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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 2868452" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #341] The Cave of Death[/PLAIN]It took them a few startled seconds of staring at the blank wall to realize what had happened. Ayremac looked at the smooth surface in disbelief. "Do we follow him?" he asked.Huzair pushed passed him muttering, "Of course we follow him... I still want to win this damned argument." He walked straight toward the wall, touched it, and then he was gone. Karak grunted."Well, I'll not let the elf an' the dark one beat me to it," the dwarf grumbled. He gestured toward Ayremac and Shamalin as he shouldered past. "Especially not after the two o' you took all the fun out o' everythin' outside."He paused only to lift his mighty waraxe, gripping the thick haft with both hands. "Oh, an' I'll take the sprite with me, too." Lela had already landed daintily on the dwarf's shoulder. She anchored herself to the coil of his plait with her tiny fists as he added, "She's a might good in a battle. Ha!" So saying, he heaved his weapon at the wall and they both promptly disappeared. Lela's spotted cat let out an immediate and lusty yowl of fear and darted forward toward the spot where the sprite had vanished. It too promptly was gone."What about the horses? We can't leave them!" Shamalin called out anxiously. But the others were gone and there was only Ayremac left to hear her. He glanced back toward the opening of the cave. "I do need some things from my horse," he admitted."-door," Morier finished as he suddenly found himself standing in a small, square room some 20 ft on a side. Some everburning torches set into decorative iron sconces along the walls shed a ruddy light, lending the place a hellish luster. An arched doorway led out of the room in the far left corner.Pantherish, the albino glanced around for any sign of danger, sword drawn and ready to strike at the least provocation. But nothing lurched at him from the abyssal darkness and so he crept, cat-footed toward the arched doorway. Peering through it, he could see a grand hallway running off to the left and right  as well as another archway directly across from his own. The whole was lit as was the entry room, by sanguine torches set into thorny sconces at regular intervals along the walls - torches whose radiance seemed to fill the very air with blood.He could no longer feel the pull as he once could; the sensation was diffuse now, more like a generalized pressure than a definite urge to go in one direction or another. Even so, the sensation that he was close to his goal galvanized him. He drew a hand across his damp forehead.He was sweating, he realized, for it was warm here, especially after the frigid Pellham day he'd just left, and the stench of the grave pressed insistently against his senses. He strained his ears but could hear nought save the thudding of his own heart.Silent as a shadow, Morier darted across the wide hall and flattened himself against the far wall. He peered furtively through the archway there, his darkvision easily revealing the room's contents. It was filled with weapons set into racks lining the walls. He withdrew his head and glanced up at the everburning torch set beside the archway, deciding quickly to secure it just to have one on hand in case it should prove useful.As he slipped the brand free, the thorny iron sconce seemed almost to writhe and he narrowly avoided ripping his fingers on the needle-like projections. Breathing heavily, he thrust the ruddy torch into the armory. Slim swords with blades that flashed like quicksilver, shields of wrought iron with deep crimson garnets splashed across them like blood, and narrow-bladed knives with hilts of beasts' skulls and talons wrought in silver were arrayed around the room, but all of that captured his attention for but a moment before he beheld the thing in the center of the place. Set on a pedestal about ten feet from the door hulked a massive suit of articulated armor, its helm shaped like a ram's skull, and its feet-coverings worked like split hooves. From its fingers extended long, razor-sharp knives.Still standing in the doorway, Morier noted that the design was similar to the armor that Shamalin now sported although it was heavier-looking even than hers and the plates interlocked cunningly. In all Morier decided it was not something he wanted to see animate suddenly so he turned away from the room without entering and headed up the hall.He hadn't taken more than a few steps when a sharp hissing made him whirl toward the source: the archway through which he'd accessed the hall. The torch fell from his hands, clattering loudly against the fitted stone floor as the eldritch warrior brought Ravager to bear. Its wicked, saw-toothed blade came within a foot of biting through Huzair's neck before Morier arrested his swing, panting with adrenaline."What?" the mage said with a mock expression of hurt on his face. "Aren't you happy to see me?"Wordlessly, Shamalin and Ayremac hustled out as quickly as they could and scrambled back up the steep incline to where they had tethered the mounts. The horses were skittish from the stench of death that was rising from the corpses arrayed on the gully floor - snorting and stammering upon seeing the two armored figures approaching. Shamalin hummed soothing sounds to them as she snatched up some of their belongings - rope, her healing kit, a few provisions- shoving as much as she could into a traveling sack. Clicking her tongue softly, she loosened the horses' tethers.Ayremac, too, gathered what supplies he could carry. Then, reluctantly, he slapped the reigns affectionately on Dreyawulf's hindquarters. "May peace attend you," he whispered to her in Celestial as the mare ambled off in the direction of the other horses. He stared after her and then turned, sensing Shamalin's presence at his side. A foreboding sense of urgency hung between them as they trudged quickly back toward the cave, laden with their bundles.The cleric and the holy warrior stepped through the wall and out into the square room that was already crowded with the other members of The Order."We're stuck in here, you know?" Huzair said to no one in particular. "The portal... or whatever it is... doesn't work from this side."</blockquote>

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