Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)

[Dungannon]

Oooh, gotta love infighting among the insane bad guys.

 

[Solarious]

Freija, oh beautiful, perfect, mad, Freija, how can I ever express my love? I had only seen you through the pictures of a Dungeon magazine, yet I adore you from the windows of my imaginations, spirialing into the endless dephs of geekdom.

In case you didn't notice, Freija is one of my favorite villians. *Love* the villian coolness treatment you've given her. Gwee hee hee. Keep it up!

 

[Lazybones]

Freija, oh beautiful, perfect, mad, Freija, how can I ever express my love? I had only seen you through the pictures of a Dungeon magazine, yet I adore you from the windows of my imaginations, spirialing into the endless dephs of geekdom.

In case you didn't notice, Freija is one of my favorite villians. *Love* the villian coolness treatment you've given her. Gwee hee hee. Keep it up!

Ah... um... maybe you'd better skip today's update...

* * * * *

Chapter 374

Benzan’s initial attack didn’t fare so well, as the tiefling monk twisted her body back to avoid the sweep of his sword, snapping back to drive her fist solidly into his face. Benzan staggered back, stunned, blood fountaining down his face from his shattered nose.

But the monk was quickly forced back onto the defensive. Her attack upon Benzan gave Cal a free moment to hit her with a targeted dispel magic, which stripped away some of her layered wards and the enhancements granted her by her magical tattoos. Then she was forced to dodge back from a series of cautious attacks by Arun. The strength drains that the paladin had suffered were immediately evident, and none of his attacks connected, but he likewise left few openings for the tiefling to exploit.

Freija cackled madly as she saw the hard look in Regidin’s eyes replaced by the vacuous stare of a moron. Wincing against the pain that seemed to infuse every muscle in her body, she started to pull herself up to her feet. Suddenly, however, that pain seemed tiny in comparison to the spike of agony that blossomed in her belly. Her eyes widened and she slumped back down to her knees, looking down to see the slender blade jutting from her stomach. She looked back up to see Mole Calloran standing there, shaking her head.

“Whatever you did to him, thanks,” she said.

Freija opened her mouth to speak, but no sounds came out.

“I hope you get the fate you’ve earned, on the Other Side,” Mole said, drawing out a small knife. Freija’s eyes fixed on it in horror; everything else was fading, the world around her growing dim. “This is for killing Dannel,” the gnome said.

They were the last words that Freija Doorgan would ever hear.

“Oh, crap,” Benzan said, as he shook his head to clear it of the aftereffects of Ardeth Webb’s nasty punch. His comment was directed at the combination of the monk, still standing against Arun, and the hezrou demon that leapt right toward him, claws outstretched toward his throat. Benzan thought he heard laughing as he brought up his sword in defense, too slowly. A foul stench filled his nostrils as the creature grabbed his arms with its claws, its oblong head snapping down to seize his shoulder and upper arm in its jaws with a crushing grip. Benzan felt like a rag doll as the demon lifted him off the ground, crunching the bones of his upper torso as it stuffed more and more of him into its gaping mouth.

Arun missed with another swing that Webb leapt over, spinning her body in mid air to drive a snap kick into the side of his helmet. The blow should have broken her bare foot, but it was the paladin who staggered back, his head ringing. Only determination and the lingering effects of Cal’s endurance spell was keeping him on his feet, after all of the damage he’d taken in the battle thus far. Webb seemed to sense it too, but she did not have the luxury of taunting him as she turned to face a rush from Cal. The gnome-turned-render lowered his head as the monk dodged aside, but despite her efforts to tumble out of his reach his jaws closed around her hip, getting a solid hold on her. Webb shrieked terribly as the gnome shredded her body with his claws, inflicting serious damage before she finally managed to tear free.

Arun had started to go to Cal’s aid, but a clang of metal on stone drew his attention around to the left. The noise was Benzan’s sword falling to the ground; the tiefling’s struggles were growing weaker as the hezrou stuffed more of the tiefling’s body into its gaping maw. Now his head, shoulders, and his left arm were inside it, and it looked like the rest would soon follow. Arun leapt at it, and despite his fading strength managed to slide half of the length of his sword into its body. Being impaled by a holy weapon got the demon’s attention real fast. It spat out Benzan, who collapsed in a limp heap atop the ravaged body of Dannel, and turned to face the paladin. The demon’s body was ravaged by holy fire—apparently Regidin’s flame strike had not spared it, even in gaseous form—but it still assaulted the paladin with gusto, tearing with its claws and biting with its huge jaws. Arun nearly had his arm torn off as the hezrou grabbed hold of his shield in those jaws and yanked it upward. The paladin slipped his arm from the grips even as the hezrou tried to find a vulnerable place to grab on with its claws. Falling heavily at the demon’s feet, he yelled and drove the holy sword up into its body.

Cal felt a slight breeze as Webb delivered a lunging strike that mercifully hit only empty air; his still-active greater invisibility had fooled the monk, this time. The polymorphed gnome was quick and—thanks to the spell—stronger than his foe, but despite his borrowed form he was still no warrior. And Ardeth Webb was a master at close-quarters combat, as she’d already proven. She’d taken serious punishment already, but that did not appear to hinder her as Cal tried to snag her with a grab of his left claw. As soon as the claw closed upon her torso she struck, delivering a powerful blow that snapped the bones in Cal’s upper arm. The limb fell uselessly to his side, but before she could follow up the attack he roared an inchoate cry and dove his head forward, snapping the monk’s head up in his mouth. He lifted her off her feet, the monk kicking and punching violently at his torso, but even through the pain of those hits he summoned all of his remaining strength to keep his jaws locked.

All of his senses became numb to what was around him, to everything except for the struggles of his prisoner. Finally, even as he felt his consciousness slipping, a faint but audible snap penetrated his awareness, and the monk’s struggles abruptly ceased.

After Freija had fallen dead at her feet, Mole regarded the enemy cleric cautiously. The priest had clearly been seriously affected by whatever the wizardess had done to him; even she could see that. He’d taken out a morningstar, which he held awkwardly, holding his place as the remnants of Cal’s webs burned around him. Wary of a trap, she drew out a ball from her bag of tricks and snapped it down the passage toward him. The little furry oblong rolled between the cleric’s legs and grew into the form of a wolverine. The summoned creature’s demeanor was quite similar to the real animal that it resembled, and it immediately attacked Regidin’s legs with its claws and bite. The cleric, startled, turned around and exclaimed something incomprehensible as he started bashing on the animal with his weapon.

It was a trivial matter to come up behind him and stab him in the back.

The cleric gibbered in pain, but amazingly did not turn around, instead intensifying his efforts against the wolverine, which had seized hold of his ankle. Mole was not one to refuse a gift, using the remnants of the man’s robe to draw herself up across his back, stabbing as she went. The cleric seemed to realize something was wrong just as she reached the summit of her ascent, and when he turned his head it gave her the perfect opportunity to slide her knife across his exposed throat.

The tunnel and the adjacent passage had grown quiet. After a quick look around to make sure that there weren’t any more enemies here, the gnome cleaned her blade on the dead man’s cloak before retracing her steps back to the entry. She saw Cal materialize, his hulking figure shrinking back down to its natural form, his arm hanging badly broken at his side, blood trailing from his broken jaw. The gnome managed to drag himself over to Dana’s side, touching her with a wand before he himself slumped over, unconscious.

A few feet away, Benzan and Dannel lay in a heap. Arun lay against the wall next to them, atop a greasy smear that had been the hezrou. The paladin managed to nod to her, but did not have the strength for anything else, not even to lift his battered body up.

A loud thundering noise drew her head around to the south. A figure approached… Lok, his dark armor covered with ooze. The genasi pulled off his helmet and let it drop to the floor, revealing a face that was marred by garish black streaks where acid had burned his flesh almost to the bone.

Behind him were the gashed corpses of two kelubar demodands.

The genasi made it around the hacked corpses of the shator and farastu, to where Hodge lay motionless, still paralyzed from Regidin’s blasphemy. Lok reached down and checked the dwarf; he then made it all of one step toward the others before he collapsed.

Mole, of course, was unhurt, although the flame strikes had singed her a bit and made a mess of her outfit. The gnome looked around at the bloody mess of the battlefield, and let out a low whistle.

“Wow.”

 

[Solarious]

Well, villians were made to die. As long as they don't die to something trivial or stupid, and their death is sutibally dramatic and cool, it's alright.

Freija gave honour to the title 'Named NPC BBEG' (Big, Bad, Evil Gal). We shall now hold a moment of silence.

...

Alright, back to saving the universe from the depredations of the Demon Prince of Madness.

 

[Black Bard]

GREAT, GREAT, GREAT!!! I loved this last battle and Freija's betrayal!
And Regidin's "epic" battle with the powerful boar was fantastic too!!

And, Lazy, it's just wonderful to see the Travelers back!!!

In time: Tymorans celestial badgers ROCK!!!

“I don’t know… we can ask Dana’s planar ally, perhaps.” He smiled wistfully. “I remember when it was badgers we summoned to our cause… and we were glad to have them.”

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Kudos, Lazybones! That was a close one!!!

The shator nodded, its own monstrous mouth twisting into a smile at the anticipation of unleashing destruction.

Of course, if it had known the entirety of what Freija Doorgan had planned, it might have been less amused.

We never found out, what she had planned. Any hints?

 

[Lazybones]

We never found out, what she had planned. Any hints?

Oh, just that the demodands were going to be in the area effect of her prismatic spray; she'd planned for the fiends to be bait/distraction while the Cagewrights blasted through the secret wall at their rear.

* * * * *

Chapter 375

It had been a close call. Dana, brought back to the edge of consciousness by Cal’s intervention, burned one of her remaining high-power spells on a mass cure moderate wounds that drew them back from the brink. Dannel and Benzan were both alive, although it had been a very close call for the unfortunate elf. Cal and Dana drew out healing wands and immediately set about doing what they could, completely burning out two of the precious devices in the process. Dana restored Arun’s health, damaged by the green ray of Freija’s prismatic spray, and soon the effects of the blasphemy and the demodands’ rays of enfeeblement likewise began to fade.

“Haven’t had a fight that intense in a while,” Benzan said, wiping his face with a damp cloth as he lay against a nearby wall. They’d retreated to the chamber at the end of the passageway, a small shrine by the looks of it with a glowing pool of red-hot lava and a stone altar in the center of the floor. It was hot, and the stench of blood and fiends was strong, but at least it was relatively secure. A thorough search had turned up no hollow walls or secret doors, or at least none detectable through normal means.

“I don’ know ‘ow much more beatin’ I kin take,” Hodge said, sucking in deep breaths as he lay sprawled out on his back near the rear wall of the chamber. “Gods damned, how many ‘ours we been fightin’ now? I forget what it be like to sleep…”

“We cannot sleep now,” Arun said, and as if to punctuate his words, a slight tremble passed through the stone of the chamber.

“This place seems to be shielded from most of the effects of the earth tremors,” Cal said. “I can only imagine what’s going on in the city above, or on the rest of the mountain.”

“Go on then,” Hodge groaned. “I can nay go no more.”

Mole sidled up to Cal and whispered something to her uncle. The illusionist nodded and dug into his magical backpack for something, finally producing a clouded flask which Mole took over to Hodge, dropping it in his lap.

“What’s this?” the dwarf said. “Another healin’ potion? Thanks fer the thought, girl, but me body’s fine, it’s me…”

His words trailed off as he recognized the label on the flask.

A few (dozen) swallows later, Hodge was back on his feet, if a bit less steadily than before. “If it waren’t agin me religion, I could kiss ye, gnome.”

Benzan had spoken briefly to Dannel, finally handing him a number of his few remaining white-fletched arrows. “The Thirteen did their worst, and we’re still here,” the tiefling said. “Let’s finish this thing.”

“We did not get our captive… we still don’t know what we’re facing, or how to defuse the threat of the Tree.”

“We find it, we destroy it,” Arun said simply.

“Perhaps we have another option, after all,” Cal said. He stood, hefting a small canvas sack, and crossed to the center of the room, dumping its contents upon the altar. The others gathered around it, Mole stuffing a few looted treasures she’d been examining into her bag of holding before joining them.

“Eww,” she said.

The gnome’s prize was a two foot long slug, which looked up at them as if aware of the misery of its fate.

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Looks like the the assassin's reflexes have suddenly become at lot more sluggish...

Anyway, from fish to slug, that has to be a step back in revolution...

Sorry, I'll stop.

And Regidin's "epic" battle with the powerful boar was fantastic too!

I couldn't agree more!


GREAT STORY!!!

 

[Dungannon]

Ya think Cal has a container of salt in there somewhere?

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Sorry, I know this is way off topic, but I decided to read through the Travellers SH ENWorld thread instead of the PDF file, so I could also get the reader comments...and I found this in Book IV of Travellers:

The bag of holding was now empty, at least of anything edible.

Oh my God...

THEY ATE RUATH!



J

I think I spit-up coffee all over my PC at that...