Excelsior and the Black Death Chapter 3

When Excelsior and his companions left the castle of Queen Medusa XXIII, they left with an unexpected compatriot: Stheno, the gorgon they had brought with them originally. The queen had effectively banished Stheno from her court and decreed that she would remain with Excelsior’s group as her punishment.  Needless to say, neither party was pleased to hear this.
Excelsior, however, barely noticed.  As his comrades said goodbye to Medusa’s servants, his mind buzzed with the cryptic warnings that Medusa had given him.  What she had was believable, but could it really happen so soon?
When they had all shifted back home, they were warmly greeted by their friends at home.
“Ooh!  Who are you?”  Sea Star chirped upon seeing Stheno.
“Nunya.”  She replied.
“Nunya?”
“Yeah.  Nunya business.  Now buzz off!”  Stheno growled.
“Ahh, you’re grumpy.  I like you!”
“And you’re sickeningly sweet.  I despise you.”
“Hey!  She’s just trying to be nice!”  Jabro said.  “What’s your major malfunction?”
“My major malfunction, you ask?”
Stheno’s eyes glowed green, the vipers in her hair hissed at Jabro, and her mouth opened wide showing her fangs as a deep hiss came from deep within her throat.  Jabro swiftly turned to stone.
Everyone snapped to attention, drawing their weapons and preparing to subdue the gorgon, but she just held up her hand.  Slowly, cracks appeared on the petrified Jabro and then burst off, revealing that he was perfectly fine underneath.
“Did something just happen?”  He asked.
“I’ve known several ladies that could stop guys dead in their tracks, but this is ridiculous.”  Mantor cracked.
“Your stare is temporary…” Almira said.
“I know!  It’s embarrassing!”  Stheno snarled.  “I was a laughingstock back home because of it!”
“Ah, get over yourssself.”  Khobra hissed unsympathetically.  “There’sss nothing wrong with being an outcassst.”
Stheno told Khobra where he could go and slithered off towards the house.
“You’ll find plenty of empty rooms,” Excelsior called after her.  “Take whichever you like.”
Stheno told him where he could stick his hospitality.
“There goesss the neighborhood.”  Khobra muttered.
“Snake lady mean.”  Roxxor commented.
“At least we know where she got that chip on her shoulder.”  Almira said.  Then she noticed that Excelsior looked preoccupied.
“Something on your mind?”
“It’s something the gorgon queen told me…”
Excelsior told Almira everything that Queen Medusa had told him her brow furrowed.
“Well, I can’t say that gorgons are the most magic-sensitive creatures, but I can see what she meant.”
“You’ve felt something?”
“Now that you mention it, things do seem to be a bit uneasy, but that’s to be expected since the King of Devils did nearly escape.  If you’re asking if an evil god is trying to cross or has crossed, it’s too soon to say.  They may not have enough power yet or it’s nothing at all.”
“Do you think we should be on guard?”
“Maybe.  I don’t want us or anyone to become overly paranoid, so we should wait and see.  If a sign comes, then we’ll definitely know for sure.”
Excelsior nodded.
“All right.  I trust your judgment.  Hopefully, our worries will prove false.”
Later that night, Excelsior dozed fitfully in his sleep, his head ringing with the warnings Queen Medusa has given him.  He finally awoke and walked to his bathroom to get a drink of water.  As he filled the cup, he suddenly heard a strange noise.  It sounded like singing but like no singing he’d ever heard.  It was low and haunting, yet shrill and alien at the same time.  The singing rose and fell, changing from that of a mourning woman to a crazed she-devil.  
Excelsior rushed to his window and saw a white glow coming from the beach.  His door opened and his friends rushed in, their eyes wide in fright.  Well, most of them.
“Who the devil is making that awful racket?”  Khobra snarled.  “It’sss after midnight, for criminy’sss sssake!”
“I really don’t think we should go investigate.”  Jabro said nervously.  “That sounds really spooky and you guys know how I am about spooky things…”
“Sounds like a woman,” Asterion mused.  “But no woman I’ve ever met.  And I’ve met plenty.”
“If I didn’t know better,” Almira said.  “I’d swear that was a…”
“GHOST!”
Caetus burst past into Excelsior’s room, knocking everyone aside.
“We’re haunted, landlubber!”  He shrieked.  “Sea Star and I saw her!  A blinkin’ phantom woman floating on the beast!  We gotta find us a new port now!  Now, I tell ya!”
“Everyone calm down.”  Excelsior said.  “The only way we’re going to find out is if we go down there and see what’s going on.”
“Who else knew he was going to say that?”  Mantor asked.
The group slowly and carefully made their way down to the beach, where they a ghostly white woman floating along the sand, her long white hair and dress whipped around by a nonexistent wind.
“Scary ghost lady.”  Roxxor whimpered.
“Hey, Asterion, you’re a ladies man.  You go talk to her.”  Mantor said.
“As much as I enjoy the company of women, I must decline.”  Asterion said.

“And you call yourselves heroes!”  Stheno snorted.
As if finally hearing them, the ghost whipped around, revealing her skeletal face and glowing white eyes.  Everybody screamed.
“Cry, mortals, cry!”  The ghost shrieked, rising into the air.  “Lend me ten thousand eyes and I will fill them with prophetic tears!  Heed the words of Siobhan!”
“Banshee.  I knew it.”  Almira muttered.
“The Black Death is returning!  Under his command, his servants seek to recreate his deadly plague!  The Bloodbathers will once again be free to ravage the weak!  The hands of malice will stretch over land and sea!  Woe unto you, mortals, woe!”
“You woke usss up for that?”  Khobra snapped.  “Lady, we jussst ssstopped an eldritch abomination from conquering all that exissstsss and now you’re telling usss another isss coming?  You’re full of it!”
The banshee’s eyes widened in rage.
“Now you’ve done it.”  Almira sighed.
“Lies!”  The banshee screamed.  “A banshee’s tongue was not made for lies!  We herald the coming of death, doom, and destruction!  Heed my warning or not, the choice is yours!  But know this mortals: a banshee never lies!”
With that, Siobhan began singing again, her voice reaching deafening levels as she began to fly crazily over the heads of the heroes.  Screaming in pain, the heroes pinned their hands over their ears, hoping to block out the sound, but it was futile.  One by one, they all slipped I unconsciousness.
They all woke up hours later when the sun was high in the sky.
“You just had to anger the screeching ghost lady, didn’t you?”  Jabro said.
“Oh, dry up.”  Khobra snorted.
Excelsior, however, just got to his feet and marched to the house.
“Everyone get your things; we’re leaving immediately.”
“Okay.”  Roxxor said.
As he began to follow Excelsior, Stheno spoke up.
“Are you crazy?  Some banshee starts wailing about the god of malice coming back and you get all gung-ho about stopping him?
“That’s about the size of it.”
“You don’t even know where to start looking!”
“Maybe not, but that’s a clear sign if I ever saw…er, heard one and I’m not going sit back and let him or anyone affiliated with him gain an advantage!”
Stheno turned to the others.  “You can’t seriously be listening to this nutjob…”
But the others were all heading towards the house.
“What!  You are?”  She squawked in disbelief.
“That’s the thing about Excelsior, lass,” Caetus said.  “He has a way of makin’ ya do stuffya’d never normally do.”
“You can choose to come with us or not, but I doubt you have anywhere else to go.”  Almira said.
Stheno watched as they all went into the house to prepare for the journey.
“Fine.  Let’s all go crazy!”  She yelled as she followed them in.

“Where are they?”  Rhaimanda bellowed as she squeezed the throat of the teenaged boy she had pinned to the ground.  “We came all the way out here to this stinking lake and you tell us the birds aren’t here!  So where are they?”
“Don’t…know…” The boy coughed.  “They’re…too…dangerous…to track…”
The Bloodbathers were on the banks of the marshy, forested region of Lake Stymphalia, home of the Stymphalian birds, infamous for being able to shoot their feathers like arrows.  The group had come far to get their hands on one of the birds, only to find out they had migrated.
Rhaimanda had blown up and attacked the boy who had told them, Desecrata and Bylinga watched, as did Verminious and Prismor though more out of disinterest, Ipanema was spritzing on perfume, and Axara was idly running her foot through the water.
“I…can get…you…feathers…” The boy coughed.  “Everyone…around here…collects…them…”
“You don’t get it, do you?”  Rhaimanda yelled.  “We need them right off the bird!  Not leftovers from who knows how long ago!  Now, one last chance: where did they all go?”
“You don’t wanna mess with Rhaimanda, kid, she’s got no conscience.” Verminious warned.  “So do yourself a favor and tell her at least what she wants to hear.”
“Bah!  This is a waste of time!”
With that, Rhaimanda plunged her hand into the kid’s stomach and ripped out whatever she could get a hold of.
“That was a grisly display.”  Prismor commented as he dipped his hand in the boy’s twitching body and began rubbing it onto his arm.
“Ugh!”  Rhaimanda groaned, tugging at her hair.  “We come all this way for one of the ingredients and find out that they’re all gone!  Necroferia’s gonna flip!”
“Aw, get a hold of yourself!”  Desecrata told her.  “We aren’t called the best trackers for nothing, are we?  Bylinga!”
Bylinga immediately snapped to attention.
“Start tracking down them birds, girl.  Now!”
Bylinga saluted and then began sniffing the ground like a dog.  She found a feather, sniffed it, raised her head and sniffed the air, and then bounded away through the trees.
“She found something!  After her!”  Desecrata cried.
She, Rhaimanda, Verminious, and Prismor ran after her.
“Ugh, running?”  Ipanema moaned.  “It’ll mess with my hair.  At least we’ll be away from this awful bog.  Come, Axara.”
Axara looked up and slowly followed Ipanema through the trees.