Plague

Asher awoke nearly fully recovered, but he noticed that there was hardly anyone around. He didn't think anything of it. It was never really that busy around the guild anyway. As he made his way down the stairs, he could hear a hacking cough from Connor.

He went to investigate what was going on. Connor was sitting down in a chair and he was as white as the snow outside. "What happened?" Asher asked. Connor answered between coughs, "I don't know, the whole guild is like this. Probably the whole city. You look like the only one that isn't afflicted. It's some type of disease. My guess is it's magic, because everyone felt fine yesterday. Figure out what is going on and I'll fulfill any requests within my power."

Asher hadn't really been planning on going out of his way to solve the issue, but it was tempting to have Connor fully on his side. The thought of Leah and Willow both crossed his mind as well. He guessed that Leah was in the same boat as he was, but Willow would have been in the guild hall all day.

He crossed the threshold into Leah's room to find her in the same state as the rest of the guild. Asher was the only one unaffected by the plague that was affecting everyone. He muttered, "Think, Asher, think," angrily to himself. "What could cause this kind of disease to spread overnight? Why am I the only one unaffected by it?"

He searched the guild, room by room. He found nothing to help him solve the issue. It was as if a plague had just swept into town. Asher knew it had to be more than a simple disease though. He wandered into town and discovered the entire town had fallen victim. He asked around and no one could tell him what had happened. He had some suspicions it was the shadowy figure. There was a slight fear in the back of his mind thinking about that as well, remembering very well the ease that the creature had defeated him with. He shook the thought from his head and continued his search.

The only thing that he saw was shadows of movement at the corners of his vision as he turned down the streets. Eventually he came to a conclusion that whatever was causing the plague was hiding in the sewers below the city. He sighed deeply.

He grabbed a heavy sewer grate and flung it to the side with hardly any effort. "I hate sewers," he said to himself. He grabbed a longsword from a guard before plunging into the depths of the city. Asher blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to the almost pitch blackness in the sewer.

He followed the murky water for what seemed like hours. His eyes adjusted quicker than he expected. His vision began to act strangely, warping into a catlike view. He crept through the sewer system stealthily, keeping note of every crevice around him. He felt his skin crawling the farther he went into the fetid depths.

He had no idea what he was going towards, but he figured it was probably something out of his league. Judging by past experience, he had no doubt of that. He shivered at the thought of whatever being he had encountered in the church.

He continued on as quickly as he could. The uneven brick was layered in a slick slime. There were several times he had almost slipped. As he descended farther he had to start shedding his fur clothing over his armor. The deeper he went into the sewers, it got hotter.

The winding tunnels eventually opened up to a large cavernous space. There was a castle built underneath the city unbeknownst to everyone. Asher had a feeling this was going to be the hardest mission he had attempted yet.

He crept through the dark as silently as a cat. There was jerking, erratic movement from several figures in his eyesight. Once his eyes adjusted to the low light conditions, he saw what they were. There were zombies everywhere.

There were thousands of them wandering around the underground castle. Asher realized immediately that this was likely the work of a necromancer or a lich. Either way, it wasn't going to be an easy fight. He considered backing out for a moment, but the thought of a reward was too great for him. He edged closer with that thought in mind.

The zombies would be easy enough to take care of if there weren't so many of them. Asher just had to avoid direct eyesight with the creatures. They didn't have enough intelligence to begin investigating whatever they caught sight of. Even if they did, they were too stiff and slow to pursue a target.

Asher gained entrance to the castle easily enough. The zombies were barely moving around and their eyesight was horrible, leaving Asher plenty of opportunity to slip through the ranks of undead. As he maneuvered through the entrance hall, he spotted some more advanced undead, draugr. Their bodies were covered in armor, as they were warriors in life.

As opposed to regular zombies, they had a form of intelligence. It was enough to use weapons at the least. They also had less rot to their bodies than a normal zombie. Whether that was because of the more powerful energy put into their body, or because of the soul inhabiting their body, Asher didn't know. He just knew he didn't want to fight the creatures head-on.

Since he had begun to increase his strength, he had started to sense how strong a creature generally was. Even though he outmatched the draugr, there were at least a hundred of them in the main part of the castle. They were harder to slip past than the zombies from before, as they patrolled the perimeter.

Asher knew he had to be careful, as they were checking every nook and cranny in the place. As they got closer to him, he got a good look at them. They had long and ragged beards below eyes that glowed slightly in the dark.

Asher slipped past them with little issue. He knew that whatever had reanimated so many bodies was powerful. He shuddered to think of what he would actually do against it. If he killed any of the creatures, it would alert all the others by his guess, so that was out of the question for now.

He hugged the walls closely, avoiding contact with any of the creatures. As he passed through a door, the light level continued to dim down until it was almost pitch black. He blinked a few times and his eyes adjusted quickly and everything had taken on a grayish tinge. His eyes had assumed a draconic look, with slits in the pupils.

Asher saw a small group of humanoid creatures talking in a group. Judging by the fact that they weren't decayed at all, Asher could only assume they were some form of higher undead like vampires. The feeling of strength off of them was actually incredible to him. He wondered for a few moments whether he could take one or two of them by surprise and enhance his own strength before the rest could react. That thought was quickly dispelled when a skeletal being floated into the room and began to speak to them.

"There's an intruder," a raspy voice spoke to the group.

"How could there be?" one of the vampires asked quickly. "There's over a thousand undead patrolling outside, there's no way anyone could slip by them and not get caught."

Asher almost chuckled at that comment. The skeletal being spoke again, "The wards detected a living being passing into the castle. You need to find them."

Asher cursed himself inwardly. He should have known that there would be a counter measure to his stealthy methods. The skeletal being was a lich by Asher's guess. From the looks of it, it was a fairly low level one, but it still couldn't be taken lightly. For a lich to be made in the first place, it had to be a powerful necromancer. They gave up the world of the living in exchange for raw power.

Asher could almost sympathize if it weren't for the thing hurting his only real friend he had ever made, Leah. For that, he had decided he would destroy the lich. Since they already knew he was in the castle, he had decided he was going to start removing obstacles as he went. The draugr could be dealt with easily enough if he played his cards right.

Asher had been eyeing the vampires as well. The boost in strength from them might be the very thing he needed in order to fight the lich. He needed to move fast. If he didn't, Leah might die. He suspected she would outlast most in the town at least.

He began to put a plan into effect as he crept through the castle. He had gained minor magical powers from the ice elementals and the dragonkin, allowing him to set traps through the castle. There was a weary feeling that would enter him over time as he overextended his energy from the traps, but he immediately felt rejuvenated as he killed a draugr. As he had suspected, the rest of them were alerted by the death of one of their own. As soon as they started pouring around the corner towards Asher, flashes of fire and spikes of ice began to erupt in the room.