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The Realms of Enlightenment: The Grey Companions
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<blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 427024" data-attributes="member: 2323"><p><strong>[PLAIN][Realms #182] Soup's On![/PLAIN]</strong></p><p></p><p>Ruze splashed over to Ledare and Draelond and began relating to the Janissary about the danger of which Gordigan had warned Kirnoth. Ledare listened intently, but ended up shaking her head. "It makes no sense for us to come this far again and then retreat," she told the Battleguard.</p><p></p><p>Ruze's face betrayed no hint of fear when he stated the fact, "We might be overrun."</p><p></p><p>"Okay, so a lot of rat-help is coming," she admitted. "I am tired of running, only to have to return in the future."</p><p></p><p>"As am I, kitten," Ruze grinned and looked up at Draelond.</p><p></p><p>The big warrior looked from Ruze to Ledare and nodded his head. "Agreed," he said. "Killing these creatures is, after all, what we're here to do."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Mother had convinced me to let you live until after the festival," Nunzio told Finian. The man tossed the bloody head down through the grate and it splashed into the water a dozen feet from where Ledare and Ruze and Draelond stood. "You shouldn't have come here, coward!" the fat man taunted.</p><p></p><p>"We came back down here to finish the job, one-eye!" Finian sneered up at him. "Get your fat behind down here so I can kick it again!"</p><p></p><p>Finian produced one of the throwing daggers he carried about his person and threw it upward at Nunzio. It flitted unerringly through the wide holes in the grate and struck Nunzio just above the bloody apron, squarely between his hairy breasts. The fat man grunted and then grinned down at Finian. "If that's the best you can do, half-elf, then killing you won't even be any sport!" Nunzio said as he pulled the dagger out of his chest and cast it aside. "Not that I won't enjoy it just the same."</p><p></p><p>Finian was the only one close enough to see the knife wound close the moment that the blade was pulled free.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Kirnoth watched Ruze and Ledare and Draelond conferring. Judging by their body language, they didn't plan to flee. "Looks like you've been outvoted, Gordigan," the elf said. He beckoned for Omrixx to follow him. "There'll be no retreat."</p><p></p><p>*Noooo,* Gordigan whimpered inside Kirnoth's head. *We're all gonna die.*</p><p></p><p>Kirnoth ignored the duckbunny's mewling and reached the mouth of the sewer tunnel in time to see Nunzio toss a woman's head down through the grate. The elf gasped in horror and moved his hands through the gestures of Force and Direction.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Come on up, coward," Nunzio beckoned his left hand. He held up the blood-slicked cleaver and licked the fouled blade. "There's room for you on my chopping bl- ahkkk! Ahkkk!"</p><p></p><p>The fat man's words ended in two shocked cries of pain as blue-white bolts of force sizzled from Kirnoth's outstretched fingers into Nunzio's left leg. He jerked back with smoking holes burned into his thigh and knee.</p><p></p><p>"You should have killed me when you had the chance, you stupid son of a b****!" Finian chuckled grimly. "I'm not alone this time!" The Archer started to make his way along the wall toward the trapdoor in the ceiling, drawing his longsword as he went.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Nunzio!" Ledare hissed and moved forward to get a better shot at the rat man.</p><p></p><p>She sighted down the barrel of the repeating crossbow and squeezed off a shot before Nunzio staggered away from the grate and out of sight. Her aim was off, however, and she missed by a wide margin. "Dammit!" she hissed and holstered her crossbow. To Draelond and Ruze she commanded, "The ladder. We need to get up there. Clearly, he is some kind of leader. Maybe the "help" will scatter if we finish Nunzio off!"</p><p></p><p>The two men obeyed without question, moving toward the mound of twigs, bones and torn clothing that was the skaven's nest. The Janissary followed, her silver-iron longsword already in her hand.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Finian reached the nest first, however, and he saw the rat-thing hunched low beneath the ladder. It was curled into a protective ball and squeaking softly. Upon sighting the half-elf, it let out a frightened shriek and produced a battered shortsword from the pile of refuse on which it crouched.</p><p></p><p>Finian, who already had his sword out swung first. There was something unsettling about fighting on two separate planes - Finian standing on the wall and the skaven on the floor. The Archer's swing missed by a large margin. The skaven thrust at Finian's foot with his shortsword, but instead struck the wall, chipping off the tip of the weapon in the process.</p><p>This seemed to make the rat man very angry and he thrust at the half-elf again with his sword. This time he landed his blow, but the blunted weapon was unable to penetrate Finian's protective leathers. The Archer swung a return blow but missed.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>At that moment, Draelond attained the top of the rat nest and saw the two combatants trading swings beneath the metal ladder. Gripping his huge sword in both hands he struck at the skaven. His footing was unsure, however, and the sword contacted only air.</p><p></p><p>The skaven dropped its sword and its limbs began to shorten as it took on a more rat-like aspect. It started to dart away down the side of the nest, but Draelond's sword landed a solid blow to its right forepaw, causing it to falter. Finian's longsword savagely pierced its left flank killing it instantly.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Finian, Draelond and Ruze all stood atop the nest and as a group, they moved toward the ladder. Ledare was halfway to the top when she heard Kirnoth calling behind her. "What about the reinforcements?" the elf asked and Ledare paused for a moment before responding quickly.</p><p></p><p>"You and Omrixx use your spells to prevent other rats from coming in here!" she ordered. "That might give us the time we need to take care of these vermin!"</p><p></p><p>Kirnoth nodded and then looked around at the empty tunnels. "Where is Omrixx?" he muttered.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ledare's hesitation to speak with Kirnoth saved her from the torrent of boiling stew that Nunzio poured down through the trapdoor.</p><p></p><p>Draelond and Ruze, who were still at the bottom of the ladder were able to avoid the worst of it. Draelond suffered only incidental splash damage and Ruze emerged unscathed. Finian, however, took it full in the face and fell, screaming, off the wall. The nest of branches and bones cushioned his fall so that he suffered only minor bumps and bruises, but the burns from the pot of soup were severe. Ruze dropped immediately off the ladder and hunched over the writhing Archer.</p><p></p><p>Draelond looked up and saw Nunzio standing above him framed by the trapdoor. Gritting his teeth, the warrior began to climb. Nunzio tossed down the cast iron pot that had held the stew and it thudded against Draelond's left shoulder before careening off into the water below.</p><p></p><p>Still the man climbed and Nunzio was too slow in closing the wooden door. As it came down, Draelond was able to put his shoulder against it before the skaven could slide a bar in place to secure it. The warrior threw it back as he watched Nunzio slip into the next room, which was lined with shelves.</p><p></p><p>The room with the trapdoor was completely empty and featureless except for the trapdoor in the center of the floor and the single door through which Nunzio had fled. "Mother!?" the fat man was shrieking as he went.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ledare paused with one foot on the ladder. "Will he be okay?" she asked and Ruze looked up at her.</p><p></p><p>"With My Queen's healing touch, he will be," the Battleguard said and gripped the holy symbol he wore on a chain around his waist. "Stop him, kitten. We'll join you shortly." He then turned back to his patient and began to pray while Ledare went up the ladder as quickly as she could.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Kirnoth stood near the center of the junction room looking around from tunnel mouth to tunnel mouth for any sign of Omrixx.</p><p></p><p>There was none.</p><p></p><p>He began to hear a feint chittering - a squeaking sound that seemed to be drawing ever closer. He couldn't tell which direction the sounds were coming from since they seemed to be coming from all four directions at once.</p><p></p><p>*They're coming,* Gordigan informed him, the familiar's voice filled with naked terror.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Draelond pressed onward through the narrow, shelf-lined storeroom into the area beyond. There, he stopped.</p><p></p><p>The room was lined with blood-flecked tiles on the walls and floor. The heavy metal grate that they had seen from below was set into the floor beside an enormous butcher's block that was heavily scarred from repeated blows from a cleaver and deeply stained from untold gallons of blood. The floor around it was slick with the stuff. The ceiling was low and festooned with hooks of various sizes from which hung the bodies of no less than a dozen men, women, and children. All were in various states of dismemberment. Draelond's mind could scarcely comprehend the level of madness and evil necessary to perpetrate such a thing.</p><p></p><p>Ledare stepped into the room behind him and sucked in her breath when she saw what he saw. "Dear gods," she whispered, her eyes moving left, away from the gore-soaked abattoir to the rest of the room which held a number of coal-fed stoves and heavy stone ovens. there were things cooking there that she didn't want to think about.</p><p></p><p>A set of rickety wooden stairs along the wall led up to the floor above.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jon Potter, post: 427024, member: 2323"] [b][PLAIN][Realms #182] Soup's On![/PLAIN][/b] Ruze splashed over to Ledare and Draelond and began relating to the Janissary about the danger of which Gordigan had warned Kirnoth. Ledare listened intently, but ended up shaking her head. "It makes no sense for us to come this far again and then retreat," she told the Battleguard. Ruze's face betrayed no hint of fear when he stated the fact, "We might be overrun." "Okay, so a lot of rat-help is coming," she admitted. "I am tired of running, only to have to return in the future." "As am I, kitten," Ruze grinned and looked up at Draelond. The big warrior looked from Ruze to Ledare and nodded his head. "Agreed," he said. "Killing these creatures is, after all, what we're here to do." "Mother had convinced me to let you live until after the festival," Nunzio told Finian. The man tossed the bloody head down through the grate and it splashed into the water a dozen feet from where Ledare and Ruze and Draelond stood. "You shouldn't have come here, coward!" the fat man taunted. "We came back down here to finish the job, one-eye!" Finian sneered up at him. "Get your fat behind down here so I can kick it again!" Finian produced one of the throwing daggers he carried about his person and threw it upward at Nunzio. It flitted unerringly through the wide holes in the grate and struck Nunzio just above the bloody apron, squarely between his hairy breasts. The fat man grunted and then grinned down at Finian. "If that's the best you can do, half-elf, then killing you won't even be any sport!" Nunzio said as he pulled the dagger out of his chest and cast it aside. "Not that I won't enjoy it just the same." Finian was the only one close enough to see the knife wound close the moment that the blade was pulled free. Kirnoth watched Ruze and Ledare and Draelond conferring. Judging by their body language, they didn't plan to flee. "Looks like you've been outvoted, Gordigan," the elf said. He beckoned for Omrixx to follow him. "There'll be no retreat." *Noooo,* Gordigan whimpered inside Kirnoth's head. *We're all gonna die.* Kirnoth ignored the duckbunny's mewling and reached the mouth of the sewer tunnel in time to see Nunzio toss a woman's head down through the grate. The elf gasped in horror and moved his hands through the gestures of Force and Direction. "Come on up, coward," Nunzio beckoned his left hand. He held up the blood-slicked cleaver and licked the fouled blade. "There's room for you on my chopping bl- ahkkk! Ahkkk!" The fat man's words ended in two shocked cries of pain as blue-white bolts of force sizzled from Kirnoth's outstretched fingers into Nunzio's left leg. He jerked back with smoking holes burned into his thigh and knee. "You should have killed me when you had the chance, you stupid son of a b****!" Finian chuckled grimly. "I'm not alone this time!" The Archer started to make his way along the wall toward the trapdoor in the ceiling, drawing his longsword as he went. "Nunzio!" Ledare hissed and moved forward to get a better shot at the rat man. She sighted down the barrel of the repeating crossbow and squeezed off a shot before Nunzio staggered away from the grate and out of sight. Her aim was off, however, and she missed by a wide margin. "Dammit!" she hissed and holstered her crossbow. To Draelond and Ruze she commanded, "The ladder. We need to get up there. Clearly, he is some kind of leader. Maybe the "help" will scatter if we finish Nunzio off!" The two men obeyed without question, moving toward the mound of twigs, bones and torn clothing that was the skaven's nest. The Janissary followed, her silver-iron longsword already in her hand. Finian reached the nest first, however, and he saw the rat-thing hunched low beneath the ladder. It was curled into a protective ball and squeaking softly. Upon sighting the half-elf, it let out a frightened shriek and produced a battered shortsword from the pile of refuse on which it crouched. Finian, who already had his sword out swung first. There was something unsettling about fighting on two separate planes - Finian standing on the wall and the skaven on the floor. The Archer's swing missed by a large margin. The skaven thrust at Finian's foot with his shortsword, but instead struck the wall, chipping off the tip of the weapon in the process. This seemed to make the rat man very angry and he thrust at the half-elf again with his sword. This time he landed his blow, but the blunted weapon was unable to penetrate Finian's protective leathers. The Archer swung a return blow but missed. At that moment, Draelond attained the top of the rat nest and saw the two combatants trading swings beneath the metal ladder. Gripping his huge sword in both hands he struck at the skaven. His footing was unsure, however, and the sword contacted only air. The skaven dropped its sword and its limbs began to shorten as it took on a more rat-like aspect. It started to dart away down the side of the nest, but Draelond's sword landed a solid blow to its right forepaw, causing it to falter. Finian's longsword savagely pierced its left flank killing it instantly. Finian, Draelond and Ruze all stood atop the nest and as a group, they moved toward the ladder. Ledare was halfway to the top when she heard Kirnoth calling behind her. "What about the reinforcements?" the elf asked and Ledare paused for a moment before responding quickly. "You and Omrixx use your spells to prevent other rats from coming in here!" she ordered. "That might give us the time we need to take care of these vermin!" Kirnoth nodded and then looked around at the empty tunnels. "Where is Omrixx?" he muttered. Ledare's hesitation to speak with Kirnoth saved her from the torrent of boiling stew that Nunzio poured down through the trapdoor. Draelond and Ruze, who were still at the bottom of the ladder were able to avoid the worst of it. Draelond suffered only incidental splash damage and Ruze emerged unscathed. Finian, however, took it full in the face and fell, screaming, off the wall. The nest of branches and bones cushioned his fall so that he suffered only minor bumps and bruises, but the burns from the pot of soup were severe. Ruze dropped immediately off the ladder and hunched over the writhing Archer. Draelond looked up and saw Nunzio standing above him framed by the trapdoor. Gritting his teeth, the warrior began to climb. Nunzio tossed down the cast iron pot that had held the stew and it thudded against Draelond's left shoulder before careening off into the water below. Still the man climbed and Nunzio was too slow in closing the wooden door. As it came down, Draelond was able to put his shoulder against it before the skaven could slide a bar in place to secure it. The warrior threw it back as he watched Nunzio slip into the next room, which was lined with shelves. The room with the trapdoor was completely empty and featureless except for the trapdoor in the center of the floor and the single door through which Nunzio had fled. "Mother!?" the fat man was shrieking as he went. Ledare paused with one foot on the ladder. "Will he be okay?" she asked and Ruze looked up at her. "With My Queen's healing touch, he will be," the Battleguard said and gripped the holy symbol he wore on a chain around his waist. "Stop him, kitten. We'll join you shortly." He then turned back to his patient and began to pray while Ledare went up the ladder as quickly as she could. Kirnoth stood near the center of the junction room looking around from tunnel mouth to tunnel mouth for any sign of Omrixx. There was none. He began to hear a feint chittering - a squeaking sound that seemed to be drawing ever closer. He couldn't tell which direction the sounds were coming from since they seemed to be coming from all four directions at once. *They're coming,* Gordigan informed him, the familiar's voice filled with naked terror. Draelond pressed onward through the narrow, shelf-lined storeroom into the area beyond. There, he stopped. The room was lined with blood-flecked tiles on the walls and floor. The heavy metal grate that they had seen from below was set into the floor beside an enormous butcher's block that was heavily scarred from repeated blows from a cleaver and deeply stained from untold gallons of blood. The floor around it was slick with the stuff. The ceiling was low and festooned with hooks of various sizes from which hung the bodies of no less than a dozen men, women, and children. All were in various states of dismemberment. Draelond's mind could scarcely comprehend the level of madness and evil necessary to perpetrate such a thing. Ledare stepped into the room behind him and sucked in her breath when she saw what he saw. "Dear gods," she whispered, her eyes moving left, away from the gore-soaked abattoir to the rest of the room which held a number of coal-fed stoves and heavy stone ovens. there were things cooking there that she didn't want to think about. A set of rickety wooden stairs along the wall led up to the floor above. [/QUOTE]
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