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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 3194152" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #366a] The Test of Earth, part II[/PLAIN]They were getting overrun, Morier thought grimly to himself. And this was only the first of four tests of strength they'd need to complete in order to get the keys they needed. Gritting his teeth, he hefted Ravager and continued forward. Ayremac glanced up from within the melee, catching the eldritch warrior's eye."Morier, take a moment to heal," he suggested before turning his attention fully to the creatures before him. It was too little too late, however. One of the things unleashed a full attack on him and although he turned aside its snapping jaws with a sweep of his shield, two sets of claws found gaps in his armor and tore mercilessly at his flesh. The Holy Warrior staggered, on the verge of collapse.Beside him Karak weathered a similar assault without injury, but he could plainly see the state that Ayremac was in."Oi, these beasties are like dwarven steam tanks," he grumbled. "The wee one never stood a chance, Shaharizod bless her. We need to peel off the bridge an regroup. Follow me." And saying thus he stepped off the edge and began levitating downward.Grimacing in pain, Ayremac lurched to the edge and dove after him leaving their three opponents with no one to attack. Alone on the bridge, Morier watched the three creatures sink down into the stone and a pit of anxiety settled into his gut. He stumbled across the uneven surface of the bridge and dove off the edge.Above, on the ceiling of the chamber, Shamalin paused, seeing that the others were heading back down to the bottom. Using her hands, she'd maneuvered herself over the center of the bridge and now she reversed directions and began heading slowly for the edge. She couldn't see Huzair, but she could hear him casting spells nearby."Huzair, the others are retreating," she called without bothering to look around for the invisible mage."Go one without me," the wizard hissed from somewhere nearby. "I've got a plan.""Huzair..." Shamalin paused, a note of worry creeping into her voice. She half-turned, but of course she could see no sign of her companion."Go on!" the wizard hissed. "I will not hesitate to retreat if things get at all rough."The cleric sighed and began to levitate downward.Huzair had not wasted his time while the others dealt with the bizarre earth creatures. He'd started by casting Detect Magic, using the power of the spell to study the diffuse light that was radiating from the center of the bridge. Using the additional input he'd narrowed his search to the small recess that Lela had spotted earlier. But he couldn't see inside from his current position...Still invisible, he reached into the large pouch at his hip and drew Sparky forth. The wizard knew that his familiar shared his own ability to Detect Magic so long as Huzair continued to concentrate on it, was both small enough and agile enough to examine the small recess, and was easily as smart as the dwarf. Smiling, he released the bird and Sparky tumbled in the air for a moment until he righted himself and then he flickered up to hover in front of Huzair's inverted face."Go down and check out the source of all that magic," the wizard instructed. "We're looking for-""The elemental earth key," Sparky finished, his tone snarky. "Yeah. I know. Sheesh! Did you think I wasn't paying attention all this time?" Huzair smirked."Pinpoint it and-" he started, but again Sparky cut him off."You'll have your Unseen Servant pick it up," the bird twittered. "I'm right there with you, boss." He started to dart away, but Huzair called him back."And stay safe, little buddy," he reminded. The bird winked once before fluttering away."Always do, boss," he said as he dropped down toward the bridge.On the way down, Ayremac's Sacred Healing continued to work its curative magic on their wounds. The Holy Warrior used his Cure Light Wounds wand to further heal himself as he descended and by the time he landed, he'd brought himself back to full health."Does anyone else need any healing?" he asked, holding up the wand, but both Morier and Karak were nearly cured of all their injuries and both shook their heads. Above them, Shamalin descended slowly. As they watched her drift down, Karak began to go over battle plans."Phew, those earth elementals be tough. I think we are gonna need a plan here," he grumbled, drawing a gauntleted fist across his sweating brow. He looked up at the bridge far overhead. "Me thinks Lela should fly up and spread that confusion dust o' hers. Meanwhile we need to be buffed up before combat. And let's try some ways to focus our energies on that bridge. Maybe if'n me take 'er down the elementals will nae get up.""Uh, Karak," Ayremac interrupted. When the dwarf turned, the holy warrior pointed at the broken tangle of limbs that had been Lela. Karak's face fell as he was reminded of the sprite's fate."Oh, aye," he muttered into his beard. "Let's jus' move back a bit, establish a watch order and get some rest so's we can get the spellcasters up to speed."Shamalin landed a moment later and she bent at once to Lela's body. Spot yowled threateningly at the cleric, its hackles raised, but it did not attack her as she carefully straightened the faen's corpse into a more dignified position. "It is not for me to comprehend what the gods do and do not allow. Perhaps Lela was beyond our mortal ability to heal and Flor, in her infinite wisdom, sped her release," she said as she worked on the sprite's corpse. When that was done, she looked up at the others before continuing,  "Or maybe it was simply a careless mistake. We so carefully agreed not to divide when the question of our loyalty was put to the test. We cannot afford to split up again. It was foolish of us to let her go ahead."She stood then and looked at Morier. "We will end up paying the price of these keys with our lives," she told him, her tone not angry or accusatory, but it was grimly resigned."I found it, boss," Sparky twittered and Huzair grinned. "At least I think so. It's not a key, but it is sending off a lot of magic.""What does it look like?" the wizard asked, concerned that perhaps this wasn't the key after all and his cunning stratagem would fail. "Just a rock, really. It's got carvings all over it, though," Sparky told him. "And there's a lot of other stuff too. Diamonds, a knife, some jewelry. Some of that stuff is magical too.""Right," the wizard nodded. "Go back down and I'll send the Servant to collect things.""I did good, right, boss?" the hummingbird asked and Huzair smiled."You did good, little buddy," the mage told him as he began to cast."Invisus apparitor!" he commanded and the air shimmered in front of him as the Servant coalesced Unseen from the ether. Huzair pointed to the bridge below. "Go and gather the items that the bird indicates. Bring them to me."The Servant dropped downward without hesitation."Shamalin, we all knew-" Morier started to say, but he stopped as an earthen maw opened beside the cleric, snapping down on her left leg at the knee. She cried out in pain as the teeth pierced her flesh and blood began to flow.Without hesitation Ayremac stepped forward and swung his morningstar at the thing, but the glowing weapon merely slid off the creature's stoney hide.Karak took a step and drove his waraxe into the thing twice, opening the same bloodless gashes that he'd inflicted on one of the others. In fact that same wounded thing rose up at that moment seeking the dwarf's armored torso, but its jaws closed on empty air.Morier took a moment to cast true strike while a third of the things came up and sank its fangs into Ayremac, undoing in one strike most of the healing that the holy warrior had applied to himself.Shamalin's eyes went wide as a fourth creature - one that they had as yet not seen - rose up from the earth behind her and snapped its maw shut around her right leg. Her grieve kept her from losing the limb, but the wound was never the less a critical one and her face showed shock before her eyes rolled up in her head and she pitched forward with a clatter."Shamalin!" Ayremac cried, activating his Sacred Healing again in the hopes of keeping her from bleeding to death at his feet. One of the things turned on him and tried in vain to pierce his armor.Karak sank two more solid blows into the creature he'd already wounded. The damage was clearly adding up, but not as quickly as the dwarf reckoned it should. "We need our weapons aligned!" he cursed. "They're shrugging off our attacks!" His curse became a cry of pain as one of the things reached up and clamped its jaws down on his left arm as if trying to swallow his buckler and the arm it was attached to.Morier stepped forward and brought Ravager down in a massive downward stroke that drove the blade half a foot into the nearest of the monstrosities. It let out a pain-filled cry and twitched as the eldritch warrior drew out the saw-toothed blade. A torrent of sandy soil poured from the rent in its body, but it did not fall. Instead it turned and lashed out at him angrily. He managed to avoid its jaws, but its claws lashed him unrepentantly, slicing through his magical leather armor like it was paper.Ayremac stepped toward the eldritch warrior, ignoring the attacks that rained down on his back as he went. "Of all the gods, you Umba, have the true sight that lets you tell right from wrong, justice from injustice, good from evil...I ask that you grant your protection to my ally and keep him from harm!!" Ayremac cried out as he moved. Laying a hand on Morier's shoulder, he imbued him with a ward to Protect him from Evil.Karak traded blows with two of the things, but none of the combatants managed to land a telling blow on their opponent.Morier attempted to cast another True Strike, but couldn't maintain his concentration while trying to avoid the blows of the monster in front of him. The air flickered as he lost the spell, but there was no other obvious effect. He cursed; he could only cast that spell twice more before his reserves were spent. As he mused over this, the creature that stood between himself and Ayremac bit into his arm and slashed once at his chest.The one on the holy warrior's far side bit into his weapon arm, almost causing him to drop his morningstar. He heard something crunch inside his armor, but he maintained his grip both on his weapon and on consciousness. The latter was a near thing, however. He staggered backward, withdrawing from the combat even as he withdrew his wand from its hiding place.Karak saw the holy warrior pulling back, blood staining his green plate mail a sick brownish black and he understood that they were surely done for. With Shamalin down, there was little hope of keeping the warriors on their feet long enough to slay these things. He roared once in anger and slammed the blade of his waraxe against the body of the thing he'd been fighting so intently. A sizable chunk of its armor sloughed off, but in all it was like trying to fight a boulder with teeth!Morier took a step back and tried again to cast True Strike and this time he succeeded. "Now", he thought as he watched the nearest creature approach, "If I can just live long enough to make use of the magic." He avoided the clamping jaws, and one of the claws, but the other two scored his flesh again, bringing him inexorably closer to death.One of the creatures broke off to follow Ayremac. The holy warrior was able to fend off its attack with his shield, but if was clear that he wasn't going to get the peace he'd need to use his wand."Flor have mercy," Shamalin groaned as Ayremac's Sacred Healing finally brought her back to consciousness. She rolled awkwardly to the side, bringing her shield up between herself and the nearest of the things long enough to invoke a Sanctuary spell that she hoped would give her time to heal herself and anyone else who needed it. The creature turned and went to slash her but then at the last minute it paused, unable to resist her protective ward.Ayremac stepped back again and used his wand, closing some of his wounds, but leaving many, many others open and bleeding.Karak saw that Shamalin was awake and he drove his axe into the thing that was menacing her. The blade severed one of its spindly arms and split the thing nearly in half. The dwarf's mighty blow cleaved then into the body of the other creature that was attacking him. The follow-up blow sank deep, but failed to drop the thing entirely. Still, it looked very near to falling."So ye foul things can die after all, eh?" Karak growled, a dark light shining in his eyes as he devoted his full attention to the last beast within reach.On the other side of the crater, Ravager hungrily split another of the things. Raw earth exploded from the wound and it seemed almost to deflate as it collapsed in a pile at the albino's feet.As Ayremac defended himself against the only unwounded monster, Shamalin scrambled awkwardly to her feet and channelled a Cure Moderate Wounds spell into herself.Karak's blade dropped his opponent and he eyed the one menacing Ayremac. Morier moved forward and cast his last True Strike. Ayremac kept on the defensive, stepping away to use his wand until Morier was close enough to hit it. Ravager opened a horrible wound in its side and a moment later, Karak's axe did the same, but it was a pair of Magic Missiles that finally made the thing drop.Everyone turned to see Huzair slowly descending from above. He blew across his outstretched fingertip and grinned. As he neared the ground, the runes around the perimeter of the crater lit up and pulsed in time to the glowing thing that the mage clutched in his other hand."Anybody want to get out of here?" he asked as his feet touched down outside the circle.</blockquote>

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