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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2928549" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks for posting, Neurotic!  I am glad you're enjoying the story. NWK: I agree, I think that silence is one of those spells that you always keep in your repertoire, no matter how high in level you are.  * * * * * Chapter 612The companions did not let down their guard, nor did they assume the fact of their victory until Arun had wrenched the creature’s head aside, exposing enough of its neck to allow Lok to hew the head from its body.  Only then did they relax—or more accurately, all but collapsed.  Arun found the silenced arrow and plucked it, tossing it aside.  “By the fire of the Forge!” he exclaimed, leaning up against the creature’s flank as he fought for breath.  “That thing could take a beating!”“And dish it out, as well,” Lok said, wiping blood from his face with an old rag.  “What in all the Hells was that?” Beorna said, likewise slumping back against the wall.  The warriors looked like they had been hurled into a grinder, with the plates of their armor bent and punctured. “It was a sirrush,” Cal explained.  “They are hunters… their favorite prey is dragons, which they take down in packs.”“Wonderful,” Beorna said.  “Let’s just hope that there aren’t any more of them,” Dannel said.  “It was almost invulnerable to magic, and only Dana’s quick thinking kept us from being stunned again by its roar.”Benzan became visible as his greater invisibility faded, a look of disgust on his face as he hurled his sword to the ground with a clatter.  “Damned useless,” he said.  “I may as well have stayed home, for all that I added to that fight.” “We can do without your whining, tiefling,” Beorna said.  “We all knew when we agreed to continue this chase that there would be things that tested us.”Benzan’s eyes narrowed, but Dana interrupted them.  “Benzan… we’re here, in the now… we need to come together, against this threat.”  Her voice was soft, cool, and she fixed the full force of her presence upon him, like a hunter trying to calm an angry beast.  For a moment the tiefling looked about to respond in fury, but then his shoulders slumped, and his eyes admitted defeat.  “I am sorry,” he said.  “We had better get going, before the Prince sends another one of those after us.”As he turned, Cal and Dana exchanged a glance.  Dana had done her best to ease her husband’s return from captivity, but they had all experienced enough of Graz’zt’s “hospitality” to know that Benzan’s suffering would not soon ease.  With Dana’s blessing, Cal was working on a spell that would selectively blot out Benzan’s memory, allowing him to move ahead with his life without forever dwelling under the shadow of what had been done to him.  It might be the only solution, Cal thought, but for now, they had to press ahead.  “Ah… sorry about your cloak, Mole,” Dannel said, as he offered her the shredded remnant of the garment.  The gnome shrugged.  “S’okay… It was Umbar’s, anyway.  I never remembered to give it back to him.”  She grinned, as the companions formed up and headed warily into the dark exit, and the stairs that descended deeper into the fortress.</blockquote>

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