Forum

[howandwhy99]

[Session 10]

Cyrus hated surprises. They meant bad luck normally. This time however it seemed the surprise was working in his favor. After three days of waiting, battle was finally joined and without him in it. He hoped his small form would go unnoticed during the frenzy. Leaving his hiding spot and climbing up the hillside, Cyrus bypassed the lower caves. As Cyrus neared the entrance he was aiming for he noticed two strange women watching him. One was covered in leaves. The other wore dark robes and held a sling in one hand. “This is a hell of a place to meet womenfolk”, he thought. After nearly slipping on a small pile of wet bones he reached the cave mouth and looked inside. His map showed three rooms to the left, but he did not trust the source he bought it from. Turning right instead he came to another intersection. A flight of stairs led up to his left and another down to his right. Taking a wild guess he chose down.

Kayla ran back into the cave entrance were Darius was standing over Mirel and Ben. The girl looked a little worse for wear, but Father Ben seemed as out of sorts as usual. Dram was fighting an orc farther inside. The creature seemed partially immersed in an unnatural black shadow. The darkness covered the entire area in front of them and intersection beyond. Ormond the Redd came over, helped Mirel up, and started firing into the blackness and hopefully orcs beyond. “Darius, there is another dwarf here. He ran into the ‘man-eater’ cave. The one marked ‘H’. Here.” She pointed at the map. Darius looked up at Kayla. “Is he an enemy or an ally?” She thought for a second, “Well, he looked rather unkempt. And he just ignored me before running into the cave, so I would say neither.” “We have more important things to worry about.” Darius responded. “Is there anything you can do about this infernal shadow?” Kayla shook her head. Frustrated, Darius raised his hammer and rushed into the darkness to find his friends. Kayla ran back to Holly outside to keep lookout. “We’ve really stirred up a hornet’s nest now”, she told her.

Cyrus descended thirty feet clanking as quietly as he could in his old plate armor. The stair opened into a square room with a single orc inside. It ran at him swinging a sword, but before it could scream Cyrus brought down his axe and cut its face in two. It slumped to the floor dead. Cyrus surveyed the room. There was a metal door with barred windows to the left and an identical one to the right. No other exits could be seen. “Lucky so far”, the thought. He jumped and grabbed the bars and pulled his face up to the right door’s window. Inside he saw a row of humanoids. A burly gnoll was in front, but humans, goblins and more were behind it. Each was manacled with arms above their heads to a chain along the ceiling. The chain lead from the top of the door he hung on to the far end of the deep hallway-like prison cell.

The darkness was unlike any Darius had ever known. He felt as if he had been blindfolded and asked to fight. He gritted his teeth. He was feeling up to the challenge. He knew only Pax and Dalin wore plate armor like himself. All the orcs he had seen had been wearing mail, so Darius swung his hammer into anything with the slightest give. There were fewer foes than he had expected in the magical darkness. It took a couple of minutes, but he eventually found Pax. The mountainous man was grappling with several furry paws holding him to the ground. Darius began pounding on what fingers he could find.

Dalin gathered his courage and kept stepping forward until he was out of the darkness. He had felt confident in his new stylish armor, but was beginning to regret his rash decision. Keeping the darkness to his back and a wall to one side he managed fend off the orcs from completely surrounding him. Unfortunately, the three he faced were determined foes started swinging their swords against his armor. Further down the hall he spotted the female shamaness. She had an evil glint in her eye as she watched him being beaten. “Help!” he cried out to the darkness behind him. Dalin had decided it was about time for his own reinforcements. “HELP!” Charging into the orcs in front of him, he tried plowing his way to the shamaness. “If she dies, so does the darkness”, he thought. But the female stepped back behind a bend in the tunnel and more reserve orcs ran forward to face him. Five began bashing on his armor as he tried to block their blows. One punctured, then another. As he fell to the floor Dalin entered his own realm of darkness.