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: 1265180" data-attributes="member: 143">More on Arun today, and the weekend cliffhanger a day early.  My office is moving to a new location tomorrow and I won't have computer access. Have a great weekend!* * * * * Chapter 86 Magma Avenue was fairly crowded on this morning, with dozens of Cauldronites taking advantage of the break in the storms of the last few tendays to catch up on errands and just general meandering out of doors.  The sky above was a stark blue in between the scattered clouds, although the chill in the air sufficed to remind everyone that yes, it was still winter.  Clouds hung in denser clusters over the mountains that overshadowed the city to the east, a further reminder that the city would likely be facing more inclement weather before too long.  But with the churches of the city equipped with the wands of control water recovered from the clutches of Triel Eldurast and her co-conspirators, the terror of flooding had been eased, at least for this season.  “That wasn’t necessary,” Arun said, as the gnome and dwarf made their way through the crowds.  Magma Avenue was a fairly busy shopping district, and it seemed as though the residents of the city wanted to get a month’s worth of purchasing and selling into this one clear morning. “Well, I was starting to get worried that I’d spend my entire stay in Cauldron without participating in a barroom brawl,” Mole said idly, drawing a harrumph that might have been amusement from the paladin. They walked on in silence for a bit, then Mole asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”Arun didn’t respond for several paces, and Mole didn’t push him.  But finally he said, “It’s true what he said—I am a coward, at least by the traditions and laws of my people.”“I can’t believe that,” she said earnestly.  “If anything, you’re a bit too brave, a little crazy, even.”Arun’s mouth cracked a smile, but it wasn’t in his voice as he continued.  “I was accepted into the Order of the Hammer at a relatively young age,” he said.  “I volunteered for pioneer duty—the cadres that scout the outermost tunnels, searching for threats.”“One time there was an incursion by a tribe of goblins—almost a thousand of them—that had made their way up from the Underdark.  They weren’t looking for trouble, were probably running from something bigger and meaner than they were.  Which is mostly everything, in the Underdark.” The dwarf paused as he looked off into the distance, seeing memories revisited in his thoughts.  When he continued, there was a grimness in his tone.  “I fought in a few skirmishes, and got separated from my patrol.  I found myself in a side tunnel—cramped, but quiet.  I was making my way back to one of the main tunnels when I came across a small cavern.”“The place was crowded with goblins.  Women, children... all noncombatants.  The males were all off fighting off my kin, not that they would last long against battle-hardened dwarves.  There must have been a hundred in that place.  There was no way out, except through me.”Mole looked up at him.  “I thought your paladin code was pretty straightforward about such things; defenseless enemies and such.”“Among humans, perhaps.  Not among dwarves.  A child goblin is still a goblin, who will grow up to become a goblin adult... evil and corrupted.”“So what did you do?” Mole asked, though she thought she already knew the answer. “I let them go,” he said.  “And your kin weren’t happy when they found out about it,” Mole said. “No,” Arun said.  “I submitted myself for judgment to the elders of our community.  There were a few that were sympathetic to my plight, but there was little that they could do, given my oaths and the direct contravention of our laws.  I was given a choice: I could be stripped of my station and my perquisites, including the right to bear arms and the right to pass on my family name, and live out my life as a miner or other unskilled laborer.  Or I could accept exile.”“It couldn’t have been an easy decision.”“No, it was not.”“Well... I know my opinion doesn’t count for a whole lot, but I think you’re the most honorable man I’ve ever met.”The dwarf looked down at the gnome.  “Thank you.  And I think your opinion is more valuable than you give credit for.”Mole smiled, then caught sight of something ahead through the crowd, further down the street.  “Oh look, there’s Zenna and Dannel.  I wonder if they’ve had as much excitement as we have, this morning.”Mole whistled loudly, then waved as Dannel turned in their direction.  Zenna seemed distracted, but that wasn’t an unusual state for her.  Head in the clouds, that girl, Mole thought idly.  The two groups started toward each other, but Mole paused abruptly, a frown creasing her expression. “Do you hear that?” she asked Arun.  The dwarf looked around, curious.  “What?” “A rumbling... under the surface of the street...”That was all the warning that they had, as a building along the north side of the street suddenly erupted in a shower of earth and stone, spraying shards of shattered brick out into the crowd.  People started screaming and running even before a massive form took shape out of the cloud of pulverized dust and dirt that billowed out over the wreckage of what had, until moments ago, been the front of a non-descript warehouse.  It resembled a huge bug, although it stood upright, with a hard, chitinous shell covering its alien, multi-segmented form.  Massive mandibles snapped experimentally at the air as it emerged from the cloud of debris, and it grasped onto the rough edges of the wall with powerful claws, tearing down more of the structure of the warehouse down around it as it drew itself up out of the tunnel it had burrowed up from somewhere below the city.  “Oh, dear,” Mole said, reaching for her crossbow.</blockquote>

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