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<blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3880164" data-attributes="member: 143"><p>I'm traveling this weekend, so here's the Friday post, a bit early. </p><p></p><p>* * * * * </p><p></p><p>Chapter 291</p><p></p><p>THE GRIM REALITY OF ODDS</p><p></p><p></p><p>Dar tried to get up as ghouls tore at his face and arms, but the deathbringer dug its weapon deeper into the fighter’s shoulder, keeping him down. It lifted its other flail to strike him down. </p><p></p><p>“Get off him!” Allera yelled, rushing forward with her arms outstretched. Her third and final <em>mass cure critical wounds</em> spell blazed out from her, and the ghouls surrounding Dar fell back, ravaged by healing power. The deathbringer merely flinched as blue energy flashed around its arms and torso, but that, along with the boost granted him by Allera’s spell, gave Dar the opening he needed. He reached up with his free hand and tore the nasty spike free of his body, staggering back as he won free. The wound closed as Allera’s spell finished its work upon him, but even so, the fighter could barely stand from the battering he’d taken. More ghouls were pressing in around the edges of the breach in the mill’s wall, cautious now both of the power that had destroyed their kin, and the violent movements of the deathbringer. </p><p></p><p>The deathbringer brought its flail down, but instead of striking at Dar, its target this time was the healer. Allera screamed and threw herself back, her arms coming up to shield her face. There was an audible crack as one arm was broken by the impact of the deathbringer’s weapon, and one of the spikes cut a bloody gouge across her right temple. She spun around and fell to one knee, blood pouring down her face in a torrent from the vicious wound. </p><p></p><p>Nelan rushed toward her, but the ghouls were faster. And the deathbringer was not done; it lifted its other flail, still dripping Dar’s blood, to finish the job. </p><p></p><p>Dar roared and thrust past the three ghouls that were trying unsuccessfully to grapple him. The deathbringer shifted and kicked out at him, but he dodged the armored limb and brought down <em>Valor</em> in a two-handed strike that was precisely targeted at its knee. The axiomatic blade struck the joint and tore through both tainted flesh and the bone beneath. He did not manage to sever its leg entirely, but the knee was ruined utterly, and as the creature shifted for its next attack it gave out under its weight. The deathbringer toppled sideways, crushing a pair of ghouls, and tore away another segment of wall as it smashed into it. </p><p></p><p>Dar’s expression was almost feral as he followed the monster, hacking apart a ghoul that tried to block his path. But before he could strike again, the deathbringer invoked its dread power, and an explosion of negative energy filled the interior of the mill. </p><p></p><p>Dar, protected still by Allera’s <em>death ward</em>, felt only a cold chill that traveled down his spine before fading. But his companions cried out as the pulse sucked life from their bodies, and the farmers, those that still lived, screamed and fell, their bodies stiff and lifeless. The undead, ghouls and deathbringer alike, drank up the corrupt energies of the burst, their wounds closing as the negative power filled them. </p><p></p><p>The deathbringer started to lever itself back up, its flails scraping upon the adjacent stone. </p><p></p><p>“I don’t think so,” Dar snarled. A ghoul leapt at him as he lifted <em>Valor</em>, seizing his arm, but he elbowed it hard in the face, and it fell away, its jaw shattered. The deathbringer turned its face toward him, but that evil, eyeless stare did not stop Dar. It tried instead the more practical approach of smashing him again with one of its flails. But <em>Valor</em> came up and down in a blur, and the flail went flying, still grasped in the severed fist of the deathbringer. </p><p></p><p>And Dar wasn’t done. He leapt at it, using a piece of broken wall as a springboard as he drove forward. The monster tried to draw back, but the remnants of the wall held it long enough for Dar to swing <em>Valor</em> around in a glittering arc that intersected with the center of the deathbringer’s skull. The tip of the blade cut through the sewn sockets of its eyes, drawing a line across its face that flickered with blue energy. The deathbringer stiffened and toppled backwards, out into the courtyard where hundreds of ghouls were still trying to push forward, into the building. </p><p></p><p>Dar fell back inside, into a knot of hacking claws and feral bites. Within a few seconds, he took multiple hits, and while he fought off the paralysis, he knew that the building numbness in his exhausted limbs would eventually claim him. Looking up, he saw that the deathbringer’s destruction had forced the ghouls outside back for just an instant, but now they were pouring forward again, an army of death. </p><p></p><p>And then he blinked, surprised as a white plane suddenly appeared where the gap in the wall had been. Realization set in, as the icy chill of Letellia’s <em>wal of ice</em> reached him. </p><p></p><p>But there were still almost two dozen ghouls inside the mill. The press around him was so thick that the creatures got in each other’s way, hindering their effectiveness, but he was surrounded, making a cohesive defense impossible. He could see Nelan and Allera, backed up against the far wall, likewise surrounded by ghouls. The priest was invoking the power of the Father, but for every ghoul he destroyed, another was there almost instantly to take its place. Ghouls were continuing to squeeze in through the narrow opening for the waterwheel shaft, and pieces of wood continued to rain down from above as more of them tore openings in the roof. </p><p></p><p>The situation was dire, insane, hopeless. </p><p></p><p>So Dar gave himself over to the battle. </p><p></p><p>Two ghouls seized his right hand, and tried to claw <em>Valor</em> out of his grasp. He came to them, smashing his forehead into the face of one, then delivering an elbow-strike to the second. Ghouls tore at him from every direction, but he got his sword free enough to sweep it around in a tight arc, like a maid churning butter. Ghoul flesh was ripped open, and clawing arms went flying as the legendary sword severed the limbs that reached for him. The fighter went through the ghouls like an elemental force, a tidal wave crashing onto the ramshackle huts of a coastal village. The ghouls kept on clawing and biting; the fighter’s arms and legs were covered in scratches and gouges that oozed blood. But Dar did not stop. Healing energy poured into him, but he barely noticed it, just kept swinging, kept destroying. The interior of the mill was a red haze, and nothing could stand against him. </p><p></p><p>Allera’s voice finally drew him back to reality, a cold balm that washed away the fury of battle. “Dar! Dar! It’s me, Allera!” </p><p></p><p>He blinked and saw that the healer, along with Nelan, had joined him, forming a perimeter in one corner of the mill. Both were wounded, and Allera still held her broken arm close against her body, but the nasty wound on the side of her head had been reduced to a faint scar. He glanced back, and saw behind him a trail of heaped bodies and severed ghoul limbs that stretched back to where he’d started, fifteen feet away. He sucked in a surprised breath; the entire interior of the mill was a slaughteryard, with over thirty ghoul bodies scattered about the place. </p><p></p><p>Looking around, he realized that their situation was still grim. </p><p></p><p>Letellia’s <em>wall of ice</em> was coming apart. Ghouls were smashing at it with huge stones that had come from the shattered stone wall of the mill. As he watched, several ghouls crawled through gaps in the barrier; they came through rimed in frost, their movements slowed, but still very much intact and dangerous. To his left, the ghouls had ripped the shaft of the waterwheel from its moorings, allowing them to squeeze through the gap in the wall with greater ease. And above, there were huge holes in the roof, through which ghouls were dropping in increasing numbers, heedless of the damage suffered as they fell to the hard floor twelve feet below. Most of them landed on bodies, in any case, cushioning their landing. </p><p></p><p>“There’s too many of them!” Nelan cried, smashing around him with his mace, his holy powers depleted. </p><p></p><p>“Letellia!” Dar yelled. He couldn’t see up into the loft, but he heard the familiar sizzling sound of her <em>lightning bolts</em>, followed by ghoul screams. </p><p></p><p>And then she appeared, charging toward the edge of the loft. A ghoul appeared out of nowhere, leaping at her for a flying tackle, but Allera summoned one of her few remaining <em>mass cure</em> spells, and it fell, screaming. The sorceress looked to be heading for the ladder, but there were already several ghouls on it, climbing up from below. She caught sight of the three of them. “Look out!” the fighter yelled, as a segment of roof directly above her was ripped away, and a half-dozen slavering ghouls appeared. The sorceress and ghouls looked at each other for a second, and then the creatures leapt at her, claws eagerly extended. </p><p></p><p>Letellia summoned her magic, and abruptly vanished. She appeared an instant later in the corner on the ground floor, behind Dar and Nelan. </p><p></p><p>“I need six seconds!” she yelled, her expression sharpening with focus as she drew once more upon her innate magical talent.</p><p></p><p>The ghouls surged forward. There were over fifty inside the mill now, with more pouring in with every passing second. One leapt at Nelan’s face, wrapping its claws around his shoulders. It bit down hard on the priest’s ear, drawing a scream of pain from him. Nelan had taken a dozen hits during the battle, each time fighting off the deadly effects of the ghouls’ touch, but his luck finally ran out, and he stiffened, overcome by its paralysis. Another three ghouls seized onto the priest’s arms and legs, and tried to drag him out into the middle of the room. </p><p></p><p>Dar and Allera were there in an instant. Allera reached out and touched the ghoul clinging to the priest, unleashing a powerful healing spell into it. The ghoul released its captive and fell back into the ranks of its kin, its flesh blackening as the healer’s power destroyed it. Dar cleared away the others, smashing skulls and severing limbs with precise strikes from <em>Valor</em>. He grabbed onto the cleric and thrust him back into the corner, where Letellia grabbed him. </p><p></p><p>“Whatever you’re going to do, do it now!” Dar yelled. Allera screamed as four ghouls seized her. Dar turned toward her, but a ghoul grabbed onto his leg, and he nearly went down as another three ghouls sprang on him from ahead. </p><p></p><p>“Grab Allera!” Letellia yelled. Dar roared and lunged at her, dragging several ghouls with him. He seized the healer’s wrist as the ghouls dragged her away, just as Letellia, still holding Nelan, reached out and touched Dar’s back. </p><p></p><p>Invoking her last <em>dimension door</em>, she transported the four of them out of the mill. The ghouls shrieked in frustration as their prey escaped, and started destroying everything they could get their claws on. </p><p></p><p>With a flicker of light, the four companions materialized on a lightly wooded rise. It was immediately clear where they were; the noise of the ghoul army drew their attention east, where the mill stood only about two hundred yards distant, across the stream. </p><p></p><p>“Ah... couldn’t you have teleported us farther away?” Dar asked. Allera bent over Nelan, who remained gripped by the ghoul paralysis. </p><p></p><p>“The <em>dimension door</em> only has a limited range,” Letellia explained. “I pushed it to its limit just to take us this far.”</p><p></p><p>“What about the villagers?” Allera asked. Dar and Nelan shared a look; their fate was obvious.</p><p></p><p>“The giant’s <em>negative energy burst</em> killed those in the loft,” Letellia said. “The women, children...” She shuddered, closing her eyes for a moment as she mastered herself. </p><p></p><p>Dar looked around; there was not enough clutter in the landscape nearby to offer shelter. The few trees were scant affairs, with trunks only about a half-foot in thickness, and not enough brush in the rocky soil to offer much in the way of concealment. There were no ghouls in their immediate vicinity, but the army gathered around the mill covered a considerable area, and there was a considerable number on their side of the stream. “It’s not going to take them long to realize we’re here.” As if in reply, there was a cry from below, and a small knot of ghouls to the southeast started charging toward their position. “Damn it, I hate it when I’m right. Allera, can you help the priest?”</p><p></p><p>“We need to... the <em>wind walk</em>,” Nelan said. As Allera purged the paralysis, he rose, grimacing from the pain of the gashes covering his arms and neck, and the nasty bite wound on the side of his head. Part of his right ear was gone, torn away by the ghoul that had paralyzed him. “The magic should still be in effect... concentrate on it.”</p><p></p><p>“I’m concentrating... nothing’s happening.”</p><p></p><p>“Remember, it takes some time,” Letellia reminded him. </p><p></p><p>“Yeah, well, if it doesn’t start working real quick, we’re going to have a situation here,” Dar said. More ghouls had joined the rush toward them, and the alert seemed to have spread across the stream, where large groups of ghouls had started detaching from the mass, heading in their direction. The first group had started up the rise, and was less than a hundred yards away, closing rapidly. </p><p></p><p>“Now would be good,” Dar said. But Letellia had already started to dissolve into the mist-form, followed a few seconds later by Allera. The ghouls had gotten within twenty yards when Dar and Nelan both joined them, and all four rose into the air. The ghouls shrieked below them, but the sound grew distant as the four ascended, a magical wind springing up to carry them back toward Camar at great speed.</p><p></p><p>Behind them, the ghoul army started moving again, following in their wake at a much slower, but untiring and inexorable, pace.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lazybones, post: 3880164, member: 143"] I'm traveling this weekend, so here's the Friday post, a bit early. * * * * * Chapter 291 THE GRIM REALITY OF ODDS Dar tried to get up as ghouls tore at his face and arms, but the deathbringer dug its weapon deeper into the fighter’s shoulder, keeping him down. It lifted its other flail to strike him down. “Get off him!” Allera yelled, rushing forward with her arms outstretched. Her third and final [i]mass cure critical wounds[/i] spell blazed out from her, and the ghouls surrounding Dar fell back, ravaged by healing power. The deathbringer merely flinched as blue energy flashed around its arms and torso, but that, along with the boost granted him by Allera’s spell, gave Dar the opening he needed. He reached up with his free hand and tore the nasty spike free of his body, staggering back as he won free. The wound closed as Allera’s spell finished its work upon him, but even so, the fighter could barely stand from the battering he’d taken. More ghouls were pressing in around the edges of the breach in the mill’s wall, cautious now both of the power that had destroyed their kin, and the violent movements of the deathbringer. The deathbringer brought its flail down, but instead of striking at Dar, its target this time was the healer. Allera screamed and threw herself back, her arms coming up to shield her face. There was an audible crack as one arm was broken by the impact of the deathbringer’s weapon, and one of the spikes cut a bloody gouge across her right temple. She spun around and fell to one knee, blood pouring down her face in a torrent from the vicious wound. Nelan rushed toward her, but the ghouls were faster. And the deathbringer was not done; it lifted its other flail, still dripping Dar’s blood, to finish the job. Dar roared and thrust past the three ghouls that were trying unsuccessfully to grapple him. The deathbringer shifted and kicked out at him, but he dodged the armored limb and brought down [i]Valor[/i] in a two-handed strike that was precisely targeted at its knee. The axiomatic blade struck the joint and tore through both tainted flesh and the bone beneath. He did not manage to sever its leg entirely, but the knee was ruined utterly, and as the creature shifted for its next attack it gave out under its weight. The deathbringer toppled sideways, crushing a pair of ghouls, and tore away another segment of wall as it smashed into it. Dar’s expression was almost feral as he followed the monster, hacking apart a ghoul that tried to block his path. But before he could strike again, the deathbringer invoked its dread power, and an explosion of negative energy filled the interior of the mill. Dar, protected still by Allera’s [i]death ward[/i], felt only a cold chill that traveled down his spine before fading. But his companions cried out as the pulse sucked life from their bodies, and the farmers, those that still lived, screamed and fell, their bodies stiff and lifeless. The undead, ghouls and deathbringer alike, drank up the corrupt energies of the burst, their wounds closing as the negative power filled them. The deathbringer started to lever itself back up, its flails scraping upon the adjacent stone. “I don’t think so,” Dar snarled. A ghoul leapt at him as he lifted [i]Valor[/i], seizing his arm, but he elbowed it hard in the face, and it fell away, its jaw shattered. The deathbringer turned its face toward him, but that evil, eyeless stare did not stop Dar. It tried instead the more practical approach of smashing him again with one of its flails. But [i]Valor[/i] came up and down in a blur, and the flail went flying, still grasped in the severed fist of the deathbringer. And Dar wasn’t done. He leapt at it, using a piece of broken wall as a springboard as he drove forward. The monster tried to draw back, but the remnants of the wall held it long enough for Dar to swing [i]Valor[/i] around in a glittering arc that intersected with the center of the deathbringer’s skull. The tip of the blade cut through the sewn sockets of its eyes, drawing a line across its face that flickered with blue energy. The deathbringer stiffened and toppled backwards, out into the courtyard where hundreds of ghouls were still trying to push forward, into the building. Dar fell back inside, into a knot of hacking claws and feral bites. Within a few seconds, he took multiple hits, and while he fought off the paralysis, he knew that the building numbness in his exhausted limbs would eventually claim him. Looking up, he saw that the deathbringer’s destruction had forced the ghouls outside back for just an instant, but now they were pouring forward again, an army of death. And then he blinked, surprised as a white plane suddenly appeared where the gap in the wall had been. Realization set in, as the icy chill of Letellia’s [i]wal of ice[/i] reached him. But there were still almost two dozen ghouls inside the mill. The press around him was so thick that the creatures got in each other’s way, hindering their effectiveness, but he was surrounded, making a cohesive defense impossible. He could see Nelan and Allera, backed up against the far wall, likewise surrounded by ghouls. The priest was invoking the power of the Father, but for every ghoul he destroyed, another was there almost instantly to take its place. Ghouls were continuing to squeeze in through the narrow opening for the waterwheel shaft, and pieces of wood continued to rain down from above as more of them tore openings in the roof. The situation was dire, insane, hopeless. So Dar gave himself over to the battle. Two ghouls seized his right hand, and tried to claw [i]Valor[/i] out of his grasp. He came to them, smashing his forehead into the face of one, then delivering an elbow-strike to the second. Ghouls tore at him from every direction, but he got his sword free enough to sweep it around in a tight arc, like a maid churning butter. Ghoul flesh was ripped open, and clawing arms went flying as the legendary sword severed the limbs that reached for him. The fighter went through the ghouls like an elemental force, a tidal wave crashing onto the ramshackle huts of a coastal village. The ghouls kept on clawing and biting; the fighter’s arms and legs were covered in scratches and gouges that oozed blood. But Dar did not stop. Healing energy poured into him, but he barely noticed it, just kept swinging, kept destroying. The interior of the mill was a red haze, and nothing could stand against him. Allera’s voice finally drew him back to reality, a cold balm that washed away the fury of battle. “Dar! Dar! It’s me, Allera!” He blinked and saw that the healer, along with Nelan, had joined him, forming a perimeter in one corner of the mill. Both were wounded, and Allera still held her broken arm close against her body, but the nasty wound on the side of her head had been reduced to a faint scar. He glanced back, and saw behind him a trail of heaped bodies and severed ghoul limbs that stretched back to where he’d started, fifteen feet away. He sucked in a surprised breath; the entire interior of the mill was a slaughteryard, with over thirty ghoul bodies scattered about the place. Looking around, he realized that their situation was still grim. Letellia’s [i]wall of ice[/i] was coming apart. Ghouls were smashing at it with huge stones that had come from the shattered stone wall of the mill. As he watched, several ghouls crawled through gaps in the barrier; they came through rimed in frost, their movements slowed, but still very much intact and dangerous. To his left, the ghouls had ripped the shaft of the waterwheel from its moorings, allowing them to squeeze through the gap in the wall with greater ease. And above, there were huge holes in the roof, through which ghouls were dropping in increasing numbers, heedless of the damage suffered as they fell to the hard floor twelve feet below. Most of them landed on bodies, in any case, cushioning their landing. “There’s too many of them!” Nelan cried, smashing around him with his mace, his holy powers depleted. “Letellia!” Dar yelled. He couldn’t see up into the loft, but he heard the familiar sizzling sound of her [i]lightning bolts[/i], followed by ghoul screams. And then she appeared, charging toward the edge of the loft. A ghoul appeared out of nowhere, leaping at her for a flying tackle, but Allera summoned one of her few remaining [i]mass cure[/i] spells, and it fell, screaming. The sorceress looked to be heading for the ladder, but there were already several ghouls on it, climbing up from below. She caught sight of the three of them. “Look out!” the fighter yelled, as a segment of roof directly above her was ripped away, and a half-dozen slavering ghouls appeared. The sorceress and ghouls looked at each other for a second, and then the creatures leapt at her, claws eagerly extended. Letellia summoned her magic, and abruptly vanished. She appeared an instant later in the corner on the ground floor, behind Dar and Nelan. “I need six seconds!” she yelled, her expression sharpening with focus as she drew once more upon her innate magical talent. The ghouls surged forward. There were over fifty inside the mill now, with more pouring in with every passing second. One leapt at Nelan’s face, wrapping its claws around his shoulders. It bit down hard on the priest’s ear, drawing a scream of pain from him. Nelan had taken a dozen hits during the battle, each time fighting off the deadly effects of the ghouls’ touch, but his luck finally ran out, and he stiffened, overcome by its paralysis. Another three ghouls seized onto the priest’s arms and legs, and tried to drag him out into the middle of the room. Dar and Allera were there in an instant. Allera reached out and touched the ghoul clinging to the priest, unleashing a powerful healing spell into it. The ghoul released its captive and fell back into the ranks of its kin, its flesh blackening as the healer’s power destroyed it. Dar cleared away the others, smashing skulls and severing limbs with precise strikes from [i]Valor[/i]. He grabbed onto the cleric and thrust him back into the corner, where Letellia grabbed him. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it now!” Dar yelled. Allera screamed as four ghouls seized her. Dar turned toward her, but a ghoul grabbed onto his leg, and he nearly went down as another three ghouls sprang on him from ahead. “Grab Allera!” Letellia yelled. Dar roared and lunged at her, dragging several ghouls with him. He seized the healer’s wrist as the ghouls dragged her away, just as Letellia, still holding Nelan, reached out and touched Dar’s back. Invoking her last [i]dimension door[/i], she transported the four of them out of the mill. The ghouls shrieked in frustration as their prey escaped, and started destroying everything they could get their claws on. With a flicker of light, the four companions materialized on a lightly wooded rise. It was immediately clear where they were; the noise of the ghoul army drew their attention east, where the mill stood only about two hundred yards distant, across the stream. “Ah... couldn’t you have teleported us farther away?” Dar asked. Allera bent over Nelan, who remained gripped by the ghoul paralysis. “The [i]dimension door[/i] only has a limited range,” Letellia explained. “I pushed it to its limit just to take us this far.” “What about the villagers?” Allera asked. Dar and Nelan shared a look; their fate was obvious. “The giant’s [i]negative energy burst[/i] killed those in the loft,” Letellia said. “The women, children...” She shuddered, closing her eyes for a moment as she mastered herself. Dar looked around; there was not enough clutter in the landscape nearby to offer shelter. The few trees were scant affairs, with trunks only about a half-foot in thickness, and not enough brush in the rocky soil to offer much in the way of concealment. There were no ghouls in their immediate vicinity, but the army gathered around the mill covered a considerable area, and there was a considerable number on their side of the stream. “It’s not going to take them long to realize we’re here.” As if in reply, there was a cry from below, and a small knot of ghouls to the southeast started charging toward their position. “Damn it, I hate it when I’m right. Allera, can you help the priest?” “We need to... the [i]wind walk[/i],” Nelan said. As Allera purged the paralysis, he rose, grimacing from the pain of the gashes covering his arms and neck, and the nasty bite wound on the side of his head. Part of his right ear was gone, torn away by the ghoul that had paralyzed him. “The magic should still be in effect... concentrate on it.” “I’m concentrating... nothing’s happening.” “Remember, it takes some time,” Letellia reminded him. “Yeah, well, if it doesn’t start working real quick, we’re going to have a situation here,” Dar said. More ghouls had joined the rush toward them, and the alert seemed to have spread across the stream, where large groups of ghouls had started detaching from the mass, heading in their direction. The first group had started up the rise, and was less than a hundred yards away, closing rapidly. “Now would be good,” Dar said. But Letellia had already started to dissolve into the mist-form, followed a few seconds later by Allera. The ghouls had gotten within twenty yards when Dar and Nelan both joined them, and all four rose into the air. The ghouls shrieked below them, but the sound grew distant as the four ascended, a magical wind springing up to carry them back toward Camar at great speed. Behind them, the ghoul army started moving again, following in their wake at a much slower, but untiring and inexorable, pace. [/QUOTE]
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