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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 577109" data-attributes="member: 1674">Ruins of Sky Keep, part 3 of 4As they marched on, Trepat was the first to hear sounds of a fight echoing through the corridors. There was the sound of steel hitting steel and occasional shouts and screams of agony. Immediately, he started walking quicker, and as his friends heard it too and they were getting closer to the source of those sounds, they ran ahead as far as they could without losing Ben.The light of Niklas’ lantern was shining on the walls, as they turned a corner and saw the source of the noises coming from a large cave of about fourty by fifty feet. Near the centre of this cavern, there was a hideous creature. It was an about six foot tall humanoid, who was covered in moist slime from it’s high, pointed ears to it’s long twitching tail, and who’s face was covered with a mass by a disgusting beard that was matted into clumps by the slime.It was wielding a blood-drenched, toothed polearms against several ratmen. It looked like most of those ratmen were merely trying to distract the diabolical creature, as the huge ratman was wielding two shortswords against it and the sorceress was casting spells.Meanwhile, several feets to the right of the battle, five other ratmen were studying and fiddling with an enormous steel-box that looked a bit like an upright giant casket, engraved with ancient writings and potent symbols.„This must be the box!“, Niklas shouted over the noise, and as Trepat was shooting an arrow and Torn and Niklas were charging ahead, intending to stop the ratmen at the vault, something odd happened: One of the ratmen who was fiddling with the door disappeared without warning, leaving behind nothing but the clap of the air as it crashed into the space that the Slitheren had occupied.Ben remained unaware of this, though, for he felt a part of his past coming alive. For the shortest moment, that felt like an infinity for him, he forgot the world around him and felt the memories of a life lived long ago take hold of him.Ever since he could remember, he had had the same dreams. In those dreams, he thought, felt and lived like a spider. And never in his sleeping hours had this felt anything but perfectly natural. Of course, he had pushed those dreams aside in the morning again- after all, life in the Heteromony of Virduk hardly allowed for dreams.So it took him till he was forced to flee from home until he did trust those dreams. By the time Iellena told him that he had alrlived many times before, it merely reconfirmed something he already knew.Still, the memories of his past lives had been just that: memories. There was nothing Ben could do to actually live like a spider again, since he had been trapped in the body he had been reborn into.Until now...His mind was taken over by primal urges, as his body changed. His clothing melted into one substance with his body, and as his body bloated up and grew in size, his arms and legs changed form and four additional appedages grew out. His head got rounder, his mouth was replaced by poison-dripping mandibles and where his eyes had been, thousands of black facetous eyes were now reflecting the light of the torches and lanterns in the cave.Within moments, he had fully transformed into a deadly, hairy hunting spider the size of a wolf.Seeing the cave in it’s entirety now, he merely divided those within into what was prey and what was not. Dodging the fight between his friends and the ratmen to his right, and the fight of the devil versus the huge slitheren, he charged directly at the spellcasting Slitheren.She had been supporting the dual shortsword wielding Slitheren by casting spells, but by now, she had refocused her attention to Trepat, who was attacking her with Magic Missiles. When the Spider attacked here, she was completely taken by surprise.Ben sank his fangs into the Red Witch’s leg and injected poison into her bloodstream. Weakened and surprised, the Slitheren backed away, and after casting a quick spell she turned invisible. Ben would have lost her, but his newly gained spider senses were far superior to those of his halfling body. Concentrating on the vibrations of the floor, and the subtle shifting of the air, he had an idea to where she had backed up, and so he turned around and thrust his body forward with the full strength of his eight legs.He saw nothing, but as he smashed into the invisible Ratwoman, he knew that trusting his instincts had been right. She turned visible again, and casting another spell, magic missiles appeared and smashed into Ben’s body. But his senses were focused on his prey, and so he bit at her again, merely missing by an inch.Meanwhile, Ben’s friends had defeated some of the Ratmen, while the devil had dispatched the others. The woman cast another spell at Ben who bit at her in turn, again, but just then the devil impaled the large ratman with his glaive, and his evil laughter echoed through the cave. This was enough for the woman- she touched a ring on her left hand with her right hand and disappeared, the sound of air clapping indicating that this time she wasn’t merely invisible but had vanished alltogether.Looking at the devil, he decided that he didn’t want to bite into the fiend, and as easily as he had turned into a spider, he now changed back into his halfling form. As he did, he saw how Trepat’s magic bounced off the devil without showing any effect, Torn held his magical mace in both arms and how Niklas, who was bleeding from several wounds, picked up one of the shortswords of the dead Slitheren.Then the devil made a dismissive gesture, and the Ratman, who was laying behind Niklas, rose again, oblivious to the many wounds he had received. Ben shouted to Niklas, who turned around just in time to see the newly risen Zombie slamming his fist at him. Niklas dodged the blow, and kicked at the ratman who was almost double his mass, but it wasn’t enough to bring it down, and as the Zombie swung his other fist with brainless efficiency at him, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge, and as he crashed to the floor, everything turned black around him.Meanwhile, Ben had approached the monk, but now he saw that there was no time for him to heal the monk, and so he summoned a flameblade and got ready to fight the undead opponent. He dodged a clumsy strike and hit the zombie, which didn’t care to defend itself, cutting a nice chunk of dead flesh out of it, and then two magic missiles, cast by Trepat, smashed into the undead’s skull, letting it explode and covering Ben in blood and pieces of brain.The battle wasn’t over yet, though. The devil looked badly wounded, but so did Torn, who was fighting the fiend. The halforc was swinging at his supernatural opponent with all the fury that the blood of Khadum in his veins instilled in him, but Ben saw that he wouldn’t make it much longer.Dodging the devil’s glaive, he approached Torn from behind. Trepat, who had seen by now that both his mundane arrows and his arcane spells had remained harmless against the fiend had drawn his magical sword and was now approaching as well. He seemed to be ready to face the devil in hand to hand combat, even though he knew that he wouldn’t last half as long as the halforc.By now Ben had succeeded in magically closing some of Torn’s wounds, and he fought on relentlessly, and then, just as Trepat had approached, he hit the devil square in the middle of it’s chest, caving it in. The devil screamed with an unearthly voice that seemed to be made of pure hatred, and then he disappeared, leaving behind only his blood and the smell of sulphur.Torn looked around, the rage that had fueled him slowly being substituted by exhaustion. All their enemies had disappeared or were dead and Ben was taking care of Niklas, who was already regaining conciousness. Glancing warily at the vault, he realized that his work here wasn't done just yet.</blockquote>

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