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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3234738" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 62THE WIGHT CATACOMBS“Keep them at bay,” Varo said, calmly lowering the elf to the ground at the foot of the stairs, then taking up his divine focus. “Yeah, right,” Dar said, facing the darkness to their right.  Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the crypt on the left had disgorged a familiar pale-skinned monstrosity—another wight.  It fixed its glowing red eyes upon them, and sprang out of the tomb, landing lightly on its feet.  Turning back, Dar saw several other sets of eyes moments before more of the creatures appeared out of the shadows.  They were approaching in a collapsing half-circle—a half-dozen thus far.  At least the scraping noises had stopped.  The creatures were eerily silent, their tread making no noise upon the rough stone floor.  “Varo...” Dar began. “Just another few seconds,” the priest said, focusing his will through the focus of his god. “Let them come to us,” Talen said.  Behind him, Allera stood ready, her hands surrounded by a faint blue glow as her healing power swelled with her.The creatures made no communication, but they all leapt forward in the same instant, charging toward the defenders with claws outstretched.  Dar met the first with an overhead strike that smashed the wight heavily in the chest, knocking it to the ground.  The undead monster flailed its limbs wildly, but managed to turn over and squirrel forward, clawing at Dar’s legs.  The fighter was already too busy with a second creature to deal with it, holding the surging monster off with his club as it tried to dig its claws into his arms. Talen met the others on the far flank, blocking their route to Allera and Varo.  He sliced off the first claw that came sweeping at him, taking off the creature’s limb at the wrist with his sword.  The wight barely paused, spinning and leaping for his throat with its other claw.  Distracted, Talen was left wide open to the fourth wight, which leapt eagerly at his exposed flank.  Allera stepped forward to block it, and it eagerly turned upon her. “Allera, no!” Talen yelled unable to help her without leaving him totally open to his opponent.    A wave of pulsing negative energy swept over them.  Dar felt it as a faint tingle, while Allera and Talen felt a momentary twinge of nausea that twisted deep within their guts.  But there was no time to reflect or recover; the wights were upon them. The last two creatures surged in behind the one that was attacking Allera.  The healer held her ground even as the lead creature drew its claws across her face, opening shallow gashes in her left cheek.  She laid her hands upon it, sending a powerful surge of positive energy into it.  The attack stunned the wight, but the other two were right on its heels, and things suddenly looked quite grim for the healer. But then, to her surprise, the wights fell upon their injured companion, bearing it to the ground, and ripping its body open with their claws. The sudden betrayal quickly changed the tide of the battle.  Dar took down his second foe with a pair of solid blows that mangled its body, then followed through with a pounding smash that pulverized the head of the injured one hacking at his ankles.  Talen, too, finished his foe, thrusting the length of his sword into its body, then kicking the fading creature off the blade. Dar immediately turned to strike down the two creatures tearing their ally apart, but Varo restrained him with a raised hand.  “Do not worry about those two,” he said.  “They are under my command.”Dar looked at him dubiously.  “Say what?”“This is the blackest necromancy,” Talen said, regarding the two creatures with revulsion as they stood up and stood silently watching them.  The undead swayed slightly, but otherwise did not respond to being observed.“So they’ll do whatever you want?” Dar asked.  He walked up to the nearer of the two wights, and spat in its face.  The wight did not respond. “They will obey my commands, even unto their destruction,” Varo said. “This is wrong, priest,” Talen said. “Why?  They are weapons, captain.  Would you yield that tool to our enemy, and eschew its use on the basis of principle?”  Varo pointed to one of the creatures.  “That thing does not live.  It is a foul abomination.  Yet it can absorb a sword thrust meant for you, or for Allera there.  It can fight for us, and slay the enemies of our cause.  It can stumble into a trap, and make the way ahead safer for us.  You do not have to call it friend, captain.  You do not have to enjoy its company.  But it is utter foolishness to reject this gift that Dagos grants our cause.”“Your words are slippery, priest,” Talen said.  “You lead us down a path of shadow.  I can see its end; at that point we become indistinguishable from the foes we fight.”  “The deed is done,” Varo said.  “I will not undo it because you are squeamish.”“Anything that is done can be undone,” Talen said.  “What do you others think of this?”“Hey, I’m all for having another body to take some hits, for a chance,” Dar said.  “I agree with Talen,” Allera said.  “What if we encounter another cleric of Orcus, more powerful than you, Varo?  Could he turn the undead against you?”“Possibly,” Varo admitted.  “Although we would have far greater problems, in such a circumstance.”“It does not matter,” Talen said.  “I am not going forward with such things in my company.  Choose, priest.  Go on with us, or with your new allies.”“You are a fool,” Varo said.  But he made a small gesture, and the two wights turned on each other, tearing with their claws. The companions drew back at the ferocity of the attack.  Within a few seconds, one of the creatures was down and unmoving, and the last could barely stand, deep gashes covering its body.   Dar finished the job, putting it down for good.“Are you all right, Allera?” Talen asked.The healer nodded, summoning a trickle of healing energy that closed the wounds as they spoke, leaving not even a scar behind.  “I have been drained, slightly.  If my spirit is not strong enough to recover on its own, I can draw upon my powers to restore what was lost.  I will be fine, do not worry about me.”“I would recommend keeping them from touching you in future engagements, if at all possible,” Varo said.  “That may be more difficult without my aid, but if that is your choice...”“Keep them at bay if you can, cleric, but I will not fight with them as allies,” Talen said. Varo nodded.  “Ah, thank you for the clarification, captain.  Perhaps we should move on?”Dar had already started checking out the nearest of the stone tombs.  Most of them were empty, apparently—or at least had not produced any undead monsters to assail them.  “What are you doing?” Allera asked him. “Checking for loot,” he replied.  “We’ve already found some good stuff among the dead in this place.”“Have you not accumulated enough gold?” she asked.“Angel, you can never have enough.”“I would avoid the sealed tombs,” Talen said.  “There may be more of those creatures in them.”“I’m not an idiot,” Dar shot back.  But he’d been standing beside an unopened tomb when Talen had spoken, and he grumbled as he moved to one of the empty ones that had produced a wight earlier.  Other than some assorted trash of no value, and a few shattered bones, the crypts were empty. They found a corridor on the other side of the room, and after finishing their search, continued in that direction.  The passage continued for about forty feet before opening onto another room.  This one was even larger than the previous chamber, with several ranks of crypts neatly aligned in perpendicular rows that formed a big “E”.  The majority of these tombs had been opened, with the heavy stone cover slabs lying ajar on top, or shattered on the floor beside them.  The place was thick with the stench of ancient decay, but nothing stirred to greet them as they entered. “Stay together,” Talen said softly, even his quiet words sounding unnaturally loud in these sepulchral surroundings. They moved into the room, shining their light sources into the corners.  The room was over a hundred and fifty feet wide, and sixty deep.  Their boots made soft echoes against the bare stone walls, no matter how quietly they tried to walk.  They found a deep alcove to the right along the far wall, a slightly raised area upon which three intact tombs were situated.  They gave that a wide berth, for now.  They also found two doors, a set of ancient double doors bound in discolored bronze on the far side of the room to the left, and a single stone slab door in a corner to the right.  They also probed a few deep crevices in the walls, but none of them appeared to go anywhere. “Well, which way?” Dar asked, as they completed their circuit, and returned to the entry corridor.Talen started to say something, but he was interrupted by the sound of grinding stone.  The companions lifted their weapons at once and scanned the surrounding crypts, but they could see no motion from those that they could see. “The door!” Varo hissed, pointing.  They looked across the room to the south door, which had been pushed open.  A soft glow of light came from behind the heavy portal.  The companions took cover behind the nearest crypts, shielding their lights.  Peering over the stone tops of the crypts, they could see a huge humanoid figure stagger into the room.The thing stood over eight feet tall.  Its thick arms and torso bulged with muscle, but there was something... wrong with it as well; its skin was patched with different shades of color coming together in rude seams, and it moved as though it was partially paralyzed, its stride hitched and uneven.  So unnerving it was that they almost didn’t notice the woman standing beside it.  She was human by the look of her, young and with plain features set off by sandy brown hair that had been crudely hacked short.  She wore a plain gray robe, and carried a short rod that glowed with a pale magical light.  The woman and her companion started around the perimeter of the room toward them.“Wait till they get here, then strike?” Dar whispered to Talen.  “Shhh,” the warrior mouthed.  Varo tugged on Allera’s arm and pointed.  They’d laid the elf down nearby; from his current position, his legs jutted out beyond the end of the crypt.  If the pair passed by the corridor, they would almost certainly spot him. The healer nodded, and the two crawled over to him.  They grabbed onto the end of the litter, and started to pull him slowly over the floor.  The sound of the approaching pair grew louder.  The tall creature’s awkward strides sounded loud upon the stone; from the thumping impacts, it must have weighed hundreds of pounds, at least. The two were barely twenty feet away, now.  Talen and Dar, bent low, moved around the crypt that gave them shelter.  The elf groaned. The footsteps stopped at once.  “Who’s there?” came the woman’s voice.  She sounded scared, but after their travels in Rappan Athuk, none of them were going to assume that she was anything but a deadly threat. None of them stirred.  They could hear the woman’s voice again, chanting in the language of magic.  Suddenly Allera stood up, revealing herself.  “We’re not enemies,” she began.  Talen rose as well, but kept his empty hand up, away from his swordhilt.  Allera continued, “We just want to...”She was interrupted by the woman’s startled shriek.  Gesturing to the huge creature beside her, she shouted, “Kill them!”  As the creature lumbered forward, the woman spoke a word of magic, and disappeared.</blockquote>

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