NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4527007" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 18 - The Deeper TunnelsEach knelt in turn at the altars of Selune and paid respects in their own way before the companions moved on. They passed through the crypt undisturbed this time and emerged into the tunnels where they had faught the zombies with only one way forward. Dulvarna led them cautiously northward through the twisting passages but then stopped suddenly at strange designs inscribed into the floor.“Runes of some kind,” said Enlishia. “But I know them not. We should not touch them”“Agreed,” said Dulvarna and with a few steps back, she jumped over the runes. The others followed suit and slowly they made their way northward once more.They passed two more sets of runes before they came to a chamber at the northern end of the passages from which stairs descended into darkness. The group shared determined glances before Dulvarna drew forth Aecris and started down the stairs.The stairs descended into a large, torch-lit chamber with two creatures, the sixe of men standing near the entrance. Big, pointed ears struck out from under their helmets, and sharp teeth glittered in their mouths. One of the guards yelled out a challenge phrase.“Shadow seeks shadow!” it called out.“From the ground, some magic is found,” called out Kel, reciting the phrase in Kalarel’s letter to the elf Ninaran.“Intruders”, the hobgoblins screamed and charged towards the newcomers.Lavren drew his wand and darted to the right as the hobgoblins came forward. As he reached the wall of the room, he turned and loosed crackling black energy from his wand that flew over the heads of the two guards. Two more hobgoblins had been standing against the north wall but now they were turning towards the passageway between them. A side door opened in the north west corner of the room and more hobgoblins came forth to battle the intruders.The guards at the entrance surged forward, drawing flails from their belts. One lashed out and struck Dulvarna on the shoulder before she could raise her blade. Kel moved to aid Dulvarna, slashing out with her morning star. The hobgoblin turned his body and brought his flail across to parry the blow before twisting the drow’s weapon aside. Thira darted behind the dark elf to join Lavren against the right hand wall. She turned, lowered her staff and fire burst around the two hobgoblins, lighting clothes and searing skin. A hobgoblin appeared from an eastern side passage, apparently ignoring the elf and the tiefling as it rushed to join the battle with a sword in its hand. Lavren lowered his wand and prepared a spell.Two more hobgoblins joined the battle at the chamber entrance as Dulvarna and Kel faught to keep them at bay. Erlmoor rushed past the dark elf on the right, his blade in his hands The huge sword swung out but was blocked at the last, inches from the hobgoblin’s head by the handle of the guard’s flail held crosswise. Enlishia entered the chamber behind Erlmoor and made for the wall next to Lavren and Thira. The ranger leveled her bow and loosed an arrow. The shaft drove through the neck of a hobgoblin running to join the battle and sent him tumbling to the stone floor. Unsurprisingly, he did not get up but lay where he had landed. Erlmoor ducked as a flail swung high but no soon had he risen again than the weapon came in low and struck the side of his leg hard. He staggered but then regained his footing though his wounded leg was engulfed in pain. Lavren cursed the nearest hobgoblin to him and loosed black energy at the warrior that struck it in the shoulder and sent it reeling against the edge of the well that dominated the centre of the chamber.Dulvarna staggered as a blade drove into her left leg and as she turned to fend off this new enemy, a flail lashed the back of her shoulders and twisted her back around to the foes before her. Kel saw Dulvarna’s plight and tried to call forth dark fire to limn the hobgoblin and mark it. At the last, the hobgoblin moved and the enchantment missed its mark. She swung out with her morningstar but again the blow was parried and the prayer on her lips failed.Thira looked to the plight of her companions at the entrance and then glanced towards the northern passage into which both hobgoblins who had been standing nearby had gone. They had to be up to something, she decided, and surely it could not be good. With a wink to Lavren, she rushed across the chamber and into the northern passage. There, at the far end of a square chamber, the two hobgoblins busied themselves with the fastenings of a large cage. Within the cage was a large, brown spider, the size of a wolf. Already its mandibles were clacking at the bars as poison dripped from them. Without a second thought, Thira lowered her staff, uttered an incantation and filled the room with flame. The spider screeched but the hobgoblins were paralysed with fear. Fire engulfed them and they died beside the cage, seared the blackened corpses that collapsed to the floor.Erlmoor roared as he slashed out with his sword and then spewed acid over the enemies that surrounded him. The hobgoblins raised their shields and all but one was unharmed by the acid. Acid burned the arm of the slowest amongst them but the hobgoblin only roared his own anger at the dragonborn. Another hobgoblin came at him from his right with a flail and desperately, the paladin turned and parried high keeping the weapon at bay. Yet another foe joined the battle then, darting between Erlmoor and Dulvarna to stab its sword at Kel. She parried deftly and stepped back to give her room to size up her new enemy. An arrow drove into Erlmoor’s new enemy, the hobgoblin already burned by Lavren’s eldritch fire, and the warrior staggered to the right as the arrow drove into its side. Beside Kel, Dulvarna pulled back to try to draw breath while sizing up the three enemies that she faced. They held still, watching her as she stood with her blade held across her and then she darted at the nearest one, weaving her blade before her and then plunging it forward towards her enemy’s belly. The hobgoblin parried with his shield and then raised its flail to strike back at her. The flail came down and struck the side of her head, bringing blinding pain and bright lights before her eyes. Dulvarna staggered and waited for the killing blow but it never came. Instead, she heard Kel chanting in her own tongue and a warm feeling, almost too warm, washed over her. Opening her eyes, she lashed out with her sword and her enemies retreated for a moment. Kel had saved herLavren loosed purple bolts from his wand that struck the hobgoblin he had wounded earlier. The creature reeled and staggered for a moment and Lavren hoped Erlmoor would take his chance. Instead, Thira did. Emerging from the northern chamber, the tiefling lowered her stave and loosed a silver bolt at the reeling hobgoblin. The bolt tore through the creature’s back and burst out of its chest. It staggered again and then pitched over the edge into the well. Dulvarna reeled as another flail struck the side of her head and knew that the end of her battle had come. She heard Erlmoor roaring as he tried to reach her and took strength from that as she glanced over and saw one of his enemies driven back from him with a huge blow. Desperately, he struggled to reach her but she knew he would be too late. An arrow from Enlishia’s bow struck the same hobgoblin but still it raised its shield and blocked the dragonborn’s path. Dulvarna roared her own anger in answer to the dragonborn’s and swung Aecris with all her strength. The blade smashed through the shield of the hobgoblin before her, broken its arm and buried its tip in its side. The hobgoblin staggered backwards, stunned by the huge blow. It staggered and then with a roar of pain and anger the hobgoblin rushed at Dulvarna. Its flail swung out and smashed into her face before she could raise her blade. Pain and stars filled her head once more as she spun around on the spot. Then the blackness took her before she even hit the floor. A moment later, a silver bolt burst out of the chest of the hobgoblin and he fell forward across Dulvarna’s body, in death unknowingly hiding from his companions the fact that his enemy still breathed.Kel stepped forward to try to protect Dulvarna’s body, knowing not whether she lived or not. She parried desperately with her morningstar and swung out with the heavy weapon whenever she could. Erlmoor surged forward with her while Enlishia, Lavren and Thira provided their own missile support. A sword stabbed into Kel’s forearm but she paid it no mind, gritting her teeth through the pain and refusing to cry out. A flail lashed across the side of Erlmoor’s head, almost spinning him around and tearing wounds in his cheek and above his eye. He roared in response and rushed at his enemies more fiercely.Lavren cursed the hobgoblin before Erlmoor again and loosed black, crackling energy from his wand that seared across the warrior’s left side. The hobgoblin spun around and pitched headlong down the well after its companion. One of the remaining hobgoblins leapt over Dulvarna and the hobgoblin, stabbing its blade out at Kel and piercing her shoulder. She slashed out with her morningstar and drove her enemy back but two other hobgoblins, all that now remained of the force, pressed her back as well. A silver bolt from Thira’s stave burned through one, emerging from its chest and driving into the stone beside Kel. The hobgoblin fell to the floor, a look of stunned bemusement on its face. Another swung its flail wildly but then was engulfed in ribbons of radiance that burned its flesh. Erlmoor was upon it a moment later, his sword slashing at it from left and right. The hobgoblin parried desperately and Kel turned her attention back to the sword wielder that had just stabbed her. No sooner had she turned back to it than an arrow drove through its throat and the hobgoblin fell beside its companion and Dulvarna. With a glowing morningstar, Kel turned back to the last hobgoblin and smashed her weapon down on its right shoulder. It staggered as black, crackling energy from Lavren’s wand narrowly missed its head. A blue bolt seared into it from the other side but still the last hobgoblin refused to yield. It lashed out wildly with its flail but Erlmoor ducked the swing and slashed out with his blade to keep the warrior on the back foot. It stepped back and then an arrow drove through its throat. With a strangled gasp, it fell beside the others. Kel knelt beside Dulvarna and desperately felt for a lifebeat. The warrior woman dragged in a rattling breath but then slumped back and breathed no more. Kel put her head in her hands and all knew that another one of their number had fallen.</blockquote>

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