Chapter 6

According to Aylia, they were getting close to Andariel's hiding place, but there were still several places she expected significant battles. One of them was in the Main Hall of the Monastery, which was the next place for them to visit.

The first monsters they met when they opened the door to the Main Hall was a gaggle of basilisks. One basilisk is bad enough, but a gaggle of them is too much for any bunch of heroes to fight. Sue slammed up her barrier wall while she consulted with Hat on the best way to fight these things. Oh, by the way, all three of them needed a shot of healing spell after even that brief encounter with the basilisks.

The problem with the basilisks was that meeting their gaze would freeze the victim in place while the basilisk pecked him apart at leisure with that bird-like beak. In fact, the basilisk looked like an overgrown canary with its lush yellow feathers and generally birdish appearance. The beak was more like that of a toucan, the beak was massive and as sharp as a razor, so the basilisk had no trouble cutting large sections of flesh from its frozen-in-place victim. All-in-all, the basilisk was a fearsome creature, whether it was classed as a demon or a monster.

The basilisk was totally resistant to fire, lightning, or cold, and it was reasonably resistant to magic, too. At first, it seemed that only a massive physical attack would serve to defeat the creature, then Hat had a brainstorm. "I propose that we surround the basilisk with a tubular shield having a reflective inside surface that keeps its gaze from escaping the tube. It can't fly because of its weight, so the tube's wall does not need to be much taller than the basilisk, itself. Into the tube we can dump some gas or liquid to kill the creature."

Jack had overheard the conversation and offered, "Why not fill the tube with mustard gas. That stuff is so corrosive that it will kill anything with lungs, and I happen to know its chemical composition."

That was the tactic settled upon, so Sue got ready to cast the spell as soon as the barrier wall was dropped. She dropped the wall and quickly erected another barrier wall right behind it so that they could break a few basilisks away from the rest of the gaggle in order to test the spell without so much frantic haste.

Three basilisks were pushed to the fore, so those were the three that Sue cast her new spell upon. The tubular shield went up and the inside surface was coated with the reflective metal the same way that "silvered" sunglasses were treated. This meant that the basilisk could not see out, but the heroes could see into the trap. The mustard gas worked fast on the "birds," and these three were killed in less than a minute. The three heroes were happy to see that the basilisks died in agony, so it was kind of a relief to the feelings to think that the basilisks were receiving some of their own medicine.

Sue worked a routine exactly the same as she had used in fighting the hellhounds. This left Jack and Aylia free to challenge the rest of the monsters and demons in the Main Hall. It was a long and hard fought battle, but the heroes finally came out the winners.

Andariel was livid at the sight of what Sue had been able to do to the beloved basilisks. She already knew that this bunch of heroes was not going to be pushovers, but she's had no idea just how tough they were going to be. Well, no time to try to think up a new strategy, Andariel knew that she had to go with what she had, but she was now convinced that she was going to have to take a personal hand, or was that claw, in the fight!

There was little difference in the nature of the demons and monsters the heroes met as they left the Main Hall to reach the chamber that Andariel was using as a throne room.

Here they encountered a slice of Hell. The place was so hot that Sue had to provide a cooling spell for each of the heroes. Flame was all about and streams of raw lava flowed across the floor. Any being that depended on infra red radiation for illumination would have been blinded by the glare. Andariel sat on her throne made of her victims' bones and watched the heroes fight off the attacks of her minions.

Finally, when the last of the minions had been defeated, Andariel gave out with a might roar and stalked to the attack. For some reason, possibly because he was male, Andariel headed directly for Jack as her first victim. It would have been better for her if she had first attacked Sue, but Andariel was a confirmed and staunch hater of men. Andariel was almost nine feet tall and superficially humanoid. She had two arms which ended in hands that had claws for fingers, but she had four more arms which were more like tentacles and ended with a single claw. She had two legs but they ended in raptor's talons instead of feet. She had the body of a beautiful woman, and she was nude, except for a kind of G-string. Her breasts were impressive for their beauty, but they were so large that one could not help wondering what child could be so large as to nurse there.

She charged at Jack, but Sue sprang to his defense by erecting a barrier wall. Andariel ripped through that with one swipe of her tentacled claws. Uh-oh, this looked serious. That wall was the strongest barrier that Sue could conceive of; Sue simply could not make anything stronger. They did not know what mode of attack that Andariel would choose, but they knew that it would be formidable.

Jack was ready with his mightiest sword and most resistant shield, and Sue had anointed him with the amplify damage spell. As soon as Andariel got close enough, Jack swung his sword at her. It barely made a scratch on her tough hide. Jack immediately realized that he was going to have to close with her to have his blows make any difference.

At this point, Andariel made a rare tactical mistake. She played into Jack's strengths by grabbing him with her tentacles and pulling him close. This was the perfect opening for Jack to stab his sword into her belly so far that it lodged there, and he could not pull it back out. Andariel reacted in a kind of reflex action that threw Jack across the room. He lost his hold on his sword, and it remained lodged in Andariel's belly.

Jack quickly searched his magic pack looking for a replacement sword. He found just what he needed, a khopesh (A sword invented in the Middle East and used by the Egyptians. It had a curved blade and a point, and was shaped something like a pruning hook, but the sharp edge was on the outside of the blade's curve.) This blade was enchanted only with increased physical damage, so Jack rarely used it; however, it was particularly appropriate for fighting Andariel.