I recognize them: Twelve foot tall men with seared leathery wings, red skin, and eyes that burn like hot coals, the devils are Pit Fiends, some of the biggest, baddest devils you can magically bind and compel… and even among people who can cast the spell few can do it. This is NOT a fair fight, and they have Last Shadow and I surrounded… including above us.

  And they are scary fast. We are bombarded by spells from the ones further away; I hear one shout, “SPELL TURNING” in Infernal, and they all switch to area effects… which means a lot of fire. The dirt under my feet literally melts as they bathe the spot I'm standing on in balls of fire, exploding burning rocks, and waves of pure evil… I recognize the spell-like abilities they're using: Fireball, Meteor Swarm, and Bsphemy… but I don't greatly care, as they all just roll off my magic immunity. Last Shadow, fortunately, dies almost instantly; I'd hate to imagine what that felt like.

  Then the closer ones all y in with their cws, wings, teeth and tails, ripping through my flesh.

  Curiously, I feel rgely okay. Yes, the cuts, broken bones, bites, and such from the attacks are supremely distracting… but an all-consuming desire to WIN pushes the pain aside and I'm barely feeling it… and they can't get a grip on me.

  I try spells… Holy Smite seems a good starter… but they literally ugh it off… ah, spell resistance. Umm… I try a Flurry of Snowballs, that doesn't care about spell resistance… and that actually hurts them a little… I watch as their wounds start to close up immediately. Still… it DID hurt them.

  Which means I CAN win this.

  I have a better source of cold damage that does not permit spell resistance… so I shapechange onto a Huge Silver dragon, for the breath weapon. THAT hurts them. I keep up the Flurry of Snowballs while I'm recovering the breath weapon… and they start rotating themselves. As one gets too frostbitten, he teleports out to catch his breath, and one that's been waiting steps in… very organized, like one expects of devils. But after a full rotation, the healthiest of them hasn't QUITE recovered.

  The devilish hit squad does not care when the townsfolk start unching massive numbers of arrows, crossbow bolts, and sling stones at them. The dungeon crews in town can't help… a couple try, and get burned to death by magical fire from those waiting for their turn to face my freezing breath. We fight literally all night… and when the dawn comes, I finally wear one down far enough to slit the great beast's throat with a Holy Silver Scythe I conjure for the purpose… and when it dies, the others vanish as though they never were.

  Stupid teleporters.

  I shift back and take a minute to take stock… I'm standing on scorched, melted, and shattered ground. My clothes and armor are a complete loss… I can repce them via spells, no big deal. I watch as an exposed and broken bone in my arm stitches itself up and starts regrowing flesh… my other arm, legs, and chest aren't in much better shape, this might be a while… and there's a corpse of a powerful devil at my feet. Fastidiousness does its job, and all the grime and gore (most of it mine, honestly) just slides off and nds on the ground.

  I get dressed (in brand new equipment) and start looting the body… it doesn't have anything, pity. While I'm checking, the guildmaster Aldamen walks up to me, “WHAT ARE YOU?”

  Right now? “Alive.”

  The female half-orc pauses, “That's not what I meant.”

  “That's the answer you're getting,” I shrug, “look, I don't know why a dozen devils attacked me out of the blue…” I look at the corpse, “but I intend to find out.”

  She frowns, “How's a Druid going to….”

  She stops, because I'm ignoring her as I ask the corpse a question, “Why the ambush?”

  And it actually answers, because I dropped a Speak With Dead spell on it to get my four questions, “Orders.” Answer number one, down.

  Now for question two: “Who's orders?”

  “Chard Wuodrazed,” the corpse gives me my second answer.

  So it's the stupid gnome. Ugh. I'll need to find a better way to deal with him. How'd he control them? “Why did you accept the order?”

  “A Greater Pnar Binding spell.” Answer three… okay. Pit Fiends are above the normal limits of that spell, but specialized training can exceed those a little… viable.

  How long do I need to watch my back? “What was the limit on the contract?”

  “Sunrise.” And that's four. Nobody's getting any more answers from the same corpse that way for a week… and I probably don't need to worry about another Pit Fiend hit squad soon.

  “You're not a Druid at all, are you?” The guildmaster isn't going to drop it, is she?

  “I don't fit neatly into any of the little boxes,” I roll my eyes as I turn to face Aldamen, “I can heal, I can work well with animals, I can Summon animals… I can do most of the druid-like things one way or another, and I had a big cat companion at the time, so I checked that little box. I can do a lot of other things, too. I can clearly pull my weight; what's a bel matter? I can do what I can do.”

  Aldamen's face goes bnk for a moment as she pulls back. She pauses, and quietly whispers, “So you're as much of a Druid as I am a Wizard….” I raise an eyebrow, and she continues, “I prepare spells out of a spellbook, yes… but I can also do a little healing, can modify spells on the fly, and don't need to worry overly much about how many spells of a given sort I'll need. That makes certain members of the council uncertain on what to do with me, so they sent me as far away as they could without firing me, as firing me would upset my old crew… one of which is on the council, so I can't be disposed of entirely without cause… and assignments don't technically go through the council.”

  “Wherever there are people, there are politics,” I shake my head.

  “Yeah…” she pauses, “Which… eh, I may as well ask now. Can I get a ride to your town? It's my new assignment.”

  I chuckle, “They REALLY want you gone, don't they?”

  “Seems that way, yes,” she pauses, “How about it?”

  “I…” Umm. How can I say this, “...will need to discuss that with the others.” Mostly because it will involve dealing her in on some secrets. Mostly mine, but it affects the others too. “I'm guessing you don't exactly relish the idea of…”

  “A twelve hundred mile trek through areas not serviced by dungeons, as a mage, with my daughter?” She grimaces, “No, I don't. I could maybe buy a pair of hippogriffs, saddles, and feed for them to make it in two weeks or so by air, but… well. Your crew seems to have a much faster route.”

  Yeah. Me. “As I said: I'll need to discuss it. And we were pnning on leaving today….”

  “I'm all packed up already, and would just need to fetch my daughter.” Wow, she really wants this.

  I think a bit, “...and your alternative was buying two hippogriffs and reted gear, you said….”

  “Yeah. Not a great use of my travel budget.” No kidding Aldamen, those things cost like five grand each, and you're going to need two.

  I'm not going to make this decision alone, “I'll go talk it over with the others.”

  “I'll come with you,” the half orc injects, “I expect I'll need to negotiate at least somewhat.”

  “No… we're going to need to leave soon. Grab your daughter and meet me at the inn.” I pause, “I'll need to discuss it with the others first anyway.”

  “Hmmm…all right,” the guildmaster nods, “See you in a few.”

  I nod, and she rushes off. Shaking my head, I head back to the inn.

  I find my party mates having a beer over breakfast in the common room… looks like they ordered heavy on the meats. I should probably see about letting some chickens or goats or something loose in the pantry and summoning a few minions to handle them… or just casting Bountiful Banquet regurly. But then, Last Shadow would appreciate small horses for snacks. Hmm… Summon Minor Ally for some chickens, buy a rooster, Summon Nature's Ally I for female pony's, buy a stud… yeah….

  I mentally note that down for ter, and greet my friends, “So… I found a possible easy gig for us, but it needs some discussion…” I switch to sign nguage to go over the guildmaster's request. We've been working on it as a group for months due to the use in communication when observed, so it works well here.

  “So we'd need to keep the girly business quiet?” Roger signs back when I'm done ‘talking’.

  “...and swear the two to secrecy on how we're traveling,” Wesley points out, “that portable mansion is crazy valuable.”

  I *can* get it back if it's stolen… I just need to go home and ask Mom to let me in the back door, “That's why I wanted to discuss it, yes.”

  The halfling leader considers, “Well… your property is at the most risk, especially now that we all have control,” the other two nod. “How do you feel about it?”

  I chuckle and sign back, “I wouldn't have brought it up if I had any strenuous objections.”

  “Okay then,” the party leader acknowledges, “I'll go visit…” his hands freeze in midair as the guild leader comes in through the door, her human looking daughter in tow.

  “She was in a hurry…” I sign back as the halfling rolls his eyes and heads over to greet them.

  As our party leader starts negotiating, the voice of the grave speaks in my head, “So… care to find out what you're getting out of that st fight?”