Nomen Infernale XLXIX: Rottenness Enters My Bones
General Summary
Through the eyes of the dead and the gifts of the plague god I can see much of the field inside the cursed walls of the meddlesome Ayadin. Ebbo chafes at my order to hold back and Ngozi is as impassive and unreadable as ever, but I hear the beating of his heart and know he longes to join the fray as well. The vagobond mercenary company that has been sowing death and destruction in their wake is with the Ayadin. I am surprised the rigid and self-righteous Alim would join battle along with those who reek of the plague god's just mercy but wave after wave of fighters has depleted their strength regardless.
I observe the child fighter attack and try to retreat from one of my warriors, but he trips clumsily in his haste to dodge back and earns a deep cut in his thigh for his hubris. The Ouranic priest whose chest glows bleakly with miasma steps from the shelter to batter one of my warriors. I see Rahet, son of Hershet, the captain of our first attack thrown bodily from the door of the building and become entangled with a warrior on theground. They scramble to get up but struggle in the din of battle and press of bodies. My warriors slice at the child and the steppelander barbarian, but both roll out of the way. Arrows fly from the bow of a woman just as impassive as Ngozi. Her cloak flutters in the weak desert breeze. Her first arrow misses, but her second arrow sinks deeply in the shoulder of my warrior as goes to bring his axe down on the child warrior again. A lithe girl with a spear deftly sinks it into the spleen of the warrior Rahet is tangled with. The girl on the roof sinks a second arrow into the warrior attacking the child. The spearwoman hesitates while striking again. She seems concerned that she might strike Rahet, but why?
The child continues to struggle to stand as the blood of the warrior above him makes the ground slick and muddied. Rahet gets to his feet rushes to the child pulling him upright. The child hides behind him as Rahet holds his hands up to intercede with his own warriors on the child's behalf. Through the hazy eyes of the dead I see a flicker of blue light from Rahet. A geas perhaps? But the child seems truly mundane. I relish stripping their flesh to taste what magicks are at play. Rahet's words distract two warriors making them easier prey for the mercenaries.
The fair barbarian that threw Rahet out of the building comes out striking and slices the warrior in the doorway in half. I chuckle dryly and tell Ngozi that he may have a worthy opponent within the walls; the bronzeman's unblemished flesh crawls at the sound of my voice, but his heart beats quicker in anticipation.
The girl looses a third arrow in to the warrior attacking the child, striking him in the back of the knee and crippling him. The child moves behind Rahet as the fair barbarian strikes at the other warrior who had been attacking the child. Rahet is visibly shaken by the warriors he should be commanding being struck down while he does nothing.
The child hides behind Rahet. A man in ostentatious robes, rich blue veins of Ar across his skin, now dimmed with exhaustion, exits the chapel and stabs the warrior already filled with arrows in the back. He still stands and I mentally mark him as a future undead servant. The priest and warrior continue battering at each other wearing each other down with glancing blows and deft blocks. The stepplander shoots an arrow at warrior closest to the gate, it sinks into his eye. His head glows orange briefly before his skin blackens and flame erupts from his eyes nose and mouth.
The priest slams his mace into the thigh of his opponent causing him to howl in pain. He is only able to graze the priest back in response. The woman with the spear has moved from the building and begun to harry the crippled man filled with spears, but is unable to hit him in the chaos. The woman on the roof shoots the man fighting the priest wounding him greatly and giving the priest further advantage. She seamlessly shifts to shooting the man already filled with arrows, felling him. Her face remained and emotionless mask the entire time. The robed man and the girl join the fight with the priest and end his foe. I hear the laughter of the robed man ring in the dying warriors ears "just like castratin' bulls" in Rexan, luckily the warrior did not speak this tongue so that he did not know with which indignity he passed into the plague god's kingdom.
The drummers beat steadily as we move to the gate, our warriors have fallen except for Rahet, but he is a liability now. The Ayadin have mostly contained the various warriors in the courtyard and have lost very few of their number. I had hoped for an easy victory, but Ngozi will be pleased by the challenge and Ebbo will delight in the possibilities for carnage. As I shake loose my visions of the dead I see the priest leading the group in benedictions of Lamos, the false teacher that leads men to struggle against their destiny of decay.
Ngozi, Ebbo and I stand before the gate, the stepplander stands on the tower and fires at us, but misses, Ngozi fires at him but he is well hidden in the crenelations. I pull miasmatic energies into myself, this courtyard is coursing with the energies of death and my mortal flesh is transformed, blessed by the plague god and made anew of bone. Ebbo enters the courtyard first as Ngozi gives him cover. I see the child in the distance standing on the roof. His eyes are vacant for a moment and his head is cocked to the side. I see him bob his head in time with the drummers beyond the wall who help channel our focus. He shakes back to present rather then letting the trance of the plague god slip into him. Ngozi fires again on the stepplander and hears a grunt of pain as his arrow bites the man's flesh. The fair barbarian throws a net over me. I am less nimble while protected by boneflesh but Ebbo sees my predicament and moves to free me. The stepplander and the greencloak archer fire at me, but their arrows shatter on my carapace. As Ebbo cuts at the net binding me, and arrow strikes him in the back of the shoulder, the priest then comes behind him and slams his mace on the haft of it driving it fully through his shoulder. He continues to cut the ropes and I am freed just as the fair barbarian slices Ebbo in twain. I move with impunity to the fallen giant by the gate. The child warrior looses a slingbullet at me from a leather thong and somehow catches a joint. A lucky shot. I chant yog saduk akh, YOG SADUK AKH as I draw the miasma through me and the light of day dims, and channel it into the dead flesh of the half-ogre. It moves awkwardly but strikes without hesitation.
Ngozi and the fair barbarian face each other. He looses an arrow into the barbarian wounding him greatly. The barbarian surprises us by turning his attention from Ngozi to me and slices through my bone plate and wounds me with his khopesh. His strength is unnatural and I see his eyes are bloodshot. Ngozi sees it too and scoffs "you're not even natty are you, bro?" as he slices into the barbarian with his straight sword. It seems impossible that the barbarian could still be standing, but he seems like he will not be able to take much more abuse. The child warrior leaps off the roof of the building and moves closer, fumbling in his bag for what looks like a small vial. Rahet, the traitor is beside himself, babbling and chasing after him like the weak father of a wayward child. The girl with the spear slips out of the door and yells something back into the room, but I am too far to hear it clearly. The steppelander misses Ngozi again and the risen half-ogre fails to kill the fair barbarian.
