A Gnome Will Find A Way

"Okay people, this is it, the end game", Ragnar the Paladin said somberly.

"Behind these doors is the Lich's phylactery, which is what we're here to destroy", he continued. "And loot his magical treasure, right?" Silke the thief asked. Ragnar shot her a disapproving look but yielded a nod. Everyone knew that if she wasn't the best trap-spotter and lock-picker this side of the Great Mountains, the noble paladin would never put up with her. But when your chosen profession involved journeying into abandoned dungeons to put down dangerous beasts, you needed her skills.

Gizol chuckled and kept admiring her firm posterior. Silke enjoyed cockteasing him mercilessly and Gizol had vowed to, someday, bed the dazzling rogue. Perhaps after this adventure?

"Right, is everyone ready?" Ragnar asked. All six members of the troupe nodded to him, so the paladin readied his sword and shield, using the latter to push the large double doors open.

The chamber beyond was round and surprisingly small. On one side an unholy altar stood, covered in dried blood. The other side was filled by a stone throne. A skeleton covered in black robe sat rigidly, it's empty eye sockets tracking the party.

"Welcome, adventurers", it said and rose, two bony hands starting to move in the gestures of spellcasting.

"ATTACK!" Ragnar bellowed and charged, his five friends right behind him.

Gizol spat a glob of blood on the dusty stone under him and groaned in pain. Only Ragnar still stood, but his shield had turned black from magical fire and his face was grimacing in pain. Silke's magical daggers were still embedded in the Lich's skull, but the thief herself was crumpled up in an unnatural position on the floor - both her spine and neck obviously broke. The other three members of the group had been killed: one melted by a cloud of acid, another burned to a crisp and the third electrocuted. Gizol himself had received grievous internal injuries when the Lich used a phantasmal fist, the size of a pony, to fling him across the room.

Dragging his broken body behind the altar, the gnome painfully got up. Blood from his nose, ears, and mouth dripped into the pentagram, without Gizol noticing.

"Damn that thing!" he shouted.

"If only I had more power! I curse all the gods for abandoning us!"

Black, smoking tendrils materialized around Ragnar and wrapped around the big man, who screamed in agony as his life was being drained away. The Lich turned and fixed its sparkling but empty eye sockets at Gizol, who spat in defiance. The glob fell on the pentagram, which had started to glow.

"I don't care if I die here and now but I'm taking you with me!" Gizol screamed and unleashed a fireball, that he had not dared to cast before, afraid of hitting his friends. The lich, simultaneously, launched another lightning bolt. In a tumultuous crash, the spells collided and embroiled the room in electrified fire.

WELL WELL WELL. I THOUGHT MORTALS HAD FORGOTTEN ME ENTIRELY BUT IT SEEMS I WAS MISTAKEN. THOUGH I WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED FEW SACRIFICES ALONG THE CENTURIES. STILL, YOUR BLOOD TASTES SWEET, LITTLE CREATURE.

TELL YOU WHAT. THE ABYSS HAS BEEN A BORING PLACE RECENTLY. I'M GOING TO HELP YOU, TINY MORTAL. I WILL GRANT YOU MY BOON.

THERE, ALL DONE. I EVEN RECONSTRUCTED YOUR FLESHY PRISON, I REMEMBER MORTALS BEING AWFULLY ATTACHED TO THEM. YOU ARE NOW CONNECTED TO ME. BRING ME SACRIFICES OF BLOOD AND FLESH AND KEEP ME ENTERTAINED.

OR ELSE I'LL DRAG YOU BACK DOWN HERE AND USE YOU AS A TOOTHPICK FOR FEW MILLENNIA OR SO. REMEMBER THIS PACT.

Gizol woke up with a shudder. He resolutely jammed all memories of Abyss into a little box inside his head and closed the lid. That didn't stop the feeling of daemonic power inside him. With barely a thought, he conjured globes of fire and effortlessly tossed them around. Instead of the handful of spells he remembered knowing just yesterday, he could now recall hundreds of them. It seems that he had somehow absorbed the knowledge of the Lich. He looked around.

Everything was covered in cobwebs and by a heavy layer of dust. Six skeletons kept him company, otherwise, the chamber was empty.