently.”

“A hero? But you are a monster race.”

“Adventurers come in all varieties. I’m sure you haven’t heard, since you have been busy saving your court.”

“True. It takes all my concentration to fight a losing battle. Though it has gotten easier of late. Since you wear the armors of my fellow kings, can I assume you are to blame?”

“Probably. I did destroy three of his phylacteries. That probably weakened him a good bit.”

“I see. Since you freed them, would you do an old fairy one last request?”

“If it is within my power, of course.”

“Free my people and kill me.”

“How?” I asked, getting leery of vague statements like that. Especially from a race of notorious tricksters.

“I’ll explain.” He replied in a gentle voice. “You know the story of the tablets? Well. The source of magic that powers the binding is behind me. I felt the disturbance as the lich tried to substitute his own altered stones during the binding ceremony, but I couldn’t sever the connection. A spy in my court betrayed us, and we couldn’t break the ritual. In desperation, I substituted myself as the source in lieu of the tree, severing my own connection to it. Dooming my people.”

“How are they doomed? Are they not in the cocoons?”

“They are, to conserve what mana they have. The king acts as a conduit to the tree, as I am the only one strong enough to handle the torrents of power. Without that, they would waste away. And my children could not find it in their hearts to slay me, nor would I ask it of them.”

“That’s, terrible.” I said. “So, I need to slay you so that a new king can be crowned? And how do we prevent the curse from passing along with the mantle?”

“You’ll have to break the curse and renew the original tablet. But it won’t be an easy task.”

“Of course it won’t.” I muttered.

“The lich has split the original tablet among his three generals. You will need to destroy them and reclaim the pieces. The hardest part will be the fake stone. His fiercest guardian protects it, and it doesn’t take kindly to intruders.”

“What kind of guardians are we talking about?” I asked, concerned that he hadn’t mentioned them before. I grew even more concerned when his wings started drooping.

“The generals are all soul sworn servants. Boulder is a former half giant. He willingly let Zandkazaar experiment on him, and now his proportions are absolutely massive. He is their siegebreaker. Drul’kaath was a former drow, and now walks the path of necromancy, learning from the lich. He commands the hordes. Endrian is the general to truly fear. A corrupted air elemental, he acts as spymaster for the lich. There is no doubt he knows you are here, and is likely studying you to find your weaknesses. I pray you haven’t revealed all your trump cards yet.”

“Despite all this information, I know you are holding something back.” I said, some bit of intuition about how he was holding his body. “What is it?”

“You will have to fight his generals in the order I described them, as they bar the way to the final guardian. In order to retrieve the cursed tablet, you must face Abbadon, the undead dragon.”

“Damnit, it had to be a dragon. Is it a real dragon, or is it a facsimile made from different body parts?”

“While it is not a true dragon, it still has their power. You’ll need an army to take him down.”

“Well, sorry to say but I’m fresh out of armies. Looks like you’ll have to live with just me. Is there anything else I should know?”

“You still are going to fight? Despite the odds?” He asked, eyes widening. No doubt he thought me crazy.

“Of course. I’m going to end the lich. It only seems appropriate that I end everything he created here. Now, how do I find this dragon?”

“The path of the fang. Oh, how I wish one of your caliber had come decades ago. I could have spared the mana to give you a powerful blessing.”

“Well, no time like the present to get started.” I said, standing up and cracking my back. “You’ll have to hold on, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I said, turning and beckoning Inkler to head up the stairs. I felt bad that there was nothing I could do but leave the fairy king alone in the dark, but at least he had some hope.