Jeff LaSala - The Darkwood Mask

Through the lenses of his mask, Charoth saw the nimblewright’s head swivel ever so sleightly to face the door of his workshop. The ancient construct had finer senses than he.

Charoth had spent too many months planning this moment-too many years researching the spells necessary to dissolve the matrix of polluted Positive Energy-to suffer this interruption. His factory had been compromised, and a very dangerous opponent had arrived to terminate his work.

Tallis and his allies stood at the door, peering within.

Charoth quelled the panic that threatened him. His opponent was too judicious to storm in without taking precautions, but Charoth’s own resources were stretched thin. Most of his spells had been expended to protect the factory, hide the royals, and execute the procedure itself. But he would not take any chances with Tallis.

He produced a pinch of gem dust, spoke the catalyst, and directed his hand to the door, giving the spell kinetic force. At the edge of his vision, there was motion at the throne, ever so sleight.

It was working! His hope had not been in vain. With the spell-barrier in place, Charoth regained control of the situation once again.

“Welcome, Major,” he said, returning his attention to the procedure-he was very nearly done-trying his utmost to keep his voice calm, to temper his rage. “Your intrusion is unwelcome.”

Magic carried his voice through the slit of his mask, through the glass walls of his workshop, and into the factory room beyond. Lady Mova looked up, jarred from her cabalistic trance.

Tallis heard the wizard’s voice reverberate across the vast room behind him like the words of a god. He didn’t bother to respond or even open the door. Leading with the adamantine head of his hammer, he crashed into the door with all of his strength.

When the shards fell away, an invisible, unyielding force barred his entry. “Blunted!”

“Tallis,” Soneste said, urgently.

His instincts flared a warning of their own as he turned around. He looked to the factory floor below and immediately set to counting the number of new enemies emerging from the shadows.

There were at least a dozen already and more coming. Leading them forward was Rhazan, an eight foot wall of coarse hair and bristling goblin features, his massive chain grasped in both hands. At each end of the spiked chain was a large, bladed weight.

The creatures that slunk out from around Rhazan had hairless, haggard frames sheathed in desiccated, gray skin which stretched tight across angular bones. They wore the same clothing as the glassworkers, though soiled and in disrepair, and some even carried weapons. Filthy, jagged nails sprouted from fingers half again as long as they ought to be. The ghouls looked up in malignant glee and an unearthly howl of laughter rose up from them.

Servitors of the Blood of Vol.

Rhazan snarled when the ghouls surged before him, cutting off his path.

Tallis heard curses from his companions-neither was likely accustomed to fighting the ravenous dead. They were cornered, backed to a wall, but they did have the higher ground. He tried to formulate a plan-when an arrow loosed from somewhere within the horde, smashing against Charoth’s invisible wall. A second ricocheted off Tallis’s vambrace.

“Aegis!” he shouted, pointing to the base of the stairs. “Stand at the base. Keep them down there, if you can-they can’t poison you .” The necrotic toxins in a ghoul’s body could paralyze living victims with even the sleightest scratch, but the warforged’s physiology was quite different-the construct could not be afflicted. “Halix, Soneste, stay up here and by Aureon do not let them touch you! Soneste, if you-”

“Tallis, I have an idea!” she said. She took hold of his shoulder and pointed to the brick-walled glass tank not fifteen feet behind Rhazan. “The wall is damaged. Together we might break it open!” Following her lead, he fixed his eyes on the tank and spotted the sleight break in the otherwise even brickwork.

Even as the first of the ghouls reached Aegis-who swept them back with a mighty swing-Tallis turned to meet the Brelish’s eyes. “Perfect,” he breathed, forcing a smile.

“If you can cover me, I can-”

“No,” he said. “I’m going. I know what to do. Cover me. Use that fancy blue poison of yours on Rhazan if you’ve still got it, but only if you can get a clear shot!”

“Tallis, alone you can’t-”

He ignored her, eyeing Rhazan as he climbed atop the metal railing.

The ghouls hissed and clamored to reach them all. Aegis stood with his legs spaced apart for maximum stability. The ghouls’ weapons and clawed fingers scrabbled against the warforged’s metal plating. Most rebounded without effect, but slowly they were wearing the construct down. With flashing blades, Halix and Soneste cut back those who tried to climb up along the rail or reach through the gaps of the stairs.

Sidestepping a few pale-skinned claws, Tallis stepped once then jumped out into the air, buoyed by the magic of his enchanted boots. He sailed over the ghoulish crowd, clearing them completely.

Rhazan had guessed his move and lashed out with his chain. Even from ten feet away, the spiked weight clipped him in mid-air. Tallis hit the ground in a roll, gritting his teeth as pain coursed through his arm from the bone-numbing blow. His bracers had kept the blade from tearing through.

Tallis leapt to his feet and turned to face Rhazan. “That’s all you’ve got, Rhaz-bag? You’re more bug than bear!”

Staying in one place would ensure a quick death with Rhazan so close, so Tallis started moving. He held his hammer ready in one hand, even as he fished in the pocket of his backpack with his other. He produced a metal flask-and just in time! The next swing of Rhazan’s chain tore the haversack from his shoulders, spilling its contents to the ground.

Speeding out from the corner of his vision, a dart-sized crossbow bolt sank into the thick fur at the bugbear’s collar. Rhazan growled in pain. Sleep well, Tallis thought, remembering how quickly Soneste’s poison could take effect.

Rhazan opened his mouth and bellowed a challenge in the Goblin tongue, spinning both ends of his chain and looking for an opportunity to strike his foe. The bugbear advanced on him just as two of the ghouls peeled away from their fellows and rounded on Tallis, their hunched bodies loping toward him like animals. He’d been ready for this. He stopped moving only long enough to skewer the first with the mithral pick, then rushed on again when Rhazan’s chain swept a little too close. One head blow from that thing would finish him.

The second ghoul swiped at him, its claws coming away with ribbons off the back of his shirt but failing to draw blood. Tallis stopped again, turned, and threw his weight into a one-handed hammer swing. The blow balked the creature’s advance but didn’t knock it down. He dodged aside just as Rhazan’s chain soared in, the heavy weight catching the ghoul instead. The thick spike opened the creature’s hideous head, spilling its contents to the floor as the body dropped.

Khyber! Was Soneste’s poison doing nothing against the brute?

As Rhazan drew his chain back in, Tallis sprinted directly at him. He’d get only one chance at this.

Mere feet away, Tallis dived at the bugbear’s feet and upended the metal flask across his foe’s hairy, sharp-nailed toes. A pale amber substance slipped from the flask in one large gob and landed squarely across a bearlike foot and the stone beneath it. Good enough!

“Stick it out, Rhaz-bag!” he quipped.

Rhazan roared, released one hand from his chain, and punched Tallis between the shoulder blades before he could move away. Grimacing under the wave of pain that coursed through his spine, Tallis pulled out one of his immovable rods and locked it in place along Rhazan’s shin only one foot off the ground. I’m not getting this one back, he thought darkly.