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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3545388" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 174NEW ALLIES TESTEDDar grimaced as he yanked out a jagged piece of claw that had gotten stuck between two of the interlocking plates of his armor.  The end of the claw was bright with his own blood.  He was reminded that it could have been worse, as one of the hobgoblins let out a cry of pain between clenched teeth.  Dar turned to see Allera pull a tooth as long as a shortsword from the creature’s chest.  The tooth was covered in the hobgoblin’s blood, and even fifteen feet away Dar could make out the bubbling gasps that indicated a pierced lung.  The injury would have been fatal for most combatants, but the healer closed the vicious wound with her magic, leaving the hobgoblin weak but alive.  The other two hobgoblins watched mutely.  Both of them bore wounds, but they seemed to accept physical suffering with equanimity.  If anything, they appeared to sneer slightly at the noises made by their companion as he was treated. “We got off light,” Talen said.  Dar followed his gaze to the prone figure covered in a bloody cloak, lying a few paces away.  The hobgoblin had fallen in the initial rush, as one of the skeletal dire tigers had pounced on him and spread his entrails across the floor with tearing gashes of its claws.   A second, the one that Allera was treating, had nearly joined it, but Allera’s mass cure spell a few seconds later had drawn it back from the brink of death. The battle had lasted only a few seconds... not more than twenty, Dar figured.  In the fray, it had seemed much longer, of course.  One of the dire tigers had gone for Talen, but the knight had lowered his shield and taken the charge, suffering hits but keeping his ground, waiting for an opportunity to strike.  His sword had shorn away half of the skeleton’s jaw, but it was Dar, attacking with his magical club, who had crushed its spine.  Allera’s mass cure had damaged the skeletons even as it healed her allies, and just like that the first foe had been taken out, coming apart as the blue fire enveloped its body. “They acquitted themselves well enough, I suppose,” Dar said.  Allera’s spell had weakened the other two skeletons, but neither had been seriously damaged by that point.  The two hobgoblins had not faltered against the foe that had taken down their companion, spreading out and attacking its flanks.  Their blows had done little damage, but they’d kept it busy, distracting it from finishing their crippled comrade.  The other skeleton, the one that had slain the first hobgoblin outright, came under missile fire from the goblin scouts, but before it could respond it had been attacked by Shay and Baraka.  The two had dragged the skeleton’s attention around, forcing it to deal with them.  They were careful to dart in and out, making it continue to shift and turn, not letting it get in a full attack that could prove devastating.  Shay did take a pair of nasty gashes from its claws, but then Talen arrived with Beatus Incendia, and that was that.  Dar put a similar decisive end to the one tussling with the hobgoblins, just in time to keep them from joining their companion.  “I wonder why they didn’t heal their own companion,” Talen mused quietly.  “They have a cleric, too.”  They were waiting while the goblins and their own scouts checked the rest of the cavern, verifying that no more enemies waited in the shadows.  Shay and Baraka were visible by the lights that they carried, but the goblins were invisible, disappearing into the darkness without apparent effort.  They were tough to see even when one was standing next to you, a fact that Dar had already commented upon earlier. “Probably waiting to see if we would do it,” Dar said.  “This way, they get to save their resources.”“Or it could be that their own resources are limited,” Varo said, the cleric approaching silently to join them.“You trust them?” Dar asked. “I trust them as much as you trust me,” the cleric said.  He smiled, but it was a cold gesture, and he turned to walk away, joining Kalend and Serah as they checked through the smashed bodies of the skeletons for anything remarkable. “How in the hells did I get signed onto this mission,” Dar grumbled.  “You volunteered, colonel,” Talen said.  Adjusting his helmet, which hadn’t fit well ever since the shadow dragon had nearly crushed it in its jaws, the knight walked over to meet Shay as the scout returned from her reconnoiter.“You had to remind me, you bastard,” Dar muttered.  He looked down at the hilt of his sword, and frowned.  The company gathered again around the scouts.  “The rest of the cavern looks clean,” Shay said.  “There’s a few smaller chambers to the side that looks like they were barracks, until recently.  There’s also a long hall, flanked by two rows of pillars, that leads a long way down to somewhere on the far side of the cavern.  But there’s another smaller, natural tunnel to the left... that’s the way Jehtak, our guide, says we’re going.”“You could have warned us about the skellys,” Dar said to the hobgoblin.“No here, before,” the creature said. “I think I know what they were,” Filcher said.  “Grimb, he was a tunnel scout... he kept three dire tigers as pets.  Fearsome things, they were.”Dar looked back at the piles of shattered bones.  “Not any more.”“Let’s move out,” Talen said.  “Jehtak, let us know if there are any defenses you do remember.”The tunnel they chose was a relatively narrow one for Grezneck, tightening until it was barely eight feet across.  They passed a small side chamber that was bare of any notable features, and then had to squeeze through a relatively tight space before the passage opened onto another large cavern.  Old bones crunched beneath their feet as they entered. Jehtak said something in his own language.  “He says there’s a secret door near the entrance,” Shay translated.  The goblins started searching that wall immediately, but before they could locate the hidden portal, each of them felt a sudden cold chill, a terrible feeling that crept up their spine like a premonition of sudden danger. “There is a dark presence here,” Varo said. “No, really?” Dar said, clenching his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering.  “What else you got, cleric...”He was cut off as a form materialized in the center of the room.  As it took on substance, they could see that the figure was that of a robed elf, hovering slightly above the floor.  Even fully manifested, it remained insubstantial, their light passing through its hollow form as though its flesh were wisps of cloud floating in the air.  Its features, while cast in a noble mold, were warped by a keen malevolence that shone in its eyes. “A ghost!” Serah warned, even as the full power of its corrupting gaze swept over them.  The goblins cried out, and one slumped to the ground, unconscious, as the fell power of that stare overcame it.  All of them felt that cold power, sucking at their energy, and only the strongest among them were able to fight off the chill that clenched at their souls.  “Die, abomination!” Talen yelled, Beatus Incendia flaring to life as he drew the holy blade from its scabbard.  He charged the ghost, which wavered before the power in that weapon.  His swing, however, passed harmlessly through the ghost, which fluttered up into the air.  “It flees!” someone yelled.  But Varo, recognizing the ghost’s tactic, knew better.  He called upon the power of Dagos, already knowing that his power was not enough to faze this adversary.  His fears were confirmed as the dark violet tendrils of power swirled around the ghost, not quite touching its insubstantial form. Nor was it enough to stop the ghost from drifting back down at Talen.  The knight recovered and brought his sword up again to strike, but neither he nor the others behind him were quick enough to attack it before it seeped into the body of the living man, disappearing from view. Shay came to an abrupt stop behind him.  “Talen?”Her only answer was Talen turning around, lifting the holy sword, his menacing smile echoed by the unholy light that burned behind his eyes.</blockquote>

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