DCC DotSK: Act 1-3

Sword and torch in hand, Anora draws back in disgust at the sight of these savage kings indeed.

"Are these from without or within?" she asks, wondering if some sorcery has made the old Hirotians so, or was this an affliction of newer men… or women!

Aldric brings up his shield and oar defensively, his leather armour squeaking! "Pelagia preserve us!"

"Ware the walls!" Ty shouts.

His glance toward the ceiling helped him spot the things, and that's given him precious seconds that his comrades lack. Already Tyravasiel is marshaling his wit, the insufferable arrogance of a long-lived race, preparing for the ancient game that his people play with reality itself.

The elves are not content with the world as it is. Their forests are not like the forests of men; where elves walk, oaks and aspens sing for the wind; leaves tumble down like jewels poured from the casket of the sun. It is Tyravasiel-Llir's birthright to move through such kaleidoscopes of color and light. Why should he not do so here?

But he is very far away from his home. A fugitive, with cropped ears and shrouded eyes, huddled and hiding in flyspeck filth. The trees do not sing here; the magic is thin. Perhaps the colors will not come when he wills them.

There is one color, at least, left to him, pulsing always beneath his skin. Summon that one, he thinks, and the others may follow.

Gritting his teeth, the elf drives the point of his mithril javelin down into his foot. Blood wells up and flows onto the ground, ruby red.

Through the pain, Ty bellows, "Stagger from the light, you foetid, rotten things! Wander lost amongst the colors of life! This is no longer your place. This world belongs to those who draw breath, who can yet smell the shit-stink that rises from your cadavers!"

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ROUND 1
Init Order: Ty, Tomb Denizens, Dufgal, Aldric, Anora

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Dufgal covers his eyes when the magic erupts from the elf’s… everything. The spectacle made his wildest fantasies about elves seem mild. He found himself wondering if Anora would ever learn to wield magic like that.

When he felt that it was safe enough to look, he used the lingering flicker of magical light to locate and target weak points of the creature nearest him. He moved with alacrity and gave a quick, sharp battlecry as he swung the ornate warhammer with all his might.

Anora only half shields her eyes to the light, not wanting to miss one of the rare occasions where she would see one of the other peoples perform their magicks.

The lights dance across her blue robes, and the woman feels herself enhanced somehow. As if by sheer proximity to the stuff, her own magicks would be made stronger!

She lets the thing shimmer across her blade, and light flits about the ceiling and walls, even as she advances on the downed things to put them to the sword!

Skin sloughs and bone and brains explode as Dufgal brings down that hammer hard, completely smashing in the face and skull of one of the tremoring fiends! It was a mighty blow, and the thief could feel that was weapon was intended for purposes just such as these. Aye, it was made for it!

Unfortunately, the sickening burst is accompanied by a crack that can only mean the fresh haft of the weapon hasn’t held…

Light dances across the downed creature, as Anora stalks up and prepares to sully her blade with the blood and brains of the second vile creature!

Aldric covers his eyes behind his shield as Ty exudes light. He is awed by Ty's display of magical power, and considers for a moment why the elf was always turning his nose up at humans. Blinking away the after-lights in his eyes, Aldric calls out to Pelagia in a rasping whisper as the murdering begins.

"Pelagia, my Bitch Queen! Please accept these sacrifices!" He begins crashing the oar marked with Pelagia's thrice-cresting waves to bash the Tomb Denizen's skull.

Anora’s sword chops into loathsome gray flesh as Aldric raises his mighty oar. These tomb fiends will rue coming within weapon’s reach of this fearsome group of adventures! As the priest prepares the final blow on the second creature, Dufgal pulls his ornate hammer free from the brain-splattered, bloody slop that was the things head — and he starts when the body moves, when it almost jumps from the floor, sending its limp limbs dancing. Is there something inside the thing?!

Before the thief can cry a warning, Pelagia’s oar comes slicing into the second helpless ghoul’s torso. Ripe gray flesh and brittle yellow bone parts before the weapon’s hard wooden edge, opening a sucking cavity in the grotesque thing’s midsection — and in a sudden flurry of movement, of flung slime and bile and viscera, some two or three foot long worm-thing leaps from the now-dead biped, straight at Aldric. A vile serpent of some unknown origin, the parasite has a fanged, humanoid head atop its snake-like body!

Anora swoops out of the way, as Aldric brings chaos in his wake!

"Would you cease your pleas to Pelagia? Every time the Sea Bitch’s name is cried, you bring misfortune on yourself… and us all!" she barks, but she knows the man doesn’t hear!

The thing is already upon him!

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ROUND 2
Init Order: Ty, Dufgal, Ghoul Serpents (2), Aldric, Anora

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Aldric lets loose a strangled cry as the snake-thing has him by the throat! He calls out to Pelagia (despite Anora's warning) for aid!