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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2023074" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 322A huge metallic CLANG sundered the quiet of the Vault, and as the rogues turned toward the sound, they saw the solid steel door bulge inward into the room.  A moment later a line of light shone through the door as a rent opened in the metal of the portal, followed a moment later by yet another tremendous blow. “Time’s up,” Mole said.  She darted for the edge of the surrounding circle, taking another painful hit from Thusk as she did so.  But she avoided the attacks of the other rogues, finally tumbling between Olann’s legs before the startled Jester could react.  “Fool!  Now our doom is upon us!” Karakates hissed.  Thazo turned upon the injured elf, and with a single sudden strike crushed his skull.  “Fight them off, all of you, or I’ll do the same to you!” he snarled at the others.  Thusk had already disappeared from view again, but whether to get into position to strike, or to flee, was impossible to discern.  Talinn drew out a potion vial and downed the contents, but by the look on her face it did not have the desired effect.  She didn’t know that Thazo’s invisibility purge was still in effect, hindering her attempt at escape. The ravaged metal of the door protested under the continuing assault.  Now multiple gashes revealed hints of motion beyond, and with a final groan of twisted metal the remnants of the door came crashing forward to slam hard onto the stone floor of the room. Beorna stepped forward into the room, her adamantine sword resting against her shoulder as she surveyed the chamber.  “Looks like we found another rat’s nest!” she said, lifting the heavy sword easily into a fighting position.  Behind her, Arun and Hodge moved into the now-open doorway, and behind them Dannel, his bow at the ready. “Kill them!” Thazo roared, conjuring an unholy blight that raged in the confines of the doorway and the passage beyond.  For a moment the dark energies of the spell obscured the heroes, but then Beorna stepped forward through the dissolving storm, apparently unharmed, dropping her adamantine sword and replacing it with the holy blade that seemed to sing as she drew it from its scabbard.  “You and I have unfinished business, fiend!” she said, rushing forward to meet Thazo.  The rest of the heroes emerged from the blight injured, but with more than enough fight left in them to engage the remaining rogues.  Blood already covered Arun and Hodge’s armor, but it clearly belonged more to others than the two dwarves, who seemed little hindered as they charged the other Jesters.  Olann lifted his hand and fired another blast from his ring of the ram at Arun, but while the force-bolt hit the paladin with the force of a giant’s punch, Arun stood his ground and even managed a counter that drove the guildmaster back, bleeding from a deep gash in his side.  On the other flank of the battle, Hodge saw Talinn trying to sneak around toward the door, and moved to block her.  The Jester took out a small tube from a hidden pocket and lifted it to her mouth, blasting the dwarf with a spray of toxic dust. That was enough for Hodge; he unleashed a full assault upon the poor woman, tearing into her with powerful strokes that knocked her back against the shelving lining the wall.  Old pots and jars clattered around her as she fell to the ground, bleeding out her life through the multiple wounds.  “Tryin’ to poison a dwarf... yer got nerve!” Hodge grunted, although his eyes were watering somewhat as he wiped his gore-splattered axe on his pant leg.  He let out a loud sneeze and spit up a fat glob of phlegm before turning back to the melee. Dannel entered the room last, taking aim at Thazo before he spotted a shadow descending upon Arun from behind. “Arun... watch out!” But his warning came too late as Thusk smote Arun from behind.  A cackling surge of chaotic energy tore into the dwarf as the shadowdancer’s anarchic morningstar unleashed its fell power upon the lawful knight.  Olann took advantage of the assault to attack as well, but even flanked by two rogues Arun’s magical armor was more than enough to turn the narrow blade.  There was no denying that the paladin was hard-pressed, however, and he favored the side where Thusk’s morningstar had delivered its painful blow. But Thusk had left the concealing shadows behind, and now he in turn confronted the deadly assault unleashed by the companions.  Working in unplanned coordination, Dannel’s arrows slammed into the bugbear’s back, punching through his cloak and the chain shirt beneath it.  Arun, meanwhile, unleashed a full attack with his holy sword, the shining blade driving back the shadows that surrounded the monstrous rogue, each swing biting deep.  Thusk staggered back, grievously wounded, but before Arun could lunge in to finish him, the shadows shifted and the shadowdancer disappeared.  Thazo, bolstered this time by the full power of his patron, met Beorna in a violent clash of steel upon steel.  Initially confident as his first stroke slammed hard into the dwarf woman’s chest, hurting her even through the heavy adamantine mail she wore, he was quickly reminded of the templar’s ferocity in battle as her assault tore into him.  Her sword, likewise infused with holy power, tore through the magically enhanced steel of his breastplate as though the armor plate were made of soft leather, biting deep into the flesh beneath.  Staggering back, blood gushing down his torso from the wound, he looked around. Talinn was down in a bloody heap.  Olann had thrown down his sword and now knelt for mercy before the paladin, begging for his life like the craven that he was.  Thusk had disappeared, and if he wasn’t already a hundred paces away, leaving them and this mess far behind, Thazo would have been greatly surprised.  The doorway beckoned him, taunting him, with too many enemies blocking his escape.  The templar lifted her weapon, looking down the shimmering length of the steel at him, with eyes as cold as ice. “Yield.”  “So you can drag me off to a formal execution?  Not likely.”  “Then taste the justice that you have earned.”  The sword came up, and behind her Thazo could see the other dwarf, the axe-wielding warrior, coming at him from the side, while the elf took aim at him with his bow. But the templar’s parley had given him a vital instant in which to prepare, and he took it, calling upon the potency of a second unholy blight.  Even as the spell exploded through the room, he was running for the exit.  Something hard caught him in the side, crunching ribs, and as the elf materialized from within the crowd an arrow punched into his gut, stabbing a deep tendril of pain through him.  But then the doorway was before him, with the dark tunnel offering escape beyond. Agony erupted through his foot, and with his next step the limb gave out under his weight.  Thazo fell hard, his monstrous face caroming off the stone threshold before he splayed out atop the ruin of the steel door.  He tried to get up, but his body refused to obey his commands.  Barely clinging to consciousness, he managed to look up and see the gnome standing before him, a small, bloody knife in her hand.  “You were saying?”Thazo tried to reach out to Talos, but the power of his connection to the god was already fading from him.  All he saw was a bright light as the templar... or was it the paladin? stepped forward, a shining sword blinding him with painful light.  The last thing he heard was a single word. “Justice.”</blockquote>

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