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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4702966" data-attributes="member: 143">Gah, no time to write lately. Digging deep into my reserve of chapters...* * * * * Chapter 9Carzen Zelos drew off his helm, and wiped the sweat from his brow.  It was not warm, not deep in the depths under the surface of the world, but they’d been walking for hours since they’d first entered the dark opening in the side of Thunderspire, and Vhael had set a hard pace.  He had no idea what time it was, or how many hours they’d been down here altogether.  “Stay together,” came the dragonborn’s voice from ahead, though he had not even turned to see Carzen’s pause.  The young nobleman stifled a curse and hurried forward to catch up with the rest of the group.  They’d been negotiating a slope for a good fraction of the last hour, following the main tunnel as it wound back and forth, in what Carzen recognized as the equivalent of switchbacks.  They had passed more dark side-passages, but Vhael had kept them straight on the main corridor, following the regular incidence of demon statues and magical green flames.  Finally they paused, Vhael and his wizard stopping to confer at one of the bends in the tunnel.  Gez and the halfling scout were nearby.  The other halfling was nowhere to be seen, but the little bastard always turned up where you least expected it.  “How far down does this go?” Carzen asked.For a moment he thought that the others would ignore him again, but then the dwarf looked up.  “The labyrinth is quite extensive,” he said.  “Our destination, the Seven-Pillared Hall, is far from the deepest place under Thunderspire.  We will be there shortly.”Carzen grimaced; he suspected that he and the wizard had differing definitions of “shortly.”  He leaned against the nearest wall and rubbed at the muscles of his legs, then bent to take off one of his boots.  “We’re not stopping,” Vhael said, and started down the next leg of the descending tunnel.  Carzen had no choice but to follow.    After the next bend in the tunnel the passage straightened out and resumed a more or less level course ahead.  The change caused new muscles in Carzen’s legs to start throbbing, but he tightened his jaw and forced himself to keep up.  The halfling scout shot a look at him but turned back at Carzen’s scowl; the little bastard had short legs, but he wasn’t wearing thirty pounds of metal, and a twenty pound pack, so he had no right to fault him. When Vhael called a halt about a thousand paces later, Carzen almost didn’t notice, and he had to shift suddenly to avoid tripping over Gezzelhaupt.  The easterner nodded an apology and moved out of the way, and Carzen had to bite back an irate comment.  He saw that Vhael was talking to the halfling and the dwarf, who pointed to the tunnel ahead and said something in response to a question that Carzen had missed.  He felt an odd instinct that something subtle had changed, and after a moment he realized that there was a faint but familiar change in the air, a hint of a smell that was strangely similar to that of Fallcrest.  The stink of civilization, he thought to himself wryly, a reek that was identical whether it existed in the sunlit Vale above, or in this gods-forsaken pit deep underground.  “So we’re almost there?” he asked, coming up to join the others, forcing himself to walk as though his feet didn’t hurt and a million pounds of earth weren’t looming over his head.  Vhael didn’t answer his question directly, but he said, “When we get to the Seven-Pillared Hall, you will pay close heed to Gral and myself.  We have been here before; you have not.  Do not wander off; do not speak to anyone without direction.  This place has its own unique customs and rules, and both are very unforgiving of ignorant outsiders.”Carzen felt a stab of anger at the dragonborn’s words, but he forced himself to smile.  “Sure thing, chief,” he said, taking some gratification at the dark look that flashed in the scaly’s beady eyes.  Vhael’s response, however, was interrupted by a sharp tug on his hauberk.  He looked down in surprise, and Carzen followed his gaze to see the other halfling, the weird one, standing in the shadow of the big dragonborn.  As usual, he’d come out of nowhere. “What is it?” Vhael asked.  For once, the halfling looked earnest, and he pointed back down the passage behind them, where a dark side tunnel they’d just passed was just barely visible. “Some hobgoblins are beating up a halfling,” he said.  “Come quick!”</blockquote>

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