Chapter 107
The heavy portals swung open, discharging another company of guards, armed like the first cadre with small hand crossbows and drawn rapiers. As they spotted Zenna two lifted their bows and fired, while several others rushed forward, blades raised to attack. Behind them could be seen the shadowy form of another kuo-toa, clad in the bizarre raiment of a lesser priest, called whips in the terminology of the fish-men.
The two darts glanced off of the potent magical defenses that Zenna had raised, but she didn’t even notice, already lost in the casting of another spell. Even as the two foremost kuo-toa rushed at her, a blaze of colored light erupted from her fingertips, engulfing the fish-creatures and extending fully to the gap in the door, spilling through to catch up the two archers in the effect. As the color sprayfaded the all four kuo-toa warriors stood there stunned by the sensory overload of the spell, temporarily blinded, but Zenna could hear the angry croaking from the priest, no doubt exhorting its followers to renew the attack. From somewhere beyond her field of vision, she heard other kuo-toa voices, answering the whip’s call.
“There’s more of them!” Zenna cried, backing up. Calling upon her innate powers, she drew down a sphere of darkness upon the doorway, hoping to gain them just a few seconds’ more time.
The rest of the battle in the corridor was rapidly drawing to a close, with the companions victorious but heavily battered. Arun had finally knocked down his adversary with a solid blow to the creature’s fishy head, and together he and Hodge were putting the finish to their last foe, the kuo-toa already down and struggling with futility to get up and away. The last one facing Mole and Dannel had also tried to flee, but didn’t get very far before Mole’s blade had sliced through its hamstring, bringing it down for a final killing thrust.
Dannel looked like he could barely stand, but he turned at Zenna’s warning, and sheathed his sword as he took up his longbow again. “We’ve got to retreat!” he urged. “Back to the boat.”
None of the others offered dissent; while Arun hadn’t taken any more damage in the melee, Hodge was pale beneath the layer of whiskers covering his face, pressing his arm against his side in an attempt to staunch the oozing flow of blood from one of his several wounds. But he offered no complaint as they made their way painfully down the stairs. Dannel brought up the rear, and fired an arrow over his shoulder at one of the warriors that Zenna had stunned, and which was already beginning to recover. The fish-man took the hit hard, and floundered, but was clearly not going to be taken out of the fight by one shot.
Mole came up beside him, already digging into her magical pack for something. “Go!” Dannel urged, already backing down the stairs, but the gnome ignored him as the haversack produced her objective, a fat quart-sized ceramic flask.
“Not again!” the elf said, but the gnome only offered a mischievous grin as she slammed the flask down at the head of the stairs. The impact released a long slick of thick black grease, that splayed out over the wet stones like dark fingers grasping the rock.
“Okay, let’s go,” the gnome said, darting down the steps with long, sure-footed strides, reaching the bottom in advance of the elf thanks to her magical boots.
Evil croaking sounds issued from the mouth of the massive fish-temple as they made their way back down to the stone dock. Arun and Hodge had already clambered onto the boat, and Zenna was helping to hold it steady as Mole and Dannel caught up to them and boarded. They had only the one oar left by the kuo-toa boatman, but Hodge supplemented it with powerful if awkward strokes from his axe. Even as they turned back into the mists they heard the loud cry of a kuo-toa—the priest, it looked like—as it appeared in the dark opening of the fish-mouth. Dannel, sitting in the prow of the craft in a half-crouch, quickly drew and fired, but with the movement of the canoe the arrow missed well to the left, shattering on the hard stone.
“Damn ye, elf, quit rockin’ the boat, it be unsteady enough to start with!” Hodge cursed.
More kuo-toa forms appeared around the priest, and soon small darts were landing around them as the canoe made its way into the mists. One plinked off of Arun’s shoulder plate, while a second stabbed into the side of the canoe, a few inches from Mole’s thigh. The gnome was twisting around, trying to get a good look at their attackers through the mists.
“Did any of them slip on the grease? I can’t see!”
But then the mists swallowed them up, and once more the world around them was lost to shadow.
“We’re not safe yet,” Dannel urged them. “Remember, kuo-toa can swim as easily as you or I walk on solid ground.”
“I’m rowin’ as fast as I can, elf!” Hodge sputtered, and it was true, although his face seemed almost like a death mask now, and his breath rattled in his throat with every stroke of his axe.
“Let me help you,” Zenna said, reaching around Arun to touch the wounded dwarf with her wand. The healing energy coursed into him, and as the blue glow faded Hodge exclaimed, “Ah, now that’s better ‘an even a mug of stout!”
Zenna turned back to the front of the boat. “You’re barely standing yourself, Dannel,” she said, offering the wand.
“I’ve got it,” the elf said, drawing out his own wand of minor healing, humming the musical notes that activated its power. Soon the bleeding from his own wounds had stopped, although Zenna could tell that he was still more than a bit unsteady from the lost blood.
Fine, if he wants to be stubborn, let him, she thought, stabbing the wand back into its pocket with perhaps more force than was exactly necessary. Inwardly, she was worried; she could sense that the healing wand was all but depleted, and her own spells had been nearly all expended in the brief but desperate struggle. She glanced over at Mole, who had produced an oblong object from her backpack, and was now using it as an improvised oar to help the dwarves drive the boat forward across the lake. Her efforts were probably of little help to their muscular strokes, but she was still helping, adding her incremental efforts to the survival of the group.
Odd, to have had to come to a place like this, to find a group of people to whom I actually belong, she thought. Other images popped unbidden into her mind, thoughts of a home she’d once had and people she’d once loved... and now? She squashed such musings ruthlessly, forcing herself to focus on the immediate danger. Dannel was right, while they were out of sight of their foes for the moment, it would be foolish to assume that the kuo-toa would not pursue them, or that other dangers did not exist here in the depths of the Underdark.
Dannel leapt out of the boat with such abruptness that Zenna started, before realizing that they had arrived at the far shore of the lake. The elf helped them pull the canoe up onto the rocky shoreline, and they quickly disembarked. Hodge had actually started up the slope a few paces back toward the tunnel entrance, before Dannel called him back.
“Don’t forget the canoe.”
Hodge looked at him with incredulity. “What? Yer not meanin’ what I think yer meanin’?”
Dannel opened his mouth to speak, but Arun beat him to it. “He’s right, we’re not done here, and we’ll be needing the boat when we come back.”
“In case yer hadn’t noticed, them things cleaned up on us!” Hodge said. “And they’ll be waitin’ fer ya, when yer be comin’ back!”
“I gave my word,” Arun said simply, taking up the rear of the canoe, while Dannel lifted the front. They started up the slope, with Mole and Zenna watching for any signs of danger.
“Cheer up!” Mole said, as she passed the dwarf. “At least we’re all still alive this time!”
“Yer all daft,” the dwarf grumbled, but he followed after them, glancing back occasionally at the still lake behind them. Belatedly something occurred to him. “What do yer mean, ‘this time?’” he asked, rushing to catch up to the others.
