The end of Chapter 3: 12SEP20
13
SEP/20
Failed attack on the Temple:
The group watched as the guards changed. Oni had asked Herman to get close and watch the door. The guard change was simple. One loud knock upon the door. A long pause. A pause so long that most would have opened the door or said something, but the pause had to be. The pause was important. Those on the inside were set for combat. But just was the moment lingered to long, one of the guards spoke, “all is well.” The door slid open. They went in and new guards came out.
The top of the stairs had four new fresh guards. Oni looked at them and did not see any faces he knew. He knew they needed to die. No space for the cult. Mar’iya spoke softly to the group, “I can make four of us invisible to them. We can approach without issue. Oni nodded. Oni wanted to make sure the two people at the door could not rush in the signal the others, “we need to block the door as we take them out. I am going to rush those two.” Naga smirked, “I can handle the door.”
Oni looked at Sora, “Sora and I will go in and engage them directly. Mar’iya, David, hang back a little to use your powers.” David piped in a little too quickly, “I think it would be better if I go in next to Sora.” Mar’iya visibly rolled his eyes, “of course you want to be next to Sora.” David blushed a little. Words escaped him as he tried to find the correct answer, but he knew he had been caught. He re-found himself, looked at Mar’iya and in his most snotty voice, “she is the only one I trust, MAR’IYA, or Lord Vashir, or Oni, or man servant Ippi. I trust in her.” Everyone saw through this, but it was not time to poke that bear, it was time to come together. Oni spoke in an unconvincingly powerful voice, “makes sense. Do what you need to do.”
The plan was set, and the group headed up the stairs. Naga stayed behind. He would be able to catch up and Mar’iya did not have enough power to include him in the invisible bubble. Oni and the group moved slowly up the stairs. They waited until they were right next to the front guards and pounced. Mar’iya blasted all four of the them. Oni moved up to engage the two door guards. He slipped as he did and missed with most of his attacks. David created a ring of teleportation energy and moved the pieces likes pawns. He slightly miscalculated as he grabbed Oni and missed one of the guards. He had left one guard where he meant to leave Oni. Oni saw this plan starting to unravel when a wall of Lava formed where the door was. Naga had moved up and created the wall.
Oni smirked initially as he thought they had won this fight. He had noticed that the wall was not hot but would the guard notice that. One guard moved down to attack Mariya and Naga. One shifted to attack David. Sora dropped one of them. The guard next to the door noticed the wall was not hot and grabbed the door handle beyond. He stepped through. Oni attacked but missed. Oni yelled down to the group, “do you have this?” they all looked back and Mar’iya yelled back, “go after him.” Oni turned to charge after him, just as he opened the inner door. Oni could see into the chamber beyond. It was too late. Oni turned back hoping to take out the last door guard, as he yelled back, “the high priest is in there. The jig is up.”
Before Oni could yell for the group to spread out the area burst into fire. Soot rained down all around Oni and gathered at his feet. Oni was about to charge in after the priest, but he slammed the door shut. Oni moved in and placed a piton in the base of the door jamming it into place. The rest of the group finished off the guards and started to gather at the bottom of the stairs. Oni walked out bent down and gathered some of the soot. He placed into his secret pockets as he moved down to join the group. Mar’iya had removed on of the heads and carved “for Rain” in the forehead. Sora was joyfully removing the other two heads.
Oni was scanning the temple, pyramid and walls. The group was talking about resting and coming back to try again. They were making plans. They were good or bad, Oni could not tell. He did not really hear any of it. He was thinking beyond the temple. He turned just as the group had removed the clothes from the three dead guards. Although they had been talking for a while, Oni finally heard their words. David was saying the plan back to Mar’iya, “okay, we rest, and then we go back in, taking out the next set of guards.” Oni still looking away waved his hand back to the group, “No. the temple entrance is the trap of Tiamat. We will no longer pursue the temple.”
He started to walk down the stairs again and off along the wall.
The end of Chapter 3: To the Pyramid of Ra