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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1397374" data-attributes="member: 99">Better late than never, as usual.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /> Queen Under the Mountain – Part IIIThe party traveled only a few minutes before they decided to hole up and rest.  Speaks came up with a plan to protect one of their flanks.  As the rest of the group stood careful watch, he began drawing stone after stone from his Bag of Endless Rocks and stacked them in a low pile across the corridor.  After he had a good sized pile, he began to magically Shape the Stones into a solid barrier.  It would be thin, but solid and block off the passage between them and the Scorpion Queen.They settled into an uneasy rest and tried to find some sleep among the dreams of claws and stingers.  This rest was short-lived.Marius was keeping watch up the other side of the corridor when twin flashes of red preceded a pair of Scorpion Men who rushed toward him.  He called out a brief warning that was cut short as the area was magically Silenced by a spell from the Queen who had somehow gotten behind their barricade.  He managed to stay out of the grasping claws of the two that had charged him and his rapier appeared instantly in his hand.Lazarius awoke from his slumber thanks to the truncated warning but found the area supernaturally silent and he was unable to do his magic under such conditions.  He paused to see if the warriors could handle the threat.  As if in response to these thoughts, Marcus surged to the attack and his mace connected with carapace with an inaudible crunch.  Marius thrust his rapier at one of his foes and it may even have hit a vital organ.  He was unsure of where exactly these Scorpion Men kept their vital organs.Scipio charged into the midst of the Scorpion Men, lowering his head and plowing them backwards as they clawed at his thick fur.  This bought the group a bit of space to maneuver in, but this space was suddenly lost again as two more of the Stingers appeared in the recently vacated area.  Cathal stood to challenge them but was grabbed in one of their claws.Yet another of the Scorpion Men, this one slightly smaller than the brutish warriors who had guarded the Queen, appeared alongside Scipio and delivered a sting that failed to penetrate the Dire Mountain Lion’s fur.  But another of the ones facing him reached out with a pincer and sliced his flesh open.Marcus grimly lowered his mace again and was rewarded as one of his foes crumpled before him.  He stepped forward slightly, trying to get within reach to threaten the Queen herself.Speaks had disentangled himself from his bedroll and found a bit of room as the battle began to push in the other direction.  He would need it for the form he was about to take.  Marius meanwhile maneuvered to flank one of the Scorpion Men opposite Marcus and managed to strike a minor wound while avoiding its claw in the process.Behind him, Cathal was crushed in the claw of one of the Stingers as it lowered its deadly tail and stung him in the chest.  He felt the poison take hold in his body and his limbs seemed filled with stone.  Rage overtook him as his frustration took over.  Too often in the last few battles had he been helplessly captive or buried while his companions did the fighting.  He gave a great battle cry and pushed against the claw as he ripped himself free.  He drew Mailbiter and gave another scream of rage in the face of his foe.The creature’s eyes widened as the Brigante broke free and also because, just behind the warrior, Speaks took the shape of a huge, brown bear.  Things were taking a turn against the ambushers.The pair of Scorpion Men protecting the Queen attacked Marius and Marcus respectively.  The two Imperials escaped harm thanks to one being nimble and the other heavily armored.  Because he was neither quite so nimble nor quite so heavily armored, Scipio fared more poorly and more of his blood ran onto the floor of the stone passage.Marcus struck back with lethal force, his mace carrying through his opponents torso and into that of the one facing Marius.  The Imperial Explorer tried to take advantage of the situation but was distracted by the cramped quarters he found himself in and his rapier was deflected off the thick hide of the Stinger.All this while, Lazarius had been biding his time for a moment to strike.  He hoped he had found it and made a bold move, darting past two live Scorpion Men and leaping over the dead body of a third.  One landed a claw on the Wizard but it did little to him thanks to the protection of his Stoneskin.  He could now see the Queen ahead of him, watching the battle and waiting to strike.  He could also hear the din of battle around him which meant that he could cast spells again.Scipio turned his claws on one of his attackers and got revenge as he tore limb from arachnid limb, leaving his opponent in a bloody pile.  His Druid master was doing the same a few feet away in bear form, tearing apart another of the smaller Stingers.  Not sensing that he was now alone in the middle of the battle, the last of the smaller Scorpion Men struck at Cathal and was pleased to see his claw land a deep cut on the barbarian.  But Cathal ignored the pain and swung Mailbiter in a mighty arc that ended its path somewhere in the middle of the creature’s sternum.  It slid to the ground leaking black blood.Lazarius dodged another claw as he prepared to unleash his magic.  Marcus ran in front of him and charged the Queen.  The Warrior Priest of St. Cuthbert found that the large Queen could reach quite a distance with her tail and was stung as he approached but the hearty warrior ignored her poison and kept coming.  He found however that the momentum of his charge was blunted by her attack and his mace missed its mark.  It was enough to take her attention off of Lazarius for just a moment though and that was all he needed.  His hand fished his Rod of Shaping from his Haversack and he dropped a Lightning Ball behind her, engulfing the Queen and just missing Marcus.Seeing Marcus facing the Queen alone, Marius tumbled deftly toward her and readied to move in behind her for a lethal attack.  Seeing this, she attacked him with her pincers but neither connected.With his Queen in trouble, one of her bodyguards began to fall back to aid her but was pounced on from behind by Scipio who sank his claws deep into the creature’s insectoid back.  The Queen would be left to fend for herself.Speaks roared the roar of a great bear and shredded the only other foe left in the party’s rear.  Cathal rushed forward to attack the one that Scipio was entangled with but slipped on some blood (whose is unknown) and failed to connect.The Queen, though now surrounded, failed to retreat for reasons that she kept to herself.  She once again attacked Marius but he dodged and leaped out of her grasping claws.  Lazarius summoned an Orb of Lightning into his hands and sent it flying at the Queen, it struck her and she seemed to be stunned for a moment.  She lashed out with her claws at Marius one last time but was falling to the ground even as she did so.Scipio disemboweled the last of the Scorpion Men as he raked with his back claws, leaving the corridor clear of enemies for the moment.  All that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the combatants.Bloody and exhausted, they decided what needed to be done almost without words.  They quickly gathered their things and retreated from the cave.  Picking their way carefully back alongside the pool where they had battled the fish folk, they headed down stream for a half hour and made camp well away from the lair of the Scorpion Men.As they settled down to camp once again, Speaks summed up their thoughts briefly, “Singer was right.  Nothing good lives in these mountains.”They slept restlessly huddled in their bedrolls as the sky clouded over and threatened snow.NEXT:  Underground Highway</blockquote>

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