The Doomed Bastards: Reckoning (story complete)

[Burningspear]

I've just updated the Rogues' Gallery thread.

Interesting for me that they are all very straight forward builds, as in, all single class and no diversions, while any of my character buildups would be full of such...


ill add more comments depending on Lazybones reply on this topic

 

[CrusadeDave]

Hmmmmm

I've just updated the Rogues' Gallery thread.

Shay is nasty: Spring Attacking, Tumbling Vampires with base movement of 60 feet? Not considering her coffin, she looks to be the toughest on paper. Allera and Varo are what you'd expect upper level Clerical casters to be: Tough as nails, though Allera's somewhat of a paper-tiger, one good critical and she's out (With a low AC to boot: she needs a Monk's Belt and some Bracers of Armor). I wonder if you're going to let Varo cast Mass Harm as a 9th level spell?

Talen makes Dar look wimpy. 16 HD Vampires with PC level gear? Ouch. Can we bring back Were-Dar?

Thanks Lazybones, always fun to see how you build 'em.

 

[Lazybones]

Interesting for me that they are all very straight forward builds, as in, all single class and no diversions, while any of my character buildups would be full of such...

I thought about PrCs for this group but none really jumped out at me for the casters. I experimented more with PrCs in my earlier stories.

Shay is nasty: Spring Attacking, Tumbling Vampires with base movement of 60 feet? Not considering her coffin, she looks to be the toughest on paper. Allera and Varo are what you'd expect upper level Clerical casters to be: Tough as nails, though Allera's somewhat of a paper-tiger, one good critical and she's out (With a low AC to boot: she needs a Monk's Belt and some Bracers of Armor). I wonder if you're going to let Varo cast Mass Harm as a 9th level spell?

I was shocked myself once I fully statted out the vamps. Allera is rather weak in terms of defense, but I've relied mostly on the dungeon for equipment and loot; I haven't completely developed Camar but I've conceptualized it as somewhat underpowered for its size in terms of magic item availability. I did allow them some upgrades through Alzoun but I admit I didn't spend a lot of time looking at new items for Allera.

In terms of spells, I'm mostly sticking to SRD-core. I have that open almost constantly in a PDF as I'm writing. For various reasons it's difficult to access more content while I've developing plots and outlining battles. I do have access to the psionics SRD files, as you'll see from today's update.

* * * * *

Chapter 330

ENTANGLEMENTS


“Allera!”

Letellia’s exclamation came out as little more than hiss; one of the chilling tentacles had twined around her neck, and as the sorceress struggled it continued to tighten inexorably, cutting off her supply of air. But Letellia grimaced and managed to stretch out an arm toward the adjacent healer, who in turn tried to fight off her own clinging tentacles to reach her.

Their fingers brushed, only for an instant, but Letellia used that moment to unleash her magic. Her concentration wavered but held, and even as her vision began to swim out of focus, she opened a dimension door and transported the two of them out of the radius of the invocation.

Letellia collapsed to the floor, sucking in desperate breaths of air. “Are you all right?” Allera asked, bending over her.

“Yes... yes...” she managed, forcing herself to stand.

“Varo cannot get out,” Allera said. Letellia looked up and saw that the cleric had been all but wrapped up in tentacles, holding his legs, arms, and body immobile. In his heavy armor they could not hurt him seriously, but the draining effects of the cold were no doubt affecting him.

“I will get him,” Letellia said. “Help the others!”

Shaylara’s imprisonment had only lasted a few seconds. As the tentacle had tightened its crushing grip on her ankle, the vampire scout merely focused her will, dissolving into a column of vaprous mist that drifted easily out of the reach of the grasping tendrils. The other vampires followed her lead, and as they rematerialized she was already running toward Talen.

The fallen’s knight’s sword flashed about him in a blur, but surrounded as he was, he could not keep the grimlocks from getting to him. His armor was dented where he’d absorbed several telling hits, but he seemed barely affected, and as he lashed out another grimlock went down, oozing blood from several deep gashes in its torso. Shay lowered her spear as she rushed to his aid, but before she could reach him, he turned and pointed his sword across the room.

“Get the warlock!” he commanded.

Shay veered off, and the six remaining grimlocks pressed their attack, fighting without care or concern about their own lives. One got in a two-handed strike that smashed hard into the small of Talen’s back. The blow would have likely paralyzed a living man, but Talen merely grunted and spun around, delivering a blow that disintegrated much of the grimlock’s jaw. The creature fell back, but only for a few seconds, as blood fountained down its chest from the grievous hurt.

The vampire spawn came on now, but Talen again forestalled them. “Destroy the mind flayers!” he shouted, the command reverberating with power. All five vampires responded at once, shifting their course to rush toward the pillars. The blue glow surrounding them had intensified, and shifting forms were beginning to take shape between them, as the energies coming off the stone basin were directed through the living minds of the illithid attendants of the Overmind.

Four of the grimlocks fighting Talen sought to disengage, to intercept the vampires and protect their masters. Talen ran one through, thrusting the full length of his sword through its body. As it slid off his blade he flicked it out in a full extension, slicing the hamstring of another. The grimlock nearly fell, but it somehow was able to remain vertical, dropping its axe and leaping at Talen in a desperate effort to seize his swordarm.

The other two grimlocks rushed the vampires, but the girl, Calla, stepped away from the bandits to meet them. She did not reach for the small sword at her waist, instead slamming her tiny fists into the first of the grimlocks. The blows struck like hammers, and the grimlock staggered, its life force drained by the hit. The other one tried to get by her, to stop the others, but she shot out a leg as it passed, tripping it and sending it to the floor.

Dar snarled as blows rained down on his body, unable to do much to protect himself with the tentacles holding his arms tight. Zahera seized his leg and nearly tore off his right boot; yanking free, he smashed the zombie’s face so hard that he could feel its skull cracking. The dead woman stumbled back a few steps, but once it had recovered its balance it came forward again. Alderis—the damned elf, of all things—thrust a silvered knife into the meat of his leg just above the knee, and he grimaced at the sudden pain. Apparently the damned wizard was a better fighter in death than he had been in life. Dar had other matters on his mind, however, as Marcus, Nelan, and Alexion loomed over him, hands clawing at his armor as they sought out a soft spot to start tearing.

And then blue fire erupted all around him.

Allera had to remind herself that the zombies were no longer her friends, just empty husks. Still, it was disquieting to see the familiar forms spasm and collapse as the healing energies of her mass cure ravaged them. They were stronger than typical zombies, but her spell was more than powerful enough to destroy all five of them. She channeled more of the power into Dar, and to her other companions nearby, easing their hurts and restoring the warmth stolen by the chilling effect of the tentacles.

She was not especially surprised when a black bolt streaked out of the darkness toward her. Her holy aura flared as the eldritch blast struck it, and while she could feel the tumult of energies swirling in mad chaos around her, she was not harmed by it.

Turning toward the undead warlock, she again summoned her power.

But before she could unleash another healing spell, a sudden flash of light drew her attention around. The nimbus surrounding the pillars had strengthened to a wild, surging aura, which coalesced into tendrils of liquid energy that now came together into more substantial form. Between the pillars nine forms took shape, figures of blue light and psionic energy, roughly man-shaped although none stood less than nine feet in height. As they stepped out of the glow of the pillars they took on a more solid aspect, and the trembling of the floor under their feet indicated that these new foes were all too real.

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 331

A KICK IN THE ASTRAL


With a yell, Dar tore free of the tentacles holding his arms, and staggered to his feet. “What in all the hells are those things?”

“They are not undead!” Allera yelled, her attention split between the appearance of the new foes and Navev, who was falling back along the wall of the room. Shaylara was rushing toward him, her longspear coming down as she picked up speed. She spared barely a glance at the summoned giants, even when one turned and started to lumber after her.

Varo and Letellia materialized together a few feet away, the sorceress shivering from her renewed contact with the penetrating cold aura of the chilling tentacles. “They are astral constructs, entities fashioned out of psionic energies,” the cleric said. “I have never before seen any this large before. Be wary; they are as strong as they look.”

“Wonderful,” Dar said, stepping forward to meet the onrushing constructs. With one of them heading off toward Shay, half of the remainder shifted left to face Talen’s charging vampires, while the other half started toward the living companions. Between the two groups, the chilling tentacles continued to mindlessly twist and seek, but all of them were now safely out of their reach.

Navev turned, intending to remedy that by invoking its power anew. Shay was still too far away to stop him, but Allera lifted her hand and hit him with a targeted blast of healing energy. The warlock screamed as positive energy ripped through its undead body. It lifted a hand, dark energies forming between its fingers, but it hesitated; its last eldritch blast had faltered against her holy aura, and Navev was not certain that it could withstand another mass cure of that magnitude.

Shay’s yell brought its attention around. The warlock summoned its powers again, and there was a brief flash of energy around its form. Shay snarled and put on a last burst of speed as the spearhead drove unerringly toward Navev’s breast. But the magical weapon only passed harmlessly through empty air; Navev had transported away, leaving only another illusion behind it.

Shay barely had time to jerk the spearhead aside before it struck the wall behind with the full force of her momentum behind it. She glanced back; the astral construct was closing fast, a thick white arm coming up to strike.

The vampiric bandits leapt at the larger constructs with reckless abandon, hacking at the white forms with their short blades. Talen had not equipped his troops with magical weapons, however, and despite the considerable strength behind the vampires’ blows their initial assault had little effect upon their foes. The constructs, likewise, possessed no silver to use against the vampires, but they more than made up for it with the sheer power behind their blows. The vampire spawn withstood the initial exchange far better than mortal men would have, but even so all four took devastating hits that knocked them roughly about like ninepins.

Dar was tougher still than the vampires, but he too found himself in some difficulty as the constructs reached him. Their reach gave them advantage, and he took a pair of hits across his shoulders that felt like sledgehammers. Dar stepped into the reach of the nearest and smote it across the body with Valor. The hit was solid, and it cut through the sticky white substance of the monster, but as Dar watched in surprise, the outline of its body began to shift and change. The transformation took only a second, but when it was done the construct had taken on more definition to its form, the substance covering its torso and legs thickening until it looked almost like the thing was wearing a suit of plate armor.

Dar struck it again, and found that the stuff resembled armor in another way, as his stroke was turned away. And then he had to fight for his life, as the second creature smashed him hard across the side, and he had to fall back to avoid being crushed between them.

With Dar fully engaged by two of the creatures, the other two split around them, coming toward Varo, Allera, and Letellia. The cleric, lost in a complicated casting, paid them no heed, but Letellia fired off a lightning bolt that arced through one of the constructs before it clipped one of the pair battling Dar. The electrical discharge visibly scorched the creatures’ pale bodies, but neither appeared to be seriously damaged.

The one Letellia had blasted first stopped its charge. Its form rippled and shifted, but this one, rather than growing armor, took on a form that was eerily similar to that of the sorceress. The construct lifted a hand toward Letellia, and a bolt of electrical energy lanced from its palm, blasting into her. The bolt penetrated her holy aura as though it was not even there, but her shield turned at least some of it, saving her from the worst of the blast.

“They are adapting in response to our attacks!” Allera exclaimed. Her foe was still coming toward her, picking up speed as it bypassed the melee around Dar. Fully engaged by the first two constructs, the fighter could do nothing to stop it.

Allera glanced toward the twisting field of tentacles, weighing her chances if she tried to lure the construct within their reach. Her repulsion spell had been spent, and her remaining powers were defensive in nature, of little use against a monstrosity such as the astral construct. But a loud trampling noise behind her announced the arrival of reinforcements. A pair of fiendish rhinoceroses summoned by Varo charged headlong into the fray; one impaled the construct facing Allera, driving its horn deep into its thick body, while the other struck the one that had just blasted Letellia with a glancing blow, spinning both rhino and construct around from the force of the impact.

As another grimlock collapsed, blood fountaining from the deep gashes in its torso, Talen started to move to the aid of his warriors. The last grimlock he faced was mortally wounded, but still it leapt at the vampire knight, spending the last of its life in an effort to delay its foe. Talen knocked aside its axe with a look of contempt and drove his sword through its body, almost to the hilt. The grimlock flapped at him as it fell, blood splashing all over its foe. Talen had the look of a butcher, his black garb soaked with crimson from the creatures he had violently dispatched.

His army was having difficulty. The bandits, compelled by the will of their master, pressed their assault, but it was clear that the constructs had the upper hand. The vampires had abandoned their ineffective weapons in favor of slam attacks, but the constructs had no life-force to drain, and their efforts were just as futile. Drudge was picked up by a construct and hurled across the room, bouncing off the hard floor several times before finally sliding to a stop almost fifty feet away. Hedder leapt at a construct’s head, only to be intercepted in midair by a hand that snapped down around its ankle like a steel shackle. Another construct reached over and grabbed the vampire’s head; between the pair they tore the hapless bandit to pieces. The vampire dissolved into mist as the constructs sought out new adversaries. Utar and Needles fought on, but were driven back, absorbing bone-crushing blows from the astral constructs.

“Shay, look out!” Allera warned, but the scout had already sensed the threat lumbering toward her from behind. She snapped up her spear and spun it around, jamming its end into the intersection of wall and floor a split second before the full weight of the onrushing construct struck the gleaming steel head. The astral construct impaled itself on the spear, its momentum driving the weapon through its chest and out its back. The wound would have been fatal had the creature been mortal, but the construct merely took the hit, continuing to surge forward toward the scout. Its arm twisted and enlongated, taking on a form similar to that of the spear that had run it through, its fingers coming together in the shape of a blade. It swung at Shay with that newly-fashioned weapon, but she rolled with the hit, and took only a minor hit across the shoulders. Her sword hissed from its scabbard as she came up into a crouch a few paces distant, while the construct turned ponderously, her spear still stuck in its body.

The battle had dissolved into a chaos of melees. Dar exchanged titanic blows with two of the astral constructs; he withstood a pair of impacts that nearly took him to the ground, and which would have ended him if not for another mass cure from Allera. Both constructs were damaged, but both were now protected by the body armor that had grown around their bodies in response to the fighter’s attacks, and he had to resort to more precise attacks to damage them. Each hit he took drove him back, and within a few moments he was once more on the edge of the chilling tentacles effect, the tendrils probing eagerly at his back, just out of their reach.

“Blast it! Get to the mind flayers!” Talen shouted. Utar and Needles tried to obey, but the constructs laid into them as they rushed past. Utar’s jaw was pulverized by a blow that laid him out upon the cold stone, while Needles was seized by the cloak by another and hurled around, sliding thirty feet back into the chilling tentacles, which immediately fastened upon him.

The other two came at Talen, who darted between them, taking hits but avoiding their grasp. And then he was through, headed toward the pillars and the stone basin within their circle. On the far side of the room, Shay likewise heeded his command. She ran between the construct’s legs, hacking at the back of its left knee with her sword as it passed. The blow had little effect, but it was slow in coming around, and by the time it had turned to pursue her, she was twenty feet away and running full-out toward the pillars.

Varo brought down a flame strike into the center of the room, at the source of the blue glow. But the column of flames flickered out as it struck the sapphire aura within the pillars, and the spell had dissolved utterly by the time it neared the ground. Annoyed, Varo immediately began casting another spell.

His rhinos were likewise being countered. The construct on the left had been impaled through the gut, and the summoned beast was continuing to drive forward, thrusting the horn deeper into the monster’s body. But the construct adapted; it reached down and seized the rhino’s head, while its head twisted and reformed, a long white horn emerging from its forehead. With an impressive display of sheer strength, the construct tore the rhino’s horn free of its gut, and yanked the rhino’s head back until the thing was nearly standing upright. Then, predictably, the newly-horned head came down, and it drove its implement into the rhino’s exposed throat. The fiendish creature let out a mewling noise at it toppled over backward, blood fountaining from the terrible puncture. The construct made quick work to finish it, diving forward and ripping the rhino’s exposed belly open from neck to tail. The summoned monster dissolved rapidly, leaving behind only a greasy black smear to advertise its existence.

The other rhino was struck at point-blank range by another electrical bolt from the construct that had copied Letellia’s form. The blast savaged the creature, which lunged at the construct again, driving its horn through the monster’s leg. The construct reached down and placed a hand over the rhino’s skull; blue and white energies exploded from the touch. The construct rode the rhino down, blasting it until black smoke surrounded both in a toxic haze.

Letellia came forward to lay down a wall of ice, intending to separate off at least some of the astral constructs from the raging battle. But as she looked for the best place to create the barrier, she caught sight of movement from within the ring of pillars.

A cascade of mental energies radiated out from the center of the room, as the mind flayers appeared in the spaces between the pillars. The vampires were not affected by the mind blasts, but the same could not be said for their living companions. Varo and Allera, their considerable wills bolstered further by the holy auras, withstood the mental assault.

But both Letellia and Dar were overcome. The timing was particularly poor for Dar, who was stunned right as one of the constructs was lunging forward to attack. The fighter took the hit square in the middle of the chest, and was knocked backwards, flipping head-over-heels before he landed in the soft embrace in the chilling tentacles, which immediately lashed around his arms, legs, and throat, tightening once more their deadly embrace.

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 332

PLENTY OF PAIN TO GO AROUND


It was impossible to tell what was going through the illithid’s mind as Talen roared and descended upon it with the fury of a raging inferno. But the creature did not flinch, holding its ground as the knight charged to meet it.

Only at the last second did it shift, extending a slender arm to touch the attacking fighter. But Talen’s blade gave him reach, and before the creature could do something unpleasant to him he cut through its skull, driving the blade down through its head and body, exiting under its right armpit.

There was surprisingly little blood as the pieces of it slid to the ground.

Two more flayers came at him from the left and right. They knew their mental powers could not hurt them, but they clearly had something in mind. He feinted left with his sword, keeping the illithid at bay for a split second while he pivoted and snapped the sword around to his right. Clammy flesh parted and thin bones crunched, and the flayer staggered back, crippled by a terrible wound that gaped open in its side. Air hissed from its punctured lung.

Talen was already shifting to face the other, but it came in too fast, and brushed his arm. Talen felt a sudden twist of vertigo as reality swirled around him. Hatred and anger filled him like a weapon, and he barely resisted the illithid’s attempt to plane shift him into the Abyss.

He raised his sword to strike, but never got a chance to counterattack. A long white arm slashed down, and thick fingers locked onto his skull. And then he was flying, arcing across the room. At the apogee of the arc he nearly brushed the ceiling, thirty feet high.

Landing hurt less than it would have, before, but it still hurt.

Shay charged into the ring of pillars opposite Talen, only a few seconds after his initial arrival. Another mind flayer faced her, its tentacles moving in a pattern as it awaited her rush. She too expected a counter, and so when it lunged for her she shifted subtly, sweeping her blade up with a flick of her wrist, under its reach as she slid past it. The sword bit deep, but even with her augmented strength she was not Talen, and the illithid drew back, injured but hale.

She could not spare time for the one she had injured as the others were upon her in an instant. Evading, she was grazed by one that attempted to plane shift her, and like Talen she experienced a surge of disorientation that faded as her innate will, augmented by the amulet she wore around her neck, enabled her to shrug off the flayer’s power.

But even that brief moment of vulnerability cost her. Even as she felt the lumbering thud of the astral construct’s tread behind her, something hard smashed into the space between her shoulder blades, and she was flying forward. The bull rush smashed her forward into the edge of the stone basin, and as she pitched forward a bright blue flash erupted around her, and everything vanished in a haze of pain.

Allera rushed forward, flinching as forms much bigger than she clashed and flailed about the battlefield. One of the astral constructs had dissolved into nothing, although Allera could not see what had destroyed it. The three that were left, while all damaged to some degree, remained a dire threat. Varo had summoned more allies, a trio of giant centipedes that had launched into the astral constructs at his command. One of them crashed hard to the floor not three paces from where she was running, and as she pressed forward the construct that had smote it reached down and tore its head off. It was obvious that Varo’s helpers weren’t going to last for very long, but for the moment they were engaging the constructs and keeping them busy.

Allera’s attention was focused on Dar, who was struggling feebly in the grasp of Navev’s chilling tentacles. Stunned by the flayer mind blast, he had no chance of escaping the deadly constriction of those thick black cords. Heedless of her own tired body, the healer thrust herself into the circle of grasping tendrils, reaching for Dar. Three tentacles seized her, but not before she had gotten close enough to grab his left foot, and unleash a heal spell into him.

Clarity returned to Dar’s eyes in an instant, and with a roar he started tearing himself free of the grasping tentacles. One of the constructs, attracted by Allera’s mad rush, came in after them, ignoring the tentacles that entwined its legs, reaching out to deliver solid blows to both the healer and the fighter. Allera cried out and tried to escape, but the tentacles had already snared her.

Talen was rejoined by Drudge and Needles as he headed back toward the pillars. He’d dropped his sword when he’d hit the ground, and as he paused to recover it, he scanned the chamber. The four astral constructs that had pursued him to the center of the room had reformed into a line, and were coming toward them again. Utar had joined Hedder, stomped by one of the constructs, reduced to a gaseous cloud that drifted aimlessly off to the side of the room. Calla, off to the left, was rising from the corpse of the last grimlock fighter. Her face was bloody, and the smile she flashed at him was crimson. Irritated, he gestured for her to join them.

He could not see Shay, but as he looked to the right, he saw that his companions were having a great deal of trouble dealing with the constructs on their side of the room. Somehow Dar and Allera had managed to get themselves entangled in the chilling tentacles again, and one of the constructs had followed them in, and was engaged in beating on them vigorously. Varo thus far had hung back, throwing more summoned creatures into the meat grinder.

“You want me to help them out?” Needles asked him.

“No,” Talen said. His voice was level as he watched the oncoming constructs. “Needles, Drudge, spread out to the left and right and make like you are trying to get past them. Calla, you’re on me.”

As the vampires moved forward to engage the constructs, a column of liquid fire descended onto them from above. The flame strike caught three of the four, inflicting what looked like generous destruction upon their artificial bodies. As Needles and Drudge broke off, a construct turned toward each of them, moving swiftly to block their route toward the pillars in the center of the room. The other two kept on coming forward. Talen walked forward calmly, the diminutive Calla trailing in his wake.

Talen picked the one that looked to be most damaged, and as he entered its reach, he lunged forward with surprising speed. It smashed a huge fist down across his back, but he merely took the hit and drove his sword down into its body with a cry that shook the chamber with its intensity. His blade, backed by potent magic, bit deep into its substance, opening a gash that continued to widen until the thing split in two and dissolved into nothing.

The second constructs came at Talen from the side, but even as he pivoted to meet it Calla leapt onto it, smashing at it with her tiny fists. The construct seized her and threw her down to the ground, but before it could anything worse Talen laid into it with a full attack, and it too came apart, dissolving into nothing within seconds once its cohesion had been shattered.

Dar tore free of the chilling tentacles yet again, his face twisted into a paroxysm of rage as he drove forward. The astral construct was securely held in place by no less than four tentacles twined around its legs, but it could still reach Allera, and it lifted an arm to deliver another punishing blow. The healer was in dire condition, the icy chill in the tentacles sapping life from her body, and she could do nothing to evade the assault.

Dar lunged forward and met the descending fist with a violent swing of Valor. His blade caught the astral construct’s arm just above the wrist, and it took off the entire hand, which flew off into the swarming tentacles. The construct lurched forward, off-balance but unable to fall with the tentacles holding it.

The construct started to twist its body to bring its intact arm into play, but before it could attack again a stream of liquid fire blasted into its torso, followed a second later by a second. The damaged construct could not withstand the licking flames, and as its substance charred black it came apart under the tearing tentacles.

Dar was at Allera’s side in an instant, fighting to rip the tentacles off her body. “Go on... leave me...” she managed weakly.

“Not a freaking chance,” he said. This time he didn’t bother trying to cut the magical bindings, but slid Valor back into its scabbard and went to work pulling them off her with sheer strength.

The last of Varo’s summoned centipedes succumbed to the devastating pounding of one of the astral constructs. The two astral constructs bore damage, but their wounds were minor. Letellia, recovered from the mind blast by virtue of Varo’s heal spell, directed the last of her scorching rays into one of the constructs, and it turned toward them, joined a moment later by its companion, treading through the black wisps of Varo’s dissolving summons.

“Can you stop them?” Letellia asked the cleric.

“We shall see,” Varo replied, lifting his wand and calling down another flame strike. The holy fire obscured the constructs as it enveloped them, but as the spell ended both reappeared right in front of them, their bodies blackened and scorched, but still deadly. They proved that as they charged into Varo and Letellia, both of them taking solid hits that knocked them violently backwards.

Shaylara shook her head to clear it, and looked up to see several mind flayers looming over her. One seized her arm, and again she felt a wave of disorientation seep through her body as it attempted to yank her out of the Prime Material. She tore free, but knew that she could not rely on resisting those touches for long. Her will had been boosted by her transformation into a vampire, and the amulet she bore protected her against evil spells, but the power wielded by the illithids was ancient and potent, and behind her the part of her mind that was still capable of feeling emotion could sense the roiling potency of the Overmind, trying in vain to gain hold of her consciousness.

Two more mind flayers lunged at her. She sprang up, leaping high into the air. Her strength had likewise grown considerably, and augmented by her magical boots she surged high above the illithids. Her target shifted as she reached the arc of her leap and began to descend, but she was still able to plant her feet on the shoulder of the astral construct, and push off as it lifted its spear-hand to strike her. It was impossible to apply any finesse or control to the second jump, but it carried her past the ring of pillars, and as she landed she was able to turn her shoulder and come up into a crouch, her sword at the ready.

The astral construct came pounding after her, and she was forced to dive to the side to avoid being impaled by its lance. The edge of the weapon grazed her side, but the wound was not serious, and she was able to draw back, giving her more space to recover her stance.

The mind flayers, she noticed, had come to the edge of the ring of pillars, but they did not pursue her. Interesting, she thought, as understanding whispered in the back of her mind.

But there was no more time for pondering, as the construct whirled around and came at her again.

On the far side of the room, Talen’s forces were suffering setbacks. Needles had nearly gotten past the construct pursuing him; the bandit tried to lure it toward the chilling tentacles, but the entity’s long reach foiled his escape. Its right fist twisted and reshaped into a pair of jagged blades, each almost a foot long. It drove the blades through the vampire’s skull, impaling him. Needles kicked out a few times, his legs jerking in a brief spasm, then he went limp. The vampire dissolved into mist, joining Utar and Hedder.

Drudge did not last much longer. The vampire tried to dart between the construct’s legs, but as he shot through it smashed a fist down onto his back, knocking him prone. The former bandit tried to get up, but the construct seized his ankles, and lifted him into the air. It smashed its prisoner down hard into the floor. Drudge actually survived two of those impacts, but on the third, his head cracked, and he too was reduced to a trailing hiss of insubstantial mist.

Talen, meanwhile, strode forward. His eyes were on the mind flayers that had formed up at the edge of the ring of pillars, watching him. He did not shift his gaze or his measured pace as the constructs that had slain his troops charged in at him, but as the first lunged to strike, sweeping at him with those deadly blades, he pivoted and slashed his sword up, deflecting the powerful blow. He came in under its reach, trusting to Calla to keep the other one off his back. The construct tried to push him away with its other arm, but the fallen knight easily avoided the thrust, and his counters dug deep furrows in its torso. Behind him Calla cried out as she was hit hard and hurled aside by the second construct, but he kept his attention focused on the first, finishing it off with a cut that took off its left leg at the hip. As it dissolved he turned and met the other, as it stood over the fallen girl.

“Dance with me, bitch,” Talen said, stepping forward to challenge the construct. The thing, mindless though it seemed to be, recognized the greater threat—or perhaps the master holding its strings did. He laughed as it smashed him across the chest, a blow that would have knocked the wind out of him, at the very least. But he no longer had any “wind” to lose. He stepped forward, and with Mailliw Catspar’s blade set to work.

Allera sagged against Dar as the fighter dragged her out of the field of chilling tentacles. With their escape, the invocation seemed to have finally run its course, and the sinuous black tendrils dissolved into nothingness. Dar held her up. “Are you all right? Allera, c’mon, we need you with us here.”

The healer groaned, but she summoned a reserve of energy from somewhere within, and blinked. “I... I’m all right. Just... a moment...” She closed her eyes, and drew upon her powers for another mass cure spell. She could feel the fluttering flickers that were the life forces of Dar, Letellia, and Varo, and she channeled the power into them. She could also sense the dark loci that were the vampires. She knew better than to extend her magic to them. Not now, anyway.

As she completed her spell, she sensed another mental intrusion slide off of her defenses. Blinking, she realized that Dar was no longer beside her.

She felt a cold chill as she saw him walking toward Talen, Valor blazing in his hand.

 

[CrusadeDave]

Woot!

That is a nice combat. 16 rounds long so far? (Duration of the Chilling Tentacles.)

 

[Mahtave]

Am I reading this wrong, or did Dar just get dominated?

 

[Nightbreeze]

She could also sense the dark loci that were the vampires. She knew better than to extend her magic to them. Not now, anyway.

Ahah, it seems that Allera got the same idea that I had

Hmm...I don't thing that Dar got dominated. It is probably just Lazybones teasing with us. He is the cliffanger king, afterall

 

[Lazybones]

That is a nice combat. 16 rounds long so far? (Duration of the Chilling Tentacles.)

Plus or minus. I admit, sometimes on the chaotic scenes like this I hand-wave a few of the details.

As for what's up with Dar... well, read for yourselves.

* * * * *

Chapter 333

OLD FRIENDS


Talen grunted as his follow-through sliced through the body of the last astral construct, destroying it. He’d taken a beating, but his body was already restoring the physical damage he’d suffered, and there was no threat to his mind; he perceived the mental attacks of the illithids and their Overmind as a dim buzzing on the edges of her perception.

He glanced down at Calla, who was slowly getting up. Her jaw moved but only odd sounds came out; the construct had smashed her hard across the face and shattered bone in half a dozen places.

She would recover. Talen turned and started walking toward the pillars again. The mind flayers were still there, watching him, but there was nothing they could do to stop him.

He caught the flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, heard the familiar clank of metal. Once more he did not appear to take notice until the last minute, when he spun and whipped his sword around in a blazing arc.

Metal clanged hard on metal once, again. Dar was incredibly strong, and Talen could feel the hatred radiating from Valor, but he was the stronger, now, and it was the human fighter who gave ground in the initial exchange.

“You weak-minded fool,” Talen said.

Dar’s only response was a violent attack. Again the magic swords clashed, and this time both combatants took wounds. Talen grimaced as Valor bit into his side under the edge of his breastplate, while red blood poured down Dar’s arm from a long gash just below his shoulder.

“Dar, no!” Allera shouted, running up behind him. She tried to grab him, but he thrust her away, not taking his eyes off of Talen as he moved into position for another assault. Blood trailed from the elbow of his wounded arm, forming patters on the ground in his wake.

“Can you clear his mind?” Talen asked, likewise adjusting.

“I can break the enchantment... but the spell takes a full minute to cast...”

“Well then, hopefully you can resurrect the corpse,” Talen said, meeting Dar’s attack with a visceral eagerness shining in his dead eyes.

Swords blurred and bit, crunching through armor and flesh. Talen ducked a blow that might have cut his head off had it connected, countering with a thrust that punched through the layered armor protecting Dar’s flank. Dar brought Valor down hard onto Talen’s shoulder, crumpling the plate there and savaging the joint beneath. Talen nearly lost his grip on his sword, but he lashed out with his other hand, smashing Dar across the face. The fighter staggered back, stunned for a moment. Talen used the interval to reassert his grip on his sword.

“To think, I was once impressed with your skill.”

Dar snarled and started forward again, but before the two could collide once more, Allera leapt in front of Talen, facing Dar. “If you wish to strike him, you will have to kill me first,” Allera said to the charmed fighter. Talen started to thrust her away, but she would not relinquish her position.

“You take a grave risk, healer,” he said, his eyes locked on Dar’s.

Dar lifted Valor, and Talen tensed. But then he froze, the blade quivering in his hand.

“I cannot... hold... they are in... my mind...”

“Go!” Allera yelled back at Talen, rushing to Dar. She turned him away from the vampire and the pillars, grasping his head, pouring what healing she could into him.

Talen did not linger longer. He saw that Shay had her foe well in hand, darting in and out of its reach, tumbling out of the way of its spear-hand, delivering sweeping blows that left long gashes in its substance. He couldn’t quite make out Varo and Letellia clearly; the far side of the room where they’d been was thick with smoke from the cleric’s summonings and evocations. He could hear the sounds of violence, which suggested that at least one of the two was still alive.

But his attention was focused ahead, on the mind flayers. There were still a lot of them left, a half-dozen at least. They watched him in silence, no doubt working their dark powers on his human allies.

“They do not leave the protection of the pillars!” Shay yelled at him, ducking under another thrust from the construct. She leapt into the air and kicked off its chest, her sword lashing out to carve a deep runnel across its face. As it started to come apart, she reached down and recovered her spear.

Talen paused some fifteen paces distant. The buzzing noise in his head intensified, but he easily thrust it aside. “Your pathetic powers cannot protect you from the likes of me,” he said. He gestured to Shay, who came over to join him. Calla crept up from behind, giving Dar and Allera a wide berth.

“Give me your bow,” Talen said to Shay. He took the weapon, a compact Legion bow with a strong pull, and calmly set the string.

His first shot caught a mind flayer solidly in the chest. The creature staggered back, but made no sound.

A pulse of psionic energy filled the room. Dar screamed and crumpled. Letellia’s cry followed on his. Allera clutched her head, trying to fight off the power that surged over the mental walls of her will.

Talen ignored it, loaded another arrow, and shot a second flayer in the shoulder. Shay, laughing, drew out her throwing axe and buried it in the gut of another illithid.

Suddenly the mind flayers surged forward, abandoning the protection of the pillars to attack. They closed the distance quickly; one dropped as Shay lowered her spear and impaled it, but the others came on, their almost skeletal claws extended to attack.

Calla started forward, but Talen held her back. “Wait for it,” he whispered.

The illithids staggered as a group as power tore through them. Varo’s mass inflict serious wounds spell was devastating, and while their innate resistances and strong will protected them to some degree, six of the seven remaining illithids suffered grievous wounds that opened all over their wretched bodies.

Still, they came on.

Talen’s sword flashed, taking off the head of the first illithid. The next lunged forward to touch him, but his follow-through smoothly severed its arm at the elbow. It crumpled. Two more leapt over the bodies of the first pair, but Talen met them with a blur of steel. One did manage to touch him, but he resisted its power, and a few seconds later ended it with a blow that sliced off half its skull.

Calla and Shay made short work of the others. None of the illithid attacks had succeeded.

Talen was already walking forward over the bodies, toward the pillars. A wall of flickering energies was starting to coalesce between the pylons, but as Talen reached it he lashed violently down with his sword, and the barrier parted before it could on solid form. The vampire thrust himself through into the space beyond.

The buzzing noise in his head had become a crescendo. He thought he could hear voices in it, now.

Whatever the Overmind had to say was of no importance to the vampire. He strode forward, toward the basin, lifting his sword.

Blue fire flared outward, engulfing him. The Overmind’s power caught him up like a child’s doll, and he was flung back, landing hard at the edge of the circle of pillars.

“This may not be as easy as I thought,” Talen said, as Shay helped him up. His skin was covered with electrical burns where the energy discharge had touched him.

Those burns got worse a moment later as a bolt of lightning streaked out from the far side of the room. Shay dodged out of the path of the bolt, but Talen was struck full on, and was blasted back against the nearest pillar.

“The sorceress!” Shay hissed in warning, as Letellia materialized out of the smoke. Her clothes were torn and blackened, and she moved with a jerky, hesitant motion. But there was no doubt that she had been the source of the attack.

“The big guy’s coming again, too,” Calla said, drawing their attention back behind them. Dar was coming steadily closer, and they could see the vacant, empty stare in his eyes. This was no mere charm; their companions were thralls to the Overmind, their bodies enslaved by the grim entity that occupied the pool in the center of the room. If they needed confirmation of that fact, it came when they saw Allera lying on the ground behind Dar, her face covered in her own blood.

 

[Mahtave]

Damn. Too bad no one thought to cast clarity or mind blank. Guess they are going to need some more spellcasters in their group; of course if things don't change soon the group will a be a lot smaller anyways... Although it looks like Varo is still out there somewhere..