Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3875265" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks, Qwernt!  Today's update wraps up the Varo-Tiros subplot and we'll focus on the other group the rest of the week. * * * * * Chapter 288THE FURY OF DAGOSVaro did not flinch as hundreds of pounds of ghoul descended upon him.  As the creature landed, its claws smashing down into his shoulders, he merely reached up and touched its chest.  The cleric was flung roughly back, smashed prone by the force of the ghoul’s powerful attack.  But the ghoul was seriously damaged as Varo’s heal spell raged through its body.  Huge swathes of flesh burned away from its torso as the power of the spell was fully discharged into it.  With a violent fury, the ghoul hurled itself forward at the cleric, who was slowly rising to a crouch.  Tiros unleashed a furious yell as he barreled into the ghoul from behind.  He had lost Varo’s mace when the elemental had separated them, but he’d grabbed a fallen spear from the assorted weapons left behind by the dead and fleeing legionaries.  The pain had returned with the creature’s reappearance, but this time he was able to master it, his jaw clenched with the effort of fighting through the constant pressure upon his awareness.  He had built up speed as he closed the distance between where he had fallen and where the ghoul stood over Varo, and as he reached them he drove the spear into the creature’s back with the full force of his momentum and weight behind it.  The steel head penetrated deep into its body, but if it hit anything vital, the ghoul did not betray that in its actions.  It merely shrugged and twisted its body, knocking the marshal roughly aside, then continued on toward Varo.“Varo, look out!” Tiros yelled.  The priest looked up, but he took no action to evade the ghoul’s rush.  It leapt at him again, its jaws open wide to engulf its foe’s entire head.  Varo lifted an arm, and as the ghoul landed his entire limb vanished into its gaping maw.  Divine energy flashed as the cleric released another spell, and searing fire flared from the ghoul’s mouth, ears, and nostrils as another potent healing spell wrought destruction upon the creature. But the ghoul got its revenge a moment later; as Varo drew his arm back, it snapped its jaws violently shut.  With a crunch of bone, the limb gave way, and Varo fell back, his right arm a bloody stump that ended at the elbow.  Tiros tried to rush back in, to recover the long haft of the spear that jutted from the ghoul’s back.  But he had to abort the maneuver, and hurl himself aside as the earth elemental lumbered forward, and delivered a powerful, two-fisted strike that connected solidly across the ghoul’s shoulders.  The hit would have crushed half of the bones in a mortal man, and the even the seemingly-unstoppable ghoul could not easily absorb the impact.  It collapsed to the ground, one arm jutting up at an improbable angle from its ruined shoulder joint.  But it still moved, its bloated body quivering as it tried to rise.  Tiros could almost feel it healing, regenerating itself from the considerable damage it had absorbed.  For an instant, as its eyes passed over him, he could feel its hunger, the burning need that drove its existence.  He looked around for another weapon, but there was nothing within reach.  He pulled himself to his feet.Varo stepped forward, his ruined arm cradled against his body.  The ghoul, sensing his presence, snarled and lashed at him with a claw.  The cleric took the hit across his right hip, the force of the impact sufficient to knock him a full step to the side.  He wavered for a moment, but he kept his balance, and lunged forward, placing his left hand, holding his divine focus, upon the ghoul’s forehead. “Dagos bids you leave this place, famine spirit,” he said, unleashing another spell. The ghoul screamed as holy fire blasted through the contact into its skull.  Varo did not release it, channeling more of the power of his god into the undead monster, driving it deeper into its body.  Tiros watched in amazement as the ghoul’s terrible cry faded, and finally both it and the light died.  The ghoul toppled over backwards, its head a blackened wreck.  It did not move.  Varo stood over it in silence for a long moment, and then cast another spell, touching his divine focus to the stump of his severed arm. Tiros walked over to him.  The elemental regarded him silently, and then began to crumble, sinking back into the ground.  In its wake, the marshal could see the entirety of the wreckage left by the ghoul’s rampage.  Dozens of men, dead, their remains scattered about like a child’s forgotten toys.  Varo finished his spell.  Tiros turned to him.  “Your arm...”“The final confrontation is coming, marshal,” the priest said.  “You must be ready.”Tiros was uncertain how to reply.  As he watched, the cleric began to dissolve once more into mist, and before he could say anything further, Varo rose up into the air, vanishing into the morning sky on his wind walk spell. Within just a few seconds, he was gone, leaving Tiros alone with the carnage.  The men of the Second Legion found him there a minute later, standing over the body of the ghoul.  A veteran officer, his face pale, came up to him.  “Your orders, marshal?”Tiros looked up at him.  It took a few seconds for recognition to set in, but when he finally spoke, his voice was clear and calm, and loud enough to carry to the nervous-looking soldiers standing behind the officer.  “The creature is dead.  Prepare a burial detail at once, captain; I want this place cleansed.  And direct all command-level officers to meet me in my tent in ten minutes.”“Sir!” the man saluted.  He started to hurry off, but Tiros forestalled him.  “And get me a horse, and an escort of twenty men.  I will be riding for Camar.”</blockquote>

Verification