Narg and the Necromancer

Big Bob

He was awoken again by someone shaking him. “Now what?”

Gorgus’s face swam into view. “There’s something you should see.”

Narg stood up and joined Shogun and Gorgus at the door where they entered. As he approached he could hear noises from the room beyond. Shogun made a ‘sshhh’ signal with his hand and slowly opened the door a c***k for Narg to peer through.

The large dining room beyond was full of activity. Huge spider-like creatures, bodies about the size of two barrels, swarmed over the table, floor and the walls. It wasn’t clear what they were doing, though there were occasional squabbles between several of the things for no reason Narg could see. He picked out more details as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. The creatures had the legs of spiders, but instead of a body they had one giant head with large plate-like eyes, small noses and a large mouths filled with wicked looking teeth. The faces were all the same, and he had seen similar before. Bobs! Spider Bobs!

He closed the door quietly. “Looks to be about ten of them. Some sort of Bob creature.”

“What shall we do?” Asked Shogun. They look pretty nasty. I suppose I could get about half of them with a spell if we take them by surprise, should you need me to.”

“It would be a nasty fight even so,” said Gorgus.

Narg took a deep breath and drew Bloodletter. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

                                                                                 ~ * ~

Bob was a spider Bob. He had never wanted to be a spider Bob, but then no-one had given him a choice in the matter. So that’s what he was. Day in and out he and his brethren fought the demons, fought each other, fought the occasional traveller who stumbled into the castle. Bob existed in a dark world where death was ever present.

One day, which was pretty much the same as most other days, Bob and some of his brothers, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Queenie*, Bob, Bob and Bob were in the old dining hall. As usual he was in a bad mood. There was nothing much to be in a good mood about as a Bob. He was simply hanging about, scuttling around on the walls and the table with the rest of the g**g. Occasionally a Bob would lash out at another one, for no reason other than spite, and a small fight would break out.

Bob was sat on the centre of the old table when one of the doors to the room burst open. He looked up thinking it must be a demon attack, but no. A strangely shaped two legs was standing there. It was waving its arms about. Well, perhaps it was scared. All Bob knew is that here was some fresh food. He stood up and started moving towards the figure when the fire came.

It was a large ball, and even as he felt the heat of it begin to burn his outer skin, he felt thankful that at least this miserable existence would be over. He didn’t have time to think of anything else before the superheated magical flames engulfed him, and everything went black…

*They were a bit worried about Bob.

                                                                                 ~ * ~  

“They’re trying to get in through the other door!” shouted Shogun from behind Narg.

Narg swung Bloodletter around and chopped the leg off a Bob that had climbed over the body of the last one he had killed. “Keep them back, bit busy here!” he shouted back.

Beside him Gorgus swung his club and scored a direct hit on the eye of the Bob that was trying to knock him out of his position in the doorway. It fell back, watery green blood gushing from the wound, only to be replaced by another of the creatures.

“There’s too many of them, we shall never hold!” Gorgus smashed the leg of the Bob as it tried to grasp his head.

Narg cut the leg off for Gorgus and was nearly pulled off balance by a Bob who had swung in from the ceiling. He had to admit they were not dying as easily as he though they would. The wizards’ fireball had toasted five or six of them, but the others had not been deterred, and he thought there were more of them now than before. It wasn’t looking good.

“Wizard!” he shouted back as he lunged forward to spear a Bob in the head, “some kind of death spell would be good about now!”

“I don’t have anything that wouldn’t blast us as well!” Shogun yelled back, busy piling everything he could find in front of the other door.

“If they overrun us, then blast us all anyway!” Narg bellowed back, ducking a blow and hacking blindly with Bloodletter.

“There are more of them approaching,” said the sword, its voice distorted as it moved through the air.

“Bugger,” grunted Narg, swinging again and split a head in two, splattering himself with Bob-brain. He couldn’t see any way out of this one, barring someone coming in and calling off all the Bobs, and how likely was that?

“HOLD!” a voice shouted from behind the Bobs. “I said HOLD!”

Apparently quite likely.

Slowly the Bobs withdrew. Narg and Shogun remained where they were, leaning against the door frame panting heavily, ready to commence fighting again should the need arise. Shogun came up and stood behind them.

“Who goes there?” shouted Narg.

Another Spider Bob stepped forward. This one was larger than the rest, much larger, and had 6 eyes scattered around its face. The customary wicked fanged mouth was there though, looking like it could swallow a man whole. It spoke.

“I go here. I am Big Bob, commander of this unit. You are Narg are you not?”

“Aye.”

“You are to return the Ring of Control to the Lich Lord is that correct?”

“What’s it to you creature?”

“I wish to propose a deal.”

“I’m listening.”

“The Ring is in the Wizards’ tower. You will never defeat the Devil that resides there without our help.”

“We fear no Hell spawn,” said Gorgus.

“Ssss ssss.” The spider-Bob laughed a peculiar hissing laugh. “This is no minor demon Cleric, this is a Major Lord of Hell. His powers are more than a match for you, any of you or all of you together.”

“What do you propose?”

“The First Bob, our leader in the castle, is to the north, in the ballroom. The wizard’s tower is also that way. Our First has something that will aid you.”

“And why would you do this?”

“The First will explain everything.”

Narg sighed. “How do we get to your number one?”

“There’s a small problem there. The demons control most routes to the Ballroom from here. You will have to go through the asylum.”

“You Bobs control the asylum I take it?”

The spider laughed his low laugh again. “We don’t venture into the asylum.”

“And the demons are not there?”

“No one goes into that place. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say no one comes out of there.” Big Bob thought a moment. “Very, very few anyway.”

“So what make you think we can make it?” asked Shogun.

The spider took something from another Bob and handed it to Narg. Narg took it cautiously. It was a small pink box. He started to open it but the Spider Bob stopped him.

“No! You can only open it when you need it. It’s a one shot thing. We’ve been saving it for the right occasion, and this would seem to be that time. It should get you past the things in the asylum, or at least distract them long enough for you to get out anyway.”

Narg looked at the box then at his companions.

“It seems we have little choice, unless we wish to become a Bob breakfast,” Gorgus observed. “I for one would welcome anything that can help us get out of this place.”

“I second that!” said Shogun.

Narg cleaned Bloodletter and sheathed it. “You’d better tell us how to get to the ballroom then hadn’t you?” he said to Big Bob.