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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 3870506" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #413] Following the Pull[/PLAIN]Keeping her hand on the final working rune so that they could all see into the dungeon beyond, Ixin asked, "Well Morier, Do you feel anything?" He shook his head."I don't feel anything except a strong desire to get out of here," the albino told her with a dismissive waive of his hand. "And even if I did feel something, it makes no sense to put ourselves purposefully in jeopardy. So let's be off." Ayremac sighed, looking critically at the eldritch warrior."I have never been a fan of being stone walled, Morier, but it must mean that you feel very strongly about it," he observed and Morier threw his arms into the air."Halleluiah!" he said sarcastically. "At last, somebody's listening to me." He headed for the outer chamber and Ixin withdrew her hand from the runestone, allowing the portal to fill once more with opaque green vapor."Then let us make a good start on the day and go where your head tells us to go," the drakeling suggested. "Does anyone have any objections?""I must admit, that since I have taken up the sword, so to speak, I have enjoyed the thrill of going into the darkness," Ayremac admitted with a glance at the dormant portal. He sounded a trifle disappointed as he added, "But this is probably not the right time." Karak harrumphed."It seems to me that these portals be used by the enemy," he said, tugging thoughtfully at his beard. "The whole time I be thinkin' we just nae usin' 'em right, but now that I think on it, they be guarded by the enemy forces. Ya know? All sorts of transmogrified beasts.""One more reason not to jump around blindly," Shamalin told him and Huzair nodded his agreement."As much fun as we could have here," the mage added. "I think we should follow Whitey's pull.""Hold on a moment," Ayremac interejected, gesturing to the room around them. "This might be a bit extreme, but what if I stayed behind with Sparky to watch this tower? If a small band comes through, I could attempt to dispatch them, or possibly dupe them into believing I am on their side. If they are more powerful, I can escape on my wings." Ixin shook her head"I don't like the idea of splitting up," she countered. "Bad things have happened to our predecessors when they chose to do that.""But If I keep the Ring of Communication I should be able to stay in contact with you and Sparky can lead me back to you.""There's no way that I'm leaving Sparky behind." Huzair snapped."Ayremac, it is my hope that by venturing into this tunnel and possibly by walling up the portal, we have appeased your desire to thwart the evils that are evidenced here," Shamalin said diplomatically, her well-chosen words reinforced by her magical Circlet of Persuasion. "And that now, with one purpose, we can all agree to climb out and follow the pull in Morier's head.""Maybe Shamalin is right," Ixin considered. "Maybe we need to wall up this portal and any others we find as we go.""Stoneblade could do that, right?" Huzair asked Morier. "It would slow them up and kind of say, 'Screw you! We know where you are hiding'. It may slow their spread a little bit too."  The albino eyed the group from the other room and then stepped back into the portal chamber, his hand on Stoneblade's sheathe."I could do that," Morier said. "If you all can agree to leave at once after I do." There were several nods of agreement, but Karak just scratched at his beard and scowled."I think that us shuttin' 'em down be a good idea. On t'a other hand what if'n there be a short cut through there?" He continued scratching and eyed Morier thoughtfully. The eldritch warrior began to get an uncomfortable feeling as, Karak's muscles began to bulge and ripple unconsicously as if he were laboring at moving boulders. He took a step toward Morier. The dwarf continued to speak, but his voice was low, as if he were speaking to himself and no one else."It might work," he muttered. "We could just poke 'is 'ead through and I betcha we would know right quick if'n there be a short cut through there. Of course, the white elf won't go through voluntarily. I probably could muscle 'im through, but may need some help. Those wiry fighters can be quite lithe when the want to be. 'Course he nae be a dwarf 'cause when a dwarf do nae want to be moved then he nae be moved. But then again, I don't want to hurt Morier just see if his head can tell us which way is shorter.""Hmmmm... we're not doing that," Shamalin said flatly."I do not like the idea of just looking through," Huzair agreed. "There has been a guard at most of the places these portals lead". Karak harrumphed and stepped up to Morier."Say, White One, I be thinkin' why'n you just poke your head through the portel there and see if'n that way be quicker?" Karak said, putting a companionable arm around Morier's shoulders. "I mean it could save use days of travel. An' I do think that Chaos does have the jump on us a bit, don' ye?" The eldritch warrior looked at him skeptically and Karak added, "I'll put my head through too.""It's a tool of evil and I think destroying it is the best thing we can do," Morier countered, peeling Karak's arm off him and drawing Stoneblade. "If we understood its use I would have no reservations about using it against them... but we really just don't know enough.""THE SCION OF STONE AWAKES!" the sword thundered, its inhuman voice neatly deafening in the small area. "WHAT ENEMY MUST I SMITE?!""We need a wall," Morier said, reversing his grip and burying the sword point-first in the floor in front of the portal. There came a grating noise and a barrier of unworked stone rose up to the ceiling blocking the portal entirely.Without another word, the eldritch warrior yanked Stoneblade free and resheathed the sword before stalking toward the outer room and the shaft leading up. Karak harrumphed and touched the new Wall of Stone."I guess the elf be good for something," he snorted. "That be a good stone wall in short order. That should hold 'em back or be a surprise at the least when someone goes to step through. Ha... BAM! inta a wall.""Let's go," Shamalin said. "I don't relish the thought of someone closing the trapdoor above and us getting trapped down here.""Obviously we'll need to be particularly sharp from now on as we are likely to be followed," Ixin observed. She tapped Huzair on the arm and asked, "What is it you like to say, 'stay buffed'?" The wizard chuckled."See if you can't talk that sense into Morier," he said as they filed toward the exit.Lagging a bit behind, Karak eyed the sealed portal and patted the head of his waraxe. "Now do nae you aworry, Shelia," he whispered lovingly to the weapon. "Ye'll get to bite yer frosty edge inta something soon, I promise."They made quick work of their campsite and as they set off eastward again, Anania paused to remove one of the eyes from the necklace she wore beneath her antovar. She whispered something to the eye stalk and tossed it into the air. It began at once to drift westward toward the trees on the far side of the gorge. Karak watched it go and then grinned at the scout."Yo, archer. Next time you be sending back one of yer eye stalk message thingie's, tell old Many Eye to send us back another Invisibility Ring," he chuckled. "He'll get a kick outta that, heh heh heh." Anania eyed him appraisingly and pulled her scarf back up over her mouth and nose."I doubt that," she said, taking her position in the vanguard. "But he will know, just the same. Whatever I see and hear the monitor eyes see and hear."Starday, the 20th - Earthday, the 25th of Fireseek, 1270 AETravel became no easier for the Order once they had left the forest and begun marching eastward across the tundra. The treeless plain made it easy enough to keep a steady heading, but the number of lakes, streams and bogs necessitated frequent and lengthy detours. And camping on the heath amidst sedge and rushes made the windy nights frigid and inhospitable. Anania did her best to keep the group comfortable and well-fed, but it was a difficult prospect in such a brutal environment. Still, they pressed on, drawing closer by degree to the Risilvar Escarpment and the Altan Tepe mountains beyond.On the night of the 25th, with both Great Celune and her Handmaiden, Merruna grown full in the sky the enemy came.Morier and Shamalin were on second watch, huddled around a meager campfire on the shore of another nameless lake. A number of large boulders served them as a windbreak, but it offered poor comfort on such a clear night when the stars twinkled like ice amidst the black vastness of Merikka's vault.To Morier, it was uncomfortably akin to the frozen hell of the Air Walk, but Shamalin knew nothing of such things and was instead reminded of many a night campaigning with the Speckled Band. Thoughts of Amaury filled her mind such that when Morier shouted alarm, for a long moment, she couldn't understand what was happening."We're being Scried!" he shouted over the wind, pointing at something in the air above the camp. She couldn't see what he was seeing, but a heartbeat later, a tearing sound - like sailcloth being rent asunder by a hurricane's winds - filled her senses and something seemed to pour out of the air some twenty feet above the campsite. It dropped to the ground like a torrent of liquid obsidian, taking as it struck the earth an undulant ophidian form. An unholy stench filled the air at the thing's arrival, but Shamalin had no time to waste worrying about the odor for the light of two full moons outlined clearly the creature as it gathered itself to attack. The quicklsilver thing slithered forward with an unbelievable speed and celerity of motion, opening as it came a toothless mouth of horrifying capacity.</blockquote>

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