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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2091518" data-attributes="member: 143">Hey, there can be more than one cliffhanger/week! <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=";)" />  As for what's been up with Mole, we'll hear about that at the start of Ch.347...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> P.S. Welcome to the story, Loincloth! Thanks for joining ENWorld to post here!* * * * * Chapter 346Arun watched in helpless horror as the dragon rose higher over the city, the struggling form of Beorna only just visible in its jaws.  Behind him, Hodge was helping Dannel back to his feet.“We’ve got to find a way to stop it!” Arun growled, furious at his own inability to come to grips with the enemy.“Too... far...” Dannel gasped, staggering despite the healing that Beorna had poured into him.  His garments were charred and his skin blackened from the effects of the dragon’s breath, although he still held his bow tightly in one hand. But as they watched, the dragon started to turn, forming a wide arc over the city. “It’s comin’ back!” Hodge said. “No... look!” the sharp-eyed elf cried.  They saw the dragon’s flame jetting in a forked stream from the sides of its mouth, each felt a pang as they realized that Beorna, trapped in its jaws, had been squarely in the path of that blast.  They were too far away to see Beorna’s heroic action, lifting her sword into place and calling upon Helm’s strength as she slammed it into the base of the dragon’s skull.  But they did see the dragon suddenly snap its head back, a terrible sound erupting from within, and they could see the templar flying free, a black figure that plummeted quickly toward the ground several hundred feet below. Arun looked beseechingly at Dannel, who possessed the power of feather fall, but the elf grimly shook his head.  “Too far,” he said, but they started running anyway, toward the point where Beorna had fallen behind the line of rooftops on the eastern edge of the square. Above, the dragon circled the city, unleashing a roar of fury and pain that echoed through the volcano.  * * * * *It only took them a few minutes to reach their destination, even with the scattered debris and the wide cracks that marked the once-smooth course of the boulevard.  Arun, fueled by a growing sense of dread, was almost able to pace Dannel down the broad length of Obsidian Avenue, the two leaving Hodge slightly behind.  When they saw where the templar had fallen to earth, each felt a strange sense of significance, as if the odd ironies of the world had come together to confirm an inevitable outcome. The Temple of Helm was largely intact, although the empty stables had collapsed in upon themselves, and one side of the rectory showed a gaping hole above a long crack in the foundation facing the courtyard.  But their eyes were drawn to the stairs leading up to the foyer, where the double doors stood open into the vacant sanctuary of the temple.  Beorna lay near the head of the steps, surrounded by bits of rubble.  She’d impacted the stone arch overhanging the foyer solidly, an adamantine-encased missile that had plunged through the two-foot-thick canopy and fallen hard onto the carpeted marble below.  Her helmet had been lost, along with her sword, and one glance was enough to reveal that life had fled the battered form of Beorna, templar of Helm. Arun’s cry filled the sanctuary, as he fell to his knees before the broken body of the woman he’d loved. Behind him, Dannel entered the foyer, his eyes lowered.  But a moment later another cry echoed the paladin’s, a familiar sound that was followed by the rush of wind and the flap of powerful wings. “It’s back,” Dannel said. Arun looked up, and his eyes were cold like anvils as he threw his shield aside, and took up his holy sword in both hands as he stood, turning back toward the street.</blockquote>

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