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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4251851" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 50THE AMALGAMATIONThe wizard lifted a hand to cast a spell, but the sword was much faster, driven by an invisible hand. There was a blur of motion, and the sword clanged loudly as Aerim deflected it with a sudden sweep of his long blade.  The sword kept going through the parry, and its edge glanced off of the Seer’s arm.  The hit would have sliced his bicep down to the bone, but the wizard’s stoneskin protected him, to a degree. “Get back, man!” Aerim warned, thrusting the mage behind him.  He looked into the mass of items swirling above.  His eyes were drawn to an axe that seemed to shift malevolently, but the more immediate danger turned out to be a wand of faded bone that was suddenly pointing toward them, its head flaring with magical energy. The sword was not done, either; it stopped just a few feet past the Seer, spinning in mid-air so that the point was aimed once more at the wizard’s heart.  But before it could launch itself again, the weapon suddenly trembled, and fell onto the surface of the adjacent table with a loud clatter. The bone wand fired off a lightning bolt, but the blazing arc likewise died as it struck the edge of the advancing antimagic field that accompanied Ozmad.  The others formed a wedge close around the ogre mage, pressing in close between the tables so that they could remain within the effect.  The menacing axe had started toward Aerim, but now it spun away, as if wary of the aura that had caught up the sword.  The sword lay there harmlessly until the ogre and his coterie were well past; then it sprang back into the air, joining the swirl that remained a good distance from the ogre mage’s position. Ozmad led them across the room in a slow but steady progression, ignoring the chaos above and around them.  The amalgamation followed them, but could not affect them within the protective bubble of disruptive energy.  They left it behind as they approached the room’s only evident exit, another heavy door set into the wall to their right.  The others watched, wary of some surprise, as Falah and Jasek worked the mechanism, and then they were through, leaving the animated magical laboratory behind them.  What they encountered next drew a startled breath from all of them. The chamber was vast in a way that made even the huge cavern of the stone guardians seem pedestrian by contrast.  The place was a huge dome, a hemisphere carved in perfect symmetry from the odd, swirling stone of the complex.  There was no doubt in any of their minds that they had found their destination. Most of the chamber was dominated by a vast pyramid that looked solid, at first glance.  A second look revealed it to be made up of an energy that subtly shifted and shimmered.  Beams of colored light emerged from openings along the perimeter of the room, two visible from their current position, one red, one yellow.  The color of the beams faded into the gray mass of the pyramid, although occasionally a tendril of that color twisted through the barrier before disappearing.  A gantry of silvery metal ran around the edge of the room about fifteen feet above them, its spars anchored directly  into the curving wall, and providing access to the openings where the colored beams emerged.  There was no way to tell how far back those round tunnels went, or where the energy beams originated.  “There it is,” Ozmad said, and it was only then that the others realized that the guardian had already proceded them here. The lich stood at the base of the pyramid, an insignificant ant against the backdrop of such a huge and eternal thing as the barrier.  It stood near a discoloration in the stone, a line of black smear that ran across the floor, reaching almost into the barrier like the branch of a dead tree.  The pyramid was opaque, but each of them could almost see the stirring within the barrier, almost like a child waiting to be born.  “Remain within the antimagic field,” Ozmad directed, unnecessarily, as all of them had felt the bite of the lich’s magic.  All save Navev, but the mummy had faded back into the shadows, and was almost invisible in the doorway behind them.  “Step aside or be destroyed, guardian,” Ghazaran said, his voice echoing oddly within the chamber.  The place was a perfect dome, but the pyramidal barrier did something odd to sounds, causing a weird reverberation that twisted and distorted them before they returned.  The lich did not move.  “Turn away from this madness,” it said, its voice hollow but strong, and utterly determined.  “You know not what you do here.  The Ravager is a being of primal destruction; it cannot be controlled.  What you will unleash upon the world will return against you a thousandfold, leaving only grief and rage in its wake.”“We are fully cognizant of the consequences of our actions,” the cleric returned. The lich focused its glowing eyes upon the man, and after a moment, it nodded.  “So be it.  But I cannot allow you to do this.”The companions shifted, expecting some sort of attack, but the lich merely reached back and thrust a skeletal hand against the barrier behind it.  Something flashed in its hand, and they could see its fingers sliding into the pyramid.  The result was immediate; ripples of color spread out from the point of contact, and they could sense something deeper, a disturbance within the field.  “We must intervene,” Ozmad said, starting forward, the others forming a tight ring around the ogre.  But they had barely covered a half-dozen steps when the lich’s actions resulted in a more immediate and dramatic response. The only warning they had was a slight bulging in the barrier.  It pushed back against the lich’s touch, strong enough to force the undead guardian back several steps.  And then there was a blurring, or perhaps a tearing, as something came through the area of distortion.  It came through like a charging dragon, trampling Amurru into the ground without seeming to even notice that the lich was there.  The barrier snapped back into its usual position behind it. “The Ravager!” Jasek exclaimed, looking up at the monstrosity with wide eyes.  It was certainly as big as a dragon, built like some freakish combination of fiend and wolverine, its six clawed legs built to burrow and rend, its angular face broken by a massive jaw that was generously populated with razor-sharp teeth.  Claws, teeth, and eyes were all utter black, devoid of color, while its hairless body was a heavy red, deepening the higher on its body one looked, until its crest bore the color of freshly spewn blood.  Its flesh bulged with ridges of bone, as though plates of armor had been inserted under the skin.  It was fearsome, and it exuded an aura of sheer destruction that only intensified as it fixed its eyes upon those that had intruded upon its slumber. “No, this is but a spawn of the beast,” Ozmad explained.  The others shot an incredulous glance between the ogre mage and the creature—this thing was just an offspring of the Ravager?  “It would appear that the guardian has chosen to release one of those within its remit, in order to keep the greater entity confined.” But there was no time for further consultation or consideration, as the creature recovered quickly, and lowered its head as it charged toward them.</blockquote>

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