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: 4216559" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 38THE STONE LEGIONThey came on so quickly, that the defenders barely had time to ready their weapons before the leading edge of the golem charge hit them. Aerim was in the forefront, and he took a blow across his chest that would have toppled a normal man, even in heavy armor.  But the Duke merely grunted, staggering backwards but recovering quickly.  A second golem came around the first and lunged at him, but he met it with a powerful swing of his blade.  The enchanted steel sang off the golem’s body, and shards of stone went flying from the impact.  The golem swept a fist at him, but he was already falling back, and the monster’s attack hit only empty air. More golems came up the opposite site of the platform, around the far side of the huge stone angel.  Falah stepped forward to block the path of the leading foe toward Ghazaran and the other casters, but he paid for it as the creature smashed into him.  The Razhuri was a tough fighter, but the golem outweighed him by a factor of ten, and he was flung roughly back, bouncing hard on the floor and rolling to a stop a good fifteen feet away.  Dazed by the force of the collision, he nevertheless had kept his grip on his sword, and he immediately started to come to his feet.  The golem that had hit him kept on coming, flanked by another to each side.  But before they could reach the rest of the group black tendrils erupted from the floor, twining around the legs of the stone warriors.  At once the temperature plummeted.  Navev’s chilling tentacles only partially hindered the golems, their mass and strength allowing them to tear free of their clinging grasp.  But even a few seconds’ delay gave the companions time to fall back to the vault door.  “Duke Aerim!” Ghazaran yelled.  The Duke was continuing to give ground, but now three golems were pressing him, crowding in on each other as they delivered strike after strike.  Somehow, Aerim had kept both his footing and his position, subtly adjusting his path of retreat so that the golems could not surround and overwhelm him.  He had delivered a second hit on the one he’d first engaged, and deep cracks covered its body, but the golem paid no heed to the damage.  The lead golem on the other side of the platform pushed through the last of the chilling tentacles on the edge of Navev’s invocation, and moved forward to intercept the Duke.  Another had made its way around Aerim, moving along the wall, and it lunged forward at the closest target, which happened to be Navev.  Jasek, a few steps closer to the door, saw it coming and shouted a warning, but the undead warlock merely turned and impassively watched the two thousand pounds of stone death rushing toward it.  The thief hesitated only an instant, then turned and darted toward the mouth of the passage, the round opening gleaming with the ring of bright mithral set into the surrounding stone.  The Seer was already trying to pull the heavy door shut, but he was either waiting for the rest of them, or having difficulty swinging it on its massive recessed hinges.There was a massive noise as the golem charging Navev reached his target, and brought its massive fists down.  The mummy had made no move to evade, but in the last instant there had been a black flash of energy, and the golem’s strike passed harmlessly through the warlock, striking the floor with enough force to open a long crack in the ancient stone.  The floor was of the same odd stone as the rest of the complex, and almost at once the damage began to repair itself, the jagged opening slowly knitting back together.  The golem leaned precipitously forward, passing through the image left behind by the warlock’s dimensional shift, but it quickly recovered, resuming its charge forward. They had almost all won back to the doorway, all save Aerim, who now found his route to the escape blocked by the golem that had escaped the chilling tentacles.  He did not have time for hesitation; several golems were on his heels, and it was not clear how even he could withstand their combined assault. Ghazaran looked at Ozmad, who had watched the entire battle with dispassionate observation, falling back to the doorway as though he were on a feastday stroll.  “We need him,” the cleric said. The elf waved a hand, and a black slick formed upon the ground directly in front of the golem advancing to block Aerim.  The stone warrior’s foot slid out from under it, and it plummeted forward, directly toward Aerim.  The Duke, seeing two thousand pounds of stone come crushing down toward him, leapt forward, diving under the falling golem.  He landed on the edge of Ozmad’s grease effect and slid forward, his heavy armor scraping on the smooth floor.  He was up even before his momentum had fully eased.  The golems pursuing were only a step behind him, barely delayed by having to hurdle or bypass their fallen companion.  But the door, persuaded by the combined efforts of the Seer, Jasek, and Parzad, was swinging shut, and as Aerim surged forward, turning his body to slide through the narrowing gap, it slid back into its threshold like a cork being thrust into a bottle.  Falah reached for the heavy wheel that would reseal it. But before he could work the mechanism, the door shuddered, and creaked back open a few inches.  Falah pulled at the wheel, but he may as well have been trying to stop an avalanche. The door groaned alarmingly on its hinges as it swung open another half-foot.  Several sets of stone fingers were visible around the edges.  “Oh, we’re screwed,” Jasek said, to nobody in particular.</blockquote>

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