Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)
- Thread starter Lazybones
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Lazybones
Adventurer
Wow, too many great choices! So I have recommendations for #125 (cliffhanger with black dragon in Zenith Trajectory), and #216 and #232 in Test of the Smoking Eye (the black dragon attack and Morgan's sacrifice, respectively). Thanks for your great recommendations, I'll make a decision and post in the next day or so.
For now, more story:
* * * * *
Chapter 276
The adventurers had encountered Fetor Abradius, and in the crowded confines of the narrow tunnel they fell victim to the same deadly stratagem that had undone the Stormblades.
The twin lightning bolts were absolutely deadly. Mole had instantly thrown herself prone, avoiding both blasts, but the others were not so lucky. Hodge went down, his beard charred, his face edged with black where the bolts had seared his flesh. Behind him, Beorna took the full force of the first, empowered bolt, and only the fact that she staggered and fell to the side saved her from being finished by the second. Arun fared only slightly better, his incredible stamina preserving him, but it was clear that he too was hurt bad. And the bolts kept going, through the dwarves, into the rear ranks. Zenna’s magic circle bolstered her innate defenses, allowing her to weather the first bolt, but the second passed through Arun and impacted her squarely in the chest, knocking her back into Dannel. The elf, barely conscious, held onto her as she blacked out. Finally Sensen, in the rear of the company, was able to avoid the full force of the still-potent bolts, but was likewise seriously hurt.
The wizard, meanwhile, had stepped to the side, out of their line of sight.
Another one of those, and we’re finished, Mole thought to herself, springing up lightly to her feet. She’d taken in the effects of the bolts upon her friends in a single glance, and knew that she was the only one able, at the moment, to offer a counter to the deadly mage. But charging forward to meet him alone didn’t seem very appealing, even to her often-reckless inclinations.
Then an idea flickered into fruition in her mind, and despite the circumstances a wide smile appeared on her face. She reached into the bag tucked into her belt, kept close at hand for the opportunity she’d been waiting for since she’s bought it. She grabbed the small furry object held inside, and with a smooth snap of her wrist tossed it forward, into the open doorway. The little ball suddenly swelled into a snorting, snarling boar, four feet long, which instantly turned to the left and started attacking.
Even as she drank in the glories of her new magic item, Mole was rushing forward to join her newfound ally. She threw in a forward flip to carry her over the boar, landing on her feet a few paces into the room.
Ignoring her own wounds, Beorna was quick to kneel at Hodge’s side. The dwarf fighter looked an utter mess, but he still drew breath, though each gasp rattled in his throat as he fell closer toward death. The templar did not hesitate, pouring her most potent healing spell into him, and his eyes popped wide open in surprise as the torrent of positive energy scoured through his body.
Arun, seeing that his friend was in good hands, pushed past them, careful not to disrupt the priestess’s concentration. Despite his own wounds, he made his way toward the doorway, drawing his holy sword as he came.
“Zenna!” Dannel cried, holding her up, uncertain if she still lived. Desperately he called upon his healing song, channeling its energy into her, when she stirred, faintly, he felt a deluge of relief. Behind him, Shensen healed herself, then turned to the elf.
“You’re both hurt bad,” she said. “Fall back, I’ll help the others deal with the arcanist.”
Dannel nodded, but Zenna shook her head weakly. “No, we’ve got to help the others,” she said.
“You’ll not help them by getting yourself killed,” he told her. “Another blast like that will finish both of us!”
Reluctantly, she let him drag her back down the corridor to the intersection.
Mole drew her rapier as she landed on her feet, and looked up at the wizard. The man had a hateful look to him, and he sneered as he looked at her. “Is that the best you can do?” he said, with a contemptuous sneer at the boar. The summoned animal tried to gore him, but it only managed to pierce an image.
“Okay, I’m sure you’ve got a million spells protecting you, but I’m going to kill you anyway,” Mole said, threatening him with her admittedly tiny rapier.
But the wizard only laughed, and turned back into the doorway, ignoring both her and her boar to deal with the greater threats posed by her companions. He found himself facing Arun, the dwarf just a few paces away. Arun lifted his sword and charged, but Abradius pointed and spoke words of mystical power, summoning a spell. Darts of liquid energy blasted from his fingertips into Arun, each one driving through his armor and searing the flesh beneath. Five bolts stabbed true, and then, even as the dwarf grimaced in pain, another five exploded into him. There was no way that even Arun, already devastated by the twin lightning bolts, hit now by ten magic missiles, could withstand such an assault.
And yet, somehow, impossibly, the dwarf remained standing, hovering on the brink of destruction.
“Aaaaarrrrggggg!” Mole yelled, charging at the wizard, leaping into a cartwheel that caught even the veteran wizard off guard. The images shifted around him, trying to confound her, but through blind luck she leapt up and stabbed in a sudden thrust that found real flesh. Abradius cursed and staggered backward, clutching at the deep wound that spread crimson across the chest of his robes.
“You’ll pay for that!” he hissed at her.
Arun knew that he was in bad shape, and that another spell from the wizard would likely kill him. But he also knew that if he delayed, even for the few seconds needed to heal himself, the wizard might instead kill Mole. Grimly he started forward, feeling the wet trails of blood pouring down his body. But before he could pass through the doors, a familiar voice sounded behind him, and a familiar touch poured life into his battered body.
“Go,” Beorna said. “Kick some ass.”
Abradius had been hurt, but the wizard still had surprises left, which he proved by reaching out and roughly grasping Mole by the shoulder. A hungry red glow flared between them, and Mole screamed as she felt her very life being torn from her. Even worse, that energy was absorbed greedily by the wizard, and she watched the wound she had inflicted swiftly close. Abradius laughed and released her, seeming even stronger than he had been before.
Arun appeared in the doorway, followed a pace later by Shensen. The paladin immediately laid into the mage with his sword, but the blow impacted an image. Even as it vanished, several others shifted forward to take its place, making the wizard’s true position almost impossible to discern.
Shensen helped cut down those odds by hurling a pair of tiny shuriken, the steel throwing stars spinning through the air at him. The first passed harmlessly through an image, disrupting it, but the second hit something solid, and all of the images suddenly sported the star, jutting from his bicep.
“Bah!” he said, pulling out the weapon and dropping it to the floor. But he quickly began to feel the effects of Shensen’s “surprise”, as the scorpion venom she’d coated her stars with began to creep into his system.
Shrugging off the pain of his vampiric touch, Mole moved to flank the wizard. The boar continued to attack with dogged persistence, despite the fact that it hadn’t hit anything yet, but Abradius was starting to run out of mirror images. Mole missed cleanly, though, her thrust not connecting with anything at all, real or illusory, and she spat one of her favorite Hodge-curses in response.
The odds were turning against the wizard, but he held his ground, summoning the power of another spell. A wave of mental energy swept over them, trying to cloud their minds with a cloying confusion. Shensen’s mental discipline was far too great for even Abradius’s expert magic to overcome, and Arun, fortified by his divine calling, was likewise just able to resist.
Unfortunately, Mole’s will had never been her strong point. Suddenly overcome by the barrage of conflicting mental images, she lowered her weapon and began babbling incoherently.
But the wizard paid for that a moment later, as Arun tore into him. There were not enough images now to foil the paladin, and this time the holy sword cut flesh, the wizard falling back as he clutched the deep gash in his side. Behind him, Shensen began casting a spell, and behind her, Beorna and Hodge appeared, both still hurt but fortified by the templar’s healing powers.
“This isn’t over!” the wizard shrieked. “The secrets of the soul pillars are mine, and mine alone!” The companions rushed at him, weapons raised to strike, but Abradius spoke another word of power, and reality shifted around him, and he vanished, transported away by a dimension door.
“Damn,” Hodge said, slumping back against the wall, wiping his blackened forehead with the back of his hand.
For now, more story:
* * * * *
Chapter 276
The adventurers had encountered Fetor Abradius, and in the crowded confines of the narrow tunnel they fell victim to the same deadly stratagem that had undone the Stormblades.
The twin lightning bolts were absolutely deadly. Mole had instantly thrown herself prone, avoiding both blasts, but the others were not so lucky. Hodge went down, his beard charred, his face edged with black where the bolts had seared his flesh. Behind him, Beorna took the full force of the first, empowered bolt, and only the fact that she staggered and fell to the side saved her from being finished by the second. Arun fared only slightly better, his incredible stamina preserving him, but it was clear that he too was hurt bad. And the bolts kept going, through the dwarves, into the rear ranks. Zenna’s magic circle bolstered her innate defenses, allowing her to weather the first bolt, but the second passed through Arun and impacted her squarely in the chest, knocking her back into Dannel. The elf, barely conscious, held onto her as she blacked out. Finally Sensen, in the rear of the company, was able to avoid the full force of the still-potent bolts, but was likewise seriously hurt.
The wizard, meanwhile, had stepped to the side, out of their line of sight.
Another one of those, and we’re finished, Mole thought to herself, springing up lightly to her feet. She’d taken in the effects of the bolts upon her friends in a single glance, and knew that she was the only one able, at the moment, to offer a counter to the deadly mage. But charging forward to meet him alone didn’t seem very appealing, even to her often-reckless inclinations.
Then an idea flickered into fruition in her mind, and despite the circumstances a wide smile appeared on her face. She reached into the bag tucked into her belt, kept close at hand for the opportunity she’d been waiting for since she’s bought it. She grabbed the small furry object held inside, and with a smooth snap of her wrist tossed it forward, into the open doorway. The little ball suddenly swelled into a snorting, snarling boar, four feet long, which instantly turned to the left and started attacking.
Even as she drank in the glories of her new magic item, Mole was rushing forward to join her newfound ally. She threw in a forward flip to carry her over the boar, landing on her feet a few paces into the room.
Ignoring her own wounds, Beorna was quick to kneel at Hodge’s side. The dwarf fighter looked an utter mess, but he still drew breath, though each gasp rattled in his throat as he fell closer toward death. The templar did not hesitate, pouring her most potent healing spell into him, and his eyes popped wide open in surprise as the torrent of positive energy scoured through his body.
Arun, seeing that his friend was in good hands, pushed past them, careful not to disrupt the priestess’s concentration. Despite his own wounds, he made his way toward the doorway, drawing his holy sword as he came.
“Zenna!” Dannel cried, holding her up, uncertain if she still lived. Desperately he called upon his healing song, channeling its energy into her, when she stirred, faintly, he felt a deluge of relief. Behind him, Shensen healed herself, then turned to the elf.
“You’re both hurt bad,” she said. “Fall back, I’ll help the others deal with the arcanist.”
Dannel nodded, but Zenna shook her head weakly. “No, we’ve got to help the others,” she said.
“You’ll not help them by getting yourself killed,” he told her. “Another blast like that will finish both of us!”
Reluctantly, she let him drag her back down the corridor to the intersection.
Mole drew her rapier as she landed on her feet, and looked up at the wizard. The man had a hateful look to him, and he sneered as he looked at her. “Is that the best you can do?” he said, with a contemptuous sneer at the boar. The summoned animal tried to gore him, but it only managed to pierce an image.
“Okay, I’m sure you’ve got a million spells protecting you, but I’m going to kill you anyway,” Mole said, threatening him with her admittedly tiny rapier.
But the wizard only laughed, and turned back into the doorway, ignoring both her and her boar to deal with the greater threats posed by her companions. He found himself facing Arun, the dwarf just a few paces away. Arun lifted his sword and charged, but Abradius pointed and spoke words of mystical power, summoning a spell. Darts of liquid energy blasted from his fingertips into Arun, each one driving through his armor and searing the flesh beneath. Five bolts stabbed true, and then, even as the dwarf grimaced in pain, another five exploded into him. There was no way that even Arun, already devastated by the twin lightning bolts, hit now by ten magic missiles, could withstand such an assault.
And yet, somehow, impossibly, the dwarf remained standing, hovering on the brink of destruction.
“Aaaaarrrrggggg!” Mole yelled, charging at the wizard, leaping into a cartwheel that caught even the veteran wizard off guard. The images shifted around him, trying to confound her, but through blind luck she leapt up and stabbed in a sudden thrust that found real flesh. Abradius cursed and staggered backward, clutching at the deep wound that spread crimson across the chest of his robes.
“You’ll pay for that!” he hissed at her.
Arun knew that he was in bad shape, and that another spell from the wizard would likely kill him. But he also knew that if he delayed, even for the few seconds needed to heal himself, the wizard might instead kill Mole. Grimly he started forward, feeling the wet trails of blood pouring down his body. But before he could pass through the doors, a familiar voice sounded behind him, and a familiar touch poured life into his battered body.
“Go,” Beorna said. “Kick some ass.”
Abradius had been hurt, but the wizard still had surprises left, which he proved by reaching out and roughly grasping Mole by the shoulder. A hungry red glow flared between them, and Mole screamed as she felt her very life being torn from her. Even worse, that energy was absorbed greedily by the wizard, and she watched the wound she had inflicted swiftly close. Abradius laughed and released her, seeming even stronger than he had been before.
Arun appeared in the doorway, followed a pace later by Shensen. The paladin immediately laid into the mage with his sword, but the blow impacted an image. Even as it vanished, several others shifted forward to take its place, making the wizard’s true position almost impossible to discern.
Shensen helped cut down those odds by hurling a pair of tiny shuriken, the steel throwing stars spinning through the air at him. The first passed harmlessly through an image, disrupting it, but the second hit something solid, and all of the images suddenly sported the star, jutting from his bicep.
“Bah!” he said, pulling out the weapon and dropping it to the floor. But he quickly began to feel the effects of Shensen’s “surprise”, as the scorpion venom she’d coated her stars with began to creep into his system.
Shrugging off the pain of his vampiric touch, Mole moved to flank the wizard. The boar continued to attack with dogged persistence, despite the fact that it hadn’t hit anything yet, but Abradius was starting to run out of mirror images. Mole missed cleanly, though, her thrust not connecting with anything at all, real or illusory, and she spat one of her favorite Hodge-curses in response.
The odds were turning against the wizard, but he held his ground, summoning the power of another spell. A wave of mental energy swept over them, trying to cloud their minds with a cloying confusion. Shensen’s mental discipline was far too great for even Abradius’s expert magic to overcome, and Arun, fortified by his divine calling, was likewise just able to resist.
Unfortunately, Mole’s will had never been her strong point. Suddenly overcome by the barrage of conflicting mental images, she lowered her weapon and began babbling incoherently.
But the wizard paid for that a moment later, as Arun tore into him. There were not enough images now to foil the paladin, and this time the holy sword cut flesh, the wizard falling back as he clutched the deep gash in his side. Behind him, Shensen began casting a spell, and behind her, Beorna and Hodge appeared, both still hurt but fortified by the templar’s healing powers.
“This isn’t over!” the wizard shrieked. “The secrets of the soul pillars are mine, and mine alone!” The companions rushed at him, weapons raised to strike, but Abradius spoke another word of power, and reality shifted around him, and he vanished, transported away by a dimension door.
“Damn,” Hodge said, slumping back against the wall, wiping his blackened forehead with the back of his hand.
Broccli_Head
Explorer
Lazybones said:
Argggghhh! Gonna have to learn that dimensional anchor spell . I've always hated wizards who 'port away when you got them surrounded....
Broccli_Head
Explorer
Lazybones said:
Argggghhh! Gonna have to learn that dimensional anchor spell . I've always hated wizards who 'port away when you got them surrounded....wait a second...dimension door was line-of-sight I thought.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Thanks all for your suggestions. I chose a cliffhanger post from the black dragon encounter in "Zenith Trajectory". Looking back on it, I should have picked one that had more action perhaps, but I was in a rush last night.
* * * * *
Chapter 277
Arun and Beorna grappled Mole—normally a difficult task, but made easier due to her confusion—and held her until the power of Abradius’s spell had faded. The companions gathered in the circular chamber where the mage had waited, healing their injuries and discussing their next course.
“That was close... too close,” Dannel commented. “Those lightning bolts nearly killed several of us, and that was just the first few seconds of the battle.”
“We fell prey to the same ambush that caught the Stormblades,” Zenna said. “He was waiting for us in a confined space, where we could not avoid the bolts. He was powerful... his spells were improved through the use of metamagic, a talent well beyond what I can manage with my own magic.”
“What do you think he meant by the ‘soul pillars’?” Mole asked.
“What we’re here to find, I’d presume,” Arun said.
“What do you make of this?” Shensen said, drawing their attention to the center of the room.
They gathered to examine the only distinct feature in the room, a patch of what looked like black ice that covered the floor in a roughly circular outline about eight feet across. Dannel bent to examine the floor, his skilled eye noticing faint scuffs where the others only saw gray stone. “I’d say our wizard friend spent a good deal of time standing here,” he told them.
Zenna came over, and cast a spell, focusing on the ice for some moments. “It’s a divination device,” she finally reported. “Let me see if I can discern its operation...”
She closed her eyes, her brow furrowing in concentration. Flickering images began to appear within the ice, finally coming into focus with a startling rapidity.
They could see the evil loremaster, Fetor Abradius, standing in a darkened chamber. Before him, in the shadows, a pair of slender pillars rose out of a great pit in the floor to ascend high above, out of their field of view. For some reason, even through the shadowy image of the magical viewer, those pillars filled each of them with a sinister feeling of dread. Hodge muttered a curse, and Beorna added a whispered prayer to Helm, her hands tightening on the hilt of her sword.
Something stirred in the shadows, a long, sinuous form. Then Abradius spun suddenly, snarling as he looked directly at them. The companions drew back in alarm, but then the mage waved his hand, and the ice went black once more.
“Well, I guess he doesn’t like being spied upon,” Dannel commented.
“So much for him fleeing the scene,” Beorna said. “And more importantly, we know he’s gathering reinforcements. Whatever that... thing was, I didn’t like the looks of it.”
“Should we retreat?” Dannel asked.
Arun shook his head. “He knows we’re here, and we’d never get out of the complex before he could attack us, if that is his goal.”
“And even if he did allow us to retreat and recover our strength, the next time we meet him he’d have those same spells ready again, or something even more nasty,” Zenna said.
“Well then, let’s be about this while our wards persist,” Beorna said simply, leading them out of the room back into the corridor.
They returned to the intersection, and the iron door there. Beorna started toward it, but Zenna held her up. “Wait,” she said. “Each door we’ve opened thus far has concealed an enemy. And for all we know, the wizard’s ambush lies beyond this one. Maybe, just this one, we should be prepared.”
“What do you propose, Zenna?” Arun asked.
“Give me some time,” she said. “I know that the minutes are precious, but in this case, I think the knowledge we may gain may be worth the cost.”
She knelt before the doors, and began an intricate casting. The others waited—some, like Beorna, clearly impatient—as she wove a complex divination spell. Finally, she lifted her hands to her forehead and raised her head, her eyes shut. Almost immediately she jerked back, and quickly stood, letting the spell dissipate.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” Dannel asked.
Zenna looked at the door as if she thought the portal itself would animate and attack. “Behind that door, another chamber filled with an ice lattice. And waiting in the middle of it... another fiend.”
“What kind?” Arun asked.
“I did not recognize the species,” she said. “It was big, fat and bloated with some sort of greenish sludge covering its form. I think it sensed something, because it started turning toward me, and so I quickly broke the spell.”
“Well then,” Beorna said, and her voice held a surprising degree of satisfaction as she lifted her sword to her shoulder.
* * * * *
Chapter 277
Arun and Beorna grappled Mole—normally a difficult task, but made easier due to her confusion—and held her until the power of Abradius’s spell had faded. The companions gathered in the circular chamber where the mage had waited, healing their injuries and discussing their next course.
“That was close... too close,” Dannel commented. “Those lightning bolts nearly killed several of us, and that was just the first few seconds of the battle.”
“We fell prey to the same ambush that caught the Stormblades,” Zenna said. “He was waiting for us in a confined space, where we could not avoid the bolts. He was powerful... his spells were improved through the use of metamagic, a talent well beyond what I can manage with my own magic.”
“What do you think he meant by the ‘soul pillars’?” Mole asked.
“What we’re here to find, I’d presume,” Arun said.
“What do you make of this?” Shensen said, drawing their attention to the center of the room.
They gathered to examine the only distinct feature in the room, a patch of what looked like black ice that covered the floor in a roughly circular outline about eight feet across. Dannel bent to examine the floor, his skilled eye noticing faint scuffs where the others only saw gray stone. “I’d say our wizard friend spent a good deal of time standing here,” he told them.
Zenna came over, and cast a spell, focusing on the ice for some moments. “It’s a divination device,” she finally reported. “Let me see if I can discern its operation...”
She closed her eyes, her brow furrowing in concentration. Flickering images began to appear within the ice, finally coming into focus with a startling rapidity.
They could see the evil loremaster, Fetor Abradius, standing in a darkened chamber. Before him, in the shadows, a pair of slender pillars rose out of a great pit in the floor to ascend high above, out of their field of view. For some reason, even through the shadowy image of the magical viewer, those pillars filled each of them with a sinister feeling of dread. Hodge muttered a curse, and Beorna added a whispered prayer to Helm, her hands tightening on the hilt of her sword.
Something stirred in the shadows, a long, sinuous form. Then Abradius spun suddenly, snarling as he looked directly at them. The companions drew back in alarm, but then the mage waved his hand, and the ice went black once more.
“Well, I guess he doesn’t like being spied upon,” Dannel commented.
“So much for him fleeing the scene,” Beorna said. “And more importantly, we know he’s gathering reinforcements. Whatever that... thing was, I didn’t like the looks of it.”
“Should we retreat?” Dannel asked.
Arun shook his head. “He knows we’re here, and we’d never get out of the complex before he could attack us, if that is his goal.”
“And even if he did allow us to retreat and recover our strength, the next time we meet him he’d have those same spells ready again, or something even more nasty,” Zenna said.
“Well then, let’s be about this while our wards persist,” Beorna said simply, leading them out of the room back into the corridor.
They returned to the intersection, and the iron door there. Beorna started toward it, but Zenna held her up. “Wait,” she said. “Each door we’ve opened thus far has concealed an enemy. And for all we know, the wizard’s ambush lies beyond this one. Maybe, just this one, we should be prepared.”
“What do you propose, Zenna?” Arun asked.
“Give me some time,” she said. “I know that the minutes are precious, but in this case, I think the knowledge we may gain may be worth the cost.”
She knelt before the doors, and began an intricate casting. The others waited—some, like Beorna, clearly impatient—as she wove a complex divination spell. Finally, she lifted her hands to her forehead and raised her head, her eyes shut. Almost immediately she jerked back, and quickly stood, letting the spell dissipate.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” Dannel asked.
Zenna looked at the door as if she thought the portal itself would animate and attack. “Behind that door, another chamber filled with an ice lattice. And waiting in the middle of it... another fiend.”
“What kind?” Arun asked.
“I did not recognize the species,” she said. “It was big, fat and bloated with some sort of greenish sludge covering its form. I think it sensed something, because it started turning toward me, and so I quickly broke the spell.”
“Well then,” Beorna said, and her voice held a surprising degree of satisfaction as she lifted her sword to her shoulder.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 278
The kebular demodand Olarithusk wasn’t a very happy fiend. Ripped from a grim but ultimately satisfying existence as the Subcommanding Warder for Block Fifteen-Four Sixty-Six, he’d been called to this uncomfortable place and bound, compelled to sit here in this ugly chamber and serve as a guardian. He knew the identity of those who had bound him, and he was even sympathetic to their goals, but his cooperation had not been petitioned, his aid not sought voluntarily. No, he’d been yanked from his duties on Carceri, dragged here and forced to service. If he ever found out who’d given these mortals his truename...
Olarithusk wasn’t even sure what it was he was guarding, and the brusque way that his captors had all but ignored him since he’d been held here was... annoying. He hadn’t been here long by the standards of his kind, but he thought of his prisoners back on Carceri and the torments that they would be missing in his absence, and seethed.
He thought he sensed a magical viewing, but by the time he’d turned around, it was gone. Blasted wizards, keeping an eye on him. Oh, he’d love to have one of them in his cellblock for a few hours...
The demodand was savoring that thought when the door to his chamber abruptly burst open, revealing an armored dwarf female. Before he could react, the female dodged out of the way, revealing other mortals behind, weapons at the ready.
Intruders! Olarithusk thought. Finally!
Pain shot through his body as arrows slammed into him, piercing his resistances and his thick hide alike to stab deep into his flabby torso. Well, that was all right. Pain was something that Olarithusk was accustomed to. The arrows were followed by a bead of flame that blossomed around him into a fireball. The ice lattice surrounding him shattered, releasing their intertwined energies in a cold flash, but that didn’t bother him either. For Olarithusk was immune to both fire and cold.
Let’s give the mortals some pain to enjoy! he thought, conjuring up an acid cloud in the space around the door. The thick, greenish vapors engulfed the mortals quite satisfactorily, and while he couldn’t see it, Olarithusk imagined their thin, weak flesh puckering and running as the acid burned through it.
But then the still-expanding cloud shimmered, and vanished from view.
Blasted wizards, Olarithusk thought. Very well, he thought, clenching his huge fists in anticipation of doing this the “old fashioned” way.
But more of the arrows knifed out of the corridor, and while his thick hide turned a few, more stabbed deep. He could feel the goodness infused in the shafts as each drove into him, and for a moment his fury was tinged with a sudden hint of fear.
For that, if nothing else, he would make these mortals suffer.
But the barrage of missiles did not stop... how many of them are there? Olarithusk thought. Invisibility was starting to look like a really good alternative to attack... but before he could summon the comforting shroud, the dwarf woman was charging, her sword glowing brightly in her fists. The woman, and especially the sword, virtually reeked in goodness, and the kebular hesitated, for all that he dominated the dwarf with his physical presence.
That moment cost it. For Beorna, infused with both the divine power and divine favor of her patron—not to mention a few other useful buffs—drove forward, and at the last instant brought her sword down in a glimmering arc, slicing down through the demodand’s body, opening a gash seven feet in length from its breastbone down to its groin.
The fiend... deflated, its bloated body collapsing as its life poured out from the terrible wound.
Beorna stood there for a moment, covered in the steaming, acidic ichor of the demodand, looking down at her foe. Then she lifted her hands in triumph, holding her sword high above her head.
“By Helm!”
The kebular demodand Olarithusk wasn’t a very happy fiend. Ripped from a grim but ultimately satisfying existence as the Subcommanding Warder for Block Fifteen-Four Sixty-Six, he’d been called to this uncomfortable place and bound, compelled to sit here in this ugly chamber and serve as a guardian. He knew the identity of those who had bound him, and he was even sympathetic to their goals, but his cooperation had not been petitioned, his aid not sought voluntarily. No, he’d been yanked from his duties on Carceri, dragged here and forced to service. If he ever found out who’d given these mortals his truename...
Olarithusk wasn’t even sure what it was he was guarding, and the brusque way that his captors had all but ignored him since he’d been held here was... annoying. He hadn’t been here long by the standards of his kind, but he thought of his prisoners back on Carceri and the torments that they would be missing in his absence, and seethed.
He thought he sensed a magical viewing, but by the time he’d turned around, it was gone. Blasted wizards, keeping an eye on him. Oh, he’d love to have one of them in his cellblock for a few hours...
The demodand was savoring that thought when the door to his chamber abruptly burst open, revealing an armored dwarf female. Before he could react, the female dodged out of the way, revealing other mortals behind, weapons at the ready.
Intruders! Olarithusk thought. Finally!
Pain shot through his body as arrows slammed into him, piercing his resistances and his thick hide alike to stab deep into his flabby torso. Well, that was all right. Pain was something that Olarithusk was accustomed to. The arrows were followed by a bead of flame that blossomed around him into a fireball. The ice lattice surrounding him shattered, releasing their intertwined energies in a cold flash, but that didn’t bother him either. For Olarithusk was immune to both fire and cold.
Let’s give the mortals some pain to enjoy! he thought, conjuring up an acid cloud in the space around the door. The thick, greenish vapors engulfed the mortals quite satisfactorily, and while he couldn’t see it, Olarithusk imagined their thin, weak flesh puckering and running as the acid burned through it.
But then the still-expanding cloud shimmered, and vanished from view.
Blasted wizards, Olarithusk thought. Very well, he thought, clenching his huge fists in anticipation of doing this the “old fashioned” way.
But more of the arrows knifed out of the corridor, and while his thick hide turned a few, more stabbed deep. He could feel the goodness infused in the shafts as each drove into him, and for a moment his fury was tinged with a sudden hint of fear.
For that, if nothing else, he would make these mortals suffer.
But the barrage of missiles did not stop... how many of them are there? Olarithusk thought. Invisibility was starting to look like a really good alternative to attack... but before he could summon the comforting shroud, the dwarf woman was charging, her sword glowing brightly in her fists. The woman, and especially the sword, virtually reeked in goodness, and the kebular hesitated, for all that he dominated the dwarf with his physical presence.
That moment cost it. For Beorna, infused with both the divine power and divine favor of her patron—not to mention a few other useful buffs—drove forward, and at the last instant brought her sword down in a glimmering arc, slicing down through the demodand’s body, opening a gash seven feet in length from its breastbone down to its groin.
The fiend... deflated, its bloated body collapsing as its life poured out from the terrible wound.
Beorna stood there for a moment, covered in the steaming, acidic ichor of the demodand, looking down at her foe. Then she lifted her hands in triumph, holding her sword high above her head.
“By Helm!”
ltclnlbrain
First Post
Wow, that was a quick fight. 
That's what happens when the party knows what awaits them and takes time to buff up.
That's what happens when the party knows what awaits them and takes time to buff up.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 279
The companions did not waste any time savoring their relatively easy victory. After checking the room for further threats, and healing the minor acid burns suffered in the brief exchange with the demodand, the adventurers gathered before the door on the far side of the chamber. As usual, Mole and Zenna each examined it for dangers of a mundane and magical nature, respectively, and then Arun dragged the heavy portal open, revealing another corridor beyond.
This passage only progressed a short distance, perhaps ten feet, before reaching another intersection. Corridors branched off from the right and left, and continued forward a short distance before ending in another iron door, this one partially open to reveal blackness beyond. The passages were tight, each only about five feet across.
“I don’t like it,” Dannel said. “More narrow tunnels. This would be a good place for an ambush; too many hiding places for our friend the wizard...”
Beorna started to push past him. “Only one way to find out...”
“If that last battle taught us anything, it’s the advantage of scouting ahead,” Zenna began. “It would be foolish now to return to blindly stumbling forward...”
“Wait!” Mole said. “I’ve got an idea!”
The templar looked at her dubiously, but Mole’s eagerness was evident as she reached into her bag of tricks again. She drew out the fuzzy ball, and tossed it out into the corridor. The magical object grew into the form of a sleek, muscular wolf, who turned and looked at the gnome expectantly.
“Go check and see if there’s an ambush!” she said, pointing down the hallway. The magical wolf probably did not understand her speech, but it apparently apprehended the gist of what she wanted, for it turned and padded off toward the intersection.
“I’m not sure I approve of this,” Shensen said with a frown.
The wolf interrupted whatever response Mole would have made, for it abruptly stopped right at the point where the passages intertwined. Its gaze was fixed on the half-open doorway, and it growled, clearly sensing something there.
A dark shadow moved in the depths beyond the open door. Zenna had just enough time to shout out a warning—“Enemy magic!”—before the walls, floor... even the threshold of the doorway separating the room from the corridor distended and shifted, and dozens of long, rubbery tentacles exploded from the bare rock, eagerly lunging out at them, entwining themselves around the surprised companions.
The companions did not waste any time savoring their relatively easy victory. After checking the room for further threats, and healing the minor acid burns suffered in the brief exchange with the demodand, the adventurers gathered before the door on the far side of the chamber. As usual, Mole and Zenna each examined it for dangers of a mundane and magical nature, respectively, and then Arun dragged the heavy portal open, revealing another corridor beyond.
This passage only progressed a short distance, perhaps ten feet, before reaching another intersection. Corridors branched off from the right and left, and continued forward a short distance before ending in another iron door, this one partially open to reveal blackness beyond. The passages were tight, each only about five feet across.
“I don’t like it,” Dannel said. “More narrow tunnels. This would be a good place for an ambush; too many hiding places for our friend the wizard...”
Beorna started to push past him. “Only one way to find out...”
“If that last battle taught us anything, it’s the advantage of scouting ahead,” Zenna began. “It would be foolish now to return to blindly stumbling forward...”
“Wait!” Mole said. “I’ve got an idea!”
The templar looked at her dubiously, but Mole’s eagerness was evident as she reached into her bag of tricks again. She drew out the fuzzy ball, and tossed it out into the corridor. The magical object grew into the form of a sleek, muscular wolf, who turned and looked at the gnome expectantly.
“Go check and see if there’s an ambush!” she said, pointing down the hallway. The magical wolf probably did not understand her speech, but it apparently apprehended the gist of what she wanted, for it turned and padded off toward the intersection.
“I’m not sure I approve of this,” Shensen said with a frown.
The wolf interrupted whatever response Mole would have made, for it abruptly stopped right at the point where the passages intertwined. Its gaze was fixed on the half-open doorway, and it growled, clearly sensing something there.
A dark shadow moved in the depths beyond the open door. Zenna had just enough time to shout out a warning—“Enemy magic!”—before the walls, floor... even the threshold of the doorway separating the room from the corridor distended and shifted, and dozens of long, rubbery tentacles exploded from the bare rock, eagerly lunging out at them, entwining themselves around the surprised companions.
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