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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1061925" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 21 “Mole!” The gnome saw her friend’s gaze shift, realized what it signified even as she dropped her bow and dove ahead to the side, out of the doorway.  She felt the hot pain explode in her back even as she started to move, and knew that she’d been too late to react.  Instead of dropping into a smooth roll that would have brought her back to her feet, she landed hard, sprawled on the stone, the impact launching a new wave of agony through her lower body.  She tried to order her body up, but the pain fought her, freezing her muscles and slowing her movements.  She did manage to pull herself up enough to look behind her, enough to see the creeper that was coming for her, its features obscured in shadow, its knife wet with her blood.  Arun and Ruphos were caught up in their own struggles as the battle in the chamber raged on.  Having slain one adversary, Arun faced off against the other.  Even seriously wounded, the dwarf was stronger and deadlier than the creeper, but its magical shadow-cloak made it difficult to discern its true location in the poor light.  Already two punishing hammer-blows had gone astray, smashing only through empty shadows.  The creeper was a canny opponent, darting in and out of the dwarf’s reach, stabbing with its small but still dangerous weapon.  Although the dwarf’s armor had thus far protected him from another wound, it was uncertain which combatant would land the next, possibly deadly, blow.  Ruphos, meanwhile, had faced his adversary with bravery.  He had height and reach over the smaller creeper, and his mace was a more formidable weapon that the creeper’s dagger.  But the creeper’s shadow-cloak gave it a significant edge, one that it used to full advantage.  And the creeper wasn’t alone.  The cleric swung his mace in a determined blow that caught only empty shadows, overextending the priest as the weapon smashed against the wall hard enough to strike sparks.  The creeper was quick to take advantage, darting in and stabbing Ruphos in the leg, leaving him with a shallow but painful wound.  Ruphos quickly recovered and attacked again, more cautiously.  This time he hit something solid, but the creeper darted back, not hurt seriously if it had been at all.  Ruphos, gritting his teeth in determination, took a step after it, but staggered as a crossbow bolt from the skulk caught him solidly in the shoulder, almost in the exact spot where he’d been hit earlier. “Aargh!” he cried in pain.  The creeper cackled and leapt forward, and the priest hurriedly brought up his mace to defend himself.  But instead of attacking him, the creeper took advantage of his distraction to slash at his off hand, knocking the torch out of his grasp. The torch flared as it landed on the adjacent table, but while it remained lit it grew much dimmer, and the shadows throughout the room abruptly deepened.  Ruphos stumbled backward, and in desperation lashed out blindly with his mace.  He felt a solid impact as he his something hard, but it took him several long seconds to realize that the shadows in front of him had stopped moving, and that a dark form lay huddled at his feet.  Mole struggled to get her injured body to obey her, to get up before the creeper could reach her.  It looked like a race that she was doomed to lose, but then, she saw a tall form rise up behind the creeper, and leap at it.  “Stay away from her!” Zenna shouted.  She’d unclasped her cloak, and swept it out over the creeper’s head, catching it up in the folds of the garment.  The creeper snarled and drew back, tearing a long rent in the heavy fabric with its sharp knife, fighting free.  “I’ll kill you, woman,” it hissed, turning toward her.  Zenna, her face ashen, drew her dagger but did not back down. Mole was not idle with the time that her friend had bought her.  Digging in her pouch, she found the vial that Jenya had given her, and downed its contents in a single gulp.  She felt as if someone had poured a cold waterfall through her body, its touch washing away the pain and weakness she’d felt.  Leaping up, she drew her sword and charged at the creeper from the side.  With its attention distracted between her and Zenna, the creeper was just a heartbeat slow to react, a heartbeat that cost it as Mole thrust the full length of her sword into its side.  The creeper let out a strangled hiss as it stiffened, and fell to the floor. Arun seemed to be slowing as he lost blood, while his creeper opponent, encouraged by the fact that the dwarf hadn’t been able to land a second blow, continued to dart in and around him, seeking an opening.  Finally the hammer came around in a wide arc that overextended the dwarf, and the creeper gleefully leapt in to strike a finishing blow. That was a mistake.  Abruptly Arun shifted, reversing the hammer and driving it hilt-first into the center of the shifting mass of shadows that shrouded the body of the creeper.  The nimble creature tried to dodge, but wasn’t quite fast enough as the hilt crashed like a spear into his face with enough force to crush bone.  The creeper fell, its defensive screen of darkness dissolving into wisps of black that quickly faded, still struggling as it tried to get up, to get away.  It failed on both counts, as the dwarf’s hammer came up and then down one more time. The skulk, meanwhile, observing how the battle was turning, and not seeing any response from the dark stalker since the magical darkness had fallen over the back of the room, decided that discretion might, in this case, be the better part of valor.  Following the curve of the wall, it started backing toward the back of the room, holding its loaded crossbow before it like a shield.  It didn’t, apparently, work quite as well as a shield, as a bolt from Mole’s bow caught it in the leg just above the knee.  Combined with the wound it had already suffered, the new injury was just about too much for the hapless creature to bear.  Dropping the crossbow, it fell hard against a table, sending crockery flying to the ground with a crash.  Righting itself through a titanic effort, it tried desperately to get away, ignoring the painful scratches to its feet as it stumbled over the broken glass and pottery shards that littered the floor.  It made for the darkness, and the relative sanctuary that it offered, but came up short as the dwarf stepped into view, a light hammer cocked and ready to hurl in its hand.  The dwarf shook his head.  The skulk slumped to the ground, beaten.</blockquote>

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