The Doomed Bastards: Reckoning (story complete)

[Lazybones]

Chapter 336

ON THE CUSP OF OBLIVION


Alderis’s chest rose, and a cough shook his fragile frame. Allera, looking almost as wasted as the elf, leaned back. The healer’s hands remained clenched around the shaft of the white rod that she’d used to resurrect the elf. Her own reservoir was nearly empty; she’d held nothing back in her battle with the Overmind.

“I hope it was worth it,” Dar said, looking at the vampires, who were engaged in quiet conversation near the pool where the Overmind had rested.

“We need him,” Varo said, kneeling beside the elf. The ring that Varo had given the elf, through Dar, was in the cleric’s hand. It was useless now, the large black gemstone cracked, but it had served its purpose, preserving the elf’s life force. When Alderis’s brain had been consumed by the illithids, killing him, his soul had been drawn into the magical matrix within the gem. A similar ring had saved Talen’s soul once before, sheltering him from the consuming power of the Sphere of Souls. Once Varo had broken the enchantment anchoring Alderis’s soul to the stone, Allera had been able to use the rod to bring him back to life.

Unfortunately, the others had lacked any such protection. Allera had already tried to resurrect Nelan, but the spell failed, unable to locate the priest’s soul and draw it back into his broken body.

“We destroyed that freaking sphere,” Dar had asked. “Why won’t the spell work?”

“The power of the demon has grown,” Varo had replied. “The dead are his. Orcus has them, now.”

The elf’s body had been repaired, but the wiry, muscular body of the “Mad Elf” was long gone, replaced by an emaciated frame that looked barely capable of sustaining life. By the look of him, the elf had aged a hundred years in a matter of months. Through the confusion and weakness that accompanied his transition back to life, however, there was an intensity about him that burned like a fire.

The elf tried to get up, but Varo forestalled him. “You have experienced a serious trauma. You will need time to recover.”

The elf looked up at him. There was something haunted in his eyes. “Varo?”

“Yeah, it’s a real freaking reunion,” Dar said. “Ask him about that rock stuck in his chest.”

Alderis looked at the fighter, and blinked, confused. He reached down and grasped the edge of the cloak that they’d draped over his bare torso.

There hadn’t been much left of the elf’s body after the battle. His once-fine gray robes had been foul, soaked in blood and stinking of filth and rot. Dar and Varo had carefully removed them, aware of their magical properties, and laid the elf out upon the floor for Allera and Varo to work their magic.

They’d found most of their companions’ magical items, at least, including both the ring that sheltered Alderis’s soul, and the holy sword Beatus Incendia. The sword, ring, and a number of other items of power had been immersed in the briny fluid that had hosted the Overmind. Letellia had posited that the entity had probably drawn power from items infused with magic; they’d found a number of other potent objects in the pool, in addition to those items borne by their slain companions. The more fragile items, including Alderis’s spellbooks, had been found discarded in a heap in a corner, forgotten as irrelevant.

Alderis pulled the cloak aside. The light of their torches cast a ruddy hue upon his pale flesh.

And glimmered brightly on the crystal that jutted from the center of the elf’s chest.

Varo helped him this time as he pulled himself up, his eyes fixed on the crystal. It wasn’t especially large, about the size of a robin’s egg. It was a deep violet, almost as dark as a starless night, and the flames of the torches danced in its many facets.

“Gods,” Alderis whispered. “Gods, oh gods, oh gods...”

“What the hell is wrong with him?” Dar asked. Allera tried to help him, but Alderis rolled away from both her and Varo, curling into a fetal position, strangled noises issuing from deep in his throat. Letellia picked up the cloak that had covered him, and helped Allera tuck it around his thin body.

Varo rose. “Do what you can for him, healer.” The cleric met Dar’s eyes, and nodded for him to join him.

“What’s happened to him?” Dar hissed, when they were a few paces distant. “That freaking rock wasn’t there before, when we rescued the elf from the first temple. I would have remembered... that.”

Varo’s expression offered no answers. “Perhaps, perhaps not,” was all that he said. “Right now, we have a more pressing issue to consider.”

Dar looked up to see Talen, Shay, and Calla approaching. “The elf, is he all right?” Talen asked.

“You had your head cracked open like an egg, and were brought back,” Dar said. “You tell me.”

Varo stepped in before Talen could respond. “What of your followers?” the cleric asked. “Will they be able to return?”

Talen shrugged. “Who knows. When we first got here, we built coffins using the construction supplies on the second level of the dungeon, and hid them in one of the unoccupied rooms. But we’re a long ways from there... and they might not be able to reach them in time.”

“Your concern for your men is touching,” Dar said.

Talen smiled, revealing his teeth with the long fangs jutting down. “It would seem that we have come full circle, Corath Dar, you and I. Now you are the commander, while I am the heartless bastard.”

Dar shifted slightly, his hand stealing to the hilt of Valor. Talen’s smile did not ease, but there was a subtle change in his stance as well, a challenge there. Varo placed a hand on Dar’s arm.

“We need to withdraw,” Varo said. “Our powers are significantly depleted. There is a pervasive aura of evil that lies over this entire level of the dungeon; I suspect that neither Allera nor myself will be able to recover spells while here.”

“Retreat will give our enemy a chance to reinforce his defenses,” Talen said. “And as for rest... I would not count upon it. In case you have forgotten, demons can teleport at will, and Maphistal is still out there, somewhere.”

“We have no choice,” Varo said. “Alderis needs time to recover, and Allera’s healing powers are utterly depleted.”

“What of you, Dar?” Talen asked. “Do you need time to recover?”

“I am here to see to the end of a demon, and nothing more.”

“It would seem that we agree on one thing, at least.” He turned back to Varo. “Very well, priest. It would appear that our fates are intertwined, at least for now. Lead on in flight, Shay and I will follow.”

Letellia and Allera had gotten Alderis to his feet, but the elf still looked as though a strong wind would blow him away. He held the cloak tight around his body.

“We’re getting out of here,” Dar said.

“What about the others?” Allera asked, indicating the row of corpses behind her. Their faces were covered, but that could not obscure the memory of those ravaged bodies, or the litany of names. Marcus. Alexion. Zahera. Nelan.

“There is nothing we can do for them now,” Varo said. There wasn’t even enough left of them to fear reanimation again; Allera’s healing fire had done a very thorough job.

Dar reached down and hefted a cloak that contained some of the items they’d recovered. “Let’s get out of this freaking place,” he said, his voice weary.

The seven of them left the way they had come, leaving the huge chamber of the Overmind silent and empty.

 

[Burningspear]

LOL, nice touch, healer kicking ass , and Varo, well, he is just Varo... ubercool guy...

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 337

WORDS OF WISDOM


The flickering torches shed a light that pressed back the darkness in the large cavern. The air was cold and damp, and the flame from the torches was but an illusion; they shed no warmth. The companions had no fuel to make a real fire, only a tiny stove that Varo had brought with him. Allera promised to create a heroes’ feast after their rest, but for now, just being free of the oppressive air of the dungeon level known as the Gates of Hell was enough for the battered companions from Camar.

They ate in exhausted silence. Talen and Shay left the camp for a while, stating that they were going to scout out the area for threats. The others watched them go; there was not much in the way of trust there, but as Varo had quietly noted, there wasn’t much they could do about the vampires in their current condition.

Allera looked about ready to collapse, but after they’d eaten she got up and walked over to Calla. The girl had watched them from the edge of the firelight, the dancing flames flickering in her dark eyes.

“I know that you do not need to eat,” the healer said. “But is there anything I can do for you?”

The girl did not acknowledge her at first. Allera knelt beside her. “There may be something I can do... to help you...”

At that, Calla did look up, and there was something terrifying in her eyes. “The only thing that keeps me from tearing out your throat right now and feasting upon your blood is the will of my master,” she said. There was no emotion in her voice.

Allera started to draw back in alarm. The girl rose, menace in her pose, but then a quiet voice came out of the darkness, and she froze.

“Talen wants you, Calla.” The girl smiled at Allera, bearing her long fangs, and then turned and vanished beyond the reach of the light.

Allera turned to see Shay approaching, a dark shadow in the flickering light. “Do not blame the girl. She has no choice.”

“We all have a choice, Shay.”

The scout stopped a few paces away, turned slightly so that the light of the torches did not quite penetrate the depths of her cowl. “You know a great deal, Allera, but about this... nothing.”

“I want to understand, Shay. Why?”

“Like Calla, I had no choice.”

“But we might have been able to do something for him...”

“Tell me, Allera. If you had to choice between your life and that of Dar, what would you choose?”

“But he... Talen did this to you. Dar would never hurt me...”

Shay laughed, a short, strangled sound. “I told you that you didn’t understand.” She lifted her head, so that the eyes, liquid and cold within the cowl, fixed upon hers.

“He didn’t do anything, Allera. Talen fought me; after I freed him, he tried to drive me away. I made him take me.”

“Oh, Shay...”

The scout made a sharp cutting gesture with her hand. “Spare me your pity, or rather, save it for those who need it still.”

“Is everything all right here?”

Allera started as Dar’s voice reached her. The fighter’s heavy tread steadied her, and she could imagine Dar’s hand dropping to the hilt of his sword without even turning to look. Shay merely laughed, and walked away.

Dar’s hand settled protectively on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, willing that he not see her fear. We walk upon the dagger’s edge, she thought.

“You should get some sleep. Stay close to Letellia and Varo. I will keep watch.”

She knew that he was as exhausted as the rest of them, but was not about to suggest that they entrust their rest to the vampires. “Be wary,” she whispered. “Do not meet their eyes.”

He nodded, and escorted her back to the camp.

Alderis and Letellia was already asleep, and within moments Allera joined her, wrapped within two of their heavy cloaks. The vampires were not visible, but Dar could almost feel eyes upon him from outside the ring of light shed by their torches.

“They are there,” Varo said quietly, confirming his thoughts. The cleric was examining a ring of black metal that they’d found in the pool of the Overmind. They had taken several items from the basin, including a wand of polished graphite and an amulet made of interlocking platinum rings.

Dar walked over to him, seating himself on a rocky protrusion that gave him a clear view of the camp. “I have questions for you.”

“I will do my best to provide answers.”

“Why the elf?”

Varo sipped tea from a small metal cup. They hadn’t found Letellia’s pouch of holding, but fortunately the cleric had been carrying extra supplies in his handy haversack, so they were not short of necessary gear, like the cups and the portable camp stove that heated the cleric’s tea, and strong coffee for those on watch. Dar accepted a cup of the latter as he settled himself, adjusting the scabbard of Valor so that the hilt did not stick into his side. “Why did I give you the ring for him, you mean,” the cleric replied.

Dar managed to keep his voice quiet and level, but it clearly took an effort. “You know that’s what I mean. Damn it, Varo, you knew that Nelan was going to die. Why didn’t you give him a ring? Damn it, you could have given him mine.”

“You want the truth.”

“I want a straight answer, for once. And if you don’t give it to me, then we are done, demon or no.”

Varo nodded. “I told you before, about the Codex Thanara.”

“That book of prophecy, that’s how you know what is going to happen.”

“Not precisely.” The cleric let out a sigh. “I am not trying to mislead you, Dar. I do not fully understand it myself. The Codex is a map, but it is a map without key or legend, lacking scale or clear references.”

“What use is it, then?”

“It is a double-edged sword, but it was what first alerted me to the threat posed by the return of Orcus.”

“Return?”

“The Codex reveals a reality that is a cycle. Rappan Athuk has been here for a very, very long time. This is not the first time that these events have played out.”

“You said that before, to Talen. It makes my head hurt to think about it.”

“There are many times that I have felt the same.”

“What does this have to do with Nelan and the elf? Don’t mess with me, Varo. You warned me that the priest would die.”

“Actually, I believe that my instructions were to break the amulet if Nelan should fall.”

“Don’t fence words with me, priest. You had this all set up from the beginning.”

“I am not the master of events that you imagine me to be. Like you, I am a mere mortal, buffeted by the rough winds of fate. I have done my best to fight against what I believed was coming, to prepare for the confrontation that I knew might come.”

“You once called Rappan Athuk a ‘proving ground.’”

“It is that. Look at yourself, Dar. A few months ago you were a mercenary fighter, tough enough in a scrap, to be sure, but no different than any of thousands of armsmen found in any army, warband, or fighting-house in any city in the world.”

“I never claimed to be any different, or any better. I know what I am, priest.”

“What you were,” Varo said, with surprising intensity as he leaned forward, the torchlight flickering on the edges of his face. “Now, you are a living weapon, one of the most deadly fighting men of your age. You have battled dragons, demons, monstrosities from nightmare made real. Some of it is skill, mastery through constant struggle against terrible dangers, some of it is the strength that was always inside you, but there is more, something intangible, something that has grown inside of you.”

Dar shook his head. “Swinging a sword is no mystery...”

“You know it is more than that. Look at Allera. When we met, she could save a man’s life, ease a fever, purge a body of toxins. Now... her healing powers are more potent than any of her order, living or dead, in twenty generations. She is rapidly approaching the point where the rules of mortality will be utterly transcended; already she has the power of life and death in her hands. There are only a handful of priests with that kind of power, and I cannot think of any who achieved it when as young as Allera, back to the days of Camarius.”

“And what about you, Varo?”

“I am the most powerful cleric alive in the world today. The power of Dagos flows through me like a spring torrent flooding a narrow gully. It rages wildly, almost beyond my power to control it.”

“What about the elf? You still have not answered my original question, just told me what you’ve already said before, at one time or another.”

Varo nodded. “It was necessary, to make you understand. As much as what is happening to us can be understood.”

“Varo, just cut the bull and tell me straight out, why the elf is so important. You’ve hovered over him like a mother ever since we found him in that first temple, bound up over the lava pit.”

“There is a prophecy within the Codex,” the cleric said, his voice so quiet that Dar had to lean forward to hear him. “It speaks of how Orcus can be defeated. There are three that must be there, to confront the demon. Three who must sacrifice that which they hold most dear.”

“The elf. And you, I would guess. And the third?”

“’The general.’ At first I thought it was Tiros, or Talen. But now I know it is you, Corath Dar.”

Dar snorted. “General is only a word, a title. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“The word means little, but the man behind it is key.”

Dar looked at him intently. “Why me?”

“Because you are the weapon that can harm the demon.”

Dar glanced down at Valor, in its scabbard at his side. His hand started toward the hilt almost of its own volition, but he held it, clenching the fingers into a fist. “I swore I would cut that bastard’s head off. But I do not put much stake in prophecy, priest.”

“I do not ask for you to believe anything. But even you must agree that we are the best hope for defeating the demon before it is strong enough to yoke our entire world to its corrupt will.”

Dar’s gaze shifted out over the camp. “What about Allera?”

“I do not know. Truly, Dar, I cannot see the future. It is... frustrating, to have only bits and pieces, and not be able to see what they mean.”

“And this ‘sacrifice’?”

“I do not know that either. Only that it must be paid, if the demon is to be defeated.”

“Nelan, and the others? Were they also required sacrifices?”

“Do you think I wanted them dead? Do you think I wouldn’t have done everything I could to save Nelan, or Marcus, or Serah? Do you think it is easy, to have just enough power to make a choice, to shift the scales a certain way that some might survive?”

“Yet you made that decision.”

“Yes. And I have been wrong. You know what it is like, general.”

“I never asked for that responsibility.”

“Neither did I. I did not ask for my life to be torn apart, to give up everything on behalf of a world that didn’t want to hear about the darkness that was coming.”

Dar looked down at the cleric. In that moment, the man looked old. For a moment, there was silence between them.

Finally, Dar spoke again. “I do not trust you, Varo.”

The cleric nodded, almost to himself. “Then you have learned wisdom after all. I need to rest. Do not turn your back on the vampires, but do not try to challenge them; their will is far stronger than yours, and they fight their instincts to remain with us.”

“I am not a fool.”

“No, I suppose not.”

Varo walked back over to the camp, careful not to make any loud noises. He stripped off his gloves and greaves, but left his breastplate on, wrapping a blanket around his frame as he leaned back against a sloping stalagmite. Within a few moments he was asleep.

Dar remained on solitary vigil, staring out into the darkness, the hilt of Valor clasped in his fist. His jaw tightened as he looked down at the sleeping healer. A word whispered in his mind, repeatedly. “We shall see,” he said, his eyes shining in the flickering light of the torches as silence descended upon the camp in the cavern.

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 338

BACK THROUGH THE GATES


The intruders moved single-file through the complex, retracing the same steps they had taken the day before, returning along the path of their retreat through the quiet, sinister halls of the Gates of Hell.

Their numbers had been augmented; Talen’s vampiric bandits had rejoined them a few hours before the spellcasters had woken from their sleep. Drudge, Utar, Needles and Hedder looked none the worse for the pounding they’d taken from the Overmind’s astral constructs. Dar had spent the entire rest period on watch, and by the time that the casters woke he looked truly grim, with puffy black circles under his eyes, which were shot through with red. The fighter had refused to delay them any longer to let him catch up on his sleep, instead taking a restoration spell from Allera to dispel the effects of his exhaustion. The spell had left him alert, but anything but fresh.

The same could be said of all of them, at least the five living members of their company. They had washed the blood and dirt from their bodies and clothes, and had tended to their other gear as best they could, but the long hours they had spent in the Dungeon of Graves was wearing hard upon them. Allera’s heroes’ feast had helped, at least somewhat, fortifying their bodies against the trials that no doubt awaited them below.

Alderis had recovered enough to study his spellbook, and clad in his gray robe of the archmagi he looked almost mortal again. But the elf’s eyes still hid dark shadows. He only spoke when directly addressed, and then often had to be prodded several times before he realized that someone was in front of him. Talen made a few comments about the elf’s effectiveness, and neither Varo nor Dar could response with an effective counter. Alderis looked... broken, but his powers were still too great to turn away.

Letellia had waited in vain for Honoratius to make an effort to contact her. At her urging Varo had attempted a sending to Velan Tiros, but he had received no acknowledgement or reply. The sorceress walked alone in the middle of their column, a distant look on her face, the faint gleam of her multiple magical wards occasionally visible as a slight distortion in the air when the light of their torches caught her in a particular angle.

Allera and Varo walked alongside each other, engaged in quiet conversation. The healer looked decidedly uncomfortable, but she did not pull away from the cleric as they made their way deeper into the complex. Varo had taken her aside shortly after the casters had awoken from their rest, and spent several minutes talking to her in hushed tones that did not carry to the others nearby. Talen had looked at them and smirked, and since then had made no effort to acknowledge that either of them even existed. His slaves gave both the healer and the cleric a wide berth.

The complex was deserted. As they passed through the chambers where the mind flayers and their allies had ambushed them on their first visit, they saw that the bodies, detritus of battle... even the blood, had vanished. The stale stink of the Abyssal hounds still permeated the place, but there was no sign that anything else had ever occupied these chambers, or that a battle had taken place here not two full days before.

They grew wary as they approached the cavern of the Overmind once more, but here again they arrived to find the place utterly deserted. The blue flames in the giant metal braziers continued to burn, obviously reliant upon some sort of magic or other unconventional fuel. But the carnage they’d left here was likewise nowhere to be seen, and the pool that had contained the Overmind now held only a slick of brackish, befouled liquid that clung to the ancient stones.

“Too quiet,” Dar said, even that soft statement sounding uncannily loud in the quiet expanse of the vault. Their footfalls echoed off the distant walls, giving the place the somber sepulchrave air of a cathedral, or a tomb.

“Don’t knock it,” Shay said, moving ahead to check out the far stair. Varo looked at Allera once more, then walked after the scout. The light of the torches the others carried created a long shadow that stretched out ahead of the cleric, until it merged with the one coming off of the far brazier. The air was cold and stale; they could still smell the blood, even though the stone at their feet was bare.

“Well, shall we?” Talen asked, smiling at Dar. The fighter did not respond, following the scout and cleric toward the staircase.

The air grew cooler as they descended, and they could detect moisture as well. The stairs continued down for perhaps forty feet, depositing them in a tunnel that continued forward with a slight, almost unnoticeable slope downward. Shay kept a brisk pace, forcing the others to hasten to keep up. The only sound was the noise of their boots on the bare stone, and the faint clatter of armor from the warriors.

The passage ended with a low overhang that led into a large cavern beyond.

“Impressive,” Letellia said.

The cavern was massive. While it was perhaps not much larger than the chamber where they had battled the Overmind, its high, natural ceiling gave the place a sense of far greater scale. In addition, while the light from the braziers in the former place had died before it reached the walls, here they could see the entire expanse of the cavern, illuminated by phosphorescent growths that clung with determination to small cracks and crevices in a thousand places along the walls. Those decorations, and the deep crimson hue of the pale light they shed, combined with the uneven shape of the place, gave the illusion of being within the gullet of some huge monster.

The center of the place was dominated by a small mountain. That feature rose almost to the ceiling, its truncated summit rising over sixty feet above them. The top of it had been sheared off, as if it had been trimmed to fit in this place. Its flanks were almost sheer, promising a difficult ascent.

Difficult for most of them, perhaps. As Shay walked forward, she began to dissolve into a plume of mist, which rose effortlessly into the air above them, rising toward the ascent. Talen sent his bandits around the edges of the room to scout, but their eyes kept returning to that high peak, which waited for them with seeming inevitability.

“I suppose that’s the way?” Dar asked, turning to Varo. But the cleric didn’t respond; his eyes were focused upon the summit, but his stare seemed to be focused on some distant place, a point beyond any of their perceptions. The fighter did not press him, instead joining the others as they walked forward toward the base of the great mound. As they approached they could see that their initial sense of scale was not far off; the mound was easily over a hundred feet wide across its base, and possibly half again as much.

“Shay’s coming back,” Talen said. The living companions peered into the vague light but could not clearly discern the scout’s vaporous form until it began to take on definition, solidifying until she took on substance, dropping the last fifteen feet to land in an easy crouch before them.

“Report,” Talen said.

“It’s a caldera, a big open bowl. Full of water up to about twenty feet or so below the inside rim. There’s something in there; couldn’t make it out clearly, but it’s big. Tried to tease it out, but it wasn’t having any.”

“There weren’t any other exits?” Allera asked.

Shay shook her head. “If there are, they’re underwater.”

Dar looked at Varo. “You are certain?” At the cleric’s nod, Dar looked back up the almost vertical slope. “Then we’ll have to climb.”

“I can transport all of you up there with me through a dimension door,” Letellia said. “But be aware, my reservoir of magic was diminished with all of the stoneskins I cast earlier; I only have a limited reserve of fourth-order spells remaining.” One of the results of their discussions that morning in camp was to share the sorceress’s magical protections with more of them; currently Alderis, Allera, and Varo were all protected with both resist energy and stoneskin spells, although Letellia’s supply of the diamond dust needed for the latter spell was nearly depleted.

“If you feel you can make the climb, then it may be best to conserve your magic,” Varo suggested.

Letellia nodded. “How do you intend to get through the water? Some of us, at least, have to breathe.”

“Leave that to me,” Varo said.

The ascent proved easier for the fact that they had the vampires to lead the way. Transforming again into gaseous form, the seven undead drifted up to the summit, where Shay secured several ropes. The lines, tossed down, didn’t quite reach to the cavern floor, but the base of the mound had a slightly gentler slope and plenty of hand and footholds, so none of them had any difficulty reaching the ropes. Alderis avoided any effort at all by muttering the words of a spell, and then rose into the air, drifting up toward the top while the others started their climb.

Varo took one rope and started climbing, grunting with the effort of lifting himself and all his gear up the cliff. Dar motioned for Allera to follow Letellia up the second line. He waited below, unwilling to strain the ropes by adding his own considerable weight to either. But Varo made it to the top with surprising speed, while Letellia was still a good twenty feet below the summit. Dar started up the line that the cleric vacated. Allera had almost caught up to Letellia, who was having some difficulty. The ropes were knotted to ease climbing, but the sorceress, while young and healthy, lacked the upper-body strength of the others. The healer encouraged her, while Dar slid over horizontally to move nearer to them. With his strength, he was almost to Allera as Letellia approached the top of the cliff.

“If you cannot manage, use your magic!” Dar urged her.

“No, I can do it!” the sorceress said. Her face trailing sweat from exertion, she grimaced and reapplied herself to the rope, pulling herself hand-over-hand up the last stretch of cliff. The vampires had offered no assistance thus far; Dar looked up to see Talen standing on the cliff edge to the right, watching their progress.

Letellia’s revitalized effort carried her up the last ten feet of cliff almost as fast as Varo had done before her. Behind her, Allera kept pace. The sorceress was about to reach the top when a head suddenly appeared right above her: the ugly visage of the bandit Hedder.

Startled, the sorceress lost her grip on the rope. She screamed as she fell backwards and down. Her shoulder clipped Allera hard as she fell, knocking the healer off the rope as well, and sending both women plummeting down toward the jagged rocks some sixty feet below.

 

[shilsen]

Damn nice writing as usual, Lazybones, but some of the character actions/reactions seem a little strange considering their capabilities.

The ascent proved easier for the fact that they had the vampires to lead the way. Transforming again into gaseous form, the seven undead drifted up to the summit, where Shay secured several ropes. The lines, tossed down, didn’t quite reach to the cavern floor, but the base of the mound had a slightly gentler slope and plenty of hand and footholds, so none of them had any difficulty reaching the ropes. Alderis avoided any effort at all by muttering the words of a spell, and then rose into the air, drifting up toward the top while the others started their climb.

Tsk, tsk! That's a horrible waste of time and energy. Even if they don't want to really take advantage of incredibly strong allies who can spider climb, all you need is Dar going up and then pulling everyone else up. Hell, cast whatever (Fly or Levitate) on him and he'd be able to carry all the rest up at once.

Startled, the sorceress lost her grip on the rope. She screamed as she fell backwards and down. Her shoulder clipped Allera hard as she fell, knocking the healer off the rope as well, and sending both women plummeting down toward the jagged rocks some sixty feet below.

Now that might actually be scary if they weren't at a level where they can suck up a 200 foot fall and walk away

 

[Lazybones]

Damn nice writing as usual, Lazybones, but some of the character actions/reactions seem a little strange considering their capabilities.

Yeah, this was definitely one of those passages where the game mechanics in the background really spoil the narrative impact of the scene. I went back and forth but finally left it in, because it fleshes out the roles of the vamps and particularly Alderis.

 

[shilsen]

Yeah, this was definitely one of those passages where the game mechanics in the background really spoil the narrative impact of the scene.

I guess that depends on what kind of narrative impact you're going for. With PCs at these levels, going for the grim and gritty, dungeon survival approach doesn't work very well, I think. But then there's no reason that it has to. No character at these levels is anywhere close to a normal human being any more, and I figure shifting the narrative slightly in order to emphasize that works fine.

And there's something to be said for the mythic quality of such PCs. Beowulf and the Mahabharata are incredible narratives, and I don't think their impact is at all lessened by the realization that the primary characters are very far from what I would define as normal human beings. The PCs in my Eberron game are 14th lvl and one of the things I quite enjoy in my story hour is emphasizing the fact that they are nowhere close to normal people any more, but that doesn't detract (I think) from their triumphs or their suffering.

I really liked your update a day ago (Chapter 337) where Varo discussed exactly how much these characters have changed and how far they are from normal humanity. There was a lot of effective narrative impact there, and I'd personally like to see that aspect played up, especially since it fits better with the reality of the characters. Similarly, the bits where you emphasized Talen's inhumanity and ability to absorb what normal people cannot, worked very well for me, because it's true to the reality of the character in the game world. In contrast, attempts to make it seem like Dar or Allera should be bothered by things which just don't fit with their reality in the game world (like falling 60 ft and taking 6d6 dmg, for example) just seem a lot more forced, despite the quality of the language and the writing.

Okay, I'll stop rambling now

 

[Lazybones]

I think falling damage is one area where the abstractions that surround damage in D&D falls down (pardon the pun) a bit. I know it's supposed to be a "heroic" game and while I can visualize amazing spells and deadly sword blows (in part because the character has a chance to dodge/roll with it/avoid the attack), falling 60' and walking away without serious injury is harder. In part because of the d6/10' rule, which doesn't take into effect the fact that falls get more serious the farther you plummet.

I remember an old variant rule, I think it was in Dragon, where you added a cumulative dice of damage with each 10' you fell. So 10' remained d6, but then 20' was 3d6, 30' 6d6, and so on until you hit terminal velocity (20d6) at 60'. I only used that system in one campaign, and it has its disadvantages, but it does make players less cavalier about things like pits.

I can certainly see the justification for D&D's simple 1d6/10' rule. Maybe it is best if we keep it "heroic"; it allows for silly but fun situations were a player can leap off a building, splat, and dust himself off before resuming the chase of the bad guy. Sort of like Claire in "Heroes".

* * * * *

Chapter 339

GRAVITY’S A BITCH


Dar kicked off with both legs and lunged. His hand snapped around Allera’s wrist like an iron shackle, arresting her fall and swinging her in an arc that came back to the rope dangling below him. The healer grabbed onto it with her other hand, taking the weight off him.

Letellia would have had a much more unpleasant end to her trip down had it not been for Alderis. The elf, floating above, cast his feather fall spell on the sorceress, which arrested her descent about halfway down toward the base of the cliffs. She still landed awkwardly, bouncing off the slope as the base of the hill jutted out from the near-sheer face of the cliffs higher up, but the injuries were trivial compared to a full-force impact, and her stoneskin protected her from any scrapes that the sharp rocks would have inflicted.

Once he had verified that Allera had a good grip, Dar pulled himself up the last remaining feet to the top of the cliff. Once he had helped Allera up to join him, he turned on Talen.

“What the hell was that?”

Talen shrugged. “Hedder was trying to help the sorceress; he did not mean to startle her.” The vampire bandit, standing behind his master, smiled and shifted slightly, but he looked anything but abashed.

There was a tense moment as the two—man and vampire—faced off on the narrow ridge at the mound’s crest. Finally Allera took Dar’s arm, and he turned to look down to where Letellia had recovered below.

“Just tie the rope into a sling, I’ll pull you up!” Dar yelled down to her. But Letellia had apparently lost all interest in rock climbing; a moment later she vanished, materializing next to them as her dimension door closed behind her.

“So much for conserving our resources,” Calla said.

“You will be silent, unless I seek your counsel,” Talen said. The girl vampire shot a malevolent gaze at him, and stalked sullenly off, treading the narrow and treacherous lip of the crest as though it was a broad boulevard. Of course, she did not have to fear falling.

“I am sorry I did not help,” Varo said, coming up from a stone outcrop that jutted down and out over the water. There was more space to stand there, and Shay and two of the vampire bandits were perched on its edge, looking up at those on the crest. “I was distracted by the next problem.”

The cleric’s words drew their attention into the crater, where the surface of the small lake within glistened brightly in the light of their torches. The pool was over ninety feet long and sixty feet across, and if it extended as far down as the exterior of the mountain, it had to be over forty feet deep. There was no sign of the creature that Shay had spotted, but the water still seemed anything but inviting.

“Well, cleric, time to call upon your god,” Talen said. Varo ignored him, walking back down to the edge of the outcrop. Shay held her ground, but the vampire bandits took a step back as Varo lifted his divine focus from the chain around his neck, and held it out over the water.

”Dagos invotatus,” the cleric said, his voice pitched low, “Custodis divinus, open the way.”

The lake obeyed his command. The control water spell seemed to push the waters down and away, first one foot, two, and then more quickly, five feet, ten, fifteen, twenty. As the waters receded, they could see the steep inner slope of the caldera, slick with crusted growths and clinging moisture.

They also saw the lake’s inhabitant.

“Big sucker,” Needles said, his voice breaking off into a mad cackle. Talen shot a hard look at the former bandit, then back down.

The thing was big, over twenty-five feet from head to tail. It was a fish of some sort, its hide an ugly mottled gray, uneven and broken. At first they got only a quick look at it before it sank again below the water, but as Varo’s spell continued to press the surface down it emerged again, this time enough to recognize the distinctive fins protruding from its back and sides.

“A dire shark,” Shay said.

“It is not alive,” Allera said. As the body of the creature peaked above the surface they could see the truth of the healer’s words; there were great swathes along its body where the flesh had parted, revealing bones underneath. But the great shark continued to move, animated to serve as a guardian for this place.

Varo let out a tired sigh as the control water ended, leaving the level of the lake over thirty feet lower than where it had started. The lake had shrunk to a fraction of its original size, and was now barely large enough to hold the shark. It thrashed about in the limited space, revealing different parts of its body as it rose and fell beneath the reduced surface of the lake. As it lifted its head, they could see its milky white dead eyes, and jaws big enough to swallow a man whole without difficulty.

“All right, let’s kill that bastard,” Dar said, unlimbering his heavy bow. He’d lost his magical quiver, but he still had a small bundle of arrows he’d stashed in his pack.

“Arrows will not do much good,” Varo said. “It is a zombie; it will have to be hacked apart.”

The vampires, however, were already attacking, taking up large rocks and hurling them down upon the zombie. The undead bandits hooted in derision at the creature, and while most of the missiles splashed loudly in the water or glanced harmlessly off the flanks of the thing, at least one in the initial barrage scored a significant hit, sinking hard into the shark’s snout with enough force to crack the spongy cartilage.

Alderis lifted a wand, and started firing magic missiles into the creature. The glowing bolts streaked unerringly into the monster’s body, blasting pits into its rotting flesh. The elf’s expression seemed utterly absorbed, and he kept uttering the command word to the device, firing more and more of the magical darts into the caldera.

The shark, unable to escape, simply absorbed the barrage. Dar lowered his bow, and turned to Talen, who watched as his minions continued their attacks. Drudge and Utar nearly followed a boulder that they dislodged and rolled down into the pit; both vampires laughed as they pulled themselves back up from their precarious position. The boulder clattered loudly into the caldera, bouncing off of the cliff walls several times before it splashed loudly into the water adjacent to the shark’s tail.

“Any enemy within ten leagues is going to know we’re here, if they don’t already,” Dar said.

Talen laughed. “Let them have their fun. Do not fear; you will be fighting for your life soon enough. It is rare to face a foe in Rappan Athuk with an advantage such as this. You should savor the opportunity.”

Dar turned back as Hedder thrust past Allera, carrying a rock twice the size of his head. The vampire hurled it out over the pit; the ungainly missile plummeted down and hit the shark squarely in the center of its spine. The water around it cushioned the force of the impact, but they could see the stone jutting from its back, embedded in the battered frame of its body. More magic missiles blasted into it; at least a dozen blackened spots covered its body where Alderis’s shots had struck it.

Allera watched with a look of disgust; it was not clear whether her feelings were directed more at the vampires, or the undead monstrosity below. At one point she looked up to see Varo staring at her; the cleric nodded at her meaningfully.

Talen surprised them with a sudden yell. All of them spun to see the vampire knight draw his sword, and their surprise was eclipsed yet further as he leapt forward, out into pit. The armored vampire plummeted like a stone; below the shark, perhaps sensing the approach a foe within its reach, reared up, its clenching jaws turning the water around it into white froth. Talen struck it in the head between and above its eyes, and as he sank into its wasted body he brought his sword down in a blinding arc. There was a blur of movement, and then Talen was flung away. He hit the caldera wall hard, but landed on his feet, balancing on a steeply slanting rock shelf before gravity could pull him down and forward. Water sprayed over him from the shark’s frenetic thrashings. Half of its face had been shorn clear away; the entire upper part of its jaws were gone, and only one eye remained, clinging to a jagged strip of flesh. A few more rocks hit it, and a final blast of magic missiles, but it was clear they marked only the dénouement of the scene, as the zombie shark’s struggles were already fading. Finally its movements ceased, as the unholy force that had animated it fled.

Talen leapt down into water that swirled up to his chest. The shark carcass had sunk into the water, but it was clearly draining away, revealing more of the creature as it receded. Talen splashed around its body, finally stopping near a black slab sunk into the surrounding rock that became more visible as the waters fell. The slab was cracked, either by the shark’s death throes or by one of the boulders hurled down from above.

Talen laughed as he looked up at the others gathered around the caldera’s edge, fifty feet above. “Come on down,” he shouted up at them. “The water’s fine.”

 

[GrolloStoutfoam]

I remember an old variant rule, I think it was in Dragon, where you added a cumulative dice of damage with each 10' you fell. So 10' remained d6, but then 20' was 3d6, 30' 6d6, and so on until you hit terminal velocity (20d6) at 60'. I only used that system in one campaign, and it has its disadvantages, but it does make players less cavalier about things like pits.

I remember using a variant like that myself, falls should be dangerous no matter the PC level.

Talen laughed as he looked up at the others gathered around the caldera’s edge, fifty feet above. “Come on down,” he shouted up at them. “The water’s fine.”

That had me choking on my lager!

 

[Richard Rawen]

Ahhh, I've missed this! Few things are more embarrassing to a computer tech than having his own pc crash I've looked forward to being able to post, the story has been wild, mile-a-minute-ride as usual though the recent deeper posts have been appreciated as well.

A very unusual guardian, and portal for that matter... will have to store that one away
Thanks again for the writing!