Post by Monday
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Previous parts))
Jessica shook her head frantically. “No!” she gasped. “I have the Plague!”
All the dwarves instinctively moved backward a few paces, Thorgrim even more so than the others. “Why didn’t you tell us!” demanded Fünden angrily. “You might have spread it to everyone!” Jessica started sobbing quietly. “I can feel his voice in my mind! Get it out!”
Thorgrim glanced uneasily at Fjarn, who lowered his eyebrows thoughtfully. “So why did the Crusaders capture you instead of kill you?” Fjarn asked. “I don’t know!” Jessica almost screamed. “I don’t care! Leave me, or his voice will come in you too! It moves like a patch of bright mist… and drives them insane!”
Khaz shot a quizzical look at Fünden, which was promptly ignored. “It changes nothing!” Fünden decided. Thorgrim raised an eyebrow. “Yer insane!” he said incredulously. “Ye’ll get us all killed!”
Fünden literally snarled back. “My patience is wearin’ thin for those who disregard me orders. It’s a case o’ ‘pick yer poison’. Get killed by th Plague, get killed by Scourge walkin’ to the Eastern Plaguelands, or get killed by Scourge goin’ through Andhorhol. The only difference is that we have a chance of survivin’ if we go through Andorhol. So shut yer mouth!” Thorgrim’s mouth dropped open, but he remained silent. “That’s better,” muttered Fünden thankfully.
Khaz bent his neck from side to side, making several cracking noises. “When do ye want me in th’ city?” he asked.
“Ye’ll have to go ahead of us, Khaz,” Fünden said, laying a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Khaz nodded, but his beard didn’t quite conceal a swallow. “I’ll head on in now. No sense ‘n waitin’, eh?” he asked. “Get yer arses up after me, got it?”
“Good luck, Khaz!” Fünden said. To the rest of the group, he said “Fjarn, grab Jessica, ye’ll be carryin’ her. Thorgrim, get a bomb ready.” Fjarn scooped up Jessica without further comment, and without comment from her. She had apparently passed out while they were talking. Thorgrim gained a wicked smile, the first he had since they left Andorhol.
Khaz waved to them, and ran across the bridge into the dead, blighted town of Andhorol. “Come ‘n’ get me, bloody weak kneed Scourge!” he yelled merrily, moving deeper into the town.
I’d best be avoiding the middle. I don’t want to meet Araj again… Khaz thought to himself, as he dashed in the inn.
“He’s off, go, go, go!” called Fünden, and dashed into the town. He immediately spotted several dozen undead heading toward the inn. “Good luck, Khaz,” He’s doomed, I killed him…
His concentration slipped, at just the wrong moment. A ghoul came soaring from a second story window, and knocked him to the ground. He skidded several feet before slamming up against a wall, dislodging several bricks. Fünden gasped in surprise and came up on shaky legs, axe out.
The ghoul came rushing at him, but even unsteady he was easily more than a match. He jinked to the side and took off it’s head with a quick slice of his axe. “Thank th’ Light their necks ‘re weakened,” he said to himself, grinning. Another came at him, and Fünden dropped to the ground and slid under the oncoming ghoul, driving his axe up and slicing it’s abdomen open.
He took no notice as it toppled to the side, as Fjarn went dashing past him. “Go!” the other dwarf yelled to Fünden, “don’t get caught up in fighting!” Fünden jumped to his feet and followed Fjarn, a little ways behind him. “They’re comin’!” he yelled. “Khaz couldn’t get all of them!”
Khaz, I killed him…As if sensing Fünden’s thoughts, Fjarn yelled back “Concentrate! I can’t fight with this’n over me shoulder!” Fünden pulled himself out of the black pit of despair yawning in front of him, forcibly making himself concentrate on what was happening here and now.
“Left, left!” he yelled at Fjarn. As Fjarn switched roads to the left, they caught a quick glimpse of the Lich, Araj, floating toward them from the right street, gaining speed.
Quite a feat for one who doesn’t have any legs… thought Fünden, slightly amused. The sarcasm helped him slightly.
Thorgrim came hurtling down a side street to meet up with them. Ghoul parts were falling from his axe, which was stained black with putrid gore. “Havin’ fun!” he said, laughing. “The undead’ll like the surprise I left for ‘em!” Fünden grinned. If Thorgrim was thinking the same thing as Fünden, it would be a great surprise.
Khaz moved to the back of the inn, moving to the stop of the stairs.
I need to buy them time. The best way to do that would be to make a stand here, and then jump through a window. I just might be able to escape alive.Further thoughts were interrupted as the first wave of undead came through the door. Khaz lifted his rifle and pegged the first mage to come through, a neat headshot that blew the back of its blackened skull onto the wall behind it.
He quickly reloaded his rifle as the Scourge started scrambling over the chairs he had tumbled in their way. Once reloaded, Khaz dropped his rifle to the ground, as no further mages entered. The first Scourge to walk up the stairs met his sword and it’s severed head toppled to the side. He sliced the chest of the next to come up, and stabbed the third through the eye.
The first dozen fell to him that way, slain one by one as the clambered over their dead bodies, crushing them into pulp, in their efforts to reach the dwarf. The next started scrambling over the now respectable pile of dead, letting out moans, like demented animals.
The moans, by the Light, the moans… thought Khaz, horrified,
They’ll drive you mad!“Mad you may become… but death will probably visit you first!” The dread voice of the Lich, Araj, floated through the doorway.
I’m doomed…Fünden checked over his shoulder. “Where’d Araj go?” he asked the others. Neither answered. “And where’s yer ‘surprise’?” he asked Thorgrim, panting. “Khaz can’t hold for much longer.”
“Any moment now,” Thorgrim gasped out. “It’ll be an-“ the rest of his words were cut off by an explosion…
“I ain’t fallin’ to ye without a fight!” roared Khaz, and grabbed his rifle off the floor. He shot Araj through the eyesocket, knocking the Lich backward into the wall. Araj laughed, quite a feat without lips. “You think a mere projectile can kill the-“ An explosion tore through the rest of his words. A wall of fire blew through the inn, instantly incinerating any remaining Scourge. Araj vanished in the wash of flames.
The inn shuddered as it’s supports collapsed, until finally it gave way. The whole thin collapsed into it’s foundations, forming a pillar of smoke in the sky…
“A fitting cairn,” Fünden murmured, as the three crossed the southern bridge.
We made it. But at what cost…((For my 15,000th post =D))