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: 1427789" data-attributes="member: 143">Still insanely busy, but rather than waiting a week until I have built up enough material for some long posts, I think I'll go with short updates (think of them as mini-cliffhangers <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=";)" /> ) this week.  * * * * * Chapter 117Mole screamed as the world went dark around her, and the unholy blight tore at her senses.  The innate goodness of her heart increased her suffering now, as the foulness of the evil spell sought out the bright places in her soul, searing them with its dank corruption.  But then, just when she thought that she could not bear another instant, the spell ended and the black cloud faded.  Still sick from the blight, she saw the kuo-toa cleric who had cast the spell.  The creature was huge, nearly seven feet in height, and covered with a second skin of silvery metal plate armor that glistened wetly in the cold moisture of the temple.  It carried a massive staff with a nasty-looking pincer on one end.  Beside her, Arun, looking equally ravaged by the terrible spell, nonetheless trod bravely forward, hefting his hammer as he confronted the foul high priest. “You die now, monster,” he said, lifting his heavy hammer and pointing it like a spear at the cleric’s chest.  And to Mole’s surprise, the cleric retreated, back to the stone portal that stood ajar behind the lobster-woman statue.  Not surprisingly, Arun followed. “Come on guys, he’s getting away!” Mole yelled down to the others, before starting after Arun.  Fighting down the roiling sensation in her gut that still threatened to overcome her, she tucked her little crossbow into her belt—she’d never bring down an monster like that cleric with that!—and drew out her slender sword.  Dannel, rushing up the stairs, shouted something after her, but the words were lost in the acoustics of the chamber and the pounding of her blood in her ears.  The kuo-toa high priest—Margh-Michto, she remembered, the name given him by the kuo-toa they’d spoken to before—darted through the half-open portal into a smaller chamber beyond.  Arun followed him at a deliberate pace, his armored body clanking loudly with each step. “Um... Arun, maybe we’d best wait for the others...”But it didn’t look like the paladin was stopping, and she didn’t want to miss the trouble that was no doubt waiting for him in the priest’s lair, so she hastened her pace, catching up to the dwarf even as he strode boldly through the stone threshold. Mole took in the features of the room in an instant; the grim carvings on the walls, the relatively low ceiling, the two inches of water that covered the slightly sunken floor.  There were other exits, stone doors in the walls to the left and right, but Mole didn’t really have time to examine them, for the kuo-toa high priest was there, as in right on top of them, driving forward to slam the heavy door shut behind them.  Arun responded quickly, slamming his hammer into the fish-man’s side, but Margh-Michto’s heavy armor was fashioned of mithral, and it absorbed most of the force of the impact.  The stone door clanged as it slammed shut—or mostly shut, Mole amended; it was jammed slightly open by something stuck in the threshold. Even so, she didn’t think it was a good idea to give the cleric time for more tricks, so she quickly skirted around Arun to come upon the kuo-toa from behind. But before she could get into position, Margh-Michto stepped back, and uttered a terrible and harsh croak replete with evil power.  Arun, recognizing that the priest was calling upon another spell, lifted his hammer and rushed forward to strike, but even as the weapon began its downward arc, the kuo-toa finished his dread magic.  The power of the priest’s fell patron flowed at the command of her servant, drawing upon elemental energies to shape their surroundings to his will. And in a flash, the room was suddenly filled to the ceiling with water.</blockquote>

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