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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4696476" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 18 - The Face of Baphomet (Part 2)Dulvarna and Erlmoor pulled open the double doors to the chamber and revealed a ten foot wide room. Jet black curtains hung from hooks set into the ceiling, forming a wall ahead of the companions. They had returned to the chamber of blood where they had met the ghosts that morning and turned westward this time, turning aside to the north to the double doors that they had just opened.“This chamber makes no sense to me,” Erlmoor rumbled in his deep baritone. “These curtains must hide something.”The dragonborn started forward and raised his blade. He lashed out at the curtain ahead of him and cut it down. Beyond was a wide chamber with stout square pillars that were covered on each face by mirrors framed in brass. Leering, demonic faces were carved along the top of each frame and Erlmoor immediately felt a sickly sense of foreboding in his stomach. As Erlmoor paused, Enlishia raised her bow, nocked an arrow to its string and weaved her way through the group. She strode out across the floor of the chamber, raising her bow as she did so, ready for any threat. Lavren started forward just after Enlishia, glancing warily towards the nearest pillar and the mirrors that adorned it. Each showed only pure darkness rather than a reflection of the room and the companions as they moved forward. Lavren sensed some terrible power within the mirror and tried to turn away but he was too slow. A sudden nausea ceased him and the chamber spun around him. As his vision cleared, he found himself in a dungeon-like chamber lit by dim, magical light. At the far end of the chamber, a gnoll with golden fur crouched but looked up as the elf appeared. The gnoll snarled and reached out for a spear that lay next to it. The creature rose with a crazed look in its eyes and Lavren raised his wand, uttering a curse and loosing black, crackling energy towards the creature that was apparently his his cell mate.“The mirrors are enchanted,” shouted Litiraan as he saw Lavren disappear. “We cannot look at them! Destroy them if you can!”Even as he said it, Litiraan glanced towards the nearest mirror without thinking and, though he turned away as quickly as he could, he felt the room spinning with nauseating speed around him. Suddenly, the chamber was gone and he stood in a dimly lit chamber facing a wild gnoll with golden fur. The creature rushed forward and the elf raised his wand to loose a bolt of magical energy.Dulvarna rushed at the nearest pillar with her blade held before her and her eyes averted but as she reached the mirrors, she looked up and was drawn to the blackness. The room around her swirled and suddenly she stood in a dimly lit chamber with a gnoll before her. She raised her blade and charged, slashing Aecris across the chest of her foe and sending the creature reeling.Telkya raised her hand to send searing light towards the mirror but as she looked up to her target, she saw the utter blackness in the mirror and felt the world spinning around her. She appeared next to Litiraan and Lavren in the dimly lit prison and loosed her bolt of light as soon as she saw the ravenous gnoll. The creature staggered back as the bolt struck it and then Erlmoor appeared in front of Telkya. He roared his anger and defiance at the fate that had brought them here and then charged the gnoll. The paladin’s blade sang out, clove into the gnoll’s shoulder and with a yelp, the creature leapt back. It raised its spear and snarled at Dulvarna and Erlmoor.Enlishia appeared beside Telkya a heartbeat later and the trap was complete. She raised her bow towards the gnoll but quickly realised that she could not get a clear shot at the creature. Looking around at the others, she smiled weakly and then looked the walls over for any sign of a way out. There was none.The gnoll roared furiously and stabbed out with its spear at Dulvarna but just as the point seemed about to pierce her side, she glanced it aside with Aecris. Lavren closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment before vanishing into a shower of light motes. He reappeared behind the gnoll and with an uttered curse, he loosed black, crackling energy into the creature’s shoulder. The gnoll roared again and spun on the spot to regard this new threat. As it did so, Litiraan appeared next to Lavren and loosed a silver bolt of magical energy into the creature’s chest. The gnoll staggered and Dulvarna stabbed her blade towards it. At the last, the gnoll twisted around again and Aecris only nicked its back but it was desperately wounded and weak now. Still, it would not yield.The gnoll roared one last time and then Telkya appeared behind it with her sword in her hand. She stabbed out with the blade, driving it into the gnoll’s back and out through its belly. With a strangled gasp, the creature collapsed to the floor between Dulvarna and Telkya. The companions were alone in the darkness.</blockquote>

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