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[Lazybones]

Originally Posted by Cerulean_Wings

I've forgotten who the heck was Kalarel, though. Do you mind reminding me who he was?

He's the end boss of the module, the cleric of Orcus who we met at the start of the story (as he killed off the pre-gens).

* * * * *

Chapter 24


It didn’t begin well.

A clay globe arced over the charging wave of kobolds, and struck the ground right in front of Mara. The fighter flinched back, but instead of the fire she’d expected, the globe shattered to disgorge a splatter of sticky, persistent glue that clung in long tendrils to Mara’s boots.

And then the kobolds were on top of her, stabbing and thrusting. She knocked aside one spear, but a second clipped her shoulder, hard. She lunged with her sword, hindered by the glue tangled in her feet, and was able to slide the point into the chest of the kobold that had hit her. The creature staggered back and fell, but another one was in its place in a flash.

Then the dragonshield was in front of her, holding its small shield up, its sword coming in under it like a serpent’s bite. Elevaren attempted to curse it, but the kobold averted its eyes, and the warlock’s power failed to take hold of its mind. Rather than test the heavily-armored dragonshield, Mara attempted to cut down another kobold spearman, but this time her target darted back before she could connect. The dragonshield took advantage, slicing up into the gap under her armor by her right armpit. Mara recovered and fell back, but the kobold’s sword came back slicked with blood.

Another sling bullet whizzed by, and Elevaren cried out behind her. More kobolds were gathered behind those in the front ranks, and several were climbing up onto the root-mounds to either side, looking to gain position to strike at them from above. Mara fell back until she was almost atop Elevaren, the sticky gunk still clinging to her boots. The kobolds followed, pressing her with vigorous attacks.

Their situation was, in a word, grim.

* * * * *

Jaron lifted his bow as Irontooth came forward, intent on selling his life dearly. But before he could take the shot, his eyes caught a shadow moving behind the goblin.

Irontooth yelled in pain as Beetle sliced his dagger across the goblin’s left hamstring. “Run, Jayse!” he yelled, even as Jaron shouted, “Beetle, no!”

Irontooth swung around, his axe sweeping down in a bright blur as the torchlight glinted off the steel. Beetle saw it coming and sprang back, but the blade still caught him in the torso, and he spun around violently as he was flung to the floor.

“Beetle!” Jaron yelled.

Irontooth brought the axe around again surprisingly quickly, even with his injured leg obviously hindering him. Jaron drew on every last scrap of his halfling agility and bent almost half over, using his right hand to keep from falling to the ground. The axe carved the air so close to him that his cap was yanked roughly off his head, but then he was past the goblin, and running hard. Beetle was alive, amazingly, though his face was twisted with pain as he pulled himself to his feet.

“Run!” Jaron yelled. “Run!”

And they ran, the goblin’s roars behind them indicating that Irontooth was not far behind.

* * * * *

“Go!” Mara yelled at Elevaren, barely managing to get her sword up to deflect a spear thrust. Only sheer will was keeping her on her feet now; several more attacks had gotten through her defenses, and while her armor had protected her from serious injury, blood trailed down gashes in her arms and legs, and from the wound in her right side that the dragonshield had inflicted earlier. The kobold veteran was still menacing her, but was letting its allies take the lead with their spears, looking for her to make another mistake, waiting for the inevitable opening. Elevaren’s own attacks had thus far been ineffective, except to make those kobolds climbing on their flanks more cautious. But as a kobold clambering up the roots to his left ducked under the warlock’s eldritch blast, another rose up on the right, unlimbering its spear as it crawled up atop the barrier.

Elevaren saw it, too late. “Mara, look out!”

The fighter looked up, but her sword came up too late to parry. The spear caught her in the neck just above the upper lip of her scaled breastplate, glancing hard off of her shoulder bone. Bright red blood spurted from the wound as the fighter fell back, her legs collapsing under her.

The dragonshield surged forward.

* * * * *

“This way!” Beetle urged, drawing Jaron after him. The two halflings ran through a large room with a floor partially covered in ancient, cracked tiles, and turned to the right, heading back toward the entrance that Jaron had originally used to enter the complex. They moved into the passage, turned around a protruding wall, and then they could see it, a narrow opening up ahead, a shaft of late afternoon sunlight penetrating into the dank of the cave.

Beetle started forward, but Jaron stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Wait,” he whispered. “Do you hear that?”

Beetle cocked his head, a curious look on his face, but Jaron didn’t need his confirmation to recognize the quiet noises coming from just outside the cave exit.

Kobolds, talking. Waiting for them.

And behind, the noises of Irontooth, his furious roars getting closer. Beetle’s cut had slowed him down, but there was no way they’d be able to get past him in the narrow passage.

“We’re trapped,” Jaron said.