From the Analects of Simel, veteran of Karrnath
The floor began to tilt crazily and I coughed up the last
of the lungful of pestilence that the hellish gas bag unleashed as it died, if
it was ever alive. The screaming of the guardian fungi did not help me
regain my composure, but I tried my best to ascend the mold-slick stairs. I
knew Aleae had proceeded to the top , but couldn't see or hear anything of what
she found there, over the mind-numbing shrieking. The others were all ahead of
me on the stairs, but none of us dared to run with a dark pit beckoning and the
slime-covered steps ready to betray a misstep.
I slowed further to place two arrows into the closest
shrieker, silencing it. After what seemed minutes of scrambling up the
steps unsteadily, the second quieted as well, its vibrating stalk crushed by
one of my companions. At first I was unsure if what I heard was the
howling that now continued as a remembered trauma in my tortured ears or the
sound of annoyed trolls coming from the top of the stairs. But before I
could consider what was causing the unseen trolls such grief, another of the beholder-things
floated up from the dark pit. I was closest and almost attacked it, but
for Magnus''s gentle reminder not to "touch that gas bag you idiot." Thankful
for his advice, I passed it warily and continued up the stairs. The war
machine, Cypher, passed me and grappled the floating thing, yelling for us to
"get back." Once we were clear, he burst the thing like the
vile pustule it was, obviously immune to the spores it released.
At the top of the stairs Clarion, the other war machine
in our strange companionship, cast a magical illumination that danced ahead of
us down a hallway, revealing two burned and angry trolls flailing about at an
unseen assailant. Slaying the two already weakened beasts was no difficult
task, but keeping them dead proved a challenge and only acid pored over their
repeatedly dispatched bodies ended the battle.
Aleae had kept the creatures more than occupied as the
rest of us advanced up the stairs. I can only imagine what transpired, for her
to have survived alone and so weakened the creatures before our arrival. The
details of her combat, however, were not forthcoming. I will not underestimate
the power of this sorceress in the future.
The battle was not without cost. Cypher, who until
now I had only imagined to be like one of the many killing constructs I had
fought during the war, cradled his "pet" Rungo. The lesser quadrapedal
construct had been crushed by a flailing troll and now I witnessed what I had
to admit was mourning by and for a warforged. I had much to consider.
At the end of the hallway, in what smelled like the
trolls' filth pit, we found a openable, hidden doorway, beyond which was fresh
air and running water. Clean water flowed from an unseen source and
stairs led up towards fresh air, vague daylight, and the distant sound of a some
heavily-trodding hooves.
We were exhausted and beyond the momentary respite that
the clean air and water gave us, needed time to more fully restore ourselves.
We debated on which side of the door to remain, finally choosing to try
to rest in the foul air of the troll lair and not risk encountering fresh
opponents ahead.
Our rest, however, did not last long as two trolls emerged
from some fungi-filled crack and approached us. Magnus and I charged
them. While I had survived our previous encounters virtually unscathed, but
exhausted, Magnus wore several injuries, yet showed no awareness of them as he
leapt upon the first troll screaming a battle cry. What followed was ugly
combat bereft of strategy as I stabbed trolls through a haze of adrenaline and
pain. I was aware that Magnus was thrown down and almost immediately rose
again, much as the damned trolls didn't have the courtesy to stay dead.
Flashes of magical energy struck the trolls even as we hacked and stabbed
at them. In the end it was only dousing their corpses with acid that
ended our bloody dance. I must remember to carry acid at all times.
Now, fully spent, we resumed our rest on the other side
of the hidden door, sitting or lying on slick, but clean steps, or shallow
water. I quickly lost consciousness for a few hours, but I couldn't shake the coughing and it woke me frequently. I do not think I am getting better from whatever it was I breathed in.
We were not yet restored to our full fighting capacity when something came down the
steps.
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