NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3128395" data-attributes="member: 143">Ximix: thanks, and I really appreciate you signing up for an ENWorld account just to post in this thread.I'm curious if any other readers have read all 3 stories to this point? I know the older threads still get some views, and of course the first two stories are still available for download. I'm way ahead in the story at the moment, and if there are still folks who are reading faster than I can post on the 3 updates/week schedule, I can go to a Monday-through-Friday update schedule starting next week. Let me know your preference, readers. <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=";)" />* * * * *Chapter 23BACK ON TRACK“Damn it, what happened?”Dar’s question was met only with silence; it was obvious what had happened, or at least the results were.  The three companions stood in the rough dirt chamber, facing the shaft that led to the surface.  Or at least what had been the shaft.  The opening was clogged with rich brown earth, and a few probings had indicated that the collapse was complete, and continued as far back as they could reach. “We’ll dig it out,” Dar said. “With what?” Tiros said.  “Our hands?  Face it, the chance has passed.  Clearly someone or something knew we were here, and it decided that we weren’t going to get out of here.”“It is possible that our presence here is being monitored,” Varo said.  “Remember the gravestone, above.”“Damn it,” Dar said, throwing down his shield.  “If they know we’re here, why don’t they just attack and get it over with?  Bring the bastards on, and be done with it.”“You didn’t hear anything?” Tiros asked Varo. “No, but when I am lost in my prayers, I am heavily distracted,” Varo said.  “And the door in the ogre quarters was likely thick enough to absorb anything but the noise of a raging battle.”“What about your elemental?” Dar asked.  “Can it dig through that?”“Perhaps, given time, but the summoning spell is very brief in duration,” Varo explained.  “It would take days, at best, assuming that most of the shaft is still intact above.”“We don’t have days,” Tiros said.  “I’ve already begun to feel... weakened.  It might just be this place, all the fighting, the bad food, but I don’t think so.”Varo nodded.  “The crystal death.  I can delay its effects, but only at the expense of most of my available higher-order spells.  I may eventually be able to purge our bodies of the substance, but at the moment, that ability is beyond my powers.”“So damned close,” Dar muttered.“We’re all frustrated,” Tiros said.  “But we’ve got to keep going.  There’s got to be more than one way out of this hellhole.”“Just let me find some of those priests of Orcus,” the fighter hissed, taking up his shield once more, and leading them back toward the exit. Dragging the ogre corpse away from the outer door, the three men made their way back into the main passage.  They checked each of the three doors they found in the opposite wall.  The small rooms beyond were each odd and unique.  In the first, they found a magical broom sweeping dust and dirt into a mound in the center of the place.  In the next, they found a heap of construction supplies, including a large stack of weathered wooden boards, a set of assorted tools, and a box of iron nails.  The items were old but still useable.  The last door opened onto a room filled with a horde of rats.  Three of the largest attacked the companions, while the others ran about wildly, squeaking in a crazy cacophony.  Dar took out some of his earlier frustrations upon the creatures, and when they left the room was a bloody mess of torn up corpses.  None of them had suffered any injuries. Beyond the three rooms, the passage continued straight on for some distance before turning right.  Directly ahead, the corridor continued about twenty feet into a dead end, while to the right, they could just see another door at the end of the passage in that direction.“I believe that we have come full circle,” Varo said.  “If I am not mistaken, that door leads back into the room where we first entered the level.”“So we’re back to square one,” Dar said. “Not quite,” Tiros said.  “There were a few more doors in that first room, as I recall, and there’s still the dirt room near where we fought the ogres, and that black door, the one with the gold.”“I haven’t forgotten that one,” Dar said. Varo lingered, looking down the short dead-end passage. “Sense something?” Tiros asked. Varo shook his head.  “Not really.  It’s just—”“Trouble!” Dar hissed, drawing his sword.  The others turned as the door down the far corridor creaked open, and a pack of ghouls appeared.</blockquote>

Verification