Tallus the Barbarien pt3

[chimera0010]

Tallus and Akana moved through the casms of the Stygian coast. It was dry, desolate, and devoid of any kind of life. But the smoke fires burning in the distance was always an indication that something was alive in this place. It was not till sundown that things got horrible. During the night, the tribal mystics of the dark hand kidnapped Akana to sacrafice her to their demon god of the dead. Tallus chased her through the night, ending up in the bone wastes of Alceria.

What a trial this was. Tallus climbed cliffs and squeezed through narrow passages to find where they went. His only clue was the smell of burning flesh in the distance, hoping it was not Akana who was burning. During his persuit, he ran into several starving lions. He faught back, him or them, but they had no choice, with the dark hand's poaching, there was not much food. He managed to happen upon one of the encampments. This should be fun.

The mystics where a mixed bunch. They used spears, arrows, and swords as usual, but the witch doctors used tribal shields with shrunken heads mounted on them. Tallus dispatched them, but the archers had assassin training and the shields of the witch doctors where hard ot cut through with all the body parts mounted ot them. Even after killing them they arose anew. He did not know why, then he figured it out, they keep appearing out of the huts. Using the logs from the campfires he set fire ot the huts. Seeing clay statues inside he smashed them with his sword, watching the cultists fall much faster since they coul die and stay dead.

Tallus traveled on, one encampment after another. Often freeing captive women who where being transported along the roads known to the dark hand for sacrafice. Many had lost their clothes, being prepared to be ravaged by the undead cultists in order to spawn a new kind of human. Many of the woman spoke of the other girls being carried off to be mated with strange ape like monsters to sire a new breed. Tallus took this to consideration and kept on, fighting cultists and more wild beasts, all the while hearing pipes sounding not too far away.

He did find the cave eventually, but the entrance was sealed and too high to reach. Looking around he seen a plate on the floor with three different colored tiles. He steps on one, watching a tower sound off. He runs over to it and climbs up. He sees the pipes but does not see them making a sound. He cranks the chain, stubborn as it was it gave way slowly to the bulging biceps of Tallus, how he strained just to move the pipes into place. When the pipes aligned, they made a bellow that caused a section of the ground to rise up at the edge of the cave.

He understood now. He activated the second one back at the steps. THis time he moved off, killing the cultists that bared his path and climbed up again. This time he worked two chains, getting he same reaction with a second step that was leved with the first one. Repeating the activation again he went to the third tower, smashing the wooden walls with a boulder he climbed up. But did not see any chains, this time he braced himself against the pipes and with his tree trunk legs, moved them by himself into place until they sounded again. The last platform rose only slightly to gain easy access.

Tallus climbed the new platforms and enters the cave. The walls were narrow and well lit. He followed them down into the depths, as he did, he seen black fluids flowing from the walls like a waterfall stream. It smelled vile, and dipping a torch into it, seen it was also unsafe. The torch melted. The walls were dripping with black acid. Where could it be coming from? He had no time to go cave exploring. Coming into the opening of the cave, he runs into more cultists, but soon a new horror. Large ape like men with red faces and gorrila like bodies covered in hair. They wore necklaces made of the innards of slain victims.

The cultists this time where very much alive, and no fetish dolls to revive them. KIlling was easy until he met the ape men. He dodged boulders, fists, even rotted fangs. Using the shield of a witch doctor he defended himself against the meaty fists, and aimed for the vital spots with his sword. He often bashed them with his shield and often knocking his enemies into the pools of acid that littered the caverns. He did find more women, releasing them they ran out the mouth of the cave, they told Tallus they were to be sacraficed to the elephant god of the dead in order for this band of cultists to gain immortality.

Tallus eventually did come to a door that was sealed off. He culd hear Akana on the other side. The door was too strong for him to open on his own. He backtracked and climbed many ledges, following the ape men as he slew them to a large boulder. Pushign with all his might he makes the rock move down a track and into the wall. He goes inside, seeing a caged wall and a chain with plain view of the door he needed to open below. He pulls the chain, causing the door to rise up into the archway and lock into place. He bends the bars and goes down into the cavern below. Moving into the room he sees Akana chained to a steak with several cultists preparing the ceremony he interrupted.

The head preist pulls a lever, causing him and Akana to go down a tram into a tunnel depper into the mountain side. Tallus took care of the apes and the cultists, but the door behind him was blocked off by several rocks. He will deal with them later. He jumps into the hole, balancinghimself he slides down the tram on his feet until he reaches the end of the tunnel. He climbs up, keeping low to the ground so no one sees him. Its just one man in a very large room with Akana and a giant dead elephant. OK he thought make that an elephant made out of human and animal body parts.

He got up and started running, stopping at the large pool with the corpse inside it. The elephant god';s body was made from the bones, flesh, organs, and muscle fibers of the animals women and men of the area. The black acid that filled the cracks of the mountain flowed from this very body. The death god was alive but needed one more sacrafice to become mobile, or so he could catch from the foreign tongue of the priest. As he began to try and knife Akana in the heart, she reacted. She kicked him in the face with her heel, and as he bent inwards to hold his broken jaw, she wraped both legs around his neck and tossd him over the cliffside into the acid.

Tallus shakes his head, though the cultists dont get their immortality now, he has to deal with a god of the dead in a corporeal form. ON second thought that dont sound too bad he wondered. Since he has a mortal body body the death god can be hurt and slain and cast back into hell. Tallus smiles with glee, flexing his back muscles he preps sword and shield for the death god as it rises from his laying posture in the pool. He rushes in, hacking away at the decayed flesh and removing the long trunk of the beast. With no trunk it wont have an easy time spraying the acid every where. This angered the beast. Its head had glowing blue eyes and four tusks. THough it thrashed its head about, Tallus merely rolled around and jumped over them as it swung. Using its head as leverage he tricks it into launching him to a near by ledge.

Looking around he sees a hanging oil lamp attached to a chain next to him. Cutting the chain he tosses the oil lamp into the acid starting a fire. The elehpant god roars in anger as its flesh burns off, but the fires soon die out as the acid from its inards smothers the flames. Tallus jumps down, moving back to the front of the pool he continues his barrage, hacking away at the thick skull of the beast. This time he repeats the trick on the opposite ledge, starting a fire that turns the death god into a living skeleton. Using the back bones he climbs up to the ledge behind it and runs up to Akana. He tries to break her chains, but the death god comes up fast and interrupts the happy reunion.

He dodges around, and cuts off one of the tusks with his sword. He throws it hard, pericing the heart. It does not die, he custs of a second one and smacks the beast in the face. The dead flesh falls off, revealing a large blue jewel in its head. He jumps off the ledge, and smashes the jewel with his fist. Taking out the jewel he holds a beating heart in his hand. With one grip he squeezes it dead and leaves the beast standing like a lifeless statue. He climbs back up the cliffside and breaks the chains holding Akana. ON the way back to Stygia, Akana explains that the master of the black hand wanted immortality, and so he sired children in order to steal their souls. She was one of those children whom escaped his blood lust and has been looking for venegence for her dead brothers and sisters ever since. Tallus and Akana now have much in common as they continue their travels to Zemura.

[msman]

keep going!!