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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5827746" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>The passage sloped up radically, exposing a wide fault in the rock that created a natural overhang that blocked some of the passageway. The tunnel appeared to continue up, around, and over the crag. "Oh, yay," Teltz muttered. "I have a feeling it will get worse the farther we get in."</p><p></p><p>A bit of snow dropped right on the bard's face as he said that. "Did I mention I prefer warm weather? Sunny beaches, lush forests and gardens with all kinds of fruits in it..."</p><p></p><p>He dwarf snorted as he made his way around the obstacle. "But think of the song you can write about this! Just the right story for cold winter nights by the fi..."</p><p></p><p>He was rudely interrupted as two humanoid shapes dropped down from above, crouching on the ground right before them. Somehow, Teltz and Bjön got the impression of spiders pressed into a humanoid form – or maybe the other way around. They opened their large mouths and hissed in what could only be described as an appreciative manner. It looked like they wanted to make lunch out of the friends. </p><p></p><p>The paladin's new adamantine axe, suddenly shining with a golden glow, cut right through one of the ugly creatures, causing gore to spray and freeze around them. Teltz, not able to move much in this passage, grabbed his sword but hesitated. He would only hit the dwarf, considering his sword skill was mediocre at best. </p><p></p><p>Luckily, the dwarf didn't need him. While the weird creature remaining rushed up the wall, finding a grip as if it were a beetle, obviously trying to make their prey following them, Bjön took a step back, pushing the bard further out of the way of the beast. Teltz almost lost his footing on the icy ground. A second later, he was grateful for the push though, as something smashed on the floor and a greenish vapor spread. Like the dwarf, he instinctively held his breath. </p><p></p><p>Under other circumstances, the presence of the cloud might have been a real problem, but a gust of wind hissing through the tunnel dissipated it quickly. Out of the remains, the weird creature jumped at the dwarf, trying to claw his face off. To Teltz, it seemed the thing was completely mad.</p><p></p><p>The paladin had turned his axe to the edge was to the attacker. Obviously relying on its natural armor that was no match to the holy glow of the axe the paladin wielded, their foe split itself almost in two, looking confused at his body as his life bled out. </p><p></p><p>As the thing dropped, Teltz squinted at the remains. "Whatever it was, it didn't like the light from the axe. And not only because it was magic."</p><p></p><p>"Creatures of darkness, is what they were." The paladin sighed. "I've seen them once before, they are called morlocks. We might want to have light at the ready at all times, there will likely be more down here as they come in groups so I have been told."</p><p></p><p>"I can do a few light spells," the bard nodded. "Don't want to draw attention, though." There were enough things drawn to light in the dark, and no need to exchange the frying pan for the fire. "We might wanna watch the ceiling." They should have done that before, of course, but neither of them wanted to admit that.</p><p></p><p>The familiar screeched and dug its claws into Teltz' shoulder. "Yeah, we will be moving," he calmed her down. Pressing on, the passage widened into a large frozen pool. The roof climbed upward, forming a natural chimney extending about 150 feet above the pool. A stream of cold air spilled in through the hole in the ceiling, filling the chamber with a low, doleful moan.</p><p></p><p>The paladin took the lead and stepped carefully onto what looked like a slippery surface. Just as he was sure he had a sure grip, the whole floor started to move, reaching out to engulf the dwarf. Vaetta chittered a warning. "Frost ooze!" shouted Teltz and pulled the dwarf, who was struggling for balance, back into the tunnel. Teltz bumped his head at the tunnel wall as he lost his balance as well. Bjön uprighted himself and shouted out a battlecry. This of course did not intimidate the ooze, but it made him feel better. Again, the magical axe glowed in a strange, golden light. As the weird life form moved forward, the axe went through it as if it was butter. A small piece dropped onto the tunnel grounds. A moment later, it attacked them on its own.</p><p></p><p>"Uh, yeah," Teltz said. "That's how they multiply, I heard. Doesn't kill them to hack them apart." Despite this, he hacked the little ooze in half again, creating two new ones. "Unless you hack them to very very small pieces, that is." </p><p></p><p>The large ooze was unable to get into the tunnel as the dwarf, not having grasped the problem, hacked another part of it off. "Wait, you mean if I reduce this thing in size often enough, it can come after us?"</p><p></p><p>"Quintessentially, yes." Teltz kept hacking, the small ones really were of little concern and were soon small enough to be dead. He noticed, though, that his sword, unlike the dwarf's axe, started to dissolve. The digestive fluids of an ooze, he recalled now, were detrimental to unprotected metal. </p><p></p><p>"How annoying. What do you propose?" At a loss what to do next, the dwarf just stepped out of reach of the thing. </p><p></p><p>"Ah... fire," Teltz offered. "As most cold creatures, it should be very vulnerable to it."</p><p></p><p>"That would likely take a lot of fire." The paladin scratches his meager beard. "Maybe I should just hack it smaller just until it would almost fit in here and then we burn it?"</p><p></p><p>"We'll be here a while," Teltz sighed. "But it sounds like a plan."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sometime later, through biting smoke taking its time being blown away by the gusts of wind in the tunnels, the 3 of them – counting the raven – hurried on. They felt they had already lost a lot of time dealing with the annoying ooze. The last thing they needed was to fail saving a woman who might be able to get them out of the mountains and closer to their destination. </p><p></p><p>Getting up the shaft was easy enough with the dwarf's climbing gear. Teltz was a nimble climber, and was insisting he go first. The shaft bisected a horizontal cavern and continued upward. Jagged, human-sized, ice-covered stalagmites filled the cavern floor here. A rough and frigid cross-breeze </p><p>whipped through this passage from west to east every few minutes. The two of them hesitated to brave the natural force, but at least the smoke would be gone. Teltz hid the raven under his fur cloak to avoid her freezing to death. </p><p></p><p>As they climbed out and gathered their gear to go on upward, where the bird knew her mistress to be, a bloody head came rolling out of the shadows of one of the stalagmites, in a whirl of bone fragments and more blood. It looked like the head of a woman. Teltz jumped aside so it would not hit him as it rolled right towards the shaft and fell down. </p><p></p><p>"That's a sculpture," the bard recognized, at the same time the bird was calling "fake fake fake" out from under the cloak. </p><p></p><p>"Nice try," Bjön grunted. His glowing axe was once more in his hands. As he had suspected, more morlocks were hiding in the chasm. These, though, looked less like dumb beasts and more like a primitive group with some sort of culture. At least, they had spellcasters. The first hint to that was that Bjön's axe bounced off of a magical protection one of them had. From the effect, Teltz assumed it to be some form of protection from good. </p><p></p><p>The wind chilled Teltz to the bone despite his clothes, and he wondered how those monsters could exist here. His damaged sword barely blocked the attack of one of them, not leaving the slightest dent in its natural armor. </p><p></p><p>Before the bard could think of any spell or song to boost their abilities, the area around them went all dark, save for the divine glow of the adamantine axe. That was the confirmation of spellcasters, probably divine, on the enemy's side. The shivering bird squeaked a single syllable, fully of magic, and one of the morlocks started to cry out in panic. A fear spell, Teltz thought. Clever bird, he had not considered the obvious possibility that Vaetta would know any spells. His sword hit something in the darkness, but again it seemed to bounce off, and a forceful blow of an unarmed strike threw Teltz back a few meters. He landed right outside the dark zone. </p><p></p><p>With a howl that had nothing human, one of the morlocks came at him with a huge club. The monster was above him before he could get up on the icy ground and with the wind. Once more he barely blocked the club with his sword. The blade fell apart, the damage from the ooze acid had been worse than he had assumed. The bard rolled sideways to avoid the next blast, making sure he didn't accidentally hurt Vaetta in the process. As the club hit the ground next to him, Teltz whispered the words for a light spell, targeting the club of the enemy. As he touched the enemy's weapon briefly, it light up like a torch. With a cry of surprise and pain, the monster dropped the weapon and stepped backwards. </p><p></p><p>"Mine, now,." Teltz growled and took the club as he got up. Advancing on the morlock, he waved the club in front of him, directing the thing backwards to where the shaft went down. A moment later, the morlock's feet stepped into air and it fell all the way down. </p><p></p><p>Bjön had issues of a different kind. Two of their foes came at him, and in the darkness he could only make them out whenever his axe hit the shields around them. He hoped their protection spells would wear off soon, but he had no such luck. Instead, something hit him with the force of a hammer and caused him to almost lose his weapon. Trying to find the end of the spell's reach seemed to be useless as well, all he would risk was falling into the shaft. </p><p></p><p>The dwarf put the axe away, aware that its light had possibly stopped them from going at him full force, but he needed a different strategy. Dropping to the ground, he made himself as flat as possible. He knew enough about magic to be aware that, with this spell, even his enemies were unable to see in the dark. And while they sure knew the area and would hardly bump into the stalagmites, they wouldn't assume him to be on the ground. At least he hoped so. </p><p></p><p>Steps and shuffling and some sniffing to his right told him he had guessed correctly. His hands went into his pouch, searching for the small bag of puffing balls Cajun had given him a while ago to entertain the children of the inn they had been at. He had not used them all up, and he figured they would make a good distraction. He found 5 or 6 of them still there and threw them into the direction of the shuffling. </p><p></p><p>A few hissing puffs and cracks could be heard, and while the light effects this toy usually produced was swallowed by the spell, the acid smoke was not. Coughing and retching was heard, and the monster backed up. It would be a short lived distraction, but it was all he really needed. As quickly as possible, he rolled in the opposite direction of where he knew the shaft to be and finally emerged out of the dark zone. He found himself at the bottom of some steps made out of snow and ice, leading up to where they would probably find the bird's mistress. </p><p></p><p>Teltz, in the mean time, found he could not get around the dark area to the other side of the spell's effect, as it touched the walls. He concentrated and mumbled another spell, and a moment later, his voice seemed to come from somewhere inside the dark area. "Bjön, are you out of the spell?" He sure hoped the paladin was.</p><p></p><p>Inside the dark, the noise suggested the two spellcasters were looking for him. From somewhere, Bjön called out he was, in fact, out of the spell effect. Once more, Teltz cast a spell, this time crumpling a sheet of written music, a copy of one of his favorite songs in fact, in his hands. A screeching, thundering and at the same time laughing sound emerged in the middle of the dark. Other than being unpleasant, it had no effect on him or Bjön, but the monsters started retching and gagging, feeling nauseated. A moment later, the dark spell ended. Bjön, already waiting once again with his axe, attacked the two retching creatures right away. "Desna!" he called. "Help me eliminate the evil dwelling in this chasm!" </p><p>A moment later, the remaining monsters, spellcasters or not, sprawled dead at the paladin's feet. "I've had it with this frigid place," the young dwarf growled. "There are some stairs over there, let's get this thing done."</p><p></p><p>Getting up there proved somewhat of a chore, with the winds still blowing and the ground slippery. Teltz especially was exhausted as they reached the top. His unusual ability to cast a lot of spells often came with physical exhaustion, although he had not explained that to the dwarf yet. He felt like he was out of shape, what was definitely not the case. He used the club he still had for balance and support but it was not really helping.</p><p></p><p>The passage opened into a series of natural labyrinthine catacombs. Their tangled walls were slicked with layers of ice that hideously entombed dozens of humanoid corpses, mostly tribal folk or villagers, in various states of decay. Some looked hundreds of years old, others more recent.</p><p></p><p>The bird became very agitated now, and they could see why. Half naked and almost frozen, the form of a woman was positioned to the left wall of the cave. The two looked at each other and nodded. It looked like a bait, so it most likely was one. That other woman, the evil around here, would be lurking close by. And they still did not know what it was. </p><p></p><p>Teltz frowned and then motioned to the dagger the dwarf had at his side. "Bless it," he whispered. "I have an idea." He didn't mention it was a daring idea, probably born from exhaustion and lack of food – his stomach was beginning to rumble. While Bjön was looking at him questioningly, the bard once more whispered a spell while taking the raven out of his cloak, and this time, a transformation took place. His body twisted and turned and shaped itself into that of a morlock. As Bjön caught himself staring, he shook the surprise off and did his own spell to bless the dagger which the bard took. Then the human made a snapping motion with his left hand and the light on the club went out. The next moment, the bard-turned-morlock hurried over to where the bound woman was. Once there, he cut the ropes apart, which was a bit difficult as this form of a body was harder to move for him. </p><p></p><p>"What are you doing? Get back down there! Have you lost your weak mind? How dare you defy me!" A hissing voice, speaking common with some infernal words mixed into it, came from the back of the room, and sliding steps could be heard. A moment later, an ugly ice hag appeared in view. Her red glowing ice and the horns on her head made Teltz think of a devil for a moment, before he recognized the creature. He didn't respond, but finished cutting the ropes, hoping for her to come closer. </p><p></p><p>She did just that, cursing while coming into striking distance. As she reached out with one of her clawed hands. Teltz suddenly swung his club, making her stumble over it. As she caught her balance with a sound of angry surprise, he jumped over to here and attacked with the blessed dagger. </p><p></p><p>The gods must have been with them, because the weapon slid right into the evil monster's belly, right up to her ugly hanging breasts. Her hiss turned into a screech. Dragging herself backwards, she dislodged the weapon. Blackish blood seeped from the wound. Her left arm reached for the transformed bard and she started on a spell. </p><p></p><p>That was when a glowing adamatine battle axe hit her square on the head. It seemed to bounce off the horns somewhat, but the hag was dropping to her knees now. Blood was gushing over her face. Before the paladin could adjust his aim to hit where there were no horns, the hag turned incorporal and invisible before their eyes. </p><p></p><p>"Won't help you," Teltz growled and stabbed the dagger at her again. He knew that a blessed weapon could well hit incorporal creatures. He could not tell if he had hit something or not though. The bless of the weapon winked out, and Teltz hurried back to the unconscious woman. Bjön watched the area carefully, to see if the hag would show up again, but nothing of the sort happened. Teltz grabbed the woman and, while still in his transmuted form, rushed the stairs back down as if half of the abyss would be after them. After a short hesitation, the dwarf searched the cave for anything that might have been Eya's – they needed the component for the afflicted Pathfinder woman after all – and then followed, accompanied by the bird who had to grab his hair to not been blown away by the winds. </p><p></p><p>Past the dead bodies at the end of the stairs, the bard rushed down the shaft, not needing any climbing gear in this form and not having much difficulty with the woman either. It was only when Bjön carefully climbed after him that he understood. The spell would end any minute, and carrying an unconscious, half dead body all the way would have taken a lot longer. And their rescue had little time left. </p><p></p><p>Teltz made it down to the pit with the bones before the spell ended. When Bjön arrived, he had wrapped the woman in spare furs and cloaks, though he didn't have many. Her bare feet looked frozen, and Bjön went to heal as much damage as he could once they had carried her out. As she came to, a healing potion helped with the recovery, and the still burning fire of the sentries they had captured outside helped, too. But still they had to take her back to the hovel quick. "Wait here," Bjön said. "I'll make something to drag her back."</p><p></p><p>"You've got it," the woman suddenly whispered. "Good."</p><p></p><p>Teltz looked at the small box and a bag the Dwarf had taken from the cave. He nodded. Maybe they would get out of here fast enough, after all. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That evening, with Elya recovered a little, they got her side of the story. How the hag had caused her hellish nightmares. The hag, she said, was stealing souls to sell to devils. But more important that explaini8ng that was her needing to get back to Osprey to help him with his Pathfinder friend. </p><p></p><p>"We had hoped you could bring us closer to Falcon's hollow," Teltz expressed. "Osprey said we could send what he needs back with the teleport label thingy."</p><p></p><p>Eya blinked. "Yes, that much is true. After all of this, I am not staying up here, however. I will leave, and someone else will have to make sure later that the hag is really gone. The teleport point, however, can be set to bring you to a number of places. None of which is a place named Falcon's hollow, though, I'm afraid."</p><p></p><p>It turned out that the closest thing to get to was a place in the west of Andoran, in the Aspodell Mountains. A dwelling of another Pathfinder, as it seemed, who would be able to help them along to Piren's Bluff, the only pass crossing the mountains. That was good news because it meant they might be in Falcon's Hollow before the others. Their journey could faster than going through Molthune. </p><p></p><p>That night, Teltz and Bjön slept well, if exhausted, and the mid morning of their next day saw them packed and ready to be sent on, not without wishing Eya and her clever familiar all the best.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5827746, member: 53286"] The passage sloped up radically, exposing a wide fault in the rock that created a natural overhang that blocked some of the passageway. The tunnel appeared to continue up, around, and over the crag. "Oh, yay," Teltz muttered. "I have a feeling it will get worse the farther we get in." A bit of snow dropped right on the bard's face as he said that. "Did I mention I prefer warm weather? Sunny beaches, lush forests and gardens with all kinds of fruits in it..." He dwarf snorted as he made his way around the obstacle. "But think of the song you can write about this! Just the right story for cold winter nights by the fi..." He was rudely interrupted as two humanoid shapes dropped down from above, crouching on the ground right before them. Somehow, Teltz and Bjön got the impression of spiders pressed into a humanoid form – or maybe the other way around. They opened their large mouths and hissed in what could only be described as an appreciative manner. It looked like they wanted to make lunch out of the friends. The paladin's new adamantine axe, suddenly shining with a golden glow, cut right through one of the ugly creatures, causing gore to spray and freeze around them. Teltz, not able to move much in this passage, grabbed his sword but hesitated. He would only hit the dwarf, considering his sword skill was mediocre at best. Luckily, the dwarf didn't need him. While the weird creature remaining rushed up the wall, finding a grip as if it were a beetle, obviously trying to make their prey following them, Bjön took a step back, pushing the bard further out of the way of the beast. Teltz almost lost his footing on the icy ground. A second later, he was grateful for the push though, as something smashed on the floor and a greenish vapor spread. Like the dwarf, he instinctively held his breath. Under other circumstances, the presence of the cloud might have been a real problem, but a gust of wind hissing through the tunnel dissipated it quickly. Out of the remains, the weird creature jumped at the dwarf, trying to claw his face off. To Teltz, it seemed the thing was completely mad. The paladin had turned his axe to the edge was to the attacker. Obviously relying on its natural armor that was no match to the holy glow of the axe the paladin wielded, their foe split itself almost in two, looking confused at his body as his life bled out. As the thing dropped, Teltz squinted at the remains. "Whatever it was, it didn't like the light from the axe. And not only because it was magic." "Creatures of darkness, is what they were." The paladin sighed. "I've seen them once before, they are called morlocks. We might want to have light at the ready at all times, there will likely be more down here as they come in groups so I have been told." "I can do a few light spells," the bard nodded. "Don't want to draw attention, though." There were enough things drawn to light in the dark, and no need to exchange the frying pan for the fire. "We might wanna watch the ceiling." They should have done that before, of course, but neither of them wanted to admit that. The familiar screeched and dug its claws into Teltz' shoulder. "Yeah, we will be moving," he calmed her down. Pressing on, the passage widened into a large frozen pool. The roof climbed upward, forming a natural chimney extending about 150 feet above the pool. A stream of cold air spilled in through the hole in the ceiling, filling the chamber with a low, doleful moan. The paladin took the lead and stepped carefully onto what looked like a slippery surface. Just as he was sure he had a sure grip, the whole floor started to move, reaching out to engulf the dwarf. Vaetta chittered a warning. "Frost ooze!" shouted Teltz and pulled the dwarf, who was struggling for balance, back into the tunnel. Teltz bumped his head at the tunnel wall as he lost his balance as well. Bjön uprighted himself and shouted out a battlecry. This of course did not intimidate the ooze, but it made him feel better. Again, the magical axe glowed in a strange, golden light. As the weird life form moved forward, the axe went through it as if it was butter. A small piece dropped onto the tunnel grounds. A moment later, it attacked them on its own. "Uh, yeah," Teltz said. "That's how they multiply, I heard. Doesn't kill them to hack them apart." Despite this, he hacked the little ooze in half again, creating two new ones. "Unless you hack them to very very small pieces, that is." The large ooze was unable to get into the tunnel as the dwarf, not having grasped the problem, hacked another part of it off. "Wait, you mean if I reduce this thing in size often enough, it can come after us?" "Quintessentially, yes." Teltz kept hacking, the small ones really were of little concern and were soon small enough to be dead. He noticed, though, that his sword, unlike the dwarf's axe, started to dissolve. The digestive fluids of an ooze, he recalled now, were detrimental to unprotected metal. "How annoying. What do you propose?" At a loss what to do next, the dwarf just stepped out of reach of the thing. "Ah... fire," Teltz offered. "As most cold creatures, it should be very vulnerable to it." "That would likely take a lot of fire." The paladin scratches his meager beard. "Maybe I should just hack it smaller just until it would almost fit in here and then we burn it?" "We'll be here a while," Teltz sighed. "But it sounds like a plan." Sometime later, through biting smoke taking its time being blown away by the gusts of wind in the tunnels, the 3 of them – counting the raven – hurried on. They felt they had already lost a lot of time dealing with the annoying ooze. The last thing they needed was to fail saving a woman who might be able to get them out of the mountains and closer to their destination. Getting up the shaft was easy enough with the dwarf's climbing gear. Teltz was a nimble climber, and was insisting he go first. The shaft bisected a horizontal cavern and continued upward. Jagged, human-sized, ice-covered stalagmites filled the cavern floor here. A rough and frigid cross-breeze whipped through this passage from west to east every few minutes. The two of them hesitated to brave the natural force, but at least the smoke would be gone. Teltz hid the raven under his fur cloak to avoid her freezing to death. As they climbed out and gathered their gear to go on upward, where the bird knew her mistress to be, a bloody head came rolling out of the shadows of one of the stalagmites, in a whirl of bone fragments and more blood. It looked like the head of a woman. Teltz jumped aside so it would not hit him as it rolled right towards the shaft and fell down. "That's a sculpture," the bard recognized, at the same time the bird was calling "fake fake fake" out from under the cloak. "Nice try," Bjön grunted. His glowing axe was once more in his hands. As he had suspected, more morlocks were hiding in the chasm. These, though, looked less like dumb beasts and more like a primitive group with some sort of culture. At least, they had spellcasters. The first hint to that was that Bjön's axe bounced off of a magical protection one of them had. From the effect, Teltz assumed it to be some form of protection from good. The wind chilled Teltz to the bone despite his clothes, and he wondered how those monsters could exist here. His damaged sword barely blocked the attack of one of them, not leaving the slightest dent in its natural armor. Before the bard could think of any spell or song to boost their abilities, the area around them went all dark, save for the divine glow of the adamantine axe. That was the confirmation of spellcasters, probably divine, on the enemy's side. The shivering bird squeaked a single syllable, fully of magic, and one of the morlocks started to cry out in panic. A fear spell, Teltz thought. Clever bird, he had not considered the obvious possibility that Vaetta would know any spells. His sword hit something in the darkness, but again it seemed to bounce off, and a forceful blow of an unarmed strike threw Teltz back a few meters. He landed right outside the dark zone. With a howl that had nothing human, one of the morlocks came at him with a huge club. The monster was above him before he could get up on the icy ground and with the wind. Once more he barely blocked the club with his sword. The blade fell apart, the damage from the ooze acid had been worse than he had assumed. The bard rolled sideways to avoid the next blast, making sure he didn't accidentally hurt Vaetta in the process. As the club hit the ground next to him, Teltz whispered the words for a light spell, targeting the club of the enemy. As he touched the enemy's weapon briefly, it light up like a torch. With a cry of surprise and pain, the monster dropped the weapon and stepped backwards. "Mine, now,." Teltz growled and took the club as he got up. Advancing on the morlock, he waved the club in front of him, directing the thing backwards to where the shaft went down. A moment later, the morlock's feet stepped into air and it fell all the way down. Bjön had issues of a different kind. Two of their foes came at him, and in the darkness he could only make them out whenever his axe hit the shields around them. He hoped their protection spells would wear off soon, but he had no such luck. Instead, something hit him with the force of a hammer and caused him to almost lose his weapon. Trying to find the end of the spell's reach seemed to be useless as well, all he would risk was falling into the shaft. The dwarf put the axe away, aware that its light had possibly stopped them from going at him full force, but he needed a different strategy. Dropping to the ground, he made himself as flat as possible. He knew enough about magic to be aware that, with this spell, even his enemies were unable to see in the dark. And while they sure knew the area and would hardly bump into the stalagmites, they wouldn't assume him to be on the ground. At least he hoped so. Steps and shuffling and some sniffing to his right told him he had guessed correctly. His hands went into his pouch, searching for the small bag of puffing balls Cajun had given him a while ago to entertain the children of the inn they had been at. He had not used them all up, and he figured they would make a good distraction. He found 5 or 6 of them still there and threw them into the direction of the shuffling. A few hissing puffs and cracks could be heard, and while the light effects this toy usually produced was swallowed by the spell, the acid smoke was not. Coughing and retching was heard, and the monster backed up. It would be a short lived distraction, but it was all he really needed. As quickly as possible, he rolled in the opposite direction of where he knew the shaft to be and finally emerged out of the dark zone. He found himself at the bottom of some steps made out of snow and ice, leading up to where they would probably find the bird's mistress. Teltz, in the mean time, found he could not get around the dark area to the other side of the spell's effect, as it touched the walls. He concentrated and mumbled another spell, and a moment later, his voice seemed to come from somewhere inside the dark area. "Bjön, are you out of the spell?" He sure hoped the paladin was. Inside the dark, the noise suggested the two spellcasters were looking for him. From somewhere, Bjön called out he was, in fact, out of the spell effect. Once more, Teltz cast a spell, this time crumpling a sheet of written music, a copy of one of his favorite songs in fact, in his hands. A screeching, thundering and at the same time laughing sound emerged in the middle of the dark. Other than being unpleasant, it had no effect on him or Bjön, but the monsters started retching and gagging, feeling nauseated. A moment later, the dark spell ended. Bjön, already waiting once again with his axe, attacked the two retching creatures right away. "Desna!" he called. "Help me eliminate the evil dwelling in this chasm!" A moment later, the remaining monsters, spellcasters or not, sprawled dead at the paladin's feet. "I've had it with this frigid place," the young dwarf growled. "There are some stairs over there, let's get this thing done." Getting up there proved somewhat of a chore, with the winds still blowing and the ground slippery. Teltz especially was exhausted as they reached the top. His unusual ability to cast a lot of spells often came with physical exhaustion, although he had not explained that to the dwarf yet. He felt like he was out of shape, what was definitely not the case. He used the club he still had for balance and support but it was not really helping. The passage opened into a series of natural labyrinthine catacombs. Their tangled walls were slicked with layers of ice that hideously entombed dozens of humanoid corpses, mostly tribal folk or villagers, in various states of decay. Some looked hundreds of years old, others more recent. The bird became very agitated now, and they could see why. Half naked and almost frozen, the form of a woman was positioned to the left wall of the cave. The two looked at each other and nodded. It looked like a bait, so it most likely was one. That other woman, the evil around here, would be lurking close by. And they still did not know what it was. Teltz frowned and then motioned to the dagger the dwarf had at his side. "Bless it," he whispered. "I have an idea." He didn't mention it was a daring idea, probably born from exhaustion and lack of food – his stomach was beginning to rumble. While Bjön was looking at him questioningly, the bard once more whispered a spell while taking the raven out of his cloak, and this time, a transformation took place. His body twisted and turned and shaped itself into that of a morlock. As Bjön caught himself staring, he shook the surprise off and did his own spell to bless the dagger which the bard took. Then the human made a snapping motion with his left hand and the light on the club went out. The next moment, the bard-turned-morlock hurried over to where the bound woman was. Once there, he cut the ropes apart, which was a bit difficult as this form of a body was harder to move for him. "What are you doing? Get back down there! Have you lost your weak mind? How dare you defy me!" A hissing voice, speaking common with some infernal words mixed into it, came from the back of the room, and sliding steps could be heard. A moment later, an ugly ice hag appeared in view. Her red glowing ice and the horns on her head made Teltz think of a devil for a moment, before he recognized the creature. He didn't respond, but finished cutting the ropes, hoping for her to come closer. She did just that, cursing while coming into striking distance. As she reached out with one of her clawed hands. Teltz suddenly swung his club, making her stumble over it. As she caught her balance with a sound of angry surprise, he jumped over to here and attacked with the blessed dagger. The gods must have been with them, because the weapon slid right into the evil monster's belly, right up to her ugly hanging breasts. Her hiss turned into a screech. Dragging herself backwards, she dislodged the weapon. Blackish blood seeped from the wound. Her left arm reached for the transformed bard and she started on a spell. That was when a glowing adamatine battle axe hit her square on the head. It seemed to bounce off the horns somewhat, but the hag was dropping to her knees now. Blood was gushing over her face. Before the paladin could adjust his aim to hit where there were no horns, the hag turned incorporal and invisible before their eyes. "Won't help you," Teltz growled and stabbed the dagger at her again. He knew that a blessed weapon could well hit incorporal creatures. He could not tell if he had hit something or not though. The bless of the weapon winked out, and Teltz hurried back to the unconscious woman. Bjön watched the area carefully, to see if the hag would show up again, but nothing of the sort happened. Teltz grabbed the woman and, while still in his transmuted form, rushed the stairs back down as if half of the abyss would be after them. After a short hesitation, the dwarf searched the cave for anything that might have been Eya's – they needed the component for the afflicted Pathfinder woman after all – and then followed, accompanied by the bird who had to grab his hair to not been blown away by the winds. Past the dead bodies at the end of the stairs, the bard rushed down the shaft, not needing any climbing gear in this form and not having much difficulty with the woman either. It was only when Bjön carefully climbed after him that he understood. The spell would end any minute, and carrying an unconscious, half dead body all the way would have taken a lot longer. And their rescue had little time left. Teltz made it down to the pit with the bones before the spell ended. When Bjön arrived, he had wrapped the woman in spare furs and cloaks, though he didn't have many. Her bare feet looked frozen, and Bjön went to heal as much damage as he could once they had carried her out. As she came to, a healing potion helped with the recovery, and the still burning fire of the sentries they had captured outside helped, too. But still they had to take her back to the hovel quick. "Wait here," Bjön said. "I'll make something to drag her back." "You've got it," the woman suddenly whispered. "Good." Teltz looked at the small box and a bag the Dwarf had taken from the cave. He nodded. Maybe they would get out of here fast enough, after all. That evening, with Elya recovered a little, they got her side of the story. How the hag had caused her hellish nightmares. The hag, she said, was stealing souls to sell to devils. But more important that explaini8ng that was her needing to get back to Osprey to help him with his Pathfinder friend. "We had hoped you could bring us closer to Falcon's hollow," Teltz expressed. "Osprey said we could send what he needs back with the teleport label thingy." Eya blinked. "Yes, that much is true. After all of this, I am not staying up here, however. I will leave, and someone else will have to make sure later that the hag is really gone. The teleport point, however, can be set to bring you to a number of places. None of which is a place named Falcon's hollow, though, I'm afraid." It turned out that the closest thing to get to was a place in the west of Andoran, in the Aspodell Mountains. A dwelling of another Pathfinder, as it seemed, who would be able to help them along to Piren's Bluff, the only pass crossing the mountains. That was good news because it meant they might be in Falcon's Hollow before the others. Their journey could faster than going through Molthune. That night, Teltz and Bjön slept well, if exhausted, and the mid morning of their next day saw them packed and ready to be sent on, not without wishing Eya and her clever familiar all the best. [/QUOTE]
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