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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4525158" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 16 - Getting Back (Part 3)Lavren closed his eyes for a moment and with a dizzying rush he passed through the mausoleum against which he had stood and reappeared on the other side. He plunged his sword into the skeleton before him and watched it shattered before his eyes. Surveying the enemies before him, he sheathed his sword and reached for his wand. It was then that an arrow drove into his shoulder and he decided upon his next foe.Thira watched the elf move away from Erlmoor, firing an arrow from her bow as she fled. Thira lowered her stave, uttered an incantation and sent forth a shimmering arrow of green, glowing liquid towards the elf. It struck the woman in the side and burst in a spray of searing acid. The elf cried out as pain tore through her and staggered as she ran. Thira leveled her stave and brought to mind another spell.Dulvarna dodged left and right as the two hounds darted at her, ravenous teeth bared. One leapt at her and tried to bite at her hip but the scales of her armour defeated it and it let go. She spun on the spot, slashing out with her blade and striking the muzzle of one hound and the shoulder of the other. Both reeled away and then turned on her, snarling. Dulvarna smiled and raised her blade in the traditional salute to an enemy. They came back at her as invited. Behind Dulvarna, unseen by the warrior woman, Kel prayed fervently as she tried to stem the chill that was spreading from her arm. She staggered and almost fell, holding herself up with her morningstar. The drow silently prayed as well that Dulvarna could keep the terrible hounds at bay.Lavren leveled his wand and loosed searing bolts of purple fire that engulfed one skeleton and consigned it to the dust from which it had come. Meanwhile, more arrows struck turf and stone from all directions and Thira cast about looking for the right target to strike at. She spotted the elf near the eastern edge of the graveyard and leveled her stave. With a word, the tiefling loosed a silver bolt that struck the elf in the shoulder and sent her reeling away. The archer glared at the tiefling and then started towards the gate, apparently seeking to leave the companions to their fate.    One of the hounds leapt at Dulvarna and bore her to the ground, while sinking its teeth into her shoulder. The other hound darted forward but Dulvarna rolled away and pushed herself to her feet. She slashed out with her sword and wounded both hounds, driving them back for a moment as she faught the numbness of the new wound that she had suffered.Erlmoor slashed high with his sword and swept the head from the skeleton before him. He paused for a moment, wondering if the thing could survive such a blow but once the collapsed bones had failed to move after a heartbeat, he decided that he had slain the thing. He looked around and spotted the elf woman making for the gate and he started towards her, only to stop and look over towards Dulvarna. She was hard pressed but had the rest of the group around her. The elf was they key to this thing! Erlmoor rushed after the elf, with his sword held high.Lavren loosed a crackling black bolt at another skeleton but struck a gravestone beside the undead creature instead. The skeleton turned and leveled its bow, loosing an arrow that drove into the elf’s shoulder. Lavren felt the jolt but felt no pain as the strength of the undead life he had taken with his sword surged to his shoulder and absorbed the wound. What a power, he thought, and he put away his wand and reached for his sword again.Thira watched the elf woman draw her sword and face off against Erlmoor and turned away from that battle. The dragonborn would deal with the her, Thira knew, and so she turned her attention elsewhere in the battle. Leveling her stave at the nearest hound, she loosed a silver bolt that struck the beats in the flank and sent it reeling backwards. With a growl, it darted forward again but Dulvarna was waiting. The woman’s blade swept across and split open the hound’s head. With deft precision she twisted on the spot and drove the blade down into the shoulder of the other hound. It yelped and retreated before resuming its rabid growling and coming forward once more.Erlmoor forced the elf back against the fence while praying to Lathander. His blade glowed white and he stabbed it forward, aiming for the elf’s heart. She twisted to one side and the blade drove into her shoulder instead. Her own blade slashed out as she turned on the spot to move along the iron bars, biting into Erlmoor’s left arm. He roared his anger and advanced on the elf again as a silver bolt flew past the elf on the other side, emphasizing how trapped she was.Kel and Lavren charged at the same time, meeting skeletons close to the southernmost of the small mausoleums. Kel swung out with her morningstar but the skeleton ducked back as it threw down its bow and drew its sword from the leather belt draped grotesquely around its bare hip bones. The creature stabbed out with its blade, driving the point into Kel’s shoulder, close to an earlier wound. She cried out and fell back a step. Lavren looked over to her and then turned back to his own foe, parrying desperately to keep the skeleton at bay.Dulvarna struck low at the last hound, stabbing her blade into its foreleg, close to the shoulder. The creature retreated, favouring the leg as it did so. Somehow, the hound managed to leapt anyway, hurling itself at Dulvarna’s throat, teeth tearing at her flesh as the heavy hound drove her to the ground once more. The chill began to spread almost at once and though the warrior woman managed to push the dog aside, she doubted that she could rise again. Warily, the creature growled as it decided how to finish her.The elf darted to Erlmoor’s left, still seeking to make it to the graveyard gates but the dragonborn was quicker. He feinted a blow there and the elf darted back only for the dragonborn to bring his blade back up high and plunge it forward into the elf’s throat. She gasped, staggered and then fell to the ground at Erlmoor’s feet. With a snarl, the dragonborn turned away and started back towards the others.Kel struck down the skeleton before her, her morningstar smashing through its shoulder and its ribs until it collapsed into a pile of bone. She looked over at Lavren before turning aside and rushing back to aid Dulvarna. Behind her, Lavren exchanged parries with the last skeleton and then gasped as the undead creature scored another hit. He looked back at Kel and Dulvarna and knew that his aid would be needed against the undead hound. Turning back to his foe, he saw another skeleton shambling towards him with a blade in its hand. Cursing his luck, he battled on.Thira loosed a silver bolt at the hound as Dulvarna’s head slumped back and her eyes rolled upwards. The chill of the grave had finally overcome the warrior woman. She had lost the fight. Erlmoor charged at the hound with a roar, his sword sweeping down and cleaving open the side of the hound’s body. It rolled over on the ground and did not get up. The paladin knelt beside Dulvarna and withdrew cloth bandages from his belt while the others looked around for the enemies that remained. Kel rushed to aid Lavren, her morningstar singing out and smashing through the body of another skeleton. Lavren smiled at the dark elf, feinted neatly to his right and then swept the head of the last skeleton from its shoulders. Elf and dark elf looked around for more enemies for a few moments but when they saw none, they turned back towards their companions who tended their fallen leader.“She will live,” said Erlmoor in his deep, baritone voice.Relieved, the others surveyed the carnage of the battlefield and the slain elf who had brought such terror to Winterhaven.</blockquote>

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