Where it began a little differently

The hero's party had tracked down the evil mage from clues left behind from various libraries and tombs that now held missing tomes. Alex took point as she burst through the front door with a shield and ax in hand and steeled herself. Her large stature and alluring green skin made it difficult to make out the rest of her team behind her. Anyone who wasn’t already looking had their attention pulled to her by a loud warcry as she rushed in and drew attention. A room full of undead warriors readied themselves while undead mages began to chant or draw runes from a balcony above. The warriors began to circle around her and as they did three blue bolts shot out from behind her and seemed to seek out and strike the skulls of the undead. In seconds the undead warriors had fallen and a blond-haired man made his way out behind her with a bow in hand and patted her on the back. His light armor seemed to glimmer from the light made by the runes being prepared and Gill notched a few more bolts pointed toward them. As each had completed their casting an impenetrable dome had sealed around each of the individuals and caused the spellcasters to hit themselves with their own spells. Elrin pushed Gill along as she focused on chanting and gave him a look. As Alex took the front, Gill took up the middle and Elrin followed still chanting until she was caught by surprise and turned quickly behind her. Two skeletal assassins rushed toward her and a blade came within five inches of her eye before the skeletons had fallen apart. A man with a glowing sword gave her an apologetic smile as he followed up the rear.

Each of the party members took a breath and Elrin was the first to speak “Those two were the last undead presences I felt in this place, and as for the living, it’s us and whoever’s behind all this.”

She looked at the man with the shining sword and he spoke “Well either they aren’t here anymore or they didn’t know we were coming.”

Gill spoke up and turned to the man “Look, Mark, I know we were late the last couple times, but don’t forget none of you know how to track mana like I can, and this place reeks of whoever this is.”

Alex towered above all of them “Fuckin’ you lot are wastin’ our time. If we gotta’ go down there anyway, why argue?”

She did make a rather good point. Mark looked at all of them and laughed, they had come quite a long way together. “You’re right, Lex, we’ll keep going like this. El, you hold up detection for magic and get ready for counter. Gill, you do what you do best, find the guy and nail him to the wall. I’ll keep an eye out for sneak attacks from the rear and jump to the frontline if we get in trouble.” The rest of the party smiled for a moment before getting to work.

They walked deep into the manor to find themselves in something of a sitting room where a man dressed in black and dark green sat by a fireplace. They had entered on guard but Elrin had made sure no magical traps were in place and Mark did a once-over for physical ones. Mark made his way to the front and looked at the old, pale, graying man before moving to one of the couches in the room. He held his sword between him ready to cross the distance between him and this mad mage in an instant. The rest of the party followed suit and sat down and they all began to speak. The mage shared his plans with them and the party looked upon him with contempt. Mark did feel something for this man though and after many attempts to dissuade the mage’s plans he had become sure this could not be solved with words. He pointed his sword at the mage, which glowed with runes on both ends of the blade and around the hilt. The mage stood, runes began floating around him and in less than a second the mage was impaled upon Mark’s sword. He fell to the floor, slid off the blade and disappeared.

Notes: Sorry obligatory lore chapter before we start doing smut things.