An evil smile spreads across Roark
Naog daka!
Gradually your Psi-screen weakens enough to enable the phantoms to engulf you with their snaky tendrils. You shudder with fear as they coil around your limbs, filling them with a terrible chill that steals your strength and your will to resist. Reluctantly you surrender to their numbing caress and slip into a sleep from which there will be no awakening.
-Slowly the ghosts encircle you and glide forward undaunted by the light. You brace yourself for their attack but still you shudder when their snaky tendrils lash out and engulf your limbs. Their touch fills you with a terrible chill that steals your strength and your will to resist. Reluctantly you surrender to their numbing caress and slip into a sleep from which there will be no awakening.
-The hail of arrows and the sight of your black-clad form lurching towards them make the guards over-excited. They fear it is the beginning of a Drakkarim attack, and when they hear you shout the wrong password it makes them panic. Raid!
they cry, alerting a unit of crossbowmen stationed on the high ground behind them. They grab their loaded weapons and take aim, but the only target they can see is you.
A scything wave of iron bolts engulfs you and an agonizing explosion of pain fills your chest. You are mortally wounded and although you fight to hang on to your life, it is a struggle you cannot win.
-With your good hand you unsheathe your weapon and strike out at your ghostly attackers, but your brave blows pass clean through their mist-like forms without effect. You shudder with fear as their snaky tendrils close tightly around your limbs, filling them with a terrible chill that steals your strength and your will to resist. Reluctantly you surrender to their numbing caress and slip into a sleep from which there will be no awakening.
-White-hot pain explodes through your chest and neck as three black-shafted Drakkarim arrows sink deep into your body. You scream in agony as you fall to the ground, but the pain quickly gives way to a terrifying numbness that robs you of all resistance to death.
-You smite the chain a mighty blow but you miss the rivet and the link does not break. Incensed by the boldness of your attack, and aware now of the threat it would have posed had it succeeded, the Demonlord leaps upon you and sinks his fangs deep into your chest. Pain explodes in your body but the agony is soon obliterated by the numbing chill of death.
-Naog daka!
Slowly he drags himself to his feet and stumbles drunkenly towards the rampart. You shout encouragement, and then suddenly a starburst of pain explodes in your head and the taste of blood fills your mouth: you have been struck in the face by a Drakkarim arrow. It has pierced your eye and lodged itself in your brain. Death is instantaneous.
-High above, crouched in their hiding places around the rim of the gorge, a company of partisans watches you succumb to the aroma of the flowers. When they are sure that you are unconscious, their sergeant leaves his position and descends by rope into the gorge, his nose and mouth covered by a pad of Golta leaves to counter the intoxicating scent. He had intended to bundle you onto your horse and lead you from the gorge to where the mountain air would revive you, but on reaching your body his suspicions are aroused. The ring and uniform you wear indicate that you are a Pathfinder with a message from Prince Graygor, but the weapons you carry, and your fair hair and Northland features are not those of an
You have covered twenty yards when a rain of boulders begins to crash down all around you. Suddenly a starburst of pain explodes in your head and the taste of blood fills your mouth. You fall heavily but you are numb to the pain, for your neck is broken and death is but seconds away.
-A terrible pain rips through your body: you gasp in shocked surprise and instinctively clutch your body. Blood oozes thickly between your fingers and you stare down in horror at the arrow which is protruding from your chest. Colours whirl and sounds grow faint as the pain drags you to the ground. Then, as the agony reaches an intolerable pitch, the pain suddenly disappears and you plunge into the timeless oblivion of death.
-A creeping numbness paralyses your limbs and, as your fingers lose their strength, you cannot prevent yourself from falling into the bore-hole after the Black Yua that injected you with its deadly venom.
You survive the fall but the strength of the venom ensures that you will never escape from the shaft.
-The shouts of the Drakkarim and the rain of their arrows unnerve the guards. They fear it is the prelude to a night attack, and when they see a black-clad figure stumbling towards them and hear him give the wrong password, they panic. Enemy attack!
they shout, waking a unit of crossbowmen stationed on the high ground behind. They rush to grab their loaded weapons and take aim at the enemy, but the only target they can see is you. Fire at will!
commands their sergeant.
A scything wave of iron bolts lifts you off your feet and a terrifying pain tears through your chest. You are mortally wounded and, although you fight to hold on to life, it is a struggle you cannot win.
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