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subplotkudzu) wrote2007-02-16 07:32 pm
Emirikol, Part II, scene 3
The strength of their sinews, the courage in their blood, the quickness of their limbs and the puissance of their enchantments having cleared the immediate field of battle our four noble travelers quickly entered the passage that had disgorged their dog-man foes, closing it behind them lest an vultures follow. A quick checking of the map provided by lord Ambleer confirmed that they were on a suitable path and so they pressed on, little concerned by the wounds wrought by Vulture points aptly chosen avian guards.
The passage was ill kept but showed signs of the imperial garrison that once stayed here in the carved steps, smoothed floor, widened tunnel and occasional buttressing. They quickly passed by the point where the dog men guards had been sequestered, and Cybele took that opportunity to summon forth the serpentine aspect of her soul, Renee, and send that enchanted beast scouting ahead. The quartet, with Hiram in the lead, followed at a discrete distance. Hiram's sharp senses spotted signs of stagecraft, and after a moment he was able to locate a tripwire somehow connected to holes in the wall. He gingerly triggered the trap while hopefully out of the line of fire, and was rewarded with the clatter of darts striking either side of the corridor.
"Darts again." Deitrich muttered. "I'd like to corner the dart concession in this area."
"Step where I step," Hiram warned his companions before cautiously moving forward. He spotted two more trip wires in the dust and avoided both, but directly behind him Cyble tripped the second, again feeling darts strike her magical protections. "What part of 'step were I step' did you miss?" Hiram hissed as Cybele looked suitably chagrined at her error. The young actor simply bent and triggered the last set to clear the path. Ahead of them Renee sent back a sense of something like alarm, allowing the lady Floirane to warn her companions to proceed with yet more caution.
Barely moving and with minimal light from the shuttered lantern Hiram had salvaged in the Tor they reached the end of the passage, with opened into an unremarkable chamber - ceiling twice the height of a man with rough hewn walls, a finished floor with a large rock at its center, and the southern third raised up some six feet to make an alcove. To the north all of them could hear the sound of dog men in a panic, no doubt preparing the search for the ones who killed their vultures. They were about to confidently move to attack them when Renee indicated with a hiss that the dog men were not the threat. . . which was when the boulder shifted, revealing itself as another vulture, this one the size of a pony and slowly wakening. But before even that threat could be assessed a figure loomed in the alcove, backlit and sending an enormous shadow across the room - hooked beak, feathered wings, clawed hands and feet - part man, part dog, part vulture, a spawn of chaos the likes of which they had never conceived!
Reactions were swift and before the dog-vulture-man could do more than utter a single cry a volley of crossbow bolts and darts flew in his direction. Both Melas and Cyble fired wide, their shots misplaced either by fear or by the chaos beasts unseen magical protections, but when Hiram's dart struck its wing to no apparent effect Melas barked "it's immune to our bolts!" Assessing the scene in a flash the quick witted von Eisenwald adopted a new plan: Deitrich smoothly jumped onto the back of the quickening vulture and from there into the alcove, once again drawing his rapier mid leap and landing in full thrust, skewering the dog-vulture abomination in a single action!
Taken through the lungs the creature fell without a sound, and before the vulture could stir enough to even make a sound Melas dropped his crossbow, drew his greatsword from the sheath balanced beside his hunch and law waste to the monstrous bird with a single stroke! The nobles slipped into the room around the felled beast as Deitrich cast a quick eye over the alcove, but there was no time for a more thorough search - the dog men who had been preparing to raid the outside had recognized at last that their enemy had flanked them and were preparing a charge!
Detrich stepped down, alighting beside Melas and held his sword in a quick salute. Melas, followed, then Hiram and finally the Lady Floirane, her hand dancing with arcane fire, her body limned by an eldritch glow - four of the finest of the old empire, facing a charge of three to one odds with no fear and no regrets.
To be continued.
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NONSENSE!
You did find the dart trap (well, I couldn't recall if you got shot at the first time or located it, so I erred on the side of you being heroic), the snake did warn you of the vulture (and how often do you get the chance to write that sentence), Deitrich did do the jump thrust to kill the vulture-man, Melas did kill the vulture with a single stroke, you did decide to face the dog-man charge rather than flee. All of the facts are correct. That the narrator ascribed you with more pure souls than you might possess does not change the facts.
Onward!
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(Anonymous) 2007-02-17 11:25 am (UTC)(link)Bec