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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3588199" data-attributes="member: 143">Here's the Friday cliffhanger... gotta run!* * * * * Chapter 189REMATCHDespite Dar’s renewed determination to move forward, the companions ended up remaining at the water’s edge for almost half an hour.  The lesser restorations helped Dar, Talen, Shay, and Kalend, taking the edge off their exhaustion, but leaving them fatigued.  All were used to marching on in such a state, however, and they marshaled their will to return to the fray. Shay took out supplies from her bag of holding, preserved foodstuffs that they are cold, and washed down with strong coffee.  That latter had almost as potent an effect as the spells, and when they started down the tunnel again, they looked far more dangerous than they had at the end of the battle against the undead horde. “Why did the priest flee?” Talen said, as they made their way cautiously through the row upon row of ruined bodies.  “Even with the augmentations to his undead gone, he still had us at a disadvantage.”“Who knows what goes through a freaking gobbo’s mind,” Dar grumbled.  “No offense,” he added as an aside to Filcher, who paced them silently, a small shadow at the edge of their group.  The goblin glanced up at the hulking human fighter, but did not respond. “The priest will have more surprises in store,” Varo said.  “Priests always do,” Dar said, without looking back. The going became easier as they left the dense press of smashed bodies behind them.  There was no sign of the golden idol; it was likely that the goblin high priest had brought it with him in his retreat.They made their way all the way back to the doors, now a wreckage of shattered wood and torn metal fittings.  Beyond was another mess of debris, the remains of their first confrontation with the undead horde. That wasn’t all they had left behind. “Baraka,” Kalend said, staring down at the mess on the floor near the wall to the right.  It was not immediately obvious that a man had died here.  The undead had torn the ranger to pieces; there was an arm here, a leg there, and a bloody husk a short distance off that was probably his head.  One of the ranger’s sickles still glinted from where it lay stuck in the sternum of a zombie, its hilt slick with blood.The thief stood there, his face white, his legion sword quivering slightly in his hand.The corpses of their goblinoid allies were in little better shape, and lay scattered around the chamber.  The small bronze statue of Orcus that Shay had knocked over earlier was gone, and the large double doors on the far side of the room to their left had been closed again, still and ominous. Dar kicked through the bones until his found his club.  The magical weapon was undamaged, and the fighter took a moment to secure it across his back before taking up Valor again, and crossing toward the doors. “Hold up,” Shay said, checking the perimeter of the room to make sure that there were no more lingering threats.  Talen was with Allera, who was helping to guide the blinded knight forward. Dar shot a dark look back, but he stopped his advance. “Whatever’s behind that door will still be there when we’re all ready,” Allera said to him. “I just want to get this done with,” the fighter said, turning back to the door, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword.  Shay’s search took only a few moments.  They recovered what they could of the gear left by Baraka and the goblinoids, and took up positions flanking the far doors.  Talen drew Beatus Incendia, but he kept the sword low, and did not invoke its holy fire.  Shay had her bow out, and as she fitted an arrow to the string, she nodded at Dar. “Just make sure he’s pointed in the right direction,” Dar said to Allera.  Then he leaned forward and with a heave thrust the heavy doors open. The chamber beyond was a giant hexagon, easily twice the size of the outer temple they currently occupied.  The place was dominated by a massive stone statue of Orcus, a mere shadow at the edge of their light, yet unmistakable in its hulking mass.  The torchlight also revealed the metallic gleam of the smaller representations of the demon god, each smaller than a man, one of shining gold, the other of bronze.  The three statues were arranged in a triangle, forming an angle that faced out toward the doors.  Kneeling in the center of that arrangement, warded by a row of zombies, was the goblin priest, Tribitz.  The creature seemed oblvious to their intrusion, on his knees facing the stone statue, arms outstretched in supplication.  Serah lifted her holy symbol, but Varo forestalled her.  “Do not bother; they have been bolstered.”Shay did not hesitate, lifting her bow and firing.  Behind her, Kalend and Filcher did the same.  Kalend’s arrow hit a zombie and stuck uselessly in the flesh of its arm, but the other two knifed past the undead honor guard and hit the priest, ricocheting off the diminutive goblin’s heavy armor.  “It’s a trap,” Varo said, as Dar started forward. The fighter glanced back at him.  “Obviously,” he said, lifting Valor and rushing into the room as the zombies turned and began to shuffle toward him. None of them saw it until it was too late, until the bebilith clinging to the ceiling over the doorway released its grip and plummeted down onto the charging fighter.  Dar sensed the huge spider-demon falling directly toward him at the last instant.  He flung himself aside, too late to avoid being struck by its bulk, but able at least to keep from being crushed underneath its two tons of weight.  He hit the ground hard, barely keeping a grip on his sword as the demon loomed over him like a barely-imagined creature of nightmare.  Drawing himself up into a crouch, the fighter barely brought Valor up in time to meet the bebilith’s rush, stabbing the sword into the side of its head just above the stabbing fangs. The demon’s high-pitched shriek echoed through the temple with the force of a physical blow.  It did not draw back or retreat in the face of its injury, however, instead driving forward to thrust its fangs deep into Dar’s shoulders.  Dar screamed as deadly toxin was pumped directly into his bloodstream.  He tried to pull away, but the demon seized him with its claws.  Metal groaned as the creature ripped apart his breastplate as though the magical steel was the wrapper of a Harvestday present.  Blood poured down Dar’s chest from the vicious puncture wounds, accompanied by thick green gobs of venom that spilled out from its long fangs.  The fighter was suddenly in grievous shape, but his companions were quick to rush to his aid.  Shay sprang forward, her sword leaping to her hand as she dropped her bow.  She targeted one of the demon’s spindly legs, aiming for a flexible joint, but its limbs were deceptively tough, a fact proven as her blade glanced off the thick cartigilous armor covering the joint.  Kalend fired an arrow at its body, but he may as well have been trying to sink a war galleon with a slingshot for all of the effect that he had.  By all appearances, its body armor was even more durable than that covering its legs. But Talen had something even stronger than the demon’s considerable protections.  White fire exploded around Beatus Incendia, casting the blind knight’s features into stark relief as he stepped forward and smote the demon from the side.  The blessed steel clove deep into its body, making the wound it had suffered at Dar’s hand seem almost trivial by comparison.  Black ichor hissed as it shot from the wound and hit the stone floor, making the surface slick.Reeling from the critical hit, the demon released Dar, driving him back as it spun to face the knight.  Talen lifted his sword to attack again, relying on the terrible noises coming from its mouth to guide his strike, but before he could unleash his swing the demon was on him, stabbing and crushing. Dar imagined that he could feel the taint of the demon’s poison as it coursed through his body.  His wounds burned, and his ruined armor jutted from his torso at awkward angles that interfered with his movement.  His helmet no longer sat flush, obscuring his vision, so he reached up and yanked it free, grimacing as the motion sent another wave of agony stabbing through him.  He coughed, and was not entirely surprised when he spat blood.  Ignoring the zombies that were shuffling forward to engage him, he turned back toward the demon and charged forward to finish what he’d started.  He did not spot the goblin cleric until it was too late.  Realization hit him at the same time as the red glow surrounding its hand coursed into his body.  Dar realized that the pain he’d felt from the demon’s attacks had been nothing against this, as the full dark power of a harm spell tore through him, breaking things inside him.  He tried to scream but only managed a ferocious gurgle as blood exploded in a fountain from his mouth, spraying bright red onto the goblin’s armor.  Blood also poured from the fighter’s ears, and from the corners of his eyes, as the spell took him to the very precipice of death.  The creature laughed, and lifted its morningstar to finish the job. A few scant paces away, the demon came upon Talen like a whirlwind.  The knight could not see the spider-monster’s lunge, but some instinct warned him of those darting fangs, and he brought his shield up barely in time to deflect those deadly blades.  Screaming now with the fury of the battle, Talen lifted Beatus Incendia to strike it down. But the demon had been waiting for that.  Before he could strike, it snapped out a claw, seizing Talen by the shoulder in an immobilizing, crushing grip.  Talen’s battle cry became a snarl of pain as the bebilith’s claw tightened, torturing the joint even through his heavy armor.  Talen tried to tear free, unsuccessfully.  Then, before he could attempt anything further, the demon reached out with its other claw, snapping the razored end of it around Talen’s swordarm at the elbow. A sinister satisfaction shone in the demon’s multifaceted eyes as it twisted the claw, sending Beatus Incendia, and the arm attached to it, flying across the room.</blockquote>

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