Mizor (Chapter 17)

Template:Mizor nav Beyond the hills outside Harrogath, a frigid, windy highland held Mount Arreat's first waypoint. After returning to town, Qual-kehk sought Mizor out. The Barbarians Mizor had met spoke well of him when they returned to town. This was a bit surprising, they had seemed like a tight-lipped bunch while Mizor was saving their skins. Maybe it was just their wounded pride, seeing Mizor and Paige wade through Baal's forces, accomplishing what they could not. To keep peace, Mizor decided not to tell Qual-kehk that breaking the siege was actually fairly easy. He'd even been able to restock most of his potion supply.

The return of living, healthy warriors (as well as enough rabbits to feed everyone) should have cheered Qual-kehk, but he gave no sign. Instead, he imperiously informed Mizor that he had another test for him. Many of his men had been captured alive, and were being held in cages the Barbarians themselves had built in their highland fortifications. Not that they were going to be ransomed or anything; they were destined to be lunch. If Mizor freed them all... then perhaps Qual-kehk might be impressed. A little. Well, of course, impressing Qual-kehk was so terribly important, Mizor was perfectly willing to forget all about that business with Baal and hop right to it.

Grumbling, Mizor went back to the waypoint and started up the mountain. Immediately, they were set upon by... not the little sword swingers, but even littler teleporting guys with big foreheads. And boy, were they annoying! Mizor would run up to one, it would poot away and reappear elsewhere, throwing little balls of energy. They didn't hurt much, but it took forever to run them down. Hitting one with a shockwave first helped, but was very tiring. Paige was having a lot more luck with her bow; handy things, opposable thumbs. The teleporting imps were more dangerous when they had another creature to work with, huge, heavily armored horned beasts with a box up on their backs. Up there, they had magic things that shot jets of flame, and could hurt you if you stayed in one place.

Slowly making their way up the frigid highland slopes, they came to a line of fortifications, with walls, towers, and trenches full of sharp wooden stakes. They looked very old, like they'd been prepared centuries before. The imps had flame jetters up in the towers, but they were easy enough to knock over. In the middle of the fort, a fragile-looking cage held a bunch of men, who were crying out for help. The imps and some of the little sword-swingers were trying to kill them as Mizor approached; he obviously couldn't let that happen, so Mizor charged in and bashed into the cage wall. Ouch. Sturdier than it looked. The door wasn't so well attached, and once it was gone, the Barbarians left through a town portal. Hmmm. The prison must prevent them from reading portal scrolls with the door closed; where they'd hidden a scroll from the demons, Mizor didn't want to think about.

The highlands were extensive, but Mizor just led his company upslope, killing imps every step of the way. They were no real threat, but so annoying, Mizor wondered if their sole reason for existing was to irritate heroes. After fighting through some more forts, and freeing more prisoners, they found a long-overdue waypoint. Qual-kehk was grateful for the rescue of his men; he almost smiled, and gave Mizor some rune stones he wasn't using. Mizor couldn't see any use for them either; they did spell one of the sacred words, but in a shield, and shields were of little use to him. One of the rescued Barbarians offered his services.

Karnac: "Look at these muscles! (FLEX!!!) Look at that power! Why are ye takin' a wee slip of a girl with ye against the forces o' Hell? This is a job for men!"

Mizor: (Does his best to convey how unimpressed he is.)

Paige: "How good a shot are you? Can you fire chilling arrows?"

Karnac: "That's sissy stuff! Look at this!" (Breaks a solid beam in half with his head.)

Mizor: "Ageuusdrred." (Paige knows better uses for her head.)

Karnac: "What was that?"

Paige: "He says I know better things to do with my head."

Karnac: "No, he didn't. I don't know what he said, but it wasn't that!"

Mizor: (Raises an eyebrow.) "Oossnmmrrre?"

Karnac: (Looks confused.) "Could ye repeat that, maybe?"

Mizor: (Pats Paige's shoulder and grins.)

Paige: "Looks like I've got job security."

Mizor: "Hhwaraaoges?" (Do you want to go back to the Rogues?)

Paige: "Nah. Kashya's a bitch. Besides, none of them like to go shopping as much as you."

Beyond the highlands was a flat plateau, with more fortifications, imps, sword-swingers, and a lot of huge, fat commander beasts. This must be some sort of staging area, to have all these officers. Most of the fat bastards were no challenge, but they could whip their tiny minions into a frenzy; the minion's body actually swelled up with explosive energy. The resulting boom killed the little guy, of course, though this didn't upset them too much. Mizor didn't like it at all, that suicide blast really hurt him, but not Bear or Paige. On one return trip to town, Malah had a talk with Paige.

Malah: "There is a matter which I hesitate to speak of..."

Paige: "No sweat. Do you need some more superheals?"

Malah: "It is about Anya, the daughter of our chief elder. Her father sacrificed himself to place the protective ward around the citadel, and Anya was the only one left of the chiefly line. But she has been missing for some time."

Paige: "Well... a lot of people look like they're missing... I mean, a city needs more women than I've seen around here."

Malah: "One night, just before your arrival, I overheard her and Nihlathak arguing about her father's death. The next morning she was gone."

Mizor: "Rrrrr..."

Paige: "What, that pale skinny guy? With the bones sewn into his clothes? I don't know why anyone wants anything to do with him, he gives me the creeps."

Malah: "He has his own story of what became of her, and claims that she is dead. The last daughter of the chief of Harrogath would not die easily."

Paige: "Chief's daughters die as easily as anyone else, that's not hard to imagine."

Malah: "I know that she is alive! You must find Anya, she knows many things which may be of use to you."

Mizor: "Hrrukn?" (Like Cain?) (Rolls his eyes.)

Paige: "Uh... yeah. We'll talk to Nihlathak. And find Anya."

Mizor: "Rrrrrwseor." (Or what's left of her.)

Paige: "Hush."