LORD OF THE IRON FORTRESS-- Part IV (cont.)
Wulf looked around. He didn’t see the unanimous approval he was hoping for.
“Why don’t we wait a day and take some protection spells?” said Karak.
“Another day?” Wulf said. They’d already wasted a day waiting for Dorn to switch out his spells.
“Protection from elements goes a long way, against dragons.” Dorn said. “I loaded up on Oracle crap today, so I don’t have as much whammy as I might like, includin’ protective stuff.”
“I’m not worried about dragon breath,” Wulf said. “ I’m too quick for ‘em. Yer got that freaky Oracle danger-sense thing goin’ on, yer never get hit neither. We know Keldas is bound to have something to protect himself, leavin’ only the assmar to worry about. If yer was inclined to worry about him, which of course I’m not.”
Karak scowled at Wulf.
“Ach, I just mean yer can take care of yerself, that’s all.”
Wulf noticed Keldas and Dorn staring off into space.
“You see that?” asked Keldas.
“Of course,” said Dorn. He looked back to Wulf and Karak. “Someone’s scrying us.”
“Aye?” Wulf said. With one hand he pulled Taranak off his belt, and with the other he heaved his privates. “Get an eyeful o’ this! Hope yer usin’ yer wide-angle sensor, take in the whole show.”
“Well, as long as I’m prepared for it today, I might as well scry ‘em right back,” Dorn said. He cast his own scrying. “Who do I look for?”
“Pick a dragon, any dragon,” Wulf said.
“Indrazar,” Dorn said, and suddenly he could see the dragon, a full-grown adult lying in a deep crevasse at the bottom of a cave. Dorn moved the sensor around, spotting Khalataic next, another adult lying on a ledge that overlooked the cavern below. Next to Khalataic was a smaller dragon, the juvenile Hundrazi.
Dorn recounted all this to his comrades. Somehow, looking at them and having it confirmed for sure, three dragons suddenly seemed like an awful lot to tackle.
“Anything else? Steel cats?” Wulf said.
Dorn moved the sensor around the whole cave. He didn’t spot any steel predators, and was ready to give up, when he suddenly started. “Hang on, what’s this?”
Nearly hidden in the crevasse behind Indrazar, he spotted something. “There’s a big glass block or somethin’ in the pit… And… Lemme look closer… Hmm.”
“What? What is it?” asked Karak. He seemed agitated.
“Hmm. There’s a nekkid human boy trapped in the glass.”
There was a moment of silence while they all tried to process this strange new information.
“Ferk’im,” Wulf said. “If they’re scryin’ us, they’re tipped off by now. Let’s wait till tomorrow, juice up.”
“I think we should go now,” Karak said. “The boy…”
“Boy’s on ice, he’ll keep.”
“Well,” Karak said. “It’s just…”
Wulf’s suspicions were suddenly flaring up, a really creepy feeling he hadn’t felt since the peck was around. He stepped closer to Karak. “Out with it!”
“A while back, I had a dream about this boy,” Karak said.
Dorn held up his hands. “Ach, man, I really don’t need to hear this… Not now, not never.”
“In my dream, I saw a teenage boy trapped in a block of glass, with lightning arcing all around it. I stepped closer to the boy, so close I could feel the electricity.”
Wulf and Dorn were inspecting their boots and humming to themselves.
“…and when I cast a spell at the block, I suddenly woke up.”
“Please tell me yer done,” Wulf said.
“What spell was it that you cast,” asked Keldas. Believe it or not, he seemed genuinely interested.
“I don’t know,” said Karak. “I told you, I woke up.”
“So, what, now yer sayin’ yer want to go in right now, guns blazing?”
“Yes.”
“No protections?”
“Right.”
Wulf and Dorn looked at each other, and to Keldas. Everyone seemed in agreement. Wulf rolled out the portable hole for Karak-- but he had to admit to himself, he was starting to get cold feet.
“All right, just so yer all realize, this is yer own decision.”
They prepared with what spells they could-- Bull’s Strength from the wand they’d found; protection from elements where it could be spared, (“We got just enough to go in with, so if it gets dispelled, we got problems,” warned Dorn), Keldas’ usual wizard’s tricks like mage armor and shield and mirror image, and finally, mass haste all around, just before Dorn teleported them all through.
***
They were spot on, and as usual, Keldas was the first to open the ceremonies. Dorn had teleported them onto the shelf, and Keldas took only a split second to gain his bearings before casting his first spell.
He disintegrated the baby dragon.
“Well, that’s certainly got their attention,” Wulf said as he unrolled the portable hole into the corner of the shelf.
Dorn proved that he wasn’t travelling completely in Oracle mode that day by casting Destruction on Khalataic, the adult male. Wulf had hoped to see another dragon instantly “dusted” but unfortunately, the dragon resisted; huge chunks of flesh shriveled and dropped away nevertheless, but it was clear the dragon could take plenty more.
The group was unrelenting. Despite the ominous scrying, it seemed the party had caught the dragons by surprise. While the two adults scrambled to prepare themselves with their own protective spells, Keldas cast know protections on Khalataic then started summoning a dire bear. They still shared shelf-space with the male and Keldas wanted a meat shield between him and the claws, teeth, wings, and tail of the big blue.
Indrazar, the female, somehow managed to find one of the steel predators. Wulf guessed that she was hasted, as she flew across the cavern, scooped up a cat, then flew up to deposit it on the shelf in front of them. As if on cue, the predator bounded off to their flank and roared its sonic blast across the party-- at the same time that the male sizzled them all with its lightning breath. The lightning hit Keldas’ energy buffer first and was harmlessly dissipated, but unfortunately it left him open to the sonic blast. Keldas grit his teeth and somehow managed to keep his concentration on his summoning.
Dorn decided to make the best of the situation while their enemies were all grouped up in front of them. Two flame strikes softened up the two dragons for the dire bear, which appeared in front of the male and did its best to claw at it through the dragon’s shield.
Keldas cast slow, knowing full well that if it worked, they’d pretty much have the dragons at their mercy. Unfortunately, the first spell fizzled against the dragon’s spell resistance. He tried again, and though this time the spell manifested fully, neither dragon seemed affected by it.
The dragons responded in force. Lightning crackled across the shelf, and the steel predator lent a hand with its roar as well. The party was still well protected from the lightning; that was the good news. The bad news was that the dragons finally seemed to figure it out. Even worse, Keldas was completely unprotected from the roaring of the steel predator, and if the lightning didn’t kill him, the sonics soon would.
Dorn had another two flame strikes for the dragons and the cat-- apparently Oracles had nothing better to pray for than dozens of flame strike spells-- which softened the predator up enough for Wulf and Karak to charge up together, flank it, and drop it. Wulf noticed that Karak fought with unusual vigor, even for him; he kept stealing glances down to the crevasse, and Wulf got the sense that all these enemies had faded to mere obstacles to the paladin.
Fighting with unusual vigor, good. Not keeping your eye on the ball, bad.
Now Keldas cast greater dispelling on the female, and to his trained eye he could almost see the spells melting away from her: haste, shield, endurance, mage armor. Then he did the same to the male, dropping Khalataic’s haste and endurance as well.
The female attempted to haste herself again, but Keldas was too quick, counterspelling it easily. The dragons took to the air and wheeled away below the level of the ledge. Dorn took advantage of the brief pause to heal Keldas with their newly crafted wand of curing. Keldas felt his sonic-blasted insides re-arrange themselves into a more life-sustaining formation.
Wulf readied his weapons for the dragons’ return, and turned to ensure that the paladin was doing the same. Much to his dismay, Wulf spotted the paladin dive-bombing straight for the young boy’s crevasse. Karak was on his own, distracted from the task at hand and separated from the group by a good hundred feet or so.
Wulf’s view of the paladin was abruptly blocked out as the dragons suddenly returned, dropping off two more steel predators onto the ledge. Khalataic followed up by casting his endurance spell again.
Wulf looked on in admiration as Keldas taunted the big male. Wulf couldn’t understand the Draconic but the elf’s arrogant sneer was all too familiar. “What, not strong enough to take us?”
That’s one elf what’s got a pair, true enough.
The dragons ignored Keldas, dropping down to hover in front of the ledge with just their heads above the level of the rim-- plenty of cover and perfect for breathing anytime they were ready. Dorn decided he’d back them off a bit, and cast a blade barrier such that it would spin parallel to the cliff wall. Good thinking, Wulf thought. Now if we need to get over, we can just hop the blades.
Unfortunately, the dragons just seemed to ignore the blades. They were turning towards the paladin at last.
Karak had located the boy’s icy prison and cast dispel magic. The prison shimmered and disappeared, and the boy slumped to the ground.
“Karak! Stop screwin’ around with that boy and get back in the fight!”
Karak shouted back over his shoulder. “I’m trying to see if he looks okay!”
“Okay? He’s looks totally HOT! Happy? Now get yer ass back up here!”
Karak saw the female headed his way and he flew out of the crevasse to meet her before she could get close enough to threaten the boy. He ended his charge with a powerful smite, infusing the strike further with his own life-force by way of a divine sacrifice. It was a solid blow; it was obvious she felt it. Still, Wulf couldn’t hide his disgust with the paladin.
Never, never move to attack the dragon; the dragon just gets to hit you with everything it’s got. Let the dragon come to you.
Wulf didn’t stop to think know how he knew it; he just knew it, like instinct. If he’d stopped to consider it, this was probably the third or fourth dragon he’d seen in his lifetime-- three or four more than the average dwarf would ever want to see.
Sure enough, Indrazar beat her mighty wings and lashed out at the paladin with everything she had. Karak was very lucky: only one claw met its mark and he suffered the merest graze from her jaws.
Wulf tried his best to keep an eye on the paladin, as if he could effect the battle through telepathy or osmosis of talent, but he had his own problems. He and Dorn both were tackled by steel predators. Taranak and Syrius hewed into their enemies with every ounce of strength the two dwarves could muster. Keldas cast a bolt of conjuring at Dorn’s foe. Huge chunks of flesh were torn from the predator, dropping to the ground and forming themselves into a small (but angry) celestial badger. The predator collapsed from the transformation.
Keldas followed with a duplicate bolt to Wulf’s foe, but the thing didn’t drop. Wulf was desperate to break free of his combat and charge to the side of Karak-- to slap a little sense into him, of course-- but he could only watch from the ledge. Karak probably should have moved away from the dragon-- he was certainly more maneuverable-- but Wulf was amazed to see the paladin stand toe-to-toe with her. He was going all out in his attack.
Precious few of the paladin’s blows struck the dragon, and in return he was nearly ripped to pieces. She clamped her jaws down on him, shredded him with both claws, and to add insult to injury, clouted him with her tail as well. Wulf had a pretty good sense of what the paladin could take-- and that was just about it. He was lucky the female had missed with her wings and rear claws; if she’d been more cool-headed and less charged with fury, the paladin would likely be dead.
I can’t believe he held his ground.
Wulf had been struggling with the steel predator, trying to force its snapping jaws out of the way long enough to get a clear view of the paladin’s struggle, when suddenly the thing went limp against him. Dorn wrenched his great-axe from the thing’s back and touched Wulf firmly with his other hand. Wulf’s wounds-- quite serious, though he’d hardly noticed them-- closed up. Save the hang-nail he’d had since morning, he was whole again.
“There ya go. Do yer thing.” Dorn jerked a thumb towards the female.
Wulf was off like a shot. Still hasted, he charged in against the female on the opposite flank from Karak. Praise Moradin, the assmar held his ground! Wulf hefted Taranak in one hand, as always, but his bone dagger was still in his belt. Instead, he wielded the light mace they’d taken from the drow, and he gleefully pounded the pointed star of chaos into the dragon’s ribs.
The dragon had never felt such pain before in her life; molten fire and inky chaos seeped into every wound. She wouldn’t have long to ponder the pain, because Keldas had been waiting for a moment of weakness.
He cast power word: stun. There was no resisting it. Indrazar hung stunned in mid-air.
Khalataic realized what was happening to his mate, but it was too late. He made a flying run past Wulf, snapping at him with his jaws before flying off to circle back for more.
“Right, right, we can play that game…” said Wulf. “But just for that, yer whore wife is dead-- and there’s nothing yer can do about it.”
True to his word as always, Wulf laid into the helpless female in a flurry of activity, breaking nearly every bone with his mace before Taranak opened her up and rained her steaming guts down onto the cavern floor.
