[Realms #447] Splitting the Party
The druid charged, covering the distance between himself and the dwarf with the ram's horn in six steps. His warhammer dipped low swinging up into the belly of the robed dwarf with a solid thud that sent the creature reeling back into the arms of the two behind it.
"You should have talked instead of being dumb!" Ahlear admonished in undercommon. The female dwarf on his left raised her hand and snapped her fingers. An explosion of Sound Burst at Ahlear's back making his teeth chatter painfully in his mouth. Dark spots floated in his field of vision, but he managed to blink them away until the dwarf on the right snapped her fingers.
"I knew this damned tunnel thing was a bad idea," Huzair groused, dabbing at the blood trickling from his ear. "Should have followed my flying plan."
"Pardon?" the elf maid asked, keeping her drawn arrow aimed solidly at the two dwarf creatures. Huzair looked at Anania and sighed.
"You know what, my sweet flower," he said, "on second thought, fire away. I think that Ahlear was a fool to try talking to these guys but maybe I should go help him out up there." He handed Anania the sheathed Windblade.
"You should carry this in case the stairs fall again," he said as he passed her the sword. "Do not worry about hitting me, love. I know how to stay out of the way."
Then he cast his second Improved Invisibility and activated his Ring of Blinking. A moment later he vanished up through the stairs overhead, leaving Anania alone with some very easy targets.
This time the sonic attack pounded Ahlear mercilessly making his head swim and momentarily stunning him. He felt rather than saw one of the dwarves step to his right, but he was powerless to prevent them from moving to his flank. He felt magic touch his flesh and move through his body, stiffening his muscles and joints. An instant later the effect repeated, impeding his mobility further, and contributing to his inability to avoid the shortsword that stabbed into his back. The damage from the attack was minor, but he could tell that it was due to a quirk of fate rather than any lack of skill on his attacker's part. The blade had been aimed at his spine, intended to take him out of the fight in one stroke, and it was only by virtue of the fact that he recovered from the stunning Sound Burst a fraction sooner than expected that he managed to avoid death.
Huzair paused in the curve of the stairs above his Web and drew out another scroll, this one of Expeditious Retreat. He read the words scribed thereon and as the scroll crumbled to dust, felt the magic flow into his body. He Spider Climbed up the wall, Blinked through another set of stairs, and continued on, repeating the process six more times before the magic wore off and he settled into his normal pace.
He could hear the sound of magic being used above him now, fairly close and he paused, placing his hand on Flameblade's pommel.
"I know you cannot see me, Morier, but I am drawing my sword," the mage whispered, "and I am actually going to use it."
He drew Flameblade from its sheath, filling the tunnel with flickering light.
"The Scion of Fire-" the sword began, but Huzair silenced it with a hiss.
"What's this?" Morier asked as he finally reached the spot where Anania stood vigilantly covering the entangled dwarves with a drawn arrow. The elf tersely described what Huzair had related to her and what she'd seen first hand.
"And Ahlear's above?" the albino asked and Anania nodded. "And Huzair went up after him?" She nodded again. "And there's no way passed but through these webs?"
"None but Huzair's magic," the scout observed. "Perhaps we could ask these... dwarves." Morier shook his head.
"The time for talk has passed," the eldritch warrior countered. "These little bastards will kill us all if we stand here and try to reason with them." Anania looked at him and increased the pull on her bow meaningfully.
"So..." she queried and Morier stooped and picked up her torch from the stairs.
"Kill 'em," he replied grimly. "Kill 'em all."
Ahlear knew that he had to get away. And he withdrew to his left, hobbling back toward the door. He'd almost made it when he felt magic touch him again, making his joints stiffen even more and like before he felt the effect repeat a moment later.
But by that point, he couldn't feel much of anything. His limbs were completely outside of his control and he pitched forward onto the stone floor, his body little more than a slab of insensate meat to which his mind was unfortunately tethered. A shadow fell across him and he felt rancid breath hot on his neck.
"Perhaps," a voice tittered into his ear, "it is you who are dumb, no?"
"Take him," another voice commanded. "He too can feed the goddess!"
Huzair crept Invisibly along the wall and peered cautiously into the room. Ahlear was down, he saw being dragged out a door by two squat figures in robes. A third was supervising the procedure - if supervising consisted of bouncing up and down and muttering incoherently while blood dribbled from her pale lips, that is.
Suddenly she stopped bobbing and looked directly at him. Which, he knew should have been impossible; he was Invisible after all. And he was, but he was also holding a shortsword of flame that filled the landing where he skulked with firelight.
Morier stepped forward, touching the torch to the nearest portion of the Web. The strands caught immediately and spread, burning away a large section in an instant. The albino waited for the smoke to clear and then stepped into the gap, ready to do it again and clear himself a path to the other side.
At his side, Anania sighted through the smoke and sank an arrow into the nearer of the two struggling dwarves. It lodged in the creature's neck prompting a cry of pain followed by some gibbered mewling in a language that neither understood. Morier recognized it, although he hadn't heard it much since being cast out of Sheoloth. And hearing the language of his birth parents now hardened his heart.
"EVERY time we divide the party something goes wrong," the eldritch warrior grimaced. "Why will nobody EVER listen to me??"
Ahlear felt the hands on his boots relax for a moment, then the third dwarf - the one he had wounded - gave an angry hiss.
"Take him to the giant! And hurry, before the magic wears off!" she commanded in undercommon. "I'll take care of the will o' the wisp!" She grinned and turned toward a flickering light that seemed to be coming from the door to the stairs.
The grips on his legs tightened and he realized something: he could FEEL the hands on him. With a twitch of his finger, he dismissed his Produce Flame spell and suddenly there was only the stuttering light coming from the stairs. In the strobing illumination he saw the two dwarves at his feet pull back in alarm, fumbling for weapons.
He seized the opportunity then to activate the Ring of Invisibility and vanished just as the two shortswords stabbed downward. Both missed and the one on his right struck the stone floor with such force that it snapped the tip off its blade.
Huzair watched the nearest dwarf watching him - or rather she was watching the area where he was. She spoke a word and shadows seemed to ooze from her pores, cloaking her in a Veil of Darkness that obscured her body from the wizard's view.
"Resolvo veneficus!" Huzair intoned and dropped a Dispel Magic on the area around her. It did not have the intended effect on the dwarf's Veil of Shadows, but it did inadvertently eliminate one of the Clumsiness spells hampering Ahlear. The druid felt the barest bit of his physical dexterity return - just enough to make him feel as coordinated as if he'd been drinking dwarf spirits for the last several hours.
Which is to say: not very coordinated at all.
The Veiled dwarf raised a ram's horn she carried in her hand and muttered something that Huzair couldn't hear. He felt Flameblade devour an incoming spell, just as he'd hoped it would.
Anania aimed and sent another arrow stabbing into the wounded dwarf thing. It struck beside and below the first arrow, sinking into the flesh just above its studded leather armor. It made a gurgling sound and went limp in the Web. The other creature that was free to thrash about renewed its efforts to do so, without success. It cursed in its strange, ugly tongue and invoked a Veil of Shadows that obscured it somewhat.
Morier pressed forward with his torch, undaunted by the dwarf spitting and cursing to his left.
An approaching Clank. Clank. Clank. signaled Shamalin's arrival from below. Huffing and red-faced, she took in the scene at a glance, steadying herself against the wall with one hand. A Light spell glowed brightly on her black shield, filling the hallway with radiance.
"What... is this...," she panted and Morier glanced back over his slim shoulder.
"Huzair and Ahlear are up ahead," he said, "We need to get passed can you-?" He stopped himself as the cleric raised her holy symbol and spoke a few divine words.
At once, the Web unravelled, dropping to the stairs all three dwarves. The one that Anania had shot, not surprisingly, lay where it fell, but the other two scrambled immediately into action
