The Doomed Bastards: Reckoning (story complete)

[Lazybones]

You Sneak! I thought you were vacationing!?

The vacation begins Saturday; I'll be back on the 14th. I am going to make an effort to not even look at the Internet until I get back.

There are three more posts in book 4, after this one. I may post all 3 tomorrow, haven't decided.

Things get pretty crazy in Book 5.

* * * * *

Chapter 268

HELL HATH NO FURY


Hesperix reveled in the power of the True God.

The cleric had recovered from his defeat in the Talon, and was now just moments from complete victory over these enemies of his Master. Isolated here in the Talon, lost in reverie after his undoing at the hands of Theron, he had not been aware of most of the dramatic events of recent weeks. He knew little specifically about these powerful intruders, save the little that Navev had revealed about them. But he did know that Zehn, Gudmund, and Theron had been brought low, and he knew viscerally that the world as he knew it was on a cusp, one where the power of those closest to the Master had the potential to become almost like gods themselves.

His gambit had paid off. By luring the intruders into the private sanctum of the Seer, he had forced the mage’s hand. The Seer, while corrupt to his core, and as suffused with evil as Hesperix, was unpredictable in his allegiances and bore no love for the nominal commander of the Talon. But the mage—reluctantly, perhaps—had used his golems and his magical powers to divide and disrupt the invaders, giving Hesperix a chance to destroy them one by one.

His undead thrall staggered to his feet, the vampire’s fast healing allowing him to recover from the grievous wound. Hesperix himself was in excellent shape, thanks to a heal spell he’d cast on fleeing from the temple. Dacris had taken out the fighter that had nearly defeated the vampire, and while the man lying at his feet would almost certainly die without further assistance, the cleric raised his weapon to make certain.

But before he could strike, the woman scout shot into him, screaming with a wild fury as she struck him hard, driving both back several steps toward the rear of the chamber. She slashed a blazing sword at him like a cleaver, hacking at him with neither finesse nor inhibition. Hesperix cut reflexively with Dacris, and the head of the weapon, formed of dark energy, infused with unholy power, passed through her armor and clothing and bit deep into her left shoulder. The wound was a critical one, and the woman’s arm fell limp, the connections between it and her body mangled by the stroke.

But his foe was consumed with fury, and she seemed barely to notice the terrible wound as she slashed up at his head with the sword. Hesperix staggered back, trying to bring up the haft of the scythe to block. The blow glanced off of his left bracer and caromed off of the skullcap that protected his head. The light helm saved his life, but the edge of the sword, razor-sharp, cracked the metal and scored his flesh, searing it with the purging fire of the Shining Father. For the priest of Orcus, it was like being branded with a spar that pierced his flesh and laid light directly upon the festering corruption of his soul.

Hesperix countered with the powers granted him by his patron. He hurled his most powerful remaining spell at the woman, but the slay living spell rolled harmlessly off a ward protecting her life force. He thrust at her with Dacris, giving ground as he retreated toward the alcove in the rear of the chamber, but she continued to harry him at every step, the holy sword forming a blinding arc of deadly steel around her. One of those strokes bit into the cleric’s side, piercing his chainmail armor and burning flesh, muscle, and liver.

“Talen! Seer! Aid me!” the cleric cried.

But the odds of the battle, just moments ago decidedly favoring the defenders of the Talon, had shifted once again.

Even as Shay leapt to challenge Hesperix, Allera rushed toward Dar. Heedless of the golems lumbering at her back, she drew upon her healing magic for a mass cure serious wounds spell.

She was not surprised when she again felt the burning needle of the unseen wizard’s counterspell. But this time she was ready for it, and met it with a surge of her own considerable will. The enemy’s riposte was turned against that shield, and the spell’s life-giving energy poured into her body. She barely felt the blow against her right arm, although the golem’s stone mace hit her with enough force to break the bone. Her attention was focused entirely on Dar. When the unconscious fighter stirred, groaning, it felt like a great weight had been lifted from her.

But then her gaze traveled up from the prone warrior, to the slight distortion that wavered in the air just beyond him.

“It will not avail you, healer,” came a dark voice from that empty space. Then, the soft sounds of spellcasting.

Everything happened at once. To her left, she was aware of Talen falling to the ground, his flesh melting away from his bones as blue fire scourged him. He collapsed, and what was left of him dissolved into a fine silver mist that rose up toward the shadowed ceiling of the vault.

Behind her, the golems. The second creature moved around the first, lifting its mace to crush her skull.

To her right, there was a shimmer and a distortion. Letellia, Mehlaraine, Selanthas, and Nelan suddenly materialized. The sorceress, only barely lucid, was held upright in the firm grip of the aged cleric. As her dimension door spell concluded, she slipped out of consciousness again, and the cleric drew her back, away from the chaos of the battle.

The elves leapt into action at once. Selanthas had an arrow drawn and ready, and he targeted the golem that had was taking a swing at Allera’s head. The elf’s powerful shot smashed through the golem’s wrist, shattering it and sending both its hand and the stone mace flying. The loss did not trouble the construct the way it would a mortal creature, and it merely turned toward the elf, lifting its other hand to attack.

Mehlaraine surged forward toward the invisible wizard, letting her keen senses guide her. The Seer aborted whatever spell he’d been preparing to cast, and instead summoned a dimension door that whisked him out of the room a scant instant before the elf’s slender sword slashed through the air where he’d been standing.

Hesperix was coming to realize that he was alone; none of his allies were coming to his aid. Blood already flecked his lips; he was bleeding internally. The priest had a handful of higher-order spells left in his reservoir, but nothing more potent than the fourth valence, and this foe was immune to both his death touch and any spontaneous inflicts that he might have summoned. He had tried to dispel her protections, but whoever had placed the wards was stronger than he, and he had only earned another vicious hit that had crunched hard against his side, shivering a rib. Against the tally of his current wounds, the new pain was barely noticeable.

“So be it,” the cleric hissed. He lifted Dacris and prepared to launch a full attack at the enemy scout. She was hurt, too, and despite the rage that fueled her, there was only so much that mortal flesh could withstand.

But the woman was no longer there. After delivering her last stroke, even as the cleric lifted his weapon, she suddenly sprang back, landing ten feet back at the edge of the alcove. Hesperix was left alone in the darkened niche, with only hard stone at his back.

“Damn you all to—”

The priest’s shriek was cut off as a long arrow slammed into his chest, piercing his armor and penetrating deep into his left lung. Hesperix looked down at the feathered shaft jutting from his body, then up to meet the stare of the woman, who stood there staring at him, the light from her holy sword highlighting the angles of her face, and the dark orbs of her eyes.

For all his evil, Hesperix shuddered at what he saw in those eyes.

Selanthas fired another arrow, a second shot aimed straight at the dying cleric’s heart. But an instant before it would have struck, there was a shimmering in the air, and Hesperix vanished. The arrow shattered on the stone wall behind him.

Shay turned around slowly. The battle was over; Nelan and Mehlaraine had finished off the golem statues, and Allera was helping Dar to his feet, pouring healing into him as she did so. Letellia had recovered, and as Shay watched the sorceress opened another dimension door, transporting herself into the forcecage to recover the waiting Alderis.

But Shay only noted those happenings with some distant, detached part of her mind. Her attention was focused on the dark smear on the floor, with a bloody shortsword lying next to it, where Talen had fallen.

 

[Mahtave]

Wow.

Nuff said.

 

[Richard Rawen]

Things get pretty crazy in Book 5.
* * * * *

Hesperix looked down at the feathered shaft jutting from his body, then up to meet the stare of the woman, who stood there staring at him, the light from her holy sword highlighting the angles of her face, and the dark orbs of her eyes.

For all his evil, Hesperix shuddered at what he saw in those eyes.

Selanthas fired another arrow, a second shot aimed straight at the dying cleric’s heart. But an instant before it would have struck, there was a shimmering in the air, and Hesperix vanished. The arrow shattered on the stone wall behind him.

A few comments:
"get pretty crazy in Book 5." oh crap. ohhhh Crap.

Nice follow up with Shay. With any luck (and some divine intervention) Talen will return stronger, faster, better than before...
But then again, Hesperix is guaranteed a return as well ... along with Navev and the Seer and ...

 

[Lazybones]

Thanks for the posts, guys!

* * * * *

Chapter 269

THE SEARCH


They encountered the cleric again not long after.

The priest of Orcus lay on the altar in the Talon, his armored body surrounded by the sharp edges and spiny protrusions of the stone slab. He was dead, his eyes open and staring into nothing. His scythe lay across him, its handle still clutched loosely in a lifeless hand. Dar took the weapon, but after a moment frowned, and placed it back against the altar.

“What’s the matter?” Allera asked.

“It... I don’t know, it felt like I had stepped into a pool of filth, when I touched it.”

The weapon was clearly powerful; Alderis identified its smoky blade as having sort of brilliant energy property, capable of penetrating any sort of physical armor, but deadly against flesh.

That much, Dar and Shay already knew.

“The scythe is too valuable to leave to our enemies,” Alderis said.

Before anyone else could comment, Shay stepped forward, and brought Beatus Incendia down in a two-handed stroke that smashed hard into the haft of the weapon a foot below the blade. There was a flash of black energy and a sound like a dying animal as the holy sword crushed the scythe against the jagged spines of the altar. Then the weapon clattered to the floor, now just two harmless pieces of wood, the insubstantial blade gone.

Dar looked at Shay in surprise, but the scout was already heading toward one of the doors situated around the perimeter of the temple. The others followed.

Their search was quick but cautious. Dar reminded them that Navev had gotten away, again, and while he personally did not expect the undead warlock to have hung around after their victory over the cleric and wizard, none of them were going to take any chances. As they set out, Allera and Nelan continued to tend to their wounds. They had plenty of healing magic left to them, and soon they were all at full strength, at least in physical terms.

They first explored a complex of rooms that clearly had served as quarters for the late high priest. The chambers were dirty and cluttered, although there were signs of recent attempts at cleaning. The outer chamber, a small sitting room, had a locked stone door that was literally layered with traps, both mundane and magical. Shay found the traps but could not disarm them, so after Alderis had neutralized the ward with a dispel Dar used his club to batter the door open. In the process he found another trap that Shay had missed, as a gout of toxic gas poured out from the top of the threshold onto him. But Dar retreated in time to avoid breathing much of the othur fumes, and after a quick examination Allera pronounced him healthy. Once the cloud had dispersed Dar resumed work on the door, and a few seconds later they were through.

The inner chamber was the high priest’s bedroom. This room was more richly furnished than the antechamber, but it too showed signs of neglect. A strong smell hung in the air, and stains covered the linens on the fancy poster bed in the center of the place. The companions spread out and searched the room, examining the bookshelves, wardrobe, and tapestries along the walls. Behind one of those tapestries, Mehlaraine found something unusual; a ten-foot square area of wall that was perfectly smooth, a sheet of utter black that absorbed the light of their torches without reflection.

Shay had retreated to the doorway, clearly impatient, but on the elf’s discovery she came forward again. Mehlaraine touched the black wall, cautiously, but drew back her hand suddenly as she received a small electrical jolt from it. “It’s solid,” she said.

“Are there any indications of how one gets past?” Shay asked.

“Well, there’s always force,” Dar said, hefting his club.

“Do not bother,” Alderis said. He had come over to examine the wall, and he ran his fingers along it, just shy of actually touching the surface. “This is a wall of force of some sort, bolstered by a potent abjurative aura. I suspect that you could pound on it for days without making the slightest impact.”

Shay stared at the wall. If will enough had been strong enough to sunder its magic, her gaze would have broken it.

“Do you think that Talen came this way?” Nelan asked. Shay shrugged her shoulders, but did not respond.

“Well, let’s finish our sweep,” Dar said. “We can always come back here later.”

They continued their systematic exploration of the complex. Another door opened onto a corridor lit by a diffuse, ruddy light. Forty feet down the passage terminated in another door. The walls of the corridor were marked with runes carved into the stone, and the far threshold was further deeply etched with additional inscriptions.

“There’s something... not right... here,” Nelan said, shivering slightly. They could all feel it; while the temperature hadn’t fallen, there was a cold chill that seemed to run up and down their spines as they approached the far door.”

“What are those runes?” Allera asked Alderis.

“They are a warding... and a warning,” the elf said.

“Perhaps we should go another way,” Mehlaraine suggested.

But Shay, driven by something deeper than conscious knowledge, pressed on to the far door. She opened it, revealing a tunnel that was entirely suffused with a thick, cloying red mist. The coils of fog crept outward toward the scout, wrapping around her arms and legs as they pushed into the passage.

Shay turned, and they could see tendrils of red that had condensed on her skin, looking like smears of blood.

“Shay, close the door,” Dar said.

The scout hesitated. There was... something in the mists, a life that beat within like the pulsing of some ephemeral heart. She could see nothing beyond a few feet, but she got the distinct impression that these tunnels continued for a vast, unknowable distance beyond this door.

“Shay!”

The scout flinched as if struck. Dar strode forward, and slammed the door shut. Shay looked up at him, her cheeks stained with red where the fog had touched her. Allera was just behind him, a look of worry on her face.

“We’re wasting time,” the fighter said. “Come on, let’s get moving.” This time it was Dar who took the lead, taking them back down the passage to the temple. Allera remained behind, with Shay.

“Are you all right?” the healer asked.

The scout reached up and wiped her face with her hand. For a moment, she stared down at the bloody smears.

“Shay?”

Without responding, the scout strode suddenly down the passage, leaving Allera to hurry to keep up.

Their exploration of the Talon continued. Trying another of the doors leading off the temple, they found an unfinished part of the complex. In one room they found a number of skeletons and zombies, carrying picks and mauls, standing silently along one wall. The undead did not respond to their presence, and Nelan destroyed them all with a surge of holy power.

Heading to the far side of the temple, they found another door that accessed a complex of private chambers. These too had obviously served as quarters for priests of Orcus. It seemed that at one time the Talon had supported a considerable garrison; there were enough beds here to quarter almost two dozen persons with ease. The decorations were grim, including frescoes of undead armies sacking villages and putting holy warriors to the sword, and priests fornicating with the dead, or foul demons. The furnishings looked mundane at first glance, but when one looked closer the screaming faces carved into the wood could be seen, or the unholy sigils woven into the fabrics of colorful tapestries and bedcovers. The area seemed to have been hastily looted, and they found nothing truly valuable in any of the four rooms they searched.

They had almost completed a full circuit of the temple, but there were two more doors that they had not yet investigated. One was a mirror of the one on the far side, leading to another warded tunnel and another entrance to the blood-fog complex. Leaving that one for now, they opened the last door to find a torture chamber.

The equipment here needed no explanation, and had obviously been kept in good order. Old bloodstains on the various apparatus suggested that the devices had seen frequent use. Four torches, their flickering red flames clearly magical, provided a bleak illumination over the chamber. There was an arched exit on the wall to their right, and on the far wall they could see four small barred windows.

Selanthas moved to examine the nearest of those openings. “There are cells beyond,” the elf reported. “Likely they put these openings in so that the captives could witness the events taking place in here.”

“By the Father,” Nelan said. The cleric had clutched his holy symbol tightly since they’d started their search, and he looked pale as he tried to assimilate all that he’d seen in this dread place. For all the time he’d spent in the temples of Orcus, there was a calm, almost neutral efficiency in the organization of the Talon that sent chills down his spine.

After absorbing what was—or more precisely, what was not—here, Shay had crossed to the room’s sole exit, and disappeared. Distracted by the chamber’s grim contents, the others hadn’t noticed her absence immediately. Dar was heading after her when the scout’s cry echoed to them through the archway.

“Damn it!” Dar cursed, rushing forward.

They found the scout in another chamber a short distance away. She was on her knees on the edge of a pile of black earth, in the center of which a long wooden box rested.

No, not a box, Dar saw, as he entered the room. A coffin.

The coffin was a crude thing crafted of rough wooden slabs and thick nails. The dirt under it had been dumped in a heap; a few of the canvas sacks it had been brought in lay nearby, forgotten. The scout had pried open one of the boards on top of the coffin, which lay discarded by her side. Her body shook silently, rocking back and forth.

Dar came forward, the others right behind him. He knew what he was going to see, but it didn’t make it any easier.

Talen might have been asleep, lying inside the coffin, his features placid. He was still clad in the banded armor he’d worn in their last encounter, rather the worse for wear for their clashes in the Talon. He appeared to be intact, the damage to his head wrought by Valor restored by the unholy power that animated him in undeath.

“Oh, gods, no,” Allera said, as she came around Dar and saw him. Like Dar, she’d known what she’d see, but it was still a stark blow to witness it in person. The healer knelt beside Shay, trying to offer comfort, but the scout seemed oblivious to their presence.

For a moment, they just stood there, looking down at the vampire who had been their leader.

And then Talen’s eyes opened. Allera screamed as the vampire rose up, arms extended toward Shay, jaws open wide to reveal pointed fangs.

 

[Richard Rawen]

For a moment, they just stood there, looking down at the vampire who had been their leader.

And then Talen’s eyes opened. Allera screamed as the vampire rose up, arms extended toward Shay, jaws open wide to reveal pointed fangs.

bastard

*shakes head* Well, at least they won't have to deal with them (bad guys) all at once this way

 

[Lazybones]

Here you go, readers, the last two posts of Book 4. See you in a week. Keep me from falling to page 2!

LB

* * * * *


Chapter 270

THE FATE OF THE FALLEN


Lightning flashed from Letellia’s fingertips, blasting into the vampire’s chest. Talen was flung back into his coffin with enough force to shatter the wood. Black smoke rose from his flesh around the corners of his breastplate. He struggled to rise, but could not.

Dar stepped forward, Valor gleaming blue in his hand.

Shay surged to her feet. “No!” she yelled, reaching for Dar’s arm. The fighter grasped her with his other hand, and pushed her roughly aside.

“Kill... me...” the dead knight said. He was still weak, his limbs hanging limp from his body, splayed out among the wreckage of dirt and wood fragments.

Letellia still had her hand outstretched, but she looked at Dar, and seeing the look on his face, drew back.

Shay slumped to the ground, sobbing.

Dar lifted his weapon.

“Hold,” Nelan said, pushing forward.

“This must be done,” Dar said, without turning.

“Perhaps something can be done,” the cleric said. “If not here, then maybe back in Camar... in the holy sanctum...”

Dar hesitated. “The mission...”

“Is over, general. We have destroyed the three temples, as we set out to do. What more can we do against the Demon, with but this handful?”

Dar looked down at Allera. “If there’s a chance at all, then we must take it,” she said.

“The vampire will not come peacefully,” Letellia said. “You make a mistake if you still see Talen Karedes in it.”

“Your weapons and spells cannot kill it,” Nelan said. “But a shaft of wood through the heart... that will render it ‘dead’, so long as it is kept in place.”

Dar nodded. Allera looked at him in surprise as he handed Valor to her; it had been the first time in her memory that he had willingly relinquished the weapon to another. The weapon tingled slightly in her hand as she held it in both fists, point-down.

Bending down, Dar picked up a shard of wood that had been shattered by Letellia’s spell. It was about a foot long, and tapered to a rough point.

Talen, seeing what was coming, tried to get up, but could only manage to flail his arms weakly.

Dar loomed over him. He planted one boot on Talen’s right elbow, pinning the vampire to the earth. Talen snarled, and fixed his stare on Dar, but he had not yet recovered enough of his powers for that gaze to penetrate the fighter’s will. Dar drew his punching dagger, and sawed off two of the straps holding Talen’s breastplate to his torso. He was careful of another attack, but Talen could not manage anything more than a feeble lunge that was defeated by the weight crushing his arm. His task done, Dar yanked the magical breastplate free and tossed it across the room. It clattered loudly, and more than one of them flinched at the sudden noise.

Talen looked around at all of them, but saw nothing but pity and resignation on the faces of his erstwhile companions. Finally, he focused on Shay. The scout, somehow sensing the weight of his stare, lifted her head and met his gaze.

“I am sorry,” he said. He opened his mouth to say something else, but whatever it was, it was cut off as Dar slammed the wooden spike into the vampire’s chest, impaling it through the heart. Talen instantly went limp, leaving the small chamber silent save for the desperate sobs of Shay. The companions could only stand there, witnessing the latest horror wrought upon them by the dark master of Rappan Athuk.

 

[Lazybones]

Chapter 271

OUT


A stale wind blew hard across the hills as the companions emerged from the dark of the cave into the surface world once more. Their cloaks whipped around their bodies, as if trying to escape. It was late afternoon, but impossible to be more precise than that, with the sun’s light trapped behind a dense gray expanse of cloud that stretched from horizon to horizon. Within the densest part of that mass, to the south, there were occasional flashes of power, rumbles that carried to them like the growl of a cornered beast. It was like a storm, but none of them felt those stirrings to be anything remotely resembling a natural phenomenon.

They had spent an uncomfortable night in the Talon, recovering their strength and their magic. They found no trace of either Navev or the evil wizard that they had battled in the vault, and no hostile creatures had ventured into the temple to assail them. As always, the warriors had kept watch while the casters had rested first, but despite the lack of interruptions none of them got anything close to a good night’s sleep. Talen’s fate had hit them harder than if the knight had merely been killed. It was a reminder that there were things worse than death, in Rappan Athuk.

The knight’s body now rested in Shay’s bag of holding. Nelan had taken custody of the container, for now. That had been at Dar’s insistence. While all of them understood the emotional strain that the scout had experienced, Dar no longer felt confident in the woman’s judgment. He personally doubted that there was anything that could be done for Talen, and even if the priests of the Father could somehow restore him, he was not sure if that was the best choice. After what had happened in the Talon, could the man live with what he had become, and what he had done?

Dar scanned the surrounding hills as his companions emerged from the cave one by one. These sorts of thoughts were new to him, and he did not like them. He was a man of action; contemplation of the consequences of actions was alien to him. Or it had been. Looking to the south, he realized that Rappan Athuk had changed him as much as any of the others. Maybe as much as it had changed Talen.

His hand fell to the hilt of Valor.

He sensed Allera behind him, although he could not hear the sound of her footsteps over the constant rush of the wind. “They’re ready,” she said.

Dar turned. They were all there. Nelan and Honoratius, the old cleric standing beside a woman with half and nearly twice his years, at the same time. The elves, thin and silent in their dark cloaks. And Shay, standing apart, staring out at nothing, seeing things that Dar felt better not knowing.

Allera had been right. They had done what they had come here to do. More... more would have to wait.

“Let’s go home,” he said, stepping forward to join Honoratius. He looked at Alderis. “You will be in touch?” he asked. He already knew the answer, they had already discussed matters in their camp below, but he wanted to hear it again.

“We will be ready,” the elf said. With that he extended his hands. Mehlaraine and Selanthas took them, and before Dar could say anything further he spoke a word and all three vanished.

Dar felt a hand close around his. He looked down at Allera, drew strength from her even as he lent his own. Honoratius extended his own hands, and the pair joined Nelan in forming a circle. After a moment, Shay came over to join them, stepping into the gap between the cleric and healer.

Honoratius spoke words of power, and the air around them shimmered. And then they were gone, leaving only the wind and the barren hills, empty of life, behind them.

 

[Richard Rawen]

Wow. Such a feeling of foreboding. SO much accomplished, yet...
Have a great vacation LB, you deserve it.

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Hi Lazybones, I just caught up. What a ride it's been so far. Even more twists and turns than usual. What I like most about this SH is the story you have spun around this meat grinder and the feeling of doom you have integrated into this story from chapter 1. Please keep up your great work!

I'm amazed they didn't try to finish it, though - only one more fight left.

 

[Polynike]

LB what a ride, what a two weeks of reading and the worst bit is that ive caught up, no more reading a few pages everyday

Now im a Varo fanboy and im awaiting what his ultimate role in this story is

Hope you enjoyed your holiday