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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1353247" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 102Metal creaked, the wind blew across the lip of the pit, and tension floated heavily in the air as the companions made their way down into the shadowy darkness.  Arun reached the first corner landing and started down the second flight of stairs, the others following slowly behind. A sound alerted them, movement in the darkness within the fissure, deep enough to be out of the line of sight even of those with darkvision.  Something heavy, scraping on stone.  Then a sibilant hiss, a sound that filled the pit like a sinister caress.  The companions readied their weapons. Something moved into view, crossing the boundary between total blackness and mere shadows.  A long, reptilian head, shaped like a dagger, jaws filled with sharp teeth, the whole perched atop a long, twisting neck, like a snake. “Another drake!” Hodge warned, backing up against the false security of the pit wall, lifting his crossbow.  But Dannel, who had realized the true significance of the title of this place, given to them by Jared, recognized with horror the true nature of the foe.  “Back!” he warned them.  “Back up, get up!”The elf’s discovery was understood by all of them a heartbeat later, as the creature came forward into view.  Another head appeared, and then another, until a twisting nest of long necks and deadly heads had appeared.  The heads—seven of them, in all—were attached to a fat, powerful body, propelled forward by short, muscular legs.  It was long, with much of its bulk still trailing back into the fissure.  The beast was a dark gray tinged with purple, with streaks of starker violet trailing up its necks and marking the bony forehead of each head.  “Hydra!” Dannel shouted, putting a name to the beast. “Well, don’t just stand there, put a hurt on it!” Arun yelled, starting down the stairs toward the creature. “No!” Dannel shouted, but the warning came too late.  Even as the companions launched their missiles at the creature, a volley of bolts stabbing down from the bows of Mole, Zenna, and Hodge, the hydra’s heads came up toward the descending dwarf.  Arun was still too high up for its jaws to reach him, surely, but then, as the others watched in horror, several reptilian maws opened wide, and gouts of white ice blasted from the depths of the creature’s belly into the dwarf.  The paladin, caught in the multiple blasts, staggered backward against the wall, his armor and shield now tinged white where ice had condensed on the metal surfaces.  “Arun!” Mole cried. Dannel fired his bow, knowing even as he did that the shot was wasted.  Indeed, even as his arrow slammed into the hydra’s body, one of the earlier wounds—from the massive size of the bolt jutting from the wound, from Hodge’s bow—healed, the thick shaft pushed harmlessly free as the tear closed itself.     “It’s regenerating!” Zenna said, recognizing what Dannel had already known would happen. “Back up, now!” Dannel said.  “The creature’s too big for those stairs, it won’t be able to follow us up!”“I’ll get Arun!” Mole said, already darting nimbly down the steps toward the first landing.  But Hodge was already moving.  Frozen by fear by the creature’s appearance, and chilled by the backblast of its frosty breath against Arun, he’d nonetheless scored a hit in the initial volley.  Even before Dannel’s words his legs were already starting him on their course back up the stairs, but he hesitated, turned back to where the hydra was continuing toward Arun, most of its body now out of the fissure.  Gods... it was huge, larger even than the dragon they’d battled before.  As he watched the hydra unleashed another frost blast from another head, chilling the already frozen paladin further.  Arun was still conscious, trying to shake free from the ice coating his compact frame, still trying to reach the creature to attack.  The heads were almost just below him, now, and if he charged to the next landing, they would be able to meet him. And tear him to pieces. Hodge was surprised to find himself charging down, toward Arun.  Frost exploded around him, and for a moment of stark terror he found himself blind, stumbling down a stair where one false step would lead to a quick and messy death.  But then he was beside Arun, and he grabbed the paladin on the arm.  “We’ve got to get back up!” he shouted.  Through his pain and rage, the paladin nodded.  With relief Hodge started trudging back up the steps, Arun close behind.  Another frost blast followed them, but they’d reached the first landing by this point, and most of the cold was blocked by the metal framework of the staircase.  The hydra’s heads hissed at them as they withdrew, snapping as a few more crossbow bolts from the other companions above harassed the creature.  Finally, frustrated at the escape of its supper, the creature turned and with surprising adroitness returned to the shelter of the fissure.  Within ten seconds, it was out of sight, and quiet returned to the pit.  Arun and Hodge reached the top, where the others waited.  Both dwarves found the nearest open spot and dropped to the ground, breathing heavily, Arun shivering from the cold blasts that had chilled him to the bone.  “You’re frozen nigh to death,” Zenna said, her role as healer taking over as she knelt beside the ailing paladin.  She took the healing wand she’d recovered from Triel Eldurast, and used it to treat the dwarf, restoring color to his pale skin and sending soothing warmth through his body.  “There’s not much power left in this,” Zenna said, holding up the wand for a moment before tucking it back into its pocket.  Dannel, meanwhile, had used his own wand of cure light wounds to attend to Hodge, although the second dwarf had not suffered to the same degree as Arun.  “Not all foes can be bashed head-on,” the elf said chidingly, as Arun, much recovered, pulled himself back to his feet.  Arun shot him a hard look, but then grudgingly nodded.  “So now what are we going to do?” Mole asked.  “Find another way?”“I know of no other route into the Underdark,” Dannel said.  “At least not for hundreds of miles.”“That thing’s just going to wait for us down there, and we can’t attack it unless it comes out of the fissure,” Zenna said.  “It seemed to regenerate very quickly the damage we inflicted upon it.”“What if we cut the heads off?” Hodge suggested.  “Seems like that’s where most of the danger be, if’n you ask me.”“That would work, if you had fire or acid handy,” Dannel said.  “But risky.  Hydras have the ability to regrow lost heads; in fact, if you sever one and do not quickly seal the stump, two heads may regrow where one once was.”“Well, blasted bloody damn!” Hodge exclaimed.  “How we s’posed to beat such a thing?”“I admit, I do not know,” Dannel said.  “I doubt we could do enough damage from range to the body quickly enough to overcome its natural regeneration.  And if we closed to melee, down there, it would quickly tear us apart.  Those jaws are strong, like a dragon’s bite.”The companions stood there, glum at their prospects.  Mole, however, had taken off her magical backpack, and was trying to lift something bulky from inside.  Zenna noticed her, and turned toward her. “What are you doing?” “Well,” Mole said, grunting with a bit of effort as she lifted a small cask—that should have been enough to fill the entire backpack by itself, had it not been magical—free and laid it on the ground.  “That thing breathes frost, so I’d imagine that it doesn’t much like fire.”Zenna wrinkled her forehead, not understanding, but Dannel had recognized the cask, heavily crusted with heavy sealant that oozed out from between the gaps in the wood.  “Lamp oil?” he asked.  Mole grinned sheepishly.  “Well...”“No.” Zenna said.  “Mole, tell me that you haven’t been carrying...”“What?” Hodge said, looking at the cask curiously.  “Well, it worked so well when we were fighting the cult under Cauldron.”“Mole...” Zenna said, stern disapproval in her voice. “I’d consider ourselves quite fortunate that our friend here wasn’t caught in one of the breath attacks from that dragon,” Dannel said. “What?” Hodge repeated, a confused look on his face. Mole shrugged.  “Okay, so it’s alchemist’s fire.”</blockquote>

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