Goriel and Beyond, Part 5

[Drusia]

I gently flex my leg. Little, almost no pain.

I nod to Rose. "Thanks."

"Our guide in the worship of Sital!" He looked back at Rose, his grin menacing despite his circumstances. "He died but didn't die - so we can see death is best! Go introduce yourself! He'll show you."

I blink. "He's undead?" The concept was mostly foreign to elves, but there were stories of such things. Tsuirakian necromancers were known to use the dead as mindless servants, although it wasn't a popular option, but an undead creature that could cast spells - that was bizzare and frightening.

Also, it explained how a man she was sure she killed could be leading the bandits. So much for the vengeful son idea.

Assuming, of course, that she could take this bandit at his word. And that he knew the truth. What a brilliant fiction if a son could pretend to be his own father, returned from death? Cunning, but ultimately unlikely. And yet, more or less unlikely than some sort of spell-casting undead, like from the old legends? Hard to say.

Whatever the truth, there remained a floating, shielded, spell-casting half-elf attempting to kill them. She needed to get back to the battle.

"I can't break his shield," I tell Rose, Therese, and Argus - as they're the closest to me, and the most likely to be able to help. "Are any of you good at dispelling magic like that? If we can break his defenses, I should be able to get some hits in." Of course, if he really is undead, I'm not sure how effective they'll be. For most creatures, decapitation is death. But what of a walking corpse? Can his head continue casting spells separated from his body? I have no idea.

-- Drusia

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina retreated back into the cover of Udo's gun and Tim's shield after her latest attack. The kobold was breathing heavily as her mana neared depletion. A burnt smell was issuing from her where one of the mage's spells had hit a little too close for comfort. Blackened fur bore silent testimony.

"Can't get to him!" She panted. "Too far 'way with the shooting! Gonna get blowed up!"

She took a moment to reflect on how much easier hunting garlops in the jungle was compared to facing an irate mage with an enormous amount of power, then again, practically anything was easier compared to facing an irate mage with an enormous amount of power. She tried to think of a solution...

"Oh!" She stood up on the ridge and waved at Rosey's group, stifling a yelp as a force bolt struck Tim's barrier.

"Elf-lady!" She called. "Rock-man! Can you...umm..." She kobold made several elaborate gestures which wouldn't have looked out of place on a pantomime stage.The gist of her pointing and flailing arms was reasonably easy to understand. A pincer attack, Tim, Udo, Therese and Argus bombarding the mage with as much offense as they could muster, while herself and Drusia closed the gap to finish him off.

It was risky, but standing around waiting to get shot wasn't much better.

[Alberich]

"He's undead?"

Matysh was puzzled again. "What's that? He died but then didn't die. There was a boy once who didn't believe it -- wanted to put his hand inside the wounds that killed him to see! He let him do it, too! Stupid doubter. It tore his hand off! We laughed for a week..."

"Oh! Elf-lady! Rock-man! Can you...umm..."

Standing up on the ridge made Tamina a target for the next bolts, which were not long in coming. But the first one wasn't that close -- three hundred yards was not a great range for accuracy, at least not for Carloc it wasn't (he wasn't wearing spectacles or using a scope). And Tim and Tamina had not stayed static. (Having the sweet furry young thing huddle behind his shield with him was sending strange signals to Tim's body, too, but for once he really didn't have time to agonize about that.) The second bolt was closer, and strong enough to pierce the top of Tim's shield - but Tamina's instincts were excellent and she hit the ground and rolled, and so escaped any injury. Tim himself stayed on the ground, but called back, "Are you all right?"

Udo, off to the left, had responded by sliding up and opening fire on the wizard himself. That made him the target for the next shots, and kept him very close to the ground indeed.

If Drusia understood the import of the kobold's tactical ideas she was probably skeptical -- after all, the magic shielding around the errant was good against physical or magical attacks, and it covered him from all sides. What would be the use of getting up close and personal if they couldn't penetrate?

[Drannin]

Argus knew how hard shields could be to penetrate. After all, he had trained extensively to use such things himself, which was why his stony armor was reinforced by a personal shield. On the other hand, it was possible to... overload a shield, with sufficient force, draining the wielder and fracturing the shield.

Which was why Carloc, or whatever the undead mage was called, suddenly found himself impacted by a massive column of stone, which promptly exploded in an electrical burst of energy, sending stone fragments everywhere. It was the blast and impact that did the most damage, however.

[Alberich]

Argus' stone blast knocked his shielded opponent back a foot or two in midair and roused a scream of "DEATH TO LIFE!!!!" With unabated power, the long-haired monster fired back, trading magical blows with the aging Tsuirakuan.

In the center, where Argus stood, the approaching bandits had been pretty well destroyed by Tamina's lightning raids. On the left, where Udo was, it was not so. Inspired perhaps by Carloc's teaching, four of them jumped from cover at close range and sped to the top to attack him hand to hand. They'd made it close enough that he couldn't just mow them down.

He caught one in the chest with a force bolt but then the others were on him. One got a smashed arm from another bolt but now it was knife work and they were struggling and stabbing and someone let out a cry of pain.

Argus, atop the ridge, could not attend to that - this enemy was powerful, someone he wouldn't have cared to face in his strongest days, and these weren't those. The twisted grimace of the enemy's face was clear enough behind that shield, even at this range, and its evil eyes were locked on him. As they gave each other blast for blast, this is how it seemed to Argus:

(1) He and the enemy could keep this up for a while, if they wanted to. And Carloc, down there, seemed very much to want to.

(2) Carloc was the stronger and better protected. If they simply kept doing this, they would both feel the effects, but Argus would be the one whose shields broke first.

(3) Even if Udo had been in a position to join in, and everyone in the group got up to duke it out with this floating half-elf madmage -- there could be no assuring the outcome; raw power might win the day for them. Or it might not. But the odds were that it would not. His side's shields would wear out first, and then they'd start to fall.

(4) And yet - Carloc was not completely out of Argus' league, either. He was powerful, but not invincible or godlike. There were mages in Tsuiraku who could take this weirdo for sure.

What he could really use right now was an edge. But where was one to be found?

[OOC: Edited to change "could" to "couldn't" Whoops!]

[Graybeard]

"He died but then didn't die." Sounds ... undead, Sister Rose thought. Until two or three weeks ago, she had subscribed to the Church's position that there were no such things as "undead" beings (although some corners of the Orthodox church certainly accepted the existence of demons). However, that experience with the Peaceful Dead had been ... thought-provoking. Not to mention the various embodiments of death.

This is a fishing expedition, but it can't hurt. "And how does a man die, but not be dead?" she asked. "The man who was your guest, the one you thought we killed -- we didn't, but that doesn't seem to matter any more -- he thought he could walk with death, too. Look what it got him. How can this Carloc avoid such a thing?" She grimaced. "By communion with an unholy artifact, perhaps?" She showed the man the figurine she'd found at Frobish Bay. "Because it doesn't work, not for long. I'm here to tell you that."

She was going to say more, but the next blast from Argus' general direction diverted her attention; she might have to leave this recalcitrant captive to Harker's ministrations for the moment and try to find some way to help her "husband" out ... if she could.

[Alberich]

"And how does a man die, but not be dead? The man who was your guest, the one you thought we killed -- we didn't, but that doesn't seem to matter any more -- he thought he could walk with death, too. Look what it got him. How can this Carloc avoid such a thing? By communion with an unholy artifact, perhaps? Because it doesn't work, not for long. I'm here to tell you that."

"You keep using all these words I don't know." -- the word "unholy," in particular, had no meaning to him. "Look, woman, Carloc took his mortal blows before I was born" -- this man looked to be in his twenties -- "and the wounds are still there. I'm not putting my hand in there to check! You should try it yourself. Embrace him close and see what his wounds are. Our old god is gone. The idol he uses, we don't see. And don't want to! The face of death itself is kinder. It brings an end to all! Let it bring your end too. And this fucking beaver's!"

[Jack Rothwell]

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, k, thanks." Tamina replied, tiredness sinking it's fingers into her muscles. She watched Argus exchanging shots with the half-elf from (relative) safety. She saw the old man (by Killikah standards, anyway) throw another rock projectile, which smashed futilely against the creature's barrier, who in turn drew energy to fire back. She turned to Tim.

"Hit him now! Distracted! Keep up... umm... plea... pressure!"

[Alberich]

"Hit him now! Distracted! Keep up... umm... plea... pressure!"

[OOC: Heh heh - distracting thought!]

"Got nothing to hit him with!" said Tim - "I can help shield, is all..."

Well, it wasn't quite all. One more bandit Tamina hadn't caught decided he was close enough for a rush on Argus, hoping to get his blade in between the joints of the stone armor. But Tim managed a hamstring slash that foiled the plan, completely, and opened the enemy up for a stabbing death - without having to get up and make a target of himself. A good thing, too - it was easy to see this fight was out of his league. Surely now the center was bandit-free.

[Drannin]

Argus muttered darkly. Okay. Main thing was to get past the shield, crack it, then exploit any cracks. Time to get creative. This was going to be damned hard to do in the middle of a battle, but he had no choice.

Argus ceased his assault, focusing on defense while he extended his mind out, below and just in front of his opponent. Take the rock... carefully work it... mold the tip into a shield-cancelling rune... energize it by sending the magic though the stone... and then send it jutting upward at an angle to crash into the shield. Wouldn't blow the thing apart, but if he could just crack Carloc's defenses, he could exploit the gap opened up.

His spell prepared, Argus gestured sharply...