Broccli_Head
Explorer
You go Arun! Gettin' some. So what if she has a beard and you don't. 
Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 266
The companions drew their weapons as they faced a giant dire wolverine, trying not to provoke the creature that looked as though it could handle Hodge with a single bite.
“Bristle!” came a voice from further down the path. The wolverine turned its head in that direction, and then subsided, drawing back a pace and lowering its head with a final threatening growl at the companions.
A slender figure stepped onto the trail from behind a gnarled old tree. She was elvish, or at least partly so, with dusky gray skin and long, straight white hair that cascaded down across her shoulders and down her back. She was clad in a soft green tunic that blended in with her surroundings, over earthen brown breeches that culminated in a pair of soft leather boots.
“Shensen,” Zenna said. “It’s good to see you again.”
The half-drow druidess nodded. “I see you have found some new friends.”
“As have you,” Dannel said, with a nod to the wolverine, who continued to watch them intently, as if still hoping that these strangers would be someone that he could devour.
Zenna introduced Beorna and Hodge to Shensen Tesseril, who the group had first encountered in the cellar of the Lucky Monkey, a roadhouse near Cauldron that had been taken over by bandits. Since then she had spent a fair amount of her time here in the town, choosing as her place of dwelling this abandoned grove.
“Come,” Shensen said. “I know a nice quiet place where we can talk.”
She led them to a pleasant hillock covered in bright green grass with a clear view of the lake, surrounded by a dozen trees that all but shrouded it from the surrounding city. Bristle, the wolverine, followed them but remained on the edge of the hillock, fading back into the bushes until only his face was just visible.
“It’s surprising to see a creature such as that in the midst of a town,” Arun said.
“I found Bristle on one of the game-trails on the outer slope of the volcano,” Shensen said. “He was seriously injured, near death when I found him. I helped him, and brought him back here to recover. Only now he’s gotten comfortable, and he doesn’t seem to want to leave,” she added, with a grin.
“I’m surprised that the Watch allowed him into the town,” Beorna said.
Shensen’s eyes sparkled with a hint of mischief. “There are ways into the town besides the four gates.”
“Yeah, it seems lately that they’ll let just about anything in, anyway,” Mole added dryly.
“You have a strong connection to the natural landscape, Shensen,” Zenna said. “Have you felt anything... unusual, of late?”
The druid pulled her knees close against her chest, and looked out over the lake. “You mean besides the general undercurrent of fear that pervades Cauldron? Yes. The natural currents of this place are in flux; there is something disturbing building in and around the town, something unnatural.”
“What is it?” Arun asked.
“I cannot say, for certain. For one, there is something dwelling in the lake, a shadowy creature. The fishermen have been uneasy; a lot of dead fish have risen to the surface, their bodies black and rotting. I have explored the upper levels of the lake, but even I know better than to plumb the lightless depths alone...”
“Great. Another monster, that’s all we need,” Hodge said.
“I will speak to Jenya about it,” Zenna promised. “But for the moment, we have had our own dealings with shadows...”
She shared their recent encounters, culminating with an overview of the revelations they’d had regarding Karran-Kural. “We believe that whatever’s going on there deep under the city, it’s connected with all of the recent troubles.”
“We sure could use your help getting down there,” Mole added. “What with all your druid magic and stuff.”
Shensen looked thoughtful. “Well, I would as soon see the evil in the city uncovered and destroyed as any of you,” she finally said. “And I am still indebted to you, for your bravery at the Lucky Monkey.”
She stood up; Zenna observed that the grass where she’d been sitting sprang up easily, as if her weight had made no impression upon the hill at all. “Very well,” she said. “Where is the entrance to this tunnel of which you spoke?”
“It’s on the northeastern face of the caldera’s outer rim, about a half-mile down from the town wall,” Dannel said.
“I assume that this adventure is one that you would prefer goes unnoticed?” At their nods, she went on, “Then I will meet you there, an hour after sunset.”
“In the meantime, we’ll go back to the Temple of Helm, and see if Jenya is ready to try again with her spell,” Zenna replied. “And I too need to ready what magic I can, to aid in this difficult journey.”
The druid escorted them back to the edge of the grove. As the noise and bustle of the town returned around them, Zenna looked back to see Shensen wave once, then vanish back into the brush, the dense vegetation swallowing her up into its embrace.
The companions drew their weapons as they faced a giant dire wolverine, trying not to provoke the creature that looked as though it could handle Hodge with a single bite.
“Bristle!” came a voice from further down the path. The wolverine turned its head in that direction, and then subsided, drawing back a pace and lowering its head with a final threatening growl at the companions.
A slender figure stepped onto the trail from behind a gnarled old tree. She was elvish, or at least partly so, with dusky gray skin and long, straight white hair that cascaded down across her shoulders and down her back. She was clad in a soft green tunic that blended in with her surroundings, over earthen brown breeches that culminated in a pair of soft leather boots.
“Shensen,” Zenna said. “It’s good to see you again.”
The half-drow druidess nodded. “I see you have found some new friends.”
“As have you,” Dannel said, with a nod to the wolverine, who continued to watch them intently, as if still hoping that these strangers would be someone that he could devour.
Zenna introduced Beorna and Hodge to Shensen Tesseril, who the group had first encountered in the cellar of the Lucky Monkey, a roadhouse near Cauldron that had been taken over by bandits. Since then she had spent a fair amount of her time here in the town, choosing as her place of dwelling this abandoned grove.
“Come,” Shensen said. “I know a nice quiet place where we can talk.”
She led them to a pleasant hillock covered in bright green grass with a clear view of the lake, surrounded by a dozen trees that all but shrouded it from the surrounding city. Bristle, the wolverine, followed them but remained on the edge of the hillock, fading back into the bushes until only his face was just visible.
“It’s surprising to see a creature such as that in the midst of a town,” Arun said.
“I found Bristle on one of the game-trails on the outer slope of the volcano,” Shensen said. “He was seriously injured, near death when I found him. I helped him, and brought him back here to recover. Only now he’s gotten comfortable, and he doesn’t seem to want to leave,” she added, with a grin.
“I’m surprised that the Watch allowed him into the town,” Beorna said.
Shensen’s eyes sparkled with a hint of mischief. “There are ways into the town besides the four gates.”
“Yeah, it seems lately that they’ll let just about anything in, anyway,” Mole added dryly.
“You have a strong connection to the natural landscape, Shensen,” Zenna said. “Have you felt anything... unusual, of late?”
The druid pulled her knees close against her chest, and looked out over the lake. “You mean besides the general undercurrent of fear that pervades Cauldron? Yes. The natural currents of this place are in flux; there is something disturbing building in and around the town, something unnatural.”
“What is it?” Arun asked.
“I cannot say, for certain. For one, there is something dwelling in the lake, a shadowy creature. The fishermen have been uneasy; a lot of dead fish have risen to the surface, their bodies black and rotting. I have explored the upper levels of the lake, but even I know better than to plumb the lightless depths alone...”
“Great. Another monster, that’s all we need,” Hodge said.
“I will speak to Jenya about it,” Zenna promised. “But for the moment, we have had our own dealings with shadows...”
She shared their recent encounters, culminating with an overview of the revelations they’d had regarding Karran-Kural. “We believe that whatever’s going on there deep under the city, it’s connected with all of the recent troubles.”
“We sure could use your help getting down there,” Mole added. “What with all your druid magic and stuff.”
Shensen looked thoughtful. “Well, I would as soon see the evil in the city uncovered and destroyed as any of you,” she finally said. “And I am still indebted to you, for your bravery at the Lucky Monkey.”
She stood up; Zenna observed that the grass where she’d been sitting sprang up easily, as if her weight had made no impression upon the hill at all. “Very well,” she said. “Where is the entrance to this tunnel of which you spoke?”
“It’s on the northeastern face of the caldera’s outer rim, about a half-mile down from the town wall,” Dannel said.
“I assume that this adventure is one that you would prefer goes unnoticed?” At their nods, she went on, “Then I will meet you there, an hour after sunset.”
“In the meantime, we’ll go back to the Temple of Helm, and see if Jenya is ready to try again with her spell,” Zenna replied. “And I too need to ready what magic I can, to aid in this difficult journey.”
The druid escorted them back to the edge of the grove. As the noise and bustle of the town returned around them, Zenna looked back to see Shensen wave once, then vanish back into the brush, the dense vegetation swallowing her up into its embrace.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 267
The cavern was cold and dark, filled almost to the brim with water, the only noise an occasional drip that sounded overly loud in the confined space.
A flicker of light disturbed the stillness of this place, far from the benevolent light of the sun. The light came from under the surface of the water, and it slowly drew nearer, twisting and shifting position, as if struggling to escape from its liquid prison.
The light had only just grown bright enough to cast faint glimmering reflections on the slick walls above the water when something emerged from the pool. A long, twisting tentacle snaked out of the water, grasping onto a nearby rock. Several other followed, slender lengths of pale, translucent flesh with pink suckers running along their undersides. Once enough had attached, they drew the mass of their owner out of the water, a bulbous figure with great, unblinking eyes.
The octopus sat there on the edge of the pool for a long moment, then its form began to shift and distend, growing taller, the tentacles sinking back into its body. The transformation lasted only a few seconds, and when it was done Shensen Tesseril stood there, shaking off a few stray droplets of water that clung to her long hair.
She reached down into the icy water, helping a sodden Dannel up onto the ledge. The elf bore the light, that had appeared earlier, a magical continual flame set onto a small piece of wood that he’d strapped to his armor across his chest. Mole sprang up out of the water a moment later, a wide grin on her face. Zenna arrived a minute after that. The dwarves were the last to arrive. Their heavy armor had made passage through the flooded tunnels difficult, but it had also served as a useful anchor in several places, when sudden rushes of rapid current had threatened to fling some of them into alternate passages against their will.
Hodge burst the plane of water and spat out a big gout of water, splashing all of them as they helped haul him up onto the ledge. “Bragh!” he roared. “Blasted water! It ain’t natural!”
“Okay, now that we’ve alerted every living thing within five miles that we’re here,” Dannel said, drawing his new magical quiver out of a sealed oilcloth bag, one of several that they’d purchased to protect their equipment from water damage. The quiver served him in much the same way as Mole’s magical bag, storing not only his arrows within its extradimensional space, but his bow and Alakast as well. The others had had to take more precautions to secure their gear, but at least their magical weapons and armor weren’t susceptible to rust.
“Hey, look at it this way, you get to do it all again on the way back up!” Mole said with a coy smile.
Hodge’s sudden look of realization was priceless.
“We should start a fire, and dry ourselves off,” Arun suggested. “We don’t want to freeze when those cold-protection spells wear off.” His breath made a plume in front of his face, confirming the low temperature in the cavern.
“They’ll last a full twenty-four hours,” Shensen reassured him.
“I can already feel Jenya’s direction spell fading,” Zenna said. “I hope that wherever ‘here’ is, it’s where we’re supposed to be.”
“Where does the spell point now?” Dannel asked.
Zenna pointed toward the only choice that was apparent to them, a dark tunnel that extended away from the water’s edge.
“Let’s be about this, then,” Beorna said, drawing her holy blade out of its scabbard. “Plenty of time to rest when we’re dead.”
“Cheerful prospect,” Dannel said, following the dwarves as they started down the passage.
They didn’t get very far before the passage ended in a huge, sheer wall of frozen ice. A narrow tunnel had been hacked in the wall, revealing another corridor beyond.
“This was done with tools,” Arun said, examining the gap.
“The air is colder beyond,” Dannel added.
“I’ll go check it out,” Mole offered, hopping into the opening.
“Mole, wait!” Zenna said, but she was already gone.
“Gnomes,” Hodge said, clutching his axe tightly. He’d left his spear behind for this one, unwilling to deal with the large, cumbersome weapon in the flooded tunnels.
After a long, tense minute, Mole reappeared. “There’s another passage further down,” she said. “It’s lit, and cold, and...”
“What?” Dannel asked.
“You guys need to see it for yourselves,” the gnome replied. “It’s... weird.”
The cavern was cold and dark, filled almost to the brim with water, the only noise an occasional drip that sounded overly loud in the confined space.
A flicker of light disturbed the stillness of this place, far from the benevolent light of the sun. The light came from under the surface of the water, and it slowly drew nearer, twisting and shifting position, as if struggling to escape from its liquid prison.
The light had only just grown bright enough to cast faint glimmering reflections on the slick walls above the water when something emerged from the pool. A long, twisting tentacle snaked out of the water, grasping onto a nearby rock. Several other followed, slender lengths of pale, translucent flesh with pink suckers running along their undersides. Once enough had attached, they drew the mass of their owner out of the water, a bulbous figure with great, unblinking eyes.
The octopus sat there on the edge of the pool for a long moment, then its form began to shift and distend, growing taller, the tentacles sinking back into its body. The transformation lasted only a few seconds, and when it was done Shensen Tesseril stood there, shaking off a few stray droplets of water that clung to her long hair.
She reached down into the icy water, helping a sodden Dannel up onto the ledge. The elf bore the light, that had appeared earlier, a magical continual flame set onto a small piece of wood that he’d strapped to his armor across his chest. Mole sprang up out of the water a moment later, a wide grin on her face. Zenna arrived a minute after that. The dwarves were the last to arrive. Their heavy armor had made passage through the flooded tunnels difficult, but it had also served as a useful anchor in several places, when sudden rushes of rapid current had threatened to fling some of them into alternate passages against their will.
Hodge burst the plane of water and spat out a big gout of water, splashing all of them as they helped haul him up onto the ledge. “Bragh!” he roared. “Blasted water! It ain’t natural!”
“Okay, now that we’ve alerted every living thing within five miles that we’re here,” Dannel said, drawing his new magical quiver out of a sealed oilcloth bag, one of several that they’d purchased to protect their equipment from water damage. The quiver served him in much the same way as Mole’s magical bag, storing not only his arrows within its extradimensional space, but his bow and Alakast as well. The others had had to take more precautions to secure their gear, but at least their magical weapons and armor weren’t susceptible to rust.
“Hey, look at it this way, you get to do it all again on the way back up!” Mole said with a coy smile.
Hodge’s sudden look of realization was priceless.
“We should start a fire, and dry ourselves off,” Arun suggested. “We don’t want to freeze when those cold-protection spells wear off.” His breath made a plume in front of his face, confirming the low temperature in the cavern.
“They’ll last a full twenty-four hours,” Shensen reassured him.
“I can already feel Jenya’s direction spell fading,” Zenna said. “I hope that wherever ‘here’ is, it’s where we’re supposed to be.”
“Where does the spell point now?” Dannel asked.
Zenna pointed toward the only choice that was apparent to them, a dark tunnel that extended away from the water’s edge.
“Let’s be about this, then,” Beorna said, drawing her holy blade out of its scabbard. “Plenty of time to rest when we’re dead.”
“Cheerful prospect,” Dannel said, following the dwarves as they started down the passage.
They didn’t get very far before the passage ended in a huge, sheer wall of frozen ice. A narrow tunnel had been hacked in the wall, revealing another corridor beyond.
“This was done with tools,” Arun said, examining the gap.
“The air is colder beyond,” Dannel added.
“I’ll go check it out,” Mole offered, hopping into the opening.
“Mole, wait!” Zenna said, but she was already gone.
“Gnomes,” Hodge said, clutching his axe tightly. He’d left his spear behind for this one, unwilling to deal with the large, cumbersome weapon in the flooded tunnels.
After a long, tense minute, Mole reappeared. “There’s another passage further down,” she said. “It’s lit, and cold, and...”
“What?” Dannel asked.
“You guys need to see it for yourselves,” the gnome replied. “It’s... weird.”
Lazybones
Adventurer
Thanks for the kind words of support. It's fortunate that I was so ahead in the story; work has been a deluge and I haven't actually been able to write anything new in several weeks. Hopefully things will die down before I get caught up.
* * * * *
Chapter 268
Weird was an understatement, Zenna thought, when they’d all negotiated the bore through the ice wall and joined Mole in the corridor on the far side.
The tunnel here was cold, far colder even than on the other side of the ice wall, just fifteen feet or so away. Their breathing sent out plumes of white that hung in the air for a few seconds before dissipating, and they all knew that without the spells that protected them against the cold, they would all soon be freezing. The moisture still clinging to them from their swim quickly began to freeze, tiny bits of ice dropping from them to clink softly on the smooth stone at their feet.
They passed a mangled wreckage of iron bars, covered with frost. It took a moment to realize that the thing had once been a portcullis, a barrier now removed by some great force. Mole said that there were no traps remaining now upon it, and they pushed cautiously through the large gap into a narrower tunnel beyond.
About twenty feet beyond the ruined portcullis, they came to a set of large iron double doors, likewise rimed with frost. The portals looked sound, frozen in place, but one was slightly open, the gap large enough for them to negotiate without having to free the portals further. A soft blue light shone from the area beyond. As they drew near, Zenna could see that the doors were engraved with runes and sigils. They were difficult to make out, but the looked somehow familiar...
“Okay, you gotta see this,” Mole said from beyond the doors, drawing her attention forward. Leaving the doors behind, she slipped through the join the rest of the companions.
The passage beyond the doors was completely smooth and square, ten feet wide and ten feet high. Small square plates that looked like iron were set into the ceiling at even intervals; they produced the diffuse bluish radiance that they’d seen earlier. In here it was even colder, and they shivered even through the magical protection of Shensen’s warding spells.
But the odd construction of the tunnel was nothing in comparison to the crystal coffins.
Mole led them to the first, set into the floor at the edge of the passageway. Its surface was smooth, like glass, with a greenish tinge. But resting inside...
The creature was vaguely humanoid, in the way that an orc was vaguely like a human. The crystal distorted the light slightly, making the details of its form nebulous, that distortion adding to its menace. It was tall and lean, its flesh a pale green through the vista of the coffin, its body apparently perfectly preserved. Its face was bony and angular, as if a sculptor had begun work depicting a man and given up halfway through his work. Six arms protruded from its torso, and as she saw those Zenna’s mind traveled back, to a place that suddenly seemed not unlike this one in its sterile décor...
“Vaprak’s Voice,” Dannel said, echoing her thoughts with his words. “The skeletons we fought.”
“And that weird chair-sculpture thing,” Mole added. “Built for six-armed people...”
“But what the ‘ells are they?” Hodge asked, sidling up to the second coffin to get a better look at another of the creatures, a short distance further down the passage.
None of them had any answer.
“Well, they’re long past...” Beorna began.
“Bloody criminy!” Hodge exclaimed, stumbling as he fell back quickly from the second coffin, his axe bursting into ready flame as he lifted the weapon.
“What is it?” Arun asked, scanning the hall for danger.
“That... thing!” Hodge said. “It moved!”
Mole looked up at the dwarf dubiously, then walked over to the coffin. She gave its resident a quick examination, then rapped on the top of the crystal. “Seems pretty dead to me,” she said.
“I saw it!” the dwarf insisted.
“Either way, we should tread carefully,” Dannel suggested. “Whatever they are, we already know that their workings are dangerous.” The elf moved a short distance further into the passage, and bent to examine the floor. “There are faint marks here,” he said. “Others have come this way before us.”
“There is a door at the end of the passage,” Shensen said, coming up to stand beside the elf. “Shall we?”
They passed another half-dozen of the crystal coffins. Dannel had placed his continual flame into a pocket, leaving the strange ambient illumination to brighten their way. The blue glow from the ceiling panels glinted oddly off their metal gear, and the effects of the lighting in combination with the plumes of their breath gave them a grim appearance, their skin looking as pale as the dead.
The corridor ended in another set of iron doors. These had not been conveniently left open for them, so after Mole and Zenna had given them a cursory examination for mundane or magical hazards, Beorna and Arun went to work. A few blows from Arun’s hammer helped loosen the ice that had sealed the doors—the others cringed at the noise, but there was nothing to be done—and then the two dwarves, pushing side-by-side, pushed one of the doors open, the metal scraping on the floor as it resisted their efforts.
The room beyond the doors was apparently spherical, although two vertical walls of ice partitioned off two spaces in the rear of the chamber, making the place seem smaller than it was. There was a pillar of ice erected across from them, near the center of the room, but their view of it was obstructed by the dozens of strands of ice that extended across the room. These strands, each maybe an inch thick, connected the walls, ceiling, and floor, forming an intricate latticework. They did not block movement through the room entirely, but there were enough of them so that any sort of rapid progress through the chamber would be difficult.
“Those shouldn’t exist,” Zenna said, examining the closest of the strands. “That much ice, over that distance, it should break.” She began casting a cantrip, to delve more deeply into the nature of the place.
“This place is steeped in taint,” Arun growled. He too began to focus, scanning the chamber for the evil that his paladin’s gifts detected.
Beorna’s holy sword slid from its scabbard, and she spoke the words of a benediction, summoning the blessing of Helm.
Mole, naturally, stepped over to where she could touch one of the ice strands. “Ow!” she exclaimed, drawing back, shaking her injured hand.
“What is it?” Dannel asked.
“It... burned...” Her hand was white where the strand had inflicted a surge of magical energy upon her.
“Don’t touch ‘em,” Hodge said. “Right.” He lifted his magical axe, and flames burst eagerly upon the metal surface.
Zenna and Arun both started as one and turned toward the ice pillar.
“There!” Arun said, pointing with his holy sword, at the same moment that Zenna exclaimed, “It’s an illusion!”
But even as the two warned their companions, a tall figure emerged from the illusory pillar. Standing nearly twelve feet tall, the creature was a hideous insectoid monstrosity, with a malevolent intelligence shining in its bulbous red eyes. It bore a spear with a jagged blue steel head, and a nimbus of roiling black energy surrounded it like a dark halo. It did not hesitate, and as soon as it had appeared it extended a slender hand, chittering a word of power.
Unleashing a powerful cone of cold into the faces of the companions.
* * * * *
Chapter 268
Weird was an understatement, Zenna thought, when they’d all negotiated the bore through the ice wall and joined Mole in the corridor on the far side.
The tunnel here was cold, far colder even than on the other side of the ice wall, just fifteen feet or so away. Their breathing sent out plumes of white that hung in the air for a few seconds before dissipating, and they all knew that without the spells that protected them against the cold, they would all soon be freezing. The moisture still clinging to them from their swim quickly began to freeze, tiny bits of ice dropping from them to clink softly on the smooth stone at their feet.
They passed a mangled wreckage of iron bars, covered with frost. It took a moment to realize that the thing had once been a portcullis, a barrier now removed by some great force. Mole said that there were no traps remaining now upon it, and they pushed cautiously through the large gap into a narrower tunnel beyond.
About twenty feet beyond the ruined portcullis, they came to a set of large iron double doors, likewise rimed with frost. The portals looked sound, frozen in place, but one was slightly open, the gap large enough for them to negotiate without having to free the portals further. A soft blue light shone from the area beyond. As they drew near, Zenna could see that the doors were engraved with runes and sigils. They were difficult to make out, but the looked somehow familiar...
“Okay, you gotta see this,” Mole said from beyond the doors, drawing her attention forward. Leaving the doors behind, she slipped through the join the rest of the companions.
The passage beyond the doors was completely smooth and square, ten feet wide and ten feet high. Small square plates that looked like iron were set into the ceiling at even intervals; they produced the diffuse bluish radiance that they’d seen earlier. In here it was even colder, and they shivered even through the magical protection of Shensen’s warding spells.
But the odd construction of the tunnel was nothing in comparison to the crystal coffins.
Mole led them to the first, set into the floor at the edge of the passageway. Its surface was smooth, like glass, with a greenish tinge. But resting inside...
The creature was vaguely humanoid, in the way that an orc was vaguely like a human. The crystal distorted the light slightly, making the details of its form nebulous, that distortion adding to its menace. It was tall and lean, its flesh a pale green through the vista of the coffin, its body apparently perfectly preserved. Its face was bony and angular, as if a sculptor had begun work depicting a man and given up halfway through his work. Six arms protruded from its torso, and as she saw those Zenna’s mind traveled back, to a place that suddenly seemed not unlike this one in its sterile décor...
“Vaprak’s Voice,” Dannel said, echoing her thoughts with his words. “The skeletons we fought.”
“And that weird chair-sculpture thing,” Mole added. “Built for six-armed people...”
“But what the ‘ells are they?” Hodge asked, sidling up to the second coffin to get a better look at another of the creatures, a short distance further down the passage.
None of them had any answer.
“Well, they’re long past...” Beorna began.
“Bloody criminy!” Hodge exclaimed, stumbling as he fell back quickly from the second coffin, his axe bursting into ready flame as he lifted the weapon.
“What is it?” Arun asked, scanning the hall for danger.
“That... thing!” Hodge said. “It moved!”
Mole looked up at the dwarf dubiously, then walked over to the coffin. She gave its resident a quick examination, then rapped on the top of the crystal. “Seems pretty dead to me,” she said.
“I saw it!” the dwarf insisted.
“Either way, we should tread carefully,” Dannel suggested. “Whatever they are, we already know that their workings are dangerous.” The elf moved a short distance further into the passage, and bent to examine the floor. “There are faint marks here,” he said. “Others have come this way before us.”
“There is a door at the end of the passage,” Shensen said, coming up to stand beside the elf. “Shall we?”
They passed another half-dozen of the crystal coffins. Dannel had placed his continual flame into a pocket, leaving the strange ambient illumination to brighten their way. The blue glow from the ceiling panels glinted oddly off their metal gear, and the effects of the lighting in combination with the plumes of their breath gave them a grim appearance, their skin looking as pale as the dead.
The corridor ended in another set of iron doors. These had not been conveniently left open for them, so after Mole and Zenna had given them a cursory examination for mundane or magical hazards, Beorna and Arun went to work. A few blows from Arun’s hammer helped loosen the ice that had sealed the doors—the others cringed at the noise, but there was nothing to be done—and then the two dwarves, pushing side-by-side, pushed one of the doors open, the metal scraping on the floor as it resisted their efforts.
The room beyond the doors was apparently spherical, although two vertical walls of ice partitioned off two spaces in the rear of the chamber, making the place seem smaller than it was. There was a pillar of ice erected across from them, near the center of the room, but their view of it was obstructed by the dozens of strands of ice that extended across the room. These strands, each maybe an inch thick, connected the walls, ceiling, and floor, forming an intricate latticework. They did not block movement through the room entirely, but there were enough of them so that any sort of rapid progress through the chamber would be difficult.
“Those shouldn’t exist,” Zenna said, examining the closest of the strands. “That much ice, over that distance, it should break.” She began casting a cantrip, to delve more deeply into the nature of the place.
“This place is steeped in taint,” Arun growled. He too began to focus, scanning the chamber for the evil that his paladin’s gifts detected.
Beorna’s holy sword slid from its scabbard, and she spoke the words of a benediction, summoning the blessing of Helm.
Mole, naturally, stepped over to where she could touch one of the ice strands. “Ow!” she exclaimed, drawing back, shaking her injured hand.
“What is it?” Dannel asked.
“It... burned...” Her hand was white where the strand had inflicted a surge of magical energy upon her.
“Don’t touch ‘em,” Hodge said. “Right.” He lifted his magical axe, and flames burst eagerly upon the metal surface.
Zenna and Arun both started as one and turned toward the ice pillar.
“There!” Arun said, pointing with his holy sword, at the same moment that Zenna exclaimed, “It’s an illusion!”
But even as the two warned their companions, a tall figure emerged from the illusory pillar. Standing nearly twelve feet tall, the creature was a hideous insectoid monstrosity, with a malevolent intelligence shining in its bulbous red eyes. It bore a spear with a jagged blue steel head, and a nimbus of roiling black energy surrounded it like a dark halo. It did not hesitate, and as soon as it had appeared it extended a slender hand, chittering a word of power.
Unleashing a powerful cone of cold into the faces of the companions.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 269
The companions had been hit with the devastating icy blasts of cones of cold before. The ice devil’s power was considerable, but so to had the seven heroes gathered here been toughened in the forge of constant struggle, and they withstood the force of the terrible blast. Mole easily dodged aside from the spread of the cone, and Dannel dodged back behind the shelter of the doors, avoiding most of its force as well. Zenna turned away, her magical cloak helping to absorb some of its energy, while Shensen, who’d warded herself against cold upon entering the complex, took almost no damage from it at all.
The dwarves, on the other hand, arranged in a neat row in the front rank, absorbed the full force of the blast, and remained standing only through sheer stubbornness and dogged fortitude.
But even as the three dwarves shook frost from their blasted frames, it was clear that the tactical situation still favored the devil. Several of the proven-dangerous ice strands blocked the companions from its position, and while it might have been possible to dodge them, that would give the devil free rein to unleash more spells upon them, or strike at them with its spear while they were trying to reach it.
But Zenna made that question academic, as she turned back around, a cascade of tiny icicles falling from her cloak at the movement, and unleashed a fireball into the room.
The whoosh of heat exploded over the companions in a wave as the flames hungrily filled the open space of the room, engulfing the devil momentarily. When the blast cleared, the devil stood unharmed, its infernal resistances easily proof against the spell. But the ice lattice had been shattered, the strands of dark power melted, and the two flanking walls of ice had been partially melted as well, although neither had yet been fully breached.
The devil drew back slightly, as if given pause by this display of power.
Dannel’s first arrow struck it solidly on the torso. The arrow failed to penetrate, and glanced harmlessly off its body, but it quivered as the jolt of electrical energy generated by Dannel’s bow seared into it. But the injury was only pathetically slight. The elf was already drawing his second arrow, but it was already obvious that the fiend was insanely tough, its chitinous hide thicker and more durable than even steel plate armor.
Beorna called upon the power of Helm, infusing herself with her patron’s divine power. Thus fortified, she hefted her sword above her head and closed with the fiend, careful to remain out of the reach of its spear until she could find an opening to strike.
Arun’s reaction was even more straightforward; instead of pausing to cast a spell he hurled himself straight toward this adversary. The devil was quick to react, and as the dwarf closed its spear sliced out, catching the paladin on the shoulder. The spear, infused with the frozen power of the devil, sent a deep chill through Arun’s body, but he grunted and fought through the numbness threatening to catch him up, and swept his holy blade at the devil’s narrow torso. The stroke was powerful, but as the blade intersected the dark field of energy surrounding its body it was turned, meeting a resistance born in evil magic.
Hodge lagged behind the other warriors for a moment, the seriously injured dwarf pausing to grasp his jug of healing liqueur with hands that shook from penetrating cold. Thus it was that he was caught on the far side of the wall of ice that the devil conjured, adding another thick divider that separated the room in two.
With the devil, Beorna, and Arun alone on the other side.
The companions had been hit with the devastating icy blasts of cones of cold before. The ice devil’s power was considerable, but so to had the seven heroes gathered here been toughened in the forge of constant struggle, and they withstood the force of the terrible blast. Mole easily dodged aside from the spread of the cone, and Dannel dodged back behind the shelter of the doors, avoiding most of its force as well. Zenna turned away, her magical cloak helping to absorb some of its energy, while Shensen, who’d warded herself against cold upon entering the complex, took almost no damage from it at all.
The dwarves, on the other hand, arranged in a neat row in the front rank, absorbed the full force of the blast, and remained standing only through sheer stubbornness and dogged fortitude.
But even as the three dwarves shook frost from their blasted frames, it was clear that the tactical situation still favored the devil. Several of the proven-dangerous ice strands blocked the companions from its position, and while it might have been possible to dodge them, that would give the devil free rein to unleash more spells upon them, or strike at them with its spear while they were trying to reach it.
But Zenna made that question academic, as she turned back around, a cascade of tiny icicles falling from her cloak at the movement, and unleashed a fireball into the room.
The whoosh of heat exploded over the companions in a wave as the flames hungrily filled the open space of the room, engulfing the devil momentarily. When the blast cleared, the devil stood unharmed, its infernal resistances easily proof against the spell. But the ice lattice had been shattered, the strands of dark power melted, and the two flanking walls of ice had been partially melted as well, although neither had yet been fully breached.
The devil drew back slightly, as if given pause by this display of power.
Dannel’s first arrow struck it solidly on the torso. The arrow failed to penetrate, and glanced harmlessly off its body, but it quivered as the jolt of electrical energy generated by Dannel’s bow seared into it. But the injury was only pathetically slight. The elf was already drawing his second arrow, but it was already obvious that the fiend was insanely tough, its chitinous hide thicker and more durable than even steel plate armor.
Beorna called upon the power of Helm, infusing herself with her patron’s divine power. Thus fortified, she hefted her sword above her head and closed with the fiend, careful to remain out of the reach of its spear until she could find an opening to strike.
Arun’s reaction was even more straightforward; instead of pausing to cast a spell he hurled himself straight toward this adversary. The devil was quick to react, and as the dwarf closed its spear sliced out, catching the paladin on the shoulder. The spear, infused with the frozen power of the devil, sent a deep chill through Arun’s body, but he grunted and fought through the numbness threatening to catch him up, and swept his holy blade at the devil’s narrow torso. The stroke was powerful, but as the blade intersected the dark field of energy surrounding its body it was turned, meeting a resistance born in evil magic.
Hodge lagged behind the other warriors for a moment, the seriously injured dwarf pausing to grasp his jug of healing liqueur with hands that shook from penetrating cold. Thus it was that he was caught on the far side of the wall of ice that the devil conjured, adding another thick divider that separated the room in two.
With the devil, Beorna, and Arun alone on the other side.
Broccli_Head
Explorer
Lazybones said:
did arun just miss or did you nerf inherent magics on weapons?
Lazybones
Adventurer
The blackness around the devil is an unholy aura, bumping its AC up to 36. Arun missed because of it.Broccli_Head said:
* * * * *
Chapter 270
Things suddenly looked bleak for Arun and Beorna, trapped alone in a prison of ice with a fierce gelugon. The dwarves, though tough, had already taken a beating, while the ice devil had been barely scratched.
But neither dwarf hesitated to consider the grim nature of their situation. Taking for granted that their allies would hurry to their aid, both dwarves stepped forward and unleashed a full series of attacks upon the devil, leaving nothing back.
“Blasted thing’s tough!” Beorna grunted, as her first attack glanced off of the same dark shield that had foiled Arun. But her second swing found a narrow opening that she exploited, driving her holy blade through its defenses and opening a shallow gash in its thick hide. Ugly black ichor spilled from the wound, smoking as the liquid hit the frozen air.
Arun unleashed everything he had, trying again to smite the devil with a powerful blow. His sword tore through its shield and into its body, cutting a swath across its body just under its left arm. He followed with another series of rapid strikes, but the devil was quick to recover, and none of his other attacks penetrated its defenses.
Only a few heartbeats had passed since it had separated itself and these two foes from the others, but already it seemed that the devil was having second thoughts about its tactics. Rather than attack, it let out an inhuman screech, and with a faint flicker of white light it vanished.
“Gone already?” Beorna asked, slicing her sword through the space it had occupied to verify that it had not merely made itself invisible.
“I doubt it,” Arun said, already looking around for a reappearance.
The wall of ice behind them began to glow, the barrier melting before the force of several scorching rays from Zenna. As an opening appeared, Dannel asked, “Are you two all right?”
“The beastie didn’t like what we had to offer,” Beorna said. “But it may be back for more, on terms more to its liking.” The templar paused to cast a healing spell upon herself, easing some of the injury it had suffered from the cone of cold.
“Should we retreat?” Dannel asked. “Face it in the outer hall?”
“Might as well just line up for another cone of cold,” Shensen suggested. “At least in the chamber, we have room to maneuver.”
“All right, we’re coming through,” Zenna said. “But careful, the area around the breach is still deathly cold; do not dally.”
Soon the companions had gathered again in the chamber. They spread out, alert for further signs of the devil. Spells were cast, wounds treated, wards laid.
Seconds ticked by with agonizing slowness; barely thirty seconds had passed in all since they devil had first appeared.
Mole yelled a warning from beside one of the other walls of ice, partially melted by Zenna’s fireball. “I see something moving back there!” she shouted.
“I’ll open us a winder,” Hodge growled, lifting his flaming axe.
“Ready, everyone!” Zenna said, casting one last spell.
“It’s gone!” Mole reported, peering through the translucent wall.
A faint sound was their only warning, but it was enough for Dannel’s sensitive ears. The elf looked up...
The devil was there, crouching against the apex of the ceiling twenty feet above, defying gravity through the use of some sort of magic. Even as Dannel shouted a warning to his companions, and lifted his bow to fire, the gelugon made a gesture and spoke infernal words of arcane power. The air around the devil seemed to ripple, and then a storm of huge oblong hailstones began to plummet down upon the companions below.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 271
“I’m starting to get a little tired of this thing!” Beorna yelled, holding up her arm to protect her face as the driving hailstones of the ice storm pounded her, glancing off of the solid adamantine plates of her armor. All of them were blasted by cold and the hard impacts of the stones; even Mole’s speed and agility were of no use, as the hailstones seemed to be everywhere at once.
Zenna staggered backward as a hailstone clipped her on the shoulder; her innate resistance to cold protected her from some of the power of the devil’s spell, but that proved of little help against the physical impacts. She looked up to see Dannel standing his ground a few paces away, trying to ignore the hits that drove painfully into him, sending arrows up through the storm at the devil. A screech from above told of a hit; in the brief interlude since the devil had teleported away Zenna had aligned his arrows, and now his shots had a more telling impact. But the devil’s black shield protected it from most of their attacks, and even those that got through that outer barrier had to content with its unnaturally thick hide.
“We have to disrupt its magic!” Shensen shouted. Zenna had had the same thought, but she knew her own abilities—and limitations—too well to hope that her powers could foil the potent magic of the fiend.
Still, she had to try, and she wasn’t alone; her companions likewise unleashed their most powerful spells and other attacks upon the creature. Beorna spoke a word of dismissal; the clarion tone of that spell momentarily sang through the chamber with bright energy, but the devil resisted it, and the spell dissipated without effect. Similarly Zenna’s dispel faltered without effect, and while Shensen’s effort a moment later had a slightly greater impact, its unholy aura fading, the magic that kept it aloft continued to function, and a few moments later the devil simply restored its protective shield, gesturing almost contemptuously at them as it worked its magic anew.
Arun had unlimbered his large but infrequently used bow, and was fitting an arrow to the string when Zenna shouted, “Arun! Use Dannel’s arrows!” The dwarf nodded, recognizing her intent, and joined the elf, who continued his barrage, his magical quiver producing the aligned arrows in a steady stream upon demand. Zenna was about to cast a haste spell, but seeing how badly Dannel was hurt, she instead stepped up to him and unleashed a powerful healing spell into his nearly-frozen body.
Her aid came not a moment too soon, for the devil, hurt now by several of the arrows from Dannel’s persistent barrage, chittered out an inarticulate statement of rage and lowered its spear toward them, diving toward the floor. For an instant Zenna thought that the devil intended to simply impale Dannel with the force of its descent, but then, cleverly, it arrested its dive a good nine or ten feet above them. She recognized instantly its strategy; that distance was just outside of the effective reach of the dwarven warriors, while its own long limbs and spear would allow it to strike effortlessly in return. And in proof its first thrust tore deeply into Dannel’s shoulder. Without Zenna’s healing he would have been crippled or killed by that strike, and even as it was he staggered back in pain, half-frozen blood trickling out from the wound, his nimble motions slowed by the devil’s numbing chill.
Zenna looked up into the fiend’s glowing eyes, and felt a cold terror surge over her. An aura of fear radiated out from it, engulfing those closest to it. For a moment, it felt as though sheer panic would overwhelm her senses...
But only for a moment. Even without her own formidable mental discipline to consider, she and the others had a lifeline in their midst, a bulwark that fortified them all against the devil’s fear. Arun radiated a sense of calm, of courage that reinforced them against the fear. The dwarf drew back his bow and fired, and while the missile glanced harmlessly from the devil’s unholy aura, just the sheer act of resistance seemed to bolster them all, and drive them to press their attacks.
Hodge, thankfully out of the radius of the fear aura, had winched a bolt into place in his heavy crossbow, and now he fired as well. His shot, however, was no more effective.
Beorna unleashed a ray of searing light at the devil, but cursed as the beam of energy struck the unholy aura and dissipated.
“Keep at it!” Zenna urged, casting her haste spell now, canceling the power that had numbed Dannel, and enhancing the speed of her friends. The devil’s long, slender tail struck out at her with sudden speed, but she had not neglected her own defenses. The devil’s attack impacted the layered protections of two magical shields, one arcane, the other divine, and was turned by the barest of margins.
But its attack upon her was just a feint, as it turned the full force of its efforts on Arun. The spear darted down once, twice, and yet again, driving through the dwarf’s armor with the first powerful thrust, knocking the bow roughly from his hands as the second clipped his arm and tore through his greave. Arun staggered, but it was not yet done, keening as it suddenly flipped in mid-air, its alien head snapping down to deliver a powerful bite that might have decapitated him, had it not been for the protection of his mithral helm. Even with that moderate protection, though, he was hurt bad, and he fell back, reaching for his shield and sword.
“Hands off him!” Beorna shouted at the demon. Calling upon Helm’s power once more, the templar enlarged, her body seeming to swell with divine fury as she lifted her sword in challenge.
A moment later, the air above the gelugon flickered in a shimmer of light and air. The companions tensed, fearing some new deviltry, but as the distortion took on form, an amorphous, nearly invisible vortex of moving air, it drove down into the devil from behind, slamming at it with powerful slams of concentrated air. The elemental did not harm it seriously, but the devil was caught off-balance, and was driven down almost to the floor, within reach of the companions’ weapons.
Mole had been waiting for just such an opportunity. With the devil’s attention more than a bit distracted, she ran in and leapt at its back, hoping to land a sneak attack. Unfortunately her tiny weapon was little able to penetrate its thick hide, and she landed in a soft roll, darting back to await another chance.
Thus far, the gelugon seemed nearly invincible, taking everything that the companions could throw at it, its innate resistances and the dark mantle of power with which it had cloaked itself absorbing their best efforts. But slowly, it was taking hurts, injuries from blessed weapons that even its phenomenal regenerative powers could not restore. But while it was possessed of a fierce diabolical intelligence, the devil had been driven half-insane by centuries of confinement to this place, trapped by the eldritch arts of the spellweavers who had passed centuries ago, leaving their guardian to languish in solitude. Only once before in recent memory had its prison been disturbed, and that time its foes had retreated and bypassed it, mocking it in its captivity. Now, faced with enemies who shone with goodness, carrying hated weapons of light, an overwhelming surge of anger filled it, and it unleashed the full force of its hatred upon them, seeking vengeance upon the only convenient outlet it had had in five hundred years.
An arrow stabbed into its shoulder, breaking through the red haze of its fury with pain. The archer was that damned elf, and almost without thinking the devil pointed and unleashed another cone of cold that engulfed him. The elf was fast, but when the force of the blast dissipated, he was satisfyingly on his back, covered in a rime of white frost.
Unfortunately for the fiend, the attack had only taken down one of its foes, and it was still within their reach. The elemental continued to pound on it from above, mostly ineffectually, although its assault made it almost impossible for the devil to regain altitude. Zenna rushed to Dannel’s side, while Arun slashed at it with his sword, managing to add another gash in its right leg to its overall tally of injuries.
Hodge lifted his axe and came at it from the side, but as he entered the radius of its fear aura he stumbled back, his eyes widening in sudden horror. Unable to resist that dark power even with the countering effects of Arun’s aura of courage, the dwarf fighter dropped his weapon and ran, screaming.
But then, Beorna came forward.
Her sword, blazing with holy light, was a good seven feet long now, enlarged with the rest of her by her earlier invocation. She used her extended reach to good advantage, driving the weapon down in a powerful two-handed arc that the devil saw coming too late. The edge of the sword intersected with its neck, and with a final truncated screech the gelugon’s head went flying, the dark energy surrounding it vanishing with a jarring suddenness as its body crashed down lifelessly to the ground.
“I’m starting to get a little tired of this thing!” Beorna yelled, holding up her arm to protect her face as the driving hailstones of the ice storm pounded her, glancing off of the solid adamantine plates of her armor. All of them were blasted by cold and the hard impacts of the stones; even Mole’s speed and agility were of no use, as the hailstones seemed to be everywhere at once.
Zenna staggered backward as a hailstone clipped her on the shoulder; her innate resistance to cold protected her from some of the power of the devil’s spell, but that proved of little help against the physical impacts. She looked up to see Dannel standing his ground a few paces away, trying to ignore the hits that drove painfully into him, sending arrows up through the storm at the devil. A screech from above told of a hit; in the brief interlude since the devil had teleported away Zenna had aligned his arrows, and now his shots had a more telling impact. But the devil’s black shield protected it from most of their attacks, and even those that got through that outer barrier had to content with its unnaturally thick hide.
“We have to disrupt its magic!” Shensen shouted. Zenna had had the same thought, but she knew her own abilities—and limitations—too well to hope that her powers could foil the potent magic of the fiend.
Still, she had to try, and she wasn’t alone; her companions likewise unleashed their most powerful spells and other attacks upon the creature. Beorna spoke a word of dismissal; the clarion tone of that spell momentarily sang through the chamber with bright energy, but the devil resisted it, and the spell dissipated without effect. Similarly Zenna’s dispel faltered without effect, and while Shensen’s effort a moment later had a slightly greater impact, its unholy aura fading, the magic that kept it aloft continued to function, and a few moments later the devil simply restored its protective shield, gesturing almost contemptuously at them as it worked its magic anew.
Arun had unlimbered his large but infrequently used bow, and was fitting an arrow to the string when Zenna shouted, “Arun! Use Dannel’s arrows!” The dwarf nodded, recognizing her intent, and joined the elf, who continued his barrage, his magical quiver producing the aligned arrows in a steady stream upon demand. Zenna was about to cast a haste spell, but seeing how badly Dannel was hurt, she instead stepped up to him and unleashed a powerful healing spell into his nearly-frozen body.
Her aid came not a moment too soon, for the devil, hurt now by several of the arrows from Dannel’s persistent barrage, chittered out an inarticulate statement of rage and lowered its spear toward them, diving toward the floor. For an instant Zenna thought that the devil intended to simply impale Dannel with the force of its descent, but then, cleverly, it arrested its dive a good nine or ten feet above them. She recognized instantly its strategy; that distance was just outside of the effective reach of the dwarven warriors, while its own long limbs and spear would allow it to strike effortlessly in return. And in proof its first thrust tore deeply into Dannel’s shoulder. Without Zenna’s healing he would have been crippled or killed by that strike, and even as it was he staggered back in pain, half-frozen blood trickling out from the wound, his nimble motions slowed by the devil’s numbing chill.
Zenna looked up into the fiend’s glowing eyes, and felt a cold terror surge over her. An aura of fear radiated out from it, engulfing those closest to it. For a moment, it felt as though sheer panic would overwhelm her senses...
But only for a moment. Even without her own formidable mental discipline to consider, she and the others had a lifeline in their midst, a bulwark that fortified them all against the devil’s fear. Arun radiated a sense of calm, of courage that reinforced them against the fear. The dwarf drew back his bow and fired, and while the missile glanced harmlessly from the devil’s unholy aura, just the sheer act of resistance seemed to bolster them all, and drive them to press their attacks.
Hodge, thankfully out of the radius of the fear aura, had winched a bolt into place in his heavy crossbow, and now he fired as well. His shot, however, was no more effective.
Beorna unleashed a ray of searing light at the devil, but cursed as the beam of energy struck the unholy aura and dissipated.
“Keep at it!” Zenna urged, casting her haste spell now, canceling the power that had numbed Dannel, and enhancing the speed of her friends. The devil’s long, slender tail struck out at her with sudden speed, but she had not neglected her own defenses. The devil’s attack impacted the layered protections of two magical shields, one arcane, the other divine, and was turned by the barest of margins.
But its attack upon her was just a feint, as it turned the full force of its efforts on Arun. The spear darted down once, twice, and yet again, driving through the dwarf’s armor with the first powerful thrust, knocking the bow roughly from his hands as the second clipped his arm and tore through his greave. Arun staggered, but it was not yet done, keening as it suddenly flipped in mid-air, its alien head snapping down to deliver a powerful bite that might have decapitated him, had it not been for the protection of his mithral helm. Even with that moderate protection, though, he was hurt bad, and he fell back, reaching for his shield and sword.
“Hands off him!” Beorna shouted at the demon. Calling upon Helm’s power once more, the templar enlarged, her body seeming to swell with divine fury as she lifted her sword in challenge.
A moment later, the air above the gelugon flickered in a shimmer of light and air. The companions tensed, fearing some new deviltry, but as the distortion took on form, an amorphous, nearly invisible vortex of moving air, it drove down into the devil from behind, slamming at it with powerful slams of concentrated air. The elemental did not harm it seriously, but the devil was caught off-balance, and was driven down almost to the floor, within reach of the companions’ weapons.
Mole had been waiting for just such an opportunity. With the devil’s attention more than a bit distracted, she ran in and leapt at its back, hoping to land a sneak attack. Unfortunately her tiny weapon was little able to penetrate its thick hide, and she landed in a soft roll, darting back to await another chance.
Thus far, the gelugon seemed nearly invincible, taking everything that the companions could throw at it, its innate resistances and the dark mantle of power with which it had cloaked itself absorbing their best efforts. But slowly, it was taking hurts, injuries from blessed weapons that even its phenomenal regenerative powers could not restore. But while it was possessed of a fierce diabolical intelligence, the devil had been driven half-insane by centuries of confinement to this place, trapped by the eldritch arts of the spellweavers who had passed centuries ago, leaving their guardian to languish in solitude. Only once before in recent memory had its prison been disturbed, and that time its foes had retreated and bypassed it, mocking it in its captivity. Now, faced with enemies who shone with goodness, carrying hated weapons of light, an overwhelming surge of anger filled it, and it unleashed the full force of its hatred upon them, seeking vengeance upon the only convenient outlet it had had in five hundred years.
An arrow stabbed into its shoulder, breaking through the red haze of its fury with pain. The archer was that damned elf, and almost without thinking the devil pointed and unleashed another cone of cold that engulfed him. The elf was fast, but when the force of the blast dissipated, he was satisfyingly on his back, covered in a rime of white frost.
Unfortunately for the fiend, the attack had only taken down one of its foes, and it was still within their reach. The elemental continued to pound on it from above, mostly ineffectually, although its assault made it almost impossible for the devil to regain altitude. Zenna rushed to Dannel’s side, while Arun slashed at it with his sword, managing to add another gash in its right leg to its overall tally of injuries.
Hodge lifted his axe and came at it from the side, but as he entered the radius of its fear aura he stumbled back, his eyes widening in sudden horror. Unable to resist that dark power even with the countering effects of Arun’s aura of courage, the dwarf fighter dropped his weapon and ran, screaming.
But then, Beorna came forward.
Her sword, blazing with holy light, was a good seven feet long now, enlarged with the rest of her by her earlier invocation. She used her extended reach to good advantage, driving the weapon down in a powerful two-handed arc that the devil saw coming too late. The edge of the sword intersected with its neck, and with a final truncated screech the gelugon’s head went flying, the dark energy surrounding it vanishing with a jarring suddenness as its body crashed down lifelessly to the ground.
Similar Threads
