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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spider_Jerusalem" data-source="post: 251481" data-attributes="member: 5507">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.</blockquote>

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