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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 275171" data-attributes="member: 143">Boy, I just hit a flurry of writing activity this week, so it's another "post-a-day" extravaganza.  Enjoy!* * * * * Book V, Part 22 Still under the effects of Dana’s fly spell, Benzan lifted over the heads of the surprised duergar warding the base of the stairs down from the battlements, skimming along the ceiling toward the heavy metal doors at the end of the hall.  The two guards spun to follow him, but a moment later Lok, still hasted, crashed down the final bend of the staircase and slammed into the pair of them in a jumble of clashing armor and cutting blades.  Both fell back into the more open space of the hall, one clutching a deep, frost-frozen gash in his shoulder.  Another pair of dwarves stood in front of the door, just a short distance from a large brass gong that dangled from the wall.  Both dwarves held crossbows, which they aimed and fired at Benzan as he zoomed up the hallway toward the sealed portals.  The tiefling dodged the first shot, but felt pain erupt in his side as the second punched through the links of his armor and stabbed into his flesh.  The burning sensation that spread outward from the point of impact served as sufficient warning that the bolt was poisoned, but Benzan gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the pain as he dove down to engage the two dwarves, his blade held before him like a lance.  Lok, meanwhile, traded blows with his two foes, who found themselves hard pressed despite being able to flank the genasi fighter.  Lok struck the one he had injured again, but missed with a follow-up stroke that would likely have finished the duergar.  He shrugged off a hit from the one behind him, a glancing blow that stung even through the layered protection of his magical platemail.  Of greater concern was the sound of booted feet coming up the corridor, accompanied by the familiar clink of metal armor.  Reinforcements were on the way, it seemed.  Benzan, meanwhile, was finding himself hard pressed.  His first thrust scored against its adversary, the sharp edge drawing a shallow but bloody cut along the side of the dwarf’s head.  He remained hovering about six feet off the ground, making it difficult for the dwarves to reach him easily, but as he prepared for another attack the two duergar dropped their crossbows and began to… grow. Benzan had seen the enlarge power of the duergar before, but it was still disconcerting to see the pair of them suddenly sprout up, expanding outward until they were taller than the tiefling and twice as broad.  One lunged up and grabbed Benzan by the ankle, absorbing a stab from Benzan’s sword as he tried to drag the tiefling down into a grapple.  The other took advantage of the distraction to slip his dirk into Benzan’s other leg, dragging a line of red out along the silvery mithral links of his armor.  Dana, meanwhile, charged down the narrow staircase that connected the battlements above with the hallway behind the doors below.  Her continual flame was tucked into her belt—the magical fire cast no heat and did not set things on fire—and cast long shadows along the smooth stone walls as she ran, spear thrust before her in case any foes suddenly presented themselves.  The sounds of battle ahead grew more insistent as she hurried after her magically speeded companions, and then the stair turned once more upon its length and she could see the open space and its battle raging below.  She saw Lok and Benzan, each engaged with a pair of duergar, but more significantly her light caught on the metal-clad forms of another half-dozen duergar reinforcements, hurrying to join in the battle.  So to slow them down a bit, she cast daylight onto the tip of her spear.  The duergar cried out as the brilliant radiance of the light banished the darkness of the wide hall, tearing into their sensitive eyes.  Their discipline kept them from breaking, but the illumination clearly hindered them as they came forward, shielding their eyes from the light with raised arms.  The distraction also aided Lok, who took advantage of his adversaries’ distress to finish the already wounded dwarf with a punishing blow to the head and immediately spinning into a follow-up that crushed mightily into the side of the second.  The crippled dwarf fell back, toward his onrushing companions, and Lok moved to meet the charge with cold resolution burning in his eyes.  Benzan, meanwhile, drew back, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the enlarged dwarf still clutching onto his leg.  When that didn’t work, he tried his sword instead, thrusting it down into the dwarf’s shoulder.  The duergar cried out in pain but refused to loosen his grip.  “All right then, we’ll do it the hard way,” Benzan cursed, twisting away from the dwarf’s dagger-thrusting companion and lifting his sword to thrust again.Behind the dwarves, the metal doors thrummed with a mighty impact, although the dwarf-forged steel easily withstood the force of the attack.  The complex triple-bolting mechanism on the inside of the doors looked like it was designed to withstand a battering ram, and certainly the efforts of even a determined group of quaggoth warriors.The quaggoths had arrived, but for the moment it looked as though they would have to remain on the other side of the portals.  Lok met the onrushing duergar phalanx with a charge of his own, taking the first dwarven chop on his shield and responding with an overhead swing that crushed the dwarf’s helmet hard against his skull.  The dwarf staggered back, blood jetting from the wound, although the steel cap had spared his life.  Almost immediately two dwarves came at Lok from either side, flanking him as their weapons tore into his defenses, seeking gaps.  There weren’t many of those to be found, but a pair of hits did tell, tearing shallow gashes in his sides as he struggled to hold against the full force of the duergar rush.  Behind the melee, the dwarf that Lok had injured earlier paused to find and drink a healing potion, while the last dwarf summoned up the power of an enlarge spell.  Then both of them vanished.Dana saw that Lok’s motions, while still effective, had slowed down to their usual pace, indicating that Cal’s haste spell had run its course.  Similarly, she felt the strength of her divine power start to wane, although the endurance she had cast earlier remained potent.  She saw the two dwarves behind the melee turn invisible, but was more concerned with the five that had surrounded Lok and were tearing into him from every direction.  Without hesitation she thrust forward with her spear, tearing into the back of one of Lok’s attackers.  The duergar staggered forward in pain, leaving an opening that Lok exploited with another powerful stroke.  The dwarf cried out and went down, clutching at the wide gash in its chest.  The heavy metal doors pounded again and again, although they barely seemed to give with each furious impact.  The two dwarves battling Benzan redoubled their efforts with each blow, knowing that if they failed to hold here that enemies would be released into their lair.  The dwarf holding Benzan loosened his grip and brought up his axe in a two-handed overhand stroke, slamming into Benzan’s stomach.  His mail absorbed the force of the blow, but even so it was clear from his expression that the tiefling felt the power of the attack.  The other dwarf lunged again at Benzan’s leg, having drawn a sword that replaced his earlier dagger.  Before he could strike, however, he twisted suddenly to reveal a long quarrel stuck into the small of his back.  Apparently Cal had discovered that the arrow slits in the doors could be used both ways.  Benzan let out a feral cry and thrust forward with his sword as he swooped low, driving the magical bronze blade into the first dwarf’s throat.  The metal links of the dwarf’s armor parted before the strength of the blow, and the dwarf fell back in a heap, its axe falling from its suddenly powerless fingers.  The other dwarf tried to fight through its pain and prosecute its attack against the tiefling, but Benzan spun and met its charge with the tip of its blade.  The dwarf went down, clutching at its ruined eye as it writhed in agony.  Benzan was at the doors in an instant, even as the pounding from without continued.  It took his experienced eye just a few moments to figure out how to operate the complex locking mechanism, and then he pulled the bolts back and tugged at the heavy doors.  The doors burst open as a wave of quaggoths burst into the hallway.  Benzan was just able to dodge back from the suddenly opening doors, but was caught up in the charge and was tossed hard up against the wall by a raging quaggoth.  Gasping for breath, he managed to bring his sword up in a defensive position as the quaggoth loomed over him, teeth bared.“HEY!  The fight’s over there!” the tiefling yelled angrily.  “Taktak!” Cal’s voice came out over the bedlam, but even as the gnome shouted the warning the quaggoth leader was there, angrily grabbing the quaggoth warrior and hurling him bodily down the corridor.  Then they were past, and Cal was there, a look of concern on his face. “Ben, are you all right?”“I’m fine,” the tiefling muttered, but he did look a sight with the multiple injuries that he’d suffered.  “Help the others!”But the fight, already winding down at that point, came to a quick end with the arrival of the quaggoths.  Of the five enemies that had ringed Lok, three were down and one was hurt bad when the quaggoth warriors tore into the two survivors.  The two that had turned invisible had apparently gone for more help, for there had been no sign of them since they vanished and a quick cantrip by Cal confirmed that there were no stray magical auras in the area.  As Dana turned her healing talents toward helping Benzan, Lok and a pair of the quaggoths checked the hallway to make sure that no more duergar warriors were immediately forthcoming.  None of them had any illusions that the news of their coming had not been spread throughout the complex by now, but the place seemed strangely quiet, carrying that same subdued feeling that they’d sensed in the outer areas before.  They could not afford to dally now, however, and give the duergar time to adapt. Taktak came over to where Cal, Dana, and Benzan were standing together near the doors.  Benzan looked a little better with Dana’s treatment of his injuries, but his eyes narrowed as the quaggoth approached.  The deep bear barked something, a short phrase, then turned and walked back to where his companions were looting the corpses of the slain duergar. “He said that when the taste of blood touches them, his people often… I guess the nearest translation would be to say they ‘lose it.’”  The tiefling wiped a spatter of blood—not his own, this time—off of his cheek, and glanced over at the cluster of deep bears.  “Yeah, well, just keep them away from me.  Something tells me that we’re going to have more than our share of blood around us before this is finished.”Dana and Cal exchanged a look, but neither said anything as they hefted their weapons and followed the quaggoths deeper into the dwarven complex.</blockquote>

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