(Bunnying of the NPC approved by partner)

The shadow slipped through the darkness entirely undetected. Stragglers in the cave, servants of the priesthood, died before a sound could leave their lips as hand and tail wrapped around their throats and squeezed the life out of them like sweet juice from a ripe fruit. As it did, skin and sinew reconstituted and regenerated. No longer a skeleton with bits of flesh hanging off, the dracolich approached the entrance to the cave system with a far heavier crunch of ice and rock beneath his feet.

"-delivering you to the blood circle tortured!" echoed down the corridor toward the monster. It stopped a moment, webbed ears cocked to the area the voice came from. There did not appear to be a single person left alive down her besides the source of the noise, so it decided to take a few steps toward the voice. In the shadows it waited, footsteps lighter than a leaf on the wind as it stalked its prey.

The guide, a rather large human male the creature had seen before on several occasions during its run with the Cult, stood above a young woman, no more than eighteen or so by the look of it, and had a mean looking dagger ready to tear into her flesh as vengeance for whatever she had done to throw off his plans.

Quite the shame for him that he was related to the Cult, though, the creature thought as it stepped out silently from the shadows and stood quietly behind the man. The human brought the dagger up and as he was about to bring it down upon the young girl, the clouded skies above cleared and moonlight poured into the cave, illuminating the entire area.

Except for the exact spot the man was standing. He was overshadowed by a much larger creature than himself. The knife slipped from his fingers as a bony tail slipped from around the former Paladin of N'Jal and wrapped around his neck. An outstretched hand caught the dagger before it fell to harm the girl.

"Ah, Maltris... still up to your old tricks, I see... Playing the helpful guide to bring the innocent to your precious sacrificial altars," the creature hissed as it took the blade and drew a line in the human's back, slicing through the thick leathers like wet paper. Blood seeped through the wet leathers and began to pool on the floor.

Wide eyed terror combined with pain was clearly visible on the pathetic creature's face, but that was of little consequence to the nearly demonic entity that the Cult had finally allowed free from his prison. No, the important thing was something far more.

The monster dropped the dagger in his hand and brought his palm up to grip the face of the human with a smile full of twisted glee. As the human struggled to breathe around the crushing of his windpipe and the palm blocking his nose, his pitiful cries grew weaker and weaker as his body became increasingly emaciated, the effects of years of starvation settling in all at once. His skin turned ashen and pale and wrinkled as though he'd put on a century of life in mere seconds.

"None of you will ever rejoin Her... No, instead you'll fuel me as I rip your little cult apart piece by painful piece," the dracolich said as the last signs of life left the body of the human. He tossed the useless body aside and walked up to the wall of the cave that the girl and her guide had fallen into. There was likely another way out, but the newly minted undead wasn't really in the mood to search an empty cave system for an easier way out.

The girl behind him was still breathing however, and had done nothing to deserve being here. He turned toward her with a somewhat conflicted conscience. He could just leave her here to die, but something told him that she could actually be useful, were her magical talents good enough to warrant becoming a sacrifice.

"You there, get up," Drago growled.