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The Reader crouched among the bushes watching the house from a distance. Clad in dark concealing clothes, rather than his usual dress shirt and jacket, and with a sword on his hip, it was obvious he wasn’t here for a visit. He was on a mission tonight. After months of study and careful tracking he had finally found the current owner of the object he sought. Unfortunately that was the easy part. The simple two-story wooden structure looked unimposing but he knew better. The class of enemy he faced would undoubtedly have fortified it with hidden magic’s and possibly even mechanical traps and wards. He briefly considered using his Igor heritage to do things the easy way, as important as it was to not fail this mission. But then he would miss out on the thrill of the adventure, and that was the real reason he was here after all. The Reader reached into his bag and switched out his spectacles for a set of dark specs that allowed him to see magical illusions for what they were and scanned the house again. Yep, there they were. The two spectral guards inside the front gate stood with swords raised, ready to cut down anyone who came through without the proper pass-key. Not that he was planning on going through the front gate anyway but good to remember if he was in a hurry on the way out.
He worked his way around to the side of the property and eased up to the fence. It was woven wooden poles, ten feet high, close fitting, with a few strands of barbed wire on top, ordinarily an easy climb. A look through the glasses however mad the man smile. <A variation of ‘Mad Allio’s Tumbler’, vicious> he thought. Fortunately he was prepared for such things. Reaching a long fingered hand into the bag he retrieved a bottle of reddish powder. The reader opened the bottle and tipped a little of the dust into his palm and then threw the handful in an arc over the fence. The dust froze in place upon completing his path and hung in the air sparkling to his enhanced sight. Now he switched the bottle out for one with a green liquid. This he dabbed on his hands and feet before placing them against the fence where the ointment allowed him to stick like a spider. The man quickly scurried over the wall being careful to remain within the trail of dust. He stopped on the inside of the fence, head down, and studied the ground carefully. He almost missed the small body. The rat’s desiccated corpse lay almost hidden by the grass. The Reader’s sharp eyes noticed that while grass grew all around the body, several blades went straight through it. And blades was right, the sharp edges were obvious now that he knew what he was looking at. <What is it with necromancers and carnivorous grass?> He idly speculated on the fate of a necromancer lost in thought wandering out into his yard and being eaten by the lawn. He reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of raised sandals. These were placed carefully at the base of the fence before the man pulled his feet from the wall one at a time and slid them into the shoes. The grasses writhed as he calmly walked across to the house, just out of reach of the plants.
Fortunately he would not have to make an extensive search. His investigations had already told him which room to head for. He looked up at the second floor and prepared his hands and feet again before sliding out of the sandals, which he replaced in the bag, and climbing up to what he knew was a hall window. He didn’t see anything through his magic lenses but pulled a small device from his bag. He thumbed the on button and passed it over the window. The display showed a high voltage current just waiting for someone to touch the inside of the window sill. The reader smiled; at least this guy wasn’t a complete idiot. He retrieved some thin copper spikes from his bag along with a roll of high conductivity wire. He climbed down and planted one spike in the ground, keeping clear of the reaching grass and attached the wire before climbing back up. He locked the spool and attached the other end to the second spike. Careful to hold the non-conducting end of the spike he pushed the needle fine point through the wood to the side of the window until it came into contact with the hidden buss bar. There was a pop and a blue spark as the current was redirected. As long as he was careful about the spike the window was safe now. Sliding a thin knife under the window he pried it open and eased himself into the hall.
<It should be the third door> he remembered. Feeling carefully for nightingale floors he moved to the indicated room. The door lit his enhanced vision like Christmas lights. Just to be sure he also used the little device to check for non magical defenses again. And there it was, an explosive charge wired to the hinges and molded flush with the door panel. It was set to destroy anything in the hall within 15 ft of the door without harming anything within the room. He went back to considering the magical wards. Three distinct spells connected to each other to prevent tampering. Good thing he liked a challenge. The jack-of-all-trades began pulling tools from his bag. <This would be easier if you would just take the time to learn a few more spells instead of reading for entertainment all the time> he chided himself. He drew some designs on the door and the wall around it, as well as the floor. Articles ranging from dust to small statuettes were placed in assigned positions to the accompaniment of chanted words. The power built and when it reached its zenith the ritual grabbed the wards and pulled them aside without triggering the spells effects. The Reader picked up his other tools and was reaching for the bomb when the door suddenly opened! He flung himself to the floor and curled in a ball hoping he had been wrong about the size of the blast. “What are you doing mortal?” said a tiny voice. “Don’t you have a job to do?” He ground his teeth with frustration and the release of adrenaline. That darn pixie. She was nice to have around sometime but she could really be a pain at others. “What are you doing Pix?” he asked her while returning to his feet “You could have killed me!” She didn’t flinch at his tirade. “I waited till your spell was done and I removed the trap’s ability to fire myself”, she said, “You should know better than to think I would let you die due to anything but your own foolish, mortal mistakes”. The man glared at her anyway while his heartbeat slowed down but finally shrugged and passed into the room. She was basically an elemental after all. What did he expect? The pixie flew after him as he approached the altar, but he didn’t let her presence distract him further. All his attentions were on the object of his search. It was a book of course. Its leather binding was stained with unknown substances and a heavy lock guarded its pages. The twisted form of the cover was an inspired act of madness that would have drawn a lesser mind down into darkness. But his own mind was protected by logic and the joy of having found a book that he had not yet read. Even if it was the original copy of the Necronomicon. The pixie just looked bored.
The Reader approached the book carefully but didn’t detect any further traps. <He must be overconfident> he thought as he lifted the book from its pedestal. The alarm was almost deafening. <Or not> he revised. He stuffed the book in his bag and drew his sword as the guards rushed through the door, their armor glowing with protective enhancements. <No surprise> he thought. Then the golem smashed through the doorway. <Although that could be a problem> he decided, <How in the worlds did that thing fit down the hall?> So much for his Inigo Montoya impression. “Sorry guys, no time to play” he said as he spun through their ranks. Then he had to jump back again, even as the guards fell, to avoid a heavy blow from the golem that smashed the boards of the floor to reveal steel plate beneath. <Ok, this guy is officially taking it too far> the man thought even as he dodged. He flung a pair of knives at the golems glowing eyes. Yep, they bounced off. He sheathed his sword, no use wasting it against this monster. He almost flew across the room, trying to evade the massive fists as the unexpectedly fast golem nearly matched his speed, smashing everything between it and its quarry. The Readers frantically searching fingers finally found the right bottles and, drawing them from the pouch, he threw them. The bottles shattered on the golem’s chest and the orange goo inside flowed across its body without splashing. Then smoke started to rise where the goo touched as its acidic quality started to act on the golem’s skin. But it was too slow. He dodged as the golem continued to come for him without seeming to notice its impending doom. It would be destroyed in a matter of minutes but he himself would be caught before then. The Reader took a chance. He rushed to the outer wall of the room and reached a final time into his satchel. As the construct charged the man threw a larger black bottle at his feet. The bottle broke and spread its load of black liquid across the floor between the two combatants. As the golem hit the slick it lost control and slid, unable to stop. The man leapt for safety as the golem made a futile grab for him before tearing through the wall and plunging to the ground below. Though the acid gel had not yet had time to completely dissolve the construct it had weakened it to a state of fragility just enough. The golem broke into pieces as it hit, flattening portions of the frantically waving lawn.
The Reader smiled, satisfied with himself. “Well I suppose it was mildly entertaining, if clumsy” said Pix, “Please try to act less like a panicked mouse next time though, it’s more fun if it looks like you know what you’re doing.” And with that she popped out. He sighed, it was impossible to please some people. The young man grinned again; he had a new book and the memory of an adventure to take with him. That’s all he really needed. Without a motion or sound he ceased to exist in that place.
 Cedric Igor · Thu Jun 19, 2008 @ 09:31pm · 2 Comments |
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