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: 1241637" data-attributes="member: 143">Yeah, with Bull's Strength up and running, Triel's truly frightening with that flail.  As we shall see...* * * * * Chapter 82With their toughest combatant down, defeated by the insane, powerful Triel Eldurast, the already grim situation took a turn for the worse for the embattled companions. As the woman stepped forward to stand over the body of the fallen paladin, Dannel fired another arrow at point-blank range.  At that distance he could hardly miss, but the arrow turned even before it hit her heavy armor, deflected by the shield of faith that she had invoked at the start of the battle. “My faith is strong, elf,” she hissed.  “Is yours?” Zenna, still barely hanging on to consciousness, looked up at the domineering form of the enemy cleric.  She had no spells left that could hurt this adversary, even if she could manage a casting in her condition.  But she did not withdraw—what hope was there, to expect mercy from one such as this?  She lifted the wand for one last blast of flame, but Triel saw her, and she knew that there was no chance of beating the blow from that flail that would end it.  Even as the heavy weapon came up, Zenna knew that it meant her death. But a sound drew her attention away from that grim specter, a sound both familiar and strange.  The noise was Illewyn’s cry as she hurled herself at the evil priestess.  The lightly armored servant of Helm looked thin and fragile in contrast to her hulking, spiked foe, but as she lashed out with her mace she’d clearly caught Triel off-guard, managing a glancing blow that caromed off of her steel helm.  “Bravely done, Helmite,” the evil cleric laughed.  “But now it is time to die.”Triel lashed out with her flail, catching Illewyn with a merciless blow that savaged her side.  The priestess cried out and staggered, but did not go down.  The Banite priestess did not relent, hitting her again with a powerful overhand blow that might have taken her head off, had it connected squarely.  As it was, even the glancing hit off of her metal-rimmed skullcap spun her around, blood spraying into the air as one of the flail’s wicked edges tore flesh. Zenna looked up, and saw for a single stark instant the deep brown eyes of Illewyn meeting hers as the cleric whipped around.  The priestess’s face was a mask of blood, but determination shone in her eyes, a commitment that Zenna remembered seeing before.  The tiefling willed herself to speak, but nothing came from her lips as time seemed to slow around her. Run... Zenna wanted to say.  No, not again... She was aware of Dannel charging, dropping his bow as his sword sliced out of its scabbard, too late...Illewyn smiled at Zenna, and stumbled back to face the cleric, invoking the power of Helm once more.  His name was on her lips as the flail crashed into her face, crushing her skull. Zenna looked up at the dark pit beyond the eyeslit of Triel’s helm.  “Two down,” the priestess said.  The cleric had taken a beating, however, and even as she turned to face Dannel’s charge, she took one hand off her flail and reached into her belt pouch, withdrawing a slender wooden wand covered in magical symbols.  Zenna tried to rouse herself for one last attack, but she’d lost too much blood.  She found herself slipping, sliding down the wall to what would apparently be her final resting place.  Mole found herself hard-pressed indeed, unable to stop this foe that was wreaking disaster upon them.  The second archer had drawn his sword and joined his companion, and now it was Mole that was flanked, caught between a wall of spiked metal in the form of Triel, and two agile rogues who knew how to take advantage.  She could tumble free, she knew, and with her magical boots outdistance these foes, maybe even escape.  But she could not leave her companions behind.  Even as another sword struck home, tearing through her armor and gashing her right shoulder, she sprung clear, tumbling out of the immediate path of the darting swords.  But rather than continue out of the melee, she turned and darted back in.  She still held her sword, but her other hand had dug into her pouch, recovering the item she’d left there. The gnome sprang into the air, her boots giving her enough of a boost that she easily cleared five feet above the ground.  The two rogues looked up at her as she arced past them, past Triel...And as she flew past, she slammed the flask of alchemist’s fire squarely into the back of the cleric’s neck.  Flames exploded in a hungry, surging blast.  Mole was knocked roughly backward, her arms smoldering with fire, landing awkwardly a few feet down the passage.  Fortunately for her, the two rogues were caught equally off guard, dodging back as wisps of liquid fire splashed onto their garments.  Triel, however, found herself in a far more unpleasant situation.  The alchemical substance poured through the crevices in her armor, searing the evil woman’s flesh mercilessly.  Triel screamed, twisting her body in a vain attempt to avoid the clinging flames.  She dropped her flail, but clutched onto the wand in her hand like a lifeline.  The wooden shaft began to glow with a soft blue light, offering the reassuring power of healing energy.  “No, I don’t think so,” Dannel said, ramming his sword into her body. Triel stiffened.  The wand and its promise of life fell from her hand.  She reached up and managed to pull her helmet from her head; the heavy metal fell to the ground with a clatter, revealing her once-beautiful features scorched and ruined by the flames.  With her other hand she reached out and clasped the elf on the shoulder, using him to hold her standing even as blood poured out over the elf’s blade embedded in her gut.“Go... to... hell...” she muttered, and fell, lifeless, to the ground.</blockquote>

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