Flying Off the Axehandle

Jump to Comments

Maruc glanced around his wounded friends and determined which required the most urgent healing. Ignoring his own wounds, which were the most serious of the group, he performed healing rites upon Saeth and Nicolai, who he had judged to be the most injured among them. Once finished, his companions were restored to full health.

“That blood…it may be the blood of the Siswa. We must honor the dead and investigate. But we must spare the living too. If there are living, defenseless Siswa above, we must free them or take them with us. We cannot abandon them to the horrors of the undead. Please let me secure these prisoners before we advance.” Hasan turned and began to head back to the Temple’s central chamber, turning as he left to Saeth and saying, in Elvish, “Come, you know we cannot leave a living elf behind.”

“More than leaving them to the horrors of the undead, we must stop them becoming undead,” said Nicolai to Hasan. “We do not know the nature of the magic here, and what may happen to them if they remain. That includes those already dead, as I’d rather not make cleansing this holy place more difficult than necessary.”

“Bewarned,” Miklos said “you must ensure any guards you release are free of the charm—remember their last command was to clear this temple of intruders. They may still attack!”

“It takes even the undead time to convert corpses into their brethren and from my experiences so far only dread Sevastian had the power to do this. These poor souls,” Maruc gestured at the pile of bones, “Would not be able to replicate their own. I do not like the idea of splitting our numbers so if you can find out if the Siswa we encountered have recovered then instruct them to release the other Siswa. You can return immediately and we can press on.”

“Very well, I thank you, friends. I think if the charm remains unbroken, we could lock these elves safely in the jail, to be freed on our return from the further exploration of these chambers.”

The dwarf waited..

“Well, let’s be off, then.” Saeth drew her blade in impatience. “Hassan, you should lead the way.”

Hasan replied, “I don’t know where they are. Maybe the dwarf can lead?”

Turning to the dwarf and speaking in Dwarvish—“And don’t forget to take a running start to get past the Guardian, little one.”

The dwarf’s mouth hung open speechlessly at hearing his own native tongue spoken by.. by.. by an ELF! He glowered at Hasan and on bootheel, turned without a word and lead the way back, barely giving the others even a chance to react.

Even for a dwarf, Feldard had a strong tendency to let pride and battlelust cloud his judgment. In fact, it was one of the reasons that he now found himself in this strange land far from his native Rockhome.

If he hadn’t been so irritated at the elf’s remarks, he may have thought to don the Rahib’s Siswa robe and thus negate the guardian’s attack directive. Instead, he was marching back up and out of the trapdoor. Once back in the temple, the bony guardian came to life again, raising its scimitars to attack the lone interloper who did not wear Siswa cloth. The dwarf purposely did not take a running start back in the Guardian chamber. He did not run, nor did he linger there. He marched with a measured but determined pace toward the exit door. Though it was merely an automaton with no emotions, there almost seemed to be a hint of menace as the bone golem chased the renegade dwarf for the third time. It seemed determined not to let the demihuman escape again. When the thing drew near to him, he turned to meet its attacks as he backed his way out of the room with as much dignity as a dwarf can muster.

Raising his axe to parry the slicing scimitars, Feldard managed to deflect two of the attacks, and another two were deflected off the dwarf’s sturdy armor. Still, with six arms at its disposal, the giant skeleton-creature vastly outmatched the dwarf. The remaining two blades scraped into the dwarf’s flesh, wounding him quite severely as the dwarf finally made it to the doorway and out of the room.

 

17 Comments

Filed under D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, rpg