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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3543285" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 173TO KILL A CLERICThe newly-enlarged company traveled in silence through the dark and empty tunnels of Grezneck.  There was little conversation; few of their new allies spoke Common, and the companions from Camar kept their thoughts to themselves, as they headed forward and deeper into danger.  They took a slightly different route back, presumably to avoid any patrols by the forces of Orcus.  Talen whispered to Shay and Baraka to pay heed to their route, in case the goblinoids were leading them astray, but before too long they once again found themselves in familiar tunnels.  They made their way back to the room with the fighting circles, where they had battled the goblin cleric and its minions, but instead of returning to the great cavern, their scouts took them down another tunnel that led still deeper into the complex.  Talen noted that this was the way that Varo had originally wanted to take them, when he’d been guided by his find the path spell.  He looked over at the cleric, who nodded back. The new members of the group moved with the quiet efficiency of ones who knew these tunnels intimately.  Herzord had assigned a considerable force to them, more than doubling the size of the group.  There were five hobgoblins, clad in armor and bearing both melee and ranged weapons.  And in addition to Filcher, they had a full complement of goblin scouts, six in all, with light armor and small weapons that were nevertheless of masterwork quality.  The eleven newcomers brought their total strength up to nineteen.  A small army, still, but a determined one, united by their hatred of the followers of Orcus. They came to another large cavern, this one illuminated by geysers of flame that spurted from vents scattered about the room.  The gas emissions were apparently random, erupting from the earth without advance warning, but the goblin scouts were careful to point out the vents, allowing them to avoid the hazard.  As they moved through the cavern, they passed a large heap of rubble off to one side.  Talen took a double-take as they moved past; he saw what looked like part of a stone fist, jutting from the mound. “Stone warrior, one-eye,” one of the hobgoblins said, noting his interest.  “Kill many goblins before Herzord kill.”“A stone golem of some sort,” Varo said.  “An impressive feat, to destroy one so large.”There was some blood streaking the stones, but no bodies.  It was a reminder that they would likely encounter more undead, and Talen quietly urged Shay and Baraka to keep a close eye out.  While their goblin allies with their darkvision would almost certainly see any threats before their own scouts could, Talen was not about to have them let their guard down.  Dar’s earlier words about trusting the goblins worried at the back of his mind, and while both sides stood to gain in this arrangement, he doubted that Herzord’s motives were entirely altruistic. There was another tunnel on the far side of the cavern of the gas vents.  The air rapidly grew colder as they moved on, and they could hear a familiar sound: rushing water.  The goblin scouts slowed, their wariness sharpening to the fineness of a dagger’s edge; even the hobgoblins grew silent, as if reluctant to let the slightest clink of their mail coats disturb the stillness of the tunnel. “What is up ahead?” Talen asked. “A great underground lake,” Filcher reported, “Fed by several rivers.  A bridge of stones leads across, but be cautious; the way is treacherous when the flow is surging.”“And beyond?” “Beyond is the province of the servants of the Demon,” the goblin said.  “And you know where to find this Tribitz?”The goblin shook his head, but the hobgoblins had heard the exchange, and the one that had spoken to them earlier came forward, accompanied by a companion.  “I know the way,” the second creature said.  It reached under its cloak and drew forth a familiar icon, for it was almost identical to the device that Varo wore on the throng around his neck.  The cleric nodded, as if not surprised by this development. “You are a priest of Dagos?” Talen asked.The hobgoblin nodded.  “I summon once to attend on goblin high priest.  Much danger, but I know way.”“Yeah, well, ‘much danger’ is pretty much a given,” Dar said.  “Time for you boys to earn your pay.”“We earn pay in blood of servants of Demon,” the other hobgoblin said.  “Nakrat durkat!” it growled, the words echoed by the other warriors. “What did it say?” Talen said in a quiet aside to Shay.  “Death to traitors,” the scout replied. The bridge of stepping stones looked as precarious as Filcher had promised.  Almost one hundred feet separated the two banks of the underground river.  To their left, it opened onto yet another vast cavern, filled with swirling water for as far as they could see.  The sounds of water cascading into that lake from waterfalls high above filled the cavern, echoing off the walls and making conversation a bit difficult. The goblin scouts started across the bridge of stones without hesitation, nimbly leaping from rock to rock.  Some of the stones only showed a few square inches of uneven space above the swift-moving water, but the creatures seemed heedless of the danger.  “Let me go first,” Shay said.  “I’m the best swimmer in the group, and I will string a guide rope across.  It looks like there’s a larger rock formation in the middle that I can use to set a few spikes.”The hobgoblins stood at the bank, wondering at the delay, but they quickly divined their plan, as Shay uncoiled a rope and headed after the goblin scouts.  She reached the midway point of the bridge without difficulty, and hammered in her end of the rope there, while Baraka secured the other end on their side.  Their caution paid off.  It took the better part of a half hour to get everyone across the river, but despite a few slips, none of them fell into the lake.  The scouts reported that the area on the far side of the river was clear, so they paused for a brief rest while Shay recovered the rope.  “Strange,” Filcher said.  The goblin indicated a stone platform, some ten feet high, that jutted out over the lake.  Talen could see that it provided a clear vantage over the stepping stones.  “Usually there are guards here, all the time.”“Maybe the clerics figure they don’t have to worry about threats any more,” Allera said.  “The leader may not yet have heard about what happened at the barricade.”“I wouldn’t count on it,” Dar said.  As Shay rejoined them, they moved out again, the goblins darting ahead to scout without having to be told.  Their guide, the hobgoblin fighter/cleric that had visited the priests’ quarters before, moved forward to direct them. “While hobgoblins tend to be fairly organized, I have never seen goblins with such discipline,” Kalend observed, as they made their way ahead along the edge of the lake.  The cavern along the lakeshore extended for over a hundred feet ahead of them.  To their left, they passed a small stone dock that extended out over the lake; to their right, the cavern wall was just visible in the shadows. “It’s this place,” Baraka said.  “It compels survival, or death.”“Cheery,” Dar said.  But his eyes were sharp as they scanned the surrounding darkness. Their scouts led them to an opening at the far end of the cavern.  The sounds of the lake fell away behind them as they passed through into another huge open space, a broad cavern with a bare stone floor worn smooth with centuries of time and passage.  They could just hear the air whistling softly through the cavern ahead of them, suggesting that it continued on for quite some distance ahead. The goblins started forward, but the others had only just begun to follow when the diminutive scouts suddenly froze.  “What is it?” Talen asked, but before the scouts could respond, they all heard it, a familiar clattering noise from the darkness ahead.  Talen and Dar shared a look.  “Skeletons,” the knight said.  “Big ones,” Dar returned, already reaching for his club.The goblins fell back and spread out, just as the source of the noise entered the radius of their light sources.  “Real big,” Shay said, lowering her bow. The creature had been a quadruped in life, a carnivore by the look of its jaws.  It was over twelve feet long, and it was almost as tall as a man at the shoulder.  Now it was animated in unlife, a monstrous skeleton that stalked forward, its bony claws clicking slightly on the stone floor. It wasn’t alone.  Dark forms shifted in the shadows to either side; two more of the creatures, indistinct in the darkness. For a split-second, the two sides faced off across the empty expanse of the cavern.  The the hobgoblins shattered the still, shouting war cries as they hurled javelins at the giant skeletons.  The three skeletal cats sprang forward, jaws opening wide in silent roars of challenge.</blockquote>

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