Difference between revisions of "Ller"

Latest revision as of 20:05, 29 September 2017

I remember the dragon. No, not a dragon, a boat. The boat was carved of ancient wood that no longer spoke to me its memories. It was so far gone from the world it might as well be stone but I never stopped trying. I would sit on the wooden dragon’s head at the prow and listen. I think that was what I was doing when the screaming started.

I could see the angry yellow fog crawling up from below deck and I knew immediately it was arcane. Normal fog does not look like that, does not move like that. Does not stalk the crew, grabbing at them like that.

At first I thought it was one of the elf’s jokes, but then I saw the lights inside. Sparkling. Burning. Magic far too strong for her and much too evil for a prank. The stink of it was growing, mixed with the smell of men and women burning alive. I ran to the stairs, hating my old knees. This would be so much easier as a beast but I was going to need my spells so I ignored the pain and reached into the Mother’s Will, calling wind to end this evil and clear me a path to its source. The wind ripped away the fire cloud and I rushed the length of the keel with one goal in mind. I had to get to the helm. If one man can doom this ship, it is the helmsman. Wix was ahead of me, apparently with the same thought. He had a wet rag pressed to his face as he ran but appeared to be stubbornly ignoring the effects of the cloud. Diana was in her doorway clutching the wall, she must have tried to run the gas and failed. She was wracked by coughing and her skin was smoking. There wasn’t time to check her further. Later, once the ship was safe.

The walls of the ship with their freshly varnished wood were burning still. Wix was ahead of me running for the door and hit it hard with his shoulder. I half expected him to bounce off but as small as he is, that Gnome is sturdy and the door flew open . Beyond I could see the helm and my heart fell. I could see Vencana at the helm but her eyes were unfocused, rolled back into her head . Standing before her was a tiny decrepit corpse of a human child dressed in arcane robes and I knew without thinking that it was Avaros. He had found us and we were no closer to his phylactery. This was our doom. Wix laid the Damned Mother’s crossbow bolt into him and kept running, drawing his scimitar. Vencana looked to be in horrible pain and as the bolt laid home in the back of Avaros’s head the entire ship lurched and I could feel it flying into the air at incredible speed. My knees buckled and I heard Diana fall behind me.

The thought of throwing spells at this creature of pure magical force made little sense so I threw my spirit into the wild and drew into the form of the displacer beast. I felt at home inside this new body and with a clawed feet I dug into the wood, charging at the creatures that with my cat eyes looked nothing like a living being. Wix withstood the lurching ship easily, his legs not even shaking. He laid into Avaros with his scimitar over and over again with flame licking up the blade. Avaros did not so much turn to acknowledge his presence. Distantly I heard him speak.

“This one has been troubling us, Mentros. I think I'm going to keep her.”

And with that he spoke an arcane phrase that I did not recognize and I could see Vencana’s skin start to go gray. I leapt into the room with a new sense of urgency. From behind me arrow after arrow flew striking home into the decrepit creature through the doorway and I knew that Diana had recovered enough to reach her bow. I made it in reach and my only thought was to hit. Hit Hard. Beat this thing down fast, before it can decide on a magic to ruin us further. Wix was a blur with his blades, his rapier was out with his scimitar and he was striking true in a way that I had not seen his fortunes bless him before . Still Avaros would not turn. I could see Vencana staring at him, and I saw that the gray in her skin deepening and through the haze of my cat mentality I understood that she was becoming stone. Then I realized that she was still our helmsman and was still connected to the boat. Panic washed over me because I felt the rise of the boat stop and the terrible sensation of a 60 ton ship falling toward the earth at terrific speed.

I tried to dig my claws in but I couldn't gain enough purchase and I flew back up the hallway as if it were a pit, slamming into the back wall with Diana beneath me. Soon after Wix came flying at me with his blade still swinging at the creature. I could hear Avaros laughing. I couldn't push myself even to my feet and lay there helplessly plastered to the back wall. It was as if my body weighed tons instead of pounds. Wix landed on top of me, his tiny body crushing me with several times his true weight. Desperately he was trying to raise up his blades but they were stuck to the wall as if magnetized. 2 pounds of steel had become 100 and yet he refused to release them out of sheer stubbornness . There was a loud thump in the stairwell and I saw the little monk Aniste crawling against her weight. I could barely turn my head but at the edge of my vision I could see an idea wash over her face and she winked and smiled at me and she disappeared into the shadows.

A moment later I saw a small round object flying towards us from through the doorway and I realized that she had stepped through the shadows and used her sword to separate his head from his body. For a moment I felt joy but then my joy was broken as I saw the decapitated body purposefully walking against gravity itself down the hallway. It casually picked up the head and set it back on the body as if all of this was a mere nuisance. Aniste came through the hall doorway not on her own feet just trying to fall in such a way as to hit the creature with her body. The Lich spoke a word as she flew towards him and horror I watched as her very life just drain out of her eyes and as he casually stepped aside. Aniste's body slammed into the wall near us, leaving no question that she was utterly dead.

In a panic I dropped out of my beast form. It was serving me no purpose and I could not help her in this state. The crushing weight of our acceleration was even harder on my old man form but desperate I reached for her body and started the chant that would bring her spirit back in another form at least. The Lich ignored me, walking against gravity up the floor that was now a wall. It touched Vencana's stone form and two of them disappeared.

The spell to reincarnate Aniste was long and I was rushing, trying to complete it in time. I didn't know if there would be enough before the inevitable crash. Just as I reached the final phrase I watched as the front of the ship exploded, Boards flying apart like smoke before wind. With desperate will I ignored the shockwave flying up through my body and set the final word of the spell but my hand wasn't touching the monk. It was touching my own heart when I died.