Wednesday, June 3, 2015

#89 - Ravaged and Regenerated

From the Analects of Simel, veteran of Karrnath


The floor began to tilt crazily and I coughed up the last of the lungful of pestilence that the hellish gas bag unleashed as it died, if it was ever alive.  The screaming of the guardian fungi did not help me regain my composure, but I tried my best to ascend the mold-slick stairs. I knew Aleae had proceeded to the top , but couldn't see or hear anything of what she found there, over the mind-numbing shrieking. The others were all ahead of me on the stairs, but none of us dared to run with a dark pit beckoning and the slime-covered steps ready to betray a misstep.

I slowed further to place two arrows into the closest shrieker, silencing it.  After what seemed minutes of scrambling up the steps unsteadily, the second quieted as well, its vibrating stalk crushed by one of my companions.  At first I was unsure if what I heard was the howling that now continued as a remembered trauma in my tortured ears or the sound of annoyed trolls coming from the top of the stairs.  But before I could consider what was causing the unseen trolls such grief, another of the beholder-things floated up from the dark pit.  I was closest and almost attacked it, but for Magnus''s gentle reminder not to "touch that gas bag you idiot." Thankful for his advice, I passed it warily and continued up the stairs.  The war machine, Cypher, passed me and grappled the floating thing, yelling for us to "get back."  Once we were clear, he burst the thing like the vile pustule it was, obviously immune to the spores it released. 

At the top of the stairs Clarion, the other war machine in our strange companionship, cast a magical illumination that danced ahead of us down a hallway, revealing two burned and angry trolls flailing about at an unseen assailant. Slaying the two already weakened beasts was no difficult task, but keeping them dead proved a challenge and only acid pored over their repeatedly dispatched bodies ended the battle.

Aleae had kept the creatures more than occupied as the rest of us advanced up the stairs. I can only imagine what transpired, for her to have survived alone and so weakened the creatures before our arrival. The details of her combat, however, were not forthcoming. I will not underestimate the power of this sorceress in the future.

The battle was not without cost.  Cypher, who until now I had only imagined to be like one of the many killing constructs I had fought during the war, cradled his "pet" Rungo. The lesser quadrapedal construct had been crushed by a flailing troll and now I witnessed what I had to admit was mourning by and for a warforged. I had much to consider.

At the end of the hallway, in what smelled like the trolls' filth pit, we found a openable, hidden doorway, beyond which was fresh air and running water.  Clean water flowed from an unseen source and stairs led up towards fresh air, vague daylight, and the distant sound of a some heavily-trodding hooves.


We were exhausted and beyond the momentary respite that the clean air and water gave us, needed time to more fully restore ourselves.  We debated on which side of the door to remain, finally choosing to try to rest in the foul air of the troll lair and not risk encountering fresh opponents ahead.

Our rest, however, did not last long as two trolls emerged from some fungi-filled crack and approached us.  Magnus and I charged them. While I had survived our previous encounters virtually unscathed, but exhausted, Magnus wore several injuries, yet showed no awareness of them as he leapt upon the first troll screaming a battle cry.  What followed was ugly combat bereft of strategy as I stabbed trolls through a haze of adrenaline and pain.  I was aware that Magnus was thrown down and almost immediately rose again, much as the damned trolls didn't have the courtesy to stay dead.  Flashes of magical energy struck the trolls even as we hacked and stabbed at them.  In the end it was only dousing their corpses with acid that ended our bloody dance.  I must remember to carry acid at all times.

Now, fully spent, we resumed our rest on the other side of the hidden door, sitting or lying on slick, but clean steps, or shallow water. I quickly lost consciousness for a few hours, but I couldn't shake the coughing and it woke me frequently. I do not think I am getting better from whatever it was I breathed in.

We were not yet restored to our full fighting capacity when something came down the steps.



No comments:

Post a Comment