Ealli
First Post
Chapter 9: Red Haze Shadow
Flickering shadows engulfed the party where they stood outside of Sasha’s tomb. In the blink of an eye, the light of the everburning torch was reduced to a mere pinprick and the surrounding darkness provided its own black light. Thundina felt some intangible force pulling her attention to the presence of something down the hallway. Quick glances around her friends revealed that her vision was only good to about ten feet and that everyone else was also aware that something was out there.
“Cyron, do you think you could give us some light here?” Thundina called.
“Can’t,” came Cyron’s reply. “I don’t have any light available.”
Before Thundina could ask for clarification, she staggered from a wave of vertigo. As it passed Thundina felt relaxed, bold, giddy; in short, she felt drunk. No more wasting time on Cyron, there was something to discover and maybe something to conquer. Putting one foot in front of the other, Thundina stepped away from the party and into the shadows.
Just as soon as she lost sight of her friends, Thundina spotted a large spider emitting shadows in the middle of the hallway. She took the final steps towards it, stumbling a little, only to have the spider take a swipe at her with one of its legs. The hairy leg swept over Thundina’s head, only because the stumble was driving Thundina down already. She retaliated with a sweeping cut at close range. Ashlyn soon took up a flanking position opposite Thundina with the Sunsword hovering over the creature, ready to stab down.
From back where the party was, a scream was cut short to be followed by the meaty sounds of two chunks of something smacking to the floor. “Owww,” Krel cried out, “Romann, what are you doing?”
Halas stepped up to Romann, whispered to him, “This is the end of you, for such a shocking act.” Halas stabbed Romann, the rapier pricking Romann in the arm and drawing a trickle of blood.
“Halas, no,” Cyron protested. “Romann is not feeling himself. You will stand down.” To make certain that Halas terminated his attacks, Cyron wrapped Halas in his own mind, causing Halas to freeze up.
Romann was enraged at the presumption of Halas to betray their friendship and turned his greatsword on Halas. The first blow crushed Halas’s chest while the second blow battered the bloody body further. The crushed form of Halas slipped to the ground completely motionless.
Krel waved a wand at Romann, “I’m sorry to do this my friend, but you need to stop.” Romann froze in place, like Halas had when Cyron enspelled him.
The dual threat of Thundina and Ashlyn spooked the creature between them and it vanished. The shadows vanished too, though a boundary of darkness was just off to their side. Thundina struck at the space where the spider had just vanished and then continued her strike on and out the far side of the space with the guisarme’s head running harmlessly over Ashlyn’s armored foot. Thundina then flicked her guisarme up. Ashlyn looked surprised at the wild strike and asked Thundina, “Were you attempting to attack me?”
“What?” Thundina asked innocently, “Just because you are so holy and make everyone feel judged by the gods, doesn’t mean I would ever try to get rid of you.”
“You are a Lightbringer, Thundina, you took an oath.” Ashlyn scolded gently, “I am going to bring the Light into the shadows.” Ashlyn strode into the shadows in search of the badger-like creature.
Thundina considered a moment and decided that there was something about the creature that just annoyed her to no end. As soon as she took a step into the shadows, she could feel the draw of something. Following the draw to its center, Thundina found the creature crouching by a corner. Thundina silently stalked up to it taking that it would not attempt to grab her with a hairy leg again.
Ashlyn came out of the shadows from the other direction and again took up a threatening position on the creature. As soon as Ashlyn appeared, the creature vanished again leaving Thundina in normal darkness and Ashlyn in the unnatural shadows. Frustrated at the target vanishing again, Thundina lashed out at the only target she could still see, missing Ashlyn badly. Ashlyn walked deeper into the shadows without a backward glance. “I’m sorry, Ashlyn, I didn’t mean it,” Thundina shouted after her before muttering to herself, “I’ve had enough of chasing after that thing through the shadows. The others can handle the situation for once, or flush it back here.”
The absurdity of the situation caught up to Thundina and she laughed. The laughter soon gave way to dread and she attempted to flee. The soft force urging her into the shadows to track down the creature at the center became a hard force preventing her from taking even a single step away from it. This too was hilarious and Thundina resumed laughing even harder.
The edge of the shadows shifted slightly and sobriety returned to Thundina. The sudden onset and sudden departure of a drunken state worried her and the numerous screams from that time which had pretty well died away worried her more. Once she had stepped in to the shadows, she could feel that gentle force pushing her back towards where she first encountered the creature. Thundina moved orthogonal to the force as much as possible looking for where the party had started.
Blood covered the entire area, in splatter patterns around two corpses. Grim had been cut in half, he had died fast at least. Halas however looked to have died more slowly and brutally. Thundina considered the violence and the losses. Grim had been a fine boy for the brief time Thundina had known him, his death was truly a shame. Halas, on the other hand, was not a fine boy and Thundina did not mourn his death at all. There was that one little problem about how he had supposedly hidden the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, but maybe he was lying about that like he lied about everything else. Too much blood and too many screams, it was time to get out if at all possible. Thundina scooped up Halas’s pack with the intention of taking it out of the castle. Before she could take a step towards the stairs, another wave of vertigo caught her. Beginning to feel giggly, Thundina also recognized that this was an external effect and refused to give in to it again. The vertigo passed without leaving inebriation behind.
Thundina began walking with the force and in the direction of the stairs out. She passed Ashlyn, Romann, and Cyron on her way forward. She could only quickly glance at them, but Romann and Cyron were covered in blood, additionally flecks of foam were all around Romann’s mouth while Ashlyn was looking a little tipsy. The field of force brought Thundina to face the creature once more, just shy of the exit to the stairs.
The force was a gentle push so long as Thundina moved towards the creature and even as she moved around the creature, but attempts to move away were met with a much firmer force that prevented any retreat. The only way out for Thundina would be to defeat the creature. Her heart began racing as she prepared for battle, wishing furiously that she could have some assistance in the battle. From the shadows, Cyron stepped forward dropping his holy symbol back to his chest as he took up a position on the far side of the creature, not quite flanking it, but something easy enough to remedy.
The raised up on its back legs and lashed out at Thundina with hairy legs. Thundina dodged the first leg entirely. She deflected the second leg up and away harmlessly with her guisarme but deflecting the leg then left Thundina exposed as two more legs came crashing in at waist level. The breastplate absorbed the majority of the blows, but Thundina knew she’d have bruises there in the morning. The spider landed on all its legs again and surged forward to grab Thundina in its mandibles. As it tore away a chunk of flesh from Thundina, it pulled something else out as well. To Thundina, her weapon seemed heavier than it had ever before and the armor weighed on her shoulders more than usual.
Thundina slipped to the side so that she was directly across from Cyron and brought her guisarme down towards the spider. It watched the guisarme closely and the shadows seemed to gather around it as the spider watched until the creature began tracking Cyron as well. The instant not all of its attention was on Thundina, Thundina’s strike connected with the cephalothorax. The creature writhed at the massive gash and Thundina only regretted that the shadows had prevented her from going after something intimately vital. She wasted no time in quickly flicking the guisarme again and again.
“Come on Cyron,” Thundina shouted, “let’s finish this!”
“Dammit, Thundina, I’m a cleric, not a fighter. The Blessing of the Sovereign Host be upon us. Err, and by us, I mean you and me, I’m a little leery of letting Romann have divine guidance on his sword at the current time. You won’t repeat that to him, right?”
The spider scuttled towards Romann, who had neared the battle. Again the spider rose on its hind legs and pummeled its target with four legs before landing and biting. Shadows trailed from the bite wound back to the spider’s maw and Romann staggered a moment before retaliating with a powerful blow that split open the creature’s head. The force that had been pushing Thundina towards the creature vanished and the unnatural shadows which had surrounded the group rushed into the creature. The pinprick of light from the everburning torch flared back to its normal pale glow. Even that little bit was reassuring.
Thundina made eye contact with Romann to congratulate him on finishing off the spider, but he was not looking her way. His eyes were darting back and forth as he was laughing manically. He spotted Cyron and took a step forward with his greatsword raised high. Thundina snared one of his legs and pulled it out from beneath him, dropping Romann heavily on his back. She then hopped back another step so that even if he rolled over, she’d still be out of the reach of the greatsword.
“Over here, you oaf.” Thundina taunted as Romann fell. “Pick on someone your own size and leave Cyron to tend to the wounded!”
Romann climbed to his feet and ran towards Thundina. She was set to deflect any strike, but no attack came. Whatever insanity or confusion was whipping Romann into such a blood frenzy faded as he came face to face with Thundina. Meanwhile Cyron reported from back outside Sasha’s crypt that Ashlyn was beyond help in another pool of blood.
A quick count of the bodies told Thundina that Krel was missing. “Krel, where are you? The battle is over, it’s safe to come out!”
“When the pressure shifted the second time, he stepped into the shadows following the pressure flow,” Cyron said and pointed in the direction that Krel had gone. “I haven’t seen him since then. He was using his wands, but I haven’t heard anything recently either.”
A little ways into the catacombs they found Krel’s unmoving body. He had suffered multiple blows to the head but was still holding a wand, looking like he was ready to use it.
“A warrior’s death.” Thundina proclaimed. “I mean, I know he wasn’t a warrior, but as deaths go, this was a good one. He died opposing a vicious creature in defense of his friends. So why do I feel so terrible?”
“Ah, Thundina, there you are,” Romann interrupted, “I need your help with words for when I describe this fight to the villagers. Would you say I crushed the spider or was it more that I smashed the spider? Or maybe squished? Hmm, squished doesn’t seem to invoke the right proportions though.” Romann wandered away again musing on how to wow the villagers with his combat prowess.
“If you’re feeling responsible,” Cyron counseled, “you shouldn’t. Krel, from everything I heard, joined the quest for his own reasons, and you didn’t contribute to his death. That was all the fault of the spider, and the master of this castle. Umm, but I think we need to be leaving, those vampire spawn should be on their way back soon.”
After collecting Krel and bringing him back to the staging area, the remaining group noticed how there were four corpses but only three people to carry. Thundina made the first suggestion, “I guess we leave Halas here. Worst case, stick him in one of these empty crypts.”
“We can’t leave Halas here!” Romann decried.
“Bringing Halas back may be of a good plan,” Cyron mediated. “Tomorrow we could then Speak with Dead to learn where he hid the Symbol.”
Thundina drew a long knife and grabbed Halas by the hair, “We only need the head, right?”
Cyron closed his eyes a moment before replying, “No. The body needs to be mostly intact.”
“Okay, so we bring back Halas. I guess Grim is the one who gets left here. He was such a nice boy, that’s a shame.”
Romann had been playing around with some of Halas’s gear and rejoined the conversation, “Why don’t we put one of the corpses in the Bag of Holding?”
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Chapter 9 to be concluded in a couple days.
Flickering shadows engulfed the party where they stood outside of Sasha’s tomb. In the blink of an eye, the light of the everburning torch was reduced to a mere pinprick and the surrounding darkness provided its own black light. Thundina felt some intangible force pulling her attention to the presence of something down the hallway. Quick glances around her friends revealed that her vision was only good to about ten feet and that everyone else was also aware that something was out there.
“Cyron, do you think you could give us some light here?” Thundina called.
“Can’t,” came Cyron’s reply. “I don’t have any light available.”
Before Thundina could ask for clarification, she staggered from a wave of vertigo. As it passed Thundina felt relaxed, bold, giddy; in short, she felt drunk. No more wasting time on Cyron, there was something to discover and maybe something to conquer. Putting one foot in front of the other, Thundina stepped away from the party and into the shadows.
Just as soon as she lost sight of her friends, Thundina spotted a large spider emitting shadows in the middle of the hallway. She took the final steps towards it, stumbling a little, only to have the spider take a swipe at her with one of its legs. The hairy leg swept over Thundina’s head, only because the stumble was driving Thundina down already. She retaliated with a sweeping cut at close range. Ashlyn soon took up a flanking position opposite Thundina with the Sunsword hovering over the creature, ready to stab down.
From back where the party was, a scream was cut short to be followed by the meaty sounds of two chunks of something smacking to the floor. “Owww,” Krel cried out, “Romann, what are you doing?”
Halas stepped up to Romann, whispered to him, “This is the end of you, for such a shocking act.” Halas stabbed Romann, the rapier pricking Romann in the arm and drawing a trickle of blood.
“Halas, no,” Cyron protested. “Romann is not feeling himself. You will stand down.” To make certain that Halas terminated his attacks, Cyron wrapped Halas in his own mind, causing Halas to freeze up.
Romann was enraged at the presumption of Halas to betray their friendship and turned his greatsword on Halas. The first blow crushed Halas’s chest while the second blow battered the bloody body further. The crushed form of Halas slipped to the ground completely motionless.
Krel waved a wand at Romann, “I’m sorry to do this my friend, but you need to stop.” Romann froze in place, like Halas had when Cyron enspelled him.
The dual threat of Thundina and Ashlyn spooked the creature between them and it vanished. The shadows vanished too, though a boundary of darkness was just off to their side. Thundina struck at the space where the spider had just vanished and then continued her strike on and out the far side of the space with the guisarme’s head running harmlessly over Ashlyn’s armored foot. Thundina then flicked her guisarme up. Ashlyn looked surprised at the wild strike and asked Thundina, “Were you attempting to attack me?”
“What?” Thundina asked innocently, “Just because you are so holy and make everyone feel judged by the gods, doesn’t mean I would ever try to get rid of you.”
“You are a Lightbringer, Thundina, you took an oath.” Ashlyn scolded gently, “I am going to bring the Light into the shadows.” Ashlyn strode into the shadows in search of the badger-like creature.
Thundina considered a moment and decided that there was something about the creature that just annoyed her to no end. As soon as she took a step into the shadows, she could feel the draw of something. Following the draw to its center, Thundina found the creature crouching by a corner. Thundina silently stalked up to it taking that it would not attempt to grab her with a hairy leg again.
Ashlyn came out of the shadows from the other direction and again took up a threatening position on the creature. As soon as Ashlyn appeared, the creature vanished again leaving Thundina in normal darkness and Ashlyn in the unnatural shadows. Frustrated at the target vanishing again, Thundina lashed out at the only target she could still see, missing Ashlyn badly. Ashlyn walked deeper into the shadows without a backward glance. “I’m sorry, Ashlyn, I didn’t mean it,” Thundina shouted after her before muttering to herself, “I’ve had enough of chasing after that thing through the shadows. The others can handle the situation for once, or flush it back here.”
The absurdity of the situation caught up to Thundina and she laughed. The laughter soon gave way to dread and she attempted to flee. The soft force urging her into the shadows to track down the creature at the center became a hard force preventing her from taking even a single step away from it. This too was hilarious and Thundina resumed laughing even harder.
The edge of the shadows shifted slightly and sobriety returned to Thundina. The sudden onset and sudden departure of a drunken state worried her and the numerous screams from that time which had pretty well died away worried her more. Once she had stepped in to the shadows, she could feel that gentle force pushing her back towards where she first encountered the creature. Thundina moved orthogonal to the force as much as possible looking for where the party had started.
Blood covered the entire area, in splatter patterns around two corpses. Grim had been cut in half, he had died fast at least. Halas however looked to have died more slowly and brutally. Thundina considered the violence and the losses. Grim had been a fine boy for the brief time Thundina had known him, his death was truly a shame. Halas, on the other hand, was not a fine boy and Thundina did not mourn his death at all. There was that one little problem about how he had supposedly hidden the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, but maybe he was lying about that like he lied about everything else. Too much blood and too many screams, it was time to get out if at all possible. Thundina scooped up Halas’s pack with the intention of taking it out of the castle. Before she could take a step towards the stairs, another wave of vertigo caught her. Beginning to feel giggly, Thundina also recognized that this was an external effect and refused to give in to it again. The vertigo passed without leaving inebriation behind.
Thundina began walking with the force and in the direction of the stairs out. She passed Ashlyn, Romann, and Cyron on her way forward. She could only quickly glance at them, but Romann and Cyron were covered in blood, additionally flecks of foam were all around Romann’s mouth while Ashlyn was looking a little tipsy. The field of force brought Thundina to face the creature once more, just shy of the exit to the stairs.
The force was a gentle push so long as Thundina moved towards the creature and even as she moved around the creature, but attempts to move away were met with a much firmer force that prevented any retreat. The only way out for Thundina would be to defeat the creature. Her heart began racing as she prepared for battle, wishing furiously that she could have some assistance in the battle. From the shadows, Cyron stepped forward dropping his holy symbol back to his chest as he took up a position on the far side of the creature, not quite flanking it, but something easy enough to remedy.
The raised up on its back legs and lashed out at Thundina with hairy legs. Thundina dodged the first leg entirely. She deflected the second leg up and away harmlessly with her guisarme but deflecting the leg then left Thundina exposed as two more legs came crashing in at waist level. The breastplate absorbed the majority of the blows, but Thundina knew she’d have bruises there in the morning. The spider landed on all its legs again and surged forward to grab Thundina in its mandibles. As it tore away a chunk of flesh from Thundina, it pulled something else out as well. To Thundina, her weapon seemed heavier than it had ever before and the armor weighed on her shoulders more than usual.
Thundina slipped to the side so that she was directly across from Cyron and brought her guisarme down towards the spider. It watched the guisarme closely and the shadows seemed to gather around it as the spider watched until the creature began tracking Cyron as well. The instant not all of its attention was on Thundina, Thundina’s strike connected with the cephalothorax. The creature writhed at the massive gash and Thundina only regretted that the shadows had prevented her from going after something intimately vital. She wasted no time in quickly flicking the guisarme again and again.
“Come on Cyron,” Thundina shouted, “let’s finish this!”
“Dammit, Thundina, I’m a cleric, not a fighter. The Blessing of the Sovereign Host be upon us. Err, and by us, I mean you and me, I’m a little leery of letting Romann have divine guidance on his sword at the current time. You won’t repeat that to him, right?”
The spider scuttled towards Romann, who had neared the battle. Again the spider rose on its hind legs and pummeled its target with four legs before landing and biting. Shadows trailed from the bite wound back to the spider’s maw and Romann staggered a moment before retaliating with a powerful blow that split open the creature’s head. The force that had been pushing Thundina towards the creature vanished and the unnatural shadows which had surrounded the group rushed into the creature. The pinprick of light from the everburning torch flared back to its normal pale glow. Even that little bit was reassuring.
Thundina made eye contact with Romann to congratulate him on finishing off the spider, but he was not looking her way. His eyes were darting back and forth as he was laughing manically. He spotted Cyron and took a step forward with his greatsword raised high. Thundina snared one of his legs and pulled it out from beneath him, dropping Romann heavily on his back. She then hopped back another step so that even if he rolled over, she’d still be out of the reach of the greatsword.
“Over here, you oaf.” Thundina taunted as Romann fell. “Pick on someone your own size and leave Cyron to tend to the wounded!”
Romann climbed to his feet and ran towards Thundina. She was set to deflect any strike, but no attack came. Whatever insanity or confusion was whipping Romann into such a blood frenzy faded as he came face to face with Thundina. Meanwhile Cyron reported from back outside Sasha’s crypt that Ashlyn was beyond help in another pool of blood.
A quick count of the bodies told Thundina that Krel was missing. “Krel, where are you? The battle is over, it’s safe to come out!”
“When the pressure shifted the second time, he stepped into the shadows following the pressure flow,” Cyron said and pointed in the direction that Krel had gone. “I haven’t seen him since then. He was using his wands, but I haven’t heard anything recently either.”
A little ways into the catacombs they found Krel’s unmoving body. He had suffered multiple blows to the head but was still holding a wand, looking like he was ready to use it.
“A warrior’s death.” Thundina proclaimed. “I mean, I know he wasn’t a warrior, but as deaths go, this was a good one. He died opposing a vicious creature in defense of his friends. So why do I feel so terrible?”
“Ah, Thundina, there you are,” Romann interrupted, “I need your help with words for when I describe this fight to the villagers. Would you say I crushed the spider or was it more that I smashed the spider? Or maybe squished? Hmm, squished doesn’t seem to invoke the right proportions though.” Romann wandered away again musing on how to wow the villagers with his combat prowess.
“If you’re feeling responsible,” Cyron counseled, “you shouldn’t. Krel, from everything I heard, joined the quest for his own reasons, and you didn’t contribute to his death. That was all the fault of the spider, and the master of this castle. Umm, but I think we need to be leaving, those vampire spawn should be on their way back soon.”
After collecting Krel and bringing him back to the staging area, the remaining group noticed how there were four corpses but only three people to carry. Thundina made the first suggestion, “I guess we leave Halas here. Worst case, stick him in one of these empty crypts.”
“We can’t leave Halas here!” Romann decried.
“Bringing Halas back may be of a good plan,” Cyron mediated. “Tomorrow we could then Speak with Dead to learn where he hid the Symbol.”
Thundina drew a long knife and grabbed Halas by the hair, “We only need the head, right?”
Cyron closed his eyes a moment before replying, “No. The body needs to be mostly intact.”
“Okay, so we bring back Halas. I guess Grim is the one who gets left here. He was such a nice boy, that’s a shame.”
Romann had been playing around with some of Halas’s gear and rejoined the conversation, “Why don’t we put one of the corpses in the Bag of Holding?”
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Chapter 9 to be concluded in a couple days.