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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Droid101" data-source="post: 1757448" data-attributes="member: 942">They continue wearily down the tunnel.  All of their healing magic has been expended, and everyone looks tired.  Spirits are wearing thin.“Should we stop to rest?” Eltharion asks, many make-shift bandages covering several wounds.“I don’t know…” Bink starts.“Whoever is watching us may get the jump on us if we stop.  We should keep going.” Ogrim reasons.  Nobody disagrees, but nobody is thrilled either.“My feet hurt,” this is the first complaint they’ve ever heard Grog make; even when his entrails were hanging out from the vicious claws of the spider-demon, he didn’t make a peep.“We can’t keep running into stuff.  Eventually we’re going to go down…” Jezda explains.“We have no choice friend.  Let’s just watch each other’s backs, and move on,” Bink says, drawing a bit of a smile from everyone.They continue down the tunnel.  The corridor seems more and more squared off here; worked, perhaps?  They pay little heed, pressing on, not wanting to stop to let anything sneak up on them or get a good read on them.  The nagging feeling of someone watching them via magical means remains.A shower of rock from above splits up the party.  A huge beast thumps down in between the Heroes, slamming a huge fist into Eltharion’s head.  Eltharion sees stars, but shakes it off quickly.A large (wide) insect-like creature stands before them, on two legs, having burrowed out of the ceiling and surprise attacking them.  Eltharion quickly staggers back away from the creature, taking a few steps down the passage to relative safety.  He doesn’t find it.Another one of these creatures smashes out of a wall, blocking off Eltharion’s path.  Eltharion draws his twin scimitars and advances.  Grog and Jezda are behind the first one, and both slash into it with their blades.  Ogrim is on the other side of it, and he blocks it from moving with his shield.  Bink stands in between Ogrim and Eltharion, and another insect creature is on the other side of Eltharion.  Bink blasts it with his last lightning bolt.The creatures then attack.  Seeing the largest foe near it, the first one attacks Jezda with a lethal combination.  Its eyes dance in Jezda’s head, who becomes even more confused than normal.  Two fists slam hard into his chest and face, and he finds himself slipping into unconsciousness.  He hits the ground with a loud clank.  Right after he falls, a blue light surrounds him, much like the one that had surrounded Ogrim before.  But being unconscious, he couldn’t resist, and Jezda’s form disappeared from view.“Damn you drow, give back our… cheesecake?” Eltharion’s statement is jumbled as he catches a glimpse of the insect creature’s eyes, becoming confused at the sight.  The hulking insect takes the opportunity to pummel Eltharion, who dodges meekly, but takes another heavy fist to the gut.  He feels his world spinning.Ogrim grits his teeth and slams into the first creature with a hard-pressed axe combination, splintering chitin with each blow.  Grog takes the opportunity to finish that one; distracted by the dwarf’s axe, Grog spins his katana over his head, his eyes filling with blood and his muscles expanding, he chops down, cracking through exoskeleton and brain matter.  The insect collapses.  Bink shoots off a set of magic missiles at the insect fighting Eltharion.  It is weakened considerably from the bolt and missiles, but stays standing.It takes one final punch to send Eltharion to the ground; a hit to the head spills blood over his face, and he collapses in a heap.  It takes a few quick steps to engage Bink.  The blue light surrounds Eltharion, and his body vanishes.“You bastards!  Kickin’ us while we’re down!” Ogrim grunts, pushes Bink out of the way and engages the insect-creature.  Two quick swipes of the axe, and it staggered to it’s knees.  Bink delivered the finishing blow with his trusty falchion.  Grog stabbed it again for good measure.“So, someone is kidnapping us while we can’t resist their spell…” Bink surmises, feeling around the locations where Jezda and Eltharion disappeared.  “They tried it on you, Ogrim, while you were still awake, but it didn’t work.  I guess it’s easier to affect someone who can’t really think.”“When I find who did this, they’re gonna pay,” Ogrim sums it up.  Grog nods in agreement.  Ogrim says a quick prayer to Moradin, and the party continues on down the tunnel.  A few minutes more, and the passage seems to split off in three directions.  They go straight, and see that it splits again.“Looks very formulaic, like someone dug a bunch of cris-crossing tunnels.  Strange.” Bink surmises.They decide to just walk straight, ignoring all the passages leading left and right.  Grog runs down a passage to the right while Ogrim and Bink continue forward.  Grog emerges from the next right-offshoot.“They’re all connected.” Grog states.  Everyone readies their weapons.“This is just too strange.  And I can still feel someone watching us…” Bink says, gripping his falchion; his knuckles turning white from the tension.After a minute, they come to a statue.  It is a large statue of a half-man, half-spider type creature.  It is extremely finely crafted, a look of fear on the creature’s face.“A drider.  Been turned to stone, aint nobody carves this good,” Ogrim states, and nobody disagrees.  They look around, a bit more tense.After another few seconds of walking, they see another two statues.  They are two elves, one is looking menacing with a sword, and the other one is turning away, almost as if it were running.  The detail, again, is extremely fine.“Be on your guard.  If you hear anything, close your eyes,” Bink states, his blinding energy falchion providing a little light.A few more steps… another statue set.  Looks like two dwarves.  One is pointing at something, the other is kneeling by the wall, digging with a pick-axe.  A few more steps, and they see a fairly large lizard-like creature, with eight legs that has been turned to stone.“Um, if I’m not mistaken, that’s a basilisk.  Which turns things to stone,” Bink looks puzzled.  “Why is it made out of stone?”  The sound of hooves is heard in the distance.  The cris-crossing tunnels make it impossible to determine the direction it is coming from.“Get against the wall!” Bink yells, and they take up a defensive position, ready to surround whatever comes near them.  They all close their eyes.The hooves get closer and closer, and finally they hear them round the closest corner.  Grog jumps at the sound swiping his katana blindly.  He strikes the stone wall.  Ogrim steps toward the sound too, chopping down with his axe.  He hits something that gives a little, almost a clang of metal on metal, but then the tearing of flesh is felt.Bink steps in and swipes, but misses entirely.  They hear the thing breath in deeply, and then exhale.  A strange smelling air passes over them.Grog’s muscles bulge and he yells out.  With his eyes still clamped shut, he swings vigorously at the creature.  One of his swings connects, ripping into the things flesh.  A guttural grunt emits from the thing.  Ogrim chops again, missing his mark entirely.Another deep breath, and another exhale.  The air smells strangely sweet, almost inviting.Ogrim grits his teeth and opens his eyes.  He sees a statue of Bink next to him with a blue light surrounding it.  Quickly it winks out of existence.  A statue of Grog is nearby also.  A big, metallic, bull-like creature stands before him, with two glowing green eyes, and two fairly large wounds already present in its flank.“By the Hand of Moradin, you shall be struck down!” Ogrim raises his axe and chops down hard; almost too hard.  It embeds in the thing’s head.  It takes some effort to pull it out.  The bull-creature collapses.The statue of Grog is surrounded by the blue light shortly after.  Ogrim drops his axe and grabs onto the statue, holding on tight.“Yer not takin all of ‘em!” Ogrim holds tight, but the statue vanishes from his grasp.He sits down next to the wall and puts away his weapon.  He delivers a kick to the metal bull from his sitting position.  He can still feel the scrying eyes, prying from a distant location.“Come and get me!  And when I appear, ye’ll get an axe in the gut fer yer trouble!” Ogrim stands, axe and shield ready.  A blue light surrounds him… and his world is twisted in two…What horror awaits Ogrim, alone, axe and shield ready?  Can he alone fight off the hordes of evil that await him?  Are there enough dwarven curses for his current predicament!? (Probably.)  All this, and more; next time!</blockquote>

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