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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4550265" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 3 - The Chamber of Blood (Part 1)Dulvarna led them back up the steps once the worst of her hurts had been tended and healed, turning right along the landing there until she reached another door. Leaning her sword against her shoulder, she turned the iron ring handle of the door and pushed it open. Within, two dwarves with dark grey skin and thick, black beards and hair turned towards the door. Telkya rushed at them before they had time to react, darting right with her blade before her while Enlishia darted left, loosing an arrow into one of the dwarves as she went. Dulvarna followed the elf and the ranger into the chamber, lashing out with her blade at the nearest grey-skinned dwarf and drawing blood from his forearm. Lavren appeared against the south wall of the room and cursed the nearest dwarf in elven before loosing a bolt of black energy that seared into the fireplace built into the north wall. Sparks burst from the flames and as the others shrank back, the first dwarf, wounded by Dulvarna, surged forward and slammed his hammer into the woman. She fell back into the doorway towards Litiraan who was at her back. The elf concentrated for a moment and burst into a shower of light motes that reappeared beside Lavren against the south wall. He loosed a silver bolt into the nearest dwarf and then spat the name of their kind.“Duergar,” the elf sneered. “Dark dwarves who make pacts with infernal powers. Beware their hair and beards for they hide poisonous quills.”“Good to know,” answered Dulvarna with a wink at the elf. From a corridor that led east from the room, the companions heard doors open and then voices, hobgoblin voices.“More are coming,” rumbled Erlmoor from behind Dulvarna.“Seems about normal,” answered Enlishia with a smile.A tall hobgoblin with a wolf-skin headdress appeared in the entrance of the eastern corridor and called something over his shoulder in the goblin tongue. One of the duergar lashed a hand from its beard and hurled a sharp quill at Dulvarna that drove into her arm. She staggered back, feeling numbness spreading from the wound. She cursed and then the duergar was upon her, smashing her arm with his warhammer. She cried out and fell back into Erlmoor who now stood right behind her.“Let my blade reach him,” he growled in her ear.“It shall,” she answered in a whisper.Telkya stabbed out with her blade and darted right to allow Erlmoor into the chamber. As she did so, Enlishia shouldered her bow and drew forth her sword. She drove her blade into the hip of the nearest duergar, the one who had hurled a poison quill, and drove him back from Dulvarna. The warrior woman in turn forced herself forward but as her left arm grew increasingly numb, her swing was slow and easily parried by the duergar. Black energy from Lavren’s wand seared over both duergar and then they came forward again. One swung his hammer at Telkya and as the elf ducked back and tried to parry, he caught her right hand a glancing blow. She recoiled and seemingly in anger, Litiraan loosed a silver bolt at the dwarf that seared into the side of the creature. The elf smiled at Telkya and Lavren looked from one to the other, wondering even in the heat of battle what connected the two. Then, he saw a leash of black energy snake out from the stave that the wolf-skin clad hobgoblin carried and wrap around Litiraan’s waist. The elf cried out and then was yanked towards the hobgoblin. Even as Lavren watched, another hobgoblin, a huge creature wearing scale armour and carrying a shield and spear, entered the room. He stabbed his spear into Litiraan’s side and all thoughts of jealousy were banished from the elf’s mind. Survival became more crucial and saving Litiraan was surely a part of that.Erlmoor entered the chamber with a roar, driving his blade into the shoulder of the nearest duergar and praying as he did so. Lavren felt some strength return to her and parried the next hammer blow from the duergar she faced. Telkya darted right and held forth her holy symbol, loosing a bolt of light from it that missed the nearest duergar and seared into the mantle beyond both. Dulvarna and Enlishia drove back the farthest duergar with combined attacks and dancing blades, wounding the dwarf twice as it retreated. Meanwhile, Lavren sent a searing bolt of crackling, black energy into the other duergar that burned into its side and sent it reeling. It lashed out at Erlmoor but the dragonborn ducked back beyond its reach and roared his defiance.Litiraan lashed out desperately with his sword as both hobgoblins came at him. The wolf-skin clad creature lashed out with its staff, chanting a dark prayer as it did so and conjuring blue lighting to the end of the stave. The elf ducked under the wide swing but as he did so, the other hobgoblin came forward and drove its spear into the top of his hip. He gasped and staggered back further, sorely wounded. Telkya stood beside him then, lashing out with her blade but even together, the two elves could not hold off the two hobgoblins for long. They glanced at each other and shared a brief look of compassion and what Lavren realised could only be descried as love. Lavren decided that he would ask Telkya what Litiraan meant to her if they survived this. Alas survival here was by no means certain for any of them. The elf drew his blade and rushed forward as Dulvarna and Enlishia drove their blades into the other duergar again. Both dwarves fell back and as they did so, the hobgoblins came forward.The duergar before Erlmoor lashed out with its hammer and struck the dragonborn on his left arm above the elbow. The paladin paid the blow no mind but saw that Litiraan was drawing further back, trying desperately to summon what was left of his strength as the two spear wounds soaked his tunic in blood. The hobgoblin shaman prayed again and lashed out with a lightning tipped staff and again Litiraan ducked the blow but again, the huge hobgoblin’s spear came in at him. This time it drove into his belly and Litiraan gasped and staggered once more. This time, he dropped his sword, the blade clattering dimly to the floor as the elf’s senses quickly dulled. He sank to his knees, looked up once at Telkya and then fell forward on the stone floor of the chamber. Erlmoor roared and with a huge blow, he beheaded the duergar before him. It fell beside Litiraan to the blood-soaked floor.</blockquote>

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