Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4656594" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 13 - The Well of Demons (Part 1)They passed through the Seven-Pillared Hall quietly and took a western path that Rendil had called the Deep Stair. Not far beyond the hall the reason for its name became obvious as it began to descend sharply into the depths of the mountain. Following the map, they took a side passage back to the east that zigzagged left and right until it turned south and opened into a large, square chamber. Five columns, three set near the room’s corners and two in the middle of the chamber rose up at least twice the height of the tallest man to the ceiling and into each was carved the face of a leering, fanged minotaur. There was a well in the southeastern corner of the room, and two passages led away, one to the east and the other to the south.No sooner had they entered the chamber than the deep voice, seemingly of a powerful minotaur, began to come from the columns that each heard in their own tongue, the elves in elven, Enlishia and Dulvarna in the Common tongue and Erlmoor in the ancient tongue of the dragons.“Greetings, seekers of Baphomet’s boundless glory,” said the voice. “Those who prove unworthy of his attention shall be claimed forever as his slaves.” Suddenly Dulvarna saw something to her left, skulking figure behind one of the columns.“Those who prove worthy,” the voice continued. “Shall be granted power beyond mortal reckoning. Mask, bell blade and tome.”As the voice finished speaking, the crouched figure rushed forward and Dulvarna shouted a warning to the others. Telkya turned towards the creature first, drawing forth her sword and reaching out with her hand. A bolt of light lanced out and struck the rushing humanoid which had long, flexible limbs, almost like tentacles that ended in starfish-shaped pads covered with hundreds of tiny bone spikes. The grey-skinned creature lurched to one side and fixed Telkya with its black eyes before rushing on towards her. “A choker,” Telkya spat as she recognised the creature. “A creature of the deeper, dark places beneath the world.”Lavren raised his wand and loosed black, crackling energy towards the creature that struck the top of its chest and pitched it over to the right. It half-rolled and twisted to shrug the wound off and kept coming. A cry came from the front of the group then as Enlishia saw another creature, a pallid undead creature that they had seen before under the Keep north of Winterhaven, emerged from behind the far column and rushed at the group.“A ghoul!” Enlishia cried out. “A ghoul comes from the front.”The ghoul reached Dulvarna and Enlishia in moments and leapt at them with claws flailing. Both stepped aside and let the creature land between them, hissing and snarling as it reached out ravenously for their living flesh. Enlishia nocked an arrow to her bow and drew back from the flailing arms of the ghoul. She loosed the first arrow into the ghoul’s chest and reached for another, loosing it after the first into the body of the terrible undead creature. Erlmoor rushed forward and came at the creature from the other side, lashing out with his blade and gouging a wound across the creature’s back. The ghoul scampered around on the spot and hissed at this newcomer while Erlmoor snarled in response.Behind Enlishia, the choker darted to the right and scampered up the north wall of the chamber and then out onto the ceiling. It reached out with a tentacle and lashed its limb around Enlishia’s neck. The ranger gasped as the choker lived up to its name and tried to lift her from the ground. Litiraan raised his wand and loosed a silver bolt from it but the choker swayed to one side and the bolt missed.Dulvarna looked over her shoulder at the choker as she drew her blade and decided that her companions could deal with that threat. She lashed out with her sword and slashed the blade across the top of the ghoul’s chest above Enlishia’s arrows and the creature reeled away before turning back towards her. Suddenly, she sensed movement from the left and as she glanced that way, Dulvarna saw another slate-grey tentacle reach out from the ceiling close to the westernmost corner pillar. It seized Erlmoor around the neck and started to drag him towards the pillar. The dragonborn opened his mouth to roar but a weak, almost plaintive sound came out instead of the usual deep power. Dulvarna cursed and then she felt the floor shake. Behind her, tentacles exploded from the floor of the chamber, one reaching out towards her and seizing her around the waist. Small toothed mouths on the inside of the tentacle tore into her flesh and she cried out as the creature’s grip tightened.</blockquote>

Verification