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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3635945" data-attributes="member: 143">You're welcome, and thank you for the kind comments. We're about to hit the end of book 3 of the story. I am still well ahead, and in fact just started book 5 today. I am still following the module for the most part, but have been threading in some more external elements (such as with the Duke in book 2), to keep the story from getting too stale with the constant dungeon crawling. There are going to be some big changes coming up for our doomed heroes (including some alterations to the roster), and while I have an eventual destination in mind, there are some things that even I don't know about the ending, yet. Thanks to everyone who has posted and stuck with this story. I hope that the ride continues to entertain.  * * * * * Chapter 206OUCH“Dar!” Allera rushed forward as Dar collapsed, blood pouring in a fountain from the stump where his arm had been.  The fighter was already unconscious when Allera reached him, and she did not look up at the demon that loomed over them as she clutched him against her, oblivious to the blood that seeped into her clothes.  She just held him, pouring healing into his body to stop the flow of life escaping from the wound.  She knew it was futile, knew that the demon would kill both of them, but she could do nothing else. But the killing blow never came.  Allera heard a hissing noise, a furious shriek of protest that died suddenly, and as she looked up she was surprised to see... Nothing. Varo grimaced.  He had carefully hoarded his banishment spell through all of the earlier battles that day, refusing to tap its energy for an inflict wounds spell despite the dire circumstances.  But his divination spell that morning had been clear, at least as he had interpreted it, about a rematch with the powerful greater demon that had taken the Sphere of Souls in their last encounter. He had held out a hope, foolish and fleeting that it had proven, that Dar could have somehow taken out the marilith.  But even as he watched that hope cut asunder by the demon’s deadly blades, Varo had summoned his magic, brandishing the items of power that he had collected for this purpose.  The sigil of his faith.  A small knife of cold iron.  Holy water.  Serah’s divine focus, still smeared with traces of the dead cleric’s blood.  Focused by Varo’s will, the banishment spell had penetrated the demon’s spell resistance, and hurled it violently back into the Abyss.  He had saved Dar and Allera, but now, at least as far as the greater demon was concerned, he was effectively unarmed.  Talen tried to regain his footing, to meet death on his feet, but his legs failed to obey his commands.  It was all he could do to keep from tumbling over onto his back.  He saw the heavy mace, its enlarged head the size of a melon, coming down straight toward his head.  He could not lift his shield again; the entire left side of his body had gone numb. But just before the seemingly inevitable impact, the deadly head of the mace jerked to the side.  The blow still hit Talen, but it was just a glancing strike, bouncing harmlessly off his breastplate without inflicting further damage.  Talen watched in surprise as the cleric staggered a pace to his right.  He didn’t realize what had happened until the cleric dropped his mace, and lifted his hand to his throat.  Only then did he see the feathers of the arrow jutting from just under the lip of the man’s gorget.  The cleric crumpled, his body already beginning to return to its original size as his magic fled in company with his life. Shay screamed as white hot knives of pain exploded through her leg.  She looked down to see the woman cleric clutching her ankle, the red glow fading from her fingers as the inflict wounds spell dissipated into her body.  Already injured from the failed slay living spell, the inflict critical wounds thrust her closer to the point where the cleric’s nasty death touch power could push her the rest of the way over the edge.  But Gernaldra had another target in mind.  As Wheraz collapsed, the woman cleric’s lips drew back in a snarl, and she focused her gaze on Talen as she drew herself up to her feet.  She managed about three steps before Shay slammed into her.  The scout and cleric both screamed, feral cries as they grappled violently, the cleric trying to break free, the scout trying to hold onto her.  Gernaldra was stronger, even without her bull’s strength spell, and after just a few moments, she ripped her arm free, and backhanded Shaylara across the face.  The blow was backed by the force of another inflict wounds spell, and Shay fell, dazed.  Gernaldra turned back toward Talen, only to find the knight right in front of her, his sword blazing in his hand.  The priestess lunged at him, but he was ready, and he met her surge with three feet of blessed steel that parted the overlapping plates covering her torso and thrust deep into her body.  The priestess looked down at the holy sword impaling her.  She reached out at Talen, who grunted and thrust five more inches of Beatus Incendia into her body.  Her hand brushed his as it fell, but there was no power there, only a fading warmth that died completely as the woman slid off his blade.  The cleric’s death left the chamber quiet once more, the only other presence the globe of shifting colors that surrounded the Sphere of Souls.  Talen walked—or more precisely, hobbled—over to Shay, but the scout was already recovering, and was on her feet by the time that Talen got to her.  “Are you all right?” the scout asked him.  “Been better,” the knight said, grimacing.  He turned so that his shield arm was facing her.  “I need you to pull it back into its socket.”Shay nodded, and took hold of his arm.  “Ready?”  At Talen’s nod, she pulled, and Talen let out a groan as the limb settled back into its proper socket.  Shay helped him dig a healing potion out of his pouch, uncorking the tiny vial before handing it back to him to consume.  Allera had brought Dar back to consciousness, but there was nothing she could do for his missing arm, at least not immediately.  The fighter looked down at his severed limb, and then stood, with the healer supporting him.  He did not speak, but bent down to recover his sword, a dark look on his face.  “We must destroy the Sphere,” Varo said.  Behind him, Kalend stood with an arrow nocked, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow.  Wary, the companions moved forward.  As they entered the vast open space of the chamber beyond the entry hall, the shifting globe of light radiating from the Sphere made it difficult to make out details.  The chamber contained four huge pillars of bronze that were each a good four or five paces in diameter, rising up into the haze above.  There were subtle cracks visible in the stone around the perimeter of the room, a suggestion that the recent earth tremors had affected this place deep under the surface of the world. “Can’t we just shoot it from here?” Kalend suggested. “I suspect it will take Talen’s blade,” Varo said, but he seemed distracted, staring at the shifting wall of colors and light. “Hell, give it a shot,” Dar said.  “I don’t know about the rest of you lot, but know I don’t want to go in there.”Kalend lifted his bow, but before he could aim and fire, a form took on substance within the chaos aura, a huge black shadow that took on solidity as it approached them.  Decay hung about it like a cloak.  Nine feet of emaciated flesh drawn tight over bone. Broad wings trailing strips of rotting hide spreading out from its back.  Glowing eyes deep within a horned skull, a penetrating stare of sheer malevolent power.  It was chaos.  It was evil.  It was power.  It was all of those things and more, an embodiment of the dark essence of the Abyss. Maphistal had arrived.</blockquote>

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