City of IF

[Chinaren]

Chapter 25 - AMazed.

Synopsis:
The despicable Queen Phang and her dark Horde have invaded the Silver Lands and taken the Gnomish Capital city Chundyer, forcing the King to flee north to unknown terrain, pursued by an evil shadow creature.
Only an artifact known as the Black Heart has the power to defeat Phang and her magics, and she has dispatched a monstrous Demon to recover this for her.
Phang is not the only one searching though.
Duke Reg and a small party are hot on the heels of Duke’s small sister, who has been abducted by the mysterious Sorrow. Finally they have caught up and at the same time been reunited with Homer, Shanty and a talking ass in a strange dimension.


Cast (in no particular order):
Evil Homer as ‘The Paladin Hero’
Chainfire as Homer’s sword.
Araex as Homer’s steed.
Shanty as Captain Shanty.
Dragon Fire as The Dragon Guardian.
Kalanna Rai as the Bad Ass.

DukeReg as Oaf Duke Reginald Percival Thunderking Harwobble the Fifth.
Key as the Magical Dignified Chamber Pot.
D-Lotus as the Elven special forces commander
Solomon Birch as a misguided AlbinoDrow.
Random as The Thing.

Sorrow as a mysterious robed figure.
Mother goose as a hydroose
Sunbellina as Duke Reg’s little sister.
Idea Master as the resurrected minion.


Ingrothechundyer as Ingro Chundyer the Gnome King.
Reiso as Gnome Prince Reiso
Cantolope as King of the Fairies
Author as Gnomish Wizard.
Duffman666 as Duff (man).
Jack D.Mented as Darkness Mented.

Phang as The Dark Mistress
Muaddib as a wheely thing.
Lord of the Night as an Evil Demon Warrior.
Powers That Be as General Powers ‘the perverted.’
Luvd and Mr Moochie as ‘The Ravens’
Dean as the Dean the Head.
Smee as the Smee Slug.

Cryzmon as Baron Crymzon.
Ravenwing as the Elven envoy.


The Fallen – Lest we forget..
Jnmrcs as the High Commander
Hyperion as the Mage.
CowofDoom666 as the Cow of Doom
Idea Master as the Wretched minion.
Shady Stoat as the Twisted Witch.
Ethereal Fauna as Ethereal Slug.



Homer.

“Give it up Sorrow! You cannot possibly hope to win against us all!” Homer drew his blade, Chainfire, which seemed to be made out of the same watery substance as he was.

“Ha! You move and the way to the Heart is lost, as well as the little witch here.” He held onto Sunbellina’s shoulder tightly, causing her to squeal.

D-Lotus held The Duke back as he roared with anger. “No Duke! Now is not the time!”

“Look,” said Shanty, “how about a truce? We all want to get out of here, and who knows what will happen if the current owners of this thing come and find us all standing around?”

“She is right,” said Rai, “The earth creatures may not be very friendly.”

Sorrow paused. “So, what do you propose? I aim to get that Heart, and you will have to step over my dead body to get to it.”

The Duke muttered to himself, something about ‘no problem,’ but otherwise kept quiet.

Homer paused a moment. Working with someone as Evil as Sorrow went against everything he believed in, but to fight now would be to put the young girl at risk. He sheathed his sword and stepped forward. “None of us will get to it like this. Look, we piece the Key together and get out of here. Once we are safe we can talk about terms.”

Sorrow paused. “Okay then. But I get to keep little witch here as insurance.” He jerked a slim silver thread and the figure of Sunbellina yelped.

Homer ground his teeth together at such an act, forcing himself to speak in a reasonable tone. “As you wish. Now, throw over the segment.”

Sorrow looked at him for a moment. “You will be the first to die Paladin…” he paused as if weighing the odds, and then threw the key segment at Homer.

There was a noise in the corridor outside.

“Quickly!” said Shanty.

Homer grasped the last piece of the Key and jammed it together. There was a flash of blinding light…

Lord of the Night.

Lord strode down the tunnel into a vast chamber filled with treasures of all kinds. He stopped for a moment, his lip curling into a sneer. ‘Mortals and their shiny trinkets!’ Greed was a noble attribute, he would be the first to admit, but you should at least go for something worthwhile.

He strode on towards three doorways, his hellvision showing a clear trail into two of them. Halfway there something caught his eye and he stopped short.

“YOU!” he shouted.

Key, the magical and dignified chamber pot made a metallic noise and scampered off down the mound of gold coins it had been resting on.

Lord of the Night opened his mouth and belched forth a fireball, which narrowly missed the pot and reduced the coins to a mass of molten metal.

“Stand still curse you!” he roared. The last time he had encountered the pot it had been ignobly upended and he had been forced to EAT his way out of an enormous pile of centuries old waste. Not a pleasant thing, even for a greater Demon. He intended to get his pound of flesh, or metal anyway, in return.

Key scampered around a stack of treasure worth more than most kingdoms and through a pile of precious gems, scattering them about like incredibly expensive rice at a wedding.

Lord of the Night screamed and ran after it, slipped on a loose carpet of rubies and plunged head first into a stack of crowns.

Key ran past, delivering a sharp kick to the floundering shape of the demons’ behind as he went, then made a final mad dash for the doorways.

By the time Lord of the Night had extricated himself from the mass of royal headwear the pot had vanished. The Demon snarled, threw a priceless diamond studded coronet that had become entangled around his arm into the wall, and headed off after it.

IM bones.

The skeletal body scanned Random’s magical orb in frustration. Where was he? “Where are you Ssssorrow?” Idea Master said, shaking the crystal in a fit of anger. As if that had somehow activated it, Sorrows’ presence suddenly appeared.

IM peered into the ball, he would have squinted had he had any flesh left. The signal was faint due to the distance but there was no mistaking the location.

Idea Master put the orb down and considered. “What are you doing all the way up there my old enemy? Mmmm?” He hissed to himself and then turned back to search through Random’s magical artifacts. There must be something that had enough power…

Sorrow

Sorrow was falling. A tunnel of swirling colors, blinding lights. Around him he could dimly sense the presence of the others, more closely the little witch, still attached to the magical cord. There was a final flash and then blackness. Sorrow landed on a hard cold surface. He heard the girl land nearby with a short scream.

Feeling around he stood up. He was about to summon a light when a brief moment of dizziness passed over him. “What was that?” he mumbled to himself.

“I don’t know” said Sunbellina misunderstanding his question, “but I didn’t like it. And where are we now?”

Sorrow cast his Light and looked around. They were in some sort of passage made from carved stone. It stretched off into the darkness in both directions. He sighed and then closed his eyes and extended his senses. There! It was close now! Opening his eyes again he saw Sunbellina kneeling down.

“What are you doing witch?”

“Nothing Mr. Sorrow” she answered innocently, standing up quickly. Luckily for her Sorrow was concentrating on the Heart.

“This way” he said, and he set off down the passage at a fast pace. Sunbellina followed, trotting along to keep up.

Solomon.

Solomon stood up. It was pitch black. “Hello?” he said. “Anyone there?”

No answer.

Muttering to himself he scanned the area, doing a slow turn. Even with his Dark vision there was little to see. He appeared to be in some sort of passageway which extended as far as he could make out in two directions.

Scowling with dissatisfaction he started to walk forward when a shout came from somewhere behind him. It could be D-Lotus! He was in trouble! Solomon wasted no time, but spun around and ran towards the source of the noise. “Don’t worry my lovely Elf! I am coming to save you! Hold on!”

He sprinted up the passage.

Shanty.

“Where is that stupid thing?” Shanty rummaged through her pack in the dark, trying to find her lantern. Wherever she was, she could use a little more illumination. “Ah ha!”

Dragging the it out she uncovered the shutter, letting the magical energy inside activate and cast forth a ray of yellow light. “There, that’s better.” She swung the lantern round.

There was a hiss.

“Oh oh.”

Homer.

“Well, it was probably just luck we ran into each other” said Homer.

“Yes, the portal must have scattered us about in this maze randomly. Who knows how big it is? We could be wandering around for hours, days even.”

Homer and D-Lotus were walking along one of the tunnels. Homer had unsheathed Chainfire, which cast a dull white light forth. They had already been wandering about for a good while. At one point they heard noises, sounds of fighting, but they had been unable to reach whoever it was, and now they were hopelessly lost.

They came to a crossroads. D-Lotus looked at Homer, who looked back and shrugged. “Your turn to choose” he said.

D-Lotus drew his sword and waved it around. He thought he detected a small vibration from it when he pointed it right. “This way”

The two turned down the right tunnel.

“What about that thing?” D-Lotus jerked his thumb backwards.

“Leave it. It seems as lost as we are.”

Behind them waddled Mother Goose, looking forlorn.

Shanty.

“Hah! Didn’t like that did you?” Shanty was sweating. Her arm and side were bleeding from bites and the loss of blood was telling. She was tiring fast.

Even so she had managed to cut the giant white wurm in front of her several times already. Still, this one was smarter than its sister and brother, whose corpses now lay on the ground nearby, and was wearing her down a bit at a time. It was bigger too.

It waved its head, or at least the end with a mouth full of savage teeth, about and lunged again, forcing her backwards. She poked her sword at it, and it retreated. She panted hard. “Come on Captain, just one more good chop!”

The wurm lunged at her head, coming within a finger’s width of biting her nose off, fetid breath wafted into her face it was so close, but it left an opening and she took it. Grasping her sword tightly she thrust it up, under the wurm and into its neck, or where the neck would be if it had one.

It let out a screech and a spasm shook its body. Shanty held on tight and ground the sword around, getting covered in green goo as she did so. Slowly the creatures’ struggles subsided though, and finally she stood panting over its corpse.

A sound from the passageway made her look up sharply. Not another one!

“Oh it’s you” she said, spotting the figure, “Now you turn up.”

“Ug! Look at you! Are you okay?” Solomon sheathed his sword and strode over to her. “You are bleeding! Here, I have some dressings in my pack.”

Shanty nodded and sat down hard on the floor whilst Solomon tended to her wounds.

Rai.

“…always have hated tunnels, even in my other form. I am not really a donkey you know.”

“You told us already creature” said Random.

The Duke said nothing, simply staring ahead as he walked.

“You are worrying about your sister aren’t you?” asked Rai. “Don’t worry, we will get her back. I have never been here before. Do you think the Heart is around here somewhere? It would be nice to see that, I have heard so much about it. How did you get here? What are you anyway Random? I heard you came with the Elf? Are you comrades?”

Random brought his hand up to his head and tore several ears off. “Donkey! Don’t you ever shut up?”

“Mmmmf” said Rai, miffed. “Just trying to make a little light conversation. I have been alone in that treasure cave forever! It can get a little lonely you know. Did I ever tell you of the time I was a guardian for a wizard in his tower? I was there for a hundred years…”

The Ass’s voice echoed off the walls as the three disappeared around a corner.


Back in the Key room.

The portal hung in the air, power from the Core surged through it, uniting the lands again, bringing balance back to the realm and, incidentally, forming a tunnel through space-time towards the Black Heart.

Into the room a strange creature skittered. It looked a little like a chamber pot made from unbaked clay. Behind it, came another earth figure, roaring loudly.

“Come here you thing! I will crush you into a ball of scrap metal and turn you into a… a…” Lord of the Night trailed off, not being able to think of anything worse than a chamber pot.

Key gamboled past a startled earth creature and leapt into the diminishing opening of the portal. A few seconds later Lord of the Night followed.


Homer.

“There!” D-Lotus nudged Homer.

Indeed, there seemed to be a green light from ahead, a welcome change from the never ending tunnels they had been wandering through.

The two sped up. “I hope this is the Heart at last, this path has been a trying one, and I worry about the Silver Lands. Phang could be rampaging through them as we speak…” He trailed off as they entered a chamber.

It was hexagonal in shape, tunnel entrances leading off from each side. Some kind of magical green light illuminated the scene and, there, in the center was a dais. Around it were four arches, travel portals similar to the one in the Dragons’ cave, the one the Demon had destroyed. These were all active though, filled with a shimmering white. In the center of everything though, was the dais. On it, suspending in the air by forces unseen, was a silver orb the size of a man’s fist. Even Homer could feel the power coming from it.

“Uh oh” said D-Lotus.

“What?” Homer wrenched his gaze from the Heart and gasped. There, just behind the dais was Sorrow and Sunbellina. Sorrow was standing over Sunbellina as he cast some sort of spell. As Homer watched, Sunbellina stepped forth, as if in a trance and walked up the steps to the dais and the Heart.

The Heart pulsed with light as she approached, and for a second it seemed to examine her, probe her. Evidently some sort of test was passed though, for she reached out and plucked the item from where it hung.

“Now, back to me!” Sorrow could be heard saying.

“No Sunbellina!” Shouted Homer, and started running towards them.

Sunbellina though was under some sort of compulsion and handed the artifact over to Sorrow, who held it up in triumph.


“At last! I have it!” He cackled. Seeing Homer approach he made a gesture with his hand and the Heart pulsed with power.

Homer ducked instinctively and a flash of magic passed over his head to hit D-Lotus in the chest, smashing him backwards.

Homer raised his sword and charged Sorrow, but Sorrow wasn’t waiting around. He picked up the witch and threw her screaming through one of the portal arches whilst he leapt though another one.

Homer stopped uncertainly. D-Lotus was laying on the floor behind him groaning, the girl may be in danger on her own, and Sorrow with the Heart was a powerful opponent to take on single handed.

He hesitated…


>>>>>>

So, the Black Heart at last. What should Homer do now?

<<<<<<

[Key]

Nice chapter, china. :D

And a tough decision point. I think he has to go after Sunbellina. Rescue of fair maidens and all that.

[Sorrow_A]

Hey Chinaren,

Just one thing:

Quote: changed Sorrow

Yes. I am a very powerful enemy. You do not wish to attack me singlehandedly. Wait for Idea Master to show up and barter for his services. While you're waiting, rescue Sunbellina.

This way, I can kill you all at once, without needing to hunt you all down.

[DukeReg]

He should rescue Sunbellina. He cant go after Sorrow without preparation and assistance and not die. Once they have all found each other they can plan more.

[Shady Stoat]

Another chapter, another problem. Great going :D

He goes after Sorrow. Best case estimate - he catches up with Phang's other half and gets taken apart piece by piece. Worst case estimate, he gets lost and he's alone. (perhaps the wrong way around, but you get the idea)

There's no good outcome to that one. Go after the girl. You at least have a chance of rescuing her :D

[ethereal_fauna]

You should go after the black heart. If that's lost, then all is lost pretty much. What's the point in rescuing Sunbellina if the forces of evil can just come along later, with greater power, and wipe out everything?

You might not be able to take him on alone successfully, but surely you could slow him down.

[LordoftheNight]

He could just wait where he is - when lost the best choose is to remain where you are, and wait to be found.

And then a certain daemon might just come along as wel...

By the way - what's with the title? Is it meant to be AMazed?

[Smee]

Great chapter - loved the donkey :D

I think it's going to have to be after Sorrow - tough odds, but he's the hero. If he can't do it, then we're screwed.

Happy Writing. :)

[Solomon Birch]

Quote: IM peered into the ball, he would have squinted had he had any flesh left

Great stuff China! :lol: :biggrin:

Dilemmas dilemmas... I think that he should go after Sorrow. Even the need to rescue a lickle cutesy like Sunbellina would pale when faced with a need to stop an eveil kleptomanian from using some dark and mysterious orb to start reaking havoc. Sorry Sun! :(

*holds breath* :shock:

[Chinaren]

Of course, he could always hang around for a while, and wait for some others to come along and help him. Though he doesn't know how long that would be of course.

Quote: Is it meant to be AMazed?

Yes, I know. It's a bit of a poor title. Maybe A mazed? Amazed? I was trying to do a play on words, but I was in a bit of a rush so I just slammed it in willynilly.

[LordoftheNight]

OK, just checking.

Could he try sticking his head in, and seeing what's there?

[Chinaren]

Any more suggestions? Poll will go up in a day or two.

[ninja baloon]

Ninja balloon and his army of flying ninjas blow a hole in the roof from alloft his zeplin of war.

Evil ninjas sore through the tiny hole like a pinhole leak on a submarine. Ninja balloon knows that even his entire army couldn't hope to destroy its foe, but maybe the bulk of it could slow his new found enemy down to by his soon to be allies some time.

The only reason i'm doing this is because the evil will spread. I come from the far far far east therefore it hasn't effected me yet but i know it soon will. Better act sooner than later.

Ninja army are good at flying, glyding and paraglyding. They also have some knowledge of explosives and the art of illusion (magic).

I would really like to be included in this story. Even if it's something small. Aslong as its frequent :D

P.S. me and my army aren't really good but know whats best for us. We are like the medievel mafia. We get money from kingdoms. So where would we get money if there aren't any kingdoms.

[Chinaren]

Hello NB! Welcome to the story and Welcome to IF!

If you hang about IF for a while I will certainly include you in this tale!

and...

Quote: sore

I think you mean soar here. :)

[ninja baloon]

lol i knew that looked funny. I need to work on my spelling. i'm good at the big words but the little uns' cause me trouble.

[ninja baloon]

If there is a dark heart why not have a heart of light. This is not physical but spiritual. There is a time where one person with a past of suffering will stand up to what he/she truly is. The time is when he/she is needed the most. This persons soul was not born normal. It is a super expressway for all that is good and true in the world. All you need to do is open it up. But who will be this person?

[Chinaren]

ninja baloon wrote: If there is a dark heart why not have a heart of light. This is not physical but spiritual. There is a time where one person with a past of suffering will stand up to what he/she truly is. The time is when he/she is needed the most. This persons soul was not born normal. It is a super expressway for all that is good and true in the world. All you need to do is open it up. But who will be this person?

Mmm, interesting idea old Balloony.

My current* plan for this story involves a 'book 2'** and I may use this idea there for sure.


*Though nothing is certain in this story!
**Which is just a fancy way of saying part two.

[Ovrlndnsea]

Sorrow_A wrote: Hey Chinaren,

Just one thing:

Quote: changed Sorrow

Yes. I am a very powerful enemy. You do not wish to attack me singlehandedly. Wait for Idea Master to show up and barter for his services. While you're waiting, rescue Sunbellina.

This way, I can kill you all at once, without needing to hunt you all down.

Yes, good idea, except do that and then wrest the Black Heart from Sorrow instead of getting killed.

[Chinaren]

Okay then, I think it boils down to 3 options. So go ahead, make my day.

[Solomon Birch]

Voted. Sorry Sunbellina! Don't go all evil on me! :shock:

[LordoftheNight]

Voted.

[Chinaren]

Well, once again I am suprised by the poll.

I will start writing this after my next Chapter of Narg, so the poll will remain open until then.

[ninja baloon]

lol I think this ones up to you china.

[CunningFox]

Caught up and voted.

[Chinaren]

Oh, for craps sake!! Only a three way tie! :mad:

Anyone want to do the honors? Otherwise, er. I don't know. A roll of the Arena dice.

[ninja baloon]

I knew this was one up to you.

[ninja baloon]

Be the stereotypical good guy and go after the girl.

[Chinaren]

Okay then! Someone has voted. Thank-you mysterious stranger! ;)

*Opens up Word and starts typing*

[Chinaren]

*finishes typing*

Okay. About to post chapter 27, so locking this one down. Thanks for your comments.