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Story Hour
The Rise of Felskein [Completed]
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4737138" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p>Session 18, Part 4</p><p> </p><p><Note: Since I missed last week, here's an extra long one.></p><p></p><p> When they awoke from their makeshift camp around the base of the giant orc statue, Danovin Au was dead.</p><p></p><p> Kezzek stood, waiting impassively for Suniel to release the body he held to his chest so he could examine it. Harold took the news of the death as if Kezzek had said he'd found a weevil in a biscuit and had headed back to his favorite murals of the Crystal Towers. Perhaps the archer thought if he stared at them long enough, he could somehow unlock the secret of the Crystal Towers defenses.</p><p></p><p> Kormak was busy taking down his tent with brisk efficiency, humming a little tune as he did so. Kezzek was beginning to wonder what had the dwarf in such a good mood when Suniel finally released the body, striding to where Keeper stood gazing at the first Iron Sky mural of Keeper's “kin” marching into the blackness.</p><p></p><p> Kezzek knelt and gave Danovin's body a quick examination. There wasn't a single wound, but his blackened veins bulged against his skin. There was a faint foul smell about him, almost like a bog...</p><p></p><p> Suniel pushed Kezzek roughly away, pulled out a small knife, and slit open the veins in his son's arm as Kezzek and Keeper watched. </p><p></p><p> “Tell me what you know,” Suniel said, pointing at the wound he'd made as he stared back at Keeper.</p><p></p><p> Keeper knelt and touched the thick, viscous blood that slowly oozed out. The construct raised his hand before his eyes and rubbed the blood between his fingers. “Poison. Tar Blood it is called. Extremely rare.”</p><p></p><p> Kezzek quirked an eyebrow at Keeper's sudden alchemical knowledge just as the construct glanced up and met his eyes. “So says the Nexus.”</p><p></p><p> “Poison,” Suniel said. With no change in expression, he walked over to Kormak. “Show me your things, all of them.”</p><p></p><p> “Say what, your Elfiness?” Kormak said. “You have no right to-”</p><p></p><p> “Now,” Suniel said. “We found you along the lake not far from where someone killed Captain Elorn with their bare hands. Now my son is dead by poison. Kezzek is a Greywarden and poison is too subtle for Harold. That leaves you.”</p><p></p><p> “What about him?” Kormak said, pointing at Keeper.</p><p></p><p> “Rusty metal constructs are, of course, the most excellent silent poisoners,” Keeper said in his flat voice. Kezzek glanced at Keeper wondering again if the thing had a sense of humor hidden away somewhere.</p><p></p><p> “Show me your things,” Suniel said. “All of them, lay them out here. Now.”</p><p></p><p> Kormak's brow furrowed as he frowned and stood, shifting slightly into a fighting stance. Keeper and Kezzek stepped forward to Suniel's side immediately, Keeper's eyes sparking and Kezzek reaching for the hilt of his quor'rel.</p><p></p><p> “Whoa, easy fellas,” Kormak said raising his hands. “Just standing up to go get my things. Jeez, touchy touchy.”</p><p></p><p> A few minutes later, the dwarf's belongings lay strewn about the floor, the most damning evidence in Suniel's hands.</p><p></p><p> “What is this?” Suniel said, a sharp tone in his voice. “Explain this away dwarf, I dare you.”</p><p></p><p> Kormak shrugged. “It's a poison making kit.”</p><p></p><p> “And this?” Suniel said, holding up a vial with a few drops of liquid in it.</p><p></p><p> “It's a used poison vial. What's it look like it is?”</p><p></p><p> Kezzek reached forward and put an restraining hand on Suniel's arm before he blasted the dwarf into cinders. “Wait. Keeper, what type of poison is in the vial?”</p><p></p><p> He could feel the tension in Suniel's body; the elf was trembling with barely contained fury. Keeper took the vial and poured one of the last drops into his palm. “Blackbark venom,” he said, without hesitation. “It's a moderately rare Fey poison.”</p><p></p><p> “Are it's effects similar to Tar Blood?” Kezzek said.</p><p></p><p> The construct shook his head. “No, this would make the subject begin to cough up blood as the lining of the lungs dissolved, soon followed by-”</p><p></p><p> “Ok, I get it.” Kezzek pointed to the poisoner's kit. “Could Tar Blood be made with the chemicals and reagents in this?”</p><p></p><p> Keeper shook his head after a mere glance. “You don't make Tar Blood. It's naturally occurring, but only in a rare creature that primarily lives in tropical forests. There are a few varieties of them but all tend to favor the canopy layer and-”</p><p></p><p> “So, you're saying there's no evidence that Kormak has or was able to create Tar Blood?” Kezzek said.</p><p></p><p> “No.”</p><p></p><p> “He could have poisoned him and thrown the vial off the mountain!” Sunial said.</p><p></p><p> “So could I or Harold or even Keeper,” Kezzek said. "Capability does not mean culpability."</p><p></p><p> “I'm a poisoner, sure, but why would I want to kill your kid?” Kormak said. “He was practically a vegetable. Heck, my dog is probably smarter than Danovin was by the time you'd-”</p><p></p><p> “That's enough Kormak,” Kezzek said, stepping between the dwarf and the increasingly livid elf.</p><p></p><p> “We have no hard evidence here,” he said softly to Suniel. “Suspicion does not translate to guilt. It might be some enchantment Thessalock cast on him to keep him from leaving the Ashen Tower. Besides, I've examined the lift and it seems we must go all the way up before we can go down. We may need every one of us to fight whatever it is that is up there. Take a walk, cool down, Harold wants to be on the lift as soon as possible so we can get underway.”</p><p></p><p> Suniel stared at the ground, his jaw clenched. When he looked up, his eyes were so cold, it make Kezzek take a step back. The elf turned and knelt over his son again, hands clenched into fists.</p><p></p><p> Kezzek sighed and headed to gather his own things, glancing back at Kormak as he packed another oddity; an empty book and several dozen loose sheafs of parchment, carefully bound, with no sign of ink or quill among the dwarf's things.</p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> The tension was only somewhat abated as they rode the lift up the mountain, again encased in the shimmering metallic bubble. Kormak had spent the two additional days traveling up the side of the mountain sitting in his tent near the edge of the lift with Keeper standing watch over him day and night – or what they guessed day and night were in the near-constant dim glow of the bubble. </p><p></p><p>There had been a few flare ups between Kormak – demanding that Suniel keep Keeper away from him – and Suniel – countering that maybe Kormak should stop murdering people.</p><p></p><p> Harold shook his head at it all. Every day the Ashen Tower grew stronger and its threat to the Crystal Towers and the rest of Felskein grew, and they sat squabbling over the death of one of Thessalock's chief servants!</p><p></p><p>His dark musing were interrupted by a subtle sensation. The lift had stopped. He quickly woke everyone up.</p><p></p><p> “About time,” Kormak grumbled, with a sidelong glance at Suniel. “I'd rather face Danovin's white beast than spend another hour in here with his father.”</p><p></p><p> Suniel walked to the edge of the bubble, flanked by both constructs – he had taken to wearing the amulet that controlled Danovin's silver guardian. “Keeper, see what it's like on the other side.”</p><p></p><p> Keeper complied immediately, disappearing through the silver membrane, only to reappear seconds later covered with frost and snow. “It is five to ten feet tall out there,” Keeper said. “The wind would tear it away in an instant except that it is so cold the snow is more like ice. There is barely enough air for you living things. On the positive side, it looks like there is another large silver bubble only a few hundred feet away.”</p><p></p><p> “So, the plan is to cross a few hundred feet of snow and ice in a howling gale with no air so we can enter the lair of some unknown white beast that had a lieutenant of the Ashen Tower worried?” Kormak said. “Where do I sign up?”</p><p></p><p> “Right here,” Suniel said, without looking away from Keeper. “Do you think you and the guardian could clear a path for us?”</p><p></p><p> “We could, though it will take time and you will still face a certain degree of exposure.”</p><p></p><p> “Then do it.”</p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> Kormak pushed through the membrane, frozen to the bone and gasping for air. Harold was already ahead of him, bow drawn as he surveyed the broken ruins inside the calm of the bubble. Keeper emerged a second later, carrying an unconscious Suniel through and setting him on the bare dirt. <em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Serves him right,</em> Kormak thought, leaving Kezzek and the constructs to take care of him as he slipped into the remains of what seemed to be a small city, surprisingly not made of silversteel.</p><p></p><p> They had entered along a wide avenue with a noticeable incline up to a large pedestal with a massive black orb spinning above it. As he watched, the air around the orb seemed to shimmer and then pulse, a wave of barely visible energy shooting out horizontally in all directions from it. When it passed through Kormak, it felt like the rumble of an earthquake, a deep crystalline tone that he felt more than heard and that left his ears aching.</p><p></p><p> Moving silently through the rubble of the buildings consumed most of his attention, so by the time he crept into the remains of what seemed to be a temple beside the orb-pedestal, the others already stood before it. He glanced around, looking for the white beast Danovin had spoken of. There was no sign.</p><p></p><p>He was about to join the others when something huge passed less than ten feet over his head.</p><p></p><p> He hit the ground instinctively, looking up to see it land where the others had been standing, sending them scrambling away. He'd never seen one before, but he knew immediately that it was a dragon.</p><p></p><p> There was a vicious gleam in it's pure, icy blue eyes, it's white scales shining like jagged sheets of ice. A strange and unfortunately familiar harness was strapped across it's chest, bearing large purple crystals and a few of pale blue.</p><p></p><p> “What are you doing here?” it said, it's voice booming and breath steaming with cold in spite of the relative mildness inside the dome. “Only Dragons are allowed here, leave immediately.”</p><p></p><p> Suniel stepped out from behind a broken wall he had dodged behind. “We bear Gilderalin's mark.”</p><p></p><p> Harold joined the wizard, arrow knocked.</p><p></p><p> “I don't care if you have the mark of Garnaal or are Gilderalin's long-lost half-breed son, you're not a dragon, so you are not allowed here. Leave. Now.”</p><p></p><p> “Who is Garnaal?” Kezzek said, joining the others.</p><p></p><p> “Garnaal is the Dragon currently telling you to leave now or die here.”</p><p></p><p> “Can you at least tell us-” Suniel said.</p><p></p><p> “No! Leave, NOW!” Garnaal boomed.</p><p></p><p> “We were told that orb protected the Ashen Tower. Surely the Dragon Council doesn't-” Harold began.</p><p></p><p> One second his companions were trying to speak with the dragon that loomed over them, the next they were engulfed in a chill blast of freezing air and razor ice shards.</p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> Suniel gasped, staggered, and slipped through the rubble, his left side shredded by shards of ice and numb with cold. He glanced back to see the dragon tear into the guardian, claws slicing through the silver metal of its body like a sharp knife through cheese. Garnaal snarled and spun around as arrows flew at it from the other direction and unleashed another blast of its terrible breath. The arrows stopped.</p><p></p><p> Suniel halted for a second and threw his most powerful spell at the dragon – the same one he had used so effectively on his son three days before. Garnaal shook it off and turned to scan the ruins in Suniel's direction, keen eyes sweeping the broken and tumbled buildings. It had almost spotted him when Kezzek attacked it from another direction, slashing with his quor'rel.</p><p> </p><p>Suniel took the opportunity to duck low and scramble to a new position, finding a set of partially intact stairs that led to the mostly demolished upper floor of what might have been a barracks. He stepped out onto a crumbling balcony in time to see Kormak tear a handful of scales of the dragon's flank with his bare hands, hammering the spot hard with his knees and elbows.</p><p></p><p> Garnaal spun and sent him flying with a swipe of his tail and launched into the air, blasting Keeper, Kezzek, and the guardian with another blast of his breath as he rose. Suniel chanted quickly to counter and the air all around the dragon exploded in flame.</p><p></p><p> It roared and dove upon him before the fire had even cleared, slamming into the balcony and sending Suniel slamming into the ground amidst a rain of rubble. He pulled himself free in time to see the dragon disappear through the shimmering dome that encased them.</p><p></p><p> “Ready yourselves,” Harold called from somewhere out in the battlefield. “It will return!”</p><p></p><p> A moment later it did so, meeting a hail of arrows and another blast of fire as it did so. It spotted someone amidst the rubble and scoured another bit of the ruin with its breath then broke off, pumping its huge wings, and rising towards the shimmering silver again.</p><p></p><p> Arrows flew from two directions now and Suniel saw their intent; arrows pierced or punctured its wings again and again. With a chant and a gesture, Suniel blasted its nearest wing and the dragon tumbled down, crashing into the domed roof of a mostly intact building. The structure shattered into bits of rock and dust, the impact of Garnaal's fall felt even from Suniel's distance.</p><p></p><p> “It wore a harness, even if it died in the fall, be ready!” Suniel shouted as he half-stumbled, half-ran through the ruins towards where the dragon had fallen.</p><p></p><p> The dust still swirled about as he neared the shattered structure and he slowed to a cautious walk. He heard the muffled movements of the others somewhere around him, but mostly there was silence, profound after the din of battle and the roars of the dragon.</p><p></p><p> There was a sudden explosion of movement and he hit the ground just in time as the silver guardian flew through the air past him and slammed into a wall that immediately collapsed upon it. Suniel looked up to see dragon launch up out of the dust, the beat of it'\s wings parting the dust in swirling clouds.</p><p></p><p> It was Garnaal, but different. The distinct smell of undeath was upon it and already scales began to flake off, like ice breaking off a glacier. Its neck was twisted and contorted, clearly broken by the fall. It rose to the air and hovered for a moment, dead eyes peering down at the figures emerging from the settling dust. It opened its mouth wide, jaw distending grotesquely, pulled in its wings, and dove, heading straight for Suniel.</p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> Kezzek buried his quor'rel so deep into the thing's side that a whole section of scaled hide came away, already-blackening organs spilling out all over him, entangling him and causing him to slip. The undead dragon, without even looking, reached back with an arm at an angle that would have been impossible if it had been alive, and slashed him. He swung and cut off several fingers at a joint, only to be caught in a backhand swing that sent him headlong into a wall.</p><p></p><p> He shook his head to clear it and rolled aside on instinct as its tail powdered some of the bricks he had been lying among and sent fragments of others flying in all directions. A leap and a roll took him over a low wall and he circled around the still-intact corner of another building, looking to approach the monstrosity from another direction. The others shouted and cursed and the occasional fragment of chant or incantation could be heard from Suniel over the din of battle, but the dragon was silent, apart from the thunderous sounds of the destruction it wrought.</p><p></p><p> Reaching another avenue to the plaza where the fight was currently be waged, Kezzek roared, sprinted, and leapt onto the thing's back. He slashed twice, then held on as it thrashed and twisted to dislodge him. Kormak ran in front of it shouting and it turned on the dwarf long enough for Kezzek to get to his feet. He ran up its back, somehow keeping his footing as scales slipped and tore out under his feet, arrows flew by, and the beast thrashed and turned as it was attacked on all sides. It turned on him as he reached the joints where its wings met it shoulders.</p><p></p><p> Its terrible lifeless gaze met his and it unfurled its wings around Kezzek, a rasping low hiss escaping from it as its neck turned around at an impossible angle. Kezzek didn't slow, planting one foot on the bony arch of its wing and launching into the air. It's head snapped down, distended jaw slavering blood and ichor, but the bones of its neck cracked, shifted, and locked causing it to snap closed just short of Kezzek.</p><p></p><p> He brought one point of his quor'rel down into the center of its forehead with both hands, half-fearing the blade would shatter on the reinforced bone of the dragon's heavy brow. Instead, the quor'rel buried into it up to the hilt, his momentum causing its neck to crack and shatter in several places. Kezzek landed hard in the rubble as its body fell heavily beside him, blood and viscera spilling from dozens of wounds.</p><p></p><p> It spasmed and twitched a few times and lay still.</p><p></p><p>Kezzek wearily got to his feet and walked to where his quor'rel was still buried in its head. With a jerk and a twist he pulled it free, looking about and nodding to the others that emerged from the wreck and rubble all round. “I think we got it finally,” he said.</p><p></p><p> “No, the harness, there's-” Suniel shouted, scrambling towards him over a mound of loose debris.</p><p></p><p> The dragon shuddered and Kezzek spun to face it, too late.</p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> Harold could only stare in terrible awe as the dragon's skeleton tore free from its shredded hide, a long wing bone shooting out and impaling the Greywarden.</p><p></p><p> He cursed and took aim with a sinking feeling, knowing his arrows would do little to the beast in its new form. One arrow sunk into a rib, but two others glanced off bone and the skeletal dragon turned on him, moving with surprising speed, using its now-fleshless wings like an insect's extra legs to propel itself over the rubble. Harold wove and dodged, ducking through alleys and under crumbling archways as it pursued him, turning and firing whenever he could.</p><p></p><p> At one point, Kormak appeared out of nowhere and shattered one of its rear legs, but it barely slowed. Keeper blasted it with lightning from his eyes and Suniel hurled another small blast of fire that splintered a dozen of its ribs.</p><p> </p><p>Harold took another turn and was suddenly out of the ruins, running headlong towards the shimmering silver of the bubble. Sounds of bone scraping on rock came close behind him and he ran harder, lungs burning. When he was nearly to the shimmering wall, he slid to a stop and spun about and raised his bow, just in time to see the dragon scramble over the last building like some obscene insect. It rose up, swaying, until its empty eye-sockets found Harold.</p><p></p><p> Debris flew away behind it as it scrabbled off the tumbling walls and launched towards him, but it was met in mid-air by an explosion that sent if flying off course. Chunks of bone and strips of clinging flesh fell as it rolled through the dirt and landed heavily on its back, but even then it didn't stop. Instead, it's arms and legs reversed clumsily and it came at him upside down, using its wings and even its tail like extra legs as it charged.</p><p></p><p> He held the last arrow knocked, the last few seconds as it hurled towards him seeming to slow to an eternity. <em>There is nothing I can do</em>, he thought numbly. <em>One arrow will do nothing.</em></p><p></p><p> Then he saw a black crystal embedded on the inside of its skull, glinting in the reflection of the silver bubble behind him. He took a breath, looked down the arrow shaft, and loosed.</p><p></p><p> His arrow passed through the empty eye-socket. He took two running steps and leapt out of the way as the thing's head exploded, its breaking, stumbling, and crumbling mass crashing through the space he'd been standing in a second earlier. He hit the ground, rolled, and came to his feet, only to be hurled from his feet again as the dragon's whole body exploded in a whistling cloud of bony splinters...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 4737138, member: 60965"] Session 18, Part 4 <Note: Since I missed last week, here's an extra long one.> When they awoke from their makeshift camp around the base of the giant orc statue, Danovin Au was dead. Kezzek stood, waiting impassively for Suniel to release the body he held to his chest so he could examine it. Harold took the news of the death as if Kezzek had said he'd found a weevil in a biscuit and had headed back to his favorite murals of the Crystal Towers. Perhaps the archer thought if he stared at them long enough, he could somehow unlock the secret of the Crystal Towers defenses. Kormak was busy taking down his tent with brisk efficiency, humming a little tune as he did so. Kezzek was beginning to wonder what had the dwarf in such a good mood when Suniel finally released the body, striding to where Keeper stood gazing at the first Iron Sky mural of Keeper's “kin” marching into the blackness. Kezzek knelt and gave Danovin's body a quick examination. There wasn't a single wound, but his blackened veins bulged against his skin. There was a faint foul smell about him, almost like a bog... Suniel pushed Kezzek roughly away, pulled out a small knife, and slit open the veins in his son's arm as Kezzek and Keeper watched. “Tell me what you know,” Suniel said, pointing at the wound he'd made as he stared back at Keeper. Keeper knelt and touched the thick, viscous blood that slowly oozed out. The construct raised his hand before his eyes and rubbed the blood between his fingers. “Poison. Tar Blood it is called. Extremely rare.” Kezzek quirked an eyebrow at Keeper's sudden alchemical knowledge just as the construct glanced up and met his eyes. “So says the Nexus.” “Poison,” Suniel said. With no change in expression, he walked over to Kormak. “Show me your things, all of them.” “Say what, your Elfiness?” Kormak said. “You have no right to-” “Now,” Suniel said. “We found you along the lake not far from where someone killed Captain Elorn with their bare hands. Now my son is dead by poison. Kezzek is a Greywarden and poison is too subtle for Harold. That leaves you.” “What about him?” Kormak said, pointing at Keeper. “Rusty metal constructs are, of course, the most excellent silent poisoners,” Keeper said in his flat voice. Kezzek glanced at Keeper wondering again if the thing had a sense of humor hidden away somewhere. “Show me your things,” Suniel said. “All of them, lay them out here. Now.” Kormak's brow furrowed as he frowned and stood, shifting slightly into a fighting stance. Keeper and Kezzek stepped forward to Suniel's side immediately, Keeper's eyes sparking and Kezzek reaching for the hilt of his quor'rel. “Whoa, easy fellas,” Kormak said raising his hands. “Just standing up to go get my things. Jeez, touchy touchy.” A few minutes later, the dwarf's belongings lay strewn about the floor, the most damning evidence in Suniel's hands. “What is this?” Suniel said, a sharp tone in his voice. “Explain this away dwarf, I dare you.” Kormak shrugged. “It's a poison making kit.” “And this?” Suniel said, holding up a vial with a few drops of liquid in it. “It's a used poison vial. What's it look like it is?” Kezzek reached forward and put an restraining hand on Suniel's arm before he blasted the dwarf into cinders. “Wait. Keeper, what type of poison is in the vial?” He could feel the tension in Suniel's body; the elf was trembling with barely contained fury. Keeper took the vial and poured one of the last drops into his palm. “Blackbark venom,” he said, without hesitation. “It's a moderately rare Fey poison.” “Are it's effects similar to Tar Blood?” Kezzek said. The construct shook his head. “No, this would make the subject begin to cough up blood as the lining of the lungs dissolved, soon followed by-” “Ok, I get it.” Kezzek pointed to the poisoner's kit. “Could Tar Blood be made with the chemicals and reagents in this?” Keeper shook his head after a mere glance. “You don't make Tar Blood. It's naturally occurring, but only in a rare creature that primarily lives in tropical forests. There are a few varieties of them but all tend to favor the canopy layer and-” “So, you're saying there's no evidence that Kormak has or was able to create Tar Blood?” Kezzek said. “No.” “He could have poisoned him and thrown the vial off the mountain!” Sunial said. “So could I or Harold or even Keeper,” Kezzek said. "Capability does not mean culpability." “I'm a poisoner, sure, but why would I want to kill your kid?” Kormak said. “He was practically a vegetable. Heck, my dog is probably smarter than Danovin was by the time you'd-” “That's enough Kormak,” Kezzek said, stepping between the dwarf and the increasingly livid elf. “We have no hard evidence here,” he said softly to Suniel. “Suspicion does not translate to guilt. It might be some enchantment Thessalock cast on him to keep him from leaving the Ashen Tower. Besides, I've examined the lift and it seems we must go all the way up before we can go down. We may need every one of us to fight whatever it is that is up there. Take a walk, cool down, Harold wants to be on the lift as soon as possible so we can get underway.” Suniel stared at the ground, his jaw clenched. When he looked up, his eyes were so cold, it make Kezzek take a step back. The elf turned and knelt over his son again, hands clenched into fists. Kezzek sighed and headed to gather his own things, glancing back at Kormak as he packed another oddity; an empty book and several dozen loose sheafs of parchment, carefully bound, with no sign of ink or quill among the dwarf's things. *** The tension was only somewhat abated as they rode the lift up the mountain, again encased in the shimmering metallic bubble. Kormak had spent the two additional days traveling up the side of the mountain sitting in his tent near the edge of the lift with Keeper standing watch over him day and night – or what they guessed day and night were in the near-constant dim glow of the bubble. There had been a few flare ups between Kormak – demanding that Suniel keep Keeper away from him – and Suniel – countering that maybe Kormak should stop murdering people. Harold shook his head at it all. Every day the Ashen Tower grew stronger and its threat to the Crystal Towers and the rest of Felskein grew, and they sat squabbling over the death of one of Thessalock's chief servants! His dark musing were interrupted by a subtle sensation. The lift had stopped. He quickly woke everyone up. “About time,” Kormak grumbled, with a sidelong glance at Suniel. “I'd rather face Danovin's white beast than spend another hour in here with his father.” Suniel walked to the edge of the bubble, flanked by both constructs – he had taken to wearing the amulet that controlled Danovin's silver guardian. “Keeper, see what it's like on the other side.” Keeper complied immediately, disappearing through the silver membrane, only to reappear seconds later covered with frost and snow. “It is five to ten feet tall out there,” Keeper said. “The wind would tear it away in an instant except that it is so cold the snow is more like ice. There is barely enough air for you living things. On the positive side, it looks like there is another large silver bubble only a few hundred feet away.” “So, the plan is to cross a few hundred feet of snow and ice in a howling gale with no air so we can enter the lair of some unknown white beast that had a lieutenant of the Ashen Tower worried?” Kormak said. “Where do I sign up?” “Right here,” Suniel said, without looking away from Keeper. “Do you think you and the guardian could clear a path for us?” “We could, though it will take time and you will still face a certain degree of exposure.” “Then do it.” *** Kormak pushed through the membrane, frozen to the bone and gasping for air. Harold was already ahead of him, bow drawn as he surveyed the broken ruins inside the calm of the bubble. Keeper emerged a second later, carrying an unconscious Suniel through and setting him on the bare dirt. [I] Serves him right,[/I] Kormak thought, leaving Kezzek and the constructs to take care of him as he slipped into the remains of what seemed to be a small city, surprisingly not made of silversteel. They had entered along a wide avenue with a noticeable incline up to a large pedestal with a massive black orb spinning above it. As he watched, the air around the orb seemed to shimmer and then pulse, a wave of barely visible energy shooting out horizontally in all directions from it. When it passed through Kormak, it felt like the rumble of an earthquake, a deep crystalline tone that he felt more than heard and that left his ears aching. Moving silently through the rubble of the buildings consumed most of his attention, so by the time he crept into the remains of what seemed to be a temple beside the orb-pedestal, the others already stood before it. He glanced around, looking for the white beast Danovin had spoken of. There was no sign. He was about to join the others when something huge passed less than ten feet over his head. He hit the ground instinctively, looking up to see it land where the others had been standing, sending them scrambling away. He'd never seen one before, but he knew immediately that it was a dragon. There was a vicious gleam in it's pure, icy blue eyes, it's white scales shining like jagged sheets of ice. A strange and unfortunately familiar harness was strapped across it's chest, bearing large purple crystals and a few of pale blue. “What are you doing here?” it said, it's voice booming and breath steaming with cold in spite of the relative mildness inside the dome. “Only Dragons are allowed here, leave immediately.” Suniel stepped out from behind a broken wall he had dodged behind. “We bear Gilderalin's mark.” Harold joined the wizard, arrow knocked. “I don't care if you have the mark of Garnaal or are Gilderalin's long-lost half-breed son, you're not a dragon, so you are not allowed here. Leave. Now.” “Who is Garnaal?” Kezzek said, joining the others. “Garnaal is the Dragon currently telling you to leave now or die here.” “Can you at least tell us-” Suniel said. “No! Leave, NOW!” Garnaal boomed. “We were told that orb protected the Ashen Tower. Surely the Dragon Council doesn't-” Harold began. One second his companions were trying to speak with the dragon that loomed over them, the next they were engulfed in a chill blast of freezing air and razor ice shards. *** Suniel gasped, staggered, and slipped through the rubble, his left side shredded by shards of ice and numb with cold. He glanced back to see the dragon tear into the guardian, claws slicing through the silver metal of its body like a sharp knife through cheese. Garnaal snarled and spun around as arrows flew at it from the other direction and unleashed another blast of its terrible breath. The arrows stopped. Suniel halted for a second and threw his most powerful spell at the dragon – the same one he had used so effectively on his son three days before. Garnaal shook it off and turned to scan the ruins in Suniel's direction, keen eyes sweeping the broken and tumbled buildings. It had almost spotted him when Kezzek attacked it from another direction, slashing with his quor'rel. Suniel took the opportunity to duck low and scramble to a new position, finding a set of partially intact stairs that led to the mostly demolished upper floor of what might have been a barracks. He stepped out onto a crumbling balcony in time to see Kormak tear a handful of scales of the dragon's flank with his bare hands, hammering the spot hard with his knees and elbows. Garnaal spun and sent him flying with a swipe of his tail and launched into the air, blasting Keeper, Kezzek, and the guardian with another blast of his breath as he rose. Suniel chanted quickly to counter and the air all around the dragon exploded in flame. It roared and dove upon him before the fire had even cleared, slamming into the balcony and sending Suniel slamming into the ground amidst a rain of rubble. He pulled himself free in time to see the dragon disappear through the shimmering dome that encased them. “Ready yourselves,” Harold called from somewhere out in the battlefield. “It will return!” A moment later it did so, meeting a hail of arrows and another blast of fire as it did so. It spotted someone amidst the rubble and scoured another bit of the ruin with its breath then broke off, pumping its huge wings, and rising towards the shimmering silver again. Arrows flew from two directions now and Suniel saw their intent; arrows pierced or punctured its wings again and again. With a chant and a gesture, Suniel blasted its nearest wing and the dragon tumbled down, crashing into the domed roof of a mostly intact building. The structure shattered into bits of rock and dust, the impact of Garnaal's fall felt even from Suniel's distance. “It wore a harness, even if it died in the fall, be ready!” Suniel shouted as he half-stumbled, half-ran through the ruins towards where the dragon had fallen. The dust still swirled about as he neared the shattered structure and he slowed to a cautious walk. He heard the muffled movements of the others somewhere around him, but mostly there was silence, profound after the din of battle and the roars of the dragon. There was a sudden explosion of movement and he hit the ground just in time as the silver guardian flew through the air past him and slammed into a wall that immediately collapsed upon it. Suniel looked up to see dragon launch up out of the dust, the beat of it'\s wings parting the dust in swirling clouds. It was Garnaal, but different. The distinct smell of undeath was upon it and already scales began to flake off, like ice breaking off a glacier. Its neck was twisted and contorted, clearly broken by the fall. It rose to the air and hovered for a moment, dead eyes peering down at the figures emerging from the settling dust. It opened its mouth wide, jaw distending grotesquely, pulled in its wings, and dove, heading straight for Suniel. *** Kezzek buried his quor'rel so deep into the thing's side that a whole section of scaled hide came away, already-blackening organs spilling out all over him, entangling him and causing him to slip. The undead dragon, without even looking, reached back with an arm at an angle that would have been impossible if it had been alive, and slashed him. He swung and cut off several fingers at a joint, only to be caught in a backhand swing that sent him headlong into a wall. He shook his head to clear it and rolled aside on instinct as its tail powdered some of the bricks he had been lying among and sent fragments of others flying in all directions. A leap and a roll took him over a low wall and he circled around the still-intact corner of another building, looking to approach the monstrosity from another direction. The others shouted and cursed and the occasional fragment of chant or incantation could be heard from Suniel over the din of battle, but the dragon was silent, apart from the thunderous sounds of the destruction it wrought. Reaching another avenue to the plaza where the fight was currently be waged, Kezzek roared, sprinted, and leapt onto the thing's back. He slashed twice, then held on as it thrashed and twisted to dislodge him. Kormak ran in front of it shouting and it turned on the dwarf long enough for Kezzek to get to his feet. He ran up its back, somehow keeping his footing as scales slipped and tore out under his feet, arrows flew by, and the beast thrashed and turned as it was attacked on all sides. It turned on him as he reached the joints where its wings met it shoulders. Its terrible lifeless gaze met his and it unfurled its wings around Kezzek, a rasping low hiss escaping from it as its neck turned around at an impossible angle. Kezzek didn't slow, planting one foot on the bony arch of its wing and launching into the air. It's head snapped down, distended jaw slavering blood and ichor, but the bones of its neck cracked, shifted, and locked causing it to snap closed just short of Kezzek. He brought one point of his quor'rel down into the center of its forehead with both hands, half-fearing the blade would shatter on the reinforced bone of the dragon's heavy brow. Instead, the quor'rel buried into it up to the hilt, his momentum causing its neck to crack and shatter in several places. Kezzek landed hard in the rubble as its body fell heavily beside him, blood and viscera spilling from dozens of wounds. It spasmed and twitched a few times and lay still. Kezzek wearily got to his feet and walked to where his quor'rel was still buried in its head. With a jerk and a twist he pulled it free, looking about and nodding to the others that emerged from the wreck and rubble all round. “I think we got it finally,” he said. “No, the harness, there's-” Suniel shouted, scrambling towards him over a mound of loose debris. The dragon shuddered and Kezzek spun to face it, too late. *** Harold could only stare in terrible awe as the dragon's skeleton tore free from its shredded hide, a long wing bone shooting out and impaling the Greywarden. He cursed and took aim with a sinking feeling, knowing his arrows would do little to the beast in its new form. One arrow sunk into a rib, but two others glanced off bone and the skeletal dragon turned on him, moving with surprising speed, using its now-fleshless wings like an insect's extra legs to propel itself over the rubble. Harold wove and dodged, ducking through alleys and under crumbling archways as it pursued him, turning and firing whenever he could. At one point, Kormak appeared out of nowhere and shattered one of its rear legs, but it barely slowed. Keeper blasted it with lightning from his eyes and Suniel hurled another small blast of fire that splintered a dozen of its ribs. Harold took another turn and was suddenly out of the ruins, running headlong towards the shimmering silver of the bubble. Sounds of bone scraping on rock came close behind him and he ran harder, lungs burning. When he was nearly to the shimmering wall, he slid to a stop and spun about and raised his bow, just in time to see the dragon scramble over the last building like some obscene insect. It rose up, swaying, until its empty eye-sockets found Harold. Debris flew away behind it as it scrabbled off the tumbling walls and launched towards him, but it was met in mid-air by an explosion that sent if flying off course. Chunks of bone and strips of clinging flesh fell as it rolled through the dirt and landed heavily on its back, but even then it didn't stop. Instead, it's arms and legs reversed clumsily and it came at him upside down, using its wings and even its tail like extra legs as it charged. He held the last arrow knocked, the last few seconds as it hurled towards him seeming to slow to an eternity. [I]There is nothing I can do[/I], he thought numbly. [I]One arrow will do nothing.[/I] Then he saw a black crystal embedded on the inside of its skull, glinting in the reflection of the silver bubble behind him. He took a breath, looked down the arrow shaft, and loosed. His arrow passed through the empty eye-socket. He took two running steps and leapt out of the way as the thing's head exploded, its breaking, stumbling, and crumbling mass crashing through the space he'd been standing in a second earlier. He hit the ground, rolled, and came to his feet, only to be hurled from his feet again as the dragon's whole body exploded in a whistling cloud of bony splinters... [/QUOTE]
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