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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4784329" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 32Carzen quite nearly took a foot of steel in the face as he spun wildly around, trying to recover his balance and bring his shield back up into a semblance of a defense.  Blood covered his hand and made his grip on his sword tenuous, but for now it was all he could do not to get skewered; actually venturing an attack was out of the question. The gnoll whose blood dripped from the blade was expiring noisily at his feet, but his companions were making a good start on getting revenge.  Carzen grimaced at the pain where the marauder had scored with his initial thrust, but he couldn’t afford more than that, as he and the big humanoid danced their deadly dance.  A deafening roar came from his left, but he couldn’t spare it a glance.  He only hoped that Vhael and Gral were able to handle the gnoll scourge.  The initial exchange had seemed to go well for their side, but then, even as Carzen had taken down his first foe, the big gnoll had summoned up some sort of demon, a hulking ape-thing that had torn into Vhael like a tornado.  The battle had lasted for all of maybe thirty seconds thus far, but Carzen’s arms burned, and his heart pounded in his chest like a hammer as he sought to fight off the gnoll spearman.  He had no idea who had the upper hand.  The two sides had met in an almost comic fashion, moving around a bend in the tunnel to find themselves facing each other across maybe twenty feet of space.  Carzen had barely had enough time to register the presence of enemies before Vhael’s order to charge had penetrated his consciousness.  It had been a good idea, probably, as he’d caught sight of a number of archers in the enemy ranks.  Surina had hit them with some sort of fireball that had roasted the hell out of most of the gnolls before the fighters came close enough to attack.  But he didn’t imagine Vhael had wagered on the demon, either. Well, he had his own hands full, as he finally got his shield up and around to turn another thrust of the spear.  His sword followed, and his confidence began to return as he drove the gnoll back a step with a powerful sweep of his blade.  He actually grinned as the marauder snarled at him.  He parried another thrust, and shifted his feet in preparation of another lunge.  That’s when he tripped over the gnoll he’d taken down earlier .  “Oh, sh—”He wasn’t hurt, although the impact of the hard floor on his back knocked the air from his lungs.  But his shield suddenly felt very small, the steel spearhead of the marauder’s weapon huge, as his foe stepped around his fallen companion and bared his teeth at Carzen. He was trying to gauge where the thrust would come when the gnoll abruptly exploded.  Flames roared out in a bright flare that blinded him for a second, followed by a wash of heat that singed his face hard enough to hurt even through the pain in his side.  But the gnoll was in much worse shape than he was, a fact that he realized as the fire died and the starbursts filling his eyes began to clear.   Never one to refuse a gift, he rose to a crouch and slid half the length of his sword into the gnoll’s gut.  He looked over his shoulder and saw what he expected.  He still wasn’t quite sure about dragonborn facial expressions, but he thought that maybe Surina was grinning at him.  Wondering if he still had eyebrows, he nodded, “Yeah, thanks.”  “Look out!” the warlock returned, lifting a clawed hand that burst into bright red flame. “naughty word!” Carzen exclaimed, as an arrow sliced past his face, close enough for him to feel the wind of its passing.  Training replaced thought as he turned and ran, and he was swinging even before he had clearly marked the archer.  The gnoll was drawing out another arrow from the quiver at his belt even as Carzen attacked, and he brought his big longbow up in an attempt to deflect the crashing sword.  The huntmaster succeeded, at the cost of his weapon, which snapped as Carzen’s sword smashed into it.  The gnoll reached for the long dirk stuck through his belt, but before he was hit he was struck by the fiery pulse that shot past Carzen to strike him solidly in the left shoulder.  The gnoll fell back, screaming in pain, and gave up, turning to flee.  Which just made it easier, as far as Carzen was concerned.  Once he’d cut down the injured gnoll, he returned to the others.  The battle was over.  Vhael stood over the mangled body of the ape-demon, and the gnoll leader who had summoned it was in little better shape a short distance away, one clawed hand jutting up, frozen in a rime of ice crystals.  Surina and Gezzelhaupt seemed okay, although the warlock had taken an arrow to the arm that she hadn’t bothered to pluck out.  Crazy bitch probably doesn’t even feel pain, Carzen thought to himself.  “Everything all right?” he asked.  “Got the last one, tried to flee.”Vhael scanned the area with experienced eyes.  “Where’s Terrlen?”Oh, crap, the guide.  Carzen saw no sign of the man, but Gez said, “I think he took off into a side tunnel once the fight started.”“All right, we’d better find him,” Vhael said.  “Stay together, and stay alert.  It’s likely that anything lairing nearby would have heard the battle.”It didn’t take them long to find the tunnel where the guide must have fled; this part of the Labyrinth was not as criss-crossed with side passages and crevices as it was in the neighborhood of the Seven-Pillared Hall.  The tunnel they’d taken from the Hall had led them deeper under the earth, and more of the passages they passed showed little sign of working or indicators that intelligent creatures used them regularly.  This passage was like that, a narrow, twisting corridor that looked as though it might have originally served as the conduit for an underground stream.  Fortunately there were no forks or branches, allowing them to press on without danger of losing their way.  Vhael smelled it first.  “Blood,” the dragonborn said.  They slowed, alert for an ambush, and found the body a few moments later. There was enough of it left for them to immediately identify it as a gnoll huntmaster.  The remants of the creature’s bow were scattered about, and his dagger was nearby, the blade broken off just above the hilt.  “Grim,” Gral said, and none of the others could disagree.  The gnoll had not died well.  Deep gashes covered his throat, arms, and face.  They crossed one eye, where blood trailed from the ruined socket.  The gnoll’s jaw had been broken, the lower half jutting from his face at an impossible angle.  “Lot of nasty things down here,” Surina said.  “Over here!” Gez called, drawing their attention ahead, where the passage opened onto a small chamber.  The others joined him, giving the dead gnoll a wide berth, Vhael stepping into the lead again as they entered the place. The chamber was a bubble in the rock, a natural formation with a floor that sloped down to a pool that took up the back third or so of the space.  As Gez lifted his miner’s lamp, the spread of light revealed Terrlen Darkseeker, their guide, lying on the edge of the pool.  “Careful,” Vhael said, as Carzen and Gez started forward.  But as they edged closer, it was clear that the chamber was empty save for Terrlen.  Their guide was a human just on the near side of middle age, with a face lined with the experience of a difficult life, and pale skin from years spent underground.  He shifted as the others approached, and looked up at them with haunted eyes.  He looked as though he’d been knocked around some, his shirt torn in several places, but he bore no obvious wounds.  “What happened?” Carzen asked him. “I… I ran,” he said, his voice unsteady.  His clothes were wet; apparently he’d fallen into the pool at some point.  “The gnoll… chased…”“Yeah, we found him outside,” Gral said.  He glanced at Terrlen’s belt, where his dagger remained in its sheath.  “What killed him?”“I… I don’t know.  I’m not sure.  I was running, and this…this thing, it came out of nowhere… I heard the gnoll… it… I fell… I don’t know…”“He’s in shock,” Carzen said.  Now that the battle was over, he was starting to feel the sting of his own wounds.  “If those gnolls were guards, there’s going to be more of them coming.  Might be a good idea to get out of here before they arrive.”  Vhael glanced at Gral.  “Burned a lot of my spells back there,” the dwarf said.  He didn’t say anything about the gashes that trickled blood down Vhael’s arms, and Carzen had learned enough not to bring them up either.  Apparently the fight with the demon hadn’t all gone the warlord’s way. “We’ll fall back to that chamber we passed a half-hour back,” the dragonborn said.  “Can you walk?” For some reason, the dragonborn’s tone made Carzen feel more solicitous to the stunned guide, and he helped Terrlen to his feet.  The man flinched when Carzen touched him, but he seemed able to stand.  “He’ll be all right,” Carzen said.  “All right.  Take what you need from the bodies, and wreck anything you don’t.  We move out in two minutes.  And fill the extra water bottles, while we’re here.”He turned and left the room, with Surina on his heels.  Leaving Carzen with the others.  As Gral and Gez filled their waterskins from the pool, Carzen looked at the man standing next to him.  Terrlen hadn’t stopped shaking, and just watching him sent a shiver down Carzen’s own spine.  “Wonderful,” Carzen said to himself, reaching for his own waterskin.</blockquote>

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