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="spyscribe" data-source="post: 1705276" data-attributes="member: 5808">Editor’s note: for those waiting with baited breath to see if Lira suffers any unfortunate consequences from her experimentation with dwarven cuisine, be rest assured that all requisites were met.  The same cannot be said for Thatch, however, who blew his strength check to bite off a piece of jerky and wound up having to hack it up with his sword.And now…Part the Fifty-SecondIn which: Euro gets very, very quiet.The next day, the party—minus their horses and carrying only what they think they will need, sets out through the tunnels.  Thatch is saddened by the need to leave Bob behind, and gives the dwarves explicit instructions towards his care and feeding.  “Don’t worry,” Zrod says.  “I’m sure he’ll be fine.  As long as the pack lizards don’t get too hungry, that is.”Eventually, the others manage to convince Thatch that this is just a joke.The first leg of the journey is through caves controlled by the dwarves.  It passes uneventfully.  Finally, Zrod leads them to what appears to be a dead end… guarded by two well-armed dwarves.“Tell me,” Reyu says, “is it usually your custom to post… sentries at dead ends?”Zrod grins in reply.  He speaks a password to the guards.  One of them then pulls on a stone lever, so cleverly concealed that no one in the party even noticed it was there.  A tiny seam appears in the rock face before them, growing larger and larger until two stone doors have swung silently open, revealing a long, dark tunnel.  The tunnel is eerily silent, an effect only heightened by the hundreds of goblin heads—in various states of decay—hanging on both walls of the passage.“Well, this is it,” Zrod says.  “Beyond this is no-man’s land, and then the goblin controlled territory.”Anvil speaks up.  “We do not know that all of us will return from this mission. Can you tell us the password for the gate, that we may reenter dwarven territories if you are not with us?”Zrod considers.  “How many of you speak Dwarven?”  Lira and Reyu nod that they do.  “Well, yelling ‘help!’ will probably do it.”And, that established, the party enters the tunnel, leaving the safety of dwarven territory behind them.*******The tunnel eventually widens, and the travelers take the opportunity to spread out a bit.  Zrod and Eva take the front.  It takes some convincing to get Benedic to allow this.  He seems frighteningly eager to be the first one to spot goblins on this trip.  However, it is pointed out that Eva’s eyes are sharper.“Besides,” Zrod notes, “goblins aren’t the biggest worry in this part of the caves.  I’m more worried about booby traps.  Area’s full of ‘em.”“As our guide, surely you should know where they… may be found,” Reyu says.“I know where the dwarven traps are,” Zrod says.  “Goblin traps, we’ll have to keep an eye out for.”“Great,” Eva mumbles, wondering how she let herself be nominated to take the lead instead of Benedic.Benedic grumbles, but he relents.  He does, however, keep an arrow nocked in his bow as they walk.  Lira notices how tightly he grips the bow itself.“Not much of a goblin fan, are you?” she notes dryly.“Not if they’re breathing,” he replies.Euro travels up ahead, riding on Eva’s shoulder rather than Lira’s.  His sense of smell is keen enough that, it is hoped, he’ll be able to smell any goblins long before they know the party is there.They travel for some time.  Zrod or Eva pointing out the occasional pit trap, cleverly (or not so cleverly) hidden from view.  Everyone is careful to avoid the traps.For a while.The quiet of the tunnels is suddenly shattered as Eva lets out a short sharp yell, and abruptly she and Euro drop out of sight.  Even more chilling is the silence that follows.“Euro!” Lira yells. Her mental link to her familiar is gone, silent for the first time in years.The party springs into action around the edge of the pit. Eva is unconscious and bleeding profusely, impaled on three spikes some twenty feet down.  Thatch, Benedic, Dennis, and Zrod anchor a rope, which Anvil uses to climb down towards Eva. He moves slowly, encumbered as he is by his heavy armor.  Anvil can tell just by glancing at Eva that every second may count. “Let go of the rope!” Hue shouts to Anvil, and Anvil can hear him casting some sort of spell.  Suddenly, Anvil feels much lighter.  He considers following Hue’s advice, but looks down at the sharp spikes below him.  He declines to let go.  Instead, he uses the rope to guide his now speedy descent.  Lira casts too, using mage hand to lift Euro, barely conscious, out of the pit and into her arms.  Reyu casts cure minor wounds and the weasel perks up noticeably.“Are you alright?” Lira asks him.You know me Boss… his mental voice slurs slightly.  … I’m always ready to go…Meanwhile, Anvil reaches the bottom of the pit.  Carefully, he lifts Eva off the spikes.  She is not breathing, and he can tell that her soul is about to slip away to Kettenek’s realm.  Quickly, he beseeches Kettenek’s blessings, and casts his most powerful healing prayer, hoping it is in time.(to be continued… Monday!)</blockquote>

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