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JollyDoc's Serpent's Skull-updated 11/6/2011
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<blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 5702073" data-attributes="member: 9546"><p><strong>Demons and Necromancers and Fairies, Oh My!</strong></p><p></p><p>Two days after their encounter with the Mzali, the Bastards entered the Screaming Jungle. The jungle was so named for the hundreds of species of monkeys that lived within its lush canopy, creating an incessant cacophony. Because of the hazards of navigating the rocky falls and treacherous shallows of the Korir River, the companions continued following the river along its banks. Within a mile of entering the jungle, the terrain became dense forest, and the trek became a slog. Heavy rain would appear out of nowhere, and end just as suddenly, leaving behind a thick mist that hovered waist high from the jungle floor. At one point, the river broadened, and at the center of its widest point, a herd of hippos wallowed and grazed. Nkechi warned the companions of the danger the creatures posed if roused, so they gave the animals a wide berth. Suddenly, however, a trio of reptilian humanoids leaped from the underbrush on the far side of the river and began hurling javelins at the hippos. The animals began to panic, and rushed towards the Bastards, led by a large bull male. Arioch quickly summoned a large aurochs in its path, and Agnar ordered the lumbering skeletal chemosit forward as well. Though the bull hippo savaged the aurochs viciously, its charge was halted long enough for Nessalin to rush in and slash with his scimitar, the blade coruscating with electricity. As it struck, the hippo simply vanished as a rift in space opened beneath it. Nessalin blinked in astonishment. It was obvious to everyone looking on that he’d not expected that result. When the others looked across the river, Nessalin’s display had apparently impressed the lizardfolk as well, for they were nowhere to be seen.</p><p></p><p>Several days later, the group came to a place where the trees grew broader, and their gnarled branches rose to a tangled canopy that blotted out the sun. Digging into their roots, giant, parasitic corpse-flowers blossomed across the forest floor. Littering the banks of the river were several humanoid corpses, their armor and bodies ripped apart as is by large claws. </p><p>“These were Shackles men,” Jack said as he squatted to examine the bodies. “They’re wearing my father’s colors.” He looked around, his face pale. “Aerys isn’t here,” he breathed.</p><p>Suddenly, a series of loud slams and crashing noises echoed through the jungle, sending small monkeys in the treetops screaming in all directions. Then, a hulking form leaped from the trees, landing heavily on the ground on all-fours. It was an ape, but more massive than any the Bastards had ever seen or heard of. It towered nearly ten-feet when it rose to its full height, and wicked-looking bony protrusions jutted from beneath the fur of its arms and back. It roared and beat its chest, and then dropped to all-fours again and charged.</p><p></p><p>Arioch was just a second faster, and he opened a portal directly in front of the beast. From out of it lunged a crocodile spawned from the Hells themselves. Horns grew from its brow, and its eyes glowed like flames. It hissed and ran forward to meet the oncoming demon-ape, but as they closed, the ape swatted the croc aside with one massive paw. Abruptly, the ape paused, cocking its head as it stared at the companions. Then it almost seemed to grin, and for just a moment, there might have been more than a hint of intelligence in its piggish eyes. The Bastards felt fear wash over them, twisting their bowels as they saw their doom in the creature’s gaze. Without warning, Lyrissa threw down her sword and fled screaming into the underbrush. A moment later, Nessalin and Zavasta followed her, closely tailed by Arioch’s wounded crocodile.</p><p></p><p>“This isn’t good!” Jack shouted, just as the ape lunged for him. </p><p>Its claws ripped through his leathers, and as he spun with the blow, the beast sank its teeth into his outstretched arm. Jack screamed, but let his momentum continue to carry him around behind the ape. As it turned towards him, he sank his rapier deep into its flank, and then slashed across its throat with the sabre in his other hand. The ape’s eyes went wide in shock as blood spewed from its neck in a great fountain. It groaned as it sank to the ground, heaved one last breath, and then was still.</p><p>“Well that wasn’t so hard,” Jack smirked. “I guess we need to go round up those pansies.”</p><p>“Behind you!” Agnar suddenly shouted.</p><p>Jack turned, and what he saw horrified him. A black mist rose from the mouth, nose and eyes of the dead ape. As it floated in the air above the carcass, it coalesced into a bipedal, reptilian body, with sharp horns upon its brow, and bat-like wings sprouting from its back. Its eyes glowed like twin coals, and its smoky form was semi-translucent.</p><p>“It’s a shadow demon!” Agnar cried. “Get away from it!”</p><p>The priest spat out a guttural prayer, and a muffled explosion of sound erupted around the fiend. Its body billowed slightly within the burst, but quickly stabilized. Gorak leaped towards it, and brought his greatsword down upon its hand, separating one of its fingers from it and sending it drifting away in a wispy tendril. The demon snarled and hissed…and then just disappeared, swallowed up in the shadowy gloom beneath the trees.</p><p></p><p>“Where did it go?” Arioch asked, his head whipping from side to side. “Does anyone see it?”</p><p>“Look out!” Nkechi warned, but it was too late.</p><p>Another crocodile had emerged from the river, just as big and fearsome-looking as the one Arioch had conjured. It seized the summoner’s leg in its jaws and began to shake him. As its teeth clamped down, however, Arioch realized something…the creature wasn’t wholly real. He could almost see through its hide.</p><p>“Shadow-spawn!” he scoffed, and as the truth of the croc’s nature came to him, he saw that the terrible mauling he thought he’d taken was mostly in his mind as well.</p><p>“I’ll show you a true summoning!” he cried, and at his command, four stony elementals erupted from the ground. </p><p>One of them smashed its fist into the crocodile, causing it to vanish in a puff of shadow-stuff. Suddenly, a ball of black fire exploded among the remaining companions, scattering them like chaff in the wind. Three of the elementals were simply snuffed out of existence, and when the smoke cleared, Arioch lay unconscious, his robes a smoldering ruin.</p><p></p><p>“Ok, I think I’ve seen enough,” Agnar said as he ran towards his zombified geir, and leaped to its back. </p><p>At his urging, the ungainly bird flapped into the air, but not before the priest sent a lance of dark energy at the shadow demon, which had reappeared in the wake of the fire ball, silently praying it would buy him time to make his escape. What it did succeed in doing was distracting the demon as it was preparing to cast another spell. Gorak took the opportunity to slam his sword down upon the fiend again, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from completing its casting. A sizzling bolt of black electricity arced through the air and struck both Agnar and his undead mount. Agnar swayed in the saddle, in danger of tumbling to the ground. The demon prepared to cast again, but as it did so, Jack leaped towards it.</p><p>“Aha!” he screamed.</p><p>To Gorak, the rogue appeared to move in slow motion. He was a sight to see, his feet momentarily leaving the ground, his saw-toothed saber slashing around in a smooth arc, sunlight gleaming upon the blade. The saber struck the shadow-demon’s neck, and continued straight through, lifting the fiend’s head from its shoulders. Without a sound, the demon simply dissolved into nothingness. </p><p> ___________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p>Nessalin, Lyrissa and Zavasta returned in time, shame-faced and chagrined. Arioch revived under Nkechi’s ministrations, and all was right with the world again…at least until the next stop along the trail. Several days later, Gorak stopped them at a point along the river. He knelt to examine several snapped saplings and torn brush.</p><p>“Something big go this way,” he said. “Not long.”</p><p>The big barbarian started down the trail, his companions behind him. Soon enough he came upon two sets of tracks, one of a barefoot humanoid, and the other of a large, clawed humanoid with a stride twice as long as that of a human. The trail led deeper into the jungle to a small clearing where a boar carcass lay splayed open on a boab tree, its entrails laid out before it. </p><p>“Exstispicy,” Agnar observed with interest. “The art of determining the future by studying an animal’s entrails. Primitive, but surprisingly accurate.”</p><p>At the edge of the clearing sat a small gravesite surrounded by anthills, with a gaping hole in the side of the cairn that marked where the tomb was breached. As the Bastards watched, a hulking creature stooped to exit the cairn. It was a troll, or at least it had been when it was still alive. The great chunks of flesh missing from its body, exposing bone and rotting sinew beneath, were clear evidence that it had long ago shuffled off the mortal coil. Exiting the tomb behind the zombie came a Mwangi man. His wiry frame was covered in dry ash, giving his skin a pale white crust. He wore an oversized darkwood mask carved to resemble a tusked frog-demon, and macabre fetishes made from severed human hands dangled from a thong around his waist. He carried a glowing spear in his hand, and when he saw the trespassers, he used it to motion the undead troll forward.</p><p></p><p>“Two can play at that game, my savage friend!” Agnar grinned as he commanded the skeletal chemosit to move.</p><p>Before the two lumbering behemoths could clash, Zavasta hurled a bomb at the troll, covering its putrid flesh in acid. Gorak dashed past the chemosit, but as he closed, the troll lashed out one lanky arm, its talons raking deep tracks in the barbarian’s flesh. Then the chemosit was upon it, and the two walking corpses grappled like titans. At that moment, Arioch noticed the Mwangi necromancer preparing to cast. The summoner decided to pull a new trick from his arsenal. From nothing, he created a pit beneath the wizard’s feet, and the man plunged silently into it. He never even screamed. </p><p></p><p>Nessalin darted behind the troll while it was occupied with the chemosit. He channeled energy into his scimitar, setting it ablaze with electricity, and then he plunged it into the zombie’s back. The power coursed through the creature, frying everything inside. The smoking husk collapsed to the ground in a pile of ash. Lyrissa dashed to the edge of the pit and glanced down. To her shock, the necromancer was hovering just a few feet below the lip, suspended in mid-air. The bardess began a piercing song, and as she sang, she wove magic into her voice. The necromancer grunted and clawed at his eyes, only to realize that the mask was blocking his access. Blind, he flew upwards, weaving erratically, and heading generally towards the jungle canopy.</p><p>“Not so fast!” Agnar laughed.</p><p>He leaped atop his zombified vulture, and at his command, the bird leaped after the wizard. With several strong strokes of its wings, it closed the distance, and Agnar reached out a hand glowing with dark energy towards the man. As his fingers touched the necromancer’s skin, the Mwangi went abruptly rigid, paralyzed as if touched by a ghoul. Agnar chuckled as the geir proceeded to devour the wizard while he still lived. By then, his paralyzed throat was incapable of screaming.</p><p>____________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p>“A tomb robber,” Nkechi said in disgust. “This was obviously the resting place of a local hero. The war mask is considered sacred and personal, often handed down to the next generation when a wearer dies. This warrior must have been mighty indeed to be allowed to carry it with him to the next life.”</p><p>The old priest’s voice was tense with anger and indignation as he sat by the campfire. Arioch, Nessalin and Jack had already bedded down for the night.</p><p>“Well I hope you don’t mind my hanging on to it for awhile,” Lyrissa replied. “It seemed a shame to just leave it there after the tomb had already been despoiled.” </p><p>Nkechi looked as if he had something sharp to say, but Zavasta held up a hand.</p><p>“Hush,” he said. “Did you hear that?”</p><p>“I didn’t hear anything,” Lyrissa said.</p><p>Gorak shook his head as well.</p><p>“No, he’s right,” Agnar said. “I hear it to. A bell?”</p><p>“Yeah…a bell,” Zavasta nodded, his voice distracted as he rose to his feet. “I need to go find it.”</p><p>“Wait! What?” Lyrissa asked in confusion. “Where are you going?”</p><p>“No, I think it’s over here,” Agnar said as he too got to his feet and began wandering towards the opposite side of the camp.</p><p>“Stop them!” Nkechi shouted. “There are Eloko in the jungle!”</p><p>Gorak rushed after Agnar just as the priest left the light of the campfire. The barbarian smashed his fist into the side of Agnar’s head, but the priest just kept walking, though somewhat erratically. </p><p></p><p>“Wake up!” Lyrissa shouted as she kicked at Arioch. “We’ve got trouble!”</p><p>“Huh?” the summoner asked, wiping sleep out of his eyes. “Where?”</p><p>Suddenly, a giant shape loomed up behind Lyrissa. The creature towered over her, and was completely hairless. Its teeth were filed to points, and its ears were tapered. Its body was painted in fearsome patterns, and its face bore a skull-like tattoo. It gripped a pole-arm forged from bamboo and bone, and as Lyrissa turned, it swung at her, slashing a deep gash across her face. She fell back, stumbled over Arioch and landed flat on her back, bleeding profusely. The creature stood above Arioch and raised its halberd again. The summoner lifted his hands, and a giant crocodile exploded out of the air, and clamped its jaws down on the giant’s neck. The croc bore the creature to the ground and began to roll about in the dirt with it, never letting go of its grip. Finally, the giant’s struggles stopped, and to Arioch’s amazement, it began to shrink until it was the size of a gnome, which the crocodile promptly swallowed in one gulp.</p><p></p><p>In the darkness of the jungle, a tall figure rose up out of the shadows in front of Agnar.</p><p>“Do you have the bell?” the priest asked, his speech slightly slurred by the concussion he’d suffered at Gorak’s hands.</p><p>In response, the giant raised the pole-arm in its hands and brought down in a vicious chop on Agnar’s shoulder, knocking him down with the force of the blow. </p><p>“What in the Hells!?” Agnar shouted, his mind struggling to grasp what was happening. “Where am I? Who are you?”</p><p>The creature didn’t answer, except to raise its weapon again. Before it could strike, however, Gorak slammed into it like a charging bull. The giant tried to bring its halberd to bear, but the quarters were too close. Gorak took a step back, and then swung his sword with all of his considerable might, disemboweling the creature with one blow. As it died, it shrank, leaving a being no larger than a child at the barbarian’s feet.</p><p></p><p>On the far side of the camp, Zavasta came face-to-face with his own bell-ringing, giant Eloko. It struck him as he came close, but unlike Agnar, the alchemist’s response as his confusion cleared was rage. He hurled a bomb into the giant’s face, and as it fell back in agony, he threw two more, dissolving the creature’s flesh as it shrank to diminutive size in death.</p><p></p><p>“The dangers are not going to get any easier,” Nkechi said as the companions regrouped at the camp site. “Those were Eloko. They are evil fey headhunters. They use trickery to lure their prey away alone where they can be taken more easily.”</p><p>“What else is out here that we need to know about?” Agnar snapped.</p><p>“Legion,” the priest answered cryptically. “Legion.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JollyDoc, post: 5702073, member: 9546"] [b]Demons and Necromancers and Fairies, Oh My![/b] Two days after their encounter with the Mzali, the Bastards entered the Screaming Jungle. The jungle was so named for the hundreds of species of monkeys that lived within its lush canopy, creating an incessant cacophony. Because of the hazards of navigating the rocky falls and treacherous shallows of the Korir River, the companions continued following the river along its banks. Within a mile of entering the jungle, the terrain became dense forest, and the trek became a slog. Heavy rain would appear out of nowhere, and end just as suddenly, leaving behind a thick mist that hovered waist high from the jungle floor. At one point, the river broadened, and at the center of its widest point, a herd of hippos wallowed and grazed. Nkechi warned the companions of the danger the creatures posed if roused, so they gave the animals a wide berth. Suddenly, however, a trio of reptilian humanoids leaped from the underbrush on the far side of the river and began hurling javelins at the hippos. The animals began to panic, and rushed towards the Bastards, led by a large bull male. Arioch quickly summoned a large aurochs in its path, and Agnar ordered the lumbering skeletal chemosit forward as well. Though the bull hippo savaged the aurochs viciously, its charge was halted long enough for Nessalin to rush in and slash with his scimitar, the blade coruscating with electricity. As it struck, the hippo simply vanished as a rift in space opened beneath it. Nessalin blinked in astonishment. It was obvious to everyone looking on that he’d not expected that result. When the others looked across the river, Nessalin’s display had apparently impressed the lizardfolk as well, for they were nowhere to be seen. Several days later, the group came to a place where the trees grew broader, and their gnarled branches rose to a tangled canopy that blotted out the sun. Digging into their roots, giant, parasitic corpse-flowers blossomed across the forest floor. Littering the banks of the river were several humanoid corpses, their armor and bodies ripped apart as is by large claws. “These were Shackles men,” Jack said as he squatted to examine the bodies. “They’re wearing my father’s colors.” He looked around, his face pale. “Aerys isn’t here,” he breathed. Suddenly, a series of loud slams and crashing noises echoed through the jungle, sending small monkeys in the treetops screaming in all directions. Then, a hulking form leaped from the trees, landing heavily on the ground on all-fours. It was an ape, but more massive than any the Bastards had ever seen or heard of. It towered nearly ten-feet when it rose to its full height, and wicked-looking bony protrusions jutted from beneath the fur of its arms and back. It roared and beat its chest, and then dropped to all-fours again and charged. Arioch was just a second faster, and he opened a portal directly in front of the beast. From out of it lunged a crocodile spawned from the Hells themselves. Horns grew from its brow, and its eyes glowed like flames. It hissed and ran forward to meet the oncoming demon-ape, but as they closed, the ape swatted the croc aside with one massive paw. Abruptly, the ape paused, cocking its head as it stared at the companions. Then it almost seemed to grin, and for just a moment, there might have been more than a hint of intelligence in its piggish eyes. The Bastards felt fear wash over them, twisting their bowels as they saw their doom in the creature’s gaze. Without warning, Lyrissa threw down her sword and fled screaming into the underbrush. A moment later, Nessalin and Zavasta followed her, closely tailed by Arioch’s wounded crocodile. “This isn’t good!” Jack shouted, just as the ape lunged for him. Its claws ripped through his leathers, and as he spun with the blow, the beast sank its teeth into his outstretched arm. Jack screamed, but let his momentum continue to carry him around behind the ape. As it turned towards him, he sank his rapier deep into its flank, and then slashed across its throat with the sabre in his other hand. The ape’s eyes went wide in shock as blood spewed from its neck in a great fountain. It groaned as it sank to the ground, heaved one last breath, and then was still. “Well that wasn’t so hard,” Jack smirked. “I guess we need to go round up those pansies.” “Behind you!” Agnar suddenly shouted. Jack turned, and what he saw horrified him. A black mist rose from the mouth, nose and eyes of the dead ape. As it floated in the air above the carcass, it coalesced into a bipedal, reptilian body, with sharp horns upon its brow, and bat-like wings sprouting from its back. Its eyes glowed like twin coals, and its smoky form was semi-translucent. “It’s a shadow demon!” Agnar cried. “Get away from it!” The priest spat out a guttural prayer, and a muffled explosion of sound erupted around the fiend. Its body billowed slightly within the burst, but quickly stabilized. Gorak leaped towards it, and brought his greatsword down upon its hand, separating one of its fingers from it and sending it drifting away in a wispy tendril. The demon snarled and hissed…and then just disappeared, swallowed up in the shadowy gloom beneath the trees. “Where did it go?” Arioch asked, his head whipping from side to side. “Does anyone see it?” “Look out!” Nkechi warned, but it was too late. Another crocodile had emerged from the river, just as big and fearsome-looking as the one Arioch had conjured. It seized the summoner’s leg in its jaws and began to shake him. As its teeth clamped down, however, Arioch realized something…the creature wasn’t wholly real. He could almost see through its hide. “Shadow-spawn!” he scoffed, and as the truth of the croc’s nature came to him, he saw that the terrible mauling he thought he’d taken was mostly in his mind as well. “I’ll show you a true summoning!” he cried, and at his command, four stony elementals erupted from the ground. One of them smashed its fist into the crocodile, causing it to vanish in a puff of shadow-stuff. Suddenly, a ball of black fire exploded among the remaining companions, scattering them like chaff in the wind. Three of the elementals were simply snuffed out of existence, and when the smoke cleared, Arioch lay unconscious, his robes a smoldering ruin. “Ok, I think I’ve seen enough,” Agnar said as he ran towards his zombified geir, and leaped to its back. At his urging, the ungainly bird flapped into the air, but not before the priest sent a lance of dark energy at the shadow demon, which had reappeared in the wake of the fire ball, silently praying it would buy him time to make his escape. What it did succeed in doing was distracting the demon as it was preparing to cast another spell. Gorak took the opportunity to slam his sword down upon the fiend again, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from completing its casting. A sizzling bolt of black electricity arced through the air and struck both Agnar and his undead mount. Agnar swayed in the saddle, in danger of tumbling to the ground. The demon prepared to cast again, but as it did so, Jack leaped towards it. “Aha!” he screamed. To Gorak, the rogue appeared to move in slow motion. He was a sight to see, his feet momentarily leaving the ground, his saw-toothed saber slashing around in a smooth arc, sunlight gleaming upon the blade. The saber struck the shadow-demon’s neck, and continued straight through, lifting the fiend’s head from its shoulders. Without a sound, the demon simply dissolved into nothingness. ___________________________________________________________ Nessalin, Lyrissa and Zavasta returned in time, shame-faced and chagrined. Arioch revived under Nkechi’s ministrations, and all was right with the world again…at least until the next stop along the trail. Several days later, Gorak stopped them at a point along the river. He knelt to examine several snapped saplings and torn brush. “Something big go this way,” he said. “Not long.” The big barbarian started down the trail, his companions behind him. Soon enough he came upon two sets of tracks, one of a barefoot humanoid, and the other of a large, clawed humanoid with a stride twice as long as that of a human. The trail led deeper into the jungle to a small clearing where a boar carcass lay splayed open on a boab tree, its entrails laid out before it. “Exstispicy,” Agnar observed with interest. “The art of determining the future by studying an animal’s entrails. Primitive, but surprisingly accurate.” At the edge of the clearing sat a small gravesite surrounded by anthills, with a gaping hole in the side of the cairn that marked where the tomb was breached. As the Bastards watched, a hulking creature stooped to exit the cairn. It was a troll, or at least it had been when it was still alive. The great chunks of flesh missing from its body, exposing bone and rotting sinew beneath, were clear evidence that it had long ago shuffled off the mortal coil. Exiting the tomb behind the zombie came a Mwangi man. His wiry frame was covered in dry ash, giving his skin a pale white crust. He wore an oversized darkwood mask carved to resemble a tusked frog-demon, and macabre fetishes made from severed human hands dangled from a thong around his waist. He carried a glowing spear in his hand, and when he saw the trespassers, he used it to motion the undead troll forward. “Two can play at that game, my savage friend!” Agnar grinned as he commanded the skeletal chemosit to move. Before the two lumbering behemoths could clash, Zavasta hurled a bomb at the troll, covering its putrid flesh in acid. Gorak dashed past the chemosit, but as he closed, the troll lashed out one lanky arm, its talons raking deep tracks in the barbarian’s flesh. Then the chemosit was upon it, and the two walking corpses grappled like titans. At that moment, Arioch noticed the Mwangi necromancer preparing to cast. The summoner decided to pull a new trick from his arsenal. From nothing, he created a pit beneath the wizard’s feet, and the man plunged silently into it. He never even screamed. Nessalin darted behind the troll while it was occupied with the chemosit. He channeled energy into his scimitar, setting it ablaze with electricity, and then he plunged it into the zombie’s back. The power coursed through the creature, frying everything inside. The smoking husk collapsed to the ground in a pile of ash. Lyrissa dashed to the edge of the pit and glanced down. To her shock, the necromancer was hovering just a few feet below the lip, suspended in mid-air. The bardess began a piercing song, and as she sang, she wove magic into her voice. The necromancer grunted and clawed at his eyes, only to realize that the mask was blocking his access. Blind, he flew upwards, weaving erratically, and heading generally towards the jungle canopy. “Not so fast!” Agnar laughed. He leaped atop his zombified vulture, and at his command, the bird leaped after the wizard. With several strong strokes of its wings, it closed the distance, and Agnar reached out a hand glowing with dark energy towards the man. As his fingers touched the necromancer’s skin, the Mwangi went abruptly rigid, paralyzed as if touched by a ghoul. Agnar chuckled as the geir proceeded to devour the wizard while he still lived. By then, his paralyzed throat was incapable of screaming. ____________________________________________________________ “A tomb robber,” Nkechi said in disgust. “This was obviously the resting place of a local hero. The war mask is considered sacred and personal, often handed down to the next generation when a wearer dies. This warrior must have been mighty indeed to be allowed to carry it with him to the next life.” The old priest’s voice was tense with anger and indignation as he sat by the campfire. Arioch, Nessalin and Jack had already bedded down for the night. “Well I hope you don’t mind my hanging on to it for awhile,” Lyrissa replied. “It seemed a shame to just leave it there after the tomb had already been despoiled.” Nkechi looked as if he had something sharp to say, but Zavasta held up a hand. “Hush,” he said. “Did you hear that?” “I didn’t hear anything,” Lyrissa said. Gorak shook his head as well. “No, he’s right,” Agnar said. “I hear it to. A bell?” “Yeah…a bell,” Zavasta nodded, his voice distracted as he rose to his feet. “I need to go find it.” “Wait! What?” Lyrissa asked in confusion. “Where are you going?” “No, I think it’s over here,” Agnar said as he too got to his feet and began wandering towards the opposite side of the camp. “Stop them!” Nkechi shouted. “There are Eloko in the jungle!” Gorak rushed after Agnar just as the priest left the light of the campfire. The barbarian smashed his fist into the side of Agnar’s head, but the priest just kept walking, though somewhat erratically. “Wake up!” Lyrissa shouted as she kicked at Arioch. “We’ve got trouble!” “Huh?” the summoner asked, wiping sleep out of his eyes. “Where?” Suddenly, a giant shape loomed up behind Lyrissa. The creature towered over her, and was completely hairless. Its teeth were filed to points, and its ears were tapered. Its body was painted in fearsome patterns, and its face bore a skull-like tattoo. It gripped a pole-arm forged from bamboo and bone, and as Lyrissa turned, it swung at her, slashing a deep gash across her face. She fell back, stumbled over Arioch and landed flat on her back, bleeding profusely. The creature stood above Arioch and raised its halberd again. The summoner lifted his hands, and a giant crocodile exploded out of the air, and clamped its jaws down on the giant’s neck. The croc bore the creature to the ground and began to roll about in the dirt with it, never letting go of its grip. Finally, the giant’s struggles stopped, and to Arioch’s amazement, it began to shrink until it was the size of a gnome, which the crocodile promptly swallowed in one gulp. In the darkness of the jungle, a tall figure rose up out of the shadows in front of Agnar. “Do you have the bell?” the priest asked, his speech slightly slurred by the concussion he’d suffered at Gorak’s hands. In response, the giant raised the pole-arm in its hands and brought down in a vicious chop on Agnar’s shoulder, knocking him down with the force of the blow. “What in the Hells!?” Agnar shouted, his mind struggling to grasp what was happening. “Where am I? Who are you?” The creature didn’t answer, except to raise its weapon again. Before it could strike, however, Gorak slammed into it like a charging bull. The giant tried to bring its halberd to bear, but the quarters were too close. Gorak took a step back, and then swung his sword with all of his considerable might, disemboweling the creature with one blow. As it died, it shrank, leaving a being no larger than a child at the barbarian’s feet. On the far side of the camp, Zavasta came face-to-face with his own bell-ringing, giant Eloko. It struck him as he came close, but unlike Agnar, the alchemist’s response as his confusion cleared was rage. He hurled a bomb into the giant’s face, and as it fell back in agony, he threw two more, dissolving the creature’s flesh as it shrank to diminutive size in death. “The dangers are not going to get any easier,” Nkechi said as the companions regrouped at the camp site. “Those were Eloko. They are evil fey headhunters. They use trickery to lure their prey away alone where they can be taken more easily.” “What else is out here that we need to know about?” Agnar snapped. “Legion,” the priest answered cryptically. “Legion.” [/QUOTE]
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JollyDoc's Serpent's Skull-updated 11/6/2011
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