Ash knows that as a half-elf, Ryparin has darkvision, but his training accounts for that. So Ash does not rely on the cover of darkness for his stealth. He relies on cover. He stands thin behind a tree; he crouches behind a barrel; he lies behind a log. And he moves continually to frustrate Ryparin’s efforts to find him by smell. But in the end Ryparin wins that battle by stepping angrily towards Nyneve’s prone body, grabbing her roughly by the hair and lifting her face so he can punch it with his iron-mailed gauntlet.
“Okay, okay,” Ash says, choosing to be seen before the punch is thrown. “You win. I’m here.”
The creature that controls Ryparin snorts derisively at Ash’s weakness. The demonic face keeps biting at Ash and gives him a hateful stare. Eventually, through internal struggle visible in his eyes, Ryparin releases Nyneve’s hair and her head thumps to the ground.
“What do you want?” Ash asks the creature evenly, focusing on it instead of Ryparin.
The demon head chatters its teeth and keeps repeating “What do you want? What do you want?” like some undead parrot.
Seeing an opening, Ash’s sword suddenly flashes from its scabbard and races out to cut the bloody tendril that attaches the demon’s head to Ryparin’s torso. Unfortunately, a black beam shoots from Ryparin’s hand and arc’s towards the metal sword. Ash receives a terribly painful shock and has to use his intense monk’s focus to force himself to drop the sword that has become the conduit for his electrocution.
The demon laughs at Ash. A throaty bully’s laugh.
The laugh triggers in Ash an unwelcome memory of his time in captivity, and a particular tormentor’s sadistic delight in Ash’s pain. But instead of losing focus, Ash becomes more centered. It is from this pain he learned to find stillness. From this place of stillness he unleashes his first flurry of blows.
Ryparin is taken aback by the sudden violence and its rude interruption of his gloating. He takes a few blows to the chest and legs but then summons a vampiric energy that snakes into Ash when Ash hits his face. The dark energy leeches into Ash and sets his nerves on fire. The monk writhes in pain and is surprised to hear himself yelling for someone to put out the fire he feels.
When Ash regains himself, Ryparin has left him for dead and has resumed dragging Nyneve by her hair to the entrance to the underground tunnels – to the Keep on the Shadowfell.
Ash centers himself again. He is frustrated at this demon’s endless tricks and dirty magics. He takes a deep breath and tries to build his chi energy. In doing so, he finds himself in a brief dreamlike state. He is back in the training pit with his master. He begs his master to help him but his master says he cannot help a dwarf become a slayer of demons. Ash begs again but his master says he cannot help a dwarf become a hero. Ash, in desperation, yells at his master “I am not becoming anything! This isn’t about me!”
“Then why take the risk?” The old elf asks.
Ash stumbles for an answer. “Some fights can’t be avoided,” he eventually answers.
“You do not know this girl,” his master says, waving his hand dismissively. “The people we do not know do not matter.”
Ash shakes his head, disagreeing entirely.
His master smiles the old smile that Ash recognizes as having passed a test. Ash would later mediate a long time on this late additional lesson from his old master and wonder why in the moment he so disagreed.
In the meantime, Ash returns to the material world in just enough time to make one more stand against the demon infecting Ryparin. The monk charges from behind and begins with a Leaping Mantis attack. This is followed by Whirlwind of Razors, Raining Hammers and then Pillsbury Gut Punch. Ryparin recovers relatively quickly from the viscous assault, but it separates him from Nyneve long enough for Ash to be able to grab her and race off with her, carrying her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Ryparin roars with anger. “Alandra de Winter lied to me! I gave everything to her and she betrayed me!” Bolts of dark energy shoot at Ash but miss.
“I got hurt. Captured. They made me sick. But after Meat Grinder Rock she could not heal me. She never kept her promise to me!!!”
In a rage, Ryparin unleashes a Bomb of Hate spell. The blast impacts Ash and Nyneve brutally and launches them through the air. However, the distance between Nyneve and Ryparin dispels the effect that kept Ash’s companions from finding him.
Suddenly Kildrak, Janaar, Grim, Valaria and Zymaan appear, ready to fight.
“I’ll show her,” Ryparin yells. “I’m going to open the door she sealed so long ago and let them come up.”
With that, he chants a spell and stomps the ground. An acidic cloud suddenly blankets the area and he uses the cover to disappear down into the Keep on the Shadowfell.