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Playing With Fire	By : Anesor Category: +M through R > Neverwinter Nights Views: 1515 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: The Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter world and characters aren't mine but belong to WOTC, Bioware, Obsidian, Cryptic, and others, and this builds on them. Plot and most characters are my creations. I get no money for writing thi

Chapter List
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Some minutes, maybe too many minutes passed as Keryn tried to soothe the slave-women.
The older slaves spoke beyond questions about the two adventurers. “Master's not too bad...” “He's nicer than the last one.” “You look nicer.” “He came here, whipped to shreds sometimes.” “Sometimes he's so good it hurts.” “One or two of us leave most months, but we never hear anything.” “He showed me where he was branded one day. It was still seeping... but he wasn't upset. I don't understand.” “What year is it, really?”
That question almost broke Keryn's heart. She hoped priests at Ilmater's temple had experience with former slaves because she didn't.
Togge was fawned over with excited questions.
“He's really eating that up, isn't he?” Charlene's voice in Keryn's head felt like a chuckle.
“You're still here, Charlene?”
The intruding thoughts echoed deep. “I can't leave as long as Gordie lives, not without new orders. I'm just 'unavailable' for now, and summoning some salty Maztican foods to enjoy with the show.”
The priestess shook her head, surprised that she'd missed the younger warrior's preference for dark and petite women. It shouldn't take the Forest Archer's skill to spot how much he was taken with the one waif who was still wet.
Karyn resisted rolling her eyes; instead, she spoke sharply to her partner. “We're going... now.”
Outside the harem, Karyn said, “Stop daydreaming. We lose our focus and we die in here.”
After looking annoyed, Togge steadied and checked his equipment again.
Outside Gordie's suite, a wide, steep stairway stretched upward into the darkness; a cool draft smelled earthy.
Climbing felt claustrophobic with the ceiling so low overhead. The stair-treads and the stone above crumbled in places from age. Togge carried the enchanted torch; the priestess' elven blood let her see better in the dimness.
The shadowy stair seemed unending from the echoes they heard.
Her footing crumbled, and Keryn barely avoided biting her tongue when her jaw hit the stairs. The next steps that her toes first braced against, crumbled too.
Keryn skidded and slid down into the darkness, not hearing Togge's shout.
Her armor hitting step after step, sound and pain chased away the stillness as her bones rattled and she frantically tried to stop the skidding.
But she slid further into a blackness that pushed her into a sheer panic.
Throwing out her limbs, she tried to brace herself or at least slow down her fall. Every step she dropped rattled her more.
Keryn finally stopped the skid, with the taste of blood in her mouth. Her bow half strangled her, and her head rang.
She hoped she hadn't screamed.
She hoped the noise didn't attract enemies.
She felt... empty.
Togge and his dim light moved back down the stairs until he could see Keryn again. He dropped down and helped the dazed Keryn sit on the steps. “Are you okay?”
She blinked at him.
Togge pulled a potion out of his pouch and shoved it at her after removing the cap.
She held the phial and looked confused.
“Drink it,” he hissed. Togge worried whether he could get them out on his own.
The priestess drank, and closed her eyes.
After a long moment, her crystal blue eyes opened, her gaze sharp again. “I'm fine now.”
Togge stood. Without another word, Keryn wiped off her mouth and rose to her feet for a fresh blessing.
Slowly at first, they started climbing. Togge kept an eye on Keryn, but other than moving a little stiffly, she looked fine.
Keryn felt unsettled. As she'd been skidding for that instant of forever, she'd been afraid there was a cliff below her. She knew it was irrational and wondered if Charlene caused that.
This time they reached the top of the stairs. A small and empty alcove faced them, while smaller stairs turned both left and right.
Togge gestured right with a shrug.
Casting a nearly silent blessing, Keryn followed the warrior up the narrower stairs.
These stairs were short and turned left into a large empty hall. The flat stone floor was broken up into patches of rock and gray soil, lacking any carving or carpet.
Keryn shook her head, almost violently, her head pounding despite the clear air.
Togge took a step back, suspicious at the bare space.
Raising her holy symbol, the priestess sent a wave of bright energy out in all directions. When the light passed, the room shifted and the rubble that covered the crypt-like ground erupted in undead.
The skeletons attacked first and fast, their lighter mass less effective. They swarmed around Togge and Keryn, dividing them from each other. The mass of zombies rose up slower; their rotting flesh was cancriform and falling off in chunks as they moved.
Keryn blocked blows from the stinking zombies with the stout handle of her symbol. She fought to hold her place so she could finish casting her glowing chain of the Great Archer's blessing around herself and those attacking her.
The golden chains spun up and around the skeletons and zombies before shrinking down, shattering the undead close around her.
Keryn turned to locate Togge when a wave of cold and lethargy came from below her feet as they sank down into the cold.
These were black chains, binding her to the unhallowed ground with metal barbs that dug deep into flesh where it could.
A man stood on a dais of newly risen bones. His armor was scant or maybe missing, because his bare skin was a mass of old scars. In his hand she saw a swinging flail with a cloud of knotted lines floating along behind the weight.
His shining white teeth curved into a beautiful smile. “I was wondering how I could raise power to impress, with only the thin gruel of those sheep as offerings. With your sacrifice, I will be carnifex of Neverwinter, feeding off pain and despair for the Maiden of Pain.”
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A/N: Challenge words used in this story are cancriform and carnifex. Thanks to my beta reader, who's been kind enough to point out errors for me. Everyone thank your beta readers today. Fanfic woujld be far worse without their second opinions and corrections. Any errors that remain are not intentional... Reviews or a PM to let me know what you think would be very appreciated.
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Playing With Fire