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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4209313" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 35NARROW ESCAPESJasek started to shout a warning, but he was too late, as Aerim went down under the stone treant’s attack.  He vascilated in the doorway for an instant, just an instant, as the creature lumbered forward to crush the fallen Duke.  Jasek was no fighter; he’d seen more than enough of the battle as he’d snuck around to the mithral door to know that he would barely slow the thing.  He sensed rather than saw someone approaching fast from his left; he stepped aside in time to avoid the Seer, who darted through the doorway, still shrouded by invisibility.  He saw Parzad, approaching along the wall to his left.  Falah was still over by Ghazaran, behind the nearer of the treants, still a good fifteen paces distant.  They were still fighting the other creature, giving ground, and Jasek could see that they risked being caught between the two monsters, which would open them up to a world of hurt. But the equalizer in that equation was already moving to intercept.  Ozmad had come around Ghazaran’s foe, and was rushing with giant-sized strides toward the second.  But Jasek could tell with a glance that there was no way that the giant would reach the treant before it crushed Aerim. “So long, chum,” the thief said, as the treant lifted the mass of roots that would put an end to the short return of Duke Aerim. And then, as Jasek’s eyes widened in surprise, the prone form of the Duke shot forward toward him, sliding along the floor as if dragged by an invisible team of horses.  He came to a stop almost at the thief’s feet, and Jasek was even more surprised to see that the man was already coming around, groaning as he shook his head and tried to get up.  Jasek helped him, uncomfortably aware of the huge figure that was looming very tall indeed over them as it approached.  “Get through the door!” he hissed, all but dragging the semi-conscious fighter after him.  A huge branch lifted and came sweeping down toward them; reflexively Jasek dropped his companion and leapt straight back.  A sudden pain greeted him as his shoulder clipped the metal threshold of the doorway, and he fell into an awkward crouch in the narrow opening.  He heard a grunting noise and realized that the Seer was trying to push the door shut.  The swinging branch passed close enough to fill the gap with a gust of wind.  Aerim fell down, but the crushing impact Jasek had expected never reached him.  As he watched the treant was flung roughly back and to the side, and as it left the focus of his gaze he could see the long shaft of Ozmad’s mattock of the titans hooked under one of its branches.  The giant stepped into position in front of the door, blood streaking his face where one of the branches had slashed him.  “Get through the door!” he boomed.  Jasek saw Ghazaran, already starting to shrink back to his normal size, charging toward him, Falah a shadow behind him.  There was no sign of Zafir Navev, but Jasek did not spare a moment’s instant for the mummy; the creature clearly had no problems with surviving.  What he focused on was getting out of the way.  Aerim had gotten up again, moving under his own power despite what was obviously a number of grievous wounds.  Parzad passed through the slowly closing gap of the doorway just a step behind the Duke.  Ghazaran and Falah ran between Ozmad’s legs and were through just a few heartbeats behind him.  “Quickly, we must seal the door!” the Seer exclaimed, still pushing at the heavy mithral portal.  It was more physical exertion than Jasek had ever seen the mage engage in during the entirety of their admittedly brief time together.  Parzad was standing nearby, neither helping nor hindering, and now Jasek saw Navev as well, hovering silently in the shadows a short distance away. “We have to wait for Ozmad!” Ghazaran returned.  Jasek could no longer see out into the chamber, but he could hear the loud crash of blows as the giant held off both of the remaining treants.  The thief wasn’t sure who to give the edge to in that confrontation, but having felt the strength of the massive trees first hand, he wasn’t going to put a bet on his companion, either.    But the door was almost completely shut, now, and there was no way that the elf would make it through, let alone in his giant-sized form.  Ghazaran nodded to Falah, who started toward the door, but even as he reached for it, a sudden gust of yellow smoke drifted through the closing crack.  Falah drew back reflexively as more of the stuff poured around the edges of the door, coalescing on the near side of the mithral slab.  “Now, close it!” Ghazaran said, pushing forward.  Jasek joined them, and the door slammed shut with a loud click, a noise that was echoed several times as whatever mechanism operated the portal sealed it in place.  As the chaos of their escape faded, they all became aware of a whirring sound that filled the corridor.The gaseous cloud was already forming back into Ozmad, who had once again returned to his elf-form.  He seemed little the worse for his experience, although it was difficult to see him clearly with the still-shifting auras of his displacement and unholy aura spells lingering about his body.  Ghazaran looked at Jasek.  “Well done, getting the door open.”The thief nodded.  “These round doors seem to have been intended to keep something in, rather than to keep the likes of us out.”The Seer had become visible again; either his spell had lapsed, or he had dismissed it.  “And if there had been another vacuum beyond?” he asked. “Then we would have been sucked into that,” Jasek said, drawing his everburning torch out from under his cloak, and lifting it to shine down the passage behind them. They all looked in that direction, and saw the source of the whirring noise.  The corridor formed an uneven course, with deep alcoves flanking the center of the tunnel, forming nooks that alternated between the right and the left.  Where those nooks intersected tall pillars jutted out into the corridor.  At first, it looked as though some odd distortion surrounded those pillars, a blurring in the air around them, but as they continued to stare, they could see that the pillars were in fact spinning, and the noise they made came from long blades that were buried in the stone, blades that were cutting the air so fast that they formed a blur.  The blades were long enough that they almost touched in the center of the corridor, forming a deadly arc of spinning steel that quite effectively barred their path forward.</blockquote>

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