NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 1035118" data-attributes="member: 7737">Bonetangles, Bimbos, and Bad GuysThe Bonetangle lurched towards the Company of the Red Kestrel. Its four skeletal heads swiveled in unison to take in its prey, while its six legs made clicking noises as it clattered across the floor. The thing appears to be hunched over, its forearms low to the ground, ready to grab anyone within reach and shove them inside its freakishly distended ribcage where sharp bony shards could grind them to bits.Brogun and Kednor smashed the painstakingly crafted construct to bits with one blow apiece.Meanwhile, Tamalruk the troglodyte shaman was in the middle of casting a spell when two perfectly round holes appeared in his torso, the exit wounds of the magic missiles that had struck him in the back. Kell grunted in surprise as his own mundane arrows struck Tamalruk’s lifeless corpse.“Who’s there?” the Herbalish scout demanded, quickly knocking another arrow and aiming down the passage whence the magic missiles had come.A figure emerged into the light: a human, Vassagonian by the looks of him, in filthy clothing. His face was smudged with dirt, his hands and arms covered in grime.“I am Otieno,” the man said simply. “I journeyed many miles through these mines before stumbling upon this fight.” He glanced down at Tamalruk. “I trust I didn’t slay the wrong person?”Kell was suspicious. How was it that Otieno had conveniently arrived just as the fight had started? And why hadn’t the Kestrels come across Otieno in Bellhold prior to his entrance into the mines? For that matter, how had Otieno emerged from a portion of the mines which, to Kell’s knowledge, went nowhere?In the end, it was decided that these were mysteries not meant to be solved. It was enough that Otieno had arrived when he had and joined the adventure. The Kestrels were glad to have an arcanist join them (for Otieno was, indeed, a sorcerer), and filled him in as best they could about recent events.“Now…” mused Brogun, “about the gemstones in that carving….”Without waiting to consult his fellows regarding his intentions, Brogun quaffed a potion of levitation, ascended to a spot directly opposite the carved stone dragon’s head, unsheathed a dagger, and began prying at one of the eyes.In the everyone-saw-this-coming category, the dragon idol animated (amidst much scraping of stone upon stone) and swatted at Brogun with one huge claw. The Kestrels sprang into action, Brogun and Kednor hewing at the construct with axe and hammer, while Kell and Otieno circled the edge of the room and rained missile fire upon it.Unfortunately, however, the bulk of the blows that met the dragon’s stony hide were harmlessly turned aside or, at the best, chipped out tiny fragments, and Kell’s arrows proved entirely ineffective. Otieno fared better with his magic missiles and acid arrows – until, that is, the enraged dragon charged the sorcerer and ground him underfoot. But by that time the thing was sufficiently weakened that repeated blows from Brogun and Kednor were enough to smash it into inert rock.After an application of healing magic, Otieno was back on his feet. Brogun completed his extraction of the gemstone eyes, and the Kestrels examined the opening revealed when the dragon had stepped away from its perch. Beyond, another large room held an enormous copper tub of some sort, its bottom scraped raw by the repeated motions of a giant draconic tongue. Perhaps this had been the lair of Copperdeath himself? In which case there must be a great pile of treasure about – but lengthy searching turned up nothing.“Where is Kell?” someone asked, looking around. The party’s scout was missing.He was, in fact, scouting ahead. Kell had taken the other exit from the room, a tunnel that quickly turned vertical, requiring him to make use of his climbing skills to reach its top. It opened onto a natural cave with a pleasant lake of water fed by a roaring waterfall that crashed down from high overhead. Kell craned his head back to take in this sight: for the waterfall was magicked so that it appeared in a shifting spectrum of colors, cycling through the rainbow.It was then that Kell heard the beautiful singing, barely audible above the roaring of the cataract. Peering around for the source of the song, he located the singer standing amidst the water’s spray. She was breathtakingly gorgeous, her skin the finest alabaster, her eyes as sapphires, her only garments the foaming water and her hair that shone like black silk.“I am Velea,” she spoke, looking deeply into Kell’s eyes. “Long have I waited for a champion to come and free me from my imprisonment.”= = =When Kell returned to his companions, he could hardly wait to tell them of the beautiful maiden whom it was their obligation to rescue. Now it was Otieno’s turn to be suspicious: Who had imprisoned this Velea, and for what reason? Where did the waterfall and its magical effects originate? And most importantly from a purely hypothetical point of view, would the Kestrels be invited to join her garment-less frolics?Kell assured his friends that all their questions would be answered in time, if only they would journey with him up the tunnel. Though Otieno seemed dubious, the two dwarves were eager to make Velea’s acquaintance, so it was decided that they would rig up a system of ropes to enable passage upwards, while keeping a close watch on their starry-eyed scout.As soon as the Kestrels emerged from their climb, they heard the sounds of a beautiful song. Of course Kell had been right about Velea: she truly was stunning, and the adventurers would be glad to do anything for her.All, that is, save for Kednor, who, acting on a hunch, studied the woman with his moral compass. He was horrified to find that she radiated a strong aura of evil (pointing due south), a fact that the paladin tried to convey to his friends. They ignored him.“What troubles you, my dwarven champion?” crooned Velea as she approached the edge of the pool where Kednor stood, brooding.“Nothing any longer,” he replied after crushing her skull with a well-placed hammer-blow.The enchantment broken, Kell, Otieno, and Brogun shook the cobwebs out of their heads in time to assist Kednor in his fight against Velea’s fiendish dire rat pets. They quickly dispatched these creatures and searched the pool, discovering the remains of the missing Heroes of the Bell and their equipment, to which they helped themselves.Then began the long journey upwards along the winding passageway that circled the waterfall. The noise made discussion problematic while the spray that coated everything made forward progress nearly impossible. Twice, one of the dwarves slipped off the walkway, dragging the party with him over the side. It was finally decided that the less graceful members of the group should remove their armor before proceeding. That did the trick, and the Kestrels were able to progress.At irregular intervals, huge spiderwebs were strung across the falls, built to catch any fish (or other unfortunate creatures) that tumbled into them. But the adventurers wisely avoided the spiders that had built these webs, preferring to save their strength for whatever awaited them at the top.After an exhausting climb, the Kestrels reached a sort of observation room where they rested for the night. As they slept, a whispering voice plagued their dreams. It sounded like Tamalruk – no, it was Mayor Waterman – no, it was each dreamer’s father, and he was coming to punish them —All awakened with a start, sweating and shaking. Brogun could barely quiet the voice in his head long enough to prepare his mind for spells, while Otieno kept staring off into the distance. It was clear to everyone that they must find the source of this mental assault before they succumbed.They walked, trancelike, through the rest of their explorations: the passageway lined with lifelike copper statues in poses of horror; the dust-covered laboratory with giant, dragon-sized dissection equipment; the strange stone house with what could only be a handle on its roof; and finally the ramp leading up to a blank wall, behind which rough voices could be heard.Kell practically sleepwalked up the ramp and put his ear to the wall – or would have, had his head not passed through space where the wall should have been. He arrested his near-fall with a start and looked in surprise at what lay beyond the illusion.A huge cave lay spread below him, its floor twenty feet beneath where Kell was perched. In the corner to his right was a cage made of copper, two children enclosed within it: a girl, whimpering, pressed against the back part of the prison, and a boy, his hands tightly gripping the bars and his eyes locked on a scene taking place at the center of the room. Kell followed the boy’s gaze and saw, some sixty feet away, a stone altar upon which another boy lay spread-eagled, his arms and legs held by squat creatures with greyish skin; another creature of the same type, but wearing a golden circlet upon its brow, stood nearby.Looking down on the boy was a figure clad in the sickly green robes and glassy mask of the Cener druids: he held a hammer in one hand and in his other could just be made out a sliver of blue crystal.“Now, boy,” the druid rasped, “your suffering is at an end. Either you will gain The Power, or you will die. Either way, boy, your miserable life will be better.”The Cener carefully positioned the crystal sliver. “Hold him still, you oafs!” he snapped at the creatures beside him. They looked uncertainly at their leader, who scowled and said, “Do as Caligraf commands.”The boy on the altar struggled feebly while the one in the cage nearby began jumping up and down in fear and excitement. Caligraf raised the hammer in one arm even as Kell raised his arm to withdraw an arrow from his quiver, his other hand snatching at his bow. The druid’s arm reached the apex of its preparatory arc at the very instant Kell’s fingers released the straining bowstring....</blockquote>

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