NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1239721" data-attributes="member: 143">Welcome back, Elemental!* * * * *Chapter 81Arun burst into the corridor, his shield raised high before him.  Arrows shot out from the corridor to either side, propelled from the bows of the Alleybashers who stood behind the shields of Triel’s armored warriors.  There was a pair of fighters to each side, with another pair of rogues behind; eight mercenaries in all.  Triel stood to the right, flanked by her two toughs, clad in her spiked platemail with her silver flail held aloft in both hands, dark syllables issuing from her mouth as she called upon the power of her terrible patron. Arun, of course, headed immediately in that direction.  Arrows glanced off of his shield or the heavy plates that covered his back, but the dwarf’s luck held and none of the initial attacks penetrated.The armored thugs flanking Triel rushed to block the dwarf, while the two behind him down the left branch of the passageway moved forward to assault him from behind.  Before they could reach him, however, the dwarf’s allies burst into the fray.  A tiny form shot out of the doorway like a stone rolling down a steep hill, still trailing cobwebs behind her.  As Mole came out of her roll she twisted and hurled a ceramic flask into the oncoming fighters, catching one in the chest.  The alchemist’s fire exploded, covering the hapless thug in a cloak of fire.  His companion, a hungry-faced woman, dodged to the side as hot splashes of the burning mixture splattered on her armor.  Even as the burning warrior’s screams filled the corridor, the woman raised her sword and rushed at Mole.  She’d barely covered two paces, however, when a long shaft slammed into her side and tore through her armor, biting deep.  Dannel stepped forward out of the tunnel into the corridor, already reaching for another arrow. Behind him came Illewyn and Zenna.  The two women had already taken a beating in earlier battles, but the companions knew that none of them could afford to hang back in this struggle.  Zenna saw Arun facing off against five foes to the right, including the evil priestess of Bane.  Triel was invoking her patron, clearly content to let her allies withstand the initial rush from the adventurers who had invaded her lair.  Behind her stood two rogues who had already reloaded their bows, and were seeking new targets.  One saw her and shouted something lost in the chaos of the battle, and without hesitation drew and fired.  The long shaft sliced narrowly through the melee between Arun and the two warriors facing him, and shot straight toward Zenna’s face... only to be turned at the last instant by the magical shield she’d just invoked.  Releasing the breath that had frozen in her lungs, she lifted her new wand and invoked its power. Hot flames exploded from the wand, blasting down the corridor in a bright orange cone.  The burning hands engulfed Arun, but the dwarf, protected by Illewyn’s resist energy spell, paid them no heed.  The two warriors, not favored with such protection, cried out as the hot fire swept over them, and Triel, just behind them, let out a nasty curse as the flames reached their furthest extent, licking at her steel armor with their fading tongues.Illewyn was the last to emerge from the tunnel.  Her heart was pounding in her chest, seemingly loud enough to drown out the surrounding sounds of the fray.  Despite her training in the arts of war as part of the instruction that all initiates into the church of Helm received, she felt completely overwhelmed at the chaos that swirled around her.  To her left a man who’d been transformed into a pyre continued to scream as he tried in vain to pat out the flames covering his upper body, while right in front of her, a woman with an arrow jutting from her side tried to stab at Mole, who leapt nimbly back out of the way.  To her right, the dwarf paladin exchanged blows with a pair of warriors, and behind him, the evil woman in spiked plate lifted her flail and called again on her dark god’s intervention.  The air was filled with smoke, and Illewyn felt as though her head was going to explode as everything swam in and out of focus.  She felt a sharp pain blaze across her temple, and staggered.  Reaching up, she felt the hot blood pouring down her face from the gash a scant inch above her left eye.  Turning, she saw the archer—who couldn’t have been more than eighteen, if that—grin evilly at the results of his shot.  His companion, a near giant of a woman missing most of her teeth, was already fitting an arrow to her bow as well, and took aim at Dannel.Indecision flooded away, replaced by the cold calm of certainty as Illewyn felt the power of her god enter her.  She called upon the potency of a spell, targeting the woman archer even as she drew the fletchings of her arrow back to her cheek.  The arrow remained there, frozen, as the woman stiffened, held by the power of Illewyn’s spell. Dannel fired his second arrow of the battle into the back of the woman threatening Mole, driving her forward to collapse against the wall.  Without hesitating he drew and aimed again in a blur, shifting to target the Alleybasher aiming at him.  He didn’t know that the woman was no longer a threat, and with her frozen in place she could not avoid the shaft that sank deeply into her shoulder, knocking her back to fall hard to the ground, paralyzed and bleeding. The remaining young archer, his allies stripped away in a matter of moments, didn’t look quite so cocky all of a sudden. On the far side of the battle, barely ten paces away from where these events transpired, Arun exchanged blows with a pair of armored men who loomed over him like giants.  The dwarf fought with a fury as if possessed by a vengeful spirit, crashing powerful blows from his hammer into his foes’ shields and armored forms.  One already favored his side where an impact from that sledge had already gotten through his defenses.  In turn, their blows seemed to glance off of the dwarf’s armor like a dull chisel on solid marble.  Despite the lingering effects of the spider and ettercap poison in his veins, he fought with tenacious determination, filled with the divine favor of his patron deity, the hard and grim dwarf god Moradin.  Zenna fired a second spread of burning hands into the melee.  The hot flames roared over the combatants, cooking them just a bit more in their metal armor.  The already-injured one drew back, raising his arm to shield his face from the flames.  That gave Arun the opening he needed to pulverize him with an upward blow that hit him in the gut.  The metal bands protecting him buckled, and the fighter collapsed, trying in vain to suck in breath with his shattered diaphragm.  The other fighter, his armor lined with char from the two blasts of fire, sliced at Arun with his sword, but once more caught only the dwarf’s shield.  But even as the first soldier fell, Triel stepped over him and joined the fray.  Bolstered by the dread power of Bane, she swung her massive flail in a powerful two-handed swing that crushed into the shoulder of Arun’s weapon-arm.  The dwarf, solid as he was, grunted as pain shot through his body, and it was clear that only through a considerable effort was he able to keep his grip on his hammer.  Zenna raised her wand again, but cried out as an arrow shot through her shield and sank several inches into her shoulder.  Sagging against the wall, she fought to retain consciousness, holding her hand against the bloody wound. Dannel, meanwhile, continued his exchange of fire with the Alleybasher archers.  The young man who was the only one left standing on their left flank lifted an arrow and took aim at the elf, but his hands trembled and the shot sliced the air two inches from the elf’s ear.  “Your mistake, to engage in an archery duel with an elf,” Dannel said, calmly drawing his own bow and firing.  The longbow propelled the missile in a streak that sank into the youth’s body.  His armor slowed its progress, but not by much.  The youth sagged against the wall, but remained standing, and reached for the small sword at his belt. “Second mistake,” Dannel added, as his second shot buried to the feathers in the man’s throat a few seconds later.  All too aware of the desperate sounds of metal striking metal behind him, he turned just in time to see one of the archers standing behind the enemy line shoot Zenna.Illewyn fought through the red and gray haze of blood and smoke and focused her will once more upon their enemies.  Wiping blood from her eyes, she pointed at the madwoman who was pounding at Arun with her flail, and issued a command backed by the power of divine Helm.“Flee!”Triel merely laughed.  “Your little mind tricks will not work on me, Helmite!”Mole had not been idle during those few moments since she’d tumbled into the corridor.  Her sword was already bloody, used to end the struggles of the scorched warrior as the alchemist’s fire burned out.  Seeing Arun and Zenna hard-pressed, she spun and sprang back across the battlefield.  The corridor was cramped and crowded with armored bodies and deadly weapons sweeping in wide arcs, but she didn’t hesitate, hurling herself forward and tumbling into another roll propelled by the magical properties of her new boots.  She caromed off the wall like a cannonball, coming up behind the toasted warrior assaulting Arun.  The soldier, no novice, realized that he’d been flanked, but considering the dwarf the greater foe, did not adjust his stance.  That choice cost him, as Mole slipped the length of her sword through a gap in his armor and into his back.  The entire melee had lasted perhaps fifteen seconds, and already several enemies were down, and most of the companions had not even been hurt.  The enemy leader, however, now fully immersed in the raging tide of battle, did not relent.  Uttering a fierce cry of exultation, the priestess of the Black Hand swept her flail down in another punishing blow that glanced painfully off the paladin’s helmet, denting the rigid metal.  Arun staggered, dazed by the assault, but managed to bring his shield up enough to meet the cleric’s backswing.  The woman’s blows were backed by an almost inhuman strength, and there was no denying her skill at arms. But the paladin too was driven, no stranger to the fray.  Calling upon the name of the Soul Forger, he unleashed an all-out strike that pounded into the evil cleric’s breastplate.  Triel was driven back a step, but only that, and she was quick to come forward again. “A fine strike, paladin... but not quite good enough!”Flames washed over them as Zenna unleashed her third spray of burning hands, targeted on the cleric.  Triel stood within the flames without flinching, looking like nothing less than a terrible demon from the Abyss as the orange tongues licked around the spiked flanges of her armor.  If she was discomfited by the spell, she gave no indication, continuing her efforts to destroy the dwarf paladin through brute strength.  Mole, dodging back to avoid the edges of Zenna’s spell, recognized as well that the evil priestess was the greatest threat.  One of the rogues had dropped his bow and came at her with his shortsword, but she ignored him to move into flanking position against the cleric.  She paid for that maneuver with a shallow but painful gash along her arm from the Alleybasher, but managed a weak blow against the cleric’s hip that glanced off of her armor.  Enough to get her attention, certainly. “I’ll get to you in a moment, you little creepling,” the cleric’s voice hissed from within the spiked helm. Zenna lifted the wand again, determined to unleash all of its stored spells if necessary to bring this almost inhuman adversary down.  But before she could call upon its power, a second arrow sliced through the crowded melee and through her defenses, glancing off of her skull just above her right ear.  The tiefling fell against the wall, clinging to the cold stone, just barely hanging on to consciousness.  Dannel cursed as he missed the remaining archer, allowing the shot that crippled Zenna a heartbeat later.  The elf took a step forward toward the injured woman, indecision gripping his gut like an iron fist.  He reached for his wand of healing, but Illewyn was already moving, crossing to where Zenna hovered on the edges of the melee. But then, the tide turned. Arun growled out another challenge and swung his hammer low, crashing the heavy iron head into the evil cleric’s hip.  The impact had to hurt, but Triel only laughed, a manic laugh followed by action as she smashed her silver flail into the dwarf’s body once, then again.  The first hit knocked his shield aside and smashed his arm, while the second came down heavily onto the dwarf’s chest with the force of a giant’s club. Arun was blasted back, knocked off his feet to land on his back.  He struggled once, faintly, then lost consciousness.</blockquote>

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