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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1463023" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #263] Dazed and Confused[/PLAIN]"Hmphhh," Karak grumbled as he watched Feln, Morier, Ledare and Vade slam into one another as they all vied for position on the narrow path leading out of the clearing. Ledare and Morier went down on a tangle of limbs, but Vade ducked low between their legs and Feln easily vaulted over them. After a moment, they were gone, swallowed up by the trees.Ixin groaned and started to get to her feet, but Karak thumped to her side and put his hand on her shoulder, urging her to the ground."Hold up, 'ere an' let me look at those bites," the dwarf growled. "Are they still bleedin on ya?"Ixin looked over Ledare's handiwork with makeshift bandages and shook her head. "I think it's stopped," she told Karak and after a few moments spent examining them, he nodded his agreement."I say... Ixin, your name is, eh lassie? Where do you be thinkin' the others run off to, eh?" he asked once he'd gotten to his feet. He planted his axe haft on the ground between his furry boots and rested his arms across the broad blade. The ornate runes and filigree etched into the steel axe seemed to glow in the dying light of Orin's Shield."A Fear spell would be my guess," the sorcerer told him as she stood up."Well now is not that a fine welcome to this ere spot?" the dwarf mused as his steely gray eyes scanned the gathering darkness for any sign of threat."The effects shouldn't last too long. And my hope would be that when it does wears off, everyone would gather back at the last place we were all together," Ixin went on. She dusted herself off and gestured expansively to the crumbling ruins. "That would be here. What say you, Karak?""I say we wait 'ere a spell while you an' I get a look see at our surroundings," he told her, hefting his waraxe in one hand. "Then we go off and fetch the others.""Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Ixin asked. "Won't they return here once the spell-""Th' others might slow down once they be outside the sphere o' the spell, aye," the dwarf concurred, but his attention was on their surroundings, not on Ixin. "But if'n they encounter trouble out there in the woods? Then that, lassie, be another story. If'n ye get my meanin'."She did."Now that you bring it up, let's not wait here too long as I am worried about the spell getting us too," the mage said as she too looked around nervously. "At previous portals, we've always been safe once we got away from the immediate area.""Hmm," Karak said noncommittally as he looked around."What about heading off in the direction they ran and getting to a high place so we can see better?" Ixin asked as she unfurled her cloak and released Martivir from his pocket. The owl hooted its appreciation, drawing a wary look from Karak."Don't be gettin' ahead o' yerself," the dwarf grumbled. "Let's be checkin' out this 'ere ruin first. Then if'n they're not back by the time we finish, then we 'ead out after 'em.""Agreed," Ixin said as she lifted her familiar above her head, releasing the owl into the twilight. "I'll have Martivir recon the area and find everyone while you and I search here.""Avoid lookin' at the faces o' the statues as ye search. I think they be the cause o' the other's fright," Karak muttered as he headed for the altar in the back of the crumbling shrine. He could tell at a glance that no dwarven stonemason had laid chisel on the altar. It was a simple thing built of fitted stone and carved extensively at one time. Now however, the weather had eroded most of the carvings and caused some of the stone blocks to begin separating from one another. Here and there he could make out a leaf or an acorn carved into a block, but most of the details had been lost to time."Let's find out if you're right about these statues," Ixin said as she wove her hands through the simple gestures of a Detect Magic spell. Even as the drakeling's eyes began to glow with the dweomer's power, the eyes of the statue to the altar's right flared with a light of their own. Ixin felt the effects of a spell wash over her, but she seemed to shrug off the effects. In its wake, however, the enchantment left a hot, boiling rage in the mage's belly."Those statues!" she thought. "Those statues were the cause of  so much ill for her and her friends! They had to be stopped from further spreading their cruel mischief!" She reached into the folds of her cloak, drew forth her morningstar and charged at the stone lizard.Karak had just spotted the hidden panel in the back of the altar when Ixin's first blow rang loudly against the lizard's stone snout. The dwarf looked up with a start to see the mage draw back for another swing. She was holding the morningstar above her head with both hands and her face was a snarl of anger."Lassie!" Karak cried out. "Are ye daft? What are ye-?""YOU!" Ixin bellowed. "This is all YOUR fault!" She swung the morningstar at with all of her might, but Karak was behind the altar and the weapon never even came close to striking him. Angry that she'd missed, Ixin darted around the statue on the left, coming for the dwarf. "I'll KILL YOU!!" she roared in frustration as she came."You're mad!" Karak shouted back as he swung his axe at her, easily knocking the morningstar from Ixin's grasp. Unperturbed by the loss of the weapon she slashed at Karak with her claws, but they glanced ineffectually off his plate armor. The dwarf hefted his axe again hesitantly, uncertain of the sorcerer's motives, but ready to strike if he had to. Ixin turned away from him, however, covering her face with both hands and muttering incoherently about lizards and dwarves and some conspiracy betwixt the two.Karak kicked her morningstar off to the side, well out of her reach should she turn on him again. It was unnecessary, however. She crouched down against the shrine's wall, curled herself into a ball and cried about the injustice of lizards and dwarves working together to bring about her downfall. The dwarf approached her hesitantly, his waraxe readied to strike her if she made any sudden moves."Lassie, I think ye may have been ensorcelled," he said and she looked up at him with mad, tear-filled eyes and leapt to her feet. Or she tried to, at least. The butt end of Karak's axe found her forehead about mid-way through her leap, sending her quite handily into unconsciousness."I don't like it here," Vade whined and gripped Ledare's shield hand tightly as they trudged along back along the path. "This place gives me the heebee jeebees.""I think you are safe with us, Vade," Morier said from up ahead. To the halfling's straining eyes, the albino looked like a pale ghost in the near-darkness. The length of his silvered greatsword glimmered in the first hints of starlight."We should be back to the portal in a few minutes," the Janissary said in a soothing voice. "Everything will be alright.""That's easy for you to say. You can see!" Vade quipped. "Can't I light this sunrod?" The halfling waved the tiny rod that Ledare had given him as a reassurance."Bad idea," Morier hissed in the darkness. "We'll be spotted easily if there are enemies about.""Enemies?" Vade trembled and Ledare squeezed his little hand."Save the sunrod for if you really need it," she said. "Otherwise, trust Morier and I to lead the way."Vade sighed. "I wish Feln were here," he whispered under his breath.The three companions marched back along the trail toward the ruined shrine, the portal, and - they hoped - Ixin and Karak. It grew darker as they picked their way through the trees, and the noises of the forest (which normally held no fear for Morier) began to take on a sinister sound as they went."I don't like it here," Vade repeated and Morier started to speak when something dove from the sky above and slashed him across the cheek. It was gone again with a fluttering of wings before anyone could be sure of anything but that it was a bird of some kind."What was that?" Vade cried."Was that a bird?" Ledare said at the same time."What in the nine hells?" Morier grimaced, touching the bloody scratch on his cheek."There!" Ledare shouted, pointing with Ravager at a shape that swooped down again at Morier. None had seen her draw the weapon; it was just suddenly in her hand.Morier instinctively mouthed the words to a spell and gestured at the bird, hurling sparks of electricity at his assailant. The bird let out a hoot of pain, but continued to dive straight for the eldritch warrior's face. It scratched him again and disappeared up into the branches overhead."What's going on?!" Vade shouted, preparing to strike the sunrod."It's a bird," Morier cursed, touching the painful scratch to his opposite cheek."An owl, I think," Ledare added as she scanned the foliage overhead. "But I don't see it anymore.""Perhaps my Electric Jolt scared it off," the albino guessed and Ledare sheathed her sword."Perhaps," she said. "But let's keep moving just the same.""Maybe we could move a little faster?" Vade urged.The owl attack was an aberration on their journey. It didn't show itself again, and nothing else assailed them. Still, they warily approached the ruins containing the portal and found Karak waiting for them. The dwarf was chewing on a piece of mutton jerky and keeping a close watch on the bound and trussed Ixin."Ye lot aren't much for sneakin' about are ye?" the dwarf grunted as the trio crept out of the forest. "A deaf man could've heard ye comin' from half-a-league away.""What's goin on?" Ledare asked, ignoring Karak's comments. She nodded at Ixin."There was another spell," the mage groaned. "Confusion, I think. But it made me... do things.""She attacked me!" the dwarf spat. "For no good reason I can fathom.""It was the statue, I'm telling you," the mage retorted but Karak just harrumphed."Whate'er the case," he told Ledare. "I decided to wait until you lot showed up before I let her loose. I wouldn't want to have to kill her if she attacked me again.""I'm sure that's very comforting to her," Morier said sarcastically."Ixin are you in control of your faculties?" Ledare asked and the drakeling nodded vigorously. "Then let her up."Karak shrugged and did as he was asked. "Oh, and I found a tunnel back behind the altar," he told them as he worked the knots. "There was this locked panel what needed a wee bit o' coaxin' to get open, but it leads to a nice little tunnel that heads off into them hills over there." He pointed to the wooded hills rising up behind the shrine's rear wall, opposite the only path leading out of the ruins."So that's north," Ledare said after doing a little mental calculation."Actually, I think it's east," Morier countered and they began to debate which direction was north until Karak finally grunted, "Oi! What ever happened to your half-orc, anyways? Did ya lose him in the woods?""There's only one path in or out," Ledare said. "He'll find his way back here."But after an hour's wait, he still hadn't returned...He must have gotten turned around. That's what Feln kept trying to convince himself of. The path he was on had to be the same path that he had run down. Paths didn't just disappear, after all. In his ensorcelled state, he must have gotten turned around on the path so that it had seemed like the trees had moved around behind him. That was the only explanation.He had climbed one of the immense trees to get a better look around, but from above, one patch of forest looked very much like another and he could see no sign of his companions. He did spot some hills to the north, what looked like a small lake or large pond to the south and another larger body of water just visible in the distance to the southeast. But other than that, it was just trees for as far as he could see in the gloom of evening.So he took the only path available to him and tried to convince himself that it led back the way he'd come although he was quite certain that it didn't. He trotted along until he saw the path dip down toward the edge of the lake or pond he had seen from his earlier vantage point. It was fully night by then and the glimmer of the Handmaiden Moon was reflected in the waves ahead. It was then that he knew he'd gone wrong.But by then of course, it was too late.Something brushed against his face as he walked toward the water - something sticky that clung to him tenaciously. He tried to back away, but it was no good. He was stuck in the gossamer threads of an enormous web that was draped across the path, probably to catch creatures coming here to drink. He struggled for a moment and then heard the low, slurping chuckle from the branches above."Yessss," it hissed wetly. "Orc-flesssh. Much tassstier than sstringie old goblinssss."There was movement in the dark canopy and then Feln saw it. A grotesque cross between a man and a spider was moving along the upper edge of web. Its arms and legs were long and emaciated-looking compared to the swollen, fleshy lump that was its body. Its head was a size too small, and shaped like a spider's with glittering black eyes and twin mandibles that dripped venom."Tassssty!" It hissed again as it tested the edge of its webbing. "Tasssty morsssel for my larder."</blockquote>

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