Chapter 1: Friends in Need

Still not willing to get within striking distance of the demented necromancer, Aazim instead decides to quickly examine his surroundings. With bodies and debris scattered about, surely there's something that can help them? Maybe one of those cocoons actually has a living being inside, someone who can join the fight!

Ready to chop the damned arms off of the ruinous mage, Lauretta prepared to swing. Before she could follow through, the spell was cast. Sinister power emanated from the wave of undead gore as it struck her like a tidal wave. Instead of a scream, the only remaining wind left in her lungs escaped with a pathetic wheeze.

Her body writhed, trying desperately to break free before she could even catch her breath. The disgust for the spiders was entirely unmatched by this. By luck or fate, her arm came free from the grasp of a severed hand. She ripped herself loose, but only to look up and find herself at the mercy of whatever Pyram was about to unleash.

Amidst the terror of being overrun by numerous insects, Tzal pointed his staff and gathered enough water to send another jellyfish towards Pyram determined to bring him down.

Laying there momentarily at Pyram's mercy, all Lauretta could think was the image of her skull viscerally exploding as a mass of arcane energy collided with her head. Instead, she saw streaming blasts of water and magical power go back and forth overhead. Gritting her teeth and firmly grasping a webbed corpse in front of her, she dragged herself toward Pyram more like an animal than a soldier. Hastily crawling on the ground amongst the dead while covered in gore briefly blurred past and present. How much was different between that life and this one right now?

Inch after inch, she crawled. Finally close enough, her hands wrapped around her axe's haft and her entire body rolled over, swinging the weapon upwards at the necromancer.

Meanwhile, a clatter of metal and a ground-shaking impact reverberated throughout the cave. R3N-L3 had lunged forward to intercept the blast of dark magic, but the eldritch lance sparked and sputtered as it tore into the robot's inner mechanisms, causing him to freeze up into an unmoving statue of twisted steel, before falling forward as if paralyzed.

Tzal closed his eyes and braced for the bolt of arcane energy from the necromancer. However, it didn't hit; instead, he heard the clattering sound of the inner mechanism of R3N-L3. When he opened his eyes, he saw the stark, unanimated figure of R3N-L3. Tzal understood that R3N-L3 had intercepted the energy and saved him from the attack. He immediately felt grateful, but then he remembered that R3N-L3 must have stopped because his inner mechanism stopped working. Searching for the key, he turned it and activated R3N-L3 again. In the meantime, he noticed Lauretta disemboweling Pyram with her axe. Standing beside R3N-L3, he wondered whether the battle was finally over.

Without skipping a beat, Lauretta hauled herself to her feet using her axe as leverage. It became apparent that the fight was over after she wiped the hot, sticky mess from her eyes. Amidst the sea of crimson that was her face, the white sclera of her eyes stood out like fire as they danced frantically around the room. It took a few moments of watching Tzal wind the key of their fallen clockwork companion for the tight grip on her axe to loosen. She stood stoically as she took note of the blood and viscera staining her priestly garments. Will things ever change?

"All alive. Good. Let's get those bodies down."

Already weakened from their previous fight, Aazim didn't feel he'd contributed much during the brutal showdown with Pyram. Still, they'd prevailed...though the Jann didn't feel like celebrating. Perhaps if they'd been able to save these poor captured souls....

With nobody in desperate need of help, Aazim decides to study the strange orb he'd found. Was it important? If so, why had Pyram and his monster ally overlooked it?

A few shudders ran through the clockwork's frame, before he abruptly shot back up to his feet, inspecting the hideous wounds across his chassis dispassionately. Dozens of intricately carved gears ran underneath his armor, keeping the war machine mobile. Many of them had splintered and shattered under the claws of the beast and other dangers, but enough seemed to be spinning so that he was still able to function.

"This unit's combat capability has been partially compromised." He stated, moving across the cavern in slow, creaking movements. "Approximately six hours of maintenance will be needed to return full capability. But it is good that the mage did not suffer damage. Trauma tends to have peculiar lasting effects on organics due to the pain incurred." He moved over to the creature, making sure it was dead with one more well-placed thrust before moving around to check what was in the cocoons.

Wolfram approaches Lauretta, his face lined in concern.

"All you alright, other than your clothes needing a bit of a bath? That was very well done. It seems you have put that foul fiend to rest forever. I knew he was an evil thing right from the start."

Glancing at the others then, he realized they all made it, and the clockwork would be alright too.

Tzal worked with everyone in uncovering and gathering all the remains of the dead along with their possessions. He walked around inspecting the room and wondering whether anymore surprises would come to prey on them. After all the inspection was done, he approached Lauretta, "I think we will have to take the remains of the kidnapped people of Traveller's Rest back and give them a proper burial there. The rest, I think we should burry somewhere outside the tomb. Then again, we will have to deal with the bandit group we subdued earlier."

Lauretta simply studies her companions and the corpses while catching her breath. It was hard to not feel demoralized by the dead, but she tried her hardest to find some solace in the annihilation of what claimed them. Mostly, she just felt tired. The ringing in her ears drowned out Wolfram somewhat, but she was able to piece his words together with the worried expression on his face.

"I'm plenty fine, don't worry. Just some bruising beneath all this blood thanks to that bastard necromancer. I'd say there's probably more cause for concern with Renly over there."

She kept her tough face on for the others. The aftermath of battle was just as crucial for guidance as what came before. Nodding in agreement with Tzal, she raised her voice some so that they could all hear.

"Aye, we'll take back the dead. It's the least we can do after putting an end to the evil that dwelled here. That may have seemed a hard task, but harder still is granting closure to the families of the lost. However, it is just. As was our victory. Tired and beaten we are, the killers of these men and women will not be harming anyone else thanks to us. It is the people that Pyram and these creatures would have hurt that we should bear in mind on our return. That is the good we've done today."

Hopefully that will reach them. I never was a leader.

"As for the rest of the dead, I suggest a funeral pyre. This haunted tomb bore a necromancer's research. Undead roam the land around it. It is not a proper resting place. Peace will be found in the flames. Speaking of, we should destroy Pyram's blasphemous scroll."