NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4186948" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 28DOWN THE WELL AGAINThe companions, restored to their solid forms again, stood in water that rose up to their shins.  Above them, the shaft rose high up above them, to the sundered Well, and above that, so far away that it looked almost like an illusion, they could see the glow of the open sky.  And at their feet, the mithral hatch. “The water level is rising,” Zethas said.  He indicated water marks that indicated that the natural level of the pool was a good ten feet higher than where they were currently standing.Dar ignored him.  “How long, do you think?” he asked Allera. The healer reached out and put her hand against the rough edge of the wall; water flowing down the surface flared out around her fingers.  “Tough to say.  Not more than an hour or two, I’d guess.”Dar looked up at Letellia.  “Well?  Do you have any answers?”  His voice was hard; there was still some tension there.  Letellia matched the chill in his stare.  The sorceress lifted a hand, incanting mystic syllables that echoed oddly up the length of the shaft.  Power in the form of a blue halo flared around her hand as she closed it into a fist, but that was nothing compared to the result of her spell. A massive, disembodied fist appeared in the air in front of the sorceress, a copy as broad across as a wagon wheel.  As Letellia drew her hand down, the clenched fist copied the motion, driving down toward the pool with greatly amplified speed and force.  The companions drew back in alarm as the fist struck the pool, soaking them with surge of dark water.  The water barely slowed the fist, which smashed into the mithral hatch, sending blasts of mud flying out in every direction.  The impact was like that of a battering ram, and the ground beneath them shook with the force of it.  The hatch held, unaffected.The water was already rushing back in, but Letellia’s hand had already risen again, and at her command the clenched fist drove down again and again.  The companions huddled near the sides of the pool, covering their faces against the constant spray of mud and water.  The noise was pulsing, the echoes of the impacts layering one upon the other until it felt like they were standing inside a bell being struck.  Dar yelled something, but it was lost in the din, and Letellia did not let up, ordering her simulacra to continue its assault.  But the spell did finally come to an end, and the surface of the pool again became flat, the ripples of movement caused by the impacts only slowly easing into nothing.  The hatch remained closed, apparently unharmed by the display.“What the hell was that?” Dar yelled, thrashing forward through the water back to the edge of the hatch.  “That was my best effort to force an entry,” Letellia replied.  “That having failed, I welcome your plan.”Dar’s expression darkened further, but Allera stepped in between them.  “It serves no purpose to argue; the hatch obviously cannot be forced.  Letellia, what about your dimension door spell?  Can you transport us in groups beyond the hatch?”The sorceress shook her head.  “You may not remember from our last visit, but the special stone that surrounds the vault is impervious to all forms of magical transportation.  It is well and truly sealed from the outside world.”“Are there other ways in, besides this hatch?” Kiron asked.  “Maybe we can wait here, ambush them when they come out.”“By then, it’ll be too late, kid,” Dar said.  “The hatch didn’t stop the spawn from getting out, and I seriously doubt it’ll hinder the big Ravager in the slightest.”  Kiron opened his mouth to add something, but Dar continued over him.  “Trust me; we barely stopped the spawn even with Honoratius and Talen on our side; I don’t know what the big one’s like, but from what Allera told us of its prison, I don’t expect we’ll have a chance.”“So how do we get inside?” Maricela asked.  Mud now streaked her breastplate and vestments, but the blazing flame from the head of the mace she carried shone brightly in her eyes.  Dar and Allera shared a look; there were no answers there.  “I don’t know,” the fighter finally said, staring down at the bright mithral gleaming under the surface of the water at their feet.</blockquote>

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