Rashemen - Book 3

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"Hold that anger Druid, and wrap it tight in your hand that you can unleash it at the villain that has done this. We must restore this place to what it was, a shrine to the dead, not a playground for the evil"

Ciana spoke fervently to Atten, as she stepped out of the boat onto the shore, scanning for enemies an arrow nocked and ready.

 

"I have a bad feeling that we are going to encounter monsters that nobody has ever seen before. It may be difficult to determine their weaknesses. If we can stay alive long enough to find out.

Oh mould, there is so little life here! I have never experienced such a hole in the living force. The fabric of life from which I draw my powers is just, well, missing, here."

 

Ciana turned and looked incredulously at the druid still in the boat as he finished his little speech, her face turned dark with rage and words exploded from her

"Then why are you here, Druid? If we can't rely on your power to aid us against the undead, and all you can do is bemoan the fact that a powerful necromancer has set up shop here and it's an affront to your love of nature. It's an affront to life and all of us who care about living and as such it's all of our duties to destroy it before it destroys us and all around us. We may not have your deep abiding love of all that is nature, but we do know abomination when we see it and we fight it as well. You aren't the only one fighting for life here.

"Well that's why we're here, to fight it, I suppose the best you can do then is to sit here with the boat and guard it til we return"

And after a brief pause almost under her breath she whispered "If we return" and turned her back on the Druid as the others started leaving the boat.

 

Atten started an angry response to Ciana's outburst but then stopped and looked sad instead.

"I wish I had more powers but I don't. I've tried and I've tried but I'm just useless at most of the other stuff that druids can do. Maybe it's best if I don't get in your way."

 

Ciana sighed "It's not your fault that this is a dead area to your powers, it's the Necromancer's, I'm nervous and took it out on you. A druid's power with lightning is inspiring when you see it, as long as you're on their side of course."

She looked at Atten and smiled at him "At the very least you could hold my bow, when I switch to Magic or sword" she teased.

 

"I'll never be able to control something as raw as lightning. But this area DOES need to be cleansed. I will come with you and help as best I can, but I can't promise much. My healing powers should still be working, but there is not enough life here for me to draw on for much else."

 

Ciana smiled further at him "If all we do is the best we can, that is all the gods and companions can ask for, as a bard once said Screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we'll not fail. , stand by me Atten and we'll give them hell"

 

Posting for Nakia

Nakia looked around then looked at Atten.

“Yeah, this section of the swamp is pretty much taken over by the undead but the swamp itself is teaming with life. Insects, the things that live in the water and much vegetable growth. Its teeming with life except around this necroman guy.. Hokay, anyone have a plan? Being the sneaky type I’d prefer to sneak up him. However…seems to me that if he’s turned even the insects to undead we may have a hard time.”

She looks hopefully at the clerics.

“Maybe you guys can use some of that holy connection you have?”

Posting as DarkStrider

Ciana chuckled softly at Nakia's comments and then spoke "There are two paths up to the manor, the one to the west of here isnot so well defined and overgrown ideal for sneaking, whereas the other easterly path is well used.

"I'd suggest that Peleane leads some of us east, but Nakia, Del, Elendie and the brothers go west. Kongol isn't exactly suited to sneaking, Maron can back up Peleane on the holy stakes, and Atten and I can provide support from the rear. Any questions, otherwise let's go"

 

Looking around at the others, Elendia suddenly had an idea. "Why don't we just Turn the undead? Maron, Peleane, and myself... We all have the ability to Turn undead. How strong can undead insects and rodents be?"

 

"Let's just see what we come across. There might be worse than insects and rodents to deal with. I suspect that those smaller creatures were just collateral damage - fallout from the main event. Let's keep moving then."

 

Peleane asked us to move around her and then she cast a protection spell on us, she then unstrapped her shield from her back, fastening it to her left arm, she took her flail in her right "Follow me" she said, Kongol and Maron flanked her weapons ready.

I looked down at the quiver low on my right hip, arrows ready for the picking, sword strapped to my left, I looked over at Atten and smiling said "Ready to dance?" and followed the small group towards the path.

 

Elendia pulls her mace, and casts several protection spells as well. Strapping her sheild on her arm she follows the group a short distance behind. Something about this quest didn't feel right but she couldn't put her finger on it. She would have to stay alert and hope she was able to spot the reason for her unease before it was too late.

[ September 20, 2006, 21:56: Message edited by: Cirrus ]

 

The group moved further down the path, moving more and more cautiously and slowy as the sense of doom became more pervasive.

"What was that?" whispered Atten in a panicky voice, feeling unsettled at his inability to detect anything in the living force around him. Having to rely on his eyes and ears was rattling him.

"I can't hear anything..." reassured Nakia, before being cut off by the sound of something that was most definitely a shuffling footstep from around the next corner.

"Let me check it out" offered Nakia, slipping further into the shadows and gliding out of sight in the direction of the sound.

Heartbeats passed in what seemed like eternities.

 

Elendia still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. She happened to glance down and see a shadow moving under the water. Not so much something blocking the light as something darker than the surronding water. She was about to ask the others about it when she saw two more. She watched dumbstruck as the the 'shadows' stopped, turned, and started for the party. Slowly a large, bloated, gray hand reached out of the swamp and grabbed the edge of the path.

"It's an ambush!!" Elendia shouted as she watched the bloated undead body crawl out of the water. She stepped forward and with a mighty overhead swing, crushed the skull of the bent over creature. The thing's brains leaked out around the head of her mace, as the surrounding skull fell away. The creature hit the ground with a grotesque gurggle. Elendia pulled her mace free and stared in horror as the creature started to rise again.

 

"Rotten bark, this looks bad."

Atten backed away from the re-rising creature from the black swamp, only to back into Peleane, who was back pedalling away from another gruesome looking 'thing' that was shambling towards them from the other direction. Atten turned his head toward where Nakia had headed but there was still no sign of her.

Looking the other way, he saw Ciana readying her weapons as another zombie-like monster emerged from the shadows.

The party did, indeed, appear to be surrounded.

 

Ciana loosed a fire arrow at the emerging creature, it drew back as the it bit deep, as the head flamed it's mouth and features formed into a contorted rictus of pain. The first Ciana knew of the one behind her was it's club-like arm smashing into her side, knocking her sideways and to the ground, right next to the one she'd just hit. A massive foot raised and was poised to come down on the dazed Bard...

 

Atten looked around frantically. The creatures were closing on all sides. There was no sign of Nakia. Ciana was about to be crushed. Elendia and the others were struggling in one on one battles with seemingly invincible enemies.

The only way they were going to get out of this mess would be if they could somehow change the odds.

But what could Atten do without access to the power of the living force that he knew so well. If only he could access other powers. He had to think. Think. He had to try and remember his old lessons. Think. Think.

But there was no time to think! In seconds, all would be lost.

How could he find some other power? What power? How could he use his knowledge of the living force in another way? He knew that the living force was a combination of other elements. Sepp has tried to tell him that. But how to unlock that? And what power? What was the essence of life?

Water? All life required water – but a corpse had water as well.
Earth? Too slow. Too unfamiliar?
Fire? The spark of life? No, for someone brought up in the forest, fire was too dangerous.

Spark…..

Time seemed to slow around Atten. Seconds passed like hours. Ciana was being crushed further into the ground by the giant foot.

Spark….

Another sort of spark?

Time all but stopped for Atten. Pennies dropped in his mind as he realised exactly what it was that was missing from this whole area. He realised what it was that made the undead so different from the living. He realised what it was that made a corpse different from a living creature. He realised what the power was that he was really most familiar with.

The real spark of life.

Everything stopped. In a fleeting instant, the world around Atten changed. The air seemed to transform into millions of vibrating spots. More spots around his friends than around the monsters. Atten concentrated and channelled the spots into one great aligned field. Channelled them all in one direction.

He felt a prickly sensation as if he his hair was all standing up. The air seemed to become dry around him. A bit like the feeling before a storm.

And then…..

ZAP.

Atten was blinded as a massive bolt of lightning crackled out of the sky, directly into the creature over Ciana. The creature was flung to the ground and flailed around uncontrollably before becoming still.

The other monsters were unaffected, and there was no way Atten was going to be able to pull that electrical feat off twice (he wasn’t 100% sure how he done it in the first place), but now the party was no longer completely surrounded. And more importantly, Ciana was free. The odds had been changed.

 

Elendia feels more than sees the electrical strike behind her. Not sure if it was friendly, she dives between the creature's legs. On her way through she swings her mace and shatters the creature's legbone, making it crumble into the swamp.

Knowing it won't be long before her foe returns she raises her hands to Tyr and small red globes start to surround her. As she continues to pray the globes start to shoot out and surround the other members of her group. Shortly all the members in her group are surrounded by the fire protection spell.

She quickly starts praying for further divine intervention. The clouds start to turn red and the temperature in the area starts to rise. A hole opens in the clouds as they start to burn. Suddenly the area is engulfed in a column of fire from the sky. Elendia stands there with her hands raised to Tyr watching others in her group duck or dive, not realizing they are protected. She watches the fire flow around her protection spell like liquid. As the spell nears it's end Elendia pulls her mace, and turns to face any undead that survived.

 

Atten sat dazed in a puddle of shallow water. His hair was sticking out in all directions. Fire raged around him, sizzling the puddle. He was exhausted and hoped desperately that no monsters attacked him as he had nothing left to defend himself with.

 

Ciana was bemused, her side hurt like hell from the hit, though after feeling her way round it, nothing seemed to be broken, it would bruise but a potion would sort most of it out. She remembered the foot coming down and then a streaking flash of light hitting the creature and flipping it away from her. Then someone put a protection spell on her, she knew the flavour of its tingle and judging by waht happened next that it was fire, for that was what came next almost solid fire.

She picked herself up and looked around the fire had devastated the area wisps of it were dying out from the trees and the undead that were lying all over the place. Her companions were shaken up a bit, but otherwise seemd ok, as she looked at the druid Atten with his hair in all directions and the dazed look on his face Ciana realized some of what happened.

"Hey Nature boy, you did it" she called as she moved gingerly towards him "You did it, Atten you found your elemental power. I'm so pleased for you, so very pleased." As she said this she engulfed the druid in a hug and then impulsively kissed him on the cheek.

Time seemed to stop then and Ciana's face was stained with a darker shade of pink, she wandered over towards Nakia who was emerging from the brush with a 'what happened' expression on her face. The two were soon discussing what had happened with Ciana carefully avoiding looking at Atten.