The Doomed Bastards: Reckoning (story complete)

[Lazybones]

Thanks, Nightbreeze!

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Chapter 222

SPAWN OF THE RAVAGER


Talen shot a look back at Letellia, but the sorceress had taken on a vague look, and as he watched her eyes rolled back into her head. She remained standing, but it was clear that otherwise she was no longer present with them.

“Take that thing out!” the knight yelled. Shay fired an arrow at it, but even the holy missile, blessed by the church of the Father, had no effect, glancing harmlessly off the monster’s shoulder.

Just in case they hadn’t gotten its attention, Nelan hit it with a flame strike a moment later.

The ravager lowered its head and charged up the valley slope toward its foes, moving with an impressive speed for its size. Headstones shattered in puffs of pulverized stone as its claws struck them, but none of the obstacles appeared to hinder it in the least.

“Come to daddy, you bastard,” Dar rumbled, moving down to a position that offered a good, stable stance a short distance ahead. Allera tried to calm it, but her spell had no effect upon the creature. If anything, it intensified its rush.

The creature came right for Dar, and it hit him like an avalanche. The fighter roared and swung Valor at it as it lunged, but even as the axiomatic blade bit into its dagger-shaped head it snapped the center of its skull up through his body, knocking him flying. Dar flipped end over end and had started a second revolution when he hit the ground ten feet away, landing hard and awkwardly on the rocky earth. Valor knifed into the soil a pace away, its hilt quivering back and forth.

“Damn... it...” the fighter managed to groan.

Talen was on the beast before it could follow up on its charge, slashing at its side with Beatus Incendia. The holy blade bit into its shoulder, but the creature’s skin was like steel plate in its thickness and durability, and the blow barely cut the flesh. The monster rounded on Talen in a violent fury, snapping its jaws down onto his shoulder, pinning him as its front four claws tore at him in a storm of violence. Only his armor kept him from being torn to pieces, but even so he suffered vicious wounds that took him from full health to the brink of destruction in the space of a few heartbeats. Even worse, the creature seemed to draw sustenance from the damage it wrought, and the few wounds that Talen and Dar had managed to inflict upon it drew closed, leaving its hide whole once more. Talen somehow remained conscious, and even lifted Beatus Incendia to strike again. But held as he was, he could manage only a feeble thrust that again failed to inflict anything more than a trivial wound upon the creature.

Shay let out a terrific shout and abandoned any pretense of stealth as she rushed at its flank, hoping to distract enough to release Talen. Her attack, backed by the momentum of her charge, allowed her to penetrate its skin at the juncture of one of its rear legs. The monster reacted, swinging its head around like a whip, smashing Talen into her like a club, knocking both of them flying.

“Be gone, creature of the darkness!” Nelan cried, as he hurled a dismissal spell at the monster. The spell had no effect, but the creature must have detected some threat in the attack, for it immediately spun around and came charging forward, a thousand pounds of unstoppable death.

Nelan started back before that rush; it was no cowardice to flee before such a monstrosity. But then he glanced back to see Letellia standing a few paces behind him, still distant, utterly vulnerable.

Turning back, the cleric lowered the faceplate of his helmet, and lifted his mace in a hopeless gesture of defiance.

 

[Goonalan]

Excellent as always, waiting for more with baited... death.

Top work.

 

[Drowbane]

thanks for the continued SH, LB!

hahaha...

I love Dar (but he is no Varo ).

 

[Lazybones]

Heh, those ravager spawn are tough bastards. But Dar is just a force.

I'm heading out of town for the weekend, so I'll post the Friday cliffhanger tomorrow morning.

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Chapter 223

BLOOD ON THE GROUND


Nelan stood his ground, but the creature was implacable. It snapped its armored head down like a dagger thrust, not even bothering to open its jaws as it struck his breastplate just below the right shoulder. The impact knocked the cleric onto his back, stunned. The creature’s momentum carried it over him, its rear legs and their scoop-shaped claws clattering over him as it surged ahead.

That left nothing between it and Letellia. The monster opened its jaws wide to seize the helpless sorceress, but before it could strike the fog behind her eyes suddenly vanished, and she looked up in full awareness at the death descending upon her. She held her ground, and as the huge jaws started to snap shut, she spoke a word of magic and vanished. The monster bit down hard on empty air, and snarled in frustration as it looked around for its missing prey.

Dar let out a roar as he barreled forward at the monster from the side. Allera had been at his side within seconds of him hitting the ground. As Talen and Shay went down she aborted her intended spell in favor of a mass cure serious wounds that aided all of them. Dar nodded in thanks as she helped him to his feet, and he barely hesitated as he seized Valor and ran at the monster’s flank.

The ravager had twisted its head around to the other side, intent on finishing Nelan, but it spun back quickly to face Dar’s rush. The creature’s long neck and considerable reach allowed it to get a bite in before Dar could get within striking distance, but Dar just lowered his body and took the hit, tearing free before it could get a solid grip on his armored body. Dar cried out again as he swept Valor down two-handed into its torso, shouting to the cleric still pinned under its body, “Get out of there, Nelan!”

This time Dar’s blade dug deep into its flesh, and a jet of blood that hissed in the cold air spurted from the ugly gash three feet long that he cut into its body. The creature turned on him in a mad fury, the front half of its body rising up to allow it to sweep at him with its four front claws. Its movement allowed Nelan to stagger free, although he limped badly on his left leg, where the monster had trodden upon him in its charge, and his helmet had been torn off in the chaos. The old priest’s brow bore a long gash that trailed blood down the left side of his face, but he was alive, and he had enough clarity to get out of its reach before he called upon his magic to heal his wounds. He still clung to his weapon, but it wasn’t clear what if any use that would be against a foe of this magnitude.

Dar had expected to take a beating, but even he could not have expected the violence of the monster’s full attack. By some miracle he avoided the snap of its jaws this time, but his luck evaporated a second later as it dug a shovel-sized claw into his gut. Those claws had the power to dig through solid rock, and it crumpled the band of armor protecting his lower body, carving a swath of terrible pain through him as it knocked him back a step. He barely kept his footing, extending his arms to the ground to help him hold his weight, but the monster wasn’t done, slamming down another pair of claws into his back. Something cracked in his left shoulder, and suddenly the ground filled his visor, and a loud pounding noise echoed in his ears. A little voice whispered that he had to get up, that the creature was certainly about to kill him, but it faded, along with his consciousness.

Talen and Shay had risen to their feet, the knight tugged back from the brink of death by Allera’s healing magic. As soon as she saw that he was all right, Shay started up the hill after the creature, but they were still a good ten paces off as Dar was struck down, and as the two rushed forward, they saw that they weren’t going to make it to the fighter’s aid in time.

 

[Goonalan]

But somebody will... pleeeeeeeeeease.

Excellent.

Best Story Hour by a mile.

 

[Lazybones]

Thanks, Goonalan!

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Chapter 224

BEATINGS


The ravager’s black eyes blazed with a cold premonition of death as it loomed over Dar and Allera. The healer had fallen to the ground beside the fallen fighter, ignoring the painful scrapes to her legs from the stony ground. Her talent with healing magic was such that she barely needed to focus the thought for the positive energy to flow, but time seemed to slow to a crawl of seconds as the monster’s head split open, and a foul gust of death rushed over her. Even as Dar’s body responded to the potency of Allera’s heal spell, the ravager’s head stabbed down toward them, its huge jaws lined with rows of teeth like black daggers.

There was a streak through the air; Allera perceived it as a slight whistle over the hiss of air from the creature’s jaws. The creature shuddered, its attack aborted and ruined as its head jerked roughly back. One of its claws stabbed the ground a scant foot from her right leg, spattering her and Dar with fragments of shattered rock. Still caught up in the heightened moment as the last of the healing energy from her spell coursed through her, Allera spotted the fletchings of an arrow jutting from the back of the creature’s neck, the missile’s head buried deep into its skull.

Looking up, beyond the creature, Allera saw three slight, nimble forms dart down from the sky, their cloaks flapping wildly about them from the wind of their passage. One broke away from the formation and dove; one of the others selected another arrow from the quiver at his hip, and the second pointed a wand at the ravager. Whatever spell the caster hurled from the wand had no obvious effect, but the arrow had clearly discomfited it, and it spun around, looking for the source of its pain.

The diving figure was a woman, to all appearances unprotected by armor, and armed only with a slender sword that she kept close against her leg as she streaked down toward the back of the monster. It spotted her and bent back upon itself as it lunged into the air, extending its body out to a surprising length as it snapped its jaws upon the woman. But again its teeth closed only on empty air. Moving with an incredible speed and grace, the woman spun into a barrel roll, coming up under its jaw as it snapped at where she’d been an instant before. Her arm shot out and back so fast that the sword was just a blur. There was a cacophonous pulse of sound, and as the woman streaked past and free, the ravager jerked back, its head snapping over as it twisted over, unbalanced, and fell hard to the ground. Dar narrowly avoided being crushed, and staggered away, Allera holding his arm for support, or perhaps supporting him.

The ravager was quick to rise, rolling over again to its feet in a violent thrashing blur that sent a cascade of scattered earth and stones out in every direction. Talen weathered that barrage, small fragments of stone pinging loudly off his metal armor. He struck at the creature’s flank with Beatus Incendia, but once more could manage no more than a slight gash upon its incredibly resistant hide. It was enough to get the creature’s attention, though, and as it rolled back onto its feet, it rapidly twisted to face the knight once more.

Before it could strike, however, a lance of pulsating, violent sonic energy slammed with great force into the creature’s head. Each of the companions felt the backblast of Honoratius’s sonically-substituted chain lightning as a piercing vibration that felt like it was going to shake all of the teeth out of their heads, but that was nothing compared to what the monster felt. Its durable inherent nature absorbed some of the force of the bolt, but even so its crimson visage was marred by lines of dark substance that oozed from the slits of its ears and nostrils.

The monster spun to focus upon the source of its agony, but it saw nothing, only empty space. The monster had incredibly keen senses, but surrounded by a chaos of battle, with the aftermath of the sonic blast still clouding its senses, it could not determine the source of the attack.

Instead, it took its frustrations out on those close at hand.

Dar broke away from Allera and rushed back at the creature. As it turned toward Talen, one of its long claws clipped his leg, an accidental impact that nevertheless send a knife’s wedge of pain up the limb. Grinding his teeth hard enough to draw blood, he narrowly avoided falling down despite the agony each step on that leg shot through him. He targeted the next leg down as it slammed into the ground, and tore into it with enough force to nearly sever the limb from the creature’s body.

The monster had hit seized Talen with another bite, but with Dar’s hit it released the knight and twisted back toward the fighter. It brought back the claw that had injured him earlier and now tried to stomp him into the ground with it. Dar narrowly avoided a punishing blow that potentially could have snapped his injured leg entirely, but even the grazing hit along his hip drove the armor plate deep into his flesh, knocking him roughly back a step. As the creature completed its turn another claw smashed into the ground with enough force to sunder a boulder the size of a horse’s torso. One fragment caught him on the side of the head. Had he not been wearing his helmet, the impact would have shattered his skull; as it was, the crimson form of the creature wavered for a moment before him, and he felt the world start to spin precipitously around him.

But then a cool wave of healing surged into him, and clarity returned to replace the fleeting pain of his wounds.

The monster was continuing to draw strength from the wounds it was unleashing, and its regenerative abilities were further closing its wounds and salving the injuries it had suffered in the brief but violent melee. The leg that Dar had nearly severed could still not fully support its weight, but now it was definitely moving, the severed tendons and muscles rejoined. Blood had stopped trailing from the armored slits in its head.

But the creature was taking abuse faster than even it could heal. In quick succession it was hit by a barrage of weapons and spells. Nelan’s searing light drew a black line across its chest, moments before a barrage of magic missiles from the flying spellcaster above blasted pocks across its back. The archer continued his fire, his skill evident in the way he adjusted for the inherent instability of hovering in mid-air. None of his follow-up shots had had the efficacy of his first, but three more arrows jutted from its head and neck. Unfortunately, with its incredibly tough hide, it was not clear if the shots were having any effect at all.

The monster unleashed its fully fury upon Dar, but this time the fighter stood his ground, and gave as good as he got. Allera’s magical healing had bolstered him to the point where he could stand up to the creature, taking hits that would have killed an average man, even a veteran fighter with less experience than Dar. But his instincts had been honed by three trips into the Dungeon of Graves, and each time he was able to turn a killing blow into another grim but bearable wound. When the monster’s last claw glanced off of his breastplate, and it settled back to the ground, fresh dents covered his armor, and blood trailed down his legs, but he remained standing.

The ravager merely reared again and opened its jaws to start anew.

But now it was Dar’s turn to dish out the pain. He lunged forward, drawing his sword across its chest, the two-handed strike cutting deep into its flesh. The monster drew reflexively back, but Dar knew better than to chase after it. Instead he fell into a slight crouch, his blade held back low against his left leg. He watched as the creature roared in pain and thrashed about, dimly aware that his companions were continuing to harry it from its flanks. But none of them were hurting it as much as he had.

Then, inevitably, it focused on him again. It surged back forward and down in a sudden blitz of speed that would have caught most men off guard. But Dar had been waiting for it, expecting it.

Valor came up with speed to match the creature’s assault. The ravager opened its jaws so wide that Dar could see deep down its gullet, its throat lined with ugly gray spines that seemed to promise an uncomfortable trip for anyone making the journey down it. He did not try to dodge as it snapped its jaws shut around his body, but even as the black dagger-teeth seized him, crushing his armor with the sheer power of its bite, he grasped the hilt of his blade tightly in both hands, and drove the enchanted steel through its left eye, deep into its skull, and into the gray mass of its brain.

The ravager collapsed in a paroxysm of thrashing limbs that sent its nearby foes flying back. Dar, still pinned in its death-grasp, was dashed to the ground repeatedly, and when the creature’s violent struggles finally ceased, he lay there upon the stones, broken, bleeding, and unmoving.

 

[Richard Rawen]

The ravager collapsed in a paroxysm of thrashing limbs that sent its nearby foes flying back. Dar, still pinned in its death-grasp, was dashed to the ground repeatedly, and when the creature’s violent struggles finally ceased, he lay there upon the stones, broken, bleeding, and unmoving.

and Victorious!

 

[Nightbreeze]

Whoa? They really managed to kill it with no loss?
Hmm...damn riders, ruining my fun

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 225

NOT QUITE OVER


Not surprisingly, Allera was there first.

“Dar!” she yelled, cradling his head in her lap as she poured another potent healing spell into the fighter’s broken body. For a moment her heart froze in her chest, then she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as he sucked in a gasp of air, and groaned. He blinked, and after a moment his eyes gained focus as he looked up at her.

“Remind me again why I signed up for this?” he asked.

“Because you’re crazy,” Allera said, but there was clear relief in her voice.

Talen and Shay appeared through the haze of dust kicked up by the creature’s death throes. Above, the three flying individuals descended slowly toward them. They were elves, and as they drew closer, Talen recognized the spellcaster. But before he could hail their unexpected allies, Honoratius appeared nearby, walking briskly toward them.

“I am relieved to see that you all live, commander, but this battle is not quite over,” he said.

“What?” Talen asked, but even as the words left his mouth, he felt a faint tremor beneath his feet, and he understood.

He spun to see the ravager stirring with new life. Its wounds, while still dire, were beginning to knit shut. It was still far from being able to get up again, especially with Valor still protruding from its eye socket, but it was a lot closer to life than it had been a few seconds ago, and it was clear that the gap was closing.

“Gods damn it all,” Dar said, staggering to his feet. Allera tried to stop him, but he reached for the hilt of his sword, only to belatedly realize that his weapon wasn’t there. He reached for his club, but the weapon’s throng had been snapped during his pounding at the hands of the ravager, and was nowhere nearby.

“Nothing’s ever easy,” the fighter said, as he started toward the creature. Talen was already heading toward it, but Honoratius stopped them.

“Your weapons are not capable of putting a final end to it,” he said. He pointed toward Shay, who was hacking at its neck, without much success. Even in death, its hide retained its amazing resistance to wounds.

“How do we kill it, then?” Talen asked. “Quickly... we don’t have much time...” To punctuate his words, the body of the creature shuddered again, and one of its claws twitched. The elves, having recognized what was happening, readied weapons and spells once more, and their wizard fired another spray of magic missiles from his wand that peppered its body with black pocks.

The archmage opened a pouch at her waist, and reached inside it. Talen felt a moment of slight vertigo as her hand vanished into the pouch up to her elbow, but he was used to magic and its ability to violate the laws of the physical world. She recovered what she had been looking for and drew it out, offering the hilt to him.

It was a dagger, a wedge of silvery steel—mithral, it appeared—set in a handle of the same material. There was a bright red gem embedded in the hilt, a ruby, perhaps, but larger than any such gem that Talen had ever before seen.

“Tribune Tiros used this weapon to put a final end to the creature at Highbluff,” Honoratius said. “It inflicts vicious wounds that do not heal.”

Talen reached for it, but Dar shouldered him aside and took the weapon. “I’ll do it,” he said. He walked over to the creature’s head, and saw that Valor now jutted about a foot more from its left eyesocket than where he had left it; apparently the creature’s regenerative abilities were enough to drive the impaling weapon from its skull.

As Dar looked down at it, its other eye blinked open.

The fighter drove the dagger, along with his fist, into the monster’s eye. The eye exploded, dousing him with foul fluids, but he kept pushing, until half his arm had vanished into the socket. He felt something hard against his thrust and probed with the dagger until he felt a softer spot, and then drove the blade home.

This time, the creature did not struggle; it just seemed to deflate, and lay limp and unmoving once more.

“It is done,” Honoratius said.

Dar drew back, grimacing at the filth covering his arm. “Stuff burns,” he said, taking the towel that Allera offered him with a nod of thanks. Dar cleaned off the dagger and returned it to Honoratius, who nodded and replaced it in her magical pouch.

The companions gathered around the head of the slain monster. The elves drifted down to meet them, the archer and the swordswoman flanking the spellcaster. As they landed, the Camarians could see that their flesh bore the subtle but noticeable grainy texturing that was a product of the stoneskin spell.

“Hey, elf,” Dar said. “Welcome back to the show.”

“Malerase,” Talen said, with a nod. The elf wizard seemed unaffected, but the woman to his left bristled at the name. “He is not forgotten, human!” The other man, the archer, added, “You address Lord Elegon Alderis, and he is worthy of your respect.”

Talen lifted a hand to placate them, but Dar spoke up before he could speak. “So. You got a new name, eh? I guess it beats, ‘the mad elf’.”

The younger elves’ expressions darkened, but before the exchange could develop further, Alderis stepped in. “Indeed, Corath Dar. My circumstances have changed somewhat since our last meeting.”

“What are you doing here, Mal—Alderis?” Talen asked. “When we last saw you, you vanished on our escape from Rappan Athuk. We did not know if you were alive or dead.”

Alderis nodded. “I apologize for my hasty departure. I felt it necessary, at the time; there were matters I needed to address before I could return.”

Dar finished wiping off his arm, and he tossed the now-ruined rag away. “Why did you come back, elf? And why now? There has been some heavy going down, in case you weren’t aware.”

Alderis looked at him. He seemed to have aged decades since they had last seen him, and his eyes were sunken in his head, like the entrances to dark caves. When Dar had first met him, the elf had been like a coiled spring, nervous energy waiting to be unleashed. Now, he looked as though a stiff breeze would snap him in twain. But there was something powerful in his eyes, and Dar felt it like a physical touch as they focused on him.

Talen interrupted the moment. “It is a valid question, Alderis. Varo said you were drawn to Rappan Athuk, before.”

Alderis blinked and shifted his attention to the knight. “Yes. Yes, I am drawn here by the same thing that has drawn you here, humans of Camar.”

“So you are intent on going back inside.”

“I can no more turn away than you can, Talen Karedes.”

“That may be. But if we are to accept your aid, then we must be able to trust you.”

“If Lord Alderis gives his word, that is all the bond you need, human,” the archer said.

“If you’d seen him as a raving lunatic, you’d understand our caution,” Dar said.

“Dar... you’re not helping,” Allera whispered. And indeed the younger elves now looked like they were considering using again the weapons that they had wielded so efficiently in the battle with the ravager. But Alderis forestalled them with a subtle gesture of one hand.

“This is Mehlaraine, my daughter, and Selanthas, her consort,” he said by way of introduction.

“You brought your freaking daug—omph!” Dar said, interrupted by Allera stomping on his foot.

Talen introduced each of his party, referencing the archmage simply as “Honoratius,” without elaboration on her unique situation. The two sides simply looked at each other for a long minute, and then Alderis spoke.

“You are right, of course, to question my motives. I have not been entirely forthright with you in the past, although in my defense I hope you will understand the circumstances that constrained me. As Dar so forthrightly noted, my mental state was not... was not ideal, when I was here.” His gaze traveled down toward the depth of the valley before them, and for a moment a twinge of something crossed his face, an old pain that vanished swiftly.

“Our talents are not inconsiderable. I will agree to serve your cause, captain, and aid you and your companions to the best of our ability. We seek the same goal, I believe.”

Talen glanced at Allera, who nodded. He turned back to Alderis. “Very well. I do not doubt that we will have need of your talents.”

“So what’s next, commander?” Dar said.

Talen’s gaze headed past him, down into the valley. “We see where that thing came from.”

 

[wolff96]

So... for someone that doesn't have the module (if the Ravagers are from that source), what is the deal with finally killing them? Is the dagger special, or do they just have some kind of "Can only be finished with xx special material"?

Either way, that was a brutal fight. Dar is *so* my favorite character this time around.