Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)

[Lazybones]

Short update tonight, but I'm building up to a long one for Friday.

Plus I thought this revelation deserved its own post.

* * * * *

Chapter 431

When Dana chased the fleeing hag, she really didn’t have a clear idea of what she was doing; on the one hand, she was too seasoned not to know that she might be running into another trap. But the buzzing in the back of her mind triggered by her spell was still there; she knew that Benzan’s wedding ring, the focus for her earlier locate object enchantment, was nearby, in the general direction of the annis’s flight. And where the ring was located, Benzan might still be…

So she chased after Slouva, darting through the door just in time to see the hag exit through a portal on the far side. The chamber was fairly spacious, maybe thirty feet by sixty, with another door on the far wall in addition to the one that the annis had used. It looked like a workshop, dominated by a huge table apparently fashioned of bone, with a thick cover of stitched flesh stretched atop its surface. At the corners of the table bone hands about twice the size of a man’s were extended, shaped like claws, with what looked to be faces stretched out over the tips of the fingers. Several large glass vats were stationed along the walls, most filled to the brim with a reddish fluid from which rose a harsh chemical odor. Above the vats shelves were crowded with clear jars and pots that held body parts preserved in fluid.

But of more immediate concern was the fact that she was not alone in the room. A pair of the huge golems were already moving forward from the flanking walls toward her. Dana’s stomach clenched in disgust as she got a good look at them; like the others outside their hides appeared to have been stitched together from the flayed faces of hundreds of diverse beings. The nearest was already close enough to swing at her with an unnaturally long arm. The priestess dodged, but even so took a glancing blow that knocked her roughly to the side, almost dropping her into one of the vats.

“Look out, Dana!” came a warning from behind. Mole’s voice; apparently the gnome had followed her in here. She spun around and leapt back as a massive limb shattered the vat. Cold fluid washed over her legs, and a body that had been submerged in the vat fell out onto the stone floor of the chamber. Her breath froze in her chest as she realized that the face of the dead person had been removed, and she felt a terror building inside her as the familiar outlines of that mutilated body impressed themselves in her mind.

The hulking table was jostled aside by an onrushing golem as it rushed toward her. She turned, and got a good look at the golem’s face… or rather, at the features of the face that had been stretched over the oblong shape of its head…

She screamed, as the distorted visage of Benzan, her husband, looked down at her.

A moment later, the golem’s fists slammed into her chest, and everything went mercifully dark.

 

[Mogney]

Finally caught up *whew* and that last post was just plain WRONG!

Ok it was really cool, but it was still wrong.

nasty stuff.

Mogney

 

[Dungannon]

Damn, that family is having no luck in this adventure.

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Wow, this must be the meanest update since Zenna's tongue removal...dark, nasty & very Skullrot-like!

More...

 

[Solarious]

Mmnn. Apparantly, there's still enough of Benzan to cast Ressurection. Somehow, I thought Dana would have been happy about it. I wonder why she isn't.

In other news, the party's only cleric seems to be in a bit of a pickle. Will the warriors have enough juice left to take on these golems? Will Dana even survive in the first place? Tune in tonight, when fur and pieces of flesh fly about, pickle, gets burned to a crisp, becomes turned into dust, and so on and so forth.

 

[Richard Rawen]

Ewwwwwwww!




Just having finished breakfast . . . and possesed of a keenly imaginative mind
(which I was silently cursing as your prose evoked imagery that turned my tummy)
this update definitely left me ... impressed
bleh - nasty (read-Really Good) stuff there LB!

Blessings,
Richard
M < > <

 

[Elemental]

Looks like Benzan should have quit while he was still a head.

 

[Lazybones]

Thanks for all the posts, guys! And now, time for your regularly scheduled Friday cliffhanger...

* * * * *

Chapter 432

Mole couldn’t do anything to help Dana as the golem bashed her with both fists, knocking her roughly across the room to land in a limp heap next to one of the processing vats. From Dana’s reaction to the faceless body, she had a pretty good idea of who he was, but she had other problems right now, as the second golem attacked.

She dove under the table, which sagged as a golem blow pounded into it. For a moment she wondered if this was the best strategy—despite the nature of its construction, the thing looked damned heavy, and could likely crush her beneath it if it gave way—but then the sounds of battle filled the room, and she knew that her friends had arrived.

She flicked a creature from her bag of tricks out into the room, to help distract the bad guys.

A creak drew her attention to one of the far doors. As it opened, she heard a buzzing noise that filled her with a strange lethargy. She tried to fight it, knowing the danger as she saw the gray legs of the hag reappear, but it was hopeless as she sagged to the ground, falling into a deep magical sleep.

Arun heard the buzzing too, but was able to shake off the somnolent effects of the drone, bolstered still by his earlier magic circle. He saw the hag return, accompanied by a huge, grotesque fly-like fiend, the source of the buzzing. But he could not focus on either just yet, as the golems pressed their attack. A fist imprinted with a stretched humanoid face slammed hard into his shield, sending a jolt of pain up his arm.

He knew that his best option was to retreat, and try to draw these foes out into the larger room where his friends could bolster him. But he’d seen Mole vanish under the table, and saw Dana’s limp form as he’d come in, and knew that if he fell back, that his companions were dead.

So he stood his ground, and stepped forward to attack the nearest golem.

The annis seemed a bit more cautious now, content to let her allies focus on the foe. The chasme, floating nearer but still well out of Arun’s reach, blasted the paladin with a ray of enfeeblement, which certainly did not help his situation any. He’d already seen how much damage the golems were capable of inflicting, and knew that the time he could hold out was measured in the seconds. And he’d already used most of his healing on Beorna, earlier.

Ah, to the hells, he thought, and taking the hits he knew he would, he leapt forward, and smote the chasme.

That got its attention.

A roar announced Beorna’s return as she burst through the open doorway, followed only a few paces later by Lok. The templar’s body still moved awkwardly, as if her limbs didn’t quite know what her brain had in mind for them, but she ignored the pain as she rushed toward the nearest golem, slamming it with a mighty two-handed strike from her adamantine sword as it turned to meet her. The blow carved through its body, knocking it back a step despite its huge size. But it was incredibly tough, and quickly countered with a pair of blows that in turn drove Beorna back. She’d healed herself, and Arun’s magic had likewise aided her, but she was quickly back on the brink of consciousness, another hit or two from joining Dana on the floor.

Lok rushed into the fray a moment later, choosing as his target the same damaged golem. He aimed for the gap it its body opened by Arun and Beorna, and his axe clove deeply into it, backed by his considerable strength. A snap announced the severing of its spine, and it crumpled into two disparate halves, each trying uselessly to function.

“Beorna… help Dana!” Lok urged, turning to face the second golem, turning to catch its fist on his shield. The dwarf obeyed, falling back away from the melee; although she knew that Arun was in trouble, duty infused her, and she had to turn away.

The chasme, meanwhile, disengaged from Arun, but not before lashing out with a foreclaw that stabbed through the visor of his helmet, opening a gash at the corner of his eye that oozed blood. As Arun tore free, lifting his sword to strike, the demon buzzed higher into the air, lifting its grotesque body just out of the paladin’s reach. With the holy warrior unable to intervene, it called upon its power, and a buzzing many times stronger than its own lulling drone filled the air.

Beorna knelt beside Dana’s stricken form, battered but still alive. Calling upon the power of Helm, she cast a powerful healing spell upon the priestess, who stirred, the positive energy channeled by the templar snatching her back from the brink of death.

“We need your power, priestess!” the templar urged, before a familiar voice drew her around.

“Come back for more, did you?” Slouva cackled. With the chasme distracting Arun, the hag had circled around the edge of the room, intent upon finishing Dana. Seeing how seriously wounded Beorna was, the hag leapt at her, long claws outstretched.

“EEEEeee!” she screamed, as a holy arrow blossomed in her side. Electrical energy blasted through her as Dannel’s arrow buried itself deep into her, and she aborted her attack to leap instead toward the open doorway.

A storm of buzzing insects—locusts, each almost half a foot in length—filled the chamber, called by the power of the chasme. The insect swarm surrounded the combatants in a blinding storm, slamming into them, crawling into gaps in their clothes and armor to bite and scratch. Hundreds settled onto the golems, both the active one and the one already destroyed, feeding on the ruined flesh. Others leapt eagerly upon Mole, who still slept, deep under the effects of the chasme’s buzz.

Dannel held his ground as Slouva appeared in the doorway, just ten feet from where he stood. The hag leapt at him, taking the arrow he fired into her chest. She seized him with her powerful claws, tearing at his flesh even through his magical armor. She was so incredibly strong; even as injured as she was, she flung the elf around like a rag doll, spinning him around before flinging him roughly into the nearby wall. Dannel, stunned, could barely stand, fighting to get back the breath that had been dashed from his lungs.

“Perhaps we will dance again later, pretty boy,” she cackled, turning toward the nearest stair.

Her laughter became a scream as another ray from Cal blasted her in the torso, highlighting her in a green nimbus before she was disintegrated by the beam.

“Thanks,” Dannel said to the gnome, who was clinging to the wall just above the side doorway.

“Just taking out the trash,” the gnome said. “We’d better get in there,” he added, gesturing toward the room where the chaos of battle and the noise of the insect swarm sounded yet from within.

The warriors fought on, greatly bolstered by a mass cure critical wounds spell from Dana. The chasme held its ground, but that only gave Arun and Lok a chance to double-team the remaining golem, hacking it to pieces with their powerful blades. The demon used its power of telekinesis to hurl one of the heavy tables at Arun, knocking him roughly to the ground, his shield arm jutting at an unnatural angle from his side. The demon sought to follow up its advantage by descending enough for its deadly claws to savage the crippled paladin, but before it could reach him several holy arrows darted through the still-raging storm of locusts to sink deeply into its body. The chasme keened in protest, but its own distraction caused it to notice too late the bulk of Beorna, enlarged by the magic of Helm, approaching through the swarm. The templar unleashed her own smite against the insectoid fiend, cleaving it in half with a single mighty blow of her adamantine sword.

Lok got a hold of Mole and dragged her out from under the table, and the companions withdrew from the chamber. Some of the locusts came with them, but most remained where the chasme had summoned them, feeding on the remains of the golems.

“Gah, get them off!” Mole exclaimed, waking to find several yucky insects crawling around in her hair and under her clothes.

“Good thing she didn’t wake up a minute ago,” Dannel said to Lok, as the genasi helped her.

Dana, meanwhile, started back inside the room, but Cal quickly moved to grab her. “Dana, what are you doing?”

“He’s in there… Benzan’s body!” the priestess cried. “We have to get him out, before those bugs…”

Cal nodded. “Let me see what I can do.” And indeed, a quick dispel magic cleared the swarms, sending the summoned insects back to wherever they had come from.

They went back into the room, closing the door behind them, wary of more guards coming from the prison in response to the battle. In the frenzy of the melee they had each almost tuned out the constant noise of the asylum, such that its return made them start, the screams of the mad prisoners tearing again at their senses.

Dana knelt beside Benzan, holding his ruined body against her. “I’ll help you, my love, I’ll bring you back,” she said, sobbing softly. “Get his… his face, it’s attached to that golem,” she said, pointing, but not turning to look at the ravaged form of the creature that Lok and Arun had destroyed.

The paladin and genasi carefully removed the flayed skin of their friend, returning it to Dana, who laid it almost tenderly upon Benzan’s ruined face. She then began chanting, calling upon the power of Selûne to return him to life.

“We are still in danger here,” Beorna said, looking around. “I do not believe that this is the sum total of Skullrot’s defenses.”

“You are likely right,” Cal said, plying his healing wand upon his companions. Nearly all of them had been heavily wounded in the running battle that had begun when they’d opened that first door, and only luck or fate had allowed them to avoid fatalities in this initial engagement. Arun and Lok took up a warding position near the outer door, while Dannel and Mole checked the rest of the room. Mole started toward the left door in the far wall, the one opposite the portal that Slouva and the chasme had used, but Cal forestalled her.

“Let’s wait until Dana finishes her spell,” he suggested. Mole nodded, giving the door a quick examination for traps before returning to the center of the room.

Dana’s incantation continued, her voice all but drowned out by the ongoing cries of the asylum’s inmates, which passed through the porous walls as though they were not even there. Cal drew out his lyre, and played a melody that created a dissonance between those horrible sounds, the tune filling the room and making the background cacophony seem to fade slightly. It wasn’t much, but it helped their resolve as they waited for the priestess to finish her casting.

It took only about a minute, but it seemed like longer, given the circumstances. Dana abruptly stopped and rose, her expression betraying the outcome of her spell even before they looked down at Benzan’s immobile corpse.

“It’s not working,” she said. “His soul cannot return.”

The companions shared a look; none of them wanted to say what they were all thinking. But Dana herself put it into words, her voice empty, as though her own life had been drained away by her failure to restore Benzan’s.

“Graz’zt has him,” she said. “It’s Delem, all over again. Graz’zt has him…”

 

[Solarious]

And.... that's the end of -that- family. And good riddance.

Aw, I'm just kidding. Even I can't be that cold to characters, wether they be mine or not. Poor, poor Dana, loosing her entire immediate family to Graz'zt. What happens to her personality next should be... interesting. I certainly hope in includes a lot of screaming, killing, and general chaos and destruction.

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 433

“Dana, we don’t know that for certain,” Cal said. “We’ll take him back with us, we can try again when we return to the Prime…”

He trailed off as she saw that she wasn’t listening; she’d turned her attention toward the two doors in the far wall, an odd look of concentration on her face.

“There is one more matter that we must deal with, ere we depart,” Beorna said.

Lok nodded. “Adimarchus.”

“Whoever or whatever still wards this place, it no doubt knows we’re here, and is prepared for our coming,” Dannel said.

“We must be cautious,” Arun said. “Whatever happens, we do not wish to facilitate the imprisoned godling’s release from his bonds.”

“I thought we were here to destroy him?” Beorna asked.

“It may come to that… but at the moment we do not know if such a thing is even possible,” Dannel said.

“If he is bound, his powers may be weakened,” Lok said. “Cal, what say you?”

But the gnome was turned away. While the others talked, Dana had started toward the left door. “What is it, Dana?” Cal asked her.

“Benzan’s ring… the focus for my locate object spell… it is beyond that door.”

“Careful,” the gnome said. He and the others moved quickly into ready positions near the door. Dana barely waited for them to prepare before she reached out and pulled the heavy door open.

The chamber beyond was square and almost thirty feet across, but it seemed much smaller due to the utter blackness that filled it, seeming to resist the light shed by their magical items like some living thing. But nothing stirred in the room, which was dominated by three tables fashioned out of some sort of black resin, glistening as the illumination finally reached it. The tables had been crafted to resemble great mushrooms with their tops flattened. Laid out upon those surfaces were an assortment of grim artifacts, including black-bound grimoires, scrolls manufactured from flayed skin, vials and jars of rare powders and condensates, and other objects of indeterminable use and function. The most dominating item was an intricately fashioned pair of metal claws. The sculpture, set on the nearest table facing the door, had been arranged so that one of the claws clutched a dull metal bottle, while the second had its long nails dug into the bottle’s stopper. Behind the tables they could just make out what looked like an iron chest, close against the far wall. The entire place was infused with a subtle odor; not the familiar and ferocious stink of demodands, but a charnel smell that was reminiscent of graveyards and decay.

They all paled as they looked into the room’s interior, but Cal was especially grim. “The magical auras in this place,” he breathed. “Gods, the level of power… it makes my own spells seem cantrips in comparison…”

“There is evil present as well,” Arun agreed.

Dana had been looking for one thing, and as she saw it—a familiar ring, left almost casually on one of the tables—she stepped forward into the room.

And as she did, the metal hands shifted, drawing the stopper from the iron bottle atop the near table. Almost immediately a gout of green smoke was disgorged from within the container, swirling and growing rapidly into a substantial being.

“An iron flask!” Cal exclaimed, too late.

It took only a few seconds for the prisoner of the flask to appear in full form. It was huge, looming over them, its head nearly brushing the ceiling fifteen feet above. Its body was lean and skeletal, with ugly green flesh clinging to its bones. Its ribs formed a cage around an empty hollow in the center of its body, a hollow that was occupied by a small, terrible remnant of a being, trapped within the prison of the monster’s body. That figure opened its mouth in a silent scream, mockingly echoed by the gaping jaws of the devourer as it eagerly regarded the living foes that had released it with a hungry look burning in the twin pinpoints of life deep within the sockets of its skull.