Nightbreeze
First Post
Uhm...but...wasn't he cured by the lycanthropy? (sp?)
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
The Doomed Bastards: Reckoning (story complete)
- Thread starter Lazybones
- Start date
Richard Rawen
First Post
Do I remember correctly, wasn't the nature of the Gem 'Evil' ?
And from the statements the high priest made... the heroes are expected. Or maybe that's the Goblins coming to the rescue!
Excellently written perspectives... enjoying the story lotsolots =-)
And from the statements the high priest made... the heroes are expected. Or maybe that's the Goblins coming to the rescue!
Excellently written perspectives... enjoying the story lotsolots =-)
Lazybones
Adventurer
Let the week'o'beatdown commence... 
Here's a quote from the module:
* * * * *
Chapter 97
IT’S ON
The huge wolverine, its eyes blazing red, let out an angry bellow and started lumbering forward toward the row of acolytes.
A fireball shot past it, exploding into a bright sphere of flame near the edge of the pentagram. Several of the acolytes caught within the blast screamed and fell, their skin reduced to blackened char. A split second later, a perfectly structured grid of cascading blue energy materialized in the center of the room, sizzling as it impacted the protective auras of the pentagram and the Sphere of Souls. Valus’s order’s wrath killed two more acolytes and seriously injured a pair of senior priests. The vrock shrieked as the spell cut brightly glowing lines across its torso, but the blue energy fizzled as it hit the glabrezu, and likewise Gudmund simply shrugged off the worst of the spell.
An arrow went flying at the high priest, bringing with it a silence spell. But this time Varo’s tactic failed to have an effect, as the missile glanced off the powerful cleric’s magical armor, and caromed off past the altar into the back of the room, where it could have no effect upon the battle. Other arrows went flying toward other targets; one pierced a heavily burned priest’s arm, while another bounced off the armored carapace of the glabrezu, doing no damage.
In the wake of the dire wolverine’s charge, a trio of fiendish apes loped forward into the room, looking for foes to tear apart with their claws. Behind them came the companions, led by Dar, with Valor shining with blue light in his hand.
The cult forces had suffered heavy damage in the initial volley of spells; only three acolytes of the initial ten remained standing, mostly due to luck in where they’d been standing in the room. The four senior priests were still on their feet but likewise showed heavy wounds; they stood next to three bound, limp forms laid within the pattern of runes that formed part of the inlaid magical circle in the floor. Beyond that it was difficult to see clearly, due to the shifting field of wild, radiant energies that shone from a bright object atop the room’s central altar. The high priest was a man-sized blur, flanked by a pair of fiends straight from the darkest pits of the Abyss. There was another figure in the room as well, a bulbous humanoid thing several times the size of a man, but it could not be clearly distinguished through the blur effect thrown off by the Sphere.
Gudmund lifted his arms and called to Orcus, evoking a blade barrier that split the room in two, separating most of the cult forces from the invaders.
The three surviving acolytes were left on the far side of the wall of blades with the companions, fodder to delay the attackers. They accepted that role with aplomb, rushing forward to engage Varo’s summoned creatures.
They did not fare well. The huge wolverine merely lifted a claw and crushed one of the cultists beneath it, barely breaking its stride. The apes hopped forward and fell upon the other two with similar relish, tearing them apart with their muscled arms. The acolytes died messily, calling upon their god.
The blade barrier formed a shimmering wall across the room, their enemies just vague shapes behind it. Shay and Malerase continued to fire their bows, but the arrows were deflected by the swirling blades of the magical wall, having no effect.
“Zosimos!” Varo shouted. “Can you bring down the barrier?”
The wizard, sheltered by a bevy of mirror images and a magical shield, shrugged. “Why bother? My attacks are not foiled by such.” To prove his point, he summoned an ice storm that came blasting down on the far side of the blade barrier, the huge hailstones blasting into the priests and their fiendish allies.
“Damn it, we need to engage them before they can buff up! Just do it!” Varo yelled.
The wizard shrugged, and began casting again.
Dar and Talen had rushed forward to join the summoned creatures at the edge of the barrier. The fiendish monsters hesitated, but for a moment, it looked like Dar wasn’t going to stop. Finally, though, he drew up short, his face twisted with frustration.
“We’ve got to get through this!”
“Let the wizard bring it down!” Talen returned. He saw something through the blades, and pointed with his sword. “Something’s coming through!”
Dar saw it too, and drew back into a ready position as the hulking form approached the barrier from the other side. It stepped through Gudmund’s wall, but the magical blades passed through it as though it wasn’t even there. It was a hulking, humanoid monstrosity, a construct of living clay that stood well over eight feet tall.
The dire wolverine slashed at it with a claw as it came forward, but the creature’s sharp talons sliced through its clay body with absolutely no effect upon it. The golem countered with a powerful smash that hit the creature in the shoulder; Dar and Talen could hear its bones cracking from ten paces away.
Dar let out a yell and charged at it, with Talen moving to flank it from the other side. But the golem’s reach was considerable, and it brought a huge fist around that smacked hard into Dar’s shoulder, spinning him half around, driving him to his knees.
As the fighter shook his head to clear it, Varo’s otherplanar creatures surged forward to join the attack. Before they could reach it, however, they shimmered and vanished, dispelled back to whence they came.
Dar looked up in alarm as the clay golem lumbered forward, its huge fists coming up to finish what it had started.
Here's a quote from the module:
Will this prediction be borne out? Stay tuned!
* * * * *
Chapter 97
IT’S ON
The huge wolverine, its eyes blazing red, let out an angry bellow and started lumbering forward toward the row of acolytes.
A fireball shot past it, exploding into a bright sphere of flame near the edge of the pentagram. Several of the acolytes caught within the blast screamed and fell, their skin reduced to blackened char. A split second later, a perfectly structured grid of cascading blue energy materialized in the center of the room, sizzling as it impacted the protective auras of the pentagram and the Sphere of Souls. Valus’s order’s wrath killed two more acolytes and seriously injured a pair of senior priests. The vrock shrieked as the spell cut brightly glowing lines across its torso, but the blue energy fizzled as it hit the glabrezu, and likewise Gudmund simply shrugged off the worst of the spell.
An arrow went flying at the high priest, bringing with it a silence spell. But this time Varo’s tactic failed to have an effect, as the missile glanced off the powerful cleric’s magical armor, and caromed off past the altar into the back of the room, where it could have no effect upon the battle. Other arrows went flying toward other targets; one pierced a heavily burned priest’s arm, while another bounced off the armored carapace of the glabrezu, doing no damage.
In the wake of the dire wolverine’s charge, a trio of fiendish apes loped forward into the room, looking for foes to tear apart with their claws. Behind them came the companions, led by Dar, with Valor shining with blue light in his hand.
The cult forces had suffered heavy damage in the initial volley of spells; only three acolytes of the initial ten remained standing, mostly due to luck in where they’d been standing in the room. The four senior priests were still on their feet but likewise showed heavy wounds; they stood next to three bound, limp forms laid within the pattern of runes that formed part of the inlaid magical circle in the floor. Beyond that it was difficult to see clearly, due to the shifting field of wild, radiant energies that shone from a bright object atop the room’s central altar. The high priest was a man-sized blur, flanked by a pair of fiends straight from the darkest pits of the Abyss. There was another figure in the room as well, a bulbous humanoid thing several times the size of a man, but it could not be clearly distinguished through the blur effect thrown off by the Sphere.
Gudmund lifted his arms and called to Orcus, evoking a blade barrier that split the room in two, separating most of the cult forces from the invaders.
The three surviving acolytes were left on the far side of the wall of blades with the companions, fodder to delay the attackers. They accepted that role with aplomb, rushing forward to engage Varo’s summoned creatures.
They did not fare well. The huge wolverine merely lifted a claw and crushed one of the cultists beneath it, barely breaking its stride. The apes hopped forward and fell upon the other two with similar relish, tearing them apart with their muscled arms. The acolytes died messily, calling upon their god.
The blade barrier formed a shimmering wall across the room, their enemies just vague shapes behind it. Shay and Malerase continued to fire their bows, but the arrows were deflected by the swirling blades of the magical wall, having no effect.
“Zosimos!” Varo shouted. “Can you bring down the barrier?”
The wizard, sheltered by a bevy of mirror images and a magical shield, shrugged. “Why bother? My attacks are not foiled by such.” To prove his point, he summoned an ice storm that came blasting down on the far side of the blade barrier, the huge hailstones blasting into the priests and their fiendish allies.
“Damn it, we need to engage them before they can buff up! Just do it!” Varo yelled.
The wizard shrugged, and began casting again.
Dar and Talen had rushed forward to join the summoned creatures at the edge of the barrier. The fiendish monsters hesitated, but for a moment, it looked like Dar wasn’t going to stop. Finally, though, he drew up short, his face twisted with frustration.
“We’ve got to get through this!”
“Let the wizard bring it down!” Talen returned. He saw something through the blades, and pointed with his sword. “Something’s coming through!”
Dar saw it too, and drew back into a ready position as the hulking form approached the barrier from the other side. It stepped through Gudmund’s wall, but the magical blades passed through it as though it wasn’t even there. It was a hulking, humanoid monstrosity, a construct of living clay that stood well over eight feet tall.
The dire wolverine slashed at it with a claw as it came forward, but the creature’s sharp talons sliced through its clay body with absolutely no effect upon it. The golem countered with a powerful smash that hit the creature in the shoulder; Dar and Talen could hear its bones cracking from ten paces away.
Dar let out a yell and charged at it, with Talen moving to flank it from the other side. But the golem’s reach was considerable, and it brought a huge fist around that smacked hard into Dar’s shoulder, spinning him half around, driving him to his knees.
As the fighter shook his head to clear it, Varo’s otherplanar creatures surged forward to join the attack. Before they could reach it, however, they shimmered and vanished, dispelled back to whence they came.
Dar looked up in alarm as the clay golem lumbered forward, its huge fists coming up to finish what it had started.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 98
COUNTERSTRIKE
Dar roared and leapt up, swinging Valor through the golem’s body. The sword did not thrum with power as it sometimes did when he wielded it against certain foes, but the sheer force of the blow overcame the golem’s resistance to damage, and a considerable gob of its substance went flying as his sword passed through it. It was like trying to cut through a hill of dirt.
He brought his sword around to hit it again on the backswing, but the golem struck before he could launch another attack. Knowing how hard it hit, he tried to dodge aside, only to take a pulverizing hit as its meaty fist slammed into his thigh. His greave kept the bone from breaking, but he still felt as though a hot poker had been stuck into the limb. The golem was following his every move, and if anything, it seemed to be getting faster.
Talen did his best to help the embattled fighter, attacking the golem from behind. His sword passed through its body like the other failed attacks upon it, but he was able to have at least some effect, leaving shallow gouges on its torso where he had hit. Grunting in frustration, the fighter tried to put more strength into his attacks.
Glancing to his left, he saw Shay running up to join them, her sword drawn. “No, Shay! You cannot hurt it!” he warned.
The scout ignored him, rushing forward to engage. The golem seemed to sense her coming, and brought down a heavy fist to smash her, but she leapt and tumbled inside its reach, narrowly avoiding being hit. Her own stroke had no effect, but the creature’s attention had been distracted, letting Dar get in a full attack upon it unimpeded.
The fighter held nothing back. With the monster distracted, his powerful attacks bit deep into its substance. Huge chunks of clay went flying, and he tore through one of its legs, unbalancing it. The golem staggered back a step, trying to recover.
The others had not been idle during the violent exchange between the golem and the party’s fighters. Zosimos clucked in frustration as he failed to dispel the high priest’s magical barrier, but the arcanist immediately began preparing another potent evocation, moving forward to give him a clear shot around the swirling melee.
Valus had spent those seconds filling himself with the divine power of the Shining Father, and calling upon a shield of faith to protect him. That complete, he too began casting one of his more powerful spells.
Varo knew that their enemy was growing stronger on the far side of the barrier, but he knew that there was little that he could do to stop them. He cast a confusion spell through the barrier, not really expecting it to affect the powerful beings on the far side, but unable to come up with a better alternative. He made sure that Malerase remained close by him in the chamber’s entry, the elf alternating between arrows and his magical wand. Neither thus far had managed to have any effect upon their enemies.
There was a hiss and a pop, and the vrock demon materialized on their side of the blade barrier, protected by mirror images. Varo pointed him out, and Malerase fired an arrow that hit it at the joint where its left arm met the shoulder, striking the real form among the images out of sheer luck.
The vrock, displeased if not seriously hurt, ignored them to dive at the wizard. Zosimos saw it coming, and shifted his aim upward, blasting the vrock with his cone of cold. The blast overwhelmed both the demon’s spell resistance and its inherent resistances, and it swooped away. For a moment it looked like it was about to disengage, but then it opened its beak wide and unleashed a piercing shriek that echoed through the chamber. Zosimos staggered back, stunned, and Shay, still battling the clay golem, was likewise rendered temporarily overcome by the piercing blast of sound. Satisfied, the vrock spun back around and dove toward the evoker.
As it spread its wings to land, the demon’s attention was drawn about by Valus. The cleric had grown to a height of twelve feet tall, his stature empowered by the righteous might of his patron god. The vrock turned to him and hissed, confident as the cleric’s charging blow tore harmlessly through one of its mirror images. The vrock leapt up to enage the priest, tearing at him with its claws as it released a cloud of spores that swirled around them both, digging into the cracks of Valus’s armor to burrow painfully into his flesh.
In the center of the room, the clay golem reared back from another heavy blow from Dar. Cracks spread across its body and it began to crumble, showering bits of itself upon the floor and upon its enemies. Talen stood over the stunned Shay, holding his shield over her to protect her as the golem came apart. Dar ran his gauntlet across his lips, which came away bloody; the golem had managed another hit to his body, and he was once again in pretty bad shape.
He looked up as the blade barrier suddenly and without warning came down, the spinning blades just dissolved into nothing. None of the underpriests were left standing; one of them had his hands wrapped around the throat of his neighbor, testament that Varo’s confusion spell earlier had not been a complete waste. But the evil high priest still stood, sheltered in the protective aura of the glowing sphere at the room’s center.
And the glabrezu was there as well. It stepped forward, the ground shaking at its coming.
“Talen,” Dar said, but the captain had seen it too. Helping Shay to her feet, the captain then lifted his sword, turning toward the great and terrible demon.
“Come for this?” the demon hissed, its deep voice booming from its chest. It kicked over one of the slumped figures kneeling on the floor at the edge of the pentagram. The bloody figure was knocked over, revealing the bloody and lifeless form of Allera. “You’re a bit late,” it cackled.
Dar shouted and charged, but he’d barely managed two steps before the glabrezu gesticulated with one of the small hands that jutted from its chest. As the demon unleashed its power, Dar, Talen, and Shay went flying upward, slamming hard into the ceiling twenty feet above.
COUNTERSTRIKE
Dar roared and leapt up, swinging Valor through the golem’s body. The sword did not thrum with power as it sometimes did when he wielded it against certain foes, but the sheer force of the blow overcame the golem’s resistance to damage, and a considerable gob of its substance went flying as his sword passed through it. It was like trying to cut through a hill of dirt.
He brought his sword around to hit it again on the backswing, but the golem struck before he could launch another attack. Knowing how hard it hit, he tried to dodge aside, only to take a pulverizing hit as its meaty fist slammed into his thigh. His greave kept the bone from breaking, but he still felt as though a hot poker had been stuck into the limb. The golem was following his every move, and if anything, it seemed to be getting faster.
Talen did his best to help the embattled fighter, attacking the golem from behind. His sword passed through its body like the other failed attacks upon it, but he was able to have at least some effect, leaving shallow gouges on its torso where he had hit. Grunting in frustration, the fighter tried to put more strength into his attacks.
Glancing to his left, he saw Shay running up to join them, her sword drawn. “No, Shay! You cannot hurt it!” he warned.
The scout ignored him, rushing forward to engage. The golem seemed to sense her coming, and brought down a heavy fist to smash her, but she leapt and tumbled inside its reach, narrowly avoiding being hit. Her own stroke had no effect, but the creature’s attention had been distracted, letting Dar get in a full attack upon it unimpeded.
The fighter held nothing back. With the monster distracted, his powerful attacks bit deep into its substance. Huge chunks of clay went flying, and he tore through one of its legs, unbalancing it. The golem staggered back a step, trying to recover.
The others had not been idle during the violent exchange between the golem and the party’s fighters. Zosimos clucked in frustration as he failed to dispel the high priest’s magical barrier, but the arcanist immediately began preparing another potent evocation, moving forward to give him a clear shot around the swirling melee.
Valus had spent those seconds filling himself with the divine power of the Shining Father, and calling upon a shield of faith to protect him. That complete, he too began casting one of his more powerful spells.
Varo knew that their enemy was growing stronger on the far side of the barrier, but he knew that there was little that he could do to stop them. He cast a confusion spell through the barrier, not really expecting it to affect the powerful beings on the far side, but unable to come up with a better alternative. He made sure that Malerase remained close by him in the chamber’s entry, the elf alternating between arrows and his magical wand. Neither thus far had managed to have any effect upon their enemies.
There was a hiss and a pop, and the vrock demon materialized on their side of the blade barrier, protected by mirror images. Varo pointed him out, and Malerase fired an arrow that hit it at the joint where its left arm met the shoulder, striking the real form among the images out of sheer luck.
The vrock, displeased if not seriously hurt, ignored them to dive at the wizard. Zosimos saw it coming, and shifted his aim upward, blasting the vrock with his cone of cold. The blast overwhelmed both the demon’s spell resistance and its inherent resistances, and it swooped away. For a moment it looked like it was about to disengage, but then it opened its beak wide and unleashed a piercing shriek that echoed through the chamber. Zosimos staggered back, stunned, and Shay, still battling the clay golem, was likewise rendered temporarily overcome by the piercing blast of sound. Satisfied, the vrock spun back around and dove toward the evoker.
As it spread its wings to land, the demon’s attention was drawn about by Valus. The cleric had grown to a height of twelve feet tall, his stature empowered by the righteous might of his patron god. The vrock turned to him and hissed, confident as the cleric’s charging blow tore harmlessly through one of its mirror images. The vrock leapt up to enage the priest, tearing at him with its claws as it released a cloud of spores that swirled around them both, digging into the cracks of Valus’s armor to burrow painfully into his flesh.
In the center of the room, the clay golem reared back from another heavy blow from Dar. Cracks spread across its body and it began to crumble, showering bits of itself upon the floor and upon its enemies. Talen stood over the stunned Shay, holding his shield over her to protect her as the golem came apart. Dar ran his gauntlet across his lips, which came away bloody; the golem had managed another hit to his body, and he was once again in pretty bad shape.
He looked up as the blade barrier suddenly and without warning came down, the spinning blades just dissolved into nothing. None of the underpriests were left standing; one of them had his hands wrapped around the throat of his neighbor, testament that Varo’s confusion spell earlier had not been a complete waste. But the evil high priest still stood, sheltered in the protective aura of the glowing sphere at the room’s center.
And the glabrezu was there as well. It stepped forward, the ground shaking at its coming.
“Talen,” Dar said, but the captain had seen it too. Helping Shay to her feet, the captain then lifted his sword, turning toward the great and terrible demon.
“Come for this?” the demon hissed, its deep voice booming from its chest. It kicked over one of the slumped figures kneeling on the floor at the edge of the pentagram. The bloody figure was knocked over, revealing the bloody and lifeless form of Allera. “You’re a bit late,” it cackled.
Dar shouted and charged, but he’d barely managed two steps before the glabrezu gesticulated with one of the small hands that jutted from its chest. As the demon unleashed its power, Dar, Talen, and Shay went flying upward, slamming hard into the ceiling twenty feet above.
Richard Rawen
First Post
Wow, I waited to post for awhile... and I'm the first to say: I was wrong. They may have thought themselves prepared, but a real arcanist can undo a Lot of prep with a few syllables!
Of course the blade barrier and golem are troublesome... yet I doubt that more than one or two of the DB will fall heh heh
Edit, wrong again? Sheesh, no wonder the rest of you lot are quiet, LB's fiendish rep for twists and turns stayed your keyboards! Ok, silence is golden, it's obvious that the only way to predict the outcome is with LB's notes
Of course the blade barrier and golem are troublesome... yet I doubt that more than one or two of the DB will fall heh heh
Edit, wrong again? Sheesh, no wonder the rest of you lot are quiet, LB's fiendish rep for twists and turns stayed your keyboards! Ok, silence is golden, it's obvious that the only way to predict the outcome is with LB's notes
Last edited:
Lazybones
Adventurer
That's a safe bet.Dungannon said:Not so. I feel quite confident in predicting that mayhem, death and destruction will continue to occur.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
* * * * *
Chapter 99
UNTRAMMELED VIOLENCE
Valus and the vrock demon exchanged a titanic series of blows. Thus far, the cleric was getting the worst of it, as the demon’s mirror images continued to confound him. Thus far, he’d vaporized two of the shifting images, but in turn he’d taken a pair of vicious claw hits that had torn into his arms through his armor, and the creature’s spores continued to burrow deeper into his flesh.
Zosimos provided him with assistance as he recovered from the vrock’s stunning shriek. Drawing out a wand, he fired a barrage of magic missiles into the creature. Four of them hit false images, causing them to dissolve, but the last hit the creature in the back. The missile failed to overcome the creature’s damage resistance, but it gave Valus a clear target.
The cleric took full advantage, driving his mace into the demon’s chest. Not only was his strength augmented by divine intervention to that of a hill giant, but the priest had aligned his weapon, allowing it to smash through the demon’s fiendish resistances. The vrock was driven back by a pair of truly titanic blows, and all of a sudden it was in real trouble.
The demon clearly realized this as well, for it flapped its wings madly and teleported away.
All that was left of the defenders was the glabrezu and the evil high priest, but they had more than enough firepower to deal with the intruders, a fact that was clearly demonstrated as they unleashed a pair of unholy blights, one targeted on the three pinned by the glabrezu’s reverse gravity, and the other focused on Zosimos and Valus.
“Stay here,” Varo said to Malerase, before he cloaked himself in invisibility.
The elf clutched his bow, uncertain.
Zosimos and Valus returned the high priest’s assault with their own magical attacks. The evoker launched a pair of scorching rays into the enemy high priest, while the cleric of the Father followed with a beam of searing light. Valus’s spell faltered against the priest’s spell resistance, but Zosimos’s beams washed over his armored body, searing his flesh. Gudmund had healed himself of the damage from Zosimos’s earlier spells, so he withstood the rays of fire well enough, but as fixed his dark gaze upon the wizard, an angry rage burned in his eyes.
A red glow erupted around the edges of the skull mask worn by the evil priest. The skull flew from his head, animating in a sick parody of life, its jaws opening wide in a soundless scream. The wizard tried to retreat, to summon some spell to save him, but he could not outpace the streaking skull. It struck him in the face, the white bone expanding around the wizard’s head until all of it was engulfed within the skull. Red fire exploded out from the openings of the skull, and Zosimos’s screams were abruptly cut off.
Valus bent to aid the wizard as he toppled over, but there was nothing that could be done; the man was dead. The cleric reached for the unholy mask, but before he could lay hands upon it the unholy device released its grip, falling to the side, once again an inert piece of bone. All that was left of Zosimos’s face was a blackened mess, and as Valus watched in horror, a pale gray wisp alive with sparkling motes of light rose from the fallen mage’s body. The priest recognized it at once, but there was nothing he could do to stop it as the soul was drawn into the center of the room, where it was absorbed by the slowly spinning crystal sphere that rested atop the altar. All he could do was stare after it, his expression twisted into a snarl of revulsion.
The roar of the glabrezu stirred the holy priest from his reverie. Looking over, he saw that the glabrezu was getting the better of its foes; Dar was down, and by the look of things, Shay and Talen would soon join him. The priest felt a rare moment of indecision; the crystal sphere was clearly a focus for evil that must be destroyed, but on the other hand, the demon, left unchecked, might end up destroying all of them.
Valus stood; the Father was with him. Opening his mind to the glorious righteousness of his god, he charged once more into the fray. As he ran, a brilliant blue glow began to gather around him.
Once they’d recovered from the sudden reversal of gravity, and the accompanying impact on the ceiling, Dar, Talen, and Shay had quickly moved to rejoin the battle. The three rushed forward, passing through the glabrezu’s blight, falling as soon as they left the area of effect of the glabrezu’s reverse gravity field. Shay tumbled into a roll and came up on her feet, and Talen, though he landed harder, was quick to get up as well. But Dar, already battered heavily by the clay golem and by his first twenty foot fall up, felt something in his ankle snap as he hit the ground, and he fell forward, his sword clattering out of his hand.
The fighter tried to get up, but pain exploded up his leg into his body, and his vision began to swim. He reached for his sword, but it was out of his reach. Looking past it, he saw the ruined corpse of Allera, covered in her own blood, her skin blackened by Zosimos’s fireball, but not enough to hide the unholy symbols that had been burned into her flesh. The sight should have driven him into a rage once more, but all that he felt was pain, and a sick emptiness inside of him. Those feelings followed him into the black as he lost consciousness.
Talen felt completely overwhelmed as he looked up at the fifteen-foot tall demon. How could he, a mere man, battle such a monster? Then he heard its voice within his mind, and he felt a cold chill run down his spine.
That is right, little mortal, you are right to fear me. For I am ageless, a horror from your nightmares... and I shall take everything from you that you hold dear.
The demon’s words, far from reinforcing his terror, caused something to break inside of him, releasing a groundswell of righteous fury. Talen rushed forward, hacking at the shifting images of the demon. Malerase’s ineffective barrage of arrows had at least thinned down the number of its illusory doubles, but there were still three of the demons overlapping each other, concealing the creature’s true location. The odds did not favor the captain, and his sword passed harmlessly through an image, disrupting it. A shimmering pair of doubled arms came around, but the force of the pincer that cracked into his side was anything but illusory. He staggered back, and looked up to see the creature looming over him, its smaller arms reaching down to seize him. He tried to lift his sword to defend himself, but he felt as though his muscles had turned to water, and he could not.
“Leave him alone!” Shay cried, leaping forward. She ran by the demon, striking with her sword as she passed. The keen elvish blade sang as it bit into the armored joint covering the demon’s knee, penetrating its rough hide and tearing the muscles beneath. The demon roared and swept its other pincer around to crush the scout as she continued her rush.
“Shay, look out!” Talen cried. He tried to rush to her aid, but he barely made one step before his strength disappeared, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor.
For a moment it looked like she was going to be crushed as the pincer came crashing down upon her back, but at the last instant the scout leapt into air, somersaulting forward as her magical boots boosted her ten feet straight up. The glabrezu’s claw swept under her, clipping the nearby chamber wall with enough force to gouge the stone.
“Fight me, wretch of the Abyss!” Valus roared, as he charged hard into the demon. The demon lifted a pincer-claw and slammed it down into the priest as he charged. Valus brought up his shield to deflect the blow, but the sheer force of the demon’s strike drove the magical steel down against his body. Valus grimaced as his shoulder was dislocated from its socket, but he kept coming. The demon’s smaller claws reached out for him as he entered their reach, but the cleric, instead of striking with his mace, reached out and laid his gauntleted palm against the center of the glabrezu’s chest.
The demon’s roar shook the chamber walls as the blue glow surrounding the priest poured through the contact between them into its body. The dispel chaos spell enveloped it, sundering the powerful connection that kept it here on the Prime Material. The fell auras of this place provided layered protections against the power of Good, and bolstered Evil. But the power unleashed by Valus focused on another aspect of the demon’s existence, its inherent Chaos, and here it found a weakness.
There was a slight sucking sound as the demon was cast violently back into the Abyss.
Valus, grimacing with the pain of his damaged arm, staggered back from the empty space where the glabrezu had vanished. The divine power he’d invoked at the start of the battle was starting to fade; within moments, the righteous might would expire as well. Talen and Dar were down, but the scout had returned, and was already administering a healing potion to the injured captain. The battle was not over, but he felt more than a bit unsteady as the holy power sustaining him drained swiftly away. He started to call upon the power of the Father to heal himself, but before he could complete the spell, he sensed a dark presence behind him.
He spun to see the enemy high priest looking up at him. “Your soul will make a fine gift to the True God,” the evil cleric hissed.
“Yours will join him in the Abyss!” Valus shouted, as he lifted his mace to strike. But the enemy cleric was faster, reaching in and seizing the enlarged cleric Valus by his left knee.
Dark power flowed between the two men. Valus’s eyes widened in terror as Gudmund’s death touch entered his body. Weakened as he was by the damage that the two demons had inflicted upon him, there was nothing he could do to resist. “No...” he breathed.
“Yes,” the evil cleric said. He released Valus, who collapsed to the ground, dead, an expression of pure horror frozen on his face.
Valus’s soul emerged from his ravaged body, a gray veil that was alive with bright motes of vibrant light. But it too shared the fate of Zosimos, and the goblin prisoners, and the priests of Orcus that had lost their lives in the battle. The hazy whisper of fog and energy faded as it floated reluctantly into the center of the room, disappearing into the brightening aura of the Sphere of Souls.
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