Pulling the door open, the party walked inside. They were met with what was clearly a grand throne room. At the end of the room were three chairs. One huge throne was in the center of the raised end of the hall with two smaller thrones set slightly behind and to the sides of it. They were all wingbacked chairs with elegant gold filagree decorating them. Sitting in the largest of the chairs was an older gentleman wearing a grey beard.
To the right and behind him was a woman who looked to be about the same age. She was elegant in her gown and held the posture of someone important. The third chair was empty.
"Guessing it's pretty obvious who this is..." Tom said.
"Mommy and daddy knobjob," James said.
"Let's try not to anger them so quickly," Derek said.
"Why not?" James said.
"Have you seen what's lining the walls?" Derek returned.
Lining the walls, were suits of armor. Ten on each side. They were all holding spears and their heads followed the party as they entered the throne room. Squeaking as the heads turned, bits of the dark rust fell off in a shower as they moved.
"Halt!" The man called to the party. "Who are you and why do you disturb us?"
His voice was a bit hoarse, as though he had not used it for a long time. As though age had crept in while he sat in silence for too long. Commanding them was still no issue for him as he had an air of control that demanded obedience. The result of being in power for a very long time.
"We stumbled into here to complete the dungeon," Tom called back.
"What dungeon? These are our hallowed halls. The barony of Unifold. You have no business here." The man called back.
"Are you the bloody baron?" Tom asked.
"......what did you call me?" The man asked, his voice dropping in volume.
"The bloody baron," Tom said again.
"How dare you throw those accusations at me here in my own hall!" The baron spat in a voice barely above a whisper but still carried through the room as if propelled by magic. "I will not have you besmirch my name and stand idly by. GUARDS! Arrest them!"
With that, the armor began moving off of the walls. Moving slowly at first, the creaking sounds grew in volume as more and more of the armors came to life. The screeching sound of the pieces scraping against each other became like nails on a chalkboard. The woman behind the baron stood up and began to chant something.
"What the fuck is that?" James said turning to look at the woman.
"Shit, she's casting something. Can you hit her?" Tom asked.
"Let's find out," James said raising a gun and firing at her.
The bullet went to the left and missed. James fired again and again trying to hit her. He was too far away and too inexperienced to hit her from that distance, but one bullet managed to get lucky and went straight for her abdomen. It was stopped, however, by a glowing blue barrier that phased into view in front of her when the bullet got too close.
"Apparently not, she's got a shield," James said back.
Finishing the casting, the woman raised her hands into the air and blood began to flow out from between the pieces of the armor. As the red fluid oozed out from every crevice and ran down the armor like a macabre oil, the suits of armor began to move faster and faster as the screeching sounds eased and then stopped.
"Fuck! She just gave those suits a bloody lube job!" Jay called.
The armor now moved with a grace that none of the other suits had before.
"Guess it's time to get angry," Kevin said.
Hunching over, Kevin gripped his axe with a fierce gaze on his face and began to let out a bellow that started low and soft but began to raise in volume. After a moment he was yelling at the tops of his lungs as his skin began to glow with a faint red light.
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"IT'S TIME TO RAGE!!!!" Kevin called out.
Bursting forward with more speed than he had ever shown before he sliced back and forth at the suits like he was harvesting wheat. Kiera played a tune on her lute and sang her song again to boost their attack. Tom cast a lightning spell at the closest armor and it jumped from one suit to another to another to another, the conductivity of the suits boosted the number of targets he could hit. Not much damage was done to the suits with this attack, but they all froze and their limbs stuck out to the sides like when a cartoon character got shocked. This also gave an opening for someone else to strike the armor.
Derek followed the path of the lightning and struck the helmets from their heads. Jumping in front of Derek, Kevin moved like a man possessed. His mouth was beginning to froth as though he was losing control of his actions and the only thing keeping him from completely going off the rails was the armor that he could destroy. The rest of the party backed away as Kevin began to pull the suits apart limb from limb and smash the pieces.
Tom turned to the baron and his wife. "I guess we have those covered," Tom said.
The baron and his wife looked at Kevin and the destruction he wrought with utter disdain. As though they smelled something foul and couldn't be bothered to figure out what it was.
"So you brought a beast with you. That won't help you in this endeavor!" The baron said as he rose from the throne and drew his sword.
Charging forward the baron moved to strike at Tom. Derek was there in an instant bringing his shield to block the strike. Tom moved to attack him while his sword was on the shield, but the king twisted so he could move off the block and use his sword again to block the greatsword.
The baroness began casting again and sent a spell toward Jay and Kiera. They rolled out of the way before the ball of fire could hit them. Running to either side to force the baroness to split her focus, the duo ran up to the thrones to try to get close to her for an attack. She managed to send out an attack to both sides at once, throwing them back and into the walls.
"What am I, chopped liver?" James asked.
"You are no threat, go back to the gutters you came from you miserable whelp," The baroness said.
"Ohhhhhhh, helllll nah!" James yelled. "No one calls me no threat and lives to tell about it!"
Pulling out both 1911s James pointed them at the baroness first and she smirked at his useless endeavor. Then he moved, faster than she could prepare and pointed one at the Baron, and fired off a shot. The baroness' eyes went wide as the baron doubled over in pain...grabbing his crotch.
"Headshot!" James exclaimed.
Blood began pouring out from between the baron's fingers as he held his crotch with an expression of true pain and horror.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" screamed the Baroness.
”Really? On the nuts again?” Derek asked.
”It worked last time, why not this time?” James spat back.
Beginning to chant anew, the baroness' voice began to deepen into a throaty voice that sounded like it came from the pits of hell itself. James fired at her, but the shield held. Jay and Kiera attacked but were also thwarted by the barrier she still had erected. Kiera stabbed with her rapier and pressed hard, but the point just stopped at the blue barrier and couldn't get through. Jay was using his kamas, but no matter how hard he pressed, the blades couldn't penetrate the barrier.
Chanting into a new crescendo, the baroness raised her hands to the ceiling and threw her head back as she finished the last words. Her eyes began to glow with red light and she looked back at the party with a malicious grin on her face. Extending one hand out she began to beckon for something to come to her. Kevin walked past the party toward the baroness, his eyes the same shade of red as the baroness. He turned suddenly and bellowed at the group.
"Fucking shit," Derek said.
All hell broke loose after that. Kevin was a force of nature as he attacked his comrades while stuck in his raging state. Derek jumped in front of him to block his attacks with his shield.
"GET THE BARONESS!!!! I'LL HOLD HIM FOR AS LONG AS I CAN!!!!" Derek yelled to the rest of the party, holding his shield to block the attacks.
Kevin was going to decimate Derek if they couldn't stop the spell. The entire rest of the party rushed the baroness at once, slamming weapons into the shield with every bit of strength they had. Tom finally remembered to activate his tattoos and with a yell of frustration brought his greatsword down on the shield with both hands in an overhand strike with as much force as he could muster.
The shield cracked with the force of the blow. Eyes going wide, the baroness began to step backward in fear. Unable to move past the wall, she began to cast another spell to try to save herself. Tom didn't give her a chance. Bringing his greatsword down in another overhand strike, the shield broke with a concussive force that blew the entire team backward and crushed the baroness against the wall.
Her head hit the wall with such force that her skull fractured and blood splattered against the wall in a grotesque spray. Slumping in death, her body fell to the floor painting a bloody streak down the wall where her head slid. The baron cried out from his fetal position on the floor and Kevin's eyes returned to normal. His skin stopped glowing and he saw that he had almost split Derek's shield from the blows with his axe.
Falling to the floor backward, Kevin placed his hands over his mouth in horror as he began to apologize profusely for what he had done. Derek, of course, forgave him immediately.
"You were under a spell. You didn't do it. Besides, I'm fine." Derek said, panting heavily and simply relieved to be safe from the onslaught.
James walked over to the baron, lying on the floor and sobbing uncontrollably.
"You sad sack of shit. You aren't even deserving of that title bloody baron. It was your wife that did all the work." James said holing up his gun and aiming it at the baron's head.
He fired two shots and the baron lay still.