Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2769880" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 506The medusa, driven by her insanity, held the paladin in her grip, attacking with enchanted steel, venom, and the dark power of her gaze attack all as one.  Against such an onslaught, any defender would have been hard-pressed to survive.  But the gods shone their blessings upon the paladin, and none more than his sturdy patron, who infused the knight with the power of the forge, the iron of the anvil, and the might of the hammer.  Arun snarled and reached out with his free hand, locking it around the medusa’s throat.  The creature did not retreat, her serpents snapping at the fingers that tightened into a fist around her scaly neck.  If anything, her grip upon him tightened, her own fists yanking at his black hair, drawing them even closer.  And then Arun brought up his other hand, and thrust the length of his holy sword deep into her body.  The medusa quivered as the blade entered her, then she began to thrash with an inescapable agony as the paladin drove the sword deeper.  It pierced her, and a shaft of light penetrated her as it emerged from her back.  Even as her struggles deepened she still forced Arun to meet her eyes, willing him to die, trying to drag her enemy down with her into oblivion.  But Arun’s fortitude was unflinching, and she wailed with frustration and anguish as her power slid harmlessly off of the dwarf’s resistances.  Arun drove the sword a last foot, until the crossbar slammed hard into her chest.  The medusa’s struggles ceased, and she drifted, her eyes now lifeless and harmless.  Blood floated in around them in a spreading plume. Arun began to feel the first stirrings of what he knew would become an insistent need, as the gulp of air he’d taken began to burn in his lungs.  He lifted a leg and kicked the medusa free of his sword, the slain creature drifting back to settle to the floor on the opposite side of the cistern.  The whole thing would have to be drained and cleansed before refilling, now, he knew, but his more immediate concern was the vessel that continued to pour out its pesitilence a few feet away. He returned to the keg, braced his feet, and with a single powerful drive of his sword he pierced the wooden container.  There was a tiny flash as the magical steel drove through the golden rune, and then the thing just came apart, bits of wood floating about in an eddy.  The need was growing greater, now.  Arun sheathed his sword, and with a powerful kick he leapt up and grabbed the edge of the cistern with a gauntleted fist.  When he drew himself up, that first breath was a relief, filling his lungs with cold purity.  He clung there, for a moment, holding onto the side of the cistern, letting the raindrops fall upon his face.  His head turned to the east, where the horizon above the town’s wall had just begun to brighten with the promise of the coming new day.</blockquote>

Verification