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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4715044" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 20 - Proving Ground (Part 3)Dulvarna heard Erlmoor’s shout followed by pained cries from her companions and started towards them. She passed the iron bound doors and saw that they were opening painfully slowly. As she rounded the corner, she saw that Telkya had been thrown to the floor in the corridor while Enlishia had ducked into a gap in the rusted portcullis. Beyond her, Litiraan and Erlmoor had been slammed against the walls of the corridor by the black, spiked sphere that was now rolling around the western corner to turn back to the north. Dulvarna rushed to join Enlishia but as she started forward, one of the chained skeletons, lashed out with an arm and grabbed her leg. Ragged fingernails dug into the flesh of Dulvarna’s leg but she twisted to the left and dragged her leg free, leaping beyond the reach of the skeleton. Another of the skeletons reached out from the floor close to the right wall but Dulvarna skipped over its arm and took another step towards the portcullis. Just as she thought she would reach it, she stumbled and the questing skeletons reached out for her once more.Telkya rose and reached out with her left hand. She uttered a prayer that unleashed a blast of golden light into the chest of the green dragon as it hovered close to the ceiling of the corridor where it had been forced to evade the black sphere. Desperately, she scrambled back along the corridor and ducked through the portcullis. She saw Dulvarna struggling through the skeletons and kept close to the rusted stubs of the bars themselves so that she was beyond the reach of the undead. Enlishia looked back over her shoulder and saw Telkya’s intention. She raised her bow and loosed an arrow that flew past the dragon and then reached back to her quiver to draw another arrow. She nocked this, aimed and fired, the shaft driving into the dragon’s foreleg. It roared again and then, as Enlishia retreated through the portcullis, the dragon dived toward with its teeth bared. The dragon swept past the portcullis with a rush of air and as it past, it craned its neck through the bars to bite at Enlishia. The ranger leapt back and the teeth snapped shut on empty air as the dragon turned the corner and swept towards Erlmoor and Litiraan.Erlmoor pressed himself against the south wall of the corridor as the dragon swept towards him and then, as it turned northward through an archway that led to the central chamber of the complex, the dragonborn lashed out with his blade. He drew blood from the dragon’s back leg as his blade pierced the flesh and again the dragon roared. Erlmoor roared his own response and slid left along the south wall towards the passage entrance from which he had emerged, seeking shelter from the terrible black sphere that would surely pass this way again. He looked to the left and saw Litiraan stab his blade at the dragon’s tail as it swished past before retreating the same way as Erlmoor intended, towards the southern passage.Around the corner, Lavren darted across the corridor in front of the rolling black sphere. He rushed down the western passage and turned south through the open doors of the chamber in which Erlmoor had placed the knife on the circle of runes. As soon as he entered the chamber he realised his mistake for inside the room where four stone-rimmed pools. One, against the west wall bubbled and swirled while tendrils of animated, elemental water reached out blindly from its surface as though seeking prey. Lavren steeled himself for a moment and then called on his fey ability to move from place to place. He vanished into a cloud of light motes and then reappeared next to a pool of pale green liquid on the far side of the room. He looked back and saw a tendril of water turning towards him. Turning his back on it, Lavren started around the green pool towards the eastern doors of the chambers, hoping he could escape in time.Telkya extended her hand and loosed another bolt of light at the disappearing hindquarters of the dragon and watched with satisfaction as the bold seared a hind foot. Beside her, Enlishia loosed an arrow and then a second into the same leg and then the dragon vanished into the centre chamber for a few heartbeats. Then, with a roar, it came forth again through the southern entrance and swept over Erlmoor and Litiraan. As it passed over the elf, it swept its jaws down and seized the elf’s arm, throwing him against the south wall of the corridor. He cried out and fell back against the stone as the dragon swept around the corner to the north and vanished from view.</blockquote>

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