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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4702495" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 18 - The Face of Baphomet (Part 6)Telkya answered by raising her voice in a brief prayer. White light engulfed Litiraan and his eyes opened as the wound on his arm was partly healed once more. Erlmoor looked down at the elf and was pleased but then an arrow clattered into the wall beside him and he turned his attention back to his enemies. With a roar he breathed acid over the hyena and the gnoll that he and Dulvarna still faced and then began a new prayer to Lathander. His blade glowed with white light and he lashed out with it, tearing a wound across the hyena’s neck as it fell back before his acid breath. The beast yelped but as it did so, acid blood sprayed out of the wound. It covered Litiraan’s right arm and seared it anew sending the elf back into blackness for a second time while the spray struck Erlmoor’s face and neck. The dragonborn roared but the defiant sound was strangled off as the acid burned into his throat. He felt his breath fail him and collapsed to the left against the wall next to Litiraan.Dulvarna felt the acid burn her left arm but paid the pain no mind until she saw Erlmoor slump to the left and collapse against the wall. Beyond him, Litiraan was slumped unmoving once more and she knew then that they were all in trouble. Three gnolls and the terrible hyena yet faught them and they had already lost two of their number. An arrow struck the wall behind her and Dulvarna glanced to her left to see that the two archers stood against the west wall and had chosen her as their next target. Risking a glance to the right, she saw that Telkya and Lavren remained as defiant as ever. Even as she looked, the warlock cursed the nearest gnoll and slavering fangs appeared around the gnoll, snapping and tearing at the flesh of the warrior. Telkya raised her left hand to the heavens and gestured downwards as she prayed. A column of searing light engulfed the gnoll, burning its flesh and searing its fur. It howled once and then collapsed to the ground, laid low by the two who had seemingly found happiness together. Dulvarna turned towards the hyena and as she did so, an arrow drove into the beast’s neck. It yelped and staggered, almost falling. Dulvarna leapt forward and brought Aecris down on the beast’s head, splitting open its skull and felling it where it stood. She turned her fierce, vengeful gaze upon the two archers who stood next to the west wall and strode towards them. Desperately, they reached for arrows before throwing their bows aside and drawing axes with curved blades from their belts. One lashed at Dulvarna from the left and she parried too slowly, the blade tearing a gash from her shoulder to her elbow. The other gnoll came at her from the right and she moved Aecris over the meet the axe and parried solidly. Lavren came to her aid then, loosing black energy into the gnoll on the right and forcing it back against the wall. Two arrows drove into the other gnoll and hurled it back beside its companion and as Dulvarna came forward, both had fear in their eyes. Aecris sang out and  lashed across the chest of one of the gnolls and it lashed out desperately with its axe to keep the warrior woman at bay.Telkya surveyed the battle against the last gnolls quickly and decided that Erlmoor and Litiraan needed her aid more urgently. She rushed to her brother’s side and laid her sword beside him while laying her left hand on his chest. She uttered a prayer to Corellon and as golden light washed over him, his eyes opened. She smiled at him and turned to Erlmoor while glancing up at the battle against the last gnolls. Dulvarna was parrying their axes with typical skill while Lavren and Enlishia added magical and archery support. Even as she looked, an arrow from Enlishia’s bow took one of the gnolls through the throat and felled it where it stood. Dulvarna turned her fury on the last of the gnolls while Telkya began to pray over Erlmoor as she felt his heartbeat fade beneath her fingers.Dulvarna felt the pain of the acid burn to her arm from the hyena’s blood fading and turned on the remaining gnoll. She lashed out with her blade and cut deep into its right arm as it tried to raise its small axe to parry. It lashed out wildly with sudden ferocity and caught Dulvarna’s shoulder, spinning her away. A blast of black energy struck the wall next to the gnoll as it howled its defiance and then it dodged to the right as first one arrow and then another struck the wall where it had been standing. Dulvarna thought for a moment that the gnoll would put up a defiant stand but then she heard Litiraan’s voice behind her chanting a spell. A silver bolt seared into the gnoll’s shoulder and drove it back against the wall. Around the pillar to Dulvarna’s right came Telkya and with the words of a prayer, the priestess loosed a bolt of golden light into the wall next to the gnoll. The gnoll lashed out once more with its axe but Dulvarna parried and from behind her came a familiar roar. Erlmoor had recovered. The gnoll died quickly after that, an arrow from Enlishia’s bow felling it.“Fierce fighter,” Erlmoor rumbled as he looked down at the fallen gnoll.“Maybe he faught for this,” said Dulvarna as she reached down and took something carved from black wood from the gnoll’s belt. It was a mask, carved to resemble the face of a fierce minotaur.“It is Baphomet’s face,” said Litiraan. “This must be the mask we are looking for. We should go back to the gnoll hold and rest now that we have only one item to seek.”“Agreed,” said Dulvarna. “We go back to the gnoll hold. But we go cautiously. It seems that there are more gnolls abroad here than those that dwelled in the eastern chambers.”Next.....Tides of Blood</blockquote>

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