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: 1370204" data-attributes="member: 143">Of late I've been confronted with a considerable case of Writer's Block... or more accurately, "Writer's Apathy," a common phenomenon where one is confronted by the empty page and cannot bring oneself to write anything (anyone who's written anything will likely know what I'm talking about, I suspect).  Thus over the last few weeks I've been dribbling out posts rather than posting at my usual breakneck pace.  Since I'm generally happier (and the slow spots at work go by faster) when I'm writing, I've elected to break through the block in the only way you really can: forcing yourself to write without really worrying about the dreck that's coming out.  Then you go back later and try to edit what bubbled up from your mind into some sort of coherence... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Since I haven't posted much in a while (2 in the last two weeks, IIRC), and since I'd like to get a cliffhanger in before the long weekend, here's a double update: * * * * * Chapter 104This was easier than I thought it would be, Zenna thought, staring out into the darkness ahead. Only it wasn’t really dark, not truly.  Traces of phosphorant lichens crossed the walls of the great cavern, shedding just enough light for her to clearly make out the distinguishing features of this place.  And it hadn’t really been that easy, either... but it made her feel better to think so, to place the challenges they’d faced getting her against the difficulties that no doubt faced them now, directly ahead. The hydra... now that had been tough, although chance had favored them in their second confrontation with the creature.  The wreckage of the falling staircase had crushed the creature, ending its struggles against the combined damage unleashed upon it by the companions.  Whether it would have survived without that inadvertent intervention, she couldn’t be certain. She felt rather than heard Dannel sidle up behind her, his footsteps like whispers on the uneven stone.  The elf had impressed her with his skills in this dark place, almost as much as the ability of the dwarves with their uncanny knack for anticipating the dangers in these dark realms under the ground.  Arun, she knew, had had to confront a fair amount of emotional baggage in returning here, to the depths of the Underdark.  But the paladin seemed steadfast, as undaunted as when they’d pulled him out of the wreckage piled onto the carcass of the hydra.  Dannel had intervened quickly, leaping into the chasm even as the reverberations of the collapse had faded, using his feather fall spell to ease him into a soft landing on the edges of the jagged mass of debris.  He’d found Arun quickly, still struggling to free himself despite the pair of steel joists jutting from deep punctures in his side and hip.  Once he’d helped the dwarf free himself and treated the most serious of his wounds, the others had made their way down to join them, descending on a rope Mole produced from her magical haversack. Even before they explored the fissure, they’d gotten a quick reminder of what lay ahead for them.  A corpse, half-encased in ice.  Zenna had known what it was even before Arun confirmed it, with a dark growl. “Drow elf.”It was impossible to discern much from the body of the frozen elf, but the chain links of the armor shirt he wore had been mithral, and glowed in response to Zenna’s detect magic spell.  Dannel wore that shirt now, the bright silvery links concealed by the darker colors of his tunic, letting him better fade into the shadows.  Zenna hoped that the added protection of the magical mailshirt would help keep him safe, here in the realms of shadow.It had taken them the better part of two days to get here, long hours descending ever-deeper into the mantle of Abeir-Toril.  Zenna suspected that they haven’t covered more than ten miles or so in raw distance from the fissure, but with all the twists and turns, ascents and descents over the uneven ground, she figured that they had probably walked at least twice that.  They’d had two encounters in that time, although they’d happened so fast that she hadn’t even had a chance to cast a spell.  No, she corrected herself mentally, she had used a scorching ray to finish that troll, but by the time she’d reached the battle the creature was already down, with three of Dannel’s arrows stuck in its torso, one leg bent at a weird angle from a blow of Arun’s hammer, and half its side torn open by Hodge’s axe.  Zenna had arrived to see its terrible wounds already beginning to knit as the creature’s regenerative properties begun to take hold, but her spell had put an end to that, turning the creature into a pyre.  Dannel’s new armor had proven its worth, keeping the creature from getting a rending hold on him, but his arm had borne deep gashes where one claw had momentarily gotten a grip on him.  They were fortunate that the creature had been alone, Zenna mused; trolls were deadly foes at best.  The other encounter had come and gone even quicker.  They’d been crossing a small cavern, a bubble in the rock that was bisected by the tunnel, when a trio of huge bats had detached from the darkness of the cavern roof and swept down toward them.  This time Zenna was the first to spot the danger, and called out a warning to the others even as she’d fumbled with the string to her crossbow.  She didn’t get a shot off; the bats dove with a shriek, lunged at them with nasty bites that failed to connect with any of their targets, and then streaked off down the corridor.  They hadn’t come back, and they left one of their number bleeding out its life on the stones.  Two encounters, potentially deadly, but thus far no serious injuries.  Too easy. And now they were here, the tunnel opening onto the edge of a vast cavern.  Below, the surface of the cavern was flat; too flat, Zenna thought, thinking that maybe the dark sheet that glistened slightly in the faint luminescence was the surface of an underground lake.  The air here was thick and moist, bolstering that supposition.  But most of their attention was drawn to the structure on the far side of the cavern, excavated from the cliff opposite.  The most prominent feature was a bulbous construction that jutted out into the cavern proper, a building that to Zenna’s eyes had the look of some great and terrible fish.  Its eyes and mouth were dark circles that hinted at deeper spaces beyond them.  “Bhal-Hamatugn, I would presume,” Dannel said.  “I’m not looking forward to taking a swim anytime soon,” Arun commented.  “How we going to get across?”“Let’s go down and take a look,” Zenna suggested.They made their way slowly down the steep slope from where the tunnel entered the cavern, careful not to dislodge any loose stones or make any other loud noises that might give away their position.  Zenna figured it was a useless effort; when they’d entered here Mole had been carrying her small miner’s lamp, and although she’d shuttered it once they’d seen that a cavern lay ahead, no doubt anything hostile in the fish-fortress had seen its flicker across the darkness of the cavern.  Carrying light sources down here was all but guaranteed to ensure that any threats would see them before they were seen, but there was no alternative; Dannel and Mole both had excellent night-vision, but unlike Zenna and the dwarves, could not see in total blackness.They made their way down to the floor of the cavern without incident.  The glossy flat surface was indeed a lake, stretching entirely across the width of the cavern.  Down here their view was obscured somewhat by a faint mist that hung above the surface of the water, and the complex on the far side of the lake was just a vague shadow superimposed against the sheer cliff beyond.  The occasional sound of dripping water was the only sound, punctuated every now and again by a faint splash that might have been caused by anything. “Cheerful place,” Mole said dryly.  “I dinna s’pose yer got a boat in that pack o’ yers,” Hodge queried. “No, sorry,” the gnome said with a shrug. “I can swim across and take a look,” Dannel suggested.  “You’re daft, elf, but there’s no doubting your courage,” Arun said.  “These lakes tend to have nasty things living in them, and they don’t take kindly to outsiders making a disturbance.”“Well, what’s your idea then?”Zenna quieted them with a sudden, “Shh—look!”They all turned to the lake, staring out through the mists and what Zenna indicated with a pointed finger.  A dark shadow emerged from the swirling wisps of fog, taking form and resolving into a tall, gaunt, humanoid figure directing a long canoe across the lake toward them.  It bore an oar in one hand, and a spear in the other, held aloft like a pinion missing its standard.“What in all the hells be ‘at?” Hodge said, his loaded crossbow held readied in his hands.  Even with their sharp vision, Mole and Dannel couldn’t define anything more than a shadow in the poor light.  But Arun squinted into the murk, and as the strange boatman drew nearer he spat.  “Goggler,” he said.  “Kuo-toa.”As if his statement had triggered the creature to action, the creature lowered its hands, letting its spear drop, and the paddle drag idly through the water in the wake of the angular craft.  They could all see it, now, a cross between a fish and a man, with huge, bulbous eyes and a gaping mouth that seemed to suck at the air, the folds of flesh at its throat distending with each heavy breath.  It sat there, watching them, for a long moment. “Well, should we say something?” Mole whispered. “It don’ look friendly to me.  Best give it a bolt, just to be safe,” Hodge suggested, not taking his eyes from the creature.  It croaked something at them in a wet, guttural language, punctuated by clicks like the sound of bubbles popping.  “What’s it saying?” Mole asked. “It’s Undercommon,” Arun reported, his feelings about the creature evident in his tone and expression, even half-hidden by the faceplate of his helm.  “It said something about the ‘Eye of Darkness,’ or somesuch, and offered to take us through it.”“Could be a trap,” Hodge said. “Well, of course it’s a trap, silly,” Mole said.  “But still, better to be ambushed in a boat than swimming with your gear, I say.”“How ‘bout we shoot it, then take the boat?” the dwarf returned. “I suppose it didn’t occur to you that maybe it understands what we’re saying, that maybe these things have excellent hearing, and that the building over there—let alone this lake—may have a hundred of them watching us even as we speak?” Zenna hissed, the words coming out of the side of her mouth as she kept her eyes on the kuo-toa boatman.  The creature just sat there, watching them, its alien expression inscrutable. Dannel had silently stepped forward, until he stood on the very edge of the lake, the water sloshing softly against the leather of his boots.“Now, what’s that elf doin’?” Hodge asked. As the others watched, Dannel began to sing, softly at first, his voice forming the outlines of a melody, wordless, the notes floating out across the water.  The kuo-toa watched him intently, and seemed to tense for a moment, before sagging slightly, its body growing limp. The song faded.  Dannel beckoned, and the creature took up its paddle, driving the canoe toward them with several swift strokes.  It drew the craft to a halt at the very edge of the lake, and croaked out something to them in greeting. “It wants us to come with it,” Arun reported.  “Is there a reason we should be trusting it, now, elf?”Dannel turned to his companions, so that his body sheltered him from direct view from the kuo-toa.  Quietly, he said, “I have set a charm upon the creature, so it will temporarily consider me a friend and ally.  We must be careful, though; any hostile action upon it will disrupt the magic.”  His eyes focused on Hodge as he spoke the final words. “Bah,” the dwarf said.  “Mark my words, it be leadin’ us into a trap.”“Well, why don’t we ask it?” the elf replied, with a nod toward Arun.  The companions turned as one, and focused their attention upon the kuo-toa.</blockquote>

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