"What a fiasco," the lone woman at the bar said mournfully to her mug of ale.

The Silver Spoon was empty save for her and the usual quartet of rowdy dwarf regulars in a far corner. The woman sat alone at the bar, nursing her drink and staring at the wall as if seeing events replaying in front of her that she didn’t want to remember.

The barkeep eyed the woman as he pushed another mug of ale to rest in front of her. The woman's skin, a dark red hue, glowed in the bar's dim light like old blood, and her eyes gleamed like hooded emeralds.

"It was a waste of time, really. I was as much help as an orc doing needlepoint!" said the woman at the bar again, an expression of disgust crossing her fine elf-like features. She took another swig of her ale while staring at the barkeep, who knew her from numerous irregular visits to the Silver Spoon in the past months. A tiefling, her exotic colouration went with an expressive tail that curled and fluttered behind her while she sat at the bar. While the woman muttered under her breath, the barkeep, who went by the name of Jeff, plied his rag over the smooth wood of the bar. He kept an eye on the dwarves in the corner, their raucous laughter carrying as usual. His co-worker Mary stocked drinks, in her typically perky energetic mood.

"Come on, Nichneven, we need your help," intoned the tiefling in a different falsetto voice. "That's what Ellina said to me, so I picked up my gear and went. Stupid really, but I seem to be doing a lot of dumb things since I came to this strange city." Another swig of ale, and her tail flicked briefly into view over her shoulder to emphasize her point.

"I mean, there I was, wondering what the evening would bring as I wandered past the Temple and ran into a gathering of various folk," said the woman, not eyeing the barkeep as she stared at the far wall of the Spoon in a northerly direction. "There was Emdor and Ellina of course, Arturius Pendgragon whom I'd met before, as well as several others... I think one of them went by the name of Fade."

Her brow furrowed to recall the names of the other two adventurers present, a mage and.... "Ah, Ellina called the other one Obadiah... what did HE do again? Bah, it matters not now."

Spreading her hands on the bar, Nichneven leaned closer to Jeff to talk in a conspiratorial whisper: "Apparently I arrived at just the right moment, for these friends and new allies had just received word that one of their own, a man by the name of Verineti, had been captured by agents of the Empire that very night!" She nodded knowingly to the barkeep as she belted back another draught of Krendall's Bitter.

"Being asked to join them, well, how could one say no? Besides, Ellina and Emdor have become my friends, and one does not turn down a friend's plea for aid." Shaking her head, Nichneven took another swallow of Krendall's and sighed with pleasure as she continued.

"Eight of us there were then, gathered in North Benzor in defiance of the Empire... itself ruled by the tyrant Azael Thoth, as you well know." Jeff nodded in the way of barkeeps the universe over, listening to tales without comment while they kept the drinks flowing. "Most of the others cast layers of spells upon themselves, armouring them in magics most deadly," said the tiefling, her eyes remembering the bright flares of magic, dazzling even in the daylight.

"A right powerful group of heroes we were, all save myself, who alone did not glow with the deadly singing of spells like my comrades." A cough, and Nichneven gazed heavily into her ale, swirling the dark brew around. "Still, my skills lay in... other things, most of which would not benefit from glowing like a second sun for all to see. That, I leave to others."

The red-hued woman shifted on her stool, straightening from her slump to look directly at Jeff. The tiefling squared her shoulders as she said "Little time passed between gathering ourselves and standing before the door to the Benzor Jail. The ten of us faced off against the guards, whose reputation, though fell, was not enough to sway us from our course.

"We attacked. The Fallen Warrior guards were no match for us at first, but then the situation changed, as battles often do, in the blink of an eye. From within the jail came a Sergeant Cross, whose name was unknown to me. His scythe blade struck down several of my companions, including Ellina. Our own weapons had some little effect on him, but our numbers soon proved too much and he vanished in the confusion."

Here the tiefling stopped, her gaze elsewhere as she recalled standing to one side, plying her bow in useless effort against both the guards and the dangerous Sergeant. Blinking, she continued as both Jeff and Mary listened from behind the bar.

"Most of us made it inside, without serious wounds, though Emeila fell just inside the door. We found the jail empty of reinforcements aside from the initial guards just inside, and all of the doors locked. Oddly, there were two pillars of light by the entry door that I had not seen before.

"Emdor asked me to try unlocking the doors, as I have a certain... affinity... with such things." Nichneven grinned at the two bartenders in open delight as she wiggled a slim-nailed hand in the air before them. "I tried my skills on the locks, but they proved to be far beyond the wisdom I had gained thus far in such matters. Of course, the weapons that the others plied against the doors proved equally ineffective; potent magics slumbered within those steel portals.” She grinned again, revealing small fangs behind her curving lips. “The doors were powerful enough to resist the blows from the strongest weapons there, stymieing all our efforts to prize them open."

"Then Fade suggested that we search the jail for keys to the doors, in hope that such things had been hidden away by lazy guards in a secret nook or cranny. A good idea, that.”

Recalling the situation, Nichneven saw the jail unfold before her eyes as though she was there again. The others stood around the room, poking and prodding in their search for keys. She herself had gone over to look at the twin pillars of light by the entry, also being studied by the female mage of the group.

The tiefling went on: "I asked the lady mage how such magical pillars might conceal keys, and she said she didn't know, but we could at least try to destroy them." She rolled her eyes. “I was thinking the mage was loony, but I tried to attack the shafts of light. It was as easy as reading lips on a mindflayer.

“It was most annoying. I asked the mage if perhaps the shafts would explode, and turn into showers of flowers with scented powers...?" Laughing into her ale, Nichneven recalled the odd look the lady mage had given her for THAT comment. It had been more than worth the frustration of trying to cut immaterial light with a sword blade.

"I tossed a few more comments about the evils of flowers at her, yet she seemed all too unaware of such evils. Frankly, I can't see how ANYONE such as her, a practitioner of magic, could not know the depths of evil that flowers can lower themselves to." She winked at Jeff and waggled her tail over her shoulders, pointing. "Myself, tainted with my heritage as I am, am far more aware of evil as it lurks around us in the everyday and ordinary. Why, I could curl your round ears with telling you about some of the things that lurk in this very bar!"

Grinning, the tiefling took in the shocked expressions on both bartender's faces. Jeff himself almost dropped a glass as stared around the innocent-seeming dim interior of the Spoon.

"Of course, neither of you’d believe me... but you'd step lightly around here afterwards; much better to live in ignorance. Besides, most of those things are harmless. Most, I say, mind...." With a wink, she let the subject drop and her mind drifted back to the inside of the Benzor Jail.

"Giving up on the light-shafts, I tried again to open the nearest door, but to no avail. Frustrated, I kicked the door hard... and it opened!" Mary looked up at the tiefling, expecting to see delight, but instead the woman sat on her stool, a stricken look on her face as she continued: "It opened... and that blasted Sergeant’s TWIN grinned as he struck me down in one blow. Everything went dark as I heard the others behind me shout as they met him in battle."

Swirling her ale in a mostly-empty mug, Nichneven sat silent for several minutes as the bartenders bustled, clearly giving her time to gather her thoughts. When she continued, both Jeff and Mary looked up at the different note that had crept into the tiefling's voice.

"I awoke in the Temple of Life, as many adventurers around this city are wont to do time and again. The others were there: Fade, Ellina, Arturius, Emelia and the lady mage." Grimacing, the tiefling went on to describe how the others seemed to recall little about the battle. "I'm not sure why, but since then my own memories have come trickling back like water from the spring snow melt... cold, and unwelcome.”

Nichneven nodded as Jeff refilled her mug with more Krendall’s Bitter. "What I DID know then, and could not explain, was the sudden fear I had of the flower arrangements lurking at the Temple's altar. That idiot priest was standing there looking like always does: like he's been constipated for months. What with all the adventurers crowding the Temple that night, you'd think he'd have more to say, but he just planted himself there like a rock and said nothing as we all gathered.

Thinking back, Nichneven thought that the priest had proved useful in some fashion: aside from raising the group members as they fell to the guard's blades, he had also mentioned WHY he had performed such a valuable service.

"According to the priest,” said Nichneven, “All of us were brought back from our deaths in the Fugue by the Citizen's Resurrection Committee of Benzor, a new group who is apparently dedicated to keeping the streets of Benzor clear of adventurer corpses."

Shaking their heads, both bartenders looked at each other, and Nichneven smiled as she continued.

"Yeah, I'd never heard of them either... but apparently they've been quite busy in Benzor of late, what with the invasion and all. Lots of bodies lying about, cluttering up the streets and causing a stink. I would have thought they'd just bury us all in the central gardens and be done with us... but apparently the C.R.C.B. feel that we can better serve the city alive than dead."

She shrugged, and wondered once more why the C.R.C.B. bothered, unless they feared that having SO many bodies to bury would soon overwhelm both the cemetery and gardens both. Perhaps that was it. In any case, she turned her thoughts back to her tale...

"I talked with the others, and we noted that neither Emdor nor Obadiah had joined us from the other side. Ellina, with her personal bond with Emdor, soon reported that they had been captured and imprisoned along with Verineti in the jail. Our mission, such as it was, had failed. We knew now that two more of our number now languished in the Benzor Jail, at the small mercy of the Empire and Thoth's will."

The tiefling stared somberly into her mug, her tail lashing in a fury behind her. "Those sorry excuses for guards will rue the day they started working for those Empire scum, I tell you. And don't tell me to be quiet," she said, not looking up as the bartenders both started to make quieting motions. "I know those dwarves in the corner there have no love for the Empire, and you two don't care either way as long as we don’t bust up your bar and pay in cash."

Nichneven's tail punctuated her harsh words as she glanced up at Jeff and Mary, her eyes aglitter with remembered malice. "Much as I despise the Empire, I've had some small dealings with them, and the things they say disgust even the tainted half of me. Some... creatures... are better off dead and best destroyed utterly, than letting their immense evil be let loose on the lands."

Setting her mug down with a flourish, the tiefling woman stood and gathered her cloak around her. Stopping to pin the bartenders with a glare and a wink, she said "Mark me, this place will burn all too soon, should the Empire have their way with it. Still, as my comrades and I stood in the Temple, another threat reared its ugly head even as we stood swaying with the loss of both our memories and our companions."

Striding towards the door, Nichneven threw words over her shoulder that stopped the dwarves chatter cold, and made Mary take hold of Jeff s arm with shaking hands.

"The Zhenghi were attacking Benzor," said the tiefling as she stepped into the night. "And by The Bottom Lip of Bertranna, it looked as though it was ALL of them, heading right for the walls."

Her voice floated in from the darkness outside. "Just we few adventurers, against the cannibal hordes. How it is that you're all still here, well.... That's a story for another night."

*   *   To Be Continued   *   *