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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3315470" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 94PILED HIGHER AND DEEPER“Talen!” Shay yelled, dropping her spear and grabbing Dar’s arm as the fighter started to fall.  The captain grabbed a hold of his other arm before the warrior’s weight could drag him down out of the scout’s grasp.  “Varo!” he cried, over his shoulder.  The cleric was there quickly, coming around them to face the stricken fighter.  Talen and Shay bore wounds of their own, but they were not immediately life-threatening, unlike the terrible gashes that covered the mercenary.  In addition to the vicious cut above his eyes, blood drained down Dar’s arms and legs from hits that had found every crease in his armor, or simply smashing through the layered plate and leather where there was none.  Varo placed his hands on the sides of the mercenary’s head.  “You certainly do take your share of damage,” he said softly, calling upon Dagos and pouring his most potent healing spell into the injured man.  Dar shuddered; at once the cut above his head closed, and lucidity returned to his eyes.  He blinked as Varo released him.  His face, covered in blood, was a gruesome mask.“I’m all right,” he said, but as he pulled away from Talen and Shay, he still swayed somewhat. “It is the blood loss,” Varo said.  “Valus!  We need additional healing.”The cleric—who was the only one of them to have engaged in melee with the creatures without taking damage—looked at them with a gaze that did not mask his feelings in the slightest.  For a moment, it seemed as though he would refuse, but then he came forward, drawing out a wand from a long leather scabbard attached to the inside of his left bracer.  The wand was a lesser device, empowered only with the cure light wounds spell, but he did not stint it, releasing its energy until all of them had recovered from their injuries.  All save Varo, who quietly healed his own wounds with a wand of his own.  “We’d better keep moving,” Talen said.  “Even if those things don’t come back, they’ll alert other guardians to our presence.”The companions hastily readied themselves and took up positions near the exit.  Shay, still empowered with Malerase’s darkvision, let them through the opening into another cavern beyond.  This chamber was smaller than the river cavern, and empty save for another exit that opened onto a narrow passage on the far side.  They carefully checked the cavern, shining their light into every crevice and corner to verify that none of the displacer beasts were lying in ambush.  Shay checked the far passage, and reported that it split in three directions after only about fifteen feet.  The stench of the beasts was everywhere, but she hadn’t seen any more of them, only scattered tracks leading down all three forks.As Shay gave her report, they could hear a familiar sound coming from the passage. “Somebody breaking down a door, sounds like,” Dar said.  “Could be our friends had enough of us, and they want out before we catch up for a rematch.”“Or it could be a trap,” Valus pointed out.  The sound of crashing wood lasted only a few seconds, and then faded away.  “Varo, any more hints on where we’re going?” Talen asked. “I am afraid that I do not have a specific map of this level,” the priest reported.  “I only know that the river would lead us to the second temple.”“Let’s get moving,” Dar said.  “If the cultists realize that we’re this close...”  He didn’t finish the thought; each of them could fill in a suitably dire conclusion.Shay led them out again, taking them down the left fork, toward the sounds they had heard.  They saw the source of the noise just a few seconds later, as the passage culminated ahead in a ruined door, now just bits of wood and metal dangling from hinges recessed into the stone.  “Come on,” Talen said.  But he and Shay had taken only a few steps toward the door before something stepped into view, blocking the exit. The creature was a muscled hulk that stood over seven feet tall.  It was humanoid, its sculpted body covered in coarse brown fur.  Narrow, beady eyes stared at them from a face that was a strange mixture of man and bull.  It carried an axe with a blade that was almost too large to fit through the doorway.  “Minotaur!” Talen hissed in warning.  But his companions had their own problems.  Almost as soon as the minotaur had appeared, those in the rear of the group heard a familiar hissing noise coming from the opposite passage, the right fork.  Dark shadows came forward, accompanied by the swirling of more razor-edged tentacles above them.  “Ambush!” Varo warned. “And we walked right into it,” Valus added, snapping down the visor of his helmet as he lifted his shield to defend himself.</blockquote>

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