Apostles of Doom

Suddenly a new set of horns began blowing, this time to the north. “What is that?” Talarius asked as people began moving quickly to reinforce the northern walls on the other side of the Citadel.

“I have no idea,” Stainsberry said, shaking his head.

“Do you fly on your own?” Talarius asked.

“Belt of Flying. Really not safe to have an aerial steed without one,” Stainsberry said.

Talarius grinned at the other knight and nodded in agreement. “Let’s go to the command tower and coordinate with Grob,” he suggested.

Stainsberry nodded and the two launched themselves into the air, speeding upward to the central tower.

“Whoa!” Stainsberry yelled as they approached the command tower. “That thing is twice the size of the others!”

“This is going to be bad!” Talarius yelled back to the other knight. “We need to head straight for the southern wall.”

“I don’t think we can stop that thing!” Stainsberry yelled as the two shifted course for the oncoming mountain of giant flesh that was charging the wall.

“What kind of risar is it?” Talarius yelled.

“By its size, I’d guess a bergrisi, a mountain giant,” Stainsberry shouted back.

“Does it turn to stone?” Talarius asked, thinking of what the other giants had done.

“That would be my guess,” Stainsberry said. “Did you see the stone plates it has strapped to itself as armor?”

“We need to get people off that wall!” Talarius yelled.

“I know; I am hoping that others will realize that. I am going to try to slow it down!” Stainsberry said as they approached the wall. The giant was about one thousand feet away and closing very quickly.

The Knight Magus pulled his staff from over his shoulder and took aim at the bergrisi. “Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” he chanted.

The air was suddenly rent by a giant arc of the bluest lightning imaginable. The thunder crash behind the lightning was tremendous. Talarius was much closer to it this time; his visor darkened to shield his eyes. The giant took a direct hit to the chest, knocking it off course but still heading forward.

It stumbled into the moat and screamed in pain before slamming into the base of the wall with an earth-shaking crash. Several people on the wall were knocked over.

Talarius and Stainsberry landed. “Everyone! Get off the wall!” Talarius shouted, drawing his bow.

“Evacuate the wall!” Stainsberry shouted in the other direction.

Talarius fired at the bergrisi. His Holy Lightning Arrow struck, causing the giant to wince. A very small burn mark appeared on the giant’s arm. “This is going to take a lot of arrows. Blast it again!”

“I will, but I haven’t recharged since returning. I’ve got maybe three or four more strikes before it’s drained,” Stainsberry replied as Talarius fired off another arrow.

The giant was getting to its feet. It suddenly leaped back across the moat and began running away. “I seriously hope it’s not going back to gather momentum!” Talarius shouted.

“Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Blue Lightning raced through the air and struck the giant in the back, shoving it forward and off balance.

Suddenly two more two-hundred-foot-tall giants, knights in glowing plate mail (one of whom was very stout) expanded on the battlefield behind the bergrisi. The two knights raced after the giant, squashing Unlife troops beneath their feet.

“By the power of Riven Rock, I smite thee!” the burly knight screamed, swinging a giant hammer at the head of the bergrisi. The hammer struck the giant in the head, releasing a blinding flash of light. Talarius’s visor darkened briefly, protecting his eyes.

The bergrisi reeled left with the impact’s momentum as the second knight attempted to skewer it on his hundred-foot-long glowing sword. Unfortunately, even as he struck the giant shifted, becoming what appeared to be a two-hundred-foot tall stone golem; the knight’s sword screeched painfully along its stone surface.

“Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh!” Once more, Blue Lightning arced from Stainsberry’s staff to the bergrisi, this time causing a small explosion of stone as it struck the stone golem.

“I’m going to rive your rock, giant!” the large knight, who Talarius now realized must be Saint Hilda, screamed as she once more smashed the giant, this time in the chest. An explosion of powdered stone rose from the impact site, and the stone golem stumbled back reeling. Far less dexterous in is stone form, it tottered for a moment and then fell over onto several squadrons of ghouls and ghasts.