Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4693461" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 17 - The Howling Pillars (Part 6)Telkya watched as the demons came forward in a tide of red skin and fur. Erlmoor ducked under a flailing claw but then the demon was upon him and its teeth sank into his throat. The dragonborn sank to his knees, gave out one last strangled roar and then fell beneath the demon’s onslaught. The second red-skinned demon rounded the nearest pillar and leapt over the fallen Erlmoor to lash out at Dulvarna. Its claw swung high and she ducked easily and as it followed with its teeth, she elbowed it in the face and kept it at bay.“I can save him, you cannot!” Telkya called as if sensing Dulvarna’s indecision.The elf maid uttered a prayer to Corellon for healing then and reached out with her left hand towards Erlmoor’s fallen form. Her hand glowed with a golden light and the light reached out to Erlmoor and closed the tear in his neck. Telkya saw the dragonborn’s eyes open as he lay behind one of the crimson skinned demons and her heart sang. Dulvarna looked down and saw the dragonborn move and she too felt miraculous hope return to her. She stabbed her blade into the thigh of the nearest demon and leapt back, beyond the reach of the ape-demon. The red-furred creature roared its anger at its enemies and allies alike as its enemies retreated. Then the eyes of the faces embedded in the howling pillars glowed with a terrifying energy and struck Dulvarna as though with a huge blow. She was driven back by their unholy power into the altar chamber, truly beyond the ape-demon.When the eyes of the faces in the pillars glowed in the entry chamber, they decided upon Litiraan as their enemy and drove him further back up the corridor from the doors. Enlishia leapt back from the doors as the demon turned its gaze towards Litiraan for a moment and in the time she had, she raised her bow and fired. The first arrow drove into the creature’s chest and the second, loosed before it could take a step, drove through its throat and felled it.Enlishia let her bow clatter to the floor as she pulled cloth strips from her belt pouch to bind her wounds. Lavren began to do the same, leaning against the corridor wall with his wand in his teeth and his sword leaning against the stone beside him. He looked up after a few moments.“We have to go back for them,” he said.“Agreed,” said Litiraan. “But we leave this accursed bell here.”Enlishia and Lavren nodded their agreement and Litiraan began the painful task of prizing the bell from the grip it had on his hand.The two demons leapt into the archway and rushed at Telkya. A claw lashed out and slammed her into the wall to her right while another came up under her chin and sent her reeling back into the altar chamber. She heard a roar then and knew that it was not made by a demon. Behind the two red-skinned creatures, Erlmoor rose with his blade in his hand. He plunged its point into the spine of the nearest of his enemies and as it sank to its knees, he drew his blade back. He swept his sword across as the demon knelt facing Telkya and clove its head from its shoulders with one blow.Telkya leapt forward as the remaining red-skinned demon roared in anger and plunged her own, blade, still shimmering with the blessing she had placed on it, into the creature’s side. It roared again but as it did so, Dulvarna rushed towards it and plunged her own blade into its belly. It staggered back towards Erlmoor who raised his blade for the killing blow, but then the ape-demon roared. It lashed out with a single, huge fist and drove the dagger-like claws into the dragonborn’s back. Erlmoor gasped and fell forward onto the stone floor between the feet of his demon foes. Dulvarna and Telkya cried out but then the pillar behind then in the altar chamber began to bite at Telkya with its many mouths and both women were forced to leap clear.Enlishia skirted the northern wall of the entry chamber and rushed into the eastern archway to where she hoped she would find her companions. The ape-demon stood over the fallen form of Erlmoor but was desperately trying to free itself from the snapping teeth of the faces within the pillar next to it. The ranger raised her bow and loosed an arrow into the red-furred beast’s side. It roared in anger and pain but before it had even found the source of this new torment, Enlishia loosed another arrow that drove into the side of the creature’s neck.Lavren came up behind Enlishia and with a  string of curses in elven, he loosed black, crackling energy at the creature. The ape-demon knew its doom too late and looked towards the western archway just as the black, eldritch energy seared into its chest of out of its back. It looked down at the wound stupidly for a few moments and then keeled over onto its back. Litiraan rushed past them into the chamber and turned towards the southern archway where the last red-skinned demon had hold of Dulvarna’s arm in its teeth. Even as he looked, Litiraan saw his sister appear beside Dulvarna and drive her blade up into the demon’s throat. With a gurgle, the demon staggered and then fell backwards to lie next to Erlmoor.Dulvarna rushed to the dragonborn’s side, dragging him beyond the reach of the terrible mouths of the pillars. She felt for his lifebeat and paused for a moment before looking up at the others and nodding.“He lives,” she announced, before turning him onto his side to begin binding the terrible wounds that the ape-demon had inflicted on Erlmoor’s back. After what had seemed like an eternity, victory finally belonged to the Defenders of Winterhaven.Next.....The Face of Baphomet</blockquote>

Verification