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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2318380" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 410“Let them have it!” Benzan urged, putting his own words into action as he lifted his bow and fired at the half-golem warriors.  His shot was accurate but glanced harmlessly off a steel plate; given the amount of metal grafted to their bodies, it was almost impossible to tell where the golem ended and the living creature began. Lok and Arun both tried to overcome that difficulty by the simple expedient of inflicting massive damage upon the enemy warriors.  Both scored powerful hits, although the armor of the golem men diminished the effects of their assault.  Beorna, however, had no such difficulty, her adamantine sword delivering a crushing blow to the solar plexus of one of the armored warriors. Dana blasted one with a beam of searing light, but the ray had no effect.  “Immune to magic!” Cal warned.  Realizing that his own spells would have no effect, he instead bolstered his allies with a haste spell.  Mole got around the creatures easily and attacked one from behind, although they proved as immune to her sneak attacks as they were to the spellcasters’ magic. The golems clanked and quivered before releasing gouts of sick yellow vapors in a spread directly before them.  The toxin engulfed the warriors, although their fortitude was such that they were able to shrug off the worst effects.  Benzan, unfortunately, had been standing too close when he’d fired his last arrow, and he sucked in a mouthful of the stuff.  He staggered back, coughing. Dannel fired his own bow into the nearest half-golem, not expecting much in the way of results.  To his surprise, the missile shot off a spray of sparks as it hit, and the creature stiffened, noticeably affected by the shot. “Your bow, Dannel!” Cal exclaimed.  “They’re like iron golems… electricity slows them!”The elf nodded, and promptly shifted his aim to the second creature, affecting it as well.  But even without that impact, the outcome of the melee was a foreordained conclusion.  One of the half-golems managed to deliver a punishing blow that injured Beorna, but that was all they could do before the warriors hacked them to pieces.  When it was over, there was very little blood, only heaps of bent metal and crumpled limbs.  “Let’s move on,” Arun said. They passed several apparently empty rooms, and found themselves in a passage that opened onto a broad chamber.  The passage deposited them onto a ledge ten feet above the level of the chamber floor, with curving stairs to either side that linked the room and passage.  The place was a jumbled mess of debris, and a strong odor that combined blood, farastu slime, and some other acrid stench filled the place.  In the center of the room was a large pedestal upon which the remains of some sort of statue or stone object stood, and fragments of rock littered the floor, possibly all that was left of whatever it had been.  Pillars lined the wall, forming small galleries to the sides and rear of the chamber. “Looks like a battle happened here,” Benzan said, as they carefully descended the stairs into the room. “Arun?” Cal asked. “Nothing active.  But there’s a strong lingering aura of Taint here.”“I’m sensing the same thing, with regards to magic.  Okay, spread out, everyone, and search, but stay alert.”Benzan was the one to find it, this time; a hidden door concealed within one of the pillars near the back of the room.  The door opened easily on recessed hinges, revealing a ladder leading up. “Don’t like the looks of that,” Dannel said.  “Too narrow; if there’s something waiting up there, you’re screwed.”“If one of you can scout it out and tell me how far it goes up, I can dimension door the fighters up with me,” Dana said. “I’ll go,” Mole said.  “Are you sure, Clarese?” Cal asked. The younger gnome smiled.  “Sure.  And don’t forget, I can always ‘poof’ out if it’s a trap.”  She flourished her magical cloak, and turned toward the shaft.  “Shout down how far you’ve gone, and we’ll be ready to join you in a flash if needed,” Dana said.  She gestured to Arun, Beorna, and Lok, who joined her at her side. But nothing terrible happened to the gnome as she quickly ascended the shaft.  Dannel stood beside the opening, watching her progress.  “She says that there’s another door about twenty feet up,” the elf reported to the others.  “I’ll go up after her.”“Cal, Benzan… I can take all of you,” Dana said. “Twenty feet, directly above you,” the elf’s voice came down from the shaft opening.  “There’s a room… come now!” Dana spoke the word of her spell, and the she and the others were instantly transported twenty feet directly upward. They found themselves in another chamber, smaller than the one they’d just left.  The door to the shaft was open behind them, although there was no sign of Mole.  A summoning diagram was etched onto the floor, empty, although the companions could guess as to its most recent occupant.On the far side of the diagram, a stone bier stood before a row of pillars.  Laying on the bier was a supine woman, clad in a flowing red robe draped suggestively over her voluptuous frame, apparently unconscious.  Standing over her was a strange creature, a lean humanoid with utterly alien features, huge black eyes that revealed no emotion, and six long arms that ended in slender, multijointed fingers.  It did not react as they entered, although its hands moved in soft, languorous motions, interweaving in an almost hypnotic movement. “What in the hells is that,” Benzan exclaimed.  He and the others held their weapons ready, but as the strange creature did not immediately threaten them, they held their attack.“The creatures we found at Karran-Kurral, in the crystal blocks,” Dannel observed.  “I… I do not sense…”  Arun said, swaying slightly, clutching his head.“What is it?” Dana said, turning to the paladin in alarm. Beorna lifted her adamantine sword.  “Whatever you are, creature, we want answers, and right now!  Who is that woman, and what have you done to her?  Where are the Cagewrights?”The entity did not reply, but suddenly Benzan lowered his bow, and walked forward. “Ware the diagram, Benzan!” Cal shouted, but the tiefling merely walked through the circle, his boots smearing the silver lines that demarked its influence.  “Benzan?” Lok asked, perhaps sensing that something was wrong.  “What are you doing?” Dannel added, as the tiefling approached the bier, but Benzan did not respond.  The six-armed creature still did nothing threatening, covered by their readied spells and missile weapons.  It held something in two of its arms, close against its lower torso; a disk of metal perhaps a foot across that looked to be a different color from one moment to the next, depending upon the angle by which one viewed it. Dana immediately turned away from Arun and rushed after her husband, but she was caught up short as a wall of force sprang into being between the bier and the companions, bisecting the room. “Benzan!” Dana yelled, slamming the barrier with her fists. The tiefling did not respond, coming to stand directly in front of the bier and its unmoving occupant, the six-armed creature looming over it with an unreadable look in its dark eyes. “Cal!  The wall!” Dana cried.  But the gnome had already started casting his spell, summoning magic to disintegrate the barrier. The six-armed creature handed something to Benzan.  A green ray sprang from Cal’s hands, striking the wall of force, and the shimmering plane vanished.  Benzan reached down, picking up the unconscious woman, holding her in his arms. Dana charged forward, the warriors only a step behind.  But before they could reach their friend, Benzan turned to face them, uttered the words of a spell, and disappeared.  “Benzan!”</blockquote>

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