Thus Spake Zaranephilpal/GloriousCarnageTyphoon
> maddy > It actually does give you movement between strikes, Neph has posted, which does make it an army-killing charm.
Nephilpal - 12/04/2003 11:17:45
*nods*
Let me see where I put that vignette I wrote to explain the intent of the Charm:
"A phalanx of Realm pikeman holds the line against a horde of slavering ghouls. The undead slink back and part, revealing a single deathknight in glittering black armor. The Dragon-Blooded officers in the rear bark orders to mortal seargants. Speartips lower and quiver, braced in fear. The deathknight draws his daiklaive with a whispering rasp and raises it to his colorless face. It is a mocking salute of one gladiator to another, a gesture of contemptible and certain victory.
Then he moves.
The first soldier's screams reach the ears of those around him a brief moment after his blood. Pike and head fall toward the ground neatly severed.
He is the first.
The deathknight is a blur of death and blood and pain. Implacable. Unstoppable. Some drop their weapons to flee, bodies arching in the first motions of panic. They die where they stand before their weapons strike the ground. Others lift arms to fight. They die, and the air is wet with blood. Droplets hang like rosary beads, each an aborted prayer of deliverance from this horror that strides among them.
Another slash, another silenced shriek.
They are too slow, too futile. Even the Dragon-Blooded can only stare in mute shock at the whirlwind before them.
They die in ranks. They die without knowing why or how they perished in this forsaken marsh.
A steely clang rings out. Jade meets soulsteel in a shower of sparks. The Terrestrial cannot believe he has survived. The whirlwind ends. Blood rains. Bodies fall. As a rank the corpses kneel and pitch face first into the gory muck.
The Abyssal holds the daiklaive against the locked parry and smiles. His smile is another salute, tinged with sorrow and chilling compassion for those who do not yet know they are dead.
The officers gather together warily, five to one, weapons drawn in the silence emptying the death rattles and meaty thuds. The Dragon-Blooded know fear they have never known before. They suddenly understand the teachings and warnings of Anathema.
And with his free hand, the Abyssal beckons forward. Zombies and ghouls pour forward in a fetid tide to ravage the carrion. The sun burns pale and distant behind slate-gray clouds, so very far away."
--Neph
