H&H CH3
Chapter 3 of Horns & Halos.
“Come Nisha.”, Zaci said, beckoning the striped tiefling to come to her.
“Yes mother.”, the feline herm said as she followed her older sister Arken towards her mother.
In the sixty years since Nisha’s birth the single mother and the half-sisters had traveled around the countryside, eking out a living providing fiendish charms and baubles to the stupid and evil folk in the cities.
Now the odd family sat by their horse drawn cart by the road, their meager dinner cooking over the campfire.
The withered old vudrani woman bent over the cooking pot, stirring the thin soup.
“So mother, what are we doing tomorrow?”, the young tiefling asked, watching the sun set behind the cliffs.
“Tomorrow, my daughters, we will be selling our wares in the city.”, Zaci replied, reaching out a bony hand to stroke Nisha’s blue and black striped arm.
The old adept picked up a bowl and ladled some of the soup into it before handing it to her daughter.
“Are there any fiends or other monsters in the forests around?”, Arken asked.
“Yes.”, Zaci replied, handing the aasimar cuntboi her portion.
The three woman seat in silence as they ate their nettle soup, listening to the eerie sounds of the darkened forest about them.
ROAR!
_ _
The three woman jumped to their feet in terror as a Horned Demon and a pair of cacodaemons burst out the undergrowth, glaring hungrily at them.
Zaci fumbled about in her terror as her daughters jumped behind her, scared out of their minds as the three fiends began to approach them.
The old adept uttered a hastily whispered spell and made a few frantic hand signs.
A wall of stone materialized between the women and the fiends, seeming to protect them.
The Horned Demon snarled and began pounding on the wall as the daemons flew over it, diving down on the women.
“RAARGH!”, the Horned Demon roared as he scored a lucky hit on the wall, demolishing it with a single blow.
Zaci hurled another spell at the demon, hoping to neutralize it.
“Curses!”, she swore as one of the cacodaemons intercepted the spell, transforming into fish.
The fiend laughed evilly as it changed its shape back to its original form.
Zaci then conjured two walls of fire in front of and behind herself and her daughters, hoping to hold off the fiends.
It didn’t work.
The fiends pushed their way through the fire and the Horned Demon grabbed Zaci by her dress, causing her concentration to falter and the walls to disappear.
The demon laughed as Zaci cast Stoneskin on herself an instant before its horns struck her head.
Zaci screamed terror as the demon began goring her repeatedly, gradually wearing down her defenses.
Nisha and Arken hid behind the pony, only for the demon to bash the hapless animal over the head with their mother.
The beast gave a final neigh as his skull was caved in.
Meanwhile the cacodaemons circled overhead, laughing cruelly as they dove down at the girls.
Arken launched a jolt of lightning at the daemons, only for them to shrug it off.
“Arrgh!”, Zaci cried as she was smashed into the cart, depleting the rest of the spell.
The human groaned as she staggered to her feet, hurling a couple of lightning bolts at the demon.
The demon laughed, as he was immune to damage from electricity.
Zaci cast Animate Dead on the dead pony, directing the newly created undead to attack the demon as she retreated back towards her daughters.
“What are to do mother?”, Nisha asked, watching in terror as the demon demolished the undead pony.
“I don’t now dear.”, Zaci replied as she cast Web, Scorching Rays, and Tremor Blast in quick succession at the demon, sending it to the ground roaring in rage.
Nisha and Arken fled away from the road, pressing themselves up against the cliffs that lined the road.
The demon got to his feet, smoke still rising from its body as it glared at the Vudrani woman.
He seized the dead pony with his telekinesis and flung it at her.
Zaci barely managed to dodge as the horse corpse demolished their cart.
She cast Protection From Evil and Chaos as the demon loomed over her, grinning menacingly.
She hurled her last remaining offensive spell, Burning Hands, at his face, praying it would do something.
“Ha ha ha!”, the Horned Demon chuckled as he shrugged off the hit and seized the human by her arm.
Zaci futilely stabbed at the demon’s hand with her knife, before the demon grabbed her free arm.
“AHHH!”, the woman screamed as the demon rent her arm from her body, sending blood spraying everywhere.
“Mother!”, Arken cried out as the demon threw her mother’s broken body to the ground.
The demon turned towards the girls, seizing them with telekinesis.
“Pretty girls…”, he rumbled as he looked the mortals over. “…fetch good price.”
He turned and shouted at his daemonic companions, caused them to cease squabbling over the horse’s soul gem and return to their master.
“Bind the evil one’s soul.”, the demon ordered, stomping on Zaci’s body as he did so.
“MOTHER!”, the girls cried out as their mother died horribly in front of them, her body crushed under the fiend’s foot.
One of the daemons ingested the soul of Zaci, vomiting out a small brown soul gem afterwards.
“Ha ha ha!”, the demon laughed cruelly as a portal opened next, causing the girls to scream and struggle as they were dragged through to what was likely their certain doom.
CH