NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 447178" data-attributes="member: 143">I don't know if I should admit this, but the "torment Delem" posts are pretty fun to write <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> .  I especially enjoyed giving him the chance to take down Benzan (well, the tiefling has long had it coming, I guess).  We'll see Delem once more at the end of the book, which isn't that far off now.  * * * * * Book VI, Part 31“Uhhh...”Cal stirred, drifting slowly back into consciousness.  His head felt thick, full of cobwebs, like that time his brother Dolender had beaten him silly in an altercation involving a certain young woman of their mutual acquaintance.  The memory was enough to drag him fully back into wakefulness, and he struggled to lift himself into a sitting position.  “Cal, are you okay?” The voice was right there, and hands were helping him slowly up.  It was dark, pitch black, but he recognized the voice and the familiar presence beside him.“Benzan?  What happened?  Where are we?”There was a long pause, and a heavy silence.  When the voice finally responded, it was heavy with a weight that Cal had not often heard in his friend.  As he spoke, though, Cal felt the same weight descend upon him like that net had back in the ambush chamber. “I managed to get us out of there, using my ring.  My sword is gone—one of the hobgoblins has it.  You were out cold—I found the dart in your neck, and a twin to it stuck in my armor, luckily it didn’t penetrate.  They killed Fenrus; I don’t know what happened to Valor.”“And Pel?”“He was alive last I saw him, trapped in a force-bubble of some sort.  There was nothing I could do, there were too many of them left to fight, especially without my weapon.”Cal nodded, knowing that Benzan would be able to see the gesture even in the darkness.  “Where are we?”“I’m not sure.  I ducked into a blind corridor we hadn’t explored yet.  I tried to make my way back to the tunnels we’d covered, but to be honest I’m not sure where we are.  I found a side-passage that led to this room; I’ve wedged the door shut but I doubt it’ll hold against a determined intruder.”Cal felt at his belt for his sword, but it wasn’t there. “Here,” Benzan said, sliding something across the floor.  It was a bundle of their gear, all that hadn’t been lost in the ambush.  Cal felt around for his sword, drawing the weapon enough so that its pale light shone out into the room. “Careful.  Those doors aren’t sealed, and the light might shine out into the corridor.”Cal nodded, and left just enough of the blade bare so that he could make out the outlines of their prison.  The chamber was small, cramped in comparison to the great halls they had traveled earlier, the walls and floor of plain, unadorned stone.  “We’re in quite a fix, aren’t we?” Benzan said.  Now that he could see his friend’s face, Cal realized that Benzan looked truly beaten, wearing an expression that he’d never seen on the tiefling’s face.  Benzan had always been cynical, wry to the point where you wanted to strangle him, but it chilled him to see that look of despair on the young man’s features.  “We’re alive.  We have most of our gear, and our wits.  We’ll get out of this.”Benzan looked down at the floor.  “I abandoned your cousin,” he said.  Cal stood—a difficult task, given the sluggishness he still felt—and clasped his friend on the shoulder.  “You did what you could.  They were too well prepared, and skilled; if you’d remained, we’d all be killed or captured.  At least now we’re still free.  I heard that wizard shout that they wanted us alive; they may have Pel, but we can still get him back.”“How, exactly?  My sword is gone.  You’ve cast most of your spells already, and I doubt that those guys are going to give us the leisure to recover them.  Even in the short time you’ve been out I think I’ve heard people moving around, search parties looking for us.  This place isn’t that big... they’ll find us, sooner rather than later.”Cal simply bent and started gathering up his gear.  He did a quick inventory of the stuff there; he’d lost his crossbow and his bedroll, but everything else seemed to be there, including the all-important pouches containing his magical components and the items of power that Alera had given him.   “Are you hurt?” he asked.“I drank a healing potion earlier.  My last one, by the way.”“I’ve still got three, if it comes to that.  I don’t seem to be that hurt, though—just that poisoned dart, I guess.”  He checked his gear, then rose and crossed the small room toward the door.  Before turning back toward Benzan.  “Coming?”Reluctantly, the tiefling rose.  “I wish Lok was here,” he said.Suddenly there was a puff of smoke, startling the both of them.  It cleared after just a moment to reveal, lying there on the hard stone in a simple wool tunic...“Lok!”The genasi stirred, and raised himself on one elbow as he looked up at them, shaking his head to clear the sleep from his eyes.  “Cal, Benzan?  What are you doing here?”</blockquote>

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