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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1377759" data-attributes="member: 99">Queen Under the Mountain – Part 2Sensing doom descending from above, Marius dove forward and tumbled to his feet beyond the area of sliding stone.  He was followed by Lazarius and Marcus though they were pelted with large stones as they escaped being buried.  Cathal and Speaks were not so fortunate.Scipio’s cat reflexes saved him as he bounded backwards into the cave that they had been following.   Even as he sprang back, he could see his human companion and the Brigante warrior buried under tons of stone.For those now trapped in the room with the she-scorpion, things started to become very scary, very fast.  Before they could react further, she cast another familiar spell and a Mist Obscured half of the room.  Though they could barely see beyond arms reach, Marcus, Marius and Lazarius knew a certain sound all too well:  *Pop* *Pop*.One of the scorpion-men lunged out of the mist and caught Lazarius up in one of its massive claws as another did the same to Marius.  Neither were able to struggle free for the moment.Beneath the huge heap of stone and loose gravel, Speaks fought off the crushing asphyxiation of his entrapment and focused on the Wild.  He shrank in upon himself and the stone settled around him as he assumed the form of a badger.  He quickly managed to tunnel through the loose gravel that had settled among the larger chunks of stone and dug himself forward into the room with most of his companions.Cathal strained mightily as he attempted to move the stone that was crushing his chest but could gain no leverage against it.  He felt the rage building inside him.Marius felt something building inside him but decided that it was probably just the pressure of his lunch trying to rise up his gorge as his belly was being pinched by the giant claw that held him.  He sucked in his gut and twisted, attempting to slip free but the hold was too strong.  He winced and prepared to dodge out of the way of the stinger that was arching over his foe’s back toward him.With a *Pop!* and a *TWANG*, another scorpion-man appeared across the room outside the Obscuring Mist and fired his arbalest at Marcus but the bolt shattered on his shield instead.  Yet another foe appeared in similar fashion and fired at Marius but the Mist obscured him sufficiently to make him a difficult target.Marius breathed a sigh of relief as the bolt passed harmlessly by but it was quickly replaced with a grunt of pain as the stinger sank into his shoulder.  He could feel the strength draining from him as the poison took hold.A few feet away, Lazarius was having no luck breaking the hold of the creature that clutched him either.  Any hopes of him escaping under his own power were dashed as his foe grabbed him in the other claw as well and stung him with its tail.  It was all Lazarius could do to fight off the pain and poison.Marcus stepped up to aid his friends and smote the creature that held Marius.  It did not fall nor release the Imperial Explorer.  In fact, it appeared as though it had decided to finish him off completely before dealing with Marcus.  It squeezed Marius viciously with its claws and stung him again.  Marius could feel himself fighting to retain consciousness.Seeing his friends in a great deal of danger, Speaks decided to let the scorpion folk have a taste of their own medicine.  He reached out toward the stone ceiling of the room with his magic and felt the cracks and fissures there.  He pulled the stone down upon the enemy in a rough circle surrounding his friends and those who held them.There was a sickening crunch as one of the scorpions was pulped beneath a large stone.  The others scrambled to get out of the way and most were able to dodge the worst of it.  The one holding Lazarius was caught in the edge of the magical rock-slide and both he and the Wizard were partially buried.  The one holding Marius was slightly more fortunate (though this was a decidedly mixed blessing for Marius) but did have to move forward to escape the rock slide.  The group was now confined to very small area with some rather large scorpion-men.  Marius would have made a joke about a “knife fight in a barrel” if he weren’t reeling from the poison.Cathal was in no position to laugh about any of this as he was now buried under even more stone.  He could feel bones starting to bend beneath the weight and could draw no breath.  His anger increased as he contemplated his death coming beneath a cave-in and not while swinging Mailbiter in battle.  But he held back the tide of rage for now.  If he were going to survive this he would need to keep his wits about him.In the confusion caused by the latest collapse, the scorpion-man holding Marius loosened his hold just slightly but it was enough.  Marius flexed and dropped from the creature’s grasp, tumbling back a few feet.  As he stood along the edge of the collapsed area, he looked down to see Lazarius unconscious and bleeding still in the grasp of the scorpion who held him.Marcus cried out for the vengeance of St. Cuthbert to fall upon their enemies and struck the one who had just released Marius.  His blow was glancing but it was enough to convince the creature that the battle was lost to them.  It vanished in a flash of red.A moment later, the one that held Lazarius dropped the unconscious Wizard and disappeared as well.  Marius knelt next to the Imperial War Wizard and managed to coax some magic from the Wand of Healing he carried, patching the worst of Lazarius’ cuts.Marcus turned in a full circle looking for friends and foes.  “Where is Cathal?!”  Speaks did not answer, feeling his badger conversational options too limited for any reasonable use.  He turned and began frantically digging back into the mound of stone that buried the Brigante.  It was only then that he fully realized that Scipio was nowhere in sight either.  He dug even faster.Cathal’s breath was coming in short gasps when Speaks got to him but just a moment later he heard a loud scratching sound and then the stones and gravel began to fall away around them.  A small boulder was pulled away by a huge paw and Scipio stood there in the breach.  Another minute passed by as they continued to move the rocks and gravel from around Cathal but they got him free.Lazarius spoke thoughts they were all having, “We need to regroup.  We can’t fight them like this with them appearing from nowhere and retreating if things go against them.”  Everyone agreed and they all climbed over the remaining stones clogging the hallway and moved back up the cave that had brought them to this ill fated place.NEXT:  Queen Under the Mountain – Part III</blockquote>

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