Mountains to Rubble

Thank you, Fable readers, for going on a spooky jaunt with our popular Halloween characters, but now we return to the adventure our heroes are currently in. The last time we saw these heroes the fellowship had entered into a mysterious mountain on an island shrouded in mystery itself, searching for a magical artifact so powerful that it can drag the user through time without creating alternate timelines. The heroes proceeded through the dwarven catacombs to the great throne room to find that the seductive Enchantress, the powerful Witch Doctor, and the deathly Predator had beaten them to it. The Enchantress destroys the artifact, scavenging the powerful crystal that powered it. Inserting it into her scepter, she empowers the Witch Doctor, who raises an undead dwarven guard. The heroes engage the undead while the Wizard duels with the powerful Enchantress. The heroes, realizing their dire situation, send the Marksman with a signal flare to signal fire support from Captain Crimson’s ship. The Marksman faced his past, defeating the Predator and signaling fire support from the Mystic Wave. The relentless shelling from the Wave collapses the tower and the ceiling of the throne room while the Marksman descends down the crumbling structure. The Enchantress seeing the tide of the battle turning in favor of the heroes feigns an attack at the heroes and then unleashes a mighty blast at the Wizard...

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The Marksman slides down to the throne room floor using a rope that is anchored to the throne room wall by his well-placed arrow. His boots hit the ground and he springs forward into a roll to absorb the impact. He springs to his feet throwing a knife straight into the chest plate of an undead dwarf. The Marksman surveys the skirmish. The Barkeep throws a haymaker, his weighted  knuckles crumpling the helm of a dwarven warrior like a tin flagon. The Gunslinger gets knocked to the ground by a large, charging dwarf, but he falls to a single knee and raises his rifle, firing several shots into the horde. Bullets rip through the crowd, felling several of the warriors. The large dwarf turns and raises his axe to finish the Gunslinger, but the Gunslinger spins onto his butt, spinning his rifle and slamming another round in the chamber. The report rings out as the Gunslinger blows a fist-sized hole through the dwarf. Captain Crimson roars a battle cry, wildly swinging his sword, cutting down the undead like a farmer harvesting so much grain before him. The Distiller was a flurry of spins and kicks, his walking stick snapping like a green branch smacking into the skulls of the undead. Even the Scribe holds his own, using his twin swords just as the Hero showed him. The Hero himself seemingly is in a trance, swinging his sword effortlessly through the air. A pile of bodies, recently returned to their previously dead state, lies around the Hero as he continues to repel the never-ending onslaught. The Witch Doctor himself is entranced as well, continuing to fuel and control the undead army with his dark magic.

*BOOM*

A bright flash of green engulfs the room, for an instance blinding the Marksman and the other heroes. The Marksman’s vision returns in time to see the Inventor’s exoskeleton fall to the floor. The explosion rocks the throne room. the already deteriorating tower begins to fall. Several large chunks fall striking the floor. The Wizard casts a spell, trying to hold the crumbling floor together under him and the Inventor. Unfortunately, the top of the tower falls, crashing through the floor. For a brief second the Wizard looks at the Marksman, and then the floor falls out from under him and the Inventor.

The Marksman gasps for air, like all the air had been sucked out of the room. The cacophony of the battle surrounding him dulls. The Wizard is gone.

“We have to go… come on everyone get out of here… HEY MARKSMAN!”

Captain Crimson shakes the Marksman out of his stupor. The floor isn’t the only thing falling apart. The ceiling of the throne room is crumbling and collapsing under the fire support from the Mystic Wave. The Marksman turns, seeing the rest of the heroes running into the catacombs leading into the bowels of the mountain and, along with the Gunslinger and Captain Crimson, the Marksman joins them. 

The Enchantress sees the falling ceiling and casts a green field over her and the Witch Doctor, protecting them from the falling debris but precluding her from further attack on the heroes. The undead, however, are unfazed by the falling ceiling, chasing the heroes into the tunnels of the mountain.

The monsters’ moans echo off the walls, drawing closer as the heroes continue their retreat. The Marksman’s side throbs. The healing spell had done well to knit his ribs back together, but he hadn’t had the time to completely heal the bruised tissue in the area. His father had taught him that healing spell, but the Wizard helped him develop it further. If not for the Wizard, he’d have been dead in that tower collapse. It can’t be that the Wizard is gone, it just can’t be.

The Gunslinger stops in the hall and turns to face the oncoming wave of the undead. 

“What arrre you doing, Gunslinger? Get your tail in gear,” barks Captain Crimson.

“Go on,” growls the Gunslinger as he turns his attention back down the hall.

Captain Crimson shakes his head and keeps running. The Marksman looks at Crimson but then turns his attention back to the Gunslinger. The Gunslinger draws his pistols, holding one in each hand. He stares intently at the walls as the rumbling of the dwarven guard draws closer. The rattling of the armor closes in on them, the Marksman unsure of the Gunslinger’s play. The Gunslinger all the while is making minute adjustments, but it looks like his guns are aimed at the ….

Suddenly, the rapport of the Gunslinger’s guns ring out in a slow, but steady succession.

*BANG… BANG… BANG….. BANG…. BANG…. BANG…. BANG….. BANG….. BANG….. BANG…. BANG… BANG…..*

The whizzing, whistling, and whining of the bullets ricocheting off the tunnel walls fills the air. The bullets tumble down carefully calculated trajectories, turning the hallway into a meat grinder. Each hit is signaled by the pinging of a bullet striking dwarven armor.

The Gunslinger looks at the Marksman with a glint in his eye and continues running, the Marksman right behind him. The growls of the dwarven horde fade behind them, the mass of bodies resulting from the Gunslinger’s expert marksmanship slowing the mob’s progress substantially. The tunnel gets progressively lighter for the Marksman and Gunslinger and soon enough they burst onto a bright and sunny beach. Captain Crimson already had the heroes pushing the landing boats back out into the water and motion for the Gunslinger and Marksman to quickly hop in. As the broken fellowship paddles away, the ground begins to rumble. What remains of the tower falls into the mountain as the rest of the surrounding mountain side falls inward a wall of dust billowing up and out from the island.

The heroes drop their eyes, any hope of the Wizard making it out of the mountain seemingly dashed. The heroes are picked-up by the Mystic Wave. With the remaining heroes on board, Crimson calls to set a course for home. Despite surviving the mysterious dwarven isle, the mood is incredibly somber and the Wave turns towards the sunset.

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The sun has long set on the dwarven isle, the dusty haze of the mountain’s demise hangs heavy over the rubble of the dwarven isle. Suddenly the rubble begins to shift, followed by an energy blast slinging rock and rubble into the sky and out over the ocean. The Enchantress stands, angry energy coursing across her body, the Witch Doctor unharmed as well, staring in awe. The Enchantress had the power to stop a whole mountain from falling on her and now she is about to unleash that power on the world, and what better place to start than Franklin?

Narrated by Brandon Warner