Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
“Uh… Flynne… Flynne, I wish you hadn’t done that…”
There was a massive rush of air and a blurring of magic, as one of the artefacts I had activated a few hours earlier was triggered. The tiny forms beneath us flowed backwards like a tide into the body of the ziggurat, and Kyuss’ baleful wrath was removed from Flynne. The god formed seamlessly back into the side of the tower as my elven comrade stepped back from the tower-top and into the air.
A vast globe of blackness receded across the city, restoring life to hundreds, perhaps thousands, as it formed back into the ziggurat, and there was another rush of air as we all descended to earth.
.oOo.
Puzzled, we stood there, with an equally confused griffon circling over our heads.
Flynne indicated to head for the roof, and took flight.
“No!” We all yelled, and then wondered why.
“I just have a bad feeling about it,” explained Bob, and we all nodded in agreement, sharing a sinister sense of deja-vu. Then we turned to look at the closest entrance to the ziggurat.
.oOo.
We entered through a 40 foot colonnade into an atrium, where 2 twelve foot high statues of Kyuss stood on either side of a wide archway into a larger chamber beyond.
Alcoves on either side of the atrium held staircases which spiralled upwards.
Janga moved towards the atrium, and a torrent of worms sprayed from the mouths of the two statues to pool and then mass in front of them. The mound of worms began to condense and become taller, taking shape.
Flynne yelled something, and a torrent of flame filled the room, leaving them smoking but largely unaffected; they continued to get taller and form into creatures the size of ogres, with bat-wings; even as they were still forming, Bob was filling one with arrows.
Clutching my Staff of the Magi, I began a spell of summoning, as two vampires simply stepped from the shadows. Yelling shrilly, they unleashed a series of rapid blows with kamas at Bob and Flynne.
Confidently, Janga turned and cast a spell, slapping one of the vampires on the shoulder, and it burst into dust, collapsing instantly.
Not to be out-done, Flynne fired a series of arrows at one of the ogre-beasts, which slammed into its half-formed skull and tore deeply, killing the creature instantly.
To his left, Bob stepped back from the closest opponent, and fired repeatedly into the chest of the surviving vampire, seriously wounding it.
Completing my spell of summoning, I began to sing, as two massive celestial triceratops materialised into the thick of the melee. One smashed into the now fully-formed cornugon devil, whilst the second drove its horn deeply into the wounded vampire’s chest, turning it to dust in an instant.
The cornugon roared, and whirled a tremendous spiked chain around like a dervish, opening a series of terrible wounds across the back and sides of the closer triceratops. Meanwhile, two hidden and worm-covered Kyuss knights leapt from the shadowy side passageways to hack at the injured triceratops and Bob.
The triceratops was nearly destroyed in the onslaught, whilst Bob managed to leap aside from the undead knight’s heavy blade.
Flynne carried on shooting at the cornugon, leaving several arrows deeply embedded in its scaly hide, whilst Bob backed away firing steadily at the newly arrived Kyuss-knight. The triceratops slashed out once again, and then I triggered a magical staff, blasting into the cornugon with powerful daylight (and blinding the recently summoned and heavily injured triceratops which was in my way).
The devil strode past the blinded and heavily injured triceratops, lashing out at Flynne with the chain and firing a tremendous blast of lightning which the black-scaled elf avoided almost contemptuously. He and Bob continued to duck and dodge away from the heavy blades of the knights. Both of them backed away, continuing to pile arrows into the undead; one of them collapsed under the onslaught, and they both switched targets without so much as batting an eyelid. It fell to the ground in turn.
The triceratops got in the way as I scorched the cornugon with a second sunbeam, and then as it launched into another onslaught, the archers systematically shot it to pieces.
.oOo.
Pausing to heal and dismiss the wounded and blind celestials, we moved into the heart of the base of the ziggurat.
In the centre of a huge 30 foot high vaulted chamber was a shrine ringed with candles. Before it stood three large fierce-looking figures which turned their beautiful faces to snarl at us as they unfurled feathered wings. Between them stood Lashonna wearing a green velvet gown. She turned, and smiled a cruel and haughty smile at Flynne who had done his best to sneak into the room ahead of us.
“Ah, Flynne,” she smiled as waves of magic pulsed over us all. Thank you for aiding me in destroying that dusty old dracolich and leaving me to take my place as Kyuss’ greatest servant.
“I have a proposal – have you considered switching sides?”
There was something subtly wrong with her intonation as she spoke, and I was suddenly aware of the mind-protecting Champion’s Belt Flynne wore glowing brightly under a sudden onslaught.
Flynne turned and beckoned us all in.
“Kneel now and submit to the Wormgod,” Lashonna told us. “I promise you that you shall each become a captain in Kyuss’ army, answering only to me. Nothing will be denied to you…”
More magic washed through the room, thwarted only by the layer upon layer of mystical protections we had set upon ourselves.
“Interesting,” I said; trying to buy time for my comrades and insinuating my own words with a power of encouragement to my comrades. “We know you were once a true and noble creature prepared to lay down her life to thwart Dragotha. We saw you deny him his victory a thousand years ago; what were you offered to turn your back on so much… nobility?”
She snarled at me, and began to reply when Flynne became bored. The short-tempered elf ripped arrows from his quiver – and all hell broke loose.
.oOo.
Before the quick-witted elf could so much as aim his bow, Lashonna exploded into action; opening her elven mouth wide and blasting us all with freezing air. I managed to leap aside, but the others were coated with a layer of frost.
Trying to help my comrades, I triggered a rapid spell of hastening and then screaming a powerful spell at the elfin dragon and the three angels. The spell only took effect on one of them, which suddenly looked dazed and confused, whilst feathers were blasted off the others under the sonic onslaught.
Lashonna merely stood there, totally unruffled.
Bob fired at her, and every single one of his six arrows glanced off her preternaturally tough flesh or the thick layers of magical protection around her.
The two moving angels leapt forwards, gliding on their long wings to attack Bob and Janga with glowing longswords. Bob ducked, but Janga was cut deeply with the razor-edged blade I somehow recognized instinctively as a legendary vorpal blade.
Flynne fired arrow after arrow into the stunned angel, leaving it hideously wounded, but still standing, whilst Janga cast a dispelling enchantment onto the elfin figure of Lashonna – the spell failed completely, sparking off some deep and unknown protective spell. He then took to the air, taking another blow from the vorpal sword of the fallen angel as he did so. Once positioned between the many targets, and safely away from the rest of us non-believers, he spoke a tremendous word of power.
Nothing happened.
The diminutive cleric followed up the holy word with a swearword.
Lashonna spat words of her own, ensnaring Flynne and I in a web of energy which dazzled us both. As I blinked away stars, I dimly saw Bob leaping aside and shooting at an angel, which still stood under the onslaught and swung back at him, cutting deeply.
A red-eyed angel narrowly missed Flynne, and the third took flight to land next to me, stabbing my shoulder with a rune-edged weapon. The pain brought me abruptly back to reality, and I saw Janga flying back through the air to heal Bob and then touch his temples and squint as he cast a spell of immense power at the nearest angel.
Which failed totally to implode.
Lashonna, meanwhile, twisted and grew, her gown fluttering to the floor as she swelled to tremendous size as a huge true silver dragon.
Puling my enchanted rapier free from its scabbard, I stabbed at the angel attacking me, triggering its power to leech away the life-force of the fallen celestial being. The damage to it was tremendous, and I could see life fluttering in its greying flesh and dimming eyes, but the creature stood firm and readied for another onslaught.
As Bob’s tiny arrows struck home in his closest angelic target, ‘my’ angel slashed two more deep wounds across my sides. Meanwhile, Flynne ducked and weaved away from his, whilst the third lashed out with its vorpal blade, and abruptly Janga’s head fell free from his still-flying body.
Our cleric was dead, and all our foes still faced us.
.oOo.
Yelling in anger, Flynne shot down one target, and then spun on his feet to slay the angel close to me as well. He spun once again and fired three long arrows into the back of the last angel, which staggered across the wide pool of Janga’s blood.
In her long-necked dragon form, Lashonna stepped away from the altar, and began to lash and snap at the nimble archer, who was unable to dodge the many blows and collapsed heavily to the floor.
Triggering a magic ring I had been wearing for many months, I blazed across the room as a blast of lightning to land by Janga, sprinkling liquids from a specially prepared and massively powerful flask, distilled from the liquid at the centre of the legendary philosopher’s stone to give Janga back his life. Over our heads, Bob fired still more arrows into the angel just 10 feet away, and it collapsed to the floor.
Janga flew back across the room to Flynne and cast a spell of his own, bringing him back from death’s door.
As Flynne struggled back to his feet, Lashonna got angry. She slammed and hacked at Janga, leaving him covered in his own blood and staggering on the spot; at which point she spat out the words to a meagre spell which sent 5 small darts of energy to slam into the armoured cleric. The last slammed through his helmet and skull and he collapsed back onto the floor, mere seconds after I had resurrected him by expending an artefact.
And I didn’t have another one, either.
There was a massive rush of air and a blurring of magic, as one of the artefacts I had activated a few hours earlier was triggered. The tiny forms beneath us flowed backwards like a tide into the body of the ziggurat, and Kyuss’ baleful wrath was removed from Flynne. The god formed seamlessly back into the side of the tower as my elven comrade stepped back from the tower-top and into the air.
A vast globe of blackness receded across the city, restoring life to hundreds, perhaps thousands, as it formed back into the ziggurat, and there was another rush of air as we all descended to earth.
.oOo.
Puzzled, we stood there, with an equally confused griffon circling over our heads.
Flynne indicated to head for the roof, and took flight.
“No!” We all yelled, and then wondered why.
“I just have a bad feeling about it,” explained Bob, and we all nodded in agreement, sharing a sinister sense of deja-vu. Then we turned to look at the closest entrance to the ziggurat.
.oOo.
We entered through a 40 foot colonnade into an atrium, where 2 twelve foot high statues of Kyuss stood on either side of a wide archway into a larger chamber beyond.
Alcoves on either side of the atrium held staircases which spiralled upwards.
Janga moved towards the atrium, and a torrent of worms sprayed from the mouths of the two statues to pool and then mass in front of them. The mound of worms began to condense and become taller, taking shape.
Flynne yelled something, and a torrent of flame filled the room, leaving them smoking but largely unaffected; they continued to get taller and form into creatures the size of ogres, with bat-wings; even as they were still forming, Bob was filling one with arrows.
Clutching my Staff of the Magi, I began a spell of summoning, as two vampires simply stepped from the shadows. Yelling shrilly, they unleashed a series of rapid blows with kamas at Bob and Flynne.
Confidently, Janga turned and cast a spell, slapping one of the vampires on the shoulder, and it burst into dust, collapsing instantly.
Not to be out-done, Flynne fired a series of arrows at one of the ogre-beasts, which slammed into its half-formed skull and tore deeply, killing the creature instantly.
To his left, Bob stepped back from the closest opponent, and fired repeatedly into the chest of the surviving vampire, seriously wounding it.
Completing my spell of summoning, I began to sing, as two massive celestial triceratops materialised into the thick of the melee. One smashed into the now fully-formed cornugon devil, whilst the second drove its horn deeply into the wounded vampire’s chest, turning it to dust in an instant.
The cornugon roared, and whirled a tremendous spiked chain around like a dervish, opening a series of terrible wounds across the back and sides of the closer triceratops. Meanwhile, two hidden and worm-covered Kyuss knights leapt from the shadowy side passageways to hack at the injured triceratops and Bob.
The triceratops was nearly destroyed in the onslaught, whilst Bob managed to leap aside from the undead knight’s heavy blade.
Flynne carried on shooting at the cornugon, leaving several arrows deeply embedded in its scaly hide, whilst Bob backed away firing steadily at the newly arrived Kyuss-knight. The triceratops slashed out once again, and then I triggered a magical staff, blasting into the cornugon with powerful daylight (and blinding the recently summoned and heavily injured triceratops which was in my way).
The devil strode past the blinded and heavily injured triceratops, lashing out at Flynne with the chain and firing a tremendous blast of lightning which the black-scaled elf avoided almost contemptuously. He and Bob continued to duck and dodge away from the heavy blades of the knights. Both of them backed away, continuing to pile arrows into the undead; one of them collapsed under the onslaught, and they both switched targets without so much as batting an eyelid. It fell to the ground in turn.
The triceratops got in the way as I scorched the cornugon with a second sunbeam, and then as it launched into another onslaught, the archers systematically shot it to pieces.
.oOo.
Pausing to heal and dismiss the wounded and blind celestials, we moved into the heart of the base of the ziggurat.
In the centre of a huge 30 foot high vaulted chamber was a shrine ringed with candles. Before it stood three large fierce-looking figures which turned their beautiful faces to snarl at us as they unfurled feathered wings. Between them stood Lashonna wearing a green velvet gown. She turned, and smiled a cruel and haughty smile at Flynne who had done his best to sneak into the room ahead of us.
“Ah, Flynne,” she smiled as waves of magic pulsed over us all. Thank you for aiding me in destroying that dusty old dracolich and leaving me to take my place as Kyuss’ greatest servant.
“I have a proposal – have you considered switching sides?”
There was something subtly wrong with her intonation as she spoke, and I was suddenly aware of the mind-protecting Champion’s Belt Flynne wore glowing brightly under a sudden onslaught.
Flynne turned and beckoned us all in.
“Kneel now and submit to the Wormgod,” Lashonna told us. “I promise you that you shall each become a captain in Kyuss’ army, answering only to me. Nothing will be denied to you…”
More magic washed through the room, thwarted only by the layer upon layer of mystical protections we had set upon ourselves.
“Interesting,” I said; trying to buy time for my comrades and insinuating my own words with a power of encouragement to my comrades. “We know you were once a true and noble creature prepared to lay down her life to thwart Dragotha. We saw you deny him his victory a thousand years ago; what were you offered to turn your back on so much… nobility?”
She snarled at me, and began to reply when Flynne became bored. The short-tempered elf ripped arrows from his quiver – and all hell broke loose.
.oOo.
Before the quick-witted elf could so much as aim his bow, Lashonna exploded into action; opening her elven mouth wide and blasting us all with freezing air. I managed to leap aside, but the others were coated with a layer of frost.
Trying to help my comrades, I triggered a rapid spell of hastening and then screaming a powerful spell at the elfin dragon and the three angels. The spell only took effect on one of them, which suddenly looked dazed and confused, whilst feathers were blasted off the others under the sonic onslaught.
Lashonna merely stood there, totally unruffled.
Bob fired at her, and every single one of his six arrows glanced off her preternaturally tough flesh or the thick layers of magical protection around her.
The two moving angels leapt forwards, gliding on their long wings to attack Bob and Janga with glowing longswords. Bob ducked, but Janga was cut deeply with the razor-edged blade I somehow recognized instinctively as a legendary vorpal blade.
Flynne fired arrow after arrow into the stunned angel, leaving it hideously wounded, but still standing, whilst Janga cast a dispelling enchantment onto the elfin figure of Lashonna – the spell failed completely, sparking off some deep and unknown protective spell. He then took to the air, taking another blow from the vorpal sword of the fallen angel as he did so. Once positioned between the many targets, and safely away from the rest of us non-believers, he spoke a tremendous word of power.
Nothing happened.
The diminutive cleric followed up the holy word with a swearword.
Lashonna spat words of her own, ensnaring Flynne and I in a web of energy which dazzled us both. As I blinked away stars, I dimly saw Bob leaping aside and shooting at an angel, which still stood under the onslaught and swung back at him, cutting deeply.
A red-eyed angel narrowly missed Flynne, and the third took flight to land next to me, stabbing my shoulder with a rune-edged weapon. The pain brought me abruptly back to reality, and I saw Janga flying back through the air to heal Bob and then touch his temples and squint as he cast a spell of immense power at the nearest angel.
Which failed totally to implode.
Lashonna, meanwhile, twisted and grew, her gown fluttering to the floor as she swelled to tremendous size as a huge true silver dragon.
Puling my enchanted rapier free from its scabbard, I stabbed at the angel attacking me, triggering its power to leech away the life-force of the fallen celestial being. The damage to it was tremendous, and I could see life fluttering in its greying flesh and dimming eyes, but the creature stood firm and readied for another onslaught.
As Bob’s tiny arrows struck home in his closest angelic target, ‘my’ angel slashed two more deep wounds across my sides. Meanwhile, Flynne ducked and weaved away from his, whilst the third lashed out with its vorpal blade, and abruptly Janga’s head fell free from his still-flying body.
Our cleric was dead, and all our foes still faced us.
.oOo.
Yelling in anger, Flynne shot down one target, and then spun on his feet to slay the angel close to me as well. He spun once again and fired three long arrows into the back of the last angel, which staggered across the wide pool of Janga’s blood.
In her long-necked dragon form, Lashonna stepped away from the altar, and began to lash and snap at the nimble archer, who was unable to dodge the many blows and collapsed heavily to the floor.
Triggering a magic ring I had been wearing for many months, I blazed across the room as a blast of lightning to land by Janga, sprinkling liquids from a specially prepared and massively powerful flask, distilled from the liquid at the centre of the legendary philosopher’s stone to give Janga back his life. Over our heads, Bob fired still more arrows into the angel just 10 feet away, and it collapsed to the floor.
Janga flew back across the room to Flynne and cast a spell of his own, bringing him back from death’s door.
As Flynne struggled back to his feet, Lashonna got angry. She slammed and hacked at Janga, leaving him covered in his own blood and staggering on the spot; at which point she spat out the words to a meagre spell which sent 5 small darts of energy to slam into the armoured cleric. The last slammed through his helmet and skull and he collapsed back onto the floor, mere seconds after I had resurrected him by expending an artefact.
And I didn’t have another one, either.
