The square was not a pretty sight. Collapsed buildings… fires all over the place… a wyvern’s decapitated head lying on the ground only a few feet from a fucking huge deceased dragon.

  Dwynfel: “We need to put a stop to all this…”

  Chenowith: “Then we had better find this old bint with your sword.”

  Farrow: “Quoi? Who has your sword?”

  Dwynfel: “The head of those deranged cultists.”

  A series of howls were heard approaching from the east. That’s not good… fucking wolves as well. Ground units shouldn’t be getting into the city this easily… something is wrong here.

  We looked in the direction of the howling and to my surprise… it wasn’t a pack of dire wolves… it was a strange bunch of creatures that I am unfamiliar with. They look like a horrid cross between rabid dogs and porcupines. They are covered in these sharp, vicious looking spines… they do not look pleasant.

  Knight 3: “Umm… what the hell are they?”

  Chenowith: “No idea.”

  Farrow: “Hedgehounds… they are common over the sea.”

  Knight 3: “Then what the hell are they doing here?”

  Chenowith: “Who cares? We have other priorities.”

  Farrow: “Go find your sword.”

  Dwynfel: “What?”

  Farrow: “Bernard, Axel, with me. Johnny, put out those damn fires!”

  Bernard: “Aye.”

  Johnny: “Kay.”

  The tower shield guy… who I assume to be Axel stepped forward and stood by Farrow.

  Farrow: “Go, the lot of you. We can handle this.”

  Dwynfel: “You can’t be serious… there’s too many of them.”

  Chenowith: “And there will be more if we do not end this quickly. We must away.”

  Kiyui: “He’s right, Dwyn.”

  Dwynfel: “Shit.”

  Chenowith led the way and we headed to the north-west… in the direction of the temple of the Father of Fortitude.

  Dwynfel: “I’m sorry about your friend.”

  Chenowith: “Just make sure his death mattered. If we don’t succeed, then all of this will have been for nothing.”

  Dwynfel: “Right.”

  We fought our way through a few small groups of roaming enemies. We did our best to avoid encounters… but there were times when the only available path meant a fight. Fortunately, they were only small groups of relatively low-level creatures… nothing like a drake or a dragon or anything. Which I am grateful for. I only have six arrows left and I can’t be wasting them before we even reach the temple… fuck knows what awaits us there.

  Chenowith and the hammer guy are handling things pretty easily. I am making occasional use of my daggers, but not much… the other two seem pretty proficient as a team… especially with Kiyui’s buffing spells.

  I swear… this bitch had better be at the temple. Otherwise, there won’t be much city left to save… everywhere we have passed it has been nothing but death and destruction. My home is being destroyed… and I’m the only one who can save it… but I need that damn sword to do it.

  We have made it to the temple in relatively good time… but the temple… well… there are a lot of cultists here… like… way more than either of the previous safe zones. There is a massive fight going on at the front entrance between the remaining paladins and the cultists. There are roughly twenty paladins but the cultists outnumber them by about three to one.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The number of cultists here is either because they knew that the paladins would put up a good fight… or because the leader is here. It could well be both. But if she is here… she isn’t on the battlefield at the front.

  At the adventurers’ guild, they pretended to be townsfolk to get into the safe zone… they could well have done that to get inside before launching an assault on the front. That would allow the ones inside to do whatever they intend to do while the paladins are distracted by the frontal assault.

  Knight 3: “Do we join the fray?”

  Chenowith: “It would be best to avoid that. We need to find their leader as quickly as possible. The paladins can handle themselves. We just need to know if the demon woman is inside.”

  Knight 3: “But how do we do that without getting involved in the fight?”

  Dwynfel: “We need to sneak around the side and find another way in. Are either of you familiar with this temple?”

  Knight 3: “Do I look like a god-botherer?”

  Chenowith: “There is a secret passage into the temple… for dire emergencies only. But we shall have to pass through the sewers to get to it.”

  Pretty sure this classes as an emergency.

  Knight 3: “I’d rather we fought our way in. And how do you know about this anyway?”

  Chenowith: “My father was a cleric of the temple. He used it to sneak out to the tavern on an evening.”

  Kiyui: “A dire emergency indeed.”

  Chenowith: “Quite, he was a classy man.”

  Knight 3: “I still vote we fight.”

  The hammer guy was outvoted and we opted to use the secret path in the sewer. There was an old sewer grate nearby that we used to get in and fucking hell… it has been a very long time since I did anything that required going into the sewers. Urgh… the smell down here… oh gods… I am now regretting coming down here… fucking hell… it is making me gag… it’s like somebody has shat in my nostrils… oh gods.

  After battling through the most disgusting smells imaginable, we eventually reached the secret passage that Chenowith spoke of. There was not much small talk as we travelled the sewers… nobody wanted their mouths to be open any more than was absolutely necessary.

  The secret passage was well concealed. To open it, Chenowith had to push various stones into a wall and utter a prayer. After he did, the stone wall moved to one side and allowed us to pass. Once we were all through, Chenowith repeated the chant and the wall returned to its original position. I looked back and was astonished at how it was now just a completely normal basement wall. There was not the slightest join or marking to indicate that this was anything but a wall. My detection skills are pretty high and I would never have discovered this… it is very impressive.

  Unfortunately, I did not have time to linger and admire the handiwork of whoever installed this little secret. We heard screams coming from upstairs and we rushed up the basement steps to reach the main area of the temple.

  We arrived at the main chamber where the townsfolk were gathered. We kept ourselves concealed behind the large marble pillars at the side of the room. The good news is that the leader is here… she doesn’t appear to have many of her minions with her… we should be able to take her… or at least get my sword back.

  The problem… she is surrounded by terrified civilians. It would seem that she intends to massacre everyone inside this place. We don’t have time to plan a surprise assault… we are just going to have to dive right in and do our best to keep them from harming anymore of the townsfolk. Shit… fighting is so much easier when you don’t have other people to protect.