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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3355849" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 108GETTING OUTA dank, musty odor filled the corridor as the companions made their way carefully forward.  The walls and ceiling here were packed dirt rather than dressed stone, which led to more than a few alarmed looks as their movements caused faint trickles of earth to fall down around them. “Are you sure this place is stable?” Talen asked. “If the ogre zombie didn’t provoke a collapse, it is unlikely that we will,” Varo said.  “Not to mention the earth tremors that we have occasionally felt in Rappan Athuk.  Still, I would recommend against any unnecessary contact with the walls, if that can be avoided.”“I hope you’re right,” the captain said.  Shay groaned, and he turned his attention back to her, helping her through the narrow passage. “There’s a bend up ahead,” Malerase reported.  With his low-light vision, the elf was standing in for Shay as scout, although he did not wander ahead of the group as had been Shay’s wont.  With his lean, angular form, scoured of every superfluous gram of unnecessary flab under his pale flesh, the elf looked almost fragile in contrast to the bulkier humans surrounding him.  He held onto Zosimos’s fireball wand with fingers as slender as the ebon shaft of the device.   “Beyond that turn lies the fungus cavern,” Varo said.  Dar was already moving forward in a half-crouch, Valus’s shield illuminating the way ahead of him.  There was a small clutter of debris at the far side of the turn, so he didn’t see the threat there until something stirred beyond the small mound.  “Look out!” Dar yelled, bringing up his shield just barely in time to deflect a violet tendril that flailed against the metal.  His words were barely audible over the high-pitched screaming that had suddenly begun, its source somewhere around the bend, the piercing sound echoing off the rough dirt walls.  The fighter retreated as a bead of liquid fire shot past him into the piled debris, exploding into a fireball that swelled out into the narrow space, the heat washing over them like a wave. “Hold your fire!” Varo yelled.  “You may collapse the passage!”   Dar turned, the front of his shield and helmet blackened with char; he’d been close enough to the blast to have been caught on the leading edge of the fireball.  “Damn it, watch where you’re shooting those!” he yelled at the elf. Shay had fallen against the adjacent wall, Talen standing over her protectively with his shield raised over them.  Behind them, Allera looked up at the low ceiling above, but while there were flecks of black char floating in the air, there were no further signs of impending collapse. The violet fungus did not attack again, evidently destroyed by the flames.  But the shrieking continued, forcing them to shout to be heard. “We have to clear the chamber before the rest of them can attack!”  Varo yelled to Dar and Malerase.  The fighter nodded, and grabbed the elf by the shoulder of his robe, dragging him with him down the tunnel.  Talen turned to Shay, but the scout wearily pushed at him, pointing for the captain to join them.  She slumped down onto her haunches, her energy spent.  Allera, in little better shape, knelt beside the scout, tending to her as best she could. Dar cautiously shone his shield around the tunnel bend, illuminating the passage beyond.  He could see the large cavern up ahead, where they had first encountered the deadly violet fungi, and where Tiros had run afoul of a bed of yellow mold.  There was nothing further blocking the passage, and no debris large enough to conceal one of the fungus-creatures.  But as he watched, he saw movement in the chamber, coming closer to the tunnel mouth. “Okay!” he yelled at Malerase, pointing down the passage at the slowly approaching forms.  “Now you can start blasting, elf!”Malerase nodded, and lifted his wand.  Pea-sized spheres of fire exploded from the end of the wand, streaking down the passage into the open chamber beyond, where they exploded into fireballs.  One, two, three of the magical blasts erupted in the chamber, searing the slowly approaching fungi to fine ash.  The high-pitched scream of the shriekers changed pitch as they were destroyed, until with the last blast, the sound died entirely, replaced with an ominous silence. Dar looked back at the elf.  “Now that’s more like it.”Varo had come up to see the last of the elf’s display of magical power.  He nodded.  “Let us continue, but cautiously.  There may be more of the fungi in crevices that were not reached by the flames, or further back in the rear of the chamber.”But they were not attacked again as they traversed the remainder of the corridor and entered the cavern at its end.  A faint, diffuse light drifted down from the deep crack in the ceiling high above.  Evidently it was night above, rather than day, for that illumination was far too weak to be sunlight.  Motes of blackened char hung in the air, the remnants of the deadly fungi, now stripped of their lethality.  The companions carefully scanned for any surviving patches of yellow mold or telltale movements of violet fungi, but it appeared that Malerase’s blasts had done the job.  There was some growth still visible along the far wall of the cavern, at the edges of their light sources, but nothing stirred from that direction to trouble them. “Well?”  Dar asked, turning to Varo.  “How are we going to get out of here?  Shay’s not up to that climb, and unless stick-man over there has a spell to magic us out of here...”“Leave that to me,” Varo said.  “Shay, if you could spare a few coils of rope?”  Talen helped the weakened scout with the bag of holding, drawing out several fifty-foot lengths of durable silk cord.  The cleric took the offered rope wordlessly, and stepped out into the center of the room, almost directly under the opening at the apex of the ceiling above.  He glanced up, briefly, but the light from above was too weak to reveal anything but that the shaft was narrow, and it was too twisting to reveal a clear view of the night sky. Holding his arms out at his sides, Varo began to chant.  His companions watched in silence as the otherworldly syllables echoed out through the blasted hall, reverberating off the scorched earthen walls.  His call was answered by a sudden rush of wind that filled the place out of nowhere, catching at their cloaks and other loose garments, and forcing them to shield their faces as bits of char and dirt were driven into their faces. “What’s going on?” Talen yelled. “An elemental!” Allera shouted back, pointing with her free hand.  The others peered through the swirling storm to see Varo floating up into the air, his clothes billowing out as a rush of concentrated air swirled into them from below.  As the cleric rose above them, they could better see the outline of the creature that held him aloft, little more than a cohesive whirlwind of concentrated air.  It carried Varo straight up into the cleft, where he disappeared from view. “Well, that was something,” Talen said, as they looked after him.“That man has some powerful friends,” Allera said.“I doubt any would consider him... such,” Shay said, pausing as she coughed painfully from the debris still swirling in the air. “I wonder if he’s thought about just leaving us here,” Dar said. “No,” Talen said, as the noise of the elemental’s passing faded from up above.  “No, Varo needs us as much as we need him.”“I don’t need anybody,” Dar said.  He looked at Talen.  “As soon as we get out of here, I’m done.”Talen nodded, and looked back at Allera.  Dar turned back to the cleft, shining the light of his shield upward. A few seconds later, a rope fell from above, uncoiling until its end slapped lightly on the ground in front of them. “Shay first,” Talen said.Dar held up a hand.  “Think first, soldier boy,” he said.  “How is she going to climb that, weak as she is?  You’ll have to go first, and then pull her up.”Talen looked indecisive, but then Shay coughed.  “He’s right, Talen.  A straight climb, without leverage... that would be tough even under normal conditions.”“Why didn’t Varo just send the elemental down for us?” “You can ask him when you get up there,” Dar said, shoving the rope into Talen’s hands.  “Climb.”Talen slung his shield, and started up.  Shay’s rope had been knotted to make the climb easier, but it was still far from trivial, as he was going straight up without a wall to brace off of, not to mention the considerable weight in metal and other gear that he carried.  But he was strong and in excellent shape, and he made rapid progress despite his burdens.  Once he made it up to the cleft, it was easier going, and soon he was out of their view, the rope still twisting from the opening to indicate his progress.  Dar was keeping an eye on the rope, and when he saw it go slack, followed by a pair of quick jerks, he summoned Shay.  He took the end of the rope and fashioned a loop that he tied around her hips, making sure that it did not foul on her gear.  “This is humiliating,” she said, as she also verified that the fighter’s work was secure. Dar grinned.  “You can’t always be the hero,” he told her.  “Besides, that’s my job.”  As she started up, he smacked her on the bottom, then dodged back before her counter swing could connect. “Tell the captain to get a move on!” he said after her, as she slowly rose into the air.  His tone was light, but his look back at the entrance of the room was anything but. “You think something will attack us?” Allera asked.  “Angel, I always think something’s going to attack us.  That’s why I’m still alive.”Dar pointed to Malerase.  “Elf, you’re after Allera.  I’ll bring up the rear.”“Dar...” Allera began.  But before the fighter could respond, the rope came back down through the shaft.  “Later,” he told her.  “Let’s get you up that shaft.”But as they started toward the rope, a mighty rumbling noise erupted throughout the chamber.  The ground bucked beneath their feet, and Allera fell to her knees; the two men were only able to remain standing through a hefty effort.  Looking up, Dar saw a massive chunk of the ceiling near the shaft give way, and start plummeting down toward them.</blockquote>

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