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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4666654" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 14 - Lost in the Dark (Part 3)Telkya rushed forward after her brother and spared the left passage only a brief glance. Dulvarna seemed to be holding off two gnolls and with Litiraan’s help, Telkya decided that she would prevail. Remembering Erlmoor’s signal, she paused as the right hand passage opened up beside her. She turned down it and made her way cautiously into the shadowy darkness. The torchlight lit up a set of double doors on the right and showed the passage continuing beyond her vision ahead. Telkya stopped and listened for a moment but heard only the sounds of battle behind her. Deciding that nothing had been alerted in whatever chambers lay further down the passage, she turned back to join the battle. Suddenly, as she turned a figure was in front of her and she raised her sword but then she recognised the form before her.“Thought you’d got lost in the dark,” said the elf with a faintly embarrassed smile.“It seems I could not even had I wanted to with you to protect me,” Telkya answered, more harshly than she had intended.Lavren’s face hardened as he turned away and headed back up the hallway without another word. Knowing that she had upset him and angry at herself for doing it, Telkya followed.Enlishia nocked an arrow to her bow and rushed forward, passing both passage entrances without pausing. Dulvarna could always hold her own, she knew, and what Lavren and Telkya busied themselves in the shadows of the right hand passage was for them alone. As she passed the second, right hand opening, she raised her bow as she could see the hyena beside Erlmoor clearly now. She took a bead on its flank and loosed the arrow but at the last it twisted and darted away from her. The arrow tore through the fur of the beast’s shoulders and drew blood but did little else. The ranger raised her bow again and fired quickly but this time her shaft flew wide of the mark and clattered into the floor of the chamber beyond. She followed the arrow’s path with her gaze only to find it obscured from view by a flurry of movement. The rest of the hyenas were coming to join their companion.    The hyenas rushed at Erlmoor but only one could reach him in the confines of the corridor. This beast darted forward and snapped at his leg but the dragonborn leapt back beyond its reach. The last two rushed out with a clarion call of yips and barks but when they realised they could not reach the paladin, they looped around the chamber outside the pen, all the while seeking an opening where they could reach their prey. Erlmoor roared his own challenge and the two creatures he faced shrank back from him. He roared again and unleashed his acid breath with his blade singing out behind.Dulvarna stepped back into the passage entrance and drew the gnolls on. The first that came forward was met by her blade lashing out to swat aside its spear and then thrusting forward into its shoulder. The gnoll yelped and leapt back, wounded now as its companion had been and then with a howl of defiance, the gnolls came on again.The hyena closest to Erlmoor ducked under his spray of acid but the others were seared by the burning liquid. A chorus of yelps and whines followed while the tall gnoll who had freed them unshouldered a longbow and nocked an arrow to the string. He leveled the bow towards Erlmoor but as the two hyenas leapt and darted the gnoll could not find a clear shot that would not risk the animals he had raised and cared for. With the bow still held ready, the gnoll huntmaster stalked forward seeking a place where he could strike at his enemies. Erlmoor lashed out with his blade and cut across the chest of the first hyena that had come at him. For a moment, he looked up to watch the new threat that the huntmaster presented and as he did so, the hyena he had just wounded leapt at him and sank its teeth into his leg. With a roar, he shook it off and then raised his blade, ignoring the huntmaster and the bow that he held so menacingly.The gnolls darted forward at Dulvarna almost at the same time again and again she reacted quickly. Her blade came down to the left and slammed the spear of one gnoll into the stone floor before slashed across and knocking aside a thrust towards her stomach from the other gnoll. The gnoll ducked back as a flash of silver came from its left and Litiraan’s second silver bolt flew past the creature to strike the far wall of the room. Dulvarna decided then to retreat further towards her companions and draw the gnolls onwards. Perhaps then, Litiraan’s aim would improve, she mused.Telkya rushed past Lavren to reach the main passage ahead of him. Looking right, she saw Erlmoor battling hyenas while a gnoll and more hyenas stalked behind his enemies. To the left she heard the sounds of battle and once again decided that her brother and Dulvarna would prevail against the gnolls. She rushed to Enlishia’s side with her sword in her right hand and a prayer on her lips. She looked back as Lavren emerged from the southern passage and without a glance in her direction, moved to aid Litiraan and Dulvarna against the gnolls. Beside Telkya, Enlishia glanced once at the elf, raised an eyebrow and then nocked an arrow to her bow. When she let loose the shaft it drove into the flank of one of the hyenas that Erlmoor faced and with amazing fluidity, the ranger reached for, nocked, and then loosed, another arrow a moment later. This drove into the same hyena and with a yelp, the creature staggered and all but fell. Half-heartedly, it snapped at Erlmoor but the dragonborn dodged backwards and then brought down his blade, putting the creature out of its misery. Then an arrow drove into Enlishia’s shoulder and Erlmoor, Telkya and the ranger herself realised that the huntsman had found his aim.</blockquote>

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