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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3400864" data-attributes="member: 143">Just because Attius is not an evoker, doesn't mean that he cannot contribute some nice area-effect beatdown, as we'll see today. As for the red shirt... well, we'll see.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> Qwernt: glad you remembered that! Actually, I like what happened with Elly in Travels, how a minor character became something more in the course of the story. We may see something similar later in this tale. In case you feel after reading this post that the cliffhanger came early this week, don't worry, things can get worse.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> * * * * * Chapter 124SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT“Wait until you have clear shots,” Talen said, loud enough for all his forces to hear.  “Hold your assigned positions, keep an eye out for flankers, and watch for other surprises.  If you get into trouble, fall back on the village commons.  Remember to use blunt weapons against the skeletons.”“And don’t forget to wipe your shoes when you come into the house,” Shay said, just loud enough for him to hear, as she trotted up silently beside him at the barricade.  She put a hand on his arm.  “Everyone knows what to do, Talen.”Talen nodded.  “Light up the road,” he ordered.  A pair of clerics lifted their crossbows, touching the ends of the quarrels, which began to shine brightly with magical light.  The shots landed several hundred feet down the road, shedding bright circles of light.  The enemy had not yet come that far, but Talen could see that they would, very shortly.  He’d initially intended to order another volley further on, but it wasn’t necessary.  The leading ranks of the enemy advance came into the edge of the further globe of light.  They were mostly man-sized, but in their midst strode a half-score skeletal giants, most likely ogres or trolls.  They came, and they kept on coming; Talen stopped counting at eighty.  Many had weapons, but Talen knew that even those that did not could use their bony claws to kill.  The skeletons were coming forward at a slow but steady pace.  Talen wondered at that; with soldiers that did not fatigue, why not come on at full speed?  He saw that they kept a regular formation, spread out along the road at roughly even intervals, probably to minimize the damage that a fireball or other destructive magic could wreak upon them. Not that he had such magic.  Once again he glanced at the cottage where Attius’s ugly face could just be seen behind the curtains.  If he’d had Zosimos here, or even the elf...But there was no time for what ifs, as his defenders began launching attacks at the oncoming horde.  The armsmen launched heavy quarrels from their engines, the missiles shooting over a hundred yards without difficulty, and still containing enough deadly force to shatter bones.  They were not as effective as they would have been against mortal foes, certainly, but two of the three first shots did at least some damage.  The clerics added to the barrage, but their lighter weapons were much less effective.  Talen knew that their role would be greater at close range, when they could bring their divine powers to bear. A green orb shot from Attius’s position, firing in a straight line down the road, hitting one of the ogre skeletons in the chest.  The acid arrow began to eat away at the bones, but the undead monster paid it no heed whatsoever, and did not even interrupt its stride as it continued to close the range.The skeletons continued on past the two spheres of light, slipping temporarily into shadow again as they entered the gap between the crossbow bolts and outer line of torches set along the road.  New skeletons finally stopped coming, and Talen guessed that there were over a hundred and fifty in all in the enemy formation.  They were less than two hundred feet away when the road seemed to buck and quake under the leading elements of the skeleton formation.  Talen didn’t know what was happening at first, but whatever it was, it was clearly not helping the skeletons.  Dozens of the creatures were coming apart in loud crashes of snapping bone.  It was as if the road had suddenly come alive. “Black tentacles... nice,” he heard Varo say from somewhere behind him.  The skeletons kept on coming, either pushing straight on through the stretch of living road, or moving around it.  The skeletons seemed to be possessed of nothing resembling a survival instinct, and no appreciation for tactics at all.  But they could take a beating, especially the big ones, and there were so many that they could afford to take losses and keep coming. The tentacles would have most likely continued to decimate the rear ranks of skeletons as they pressed forward, but they’d only been going for about ten seconds before they shimmered and disappeared. “They have a caster,” Varo said.  The skeletons continued to advance, and were now approaching the edge of the inner ring of light.  “Here they come,” Talen said, drawing Beatus Incendia, but keeping the sword close low against his leg.  His companions had kept up their fire, and a few skeletons had gone down with shattered skulls or smashed legs, but they were just a drop in the bucket that was pouring down toward them.  Attius kept up a steady barrage of acid arrows from his wand, and the ogre skeleton he’d hit earlier collapsed as his caustic blasts finally ate through its spine.  Two of the clerics fired blasts of searing light at others of the larger undead, and another ogre skeleton fell to pieces, blasted into non-existence by the holy magic. “Foolish,” Varo said.  “Do not waste your magic on these enemies; they are just a distraction.”Several of the clerics looked at Varo with open hostility.  Talen glanced back to him.  “What do you mean?”  But the priest of Dagos was already casting another spell. “It’s a probe,” Shay said, launching another arrow at the skeletons over the barricade.  “A frontal assault, to test our defenses, make us expend our resources.”Just at that moment, Attius’s alarms sounded from the nearby forest.  Talen shouted over to Galen, who was holding the left flank, “What do we got?” “Movement in the woods... can’t see any more, commander... no, wait... more skeletons, coming through the trees!” Talen nodded to himself; the woods blocked the newcomers from their defensive fire, but they would have to come into the open to attack, and he’d assumed that it would come to melee in any case, with neither side really able to seriously hurt the other at range. But he was proven wrong a moment later.  The skeletons coming through the wood advanced to the edge of the line of trees, their white forms half-hidden in the undergrowth.  There they paused, and lifted weapons.  Talen recognized the slight whistling noise in the air a moment before the arrows started landing among them.  “Take cover!” he urged, but his forces were already well protected by armor and the barricades they’d erected, and nobody took any hits in that first barrage.  Talen felt an arrow glance off his shoulder plate, but he ignored it as he tried to spot out the leaders behind the lines of the skeletal army.  A lucky hit could cause a lot of trouble, but at the moment, there wasn’t anything he could do about the archers, unless they were willing to give up their defensive position.“We wait for them to come to us!” he said.  He started to turn to Varo, to see if the cleric could do anything about the half-concealed archers, but as he watched the edge of the forest seemed to come alive around the second body of skeletons.  The brush, the lower branches of the trees, everything that was growing began twisting around the skeletons, tangling around their limbs and interfering with their ability to shoot their bows. “Who did that?” Talen asked.  “It was Snaggletooth,” Allera reported.  “He commands a considerable magic of his own.”“Well, remind me to thank him, later,” Talen said.  The main body of skeletons was still coming, moving at the same measured pace.  Their formation had been disrupted somewhat by the black tentacles, but their advance was still broad, a front almost thirty feet across, filling the space between the woods and the slant of the nearest hills.  The skeletal archers kept up their fire from the left flank, but most of them were heavily entangled, and their fire continued to be mostly ineffective.  Closer came the enemy line.  A hundred feet... ninety... eighty... seventy...“Prepare to see something that you will not soon forget,” Varo said. As one, the four clerics of the Father lifted their holy symbols, and called upon the power of their god.  A brilliant white radiance shone from those silver torches, driving back the night.  As that light shone upon the leading rank of skeletons, they just came apart, the moldering bones crumbling into dust.  Within two beatings of a heart, fifty skeletons had just ceased to be. “By the gods,” Talen breathed, impressed.The next ranks of skeletons continued forward, including the seven ogre and troll skeletons that were still intact.  Those loomed over the skeletons of the smaller humanoids, clutching clubs or huge spears in their bony fists.  As Talen watched, a pair of huge fiendish centipedes materialized on their right flank, close to the greatest concentration of the larger skeletons.  Varo’s summoned allies immediately laid into the enemy flank, drawing a number of skeletons into engaging them.  Most, however, kept approaching the barricade. The clerics fired off another burst of positive energy.  Once again skeletons crumbled into dust, but fewer this time than before, maybe two dozen.  Talen thought he could see flickers of black energy around some of the skeletons, as the holy light from the priests intersected with some competing power.   One of the ogre skeletons faltered and came to a stop, lifting up an arm as if to shield itself from the light.  But while three of the big ones battled the centipedes, the other three kept coming, surging forward behind a row of their smaller cousins.  “Someone is bolstering them!” Allera said.  “There!” Shay hissed, pointing at a point in the skeletons’ line, where Talen could just make out a dark shadow behind them, back just at the edge of the torchlight. “Priests of Orcus,” Talen said.  The larger skeletons would be close enough to engage in seconds, but there were less than twenty of the man-sized ones left in the initial rush.  “Well, if our clerics can just keep this up, it will be a moot point...”He was interrupted by a terrible scream behind him. As he turned, he saw something that stabbed an icy knife of fear through his body.  Shadows... everywhere, rising up out of the ground, surrounding each of the four priests of the Father.  Their black fingers passed through the clerics’ armor as though it was not even there, draining their strength directly from their bodies.  As he watched in horror, the little gnome Falfighar stiffened, his skin becoming as pale as fresh parchment as he fell under the eager grasp of four shadows.  A few feet away, Meaghan, just a few moments ago as vital as any person Talen had ever known, likewise collapsed.  Shadows were swarming around Braethan and Serah as well, draining their life energy with hungry touches. Talen yelled and leapt up, Beatus Incendia coming alive in his hand of its own volition.  He started to the aid of the clerics, but he’d barely managed three steps before a shadow emerged from the ground directly ahead of him.  He hastily reversed and thew himself back, narrowly avoiding a swipe from the creature’s deadly claws. But there were more of them, all around him.  He felt cold touches pierce his armor, and with them his strength drained from his body.  Suddenly his armor felt like a mountain upon his back, and Beatus Incendia sank low, until its point touched the ground.  Despair filled the knight’s heart, but even as he tried to rally what was left of his strength for a last desperate effort, another form rose up out of the ground, directly at his feet.  Talen tried to thrust his holy weapon through it, but he was too weak to even lift the sword, unable to do anything as the wraith eagerly seized him, driving its insubstantial arms into his body. Talen screamed, as his very life poured out of him, into the eager embrace of the undead monster. He could hear the cries of the clerics as they died, and behind him, the crash of weapons sounded loud at the barricade, as the remnants of the skeleton force hit hard what was left of their defenses.</blockquote>

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