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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1219025" data-attributes="member: 143">Heh, clearly I created expectations with my recent post-a-day history.  Thanks for the bumps; it's nice to be able to come back from a vacation and find the story without digging around on page 4. * * * * * Chapter 73Even as Zenna shouted her warning, Dannel was moving, lifting his bow and drawing back the arrow already fitted to the string.  However, in his haste the arrow improbably slipped off the string, falling aside before the elf could react.  Rather than going for the arrow, Dannel bit off an elvish curse and dug into his quiver for another shaft. Arun likewise responded quickly, if not as swiftly as Dannel.  However, his throw went wide, and the light hammer spun easily a full pace over the halfling’s head, crashing into the door behind him. Mole, who’d been lagging behind, hefted her crossbow and came forward even as Dannel fitted his second arrow to the string and drew.  But the delay had given the halfling enough time, and he faded from view, shooting them one last hostile smirk as he vanished.  Dannel’s arrow sliced through the air where he’d been standing a moment later, but it hit nothing. “Spread out, block the passage!” Zenna urged.  “And watch those doors, don’t let him get away!”They moved forward, wary, in close ranks to keep the halfling from slipping past, weapons at the ready.  But they were still a good fifteen feet from the doors when Mole paused, hearing a faint sound that seemed to come from up above.“He’s casting again!” Mole warned.  She pointed her crossbow up in the direction of the sound, but held her fire, uncertain.  How could he have gotten up there?A loud voice filled the corridor, seeming to come from right where the five of them were standing.  “INTRUDERS IN THE COMPLEX!  TO ARMS!”  The sound was so loud that it seemed as though a dozen men were shouting at the top of their lungs, and it continued uttering the same warning repeatedly, effectively covering any noise that the hidden wizard might make. “We’re in trouble!” Dannel shouted, trying to make himself heard over the din.“Fall back!” Zenna warned.But before they could retreat, the door in the far wall opened, revealing a rather irate-looking armored woman warrior, her sword ready in her hand.  Light shone into the corridor from the room behind her, clearly outlining the forms of additional guards.  Without hesitating, she hefted her sword and charged, shouting a battle cry that was lost in the continuing din from the halfling’s spell.Dannel drew and fired, and this time, didn’t miss.  His arrow caught the woman in an armored shoulder, penetrating the steel plate with a heavy crunch and jabbing into the muscled flesh beneath.  She staggered but still came on, bringing up her shield in time to catch the bolt from Mole’s crossbow.  Behind her came a second warrior and a pair of rogues clad in the familiar style of the Alleybasher gang, drawing slender rapiers as they moved forward in tandem.  Arun held his ground to meet their charge, but even as he lifted his own shield to meet the overhead stroke from the injured woman, Zenna leaned over him and unleashed a color spray down the corridor.  In the close quarters, there was no chance that she could miss.  The blazing colors swam over the woman warrior and the armored man a few paced behind her, and caught the two rouges as well.  One, a young red-haired woman who’d shaved one side of her head bald, turned away in time to avoid the blast, but her companion caught the colors square in the face, and like the two warriors slumped unconscious to the ground.  The woman rogue hesitated, clearly not liking the odds as they had just been recalculated.“Nice work!” Mole yelled, as she reloaded her crossbow. “Surrender or be slain!” Dannel shouted.  Despite his slight frame, his words carried clearly even over the continued warning.  Her response wasn’t quite clear, but it was clear from her expression was the gist of her comment was.  Dannel nodded and drew out another arrow, even as Arun hefted his hammer and stepped forward with a grim look on his face. Zenna felt a sudden tingle of power, a stirring in the air that made strands of her hair rise up and stand on end.  In horror she turned just as a jagged bolt of liquid energy exploded down the corridor.  She threw herself back against the wall as the lightning bolt blasted through the middle of the corridor.  Illewyn was hit square on by the bolt and screamed as she fell, her torso blackened where the bolt had seared through her.  Arun, next in line, was also hit squarely, though the dwarf remained standing as the electrical discharge flowed through him.  Dannel, on the far side of the passage, was narrowly missed by the bolt, which continued down the corridor in a blazing streak, sending tendrils of death into the fallen warriors as it went.  It narrowly missed the still-standing rogue, who threw herself down to the floor, and finally blasted into the door at the far end of the passage, sundering it off its hinges.  Zenna turned to see the halfling, shorn of his invisibility, standing on the ceiling a good ten paces back down the corridor behind them.  The halfling’s figure was still shadowy and indistinct, as though some vestiges of his magical invisibility still clung to his form.  Even as she fumbled for her crossbow, Mole—who had also dodged out of the path of the bolt—lifted her own bow and fired.  The shot was true, but the halfling clearly had some sort of magical protection up, for the bolt jerked aside at the last instant.  Meanwhile, the door to the left of the passage had opened as well, discharging another trio of Alleybashers to the fray.  Clearly these three had been resting, for their clothes and armor were clearly hastily donned, and sleep still lingered in their eyes.  For all that they recovered quickly with the prospect of a battle taking place right in front of them, and they drew their rapiers, quickly joining their thus-far extremely lucky companion in rushing to attack. Dannel drew and fired, grazing one of the rogues with a shot that drew a red gash along her side.  He knew that the magic-user behind them was a significant threat, but he could also see that Arun, weakened by the lightning bolt, wouldn’t stand long alone against four enemies.  He grasped one last arrow and quickly fired, hitting the woman he’d just wounded with a more significant injury to the leg that definitely gave her cause for concern.  Then he drew his sword and moved to support the dwarf.  Arun leapt over one of the fallen fighters—now charred from the passage of the lightning—and engaged the first pair of rogues.  As in the Lucky Monkey, the Alleybashers moved quickly and efficiently to coordinate their attacks, slipping around the dwarf to flank him.  This time, however, the enemy was clearly not hindered by drink, and almost immediately one dug his rapier into a gap in Arun’s armor, scoring a hit that was clearly serious.  The dwarf, now in trouble, refused to budge, bringing his hammer around to strike back at his adversary.  The hammer connected, but it was only a glancing hit that did little to hinder the canny rogue. “We’ve got a problem here!” Mole yelled, as she reloaded her crossbow.  The halfling wizard laughed, and with a wave of his hand conjured a series of magical bolts that darted unerringly to hit Mole and Zenna.  The tiefling’s body clenched as pain stabbed into her with the pair of impacts, but she forced her attention to the body of the woman lying in front of her.  She knew that they had to deal with the wizard, but she’d seen the effects of the lightning bolt on Illewyn and knew that the cleric would die if she didn’t intervene immediately. Kneeling beside the fallen cleric, Zenna called upon the power of Azuth to stabilize her.  The healing power flowed into the unconscious woman, who stirred as the positive energy drew her back from the brink of death.  Mole fired at the wizard again, this time getting through his defenses to score a minor gash as a bolt drew across his thigh.  The halfling stamped one foot against the ceiling in fury, and began casting once more.  Arun fought on with an almost blind rage, laying about him with his heavy hammer, keeping his foes at bay though sheer effort.  The one he’d hurt darted back to avoid another powerful stroke, and his friend on the other side just barely missed another opening that would have likely meant the end of the paladin.  The rogue shifted to come in for another try, but was forced to dart back as Dannel leapt into the fray, slashing with a tight stroke that cut the Alleybasher in the cheek before he could get free.  The man snarled, and faced off against the elf in the tight space of the corridor.  To his side stood Arun, who continued to exchange blows with the other man, with neither able to deal a telling blow for the moment.  Behind the two rogues the other two Alleybashers, unable for now to reach the melee in the crowded space, drew out their bows. Having aided Illewyn, Zenna glanced up at the halfling, lost in his next no doubt deadly spell.  Knowing that she didn’t have time for her own casting, she swallowed her hesitation about drawing on her natural powers and called down a globe of darkness around the halfling’s position.  The cry of frustration that she heard told her that she’d interfered with whatever the enemy wizard had been about to unleash upon them.  Streams of red fire emerged from the darkness, twin blasts that were aimed in the general direction of her and Mole, but without sight to guide them, both missed their targets.  Zenna was quite glad of that, as one scorching ray seared the wall just a foot above where she crouched, close enough that she could feel the heat that quite possibly would have killed her, had it struck her dead-on. The ghost sound summoned by him earlier called out one more warning and then ceased.  As the deafening noise ended, the echo of the shout still ringing in Zenna’s ears, she turned to see Arun and Dannel fighting for their lives against the Alleybasher rogues, while Illewyn had drawn herself up against the far wall of the corridor and was casting a spell to channel further healing into her battered body.  Mole held her loaded crossbow at the ready, in case the halfling presented himself again through the darkness. Apparently, however, the enemy wizard had had enough of this impromptu confrontation.  “Get Triel, you fools!” he shouted from somewhere still beyond Zenna’s bubble of blackness.  The battle with the rogues was clearly turning, and they were quick to take their leader’s advice to heart.  As Arun’s foe lunged once more at him, trying in vain to penetrate his defenses, the dwarf abruptly lurched forward, catching the Alleybasher off guard as Arun drove his hammer up into his jaw.  The impact crushed the entire lower half of his face, and he crumpled backward.  Behind him one of the women rogues shot him with her bow at point-blank range, but the arrow likewise skittered off of his armored form.  Arun didn’t hesitate, continuing his rush and slamming his hammer with bonecrushing force into the woman’s midsection.  Her face twisted in pain as she collapsed to the ground, trying in vain to suck in breath as her heart continued to pour blood into her savaged torso.  The last woman, the one who had avoided both the color spray and the lightning bolt, wasn’t sticking around to press her luck.  Like a flash she darted through the open door at the far end of the corridor, and was gone. Arun turned to help Dannel, but the elf already had his situation well in hand.  Before the dwarf could strike, the last Alleybasher slumped to the ground, clutching a deep puncture in his side.  Dannel offered the heavily wounded dwarf a healing potion, and this time the paladin did not refuse.  Zenna had likewise drawn out a healing draught, and as she drank it she felt the sting from the halfling’s magic missiles ease and quickly fade away.  She moved to help Illewyn up back to her feet; the cleric’s divine magic had eased her hurts somewhat but she still looked a sight, with her white robes blackened and charred where the lightning bolt had struck her.  Mole’s voice drew their attention back down the corridor, where the globe of blackness still hung over the upper two-thirds of the passageway, leaving a clear space a few feet high below.  “Come on, he went this way!” she cried.The others hurried in that direction.  “What was that about not rushing headlong into danger?” Dannel offered to Zenna as an aside, as he slipped ahead of her, his bow again unlimbered with an arrow set to the string.</blockquote>

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