Coronado Avenged (Date 1/11/20)

The dank hole was a moss-choked blight, an impossible abomination that couldn’t – and shouldn’t – but somehow still did exist here in the hilly country on the northern shore of Black Lake. The pungent, stench of rot rose from the crack in the earth and a persistent drone pressed upon their consciousness as the servants of Strom stood arrayed before their task. Without the bolster of his guiding hand, any man would turn away, but Brother Martin felt his lord’s power and command. This was important. This was the work he was meant to do. The enemy was released and made manifest in the land of Strom! Its presence mocked creation! It could not – would not – be tolerated!

Gathered in numbers, each did his, and her, part to the limits of their ability. Mjelde called down a blessing and watched from the entrance, prepared to heal any forced to flee from the foe, while Strom’s anointed warrior charged through the slime-choked tunnels braced by her brother in arms. The chambers impediments of slime and vine slowed them not, as Ilyana’s magic lifted their step over such barriers. The swarms of biting, stinging, blood-sucking insects summoned by their enemy, or just brought into being by its blasphemous existence, were no bar to Prince Euwyn’s spells of fire. Hedge’s blessed bow drove the horror deep into its grim defile, where cornered, it had no choice but to stand and fight. Shelby fell briefly before its many flashing claws, her faith in Strom not yet sufficient to block the beast. Marty rushed forth to save her, but when he called forth the power of Strom and evil light shone in the horror’s eyes. Abandoning restraint, it opened itself up to attack as it charged through the battle to extinguish the light of Strom’s holy messenger. With nowhere to run, Marty held his ground before the living nightmare. The creature balked for a moment as if it sensed the futility of resistance in the face of true faith. That was all the opening Strom needed. Moving through the hand of a new warrior, Lt. Kenneth Ismort, Strom sent the creature back across the void to the dark home from which it spawned.

With the end of its foulness, the corruption it had caused collapsed quickly, necessitating a rapid retreat back to the light where Sister Mjelde waited with healing hands and a soothing smile.