NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3164417" data-attributes="member: 143">Dagos and the Shining Father are both my own creations for this setting; don't read anything too much into other sources. More about both will be revealed in the course of the story. * * * * * Chapter 37EMERALD DEATH“We cannot stand before this foe,” Varo said to Dar, who was already edging back from the approaching creature. But Talen had already raised his sword, the magical steel shining against the encroaching darkness.  “Defend yourselves!” he shouted, surging ahead.  Shaylara and Argus went with him, meeting the creature’s approach. The golem’s fist came sweeping around.  Talen saw it coming and dodged aside, but it still clipped him hard on the shoulder, spinning him around.  The veteran soldier narrowly kept his footing and countered with a powerful swing of his sword, but the weapon merely bounced off the golem’s metal thigh, ringing loudly as it sent a painful jolt up Talen’s arm.      Shaylara and Argus came at the golem from its flanks.  Their attacks likewise struck the creature hard, but without any apparent effect.  It swept its arms around in low arcs.  Talen was hit again, his darkwood buckler shattering under the force of the blow.  The shield saved his arm from being broken, but the fighter’s face still twisted in agony as he staggered back, trying to recover.  Argus was hit by its second attack, the younger fighter’s shoulder hit so hard that it was dislocated by the force of the impact.  The soldier screamed and dropped his sword, his arm hanging limply at his side. Before the battered combatants could recover from the construct’s powerful attacks, the golem bent forward.  Its mouth opened wide, and it unleashed a gout of ugly brown gas onto Talen and Argus.  Allera started to rush forward, but Aelos grabbed her arm, forestalling her.  “No, child!”  Dar and Varo were already back at the stream.  The sounds of the golem’s movements were echoing throughout the room, but as they reached the water’s edge, they could hear a distinct noise, not an echo, from out in the darkness ahead.  “There’s another one on the far side of the room!” Varo yelled back at the others.  “Return to the stream... now!”The first golem’s toxic cloud dissipated to show the two soldiers in bad shape.  Argus staggered and fell, while Talen, momentarily blinded, swung his sword in a wild arc that failed to connect with anything.  Shaylara stabbed at its flank with her spear, trying to draw its attention, but it seemed focused on Talen as it lifted its arms, clasping its fists together into a deadly iron bludgeon. “Talen, run!” Shaylara shouted.  The golem stepped forward, poised to deliver a killing blow to the nearly defenseless soldier.Another loud impact resounded from the golem’s leg.  The huge construct shifted to the side, momentarily off balance; its attack aborted.  It turned to face Krogan, steam hissing from the crack in its knee that the dwarf’s adamantine urgosh had wrought.  Talen saw the dwarf.  He tried to say something, but could only cough the golem’s poison from his lungs.  “Get Argus out!” the dwarf yelled, lifting his weapon to strike again.  But before he could attack, the golem’s fists came down, driving with finality into the dwarf’s head.  “Krogan!” Talen yelled, his voice hoarse.  “Talen, get out!” Shaylara repeated, as the golem slowly turned toward him, blood dripping from its locked fists.  There was nothing left of Krogan Deepshaft but a mangled heap of crushed flesh. Talen grabbed Argus, dragging the nearly-helpless fighter to his feet.  The golem lurched forward and smashed its fists down again, intending to crush them both, but at the last instant its damaged leg twisted, and the blow narrowly missed.  It hit the floor with enough force to crack the stone, and the two fighters nearly went down as the ground shook under their boots. Allera and Aelos were there to meet them, helping the wounded men as they tried to get away.  The golem was only a step behind them, slow but inevitable, ready to kill them at the slightest stumble.  Shaylara was still thrusting her spear at its back, and finally she seemed to draw its attention, as it stopped and started to turn toward her. “Shay!” Talen yelled.  “Get out of there!”But the scout was already running, not toward them, but back toward the slain dwarf.  The golem followed, steam hissing from the rent in its leg with every step it took. Talen started after her, but Aelos forestalled him.  “Captain!  We’ve got to get out... there’s another one moving to block the exit!”  “I won’t leave her!” “She can move faster alone!” the cleric insisted.  “Captain... Argus isn’t going to make it without help!” he said, as he and Allera dragged the semiconscious fighter between them.  “If that second golem blocks the stream exit, we’re all dead!”The first golem was already fading at the edge of their light; there was no sign of Shaylara.  “Shay, we’re getting out!” he yelled, frustration clear in his voice. Shaylara had reached the crushed body of Krogan.  With the light of Aelos’s staff and Talen’s sword retreating fast, she had to search his body by touch, all too aware of the heavy footsteps of the fast-approaching golem.  She found what she was looking for just as the golem reached her, and she rolled away a split second before a huge iron fist came crashing down onto the ground where she’d been kneeling.  She could see the other golem now, silhouetted in the light of Aelos’s staff.  Her companions had reached the stream, and were making their way across the water to the exit.  The golem apparently wasn’t going to let a little water stop it; as she watched the big creature stepped into the fast-moving stream, the water splashing up in a white froth around it.  The first golem blocked her way back to the others, and while she could easily outrun it, she wasn’t up to chancing a dash in total darkness across a floor that she knew was scattered with debris from the rockfall.  Instead, she ran forward out onto the T-shaped pool, her boots treading lightly over the surface of the water.  The low waterfall from where the stream entered the pool announced itself through noise and the spray of water across her face.  Running into the spray, she sprang and leapt, easily clearing the low barrier, landing on the stream.  The maneuver would have been impossible had Aelos’s spell not allowed her to avoid the rushing current, but each step barely disturbed the surface of the water as she ran after the others.  Of course, there was the small matter of the golem blocking her way.  The creature seemed to sense her coming, even though her rush across the water made barely a whisper, certainly not audible over the rush of the waterfall behind her.  She could see it clearly, highlighted in the light cast by the staff in the tunnel beyond it.  She focused on that light, and as the golem’s fist came around she dove, the water walk keeping her hovering an inch above the water, her momentum carrying her past the golem.  The creature tried to grab her with its other hand, but before it could react she was up and gone, charging after the departing light.  The golem did not follow.  Neither Shay nor any of her companions had spotted the shadowy figure that had hung in the air high above the cavern floor, silently watching during the encounter.  As the last lingering remains of light faded, and the cavern returned to utter darkness, the insubstantial form drifted back to the ground.  As it made its way to the south, the golems came lumbering after it.It had been difficult for Zelkor to resist the urge to taste the life energy of those poor, pathetic, struggling mortals.  The woman, in particular, had felt particularly... tasty.  But Zelkor was bound to a greater power, and in this instance, at least, there were commands that must be obeyed. Later, perhaps, an acolyte would serve as an appropriate compensation for its sacrifice.</blockquote>

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