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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3955388" data-attributes="member: 143">Okay, let's stop the sniping over grammatical issues, please. Time for more story:* * * * * Chapter 320DOUBTAllera almost stumbled with the suddenness of the change, although there was no interruption in her tread from the moment she’d stepped forward in the hall, and reappeared in a small, dingy chamber with a heavy wooden door on one side and a low arch warding a narrow passage on the other.  She shone her light around her, gauging her surroundings.  She could clearly mark the borders of the teleportation circle now, presumably a mirror to the one that she’d just left.  Her first instinct was to return at once, but she waited, unwilling to take precipitous action alone. Had Dar come this way as well?  She shone her torch into the corridor, but there were no markings to indicate that it had ever been used.  Similarly the door looked ancient, its metal fittings pitted with rust. She turned back as Letellia appeared through the teleporter.  A magical light shone from a ring on her right hand.  “I was worried that you weren’t coming,” Allera said. “I had to be certain that the circle was a transporter, and hadn’t disintegrated you,” the sorceress replied.  “And for all I knew, it led straight to the front of Orcus’s throne.”Allera shuddered.  “I am glad that it does not.  But I am grateful that you came through.”“Remaining in that hall alone was not an attractive alternative.  Did Dar come this way?”“I have no way of knowing.  If he did, I am sure that he would have returned...”“There is no certaintly that the portals are two-way,” Letellia said.  “Or that they return to the same destination, even if they do work from both sides.”“There is one way to find out,” Allera said. “If we get lost, we serve no one,” the sorceress said.  “But I do not think it is wise to linger so near the arrival point; our pursuers will certainly be following.”“The door, or the corridor?” Allera asked.  “I was thinking of another option.  My dimension door can take us both out of here...”“Wouldn’t that be risky, transporting without a clear destination in mind?”“I have a clear destination in mind.  While I do not know how far we are underground, I doubt that it is beyond the maximum range of the spell.”Allera shook her head as she realized what the sorceress meant.  “No!  I won’t leave him...”A loud noise from the corridor drew their attention; it was like a battering ram assaulting a castle gate, but it sounded a good distance away.  “We may not have a choice.”Allera started toward the corridor, but paused under the arch.  Letellia, who had drawn out a scroll, heard it too.  “Something is coming.”Whatever it was, it wasn’t trying to conceal the noise of its passage; they could hear metal scraping on stone, a ferocious and spine-tingling noise.  Letellia unrolled her scroll, a serious look drawn on her expression.  But then Allera suddenly ran forward,the light of her torch shining into the tunnel ahead of her.   “Allera!” Letellia hissed, but the healer did not turn from her rush.  The sorceress, uncertain, had no choice but to follow. The mystery was resolved a few moments later, when she came upon Allera clinging to Corath Dar.  The fighter looked rather the worse for wear, his armor covered in black char, and fresh blood splashed across his legs and feet.  He did not look to be seriously injured, but blood marked his steps back down the tunnel behind him.  “What happened?” Letellia asked. Dar shifted Allera in his grasp, without releasing her.  “One of those damned flayers enspelled me, I fled blindly, and ran into a transporter of some sort.”“We came the same way, that’s how we found you,” Allera said.  “I’d dropped my torch in the hound room, so I couldn’t see, but I just kept on running.  I hit a wall; damn near knocked me out.”  He looked behind the sorceress, then down at Allera.  “The others?” The healer shook her head, and Dar cursed.  “The archmage?” he asked.  By now, he’d spent enough time in the company of both Letellia and her uncle to sense when the latter was no longer hosted within the young woman’s body. “The connection between us was broken when the Web was yanked off my head by one of the grimlocks,” the sorceress explained.  “The trauma of the disruption... I fear that he may have been injured.”“He survived a sudden transition before,” Allera said.  “In the temple beyond the goblin city.”Letellia nodded, but her face betrayed her doubts. “What lies in that direction?” she asked, indicating the passage behind them.  “Trouble.  Once I cleared my head, I was able to make a flame using tinder and flints, but it didn’t last long.  I made my way back to the transporter, but it took me someplace else, and then that one took me someplace else entire.  There were some doors in that last room, and I tried one, only to come face to a hound that made the ones we battled look like puppies.  It had three heads, and it breathed fire like a dragon’s gout.”  He indicated the markings on his armor; fortunately the magic in the breastplate had shielded him from the worst of it.  “I decided I wasn’t going to stick around to see if its bite met its breath.  I hit the teleporter again, ended up in a small room.  I’d lost my light, but I found a door.  The room beyond was full of freaking giant rats, this freaking mess on my legs is their blood.  I couldn’t see, but I found another door, which I battered down.  I wandered about a bit then saw your light, and here I am.”“The transporters likely have a pattern to them, but it appears that they do not connect in a reciprocal fashion,” Letellia said.  “Well, we’re not going to get anywhere blundering around,” Dar said.  “I would wager that the masters of this level know how they operate, and that they’ll find us soon enough.”“Zafir Navev is with them,” Allera said.  “That bastard and I have some matters between us,” Dar growled. “Letellia believes she can transport us out of the dungeon, using her dimension door spell.”Dar regarded them for a long moment, and glanced down at the hilt of the sword at his hip.  “All right.  Do it.”Letellia urged them to grasp her hand.  She focused her mind and drew upon her power.  There was a twisted, lurching sensation, and for a moment the corridor spun around them.  Allera and Dar broke the connection, and Letellia fell to her knees, voiding the contents of her stomach upon the cold ground.  She recovered after a few moments, and Allera helped her back to her feet.  The healer offered her a waterskin, and she drank gratefully.  She couldn’t speak for a moment, but even Dar could tell what had happened.“It looks like we aren’t going anywhere,” Dar said, his face grim.</blockquote>

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