Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 129
“Okay, what’s wrong with him?” Mole asked, her voice sounding a bit too loud in the sepulchre surroundings of the chamber.
“Evil... this place is full of it,” Arun growled, his fist tight on the haft of his hammer.
“Them standards... hangin’ ‘em upside down is a flat-out slap o’ dishonor,” Hodge added. The dwarf’s face was pale, his eyes flicking frequently to the swaying corpses above.
“Zenith Splintershield!” Dannel said, stepping forward. The elf swept the space before him with his staff, driving back the shadows.
At the mention of his name, the dwarf stirred, lifting his head enough to look out at the intruders, but he still make no move to bestir himself.
“The rantings of that boatman make more sense, now,” Zenna said. “He’s not a prisoner... it’s almost like he’s...”
“Their high priest?” Mole asked.
“You’re coming with us,” Arun said with finality. “Your friends, if that’s what they were, have been destroyed, and your kin wants you to return.”
The dwarf’s cracked lips twisted into a mocking grin. When he spoke, his words were a hollow croak, eerily reminiscent of the language of the kuo-toa. “The many eyes of the orb see everything in their web. Soon they will see you as well.”
“He’s lost ‘is marbles,” Hodge said.
“We don’t wish to fight you,” Arun said. “But you are coming with us.”
The dwarf shifted, his armor creaking with the sound of inevitability. Slowly, he rose, his axe coming into his hand as he stood.
“Can’t we ever get through a situation without bloodshed?” Zenna asked no one in particular, as the companions readied their weapons, alert to any offensive motions from the dwarf.
Zenith turned to Zenna and met her eyes with a cold stare. “You will taste the bitter fruit of betrayal from one you love,” he said, his voice empty of emotion.
Zenna paled slightly, but she managed a dark comment, saying, “That’s the story of my life. Tell me something new.”
The dwarf did not respond, only drawing back his free hand and hurling the glowing sphere in his hand toward the south wall. The companions, close to the arc of the missile, drew back in alarm, but Mole burst forward, and with a magically-enhanced boost from her boots, she leapt up and caught the object before it could impact its target. Flipping in mid-air after the catch, she landed softly on her feet, cradling the object in the nook of her elbow.
“Nice catch,” Dannel said idly. He confronted the dwarf, and began to sing, a soft, lilting melody that filled the room with its light notes and blended harmonies. Zenna could feel the magic in the song, the web that the elf attempted to wrap around the dwarf, but the dark powers latent in this place broke up the sound, and even before the bard allowed the song to fade, the tiefling could see that the charm had failed to take hold.
Zenith took a single step forward, his boots slamming on the hard stone with cold finality. The huge axe came up into an easy battle grip.
“That’s a defensive stance,” Hodge cautioned. “He’s a defender.”
Arun nodded, recognizing the same thing. He gestured with his hammer, and the two dwarves moved to slowly flank the mad dwarven warrior. Zenith did not acknowledge them, and in fact his stare was vacant, unfocused—but the axe in his hand did not waver.
Mole, meanwhile, had vanished from view.
“This is crazy,” Zenna said. “If he won’t come with us quietly, then let’s fill him full of crossbow bolts until he decides to change his outlook.”
“That won’t work against an armored dwarven defender,” Arun said, moving into position across from Hodge, with the dwarf between them. Zenith still hadn’t moved, but none of them were willing to believe that there would be no risk in apprehending him.
“Well, it’s worth a try, still,” Dannel said, lifting his crossbow and firing.
The bolt flew true toward the dwarf’s chest, but suddenly he shifted, moving so quickly that his fist seemed a blur as he drew up his axe across his body. The steel-tipped bolt glanced off of the thick shaft of the weapon and shot up to the right, missing the dwarf’s head by about two inches.
“Okay, the hard way, then,” Dannel said.
“Let’s see if he can dodge a spray of fire,” Zenna said, but Dannel forestalled her with an arm across her path.
“Stay back,” he said firmly, handing her the bow and quiver, and taking up his quarterstaff. Zenna shot him a hard look, but her own weariness and the realization that he was right froze her retort in her throat. Instead, she turned herself to reloading the bow.
Arun and Hodge exchanged a meaningful look, and charged.
Zenith seemed oblivious to the rush of the pair of armored dwarves, but at the last moment he twisted, taking a glancing hit from Arun that slid off of the thick plates of his armor, and catching Hodge’s blow on the haft of his waraxe, deflecting the stroke wide to the right. In the same motion, before Hodge could even begin to react, the dwarven defender brought the head of his axe about in a sudden snapping motion that had strength behind it despite the shortness of the swing. Hodge cried out as the weapon dug into his shoulder, splitting the ill-fitting bands of his stolen armor and drawing a jet of blood that sprayed into the air as he staggered back.
“Get back, Hodge!” Arun yelled, as he drove his hammer into Zenith’s side in a hasty follow-up blow that seemed to have little if any effect.
Hodge hesitated, but at the command in Arun’s voice, withdrew, barely managing to keep his feet.
Zenith did not pursue the crippled dwarf, instead spinning smoothly about to face Arun. But even as he sliced out with his axe to attack the paladin, the gold dwarf’s allies joined the fray. Dannel charged with his staff, the bright light at its end distracting Zenith enough for him to land a glancing blow that caromed off of the side of the dwarven warrior’s helm. And a shadow emerged behind the embattled dwarf, materializing into the form of a gnome that stabbed her tiny sword into the leg-joint of Zenith’s heavy armor. The blow should have taken him down, but Zenith did not waver from his stance, his legs placed onto the stone like tree trunks rooted deeply in the earth.
Zenith’s attacks continued unabated, oblivious to the damage that he was taking. His attack at Arun caught the paladin’s shield, driving him back a step but doing no damage. But even as Mole darted in for another strike, the defender reversed his stroke and jammed the haft of his weapon backward.
“Mole, no!” Arun warned, but he was too late as the end of the axe’s shaft, dressed in a jagged spike of iron, blasted into the gnome’s face. Mole was flung backward, her jaw shattered, and while she clung somehow to consciousness, she was clearly out of the fight, barely able to crawl away from the melee.
“You’ll pay for that, you bastard!” Dannel yelled, snapping the staff around in an attack designed to trip up the defender. The staff connected with the dwarf’s injured knee, but it may as well have struck the bole of a tree, for all the effect it seemed to have. Zenith looked up at the elf.
“Your soul will be forfeit at the Smoking Eye,” he rasped, before subsiding back into silence.
Arun pressed his attack, launching a series of powerful blows at their mad adversary. The dwarf took each hit stoically, betraying no feeling even when one blow broke through his defenses and battered his breastplate with enough force to dent the steel. He only lifted his axe to counter...
But suddenly a cloak fluttered down from above, landing across his face, blinding him.
Zenna fashioned a grim smile as she relinquished her concentration on her mage hand, and started to circle around the melee to get to Mole. She had only a single minor healing osiron left to her, but she had to do what she could...
Zenith swept out his axe in a massive blind arc that forced both Arun and Dannel to dodge back. He reached up and drew the cloak from his head in a rough yank. His foes pressed their attack, but the defender was quick to respond, deflecting Dannel’s thrust easily and taking little damage from a strike from Arun that glanced off of one of his curving shoulder plates. A heavy bolt punched through the air a pace behind him; Hodge cursed as his aim, conservative due to the need to avoid hitting his allies, proved of little result.
Dannel and Arun continued their attacks, but suddenly the defender lashed out in an unpredictable and intense assault. Dannel overextended himself as a lunge from the staff shot two feet past Zenith’s head, and paid for it as the defender jammed the head of his axe into the elf’s chest. The blow did not cut through the mithral links of Dannel’s armor, but the force of it was enough to knock him from his feet, landing hard a pace removed on his back, stunned. Even as Arun roared and laid into him yet again, the dwarf twisted and used his entire body as the fulcrum around which the path of his deadly axe spun. Arun tried to bring his shield around to intercept, but he’d taken just too much of a beating in the last two days, his battered muscles slow to respond to the threat. The axe crushed his side, crunching through armor and tearing the flesh beneath. Arun cried out and went down to his knees, his hammer slipping from suddenly weak fingers as blood seeped from the nasty wound.
Zenith looked down at his fallen foe. “You will be forced to pay a heavy price for choices made,” he intoned.
The bloody axe came up for a killing blow.
“Okay, what’s wrong with him?” Mole asked, her voice sounding a bit too loud in the sepulchre surroundings of the chamber.
“Evil... this place is full of it,” Arun growled, his fist tight on the haft of his hammer.
“Them standards... hangin’ ‘em upside down is a flat-out slap o’ dishonor,” Hodge added. The dwarf’s face was pale, his eyes flicking frequently to the swaying corpses above.
“Zenith Splintershield!” Dannel said, stepping forward. The elf swept the space before him with his staff, driving back the shadows.
At the mention of his name, the dwarf stirred, lifting his head enough to look out at the intruders, but he still make no move to bestir himself.
“The rantings of that boatman make more sense, now,” Zenna said. “He’s not a prisoner... it’s almost like he’s...”
“Their high priest?” Mole asked.
“You’re coming with us,” Arun said with finality. “Your friends, if that’s what they were, have been destroyed, and your kin wants you to return.”
The dwarf’s cracked lips twisted into a mocking grin. When he spoke, his words were a hollow croak, eerily reminiscent of the language of the kuo-toa. “The many eyes of the orb see everything in their web. Soon they will see you as well.”
“He’s lost ‘is marbles,” Hodge said.
“We don’t wish to fight you,” Arun said. “But you are coming with us.”
The dwarf shifted, his armor creaking with the sound of inevitability. Slowly, he rose, his axe coming into his hand as he stood.
“Can’t we ever get through a situation without bloodshed?” Zenna asked no one in particular, as the companions readied their weapons, alert to any offensive motions from the dwarf.
Zenith turned to Zenna and met her eyes with a cold stare. “You will taste the bitter fruit of betrayal from one you love,” he said, his voice empty of emotion.
Zenna paled slightly, but she managed a dark comment, saying, “That’s the story of my life. Tell me something new.”
The dwarf did not respond, only drawing back his free hand and hurling the glowing sphere in his hand toward the south wall. The companions, close to the arc of the missile, drew back in alarm, but Mole burst forward, and with a magically-enhanced boost from her boots, she leapt up and caught the object before it could impact its target. Flipping in mid-air after the catch, she landed softly on her feet, cradling the object in the nook of her elbow.
“Nice catch,” Dannel said idly. He confronted the dwarf, and began to sing, a soft, lilting melody that filled the room with its light notes and blended harmonies. Zenna could feel the magic in the song, the web that the elf attempted to wrap around the dwarf, but the dark powers latent in this place broke up the sound, and even before the bard allowed the song to fade, the tiefling could see that the charm had failed to take hold.
Zenith took a single step forward, his boots slamming on the hard stone with cold finality. The huge axe came up into an easy battle grip.
“That’s a defensive stance,” Hodge cautioned. “He’s a defender.”
Arun nodded, recognizing the same thing. He gestured with his hammer, and the two dwarves moved to slowly flank the mad dwarven warrior. Zenith did not acknowledge them, and in fact his stare was vacant, unfocused—but the axe in his hand did not waver.
Mole, meanwhile, had vanished from view.
“This is crazy,” Zenna said. “If he won’t come with us quietly, then let’s fill him full of crossbow bolts until he decides to change his outlook.”
“That won’t work against an armored dwarven defender,” Arun said, moving into position across from Hodge, with the dwarf between them. Zenith still hadn’t moved, but none of them were willing to believe that there would be no risk in apprehending him.
“Well, it’s worth a try, still,” Dannel said, lifting his crossbow and firing.
The bolt flew true toward the dwarf’s chest, but suddenly he shifted, moving so quickly that his fist seemed a blur as he drew up his axe across his body. The steel-tipped bolt glanced off of the thick shaft of the weapon and shot up to the right, missing the dwarf’s head by about two inches.
“Okay, the hard way, then,” Dannel said.
“Let’s see if he can dodge a spray of fire,” Zenna said, but Dannel forestalled her with an arm across her path.
“Stay back,” he said firmly, handing her the bow and quiver, and taking up his quarterstaff. Zenna shot him a hard look, but her own weariness and the realization that he was right froze her retort in her throat. Instead, she turned herself to reloading the bow.
Arun and Hodge exchanged a meaningful look, and charged.
Zenith seemed oblivious to the rush of the pair of armored dwarves, but at the last moment he twisted, taking a glancing hit from Arun that slid off of the thick plates of his armor, and catching Hodge’s blow on the haft of his waraxe, deflecting the stroke wide to the right. In the same motion, before Hodge could even begin to react, the dwarven defender brought the head of his axe about in a sudden snapping motion that had strength behind it despite the shortness of the swing. Hodge cried out as the weapon dug into his shoulder, splitting the ill-fitting bands of his stolen armor and drawing a jet of blood that sprayed into the air as he staggered back.
“Get back, Hodge!” Arun yelled, as he drove his hammer into Zenith’s side in a hasty follow-up blow that seemed to have little if any effect.
Hodge hesitated, but at the command in Arun’s voice, withdrew, barely managing to keep his feet.
Zenith did not pursue the crippled dwarf, instead spinning smoothly about to face Arun. But even as he sliced out with his axe to attack the paladin, the gold dwarf’s allies joined the fray. Dannel charged with his staff, the bright light at its end distracting Zenith enough for him to land a glancing blow that caromed off of the side of the dwarven warrior’s helm. And a shadow emerged behind the embattled dwarf, materializing into the form of a gnome that stabbed her tiny sword into the leg-joint of Zenith’s heavy armor. The blow should have taken him down, but Zenith did not waver from his stance, his legs placed onto the stone like tree trunks rooted deeply in the earth.
Zenith’s attacks continued unabated, oblivious to the damage that he was taking. His attack at Arun caught the paladin’s shield, driving him back a step but doing no damage. But even as Mole darted in for another strike, the defender reversed his stroke and jammed the haft of his weapon backward.
“Mole, no!” Arun warned, but he was too late as the end of the axe’s shaft, dressed in a jagged spike of iron, blasted into the gnome’s face. Mole was flung backward, her jaw shattered, and while she clung somehow to consciousness, she was clearly out of the fight, barely able to crawl away from the melee.
“You’ll pay for that, you bastard!” Dannel yelled, snapping the staff around in an attack designed to trip up the defender. The staff connected with the dwarf’s injured knee, but it may as well have struck the bole of a tree, for all the effect it seemed to have. Zenith looked up at the elf.
“Your soul will be forfeit at the Smoking Eye,” he rasped, before subsiding back into silence.
Arun pressed his attack, launching a series of powerful blows at their mad adversary. The dwarf took each hit stoically, betraying no feeling even when one blow broke through his defenses and battered his breastplate with enough force to dent the steel. He only lifted his axe to counter...
But suddenly a cloak fluttered down from above, landing across his face, blinding him.
Zenna fashioned a grim smile as she relinquished her concentration on her mage hand, and started to circle around the melee to get to Mole. She had only a single minor healing osiron left to her, but she had to do what she could...
Zenith swept out his axe in a massive blind arc that forced both Arun and Dannel to dodge back. He reached up and drew the cloak from his head in a rough yank. His foes pressed their attack, but the defender was quick to respond, deflecting Dannel’s thrust easily and taking little damage from a strike from Arun that glanced off of one of his curving shoulder plates. A heavy bolt punched through the air a pace behind him; Hodge cursed as his aim, conservative due to the need to avoid hitting his allies, proved of little result.
Dannel and Arun continued their attacks, but suddenly the defender lashed out in an unpredictable and intense assault. Dannel overextended himself as a lunge from the staff shot two feet past Zenith’s head, and paid for it as the defender jammed the head of his axe into the elf’s chest. The blow did not cut through the mithral links of Dannel’s armor, but the force of it was enough to knock him from his feet, landing hard a pace removed on his back, stunned. Even as Arun roared and laid into him yet again, the dwarf twisted and used his entire body as the fulcrum around which the path of his deadly axe spun. Arun tried to bring his shield around to intercept, but he’d taken just too much of a beating in the last two days, his battered muscles slow to respond to the threat. The axe crushed his side, crunching through armor and tearing the flesh beneath. Arun cried out and went down to his knees, his hammer slipping from suddenly weak fingers as blood seeped from the nasty wound.
Zenith looked down at his fallen foe. “You will be forced to pay a heavy price for choices made,” he intoned.
The bloody axe came up for a killing blow.
