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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4051775" data-attributes="member: 143">Yeah, I think Mord's is one of the few powers that Orcus doesn't have. But I have given the Demon access to some powers not expressly described in the module, as you'll see developed over the next few posts. * * * * * Chapter 358ORCUS STIRSAs soon as she felt Orcus’s power wash over her, collapsing the defensive barriers that held his undead forces at bay, Allera knew that it was time to act.  She saw Dar meeting the charge of ghouls and ghasts, slicing down one, two, and then a third with Beatus Incendia before the others swarmed upon him, almost dragging him down through sheer numbers.  Letellia shouted something, but she couldn’t hear it over the violent noises of the onrushing charge, overlaid with the ongoing noises of suffering that rose from Orcus’s throne.  She could see the marilith, rising up behind the farthest rank of undead, her swords lifted high like the petals of a flower.  She held her power, but waited another second, two, even as Dar fought for his life, and a ghast sprang upon Varo, and at least a dozen claws extended toward her as the enemy charge swept around Dar and came straight toward her, Letellia, and Alderis.  The elf still had not moved from his position, and he continued to stare ahead as though looking at something a thousand leagues away. Then, finally, she unleashed her mass heal.  The energies of the spell spread outward like an invisible explosion.  Blue fire erupted around the bodies of the nearest undead, and then those behind, and onward until every unliving foe within thirty feet of her had been seared by that potent flame.  Even shrouded within the presence of Orcus, the undead could not escape the sheer destructive potential of pure positive energy.  Allera felt purged as the power coursed through her, restored her, cleansed her spirit.  Varo, waiting for just that moment, followed her spell with a flame strike that descended onto the ground directly in front of them.  The spell cleansed the space of undead, blasting the ravaged creatures into fine dust.  It engulfed Dar as well, but the fighter, protected to some degree by his armor, weathered it far better than his foes.  Only a handful of undead remained, those in close quarters with the spellcasters, and thus not caught within the flame strike, and a few zombies that had been too slow in their charge to reach the radius of the blast.  That number declined further as Letellia blasted three critically weakened wraiths and two spectres with magic missiles, dissolving all five of them.  “We’ll defeat anything you can throw at us, goat-face!” Dar shouted, cutting apart a wraith that had evaded the flame strike.  The other wraith had been consumed by the flames, and there was nothing left of the huge mass of ghouls, ghasts, and skeletons that had mobbed him except for gray dust.  But Dar found a more immediate threat to deal with first, as the marilith slid forward to meet him in battle.  “Now?” Allera said to Varo.  “Not yet,” the cleric replied.  He tossed his wand aside, its power depleted and useless.  Two shadows, their black forms rent by healing power, hovered around him, unable to affect him through his death ward.  He ignored them, and said to her, “Be ready.”Dar stepped forward boldly to engage the six-armed demon.  Each was wary of the other, having just witnessed the destructive potential each possessed in the last battle in the outer chamber.  The marilith had the advantage in strength, speed, reach, and sheer number of attacks, but Dar had Beatus Incendia, and a determination that could not be reduced to easily quantifiable terms.  Once again the demon’s swords lashed out as the human entered its reach, and once again Dar took the hits and stepped up close to deliver his own assault.  Bright red blood and black ichor alike flew through the air, each spraying the other with their own fluids as their blades carved through armor and flesh and bit deep into the bodies beneath.After that first full exchange of attacks, the marilith started to turn away, sagging as ichor continued to trail down its body.  One of its arms hung limply at its side, and a deep gash ran down from one breast to where its hip would have been, had it been a mortal woman.  As he had with the first one, Dar stepped in to finish it.  But even as he lifted Beatus Incendia, the marilith’s tail lashed around, the turning of its body allowing it to lash the long appendage up and around like the head of a whip.  Dar turned, but just a fraction too slow.  The tail smashed down hard across his back, staggering him, and it curled around his torso, tightening like the closing of a fist around the hilt of a sword.  Before he could effectively react, the demon reversed its turn, twining more of itself around him, crushing his left arm against his body, and squeezing his torso hard enough to crack his ribs even within his armor.  Dar cried out as he was lifted off his feet, firmly imprisoned within the demon’s deadly coils.  He still held Beatus Incendia in his right hand, but the demon remained out of reach, and in his current position he could not get an effective angle to hew at the parts of it that held him secure. Allera and Letellia tried to come to his aid.  The sorceress struck the marilith with the pale green beam of a disintegrate spell, but the demon’s resistances far outpowered Letellia’s strength, and the ray dissipated without effect as it struck her.  Allera was torn between Varo’s mandate and fear for her lover, and as the demon tightened its grasp, it was not clear in any case what healing alone would do here, except to postpone the demon’s victory.  Before she could make her decision, a loud noise drew her attention around.  The throne’s protests rose to a crescendo, and bones cracked and shifted as Orcus lifted himself to its feet.  The demon seemed to rise up above them like a titan as it stood, the power washing off of it disproportionate to even its considerable size.  Orcus said nothing, but Allera could feel the pressure of its stare, could feel the sheer malevolence in that gaze.  Its intent was instantly clear, as it lifted its dread wand and strode forward to deal with them itself.</blockquote>

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