Jon Potter
First Post
[Realms #504] No Way Out
Morier sagged in the spell's grip, the hopeless weight of despair finding a home on his heart.
"But who to sample first, eh Morier?" the goddess asked, eying Ledare and Maleko as if they were entrees on a buffet. "The elf intrigues me; as I said he's a bit of an unknown in all this. But I think it'll have to be Ledare. Sweet, sweet Ledare. So like the one that my Death Knight killed." She sighed and then turned back to Morier, a smile on her lips. "He almost killed you too, you know. If Karak had healed her instead of you... Well let's just say that things would have turned out differently."
Maleko and Ledare watched the silent exchange without understanding. Ledare struggled impotently against the force that held her pinned, but her sword seemed useless. If she'd had Ravager, she mused, then maybe she could accomplish something. But she didn't have Ravager and even if she did there was no guarantee that she'd be able to do anything differently. But she couldn't give up. She'd never quite forgiven herself for giving up on getting the Keys, and she wasn't about to surrender again while there was fight left in her.
Maleko glanced down at his hand where the Elcadian silver crown winked, the anchor for his Silence spell. Then he looked up at the woman's back, noticing for the first time that what he had taken for a leather cloak draped over her shoulders was actually a pair of neatly-folded, bat-like wings. Judging the distance as well as he could, he tossed the coin, hoping that it would land near her feet. His aim was extremely poor, however and the coin fell mid-way between them and to her right. It landed on its edge, bounced once and then spiraled to a stop, still close enough that both he and Ledare were still Silenced.
The goddess turned, her unearthly visage twisting with indescribable rage and they saw her as Morier had briefly glimpsed her earlier. Her face hung with the mold-blackened flesh of a corpse, fresh from a wet grave. Squirming maggots spilled from her gaping mouth in a hideous shower as she bellowed silently at them. And her eyes... her eyes were gone, replaced by two dark sockets within which worms writhed. Insects fat and dark and disgusting crawled across her flesh and swarmed about her in a cloud. The smell was most unpleasant.
Both Ledare and Maleko screamed like children though no one could hear them. But their mind-blasting terror was so complete that even if someone had been able, neither would have cared. They felt a wash of disorienting madness come upon them as their spiritually-limited mortal minds tried unsuccessfully to encompass the manifold emanations given off by the angry goddess. Their souls shrank away from the assault, seeking an escape that their bodies were denied by the spell that held them. [1]
Morier took the opportunity, while Aphyx was distracted, to make one last attempt at breaking free. He strained against her magical might, but it was impossible; her spell's grip was just too strong.
And then she turned, her eyes searching the ground for the coin. Finding it, she used her power to hurl it away. Sound returned and with it came the goddess' composure. She sighed, her face once more beautiful as she regarded the eldritch warrior.
"I think I've changed my mind," she said. "I'm going to drink the elf first. It'll be more fun to watch both you and Ledare lose another friend to this foolish crusade of yours. Unless, of course, you want to end it all right now and give me the Heart."
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[1] That's Energy Drain to you and me. Five levels of Energy Drain actually.
Morier sagged in the spell's grip, the hopeless weight of despair finding a home on his heart.
"But who to sample first, eh Morier?" the goddess asked, eying Ledare and Maleko as if they were entrees on a buffet. "The elf intrigues me; as I said he's a bit of an unknown in all this. But I think it'll have to be Ledare. Sweet, sweet Ledare. So like the one that my Death Knight killed." She sighed and then turned back to Morier, a smile on her lips. "He almost killed you too, you know. If Karak had healed her instead of you... Well let's just say that things would have turned out differently."
Maleko and Ledare watched the silent exchange without understanding. Ledare struggled impotently against the force that held her pinned, but her sword seemed useless. If she'd had Ravager, she mused, then maybe she could accomplish something. But she didn't have Ravager and even if she did there was no guarantee that she'd be able to do anything differently. But she couldn't give up. She'd never quite forgiven herself for giving up on getting the Keys, and she wasn't about to surrender again while there was fight left in her.
Maleko glanced down at his hand where the Elcadian silver crown winked, the anchor for his Silence spell. Then he looked up at the woman's back, noticing for the first time that what he had taken for a leather cloak draped over her shoulders was actually a pair of neatly-folded, bat-like wings. Judging the distance as well as he could, he tossed the coin, hoping that it would land near her feet. His aim was extremely poor, however and the coin fell mid-way between them and to her right. It landed on its edge, bounced once and then spiraled to a stop, still close enough that both he and Ledare were still Silenced.
The goddess turned, her unearthly visage twisting with indescribable rage and they saw her as Morier had briefly glimpsed her earlier. Her face hung with the mold-blackened flesh of a corpse, fresh from a wet grave. Squirming maggots spilled from her gaping mouth in a hideous shower as she bellowed silently at them. And her eyes... her eyes were gone, replaced by two dark sockets within which worms writhed. Insects fat and dark and disgusting crawled across her flesh and swarmed about her in a cloud. The smell was most unpleasant.
Both Ledare and Maleko screamed like children though no one could hear them. But their mind-blasting terror was so complete that even if someone had been able, neither would have cared. They felt a wash of disorienting madness come upon them as their spiritually-limited mortal minds tried unsuccessfully to encompass the manifold emanations given off by the angry goddess. Their souls shrank away from the assault, seeking an escape that their bodies were denied by the spell that held them. [1]
Morier took the opportunity, while Aphyx was distracted, to make one last attempt at breaking free. He strained against her magical might, but it was impossible; her spell's grip was just too strong.
And then she turned, her eyes searching the ground for the coin. Finding it, she used her power to hurl it away. Sound returned and with it came the goddess' composure. She sighed, her face once more beautiful as she regarded the eldritch warrior.
"I think I've changed my mind," she said. "I'm going to drink the elf first. It'll be more fun to watch both you and Ledare lose another friend to this foolish crusade of yours. Unless, of course, you want to end it all right now and give me the Heart."
---------------------------
[1] That's Energy Drain to you and me. Five levels of Energy Drain actually.