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: 1707078" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the Fifty-ThirdIn which: tunnels are the pits.For a moment, Eva remains utterly still.  Then, she takes a sudden deep and painful breath.  Her eyes snap open in shock.  The last thing she remembers is the sickening sensation of sharp spikes piercing her body…“Wha-- What happened…?” she begins, but then, upon reflection, decides she probably doesn’t want to know.Hue calls from above.  “If you hold onto her, I can lift you both out.”Still groggy, Eva awkwardly puts her arms around Anvil’s neck, and Hue’s levitation spell lifts them out of the pit.  The bulk of the group takes up defensive positions, while Anvil and Reyu attend to Eva’s injuries.  Eva looks at the holes the spikes have torn through her clothing, and tries not to think about the fact that they must have done the same to her flesh.  This was my favorite tunic, too, she thinks.  Gods, I hate adventuring.Soon enough, Eva is ready to take her place near the head of the line again, and the party resumes their forward progress.  This time however, Lira refuses to allow Euro back to the front.  I can do it, boss, I’m telling you.  I’m fine.  You know me; I got the best nose in this outfit.  You want to leave the goblin sniffing up to that Ferret? But what if something happens back here?  I need you here to protect me…Euro thinks it over.  Good point, boss.**********The party continues in silence, avoiding several more pit traps until they are suddenly aware of the sound of footsteps… lots of footsteps.  “Sounds like goblins on the march.” “How many are there?”“Maybe 30?”“Are they getting closer?”“I can’t tell.”“They seem closer.”“Let’s move in,” Benedic suggests, a slightly wild look in his eyes.  The rest of the party ignores that suggestion.  There is nowhere to hide in the tunnel, so they prepare for a confrontation.  Lira casts shield.  Reyu casts barkskin.  The others wait...  And then, the sound begins to fade until the tunnel is silent once more.The party waits until the sounds have faded to nothing, and then quite some time longer.  Finally, cautiously, they press on, keeping a careful watch for surprise ambushes.They do not find any.  Instead, they find a large cross-tunnel.  Zrod takes a look up and down.  “Goblins must’ve been moving this way,” he says.  “Probably safe to follow along after them.  We’ll travel faster in the bigger tunnel, for now.” The party concurs, and along they go.  This tunnel is littered with debris, stones, and scattered pieces of armor.  Anvil narrowly avoids tripping over a Dwarven shoulder-plate.  Eventually, the tunnel opens up into a large cavern.  The narrower dimension is easily sixty-feet across, the longer dimension and the ceiling are hidden in shadows.  Scattered bits of arrowheads, discarded pieces of leather, and the occasional piece of broken bone are strewn about the floor.  Two rows of cairn-like mounds lie in the center of the cavern.Thatch puts it together first.  “Um, this was the site of a battle, wasn’t it?”Zrod grunts.  “Several.”Dennis nods towards the cairns.  “Whose dead are those?  Yours or theirs?”Zrod snorts.  “Goblins don’t honor their dead.  And we don’t leave ours out in the open where goblins could desecrate them.”“Um, oh.  Then what are--?”“Surprises left behind for those who would try to desecrate our dead.”It is then that they notice one of the cairns is missing, and a ring of blackened debris outlines where it once was.Despite assurances that they would have to really try to set them off, the party gives the mounds a wide berth, then prepares to press on.  Zrod nods approvingly.  “Didn’t know humans had the stamina to travel this long.  I’d’ve thought you’d want to rest, given the hour.”“What time is it?”Zrod tells them.  The party is quite stunned to see just how much they’ve lost track of time down here in the dark.“Y’know, on second thought…”“I’ll drink to that,” Eva says, and finds herself a comfortable seat against the rocky cavern wall.Zrod shrugs and starts to remove his pack.  He slings it off one shoulder, then suddenly stops, listening intently.  “Anyone else hear that?”“Hear what?”“No, wait.  I hear it,” Reyu says.  “A kind of… buzzing noise?”Zrod has just enough time to utters a dwarven word that Lira has never heard before (though she can roughly guess the meaning), before nine bat-like creatures, with long, sharp stingers fly at them from the ceiling.“Stirges!” shouts Zrod.</blockquote>

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