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The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
The Adventures of the Knights of Spellforge Keep are now COMPLETED
- Thread starter Dr Midnight
- Start date
Neverwinter Knight
First Post
Hubba, hubba 
Neverwinter Knight
First Post
* lurk, lurk *
Oh, nothing here yet...
* bump *
Oh, nothing here yet...
* bump *
Dr Midnight
Explorer
The Knights flew up off of Gorgoldand, spreading out through the air. The dragon pumped his wings harder. Menerous and Kizzlorn cast a number of protective spells. Crow, Metus and Erasmus readied themselves… Erasmus drew his bow and nocked an arrow. Metus unsheathed his vorpal sword and Crow readied his new sword, the one he’d taken from the dog-faced Pelor follower. It was powerful, he felt- but he also felt that it did not want to work for him. “Your sun god has no power here, and you are a piece of steel. It is night in Crow’s world, and no god can stop me.” He felt the sword’s will to disobey weaken somewhat, and he gripped it readily. “Good. Now work for me, or I’ll throw you to Thuriaq as another thing to be eaten.”
The rushing of wind around Gorgoldand’s wings was like the tearing of a distant peal of thunder. The Tarrasque looked at him from his place amongst the ruined buildings and smoke, and roared. It raised its arms and clawed at the air, an invitation to fight. Its scream was a titanic bellow: deep, long and feral. Gorgoldand roared back, and it was the deep, keening, echoed cry of a king of dragons.
Gorgoldand smashed into Thuriaq and the two colossal beasts tumbled down amongst the smashed buildings, tearing at each other and screaming their hatred. The sound of their collision shook the air- everyone for miles around felt their chests tremble from the enormous boom.
Crow shot a red beam of burning light through the air towards Kizzlorn, who met it with a pale green beam of her own. The two wizards concentrated, each trying to push the other’s beam back. Kizzlorn’s face twisted as she maintained the effort. Crow pushed hard, and she barely had time to dodge as the beam won past hers and almost burned her. She flew around and readied for another attack. Edge, nearby, said “Keep him distracted!”
Erasmus began firing arrows at a blinding speed. Dartan and Broldek were flying straight for him. The arrows shattered in the air before their faces. A spell had given them a forward-facing invisible shield, it seemed. Not an uncommon practice against archers. “Can most archers do this, though?” Crow wondered aloud with a smile. He pulled a special arrow from his quiver and sent it flying. It flew far around the air, darting up and over them. It came down at Dartan, who spun in the air and cracked it from its flight with his sword.
Myramus and Menerous shouted prayers as they rocketed toward Captain Metus, the death knight. They overcame the waves of fear rolling off of him, and Menerous attempted to crush him with the holy might of Pelor. Metus’s armor crumpled briefly before the spell failed. The beast surprised them by flying towards them, meeting them in the air as they tried to cast. His vorpal sword cut the air beneath their chins as they staggered back. “Brother, we may have chosen the wrong opponent,” Menerous said. “We are not well-armed.” He pulled out his longsword, which was not as powerful as Metus’s, which would sever their heads easily, or Myramus’s, which was in Crow’s hand right now. He tried to meet Metus’s attacks.
“Brother,” Myramus replied. “We couldn’t have chosen a better opponent. He is undead.” The hound archon flew back and called down a blessing to turn Metus into dust. White light burned around the death knight, and he grunted in pain but kept fighting. The light glinted off the wickedly sharp edge of his sword.
Menerous was never much of a swordsman. He knew that if he kept at this, he could not last long. Metus, however, was quite skilled with his weapon. “DO think of something else, brother!”
On the ground, the Tarrasque and the gold dragon rolled to their feet and rose. They stood of the same height, on hind legs, several hundred feet tall. They towered over the high rooftops of the city of Greyhawk. The fires lit them from below, and they growled at each other, ready to fight. Thuriaq opened its mouth and blew out a line of fire so hot it was bright blue. It washed over Gorgoldand, who was immune to its heat. Gorgoldand responded by breathing a cloud of gas out over the thing. The Tarrasque roared. It wasn’t hurt by the poisonous cloud, but it was blinded. Gorgoldand lifted an abandoned building from the ground and brought it down over Thuriaq’s head with as much force as he could. The stone shattered and the building crumbled around the dread titan, who roared again and lashed out with its right claw, bashing the right side of Gorgoldand’s head.
Crow fired a volley of tiny, burning bees. They screamed en masse as they swarmed through the air toward Kizzlorn. Her hands leapt up as if to ward them off, but they cut into her, burning horribly. She cried out. “Such a delicious sound,” Crow laughed. “I enjoyed watching you break once. I’ll enjoy it again.”
Kizzlorn’s face darkened and she bared her teeth at the mention of her recent death, and how she’d begged him to end it. It was her worst moment. Enraged, she began casting. The air around her swelled and rippled with brightly twirling orange ribbons of light. They twirled geometrically and curled into a ball, that pulsed and grew. Crow furrowed his brow. What was this spell she was casting? He knew almost every powerful spell that ever had been, and this one was puzzling him. He watched in detached amusement, then shouted in pain when his back spasmed violently.
Edge had flown far around, circling behind him, while Kizzlorn held his attention. Kizzlorn’s spell vanished. It was something she’d learned in her first months of sorcery… a simple illusion. “You’ve been powerful too long, Crow,” she chuckled. “You’ve forgotten the roots of your stolen wizardry.”
Edge had plunged a small dagger into a cluster of nerves in Crow’s back, and now was punching and kicking violently. The wizard turned, and Starfire swooshed through the air. Edge ducked beneath it and flew back. “Vile creature,” Crow hissed. He held up his hand and commanded the ring he wore to cripple the dragon half of Edge once again. Nothing happened… his ring was gone. He cursed in dismay. Edge, flying back, held the ring up and smiled.
Kizzlorn had used this opportunity to come up behind Crow. She placed her hand on his head a spell went off. Crow screamed in pain as his brain tried to boil.
Erasmus was flying backwards in looping patterns, easily outdistancing Dartan and Broldek. The vampire was firing arrows at them as they spread out. A fire arrow struck Broldek’s invisible shield and exploded around him, washing him in fire. Arrows of light blinded Dartan, and arrows of cold froze him. None of his arrows, however, actually struck the Knights. They were too well prepared for that. They could not reach him, though… he was firing as he flew, and neither Dartan nor Broldek could seem to catch him. “What’s the matter,” Erasmus laughed. He spoke in the voice he’d used when speaking through Bree’s skull, and it was a perfect imitation of the Bree Dartan had known in life. “Grieving for your poor dead wife again, Dartan?”
“We are losing,” Broldek grunted as another fire arrow bathed him in searing heat momentarily.
“We are NOT losing,” Dartan said with a grim voice. “We just need for him to slip up once. We only need to catch up to him.” They kept at it.
Metus’s vorpal sword whickered and cut through the air, ringing off of Menerous’s sword and armor as he tried to fly back. Myramus prepared another blessing, and this time a far more powerful spell lit the death knight aflame. “Feel the holy word of Pelor, fiend!” Metus hissed as he felt divine might commanding him to return to the plane of Death. He shuddered, then broke free of it and swung again with his sword. It cut through Menerous’s arm, and it fell, sword and all, to the burning streets below them.
Menerous screamed from the pain. “Take heart, brother! The battle is not done yet!” Myramus urged. “Keep flying, keep dodging, keep praying!”
Thuriaq bulled into Gorgoldand with its claws and fangs flashing. The two battled violently, each roaring and trying to rip the other’s throat out. The gold dragon’s tail whipped upward and wrapped around the Tarrasque’s neck, then flung him aside. The beast smashed several buildings into dust as he landed. The dust rose up and further clouded the air. Gorgoldand thundered forward, determined to end it while the titan was down. A huge clawed hand shot from the cloud of dust and gripped Gorgoldand’s throat. Another hand shot out and struck him so hard that one of his gilded horns broke free and flew away from the force of the blow. Gorgoldand reeled, stunned. The Tarrasque rose fully from the street and bellowed as it lifted the dragon into the air above its head. He hurled the dragon down, and Gorgoldand smashed head first into the warehouse district. He rolled through it, turning buildings to powder as he went, and gasping in pain. His wings twitched. Thuriaq beat its chest, threw its head back, and roared proudly.
Crow turned and bashed Kizzlorn away with a stone fist. Smoke rose from his black hair, and his eyes were dark with ache, but he was alive and very, very angry. Kizzlorn looked up to see him cast a spell. Black tendrils of smoke shot from his hand and thickened into tentacles. They wrapped about her cruelly, squeezing and crushing. She grunted as the breath went from her.
Edge shouted and returned to rescue her, but Crow was ready this time and with his other hand still clutching Starfire, cast backwards. Chains curled around Edge and held him. They wrapped about him so many times that his head and feet were covered, and he became a floating sphere of iron chain, suffocating him and weighing him down. “That should keep you busy,” Crow muttered as a thin line of blood drew down from one nostril. “Now for you, my dear… time to kill you again.” He raised Starfire up and grinned. The black tentacles crushed her horribly, and the breath went from her. She grunted and choked. “Would you like to beg me to end it all, once more? I’ll make it quick if you do.”
Kizzlorn used all her strength to pull in a breath. “No,” she shuddered. “Never again.” Her eyes blazed with defiance.
Crow shrugged. “Pity.” He brought the sword down at her- and it stopped in midair, inches above her face. “Ehh?” He reached back and swung again, harder, and again it stopped. The sword’s will was acting against his own. Crow’s face twisted with rage. “I warned you about disobedience! Curse you. Well, I don’t need you to kill her! THURIAQ, A TREAT!” He hurled Starfire through the air.
The Tarrasque opened its jaws greedily as the sword flew towards it. It had eaten many weapons and sharp things in the dark millennia it had been alive, and never enjoyed them so much as when they were holy or meant something special to someone. Starfire spun in the air towards Thuriaq’s maw.
Myramus, watching, held his hand up and moved it slightly upward, watching his sword.
The jaws readied to clamp shut about Starfire and smash it to pieces- and it turned in the air, altering its path. THWUCK!! It plunged between Thuriaq’s eyes, buried to the hilt in the center of the Tarrasque’s knotted forehead. White light shone from the wound in bright rays, and a great line of lightning came down from the sky into the sword. Thuriaq screamed as the lightning and the sword pierced its mind and body, wracking it with holy power.
Myramus flew straight towards the beast and ripped Starfire free. He held it above his head, feeling its power as it was returned to its master. ”STARFIRE!!!” he cried. The sword blazed. The holy light of the sun radiated from it, and blinding daylight filled the world around them. “Now, the battle is turned! NOW, WE SHALL WIN THE DAY!!”
Erasmus screamed in pain as sunlight washed over him. He dropped his weapons and flung his hands up to ward off the hateful light. In this moment, Dartan and Broldek caught up with the disoriented vampire. “Die.” Dartan shouted through clenched teeth. Broldek cut Erasmus’s right arm away, then his left arm. Dartan reared back. “Die DIE DIIIIE!!!!” He put his sword through the vampire’s neck, and body and head floated in midair for a moment, before tumbling down to the ground and wisping away to dust in the sunlight.
Crow’s jaw hung open. Kizzlorn closed it for him when her fist shot from the mass of tentacles and punched him in it. The distracted wizard fell back, and the tentacles released Kizzlorn. She flew up, clutching her ribs with one hand and readying a spell with the other. The corners of her mouth were bloodied, and her eyes were filled with fire.
The Tarrasque was still scraping at the wound in its head that was not closing and groaning in pain when Gorgoldand stood. The dragon ran forward and began to tear savagely at the titan with tooth and claw. Thuriaq growled and forgot its injury, rejoining the fight. The beasts’ claws ripped at each other and their blood rained on the ground from above.
Myramus flew toward Metus with Starfire in his hands. The death knight met him and their swords threw sparks in the air as they clashed. Metus began to glow darkly, and an aura of unholy fire enveloped them both. Myramus grunted and bulled on, barely able to see the oncoming sword through the pain, barely blocking its cut each time. A hand reached down from above. The forgotten Menerous plunged two fingers into the empty eye sockets of the death knight, gripped, and pulled upward. Metus’s head was turned upward. The death knight’s jaws opened and hissed before Starfire sheared through his neck’s bones and dried tendons. Myramus then whirled his sword back, spun it, and plunged it into Metus’s chest. “UNCLEAN BEAST, I GIVE YOU TO THE LIGHT!” This time, the holy word of Pelor blasted through Metus and turned his undead bones to ash. The empty armor that Vek Mormont had once worn slipped from the end of Myramus’s sword and fell to the ground, hundreds of feet below. It disappeared into the smoke and flames.
Crow was enraged. He blasted Kizzlorn with a gout of searing flame. She held a hand up and the fire parted around her, singing her somewhat but not killing her as it would have otherwise. The wizard turned to fly away and found Broldek coming up on him.
“Hello,” Broldek said as he slashed at Crow’s face. Crow managed to pull back, but not far enough. The sword opened a deep gash in his right cheek. The troll swung again, and cut a deep wound in Crow’s belly. The wizard threw up his hands reflexively and acid washed over his attacker. It plumed from Crow’s hands in a cloud, and Broldek cried out, falling back as the gas ate away at him.
Something flew straight up at Crow from beneath. It was Edge, who’d managed to get free of the chains. He was holding a length of the chain, and he smashed Crow with a wicked uppercut. Edge then whipped the chain around Crow’s neck, where it coiled and held. Edge spun closely and bashed his face with a fist, holding the end of the chain with his other hand. The half-dragon monk breathed on his end of the chain, and a line of lightning leapt into the iron, traveling the distance to Crow, who twitched as the electricity washed through him. Edge readied himself to punch again, and Crow cast his hands outward, and the chain exploded. Links of hot iron burst all about him, pelting the halfling viciously. Edge was thrown back in pain.
Crow turned and Dartan plunged his sword through his gut. Dartan pulled it out and kicked Crow in the face, downward. The wizard fell.
Gorgoldand leaned back, dodging a swipe of Thuriaq’s talons. He then leaned forward, turned his head, and plunged it under the Tarrasque’s chin, into his armored throat. The dragon’s teeth crunched down, piercing scales and thickened skin. He then whipped back his head, ripping the titan’s throat out. He spat it to the ground as Thuriaq clawed at his throat. The wound was already closing. Gorgoldand stepped forward and plunged both claws into the Tarrasque’s chest while it was distracted. Roaring, Gorgoldand spread his arms, and Thuriaq was ripped in half. Its two halves fell apart.
“I WISH,” Gorgoldand said, “THAT YOU BE DESTROYED.” The Wish spell glimmered as the dragon spoke the words, and Thuriaq the Dread Titan died. His wet pieces shriveled on the ground, twitched, and were consumed in a quick blaze of ugly yellow flame.
On the ground, Crow was kneeling, trying to keep his insides from spilling out onto the ash-blackened cobblestones. He was covered in blood and cuts. Dartan’s wound had almost killed him, and the fall had almost finished the job. His head swam with the pain as he tried to think of a way to escape.
The Knights descended from the sky, slowly, to stand around him at a distance. Dartan walked forward with his bloodied sword. “Ha,” Crow coughed. “Come to do it, then? Let’s have it.” He spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned up at Dartan. “I’ve always wanted to see the Abyss.”
Dartan stood there, looking down at him.
“Do it,” Crow grimaced. “Make your empty victory speech and do it, coward.”
“I would,” Dartan said. “But you’re not my kill.” He stepped aside and looked back, gesturing to Crow.
Kizzlorn nodded and limped forward. She stopped and leaned over to pick something from the rubble. It was the sword that had fallen from Metus’s hand. She walked forward again. Menerous stepped forward and touched her sword, mumbling a prayer. He winked at her, smiling, and watched her approach Crow.
Crow chuckled and coughed. He began to speak a final taunt. “Well, w-“
Kizzlorn interrupted him. “This is for my family, you son of a bitch.” She cut his head off.
She looked down at the body, spat on it, and dropped the sword. She turned and took two steps, stumbled, and fell to her knees. Edge went to her and held her. She sobbed silently into his chest as the Knights stood around them.
The flames burned in Greyhawk and the smoke reached up to the heavens.
The rushing of wind around Gorgoldand’s wings was like the tearing of a distant peal of thunder. The Tarrasque looked at him from his place amongst the ruined buildings and smoke, and roared. It raised its arms and clawed at the air, an invitation to fight. Its scream was a titanic bellow: deep, long and feral. Gorgoldand roared back, and it was the deep, keening, echoed cry of a king of dragons.
Gorgoldand smashed into Thuriaq and the two colossal beasts tumbled down amongst the smashed buildings, tearing at each other and screaming their hatred. The sound of their collision shook the air- everyone for miles around felt their chests tremble from the enormous boom.
Crow shot a red beam of burning light through the air towards Kizzlorn, who met it with a pale green beam of her own. The two wizards concentrated, each trying to push the other’s beam back. Kizzlorn’s face twisted as she maintained the effort. Crow pushed hard, and she barely had time to dodge as the beam won past hers and almost burned her. She flew around and readied for another attack. Edge, nearby, said “Keep him distracted!”
Erasmus began firing arrows at a blinding speed. Dartan and Broldek were flying straight for him. The arrows shattered in the air before their faces. A spell had given them a forward-facing invisible shield, it seemed. Not an uncommon practice against archers. “Can most archers do this, though?” Crow wondered aloud with a smile. He pulled a special arrow from his quiver and sent it flying. It flew far around the air, darting up and over them. It came down at Dartan, who spun in the air and cracked it from its flight with his sword.
Myramus and Menerous shouted prayers as they rocketed toward Captain Metus, the death knight. They overcame the waves of fear rolling off of him, and Menerous attempted to crush him with the holy might of Pelor. Metus’s armor crumpled briefly before the spell failed. The beast surprised them by flying towards them, meeting them in the air as they tried to cast. His vorpal sword cut the air beneath their chins as they staggered back. “Brother, we may have chosen the wrong opponent,” Menerous said. “We are not well-armed.” He pulled out his longsword, which was not as powerful as Metus’s, which would sever their heads easily, or Myramus’s, which was in Crow’s hand right now. He tried to meet Metus’s attacks.
“Brother,” Myramus replied. “We couldn’t have chosen a better opponent. He is undead.” The hound archon flew back and called down a blessing to turn Metus into dust. White light burned around the death knight, and he grunted in pain but kept fighting. The light glinted off the wickedly sharp edge of his sword.
Menerous was never much of a swordsman. He knew that if he kept at this, he could not last long. Metus, however, was quite skilled with his weapon. “DO think of something else, brother!”
On the ground, the Tarrasque and the gold dragon rolled to their feet and rose. They stood of the same height, on hind legs, several hundred feet tall. They towered over the high rooftops of the city of Greyhawk. The fires lit them from below, and they growled at each other, ready to fight. Thuriaq opened its mouth and blew out a line of fire so hot it was bright blue. It washed over Gorgoldand, who was immune to its heat. Gorgoldand responded by breathing a cloud of gas out over the thing. The Tarrasque roared. It wasn’t hurt by the poisonous cloud, but it was blinded. Gorgoldand lifted an abandoned building from the ground and brought it down over Thuriaq’s head with as much force as he could. The stone shattered and the building crumbled around the dread titan, who roared again and lashed out with its right claw, bashing the right side of Gorgoldand’s head.
Crow fired a volley of tiny, burning bees. They screamed en masse as they swarmed through the air toward Kizzlorn. Her hands leapt up as if to ward them off, but they cut into her, burning horribly. She cried out. “Such a delicious sound,” Crow laughed. “I enjoyed watching you break once. I’ll enjoy it again.”
Kizzlorn’s face darkened and she bared her teeth at the mention of her recent death, and how she’d begged him to end it. It was her worst moment. Enraged, she began casting. The air around her swelled and rippled with brightly twirling orange ribbons of light. They twirled geometrically and curled into a ball, that pulsed and grew. Crow furrowed his brow. What was this spell she was casting? He knew almost every powerful spell that ever had been, and this one was puzzling him. He watched in detached amusement, then shouted in pain when his back spasmed violently.
Edge had flown far around, circling behind him, while Kizzlorn held his attention. Kizzlorn’s spell vanished. It was something she’d learned in her first months of sorcery… a simple illusion. “You’ve been powerful too long, Crow,” she chuckled. “You’ve forgotten the roots of your stolen wizardry.”
Edge had plunged a small dagger into a cluster of nerves in Crow’s back, and now was punching and kicking violently. The wizard turned, and Starfire swooshed through the air. Edge ducked beneath it and flew back. “Vile creature,” Crow hissed. He held up his hand and commanded the ring he wore to cripple the dragon half of Edge once again. Nothing happened… his ring was gone. He cursed in dismay. Edge, flying back, held the ring up and smiled.
Kizzlorn had used this opportunity to come up behind Crow. She placed her hand on his head a spell went off. Crow screamed in pain as his brain tried to boil.
Erasmus was flying backwards in looping patterns, easily outdistancing Dartan and Broldek. The vampire was firing arrows at them as they spread out. A fire arrow struck Broldek’s invisible shield and exploded around him, washing him in fire. Arrows of light blinded Dartan, and arrows of cold froze him. None of his arrows, however, actually struck the Knights. They were too well prepared for that. They could not reach him, though… he was firing as he flew, and neither Dartan nor Broldek could seem to catch him. “What’s the matter,” Erasmus laughed. He spoke in the voice he’d used when speaking through Bree’s skull, and it was a perfect imitation of the Bree Dartan had known in life. “Grieving for your poor dead wife again, Dartan?”
“We are losing,” Broldek grunted as another fire arrow bathed him in searing heat momentarily.
“We are NOT losing,” Dartan said with a grim voice. “We just need for him to slip up once. We only need to catch up to him.” They kept at it.
Metus’s vorpal sword whickered and cut through the air, ringing off of Menerous’s sword and armor as he tried to fly back. Myramus prepared another blessing, and this time a far more powerful spell lit the death knight aflame. “Feel the holy word of Pelor, fiend!” Metus hissed as he felt divine might commanding him to return to the plane of Death. He shuddered, then broke free of it and swung again with his sword. It cut through Menerous’s arm, and it fell, sword and all, to the burning streets below them.
Menerous screamed from the pain. “Take heart, brother! The battle is not done yet!” Myramus urged. “Keep flying, keep dodging, keep praying!”
Thuriaq bulled into Gorgoldand with its claws and fangs flashing. The two battled violently, each roaring and trying to rip the other’s throat out. The gold dragon’s tail whipped upward and wrapped around the Tarrasque’s neck, then flung him aside. The beast smashed several buildings into dust as he landed. The dust rose up and further clouded the air. Gorgoldand thundered forward, determined to end it while the titan was down. A huge clawed hand shot from the cloud of dust and gripped Gorgoldand’s throat. Another hand shot out and struck him so hard that one of his gilded horns broke free and flew away from the force of the blow. Gorgoldand reeled, stunned. The Tarrasque rose fully from the street and bellowed as it lifted the dragon into the air above its head. He hurled the dragon down, and Gorgoldand smashed head first into the warehouse district. He rolled through it, turning buildings to powder as he went, and gasping in pain. His wings twitched. Thuriaq beat its chest, threw its head back, and roared proudly.
Crow turned and bashed Kizzlorn away with a stone fist. Smoke rose from his black hair, and his eyes were dark with ache, but he was alive and very, very angry. Kizzlorn looked up to see him cast a spell. Black tendrils of smoke shot from his hand and thickened into tentacles. They wrapped about her cruelly, squeezing and crushing. She grunted as the breath went from her.
Edge shouted and returned to rescue her, but Crow was ready this time and with his other hand still clutching Starfire, cast backwards. Chains curled around Edge and held him. They wrapped about him so many times that his head and feet were covered, and he became a floating sphere of iron chain, suffocating him and weighing him down. “That should keep you busy,” Crow muttered as a thin line of blood drew down from one nostril. “Now for you, my dear… time to kill you again.” He raised Starfire up and grinned. The black tentacles crushed her horribly, and the breath went from her. She grunted and choked. “Would you like to beg me to end it all, once more? I’ll make it quick if you do.”
Kizzlorn used all her strength to pull in a breath. “No,” she shuddered. “Never again.” Her eyes blazed with defiance.
Crow shrugged. “Pity.” He brought the sword down at her- and it stopped in midair, inches above her face. “Ehh?” He reached back and swung again, harder, and again it stopped. The sword’s will was acting against his own. Crow’s face twisted with rage. “I warned you about disobedience! Curse you. Well, I don’t need you to kill her! THURIAQ, A TREAT!” He hurled Starfire through the air.
The Tarrasque opened its jaws greedily as the sword flew towards it. It had eaten many weapons and sharp things in the dark millennia it had been alive, and never enjoyed them so much as when they were holy or meant something special to someone. Starfire spun in the air towards Thuriaq’s maw.
Myramus, watching, held his hand up and moved it slightly upward, watching his sword.
The jaws readied to clamp shut about Starfire and smash it to pieces- and it turned in the air, altering its path. THWUCK!! It plunged between Thuriaq’s eyes, buried to the hilt in the center of the Tarrasque’s knotted forehead. White light shone from the wound in bright rays, and a great line of lightning came down from the sky into the sword. Thuriaq screamed as the lightning and the sword pierced its mind and body, wracking it with holy power.
Myramus flew straight towards the beast and ripped Starfire free. He held it above his head, feeling its power as it was returned to its master. ”STARFIRE!!!” he cried. The sword blazed. The holy light of the sun radiated from it, and blinding daylight filled the world around them. “Now, the battle is turned! NOW, WE SHALL WIN THE DAY!!”
Erasmus screamed in pain as sunlight washed over him. He dropped his weapons and flung his hands up to ward off the hateful light. In this moment, Dartan and Broldek caught up with the disoriented vampire. “Die.” Dartan shouted through clenched teeth. Broldek cut Erasmus’s right arm away, then his left arm. Dartan reared back. “Die DIE DIIIIE!!!!” He put his sword through the vampire’s neck, and body and head floated in midair for a moment, before tumbling down to the ground and wisping away to dust in the sunlight.
Crow’s jaw hung open. Kizzlorn closed it for him when her fist shot from the mass of tentacles and punched him in it. The distracted wizard fell back, and the tentacles released Kizzlorn. She flew up, clutching her ribs with one hand and readying a spell with the other. The corners of her mouth were bloodied, and her eyes were filled with fire.
The Tarrasque was still scraping at the wound in its head that was not closing and groaning in pain when Gorgoldand stood. The dragon ran forward and began to tear savagely at the titan with tooth and claw. Thuriaq growled and forgot its injury, rejoining the fight. The beasts’ claws ripped at each other and their blood rained on the ground from above.
Myramus flew toward Metus with Starfire in his hands. The death knight met him and their swords threw sparks in the air as they clashed. Metus began to glow darkly, and an aura of unholy fire enveloped them both. Myramus grunted and bulled on, barely able to see the oncoming sword through the pain, barely blocking its cut each time. A hand reached down from above. The forgotten Menerous plunged two fingers into the empty eye sockets of the death knight, gripped, and pulled upward. Metus’s head was turned upward. The death knight’s jaws opened and hissed before Starfire sheared through his neck’s bones and dried tendons. Myramus then whirled his sword back, spun it, and plunged it into Metus’s chest. “UNCLEAN BEAST, I GIVE YOU TO THE LIGHT!” This time, the holy word of Pelor blasted through Metus and turned his undead bones to ash. The empty armor that Vek Mormont had once worn slipped from the end of Myramus’s sword and fell to the ground, hundreds of feet below. It disappeared into the smoke and flames.
Crow was enraged. He blasted Kizzlorn with a gout of searing flame. She held a hand up and the fire parted around her, singing her somewhat but not killing her as it would have otherwise. The wizard turned to fly away and found Broldek coming up on him.
“Hello,” Broldek said as he slashed at Crow’s face. Crow managed to pull back, but not far enough. The sword opened a deep gash in his right cheek. The troll swung again, and cut a deep wound in Crow’s belly. The wizard threw up his hands reflexively and acid washed over his attacker. It plumed from Crow’s hands in a cloud, and Broldek cried out, falling back as the gas ate away at him.
Something flew straight up at Crow from beneath. It was Edge, who’d managed to get free of the chains. He was holding a length of the chain, and he smashed Crow with a wicked uppercut. Edge then whipped the chain around Crow’s neck, where it coiled and held. Edge spun closely and bashed his face with a fist, holding the end of the chain with his other hand. The half-dragon monk breathed on his end of the chain, and a line of lightning leapt into the iron, traveling the distance to Crow, who twitched as the electricity washed through him. Edge readied himself to punch again, and Crow cast his hands outward, and the chain exploded. Links of hot iron burst all about him, pelting the halfling viciously. Edge was thrown back in pain.
Crow turned and Dartan plunged his sword through his gut. Dartan pulled it out and kicked Crow in the face, downward. The wizard fell.
Gorgoldand leaned back, dodging a swipe of Thuriaq’s talons. He then leaned forward, turned his head, and plunged it under the Tarrasque’s chin, into his armored throat. The dragon’s teeth crunched down, piercing scales and thickened skin. He then whipped back his head, ripping the titan’s throat out. He spat it to the ground as Thuriaq clawed at his throat. The wound was already closing. Gorgoldand stepped forward and plunged both claws into the Tarrasque’s chest while it was distracted. Roaring, Gorgoldand spread his arms, and Thuriaq was ripped in half. Its two halves fell apart.
“I WISH,” Gorgoldand said, “THAT YOU BE DESTROYED.” The Wish spell glimmered as the dragon spoke the words, and Thuriaq the Dread Titan died. His wet pieces shriveled on the ground, twitched, and were consumed in a quick blaze of ugly yellow flame.
On the ground, Crow was kneeling, trying to keep his insides from spilling out onto the ash-blackened cobblestones. He was covered in blood and cuts. Dartan’s wound had almost killed him, and the fall had almost finished the job. His head swam with the pain as he tried to think of a way to escape.
The Knights descended from the sky, slowly, to stand around him at a distance. Dartan walked forward with his bloodied sword. “Ha,” Crow coughed. “Come to do it, then? Let’s have it.” He spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned up at Dartan. “I’ve always wanted to see the Abyss.”
Dartan stood there, looking down at him.
“Do it,” Crow grimaced. “Make your empty victory speech and do it, coward.”
“I would,” Dartan said. “But you’re not my kill.” He stepped aside and looked back, gesturing to Crow.
Kizzlorn nodded and limped forward. She stopped and leaned over to pick something from the rubble. It was the sword that had fallen from Metus’s hand. She walked forward again. Menerous stepped forward and touched her sword, mumbling a prayer. He winked at her, smiling, and watched her approach Crow.
Crow chuckled and coughed. He began to speak a final taunt. “Well, w-“
Kizzlorn interrupted him. “This is for my family, you son of a bitch.” She cut his head off.
She looked down at the body, spat on it, and dropped the sword. She turned and took two steps, stumbled, and fell to her knees. Edge went to her and held her. She sobbed silently into his chest as the Knights stood around them.
The flames burned in Greyhawk and the smoke reached up to the heavens.
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Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Nice.
Needs a "The End" ... or is there an Epilogue?
Needs a "The End" ... or is there an Epilogue?
Dr Midnight
Explorer
There is an epilogue... I just thought MORE TO COME... would be misleading.
Lela
First Post
I am deeply moved here. Wow.
Very well done Doc. Very Epic.
And Kizz, that rocked. No mercy whatsoever. He dies and is killed by she whom he most wronged.
Knights of the Spellforge Keep, may your names live on in the legends you truely earned. And, with the darkness beaten back again, may your coming years be filled with peace and miner mopping up.
And now I await the final tail of Dartan the Godless, he who, in spite of relying solely on mortals, has pulled through every trial, evert battle, and every storm intact. What, dear friend, great savior, and mighty warriar is your fate?
Very well done Doc. Very Epic.
And Kizz, that rocked. No mercy whatsoever. He dies and is killed by she whom he most wronged.
Knights of the Spellforge Keep, may your names live on in the legends you truely earned. And, with the darkness beaten back again, may your coming years be filled with peace and miner mopping up.
And now I await the final tail of Dartan the Godless, he who, in spite of relying solely on mortals, has pulled through every trial, evert battle, and every storm intact. What, dear friend, great savior, and mighty warriar is your fate?
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Neverwinter Knight
First Post
A little dragonballesque, but I like it
He dunnit himself, the stupid wizard!!!
Nice ending, Doc, nice. Now that the positive outcome has been confirmed, it's time for a really kinky epilogue.
Thanks for your story!
And the question we are all asking ourselves: Will there be a happy ending for Dartan - for tragic heros, there almost never is...
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