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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3608858" data-attributes="member: 143">The Mad Elf of Rappan Athuk will return in Book 4. * * * * * Chapter 195A CHILLING PREDICAMENTDar was coming around to the viewpoint that his blind charge into the passageway may have not been such a good idea. First off, the tunnel was pretty dark; the light from their torches spilled out from the room, but it quickly faded as he ran down the passage.  There was something there; he could just make out an outline ahead of short figures forming a line across the corridor about forty feet ahead.  They were too small to be human, but he couldn’t make out any more details than that. “Gobbos,” the fighter said to himself.  That assumption, combined with the fact that it wasn’t a good idea to stand here and wait to get blasted, was enough for him; he lifted his sword and charged. The enemy waited for him.  For a second Dar thought that maybe he’d been mistaken; the squat shapes remained immobile, like small statues.  They were blockier, too, than goblins, although their exact nature remained indistinct in the darkness.  A barricade?   But then the two figures in the middle stepped aside, and Dar knew he was in trouble even before the cone of cold slammed into him. There was nowhere to go to avoid it; the full force of the spell blasted into him, blinding him, driving him back several steps, until he found himself pressed up against one of the corridor walls.  He had no idea which way he was facing; he had enough to focus on just remaining standing.  His lungs burned, and he could not feel his hands or feet.  Icicles had formed in his hair and beard, and in the joints of his armor, crackling when he moved. The blast lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like a lot longer, from his perspective.  He turned, blinking as the icy blast dissipated, looking for his targets. Before he found them, an arrow found him, catching him hard near the joint between his right arm and shoulder.  The arrow shot through his breastplate and the chain links underneath like they weren’t even there, burying itself deep into the joint.  Dar bit off a curse as a sharp pain followed the feeling of impact, which in turn was followed by a numbness that flowed down the length of his arm.  Either the shot had clipped a nerve, or... “Poison, eh?  You bastards are going to pay for that...”But as he pushed off from the wall, he staggered to the side, and had to admit that he might not be in the shape needed to carry out the threat. Shay had reached the mouth of the passage just as the cone was unleashed.  She grabbed Kalend and shoved him to the side, twisting her body so that the full force of the blast hit her oblique rather than head-on.  Kalend made it to cover a heartbeat before the spell reached them, and he reached out to drag Shay after him.  The scout sagged down along the wall beside the passage, shivering but not seriously hurt.Talen, on the farthest edge of the enemy wizard’s spell, had likewise avoided the kind of suffering that Dar had been hit with, but after the pounding he’d taken from the ice storm, he was far from being in good shape.  But a moment later he felt some of the chill suffusing him ease, replaced by a soft glow that felt absolutely wonderful.  “Thanks, Allera,” he said, but the healer was already running toward the tunnel, no doubt intent on saving Dar from the fate his foolishness had ordained for himself. Hoping that none of the goblins could see his grimace under his helmet, the knight rushed after her.  As Dar reached the line of enemies, the light from Talen’s sword filled the passage, letting him finally make out the true nature of his foes.  They were goblins, but it was easy to see the source of his earlier error; these creatures were clad in suits of full plate, with small steel shields that they carried in a locked formation, each sheltering their comrade to the left as well as themselves.  They reminded Dar of nothing more than a Legion formation, down to the small stabbing swords that they held in the lee of their armored bodies, poised to strike.  There were six of them, not enough to fully block the passage, but the ends of their line were anchored by several other goblins in lighter armor, armed with javelins and longer swords.  Dar noted those details of the defenses, but his attention was focused on the pair of goblins behind the formation, the one with robes that was obviously the wizard, and the one beside him that was reloading its crossbow with another poisoned bolt.  After the pair had blasted him, the goblin soldiers in the front had come back together, reforming their line, and blocking his route to the leaders.A mad thought of leaping over the goblin line and cutting the wizard in half flew through his head, but even as he neared the enemy formation, each of the goblins in the front rank suddenly took a step forward, setting to meet his charge, shields up.  He would have laughed, if he hadn’t already known how dangerous this little bastards were.  So he attacked.  He started toward the center of the line, but his attack was a feint, and at the last instant he shifted to the side, coming up on the right flank, intending to drive through the more lightly armored goblins holding the edge. If he’d expected to find the more lightly armored goblins easier prey, he was mistaken.  His target stepped into his attack, twisting to the side to turn what would have been a deadly blow into a glancing hit that barely penetrated its chain armor.  Its own counterattack faltered against Dar’s armor, but the line shifted smoothly to pen him in, and he felt pain explode in his side as a goblin thrust its sword deep into his thigh.  The goblin was deceptively strong; a burly human legionary might have managed a hit like that one.  Oh, I'm screwed, Dar thought.  He turned in time to see both the wizard and the crossbowman both looking at him, the latter sighting down the length of its loaded weapon.</blockquote>

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