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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3740618" data-attributes="member: 143">Short update today, but we'll have longer ones coming tomorrow and Friday. This cliffhanger was too good to pass up.  <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 243THE LEGACY OF BANTH“Circle formation... casters in the center!” Talen yelled, but with the undead able to fly, and nearly all of them coming from above, it was not clear what tactical benefit that would provide.  And then Alderis cast his repulsion spell.  The spell was the last and most powerful from Banth’s spellbooks that the elf had mastered.  Now he put the power of the late Transmuter of Rappan Athuk to a good use, spreading his arms wide as he channeled the potency of the spell through him. The undead army suddenly froze in mid-attack, as if they’d struck a stone wall.  Or at least most of them; some of the undead were able to overcome the power of the spell, and dove shrieking at the elf mage keeping their kindred in check.  But the first cohort of those attackers were abruptly vaporized as blue fire exploded through their insubstantial bodies.  Allera’s potent mass cure took out most of the diving undead; two wraiths were able to resist the full effects of the blast of positive energy, but one was struck almost immediately by an enchanted arrow from Selanthas’s bow, destroying it.  The other continued toward its prey, driven by its lust to taste the life energy of its enemies, but before it could get close enough to Alderis to strike, Shay thrust her enchanted spear through its body, catching hold of its substance and tearing it apart. A few more undead continued to force their way through the invisible barrier of Alderis’s spell, but the vast majority remained just outside it, forming a roiling, shifting cloak of blackness around them.  “Missile weapons!” Talen yelled.  “If you don’t have magical arrows, form up around the casters, kill any that get through!” The knight sheathed Beatus Incendia and reached for his own magical bow.  But even as he started to set the weapon’s string, he felt a dark cloud fall over his senses.  He was not the only one affected, as another confusion spell erupted through their ranks.  Bolstered by Nelan’s magic circle, most of them were able to shrug off the corrupting effects of the spell, but even with that aid, Dar, Talen, Mehlararine, and Selanthas were all affected.  Selanthas lifted his bow above his head and started screaming, while Mehlaraine started spinning around, uttering a string of vulgar profanities in elvish.  Talen lifted his bow, still unstrung, and smashed it across Shay’s shoulders, staggering the surprised scout. Dar, however, experienced his confusion in a different way; he ran, lumbering at full speed away from the embattled defenders. Right toward the edge of the repulsion field, where a horde of undead waited eagerly for his arrival.</blockquote>

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