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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 677135" data-attributes="member: 96">Ahoke darts forward, at top speed. "To the closest side tunnel! If we hurry, we can beat it there!"Sen-Jyu follows behind, cradling both eye and side.Harvester stops, then backpedals, turning to follow the dwarf, "Then go! Go already!"Ahoke had never hesitated.The three of you dive into the side tunnel, Harvester's scythe glowing faintly to illuminate your path. Behind you, the dragon turns, its head thrusting into the tunnel behind you, trying vainly to reach you. The remaining eye reflects the light of the scythe, a baleful blue.Ahoke stops running once the group is inside of the side tunnel, breathing heavily. She continues to move, crouched over protectively, ever backwards, away from the thing.Harvester mutters about dragons and rocks, but doesn't stop, though does slow, in attempt to place as much distance between himself and the colossal statue.Sen-Jyu eyes the dragon. "I hope," he says, sounding quite sincere, "that this isn't a dead end."The head weaves back and forth, then thrusts forward violently, as if by savage motion it could widen the tunnel sufficient to pass. A few rocks drop from the ceiling.Ahoke watches the statue, her eyes narrowing worriedly. "Maybe," she says after a moment's hesitation, "It would go away if you gave it its eye back."Sen-Jyu hands Ahoke the eye. "Be my guest," says Sen-Jyu with a smile.Ahoke takes the gem from Sen-Jyu, and rolls it, underhanded, down the corridor. "It can't hurt to try," she mutters.Sen-Jyu shrugs.The dragon hesitates, its one eye watching the other. Then, gingerly, it reaches down with its mouth and picks the gem up, backing away down the corridor.Harvester stops long enough to watch the success or failure of the endeavor, all the while muttering under his breath about darkness and Grues.Ahoke uses her great club to scratch her back, and watches the dragon statue.The sounds of stone on stone recede down the tunnel.Ahoke exhales loudly. "Oh, good." She squints into the darkness suspiciously. "Are you still there?"There is no answer from the darkness.Harvester slowly, cautiously begins to move back towards the main tunnel, his ears pricked to hear any noise.Ahoke wipes some of the sweat from her brow, and then follows Harvester without a word.Sen-Jyu takes up the rear, peeking around the corner curiously just in case Harvester got eaten by an extra stealthy dragon statue.The lone and level tunnel stretches far away before your eyes. Well, for twenty to sixty feet at least, depending on who you are.Harvester stops, and just waits for several long moments, then begins to proceed, just as cautiously, back down the tunnel. "So... how do we find 'em?"Ahoke mmphs, and then sighs, rubbing her temples. "I don't know, now. The owner of that voice knew where to find them, and was going to equip us and help us find it, so that we could kill the thanork for it."Harvester says, "so? Where is he? She? It? Ain't it gonna tell us now?"""Foolsss...you have disssturbed the ssstatue...dessstroyed my home...dessssecrated the ssshrine with your ssstupidity. I do not trussst your ability to wipe your own assssesss, let alone dessstroy the goblinssss!"Ahoke hmms. "Well, we did just deface the statue of its god. So I don't know if it still wants to help us or not." She ers. "What it said."Harvester yells out, "Then you should've told us about the damn statue and shrine! We ain't psychic!!!"The voice hisses: "You ssshould have ssstudied the sccripturess rather than dissmisssing them..."Ahoke says, "Can't read. I have to depend on these guys to decipher things for me." She sighs. "But... if you think that you can defeat the thanork completely on your own, then I suppose you're probably right. Even though they have overwhelming numbers, and are feasting and doing gods know what else to the corpse of your god."Harvester mutters about disembodied voices. "Fine! Don't help us! Then everyone dies and you get left alone with the goblins! Forever!"Sen-Jyu sniffs. "What a vulgar little disembodied voice."The voice comes from farther down the tunnel. "sssurfasse dwellerrsss..." it mutters. "Ssssunlight makess them ssstupid." A noise, as if the owner of the voice was moving off. "If the god wantsss hisss vengeanssse he will need to sssend me competent aid..."A familiar, nauseating stench wafts through the tunnel.Harvester shakes his head and speaks softly, to himself, "And darkness has done the same for you..."Ahoke stares at Harvester, and then Sen-Jyu, and then sets her jaw, turning away with a sigh. "I smell our enemy."Harvester's hands tighten on his scythe."Come then!" the voice callssss, er, calls. "If you are not ssscared. I will work with inferior toolssss if I musst. You have dessstroyed my vengeanssse, ssso you are my only chanssse."Ahoke grins, and heads in the direction of the voice. "The undead are never a good vengeance. Much better to make use of the flawed living."Harvester mutters to himself yet again, "My Lord... I ask that you give me strength... and patience with supercilious, disembodied voices..." He then laughs quietly, "Remember.... these 'inferior tools' defeated your vengeance, and so prove ourselves superior..." He follows after Ahoke.Ahoke whispers, in a stage whisper, to the Harvester, "Maybe we should not taunt the only ally that we have here.""Ssstupid sssky-watching priesst. Sssshould know better than to rob a ssshrine." A figure is momentarily silhouetted by the flames of the bowl as you near the room: korhorrag - stooped and withered, but korhorrag nonetheless. It limps towards one of the carvings, across the room from the statue - the very one Harvester had ignored before. "The ssstoneborn one isss the only one with sssense among you."Sen-Jyu hums quietly behind the pair as he follows, oblivious to the conversation behind held.Ahoke's posture stiffens when she sees the korhorrag standing there, but she restrains herself from reacting beyond that. "How long have the goblins been here?"Harvester shakes his head with a sigh, "Then I apologize for not recognizing this as a shrine, and make an offering of peace..." He pulls out a small pouch, and dumps half a dozen gold - his entire content, into the bowl. "From my Lord, to yours..."Sen-Jyu moves to reclaim his backpack, bow and quiver from the bowl's edge.The dragon stands once again where it was before, both eyes back in their rightful place. They glitter as the gold is offered to it."Weekssss. Three of them. Can you read, sssurfasse-priesst?"Harvester nods slowly, "I can, if the language is one I know...""Then come, read. My eyesss are not what they usssed to be."Ahoke paces, back and forth, watching the korhorrag cautiously. She doesn't say anything for the time being, though, choosing to keep her own counsel.Harvester approaches the Korhorrag and studies the appointed scripture.Assuming no interference with large animate objects, Sen-Jyu secures his backpack, bow and quiver after checking them to ascertain that they are intact.Worship and praise him, for he is a just and true God. Touch him only with thine thoughts, for he shall not be sullied by thy earthly hand. View him only with thine eyes, if ye wish not to face him in judgement alone. His wrath is mighty, and while he descends from the mountaintop to praise, also does he punish the lazy and untrue.The creature stabs accusingly at the graven lines with one withered claw. "Do you know what that /meansss/?" hisses the korhorrag. "It meansss...Do. Not. Touch!" Flecks of spittle fly from its maw as it enunciates the words, and the noxious odor - lessened perhaps by age - billows around him.Ahoke pauses in her pacing. "What's the deal with the shards in the horses' brains? Was that your doing? And the nightmares?"Harvester bows his head to the Korhorrag priest, "My apologies, priest.... for not realizing the sanctity of your god's shrine..." He recoils slightly as the odor wafts about him.The korhorrag shakes his head. "I know nothing of ssshardsss or nightmaresss."Ahoke nods, breathing a sigh of relief. "Well, good. We were getting along so well. I'd hate to see that end."Harvester's hand reaches out to touch a spot on the wall, and then he crouches, lifting something for closer study.Harvester glances up to the priest, as he gathers the glassy shards, "Was there a mirror or something here?"</blockquote>

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