Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)
- Thread starter Lazybones
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Lazybones
Adventurer
Cool, we just passed 600 posts... 8th in currently active story hours. Thanks for your feedback and support, readers!
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Chapter 210
“Kaurophon!” Dannel said. “You knew what that thing was... how do we beat it?”
“I presume you hack it to pieces,” the sorcerer said, speaking a word of magic and disappearing from view.
“Not very helpful, eh?” Hodge said, setting his spear with hands that trembled slightly. They could all see it, now, making a beeline though the plain, stepping over cysts that blocked its path as it rushed rapidly toward them.
Zenna stood, grimacing as the motion sent a new surge of pain through her body, despite Arun’s earlier healing. She rushed over to Hodge, laying her hands upon the head of his spear, aligning the weapon.
“Thanks,” the dwarf said.
“Zenna, get back behind us,” Arun said. “You won’t survive another one of those blasts.”
Nodding, Zenna retreated. Mole had vanished—no, there she was, crouched in the lee of one of the nearer cysts, out of the direct line of sight of the oncoming retriever. Kaurophon was likewise invisible, but she suspected he was somewhere close, probably laying additional magical protections upon himself.
Dannel drew out an arrow from his quiver; his last one. Carefully he fitted it to his bow, and pulled the heavy string back until the fletchings brushed his cheek. The demon was now just over a hundred and fifty feet distant, and closing fast. The song filled him, and he knew even before he released that the shot would be perfect. It sliced through the air, slamming squarely into the face of the demon. The sound of the impact was a clear note, a clang that reached them over the ancient battlefield, but the damage, if any, was superficial.
The thing drew closer, and released a scintillating bolt of pure white from another of its eyes. Dannel followed his own earlier advice and ducked, but the edge of the ray still grazed his side, and white crystals of frost formed along his shoulder and bicep as he spun around, dropping his now-useless bow.
“Draw it to us!” Morgan shouted, hurling a javelin. At a hundred feet of distance, the cast was improbable at best, but he nearly struck it anyway, the head of the weapon sticking in the ground a pace from its body. Arun’s throwing hammers were well out of range, but the paladin had taken up Hodge’s crossbow during its rush, and released a shot that clanged against its metallic body.
“Stand fast, warrior,” Kaurophon’s voice whispered in Morgan’s ear, and the knight felt energy flowing into him, fortifying his stamina.
“Here it comes!” Hodge yelled, as the demon launched into another frenzied rush, heading straight for Dannel. Arun and Morgan surged to meet it, but its speed was such that it barreled right past them to lunge at the elf, lifting a leg to stab down at him. Dannel threw himself to the side, but the leg still sliced through his cloak and tore at the mail-links protecting his torso. The edge of the limb was serrated like a bent saw, and even though the elf’s roll helped him move through the worst effects of the blow, he was trailing blood as he regained his footing, Alakast held in a defensive position before him.
Morgan and Arun each yelled a cry of battle as they rushed the demon. Arun’s blow came first, but the dwarf put too much power into the swing, which unfortunately only glanced off of its armored body. Morgan, recognizing the durability of the creature, focused on a spot that looked vulnerable—the joint where its head met its abdomen. The holy sword clanged into it with violent force, and a seam opened, releasing a nasty, pungent gel that bubbled down about its frame.
The demon instantly turned upon Morgan, and fired a green beam into his chest. The fallen cleric staggered and cried out, and looked down with horror as the splaying beam spread out across his torso.
And where it touched, his armor, and the skin beneath, started to turn gray and stiff.
Slowly turning him to stone.
* * * * *
Chapter 210
“Kaurophon!” Dannel said. “You knew what that thing was... how do we beat it?”
“I presume you hack it to pieces,” the sorcerer said, speaking a word of magic and disappearing from view.
“Not very helpful, eh?” Hodge said, setting his spear with hands that trembled slightly. They could all see it, now, making a beeline though the plain, stepping over cysts that blocked its path as it rushed rapidly toward them.
Zenna stood, grimacing as the motion sent a new surge of pain through her body, despite Arun’s earlier healing. She rushed over to Hodge, laying her hands upon the head of his spear, aligning the weapon.
“Thanks,” the dwarf said.
“Zenna, get back behind us,” Arun said. “You won’t survive another one of those blasts.”
Nodding, Zenna retreated. Mole had vanished—no, there she was, crouched in the lee of one of the nearer cysts, out of the direct line of sight of the oncoming retriever. Kaurophon was likewise invisible, but she suspected he was somewhere close, probably laying additional magical protections upon himself.
Dannel drew out an arrow from his quiver; his last one. Carefully he fitted it to his bow, and pulled the heavy string back until the fletchings brushed his cheek. The demon was now just over a hundred and fifty feet distant, and closing fast. The song filled him, and he knew even before he released that the shot would be perfect. It sliced through the air, slamming squarely into the face of the demon. The sound of the impact was a clear note, a clang that reached them over the ancient battlefield, but the damage, if any, was superficial.
The thing drew closer, and released a scintillating bolt of pure white from another of its eyes. Dannel followed his own earlier advice and ducked, but the edge of the ray still grazed his side, and white crystals of frost formed along his shoulder and bicep as he spun around, dropping his now-useless bow.
“Draw it to us!” Morgan shouted, hurling a javelin. At a hundred feet of distance, the cast was improbable at best, but he nearly struck it anyway, the head of the weapon sticking in the ground a pace from its body. Arun’s throwing hammers were well out of range, but the paladin had taken up Hodge’s crossbow during its rush, and released a shot that clanged against its metallic body.
“Stand fast, warrior,” Kaurophon’s voice whispered in Morgan’s ear, and the knight felt energy flowing into him, fortifying his stamina.
“Here it comes!” Hodge yelled, as the demon launched into another frenzied rush, heading straight for Dannel. Arun and Morgan surged to meet it, but its speed was such that it barreled right past them to lunge at the elf, lifting a leg to stab down at him. Dannel threw himself to the side, but the leg still sliced through his cloak and tore at the mail-links protecting his torso. The edge of the limb was serrated like a bent saw, and even though the elf’s roll helped him move through the worst effects of the blow, he was trailing blood as he regained his footing, Alakast held in a defensive position before him.
Morgan and Arun each yelled a cry of battle as they rushed the demon. Arun’s blow came first, but the dwarf put too much power into the swing, which unfortunately only glanced off of its armored body. Morgan, recognizing the durability of the creature, focused on a spot that looked vulnerable—the joint where its head met its abdomen. The holy sword clanged into it with violent force, and a seam opened, releasing a nasty, pungent gel that bubbled down about its frame.
The demon instantly turned upon Morgan, and fired a green beam into his chest. The fallen cleric staggered and cried out, and looked down with horror as the splaying beam spread out across his torso.
And where it touched, his armor, and the skin beneath, started to turn gray and stiff.
Slowly turning him to stone.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Heh, they are nasty.
Ironically enough, Kaurophon's bear's endurance (cast in the last update) saves Morgan's life, though Morgan would believe otherwise (read on)...
* * * * *
Chapter 211
Morgan cried out, unable to resist the terrible transformation that threatened to destroy him.
And in that cry, he spoke a name that he had not used since before coming here, a name that he’d left behind in shame and guilt.
“Helm!” he shouted.
Drawing upon a reservoir of fortitude deep within him, and the anchor of that name, the knight roared and twisted away from the creature and that fell ray. The eye-beam flickered out, and after a tense moment of uncertainty, Morgan felt his skin returning to normal.
“Destroy it, now!” Arun yelled.
The companions, knowing full well the potency of the demon, assaulted it with everything they had. Hodge drew up his spear and charged it from the flank, slamming the head of his weapon deep into its armored side. Mole came up from behind, but even though her mace struck a thick leg solidly, it didn’t seem to have much effect upon the creature. But it felt it when Dannel drove Alakast into its head, and it staggered.
But it was not finished just yet.
The retriever lashed out with vicious strokes of its blade-limbs, tearing fierce wounds in those it struck, hurting Dannel, Arun, and Morgan. Dannel went down, hurt bad, blood gushing from his bleeding leg. Morgan, already wounded in the battle with the rogues earlier, fell back, clutching at his gashed and bleeding side. The demon lunged at him before he could escape its reach, lashing its pincer-fangs around him and drawing him roughly up into the air, securely held in its bite. Morgan screamed once and crumpled as the creature crushed him, drawing him into unconsciousness and toward death.
Arun lifted his sword and immediately rushed again at the demon, which was turning back toward the cyst-field, as if intent now upon retreat with its captive. But the last gem-eye, a brilliant red ruby, swiveled and flashed, blasting a stream of fire into the dwarf’s chest. The dwarf staggered back from the force of the blast, and it was clear that the flames had hurt him, hurt him bad.
But it would take a lot more than that to stop Arun Goldenshield.
The dwarf roared an invocation to Moradin as he leapt inside the reach of the demon’s stabbing limbs, under Morgan’s dangling legs, and drove his sword straight up into its body. The demon convulsed, twitching, stumbling as Hodge drew his spear out and stabbed it in again, this time into the joint directly behind its head. It screeched and finally fell, still holding Morgan tightly in its grasp.
Arun was there in a flash, prying the crippled knight free, stabilizing him with a trickle of healing energy, until his reservoir of divine power was empty. Zenna had already tended to Dannel, but the elf was still very pale.
The dwarf paladin stood, gingerly, his own body blackened and battered. “I think,” he said, sucking in a deep breath, “I think, that maybe, we should rest a bit, before heading back in.”
No one disagreed.
Ironically enough, Kaurophon's bear's endurance (cast in the last update) saves Morgan's life, though Morgan would believe otherwise (read on)...
* * * * *
Chapter 211
Morgan cried out, unable to resist the terrible transformation that threatened to destroy him.
And in that cry, he spoke a name that he had not used since before coming here, a name that he’d left behind in shame and guilt.
“Helm!” he shouted.
Drawing upon a reservoir of fortitude deep within him, and the anchor of that name, the knight roared and twisted away from the creature and that fell ray. The eye-beam flickered out, and after a tense moment of uncertainty, Morgan felt his skin returning to normal.
“Destroy it, now!” Arun yelled.
The companions, knowing full well the potency of the demon, assaulted it with everything they had. Hodge drew up his spear and charged it from the flank, slamming the head of his weapon deep into its armored side. Mole came up from behind, but even though her mace struck a thick leg solidly, it didn’t seem to have much effect upon the creature. But it felt it when Dannel drove Alakast into its head, and it staggered.
But it was not finished just yet.
The retriever lashed out with vicious strokes of its blade-limbs, tearing fierce wounds in those it struck, hurting Dannel, Arun, and Morgan. Dannel went down, hurt bad, blood gushing from his bleeding leg. Morgan, already wounded in the battle with the rogues earlier, fell back, clutching at his gashed and bleeding side. The demon lunged at him before he could escape its reach, lashing its pincer-fangs around him and drawing him roughly up into the air, securely held in its bite. Morgan screamed once and crumpled as the creature crushed him, drawing him into unconsciousness and toward death.
Arun lifted his sword and immediately rushed again at the demon, which was turning back toward the cyst-field, as if intent now upon retreat with its captive. But the last gem-eye, a brilliant red ruby, swiveled and flashed, blasting a stream of fire into the dwarf’s chest. The dwarf staggered back from the force of the blast, and it was clear that the flames had hurt him, hurt him bad.
But it would take a lot more than that to stop Arun Goldenshield.
The dwarf roared an invocation to Moradin as he leapt inside the reach of the demon’s stabbing limbs, under Morgan’s dangling legs, and drove his sword straight up into its body. The demon convulsed, twitching, stumbling as Hodge drew his spear out and stabbed it in again, this time into the joint directly behind its head. It screeched and finally fell, still holding Morgan tightly in its grasp.
Arun was there in a flash, prying the crippled knight free, stabilizing him with a trickle of healing energy, until his reservoir of divine power was empty. Zenna had already tended to Dannel, but the elf was still very pale.
The dwarf paladin stood, gingerly, his own body blackened and battered. “I think,” he said, sucking in a deep breath, “I think, that maybe, we should rest a bit, before heading back in.”
No one disagreed.
It's amazing -- Morgan is actually drawing close to the dwarves as my favorite character. Great writing, LB -- he feels really "real" for lack of a better term. Not to mention that he's hard-headed without being an idiot. Heh, most of the time, anyway.
Keep up the great work!
Keep up the great work!
Jon Potter
First Post
LB-
It's very nearly 9 p.m. here. That's an hour past your usual update time.
So... where's the update. You've got me trained with Pavlovian efficiency and now you break the routine?
That's just cruel, man.
It's very nearly 9 p.m. here. That's an hour past your usual update time.
So... where's the update. You've got me trained with Pavlovian efficiency and now you break the routine?
That's just cruel, man.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Heh... I had to go down to the Bay Area today for a meeting, just got back. But it's nice to know I have folks waiting eagerly for the update!Jon Potter said:LB-
It's very nearly 9 p.m. here. That's an hour past your usual update time.
So... where's the update. You've got me trained with Pavlovian efficiency and now you break the routine?
That's just cruel, man.
P.S. I've got a nice cliffhanger for Friday...
* * * * *
Chapter 212
They were getting close, Zenna thought; she could feel it.
Slowly, each step deliberate along the path illuminated by the magical lantern, she walked onward. Her new cloak flapped against her legs as she walked. It was a bit large for her, but she didn’t begrudge that in exchange for the benefits of its magical protection. Both she and Kaurophon had examined it during their last rest, and it radiated a potent, if unspecific, abjuration effect. With some time and a decent laboratory she could no doubt pinpoint its precise protective spell, but for now, the others had agreed that she should wear it.
“Need yer to keep standin’ to keep them healin’ spells comin’,” Hodge had commented.
Neither of them had been able to decipher the function of the bracers they had found, except to confirm that they were in fact magical. For now, they rested secure in Mole’s bag of holding.
They were getting a bit spread out, and she considered stopping, letting them teleport back to the start of the invisible maze. But when she looked back, Mole and Dannel were returning from their excursion to the heap of debris where the retriever had made its lair. Mole had the look of someone who’d just found a treat hidden under her dinner plate, and Dannel was carrying something heavy... a suit of armor?
“Good news!” the elf said, as he rejoined them. “This suit of plate is in almost perfect condition... and it looks right about your size, Morgan!”
“We also found a lot of gold, and this dagger,” Mole added, holding up the weapon gingerly by a bit of cloth wrapped around its hilt.
“What’s wrong with it?” Hodge asked.
“It doesn’t... well, feel right,” the gnome replied. “But it’s clearly magical, it even gives off a bit of a glow when you draw it.”
“Bah, it’s just a knife,” the dwarf said. “Give it ‘ere.”
But Arun blocked him with an outstretched hand. “It is evil... I can feel the Taint seeping from it even from here,” he said. “Discard it.”
Mole’s interest in her find was not diminished by the dwarf’s revelation; if anything, she seemed more intent upon it. “Really? Evil? But... if we toss it, maybe a demon will find it, and use it against something good.”
The paladin frowned. “You raise a good point. Then keep it for now, until we return to Faerûn, where we can see about destroying it. But don’t carry it on your person.”
“Arun’s right,” Zenna said. They were all still walking forward, but the discussion over the demon’s treasure had slowed the others, until she was now a good ten paces ahead of them. “Wrap it up and keep it buried in your bag of holding, and don’t play with it; such weapons can sometimes have an ill effect upon their users.”
“Perhaps you should take custody of it,” Morgan said, looking up from where he was examining the armor, taking the pieces from Dannel’s grasp.
“What do you mean by that?” Zenna returned, her eyes narrowing.
“Just that you are a spell-weaver; you would best know how to deal with any ill effects it might produce.”
“Maybe Arun should take it,” Kaurophon suggested. Zenna jumped slightly; as he often did, the sorcerer had a way of fading into the background, and she’d almost forgotten he was there. “As a soldier of the Light, he may best be able to resist the call of the Dark.”
“I’ve packed it away,” Mole said. “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t look at it again until we get back home.”
“Home,” Hodge said, wistfully. “We be a long ways off.”
The beam of light from the lantern turned again to the left, and Zenna, walking forward ahead of the rest of them, abruptly vanished without warning.
“Zenna!” Dannel shouted, running forward. As soon as he reached the point where Zenna had disappeared, he, too, vanished.
“An invisible portal,” Kaurophon suggested. “Teleportation.”
“Or a trap,” Hodge said. “Fer all we know it’s dropped ‘em off the edge o’ this crazy world.”
“Only one way to find out for sure,” Arun said, already clanking forward. The others followed close behind. One by one, they stepped over the invisible threshold and faded from sight.
And appeared someplace different, Zenna and Dannel already there waiting for them. They were not alone; another desiccated mummy stood there, clad like the others in resplendent ritual armor that jarred incongruously with the shrunken remnants of its flesh. Their surroundings were rather different as well, the familiar emptiness of the plain replaced by a forest of tall, slender brown stalks, forming a dense but not impenetrable thicket all around them.
The mummy shifted its attention from Zenna to the others as they appeared, and lifted its hands, showing that it bore no weapons.
“Heed the words of Adimarchus,” it intoned, in the same deep sepulchral voice they had heard from the first mummy, if this was not indeed the same creature. “You have passed the Test of Resolve. Attend to the wisdom of Adimarchus! Let neither riches nor weaponry, neither allies nor enemies, tempt you from your course. Instead, spread such distractions before your rivals. The lantern shall guide you to the final test: the Test of Sacrifice. Your ascension to the throne of Adimarchus draws nigh!”
Having delivered its message, it waved its hand and disappeared.
“Charming fellow, this Adimarchus,” Dannel said.
“I don’t remember seeing any ‘allies’ back there,” Mole grumbled.
“Well,” Arun said, “It looks like we’d better...”
He was interrupted by a loud crashing noise almost directly behind them. Zenna spun just in time to see a huge, four-armed ape, with reddish-brown fur, reach out towards her with claws outstretched...
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 213
Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the giant mutant ape, Zenna screamed.
“Back, monster!” Morgan yelled, stepping in between her and the creature, driving his sword down into its chest. The fiendish nature of the ape was revealed in the way that the holy sword blazed as it struck, opening a massive gash in its torso, black blood pouring down its body. The ape, critically wounded, nonetheless reached for the knight with all four of its claws, only to stagger to the ground as one of its legs crumpled under its weight. As it fell, it revealed Mole standing behind it. The gnome casually flicked her mace end over end, the hilt snapping with a satisfying crack into her palm.
“The bigger they are,” she said, with a smirk.
They drew back from the still-thrashing ape, only to hear loud roars from deeper in the thicket, from where the creature had appeared.
“More of them!” Dannel said.
“Again with the obvious!” Hodge said, trying with some difficulty to set his spear with all of the intervening strands rising up around them.
“Battle-wedge!” Morgan cried. “Spellcasters in the rear, warriors to the front!”
They barely had time to shift their formation when two more of the huge girallons appeared, charging full-on toward them.
A bright scorching ray of flames exploded over the chest of the first creature. The girallon’s fiendish resistances absorbed some of the force of the blast, but only some, and it roared in pain as it rushed toward her.
But Arun and Morgan were in its path. The ape’s long reach gave it first stroke, and it pounded Morgan with enough force to stagger the knight. But then the two warriors were surging forward to attack, their holy blades tearing into it with violent force. The creature wailed as blood exploded from the violent rents in its torso, and when a series of magical bolts seared into it from an invisible Kaurophon, it fell.
The second girallon all but impaled itself on Hodge’s spear. Still it managed to stagger forward, smashing the dwarf across the temple with a claw. The dwarf’s helm saved him from a crushed skull, but as he spun around, unsteady, blood was visible trailing down the side of his head. He released the spear and drew out his heavy axe, leaping forward to drive the weapon into its left knee. The axe bit deep, and the girallon went down, screaming. Before it could rise Dannel was there, driving Alakast into its face, and with a sickening crack the creature fell back, still.
“Quite a welcome,” came the sorcerer’s voice from nearby.
“We got lucky, that they attacked so readily, and without any benefit of tactics,” Arun said. “If they’d survived long enough to get those claws into us...”
He didn’t have to finish his thought.
Morgan cleaned his blade on one of the girallon’s hides, before slipping it back into its scabbard. Dannel came over to him, holding up his wand, and after a brief hesitation the knight nodded, accepting the healing energy. After that, he treated Hodge.
“That’s it for the wand,” he said when he was done, tossing the depleted device into his pack.
“How are we set for potions?” Zenna asked.
A quick survey found that they only had a pair of healing draughts left to them. The companions shared a grim look, but their faces also revealed hard lines of determination. Zenna thought of the scroll in her pouch, the option out that she’d carried since they’d agreed to come here. But they had come this far, and she knew that her friends would stay the course until there was no other alternative but to retreat.
“Here, Dannel,” she said, unslinging her crossbow and quiver. “You’re far more effective than I am with these.”
The elf accepted the weapons silently.
“Ew, look!” Mole said, drawing their attention back to the slain apes.
They turned to see that several of the fibrous tendrils had snaked around the corpses of the apes, slowly tightening their grasp upon them. The companions drew back in alarm, but none of the tendrils seemed to be approaching them.
“I hate this place,” Hodge said.
“Let’s get out of here,” Arun said gruffly.
Turning, they started walking in the direction indicated by the lantern.
Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the giant mutant ape, Zenna screamed.
“Back, monster!” Morgan yelled, stepping in between her and the creature, driving his sword down into its chest. The fiendish nature of the ape was revealed in the way that the holy sword blazed as it struck, opening a massive gash in its torso, black blood pouring down its body. The ape, critically wounded, nonetheless reached for the knight with all four of its claws, only to stagger to the ground as one of its legs crumpled under its weight. As it fell, it revealed Mole standing behind it. The gnome casually flicked her mace end over end, the hilt snapping with a satisfying crack into her palm.
“The bigger they are,” she said, with a smirk.
They drew back from the still-thrashing ape, only to hear loud roars from deeper in the thicket, from where the creature had appeared.
“More of them!” Dannel said.
“Again with the obvious!” Hodge said, trying with some difficulty to set his spear with all of the intervening strands rising up around them.
“Battle-wedge!” Morgan cried. “Spellcasters in the rear, warriors to the front!”
They barely had time to shift their formation when two more of the huge girallons appeared, charging full-on toward them.
A bright scorching ray of flames exploded over the chest of the first creature. The girallon’s fiendish resistances absorbed some of the force of the blast, but only some, and it roared in pain as it rushed toward her.
But Arun and Morgan were in its path. The ape’s long reach gave it first stroke, and it pounded Morgan with enough force to stagger the knight. But then the two warriors were surging forward to attack, their holy blades tearing into it with violent force. The creature wailed as blood exploded from the violent rents in its torso, and when a series of magical bolts seared into it from an invisible Kaurophon, it fell.
The second girallon all but impaled itself on Hodge’s spear. Still it managed to stagger forward, smashing the dwarf across the temple with a claw. The dwarf’s helm saved him from a crushed skull, but as he spun around, unsteady, blood was visible trailing down the side of his head. He released the spear and drew out his heavy axe, leaping forward to drive the weapon into its left knee. The axe bit deep, and the girallon went down, screaming. Before it could rise Dannel was there, driving Alakast into its face, and with a sickening crack the creature fell back, still.
“Quite a welcome,” came the sorcerer’s voice from nearby.
“We got lucky, that they attacked so readily, and without any benefit of tactics,” Arun said. “If they’d survived long enough to get those claws into us...”
He didn’t have to finish his thought.
Morgan cleaned his blade on one of the girallon’s hides, before slipping it back into its scabbard. Dannel came over to him, holding up his wand, and after a brief hesitation the knight nodded, accepting the healing energy. After that, he treated Hodge.
“That’s it for the wand,” he said when he was done, tossing the depleted device into his pack.
“How are we set for potions?” Zenna asked.
A quick survey found that they only had a pair of healing draughts left to them. The companions shared a grim look, but their faces also revealed hard lines of determination. Zenna thought of the scroll in her pouch, the option out that she’d carried since they’d agreed to come here. But they had come this far, and she knew that her friends would stay the course until there was no other alternative but to retreat.
“Here, Dannel,” she said, unslinging her crossbow and quiver. “You’re far more effective than I am with these.”
The elf accepted the weapons silently.
“Ew, look!” Mole said, drawing their attention back to the slain apes.
They turned to see that several of the fibrous tendrils had snaked around the corpses of the apes, slowly tightening their grasp upon them. The companions drew back in alarm, but none of the tendrils seemed to be approaching them.
“I hate this place,” Hodge said.
“Let’s get out of here,” Arun said gruffly.
Turning, they started walking in the direction indicated by the lantern.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 214
Zenna figured where the lantern was leading them even before the fibrous forest began to thin out, depositing them back out onto the plain.
There, directly ahead of them in the center of Occipitus, lay the great skull. Streamers of flame, smoke, and the occasional bulbous plasm rose from the uppermost eye socket. The skull lay in the center of a blasted landscape that was sparse even for this place, and it seemed to stare balefully at them, waiting.
“Why am I not surprised?” Arun said, sounding tired. The sheer weight of Occipitus upon the psyche had to be having an effect upon him, she thought.
There was nothing to be done but to set out walking. A long day passed, with them slowly drawing closer to the skull, although by the time they finally broke to rest Zenna thought that the mound looked little nearer than it had when they had started. They encountered nothing, not the slightest stirring of life as far as they could see. It was as if the entire plane had fallen into a deep somnolence, with even the ever-dancing plasms in the sky above seeming to drift sleepily on their random courses.
They were tired and hungry, but Zenna was finally able to ease the latter problem. Their stores of buffalo meat had rotted to the point where even Zenna’s purify spell could not make it edible, and they discarded the remainder soon after leaving the fibrous forest. Mole turned out her bag of holding, but only found a few loose grains and other scraps of food that did little to assuage their hunger. Zenna knew that whatever tests waited at the skull would demand the most of them, and that they could not afford to be weak from incipient starvation. So after that rest, while preparing her spells, she focused her meditations upon their need, finally nodding as a trickle of divine energy echoed in her mind.
The food she conjured with the create food and water spell was gray and bland, and it bore the same faintly rancid taint that everything in this place possessed, but that didn’t stop any of them from eating their fill. Even with Hodge and Mole each eating enough for two people there was still a lot left, which Mole carefully packed up and stored in her bag of holding.
“Well, I mighta preferred a side o’ beef and a keg o’ ale, but damned if that didn’t hit the spot,” Hodge finally said. “But why didn’t yer magic us up a meal before, when we was chokin’ down that damned fiend-cow meat?”
“My powers have only recently augmented to the point where I can draw upon the third valence of divine energy,” Zenna explained. At Hodge’s blank look, she added, “I couldn’t cast that spell before.”
She didn’t see the thoughtful look that Kaurophon wore as he considered this new development.
“Let’s get moving,” Morgan prodded. In his new armor, and with the holy bastard sword slung across his back, he looked again the vision of a veteran knight, although dark circles still hung under his eyes, and the muscles of his jaw were constantly tight, giving him the tense look of a hunted man.
The second day seemed to go much easier, with plenty of food to sustain them, and no obstacles to bar their way. They encountered a number of shallow pools, thin cuts like ulcers in the spongy ground, filled with a noxious, thick red fluid that looked and smelled like fresh blood. They gave those a wide berth, but they began to appear with more frequency as they drew nearer to the skull.
“Another day, maybe two,” Morgan estimated, as they began to flag, and started looking for another place to set up a camp. It didn’t take long; everyplace they looked seemed pretty much the same as the others, except that they wanted a spot well away from any of the bubbling ulcer pools.
“Well, elf, you going to lend a hand, or are you just going to stare at that skull?” Morgan said, as he laid out his ragged bedroll, and started undoing the straps on his breastplate.
But Zenna saw Dannel’s body suddenly tense. “What is it?” she asked.
“Something’s coming,” he reported. “Flying this way.”
The companions leapt up, reached for their weapons, and stared out at the distance. It took them a moment to see the tiny speck that the elf had spotted, but after a minute or two there was no doubting that he was right, that whatever it was, it was coming right for them.
Kaurophon’s soft voice sounded behind them, casting spell after spell in anticipation. Zenna followed his lead, summoning both her mage armor and a shield.
Whatever it was, it was flying fast, maybe eighty feet above the plain, high enough to give it a clear vantage over the surrounding area, but not high enough to draw the plasms. Finally, while it was still little more than an amorphous black shape to most of them, Dannel’s sharp eyes identified the enemy.
“It’s a dragon,” he said. “A big one.”
Zenna figured where the lantern was leading them even before the fibrous forest began to thin out, depositing them back out onto the plain.
There, directly ahead of them in the center of Occipitus, lay the great skull. Streamers of flame, smoke, and the occasional bulbous plasm rose from the uppermost eye socket. The skull lay in the center of a blasted landscape that was sparse even for this place, and it seemed to stare balefully at them, waiting.
“Why am I not surprised?” Arun said, sounding tired. The sheer weight of Occipitus upon the psyche had to be having an effect upon him, she thought.
There was nothing to be done but to set out walking. A long day passed, with them slowly drawing closer to the skull, although by the time they finally broke to rest Zenna thought that the mound looked little nearer than it had when they had started. They encountered nothing, not the slightest stirring of life as far as they could see. It was as if the entire plane had fallen into a deep somnolence, with even the ever-dancing plasms in the sky above seeming to drift sleepily on their random courses.
They were tired and hungry, but Zenna was finally able to ease the latter problem. Their stores of buffalo meat had rotted to the point where even Zenna’s purify spell could not make it edible, and they discarded the remainder soon after leaving the fibrous forest. Mole turned out her bag of holding, but only found a few loose grains and other scraps of food that did little to assuage their hunger. Zenna knew that whatever tests waited at the skull would demand the most of them, and that they could not afford to be weak from incipient starvation. So after that rest, while preparing her spells, she focused her meditations upon their need, finally nodding as a trickle of divine energy echoed in her mind.
The food she conjured with the create food and water spell was gray and bland, and it bore the same faintly rancid taint that everything in this place possessed, but that didn’t stop any of them from eating their fill. Even with Hodge and Mole each eating enough for two people there was still a lot left, which Mole carefully packed up and stored in her bag of holding.
“Well, I mighta preferred a side o’ beef and a keg o’ ale, but damned if that didn’t hit the spot,” Hodge finally said. “But why didn’t yer magic us up a meal before, when we was chokin’ down that damned fiend-cow meat?”
“My powers have only recently augmented to the point where I can draw upon the third valence of divine energy,” Zenna explained. At Hodge’s blank look, she added, “I couldn’t cast that spell before.”
She didn’t see the thoughtful look that Kaurophon wore as he considered this new development.
“Let’s get moving,” Morgan prodded. In his new armor, and with the holy bastard sword slung across his back, he looked again the vision of a veteran knight, although dark circles still hung under his eyes, and the muscles of his jaw were constantly tight, giving him the tense look of a hunted man.
The second day seemed to go much easier, with plenty of food to sustain them, and no obstacles to bar their way. They encountered a number of shallow pools, thin cuts like ulcers in the spongy ground, filled with a noxious, thick red fluid that looked and smelled like fresh blood. They gave those a wide berth, but they began to appear with more frequency as they drew nearer to the skull.
“Another day, maybe two,” Morgan estimated, as they began to flag, and started looking for another place to set up a camp. It didn’t take long; everyplace they looked seemed pretty much the same as the others, except that they wanted a spot well away from any of the bubbling ulcer pools.
“Well, elf, you going to lend a hand, or are you just going to stare at that skull?” Morgan said, as he laid out his ragged bedroll, and started undoing the straps on his breastplate.
But Zenna saw Dannel’s body suddenly tense. “What is it?” she asked.
“Something’s coming,” he reported. “Flying this way.”
The companions leapt up, reached for their weapons, and stared out at the distance. It took them a moment to see the tiny speck that the elf had spotted, but after a minute or two there was no doubting that he was right, that whatever it was, it was coming right for them.
Kaurophon’s soft voice sounded behind them, casting spell after spell in anticipation. Zenna followed his lead, summoning both her mage armor and a shield.
Whatever it was, it was flying fast, maybe eighty feet above the plain, high enough to give it a clear vantage over the surrounding area, but not high enough to draw the plasms. Finally, while it was still little more than an amorphous black shape to most of them, Dannel’s sharp eyes identified the enemy.
“It’s a dragon,” he said. “A big one.”
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