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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2685543" data-attributes="member: 143">Heh, I'm going to run out of cookies for you, NWK. Good catch. As for the title, my intent was for it to work on several levels; whether or not it does, we'll have to see how the story comes out in the end (I have an outline of what I intend to happen, of course, but almost always a few twists come out in the writing, and a few things don't come out quite like I planned. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  ).Friday post: * * * * * Chapter 480Dannel had never seen an elven lich, but there could be no doubting the nature of the unannounced intruder.  It was tall, still bearing the lines of the noble elf it had once been, its features desiccated, its gray skin stretched tight over the angular shape of its skull.  It was clad in a robe that had seen better days, now a ruined fragment that hung about the lich’s form like wisps of cloud. He had an arrow ready in a heartbeat, but held his fire, alert to any sign of threat or spellcasting.  One of the others was less hesitant, and loosed a shaft that passed through the lich before vanishing into the surrounding undergrowth. “It’s an image,” Dannel said, his eyes shooting around, observant for other threats. “It can still cast spells through the projection,” Jannae warned.  She had readied her own magic against it, but Dannel knew that it was highly unlikely that an elder creature like the lich would be discomfited by the limited powers of the priestess.   “What is your business, guardian?” Eldren said, boldly stepping forward to address the creature.  “Is the evil in the wood your doing?”The lich hissed, like air coming from a leaking bladder, and it took them a moment to realize that it was speaking.  “Evil…” it said.  “Yes… evil… evil must be purged, the Wood must be cleansed…”It lifted up its hands high above its head, looking up as if to invoke the very skies above to smite its enemies.  “Ware!” Eldren said, drawing back in alarm.  But the lich merely shuddered, and with a faint shimmer it disappeared. “What was that all about?” Yaela queried. “It sounded… mad,” Dannel said. Yaela’s eagle, perched on a nearby branch, cried out and leapt into the air.  Dalan’s wolf echoed the bird’s alarm, backing away with its teeth bared in a hostile growl. “What is it…” Ellene asked, her bow half-drawn.“Something stirs…” Jannae said. They could all feel it, a sense of building unrest in the wood.  The feeling became reality a moment later as a massive rumbling shook the forest floor around them, almost strong enough to shake them from their feet.  But even over that cacophony they could detect the sounds of something massive coming at them from the forest, from the direction of their ultimate destination. “Ready yourselves!” Eldren shouted, casting a ward that immediately toughed his flesh to the color and consistency of rough bark.  The other elves made whatever similar provisions they could, consuming potions or taking up positions of relative cover.  They did not have long to wait.  Whatever was coming was moving slowly, but from the sounds they heard it was coming straight through the undergrowth, the tearing of plants and crushing of brush sounding unduly harsh through the otherwise silent wood. Dannel had taken up position atop a nearby fallen log, and from that vantage watched for a look at the approaching enemies.  He caught sight of them quickly, four bulky masses approaching through the forest, but the obstructing trees and dense brush obscuring them made a shot difficult even for him.  He could fire a seeker arrow that would penetrate that maze, but with only one such missile per day, he elected to hold his fire for the moment.  A few of the other elves attempted shots anyway, but none of the missiles made it near the approaching forms as far as Dannel could tell. “Four of them!” Eldren warned, having spotted the same thing as Dannel. The four creatures finally emerged from the brush into the open, giving the elves a clear look at their foes.  The intruders resembled massive heaps of rotting vegetation, animated into the crude resemblance of a humanoid form.  Each was almost ten feet tall, and from the way the ground shook at their movements, they had to weigh thousands of pounds.  A wave of rot swept through the clearing ahead of them.  They clearly knew exactly where their foes were located, for they came immediately forward toward the elves without hesitation, massive “arms” unfolding from their bodies as they begun their attack.</blockquote>

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