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: 848970" data-attributes="member: 143">Book VIII, Part 22“What are wasting time for here, anyway?  We should be looking for him...”Benzan’s eyes darted throughout the cavern as he spoke, and he kept rubbing his arms, as if plagued by a persistent itch.  His bow was clutched tightly in one fist, and his other kept drifting toward the hilt of his sword.  His old sword—the other, the planar sword, jutted up from above his left shoulder, angled for easy access.  “The Oracle said that we had to stay here, to defend the gateway,” Dana replied.  “Otherwise the demons might be able to break through into our world...”The cavern wasn’t especially large, perhaps thirty paces or so across.  The ceiling was almost half-again as high, its uneven ceiling lost in shadow even with the combined illumination cast by Dana’s torch and Cal’s light spell.  That light was augmented by the glow that continued to pour from the still-open portal, a shimmering radiance confined with a flat plane bordered by another freestanding archway.  Through that haze, they could almost make out the outlines of forms beyond, distant shadows now more than a world away.  They had only been here a few minutes, but already it seemed as though hours has passed.  The air was hot and close, wisps of steam rising up in places from cracks in the floor, the breaths they drew in acrid and stinging.  Cal and Benzan were protected from the heat, Cal by his amulet and Benzan by his natural heritage, and Dana had quickly moved to add some measure of divine protection to herself and Lok.  The companions stood on a broad stone shelf just a few paces out from the portal.  There were numerous cracks and crevices around the perimeter of the room, some large enough to possibly shelter an exit, but for the moment, none of the four moved farther from the still-open lifeline that continued to shimmer invitingly just behind them.  “So we just stand here then—”Benzan was cut off by a sudden clatter that drew their attention to the side.  It was huge, a fat, hairy form that had slid down from a crack running up the wall that apparently concealed a chute from somewhere above.  As the four companions watched in horror the creature slowly and awkwardly rose to its feet, as if shaken.  Standing easily eight feet in height, its body bulged with muscle under dense, greasy gray fur.  Its feet were cloven, its arms thick limbs that ended in jagged claws.  Its face... its face was a thing from a nightmare, a demonic visage flanked by bronze ram’s horns.  Its eyes blazed as it looked at them, with some alien emotion flaring deep within those red orbs.  It was a nalfeshnee, one of the Greater Demons of the Abyss.</blockquote>

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