Tales of Loral, Chapter 54: Vxed

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Tales of Loral
Chapter 54: Vxed

Six figures slipped through the halls of Ferubi like the shadows of
birds and stepped into the courtyard of Barindu. Ancient pyramids
towered over the six adventurers; monuments to the lost race of
Taelosia. The Taelosians spent thousands of years building these
temples of worship. Intricate runes and glyphs covered every surface of
the massive stone structures. Like the magical weapons and armor of
Norrath, the temples pulsed and throbbed with power. They speared
through the Astral and Ethereal planes, acting as wells and waterfalls
through multiple worlds simultaneously. These nodes of power once fed
the Taelosians with spiritual and magical energy. Now they fed the
Muramites.

The armies of Mata Muram infested these temples like flies on a
decaying corpse. Loral stared at the old temples and the misshapen
beasts that walked or crawled on its once holy surface. Huge
wolf-headed beasts wielding massive sythe-bladed axes swung their large
heads and sniffed at the air. Spine-backed humanoids, blind and
scarred, crawled over the rocks like spiders. Heavily muscled
orange-skinned primitives scanned the gardens surrounding the temples
with sharp pink eyes. Loral's breath caught in his chest when those
pink eyes scanned across him.

Loral felt a hand grasp the front of his cloak and pull him against the
rock walls of the valley of Barindu. Mici, the barbarian berserkser,
snorted at Loral's pale face. The berserker pointed to a canyon that
cut into the rock wall with his double-bladed axe. Loral ran.

Their cloaks of invisiblity broke apart seeming to spill the six
adventurers into the dark sunlight burning through the red clouds. An
unpleasant stench of spoiled meat filled Loral's nostrils but he
couldn't place it until they turned a corner of the canyon and saw the
piles of decaying corpses.

The bodies lay in pieces under the hot sun. Vultures and a world of
insects feasted on the decaying meat of the dead. Not since the Ringwar
of Thurgadin had Loral seen such violence. The bodies of these
adventurers, two dozen at least, had not been cut down; they had been
ripped apart. The cynical voice of the veteran dwarf at the Natimbi
camp spoke in Loral's memory. This land devoured adventurers. Now Loral
saw the resulting regurgitation.

"Only one way to go." Stonehewer tightened his breastplate agianst his
barrel-shaped chest and tightened the leather collar around his throat.
The dwarf had seen hundreds of battles and every preparation he made
was the result of a lesson learned in battle. Stonehewer spat into his
leather gauntleted hands and drew his heavily enchanted two handed
sword. The blade shone white in the dark light of the sun.

Illudar dropped a gauntled hand onto Loral's shoulder. Loral and the
two paladins had met Juror the shaman, Kaylessa the enchanter, and Mici
the massive barbarian berserker in the ruined halls of Qinimi before
deciding to travel through the canyons of Vxed. Only through these
canyons would they reach the larger temples of Kodtaz and see first
hand what menace Norrath faced. The six adventurers stepped over the
bodies of the dead and continued their trek into the mountain pass.

It took little time before the party found out what caused such carnage
to the fallen adventurers. Massive lizards, twisted from the tainted
power of the Taelosian temples now under Muramite control, attacked
with the fury beyond even the demons of the outer planes. Claws like
steel and teeth as sharp as glass cut and slashed at the party.
Kaylessa bent the mind of one weak-minded beast and turned its sharp
claws in their favor. The party fought and continued its journey
through the mountain pass.

The deafening roar of a thousand foot waterfall filled their heads as
they continued until they stepped out onto a platform suspended over a
thousand foot drop. A waterfall fell the thousand feet to the icy
waters below. Two thousand-foot-tall statues stood on the left and
right of the chasm, palms out and serenity on their smooth runed faces.
A bridge spanned across the chasm to another platform across the way.
Loral felt his legs grow weak when he looked over the bridge's edge.
Age had torn pieces of the bridge away and very little kept it from
falling completely into the chasm below.

Loral felt his hair stand on end but it wasn't until the party traveled
halfway across the bridge that the trap sprung. Loral saw Stonehewer go
rigid as though gripped by an invisible giant. Illudar's sword
clattered from his hand to the stone bridge's surface. A figure slid
out from the rocks on the other side of the bridge. Long black hair
flowed over the woman's ivory skin. Her beautiful torso flowed into a
hideously scaled serpent tail. Her long fingered hands twisted and
pulled as though pulling marionette strings. Loral watched in horror as
Stonehewer turned on legs not under his own control and began walking
to the bridge's edge.

Illudar screamed. His eyes had rolled back to their whites and he stood
arms out at his side and wailed at the violet sky above. Loral rushed
out to tackle and pin Stonehewer before he would take himself over the
edge but another sight stopped his movement. A gray-skinned horror
crawled over the bridge's edge. It stared through eyes stitched closed
and sniffed once before hissing at the cleric through razor sharp
fangs.

Blackness overtook Illudar. It enveloped him and surrounded him. He
suffocated under its thick pressure. Visions filled his mind. He was a
child again. He saw his mother smiling at him. Sunlight from an unseen
source shined in her golden hair. Then shadows closed in on her. They
reached for her with sharp talons and long teeth. He saw her cry but
heard the cries of his friends far away in another world instead. He
sat helpless and small, crying out as the shadows ripped his mother
apart.

Whatever horrid power trapped and twisted Stonehewer and Illudar had no
effect on Mici and Juror. The berserker drew a heavy axe and hurled it
end over end at the serpent enchantress at the same time that the
shaman finished chanting the words of a dreadful curse. The axe caught
the sorceress in the chest and clattered to the stone. Loral heard her
collar bone crack and blood gushed from the gaping wound.

Stonehewer's eyes focused and he spun his arms for balance, his feet
half over the edge of the bridge that crossed the thousand foot drop.
Illudar cried out again, his mind snapping back to reality like a
broken rope. Stonehewer, his balance recovered, rushed forward and
swept off the enchantress's head and the hand she held against her
chest with a single stroke of his blade.

Seven inch claws slashed past Loral's face. Only a clumsy tumble
backward saved his eyes from being ripped out of their sockets. The
horrible gray-skinned creature hissed and crawled towards the fallen
cleric. It raised another jagged claw and swept down. A line of silver
flashed in the moonlight and the ukun's fingers flew into the night on
tracing lines of black blood. The beast roared in pain and frustration
before lunging at the blue armored paladin, Illudar. Its teeth tore
into Illudar's chain coif. Bright red blood flowed from the seams of
Illudar's armor. The high elf stabbed his blade into the creature's
chest. Its tip burst out of the creature's back, adding a silver spine
to the bone ones already there. The ukun's bite weakened. Illudar
twisted the blade. The bite loosened more. Illudar kicked the beast
away before another slash of Stonehewer's sword sent the ukun's head
tumbling into the icy waters below.

Blue waves of energy flowed from Loral's hands and over the wound at
Illudar's throat. The gaping would closed but the ragged scar would
always remain. It served Illudar well for decades to come as a
distinction of battle in the political city of Felwithe.

The party crossed the bridge and spent a restless night on the far
side. Though they remained watchful, they never spotted the shadow that
swept over the bridge behind them or the blind eyes of the Kyv that
watched through sound and smell from above. In its hand, it held a
barbed arrow filled with black fire, an arrow that would steal the life
of one of their members less than a day later.