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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3462300" data-attributes="member: 143">Glad you enjoyed it. When I went digging around for a high-CR undead to throw at the defenders at Aldenford, that one really jumped out at me.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> * * * * * Chapter 148THEM!Kalend had been cautiously examining a narrow crevice in the wall of the cavern when an ant the size of a wolfhound leaned over an overhanging shelf about ten feet above and looked down at him. The rogue’s startled cry as he fell back was echoed a moment later by Travius, who’d headed a short distance further along the base of the cliff.  “Giant bugs!” the legionary shouted, falling back with about a half-dozen giant ants in pursuit.  The ants were rapidly closing the distance, led by four big ones that were almost six feet long from the tips of their mandibles to the hooked stings that protruded from their abdomens. Kalend opened his mouth to shout a warning, but his attention was drawn back around as the ant that had surprised him earlier leaned out far over the edge of the shelf and skittered down, the steep angle giving it little difficulty.  Looking up above it, Kalend saw several others descending from higher up the cliff, clinging to the sheer surface with ease, moving as fast as a man at a brisk walk.  Seeing that he could not get away before the first ant reached him, he drew his sword and took up a defensive stance.  But as the ant surged forward, an arrow flashed past him, burying itself to the feathers square in the center of the ant’s probing jaws.  The creature was knocked back by the force of the impact, and fell to the ground, dying.  “Fall back!” Pella yelled to him, fitting another shaft to her bow.  She shifted targets to the ants rushing at Travius, but before she could fire, the nearest soldier ant lunged forward and seized the fleeing man’s leg in its jaws.  Travius yelled in pain as the powerful pincer clamped down hard on his limb, but as the ant thrust its abdomen forward he was able to tear free before it could deliver a painful sting.  The delay, however, gave the other ants time to reach him.  The fighter darted back to a jutting boulder that barely came up to his waist, scant cover indeed, but all that was readily available as he drew both of his swords and met the onrushing surge.  He hit the first ant in the jaws as it tried to seize him, deflecting its rush enough to avoid being hit.  The second snapped its jaws into his torso, but his armor held, and it could not get a decent grip before he yanked himself free, smashing his other sword into the side of its head.  The blow carved off its left antenna, and seemed to disorient it for a moment. The two ants provided a sort of shield for the fighter, but as the others swarmed past him, several turned to come up on him from behind.  Kalend was a fast runner, but the ants were even faster, rapidly closing the distance once they’d reached the bottom of the cliff and could move over relatively flat ground.  The rogue glanced over his shoulder to see a half-dozen of the vermin surging toward him.                                                                                                    A loud cry directly above startled him, and nearly caused him to lose his footing.  Shay’s leap carried her over the rogue to land directly on top of the first ant, her sword thrust before her like a spear.  Her weight and momentum drove the keen elvish steel right through the ant, impaling it.  The other ants were quick to turn and attack, but the scout dodged their efforts to grab her, leaping onto one ant, and rushing down its body before springing off into a defensive stance behind it. The ants started to turn to follow, but then Baraka barreled into them, his sickles flashing.  A quick swipe separated the head of one from its body, but even as the ant collapsed he was cutting the second with his off-hand.  The alchemical silver weapon snagged the ant in the head, but the ant continued to struggle, biting the ranger in the arm.  Pella continued a slow, measured retreat as she continued to fire, giving ground as she maintained her barrage of arrows.  Her magical arrows, augmented by the power of her mighty bow, punched deep into ant bodies, killing with a single shot more often than not.  She took down one of the ants flanking Travius, but then had to defend herself, as five worker ants led by another soldier bypassed the surrounded warrior and came rushing toward her.  Even in the face of that onrushing surge she did not hurry her retreat, taking step after step as she fitted arrow after arrow to her string. And then they were on top of her, and she dropped the bow, sliding her sword from its scabbard in a single motion. Bright light flared around her, and then Talen was there, striking with Beatus Incendia.  He clove the soldier ant in two with a single swing, parrying an attack from the adjacent worker with his shield.  One of the other ants managed to grab onto Pella’s hip with its pincers, but the injury was not serious, and she kept her footing as she pounded the ant with her sword. Varo, Serah, and Allera had hurried south after Talen to the scene of the battle, but it looked as though the situation was well in hand.  The ants had attacked across a broad front, but Talen and Pella had secured the right, while Baraka, Shay, and Kalend were hacking the workers on the left to pieces.  The only Camarian still outnumbered was Travius, but the warrior was holding his own against the soldier ants attacking him, and had even managed to kill two of them with heavy strikes from his twin Legion shortswords.  He favored his left side slightly where one of the ants had managed to sting him, but otherwise was not seriously hurt. “Travius needs help,” Allera said.  “Serah, stay here with Varo,” she said, rushing forward.  But a loud clanking announced that Dar and Bullo, rushing from the north, had arrived to join the battle, and they ran past Varo and Serah, their weapons at the ready.“Shouldn’t we help them?” Serah said to Varo.  The cleric still looked very pale, but she held her light mace tightly.  “There is little we can do here save get in the way,” Varo said.  “The warriors will...”He trailed off, frowning. “What is it?” Serah asked. “Do you hear that?”The cleric of the Father looked around, but the noise of the battle with the ants drowned out any of the ambient sounds of the cavern.  “I don’t...”  But then she trailed off, as she felt a rumbling through her feet, a faint tremor that passed through the stone of the cavern itself. Varo grabbed her arm and dragged her forward.  “Look out!” The two staggered ahead just as the cavern wall behind the goblin camp exploded outward in a shower of stone dust and debris.  A huge creature strode forward out of the wreckage, an insectoid humanoid monster with long, incredibly muscled arms that dangled down to its ankles.  Its body was covered with an armored carpace covered in gray dust, and mandibles that made the ants’ jaws look harmless by comparison clenched as it came toward them.  Serah let out a surprised scream as the umber hulk lunged at her.  Behind it, a second creature emerged from the tunnel, its alien eyes fixing on Licinius Varo.</blockquote>

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