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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Droid101" data-source="post: 1789861" data-attributes="member: 942">“TEMPUS!!” Blaze yells out and grabs onto the iron bars.  His armor squeals and creaks as his already muscular form grows even stronger.  He swells up and rips the barred door off its hinges, tossing it out into the hallway.  Two armed hobgoblins come running, shouting orders and obsceneties.Grog charges, diving low at one of them, taking out its legs and knocking it to the ground.  Eltharion runs out, spins, and slashes his flaming scimitar into the other one, drawing a line of blood and seared flesh.  Two more hobgoblins run out from down the hall, and they are met with a clothesline-forearm from Jezda.  Blaze charges at one of them and slams a fist into its face, sending it flying back at least five feet from the powerful blow, knocking it into the wall and spiraling into unconsciousness.Bink fires a volley of magic missiles, taking out another one.  Eltharion finishes up the remaining ones, and soon everything is quiet.  They drag the bodies into their cell, and Blaze puts the iron barred door back up, leaning it in place.“Well, you didn’t really need us after all, did you?” Bink asks.“Sure, we could get out of the cage.  But what then?  Run upstairs and deal with 40 giants?  Not likely,” Blaze explains.  Bink nods in agreement.“Wait, let’s not leave yet, we can kill some giants, then escape,” Eltharion says as Grog, Jezda and Blaze get their weapons from the storage closet nearby.  Blaze hefts a mighty battle axe.  Jezda gets his greatsword and halberd.  Grog finds his finely crafted katana.“Yeah, we should help as much as we can before heading back.  I’ve got a bunch of spells ready to go…” Bink adds.“Do you know where The Necromancer and Trek are?” Eltharion asks Grog and Jezda.“They’re not here.  We were captured and then separated.  I overheard them say that the ‘humans’ were going to be taken to a different location for questioning,” Grog explains.“Dammit… well, we’ll kill some giants, then head back and have Adlai scry for them,” Eltharion says.  He begins to lead them out into the hallway.The passage is very tall once they get out of the jail.  Several different paths are before them, but they don’t have time to make a decision.  They hear a low whistle coming from a pile of rubble.  Eltharion approaches.“Hello?” Eltharion looks around the pile, and an orc steps out from behind a rock.  Eltharion’s blades go up instinctively, but the orc shows his bare hands.“Peace, elf, come this way,” the orc leads them behind the rock and into a small crawl space.  Blaze has trouble fitting, but squeezes his armor through (with ample scratching and squealing).  They emerge in a very rough underground area.  Natural cave works, stalactites and stalagmites.  Many orcs litter this area, sharpening weapons, sleeping, caring for young, and a myriad of other activities.“Woah, what are all of you doing here, living in a giant stronghold?” Blaze asks, bewildered.“We have taken up refuge here, fighting the good fight against those damned giants,” the orc responds.  His chain armor is torn and old.“Wow, there is a whole tunnel complex here,” Eltharion looks past the orcs to the tunnels beyond.“Yes, underground river, strange haunted temple, unexplored tunnels…” the orc starts.“You said, ‘haunted temple,’ right?  Where is it?” Eltharion asks, a look of glee on his face.“I can show you where it is, but we never go in there,” the orc says, pointing off to one of the tunnels.“I’ll be right back, you guys talk to orcs and find out where we can attack some giants,” Eltharion says as he jogs off toward the haunted temple.“Is he always like that?” Blaze asks.“Yeah, he’s like, greedy to see what he can find, but he never really wants to keep any of it.  A little strange,” Grog says.“He’d make a good thief,” Jezda adds.Eltharion trails down the tunnel and sees a pile of rubble dead end, and to the right of it a small passage.  Right away he can feel negative energy pouring out of the hallway.  He grits his teeth and heads inside.  Strange carvings line the walls, and a small altar is in the center of the room.  Atop it is a small bag, covered in dust.“Hey, what are you doing?” Blaze’s voice came from behind Eltharion as he opened up the small sack.  He produced a shiny black scarab.“Wow, take a look at this thing,” just as he finishes saying that, the scarab animates; hopping out of his hand and burrowing straight into his chest, too quickly for him to react.  After a gurgle and a spray of blood, Eltharion lay dead; his heart eaten out entirely.“By Tempus…” Blaze approached Eltharion.  He picked up his body and carried him back to the orc camp.  He set the body down and began to pray.  Fifteen minutes later he cast raise dead and brought Eltharion back.  After digging out the scarab and putting it into a wooden jar, of course.“Wh, what happened?” Eltharion asked, his chest throbbing in pain.“That thing you picked up just chewed you up,” Blaze cast cure serious wounds and Eltharion felt much better.  Blaze held up the jar with the scarab in it, shaking it around.“Hm, I’ll hold onto that, just in case we run across someone we don’t like,” Eltharion put the jar into his bags.“All right already, are we going to kill some giants or what?” Bink asks, getting impatient.“Go down back the way you came, and there are some giants working the passage.  You should be able to hear them from the hallway,” the orc explains.  “We wish you well.”“Thanks,” Bink says, and the five of them head back out into the hallway.Grog grips his oversized katana, looking around tentatively.  Eltharion sneaks from wall to wall, though, his flaming scimitar keeps him from being able to hide.  Jezda follow and Blaze does too.  Bink strolls out unconcerned.  They round the corner and see three 18 foot tall men with grey skin, sitting around in a circle, playing cards of some kind.  The giants don’t notice the Heroes.  The Heroes take advantage.Grog flies into a furious rage; spittle flying and eyes bloodshot; into one of the giants.  He slams his katana into the giant’s back, drawing a loud yell.  Jezda similarly charges in, swinging his greatsword with a masterful stroke, and slices into the same giant.  Eltharion runs in as well, slashing the giant with his sylvan scimitar.  Blaze comes in last, charging a different giant.  He swells up; his armor squeaking and squealing.“TEMPUS!!” Blaze’s axe crashes into the giant with an thundering snap.  It must have broken two or three of the giant’s ribs, and the giant collapsed, his heavy breathing slowing as the blood poured from the very mortal wound.Bink’s, and everyone else’s, eyes went wide at the power behind this man’s axe.  He regained his composure, cast haste and then shot a lightning bolt at the already injured giant.  It scorched him, though he was able to duck out of the way somewhat.Two of the giants stood up.  The one next to Eltharion, Grog and Jezda withdrew a few feet, setting himself.  The other one lashed out with a stone club, striking Grog on the head.  Grog saw stars, but the rage in his eyes was enough to overcome them.  The giant on the ground, one hand clutching the terrible wound, kicked Blaze in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.Blaze chopped down two more times, hacking into the giant’s stomach and then neck, practically severing its head.  Eltharion charged at the remaining two, and took two club-hits for his trouble.  He was staggered severely, and barely got up to the giant to swing his sword.Grog and Jezda faced similar hits as they charged, both taking rough club hits before striking the injured giant.Bink flew into position and fired off two lightning bolts in a way to hit both of them with each.  They both dodged well enough, and were still standing after substantial burns.Blaze charged in, and took two devastating club hits.  One to his chest knocked the wind out of him again, and the other to the head knocked him unconscious.Both giants moved back away from the Heroes, staying side by side.Grog ran in again, taking another two hits.  He was barely able to stay standing; only the adrenaline from his rage pumping the blood through his veins.  He jumped and with an overhead slash, cut the injured giant down, spilling its entrails all over Grog.  He didn’t seem to care.Eltharion and Jezda charged the last giant, slashing it violently.  Both of them dodged the club hits, and both of them scored deep slashes against the thing’s legs.  Bink finished it off with ten magic missiles.  Eltharion and Bink healed Grog and Blaze respectively, making sure they were both okay.“Okay, gather around,” Bink took out his staff of size alteration and shrunk everyone in the party, so that he could teleport them all more easily.  In a flash, they were back in castle Brunswick’s laboratory.Off to the lich’s lair!  If he is a magic item collector, how many magic items does he have?  How much can the Heroes plunder?  This and more, next time!</blockquote>

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