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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4773855" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 4 - The Pit of Death (Part 1)A stench of death and blood assailed each of the companions as they appeared suddenly atop a pile of bodies. Men, women, dwarves, elves, halflings and others, all apparently recently killed but all wearing clothes and armour of an earlier age. The pile of bodies seemed to shift, as though something might be moving beneath it while above them, the adventurers saw a hideous two-headed giant. The huge creature rubbed two blades together with an eager gleam in the eyes of both its horrifying heads.Enlishia cried out and tried desperately to clamber up the pit wall, only to fall back. She raised her bow instead, then, and levelled it at the two-headed giant. She let fly an arrow quickly only for it to fly wide of the creature and nocked another to her bowstring. This flew straight and true but ricocheted off the creature’s thick, hide armour and clattered into the stone floor of the chamber. Dulvarna clambered out of the pit and rushed around to face the giant, drawing her blade as she ran. Her blade sang out toward the creature’s die but it brought one of its blades down and parried easily. The giant lashed out backhand with its left arm and slashed the blade into Dulvarna’s left shoulder, spinning her around and tumbling her back into the put to land atop the bodies. It raised its right hand then and brought the vicious blade it held there down onto Dulvarna’s back as she struggled to rise from the pile of corpses. Dulvarna slumped forward but as she did so, a creature more terrible than the giant rose out of the bodies. It was a terrible worm, the size of a horse, with a maw filled with sharp teeth and tentacles protruding from its lower jaw. It snapped at Dulvarna and she leapt back towards Enlishia, trying desperately to evade the horrible creature.Telkya leapt away from the tentacled creature and tried to clamber out of the pit but she fell back as Enlishia had done. Turning, she drew forth her amulet and loosed a bolt of golden fire into the body of the creature. It shrieked and shrank back from the divine fire but then surged towards her with its horrible tentacles writhing before it. Beside his sister, Litiraan closed his eyes and vanished in a showed of light motes. He appeared beyond the pit against the wall of the chamber and raised his wand toward the giant that he recognised as an ettin. Uttering a spell, he loosed a silver bolt of energy at the creature and smiled with satisfaction as it struck the giant’s shoulder. The ettin staggered back roared in annoyance at the pain.Another of the tentacled creatures reared out of the corpses next to Lavren and snapped at him but he leapt back clumsily out of the way. Erlmoor tried to climb out of the pit but fell back and instead drew his sword and turned on the nearest tentacled creature. He lashed out with his blade and cut a wound in the creature’s side, drawing another pained screech from the monster. Beside him, Lavren closed his eyes and vanished in a cascade of light motes to reappear on the opposite side of the put from Litiraan. He raised his wand and cursed the nearest tentacled creature before unleashing a bolt of crackling, black energy into the beast’s flank. Again it screeched and again it surged forward, its tentacles questing for fresh prey.Enlishia clambered out of the pit as one of the tentacled creatures snapped at her legs. She leapt to her feet and turned on the spot with her bow raised. She loosed an arrow into the creature’s head and then retreated from the pit edge as the ettin roared its anger at her. Dulvarna tried to clamber out of the pit but fell back and spun around with her sword in her hands. Aecris sang out and slashed a deep wound across the creature’s head. It screeched once more and then snapped at her, but Dulvarna ducked back beyond its reach. The ettin roared and brought one of its short blades down onto the stone edge of the pit. The other followed and struck Dulvarna’s right shoulder, sending her reeling back into the pit wall. The nearest pit creature lashed out with its tentacle and struck Dulvarna in the side, slamming her into the pit wall again. As she regained her balance, she felt a growing numbness spreading from the wound and knew that she had been poisoned.Telkya closed her eyes and concentrated before vanishing into a shower of light. She appeared next to her brother and raised her amulet to loose a bolt of divine fire at the creature in the pit. The bolt struck the bodies next to the creature instead, searing one in half and spilling blood, gore and entrails over the bodies around it. Telkya cried out and Litiraan reached out a comforting hand to his sister’s shoulder. As he pulled back his hand he raised his wand and loosed a silver bolt towards the ettin as it looked for prey in the pit. The bolt seared past the giant and struck the wall next to it drawing a glance from one of the creature’s head but no other reaction.A tentacle lashed out from one of the creatures and struck Erlmoor on his leg as he stabbed at the other monster. Numbness spread quickly as it had with Dulvarna and he staggered, lurching to his left. He stabbed out at the monster before him, driving his blade into its flesh and drawing another screech from the beast. He stepped back and as he did so, a corpse rose from the mass of bodies to stand before him and lashed out with a backhand to hit him across the face. Erlmoor fell back into the pit wall and raised his blade to fend off the zombie. Lavren saw his friend’s predicament and hurled a bolt of black energy from his wand into the pit towards the nearest of the tentacled creatures. It seared through the monster’s soft flesh and as it did, the creature exploded, spraying Dulvarna and Erlmoor in gore.</blockquote>

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