OG: Interlude: Meanwhile, With the Other Champions VIII

Keira Rangi had been having an interesting past few months. Honestly, it had begun with the arrival of a group of seven would-be heroes at her recently claimed fortress of Skullcap, looking for the Helm of Grallen, and hoping to find a path away from the stronghold of Pax Tharkas, which was under the control of the Red Dragonarmy and Highlord Verminaard, whom they had recently liberated around eight hundred slaves from. Keira listened to their questions, especially those of the curious Wizard with the odd-looking Skin and Eyes in the Red Robes.

Apparently, the Wizard, Raistlin, had expected to find someone named Fistandantilus here, which Keira took to mean the Lich that Housh had inadvertently destroyed the Spirit of. When she told him that she had destroyed the Lich, the Mage all but demanded she teach him how. Keira was still pretty proud of her response even now. She'd straight-up told the decrepit-looking Mage that he couldn't afford her and that even if he could, she would break him in half before he could learn anything. When he demanded to know what she was talking about, she'd replied that the only one she'd ever teach how to do what she knew to would be her current boytoy, which automatically took Raistlin out of the running.

Of course, he'd went to go sulk and grumble, and Keira was pretty damn sure that in the months since she'd joined up with them, he'd been trying to puzzle out how she summoned and cast spells via observation. She'd caught him looking at her while she'd been casting once or twice, and he'd always muttered some nonsense about black robes and her magic being impossible. She'd give him that, from what she'd seen of how magic worked in this Bullshit High Fantasy World what she could do was definitely impossible. It was a good thing for her that she didn't work based on the local context, now wasn't it? Especially after what'd come next.

The Ostensible Leader of the Group, a Human in regular Chainmail named Sturm Brightblade, whose two-handed sword seemed to be about as magical as the suit of plate armor she was wearing, had led her back to the Refugees' Camp when a roaring had been heard echoing across the mountains, and suddenly the valley was being flooded with the troops of the Red Dragonarmy, a Red Dragon with mounted rider flying overhead. One of the other members of the Band of Would-Be Heroes, a Half-elf in Leather Armor with a Longbow and a Magical Sword named Tanis, began insisting that they strike camp and live to fight another day. Sturm demanded they stay and fight. Keira decided to cut the Gordian Knot for them.

Immediately, she spilled her blood on the ground in a ritual circle and summoned a portal to the Darkhold. Her minions began pouring out of the circle, now a gate to her extradimensional residence. As that happened, she immediately teleported over half a hundred feet in the air and onto the back of the flying Red Dragon using Greater Blink and the Void Channel Bone Charm she had made for herself. Immediately, she had to parry the strike of the Black Steel, Magical, Mace that was swung her way using the Vorpal Blade that she had taken from Skullcap before blasting the Dragon Rider off of the back of the Red Dragon with a crackling beam of mystical energy. She blinked back down as the Mummified Form of her most recent Servitor came roaring through the portal, breathing a cloud of necrotic darkness at the Red Dragon.

As she came to a stop on the ground, she was forced to parry a strike from one of the Dragonmen of the Red Dragonarmy, striking its head off with her Vorpal Sword before immediately having to blink backward to avoid an explosion. She fired off a barrage of crackling mystic energy at a group of Dragonmen, who were bearing down on a group of Refugees that were protected solely by a Dark-haired Woman in Leather Armor with a Shortsword and Frying Pan and a Mustachioed Man in Chainmail with a Longsword and Shield. As her barrage struck into the back of the platoon of Dragonmen, they immediately hardened, turning to stone.

As a squad of four other Dragonmen charged after her, however, the form of the Dragon Rider finally came crashing to the ground after falling for around eighteen seconds and slammed into the four charging Dragonmen from above, who instantly dissolved into a sizzling acid. Keira suddenly realized that she wasn't going to get any shades or undead out of the Dragonmen and scowled at that before approaching the fallen Dragon Rider. He was standing shakily, limping as his leg had been broken in the fall, sizzling from acid burns that had seeped into the gaps in his magical armor, but somehow still alive. Keira rectified that with a strike of her Vorpal Sword. His head was cleaved clean off of his body.

Keira immediately began work on summoning and binding the dead Dragon Rider's Spectre, covered by her minions, which cleared a space around her and defended her from any attacks from Dragonmen. With her Mummified Dragon Servitor keeping the Red Dragon at Bay, Keira was relatively uninterrupted as she managed to bind the Spectre of Highlord Verminaard to her will. At the same time, the Red Dragon, bleeding from the mystically hardened teeth and talons of her Mummified Dragon Servitor, and weakened by Necrotic Breath, was finally brought down to Earth after Keira cast a Barrage of Mystic Energy at it, clipping its wings and causing it to crash into and kill another company of Dragonmen. Summoning a pair of Storm Atronachs to aid her, Keira charged forth and, between her and her minions, slew the beast.

The battle didn't last much longer than that, with the Red Dragonarmy fleeing the field, its Highlord and his Mount Dead, and Keira finding herself two powerful minions richer, as Verminaard's Shade and the Mummified Corpse of his Mount, the Red Dragon Ember, joined her collection of Servitors. She got the stinkeye for that from Sturm Brightblade, but honestly, Keira didn't much care.

"I'm going to be keeping an eye on you, Black Robe. Your Dark Magics, vile though they might be, have been turned toward keeping these good folk alive. That has stayed my hand. . .for now." Warned off Sturm.

She travelled with the Group of Would-be Heroes as far as Thorbardin, getting mixed up with the whole debacle with the Hammer of Kharas, the Deargar Kingdom, the False Verminaard, the remnants of the Red Dragonarmy, and Ember's Six Kids. Unfortunately for them, however, the fight went out of the Daergar once Ember's Brood had been slain. Ironically, three of them had been taken out by the would-be heroes, one had been slain by the Army of Hylar Dwarves that Thane Hornfel Gathered, and she had slain the other two. The False Verminaard had been slain by Tanis during the fighting, and between the forces of Thorbardin, the Fighting Men of the Refugees, and Keira's Minions, the remnants of the Red Dragonarmy weren't able to withstand the combined onslaught.

In the end, between the Battle of the Vale and the Battle of Thorbardin, the Red Dragonarmy was completely shattered. Pax Tharkas was ripe for a counterattack, and Keira volunteered to lead it while the Would-Be Heroes moved on, Sturm Brightblade practically demanding they do so, unwilling to remain in Keira's presence any longer. She guessed the fact that her 'Vile Magics' had been turned to aiding the Hylar Dwarves hadn't bought her as much grace as when she'd used them in the defense of the Refugees of Pax Tharkas.

That suited Keira just fine, as she'd about had it with the Knight's Holier-Than-Thou attitude anyway. She gladly volunteered to lead the Counterattack on Pax Tharkas after Sturm and his band of Would-Be Heroes left Thorbardin, Sturm glaring at her and spitting on the ground at her feet before leaving. In this, she was aided by the fighting men of the Refugees, some eighty former Prisoners-of-War led by the Mustachioed Man in Chainmail that Keira had seen during the Battle of the Vale, a man named Eben Shatterstone. They were also aided by a company of One-Hundred-Fifty Hylar Dwarves under Arman Kharas.

That was how Kiera found herself in the current predicament she was in. Apparently, the death of Verminaard and the shattering of the flights under his command had been noticed. Highmaster Rugoheras and Flight Marshal Solon had brought up as many reserves as they could spare to hold Pax Tharkas against the inevitable counterattack. Their counterattack ran smack into a scratch force of One-Thousand-Eighty Mixed Dragonmen, Ogres, and Human Mercenaries, alongside another Trio of Mature Red Dragons. Keira had gotten to summoning, and the battle had begun. Unfortunately, she only had so many minions to summon and was forced to summon Kashu as well to even the odds against the Trio of Dragons. They were still outnumbered on the ground, mind you, but that would be rectified with time.

Unfortunately, just as things were looking up, with one of the Red Dragons literally torn apart by Kashu, who then proceeded to move to pincer one of the other Red Dragons, the one facing off against her Mummified Shadow Dragon Servitor, Kiera found herself facing off against Highmaster Rugoheras himself, with only Eben Shatterstone to help her, as all their remaining troops and her remaining minions were engaged.

"Eben, show this foreign harlot where your true allegiances lie!" Commanded Highmaster Rugoheras.

Keira only got a brief warning before Eben Shatterstone was cutting out at her back, slipping the blade of his longsword between the joints of her magical plate armor and literally stabbing Keira in the back. She let out a screech of pain, but while the wound was deep, it hadn't hit anything vital, and Keira had her healing factor from her powers to help her recover. She literally couldn't use the blood magic without it, after all, not at the level that she was used to. Of course, as she coughed blood out onto the ground, she gritted her teeth and pushed through the pain, aided in that by the same powers that ensured she didn't go stark raving mad by things Man wasn't meant to know.

"Sorry, Lady. It's nothing personal, you understand. I gave my allegiance to Takhsis long ago, and you're in the way. Besides, frankly, you scare me." Remarked Eben Shatterstone, as he slid his blade free of her back.

Keira sank to one knee as Highmaster Rugoheras approached her, concentrating on the blood that she'd just spat up onto the ground, infusing it with mystic power and using it as a medium for spellcasting. She'd learned one specific spell that just might take both opponents off guard and allow her time to heal. The Wasting Burn, which she learned from a copy of the Book of Eibon found in the Darkhold's Occult Library.

"Any last words?" Questioned Highmaster Rugoheras.

"Just that Eben was right to be scared." Grunted Keira.

"What?" Queried Highmaster Rugoheras.

That was all he had time to say, however, before the Magic took hold, and as Highmaster Rugoheras' foot stepped on the blood spatter, he suddenly cried out in pain as his right leg burned away, withering to a shriveled husk of itself. Highmaster Rugoheras fell to the ground, suddenly no longer able to support his own weight, as, with an effort of will, Keira stood up, summoning her Whalebone Blade to plunge into Highmaster Rugoheras' eye, killing him with the short, forearm-length, magical blade. As Highmaster Rugoheras fell dead to the stone of the Pax Tharkas Battlements, Keira scooped up her Vorpal Sword from where it had fallen and turned to face Eben Shatterstone.

"How are you doing this? I know I ran you through! No one could survive that, so how did you?" Asked Eben Shatterstone, frantically.

"You should have aimed for the head." Sneered Keira.

"Damn you, I will not die here like this!" Snarled Eben Shatterstone as he charged at Keira, blade whirling for her neck.

Keira simply Blinked away from the attack, reappearing behind Eben Shatterstone and reaching out with her off-hand to use the ability she had gained to Pull him toward her using Dishonored Magic. Taken off guard from behind, Eben Shatterstone couldn't get his shield or blade in position to parry as Keira ran him through in the same way that he had previously done to her. Turnabout was fair play, after all, only Eben Shatterstone didn't have a healing factor like she did. He wouldn't be able to survive this, but just to make sure, Keira twisted her Vorpal sword while it was inside Eben Shatterstone's torso, widening the wound and cutting into his liver at the same time.

As she removed her Vorpal Sword, Eben Shatterstone sank to the stone of the Pax Tharkas Battlements, dying within moments of hitting the masonry. Keira collected her Whalebone Blade from the corpse of Highmaster Rugoheras, sending it back to the Darkhold with a bit of focus, a touch of mystic power, and an effort of will. Then she looked out at the battle to see how things were faring. By now, the second of the three Dragons was dead, burned to a crisp and beaten to a pulp by Kashu and the Mummified Servitor she had made of Ember. The last of the Red Dragons was about to go down as well, and up in the East Tower, Keira saw a flash of light as the Spectre of Verminaard finally managed to slay Flight Marshal Solon, the Red Dragonarmy Officer's withered corpse falling out of the tower to plummet to the ground below.

Victory was at hand, but that didn't mean that Keira shouldn't speed things along. She summoned mystical power to her and stretched her left arm out. A barrage of crackling bolts of mystical energy cascaded down into the ranks of a company of Dragonmen that were being pressed at the front by a line of Dwarven Warriors, scything down the rear ranks and causing explosions and acid to scythe through the middle ranks. That company's force collapsed shortly afterward, and the Dwarven Warriors turned to strike the flank of the main body of Human Mercenaries that was pressing against the Main Force of the Counterattack.

From there, the enemy line was rolled up like a carpet, and the Battle turned into a rout. The Liberation of Pax Tharkas was completed only some thirty minutes after the deaths of Eben Shatterstone and Highmaster Rugoheras. Keira wouldn't be around to see it, though, as she would be forced to return to the Darkhold to craft a Health Elixir to finish off healing herself back to top form. When she emerged again, Keira would be in an entirely new World. No longer stuck in a High Fantasy Bullshit World, she found herself on a space station made out of a hollowed-out asteroid in the middle of some sort of nebula or something. She quickly returned to the Darkhold to change into a more modern outfit.

When she emerged, however, she came face to face with something she recognized, though only because of Old Reruns on TV-Three back when she was a kid. The ridged forehead, weird facial hair, and pointed teeth were sort of a dead giveaway. Keira was face to face with a Klingon, though this one was dressed weirdly in what looked like some kind of Civilian Clothes, if the weird mix of high-tech alloy and leather could even be called that. From what Keira could remember, though, a Klingon wouldn't normally be dressed like that if this were a Klingon Station. He'd be in the standard Klingon Uniform.

She could figure it out later, though, right now, she was just glad that she was in a universe she recognized and could actually engage with instead of something she'd never even heard of before. Of course, that also ran the risk of being snapped out of the Universe by the Q, but Keira was pretty sure that if that happened, it would just be as part of sending her off on her next jump. She didn't think that Whiro would let his shot at winning this little game that the Gods were playing be ruined by the Q, after all. You never knew, though. Whiro was the God of Evil, after all.

However, as the Klingon began to demand to know who she was and why she was here, Keira returned her focus to the present instead of worrying about potential Q Shenanigans. Maybe, if she played this right, she could get a bit of information as to where and when she'd wound up.

And with that in mind, she began to pay attention and answer the Klingon accordingly. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next interlude as we see how Keira made out in Dragonlance. Turns out, she was pretty much able to sleepwalk through the setting thanks to snowballing early. Those of you who know the setting may recognize Highmaster Rugoheras as the future Highlord of the Red Dragonarmy, who kept the Red Dragonarmy together in the aftermath of the defeat at Neraka that ended the War of the Lance. With him dead, the Red Dragonarmy is going to be almost impossible to reconstitute. That, plus retaking Pax Tharkas, which didn't actually happen until peace was signed in the original timeline, plus screwing up Verminaard's plots with the Daergar Kingdom in Thorbardin prematurely was effectively enough to earn Keira her next jump.

Fortunately, she was actually sort of a closeted Sci-Fi nerd back when she was a kid, so she knows about Star Trek. Of course, the reason for her running into a Klingon out of Uniform is that this particular Klingon isn't a member of the KDF, but of the Maquis. Sent by Gowron to liaise with the Maquis in the Badlands in advance of the Klingon Invasion of Cardassia during season four of Deep Space Nine. That's where Keira found herself, with the Maquis in the Badlands.

At any rate, the next chapter will be an interlude with Eric Dahl as we see what he's been doing in Warhammer Fantasy just before the MC Jumps in. Then I'll have updated character sheets for everyone before returning to the MC's POV.

Stay tuned. . .