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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3948561" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 317FLAYING THE FLAYERSAllera invoked a holy aura around herself and her companions, a protection that proved extremely timely as several more mind blasts washed over them.  The semiconscious warriors groaned and twitched, but the casters were able to resist the mental probes that washed over them, flaring around the edge of the healer’s divine shield.  Alderis flew into the room, ascending as he passed between two of the black pillars.  The elf extended a hand toward the center of the flayer line, toward a creature that bore black runes upon its robe, and which wore a torc of shining gold around its neck.  The elf’s cone of cold blasted into the mind flayers, driving them back, and coating the entire dais and pedestal with a rime of frost.  The leader and one of the other illithids were able to resist the elf’s magic, avoiding harm, but the others were not so fortunate.  None fell, but they staggered awkwardly, the chill blast sending cold penetrating to the bone. They got rather warmer a moment later as Nelan called down a flame strike. The cleric’s magic was not quite as potent as that of the elf, but the creatures had already been considerably weakened, and four collapsed to the ground, reduced to blackened husks.  Again the leader resisted the magic, but the remaining two were in dire condition.  Honoratius was the last to enter the room, and as the archmage stepped forward between the pillars, the illithid with the torc drew upon its mental powers and plane shifted away.  The other two attempted to follow, but before either could focus its power Honoratius hit them with a series of sonic blasts.  Both creatures screeched and crumpled onto to the hard floor.  Allera tended to the stunned warriors, who recovered quickly from the mental blasts.  They examined the room carefully, but there were no further threats present, or at least none that could be readily discerned.  “It does not bode well that illithids are in league with our foe,” Honoratius said, once they had all recovered and secured the door.  Alderis had brought in his shield guardian while they planned their next move.  “That one that escaped will likely return with word of our presence, although the imprecise nature of planar travel may buy us some time.”“The markings on its robe... those sigils were in Abyssal,” Alderis said. Honoratius nodded.  “I noted that as well.  Evidently the leader was a priest of Orcus.”Zahera had stepped atop the dais, and was moving closer toward the stone pedestal close against the wall.  The pedestal bore three golden plates, shining squares each a few inches across.  Honoratius forestalled her before she could get any closer.  “I recommend caution with that,” the archmage said.  “I detect a strong aura of magic, and evil, coming from that object.”Dar unlimbered his club, and walked over to the dais.  Zahera stepped aside, and before any of them could offer challenge or comment he lifted the heavy weapon and smashed it into the pedestal.  There was a flare of red light that briefly rimed the fighter, but he ignored the discharge, and struck the pedestal a second, and then a third time.  On that third blow the stone cracked, and the pedestal came apart. A past Dar would have sifted through the rubble for the gold, but the fighter just turned and said, “Let’s get moving.”  As they checked their gear and returned to the door, Alderis stepped over to the remains of the pedestal.  Kicking aside a few bits of rubble, he found a small golden ring, which he slipped into a pocket. They left the illithid temple behind and returned to the fork they had encountered earlier.  This time they bore right, following the corridor deeper into the complex.  They passed several side tunnels, which they scouted quickly to verify that no enemies waited in ambush.  The first such tunnel led back to the underground river, while the second dead-ended in a pair of spur passages.  The main corridor ran onward for hundreds of feet, until they estimated that they had come farther than their initial trek along the banks of the underground river.  Their caution did not ease, and they moved forward slowly, checking every crevice and spur and side-chamber that they passed.  Nelan’s daylight spell expired, and Honoratius indicated that she only had a short time remaining to her before she would be required to relinquish Letellia’s body for another day.  “Maybe we should fall back, seek out a secure place to rest,” Allera suggested.  “The enemy knows we are here.  If we withdraw, they may rally and strike us in force, wherever we camp,” Alderis pointed out. “If we’re going to fight them, might be better to have the archmage with us,” Marcus suggested.“The knight-commander said it was often better to take the fight to the enemy, to face him on your terms rather than his,” Alexion said. “Did he, now?” Dar said.  “All right, we’ll press on for a few more rooms, but mage, give me a few minutes’ warning before you bug out.”“Noted, general.”They followed the passage for only a short distance further before it opened onto a small room with multiple exits.  None of the three passages concealed enemies, at least not as far as they could discern.  With their torches, it was likely that a foe would see them long before they themselves could detect the threat.  But there was nothing to be done for that; Alderis could grant the power of darkvision, but he could not grant that boon to everyone in the group without seriously compromising his own spell selection.  And in any case, you didn’t think of it, Dar thought to himself, as Zahera and Alexion checked the passages.  There were too many unknowns here, like a man wading into water at night, not knowing where the ground might drop off suddenly, leaving him flailing blindly. Zahera reported that the first passage opened onto another long hall of worked stone.  They moved into that adjoining area, their torches driving back the darkness ahead of them.  The hall was about twenty feet wide, and buttressed with curving arcs of black stone at regular intervals along its length.  To their left, the hall ended after about thirty feet, so they proceeded on to the right.  The hall opened onto a slightly larger chamber after about forty feet, resuming again on the far side.  The chamber had two exits, a pair of heavy wooden doors reinforced with strips of rusted iron, and a twisting, narrow passage opposite the doors that looked to have been burrowed into the rock.  “Scout it out,” Dar commanded, indicating for Alderis and Marcus to watch the way they had come and the way ahead.  Honoratius, Allera, Nelan, and Dar watched quietly as the knights examined the tight passage and the wooden doors.  Their search turned up nothing except for some old dung in the corners of the room.  “The doors,” Dar said, gesturing for everyone to take up positions around the portals.  Once they were all ready, he grasped onto the rusted handle of one of the doors and yanked it open.  This time, no enemies greeted them, only a small, triangular-shaped room with another door on the right wall.  This room was in worse disarray, and was cluttered with filth, dirt, and the debris of what might have once been furnishings.  The air in the room was stale with decay, but no undead monstrosities stirred out of the trash to molest them.  “General,” Marcus hissed, before they could explore further. They turned back to see the cleric crouched along the wall on the edge of the far hall.  “Something’s coming, I think.”They shifted their position to ward the hall, Dar closing the wooden door shut behind him.  As they stopped moving and listened, they could hear something... a low growl, coming down the hall, toward them.  “Shroud the lights,” Dar whispered.  They concealed their torches, muting the light to a faint, hazy glow.  As the darkness rushed eagerly in, they watched the hall, and waited. They did not have to wait long.  They could hear the owner of the growl approaching, accompanied by a soft scrape of claws on stone.  “Now!” Dar hissed, drawing out his torch and tossing it to the ground.  As the others uncovered their lights behind him, the fighter stepped around the corner to see a pair of ugly, hulking black hounds.  They were “dogs” only in the loosest sense; even Dar could clearly mark the otherworldly ancestry of these creatures.  Their hides were covered with a foul, oozing secretion that left marks on the floor in their wake, and their eyes glowed with a deep, feral glow.  They lunged at Dar with furious abandon, and as their slavering jaws opened wide, flickers of flame played around their black teeth.  Dar met the first with a downward slash of Valor that split its skull wide open.  The second lunged and snapped its jaws down on the fighter’s right leg, trying to drag him down.  Dar held against its weight, long enough for the others to reinforce him.  Alexion’s pick bit deep into the beast’s side, and it released Dar to turn upon this new foe.  Unfortunately for it that opened it to another attack from Marcus, who smote the creature with Beatus Incendia.  Its spine severed, the hound collapsed in a bloody heap. “Abyssal hounds,” Honoratius said, looking down at the bodies with distaste.  “There will be more of them; they hunt in packs.”“They weren’t so tough,” Dar said, grimacing as he examined the wound in his leg.  Allera cast a cure light wounds spell, fully restoring him.  “Let’s see where they came from.”The hall continued for only about fifty feet before it opened onto the corner of another, larger chamber.  This one had a low ceiling, perhaps twelve feet above them, but it extended for a good sixty feet from right to left, and was upwards of forty feet across.  The hall continued from the wall opposite, but they could just make out several exits on the far side of the room to their left, recessed doorways set into the stone wall. It was evident even from a casual glance that this place was the lair of the fiendish hounds.  Black slicks glistened on the walls and floor, and ugly piles of feces lay everywhere, scattered amidst broken bones and other assorted trash.  “It’s a freaking kennel,” Dar said.  “Yes, but where are the occupants?” Nelan asked. Alexion had moved forward along the left wall, holding his torch up high to spread the light.  They could see that the three doors in the rear of the chamber had been damaged, with gaping holes where large chunks of wood had been chewed away.  They also saw the glowing points of hostile eyes, staring at them. Alexion dropped his torch and drew out his pick.  The magical flame did not go out, but it cast odd shadows as the illusory light flared and flickered. The growl started with a distant rumbling, like an earthquake.  It was followed by the hounds, issuing from the openings in the doors, one after another until the streams merged into a wide line that closed steadily with the companions.“More from the far hall,” Marcus warned, indicating several more hounds that crept into the chamber, their sinister eyes fixed on the intruders into their lair.  There were nearly two dozen in all, closing the circle, their growls promising a grim accounting.</blockquote>

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