Apostles of Doom

Tom finished off the last of the thirteen liches controlling the hrímthursi. He pulled himself back and ran through a final check of the frost giant. The risi was clean, and alive, once more. Excrathadorus Mortis could not only destroy antimus; it could, in this case, also heal the damage done. Does that make it a dagger of healing? Tom wondered.

He pulled the blade out, willing the wound to close. The giant had been standing stiffly, but now quickly collapsed to the ground. Tom looked up to find Roth Tar Gorefest, Darg-Krallnom, Inethya, Targh and his soldiers, along with Morok and many of his soldiers, all battling to keep the other risar from attacking himself and the frost giant. Tom worked to try to un-crumple the frost giant so it could rest a bit more peacefully, as much as possible at least.

As he got the giant rolled over onto his back, his eyes fluttered open, his breathing deep and steady. He blinked at Tom and suddenly grinned. “Lord Orcus. Praise Loki, I should have suspected it would be you who could save me from my damnation! I owe you much!”

Tom smiled. “For now, honor that by staying as safe as possible and getting your strength back. I need to assist the others.”

Morok! Tom called to the commander. Have your men guard our recovering friend here!

Will do! Morok replied.

Tom glanced up, noting that Ruiden was in his golem form and looking to find ways to strike the giants without slicing an ally. Unfortunately, things were so tight that there were no good opportunities.

“Ruiden, why don’t you go check on the northern wall and see if you can help against that risi?” Tom suggested.

“Excellent idea!” the sword replied before launching itself over the wall.

Tom stood and turned to examine his options. The eldþursi had his back to Tom. Perhaps some cold fire to cut through the fire giant’s hot fire? Time for another cleaning! Tom leaped onto the eldþursi’s back.

Citadel of Light, Inside Northern Wall

Talarius moved back and forth, trying to keep his aim on the bergrisi’s eye in order to blind him with lightning bolts from his bow. It was tricky work, made trickier by the relatively tight confines of the inner courtyard. Unfortunately, with the giant slamming against the inside walls, the courtyard was soon going to be much bigger.

“We need to drive him outside the wall!” Stainsberry yelled.

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Giant-Hilda roared back in exasperation. She was standing on top of the inner wall opposite the collapsed wall and holding her hammer as if it were a croquet mallet. She was trying to knock the stone golem hard enough on the chest to trip it over the rubble behind it, moving it closer to the outside. “I could really use a thaumaturge to turn this thing to mud!” she boomed in her giant form.

“Can they do that? Melt stone?” Stevos asked.

“I have no idea; I would hope a sufficiently powerful one could do so,” Hilda replied.

Talarius glanced around once more to ensure that the adjoining courtyards — thank Tiernon for the segmented nature of the Citadel and its courtyards — were finally emptied. Carpets had been ferrying people wounded by the collapsing of parts of the inner walls as the stone golem careened off them. There had been a lot of casualties; he had no idea how many deaths.

Talarius looked to Stainsberry, who had suddenly moved to one of the walls and was rummaging through his Bag of Safekeeping. Good thing the interdiction was lifted, Talarius thought. Unfortunately, he could not think of anything in his own bag that would be more useful than his bow. His Rod of Smiting could chip away, but to get the most damage he would need to be braced upon the ground, or something other than the air under his feet. He let loose another volley of arrows in quick succession, but all the stone golem had to do was blink to protect itself. It singed its stone eyelids, but did little else.

Talarius heard a whistling noise and looked up to see Ruiden spinning towards him. The spinning glaive stopped rotating and reformed into a golem beside Talarius.

“In its stone form, there is not much I can do against this golem,” Ruiden said.

“I know; I’m in the same boat,” Talarius said. “We are going to have to come up with plans for such situations in the future. This is not something I had ever seriously considered.”

“Our challenges have certainly expanded under Lord Tommus,” Ruiden noted.

Talarius chuckled. “I cannot argue that.”

Citadel of Light, Southern Wall

“Okay,” Tom said out loud, “now all we have to do is keep the normal Unlife away from our recovering friends.”