kenoslogs | 2023 catch-all

[As Liem expected, in just the few moments between him dousing the light and then firing that glowing bolt into the centre of the cavern’s roof, the silhouette he’d spotted earlier disappears. As Dimitri darts forward, with Liem following in his wake, the space ahead of them seems empty.

But that is only because the creature has found a perch elsewhere. As the three of them leave the shelter of the smaller cavern behind them, the creature swoops down from one of the cave walls, a monstrosity of twisted wing and limb and root. In two of its misshapen limbs, it holds a spear that appears to be grown right from the roots in its body; it closes rapidly out of the gloom as Liem shouts,]

On our left!

[ Dimitri hears the yell and fortunately enough that's not his blind side. He whirls with speed and strength born of practice and long years of experience and he lunges to meet the swooping creature. Lance to lance, blade to blade. There's a clash and then creature wheels off - neither of them have landed a telling blow and apparently this thing prefers not to stand and fight. ]

See if you can keep an eye on it!

[ Which is something he's trying to do himself. ]

Unfortunately, I can't follow it up like that...

[As Dimitri lunges to engage the swooping creature in melee, Liem fits another quarrel into his crossbow. He’s ready when it wheels off to climb again into the air, and sends his bolt after it, lodging in the meat (root?) at the base of one fibrous wing. For a moment, he even hopes that he’s hampered it with the injury; it wobbles a little as it ascends, its turn a little clumsier than before. But as he watches, he sees the woody flesh around the quarrel pucker and twist — and spit the quarrel out, leaving barely any mark at all.]

I see it, [he confirms. He’s hardly likely to miss it with it it swooping around like that, even when it darts into the more shadowed parts of the cavern.]

Let’s try to go for the wings. We won’t get anywhere chipping away at it.

[As he speaks, the thing wheels around for another pass — this time coming for him. Liem lunges out of the way of a savage swing of that spearlike root, scrambling to keep clear.]

I will-

[ There's a moment where he has to reacquire it as it comes swooping back - and he leaps forward as Liem dodges and this time his strike is more true. The lance pierces a wing and slashes through the weird wooden flesh and then rips the membrane. The creature shrieks and this time it wobbles and collapses, unable to stay in the air - at least for now. If it starts healing again, it will probably get there. ]

There! It's wounded!

[ However temporarily. ]

[Liem has his hands full keeping away from the creature’s stabbing weapon, particularly as its reach is longer than he’d like, but then Dimitri is there, and Liem can again turn his attention to loosing quarrel after quarrel at its misshapen body. Two of the quarrels find their mark, puncturing deep into the creature’s chest along its ribs. (Does it have ribs?) The third, however, goes wide as some strangeness sinking into Liem makes his grip on his crossbow falter, makes him fumble as he pulls the trigger.

It’s his arms: they’re too long, sprouting fibrous and green from the ends of his sleeves, fingers like twigs strangely shaped within the confines of his gloves. He can feel that malformation against his boots as well, around his hips, his waist, at his shoulders; he is not as he should be. It makes him shudder, and back hastily away from the warped creature now lashing out at the assailants around it, as it stitches its wing back together to spring back into flight.]

[ Dimitri is focused on trying to bring the creature down - but there's a pause as he glances back and catches sight of Liem and the twisting, changing shape of his body. There's a horrified little gasp and he swipes at the creature, the thing's spear catching against his armor. He backs off, stepping away to hurry to Liem's side. ]

Liem-! Are you hurt?

I— I don’t think so.

[Liem glances between Dimitri and the creature, which takes the moment’s respite to disengage from Karlach and climb back into the air on its healing wing. As it gets further away, the strange, deformed plantlike quality of Liem’s body softens and recedes back to something closer to normal.]

It must have done something, but I’m all right. Just be careful; those roots clearly aren’t its only weapons.

[And as it swoops down again toward the three of them, Liem waits until it’s almost upon them; then, he steps away through the air, disappearing from next to Dimitri and reappearing thirty feet away in a different part of the cave. This time, instead of raising his crossbow, he begins to cast a spell.]

[ Dimitri isn't sure he believes that. But he doesn't have much else to do but listen to him and carry on. ]

Understood.

[ And he rises to meet the creature. There's another clash as it swoops and agian, armor sees him through, but he feels somehow sluggish. Tied down in a way. He doesn't land a blow, but he is providing a distraction. Maybe that will be enough. ]

[For the moment, a distraction is all Liem needs. In the time it takes Dimitri to occupy the creature with a clash of spears, Liem speaks his spell into existence, gesturing toward the winged monster. Nothing obvious happens — but the root-infested angel shudders as some force overtakes it.

And then, shifting its grip on the rootlike spear that is its weapon, it turns it around and stabs the spear through the meat of one of its own thighs. Liem quickly loads another quarrel into his crossbow, levelling it at the creature’s back.]

Quickly! Before the magic ends.

[ Dimitri's eye widens and then he takes that opening and springs. He's a practiced warrior, prepared for this - and he attacks with a shattering blow from his lance, driving it through the creature's heart (or where it's heart ought to be) in a swift strike, driven by immense strength. ]

[It’s just thoroughness when Liem follows up Dimitri’s own mortal strike with a couple rapidly-shot quarrels, punching through the creature’s neck and head as it convulses from the force of the blow through its chest.

Despite the regenerative power of its root-like body, the wounds seem too much for it; the creature slumps over Dimitri’s lance, its body already beginning to lose coherence and sliding messily apart. By the time Liem trots warily over, it is nothing more than a pile of plant-like fibres and roots, with a dull shard sitting in the midst of the collection.]

This must be it.

[Surely there aren’t two shard-bearing beasts wandering around down here.]

I wonder where it came from.

...someone like us, perhaps.

[ Dimitri doesn't sound like he relishes the thought very much. ]

Someone who wanted to create something new. Or perhaps get something back.

[ Dimitri sighs softly. ]

There's so much we still don't know.

Maybe even someone who was here recently. I never rest easy when another one of us vanishes; I always wonder if they might have wound up like this, instead of going back to the timestream.

[It’s an unsettling thought, now that they know of Aetós and his proclivities.]

Let’s take a quick look around the area, [Liem suggests, as he digs into the pile of roots to carefully extract the shard from it. It feels so small and unassuming, separated from its body. He recalls Manon’s seeming much the same.]

Just to see if there’s anything else of immediate interest, before we head back.

...that's something I didn't consider.

[ He thinks of the people who have gone and the idea it might be one of them tugs at his heart. ]

I'll take a look. [ He steps to one side of the chamber, sorting through the roots and trying to see if anything else catches his eye - or maybe this is really the end of the trip. ]

2023 catch-all

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cw: body horror

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