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Watch For Falling Meteors [4E KotS] Updated Weekdays!
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<blockquote data-quote="Xorn" data-source="post: 4432784" data-attributes="member: 61231"><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Anyone still reading? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px">===============</span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Omar gave one last glance back up to the scorched stone doors that were still open at the top of the ancient staircase they had descended. Judging by the coloration and technique used to cut the stones beneath his boots, more than a millennium had passed since this place was built. The light spilling in from the guard room above them was like a tiny sun, though the light was obliterated by the oppressive darkness before reaching even the halfway point of the incline. A sea of blackness, shadows wholly too dark to be natural, encroached around the glowing light from the clawed spearhead atop Vrax’s staff. The radius of light seemed to flux and waver, as though it were pushing against something solid.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Thisnae natural.” Omar whispered at the inky, suffocating darkness before him. Barely able to make out the floor five feet in front of him, he waved his hammer ahead, half expected to strike something.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“No, it’s not,” agreed Vrax.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“I thought that light was brighter,” complained Percy, carefully watching their goblin captive, his dagger leveled at Splugg’s lower back.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“It is,” answered the wizard, “but the shadows are… fighting back.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">The procession in front of the robed dragonborn halted abruptly, as they all looked back in shock. “You heard me. We’re nearing a rift in the plane of Shadows; what did you expect, sunflowers?”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">With no valid argument to offer, they turned and looked around again. Omar had brought them to a halt when they reached a branch in the corridor. The dark passageway bore various symbols and runes on the walls, as well as motifs dedicated to various gods, though most of them tied to Bahamut in some way. The passage continued to the west, but a second, identical ten-foot wide hallway presented an option northward. Even as Vrax prodded is glowing implement ahead, they couldn’t see more than ten paces, and both halls were identical.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Can you sense the right direction yet?” asked Daichot.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“No. It’s too strong to feel like that now. There is a throbbing of corrupt energy throughout this place. It’s everywhere. Stronger than up above, so we’re going the right way, but I don’t know if it’s straight or right.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“West or north,” interjected the dwarf.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Whatever.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Firs’ way ye get lost innae deep is thinkin’ lef’ an’ right.” Omar scolded. “Git yeself turned around too easy.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Percy leaned close to Splugg, “Looks like you’re on, Splugg.” His voice dripped with an uncharacteristic menace, drawing glances from the others. “North,” he whispered vehemently and pointed his dagger towards the hall for effect, “or West?”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Splugg was shaking visibly, and had been since coming down the stairs, getting nervous before they had even reached the doors above. His eyes were darting back and forth quickly, and he contemplated both choices. Daichot was wearing his aggravation plainly on his brow, and the goblin tried to appease the obvious impatience.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Splugg once straight. Right maybe.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“What!?” demanded the tielfling.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Percy growled something at the goblin in his own tongue, to which Splugg squeaked back a meek reply, at even in a language this didn’t understand, sounded unconvincing. Percy stared at the goblin wickedly till Splugg dropped his gaze to the floor, then explained.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“He says he’s only been down here one time, a long time ago. He says he doesn’t remember which way to go from here, but eventually, we’re looking for a set of stairs that are northwest.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Does he know what this place is? What’s down here?”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Percy translated and the goblin shook his head as he answered, so Percy had little left to translate. “Evil things, but that’s just what the boss goblin told him.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Let’s just kill him and find our own way then.” Daichot pulled a dagger from a sheath on his belt.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Straight! Splugg remember!” the goblin rasped and pointed to the west.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Omar shrugged as the tielfling replaced his blade, and Percy prodded their captive towards the west. After twenty paces, the passage north had vanished into the gloom, and a new opening to the south beckoned, an entrance to a larger chamber just beyond the clinging darkness. Omar put a finger to his lips, ordering the goblin to silently answer, and pointed south.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Splugg quickly shook his head and pointed west, and they moved past the opening. The passage turned sharply to the north, then back to the west, leaving them ten steps northward from where they were, and still heading west. Omar stopped quickly, his metal plated boots screeching loudly as his step faltered and Daichot bumped into him.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Ach! Stop! Stop!” he snapped in a hoarse whisper.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Right at the edge of the light, only a few steps from Omar, a sinister looking rune, nearly ten feet across, spanned the floor, and the designed seemed to devour any light that reached it, looking like a gouge in the floor, rather than the embossed design it was.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Vrax, I think this is your territory,” suggested the warlord.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“What is it?” demanded Percy, as the wizard examined the giant shadow rune on the floor. Splugg gurgled and squeaked a response, which Percy didn’t seem impressed with as he whispered to Daichot.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Says it wasn’t here last time. I think he’s lying, but I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t know what it is, or if he’s trying to trick us.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Daichot glared at the goblin prisoner, but his face was calm as he suggested, “Let’s make him cross it, see if it’s bad.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Omar frowned at the idea, but Vrax replied first. “It’s bad. I can’t tell what it does, but if anything touches the rune, it will trigger dark magic.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“All the more reason to test it with this… thing.” Daichot grabbed the green-skinned runt by the back of his vest.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Percy listened to Splugg frantically babbling to him in a mix of Goblin and Common, before stalling the tiefling’s arm with a touch. “Hold on, now he’s saying that he thinks we should have turned right at the stairs.” The halfling sighed with exasperation, “You know what, chuck him on there, he’s starting to tick me off.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Wait!” yelled Omar, but the goblin was already airborne, thudding onto the shadowy rune with a painful thud. The goblin scurried off of the run as fast as he could, shuffling on his knees to grovel before the halfling.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“We make deal! Splugg good goblin!” His squeals echoed loudly away from them, careening off the ornately carved stonework and carrying for several seconds before the darkness swallowed up the noise again.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Splugg was trembling, but quiet now, as Percy’s dagger was pressed up to the flesh of his throat; a faint red line outlined the edge of the blade, glistening in the light of the mage’s staff.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Shut. Up.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Wait a minute!” exclaimed Omar harshly, barely managing to keep his voice a whisper. “I hate a goblin as much as any of ye—but this one ne’er harmed us, nor is’e armed. We’re better’n that.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Maybe <em>you</em> are,” whispered Percy.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“If’n it’s a trap, ‘en we smash is skull’in. But this is wrong.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Daichot held up his hand to the dwarf, acknowledging him, but not committing his stance to an answer. “Why didn’t anything happen?” The rune remained, a pattern of inky shadow still embossed on the stone, even in the light they carried.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Honestly, I don’t know,” admitted Vrax. “I’m not familiar with the whole rune, only some components. That,” he pointed to a jagged arc on the bottom of the symbol, “is a trigger. And that,” he pointed to an intersection of three of the lines, “is corruption. I don’t know what the rest is—but perhaps the magic has been spent, and this is only a remnant. I have an idea though.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Go on,” said Daichot.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“I can use a spell to touch it. It’s more or less an extension of my will, so it’s a part of me. I might be able to trigger it safely.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Why don’ we jus’ jump over it?” asked Omar.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“That could work—or it might not. From my studies of Arcana, this rune is still active—but I could be wrong.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Daichot nodded, “Doesn’t really matter. You’re our authority on magic. If you think it’s the best plan, we do the best plan.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Actually, I thought the best plan was throwing the goblin on the rune.” Omar noticed a flicker of mischief in the wizard’s eyes. “However, that test failed, this seems like the best plan, yes. Light a sunrod.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Daichot extracted the short wooden rod from his pack, tipped with a thick crystal containing two viscous liquids inside. When mixed, they would shed an incredibly bright light for several hours. A creation somewhere in a muddled area between mundane and magical, the sunrod was very expensive, but worth the cost when bright light was needed. “Why am I lighting this?”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“In case the triggered effect is greater than me,” Vrax said flatly, long ago accepting that the life of an arcanist was fraught with moments of life and death.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">Daichot held his friend’s gaze for a moment, and then struck the rod into the wall, breaking the thin barrier between the globs of goo inside the crystal. As they mixed slowly, a glow began to reach out from the crystal, first a deep red, then a warm orange, and finally a brilliant yellow-white fount of radiance. The light seemed to press into the shadows, which retreated away from the sunrod, and the tunnels seemed to grow away from them mysteriously. The bend in the tunnel was just behind them, and the south opening was visible.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Did anyone else hear the shadows <em>hiss</em> at us?” asked the halfling.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Nonsense,” rebuked Omar. “’At was just the sunrod.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Right,” said the halfling sarcastically, “the <em>light</em> was being real noisy.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“As opposed to the shadows?” Daichot added.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Usually,” conceded the rogue, “I’d say you have a point—but at the moment I think I’m right.” Percy was looking back the way they had come from. “I thought we had traveled farther than this.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“It’s common,” Omar explained, “for surface-folk to lose their sense of direction and distance underground. You’ll get used to it.”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“I don’t want to get used to <em>this.</em>”</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: white">“Prepare.” That was all Vrax said as he closed his eyes briefly, and a tracing wisp in the air, vaguely resembling a hand, sprang forward from his outstretched palm, and floated directly over the rune. It hovered in the air for a brief second, then descended to the floor and touched the rune. Daichot’s armor creaked as he tensed.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond'"><span style="color: white">***************</span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xorn, post: 4432784, member: 61231"] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Anyone still reading? :D[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3]===============[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Omar gave one last glance back up to the scorched stone doors that were still open at the top of the ancient staircase they had descended. Judging by the coloration and technique used to cut the stones beneath his boots, more than a millennium had passed since this place was built. The light spilling in from the guard room above them was like a tiny sun, though the light was obliterated by the oppressive darkness before reaching even the halfway point of the incline. A sea of blackness, shadows wholly too dark to be natural, encroached around the glowing light from the clawed spearhead atop Vrax’s staff. The radius of light seemed to flux and waver, as though it were pushing against something solid.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Thisnae natural.” Omar whispered at the inky, suffocating darkness before him. Barely able to make out the floor five feet in front of him, he waved his hammer ahead, half expected to strike something.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“No, it’s not,” agreed Vrax.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“I thought that light was brighter,” complained Percy, carefully watching their goblin captive, his dagger leveled at Splugg’s lower back.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“It is,” answered the wizard, “but the shadows are… fighting back.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]The procession in front of the robed dragonborn halted abruptly, as they all looked back in shock. “You heard me. We’re nearing a rift in the plane of Shadows; what did you expect, sunflowers?”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]With no valid argument to offer, they turned and looked around again. Omar had brought them to a halt when they reached a branch in the corridor. The dark passageway bore various symbols and runes on the walls, as well as motifs dedicated to various gods, though most of them tied to Bahamut in some way. The passage continued to the west, but a second, identical ten-foot wide hallway presented an option northward. Even as Vrax prodded is glowing implement ahead, they couldn’t see more than ten paces, and both halls were identical.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Can you sense the right direction yet?” asked Daichot.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“No. It’s too strong to feel like that now. There is a throbbing of corrupt energy throughout this place. It’s everywhere. Stronger than up above, so we’re going the right way, but I don’t know if it’s straight or right.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“West or north,” interjected the dwarf.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Whatever.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Firs’ way ye get lost innae deep is thinkin’ lef’ an’ right.” Omar scolded. “Git yeself turned around too easy.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Percy leaned close to Splugg, “Looks like you’re on, Splugg.” His voice dripped with an uncharacteristic menace, drawing glances from the others. “North,” he whispered vehemently and pointed his dagger towards the hall for effect, “or West?”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Splugg was shaking visibly, and had been since coming down the stairs, getting nervous before they had even reached the doors above. His eyes were darting back and forth quickly, and he contemplated both choices. Daichot was wearing his aggravation plainly on his brow, and the goblin tried to appease the obvious impatience.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Splugg once straight. Right maybe.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“What!?” demanded the tielfling.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Percy growled something at the goblin in his own tongue, to which Splugg squeaked back a meek reply, at even in a language this didn’t understand, sounded unconvincing. Percy stared at the goblin wickedly till Splugg dropped his gaze to the floor, then explained.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“He says he’s only been down here one time, a long time ago. He says he doesn’t remember which way to go from here, but eventually, we’re looking for a set of stairs that are northwest.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Does he know what this place is? What’s down here?”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Percy translated and the goblin shook his head as he answered, so Percy had little left to translate. “Evil things, but that’s just what the boss goblin told him.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Let’s just kill him and find our own way then.” Daichot pulled a dagger from a sheath on his belt.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Straight! Splugg remember!” the goblin rasped and pointed to the west.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Omar shrugged as the tielfling replaced his blade, and Percy prodded their captive towards the west. After twenty paces, the passage north had vanished into the gloom, and a new opening to the south beckoned, an entrance to a larger chamber just beyond the clinging darkness. Omar put a finger to his lips, ordering the goblin to silently answer, and pointed south.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Splugg quickly shook his head and pointed west, and they moved past the opening. The passage turned sharply to the north, then back to the west, leaving them ten steps northward from where they were, and still heading west. Omar stopped quickly, his metal plated boots screeching loudly as his step faltered and Daichot bumped into him.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Ach! Stop! Stop!” he snapped in a hoarse whisper.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Right at the edge of the light, only a few steps from Omar, a sinister looking rune, nearly ten feet across, spanned the floor, and the designed seemed to devour any light that reached it, looking like a gouge in the floor, rather than the embossed design it was.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Vrax, I think this is your territory,” suggested the warlord.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“What is it?” demanded Percy, as the wizard examined the giant shadow rune on the floor. Splugg gurgled and squeaked a response, which Percy didn’t seem impressed with as he whispered to Daichot.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Says it wasn’t here last time. I think he’s lying, but I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t know what it is, or if he’s trying to trick us.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Daichot glared at the goblin prisoner, but his face was calm as he suggested, “Let’s make him cross it, see if it’s bad.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Omar frowned at the idea, but Vrax replied first. “It’s bad. I can’t tell what it does, but if anything touches the rune, it will trigger dark magic.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“All the more reason to test it with this… thing.” Daichot grabbed the green-skinned runt by the back of his vest.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Percy listened to Splugg frantically babbling to him in a mix of Goblin and Common, before stalling the tiefling’s arm with a touch. “Hold on, now he’s saying that he thinks we should have turned right at the stairs.” The halfling sighed with exasperation, “You know what, chuck him on there, he’s starting to tick me off.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Wait!” yelled Omar, but the goblin was already airborne, thudding onto the shadowy rune with a painful thud. The goblin scurried off of the run as fast as he could, shuffling on his knees to grovel before the halfling.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“We make deal! Splugg good goblin!” His squeals echoed loudly away from them, careening off the ornately carved stonework and carrying for several seconds before the darkness swallowed up the noise again.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Splugg was trembling, but quiet now, as Percy’s dagger was pressed up to the flesh of his throat; a faint red line outlined the edge of the blade, glistening in the light of the mage’s staff.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Shut. Up.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Wait a minute!” exclaimed Omar harshly, barely managing to keep his voice a whisper. “I hate a goblin as much as any of ye—but this one ne’er harmed us, nor is’e armed. We’re better’n that.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Maybe [I]you[/I] are,” whispered Percy.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“If’n it’s a trap, ‘en we smash is skull’in. But this is wrong.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Daichot held up his hand to the dwarf, acknowledging him, but not committing his stance to an answer. “Why didn’t anything happen?” The rune remained, a pattern of inky shadow still embossed on the stone, even in the light they carried.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Honestly, I don’t know,” admitted Vrax. “I’m not familiar with the whole rune, only some components. That,” he pointed to a jagged arc on the bottom of the symbol, “is a trigger. And that,” he pointed to an intersection of three of the lines, “is corruption. I don’t know what the rest is—but perhaps the magic has been spent, and this is only a remnant. I have an idea though.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Go on,” said Daichot.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“I can use a spell to touch it. It’s more or less an extension of my will, so it’s a part of me. I might be able to trigger it safely.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Why don’ we jus’ jump over it?” asked Omar.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“That could work—or it might not. From my studies of Arcana, this rune is still active—but I could be wrong.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Daichot nodded, “Doesn’t really matter. You’re our authority on magic. If you think it’s the best plan, we do the best plan.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Actually, I thought the best plan was throwing the goblin on the rune.” Omar noticed a flicker of mischief in the wizard’s eyes. “However, that test failed, this seems like the best plan, yes. Light a sunrod.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Daichot extracted the short wooden rod from his pack, tipped with a thick crystal containing two viscous liquids inside. When mixed, they would shed an incredibly bright light for several hours. A creation somewhere in a muddled area between mundane and magical, the sunrod was very expensive, but worth the cost when bright light was needed. “Why am I lighting this?”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“In case the triggered effect is greater than me,” Vrax said flatly, long ago accepting that the life of an arcanist was fraught with moments of life and death.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]Daichot held his friend’s gaze for a moment, and then struck the rod into the wall, breaking the thin barrier between the globs of goo inside the crystal. As they mixed slowly, a glow began to reach out from the crystal, first a deep red, then a warm orange, and finally a brilliant yellow-white fount of radiance. The light seemed to press into the shadows, which retreated away from the sunrod, and the tunnels seemed to grow away from them mysteriously. The bend in the tunnel was just behind them, and the south opening was visible.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Did anyone else hear the shadows [I]hiss[/I] at us?” asked the halfling.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Nonsense,” rebuked Omar. “’At was just the sunrod.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Right,” said the halfling sarcastically, “the [I]light[/I] was being real noisy.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“As opposed to the shadows?” Daichot added.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Usually,” conceded the rogue, “I’d say you have a point—but at the moment I think I’m right.” Percy was looking back the way they had come from. “I thought we had traveled farther than this.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“It’s common,” Omar explained, “for surface-folk to lose their sense of direction and distance underground. You’ll get used to it.”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“I don’t want to get used to [I]this.[/I]”[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3][COLOR=white]“Prepare.” That was all Vrax said as he closed his eyes briefly, and a tracing wisp in the air, vaguely resembling a hand, sprang forward from his outstretched palm, and floated directly over the rune. It hovered in the air for a brief second, then descended to the floor and touched the rune. Daichot’s armor creaked as he tensed.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Garamond][COLOR=white]***************[/COLOR][/FONT] [/QUOTE]
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