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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4808981" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 9 - Beasts and Mazes (Part 4)The companions rested in the eastern end of the chamber for a few hours while Telkya tended their wounds and then examined their way forward. Doors led out of the room to the north and south at the eastern end of the room and after some debate, they opted for the southern portal. This led them into a winding passage that turned left and right before turning east and opening into a wide chamber with its floor, ceiling and walls covered with thick, rich earth. Before them, the companions saw a dense thicket that reached from floor to ceiling, forming a wall that would force them to turn to the right or to the left. A dim yellow glow filled the room, and the thickets were dense enough to block vision. Their vines were covered with long, sharp thorns making them a barrier to passage as well as to sight.“We go this way,” Erlmoor announced and started forward down the right hand path.He had not gone far when he paused as he saw a creature around the corner ahead of him. It had brown skin similar in texture to tree bark and was dressed in a ragged grey tunic and breeches. It had a short sword on its belt and as the dragonborn started forward, it drew the blade and then shrank away to the north. Once it had retreated a certain distance, it seemed to blend into the vines and thorns its stood next to and vanished.“Arboreans,” Erlmoor called out as he recognised the rarely seen forest creatures. Then he paused as he saw a horse-sized bore covered in thick, bristly hair. Its muscled legs pawed and stamped as it saw the paladin and its great tusks quiver with bloodlust. Slowly it turned towards Erlmoor and he knew that it would charge.“A boar!” he called out to the others. “They have a boar as well.”Litiraan rushed forward to aid Erlmoor, raising his wand and his sword as he reached the area of tangled vines and roots in which Erlmoor now stood. He moved forward slowly to stand at the dragonborn’s left shoulder and made ready as best he could for the boar’s inevitable charge. When it came, the beast charged in a fury of hooves and tusks, grossing the ground between it and Erlmoor in a heartbeat. As it reached the dragonborn, he stepped to one side and as it lashed out with its horns, he leapt back. Frustrated, the boar backed up a few steps and snorted, sizing up its foe. Erlmoor raised his sword and prepared to meet its next surge forward.Dulvarna looked nervously toward the left hand passage past the thicket before her but then decided that Erlmoor needed her aid more. She rushed forward to where Litiraan stood and then surged into battle, raising her sword above her head and then bringing it down on the boar’s back. The beast squealed and snorted and moved back another step, out of reach of its foe’s dangerous blade. It regarded the dragonborn and the warrior woman with fierce eyes and pawed at the ground as it prepared to charge again.Telkya looked to the left and the right but quickly made up her mind. She raised her sword and took her amulet in her left hand before starting off down the left hand passage.“This way,” she called back to Lavren and Enlishia. “We may be able to come around behind the boar.”The elf maid rushed off down the narrow left passage that snaked around to the left and then left again, doubling back toward the west wall of the chamber. A buttress of stone formed the left wall of the passage as it doubled back and hid her companions from view. The passage widened and turned right ahead of her then and as she turned right, she saw movement. There, a few steps away to her right, stood a brown-skinned man-like creature in a tattered grey tunic and trousers. With a start, she turned toward the creature, recognising it as an arborean as Erlmoor had though she had no way to know whether it was the one that the dragonborn had encountered.“More enemies!” she called back to the others. “Use fire against the arboreans. They fear and loath it.”“I have no fire,” Enlishia said as she rounded the corner and nocked an arrow to her bow. “Only this.”The ranger raised her bow to aim at the creature and as she did, Lavren rounded the corner and raised his wand. The forest creature stepped back as it realised that it was outnumbered and Lavren moved to stand beside Telkya. As he did, he saw beyond the elf maid and the arborean, a hunched crone clad in tattered garb who had been moving away but now turned back to face the companions. She wore dusty robes and seemed to be muttering, hissing and moaning to herself.“A hag,” Lavren hissed quietly. “A manifestation of all that is dark and terrible in nature.”Telkya nodded as her husband identified the creature and raised her amulet. The hag hissed and started back toward the companions. The hag rushed past the arborean to the right and crossed the open space into which Lavren and Telkya had ventured. Then it turned and let out a terrible howl that struck Lavren like a hammer blow. He was thrown back, past Telkya and toward the arborean that still stood with its blade held ready. The creature stabbed its blade into the elf’s thigh and he reeled away from his enemy, dazed and wounded.Erlmoor stepped forward and struck at the boar, cleaving his sword into the beast’s side and driving it back and away from him. Behind the dragonborn, Litiraan sensed the battle was all but won and as he had no way of loosing a spell at the creature that would not hit his friends, he turned away and headed back to the entrance to the chamber. Hearing the sounds of battle, he turned north and rushed after Enlishia, Lavren and Telkya.The boar, meanwhile, pawed the ground and rushed at Erlmoor but again the paladin leapt back and to the left and the beast’s terrible tusks gored at nothing but air. Lavren plunged her blade into the creature’s left flank as it swung its head back and forth and with another squeal, it retreated. The beast regarded its enemies with a fierce desperation in its eyes and pawed the ground as it prepared itself for one final charge. Then, suddenly, Dulvarna sensed movement to her right and looked back over her shoulder. There, another brown-skinned arborean rounded the corner, this one dressed in long, grey robes as tattered as its companions clothes had been. In its right hand, the creature wielded a scythe and it came forward with a stern determination.“More enemies behind us,” Dulvarna called to Erlmoor.“Then we had best kill this boar quickly,” the dragonborn answered.</blockquote>

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