Menace at the Hotsprings pt3

June 19th 2007

Players: Demetria, Meredin, Jharrek, Taladan, Shereem, Heather

After the return of the second group of adventurers from the Hot springs stating that deeper section of the Cavern had been cleared out, all was thought to be ok. Then the King was taken and the traffic in and out of the city was restricted greatly. Now that the King has been returned the city has gone back to normal as far as traffic going in and out, and people have started going back to the Springs. All seemed good until a young couple who had gone there to spend time with each other did not return and the next person that went out returned shaken by fear carrying a hand that he found by one of the springs warning of a metal man that will kill any that come too close. The adventurers guild has posted a request for Hardy adventurers to come forward to fight this menace.

From the ledge along the cliff side, crude worn steps slowly evolve allowing the passage downwards to ease somewhat. Approximately forty feet down, the veil of mist lessens as if one had stepped through a wall of clouds and out the other side. What is revealed is truly a marvelous sight.

Dark green and blue moss, some almost a meter thick, coats every surface of the valley below the fog. The natural light from sun or moon that permeates downward causes the mist to glimmer like platinum and causes every mossy surface to appear like sapphire and emerald. Mounds of moss-thick boulders are bisected by a narrow river that spills out the middle of the northern wall of stone. Running sinuous through the ravine's belly, the river water is tinted a mineral blue that is shrouded by wisps of rising miasma. The river collects in several pools over its run of a mile before a hole opens up at the southern end and swallows the entire flow back into the earth. The pools that form are steaming and have a perfectly round shape which are flanked by a pair of tall monoliths each. No moss grows upon the obsidian structures making them the only thing, other than the water, not covered by the moss. All told, there are four pools with four sets of standing black stones.

As the group arrives at the Hot springs all seems to be calm... too calm. There is nothing moving at the springs, all that can be noticed is the giant form of a man seemingly made of metal, and the odd body part on the ground in dried puddles of blood.

Demetria frowns at the sight of this as she comes into the area. A glance is given not only to Meredin, but Shereem and Jharrek. "Look around." she offers quietly. Her eyes move to do just as she commands attempting to follow her own suggestion.

The metal man is standing in front of the entrance to the caverns below and is completely still not even reacting to the entrance of a group of people as of yet.

Meredin blinks at the metal man standing before them and scratches her head. Hmm.. Time to start the gears in her head turning. Hopefully they don't end up exploding.

Jharrek gives Demetria a nod and smile, taking a tight grip of his guisarme. He steps back to the nearest shadows. Taking his time, he becomes one.. and then begins a slow, painstaking creep a towards the area in question. Eyes take in the surroundings as he becomes one with the wind.

Having arrived late, Taladan is the last to catch up and see the metal man standing in the..(room? Cave? Disco Dance Floor?)..well, whatever. He immediately goes into 'stealth' mode and, pulling his cloak around himself moves into the shadows to begin moving around behind the tin man.

Meredin says, "Oh great, it's a golem.. and since it's made of metal probably an iron one. Now what'll we do?" Then she looks around. "Hey, where'd everyone go?"

Demetria moves to take Meredin's hand, "We go introduce ourselves to it." she offers to the Elf and smiles, "Annoy it enough." She beams and moves to step closer to the golem and clears her throat as she is about 20 feet away. "Hello Sir. If you could move."

When the Halfling woman and elf come close to the Golem it stands in each hand it holds a iron blade. It turns to the approaching women blades held ready not yet advancing.

Shereem moves within the shadows towards the clearing. She has no intention of being spotted or heard if it can be helped. Her shadow companion follows her as usual but no one would notice the stealthy shade. Silently she creeps ever closer....closer... watching over her sister and her friend.

Jharrek works his way along the edge of the clearing, flanking Meredin and Demetria from the land of the unseen and unheard. At least, he hopes so.

Meredin says, "Uhm.. Deme? Golems are mindless automatons.. they can't reason. And the owner probably isn't anywhere nearby.. probably just told it to guard this place and left."

Shereem moves closer and closer to the metal man. For those with very keen eyesight you might see her slip past the 16 foot tall golem. She makes her way to the rock face and climbs up ever so quietly. Her small form fitting neatly into the shadows of the rock face. Up she goes....

If you know you can't push an obstacle over, or climb over it, you might as well just sneak around it. And that's what Taladan does. Invisible to the naked eye and nearly as soundless, he quickly makes it past the golem as it begins to lumber to life. Peering down the entrance behind the golem, he tries to see what it is the technobeast is guarding.

Jharrek creeps along with a catlike tread and silence dread. No sound at all. He never speaks a word. A fly's footfall would be distinctly heard. Come, friends who prowl the caves, trust to navigation... take another station. Let's vary piracy with a bit of not getting killed by a big metal man. He works the edges, staying in shadow and moving up to join Tal and Sher.

The Iron Golem takes a step forward towards Demetria and Meredin, it's one arm swinging in a slow arc striking Meredin with a solid blow sending her stumbling backward.

Demetria pulls out two of her daggers and shouts out, "A guys...Mer just got her but Fucked and its not the fun one..." she shouts out. Her daggers clink on its hide, and fly back to her hands where Demetria catches them both, "Shit...." she mutters.

Meredin yelps when she gets walloped but good by the golem. The elf clings back to Demetria and suddenly casts a spell that causes them to disappear and teleport over to the cavern.

The Golem settles back down to watch for intruders once the ladies in front of it disappear.

Taladan shakes his head as he steps out of the shadows. "Fucking golems..." he glances around, "Oh, no offense Mere. It just pisses me off when they leave those damned rust buckets laying around. People could get hurt." He keeps his voice pitched low as he studies the passageway ahead.

Shereem stealth like skalting that she is changes her route as soon as she sees Deme and Mer teleport out of harms way. She climbs all spider like along the rock face and into the top of the cavern along the ceiling. She disappears into the dark recesses of the earth and is followed by her ever present shadow. Of course Natalia just passes right through the stone wall as shades are apt to do.

Demetria slides to the shadows, and then following her sister up the rock face with her shoes of spider climbing, she walks along the roof top slowly and shakes her head lightly. She isn't liking this already.

The narrow fissure in the stone that allows the river to flow outwards deepens back into the wall and expands outward revealing a cavern hidden within. Moss coats the ceiling, casting a yellowish photoluminescence gloom about this womb of rock. Illuminating the very source of the river, a large pool deepens downward to blackness and the unknown.

This cavern, though hard to attain, has been found before. The moss that glows above casts shadows downward that reveal the walls of this chamber to have been carved in exquisite relief. Mythic shapes blend together, one archetype to the next in a stone tapestry that seems to flow out of the black basin like the waters itself.

You know from description from others had had been this far fighting the Kobolds that at the far end of the cavern there is a new entry way that leads deeper into the caverns. From the entrance you can only faintly see a darker patch that may be that entry way.

Jharrek does NOT follow the others up to the ceiling. Instead, he stays hidden. But he also reaches into his magical backpack. Potions of cure light wounds are taken in hand to be given unto Meredin, should she need them.

Meredin just grumbles a little as everyone disappears again and leaves her to try wandering after them the best she can. The elf doesn't seem to notice Jharrek offering a potion and instead goes to get her own out to use.

Motioning to the others before he slips into the shadows, Taladan indicates that there's several things in the room up ahead, to be on guard for them...wiggling his hand it looks like he's either motioning like a snake or a lizard of some sort. That done he moves into the shadows once more, rapier out, near-invisible blue flame slightly rimming the blade of his sword.

Demetria slides her daggers out again and moves to slide up by Meredin. "Get something that goes boom ready." she whispers to her team mate. "You might be able to take out the lot of them..."

Jharrek tucks his potions back into the haversack, fading once more into the shadows. He sneaks along, guisarme in hand. Spying something, he drops backwards towards Meredin, moving to cover her with his Guisarme and making sure to stay between her and the lizard men.

Lizards are scurrying here and there across the floor of the cavern they do not show any notice of the people coming in. That could be because they don't care or they do not notice them.

Taladan apparently doesn't seem to be too worried about the smallish lizards. He moves into the room, checking for traps and snares first.

Jharrek watches for traps, surprises and unexploded virgins as best his able. But mostly, he stays close to cover Meredin with the reach on his guisarme.

Demetria moves to drop from the ceiling and clearing her throat, "Gentleman!" she shouts out, "Can I interest you in the newest design of the Gnomes of Vintermor. A sucking machine for your floors, It sucks the dirt right off them!"

When the Halfling Woman suddenly appears in the room in the midst of some of the lizards suddenly electrical arcs shoot out from a few of them missing her but in same general direction of Demetria.

Out of the darkness, about thirty feet from Demetria, three flaming arrows streak to life and plunge into three lizards within 10 feet of the halfling. the first shot splatters the lizards innards across the floor, the second kills the second lizard and the third shot slams the third lizard hard enough to take it down, but it seems to still be alive, bleeding and singed badly though. A malevolent chuckle comes and makes it apparent that Taladan considers this target practice quite fun.

Demetria moves with a fluid ease, Her movements are fast and on target as three strikes are brought to the creature closest to her. The halfling woman swipes and she strikes the creature three times the last one hardest of all

Jharrek lets the shadows wash away from him as he lets out a terrible war-cry that sounds a bit like a man being fed feet-first through a meat grinder. Flipping forwards and then launching in the air, Jharrek swings around that pole-arm he wields in both hands. His target? The lizards menacing Demetria. First, the already injured one. The guisarme crashes into it, gutting it. Without missing a beat, Jharrek spins about on his toes. All of his weight goes into a slash at the second remaining lizard. And he missed! An easy target and he missed! Starting with a back flip, Jharrek springs away to land in front of Meredin to protect the elf. As he lands, the head falls off of the lizard that he apparently missed. Dead. The score is now two for Jharrek.

Meredin immediately waves her arms in the air and then flicks a small, glowing red pebble towards the middle of the lizards. A fireball explodes when it gets amongst them and burns five of them. Unfortunately, they didn't decide to croak.

Not liking the deaths of their brothers the lizards move in closer a blue arc forming between their horns, on who was braver then the rest bolts into the area between Demetria and the group there is a series of flashes coming from each of the lizards to the brave one who then has a burst of blue electrical energy shoot out forming a sphere enveloping every thing with in 20 feet.

As the sphere of electrical charge goes outward somehow Demetria and Taladan are able to avoid being hit by it diving out of the way at the last second, the bolt strikes Jharrek for full force his body all that stops Meredin from being fried by the full force as well.

The lizard charges forward, releasing the energy blast. As it does so, Jharrek moves to block the lizard from Meredin. And he gets caught by the full blast. Jharrek is very, very singed and staggered. Yet he also gets his full weight into a strike that solidly pounds the lizard. But the little bugger refuses to go down for the count. Maybe next time.

Shereem glides across the ceiling waiting for her chance. She drops down behind the lizards and moves from the shadows beginning to slice them up and cuts a charred one down. She injures another one that was formerly unharmed. Her fluid grace allowing her to glide between them dealing death to those who would harm her friends and family. Her boots begin to glow as she finishes carving them and speaks a word of magic.

Four more flaming arrows zip from somewhere out of the darkness. The first shot pins the undamaged lizard to the ground, leaving it alive - but twitching and spasming horribly. The other three arrows slam flaming into the sides of three other lizards, seemingly at random, killing each of the three instantly. A whispered chuckle comes out of the darkness and the words, "They don't know when to quit, do they?"

Demetria rushes over to Mer and a dagger is replaced with her wand, "ELF, get your ass up and back into the fight!" she commands before clunking the downed elf with her wand. A glow forms around the tip of it as Meredin slowly starts to heal. "Damn it....heal up!"

Jharrek is singed, badly hurt and staggered. But he sees Meredin falling to the ground, looking quite, quite dead. His cry of rage echoes throughout the halls.. "NOOOOOOOOO! You KILLED MY DIN!" Fearlessly, he leaps into the midst of the three remaining lizards. The one he hit as it blasted him is casually taken out with a passing swipe that guts it. And the second is eviscerated as the black-wearing warrior lands. A nice upwards swing that sends the remains off in an arc. The last is then taken down with a pair of quick slices that have Jharrek carving a big sort of J in the thing. He stands, panting in a half-crouch. Jharrek's score is now five.

Taladan materializes out of the darkness. He watches the entrances to the area as the others heal up and gather their wits. A soft question passes his lips, "Everyone alright?"

Meredin goes to sit up when Deme heals her. "Sigh, I should've used my boots..," says the elf as she goes to get up off the ground then and dust off.

Demetria reaches out and keeps bapping the elf. when she is satisfied, Demetria stands up and looks at Jharrek for a moment and then, sticks him in the arse with the wand a few times, "This, Is, for, taking, My, Kills." she states jabbing him in the butt cheek. "Feel better at least? or want me to keep going." Okay...so Demi is in light spirits.

Jharrek turns back, face a snarled mask. But Meredin is not dead. He begins to relax, rising up. And then gets prodded in the butt by Demetria. He yelps but also begins to feel much better. He shivers, feeling the rush of life coming back into him. "Oh.. that is much better."

Demetria rolls her eyes lightly and turns to hit Meredin with one last charge before she looks at Jharrek.

Jharrek yelps for a moment, turns and then offers Demetria a very warm smile. "Thank you very much, Demetria. Especially for saving Meredin."

Demetria winks up at Jharrek, "If I knew you liked it on the ass, I would have hit you there more often."

Meredin looks down at her clothes and sighs out loud. "Great, now I'm going to have to go to the tailor again.." The elf finishes dusting off the best she can and looks around at all the corpses--then walks over and kicks one.

Demetria looks at Meredin, "Bring them by." she offers to the woman, "You won't have to worry about paying for it then.

Taladan begins moving about the room, after helping to heal Jharrek and Meredin, as if looking for something.

Jharrek frowns and then says, "We need a friend.." He pulls out a charm bracelet. He focuses for a bit. And then calls out a name. "Heather. Come hither to my side..." And invokes the magic of a charm. A look over his shoulder. "My dear Demetria.. anything you do to me, I would feel the need to give back to you in a trade."

Demetria looks around slowly and tosses a few things into a pile. "Alright..." she offers wiping off her hands. "Jharrek hunny." she offers to the man, "I love you, but stay away from my ass....

Taladan continues searching about as the others do their thing. Finally coming over to the rest of the group he holds out a hand, "I found some coins, but that's about it. Didn't spot any traps."

Demetria lightly plays with a wand she found. "OOoh who wants to see what this does!" she offers with a giggle.

With a blue flash of light Heather appears there with weapon in hand she says in a calm tone looking around as there is no combat around now "Jharrek you needed me." said in a friendly voice as she will leave picking on him later.

Jharrek winks at Demetria. "But it is such a cute bottom..." He turns back to the newly arriving Heather. "Hello, Heather. We need you here to be our savior. We are on a quest to save the world and our wallets..."

Heather nods as she approaches "Let me guess do you need me to be sexy or the token healer?"

Jharrek turns to regard Meredin, making sure she is fully healed. And then, he smiles to Heather. "Oh, I need you to be both sexy and a healer. So, naked priestess leads the charge into battle. But we can paint you blue, first."

Meredin ends up going over to where Deme is and looks at the wand. She pokes it a couple times and says, "It has fireball in it. Not a bad thing for you to have since you can dodge the flames.."

Demetria oohs lightly and looks around, "Not wanting to horde the wand of fiery death...anyone want to use it." she states and looks around. "Demi and fire....there is going to be a hot time in the caves...." she beams like the little pyro she is.

Taladan rolls his eyes as Heather and Jharrek begin bantering. He shakes his head to Deme and moves further into the cave system, searching for traps before he moves too much further.

Shereem cleans her blade and tucks it into the sheath. She looks over Jharrek and Mere and seems satisfied with their healing. She shakes her head a bit at Jharrek's words and moves around the cave inspecting it."Shall we move on?" she asks of the others.

Jharrek steps forward with Heather, grinning broadly. "I think we shall have to proceed more carefully." After a second, he drops back to once more cover Meredin.

Demetria shrugs slightly and moves to head onward, with her Tutor she starts to look around for traps, and other things that might cause People to get holes in them.

Meredin blinks a little at the thought of Demetria and fireballs.. Somewhere, the sound of falling bombs and nuclear explosions can be heard. ".. Uh oh," says the elf as she starts to follow the others.

Heather sticks her tounge at Jhar "Na with the cold here you wont need to paint me blue." She does love joking with him for some reason." She gets serous "Well lets go on then." and Heather follows the rest.

This entry way and the passage beyond has jagged edges that also seem smooth, closer inspection shows that even though the are rough edges there is not any sharp edges and the the pathway downward is a smooth level surface, almost as if it were literally cut from the rock wall by magic.

The passageway remains approximately 10 feet across as it gently slopes downward, you get the impression after a couple hundred steps that you have only descended by about 20 feet from the level above.

At this point the walls of the passage suddenly widen out to a cavern filled with boulders that is roughly a circular shape maybe 100 feet across. Covering the ceiling and the walls is the same phosphorescence from the cavern above giving the entire chamber to have a dull gloom to it. Across the chamber from you a dark patch in the wall suggests that there is another pathway going past this room.

Taladan moves, as usual, into the point position and searching out traps, finds none. Disappearing into the gloom, he goes on to the room ahead, peering out into it before venturing in.

Heather holds up her hands "There is a wall of magic that way." She is pointing to the next cavern.

Demetria moves to slide past the group and looks around the room from her spot in the shadows.

Jharrek advances into the room, at one with the shadows as he uses his dark vision. His black anti-glowing guisarme is held at the ready before him. His breaths are deep and he draws in lungfuls of the air. "Wow.. I feel great.. powerful. As if I could take on an army..."

Heather seems a bit on edge "This area has been enchanted with evil Divine spells. It helps to boost Evil and undead."

Shereem gasps and looks confused. Her brown eyes going wide as she struggles to move forward, "Somethings wrong. I can't...I can't move in here," she says weakly. The effort to move even her head seeming to much for her.

Taladan stops where he's at, and begins slowly, painstakingly moving back towards the entrance. He calls out to the others, "Those mounds are some type of giant puppet! Don't get near them yet!"

Shereem shakes her head and her breathing even seems labored, "I can't stay in here." She says softly as she starts to back out towards the door.

Demetria moves to slide back out of the room and frowns, "Well..' She offers and looks at the wand. "WE could...boom it." She pauses at Jharrek's words. "You...boy...Back here.." She whistles as if he is an animal.

Jharrek freezes in place, not advancing further into the room. Instead, he backs up. He pauses, giving Demetria the eye. And the blows her a kiss. "As you wish."

Meredin didn't get far into the room before immediately backing out--it made her feel way, way too uncomfortable. "I don't like this at all.."

Jharrek glances at the others, looking them over with some concern. "What is wrong? This cavern feels.. well, a bit like home..."

Taladan stops just near the entrance into the room, studying the six mounds. Experimentally he lifts his bow and nocks an arrow. Looking back over his shoulder at the others he raises an eyebrow, then with an evil grin, takes aim at the mound closest to him.

Heather looks at the center "No Demi don't do that, there is very powerful magic here. Doing that might cause a backlash."

Demetria frowns at Heather, "In the words of Mike. -You hoodooers always fuckpeople over-" she states.

Shereem looks towards Heather, "Can you bless the place and take away the curse of it?" She asks of the cleric. She frowns at Jharrek's words, "It's oppressive and full of...evil" she says in a whisper. "Could you not 'feel' it?" she asks of him from where she stands just outside the door.

Demetria looks at Shereem and then at Jharrek before whispering to Jharrek. She frowns as she watches Taladan shoot something and blinks. "Oh this could be bad."

Heather shakes her head with a sad sad look on her face but she tries to speak her disapproval for the recklessness. She grips her own weapon in the ready position.

Meredin suddenly can't hear her voice. Or anything else. She also pokes at the wall and finds it doesn't happen to let her through. "..." Yeah, this makes for an unhappy elf.

Jharrek listens to Shereem. He starts to shake his head. And stops. He starts nodding his head very quickly. "Oh. That. Yes. Yes, I felt it. But it sort of reminds me of my mother's... hello..." He starts waving his hands about in front of Shereem.

The flames from the arrow slowly burn then the is a slight motion and the flames die out as if smothered. The adventures are all in the room except for the two who are still standing in the ten foot wide passage way. There is a slight rumble in the ground as first the pile that was hit with the arrow starts to stand but then the other five piles stand as well revealing the forms of six Huge Zombies that turn towards the group looking for blood.

Taladan thumbs up to the rest of the group and then moves to the shadows.

Taladan, having disappeared into the shadows makes his way around the room a bit, looking for something, anything to help. Finally he makes his way into the /middle/ of the zombies where something stands.

One of the zombies starts to move heading right towards the entry way moving to a point 20 feet from the caverns entrance.

Shereem fires from the other side of the doorway. Her arrows with the blue fletching find their mark in the same zombie that Taladan has already faced off. They hit the thing but it doesn't seem to care or notice.

One of the zombies starts to move heading right towards the group moving to a point 20 feet from the caverns entrance.

Demetria tosses two of her daggers into the room striking the first Zombie and they come back, "I -LOVE- these daggers." She shouts out and giggles happily.

Heather A great grin comes over her face as she points to the Zombie that Tal and Sherm attacked "Goddess please send your light at the insult to your greatest gift." A ray of light escapes from her finger hitting the giant zombie but its barely up. She appears to be speaking in Aquan

Seeing the man come into the range of it's claws the zombie that has been shot and hit by burning light sees it's chance and slams a fist down at Taladan hitting him soundly.

Yet another Zombie climbs over the rubble in the cavern heading towards Heather it makes it to within 20 feet of her and seems to be ready to keep moving.

Yet another Zombie climbs over the rubble in the cavern heading towards Meredin it makes it to within 20 feet of her and seems to be ready to keep moving.

Meredin pushes at the wall rather pointlessly in attempts to get through.

The last Zombie seems to think that the two outside the room would make a good snack and starts heading that way it is now 20 feet away from the opening.

Taladan blurs into action, moving faster than seems humanly possible, but though his strikes are solid and true, they don't seem to hurt the zombie hardly at all.

Zombie5 continues to move towards the entry way only to run into the adventures just this side of it.

Never one to miss an opportunity to stick it someone's backside, Jharrek makes sure to drive that pole arm of his across the zombie as it passes by. Take that. And that. and that.

Heather sees a chance on a moving zombie she sticks it good but only only scratches it with her flaming short spear.

Demetria grabs her daggers and put them in her off hand as she pulls out the wand. "Lets see what you can do." Demetria shouts, and the activation word is spoken sending off a fireball towards zombie 4, It blasts 3,4, and 5 nicely and Demi looks at it, "I need to get me one of theses..."

Heather not liking where this fight is going she holds on her holy symbol "I didn't want to waist a spell like this." is the only thing she says in common as a a blue light erupts from her body but instead it going to the party it destroys all but one zombie.

The only remaining Zombie who seems to be a bit bigger than the others slams his fist down again on Tal, knocking into him with a hammer like blow.

As the potion takes effect, Jharrek becomes unnaturally fast. He prepares to savage zombies to good effect. But no.. Heather saves everyone's ass by frying them all. And Jharrek goes to help Tal. He blurs through the air with a flying chop that cuts hunks of flesh from the zombie. And then proceeds to plant feet wide for power and begin hacking away like he was a blind man trying to chop down a tree with a cording mallet! But it is not yet dead..er.. dead again.

Taladan slams his rapier over and over into the zombie, but the massive thing is still moving.

Demetria flicks her wrist again and shouts out, "Fire flaming brusty thing!!!!" she shouts and the fire ball flies from the tip of her wand, Going right for the head, Demi looks hopeful and then....DROP, the fire ball falls from the air and Demi uh ohs mentally, "Ahh....INCOMING..." She offers when its just a bit to late.

Heather moving 30 feet closer thanks to her boots of striding Heather points at the monster and sends a ray of light that blows a great bit of it, but the thing is still up.

The final Zombie seems to be single mindedly attacking the tenderized form of Taladan dealing more damage to him.

What's this? What can it be? Jharrek is standing his ground! For once, he is not bouncing around like a drunken grasshopper. Instead, he stands like a stone wall and begins driving blow after blow after blow into the zombie. "Why.. won't... you.. die... Die! DIE! DIE!... and be buried cheaply..." yet the damned thing will not go down. Just like.. uh, never mind.

Something inside Taladan apparently snaps - besides every rib he has - and he just starts screaming "DIE YOU MOTHERFUCKER" over and over and over as he stabs into the creature with his rapier. One final fiery burst explodes within the zombie and Taladan whirls out of the way as the creature begins to topple.

Jharrek leaps high into the air, bringing his guisarme down on the remains. And he begins hacking at the mess of zombie. When the zombie is little pieces, he turns and begins furiously smashing the altar! "By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth, you will not hurt my friends! That is MY job!"

Taladan looks about the room a bit as he slides down into a sitting position, panting, spattered with blood and gore and bits of undead flesh from the massive fists.

Demetria moves to make her way into the room. "What the hell was that.." She asks and looks around. "Who is hurt..." She calls out. Then she pauses, "Oh right Heathers here, she can handle it."

Heather chuckles at Jharrek "Down big boy." said teasingly as she walks over to Taladan getting serious so she can heal him right up. And to make sure its fast she uses her second best healing spell.

As we left off the group was in a large room with several very large decaying corpses... one of which Jharrek hacked into smaller pieces before smashing the Alter. The group then settled down to camp for the night to be fully ready for whatever is deeper in the cavern.

Heather does her prayers and packs her things back in her haversack "I am ready to go." her flaming short spear and magic shield is in her hands "Oh and by the way how much you all are getting paid for this job?"

Demetria looks at Heather, "Paid?" Demetria asks as she collects her items. "I ....never heard anything about payment." she remarks and shrugs.

Shereem also shakes her head,"I don't think I did either. We probably get to keep what we find as usual." She says simply as she kneels beside her gear strapping on her daggers and tucking a potion or two away in easy to reach places. She stands and adjusts her cloak.

Taladan stands from where he was kneeling, rolling his bedroll up and stowing it on his pack. Glancing around at the others he wordlessly draws his rapier out moves towards the door they didn't come in through.

Jharrek rises up from his preparations of armor and weapons. "Pay? Money? Surely, you jest. There is no money in what we do. Nor is there pay, reward, happiness, hope or hand-jobs."

Heather looks at Jharrek "You been hitting the sauce early haven't you."

Jharrek looks back towards Heather. "I do not need ale to be a prick."

Shereem chuckles at Jharrek's words,"No he just doesn't have the right girlfriend." she teases.

Demetria looks at Jharrek, "I know a little Pixie that will give you all the hand jobs you want." Demetria states and moves to head up a wall on her way to the door.

Taladan continues on out of the room while the others talk and play at getting ready to go. Disappearing down a passageway he quietly speaks his blade to flame.

Jharrek grins towards Demetria. "Free or does she charge extra for it?" a laugh towards Shereem. "Yes, well I am not good at seeing the right woman when she comes along."

Demetria crawls along the ceiling, A sneer is given to Jharrek at the whole subject as she moves down the hall's ceiling.

Shereem smirks a bit and nods as she walks towards the door and then climbs the wall to follow her sister up the ceiling and down the hallway.

Heather looks to Jher "You going to poof on me to." said as she makes her eyes glow a deep crackling blue to keep track of the other three.

The next passageway seems to be a natural fissure in the rock that was augmented by magic widening it at some points and also keeping the pathway relatively level. After descending by at least 50 feet with a path that is several hundred feet long you come to another natural cavern. This one is enormous the ceiling must be 100 feet high and there are giant stalagmite and stalactites in the room some large enough to have grown together into pillars. There is the sound of steady drips of water from these gigantic tooth like obstruction.

The only light in this room is a bluish glow coming from an archway approximately 100 feet away across the cavern. This archway is too perfectly formed to have been formed naturally.

Demetria glances around slowly, attempting to hear, or possibly see anything that might hurt.

Taladan stands in the doorway to the next room, taking no pains to hide himself. Of a sudden he sticks his rapier in the dirt of the floor and draws out his short bow...no sooner is that done than 4 flaming arrows streak to explode into an elven mage of some sort, apparently killing him and throwing his limp body through the glowing portal he was conjuring.

Heather gives a annoying ouch as she grabs her head and carefully tries to focus on suppressing the spell permanently on her "Careful there is a huge amount of magic near by."

At the far side of the room there are a group of casters standing around a portal that has just been opened when the caster falls through the portal the others look around and one seeing Taladan and the rest of the group throws a fire ball at the entryway and then along with the other casters jump through the portal through the shimmering field of the portal a well lit room and the enormous head of a Crazed looking Red Dragon is shown 5 forms come running through then there is a shout "Kill them all!"  4 humanoid forms run into the portal then it collapses.

Jharrek gives Heather a smile and then vanishes into the shadows. Gripping his guisarme, he moves along after the others, prepared for battle.

A fireball explodes in the entryway of the passage and for a person looking from out side it would seem like four of you were able to move with supernatural speed to avoid it the last Heather sadly almost made it but did not escape without some charing. you can all see the forms of 6 men in armour before the portal and there are 5 dog like creatures running towards you. The men are about 100 feet away and the dogs are only 50 feet away and charging.

Pulling out the wand of fireballs, Demetria lets one loose at the dogs that are charging the group. "Die puppies." the halfling woman states.

Shereem was once on the ceiling watching what may come. She speaks a word of magic and her boots activate just before she disappears and then reappears just in front of the first wolf. Her sword swings several times leaving the beast very angry and bloodied.

Jharrek dodges the fireball and then rides in with the flames, following the blast towards the dogs. The guisarme comes around in a tight arc, cutting away from one of the doggy critters. After cutting a gash on it, he bounds backwards and away, shielding the group with his pole-arm.

Taladan rehangs his bow and pulling his rapier out of the ground, draws his dagger in his off hand and begins moving toward the attacking foes.

Heather moves a nice bit in as she points her spear at the leading wolf sending a ray of light hitting it pretty good hurting it badly.

The first of the Barghests turns and snaps at Shereem but cannot get through her armor, two others also jump at her with one actually getting through her armour to draw blood with a bite. Jharrek however was not so lucky two of the beasts jump on him with a flurry of blows leaving him severely wounded.

Demetria flicks out her daggers quickly and....both miss, Maybe its the distance, maybe its she is on the ceiling, who knows...but either way, Demetria is not happy.

Shereem shimmers out of site in the hopes that it confuses her 3 attackers. She slips out of the shadows long enough to slice into the bleeding and growling beast that she hit before. After two cuts it falls but there are two more remaining so she shimmers out of site again.

Bouncing around like a mad-man, Jharrek retreats from the charging dog-uglies. As they run him down, Jharrek whirls his pole-arm about in a figure-eight pattern of death and taxes. While he cuts up two of the animals, they do not die. The bastards. Instead, they inflict grievous harm upon him. He staggers and retreats again, badly missing one of the critters. It's friend misses him, thankfully. And the warrior, bleeding profusely, retreats to shield Meredin the Most Magnificent Mage.

Heather looks at Jher, Demi and Sherm not doing so well as she sends out her best healing spell that heals them all up except for Sherm as she seems to disappear before she could help.

Finally making it up to where the beasts are, the cloaked half-elf moves like the wind among statues, his rapier and dagger flashing out in a whirling spinning dance of death. An explosion of fire reverberates through the room as one strike causes the magic in his blade to dance wildly through the creature. When Taladan is done with the first barghest, it lays dead on the floor, steaming behind him as he readies to move on to the next one - death in leather boots.

Meredin just appears out of nowhere, like some sort of comic book supah-hero, and begins to motion her arms around in the air. She pulls back, a glowing pebble in hand, and tosses it out into the midst of the bhargest horde. KABOOM! A blast of searing fire washes over the area, searing all the living ones.

The two that were left by where Shereem vanished, turn and charge the two closest people that are being attacked by a barghest already. They shrug off the attacks by Shereem and Taladan then when hit by Jharrek they throw them self onto their prey the one's attacks skittering off of Heather's armour the other drawing more blood from the newly healed Jharrek the wolf like form frothing at the mouth in it's eagerness to kill it's foe.

Demetria tosses her daggers again and feels like a novice as only the one aimed at Jharrek's foe hits. And when it does it doesn't even hit that well, "FUCKING NIGHT." she curses. "Okay....WHO wants to flank with me." she shouts out.

Shereem quietly slips past the wolf attacking Taladan and sneaks up on the one on Jharrek. She slices it a few times with her short sword and one of the hits does some really serious damage. It doesn't fall but is wounded badly.

Bitten, clawed and bloody well pissed off, Jharrek is mad and is not gonna take it any more from this over sized hunk of after-dinner sautee. He leaps up into a back flip, landing to sweep a cut first across the doggiebeasts front knees and then up over its throat. At last, it is dead. Following up with his whirling bolo spin, Jharrek gives the beast attacking Heather a resounding hit before flipping over Heather's head to land behind a bit. He will return in a second.

Heather getting tired of fighting this bastard she points at the monster and says "Die. But gets swiped hard stopping her spell

Taladan's strikes fail to find any of the barghest's critical spots on its body...he pincushions the creature enough to hurt it, causing it to bleed well enough, but his usual full-on death-rage style is not in evidence.

Meredin ends up shifting a little so she can get a good angle and lets loose with a cone of frigid air and ice. Unfortunately, the doggies manage to avoid the worst of it.

The last two Barghests are struggling to to keep fighting after being beat upon and frozen by spells. The first swings a claw out in a raking attack on Taladan drawing blood and sending it spraying his next claw and his bite do not penetrate his armour. The second on Heather connects with both one of his claws and gets a good solid bite on her.

Demetria drops down flanking with the one on Heather and goes to work quickly on it. "I request that your life patterns cease Operation at this moment." Demetria states to the beast as she swings her daggers around. She might not be able to throw worth a damn tonight, but with this one instance, with her daggers swiping the wolf like figure explodes suddenly. Bursting forth with a blood red spray, Demi looks at what remains and states." Good doggie."

Shereem moves in on the beasty attacking Taladan and stabs it twice from behind. It's bleeding badly now staggering and barely able to stand. But it still has breath in it. Refusing to die like a good wolfy.

Jharrek comes charging back, vaulting up Heather's back with a boot, flipping through the air and running down the field to swing wildly at the last barghest. And he slips on a bit of guts, spinning around like a children's top. "Ayayyayayayayay!"

Blurring into motion, the wind of death comes for the final beast. Its gleaming eyes know its death is upon it..but it struggles valiantly on to overcome the whirling dervish of the half-elf in front of him. It benefits the barghest naught. As Taladan moves through the gaps in the beast's defenses, a fine cloud of red mist begins to rise around the half-elf. As the silent killer moves through the last part of his form, the barghest simply falls apart, as if it were a bag holding guts that someone simply unzipped with a razor sharp blade. Standing there, panting, the wild-eyed wind of death looks around for any sign of an enemy to move to and through next.

When we left off Taladan had just finished becoming a cuisinart slicing and dicing the last of a pack of Barghests in their wolf form. Standing in front of the location where the portal had been was 6 humanoid forms. As it stands now they are 100 feet from the entrance where you all came in and Meredin still is, this means that Taladan who was upfront is 60 feet away, Shereem is 65 feet away and Heather, Demi and Jharrek are all 70 feet away.

After the last beast falls when you look up to the portal you have to ask yourself was it 5 or 6 men you saw at the other side of the cavern since there are only 5 there now.

Taladan doesn't pause from his whirling attack as he spots the 5 armored men. Instead he makes for the shadows, pulling up his cloak as he does so, instantly becoming one with the darkness. Last sight of him, it seemed he was angling to come in from their left flank.

Heather backs up a 40 feet towards the exit, mentally getting ready for the next plan she is getting in her mind.

Demetria pulls her fireball wand, well its not hers but it is in her possession and she points it at the group before stopping and shaking the wand a little bit, "Damn it...." she states, "Alright...Looks like we just rush the fuckers." she shouts out.

Upon spying what looks to be armored warriors, Jharrek.. drops his guisarme? As it clatters to the ground, he draws his demon-forged great sword. And he, too, begins to fade into the night while giving the cross guard a kiss before battle. And he takes a very short step off to the side, as well. Not a rush or even a walk but a slow creeping so as not to disturb his protective shadows.

Shereem shimmers out of site and begins to head towards the 'humanoids' for any good enough to spot her she is moving towards their right flank. Though she does make sure to stay out of her sisters way with that wand of fireballs. If you could see her making her way ahead you might notice her quaffing a potion to heal her wounds.

Meredin goes to peer over at the men who happen to be staring at them. "Uhm..," goes the elf wizard as she says, "I don't think this is going to end well..," before going to pull her sleeves back. Time to lay down some major ass-whupping.

Shereem draws her bow and fires off three shots in such a fast volley one might not be able to see her little hands moving at all. All of her arrows miss there mark and she simply blinks at them as if the bow must be defective. She does not look happy with this.

The men by the portal fan out a bit standing in an arc outwards from the portal. with this movement there is the unmistakable rasping sound of blades being drawn.

Jharrek takes a moment to slip out a potion from his ready-pouch, holding Kalia, the Headtaker, in his other hand. He hastily pours it down his throat as he takes another five-foot step to the side. The empty bottle is dropped back into the pouch. And the sword is taken up in both hands.

Heather looks to the enemy and says a prayer in ignan that summons a quick cloud of fire that hurts them all very well. and with help of a haste spell she heals her wounds.

Meredin begins to wave her arms in the air, casting a spell, her hand then pointing towards the group of enemies as she unflicks a fan and causes an arc of lightning to fly forward. It hits the midst of them, searing the guy, then jumping to the others surrounding him with lots of 'zzts!' flying. Upon finishing the elf immediately goes to motion again and fires a second lightning bolt that strikes her primary target and then redirects off the cave wall to hit another next to him.

The darkness is deadly this night, but still silent as apparently Taladan is holding his attack until the perfect time. The tension builds as his attack holds...holds...and still does not come.

Demetria starts to shake the wand again, all the seriousness around her the halfling woman seems lost in the fact that her toy has broken. She shakes her head and moves to point the weapon again before stating out the activation word and points. A fireball shoots out at this and chuckles with a gleeful look, "Fire...." she offers happily as the fireball on the one in front, and to the left, the two on the right don't seem to have gotten the major brunt of the damage but demi is happy.

Since the opponents are apparently ready and willing to suck up spells and guard the portal, Jharrek sees no reason to hare off towards them. Instead, he maintains grip on his great sword, hiding in shadows. He hovers on Demi's side of battle, right behind Heather and in front of Meredin. And he waits.. if something teleports or appears in their midst, he's on that bugger like flies on a horse's arse.

In one movement the group of fighters start a charge towards the players visible from across the room. At the same moment a blast of flame erupts from the wand Demetria has in her hand some how Demi was able to miss being hurt by the blast in her face. Shereem also made a heroic effort to remain unharmed, Jharrek and Heather just had to jump backward and they also were unharmed. As the fighters surge forward the center man drops to his knees as from out of nowhere a blade come and fells him stopping his charge and he looks around trying to see what hit him failing to see anything.

So now 4 fighters are within 10 feet of Demi and Shereem, which means 25 from Heather 30 from Jharrek and 40 from Meredin and Tal. One is right beside Tal.

Heather seeing a chance to drop them with a command spell Heather says in a forceful tone "Sleep." They seem to drop to one knee but seem to get back up "Fuck their amulets makeing them imune to magics." Said as she trys to dispell a amulet on one of them but sees no notice.

Suddenly there is a flash as A very large Half-orc appears behind Meredin the point of a rapier sticking though her for a moment before she slumps off of it to fall to the ground unmoving. The Half-orc then points the rapier at Heather and she his hit with a feeling like her life is draining away before she fights the spell off. The Half-orc then steps back and disappears.

Out of the darkness comes the scything sound of death. The lone man left behind by his comrades can only shiver in fear as the silent whisper of soft boots approaches, dancing with death, behind him. Two explosions of fire light the man's eyes from inside as Taladan slowly eases his dying body to the ground after striking into his defenses mercilessly, the whispered words echoing through the room, "Trespass upon the king's ground and people and pay the ultimate price...meet your maker..." He is already off into the darkness once more, death stalking an unaware victim.

Two daggers fly from her hands and Demetria mutters as they bounce off the plate armor, "Son of a bitch...." she mutters. "A little help over here..." she shouts out.

The four fighters get a look on their faces as if they were listening to someone and suddenly drop their swords to grab a ring on their left hand, while they are doing this Shereem is able to carve great chunks out of them staggering a couple but not killing moments after they touch the rings they disappear as if they had been summoned by someone or teleported away.

A blush-inducing swear comes out of the darkness. The cloaked half-elf suddenly appears and begins searching around the room. As Taladan searches he keeps his rapier out, apparently he doesn't think the battle is over quite that easily.

Demetria pulls her melee daggers from her person and starts to do the same, "Heather. Get Meredin." She orders out as she moves to look through the dead bodies from the previous fight as well as anything dropped from this one.

Jharrek is waiting, listening for that rogue who almost killed Meredin. He frowns and suddenly closes his eyes. See with the mind's eye.. Your eyes can deceive you. Do not trust them. He suddenly leaps forward and cleaves. "Hyaaaah!" And.. swooosh!

Heather says "Any one wounded get close to me." said as she casts her greatest healing spell

Jharrek warily backs towards Heather to be healed. He waits for attack.. betrayal. Or, failing all of the above, sex.

Meredin immediately goes to dig around in her pouch for a potion. Unfortunately, doing so is rather time-consuming since she can barely do anything rational after being stabbed so thoroughly. Upon being healed the elf snaps to and immediately goes off in a tirade of unhappy elven.

Taladan turns from his search and says, "Jhar - look out in the hallway. Something hit the ground out there. There is /no/ rapier in here." this last is hissed through clenched teeth as the tip of his sword stitches random patterns in the air.

Jharrek rushes forwards as Taladan commands, holding his great sword in front. "Come, my blade stolen from a Demon's dead hand.. we have heads to take tonight!" He checks the immediate bit of the hallway.

Shereem helps the others search the room, carefully moving around the walls and doorways. She moves around inch by inch searching for any clues of treasures that may have been left behind.

Jharrek looks for things to kill.

Heather picks up the long swords "These are just enchanted 3 times will some one check out the chest on that dead guy please I am sensing heavy magic on it."

Demetria mutters and moves to look around the room piling what she finds in the center and sighs, "Alright..." she remarks. She moves over to the chest.

Jharrek says, "I have found a rapier. With blood upon it." There is a loud sniffing. "Elven blood. Young. Blondie. About five feet tall. Cute. Likes.. mmm.. dry wines, walks in the moonlight and dragons."

Taladan shakes his head in disgust. "Fucking cowards. Cut one down and they cut and run like little girls. At least you guys are dependable...know I can count on each and every one of you to the end." He sheathes his rapier and walks over to where the rest are. "Rapier? Already got one...don't need another."

Demetria blinks, "We got a problem here." She calls out, "A woman burning on a stake." She calls over her shoulder. Demetria moves to take the armor off, "His ring is...broken..." she offers but moves to look it over.

"Never count on me to be dependable, Tal. I am only reliable as long as it suits me to be, as Meredin and Shereem can well.." Jharrek's reply to Tal is cut off. He scoops up the rapier in a gloved hand, sheathes the great sword and reclaims his guisarme. "Where is she?"

Heather looks to Demi "Is that on the amulet does it look like a elven woman?"

Meredin just sort of stares daggers at Jharrek and, for a moment, she looks like she may well nuke him.

Taladan glances over at Demetria and shrugs a shoulder saying, "Maybe a holy symbol of some sort? Though they were fighters, that wouldn't make sense I guess. If they're gone for now, we might as well gather all this shit up and vacate the area. We still got long tall and rusty to deal with outside."

"Aye.." Demetria calls out, "Did anyone See the Dragon on the other end of the Portal, Or was that just this halfling." She looks at Taladan, "OH fuck I forgot about him."

Jharrek tosses Meredin a smile, "I do love you, Meredin. You are my oldest surviving friend. And closer to me than a sister." He then turns, "Where is this woman on the stake, Demetria?"

Meredin just continues to glare daggers at Jharrek. One can literally see her laser-beam eyes drilling into him! And then someone mentions to golem. "We should go see if it's even still there. If not we can just walk out."

Taladan frowns at something and glances around. Looking at something on the wall he motions Demetria and Shereem over. Pointing at something up the wall he says, "Can you girls climb up there and see what that is?"

Demetria motions to the amulet around his neck. "There." she remarks and nods, "I ..." she pauses, "On it.' she offers to Taladan and moves to the wall to scamper up.

Heather nods "Thats the symbol of Korinthar. We have to alert the local... well Demi." She looks at Demi and says "If we got followers of that wretched dragon, you have a lot of problems ahead. But please let me take the amulet to my elders and see what they say."

Jharrek relaxes somewhat. "Oh.. whew. An unholy symbol. I was prepared to go rescue a damsel." He moves to drop the rapier over with the other items. He still smiles at Meredin, despite the glares. "Ah. The golem. We can tell Mike where it is and tell him that it has smashed his still."

There is a deep depression in the wall of the cavern, it is 30-40 feet high and about the same wide. In depth it looks like a carried distance and it is extremely dark inside so dark that elven night sight cannot penetrate.

Demetria looks back at Taladan, "Honestly." she calls out, "It looks to me, Like something we should bring back Tenian for." she offers out.

Taladan frowns and says, "Why?" as he steps into the 'depression'.

Heather picks up a rock and casts a spell that makes it light up "Here try this." holding up the rock with a light spell on it

Meredin, meanwhile, turns around and goes to squint as she peers over at what the others are doing. "Now what did you guys find?" she calls, still, unconscious, glaring at Jharrek.

Jharrek steps towards the depression to get a closer look with the others. "You know.. just because they teleported away does not mean they will not be back with an army. We might wish to clean up and then depart. We can come back tomorrow with a larger force to sanitize the region and cover the portal with few tons of stone."

Shereem's head tilts, "It looks like they were working on something here....carved into the wall. But it's unfinished....it looks like a dragon. Maybe the one we saw in the portal. Could this be part of a spell to bring it here or something...it's so lifelike. It may be made for blood or something to pour down the statue and the human in it's hands."

Inside the depression there seems to be the form of a large dragon with a crazed expression of rage and blood lust. It looks to be a very life like statue of a dragon holding a claw out at waist level for an alter with carvings in it looking like they are made to let liquid poor down and into a pool like depression under it.'.

Heather looks at the statue "Its a copy of that wretched dragon god. I know my temple would love to study that statue. But then that statue was probably the thing that kept healing them."

Jharrek says, "A sound plan. One to cover the portal and one to cover the alter. And we can go home and find a bath and a woman. Or man, as the case may be."

Jharrek helps the others gather up the treasure, behead the bodies and do all the other chores of adventuring. And then, with the others, he walks out. He encases himself in shadow. Just in case. One never knows where ambushes or Meredins will strike.

Demetria moves to head out of the room slowly with the treasure, "This..is not going to be good." she mutters under her breathe.

Meredin will strike Jharrek when they return to the city. With a hammer. Possibly even a mallet if she's feeling particularly kinky.

Shereem slips into the shadows and works her way out with the others. "Well at least we're alive."

Taladan follows the others out of the room, glancing back over his shoulder just once upon leaving before turning his face towards home again.