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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3530443" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 169THE BESEIGERS“Report,” the goblin priest commanded, his voice thick and nasaly.  “Zenek has not reported back yet,” the heavily armored hobgoblin replied.  The creature was an imposing specimen, standing almost six and a half feet tall, more than double the height of the goblin cleric.  He wore a suit of full plate armor and a heavy shield of plate steel, and the hilt of the longsword at his hip was worn from frequent use.  Bloodstains both old and new decorated his attire.  The cleric viewed the hobgoblin with eyes that narrowed to slits.  “I know that.  What are you doing to find him, Purbok?”“I have sent two teams of scouts to search the caves between here and the Great Market, honored Drezzned,” the hobgoblin said.  “As you will recall, my primary orders were to ensure that Herzord and his heretics do not escape from their prison.”  He met the cleric’s gaze squarely, and without fear; he too was favored, and while his command of the powers of the True God were not equal to Drezzned’s, he had twenty fanatic hobgoblin veterans at his command, dedicated both to Orcus and their leader, while Drezzned’s companions, which included a lesser priest, two score undead, and a vrock demon, had no such personal loyalty. As if to remind him of that fact, the demon tittered noisily a few paces away, letting out a low screech that was just short of painful.  Drezzned shot a nasty look at the creature and fumed, but he said nothing.  He was distracted; Zenek’s sudden disappearance might be convenient for him, or it might be a sign that the lesser cleric had joined Jakthur’s faction, and was scheming to bring him into disfavor with lord Tribitz.  “Is there any word as to when we will strike against the heretics?” Purbok asked, with a glance at the demon.  Drezzned suddenly rose; impertinence could be tolerated, to a degree, but this was a direct challenge to his authority!  “We chosen of the True God will determine the time to strike, hobgoblin, not you!”Purbok inclined his head in a gesture of deference, but he did not look cowed.  Again, Drezzned fumed, and in his mind entertained various fantasies of inflicting unpleasant fates upon the hobgoblin.“Send a messenger to Tribitz with word of Zenek’s disappearance,” the priest finally said.  “Tell them to be wary, Purbok; there may yet be more... heretics... loose in Grezneck.”  Without acknowledging the command or the dig, Purbok turned and headed over to his men, who were arranged in a small camp further down the tunnel.  Drezzned’s own forces were closer, near the barricade that sealed off the narrow passage that led off the tunnel into the barracks complex where the heretic forces of Herzord were trapped, isolated from the rest of Rappan Athuk.  Unfortunately, the place was also damned near a fortress, its twisting entrance tunnels too narrow for most of the demons that the greater priests had at their call to enter.  Under normal circumstances they could have teleported in, but the energies being wrought by the human priests as they meddled with the Sphere of Souls were interfering with that magic, even that of the demons that served at the right hand of the True God.   The goblin’s musings were interrupted by the vrock, which abruptly straightened and stared off down the tunnel in the direction of Grezneck.  “What is it?” the cleric asked. “Armored men approach,” the demon hissed.  Drezzned peered down the tunnel, but it twisted and bent along its length, and he could see nothing.  “It may be Zenek and his guards, returning at last,” he said.  But something tickled at the edges of his perceptions, putting the lie to the statement, and the vrock confirmed it, shaking its vulpine head.  “No.  I can taste the sweet stench of human flesh upon the air.  Enemies.”  The vrock let out a loud screech that echoed through the tunnel.  Invoking its abyssal powers, it infused itself with a flood of fell energy in preparation for battle. Drezzned saw that his followers were stirring, and that Purok was likewise rallying his soldiers.  The goblin felt a surge of exultation drive aside his earlier doubts and worries, and he gave himself over to the power of the True God, drawing the strength of his patron into his body, as he lifted his morningstar to bring death to the enemies of Orcus.</blockquote>

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