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: 1490615" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 127 Zenna felt a rush of panic surge against the bulwarks of her mental discipline as she stood within the darkness, the chaos of sounds raging around her.  She heard the noise of battle as her companions struggled against the dragon; felt the rush of wind as it lifted into the air; sensed the slight shift in the currents in the room as it flew away from the platform, toward the far end of the room.  Her senses seemed to grow sharper, until she almost imagined that she could smell the water glistening on the stone walls of the high priest’s chamber from where she stood in the threshold of the great door.  She knew that she should take cover, but was unwilling to move, to bestir herself in any way that would shatter this moment, this feeling of false security in a bubble of chaos. She heard the clank of metal that would be Arun and Hodge, moving in the darkness, and the loud click of Dannel’s borrowed crossbow.  Then a dull thud from across the room, a faint sound heavy with meaning. “What the blazes is happening?” Arun’s voice came from the dark.  For a long moment, there was silence, and Zenna could hear only the pounding of her pulse within her ears.  Finally, Dannel’s voice cut through the quiet.“It’s dead.”Zenna felt a flood of relief, the sensation almost unbalancing her as exhaustion rushed in to replace the eager tension of battle.  She needed a task to keep herself on the positive side of that brink, and crept forward to her right, guided by a faint wheeze that ultimately led her to the ravaged form of Clinger, Arun’s celestial mount.  She bent to touch the giant lizard’s mangled hide, her fingers touching slick wetness from the ichor that oozed yet from its wounds.  The creature managed a faint groan at her touch, but nothing more.  She closed her eyes and called upon a prayer of healing; only a weak osiron, with most of her spells already depleted in healing her companions before the confrontation with the dragon.  But the flow of blood from the lizard’s many wounds eased, and the creature seemed to rest easier, its breathing growing even and regular. “Thank you,” Arun said.  Zenna looked up, belatedly realizing that she could see again, that the magical darkness created by the dragon had faded.  The paladin looked a sight, his armor dirty with the blood of enemies both old and fresh, the face beneath his helm weary with the strain of constant battle.  She glanced behind him, and saw only Dannel on the platform, the elf walking slowly back toward them.  “Where’s Mole?” she asked, her voice thick with concern.  “The dragon knocked her into the water below, when it took flight,” Arun said.  “Hodge is helping her; she appears to be all right.”Zenna nodded.  Even if she wanted to, she doubted that she could have gotten up without help, and she didn’t want Arun to see how seriously the disease that she’d contracted from the mummy had weakened her. But Dannel could tell, she realized, as she saw the look in the elf’s eyes.  Behind him, Mole, dripping wet, and Hodge ascended the stairs back up to the platform.  “I can nay believe it,” Hodge said.  “I thought we were deaders for sure, when that drake landed outside the door.”  He turned to Zenna.  “Maybe there be somethin’ to those ‘tactics’ o’ yours after all.”Zenna looked at Arun, but the paladin’s face only betrayed the faintest hint of what might have been a smile before he turned to his crippled mount. “Return to the warmth and safety of your den,” he said, laying a hand on the giant lizard’s head.  The creature’s eyes opened slightly, then it faded into wisps of gray smoke that sank into the stone of the platform.  “Well, that was... interesting,” Mole said.  “This dragon-killing stuff isn’t nearly as bad as uncle Cal made it out to be.” Zenna laughed despite herself, but the mirth was short-lived, as she took in their battered state.  “I’m hungry enough to eat a dragon,” Hodge said, with a meaningful look up to the balcony across from the platform. “And how would you cook it?” Mole said.  “You’re not going to find anything that you can burn in this wet place...”“I’m hungry enough to eat ‘er raw,” the dwarf replied. As the two continued their banter, Dannel looked down at Zenna.  Dark circles hung under the elf’s eyes.  “We’re done,” he said simply.  “Zenith or no Zenith...”“No,” Zenna said, and with the word drew up enough strength from within to stand, hoping that it wasn’t too obvious how much to took out of her to do so. “Lass,” Arun began.“No, Arun,” Zenna said, but there was warmth in her tone to match her determination.  “No, we’ve paid too much already to turn away yet.  Let’s finish what we came here to do.”  She looked up at the elf.  “Please.”For a moment the two looked at each other, then Dannel finally nodded.  “All right.  But I don’t know what we can do, if any more threats present themselves.”“We holed up in that swamp of a room for o’er a day,” Hodge said.  “Mebbe that drake was the last o’em.”“Perhaps,” Dannel said, but his tone was doubtful. “I say we go up there,” Mole said, pointing to the highest of the balconies, a good twenty feet above where the dragon lay, any maybe fifty feet above the water-logged floor of the temple below them. “Oh? Why?” Dannel asked. “Because we haven’t gone there yet, and the dragon was perched up there before, like it was guarding something.”“Well, that be as good a reason as any,” Arun said.  “Let’s move out.”“Eh, I ain’t leavin’ without ol’ Betsy,” Hodge said.  “An’ I don’t know if elfie there wants his blade back, but me axe ain’t gunna lie in some fish-man’s tidepool to rust.”“Great, more swimming,” Mole groaned. * * * * * It took the better part of an hour to find Hodge’s axe in the two feet of murky water covering the floor of the chamber, by which point they were all soaked and dirty with lichens and muck.  Dannel’s sword never did turn up, and the elf did not insist that they prolong their search any further for the weapon.  Instead he took the quarterstaff from Hodge, keeping Zenna’s crossbow as a backup. The companions made their way carefully up the slick stairs to the upper balcony.  As they reached the top, they could see that a door was visible in the wall directly above the exit below.  An obstacle confronted them as they saw that there were gaps in the balcony flanking the door, with each section bridged by a retractable apparatus of rope and leather that was set up on the far side from their approach.  This was remedied as Mole, working in conjunction with the dwarves, was hurled across the gap to the far side to extend the bridge to allow them to pass.They readied their weapons and magic, but found only an empty corridor beyond the portal, and a larger space further in.  Where the temple was dim and shadowy, this room was utterly black, making it impossible for Dannel and Mole to see, but the elf remedied that by casting a light cantrip upon one of the ends of his staff.  A quick look around found two exits, stone doors leading off to the left and right from the entry.  They picked left at random, and continued to the door, Mole scanning it quickly for any traps or other hazards. At Arun’s insistence the door scraped open to reveal a still-larger room beyond.  The ceiling curved slightly, indicating that they were near the summit of the great structure, the back of the giant stone fish.  The walls were designed with frescoes that appeared to depict masses of kuo-toa descending into a great hole in the ground.  Pillars flanked another portal on the far end of the room, and as the place lacked anything else of interest, they started in that direction. Zenna, bringing up the rear, did not hear the almost silent scrape of cloth on stone directly above her, nor did she feel the black eyes that followed her progress across the room with a cold intensity.  Silently steel slid from the embrace of a scabbard, reflecting an ugly greenish tinge in the light cast by Dannel’s staff.</blockquote>

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