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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1355102" data-attributes="member: 1210">The DebacleBlaesing has been waiting patiently for quite some time.  He has almost infinite patience.  They’ll come back- they have to.  There’s no other way out.  And when they do, he’ll follow them and wait for the right moment.  He’ll let his dread mistress know everything- and when she judges the moment right, the attack will come. He waits, squatting on his heels.  He waits.  His sword is naked across his knees, smeared with lampblack to keep it from reflecting any lights the fools might have with them, ready to spring into his hand and lash out, slicing through arteries and organs, letting a delicious feast out of their bodies for him.  He’s perched above a pit in the entry to the true Tomb of Horrors.  It is from this pit, according to Academician Drake, that they will emerge.  Drake... he’s another that owes them.  Depleted, surviving only because of his clone, Drake is awesome in his anger.  The things he’s trying to raise... well.  The skull itself is a fabulous gift to his research, but... Blaesing does not move.  He does not frown.  But he does not approve of Drake’s current turn, possibly because Mistress Ferranifer doesn’t either.He glances down the hall, at the Great Green Face, the sign of the Devourer, and does not move.  He does not smile.  But inwardly, he is dancing at the thought of forcing one or another of the interlopers through it and into oblivion.  Especially that damned hunter of the dead, thinks the vampire bleakly.  He is the biggest threat, not the solar.  We can return from destruction at the solar’s hands, but not his.  He must perish.Thoughts of blood and faltering heartbeats entertain him as he waits.  If he was giving to expressions of pleasure, Blaesing would shudder.  But he does not move, not a tremble, not an inch, not a breath, not a whisper.  The undead keep watch well.Time passes...Then, at last: a voice, coming through the crawlspace.  If Blaesing had a heartbeat, it would quicken.  He squats in plain sight, just beside the pit.  He does not move.Grunting.  The sour scent of the dragon disciple.  And... behind him...?Nothing.  Blaesing does not smile.The vampire can hear Rex scraping his way out of the pit, just above the poisoned spikes; and he can hear as Rex digs his claws into the wall of the pit above the illusionary wall that hides the crawlway.  He’s climbing up.  Alone.  And he smells of blood and fear... he’s wounded.A hand reaches over the top of the pit, and a moment later a draconian head.  Then, wings flexing, the dragon disciple pulls himself over the edge and out of the pit.  He looks warily around.  He spots the misty arch and the Great Green Face and his face splits in a lizard grin.Blaesing stands up next to him, hiding in plain sight, and smiles at last.Rex turns and bellows back at the pit, “IT LEADS BACK TO THE HALL WITH THE FACE IN IT!  I THINK THIS IS OUR WAY OUT!”  He pulls a rope from his pack as Blaesing sidles up behind him.***“I’LL SECURE A ROPE!” the dragon disciple yells.Rex is about to turn around to find something to secure the rope to when something hits him from behind.  A blade suddenly stabs brutally into his shoulder, breaking it into five pieces in a single vicious blow, smashing him face down on the ground, his head lolling forward into the pit for an instant*.  Before he has a chance to react, the blade strikes again, stabbing him in the back of the neck, and he screams out a terrible hoarse cry.  Can’t even see him! Rex cries to himself.  He’s on his belly with his adversary behind and above him and surely about to strike the final, fatal blow.**  He does the only thing he can- he throws himself, bodily, head first, into the pit full of poisoned spikes. Using his unbroken arm to try desperately to slow his fall, Rex beats his wings, hoping to use them to brace against the walls.  Behind him he hears a low chuckle.Skitter, skitter as he scrapes down the walls, his shoulder screaming red-hot agony as he lands with his legs splayed wide to avoid the spikes.  Then he scrambles as quickly as his wounds allow into the crawlway.  “Trouble!” he screams, fear pounding in his temples.Behind him, from the mist, Blaesing congeals, takes careful aim, and fires an arrow into the crawlway at the fleeing Rex.  It flies true and deadly, directly into the draconian form’s anus.  Rex howls, momentarily transfixed by the arrow, but he knows he has to fight his way through the pain and keep moving or he’s dead.In his haste, he doesn’t notice the sly mist stream past him.Scrambling out of the crawlway, he’s shaking and scared.  “We better retreat,” he cries, trying to extract the arrow.  He lets out a thin scream as he pulls it out and drops it, trembling, on the ground.  He starts towards the crawlway that leads back to the room of circles.Thrush is a blur.His sword slashes through Ulla with vicious precision, dealing such terrific damage that she doesn’t even have time to shift into a different form before he slam her through the chest with his blade, striking her down with a fluid motion that carries over into an attack on Patyn.“Thrush!” Rex cries.  “It must be the vampires!” Patyn swears, bringing his blade forth, trying to parry Thrush’s unrelenting attack.Then Blaesing springs from the shadows from which he dominated Thrush, and in a single deadly moment slashes Patyn’s head nearly off at the mouth.  The hunter of the dead collapses in a spray of hot blood and his lower jaw goes explodes.  Teeth and tongue fly everywhere. Blaesing turns with a smoldering smile to Rex.  Thrush starts advancing towards him.“Drop your weapons and surrender,” Blaesing says sweetly, “or die.  Now.”Rex holds up his hands.  “Hey, look,” he cries, “I don’t want to fight you guys.  You guys have proven that you’re powerful... I want to learn from you!  I want to...”“Shut up.  Pick his body up.”  Blaesing gestures at Patyn.Rex hesitates.  Thrush takes a threatening step towards him.  The dragon disciple scoops up Patyn’s body.“I will go through the hole first,” Blaesing sneers.  “You will follow, and the warrior will follow you.  Do not try anything stupid.  And haul him with you.”  With that, the triumphant vampire turns into mist and flows through the crawlway.Rex has no choice but to follow.He groans as he scrambles through the crawlway with Patyn’s body.  It’s quite a burden.  Fearfully, he follows Blaesing to the Great Green Face. “Look at it,” Blaesing hisses to the dragon disciple.  Thrush’s face is impassive, his sword still bared and bloody.  “That face.  You say you want to learn about us?  Look there!  Look, and see the beginnings of our teachings!”Rex glances at the face, then turns to face Blaesing.  Things are feeling desperate about now, that’s for sure.  “That’s great,” he says.  “Maybe I can talk to your masters at the Academy.  I’m sure I have-“Blaesing gestures to Thrush, and the big fighter starts to move forward.“Wait a minute!” Rex exclaims, taking a frantic step back, Patyn held in his arms.*****And he steps right back into the mouth and vanishes.*Crit!  Sneak Attack!  Death Attack!  Ouch!**I believe, at this point, that Rex was suddenly at about ¼ his hit points.***Another crit!  Oh, and guess what?  There’s no dex bonus when you’re wriggling through a crawlspace!  Sneak Attack!  Ouch again!  I do believe Rex was down to 13 hp at this point.****This reduced her to -18.  Fortunately, she has the feat Cling to Life, a custom feat in my game that lets you survive to a negative hp total equal to your level plus your con.*****His exact words were, “I take a 5’ step back.” Next Time: Crikey!  Things look bad for our heroes!</blockquote>

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