Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1055113" data-attributes="member: 143"><p>Chapter 20</p><p></p><p>As the cloud of acidic vapors triggered by the trap on the door cleared, the four companions could see the pulverizer automaton, its metallic hide scarred by the gas, continuing its assigned chore of dismantling the obstacle of the portal. Its twin rotating drills had already bored a sizeable hole in the center of the door, and it was now quickly widening it, sending shards of stone and wood flying. </p><p></p><p>“Well, I’d say we’ve lost the element of surprise, at least,” Zenna noted dryly. </p><p></p><p>Arun moved up behind the automaton, trying to see into the chamber beyond. “Tell this thing to get out of the way,” he said to Mole. </p><p></p><p>The gnome nodded, and ordered the automaton forward. The golem lowered its arms, and obediently lurched forward. The grinding noise of its movements had grown louder; apparently the cloud of corrosive gas had damaged its internal workings. </p><p></p><p>Arun followed the automaton into the room, which had the appearance of a ruined laboratory or workshop. Crushed pottery and shards of glass littered the floor, and tables surmounted with the ruin of once-extensive glassworks, shelves, and miscellaneous apparatus were pushed up against the walls. Also present was a short, squat, gnomelike figure, clad in a cloak that was a ruin of shredded fibers that barely hung together about him. Beady, hostile eyes met Arun’s gaze, and he let out a terrible screech as he drew back, drawing a long dirk out from under his cloak. Arun hefted his hammer, but before he could do anything, the shadows around the creature seemed to <em>thicken</em>, gathering about him into a cloak of darkness that obscured his body from view. </p><p></p><p>“Your black sorceries will not save you from justice, fiend!” the dwarf shouted, stepping boldly forward into the room. </p><p></p><p>“What’s happening?” came Mole’s voice, from behind the door. The companions were pushing through the ruin of the doorway, but the jagged remnants of the portal that remained in the threshold were slowing their progress. Zenna’s face appeared through the gap, but then Ruphos pushed through, his mace in one hand and a torch in the other. Zenna was right behind him, holding her loaded crossbow at the ready.</p><p></p><p>As light from the burning brand flooded into the room, the shadow-cloaked creeper let out another angry cry. And the light revealed another short, cloaked figure who stepped out from the adjacent wall near the tunnel mouth to the left, right behind Arun...</p><p></p><p>“Arun! Watch out!” the cleric cried. </p><p></p><p>But the warning came too late, for even as he shouted, the creeper slipped up behind the dwarf and thrust his long knife into his side. The attack was devastating, punching through the gap in the dwarf’s scale mail under his arm and deep into the flesh and muscle and organs underneath. Arun staggered to the side, hurt badly, and the creeper cackled gleefully, his dagger slick with dwarvish blood along its entire length. The acid-burned one moved to join the attack, sweeping wide to come up on Arun’s far side to flank the dwarf. </p><p></p><p>Ruphos hefted his mace and prepared to come to the dwarf’s aid, but hesitated as a crossbow bolt lanced out from the right, narrowly missing him. He held the torch out in that direction, revealing a familiar tall form, its pale skin rippling with color to match the wall behind, already loading its bow for another shot. </p><p></p><p>“Skulk!” Ruphos warned. At his warning, Zenna lifted her bow and fired, though her hasty shot went wide and struck the table beside the skulk, smashing a clay beaker into a hundred fragments. </p><p></p><p>As if in response, another shadow stirred under a table near the wall just to the right of the door, the light from Ruphos’s torch refusing to penetrate its darkness as it started forward toward the two adventurers. </p><p></p><p>And it wasn’t as bad as it was going to get, either. </p><p></p><p>The light of Ruphos’s torch did not reach as far as the back of the room, leaving it a maze of deep shadows. From that direction a clear, angry voice filled the room. “<em>Telath nur zyg’zet!</em>”</p><p></p><p>And in response, the pulverizer, standing forgotten in the middle of the room, turned toward the dwarf, its drill-hands beginning once more to spin with their grinding cadence. </p><p></p><p>“<em>Neth!</em>” Mole cried, shouting at the automaton as she entered the room, biting off a curse as her cloak caught on the jagged edge of a shattered board. “Smashy, don’t!”</p><p></p><p>The automaton hesitated, caught between two conflicting commands. Finally it just stopped, lowering its arms, electing to do nothing. </p><p></p><p>From the back of the room came another command, spoken in a tongue that was rough and guttural, like pebbles being ground together. Arun was the only one among the four who spoke Undercommon, and thus understood the mandate directed at creepers and the skulk. </p><p></p><p><em>Kill the gnome!</em></p><p></p><p>“You’ll have to get through me, first!” he yelled back in challenge, sweeping his hammer with deadly force despite the grievous wound in his side. He assaulted the creeper in front of him, catching it with a glancing blow to its shoulder. The creeper drew back, summoning the magical shadow-cloak that protected its fellows before coming in again, its bloody knife darting in and out of the dark shroud at the dwarf. Meanwhile, the injured creeper came up on Arun from behind, seeking another weakness that it could exploit with a devastating sneak attack. Its knife came back, then darted forward...</p><p></p><p>And stopped, as the creeper, a dazed expression on its face, simply stood there, wavering. For several long seconds it hesitated, doing nothing, before it finally shook its head, clearing it of the mental fog that had descended upon it. </p><p></p><p>Just in time to clearly mark the hammer that came crashing down squarely upon its forehead. </p><p></p><p>Zenna nodded grimly as she witnessed the result of her spell. Arun turned to face his remaining opponent, but Zenna could not spare him any more aid at the moment. Ruphos had attacked the third creeper, while behind them, Zenna could see that the skulk had reloaded his crossbow, and was looking for targets. It staggered, though, as a bolt sank deeply into its side. The wizard glanced back and saw Mole, standing in the doorway, flashing her a thumbs-up before she started reloading. </p><p></p><p>Suddenly, out of the darkness, a long shaft came slicing directly toward her. Somehow instinct took over, and Zenna hurled herself aside, the javelin narrowly missing her before it slammed hard into the surviving jam of the door. Her heart pounding in her chest at the close call—she had no doubt that the missile would have killed her, had it struck her unawares—she lashed back without thinking, eschewing her magic for a more primal, basic power that was part of her very being. </p><p></p><p>A globe of pure blackness, darker even than the shadows beyond the radius of the torchlight, appeared in the back of the room. Zenna looked on in horror as she realized what she had done. She had tapped into the power of her mixed heritage—of the corrupt, shadowed side of what she was; a power that she’d sworn that she would never use. The taint that she’d hated all her life, ever since she’d learned what she was. </p><p></p><p>“Zenna! Are you all right?”</p><p></p><p>She looked up and saw Mole, her face a mask of concern. And also the shadow that rose up in the doorway behind her, a gleaming knife the only clearly discernable part of its form...</p><p></p><p>“Mole!”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lazybones, post: 1055113, member: 143"] Chapter 20 As the cloud of acidic vapors triggered by the trap on the door cleared, the four companions could see the pulverizer automaton, its metallic hide scarred by the gas, continuing its assigned chore of dismantling the obstacle of the portal. Its twin rotating drills had already bored a sizeable hole in the center of the door, and it was now quickly widening it, sending shards of stone and wood flying. “Well, I’d say we’ve lost the element of surprise, at least,” Zenna noted dryly. Arun moved up behind the automaton, trying to see into the chamber beyond. “Tell this thing to get out of the way,” he said to Mole. The gnome nodded, and ordered the automaton forward. The golem lowered its arms, and obediently lurched forward. The grinding noise of its movements had grown louder; apparently the cloud of corrosive gas had damaged its internal workings. Arun followed the automaton into the room, which had the appearance of a ruined laboratory or workshop. Crushed pottery and shards of glass littered the floor, and tables surmounted with the ruin of once-extensive glassworks, shelves, and miscellaneous apparatus were pushed up against the walls. Also present was a short, squat, gnomelike figure, clad in a cloak that was a ruin of shredded fibers that barely hung together about him. Beady, hostile eyes met Arun’s gaze, and he let out a terrible screech as he drew back, drawing a long dirk out from under his cloak. Arun hefted his hammer, but before he could do anything, the shadows around the creature seemed to [I]thicken[/I], gathering about him into a cloak of darkness that obscured his body from view. “Your black sorceries will not save you from justice, fiend!” the dwarf shouted, stepping boldly forward into the room. “What’s happening?” came Mole’s voice, from behind the door. The companions were pushing through the ruin of the doorway, but the jagged remnants of the portal that remained in the threshold were slowing their progress. Zenna’s face appeared through the gap, but then Ruphos pushed through, his mace in one hand and a torch in the other. Zenna was right behind him, holding her loaded crossbow at the ready. As light from the burning brand flooded into the room, the shadow-cloaked creeper let out another angry cry. And the light revealed another short, cloaked figure who stepped out from the adjacent wall near the tunnel mouth to the left, right behind Arun... “Arun! Watch out!” the cleric cried. But the warning came too late, for even as he shouted, the creeper slipped up behind the dwarf and thrust his long knife into his side. The attack was devastating, punching through the gap in the dwarf’s scale mail under his arm and deep into the flesh and muscle and organs underneath. Arun staggered to the side, hurt badly, and the creeper cackled gleefully, his dagger slick with dwarvish blood along its entire length. The acid-burned one moved to join the attack, sweeping wide to come up on Arun’s far side to flank the dwarf. Ruphos hefted his mace and prepared to come to the dwarf’s aid, but hesitated as a crossbow bolt lanced out from the right, narrowly missing him. He held the torch out in that direction, revealing a familiar tall form, its pale skin rippling with color to match the wall behind, already loading its bow for another shot. “Skulk!” Ruphos warned. At his warning, Zenna lifted her bow and fired, though her hasty shot went wide and struck the table beside the skulk, smashing a clay beaker into a hundred fragments. As if in response, another shadow stirred under a table near the wall just to the right of the door, the light from Ruphos’s torch refusing to penetrate its darkness as it started forward toward the two adventurers. And it wasn’t as bad as it was going to get, either. The light of Ruphos’s torch did not reach as far as the back of the room, leaving it a maze of deep shadows. From that direction a clear, angry voice filled the room. “[I]Telath nur zyg’zet![/I]” And in response, the pulverizer, standing forgotten in the middle of the room, turned toward the dwarf, its drill-hands beginning once more to spin with their grinding cadence. “[I]Neth![/I]” Mole cried, shouting at the automaton as she entered the room, biting off a curse as her cloak caught on the jagged edge of a shattered board. “Smashy, don’t!” The automaton hesitated, caught between two conflicting commands. Finally it just stopped, lowering its arms, electing to do nothing. From the back of the room came another command, spoken in a tongue that was rough and guttural, like pebbles being ground together. Arun was the only one among the four who spoke Undercommon, and thus understood the mandate directed at creepers and the skulk. [I]Kill the gnome![/I] “You’ll have to get through me, first!” he yelled back in challenge, sweeping his hammer with deadly force despite the grievous wound in his side. He assaulted the creeper in front of him, catching it with a glancing blow to its shoulder. The creeper drew back, summoning the magical shadow-cloak that protected its fellows before coming in again, its bloody knife darting in and out of the dark shroud at the dwarf. Meanwhile, the injured creeper came up on Arun from behind, seeking another weakness that it could exploit with a devastating sneak attack. Its knife came back, then darted forward... And stopped, as the creeper, a dazed expression on its face, simply stood there, wavering. For several long seconds it hesitated, doing nothing, before it finally shook its head, clearing it of the mental fog that had descended upon it. Just in time to clearly mark the hammer that came crashing down squarely upon its forehead. Zenna nodded grimly as she witnessed the result of her spell. Arun turned to face his remaining opponent, but Zenna could not spare him any more aid at the moment. Ruphos had attacked the third creeper, while behind them, Zenna could see that the skulk had reloaded his crossbow, and was looking for targets. It staggered, though, as a bolt sank deeply into its side. The wizard glanced back and saw Mole, standing in the doorway, flashing her a thumbs-up before she started reloading. Suddenly, out of the darkness, a long shaft came slicing directly toward her. Somehow instinct took over, and Zenna hurled herself aside, the javelin narrowly missing her before it slammed hard into the surviving jam of the door. Her heart pounding in her chest at the close call—she had no doubt that the missile would have killed her, had it struck her unawares—she lashed back without thinking, eschewing her magic for a more primal, basic power that was part of her very being. A globe of pure blackness, darker even than the shadows beyond the radius of the torchlight, appeared in the back of the room. Zenna looked on in horror as she realized what she had done. She had tapped into the power of her mixed heritage—of the corrupt, shadowed side of what she was; a power that she’d sworn that she would never use. The taint that she’d hated all her life, ever since she’d learned what she was. “Zenna! Are you all right?” She looked up and saw Mole, her face a mask of concern. And also the shadow that rose up in the doorway behind her, a gleaming knife the only clearly discernable part of its form... “Mole!” [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Shackled City Epic: "Vengeance" (story concluded)
Top