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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnifex" data-source="post: 959336" data-attributes="member: 227">Yay, a new reader <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />And here's today's update:The savage beast gnawing on Kale's arm chewed deeper into the flesh, blood flowing freely in fresh gouts from the shredded injury to spatter upon the slimy floor.Once again he felt the chill spread deeper, and this time it was too much, his muscles simply locking up into useless paralysis. Suddenly the mercenary was defenceless and incapable of moving, and unable to keep his balance on the slippery sloping floor simply fell over. Another of the ghul-pack moved to take advantage, but in the cramped confines of the cave, had to brave the blades of both Wolf and Sebastion. Both took advantage of the opportunity and the ghoul toppled, born on by its momentum to collapse at the helpless Kale's feet. The two ghouls menacing Sebastion once again tried to tear him off balance, twice their sharp claws biting into his flesh, once with exceptional force behind it. Hard as he tried, he once again slipped and fell, sliding a few feet down towards the far end of the cave before he could arrest his descent, the ghouls chasing hungrily after him. When he tried to pull himself back up to his feet he found that, like Kale, his muscles too were now locked by the paralysing strikes of the undead, and he lay there helpless in the cold damp. The ghoul faced with the fiery serpent that Burl had conjured circled it warily, unsure of how to deal with a beast made of flame. The ghouls that had fled Ebri's brandished holy emblem circled in the gloom cast by the wychlights, which now lay scattered on the floor to shed faint light and strange shadows. Horrifically, as they gnashed their teeth and snarled hungrily, the wounds upon the ghoul intent on devouring Kale's arm seemed to seal up, with similar ragged rents on the turned ghouls opening up instead. "They're healing each other, taking their wounds, the bastard creatures!" Wolf roared over the din of the battle and the snarls of the ghouls. Cord quickly raced to Sebastion's aid, the elderly dwarf sending one of the ghouls reeling off with a flurry of hard strikes; the undead itself slipped on the floor, tumbling down a few feet before dazedly trying to get to its feet again. The other ghoul refrained from tearing Sebastion's throat out to instead face the new threat, moving to block any path to its wounded comrade that the monk had already battered severely. The fire serpent buried its ember fangs in the circling ghoul, searing into the dead flesh and igniting the foul creature in a brust of flames. The immolating ghoul gave an unearthly screech before collapsing in a heap. From behind the guardian summons, Burl let loose his magic missiles which sought out the already injured ghoul by Sebastion, knocking it from its feet for good. Ebri moved forwards towards the beleaguered Kale, one hand still brandished out to hold back the turned undead and the other lashing out to send the ghoul reeling a few feet, its teeth finally giving up on the mercenary's suffering limb.Wolf rushed forwards now, seeing that Ebri had distracted the ghoul assaulting his prone apprentice, and instead tore into the ghouls who had fled from Ebri and now skulked around to heal their injured compatriots. Already wounded by their supernatural ability to absorb their fellows injuries, they fell before the veteran easily, a heavy mace caving in the skull of one, and the warriors bastard sword cleaving into the other two.Then, out of the gloom, something new loomed. A larger shape than the others, bringing with it the nauseating stench that they had already smelt, but this time in such intensity that Wolf coughed and nearly gagged from its foulness; this newcomer ghoulish like the others in the cave but more heavily built and with wickedly sharp talons that gleamed as it stalked in to cautiously eye up the struggling warband before it.Dm's Note: Yes, those ghouls were healing each other. The entire pack has a template called 'Ghul-Pack', a special type of undead of which the origins may be revealed later on in the story. Suffice to say that they are effectively a hivemind, fighting with alarming co-ordination and with some other nasty powers too, like the capability to swap damage around.</blockquote>

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