Mancleaver - The Sword of Lady Darkness

Mancleaver is an ancient blade, forged on a distant world by a sorceress whose broken heart and arcane powers knew no limits. Drawing its strength from the hatred and rage of its creator, Mancleaver existed for thousands of years with the single goal of slaying males of any species. Given a new purpose in the hands of its deific wielder, it has somewhat let go of its blinding fury for all things masculine... but it still prefers to wet its night-black edge on their heart's blood whenever possible.

Powers:

• +7 keen bane (male creatures) greatsword of speed.
• Bearer gains Uncanny Dodge (cannot be flanked and always retains Dexterity bonus to Armor Class) against male creatures.
• While drawn, Terrasunder grants the bearer darkvision and malesense, both out to 60'.
• Terrasunder grants the following spell-like powers to its wielder:
• greater rage, as per the Barbarian class ability (at will)
• darkness (at will)
• shadow evocation (at will)
  
• Evard's black tentacles (3 / day)
• greater shadow evocation (3 / day)
• greater shadow conjuration (1 / day)
  
• Mancleaver's wielder becomes immune to any targeted spell with the Light descriptor and can affect non-targeted spells with the Light descriptor on contact as per greater dispelling (CL 20th).
• Any male creature hit by Mancleaver with a confirmed critical strike suffers the immediate effect of a harm spell (CL 20). Mancleaver's wielder cannot suppress this effect and cannot choose to not confirm critical hits rolled against male targets. Any given target can only be affected by this harm effect once in any given 24 hour period.
  

Where There's a Whip

"Can we stop now?" Faile asked quietly. Though her voice was soft and slightly muffled by her mask of bandages, the winds that always circled her carried her words to everyone nearby. She did not, and perhaps could not, speak very loudly, it was impossible not to hear her.

"Faile," Azure looked back sympathetically. "I am sorry but we have to press on. Not only have we made the classic mistake of letting the man who cannot get fatigued set the pace of the march, but every moment we delay is another in which we might be discovered." His cyan and white silk robes fluttered in one of Faile's breezes, a random motion on an otherwise serene and utter constant person.

"Yeah!" From the head of the group, Corundar called back without stopping or turning his head. "What Blue said. We gotta get as close as possible to the Citadel before we get spotted. The Lord of this place ain't gonna run out of troops. If we have to fight out way to Cavitas, we won't make it very far."

"If you say so." Nyx punctuated her words with the sound of steel clearing steel. Her runesword now in hand, she kept walking forward at a grim pace, actually passing Faile and falling into step right behind Corundar. "I welcome a fight."

Now in the back of the group, Byrne nodded and murmured, "As do I." Her hand rested over the haft of her axe. Sensing her inner turmoil, her weapon's invisible blade began to pulse with fiery life. It could tell she wanted blood but did not understand its mistress well enough to realize that most what she wanted to do was bleed...

"I cannot say that a battle would be a welcome thing, siblings," Akasha's voice was clear and calm. "But please remember that if we come into conflict too soon, we will be fatigued and battered long before we reach the castle gates."

"That's what you are for."

"My healing is not infinite, Nyx, as you well know. The Dark One's troops are. If we get caught out in the open, we will surely fall before we even see Citadel Cavitas."

"I agree with you in theory, Akasha, but there's one thing you're wrong about." Corundar rumbled, literally and figuratively, to a halt at the edge of a wide crevasse. Before she could ask him to explain, he did so silently by pointing far into the dark distance.

There, surrounded a dim glow of corpselight, a massive tower of pale stone and titanic white columns. Even from miles away in the din of night, they could all tell that those pillars were carved bone. It was a nightmare of architecture, a maddening complex yet viciously simple construction borne from the terrible mind of a vile god.

Citadel Cavitas, the physical seat of Vecna's power.

Nyx was the first to speak. "Fine. We can see it now."

"I would still rather not fight anyone until we get to it, Nyx. Every battle before we reach the Dark Lord himself will only sap our strength and drain our resources."

"Your resources, perhaps. Every death makes me stronger. "

Azure spoke up again, trying as always to diffuse the impending argument. "Ladies, please. I think we can all agree that we would be better off getting to the Citadel as quickly as possible. Can we please no argue and just move on?"

The quiet winds rose up, moving along everyone's faces in gentle but insistent lashes. "Yes. We need to keep going. We cannot fight the Lord of Secrets and each other if we hope to survive this."

Byrne, quietly, murmured something under her breath. Unfortunately, she did so at precisely the moment when no one else was talking and there was still, empty air between her and the others. Everyone heard her voice but no one could make it out.

"What was that, Lady Fire?" Azure asked in concern.

"Nothing."

"No, seriously. What did you say?" Corundar stared at her, his brow furrowed. "If you've got something to add, just do so."

She shook her head. "It wasn't important."

The winds flared again, this time carrying Faile's words like a small clap of thunder.

"SAY IT."

Byrne winced. Then, taking in a deep breath and looking down at the ground, she spoke just loud enough to be heard. "I said, 'Some of us don't deserve to survive.' That's all. Maybe some of us should die."

Before anyone could respond with more that a shocked look or grim eyes, a blur of iridescent white came shooting up over the edge of the cliff right in front of Corundar, soaring high over head to hover on wings of shimmering pearl. From the back of the sudden dragon, its rider shouted down to all of them with words of resigned hatred.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance with that!"

The Riddle of Regret

He watched from the parapet, his only companion sound the hiss of scale on scale as one of his bonded mount shifted in her sleep. Sylfrost was as white as her mate was red, slumbering over a nest of crystal, dark iron and glittering ruby-pearl eggs.

Above him, Sangwynn was keeping guard as well, the flares on either side of the dragon's muzzle wide and open. Both dragon and rider were alert for the same thing, looking for the same quarry, but for very different reasons. The dragon was the more honest of the two. All Sanwynn wanted to do was tear the Elementals apart, ending any threat they might pose to his mate, his eggs or his bonded master.

The master, on the other hand, was no longer as simple in his desires. He was here because he had been called across the multiverse to serve the only being capable of doing such a thing, of compelling him to once again being someone's slave.

It was Tenebrous that had pulled him from the aether, forcing him to leave his private exile and returning him to the terrible state of undeath that had been his Hell for so long before. All Vertrius had wanted was to be left alone. Betrayed by those he'd loved and stripped of his powers, he had just wanted to be away from them... to not be a liability to them... to not have to look at them every day and feel his poisoned adoration curdling into hate.

But no, the Lord of the Undead had not forgotten him and, only a few days after he'd found a small world in Wildspace to call home, Vertrius had been forced by the ancient pact his father wrought with Tenebrous, then Orcus, to leave peace behind and return once more into the fold of evil.

The Shadowed Lord had wasted no time stripping him of the humanity he'd so long wished for and only just achieved. The dark kiss of a pale woman had drained his life and replaced it with the red mockery of unlife eternal. It had amused Tenebrous to make him kill his new sire, moving him like a cursing, cursed puppet to tear out her unbeating heart and suffer through a weeping feast.

But Tenebrous' plans for him, whatever they might have been, were quickly dashed by the plots of Vecna, the Maimed One. Vecna had come to him in dreams during the single hour of day that existed in the Dark Realm. The Lord of Secrets had promised him freedom in exchange for an oath of a year's service and one... small... favor.

Vertruis had been utterly eager to strike such a bargain. At the right moment, Vertrius cast a secret spell to transpose the doomed goddess Kiaransalee with a drow pawn "raised" to godhood by Vecna for the sole purpose of existing just long enough for Tenebrous to think he'd slain his hated rival. What happened to Kiaransalee after the spell, Vertrius neither knew nor cared. His part in the masquerade was done.

Surprisingly, Vecna had upheld his end of the bargain. Pretending to slay Vertrius during a mock raid of Orcus' newly reformed Bone Citadel, the Maimed Lord spirited him away and conscripted him for one soul-ensured year as a general in his lifeless armies.

In a way, Vertrius wished he had been betrayed by Vecna. Now he felt honorbound to serve, to fulfill the rest of his oath. One year of unquestioning service, doing as his master bids, with no magical coercion existing or needed. The Master of Whispers obvious knew him well; Vertrius would never break a vow. Not even to save his own life...

And that loyalty had brought him here, to Cavitus to stand guard at the top of the Bleak Tower. His red dragon was perched above him, scanning the dismal horizon with sight unrivalled by any living creature.

Vertrius, however, was no living creature and his vision revealed things even draconic eyes could not see. He prayed under his breath to no god in particular that as acute as his sight was, it would fail to perceive what he was here to guard against. If the Elementals somehow managed to find the lost portal stone and get to his Dark Lord's godly realm, it was his duty to ensure they never reached the fortress.

"Kill them. Quick if you must but kill them all. When next you meet, either they fall or you do. I will accept no other outcome."

The Maimed One indeed knew him well. Vecna's orders left no room for interpretation. He had hesitated before, something his divine master would not tolerate or forgive again. If those he had once loved made their way here, he would have to fight them.

He would have to kill them. Even Akasha.

Even Faile.

For that reason if for no other, he hoped against hope that his vigil would go undisturbed. Let them be on any other world, please. Let them wander, lost but alive. forever. Let the portal stone from Tovag Baragu remain in obscurity, discovered by no one and forgotten until the end of days...

A sharp hiss broke his prayer. He was almost afraid to look, suspecting grimly what he would see.

Sangwynn was pointing with one adamantine-laced talon, snarling in warning to him. "Six come, Whitehair. Six come!"

Vertrius raised his head and let his profane sight show him what he already knew to be true. They were leagues away, moving through the Ashcrags on foot. Clever of them, really; flight would only have made them easier to spot. But they had been spotted and as such his duty was clear. There would be no escaping it this time.

"You are still wounded, Sangwynn. Stay with your eggs. I will take Sylfrost into battle."

"But...!!!"

Vertrius looked up into the angry eyes of his dragon, letting his own flare with unholy, blood-crimson power.

"If we need you, I will send for you. Be ready to teleport on my command."

The red juggernaut growled again but nodded, cowed by the twin impact of his bond with Vertrius and the force of the vampire's unimaginably strong will. Few could tame a dragon with a thought, but only someone that potent could rightfully tame a beast such as Sangwynn.

"Yessss... Master."

By the time the scarlet male was coiled protectively over his precious clutch, his beloved was already taking wing, their shared lord astride her back. Sylfrost was the color of opals, complete with the inner fire that ignited within her scales the first time they'd mated. Hissing the first part of a teleportation spell over and over, Sangwynn waited for the call.

His master was powerful but the vampire was also soft when it came to these foes. Lord Vertrius might have trouble finishing this battle...

...but if any of them harmed Sylfrost, the horror of their deaths would become legend.

Dark Days

"Has anyone else noticed something?"

They had been walking a long time. So long that they had made camp, broken camp, walked until they were tired, and did so again. There was nothing to eat but Akasha's magic was capable of creating food, even if it had basically no flavor and the consistency of lumpy mud.

Azure was the first one to answer Corundar's question. "I have noticed that I am proud of my aestetic lifestyle."

"Why's that?"

"Because that way, I am not disappointed that the inside of my mouth tastes like a quarry."

The Lady of Light scowled. "Would you rather starve?"

The blue elven monk shook his head. "No, I wouldn't. I was commenting because of the chorus of complaints at last night's repast."

Corundar pointed at Azure. "There! That's what I am talking about!"

The monk master looked confused, an all too common expression of late. "You were wondering if we'd noticed how much we complained lately?"

The big man sighed, his massive shoulders slumping in exasperation. "No. You know, for a paragon of wisdom, you can be pretty damn dumb at times. Where is all that monastic insight when we need it?"

Without missing a heartbeat, Azure replied, "You are calling me stupid?" One pale white eyebrow raised, letting everyone around him know that the Lord of Water was about to open up a verbal fire hose.

Nyx cut the moment of silence with a hiss and a hollow rasp. She spent most of her time in armor these days, something that quite rightfully unnerved her siblings. "Stop it."

Corundar blinked and looked to his dark sister. "What?"

"I am getting tired of the fighting. If we insist on attacking each other, perhaps we should just do so honestly and get it over with."

Akasha shook her head frantically, light pouring from her hands as she held them up. "No! No fighting. Please! I don't like it when we get like this. I won't have any of my sisters or brothers hurting each other!"

Under her breath, Faile murmured, "Too late." No one around her heard it but all the way at the other end of the group, Byrne caught the comment. Inwardly, she died just a little bit more.

Oblivious, Corundar rumbled a quiet apology and looked back up at the shadowy night sky. Perhaps the comment was sincere, perhaps it was just a token to satisfy Akasha, but it was said all the same and it seemed to defuse the situation. For now. Nyx glowered, the black flames around the eye slits of her helm burning a little smaller as she pressed on down what passed for a path in this endless wasteland.

They had been heading towards what seemed like a coastline on the horizon. The thought had been, 'find water and follow the coast, eventually you'll find civilization'. After all this time, however, they weren't any closer to the coast... assuming the end of visible land far in the distance even was a coast. They had been to planes where the world just ended.

"I do not know if I can take much more of this," Akasha said quietly. She might have been referring to the walk, the fighting, or both. "This would be so much easier if we could still..."

The Lady of Light trailed off, but everyone knew what she was going to say and why she didn't say it. They had been able to travel between the planes without needing a portal or gate. That was before they had betrayed a loved one's trust and before Akasha herself had broken his heart. That had been before a lot of things...

"That was then, sister. This is now." That was Faile, talking softly. Her offering comfort in this was surprising to most of them. It was no secret that Akasha's driving Vertrius away had also driven a rift between Light and Air. The pale, gentle vampire had been loved by them all but none had cared for him as much as Faile. "Talking about it won't get us through another day."

"There! That's it exactly!" Again Corundar was shouting and again he was pointing.

Faile frowned visibly, even through her bandages. "Cor, give it a rest. I wasn't complaining."

The Lord of Earth stomped his iron-shrouded foot and shook the ground, nearly toppling them all. "I am not talking about complaining! Haven't any of you noticed something about this place?"

"It's dark?"

"It's gloomy?"

"There's nothing good to eat?"

"Screw you, Azure!"

"Don't. She'll only leave you too."

"And you, Fay!"

"STOP IT."

Corundar pointed at the sky. "We've been here a long damn time and it's still night. There haven't been any days. There isn't a moon or stars. There's no life at all and no light except those bands of magic in the sky."

"What is your point, Corundar?" Akasha was clearly at the edge of her patience. "Quickly."

"My point is that we were all in the last monolith when Tovag Baragu exploded, remember? We were almost to Vecna's realm when everything went boom."

Azure rubbed his side; there was a wound there from part of the funeral bier of Tharuzdin. That cut would never completely heal - not while the Lord of All Destruction was partially free. "Don't remind me."

"Well apparently I do... because I think I figured out what you all haven't."

"Doubtful."

Corundar chose to ignore the insult and press on. "Look, I think I know where we are."

Byrne growled. "Then enlighten us..."

"I think we've spent all this time looking for the monolith to get to Tovag Cavitus when all we had to do was what we did. Teleport without a destination again." He pointed to the sky. "Remember the glimpse we got through the portal before it closed and we got thrown into the Astral? It looked just like that!"

They all stared. They stared hard.

Then they looked back at Corundar.

Azure thought out loud. "We must have carried the monolith with us magically. We were in it... and now it is inside us."

Nyx unsheathed Mancleaver and stared down the runesword's glittering black edge. "Then we are finally at the end at the journey."

"Well, sort of."

They all stared at Corundar again. Azure said what they were all thinking. "What do you mean, 'sort of'?"

A man that size should never be able to look that sheepish, but somehow the titan of Earth managed to do so. "Ummmm... does anyone know which direction to go now?"

The silence was epic.

Lost in Transition

"Okay. Does anyone know where we are?"

That was Akasha, tired and exasperated and seemingly at the end of her patience. She had gotten here drained, as they all had, and hadn't gotten any better in the short time since. Her aura of light, a constant presence around her whether she was in armor or not, was at the dimmest they'd seen it since she was nearly slain by their "father" in the ruins of the Ruathym.

The only person to speak was Corundar, standing nearby on the highest precipice of rock he could find. He had one hand in contact with the ground, obviously trying to speak with the stones of this strange world. Overhead, the violet sky was ablaze with massive bands of scintillating blue and white. Occasionally, a rage of lavender fire shot down from the heavens, burning out before it could disappear over the distant horizon.

"No clue. I did not know where we were when I got here and I still do not know. Please stop asking."

The Lady of Light glared at him, her thin hands curling into angry fists. "You...!"

A swirl of blue silk marked Azure rising from his meditation. "Siblings, temper will not grant us prescience. We need to remain calm and solve the riddle of our location without fighting among ourselves." He looked between Earth and Life sharply. "Or would you both rather do what the Dark One's forces just failed to accomplish?"

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

Neither of them really meant it, but the slight contrition was enough to satisfy the monk. At least for now, he accepted it. "Good. Now how are we going to puzzle through this conundrum?"

Nyx didn't answer her blue-skinned brother. She was angry, brooding in her own way, hidden in a nearby shadow. This was typical for the Elementals. Too much power, no damn sense. She was most upset because she had no specific person to be upset with. The Dark Lady was as guilty as the rest; none of them had thought to consider a destination. None of them, not even her. It was infuriating, utterly frustrating.

She almost hoped the Maimed Lord would find them and send more minions to the slaughter. Her runesword was hungry, so very thirsty for death. Right now, she was of a mind to let the fiendish blade feast.

Nyx would not answer the question and the last two Elementals could not answer. Not because there was anything stopping them directly but simply because they were too far away to hear Azure's voice.

Byrne and Faile were on the other side of Corundar's outcropping, having an uncomfortable conversation of their own....

"Ummm..." Byrne hated how she sounded, how she was standing, but most especially how she was feeling. She was a few feet away from her winged sister, head bowed, shoulders slumped, shifting from one foot to the other in Faile's shadow.

From the Mistress of the Winds, there was only silence. She was sitting as she always did, balanced on the fronts of both feet, her legs folded under her, her wings arching up and curving back. Her fingers were tracing abstract pictures in the dirt, swirls of air erasing them moments after being drawn.

"I..." Byrne growled inwardly. She was a bloody warlord, a tyrant in the life she could no longer remember. She had ravaged nations and ruled a planet. A planet for Fire's sake! How could she be tongue tied talking to a feather-backed elf?!?

"I don't blame you."

Sputter. Byrne fell as silent as her sister had been for more than an hour now. They were simple words but she just could not believe she had heard them right. Finally, as the quiet seconds stretched into more than an empty minute, she found the cognizance to say, "You... you don't? You don't blame me?"

"That's right, Byrne. I don't." Each word was careful, meticulously phrased and nearly emotionless. For the normally flighty avariel woman, Faile was being incredibly, almost unbelievably, calm.

"So you aren't mad at me?"

Faile shook her head, her personal winds making her hair flow in hypnotic, unnatural patterns through the otherwise stagnant air. "No."

Byrne started to breathe a deep, soul-quenching sigh of relief.

"I am furious at you."

The breath caught in her throat. Caught and started to choke.

Faile stood up slowly, her agonized body only barely healed enough to let her stand. She was still bandaged, her skin ravaged by a godly fire that might never fully heal. Akasha had done what she could... but unless they all found a way to attain their divinity again, the scars of Byrne's single, terrible blaze might last forever.

Slowly, the winged elf walked past her, heading with staggered steps back to the rest of the groups. As she passed close to the Lady of Flames, she stopped and a single, deliberate breath. What came now was as hard for Faile to say as it was for Byrne to hear.

"I pushed you, did not back away when you warned me, and I was burned for it." Faile closed her eyes, steeling herself for the next words. "But it was you who burned me. You. My sister. Someone I love more than life."

Byrne dared only a slight turn of her head, just enough to see Faile in her peripheral vision. She had heard before that elves did not cry, that elves were not capable of weeping.

Apparently, she heard wrong.

"Byrne," Faile started moving away. "I don't blame you... but I also don't trust you. I may never trust you again."

Byrne sank to her knees as his sister walked away. There was nothing to say. No response to what was just the simple truth. She wanted to say so much but there were no words. No way to express her pain. Her utter disappointment in herself.

No. It wasn't disappointment. It was hate. So many times, she had wondered if the others were being changed by their powers. She did not understand them like she used to, no longer felt the same connection to her family that once bound them so close together. For many nights now, she had worried that they were becoming monsters...

But now she saw the truth. They weren't the monsters.

She was.

<--- Terrasunder - Sword of the Earth Lord --->

Forged of heavy iron and bearing a crystal blade, Terrasunder is a massive sword intended for only the strongest of wielders. Weighing nearly thirty pounds while still maintaining a nearly flawless hilt-balance, this greatsword's impact is nearly indescribable. When swung by a bearer with the power to do so, very little can withstand its deadly edge.

Powers:

• +10 keen greatsword of mighty cleaving.
• Bearer cannot be bull rushed or tripped while standing on solid earth or stone.
• While drawn, Terrasunder grants the bearer tremorsense out to 60'.
• Terrasunder grants the following spell-like powers to its wielder:
• move earth (at will)
• stone shape (at will)
  
• stone spikes (3 / day)
• earthquake (1 / day)
• wall of stone (1 / day)
  
• If swung overhead and then brought down to strike the earth (a full round action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity), Terrasunder can split the ground in a 60 foot long, 5 foot wide chasm issuing straight ahead of the wielder. Any creature in the path must make a Reflex save (DC 25) or suffer 10d6 of bludgeoning damage and be stunned for one round. On a successful save, only half damage is taken and no stun effect occurs.

The Press of Dead Flesh

"I never thought I'd say this, but I am getting tired of fighting!"

Corundar's voice rang out over the din of battle, its sentiment echoing what everyone else was feeling. Even Faile was up and engaged in battle now, her weak body driven by the needs of survival. They were back to back, a circle of six against a vastly outnumbering force.

"It would seem the Maimed Lord is somewhat upset with us." In his own way, that was Azure's sense of humor creeping out. Everyone but Byrne took a moment to laugh, a desperate second of mirth in the middle of crushing combat. Byrne was in no mood to be amused; she was standing beside Faile, the sister she'd seared, and she knew better than any of them what a joke from the austere blue-skinned monk meant - they were in trouble.

It wasn't hard to see. From horizon to horizon, the land was covered in walking dead. Some armored, some not. Some bearing weapons, some with just bony fingers and broken fangs. The stench was oppressive, the sound of their unholy wailing even worse. It was as if Vecna had opened the gates of Death and poured forth every corpse in the multiverse against them.

Perhaps he had.

Akasha's hands were raised to the sky, calling down bolts of sunlight to shatter the undead legion. Her powers were amazing, shattering skin and breaking bone beneath an onslaught of pure radiance. Even so, for all the righteous destruction of her holy strikes, lumbering shapes continued to lurch violently into the craters she left behind.

Across from her in their defensive ring, Nyx was faring no better. A mistress of the undead, she was actually ill-suited for this battle in many ways. These animated corpses were bound to a power greater than hers. She could not command them and she could not force them to return to their graves. Her beloved blade was keen enough to slice them apart but held no real interest in the bloodless battle. Of all the Elementals, she was faring the worst.

Faile wasn't doing much better. Barely standing, she was firing arrows into the horde of lifeless assailants as quickly as her bow would draw. Even now, wounded as she was, she was capable of putting a shaft through a man's eye socket at a hundred yards. Unfortunately, the undead were not much discomfited by the efforts of piercing weapons and the closer they got, the less freedom she had to fire.

Corundar could see how slim their options were becoming. "No more ranged! Everyone press forward as hard as you can. Get us some space!"

Between arcs of burning light, raging blasts of fire and sweeps of Corundar's great blade Terrasunder, they swiftly cleared a circle more than ten feet wide all around them. "Good! Now fall back. Azure, ice column as soon as we've got the gap for it! We need a barrier!"

It was a good plan, one that worked perfectly. The Elementals ran back together and Azure surrounded them in a column of dense ice before the mass of shambling dead could reach them again. Almost instantly, the sounds of weapons and desiccated fists echoed through the translucent pillar. It would hold, but not for long.

"We have to get out of here. Faile, are you up to a teleport?"

Nyx did not bother waiting for the winged one to respond. If she wasn't capable of channeling her air element, they were all dead. Nyx pulled back the gemstone armor covering her right hand and held it out in the middle of her brothers and sisters. "Darkness," she said insistently. As she spoke, a shadow flowed over her palm, spiraling around her fingers.

There was only a moment's hesitation before Byrne followed suit. There was so much she needed to say, especially to Faile, and dying here wasn't in her plans. "Fire," she said quickly and put her hand on her dark sister's. Flames raced down her arm and mingled with the tenebrous energy already building there.

Corundar nodded approvingly. "Earth," he said confidently and clasped both of their hands with his. Thick fingers surrounded their grasp, channeling the verdant, emerald glow of his terrestrial element into their shadowy conflagration.

It was Faile's turn. She was still reeling, barely standing, but the need was great and without her, they would all perish. Nodding her agreement, she reached out and laid her delicate hand on top of the others. A whirl of wind caught the rising powers of their combined touch, billowing it even greater as she whispered, "Air." The drain on her soul was almost enough to knock her out but wounded as she was, Faile was not about to let her siblings down.

Azure gave his flighty sister a rare smile, appreciating how great an effort she'd just made for them. He reached out with one finger, seeking the precise point in the amalgam of elemental power to contribute his own. "Water," he murmured as a wave of blue and cresting white flowed into the mix, crystallizing instantly and locking it all in a waiting matrix of perfect ice.

Akasha moved quickly. Outside, the barrier was cracking beneath the onslaught of hundreds of tireless attacks. The undead had nearly climbed to the height of the pillar itself, smashing into it with all their defiled strength. The Elementals had scant seconds to finish before their house of glass came tumbling down. "Light!" she said emphatically, resting her hand on top of the others. Prismatic arcs flared out from her fingertips, arcing into the ice and energizing the magic to the point of blinding brilliance.

The conjunction complete, they all stood perfectly still as the magic pulsed and flowed over them. The energy of teleportation blazed to life, about to whisk them away from this hopeless battlefield.

"Wait!" Nyx yelled as loud as her graveborne voice could. "Did anyone have a destination in mind?!?"

Everyone's fading face was a blank. In the haste of needing to get away, none of them had thought about exactly where they needed to go. The last time they'd teleported without a destination in mind, the results had been... unfortunate. They'd ended up on an alien world, drained of powers and nearly dead.

Corundar closed his eyes in frustration, summing up everyone's sentiment as they all disappeared.

"Crap."