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<blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7494325" data-attributes="member: 143"><p>Chapter 204</p><p></p><p>Glori turned to face the approaching creatures. The first two were now within a hundred feet and closing fast. The other two were steadily narrowing the gap, approaching from an angle that would cut them off if they broke toward the cliffs.</p><p></p><p>Glori strummed her lyre, summoning her magic. She focused on a spot just inside the edge of the forest, close to the line of approach of the nearer creatures. A small group of elves suddenly burst from within the trees, waving their swords and shouting at the shambling mounds.</p><p></p><p>The creatures completely ignored them. The elves moved closer, threatening more aggressively, but the shambling mounds kept trudging forward. One even walked straight through one of them, the illusory outline of Glori’s <em>major image</em> shimmering as the creature passed through it.</p><p></p><p>“Glori!” Kosk shouted.</p><p></p><p>She turned to see that the others, lacking any other viable option, had started to wade across the pool. Loriellan was in the lead, and while the water rose to his chest it did not go any higher as he probed forward. But the clinging muck made it difficult, and to Glori it seemed as though they were crawling though the water.</p><p></p><p>But there was no other choice, short of remaining there for the creatures to reach her. She briefly considered turning <em>invisible</em> and trying to draw them off, but after seeing their reaction to her illusion she was not confident that the cloaking magic would conceal her.</p><p></p><p>Instead she sprang forward into the water, holding her lyre up so the strings would not get soaked. The mud sucked at her boots, nearly pulling her off balance. Even as she fought to remain upright a strong hand seized hold of her and steadied her. She looked up to see Embrae standing there.</p><p></p><p>“Thanks,” she said.</p><p></p><p>“Come on,” the monk urged.</p><p></p><p>Glori followed her. The elf woman seemed to slide through the water, but to Glori it felt like every step was a struggle. At least she was tall enough to remain clear of the surface; she could see Kosk ahead, his head barely clear of the water while his arms sent up great gouts of water as he splashed ahead. The Rangers were doing a bit better, but the far side of the pool still seemed like it was impossibly far away.</p><p></p><p>Glori resisted the urge to look back, but it was impossible to miss the signs of the closing creatures. The surface of the pool began to vibrate, and she could hear the sucking sounds of their massive tread drawing closer. With Embrae half-holding, half-pulling her she stumbled forward.</p><p></p><p>“We’re almost there!” the monk urged. Glori looked up in disbelief, but she saw that the elves were in fact rising up out of the muck, coated in mud and clinging bits of green growth but definitely surging up onto solid ground. They caught up to Kosk and each grabbed hold of an arm, helping to push the dwarf forward toward the shallows. The elves, to their credit, did not rush ahead toward safety. Darethan was plying his bow, firing shaft after shaft toward the pursuing creatures, while Loriellan was adding to the barrage with his smaller hunter’s weapon. Glori could not see that either of them was having an effect, but the display did help boost her morale a bit. Majerion emerged from the clinging mud and shook himself off. Strumming his lyre, he conjured a bit of magical potency that caused the muck to slough off of his body, leaving him looking only slightly mussed.</p><p></p><p>Shreskra and Tenaille turned back to help pull Kosk up out of the water. Glori glanced back to see that the pursuing creatures had reached the far edge of the pool; even as she watched the first took a deep stride forward, the mud and water offering it no difficulty.</p><p></p><p>“Come on, come on!” Shreskra said, but even as Glori pulled herself fully out of the pool Loriellan shouted, “We’re being cut off!”</p><p></p><p>They turned to see that the two flanking creatures had circled wide around the pool, taking them further from the companions for the moment but effectively blocking their route to the cliffs. And behind them, Glori could now see as she stood, was still another sodden mirk, this one tangled with an even denser nest of growth.</p><p></p><p>“We’re better off engaging those two than waiting to be attacked on both sides,” Kosk said. The soaked and miserable-looking dwarf started forward, but Majerion caught his shoulder and held him up. “I might be able to hold them off,” he said. “Follow that shoreline over there!” he commanded.</p><p></p><p>The indicated route would take them close to the slowly-approaching creatures, but lacking a better option they all headed in that direction. The two shambling mounds adjusted their course to cut them off again.</p><p></p><p>Majerion strummed his lyre, the instrument thrumming with strains of power that Glori remembered well. She could almost see the notes as he flung them out from the device, conjuring magic that took on solid form.</p><p></p><p>Once more flames surged up at the elf’s command. They formed a more or less straight line that sliced between several of the pools, the heat causing the water to bubble and steam. Glori flinched as the near edge of the <em>wall of fire</em> approached close enough for her almost to touch, but somehow the heat of it radiated away from them, toward their adversaries.</p><p></p><p>The shambling mounds clearly felt that heat. The two flanking them recoiled instinctively from it, giving the fugitives a brief opportunity to rush past. Once clear they sprinted toward the cliffs.</p><p></p><p>One of the shambling mounds stepped aside into one of the pools as flames licked its upper body. The other sank into the sodden ground.</p><p></p><p>“They’re giving up!” Darethan shouted.</p><p></p><p>“I wouldn’t bet on it!” Kosk yelled back.</p><p></p><p>The dwarf’s warning was proven true a moment later, as the ground on their side of the wall began to bulge upward. The muddy soil split open to reveal an arm formed of woven vines, followed by the rest of the creature. The two that had followed their quarry into the pool had likewise detoured around the edge of the <em>wall of fire</em> and quickly found themselves again on solid ground. But the companions were past them, and soon reached the base of the cliffs, where a twenty-five-foot ascent of crumbling dirt and rocks waited for them.</p><p></p><p>Tenaille did not hesitate; as soon as the Ranger hit the wall she sprang up and began climbing. She had drawn out two of her knives, squat, shovel-shaped blades that bit hard into the surface. At first Loriellan started to follow her, but he managed to get only five feet off the ground before the loose earth gave way and he slid back down to the ground. The others quickly gathered into a perimeter around the limp and choking figure of the Tender, who had collapsed against the base of the cliff.</p><p></p><p>“Can you manage another of those fire-walls?” Kosk asked. All four of the creatures had now bypassed the barrier, though the spell had bought them some distance.</p><p></p><p>“Only once per day, unfortunately,” Majerion said.</p><p></p><p>“I have a few more things I can try,” Glori said. “But I’ll have to wait until they get close.” She looked up and saw that Tenaille had already vanished over the crest of the cliff. She felt a momentary fear that the cloaked enemy had been waiting for her up there, but then a length of rope was cast over the edge, followed a moment later by a second.</p><p></p><p>“Go, go!” Shreskra said, thrusting first Embrae and then Loriellan toward the ropes. The monk hesitated for only a moment before scrambling up the ascent as if it was a flat surface rather than an almost sheer cliff.</p><p></p><p>“Majerion, Glori, you’re next,” the Ranger leader said.</p><p></p><p>“The Tender…” Glori began.</p><p></p><p>“Tie the rope around him if he can’t climb,” Shreskra said. “Around his neck would be fine,” she added in an undertone that Glori just barely picked up.</p><p></p><p>But Majerion had gotten the old man back to his feet, and with only a little prodding he started up the rope. Loriellan got to the top and tossed down a third length of rope, then began to help pull Brightbriar up.</p><p></p><p>“Going to be tight,” Kosk said as Glori grabbed hold of a rope.</p><p></p><p>“I can buy you some time,” she said.</p><p></p><p>“You can do that from up there,” the monk said, pushing her toward the cliff. He stepped forward to join Shreskra, who had drawn her sword as she faced the approaching monster. “You figure on sacrificing yourself here?” he asked her.</p><p></p><p>“I go up when the last of my people is safe,” she said. “What about you?”</p><p></p><p>“I don’t plan on getting killed by some overgrown bush,” the dwarf said.</p><p></p><p>Darethan fired off one last arrow before scrambling up one of the ropes. Shreskra and the dwarf were the only ones left on the ground now as the lead creature closed the distance. As it got close it seemed to be even bigger than it had looked while chasing them, looming well over twice the dwarf’s height.</p><p></p><p>“When I make a move, you go for the ropes,” Kosk said.</p><p></p><p>Shreskra hesitated. The creature stomped forward toward them, one huge “arm” coming up to strike. They could hear the sounds of a lyre being played, but whether it was Majerion’s or Glori’s, it did not appear to have any effect that they could see. A bright flash of a <em>radiant sun bolt</em> from Embrae struck the thing high in the chest. The searing energy blasted a black swath into its body, but the thing didn’t even flinch, sweeping its arm down toward the pair standing in defiance in front of it.</p><p></p><p>“Now!” the dwarf said.</p><p></p><p>Shreskra darted back, just barely escaping the creature’s unnaturally long reach. Kosk, by contrast, leapt <em>over</em> the arm, kicking off it as it passed and leaping toward its head. A seam opened there to reveal a waiting maw, filled with hard ridges and rotting foulness, but the dwarf shifted in mid-leap and landed on its shoulder. He fell into a crouch and then, with a sharp yell, unleashed his <em>ki</em> into a mighty leap that carried him across the twenty feet that separated him from the cliff. The jump wasn’t nearly enough to carry him to the top, but as he landed Tenaille flicked one of the loose ropes, snapping it close enough for him to grab hold of it. He quickly pulled himself up.</p><p></p><p>The shambling mound, frustrated by the sudden disappearance of its adversary, lunged forward to smash the climbing Shreskra against the rocks. But before it could strike, Majerion stepped forward and planted his foot against a boulder embedded near the top of the cliff. Strumming his lyre, the mass of rock shifted and gave way, tumbling over the edge. It narrowly missed the climbing elf woman and slammed hard into the creature’s face. The impact knocked the thing back a step, long enough for the Ranger leader to escape its reach. Loriellan leaned over to grab her arm and pull her up over the edge.</p><p></p><p>“If those things… can climb…” she gasped, “then this will be a very temporary escape.”</p><p></p><p>At that Glori couldn’t help but lean over the edge to take a look. A second shambler had joined the first, but both were just standing there. The other two had slowed in their approach.</p><p></p><p>“I think we’re okay,” she said. “They’re not doing anything. But we shouldn’t stay here, just in case.”</p><p></p><p>“What about that caster?” Kosk asked.</p><p></p><p>They all looked around, but there was no sign of the robed figure. The ground ahead of them sloped up slightly until the forest resumed with the same dense landscape of the Reserve with which they were familiar. That expanse could have held anything, but at the moment it was preferable to what lay behind them.</p><p></p><p>“Is everyone all right?” Shreskra asked. They had all gotten away with only scrapes and bruises, and after scraping away as much of the clinging mud and muck that they could, they stumbled to their feet and continued their march forward.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lazybones, post: 7494325, member: 143"] Chapter 204 Glori turned to face the approaching creatures. The first two were now within a hundred feet and closing fast. The other two were steadily narrowing the gap, approaching from an angle that would cut them off if they broke toward the cliffs. Glori strummed her lyre, summoning her magic. She focused on a spot just inside the edge of the forest, close to the line of approach of the nearer creatures. A small group of elves suddenly burst from within the trees, waving their swords and shouting at the shambling mounds. The creatures completely ignored them. The elves moved closer, threatening more aggressively, but the shambling mounds kept trudging forward. One even walked straight through one of them, the illusory outline of Glori’s [i]major image[/i] shimmering as the creature passed through it. “Glori!” Kosk shouted. She turned to see that the others, lacking any other viable option, had started to wade across the pool. Loriellan was in the lead, and while the water rose to his chest it did not go any higher as he probed forward. But the clinging muck made it difficult, and to Glori it seemed as though they were crawling though the water. But there was no other choice, short of remaining there for the creatures to reach her. She briefly considered turning [i]invisible[/i] and trying to draw them off, but after seeing their reaction to her illusion she was not confident that the cloaking magic would conceal her. Instead she sprang forward into the water, holding her lyre up so the strings would not get soaked. The mud sucked at her boots, nearly pulling her off balance. Even as she fought to remain upright a strong hand seized hold of her and steadied her. She looked up to see Embrae standing there. “Thanks,” she said. “Come on,” the monk urged. Glori followed her. The elf woman seemed to slide through the water, but to Glori it felt like every step was a struggle. At least she was tall enough to remain clear of the surface; she could see Kosk ahead, his head barely clear of the water while his arms sent up great gouts of water as he splashed ahead. The Rangers were doing a bit better, but the far side of the pool still seemed like it was impossibly far away. Glori resisted the urge to look back, but it was impossible to miss the signs of the closing creatures. The surface of the pool began to vibrate, and she could hear the sucking sounds of their massive tread drawing closer. With Embrae half-holding, half-pulling her she stumbled forward. “We’re almost there!” the monk urged. Glori looked up in disbelief, but she saw that the elves were in fact rising up out of the muck, coated in mud and clinging bits of green growth but definitely surging up onto solid ground. They caught up to Kosk and each grabbed hold of an arm, helping to push the dwarf forward toward the shallows. The elves, to their credit, did not rush ahead toward safety. Darethan was plying his bow, firing shaft after shaft toward the pursuing creatures, while Loriellan was adding to the barrage with his smaller hunter’s weapon. Glori could not see that either of them was having an effect, but the display did help boost her morale a bit. Majerion emerged from the clinging mud and shook himself off. Strumming his lyre, he conjured a bit of magical potency that caused the muck to slough off of his body, leaving him looking only slightly mussed. Shreskra and Tenaille turned back to help pull Kosk up out of the water. Glori glanced back to see that the pursuing creatures had reached the far edge of the pool; even as she watched the first took a deep stride forward, the mud and water offering it no difficulty. “Come on, come on!” Shreskra said, but even as Glori pulled herself fully out of the pool Loriellan shouted, “We’re being cut off!” They turned to see that the two flanking creatures had circled wide around the pool, taking them further from the companions for the moment but effectively blocking their route to the cliffs. And behind them, Glori could now see as she stood, was still another sodden mirk, this one tangled with an even denser nest of growth. “We’re better off engaging those two than waiting to be attacked on both sides,” Kosk said. The soaked and miserable-looking dwarf started forward, but Majerion caught his shoulder and held him up. “I might be able to hold them off,” he said. “Follow that shoreline over there!” he commanded. The indicated route would take them close to the slowly-approaching creatures, but lacking a better option they all headed in that direction. The two shambling mounds adjusted their course to cut them off again. Majerion strummed his lyre, the instrument thrumming with strains of power that Glori remembered well. She could almost see the notes as he flung them out from the device, conjuring magic that took on solid form. Once more flames surged up at the elf’s command. They formed a more or less straight line that sliced between several of the pools, the heat causing the water to bubble and steam. Glori flinched as the near edge of the [i]wall of fire[/i] approached close enough for her almost to touch, but somehow the heat of it radiated away from them, toward their adversaries. The shambling mounds clearly felt that heat. The two flanking them recoiled instinctively from it, giving the fugitives a brief opportunity to rush past. Once clear they sprinted toward the cliffs. One of the shambling mounds stepped aside into one of the pools as flames licked its upper body. The other sank into the sodden ground. “They’re giving up!” Darethan shouted. “I wouldn’t bet on it!” Kosk yelled back. The dwarf’s warning was proven true a moment later, as the ground on their side of the wall began to bulge upward. The muddy soil split open to reveal an arm formed of woven vines, followed by the rest of the creature. The two that had followed their quarry into the pool had likewise detoured around the edge of the [i]wall of fire[/i] and quickly found themselves again on solid ground. But the companions were past them, and soon reached the base of the cliffs, where a twenty-five-foot ascent of crumbling dirt and rocks waited for them. Tenaille did not hesitate; as soon as the Ranger hit the wall she sprang up and began climbing. She had drawn out two of her knives, squat, shovel-shaped blades that bit hard into the surface. At first Loriellan started to follow her, but he managed to get only five feet off the ground before the loose earth gave way and he slid back down to the ground. The others quickly gathered into a perimeter around the limp and choking figure of the Tender, who had collapsed against the base of the cliff. “Can you manage another of those fire-walls?” Kosk asked. All four of the creatures had now bypassed the barrier, though the spell had bought them some distance. “Only once per day, unfortunately,” Majerion said. “I have a few more things I can try,” Glori said. “But I’ll have to wait until they get close.” She looked up and saw that Tenaille had already vanished over the crest of the cliff. She felt a momentary fear that the cloaked enemy had been waiting for her up there, but then a length of rope was cast over the edge, followed a moment later by a second. “Go, go!” Shreskra said, thrusting first Embrae and then Loriellan toward the ropes. The monk hesitated for only a moment before scrambling up the ascent as if it was a flat surface rather than an almost sheer cliff. “Majerion, Glori, you’re next,” the Ranger leader said. “The Tender…” Glori began. “Tie the rope around him if he can’t climb,” Shreskra said. “Around his neck would be fine,” she added in an undertone that Glori just barely picked up. But Majerion had gotten the old man back to his feet, and with only a little prodding he started up the rope. Loriellan got to the top and tossed down a third length of rope, then began to help pull Brightbriar up. “Going to be tight,” Kosk said as Glori grabbed hold of a rope. “I can buy you some time,” she said. “You can do that from up there,” the monk said, pushing her toward the cliff. He stepped forward to join Shreskra, who had drawn her sword as she faced the approaching monster. “You figure on sacrificing yourself here?” he asked her. “I go up when the last of my people is safe,” she said. “What about you?” “I don’t plan on getting killed by some overgrown bush,” the dwarf said. Darethan fired off one last arrow before scrambling up one of the ropes. Shreskra and the dwarf were the only ones left on the ground now as the lead creature closed the distance. As it got close it seemed to be even bigger than it had looked while chasing them, looming well over twice the dwarf’s height. “When I make a move, you go for the ropes,” Kosk said. Shreskra hesitated. The creature stomped forward toward them, one huge “arm” coming up to strike. They could hear the sounds of a lyre being played, but whether it was Majerion’s or Glori’s, it did not appear to have any effect that they could see. A bright flash of a [i]radiant sun bolt[/i] from Embrae struck the thing high in the chest. The searing energy blasted a black swath into its body, but the thing didn’t even flinch, sweeping its arm down toward the pair standing in defiance in front of it. “Now!” the dwarf said. Shreskra darted back, just barely escaping the creature’s unnaturally long reach. Kosk, by contrast, leapt [i]over[/i] the arm, kicking off it as it passed and leaping toward its head. A seam opened there to reveal a waiting maw, filled with hard ridges and rotting foulness, but the dwarf shifted in mid-leap and landed on its shoulder. He fell into a crouch and then, with a sharp yell, unleashed his [i]ki[/i] into a mighty leap that carried him across the twenty feet that separated him from the cliff. The jump wasn’t nearly enough to carry him to the top, but as he landed Tenaille flicked one of the loose ropes, snapping it close enough for him to grab hold of it. He quickly pulled himself up. The shambling mound, frustrated by the sudden disappearance of its adversary, lunged forward to smash the climbing Shreskra against the rocks. But before it could strike, Majerion stepped forward and planted his foot against a boulder embedded near the top of the cliff. Strumming his lyre, the mass of rock shifted and gave way, tumbling over the edge. It narrowly missed the climbing elf woman and slammed hard into the creature’s face. The impact knocked the thing back a step, long enough for the Ranger leader to escape its reach. Loriellan leaned over to grab her arm and pull her up over the edge. “If those things… can climb…” she gasped, “then this will be a very temporary escape.” At that Glori couldn’t help but lean over the edge to take a look. A second shambler had joined the first, but both were just standing there. The other two had slowed in their approach. “I think we’re okay,” she said. “They’re not doing anything. But we shouldn’t stay here, just in case.” “What about that caster?” Kosk asked. They all looked around, but there was no sign of the robed figure. The ground ahead of them sloped up slightly until the forest resumed with the same dense landscape of the Reserve with which they were familiar. That expanse could have held anything, but at the moment it was preferable to what lay behind them. “Is everyone all right?” Shreskra asked. They had all gotten away with only scrapes and bruises, and after scraping away as much of the clinging mud and muck that they could, they stumbled to their feet and continued their march forward. [/QUOTE]
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