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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 2820139" data-attributes="member: 11"> Session #80 (part ii)“What could be causing that?” Logan asked Ratchis as they stood a few hundred yards south of the temporary camp they had made north of the temple.  Roland was back at the camp. It was situated atop the higher portion of the ridge, which the temple was built in the shadow of.  Ratchis and Logan could see a plume of brown dust roiling high up into the air from the eastern side of the valley wall, and the small figures of mercenaries moving to stand watch over it from their part of the ridge wall.“I think it is time to have Roland contact the others,” Ratchis said.  “You stay hidden here and keep watch on what the mercenaries do.  I’ll be back.”------------------------------------------Kazrack’s bellow echoed in the  cavern as he slapped the blade of his halberd against the earthen dire boar’s tusks, wedging the shaft between them to pivot its head and break its charge.    Another bolt from Dorn’s crossbow snapped ineffectually against its stony head.There was a hiss as a red glow appeared in the roiling dust.  A stony worm whose segments burned orange-white with heat squirmed from  the other direction.“Thoqqua!” Martin warned the others.  “Kazrack, we have another kind of something back here,” Dorn said, reloading his crossbow.  He leapt to avoid the worm’s head as it sprang at him.  The bolt hissed as it buried itself between two of its rings, bursting aflame.Kazrack grunted, as he fought to keep the boar at bay and avoid it crushing him.“Lentus!” Martin chanted and the molten-worm slowed its squirming. The watch-mage then cried out as he barely leapt out of the way of the broad bronze blade of a sword swinging out of the darkness of the cavern wall beside him.  The blade sliced his robes and he felt the skin scraped from his right shoulder.  There was a reptilian humanoid with dark green and black scales and a thick boney crest atop its head.  It wore a leather belt with a scabbard and pouches, and had a dark brown cloak hanging from a black chain about its neck.  The chain held three gemstones.  The flanking two stones were bright blue with white stars on their surface, while the central one was a ruby with a similar marking.  The new foe’s scales shimmered with speckles the same brown as the cavern walls and floor.“Glacht es tassar!” the reptilian attacker hissed “Try and get the eggs will you?”“Are these creatures summoned then?” Kazrack asked, turning to notice the new foe, but allowing the elemental boar past him . It slammed into Martin and the watch-mage stumbled back, blood bursting from his nose as his left eye grew black.  The dwarf carved a wedge in the boar’s flank as it went past him.“We don’t know anything about any eggs!” Martin said to the creature.  He had tried to cast a spell, but the boar had ruined the incantation. He gagged and felt a wave of fatigue as a disgusting stench erupted from the reptilian thing as it put some distance between itself and Kazrack, giving the elemental room to spin about.  He sliced Martin’s chest with his sword as he stepped back, saliva dripping off one of his green-crusted fangs.  “Defiler of Hurgun!” the creature accused.The boar slammed into both Dorn and Kazrack as it came around.  Dorn cried out as he stepped back into the thoqqua. The leg of his pants burst into flame and he began to frantically beat at it.“Good creature! We know nothing of any eggs,” Martin managed to choke out.  “We sought only to escape this place.  I implore you, call off your attack!”“Make a sacrifice for the earth-god,” the thing hissed, stepping back even further.Kazrack slammed the blade of his halberd into the elemental boar’s head and it exploded, sending shards of stone in all directions.  The rest of it fell into a pile of dirt.  The dwarf spun on the worm and sliced it in half.  It hissed and disappeared.  The reptilian attacker stepped back into the darkness and was gone.“Martin, if you can stop that creature, stop him anyway you can.  He may bring others,” Kazrack said.“We have no interest in fighting you or harming your eggs!” Martin the Green called after it.  “We have no wish to harm any of your people!  Come back!  We would speak to you of Hurgun!”Kazrack sighed.  “Let us try and finish our job and get out of here before that thing returns.”  He laid a hand on Dorn and healed his burns.The three Keepers of the Gate made their way to the chamber and examined the rent in the earth above them.  Kazrack climbed up the pile of earthen rubble and stone to see that something was blocking the passage he had created.  A large pine tree was askew about three quarters of the way up, with more stone and earth trapped behind it.  In a few spots, sunlight came through small gaps, when the dust cleared enough to allow it, but occasionally there was another slide of earth and stone that kicked up more clouds.“There is a lot of earth and stone that has to come out that small hole,” Martin said, looking up.  “I don’t think this going to work.”“Leave it to me,” Kazrack said.  “A few more spells and we’ll be out of here.”Suddenly there was a sound like the rushing of wind in Martin’s ear and his awareness shrunk down to a pinpoint of light through which he heard Roland’s voice like a tinny echo. “Ridge collapsing northeast of temple. Soldiers watching.  Logan, Ratchis waiting north of temple for Gunthar.  Norena scouting approaching orc army. Message  tomorrow to coordinate rescue.”“Deep underground with Dorn, Kazrack” Martin replied by means of the spell. “Can’t find others. Escaped soldiers. Kazrack magically digging exit caused collapse. Encountering lizardfolk, elementals, Hurgun mentioned.  Will await messages tomorrow.”“We have to wait for tomorrow anyway,” Kazrack said when Martin relayed to him and Dorn Roland’s sending.  “I miscalculated how many spells it would take.”Martin looked at the many cracks that spidered out from the hole, riddling the wall to their right, where some large pieces of stones had also fallen from.“Do you think that is a good idea?” Martin asked. “It seems it was this tunneling that angered that lizard creature.”“If there is some reason we should not do it, let this creature tell us in a civilized manner rather than attack us like some base rogue,” Kazrack replied.  “Anyway, we need to get out of here, and the only other way is blocked by soldiers.”Martin the Green nodded.“Lizardfolk? What is he talking about?” Logan asked Roland and Ratchis, when he returned from his watch and they told him what Martin has said.Roland shrugged.Osilem, the 24th of Keent – 565 H.E.Martin the Green sent his invisible arcane eye through the crack in the cavern that had widened while he, Kazrack and Dorn rested the night in a more distant room.  Kazrack was examining the main attempt at tunneling, trying to figure out the best way to collapse the whole side of the ridge, hoping he’d take as many nearby soldiers in the process.  Dorn stood guard with loaded crossbow; the medallion about his neck shining its light like a beacon.Not too far beyond the crack Martin spied an adjacent chamber.  It was much lower than the digging room, and the eye sunk quickly to see its rounded base with a great fire in the center atop a raised dais of stone that was round as well, being in perfect proportion to the room.  He could see that the walls were carved to create narrow cascading rows of balconies reached by a honeycomb of narrow passages. On one side of the round dais kneeled the reptilian priest, his scales shimmered orange red and blue as the fire crackled before him, devouring huge clumps of coal.  Across from him was a set of stone double-doors carved with many runes. They stood ajar, so Martin had his eye zoom down the hallway beyond. The passage was only seven feet wide and about as high, but it was definitely wider than the other passages leading from the balconies.  The corridor sunk deeper into the earth and led to midway up the side of the wall of another round chamber.  This one was much deeper, and had cascading niches all down the sides, each niche holding a glowing coal-stone and a speckled egg about the size of two human fists.Kazrack called to his gods and healed all the wounds he suffered when fighting the elemental the day before.Martin described what he had seen.“If we are delayed in getting to Hurgun’s Maze because of this, those eggs shall be endangered anyway,” Kazrack said.  “But I will try to make our tunneling not affect that chamber.”“It is worth the risk?” Martin asked in his typical worried tone.“Yes.  The thing is just a monster.  We cannot hold its nest above our need to save Derome-Delem,” the dwarf replied. “Now please levitate me up so I can reach obscured area that holds that tree in place.  I think if I soften the area around it, that whole curved portion will shift and create a more vertical tunnel.”Martin sighed and nodded, but suddenly there was another sending from Roland.“One soldier watches.  Wait until dark. We’ll be at base of ridge. Can escape together. Gunthar missing.  We will contact him. Give Kazrack big hug.”“Can’t tell time underground,” Martin replied. “No idea when night falls. Lizardfolk threatens will escape next hour and hourly there after.  Good luck.  See you soon.”“How can he tell an hour’s passed but he can’t tell when nightfall is?” Logan swore.End of Session #80</blockquote>

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