Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 2575894" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #319a] You Sly Dog! You Got me Monologing[/PLAIN]"Karak, give me that movement ring for a spell," Feln hissed quickly, casting a wary glance at the door. "I'll give it back after this battle." He extended his hand waiting for the dwarf to throw the ring. Karak was having none of it, however."Nay, lad," he replied with a shake of his head. "I'll just be holdin' on to that for a bit. how else am I supposed to stand in the Grease and smite my foes?"Feln gritted his teeth in frustration and a rumbling growl built momentarily in his chest. "Fine!" he snapped after a moment. "Ten paces back down the hall. I will let them pass and then we will crush them between us." He was in motion at once, opening a nearby door and slipping into the empty bedroom. As he went, he spoke to Lela. "Sprite? Can you handle this... captive?" he asked, casting a disparaging glance in Ledare's direction. "Make him a non-threat or I will." Lela nodded and leapt into the air, pulling out a pinch of Dust of Greater Slumber.She sprinkled it on the man and he returned at once to the dreamland from which he'd been awakened by the VQS' raid. Morier quickly hoisted him up by his arms and dragged him into another empty bedroom."Hilde, I want you in there guarding that man. If he comes to, extract what information you can," Ledare said to her and Hildegunna shook her blonde head."I think not," she began. "My abilities-""I wasn't asking," Ledare replied, her gaze steely. For a heartbeat, she and Hildegunna stared one another down, but in the end, the priestess  acquiesced and darted into the room that Morier was just exiting. She spared the Janissary a contemptuous look before closing the door."It seems our captive has brought more prisoners," Karak muttered as he, Ledare and Morier formed a fighting wedge in the hallway. "Let's dispatch them quickly and find the priestess. May my axe blade strike true!""Consider that these men do not know what we have done, Karak. If they choose to speak, we should give them the opportunity," Ledare remarked even as she slipped into a defensive posture. "This night need not lead to further slaughter." She said that last a bit louder for the invisible Huzair's benefit, but if he took the hint, he gave no sign of it.Morier gave Ledara a nod as he raised his greatsword. "I will follow your lead," he said."Aye," Karak nodded. "I'll await yer decision to strike as well."Ledare mouthed a quick prayer to Flor that they had not made a gruesome mistake. And then the door thudded as something heavy struck the other side. There was much grunting and cursing from beyond and then the door opened out into a grand hallway of some sort that was lit by lamps set into the walls. There was no time to see more before the doorway was crowded with men and women. The first one in line snarled at the intruders and charged forward... or rather he started to.His foot contacted the Grease and he went down heavily on his back. Hands reached out and pulled him back to safety. And for a moment, there was an awkward staring match as the two groups regarded one another across the glistening stretch of hallway. It was the Janissary who made the first move toward breaking the stalemate."We seek the half-elf, Shamalin," Ledare said, conspicuously displaying the holy symbol of Flor she wore around her neck. The reaction of the men in the first rank was less than positive."Never heard of her, b*tch!" one sneered, spitting a gobbet of phlegm into the Grease."She one o' them village women?" a second asked."Yeah! We ate most of them!" a female voice shouted from the rear, prompting laughter from crowd. The phlegm-spitter raised his bastard sword and leveled it at Ledare across the patch of Grease."We got ya out-numbered an' out-muscled," he told her confidently. "Now drop your sword.""Shamlin is a priestess of Flor," Ledare said, staring at the man's face, ignoring his sword. "She came here with a group calling themselves the Speckled Band." The phlegm-spitter looked at her as if she'd suddenly sprouted a second head."Maybe you didn't hear me, b*tch," he spat. "I said drop your ferking sword! Now!!""Enough!" a voice commanded from behind the wall of flesh and steel and a change fell at once over the unruly mob. With fearful glances and down-turned eyes, they parted and a man pushed his way to the fore. The warriors shrank away from his touch. It was not Heurist, although there were obvious similarities between this man and the priest of Aphyx that Ledare had been expecting. Like Heurist he was dressed in a tattered brown robe with a cassock of mossy green and a stole the color of an infected scab. And like Heurist, his face was a disaster of boils and running sores. But a many-pointed arrow had been branded into this man's forehead. And he carried a corroded heavy mace in one hand, appearing hale despite the obvious outward signs of disease. He looked at Ledare and Karak and Morier with obvious contempt."You and your little band have caused us quite a bit of trouble, Florian," he told her and Huzair recognized the man's voice as being the one he'd heard speak to him with the Ring of Communication. "Killing Sir Brin was a serious blow to the Order of Defilers. All to find a lost priestess?""Yes," Ledare said, wrinkling her nose in disgust - the man exuded a stench of decay and corruption. "Where is Shamalin?""She was given to Blackheart," the priest said simply. His scabbrous lips split into a gap-toothed smile. "And so she is dead. As will you be in but a few moments. You see, our master has arrived." He was looking passed the group then, at the far end of the corridor and despite herself, Ledare felt compelled to turn and look as well.She immediately wished she hadn't.Standing in the room by which they had entered the mansion stood a great shadowy thing. It wore black full plate that sagged awkwardly on its skeletonized body. Two points of azure flame burned in the black sockets of its helmetted skull. A tattered black cape trailed behind it like a reluctant shadow. In one hand it carried a black mace of enormous size whose head was rendered in the shape of a spike-crowned skull. The armored skeleton stood between them and the way out."Death..," it rasped. "Death to Her enemies..."</blockquote>

Verification