Till Undeath Do Us Part

What remains of the forward team stands in what looks to be a master bedroom to a relatively large house. The room itself is fairly spacious, with what looked to be a fully fledged bathroom, closet, and even a small study. In the middle of the room rests a king sized bed, with a night stand to the left of it. The nightstand sports a picture frame with a picture of what looked to be a married couple on their honeymoon. The bed, sports the bride of said photo, only a few decades older, and much less lively than in the photo. As Nar approaches the woman in the bed, the team's wizard takes note of a tome resting on the desk in the study. He goes to pick it up, but a sharp pain in his hand causes him to pull away. So, the tome is magical. The wizard turns to his teammates, who are now gathering near the bed. "There's a tome here. Give me a few minutes, and I'll be able to identify exactly what it's purpose is." The rest of the team acknowledges, and the wizard begins to prepare the components to cast 'Identify.' "I... Who are you?" The mare in the bed groggily questions, as she tries to sit up with some difficulty. "Hey, take it easy. We're explorers from the Equestrian Society of Extraplanar Exploration. Are you okay? Do you know where you are?" The mare blinks a few times, but only gives one word in response. "Arcana." Nar opens his mouth to respond, but the sound of the door to the room slamming open stops him. "Get your hands off of her!" A figure in the doorway booms, followed by a bolt of arcane energy slamming into the paladin's shield. Nar's eyes go wide. It's the litch. No other words are exchanged. Nar removes a two handed axe from his back, the gunslinger trains his repeater on the litch, and the paladin infuses a smite into his hammer. "You! You are the one who has slain our comrades, and started all this! You will PAY for your deeds!" The paladin roars as he steps forward. Another blast from the litch strikes the paladin's shield, but the shield's emblem blazes bright, and dispels the blast. Nar begins to circle around, attempting to flank the litch. The litch fires another blast, this time towards Nar, forcing him back. The gunslinger fires two shots at the litches head. One is dissolved by some sort of necrotic field, but the second finds its mark. The litches head jerks back momentarily, but quickly snaps back as he grumbles, and begins the somatic components for a spell. As the fight continues, the wizard manages to cast identify on the tome in the study. To his horror, he finds that the tome MUST be the litches. The necrotic energy radiating from it is intense, and every time the litch uses a spell, the tome pulses with energy. He must destroy it. Quickly. The litches attention snaps to the wizard. A gout of flame emits from the wizard's hand as he attempts to set the tome alight. "The tome must be destroyed!" The wizard calls to his teammates. The paladin moves to attempt to shield him, but the litch is quicker. He points to the wizard, and speaks in a loud, clear voice. "I command you. Die." Then, without warning, the flames in the wizard's hand dissipate, and he collapses to the floor, completely unresponsive. Another shot from the gunslinger slams into the litches skull. The paladin roars in fury as he begins to charge the litch, a blind rage guiding his body. "By the light of the princess! I will END YOU!" Seeing an opportunity, Nar quickly dashes behind the paladin, and hefts his axe. The litch attempts to cash shield, but he's not quick enough, and a flash of radiant energy slams into his body as the paladin's hammer comes thundering down on him. He grunts, and manages to grab the paladin's head. The paladin begins to roar again, but he's cut short as the litch casts 'Disintegrate' at point blank. The paladin's body simply turns to dust inside his armor, causing it to clatter to the ground. The litch then turns, just as Nar's axe comes down on the necrotic tome. His eye then snaps towards the woman in the bed, as the necrotic energy from his tome is is released into the room, and quickly dissipates. The litch lets out a desperate scream. "Arcana!" Beside the bed, the gunslinger hears the woman exhale her final words. "Please. Stop Jonathan." As the litch begins to fire off a barrage of spells at Nar, who barely manages to avoid the lethal ones, the gunslinger removes both of his revolvers, and trains them on the litch. In the span of about 2 seconds, the gunslinger unloads all 12 rounds from his revolvers into the litch. The litch sprawls onto the ground, and begins to lift his hand, in an attempt to cast a spell at the gunslinger. With a swift motion, Nar's axe severs the litches head from his body, and his hand falls to the floor. The spell within it fizzling out. The litches head rolls over to the gunslinger, and his one eye stares up at him with contempt. With a forceful stomp, the gunslinger crushes the litches skull. With the destruction of the litches tome, and smashing of his skull, Operation Scalpel had been successful. But with all the lives lost, was it really worth it in the end? The two survivors would just have to see when the finally made it back out of the AHS.