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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sparky" data-source="post: 4661729" data-attributes="member: 13681">KrikThe scent is heavy and musky and grows sharply stronger as you near. It is unmistakeably the odor of kruthik. By density and pungence, they are afraid.  It is strange to find them here, the Naeduri regularly sent Balash hunters into the wild caverns, tasked with killing and collecting kruthik so that the death-scent of their bodies could be used to ward the lower entrances to the city. A sudden chittering errupts from several directions and, as one, several kruthik hatchlings scurry into view, their forelegs raised in a show of wary agression.  Their chittering is punctuated by a miserable groan. A dwarf lies amidst the scrubby vines and sun shards... and kruthik.  OOC: <a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3qFFPe_Psl7x8yf3Er_SLQ" target="_blank">Map</a> split out.  BellerosThe field is strange, subtle and nuanced. And very, very powerful. You sense a thread of sun magic, warm and nurturing, it is almost plain enough to grasp and then it's gone, lost in the thrumming energies. There is also a slight wobbling to the field, a barely perceptible pulsing, strangely reminiscent of the field around lodestones. As you approach the figures, you see a young dwarf woman struggling to pull another dwarf, an old man, out from under a large shard of sun stone. Her face is bloody, bleeding, and her hands slick with blood. Her grip on the old man slips and she falls back onto the rocks, sobbing. She scrambles to her feet when she sees and hears you, "Help, please, he's stuck!" It's true, he's stuck. There's not a lot of blood on him, except for his arms where the young woman was holding him. So it seems he's merely pinned, not crushed. He is dazed and only half-coherent, his breathing a hollow wheezing.  The shard he's pinned under is broken into several large pieces that didn't entirely separate on impact. One of the pieces shifts suddenly, strangely. Behind you the dwarves from your crew have reached the edge of the field and you hear one of them gasp with the heat.OOC: <a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3qFFPe_Psl53wHB3xztiDg" target="_blank">Map</a> split out.  HeskrashYou kneel carefully next to Zlatan and feel the other dwarves coming close as well. Zlatan feels your hands and gropes to take yours, crushing it. His small hand is surprisingly strong. His other hand finds the shard standing from his chest and he blinks in confusion. Wallack kneels awkwardly and says, "Yer a paladin, heal i'm." He raises his voice, seeming to think Zlatan's hearing has been hampered as well. "Hear that, Apprentice? The paladin's going ta heal ya." "Cor, Wallack, the paladin's struck blind too!" The other dwarf puts his hand on your shoulder, "Can we help?"  OOC: <a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3qFFPe_Psl6QiyR5o3fYKQ" target="_blank">Map</a> split out.  Mask The damaged floodgate is too far to reach quickly. You have to stop about halfway there to have a hope of acting in time. The half-way mark is a raised and low-walled structure that houses levers with dwarven runes incised onto metal plates near them. That distraction dismissed, you hastily summon a Mage Hand. It carries the sticky contents of the parcel and with remote direction the shimmering hand gloms up the ominously creaking fissure. The people on the bridge struggle across, their safe passage secured by quick wit married to quick action. They clear the bridge as the wounded human collapses in a clanking heap. They look over to you and wave you closer, calling out in the blunt dwarvish tongue. One, a matronly human with pale eyes, squints at you and gasps. Her eyes widen further and she points over your shoulder. With a hiss, water jets around the sticky mass. The floodgate suddenly succumbs to the damage, water and stone impact the shimmering hand with force enough to dissipate the energies. Water floods uncontrolled into the channel, swamping the bridge. The water overflows the channel confines and the edges of the wash reach the huddled group.  The woman starts as the water seeps into her clothes and she looks at it, realization dawning. She looks up at you gratefully.  OOC: <a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3qFFPe_Psl7g9j7uX90qcg" target="_blank">Map</a> split out.</blockquote>

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