Chapter 4

Cain was full of good advice on the best ways to fight monsters and demons, including some they had not yet encountered. They spent so much time getting advice from Cain that a week passed without them realizing it.

Unexpectedly, because Jack had lost track of the days, he got a call from Sue that it was time to come home to get ready for the wedding. It was only three days away, and he had several things he had to do, plus there were several parties and events that he had to attend. Gnashing his teeth in mock aggravation, Jack made his arrangements to leave for the palace. He invited the members of his team, as well as Akara, Cain, and Kashya to come with him to attend the wedding. Everybody agreed, even Hickory, that they wanted to attend. The women were particularly excited about attending a State Wedding. Jack warned Sue that they were all coming so that she could set it up with the chamberlain, then he transported them all to the throne room.

Sue was not exactly in a snit, but she was certainly rushing around on the edges of a panic. Akara talked to her for a few minutes, and Sue's nerves noticeably calmed down. Certainly, she was more likely to enjoy the wedding, now.

The wedding party, which Sue had originally thought was just going to include her and Jack, had grown in size to the point that she had lost control of it. It was a good thing that her mother was there to help Sue with keeping it organized and headed in the right direction.

Finally the day came, and the wedding and installation went through with absolutely no hitches. At last, Jack and Sue were officially married and the Duke and Duchess of Isbardia. They danced the night away, and both of them reflected that this had to take the place of the prom that they had so abruptly missed.

They got to bed about 5:00 AM, and Sue paused long enough to shut off her contraceptive spell. She even had a conception spell going, but it would have to wait for an egg to show up, and that was not due for a few days. This was their first time together as official husband and wife, and they made the most of it. It was a good thing that Sue had those curative and stamina spells handy, because they both needed them by the time they returned to public life from their bedroom.

There was a lot of good natured teasing going on, but all of their family and friends were truly happy for them and hoped a child would soon show up, since it was so obvious that Sue wanted it.

The parties and general merrymaking continued for a week, but then it was time to get down to business. Both families returned to Earth with great memories, but a block against talking about their adventure to anyone but themselves. The team, Akara, Cain, and Kashya returned to the camp, and Sue came along with them. She insisted that she wanted to join in on the fun. Sue's conception spell had worked, and she figured that she had around five or six months of adventure time left before she had to back off and take her mothering responsibilities seriously. Sue had left a summoning spell with the chamberlain and the head of the palace guards in case some emergency came up that only Jack or Sue could handle; that way they felt free to return to clearing out Samsor.

Fortunately, the monsters and demons did not reinfest those parts of Samsor that the team had already cleared, but that still left plenty of work to be done. Since it was easiest for him to do it, Jack transported the team to the Dark Wood so that they could resume their quest.

The next item on the agenda was the Forgotten Tower in the Black Marsh. This was haunted by an evil Countess. There was some question as to whether or not the Countess was actually dead, smart money had it that she had simply moved on to become one of the undead without truly dying. Not that it made much difference, she was still a formidable foe who had to be eliminated.

The Black Marsh was infested with groks and wyverns. There were also plenty of yeti, skeletons, and zombies. Goatmen also were to be found in several places, so there was almost constant battle as they roamed the marshland, killing every demon and monster that they could find. Sue's traveling firewall was especially useful against most of the demons and monsters, but the goatmen were immune to fire, so they had to be dealt with the hard way.

Nosef's skeletons were already showing that they were not strong enough to be of much help. He had even started calling up skeleton mages that threw fireballs, lightning balls, ice balls, poison balls, and destructive magic balls. Each mage used a different spell, and there was no way to control which kind of spell user showed up when a skeleton mage was raised, so they were of varying value. The mage with the destructive magic was probably the most useful, but they rarely showed up.

The clay golem had become quite strong by now, so Nosef was depending on him more and more in preference to the skeletons. The clay golem coupled with the amplify damage spell was very effective, especially when Manfred activated his Might aura. Too bad that Nosef could only manage one golem at a time.

The team did eventually find the Forgotten Tower, and it was quite a disappointment at first sight. The only thing visible from a distance was the stub of a broken stone tower. Once they got to the site, though, they discovered that there was an extensive underground component to the overall structure, and this portion of the structure was in good shape. Before entering, Sue enchanted each member of the team with the ability to see in the dark. That way, they would not be at a disadvantage when they entered the cellars below the tower.

As soon as they went down the first set of steps, they were swamped by a mass of demons and goatmen. All of these enemies seemed especially strong, but the demon shamans were much stronger that ever before seen. Again, Sue's moving firewall was not effective against the goatmen, so they were left to Jack and Aylia, with aid from Nosef and Manfred. Since the fire in the darts and arrows did not do any good against the goatmen, many more hits were required. The clay golem was a big help against the goatmen, but he was only one against many. This battle was difficult, but the team finally prevailed. However, there was time for concern, since this was only the first room of the first level, and there were four more levels to go after this one.

They continued to fight their way through the rooms on the first level. Many of the monsters on this level were resistant to fire, so Sue's moving firewall was not of much help. However, her ability to cast healing and stamina spells were much appreciated by Jack and Manfred as they fought with their swords against the goatmen. Jack had decided to switch back to his augmented sword, since the atlatl darts were not very effective against the goatmen.

They were in sight of the steps to the next level when they encountered a zombie that just was not stopped, no matter what they did. Sue overcame him, finally, by using her ice balls to slow the zombie enough for Jack and Manfred to cut it apart with their swords. So many blows had to be struck by the two men that Sue had to rejuvenate both men several times with her stamina spell.

They used the steps down to the second level to rest and restore their energy. By stopping here, they were sure of being free from attack, since there were never any bad guys on the stairs. Thank the gods for that boon.

The second level was pretty much a repeat of the first level, except that there were not as many monsters at this level. Most of the fighting was done against demons. This did make the battle somewhat easier, since Sue's moving firewall was still effective against the small demons. However, Jack and Manfred did have to kill the shamans themselves with their swords. This resulted in some serious injuries for Manfred, though he did not complain. Sue cured him, and they continued their search of the cellars.

The next level was more difficult than either of the other two. This time there were wyverns that Sue's firewall only slowed down. By now, Nosef was using his dagger in combination with the Poison Dagger spell. The spell worked, but it took time. The other spell from Nosef that worked was the Exploding Corpse spell. This spell caused a corpse to explode and act like a concussion grenade to the evil guys near it. It always took two corpse explosions, and sometimes three or four, to kill an enemy, so it was often of marginal value. Nevertheless, it was certainly better than nothing.