[Wyvern]

CHAPTER FIVE

Waking up in the early hours, Missy Hissy prepared to return to the Serpent Temple. While the priests were now all mad at her, she still had H'Thark to find, along with slaying this Naga that the temple wanted out of the way.

She entered back into the temple, feeling like a veteran Paladin now. There was little the guilds could teach her about the holy life, either in the might or magic realms. Still, she had been quested... and she did like the idea of a little gold for her troubles.

Looking around, she realized that the temple was a maze as much as anything. She found secret doors, buttons that opened other doors, and in the peaks of a room, a doorway that led to the belfry of the serpent temple. Stacking several crates on top of each other and putting some barrels on those, she was able to climb up her rickety ladder until she could grasp the ledge of the opening, and scrambled in.

She came across two cousins of the milking spiders she'd seen elsewhere in the temple, great big belfry spiders that didn't take kindly to their world being intruded upon. Dispatching them, she was also beset upon by some priests -- how they got up there, she didn't know. Had they used her makeshift ladder, she certainly would have heard them. Exploring more, she found several chests with treasure that made the climb up worthwhile.

Heading back down, it seemed that the top of her ladder was much farther away than she remembered -- and in fact, the floor looked a lot farther away as well! Easing out of the window area, she lowered herself onto the barrel on top of the pile. Unfortunately, she'd had to use a broken barrel for the top rung, and it finished breaking under the weight of her and her newfound treasure. With a painful crash, she broke the rest of the crates as she fell hard to the ground.

Amazingly, the noise didn't attract any more priests. Must be time for vespers, she thought. Stealing back into the temple proper, she stumbled across the Inquisitor, all green and eely. He didn't care much for her, it seemed, and once she asked about the prisoner, he decided he wanted to take her to see him -- in chains! With sword and dagger she cured him of that notion, and found a strange skeleton key in one of his pockets.

As she wandered around, the torturers began to attack her as well. While the priests and dowry priests had been unhappy with her for not paying the bribes -- I mean, temple dues, the torturers hadn't seemed to care. Apparently, now that the Inquisitor was out of the way, they were all vying to become the next inquisitor, and were counting on killing her to boost their position in the search. Pity they didn't realize that she planned to leave their corpses to be the next inquisitors...

She found a prisoner, and quickly identified him as H'Thark. He was skeptical of who she was until he saw his lockpicks. By the time he got to be agreeable to talk to, she'd had half a mind to use the hot iron poker on his thieving backside. He told her about the ritual the serpent priests used to summon the naga, and then balked when she asked him about the Hidden Circle's reward to her for freeing him. Irritated, she locked him back in the jail cell as she left. "If he's that good, he'll get himself out," she thought. "Besides, he's got his lockpicks now."

Running through the temple, she found the ingredients for the summoning ritual -- the wand, incense, and some freshly-made spider nectar. "He's lucky it wasn't H'Thark Juice," she muttered as she began to perform the summoning rite.

"Let's see... wand, nectar, incense... incense... ince-- where's the incense? I know I bought the bloody stuff!"

Suddenly, she remembered -- she'd bought it at the serpent head, but she hadn't put it into her pack. It was still sitting on the counter, so to speak. Running full tilt, she headed back to the snake head. Sure enough, the incense cones were right where she had left them.

Summoning the spirit proved to be easy, although the fireballs shooting from the giant serpent statues eyes did unnerve her for a minute. She responded to the questions the spirit asked, and the snake's mouth opened wide. With her blood tingling in her veins, she approached and went in.

She found herself standing in a small room, with just a small lever in the middle. Whispering the ancient incantation her mother had taught her, the ritual "save early, save often" that had saved many an intrepid thief, she flipped the lever... and flipped onto her back, when the floor gave away! Tumbling, sliding, and falling, she landed with a thump in a small room with several vipers and a slithering sound nearby.

Dispatching the vipers, she inched into the next room, and saw a beautiful woman, fair of face and skin. As she approached to ask her about the location of the naga, the woman turned toward Missy, tongue flicking in and out. Eyes with vertical pupils stared deep into Missy's soul, and too late, she remembered that nagas were half-snake, half-woman -- and she'd found this one! Scrambling on loose stones, she tried to get back to the first room.

"Right... no, left... no, in the back..." Missy scrambled in her pack, looking for the elixir that Kerielle had offered her. "If this is going to do something, now would be a real good time," she thought.

Pulling the stopper out of the engraven vial, she threw it into the hideous beast's gaping maw as blast after blast of poisonous fumes spewed toward her. Her aim was true, and the giant naga was soon sleeping peacefully.

She toyed with eliminating the serpent girl then and there, but decided to investigate the rest of the temple first. Besides, she'd managed to get two vials of elixir from Kerielle before her untimely death... a though which brought a brief tear to her eye.

She ran through the temple, coming across a maze of elevators and several locked rooms. Leaving a trail of dead temple monkeys and serpent priests to mark her tracks, she eventually found the serpent master, who let her in to see Elyssia.

Elyssia was hideous. While she looked as if she might be fair, her face was covered with a disgustingly horrendous mask that seemed etched onto her visage. Elyssia offered a strange brew, which Missy took; a fiery burning coursed through her veins, and then Elyssia laughed and spoke of sacrifice.

Determined not to follow the sacrifice path any more, Missy swung her sword, hoping to catch Elyssia unaware of her intent. Unfortunately, her first blow was not strong enough, and Elyssia summoned help. Six different priests of the temple responded to Elyssia's call, all intent on eliminating this intruder in their midst...

Swinging sword mightily, and drinking greedily from the magical healing potions she had acquired, Missy slowly slew Elyssia and the other priests. It was a long battle, and she was nearly finished herself when it was over. Taking the mask from Elyssia, she headed out of the temple.

Or so she'd hoped. As she went out, she stumbled across Xydusa again. This time, Missy was tired, hungry, and in no mood to argue. Sword drawn, she ran down the narrow hallway and began slicing at Xydusa as quickly as she could. Blood ran down the hall in two rivers, one Ratling red and one serpent green, making a sickly dark oil slick in the flickering torchlight. Soon one scaly eye was puffed shut, and Misst slid her sword in betwixt the naga's scales, piercing her black heart. Pulling her blade out, Missy noticed the many nicks and cuts her blade had suffered in the battle. She tried her own meager repair skills, but the damage was too deep.

She left the temple and headed back to the gypsies, Valeia, and Ishad N'ha, to fulfill the various quests she'd been asked to perform.

Once in Ishad N'ha, Missy checked her sword at the armory for repair, and checked herself in at the inn for a good night's sleep and a warm bath. Some comforts shouldn't be done without...

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Enjoy.

*B*
Minister, etc. (ret.)