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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1401452" data-attributes="member: 15043">The Search for the Sword Part IIShe wanted desperately to stop and hold him, but she was too afraid to.  I know hon, I know Luke!  “It’ll be alright!” she said hurriedly, pulling him further along.  As they ran further along, Siabrey desperately peered into room after room they passed.  All appeared rather nicely decorated, adorned with symbols of the Countess and Grazz’t, but none were a treasury or an armory.During the raid of one of these rooms (in which an unarmed priest tried to resist, resulting in Siabrey planting her sword in the back of his head when he tried to scream out), Tess found something that chilled her to the bone.It was a rather crude sketch of what looked to be a dragon, with a small stick figure beside it for comparison.  The creature easily towered some 80 feet in the air... assuming the little stick man was 5 ft tall.   Beneath it, in immaculate priestly calligraphy was the phrase, “Stalatan, Great Red Wyrm.  Two relatives in H.”Holy... glad that we won’t be facing THAT in here... H.?  Could H be...“Oh god,” the rest of the party heard her hiss quietly.“What?  Did you find the sword?” a panicky Siabrey pressed, as Shaun crowded close as well.“No... the Countess has a at least two red dragons in Holstean... maybe even a Great Wyrm,” she held up the picture for the party.  Several gasps went around, and faces fell, though Siabrey’s remained skeptical.“How do we not know that was not just the idle scribbling of a bored priest?” she asked pointedly, before heading towards the door.  “Take it if you wish, but I’m going to go look for the sword!”  She tugged Lucius after her, and the party followed, Tess tucking the drawing into her pocket.  A little further down, the party found a well made hallway heading off towards the left, and darted down it, certain that somwhere down this hall was the treasure they sought to heal their friend.  As they ran, Shaun, near the lead, suddenly called for everyone to stop.  There’s something glistening just above the floor there, he gingerly went forward, and leaned low, his eyes catching glimpse of the fine metal of a tripwire, one of the best he’d seen.  Hmm... well... lets follow this wire and see where it goes... and what I can disa...”A soft, weak gust of wind from somewhere (likely originating from the massive demon/devil war) blew the wire barely a fraction of an inch.  It brushed his hand... and that was all that was required.He heard a clunking noise from overhead, and rolled away just barely fast enough to avoid the tall blocks that fell both in front and behind him.  They both came to the ground with an earth shattering smash, and Shaun quickly realized he was trapped.  He could not hear Elenya’s panicked cries, or the party’s frantic calls to him.  He did hear distant cracking noises on one of the blocks as the party began chipping away at it.  And then another noise joined the distant chipping......a soft hiss.Shaun coughed hard, and then began to gag as the room around him began to fill with poisonous fumes gushing from two small holes in the floor.  Frantically he pushed the block he heard the chippings from, and finally took his own dagger and began carving as well.  After a minute or two, he was forced to take a painful gasp of air, and his lungs screamed with burning as the poison now dug deep into him.  Fortunately there was some oxygen left, and he was bale to begin holding his breath again, despite tears rolling down his face from the pain.It was barely 30 seconds later that the rock in front of him sparked a large crack as a loud smack echoed in his prison.  Quickly he began pulling at hte crack, and within seconds heard a clink as his dagger met something metal.  He jerked his blade back, and watched as most of the roiling green vapors of the poison wafted out of the small hole.  A few minutes afterwards, he saw a green eye peering in.  “Shauny!?” Elenya’s panicked voice called. “Are you ok?”“Yes, sweetie!” he rasped, coughing.  “I just had to hold my breath a little bit!”  Good Hieroneous, I thought I was going to die there!“Don’ worry!” the voice belonging to the tearied eye said, “We’ll get you out!”The party spent another ten minutes carving a hole big enough for them to crawl through, and another fifteen cutting through the other stone to their front.  While the blocks were airtight, they were only an inch or so thick, allowing the party to use their weapons to chip away holes (the rock also seemed rather weak as well).After crawling through the last block, the party found themselves at a T-intersection.  To their right was a doorway that opened to a larger room, and to their left as an ornate set of gilt double doors.  The party sighed in relief, and dashed to the doors, in their joy not seeing that Lucius was starting to loll.  Tess leaned her ear up against the door to listen inside, but as she touched the door, it swung full open.The room they saw was elaborate and ornate, despite the fact it was carved out of solid rock.  Tapestries and paintings covered the walls, as pleasant light came from a magical series of glowglobes overhead.  A thick carpet covered the floor, with an ornate bed in one corner and a rather expensive looking desk in the middle.  On the far side, beside the bed was what looked to be an exceptionally long dresser of some kind, also ornate.  For all this finery, no piece of furniture dominated the room as much as its inhabitant.Facing the party was something that looked like a mix between a man and a demon.  The fearsome armor covering all of his body save his face was the form of a steel demon, dark with power and equipped with vicious, sharp claws on its steel hide.  From inside the helm of this fearsome apparition glared the eyes of a man, clearly in his early forties by the tufts of dark and grey hair that hung barely in view.In his hand he carried a fearsome weapon; a heavy flail that looked rusted and old.  Flies lazily circled around it as he closed the drawer of the cabinet he was opening, and with a growl, launched himself towards the party, the flail raised high over his head.   Poor, unfortunate Igbar was in front, and the High Priest of Grazz’t concentrated his fury on the paladin of the hated Hieroneous.  With one fell swing, Igbar’s skull was crushed to nearly a pancake, and even as the sickening crunches of a skull being decimated sank from the air, his limp form collapsed to the ground.Lucius began wavering dangerously, but the party was too busy to notice, as Siabrey launched herself forward at the beast with a fury, trying to get his attention and keep him away from Lucius.  Over here you brute! Here!  Come and catch me, c’mon!  She ducked and weaved his lumbering mass, landing several fell blows on him.Pellaron, with an unearthly scream, launched himself at the beast as well, tears streaming from his face as his blade lashed deep into the creature’s armor.  Still it lumbered, closer to Siabrey.  Grumki’s warhammer joined in, clanging violently off of the creature, yet still it came.  Shaun’s rapier lashed through one of the holes in the armor, and the creature noticeably shook, but continued its slow, inevitable pursuit.  Tess, after seeing what befell her comrade, let lose with a frightening burst of song, shaking the creature’s armor vigorously, and causing it heavy damage, even as three magic missiles from Elenya found their target at the same time.  As if it was a tottering giant, it still lumbered forward, unevenly.It was at this point that Lucius finally keeled over, the strength of evil around him finally too much.  His skin was now a deep crimson, his eyes brighter than twin moons.  His mouth hung open, and small gasps of air came out, his body shuddering.At the same time, the massive creature of a man swung at Siabrey, his flail crushing in one of her shoulder pieces, and piercing to the bone.  She felt soemthing horrible come into her from the weapon... it seemed one of the flies buzzing around it tried to burrow into her skin, and she could feel it wiggling around.  She wrenched her shoulder away, gasping in terrible pain as she did so.  The wiggling around stopped, and she could barely hold onto her blade, as she tried to clutch her wounded shoulder.Shaun leapt in front of his wounded friend, and his rapier danced through the air in a blinding series of fakes, false thrusts, and lunges.  The lumbering man in dark armor fell for each, leaning slowly and twisting himself to try and stay away.  In a fatal miscalculation, he ended up leaning forward to avoid a faked thrust, leaving his neck partially exposed. The priest did not have the time to see Shaun’s smile of satisfaction before the rogue’s rapier slashed a deep “S” into his throat, and the mass of putrid humanity collapsed to the ground, his crimson blood staining his blue carpet.It was now that Lucius’ muffled whimpers could be heard by the party, and Tess, Shaun, Grumki and Elenya were swiftly by the poor boy’s side.  The paladins immediately tended to their fallen comrade.  Siabrey was in the lead of those tending Lucius, her desperately painful wound long forgotten as she cradled his head.“Lucius!” she cried, shaking him, “Lucius! Wake up! Please!  Please wake up!” Oh God!  Lucius!  Come back to me!  Please!</blockquote>

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