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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1637132" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 169The hags drew upon the combined power of their covey, seeking to unleash a power that would turn the battle decisively and finally in their favor.  The lead hag laughed as dark energies flowed at her beckoning...And then Arun brought his hammer around in an arc, catching his distracted foe solidly at the base of her neck.  The hag screeched and flopped to the ground.  The lead hag turned to him and let out a scream that seemed pulled from the very pits of darkness and suffering as the unity of the covey was broken.  “No!” she cried.“Yes,” Arun replied simply, bringing up the hammer again.  The hag vanished, followed a few moments later by the other one.  Zenna heard a fluttering of wings nearby.  Another foe, she thought. The voice of one of the hags sounded from the far corridor.  “Get the last of those fool giants down here!” it commanded.  The flapping of wings moved across the room—Dannel took a swung at the invisible form, and missed—and the double doors slid silently open as whatever it was escaped.  As it fled Zenna cast a minor spell, casting about for magical auras.  “Are they still here?” Dannel asked, crossing the room to recover his bow.  Arun, after making sure the hag he’d struck down was really dead, cautiously approached Hodge, who was sitting on the floor, muttering a babble of curses under his breath.  Mole had disappeared, but after looking around the room Zenna finally saw her, perched atop the sculpture in the center of the room.  “They’re gone, for now,” Zenna said.  Morgan, she saw, was starting to stir; Dannel saw as well and shot Zenna a querying look.  “If the spell was what I think it is, she’s still got him,” she said.  That was enough for the elf, who put him down again with another sharp blow. “We’ve got to get out of here, now,” he said, just loud enough so that Zenna and Arun both heard.  “We cannot take on more giants, not like this.”  He turned toward the sculpture.  “Mole, come down from there!” Arun came over, leading Hodge.  The dwarf seemed quiescent for now, but still hadn’t fully recovered his senses.  Mole suddenly turned and leapt off of the sculpture, plummeting face first toward the ground fifteen feet below.  Zenna let out a startled screech, and Dannel only barely managed to catch her, setting her down on the ground unharmed.  The gnome shook her head.  “What just happened?” she asked. Hodge, too, was coming around; Zenna recognized it by the fact that his curses took on a definite clarity and passion directed toward the departed hags.  “We’ve got to get out of here,” Dannel repeated.  “What ‘bout him?” Hodge said, gesturing toward the fallen cleric.  “Bring him,” Dannel said.  The dwarves shared a look and grabbed the cleric.  It took the two of them to lift him enough to drag, heavy as he was with his armor. “Bring his sword, too,” Dannel reminded them.  “He’ll need it, when we come back.”Hodge was puffing as he and Arun struggled to drag the priest toward the exit corridor.  “Yer know, yer could help a bit,” he suggested, along with something else under his breath that wasn’t quite audible.  Zenna reached down and picked up the sword.  “What do you have in mind, Dannel?” she asked. “Rear guard,” he said.  “Carrying him you’ll never outrun those giants, if they decide to come after us.”“But—“ “There’s no time to talk about it!” he said.  “Now go!” Even as he spoke, the elf darted up along the wall, using his magical slippers to scale the sheer surface effortlessly.   “Mole, come on!” Zenna said, from the corridor.  “I think I’d better hang back and make sure he doesn’t get his head smooshed,” the gnome said casually, standing by the base of the sculpture.  “You go on, we’ll follow.”  She grinned.  “Don’t worry, I can outrun them.”Even as she turned back to the tunnel, to see Hodge and Arun barely halfway down its length toward the ruined gate, she felt a rumble that she knew was the heavy tread of giant footprints, drawing nearer.  She looked back toward the corridor, knowing as well that the hags could return at any moment, that the foul things were far from beaten.  She felt torn inside, looking at the man she’d loved and hated, and her best friend, then back up the tunnel at the retreating dwarves.  Lingering here herself would accomplish nothing, she knew, and the dwarves would need help when they reached the steep slope at the far end of the canyon.  With a last look back, she turned and ran down the corridor.  When she heard a giant’s roar behind her, she did not falter, but kept running.</blockquote>

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