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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2177696" data-attributes="member: 143">Glad you're enjoying Travels. I've been going back and rereading a lot of it recently, for obvious reasons. * * * * * Chapter 371 Regidin’s blasphemy had a devastating effect.  The spell rippled outward from the dread loremaster like ink poured into a pool of clean water, searing through the consciousness of the heroes.  Everyone, even Arun, was dazed by the spell, and greatly weakened by the wave of disruption unleashed by the magic.  Hodge collapsed, paralyzed, and likewise the deva, although he resisted being banished back to his plane of origin, fell helpless to the ground, his mace clattering from limp fingers.Emboldened by the effectiveness of their leader’s tactic, the Cagewrights and their remaining allies pressed the attack upon their suddenly discomfited foes.  The shator Keeriv laughed terribly as it reached out with its long, gangly arms and took up the deva in its claws, its muscles tightening as it crushed the helpless celestial’s body.  The remaining farastu likewise took pleasure in attacking Arun.  With Arun able to offer little resistance, it tore the dwarf’s holy sword from his grip, hissing at the blessed steel burned at its flesh.  It hurled the weapon away over its shoulder, far out of his reach.  The kelubars could not easily move their bulky bodies into melee, but they continued their barrage of acid arrows, striking Dana and Dannel with fat gobs of corrosive goo.  Ardeth Webb leapt forward through the opening she’d created.  She let her nunchaku fall to the floor, instead leaping into a fully-extended snap-kick that connected solidly across Dana’s chest, knocking her roughly to the floor.  The monk sneered as she effortlessly twisted back to land on her feet, her hands tightening into deadly fists as she loomed over the fallen priestess.  Behind her, Grehlia stepped forward, her own fists covered by spiked gauntlets that glowed faintly with an ember aura of dark power.  Seeing that her ally had the enemy priestess well in hand, she cast about for a target, settling finally upon Benzan with a dark smile. Freija remained in the side tunnel, content to strike from a distance with her spells.  She had not forgotten the archer who had wounded her earlier, and upon seeing him restored to life even felt a bit of grim pleasure at the ability to torment him further.  Even though she’d spent her most powerful spells already, she was still more than equipped to inflict that torment, which she proved as she unleashed a trio of scorching rays that blasted into the elf, each knocking him a step backward until he was driven against the far wall of the tunnel.  Already seriously wounded by the flame strike, only the benefits of the deva’s earlier aid spell kept him standing at all. Freija smiled.  He was tough, that elf, but she’d already destroyed him once, and it wouldn’t take much more to finish him a second time.  And this time, there wouldn’t be anyone left to raise him. Regidin likewise held his position, calmly summoning a blade barrier into place in the corridor leading back to Freija’s quarters.  The whirling barrier appeared a few paces behind Cal, effectively blocking the only way out. The companions began to recover from the initial effect of Regidin’s blasphemy, although they remained gravely weakened by the spell.  Cal reinforced his allies with a mass bear’s endurance spell, eschewing a defensive ward for the moment.  He paid for that a moment later when a shadow materialized behind him, unleashing an unexpected full attack upon him.  The gnome staggered as Wiejeron’s rapier tore into him mercilessly.  Even though the assassin had not taken enough time to set up a death attack, the blows were nevertheless telling.  Only Cal’s stoneskin kept him from being taken out immediately, although as the slender blade of the man called the “Fish” punched a hole into his lung, he could feel the chill hand of death creeping closer.  “I don’t know what Freija was so worked up about,” the assassin said, his eyes cold as he regarded the crippled gnome.  “You don’t strike me as a particular challenge.”  “Yeah, we get that a lot,” Cal said, spitting a gob of blood.  Wiejeron lifted his rapier to finish him, but Cal was ready with the words of a spell, hurling the magic at his attacker.  Wiejeron’s eyes widened as the transmutation took hold, and his body shimmered and shifted until the deadly assassin had been replaced by a bloated sea slug, maybe two feet long, making an ugly sucking sound as it quivered against the stone floor.  “New taunts, same idiots,” Cal said, lifting himself up to his feet despite the hot knife of pain that stabbed anew through his body at his movement. Dana, meanwhile found herself hard-pressed against her own dangerous foe.  She nimbly snapped her back and sprang to her feet, although the maneuver left her open to a driving punch from Ardeth, which slammed into her chest with enough force to crack ribs.  Dana staggered back, fighting for breath, while the tiefling regarded her with a bemused expression.  Benzan had started toward Dana to help her, but the tiefling was quickly forced to defend himself by Grehlia’s approach.  The evil cleric’s spiked gauntlets looked nasty, and were marked with the tell-tale smear of poison.  And there was that red glow surrounding the steel gloves—Benzan didn’t know what spell she had placed on her weapon, but he had no doubt that whatever it was, it was bad.Grehlia noted his interest.  “Yeth, hath-breed,  your death ith here,” she lisped, springing forward.  Under her ochre robe she wore a chain shirt, he saw.  He narrowly avoided her first violent lunge, twisting his body back to avoid the sweep of those deadly gloves.  She tried a backswing that would have caught him across his face, if he hadn’t sprung back five feet, out of her reach.  He’s always been fast and nimble, and the magical gloves he wore enhanced those attributes to almost superhuman levels. Even as he opened the small gap between them, he was drawing out another of the white-fletched arrows from the magical quiver at his hip.  Grehlia spun in time to take an arrow that punched through the side of her torso.  She shrieked as the energy of the holy arrow drove through her.  The impact delayed her enough for Benzan’s second shot to hit her, this time a low impact that stabbed deep into her body just above her left hip.  She staggered toward him, snarling like a feral beast.  Benzan loaded another arrow, and held his ground as she lifted her gauntleted right fist like a hammer.  “Die!” “You first, bitch.”He released the shot, which drove into her chest with apparent finality.  Benzan knew he’d hit something important by the look on the evil cleric’s face.  But even though she was clearly dying, Grehlia was driven by a force beyond herself.  To Benzan’s surprise she suddenly extended her body toward him, thrusting the gauntlet with its embedded harm spell at his throat.  The tiefling started to dodge back, knew that he was too late. Uh oh, he thought.</blockquote>

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