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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 4143119" data-attributes="member: 5675">The city of Alhastur was in flames. All around us came the crackling of flames and the screaming of the tormented survivors. The sky was dull and leaden, with eddies of ash whirled into the air. A completed ziggurat towered over the city, and from its peak flew a whirlwind of green light and black wind. To the east came the dreadful tearing noise as the front of a tall building fell away and crashed into the street. A deep green fog rolled through the streets, and where it passed it left decay and death. “It’s not right,” muttered Janga, and we all stared at him in disbelief.“Not just that,” said Janga, summing up all the despair, death and devastation around us with a casual wave. “The feel of the air here. As though Kyuss is simply greater; in ascendance over all the other gods whilst we are in this place. It’s not natural.”He was interrupted by the screaming of dozens of citizens, who streamed past us in a blind panic. They were fleeing from a number of the walking dead, who slashed down those too slow to run. Even as they collapsed, the bodies decayed and worms burst from their bodies, which lurched and rose to join their attackers. As my comrades turned and almost negligently destroyed the worm-infected undead, I grabbed one of the runners by the shoulder. Slowing to a halt, he turned to face me, wearing torn armour and still clutching a broken sword. “Lord Evan,” he gasped although I had not the faintest idea who the man was. “How could Zeench do this to us?”“Where is he,” I demanded whilst shaking the man by his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he gasped back. “There are only three places which are safe for men; the Church of Kord, the Cathedral of Hextor and the Scarlet Spire of Wee Jass – the undead do not yet walk into the temples of other deities. Looking where the man was pointing, we headed off, gathering behind us an increasing number of terrified citizens trying to reach sanctity. .oOo.As we pushed down the rubble-strewn streets, a building to our right lurched, and then collapsed spontaneously into rubble as two immense worms rose out amidst plumes of dust. Almost idly, one of them swept down with a vast maw and swallowed three civilians whilst its long body crushed two more.We leapt into action, with Flynne firing, giving cover for Fez as he used the power of the massive shapeshifting spell he had cast on himself through the ring he was wearing. He rose up from the ground lengthening and reshaping himself as he went. His legs merged together whilst his arms branched. Standing before the massive worms in the form of a marilith, he reached onto his belt and to the weapons stowed across his chest and back. With a mighty metallic noise, he brandished two sunblades, a vorpal greataxe, a keen enchanted scythe, a cold iron flail and a rapier of puncturing. He bellowed a toothy scream at the worms and charged.Overhead, Flynne’s arrows slammed home with terrible accuracy, but looked miniscule impaled into the massive worm. Janga cast a powerful spell and hurtled skywards, placing himself between the citizen and the two worms, but almost immediately one idiot managed to run past him drawing near one of the worms in confused terror. With a massive bite, the man was swallowed whole. Beyond the worms, where still more people clustered in panic, six more were slaughtered by the terrible worms. I fished out another magical staff of enchantment, using its powers to pull 7 of the citizens away from danger, whilst Fez was bitten as he approached, being wounded terribly by the massive teeth and covered in writhing worms. As Janga whirled a peasant-dressed woman to safety with the powers of his telekinesis ring, Fez attacked the worm which had just bitten him in a whirling orgy of savagery. Six blades lashed out in a terrible frenzy, and the worm was simply torn to rotting shreds.As the second worm lashed around seeking a target, I leapt onto a rock and exhorted the remaining civilians to back away and join us in our trip to safety. They rushed to cluster around me, and Fez turned his pointed-toothed grin to the second worm. Two sunblades shone red and wet in the dim light as he went to work. The rest of us headed away, towards where we could hear the bells of Kord ringing to bring the faithful to safety. We hastened towards them..oOo.In the square, a crowd of hundreds stood in the area between the three churches. Within the throng I could see familiar faces looking expectantly back at me – people who I had passed in the street or performed before in the city’s park. Three robed and armoured high priests stood near the doors of their own temples, each exhorting the crowd to do different things. “It’s Prince Zeech’s madness,” bellowed the high priest of Kord. “We should leave immediately – walk from this city whilst the Toil Road is still clear!”Marching through the square to confront him, The high priestess of Wee Jass shouted at him. “You’re a traitor. Zeech himself has come to …”The priestess opened and closed her mouth a few times in confusion, but I had seen Janga pass his hands whilst muttering the words to a spell of silencing which presumably enveloped her completely.I spoke up, triggering my Boots of Levitation to float above the crowd a little and call out for peace so that we could decide how best to escape the city.“Do not listen to him,” interrupted the high priest of Hextor in a booming voice. I offer sanctuary for those best able to make the appropriate sacrifice. I was beginning to draw a crowd about me to see whether we could possibly lead them on a break from the city, as Flynne was picking his way through the throng towards the Hextorite priest with a purposeful expression on his face. Suddenly there came screams from the far side of the courtyard. Spinning on the spot, I could see a dozen undead knights, all crawling with worms, striding into the courtyard and laying about themselves with their long vicious blades. I saw an expression of puzzlement come over Fez’s face as he tried to work out what to turn into…</blockquote>

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