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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Ice, Luck and Honour
- Thread starter Spider_Jerusalem
- Start date
Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
I'd lend you my goggles of speed reading +3, but Cormyr charge abyssal postage fees...
The next installment (Duel of Shadows), will be finished in about 2 days time (and then maybe another day for editing)... hope you can catch up in time.
I'm trying to keep a regular chapter posting about once every 3 or 4 days... shout at me if this is too much.
Spider
johnnygolastly
First Post
Spider_Jerusalem said:
(shouts): THIS ISNT ENOUGH, MORE, TYPE MORE, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.........BOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!
Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
[Spider looks up from his writing, and seeing a snarling person shouting at him to write faster, waves a hand in the air and speaks an arcane verse.
With a dull ripple around johnnygolastly's head, all is silence (targeted - DC unimaginable). Spider gets back to writing.]
2 days then
With a dull ripple around johnnygolastly's head, all is silence (targeted - DC unimaginable). Spider gets back to writing.]
2 days then
Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
If you checked on this post and were looking for an update, I'm sorry, chapter 6 has taken a little longer to write than I thought (primarily because today I DM'd the latest Fire, Fate and Shadow chapter and planning that has taken some time).
The next account will be on these boards by tomorrow.
The next account will be on these boards by tomorrow.
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freedoms_edge
First Post
Keep trying Spider......
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Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
Edit: Before you read this, chapter six consists of four parts because it was way too long as one post. So grab yourself a coffee and set aside half an hour, there's a lot to read! And now, without further ado...
[Edit]Edited into past tense on 19th September 2004[Edit]
Ice, Luck and Honour
Chapter 6: A Duel of Shadows
Part 1 of 4
Early to Middle Winter, Realms Date 1372
…The dragon’s mouth pulled back in a ripple of muscles, revealing a deadly fanged smirk as Zalaznir stepped out of the tower. Titling his head back to look Klauth eye to eye, Zalaznir shouted out with not a trace of fear,
“Klauth, I come here to destroy you. I, and my new found companions challenge you.”
Zalaznir stuck his thumb over his shoulder, pointing to where Torious stood with his mouth hanging open…
- - - - - - - - - -
Klauth watched the man strut out of the tower and shout his absurd challenge. Curling his mouth into a razor sharp snarl, Klauth laughed. The tower shuddered, sending a small shower of mortar to the sand below. With merely a step forward, Klauth planted his right claw onto the armoured man, folding the upraised longsword onto itself as the man desperately struck upwards, screaming this and that to Lathander.
Klauth grinned, shrill screams vibrating up through his body as the man was pressed further into the sand. A dull, wet snap buckled the right leg of Zalaznir into two as Klauth shifted his weight forwards.
The man under his foot continued hollering in pain as Klauth watched a second man, this one with blond hair and a broken chainmail shirt spattered with blood, advance slowly forwards from the shadows of the tower doorway. In a steady voice, belying his fear, the man begins to speak.
“Dragon. Free that man, he is no threat to you.”
Thinking for a moment, Klauth responded, "No."
The man standing before him wavered, then placed a foot behind him to steady himself from falling.
“Dragon. I am aasimar, descendant of Tyr the even handed and slayer of…”
"I know what you are. But it seems you are trying to prove that to yourself, despite all you know." said Klauth with a wicked smile.
With a heavy sucking sound, Klauth moved his foot out of the fresh crater to reveal Zalaznir underneath. The man screamed as he leaned forwards to hold his crushed leg, but is flung back down as Klauth balanced a single talon over the man, holding him down once again. Zalaznir screamed at the aasimar,
“Help me. Oh Lathander please, no. Help me!” his hand stretched towards Torious.
"Aasimar, here is your choice." Klauth said evenly, coming to a decision. "Either this man dies, or you die. It is up to you, you can be his saviour or your own."
- - - - - - - - - -
Dariel’s wings beat once, spinning himself about on the tower floor. Thalin, shaking violently, and with great effort, dropped his body sideways so that he could no longer see the great red out of the tower door. Immediately, the blinding white fear shuddered out of him and was replaced by a twisting pain to escape. Picking Dariel up, as he began to flutter to consciousness, Thalin pushed the fear stricken Milo sideways with the butt of Erifeci. Milo shivered as he fell, and still unable to speak through fear, crouched into the shadowed corner of the tower, stroking Isplit like a child’s doll.
Thalin quickly began to think rationally again, mentally cursing himself for being so weak in the moments when his strength was needed most. Looking around the tower, and being anxious not to stray into view of the dragon, kept to the shadowed edge. Well aware of dragons hunting abilities, particularly hearing and sight, Thalin motioned towards Milo to stay where he was. Looking for something to escape by, Thalin carefully lifted a crate, making sure not to make a sound and placed it to one side. Looking back at the empty space, Thalin shuddered with relief as the wooden slats of a trapdoor were revealed. Now wishing that he had learnt his spell of soundlessness, Thalin lifted the iron handle of the trapdoor and began to lift.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle sprinted back down the tunnel, his boots thudding on the stone flagstones as he ran. Looking back, the sword spider leapt from the web and landed with only a patter of taps as its legs touched the ground. Leaping forwards, Lyle dived into the dwarven sleeping quarters and spinning quickly, threw his weight into the door to close it. With only inches to go, a chitinous sabre slid into the crack, holding the door open. The soft scraping of the spiders legs sliding over stone as it began to push made Lyle quickly alter his course of action. Rolling onto his side, and roaring in pain as he used his stump to push against the door, Lyle withdrew his shortsword and drove it into the flailing spider leg. The leg disappeared, scraping back through the gap in the door which was quickly slammed and locked by Lyle, who sat back against the door and began to think if his revenge was really worth all this.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Take my life.” said Torious. The words are said quicker than any other creature the dragon had faced with the same choice.
Klauth, already having decided his course of action to either answer, snaked his head down and ripped Zalaznir's head from his body. With the flailing torso in his maw, Klauth swung his head leisurely to the side, sending half of the dead man sailing across the lake and into the cliff face with a damp thud. On their ledges of grass, the watching aarakocras screeched in unison and dove to gather what remains they could.
As the legs of the man twitched violently, Klauth began to speak before the aasimar could react.
"You talk of sacrifice, but you do not know of what you speak. If you were to truly martyr yourself for that pathetic man, would I even let him live after your head has been ripped from your shoulders and your body lies a smoking husk?"
With a sly smile, Klauth watched the pious man before him falter for a moment. The dragon continued,
"What would you achieve? Glory in Tyr?"
Klauth raised his head and laughed deeply, shaking loose stones from the cliff face.
"You are a fool indeed, and you would be a dead fool were it not for your blind devotion." Klauth paused for a moment and swooped his head to the lake and drank deeply. The aasimar stood unmoving, his face blank.
- - - - - - - - - -
Thalin lifted the trapdoor open as he heard the dragon talking to Torious, hoping the dragon’s own voice would mask the noise made. Carefully, Thalin eased the trapdoor against the wall and motioned at Milo to move over. The halfling, having calmed down considerably, nodded and chose his moment wisely to jump across the open doorway. Hearing Klauth laugh, the halfling tumbled across the opening silently and padded to a halt next to the open trapdoor. With a nod, Thalin slid himself over the edge and lowered himself until only the tips of fingers were showing. Milo watched silently as the fingers disappeared then a split second later a small splash below. Not wanting to be alone in the tower with only Isplit, who was still unconscious and probably dreaming of she-weasels, Milo dropped carefully over the edge without holding on and landed in a foot of freezing water.
Whispering to Milo that spell casting might well alert Klauth to their position, Thalin peered into the darkness of the room that they now stood in. It seemed that the two shaking heroes had dropped into a shallow pool indented in the centre of the room. Sniffing, the stench of algae and stale fish was overwhelming and Milo gagged as he went to get out of the trench and pressed his hand into a diseased fish corpse.
Hauling himself out of the stagnant water, Thalin saw a small stone dwarf figurine at the edge of the water holding a transparent rod, which lightly touched onto the dust-strewn surface. In the half gloom, the room is slightly larger than the tower width above it, and had a set of double stone doors set in the wall immediately in front of the mage.
Milo pulled himself out finally, having scraped the dead fish from his hand with a disgusted look on his face. The halfling crouched next to the figurine in the available light and smoothed his hand over the glass rod leading into the water, his hand came away with a singed edge of what looked like a square of leather, or perhaps burnt fur. Seeing nothing more interesting about the figurine, Milo crept over to Thalin, who was pushing the stone doors open slowly. As the doors creaked open, a murky blue light filtered through, bathing the heroes’ faces in an azure glow. Looking inside, Milo’s eyes fired up with curiosity as he saw, in the centre of the glowing room, a rail track leading through another set of heavy doors and upon that track sat a strange metal and wood contraption about the size of a large boar.
Stepping in slowly, Milo looked in awe as he saw the contraption appeared to be an underwater submersible, with a dwarf sized seat visible through the thick glass. At the fore of the craft were a pair of little claws, although Milo couldn't think what for. Without a word of encouragement, the pair of adventurers prized open the cockpit and clambered in, just managing to fit a human and a halfling into the small space. Milo squirmed suddenly as Dariel flapped his wings in the halfling’s face. Milo shot his limbs out in all directions, pressing his knee against a small lever as he shouted a curse at Thalin’s familiar.
With a grinding noise, the doors that the tracks led through slid open, letting in a blast of water, which began to flood the basement of the tower. With a squeal of brakes that had not been used for over fifty years, the Apparatus of Kwalish rolled into momentum.
- - - - - - - - - -
Klauth lifted his head, water spilling from his jaws as he turned back to the aasimar.
"Now leave. And discard you martyrdom here, for it will achieve you no glory, only death. Now hurry on little man and follow your creeping companions."
- - - - - - - - - -
Torious turned and walked, his mind thumping with the words that the dragon spoke. His thoughts reeling, the only words which emerged clear from the maelstrom were Now Leave.
Before Torious could douse the blaze raging in his head, he had already climbed back up the footholds and stood on the edge of the laddered shaft leading back to the airlock below. As the thoughts finally begin to filter from his mind, Torious turned in time to see Klauth sat up his hind legs and kick forwards like a cat. Spreading his immense wings, Klauth circled in the air.
Torious saw Klauth make a slow, lazy circle as the aarakocras began to drag and fumble the sodden red torso of Zalaznir up the cliff face, tearing chunks from the paladin as they pulled him towards their nests. Klauth completed his slow circle towards the cliff face and sucked in deeply before moments later hurling forth a searing blast of white-hot fire that rolled off the jagged stone in an avalanche of surging flame. Klauth ascended slowly, letting the rising blaze soothe across his stomach as he passed through it and placing his back legs onto the cliff edge, pushed forwards again, soaring high into the sky.
As the blast died and the flames pealed upwards in a broil of smoke and heat, a fine shower of dust settled slowly to the surface of the lake. Torious gazed coldly once again at the dragons choice of searing justice, then turned and began to descend back into the mines.
[Edit]Edited into past tense on 19th September 2004[Edit]
Ice, Luck and Honour
Chapter 6: A Duel of Shadows
Part 1 of 4
Early to Middle Winter, Realms Date 1372
…The dragon’s mouth pulled back in a ripple of muscles, revealing a deadly fanged smirk as Zalaznir stepped out of the tower. Titling his head back to look Klauth eye to eye, Zalaznir shouted out with not a trace of fear,
“Klauth, I come here to destroy you. I, and my new found companions challenge you.”
Zalaznir stuck his thumb over his shoulder, pointing to where Torious stood with his mouth hanging open…
- - - - - - - - - -
Klauth watched the man strut out of the tower and shout his absurd challenge. Curling his mouth into a razor sharp snarl, Klauth laughed. The tower shuddered, sending a small shower of mortar to the sand below. With merely a step forward, Klauth planted his right claw onto the armoured man, folding the upraised longsword onto itself as the man desperately struck upwards, screaming this and that to Lathander.
Klauth grinned, shrill screams vibrating up through his body as the man was pressed further into the sand. A dull, wet snap buckled the right leg of Zalaznir into two as Klauth shifted his weight forwards.
The man under his foot continued hollering in pain as Klauth watched a second man, this one with blond hair and a broken chainmail shirt spattered with blood, advance slowly forwards from the shadows of the tower doorway. In a steady voice, belying his fear, the man begins to speak.
“Dragon. Free that man, he is no threat to you.”
Thinking for a moment, Klauth responded, "No."
The man standing before him wavered, then placed a foot behind him to steady himself from falling.
“Dragon. I am aasimar, descendant of Tyr the even handed and slayer of…”
"I know what you are. But it seems you are trying to prove that to yourself, despite all you know." said Klauth with a wicked smile.
With a heavy sucking sound, Klauth moved his foot out of the fresh crater to reveal Zalaznir underneath. The man screamed as he leaned forwards to hold his crushed leg, but is flung back down as Klauth balanced a single talon over the man, holding him down once again. Zalaznir screamed at the aasimar,
“Help me. Oh Lathander please, no. Help me!” his hand stretched towards Torious.
"Aasimar, here is your choice." Klauth said evenly, coming to a decision. "Either this man dies, or you die. It is up to you, you can be his saviour or your own."
- - - - - - - - - -
Dariel’s wings beat once, spinning himself about on the tower floor. Thalin, shaking violently, and with great effort, dropped his body sideways so that he could no longer see the great red out of the tower door. Immediately, the blinding white fear shuddered out of him and was replaced by a twisting pain to escape. Picking Dariel up, as he began to flutter to consciousness, Thalin pushed the fear stricken Milo sideways with the butt of Erifeci. Milo shivered as he fell, and still unable to speak through fear, crouched into the shadowed corner of the tower, stroking Isplit like a child’s doll.
Thalin quickly began to think rationally again, mentally cursing himself for being so weak in the moments when his strength was needed most. Looking around the tower, and being anxious not to stray into view of the dragon, kept to the shadowed edge. Well aware of dragons hunting abilities, particularly hearing and sight, Thalin motioned towards Milo to stay where he was. Looking for something to escape by, Thalin carefully lifted a crate, making sure not to make a sound and placed it to one side. Looking back at the empty space, Thalin shuddered with relief as the wooden slats of a trapdoor were revealed. Now wishing that he had learnt his spell of soundlessness, Thalin lifted the iron handle of the trapdoor and began to lift.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle sprinted back down the tunnel, his boots thudding on the stone flagstones as he ran. Looking back, the sword spider leapt from the web and landed with only a patter of taps as its legs touched the ground. Leaping forwards, Lyle dived into the dwarven sleeping quarters and spinning quickly, threw his weight into the door to close it. With only inches to go, a chitinous sabre slid into the crack, holding the door open. The soft scraping of the spiders legs sliding over stone as it began to push made Lyle quickly alter his course of action. Rolling onto his side, and roaring in pain as he used his stump to push against the door, Lyle withdrew his shortsword and drove it into the flailing spider leg. The leg disappeared, scraping back through the gap in the door which was quickly slammed and locked by Lyle, who sat back against the door and began to think if his revenge was really worth all this.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Take my life.” said Torious. The words are said quicker than any other creature the dragon had faced with the same choice.
Klauth, already having decided his course of action to either answer, snaked his head down and ripped Zalaznir's head from his body. With the flailing torso in his maw, Klauth swung his head leisurely to the side, sending half of the dead man sailing across the lake and into the cliff face with a damp thud. On their ledges of grass, the watching aarakocras screeched in unison and dove to gather what remains they could.
As the legs of the man twitched violently, Klauth began to speak before the aasimar could react.
"You talk of sacrifice, but you do not know of what you speak. If you were to truly martyr yourself for that pathetic man, would I even let him live after your head has been ripped from your shoulders and your body lies a smoking husk?"
With a sly smile, Klauth watched the pious man before him falter for a moment. The dragon continued,
"What would you achieve? Glory in Tyr?"
Klauth raised his head and laughed deeply, shaking loose stones from the cliff face.
"You are a fool indeed, and you would be a dead fool were it not for your blind devotion." Klauth paused for a moment and swooped his head to the lake and drank deeply. The aasimar stood unmoving, his face blank.
- - - - - - - - - -
Thalin lifted the trapdoor open as he heard the dragon talking to Torious, hoping the dragon’s own voice would mask the noise made. Carefully, Thalin eased the trapdoor against the wall and motioned at Milo to move over. The halfling, having calmed down considerably, nodded and chose his moment wisely to jump across the open doorway. Hearing Klauth laugh, the halfling tumbled across the opening silently and padded to a halt next to the open trapdoor. With a nod, Thalin slid himself over the edge and lowered himself until only the tips of fingers were showing. Milo watched silently as the fingers disappeared then a split second later a small splash below. Not wanting to be alone in the tower with only Isplit, who was still unconscious and probably dreaming of she-weasels, Milo dropped carefully over the edge without holding on and landed in a foot of freezing water.
Whispering to Milo that spell casting might well alert Klauth to their position, Thalin peered into the darkness of the room that they now stood in. It seemed that the two shaking heroes had dropped into a shallow pool indented in the centre of the room. Sniffing, the stench of algae and stale fish was overwhelming and Milo gagged as he went to get out of the trench and pressed his hand into a diseased fish corpse.
Hauling himself out of the stagnant water, Thalin saw a small stone dwarf figurine at the edge of the water holding a transparent rod, which lightly touched onto the dust-strewn surface. In the half gloom, the room is slightly larger than the tower width above it, and had a set of double stone doors set in the wall immediately in front of the mage.
Milo pulled himself out finally, having scraped the dead fish from his hand with a disgusted look on his face. The halfling crouched next to the figurine in the available light and smoothed his hand over the glass rod leading into the water, his hand came away with a singed edge of what looked like a square of leather, or perhaps burnt fur. Seeing nothing more interesting about the figurine, Milo crept over to Thalin, who was pushing the stone doors open slowly. As the doors creaked open, a murky blue light filtered through, bathing the heroes’ faces in an azure glow. Looking inside, Milo’s eyes fired up with curiosity as he saw, in the centre of the glowing room, a rail track leading through another set of heavy doors and upon that track sat a strange metal and wood contraption about the size of a large boar.
Stepping in slowly, Milo looked in awe as he saw the contraption appeared to be an underwater submersible, with a dwarf sized seat visible through the thick glass. At the fore of the craft were a pair of little claws, although Milo couldn't think what for. Without a word of encouragement, the pair of adventurers prized open the cockpit and clambered in, just managing to fit a human and a halfling into the small space. Milo squirmed suddenly as Dariel flapped his wings in the halfling’s face. Milo shot his limbs out in all directions, pressing his knee against a small lever as he shouted a curse at Thalin’s familiar.
With a grinding noise, the doors that the tracks led through slid open, letting in a blast of water, which began to flood the basement of the tower. With a squeal of brakes that had not been used for over fifty years, the Apparatus of Kwalish rolled into momentum.
- - - - - - - - - -
Klauth lifted his head, water spilling from his jaws as he turned back to the aasimar.
"Now leave. And discard you martyrdom here, for it will achieve you no glory, only death. Now hurry on little man and follow your creeping companions."
- - - - - - - - - -
Torious turned and walked, his mind thumping with the words that the dragon spoke. His thoughts reeling, the only words which emerged clear from the maelstrom were Now Leave.
Before Torious could douse the blaze raging in his head, he had already climbed back up the footholds and stood on the edge of the laddered shaft leading back to the airlock below. As the thoughts finally begin to filter from his mind, Torious turned in time to see Klauth sat up his hind legs and kick forwards like a cat. Spreading his immense wings, Klauth circled in the air.
Torious saw Klauth make a slow, lazy circle as the aarakocras began to drag and fumble the sodden red torso of Zalaznir up the cliff face, tearing chunks from the paladin as they pulled him towards their nests. Klauth completed his slow circle towards the cliff face and sucked in deeply before moments later hurling forth a searing blast of white-hot fire that rolled off the jagged stone in an avalanche of surging flame. Klauth ascended slowly, letting the rising blaze soothe across his stomach as he passed through it and placing his back legs onto the cliff edge, pushed forwards again, soaring high into the sky.
As the blast died and the flames pealed upwards in a broil of smoke and heat, a fine shower of dust settled slowly to the surface of the lake. Torious gazed coldly once again at the dragons choice of searing justice, then turned and began to descend back into the mines.
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Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
Part 2 of 4
Thalin, Milo, Dariel and Isplit all sat hunched in silence as the aqualish made its steady course across the bed of the lake. At certain points sediment had covered the tracks, but the aqualish seemed quite content to work without the rails. The four travellers could do nothing but stare at the shadowy bulk of Klauth sitting in the shallows, his tail slowly swaying from side to side.
A moment of chaos ensued as Klauth dipped his head into the lake to drink and watched the contraption pass inches in front of his nose, Dariel had screamed and begun to fly in the enclosed space as the remaining occupants whirled into a frenzy of trying to press themselves as far away from the steaming snout of the dragon as possible. Klauth only watched the aqualish trundle past slowly with nonchalance, before rearing his head back out to resume his talk with Torious.
As the aqualish neared the end of the lake, the rails took a sharp turn and descended into a dark rift, where the aqualish flickered on a pair of dull beams that illuminated the sharp channel of rocks before them. Turning a last corner, a great set of stone double doors emerged into view and opened slowly, letting a rush of water past the approaching aqualish. With a shiver-inducing screech the submersible slowed and then shuddered to a halt in the centre of a second azure room, which had an immense metal door in the opposite wall.
The two adventurers and their familiars sat in content silence as the doors closed and the water drained away into a pool in the centre, but this one without a dwarf statuette. After a minute or two the water had lowered enough to open the aqualish cockpit without risk of flooding the interior. Stepping out and slowly working away a painful cramp in his leg as the cold water sluiced about his boots, Thalin looked about the lichen-free room. Making a quick calculation in his mind, the mage took a step over to the metallic door and began to look for a release switch. Milo patted the contraption on the side, thanking it for safe passage. As he did, his fingers ran into a carved stone handprint just below the cockpit latch.
- - - - - - - - - -
Torious pushed open the second door and exited the moss-floored airlock. As he stepped into the space, an inconsistent chime rang through the room repeatedly from an unknown source. Torious stood for a moment, then unslung Justicar and stepped up to the metallic wall that had shouted dwarven words when he touched it last time. Pressing his fingers up against the invisible barrier, the dwarven voice called out, but this time with different words.
“Drained. Locked. Arrived.”
Torious answered immediately, hoping his words would work.
“Unlock… Open.”
The door immediately separated at a seamless crack at head height and its two halves disappeared, one into the floor, the other into the ceiling at a slow pace. Torious eased his grip on his sword as Thalin, Milo and their familiars, all unhurt, stood in surprise on the other side.
The three adventurers quickly interrogated Torious on what was said by the dragon but the aasimar revealed only that Zalaznir was killed and he was freed. The party seemed to accept this, although Thalin noticed the aasimar fumble as he lied for probably the first time in his life, but didn't mention the slip up. As they all settled and discussed the dragon, Torious became alert to a distant and faint pouring noise of water. Searching this out, the aasimar calculated that there must be water ducts running in the walls of the mines, but for what purpose he could not tell.
As his companions swapped stories, Milo crept back over to the aqualish, which he looked over. With a grunt of exertion, Milo tried to push the contraption from the tracks so he could ride it through the mines, but to no avail. Looking around in desperation, Milo saw a small shelf on the wall, which strangely had no watermarks on the inside. Investigating further, the halfling saw a heavy brown glove, untouched by the water. Reaching through without even a thought of wardings or glyphs, the halfling snatched the glove and ran back to the aqualish, hoping his thinking on this was right. Not looking behind him, the halfling didn’t notice a bright spark of electricity as it arked from one side of the shelf to the other.
Thalin looked up abruptly as a heavy slosh of water rumbled in the ducts then a muffled thunder from the sword spider room echoed through the corridors. The mage looked at Torious, but he just shrugged as he laced his ragged chainmail together.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle jarred his head up as a dull rumbling is heard from the large chamber, after a minute it stopped and all was silent again. Holding his head against the door, Lyle held his breath to hear any further sound. But there was nothing.
Lyle stood up slowly, cradling his weeping stump. Lyle fished awkwardly into the leather pouch, removing a handful of black onyx gems. With a stern look, and a plan forming in his mind, Lyle readjusted his goggles and headed towards a vacant wall in the corner of the room. The ghosts that had congregated in the corner of the room stopped clawing desperately at the stonewall and watched the man in black as he strode over. Sneering at the ghosts, he readjusted his grip on his sword. Then stepping back once, Lyle drove his shortsword into the loose mortar of the wall, and began to hack towards the hidden burial room of the dwarven miners.
- - - - - - - - - -
With a plan formed to re-enter the sword spider room, Torious stepped silently forward and listened at the thick wood door. Hearing nothing he shrugged and motioned to Milo who stood confused for a moment, then remembering his part in this plan, skipped back into the chamber behind them and scooped his hand into the cold water of the trough. Emerging back into the corridor, Milo held a placid fish in each hand, and grinning with enthusiasm, nodded at Torious to open the door.
With dull scrape, the door opened and Milo quickly darted forwards and hurled the fish into the dim chamber as far as he could. Torious opened the door fully and stood ready. Thalin let the final word of his arcane verse hang in the air. Milo rubbed his hands on his trousers before completing his part of the plan by waving his hands in the air and speaking a word to no obvious effect, then levelled his crossbow at the centre of the room.
Watching with eager eyes, Milo grinned in pleasure as the fish slowly began to be dragged in erratic lines by his invisible helper, whom the halfling had kindly named Servant-For-Milo. Huddled in the entrance to the large chamber, the heroes awaited the spider.
After a minute of standing, a glazed shadow hovered in the depths of the web and without a sound the sword spider dropped from its silken perch to expertly skewer the two fish as they slid over the ground.
The three adventurers leapt to the attack. Torious pounced forwards, and hitting the ground running, screamed an almighty “FOR TYR!!!” as he charged at the spider.
Thalin spoke the final word and once again his cloak billowed forwards to release two icy shards which streaked with unerring accuracy into the spiders eyes, glazing the arachnids vision with a layer of crackling ice.
Milo shot, but his missile strayed from the target and whistled into the darkness of a newly opened section in the main room. Milo noted this with interest but shook his curiosity aside, and seeing Thalin leap towards the spider with Shard in his hand, followed as quick as he could to help his companions.
The spider lurched backwards as Torious screamed again, and in a holy fury swung Justicar through three of the spider’s seven legs. Torious has barely a moment to reason why the spider would be missing a leg as the spider turned lightning fast and drove two raised legs at Torious. Turning one aside with his sword, and rolling with the second as it scraped into his shoulder guard, Torious tumbled sideways to cut off the spiders escape.
With a warbling shriek, Milo leapt through the air and sending a shudder through the spider as he landed on its back, raised Vampire and plunged it down. The blade bit deep, but Milo didn’t notice as tiny points of ivory shot backwards from the blade hilt into his hand and the spider's blood began to be pumped into his own.
Thalin crouched low to strike through more of the spider’s legs, but his scimitar screeched off of the tough chitin and had no effect.
Not anticipating the next move of the spider, Torious stood ready to defend but instead the spider stepped backwards, piercing Thalin through the thigh with a chitin blade. Milo heard the scream of the mage and using his knees to grip the spiders back, sheathed Vampire, then pulled a small wooden toy from his pocket and scrunched it into his newfound glove. Closing his eyes, Milo punched downwards with his gloved hand into the wound that Vampire opened. With a squelching sound, Milo opened his fist then tumbled backwards and landed perfectly, balancing himself on a rail track.
With a sudden wet whooshing sound, the miniaturised aqualish expands to full size inside of the spider and exploded out of the abdomen in a shower of blood and spider flesh.
The spider shivers once, its legs scraping desperately at the gut-strewn aqualish, then it stopped and its remaining legs slowly curled upwards. With a last spasm, the sword spider died.
Milo leapt into the air and whooped a victory cry, but is met with disbelieving glances from Torious and Thalin. Milo, happy to have trumped his companions for once, stepped triumphantly through the spider entrails and pressed his hand to the side of the aqualish. With an odd popping sound, the contraption shrunk to the size of a child’s toy in Milo’s gloved hand. Grinning from ear to ear, Milo placed the submersible in his pocket and strutted across the rail tracks to investigate the newfound opening in the chamber.
- - - - - - - - - -
Hearing the sounds of the combat, and knowing his revenge was close, Lyle placed the last of the onyx gems into the skulls of the dwarven bodies. Stepping back through the scattered ground which he unearthed the bones from; Lyle admired his handiwork. Ignoring the ethereal clawing of the enraged spirits as they slid harmlessly through him, Lyle withdrew the scroll and practiced the verses silently in his head before clearing his throat and voicing the dark words haltingly, his voice untrained for such pronunciation.
- - - - - - - - - -
Thalin, shaking away the surprise at Milo’s new toy, stood unsteadily with his wounded leg. Torious immediately crouched to heal the mage,
“Wait. I only need enough to walk, save your powers,” said Thalin, gritting his teeth as he felt the flesh knit back together only enough to walk.
“As you say.” Torious said, checking the leg was stable enough before standing and watching Thalin take a few steps before turning and following Milo through the now opened western wall, where the rail tracks previously disappeared into.
Milo tiptoed at the end of rail tracks, balancing precariously on the edge of a rock grinder set ten feet deep in the stonework floor. Its huge metal teeth, used to crush excavated rock, stood unmoving and layered with a thick dust. Torious and Thalin come to stand next to the halfling and looked downwards through the teeth to a mound of rock shards about twenty feet below the grinder. Milo grew instantly bored at the unmoving mechanism and gazed about the rest of the large room.
The rail tracks ended in loops at the edge of the grinder, presumably so rock from carts could be tipped in easily, his eyes following the tracks round, Milo saw a small door in the corner with a thick pane of glass next to it overlooking the grinder. The halfling shook with uncontrollable curiosity thinking of what treasures a warden’s office might contain, and with a deft leap over the swirling rail tracks, landed next to the door and finding it locked, pulled himself up to the thick window and gazed in. Peering in, Milo saw what he thought might be possible, and quickly dropped back down and began to pick the dwarven lock.
Whilst Milo began to break into the office, Torious found a stone lever, which, with a terrible grating sound, activated the grinder. Thalin jumped back as the sound shuddered through the chamber and watched for a moment before Torious pushed the lever back down and halted the slow spinning of the immense cogs.
- - - - - - - - - -
In the midst of speaking the arcane verses, Lyle snapped his head up as a sound rumbled from the large chamber, then died. Realising the distraction has thrown his momentum; Lyle read the next verse speedily to keep pace with the bass thrum of the magic that now coursed through the air.
- - - - - - - - - -
Milo shouted a victory cry as he finally sprung the lock with a thick metallic click. Looking back over his shoulder and grinning once again, Milo pulled the large door open. Thalin turned to look at the elated halfling, only to shout a warning just in time,
“Move!”
Milo instinctively ducked as a huge gauntleted hand swung inches over his head. Milo skidded backwards towards his companions.
With its armour clinking, a giant metal clad dwarf stepped slowly from the doorway.
“Iron golem!” shouted Thalin, his voice reverberating from the stone walls.
The golem stepped dauntingly onto the chamber floor and took slow, inevitable steps towards the three intruders. Suddenly a plan sprung in Thalin’s mind and grabbing Torious and Milo by the arm, manoeuvred his companions to the other side of the grinder pit.
“Milo! The grinder!” shouted Torious, catching onto Thalin’s plan.
Milo is way ahead of this however, and the crossbow bolt pinned the hand of the lever into ‘on’ as Torious shouted his instruction.
“This had better work!” yelled Milo, over the ‘thump thump’ of the golem footsteps.
The three adventurers watched in anticipation as the golem reached the far edge of the grinder and without a thought, placed his next step over the gap and with a thunderous crash fell into the revolving teeth of the grinder. Seconds later, the onlookers covered their ears in pain as a bone-shaking metal screech screamed from the grinder as the teeth locked against the golems huge form and halted the turning of the cogs.
Its arms stretched to the sky as it grasped towards the intruders, the golem was stuck fast.
- - - - - - - - - -
With a dread creaking, the skeletons bones began to slide and roll back into place. Looking in fascination, Lyle finished the last of the verses and watched in morbid amusement as the dwarven skeletons stood awkwardly, as if dragged up by some invisible puppet master. Their skulls lolled for a moment, twisted and dirt encrusted beards hanging limp. Then as one, the heads snapped to attention as the final puppet string was pulled and the risen dead awaited their orders.
With his minions ready, Lyle kicked open the door, commanding the undead to follow. Reaching the entrance, Lyle saw the three adventurers and resting the crossbow on his stump, took aim.
Thalin, Milo, Dariel and Isplit all sat hunched in silence as the aqualish made its steady course across the bed of the lake. At certain points sediment had covered the tracks, but the aqualish seemed quite content to work without the rails. The four travellers could do nothing but stare at the shadowy bulk of Klauth sitting in the shallows, his tail slowly swaying from side to side.
A moment of chaos ensued as Klauth dipped his head into the lake to drink and watched the contraption pass inches in front of his nose, Dariel had screamed and begun to fly in the enclosed space as the remaining occupants whirled into a frenzy of trying to press themselves as far away from the steaming snout of the dragon as possible. Klauth only watched the aqualish trundle past slowly with nonchalance, before rearing his head back out to resume his talk with Torious.
As the aqualish neared the end of the lake, the rails took a sharp turn and descended into a dark rift, where the aqualish flickered on a pair of dull beams that illuminated the sharp channel of rocks before them. Turning a last corner, a great set of stone double doors emerged into view and opened slowly, letting a rush of water past the approaching aqualish. With a shiver-inducing screech the submersible slowed and then shuddered to a halt in the centre of a second azure room, which had an immense metal door in the opposite wall.
The two adventurers and their familiars sat in content silence as the doors closed and the water drained away into a pool in the centre, but this one without a dwarf statuette. After a minute or two the water had lowered enough to open the aqualish cockpit without risk of flooding the interior. Stepping out and slowly working away a painful cramp in his leg as the cold water sluiced about his boots, Thalin looked about the lichen-free room. Making a quick calculation in his mind, the mage took a step over to the metallic door and began to look for a release switch. Milo patted the contraption on the side, thanking it for safe passage. As he did, his fingers ran into a carved stone handprint just below the cockpit latch.
- - - - - - - - - -
Torious pushed open the second door and exited the moss-floored airlock. As he stepped into the space, an inconsistent chime rang through the room repeatedly from an unknown source. Torious stood for a moment, then unslung Justicar and stepped up to the metallic wall that had shouted dwarven words when he touched it last time. Pressing his fingers up against the invisible barrier, the dwarven voice called out, but this time with different words.
“Drained. Locked. Arrived.”
Torious answered immediately, hoping his words would work.
“Unlock… Open.”
The door immediately separated at a seamless crack at head height and its two halves disappeared, one into the floor, the other into the ceiling at a slow pace. Torious eased his grip on his sword as Thalin, Milo and their familiars, all unhurt, stood in surprise on the other side.
The three adventurers quickly interrogated Torious on what was said by the dragon but the aasimar revealed only that Zalaznir was killed and he was freed. The party seemed to accept this, although Thalin noticed the aasimar fumble as he lied for probably the first time in his life, but didn't mention the slip up. As they all settled and discussed the dragon, Torious became alert to a distant and faint pouring noise of water. Searching this out, the aasimar calculated that there must be water ducts running in the walls of the mines, but for what purpose he could not tell.
As his companions swapped stories, Milo crept back over to the aqualish, which he looked over. With a grunt of exertion, Milo tried to push the contraption from the tracks so he could ride it through the mines, but to no avail. Looking around in desperation, Milo saw a small shelf on the wall, which strangely had no watermarks on the inside. Investigating further, the halfling saw a heavy brown glove, untouched by the water. Reaching through without even a thought of wardings or glyphs, the halfling snatched the glove and ran back to the aqualish, hoping his thinking on this was right. Not looking behind him, the halfling didn’t notice a bright spark of electricity as it arked from one side of the shelf to the other.
Thalin looked up abruptly as a heavy slosh of water rumbled in the ducts then a muffled thunder from the sword spider room echoed through the corridors. The mage looked at Torious, but he just shrugged as he laced his ragged chainmail together.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle jarred his head up as a dull rumbling is heard from the large chamber, after a minute it stopped and all was silent again. Holding his head against the door, Lyle held his breath to hear any further sound. But there was nothing.
Lyle stood up slowly, cradling his weeping stump. Lyle fished awkwardly into the leather pouch, removing a handful of black onyx gems. With a stern look, and a plan forming in his mind, Lyle readjusted his goggles and headed towards a vacant wall in the corner of the room. The ghosts that had congregated in the corner of the room stopped clawing desperately at the stonewall and watched the man in black as he strode over. Sneering at the ghosts, he readjusted his grip on his sword. Then stepping back once, Lyle drove his shortsword into the loose mortar of the wall, and began to hack towards the hidden burial room of the dwarven miners.
- - - - - - - - - -
With a plan formed to re-enter the sword spider room, Torious stepped silently forward and listened at the thick wood door. Hearing nothing he shrugged and motioned to Milo who stood confused for a moment, then remembering his part in this plan, skipped back into the chamber behind them and scooped his hand into the cold water of the trough. Emerging back into the corridor, Milo held a placid fish in each hand, and grinning with enthusiasm, nodded at Torious to open the door.
With dull scrape, the door opened and Milo quickly darted forwards and hurled the fish into the dim chamber as far as he could. Torious opened the door fully and stood ready. Thalin let the final word of his arcane verse hang in the air. Milo rubbed his hands on his trousers before completing his part of the plan by waving his hands in the air and speaking a word to no obvious effect, then levelled his crossbow at the centre of the room.
Watching with eager eyes, Milo grinned in pleasure as the fish slowly began to be dragged in erratic lines by his invisible helper, whom the halfling had kindly named Servant-For-Milo. Huddled in the entrance to the large chamber, the heroes awaited the spider.
After a minute of standing, a glazed shadow hovered in the depths of the web and without a sound the sword spider dropped from its silken perch to expertly skewer the two fish as they slid over the ground.
The three adventurers leapt to the attack. Torious pounced forwards, and hitting the ground running, screamed an almighty “FOR TYR!!!” as he charged at the spider.
Thalin spoke the final word and once again his cloak billowed forwards to release two icy shards which streaked with unerring accuracy into the spiders eyes, glazing the arachnids vision with a layer of crackling ice.
Milo shot, but his missile strayed from the target and whistled into the darkness of a newly opened section in the main room. Milo noted this with interest but shook his curiosity aside, and seeing Thalin leap towards the spider with Shard in his hand, followed as quick as he could to help his companions.
The spider lurched backwards as Torious screamed again, and in a holy fury swung Justicar through three of the spider’s seven legs. Torious has barely a moment to reason why the spider would be missing a leg as the spider turned lightning fast and drove two raised legs at Torious. Turning one aside with his sword, and rolling with the second as it scraped into his shoulder guard, Torious tumbled sideways to cut off the spiders escape.
With a warbling shriek, Milo leapt through the air and sending a shudder through the spider as he landed on its back, raised Vampire and plunged it down. The blade bit deep, but Milo didn’t notice as tiny points of ivory shot backwards from the blade hilt into his hand and the spider's blood began to be pumped into his own.
Thalin crouched low to strike through more of the spider’s legs, but his scimitar screeched off of the tough chitin and had no effect.
Not anticipating the next move of the spider, Torious stood ready to defend but instead the spider stepped backwards, piercing Thalin through the thigh with a chitin blade. Milo heard the scream of the mage and using his knees to grip the spiders back, sheathed Vampire, then pulled a small wooden toy from his pocket and scrunched it into his newfound glove. Closing his eyes, Milo punched downwards with his gloved hand into the wound that Vampire opened. With a squelching sound, Milo opened his fist then tumbled backwards and landed perfectly, balancing himself on a rail track.
With a sudden wet whooshing sound, the miniaturised aqualish expands to full size inside of the spider and exploded out of the abdomen in a shower of blood and spider flesh.
The spider shivers once, its legs scraping desperately at the gut-strewn aqualish, then it stopped and its remaining legs slowly curled upwards. With a last spasm, the sword spider died.
Milo leapt into the air and whooped a victory cry, but is met with disbelieving glances from Torious and Thalin. Milo, happy to have trumped his companions for once, stepped triumphantly through the spider entrails and pressed his hand to the side of the aqualish. With an odd popping sound, the contraption shrunk to the size of a child’s toy in Milo’s gloved hand. Grinning from ear to ear, Milo placed the submersible in his pocket and strutted across the rail tracks to investigate the newfound opening in the chamber.
- - - - - - - - - -
Hearing the sounds of the combat, and knowing his revenge was close, Lyle placed the last of the onyx gems into the skulls of the dwarven bodies. Stepping back through the scattered ground which he unearthed the bones from; Lyle admired his handiwork. Ignoring the ethereal clawing of the enraged spirits as they slid harmlessly through him, Lyle withdrew the scroll and practiced the verses silently in his head before clearing his throat and voicing the dark words haltingly, his voice untrained for such pronunciation.
- - - - - - - - - -
Thalin, shaking away the surprise at Milo’s new toy, stood unsteadily with his wounded leg. Torious immediately crouched to heal the mage,
“Wait. I only need enough to walk, save your powers,” said Thalin, gritting his teeth as he felt the flesh knit back together only enough to walk.
“As you say.” Torious said, checking the leg was stable enough before standing and watching Thalin take a few steps before turning and following Milo through the now opened western wall, where the rail tracks previously disappeared into.
Milo tiptoed at the end of rail tracks, balancing precariously on the edge of a rock grinder set ten feet deep in the stonework floor. Its huge metal teeth, used to crush excavated rock, stood unmoving and layered with a thick dust. Torious and Thalin come to stand next to the halfling and looked downwards through the teeth to a mound of rock shards about twenty feet below the grinder. Milo grew instantly bored at the unmoving mechanism and gazed about the rest of the large room.
The rail tracks ended in loops at the edge of the grinder, presumably so rock from carts could be tipped in easily, his eyes following the tracks round, Milo saw a small door in the corner with a thick pane of glass next to it overlooking the grinder. The halfling shook with uncontrollable curiosity thinking of what treasures a warden’s office might contain, and with a deft leap over the swirling rail tracks, landed next to the door and finding it locked, pulled himself up to the thick window and gazed in. Peering in, Milo saw what he thought might be possible, and quickly dropped back down and began to pick the dwarven lock.
Whilst Milo began to break into the office, Torious found a stone lever, which, with a terrible grating sound, activated the grinder. Thalin jumped back as the sound shuddered through the chamber and watched for a moment before Torious pushed the lever back down and halted the slow spinning of the immense cogs.
- - - - - - - - - -
In the midst of speaking the arcane verses, Lyle snapped his head up as a sound rumbled from the large chamber, then died. Realising the distraction has thrown his momentum; Lyle read the next verse speedily to keep pace with the bass thrum of the magic that now coursed through the air.
- - - - - - - - - -
Milo shouted a victory cry as he finally sprung the lock with a thick metallic click. Looking back over his shoulder and grinning once again, Milo pulled the large door open. Thalin turned to look at the elated halfling, only to shout a warning just in time,
“Move!”
Milo instinctively ducked as a huge gauntleted hand swung inches over his head. Milo skidded backwards towards his companions.
With its armour clinking, a giant metal clad dwarf stepped slowly from the doorway.
“Iron golem!” shouted Thalin, his voice reverberating from the stone walls.
The golem stepped dauntingly onto the chamber floor and took slow, inevitable steps towards the three intruders. Suddenly a plan sprung in Thalin’s mind and grabbing Torious and Milo by the arm, manoeuvred his companions to the other side of the grinder pit.
“Milo! The grinder!” shouted Torious, catching onto Thalin’s plan.
Milo is way ahead of this however, and the crossbow bolt pinned the hand of the lever into ‘on’ as Torious shouted his instruction.
“This had better work!” yelled Milo, over the ‘thump thump’ of the golem footsteps.
The three adventurers watched in anticipation as the golem reached the far edge of the grinder and without a thought, placed his next step over the gap and with a thunderous crash fell into the revolving teeth of the grinder. Seconds later, the onlookers covered their ears in pain as a bone-shaking metal screech screamed from the grinder as the teeth locked against the golems huge form and halted the turning of the cogs.
Its arms stretched to the sky as it grasped towards the intruders, the golem was stuck fast.
- - - - - - - - - -
With a dread creaking, the skeletons bones began to slide and roll back into place. Looking in fascination, Lyle finished the last of the verses and watched in morbid amusement as the dwarven skeletons stood awkwardly, as if dragged up by some invisible puppet master. Their skulls lolled for a moment, twisted and dirt encrusted beards hanging limp. Then as one, the heads snapped to attention as the final puppet string was pulled and the risen dead awaited their orders.
With his minions ready, Lyle kicked open the door, commanding the undead to follow. Reaching the entrance, Lyle saw the three adventurers and resting the crossbow on his stump, took aim.
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Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
Part 3 of 4
Thalin turned and went to speak to Milo, but he only screamed at the bewildered halfling and began to fall as a black-feathered bolt whistled into the back of his right knee and exploded through the kneecap in a wet burst of blood and bone.
“Your time is ended mage. I have come to claim my vengeance.” Sneered Lyle as a dozen dwarven skeletons appeared behind him. With joints creaking in sockets and bones scratching on the stone floor, the dead surged forwards as they sensed their chosen prey.
Torious reacted fast, catching the disabled Thalin before he dropped and clutched the broken knee. Looking into the mages pain-drenched eyes, Torious hauled him to his feet as positive power flowed into the damaged knee.
“Only enough to run.” Said Torious as he backed away from the skeleton horde, pushing Milo and Thalin behind him as he retreated.
Milo reached the far wall in a few seconds and seeing one of the three stonework doors slightly ajar, sprinted over, fumbling for the aqualish toy in his pocket.
“This way!!!” shouted Milo as he pressed the tiny apparatus into the thin gap. With a whoosh, the toy enlarged to full size, creaking in resistance for a split second before forcing open the heavy stone doors. Stale air hit Milo in the face, but he resolutely snapped back up the aqualish into his hand as he spoke an arcane word. With a chime, his crossbow lit up with a comfortable yellow light and illuminated the way forwards.
Thalin and Torious retreated towards the disappearing Milo. Torious shouted celestial curses at the swarming undead as they clambered across the tracks towards them. Thalin shakily loaded a bolt into his crossbow and aimed at Lyle, but was way off target. Torious reached the tunnel and blasted his scars to life as they both turned and ran from the advancing enemies. A black-feathered crossbow bolt splintered off of Torious’ helm. Lyle shouted a curse as he failed to hit flesh.
- - - - - - - - - -
Milo leapt into the stone work room at the end of the dark corridor, hoping to Tymora that there were no ghosts in this area of the mines. Having never before been in this section of the mines, Milo made a split second decision and turned to his right, choosing one of the two blank doors in the small room.
With a bellowing roar, the door screamed “INTRUDER!” as Milo grabbed the handle. The halfling stumbled back in pain, his ears bleeding.
Thalin and Torious burst into the room, and seeing Milo reeling away from the right hand door, they quickly looked to the left.
“Must have been a glyph.” Said Thalin, looking at the halfling’s pain-stricken face.
“The other door might also be guarded!” shouted Thalin as Torious stepped towards the wooden frame.
“Death is not an option.” Grunted Torious as he kicked the door through, sending splinters of wood into the thin passageway beyond. Recoiling, the aasimar’s ears sprayed red as “INTRUDER!” bellowed through the room again.
“Go!” shouted Torious but looked up to see only a foot wide corridor leading out of the room. Possible to get through, but only just. The aasimar shimmied sideways into the gap and began to palm down the thin corridor towards the room twenty feet ahead. Milo held his ears but picked himself up as he saw the faint placid bones of the skeletons lumbering towards them. With a shout, Milo pushed Thalin into the thin passageway then followed him through with considerable ease.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle sprinted forwards, eager to catch the running mage. Overtaking the skeletons, he bounded towards the room ahead, his crossbow loaded and ready to fire.
- - - - - - - - - -
Torious reached the halfway point of the corridor, looking up, he saw his blazing scars illuminate a small pole held horizontally between the walls. No wait; a slender blade covered in dust was wedged perfectly into the foot wide gap. Shouting back to his companions to be aware of the blade, Torious ducked the knife and squeezed past. As he passed, a faint vibration could be heard from the knife, as if under incredible pressure. Torious’ scars dulled for a moment as he realised what they were sliding through.
“Run! The blade is all that’s holding the walls!”
As if in reply, the blade emitted a dull thrum as its blade point slid a quarter inch to the side. The walls shook, but didn’t close any further.
Torious slid out of the other side and breathed in deep gulps of air as he turned back and offered his hand to Thalin to help drag him out of the corridor. Grasping the priest’s hand, Thalin pulled free of the walls as the blade hummed again and slid even further. The walls groaned in reply.
Milo passed under the knife as a shriek from the end of the corridor heralded the arrival Lyle. His goggled eyes stretched down the corridor, coming to rest on the knife. Understanding the forces at work, he levelled the crossbow at the knife hilt and began to aim as the halfling scrabbled towards the exit.
Lyle stood silhouetted in the corridor gap, his goggles two discs of light against the darkness as the skeletons caught up and began to press themselves into the corridor. The undead crawled over each other towards the three heroes, their thick bones scraping against the wall sides as they moved.
Cursing, Lyle saw his shot ruined by the overlapping undead and tried to re-aim over them.
Milo slipped through the end of the corridor, and not waiting to catch his breath, jumped up and pulled his rope from his backpack and began to whirl it in the air. Thalin ducked suddenly as a black-feathered bolt ricocheted from the corridor roof and slit through his cloak, inches from his arm.
Measuring his aim, Milo twirled the rope once more as the first of the skeletons swarmed under the knife, and then released the rope end. The rope snaked towards the knife and perfectly wrapped around the blade, but the halfling’s joy turned to dismay as the razor sharp knife-edge slit the wrapped rope into pieces.
The skeletons reached under the knife and begin to spill towards the end of the corridor. Lyle began to aim again as the halfling dragged the rope in and threw again.
With a shout of victory, Milo’s rope whipped around the blade hilt. Skeletal hands began to claw and scrape at the knife but to no avail.
“See ya later” said Milo as he jerked the rope backwards, dislodging the blade. With a thunderous grating, the walls began to close together. Milo deftly caught the blade as it whistled through the air, the name Sliverspike crafted into the hilt.
Skeletons snapped and folded into pieces as the walls compacted their brittle bodies. Showers of bone shards peppered the watching heroes as the skeletons reached the end of the corridor in a flurry of shattering frames.
Not wanting to watch the bones of the dwarves crushed, Thalin turned to view their new surroundings. They now stood in a large chamber with dig marks along the walls, the most recently excavated, thought Thalin. The opposite wall was a single huge stonework door, larger than any before. But he didn’t have time to investigate further as two coins zipped through the closing walls and scattered onto the ground at his feet. With a slam, the walls closed, cutting off Lyle’s sudden maniacal laughter.
The coins lay at his feet for a moment, and then dissolved into the ground. Torious and Milo stood with the mage as they watched in horror as out of thin air a circle of bones ripped into existence. Stepping back slowly, the three companions backed away towards the huge doors as the hovering bone circle began to build upon itself, adding grisly layers of blood and filth.
With a green blast, the circles throbbed once then two withered human figures stepped through and dropped into a predatory crouch. Each cloaked figure had a deformed, taloned hand, which rippled with powerful muscles. Their red bale-fire eyes viewed their targets with a murderous lust.
Torious screamed in celestial fury as he recognised two banedead, dread servants of the banished god Bane.
Torious had barely a moment to contemplate their arrival as the banedead leapt at him, fanged mouths eager for aasimar flesh. Bowling him backwards, the undead drove their claws into any exposed flesh they could find. Torious struggled to fight the creatures off, feeling his limbs become slow and sluggish in response to his thoughts.
Thalin shouted a battle cry and barreled one of the creatures off of his companion, driving Shard into its side. But the scimitar clattered against the rotted skin as if it were a metal sheet.
“They cannot be hurt!” screamed Thalin as the banedead ignored him and leapt towards Torious.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle stamped against the wall again, his efforts to get through useless against the ancient stone. Furious that the mage was out of his sight, Lyle turned to find another way in but halted as a dwarven voice echoed through the room.
“Triggered. Closed.”
Lyle span and answered back in fluent dwarven,
“Deactivate. Open.”
The walls stood unmoving for a moment then slowly ground open. Lyle grinned sadistically as the thin line to the mage gradually grew wider.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Yes they can, but only by magic!” shouted Torious back as he landed a gauntleted fist into one of his assailant’s faces as he pushed himself into a crouch. Thalin jumped back and realising his efforts with Shard were useless and only having a few spells left, the mage began to assist Torious, finding that the banedead wouldn’t even attack the mage even if he pulled them away and forced them back from the priest of Tyr.
Milo fumbled through his bag again, his hands pressing through the rubbish and rags collected over time until his fingers touched what he had been looking for, the keystone. Spilling the contents of his bag everywhere, Milo pulled the huge gem free. Holding it up to the door, he grinned as it matched perfectly to the gem already placed into one of the two holes. With a slight pause, understanding this could well be the end of his fortune, Milo pressed the gem into the second slot. With a sound like someone sighing, the two gems retracted into the holes and the whole chamber began to shudder as the massive doors began to part at the centre.
Thalin turned and went to speak to Milo, but he only screamed at the bewildered halfling and began to fall as a black-feathered bolt whistled into the back of his right knee and exploded through the kneecap in a wet burst of blood and bone.
“Your time is ended mage. I have come to claim my vengeance.” Sneered Lyle as a dozen dwarven skeletons appeared behind him. With joints creaking in sockets and bones scratching on the stone floor, the dead surged forwards as they sensed their chosen prey.
Torious reacted fast, catching the disabled Thalin before he dropped and clutched the broken knee. Looking into the mages pain-drenched eyes, Torious hauled him to his feet as positive power flowed into the damaged knee.
“Only enough to run.” Said Torious as he backed away from the skeleton horde, pushing Milo and Thalin behind him as he retreated.
Milo reached the far wall in a few seconds and seeing one of the three stonework doors slightly ajar, sprinted over, fumbling for the aqualish toy in his pocket.
“This way!!!” shouted Milo as he pressed the tiny apparatus into the thin gap. With a whoosh, the toy enlarged to full size, creaking in resistance for a split second before forcing open the heavy stone doors. Stale air hit Milo in the face, but he resolutely snapped back up the aqualish into his hand as he spoke an arcane word. With a chime, his crossbow lit up with a comfortable yellow light and illuminated the way forwards.
Thalin and Torious retreated towards the disappearing Milo. Torious shouted celestial curses at the swarming undead as they clambered across the tracks towards them. Thalin shakily loaded a bolt into his crossbow and aimed at Lyle, but was way off target. Torious reached the tunnel and blasted his scars to life as they both turned and ran from the advancing enemies. A black-feathered crossbow bolt splintered off of Torious’ helm. Lyle shouted a curse as he failed to hit flesh.
- - - - - - - - - -
Milo leapt into the stone work room at the end of the dark corridor, hoping to Tymora that there were no ghosts in this area of the mines. Having never before been in this section of the mines, Milo made a split second decision and turned to his right, choosing one of the two blank doors in the small room.
With a bellowing roar, the door screamed “INTRUDER!” as Milo grabbed the handle. The halfling stumbled back in pain, his ears bleeding.
Thalin and Torious burst into the room, and seeing Milo reeling away from the right hand door, they quickly looked to the left.
“Must have been a glyph.” Said Thalin, looking at the halfling’s pain-stricken face.
“The other door might also be guarded!” shouted Thalin as Torious stepped towards the wooden frame.
“Death is not an option.” Grunted Torious as he kicked the door through, sending splinters of wood into the thin passageway beyond. Recoiling, the aasimar’s ears sprayed red as “INTRUDER!” bellowed through the room again.
“Go!” shouted Torious but looked up to see only a foot wide corridor leading out of the room. Possible to get through, but only just. The aasimar shimmied sideways into the gap and began to palm down the thin corridor towards the room twenty feet ahead. Milo held his ears but picked himself up as he saw the faint placid bones of the skeletons lumbering towards them. With a shout, Milo pushed Thalin into the thin passageway then followed him through with considerable ease.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle sprinted forwards, eager to catch the running mage. Overtaking the skeletons, he bounded towards the room ahead, his crossbow loaded and ready to fire.
- - - - - - - - - -
Torious reached the halfway point of the corridor, looking up, he saw his blazing scars illuminate a small pole held horizontally between the walls. No wait; a slender blade covered in dust was wedged perfectly into the foot wide gap. Shouting back to his companions to be aware of the blade, Torious ducked the knife and squeezed past. As he passed, a faint vibration could be heard from the knife, as if under incredible pressure. Torious’ scars dulled for a moment as he realised what they were sliding through.
“Run! The blade is all that’s holding the walls!”
As if in reply, the blade emitted a dull thrum as its blade point slid a quarter inch to the side. The walls shook, but didn’t close any further.
Torious slid out of the other side and breathed in deep gulps of air as he turned back and offered his hand to Thalin to help drag him out of the corridor. Grasping the priest’s hand, Thalin pulled free of the walls as the blade hummed again and slid even further. The walls groaned in reply.
Milo passed under the knife as a shriek from the end of the corridor heralded the arrival Lyle. His goggled eyes stretched down the corridor, coming to rest on the knife. Understanding the forces at work, he levelled the crossbow at the knife hilt and began to aim as the halfling scrabbled towards the exit.
Lyle stood silhouetted in the corridor gap, his goggles two discs of light against the darkness as the skeletons caught up and began to press themselves into the corridor. The undead crawled over each other towards the three heroes, their thick bones scraping against the wall sides as they moved.
Cursing, Lyle saw his shot ruined by the overlapping undead and tried to re-aim over them.
Milo slipped through the end of the corridor, and not waiting to catch his breath, jumped up and pulled his rope from his backpack and began to whirl it in the air. Thalin ducked suddenly as a black-feathered bolt ricocheted from the corridor roof and slit through his cloak, inches from his arm.
Measuring his aim, Milo twirled the rope once more as the first of the skeletons swarmed under the knife, and then released the rope end. The rope snaked towards the knife and perfectly wrapped around the blade, but the halfling’s joy turned to dismay as the razor sharp knife-edge slit the wrapped rope into pieces.
The skeletons reached under the knife and begin to spill towards the end of the corridor. Lyle began to aim again as the halfling dragged the rope in and threw again.
With a shout of victory, Milo’s rope whipped around the blade hilt. Skeletal hands began to claw and scrape at the knife but to no avail.
“See ya later” said Milo as he jerked the rope backwards, dislodging the blade. With a thunderous grating, the walls began to close together. Milo deftly caught the blade as it whistled through the air, the name Sliverspike crafted into the hilt.
Skeletons snapped and folded into pieces as the walls compacted their brittle bodies. Showers of bone shards peppered the watching heroes as the skeletons reached the end of the corridor in a flurry of shattering frames.
Not wanting to watch the bones of the dwarves crushed, Thalin turned to view their new surroundings. They now stood in a large chamber with dig marks along the walls, the most recently excavated, thought Thalin. The opposite wall was a single huge stonework door, larger than any before. But he didn’t have time to investigate further as two coins zipped through the closing walls and scattered onto the ground at his feet. With a slam, the walls closed, cutting off Lyle’s sudden maniacal laughter.
The coins lay at his feet for a moment, and then dissolved into the ground. Torious and Milo stood with the mage as they watched in horror as out of thin air a circle of bones ripped into existence. Stepping back slowly, the three companions backed away towards the huge doors as the hovering bone circle began to build upon itself, adding grisly layers of blood and filth.
With a green blast, the circles throbbed once then two withered human figures stepped through and dropped into a predatory crouch. Each cloaked figure had a deformed, taloned hand, which rippled with powerful muscles. Their red bale-fire eyes viewed their targets with a murderous lust.
Torious screamed in celestial fury as he recognised two banedead, dread servants of the banished god Bane.
Torious had barely a moment to contemplate their arrival as the banedead leapt at him, fanged mouths eager for aasimar flesh. Bowling him backwards, the undead drove their claws into any exposed flesh they could find. Torious struggled to fight the creatures off, feeling his limbs become slow and sluggish in response to his thoughts.
Thalin shouted a battle cry and barreled one of the creatures off of his companion, driving Shard into its side. But the scimitar clattered against the rotted skin as if it were a metal sheet.
“They cannot be hurt!” screamed Thalin as the banedead ignored him and leapt towards Torious.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle stamped against the wall again, his efforts to get through useless against the ancient stone. Furious that the mage was out of his sight, Lyle turned to find another way in but halted as a dwarven voice echoed through the room.
“Triggered. Closed.”
Lyle span and answered back in fluent dwarven,
“Deactivate. Open.”
The walls stood unmoving for a moment then slowly ground open. Lyle grinned sadistically as the thin line to the mage gradually grew wider.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Yes they can, but only by magic!” shouted Torious back as he landed a gauntleted fist into one of his assailant’s faces as he pushed himself into a crouch. Thalin jumped back and realising his efforts with Shard were useless and only having a few spells left, the mage began to assist Torious, finding that the banedead wouldn’t even attack the mage even if he pulled them away and forced them back from the priest of Tyr.
Milo fumbled through his bag again, his hands pressing through the rubbish and rags collected over time until his fingers touched what he had been looking for, the keystone. Spilling the contents of his bag everywhere, Milo pulled the huge gem free. Holding it up to the door, he grinned as it matched perfectly to the gem already placed into one of the two holes. With a slight pause, understanding this could well be the end of his fortune, Milo pressed the gem into the second slot. With a sound like someone sighing, the two gems retracted into the holes and the whole chamber began to shudder as the massive doors began to part at the centre.
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