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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4665930" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 14 - Lost in the Dark (Part 2)The ghosts did not ask, nor even appear as the companions made their way back through the darkness to the well chamber through which they had entered the Well of Demons. They paused before the eastern passage and readied their weapons, spells and prayers. Dulvarna surveyed the bodies of the enemies they had laid low in the chamber for a moment and then started forward. Double doors blocked the corridor a short way in but Dulvarna grasped the handles and pushed them open. Beyond, the stench of rotting food and worse – struck the companions like a wave as they passed through the portals. Several torches illuminated thee hallway, and as soon they stepped forward, laughter-like barks echoed from just beyond the light.Dulvarna started forward with her blade held vertically in front her. A side passage opened up on the left and she turned down it. A short passage led to a mess hall with two long tables surrounded by chairs. At the far table sat two dog-headed humanoids with great black manes of fur down their necks and upper backs. Dulvarna knew them to be gnolls at once and as they saw her they both began to growl softly. Both tossed aside the hunks of meat they had been gnawing at and reached for the spears and shields that lay on the table close to them. As they rose, Dulvarna saw that a slightly curved, black canine facing downwards had been crudely painted on each shield. They had found the Blackfangs.Erlmoor watched Dulvarna turn to the left and then started forward himself, his sword held up before him as hers had been. Another passage yawned on the right, beyond the one on the left that the warrior woman had taken and he gestured to it, intending that someone else should watch or explore the opening. Beyond, he made his way almost to the end of the corridor and peered ahead into a wide chamber with a fenced off pen area filling the far side. Behind the fences, hyenas whooped and cackled and as the paladin watched, a tall gnoll emerged from a side chamber to the right and crossed to the pen. The gnoll cast a sidelong glance towards the dragonborn and seemed to smile, showing huge wolf-like teeth. As he reached the pen, he reached down to a gate in the fence, undid the catch and swung it open. With apparent whoops of joy, the hyenas rushed to taste their new-found freedom and to defend their masters from the invaders that had come.The gnolls rushed at Dulvarna almost at the same time, coming around the tables from opposite sides. From the left a spear drove at her leg and she twisted around to bring her sword down to parry. From the other side came another spear thrust, this one aimed high and her throat and she ducked, the point of the weapon missing the top of her head by mere inches. She stepped back towards the passageway entrance then to give herself more room and settled back to studying the gnolls’ attacks. So far they seemed clumsy and brash but she knew that it was never wise to underestimate an enemy. Not even this one. A hyena leapt through the gate and covered the width of the chamber in a few short bounds. It leapt as it reached Erlmoor, its jaws open and questing for the dragonborn’s throat. He twisted aside and slammed his shoulder into the beast’s flank as it passed him, sending it yelping to the floor next to him. The beast twisted quickly and growled while sixing up the dragonborn and the challenge that this new prey presented. Erlmoor growled in response and the hyena back away a step, seemingly biding its time until the rest of its pack came to its aid.Litiraan rushed after Dulvarna and Erlmoor, his sword in one hand and his wand in the other. He heard sounds of battle from the left hand passage almost at once and turned aside. There, at the far end, her saw Dulvarna battling two gnolls and he raised his wand. Uttering an incantation, he loosed a silver bolt towards the gnoll on the right. The arcane energy seared into the gnoll’s shoulder and with an unmistakably canine yelp, the creature shrank back, before turning to regard this new threat. Litiraan met its gaze without wavering. These beasts were slavers and they had his kin. They would pay with their lives.</blockquote>

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