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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 498280" data-attributes="member: 94">LORD OF THE IRON FORTRESS-- Part VIIDorn quickly busied himself with healing their minor wounds, then suddenly announced that he was leaving. “Haela’s business. I’ll send Shorty and Diessa along in the meantime.”“I thought this was Haela’s business,” Wulf grumbled. Losing Dorn for Diessa was a bitter pill, but it went down a bit sweeter when Shorty showed up. The little halfling was eager to get down to business. “Where to?” he asked, as they gathered up just inside the fortress entrance. “Well, let’s keep exploring this floor round the same way we have been,” Wulf suggested. “Counterclockwise.” Keldas nodded in agreement. The next door opened onto a magically darkened room. The party huddled briefly to bicker over how to tackle the room, but their decision was made for them as a toothy steel maw suddenly lunged out of the darkness. Karak was knocked off his feet and dragged into the room. There was a sickening crunch, followed by a shrill and lingering shriek of anguish.Keldas dispelled the darkness so they could move in. A steel predator had pinned Karak under its paws, while a second one nearby munched contentedly on his sundered long sword. A third predator sat nearby with a bemused look on its non-face.Shorty carefully dropped a hemispherical wall of force over two of the predators, while Wulf stepped up to deal savagely with the predator preoccupied with Karak. All things considered, it wasn’t too bad.But the loss of his magic longsword seemed to have shattered Karak’s spine, as well. He activated his helm of teleportation, hoping to teleport just a few feet away and re-enter the fray. Instead, he disappeared completely. The predator hardly missed a beat, switching quickly to focus on Wulf. He too was grappled and pulled into the thing’s embrace. “Gimme a sec, I got it,” Wulf said. He twisted, slipped out of its grasp, and brought Taranak around on it with crushing force. Smoke and flame burst around the wound, and the thing was so grievously wounded that Shorty easily finished it off with a magic missile.Inside the dome of force, the predators lay down to munch on the remains of Karak’s sword. He’d been slowly building up its enchantment, hoping one day that his temple would turn it into a full fledged Holy Avenger. So much for that. Eventually, Karak came shuffling back into the room with them. “The teleport popped me just outside the fortress.”“Forbiddance, I assume,” said Keldas. “Interesting effect.”“We’re leaving, right?” Karak asked.“What the hell for?” Wulf said.Karak tried his best to be condescending. “Well, in case you didn’t notice, I just lost my sword.”“Yer got another weapon, right?” Wulf asked, patting down his own bristling armory. Axe, dagger, hand axe, another dagger, light mace, dagger, darts… Check check check.“Yes, but I like my long sword. That’s my best weapon.”“Cry me a river,” Wulf said. “Next time yer know to diversify. Get out the bastard sword and let’s go.”Shorty pointed at the two predators he’d imprisoned. “What about these? That wall of force won’t last but a few minutes.”Wulf sighed. He really didn’t want to fight steel predators. They weren’t deadly, but those claws were hell on his shins. “Well,” said Shorty, sensing his hesitation. “How about I drop the wall of force and hit them with a prismatic spray? That would be fun…”Keldas arched an eybrow. “Shorty’s got some new tricks,” said the halfling, grinning from ear to ear.“I’d pay to see that,” said Wulf.Shorty prepared himself, dismissed the wall of force, and was just about to let fly with his prismatic spray, when a small boy suddenly appeared between him and his targets. Shorty paused only briefly to decide that small boys who appeared out of the thin Acheronian air in the fortress of an evil half-dragon were probably up to no good, and he let fly anyway.One predator was turned to stone, one was bathed in acid. The small boy was blasted with a ray of poison but it might as well have been a ray of gumdrops and lollipops for as much as he seemed to care.Definitely up to no good.The remaining predator dragged Wulf into its razor-sharp embrace, but Keldas was ready: He turned it into a fish.By now the small boy had started casting a spell. Wulf rolled to his feet and charged him with both hands wrapped around the haft of his axe. If only it could have been a real small boy, Wulf would have lopped his head off from the waist up. As it was, however, the thing had no trouble maintaining its concentration to finish its spell. A fireball exploded into the room. Wulf was unscathed, of course. He watched as Keldas’ own small boy,  now transformed into his natural dragon form, breathed a scorching bolt of lightning across... err... the other small boy.Wulf cursed. Vicious small-boy-on-small-boy action was one thing, but wasting precious time breathing lightning on outsiders was quite another. So he was quite surprised when the boy disappeared in the wake of the blast.“Did yer get him?” Wulf asked, highly skeptical. The dragon ignored him. It was staring over his shoulder to the back of the room, where a cloud giant and its pet hydra had suddenly appeared. The cloud giant was either fast, or it had been preparing for them. It cast a spell almost as soon as it appeared.And just as quickly—faster, actually, to be precise—Keldas countered it. “Abu Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting?” said the frail elf. “Ahh, I think not…”The hydra breathed—a bath of frosty cold. Wulf evaded the blast, but he wasn’t confident of his allies behind him. The blast, apparently, had frozen their brains.For starters, the assmar, unsatisfied with a “mere” Ghost Touch bastard sword, tried casting holy sword on his weapon—though in the cramped confines of the room, he was well within reach of the cloud giant. The giant wasted no time in utterly pasting the paladin with its huge flaming morning star. Karak buckled with the blow.Now it was Shorty’s turn, and he made the best of it by casting cone of cold. Onto the cloud giant. And its cold-breathing cryohydra.“Stupid sons of…” Wulf’s knuckles cracked in frustration. “Ach!”Keldas, at least, had his wits about him. He cast mass haste.“Now we’re talkin’.” Wulf twisted the ring of invisibility on his finger and disappeared. One short step brought the hydra within reach, and pulling his dagger into his off-hand, Wulf proceeded to dismantle the thing with grisly precision. When he reappeared, there wasn’t much left of the hydra.Wulf had hoped to lure the giant, confident of his inborn giant-slayin’ abilities, but the giant was simply having too much fun with the paladin. It heaved about with its morning star, slamming the assmar twice more despite his best defenses.Karak stumbled back into the corner, trying to escape the thing, but he’d clearly learned nothing from his previous mistake. Once again he dropped his defenses and turned his attention to his wounds, trying to lay on hands. The giant laughed—truth be told, Wulf couldn’t stifle his own chuckle—as the giant took advantage of the opportunity to knock the paladin to death’s door.Shorty picked up the slack, first casting slow on the giant and then hold monster for good measure.Against his better judgement, and with hands shaking from barely suppressed laughter, Wulf bound the paladin’s wounds… just in time.</blockquote>

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