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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 1613341" data-attributes="member: 463">Follow the Bear Leo was woken by a horrendous noise. He was a little groggy. It had taken him time to get to sleep. His mind had raced madly only a little time ago. Unknown to the others he had come to a certain realisation about his powers. New aspects and horizons had become apparent to him. Especially a new ability to cast spells much faster than before, albeit in a limited manner. The noise was Deorn’s alarm spell. Leo felt as though he had only been asleep a minute. He opened his eyes and saw three horrendous trolls. Two he recognised from before. The third was a much bigger creature with a large halberd. Stepping through the spell they set it off, but by that stage they had got very close to Xiang and Raven who had been sleeping near the corridor. Those two were awake but still on the ground when the trolls reached them. The monsters took full advantage and injured both warriors, especially Raven. Then, belying their bulk, they struck again speedily, using their full claws and teeth. The large troll especially struck Raven with both his claws causing grievous wounds. Xiang was also struck by the two lesser trolls. The plucky dwarven warriors Balto and Korbon moved in to help the warriors who were still on the ground. Like Leo, Raven and Xiang seemed to be finding it difficult to orientate themselves but they were finally getting up. Tarquin reacted quickest and he made his way to heal the warriors. Leo finally managed to get up and seeing the horrendous wounds on Raven’s body, he let off a strength-draining ray at the largest troll. The creature seemed to visibly shrink in front of everyone’s eyes. Raven took heart and dealt one of the weaker trolls a ferocious blow, which almost downed it. Then Xiang landed a blow on the other troll but again didn’t down it. Suddenly a column of fire descended on all three creatures. Fjorent had flame struck them. One of trolls was down and all the others severely hurt. The largest troll managed to get one final set of attacks on Raven but they were a pale shadow of their previous power and both of the creatures were soon dispatched. As before though, their wounds were visibly closing in front of everyone’s eyes. Rapidly, the warriors put the two trolls together and then Fjorent struck them with fire again. This time the creatures were fried. The group took a little time to glance around. The excitement was over. Tarquin dispensed healing, especially to Raven. He made sure that everyone was healthy before everyone settled down to rest again. Even though it was uneasy, Leo managed to gain enough rest to allow him to learn his spells. He was also going to try to see if he could cast these “fast” spells he had thought about the previous evening. It was a process unlike any he had tried before but he had to attempt it. He was gambling but there was only one way to find out if this was going to work. Everyone got ready. Behind the large wall, which acted as a portcullis, there was a corridor where the group had fought a duergar patrol before they rested. Just after they had eliminated the patrol, the group had spotted a door. It was this door that they were going to investigate. Leo made a doorway in the portcullis wall and Fjorent summoned Baron Ghost Bear, another of her spirits. This one looked like a monstrous bear made out of granite. It was very large and intimidating. A brief conversation ensued between it and Fjorent, which basically explained that it would get to cause a lot of mayhem, which seemed to satisfy it. Fjorent also carefully explained to it that Leo was going to cast a spell on it, which would allow it to see in the dark. It became even happier after that. The group formed up and made their way down the corridor, Cailin moving ahead as usual. They came to a Y shaped junction where they had the fight with the Duergar patrol. The door was on the left branch and that was the way the group moved. Suddenly Cailing motioned the group to stop. She moved forward stealthily. Then the group heard the call of a horn in behind the door. Obviously whatever element of surprise they had had was gone. Speed was now of the essence. Leo cast another spell on Ghost Bear and the spirit then lumbered forward towards the door. He was followed more cautiously by everyone else. Cailin called out that there was something invisible in the corner next to the door. A moment later Ghost Bear started swiping the air in the corner and then a small corpse appeared transfixed on one of its claws. An invisible lookout. To be expected. Then, on Fjorent’s instructions, Ghost Bear started to smash the door. It had several small spikes on this side, as if they had been hammered from the other side. It took a couple of minutes for the spirit to smash through. Leo took advantage of this time to cast several spells on himself as the doors neared destruction. The group got ready. Then, as Ghost Bear demolished the doors, a hail of arbalest bolts flew towards him. Most of them missed but a few hit. Even those that hit did little damage. At the same time, several spells were cast at the group. The most visible effect was that Ghost Bear suddenly couldn’t see in the darkness and Tarquin was paralysed. Then the rest of the group moved into the area. The way was led by Raven who moved in at great speed. He shouted out that he could see at least two ranks of massed duergar, with more behind. The front rank had dropped their arbalests and drawn hand weapons. An idea was forming in Leo’s mind when he heard this. He had a spell which was just right for this occasion. First, he had to be able to fly to position himself. During this time, the enemy first rank charged towards Raven. Fortunately, it was their weakest soldiers that reached him except one cleric and the Holy warrior was very resistant to magic. Then a strange cloud appeared in the air above this cleric and a lightning bolt struck him. The rest of the warriors charged forward to make a line with Raven. Fjorent shouted at one of the dwarven warriors to use her Everburning Torch to provide light for Ghost Bear. Then it was time for Leo to fly forward. He moved just behind the first rank. Then he let loose. A multicoloured cone of lights sprang from his hands, catching all of the remaining Duergar. Leo gaped. Although he knew what the spell did in theory, he had never actually used it in practice. The effects were spectacular. As the various coloured rays struck them, some of the duergar started smoking as the flesh seemed to melt from their bones, others crackled with electricity, some were burned though this effect was mild in comparison to the others. Several statues appeared, while others simply disappeared. Several fights started amongst their ranks where former comrades started fighting each other. All of this caused havoc in the well-ordered duergar ranks. The few that remained, numbering about a dozen, scampered back to the exits from the cave. In the meantime, the front rank, unaware of what had happened to their comrades, tried to strike the warriors but they had little luck. Then the group struck back and more duergar corpses started piling up. The battle took little time after that. Leo was hit by a barrage of spells from the duergar clerics but none of these affected him. He chased a few of them and managed to cause more casualties, but a couple escaped and he had little appetite for chasing duergar in the Underdark on his own. Balto and Korbon alternated between awe and ecstasy at the sight of the group destroying so many of their enemies in such a short time. The group then started to explore this huge cavern a little more. There were several runes on the wall and the remains of a workshop, which had been stripped a long time ago. Cailin gave the place a thorough search and found a finely made jewel case. As she opened it, she found three fine precious red stones. There was something strange about them. Also one of the duergar had a magical axe which was collected. The dwarven warriors were able to recollect that Lord Maugraign had been a powerful magical artificer who made many magical constructs. These were used in the wars against the duergar. Once again Leo was reminded of the titanic battles that had been fought in the Underdark in ages past. There was little or no knowledge of these in the surface world but it showed that the dwarves kept many secrets. The world was full of secrets. The fun was in finding them out. The runes on the wall told that this workshop was kept by someone called Jorred. Logic suggested this Jorred either worked with or for Maugraign. Suddenly there was a shout from the back. Tarquin had been keeping a rearguard on the entrance to the cave. Two arbalest bolts had struck him he was shouting about enemy in the hallway. They had employed their usual tactics, using their superior vision to then approach and let loose with their arbalests. They also had one of their clerics with them but he was unable to affect Tarquin with his spell. The warriors of the group moved into the corridor, weapons at the ready. Soon the enemy came into sight. It was another duergar patrol, obviously a flanking group, meant to deal a devastating blow to the group as they were engaged with the larger contingent. As it was, the warriors reached them and then Leo took out a wand and a hail of ice and snow struck the duergar. It staggered them and they almost dropped. Then the warriors slaughtered them. Unfortunately, the cleric again got away. The group moved back into the large cave. Fjorent summoned another spirit. A little coal black humanoid appeared. Red eyes stared impishly at her. Greetings were exchanged and the questions started. Wistfully it told her about the times when this workshop had been full of activity. Fires blazed, dwarves scurried around, bellows blew and the air was full of the sound of metal hammering on metal. Jorred ran a tight workshop and this spirit had aided the dwarves in their artifice. It explained how it was put into a large body that had been constructed for it. How it had wheels and how it crushed many duergar. It warned the group about other constructs, which still had spirits in them. These had gone insane over the centuries. Then, when asked, it explained that the great temple of Grom which was in the large cave. When the group told it that they didn’t want to go into the large cave it said it knew of another way into the Temple which didn’t involve going through the large cave. Fjorent strengthened the spirit and gave it some precious stones. Like most of her spirits, it was quite greedy for these. It then led the group retracing their steps, into the large room where they had rested, then into the room where they met the trolls and then into a side corridor. There it turned and said that the Temple lay that way but it couldn’t go any further. It warned the group that the way to the Temple contained unquiet dwarven spirits that had gone mad during the centuries and they could attack all who they considered to be intruders. It then turned to Tarquin and pointing at him said: “He is a spirit fighter”. With those words it disappeared.</blockquote>

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