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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1727958" data-attributes="member: 143">The previous post didn't really make for a good Friday cliffhanger, so here's another: * * * * * Chapter 209“I think we have to keep moving, that stopping our progress triggers the teleportation,” Zenna said.  They were deeper into the field of cysts now, a few turns beyond where they’d initially encountered the strange and hostile planar travelers.  The path continued to shift, turning occasionally to a perpendicular course to their left or right, sometimes doubling back on itself.  The lantern allowed them to follow the route without error, but they couldn’t see any landmark that it might be leading them toward. “You may be right,” Dannel said.  “It would fit the pattern of what we’ve experienced thus far.”Mole had drifted off of the “path”, and was heading toward one of the cysts.  “Careful, Mole,” Dannel cautioned.  “We should stay together.”“There’s something here,” she said, pointing toward the cyst.  Looking in that direction, they could see that there was in fact a faint glow coming from within.  “What’cha got, girl?” Hodge asked.  “An enemy?”  He lifted his spear at the thought, orienting the weapon in the general direction of the cyst.  “Or maybe some loot, eh?”The gnome was now standing over the cyst.  “It’s a glowing sword!” she said excitedly.  “Magic, no doubt.”  “We cannot stop,” Kaurophon said.  “Already we have been delayed too long, here; we cannot keep retracing our steps.”“Hey, it looks like there may be some other stuff in here, too,” Mole said. Zenna had slowed her steps, but she was still being carried past Mole and the cyst.  “We cannot stop, Mole.”The gnome shook her head.  “Well, I’ve been stopped, and I haven’t vanished yet.  Go on, slowly, and I’ll catch up once I get this open.”  She drew her knife, and started hacking at the cyst. “Mole!” Zenna said, but the gnome had chosen to ignore her. “I like this not, looting the dead,” Arun said, frowning.  “Though I detect no specific taint here, save for the general aura of the plane.”“Well, if it is a celestial weapon, then its former owner clearly has no use for it, and we can put it to better use than letting Occipitus slowly absorb it,” Dannel said. “It’s too tough!” Mole’s voice came back to them.  “I need help—Hodge, how about that axe of yours?”“I’ll go,” Dannel said, trotting back to her. Zenna watched for the flash that would send them back to the start of the path, but nothing happened.  Finally the elf and gnome came running back, carrying their prizes. “What did you find?” Zenna asked, curious despite herself. Dannel held up the sword, a sleek hand-and-a-half weapon with a glimmering white blade, marked with runes in what Zenna recognized was the celestial language.  For all his earlier focus upon completing the challenge here, Morgan was clearly drawn to the weapon, and he stared at it in amazement as Dannel hefted it, its radiance clean and reassuring as it drove back the sickly red glow that shone everywhere upon Occipitus.The knight swallowed.  “This is a holy blade,” he said. “Go ahead, take it,” Arun said.  They were still moving forward, though their pace had slowed as they examined the sword.  The path bent again to the left, and Zenna absently led them around the bend.  Distracted, she didn’t see the pile of debris that rose up out of the plain maybe a hundred yards ahead, which they were now approaching.  Morgan shook his head, clearly still mired in his own doubts, and his hasty oath to refuse the chosen weapon of his deity until he’d redeemed himself in the eyes of his god.  “Arun has proven the utility of such a weapon, priest,” Dannel said.  “You should take it... you’d put it to better use than any of us.”Slowly Morgan nodded, and took the sword gingerly, as though afraid that it might bite him.  Once in his hand, though, it looked as though it belonged there. “Here... take Alakast,” he said, handing the staff to Dannel.  “You are nearly out of arrows, in any case.”  Dannel accepted the weapon.  “We also found a cloak, and a set of bracers,” Mole said eagerly.  “Zenna, you want to check them out?” But before Zenna could answer, a chittering noise drew their attention back toward the path ahead.  There, behind one of the larger cysts, they could see a long, slender limb jutting out from cover.  Its owner rose up from behind the cyst... a horror of a thing, resembling a giant spider, about the size of a warhorse, with multisegmented legs that extended outward in a spread that had to be six or seven paces across.  Its body was oddly segmented, as if a deranged craftsman had built it out of black iron plates, and the four slender, multi-jointed pincers flanking its mouth were surmounted by a row of four strange, multifaceted eyes, each glowing slightly in a different color, and mounted in such a way that they could twist to face nearly any angle around the creature.  Taken it all it was bizarre, alien, and utterly frightening.  “Another spider-demon!” Morgan exclaimed. “Nay,” Kaurophon said.  “A retriever!” “Whatever it be, it be trouble!” Hodge yelled, clutching his spear with the head pointed in the direction of the monster. The companions hesitated, reluctant to blindly charge at the creature.  Zenna knew that if they stopped, they would be returned to the start of the path again, but faced with this thing, she thought that it might not be a bad option.  The thing let out a loud metallic screech, and one of its colored eyes flashed.  A bolt of jagged electrical energy surged from the eye, blasting into Zenna’s chest.  The tiefling was knocked off her feet by the force of the impact, and she felt everything around her spin as pain radiated out through her body from where the bolt had struck her.  She heard her comrades shouting, and then, belatedly, the white flash came. They were back at the beginning, once again.  Zenna listened for the sound of the creature that would indicate that it had teleported with them, but the area around them was quiet, and her companions, while wary, looked calm.  Arun knelt beside her, and gently touched her face, filling her with healing energy.  She nodded gratefully, pulling herself up to a sitting position. “Gods, that thing packed a wallop,” she said. “You might try ducking, next time,” Dannel said lightly, but it was clear from his expression that he was concerned for her.  “’ow we s’posed to get past that thing?” Hodge said.  “The same way we got past everything else,” Morgan said grimly, tightening his grip on his new sword. “You’ll get your chance,” Mole exclaimed, looking out across the field of cysts.  “It’s coming!”</blockquote>

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