Journey Into the North

Henry cursed inwardly as he slid downwards into the abyss; though he was the quickest to realise it was a trap, he knew he shouldn't mentioned it before Seraph had activated it.

He also cursed himself for being so slow. The pain in his side was still restricting his movement, and as he tried to leap backwards, the ramp had been quicker and hel lost his footing trying to jump.

Not that it would've helped, Henry thought, since he would have been left on his own. But he still cursed himself for not warning the others. Then agai, he thought, he had been relegated to the middle order, instead of at the front. Darkness does that to you.

The ground was harder than he expected, his feet slamming first, but luckily not breaking or twisting.

He slid on top of another body arched awkwardly on he floor. Most of the torches burnt out with the fall, but one remained, and it cast a gloomly light over the battered party.

"Everyone okay?" called Valin.

Someone grunted in pain.

((Dono editting DQ's post and writing for him.))


The damned whisper had been following him the entire trek down the twice bedamned cavern. It was always behind him, drawing ever closer. The past few time...they'd been right at his back. Maybe it was Cyrus' thrice bedamned dwarven booze (which had still not completely removed itself from his system). He was still feeling the effects, but not keenly enough for him to not recognize the hundreds of thunderous goblin footprints on the smooth stone floor. Something about the way they had walked was odd, but he couldn't place it. Maybe they were avoiding something on the floor--

Soon... The forever damned voice was right in his ear.

He spun in anger, his hands moving to his daggers, their knuckles whitening.

"Show yourself, then..." Sirloaz growled. Of course, he got no response. He spun around to see if the party had noticed he had stopped to find...

They were gone. Vansihed. Into thin air. Every. Last. One of them.

"What in the Nine Hells..." Sirloaz risked another glance behind him. He saw a flash of something small and stocky, then something flying toward him.

How the Hell... was all he got to before the mace crashed into his face, knocking him out cold.

Carmenia couldn't move. After falling and slamming into the hard ground someone fell on top of her.

"Get off me!" She shouted, but it came out muffled, and sounded more like, Et oh may.

She shoved at the heavy object pinning her to the floor. It was a man. It was Henry. Even though they were in a trap set by who-know-what, she was still indignant.

"GET OFF ME," she hissed, finally able to breath after having the fall knock the breath out her. Henry hurriedly obliged her, muttering something similiar to an apology.

She studied her surroundings, four stone walls, and no way out.

Putting her head in her hands, Carmenia sighed heavily. Why on earth did she have to travel with such an unlucky group?

Valin:
I cursed, a little less than silently. I should have been more careful. Dwarfs are known to be so xenophobic to booby trap every possible part of their own strongholds, so I should have expected it, but I was too preoccupied with Seraph. I shook my head. Focus on that later, if at all, now we had to get ourselves outta here.

All the torches had extinguished themselves after the fall, with the exception of one. In my rear I heard someone, I assumed it was either Finn or Henry by the accent, yelp "Gi' effa May!" and the rusting of bodies in changing positions. I could see decently enough, thanks to night-sight, but no one else could. I grabbed one of the extinguished torches from behind me, and held it up to my hand. I placed my hand over it, and slowly, carefully, focused my energy on igniting it. Within about a half of a minute, the torch was blazing. I passed it back towards the others, instructing them to light the rest.

I began walking forward, examining the walls of this hall, very carefully. Instead of the normal murals of Heroic Dwarven deeds and their proud history and the like, these walls held artwork much...darker. There were paintings of various demons and evil spirits and vengeful gods, among them Bane. I looked toward Seraph, who looked extrememly disturbed by the sights, more so than myself. And, with good reason: My soul wasn't being fought for by Falthyr and Bane.

I turned to him, and in a hushed voice said
"It appears you were correct, my brother. It appears as if we've wandered into a Duregar hold. Lets get out of here as quickly as possible,"
"I agree, friend. This place pains me more than I would have expected," Seraph replied.
In front of us, Cyrus, leading the way again, looked more full of anger, spite and mirht than any of the rest of us, as can be expected, considering his parentage.
Eventually, we came to a large, locked bronze door at the far end of the hall.
"Fan out!" I called to the rest of the party. "Partner up with someone who can compliment your skills--search the room for a key" I said, in a tone not to be argued with.

All of a sudden, we heard an unmistakeable sound of heavily armed and armored Dwarves. We could only assume that these were the Duregar--evil, demonic dwarves.
"Do you hear that, Seraph?" I asked in a whisper. "Sounds like 3 or 4 stunties coming from above and to the left" I quickly looked up, and sure enough a guard detachement of 4 Duregar were coming to "collect" us, and they were on the catwalk ledge on their way down to come get us for our nasty welcoming. I would be damned if I would fall victim to four demonic stunties.
I drew my bow, and in one fluid, fast motion shot the leader through his eyes.

Duregar. Damned demon dwarves. Servants of Bane.

The second I realized where I was, I snapped to attention. My blade was in my hand faster than I could stop it, and my heart pounded in my ears.

Banic symbols were etched into every inch of the walls--painstakingly. Insanely. Tapestries lined each wall, with the crest of Bane on each one.

Falthyr's Guiding Hand...help me. Help us all.

"It appears were correct, brother...It appears as if we've wandered into a Duregar hold. Lets get out of here as quickly as possible," Valin whispered to me.

I grunted my agreement, not really hearing my companion.

The room was large--not huge, but large enough to accompany all of us...and a company of Duregar. A thin catwalk lay roughly ten feet up, which led to a dwarf sized door. It loooked to me like a perfect spot for a dwarf or two with crossbows.

Across the room was a heavy bronze door. I tried not to look at it too closely.

"Do you hear that, Seraph? Sounds like three or four stunties coming."

I nodded.

"Two above...two on our floor." Valin's voice had lowered to a whisper.

I loooked back toward the others, who were only just regaining their senses.

I held out my hand, fingers spread--an unmistakable call for them to stay where they were. Henry nodded, but Tan'Quin and Adrian were out cold. Cyrus' face was contorted into a visage of rage. Henry looked to me as well, and began to load his crossbow.

Moving as quitely as I could, I sidestepped to the right of the doorway and waited. Valin, meanwhile, had drawn his bow and nocked an arrow.

I held my breath. Then Cyrus joined me, taking up position opposite the doorway.

"Can't be havin' all the fun, manling," he rumbled, his mouth turning up in a cruel smile.

I nodded, then was still.

The next sound I heard was the soft twang of Valin's bow as it launched an arrow into the air. It hit the wall with a thud, and I had no doubt it hit some resistence on the way--likely a Duregar skull.

I heard muffled voices on the other side of the door, then a key turning in the lock. The doors swung open toward us, essentially blocking Cyrus and I from view. Apparently they saw the pile of shaken people laying in the back of the room. I heard a wicked chuckle.

Valin was nowhere to be seen.

I took a risk, and jumped around the door, my blade flashing. I caught a glimpse of wide, surprised yellow eyes and a ragged, greasy beard, then it was gone, thrown from its body as my blade sliced though its neck like it was not there. As my blade cleared the corpse, a slight whisp of blue smoke ran from the steel.

Cyrus had done something similar. His axe was embedded in the chest of a still smiling Duregar, whose eyes saw no more.

I turned around to look for Valin, but saw nothing. Suddenly, a corpse fell from the catwalk above me. It hit the ground with a sickening splat, a small spatter of blood landing in its wake. Valin jumped nimbly down after it, grinning from ear to ear.

"Duregar. Nothing to the true races of the realm."

Even Cyrus had to smile at that one.

"Well I guess we found the key," Henry murmured, nodding toward the beheaded dwarf body where a golden set of keys jingled on the deceased's belt.

"What now?" Cyrus spat. He was looking in distate at the dead Duregar on the floor. No, not distaste -- pure venomous hatred.

"We can't just leave them here," Seraph nodded toward the still figures of the party. Adrian and Tan'quin were both unconscious. Carmenia was up and about, but had played no part in the fight which had ended swiftly. Finn was bruised but sitting up at last, clutching her ankle.

Henry realised he hadn't even fired his bolt. The combination of man, dwarf and elf had been too good.

"Yet at the same time to stay here would be suicice," said Valin. "Those we killed will be expected back at some point. We can't stay here forever."

"We either gotta wake 'em or carry 'em," Henry said.

"Waking them seems the easiest way," said Carmenia. She looked rather dishevelled following the fall, her hair pointed in strange directions. "That Dwarven brew, perhaps?" she said, looking pointedly at Cyrus.

"Yer mean pour a bit down their throats?" Cyrus muttered. "Can't do. We finished it all."

"Water will do," Seraph said. "Anything we can do to get them conscious again will do, in fact. "

"'N if they don't wake? If they 'it their 'ead or summit?" Henry said, saying what no-one wanted to say.

No-one answered. There was nothing much they could say to that.

The fall must have only knocked me out for a few seconds; perhaps I'd hit my head on something hard. Rather like the something hard my head was currently resting against. I lifted my head, wincing, to peer directly into Seraph's face. My stomach went cold, and I let my head drop back onto his breastplate with a thunk for a moment, then painfully slid off him and onto the stone floor. The side of my face was so sore I knew there'd be a nasty bruise there in a while, and when I brought my fingers away from my aching cheekbone, they were speckled with blood. Cursing, I wiped that side of my face with one slightly-damp sleeve.

From the voices around me, Valin, Seraph, Cyrus, and Carmenia were certainly alive--yes, and there was Henry. A glance in either direction told me that Adrian and Tan'Quin were... well, not exactly up to running a race. But where was Sirloaz?

My head was still spinning groggily when I heard the unmistakeable twang of a bow, followed by an equally (and horribly familiar) thud. Eyes widening, I got to my knees to try to crawl to safety, but couldn't withhold a pained cry when agony gripped my ankle and shook it like a dog with a bone. I shouted a curse, completely disregarding the fight around me, and pulled my leg up to my chest so I could better reach my ankle. I probed it as firmly as I dared, though even my own ministrations had me biting my lip so hard I tasted blood. Not broken, or at least nothing more than a fracture; probably sprained. "Feck," I gasped, collapsing back into the spot that Seraph had vacated.

Eventually, I sat up again and began paying attention to what was going on around me. "Cyrus, didja leave th' flask? Tha' smell'd be 'nuff ta wake 'em, I reckon, 'less sum'fin' serious's afoot."

"Worth a try," I heard Carmenia murmur.

"Or... eh..." I winced as I shifted, trying not to jiggle my ankle too much. "Col' water, 'gainst th' back o' th' neck, an' the insides o' the elbows. Preshur points, see."

Henry was eyeing me suspectly, and for a moment I stiffened--I only knew that much because my mother had always been prone to fits of "nerves" that resulted in us having to revive her--but before I could say as much, he spoke. "Can ye walk?"

I flushed darkly. Cor, how humiliating! But what could I do besides tell the truth? I shook my head, not meeting his eyes. "Not wif'out help."

"Where's Sirloaz gotten to?" Valin muttered from the other side of whatever it was we'd fallen into.

Carmenia surveyed the unconscious men, pondering on what would be the best way to wake them. She looked at Finn, and saw that she was the one who needed the most help.

Out of habit she touched her hair, wondering if it was in order, it wasn't. It doesn't matter if my hair is a mess, she thought brusquely to herself.

Painfully getting up, she willed her sore body to move towards the girl. Suddenly she wondered why she always thought of her as a girl, for Finn had the courage of a woman, and it would not do to think of her as a helpless child.

She walked silently towards the woman, and getting taking some cloth and water out of her bag, she whetted it and gently touched it to the side of her partially bleeding face.

Finn started for a moment, whether out of surprise or pain, Carmenia couldn't tell.

"You look terrible," Carmenia said, trying to smile through the blanket of sorrow and despair that had covered the room.

Place Holder, others can post but Adrian can't wake up. I've got drama post after drama.

(Ugh. Original post got killed by a computer crash. Here's the short, lame version)

I looked to Henry and our injured, then back to Valin and Cyrus.

"We can't take the wounded with us, if we are to fight more Duregar."

"Yeah," Valin agreed.

"I think the three of us should try to clear a path through this place, try to get back up to the top floor."

"Sounds fun," Cyrus said with a chuckle.

"Not for the Duregar," I said with grin--it was more like the grin of a lion than one of mirth.

"Agreed," Valin said.

"Good. Valin, get up to the catwalk and scout it out. Cyrus, guard the door. We move in five minutes." The dwarf and elf both nodded before going their separate ways. Valin tensed, and in one leap, grabbed the edge of the catwalk and hauled himself up.

I walked over to Henry, who strode to the center of the room to meet me.

"This is a bad situation, Henry."

"Yeh...reckon yer right."

"Cyrus, Valin, and myself are going to clear the outpost."

"...Ye'r not serious."

I nodded. I'm afraid so. We're leaving you to guard the others. I'll need the key." I held out my hand. He stared at it for a moment, then said,

"I dont't think this is a good idea, Seraph."

"No offense intended, my friend...but the choice is not yours."

"I--"

I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him toward me. I kept my voice low.

"Look." A sharpness had worked its way into my voice, making it so that it was nearly impossible to argue. "We can't fight properly if we're carrying both Tan'Quin and Adrian, and helping Finn walk. To move effectively it would take two people per unconscious person and one to help Finn. That leaves no one to fight. Give. Me. The key."

He relucantly handed it over. Held onto it for a moment.

"Come back now--we can' get outta here withou' yeh warrior types."

"That's the plan, my friend. That's the plan." He seemed satisfied, and let go of the key. I held it up to my temple in a slute, then urned my gaze to Finn. I kept my expression blank, but gave a slight inclination of my head to acknoledge that I saw she was ok.

Turning back to Cyrus, I held the key up.

"Let's kill some Duregar," I said to him. He smiled widely and laughed.

"Now ye'r thinkin' striaght, manling."

I put the key in the lock, and slowly turned it. The tumblers slowly clicked, then released with a soft click.

Valin dropped behind us silently.

"You're clear. The next room is just a common room, of sorts. No Duregar in sight."

I nodded and swung the doors open.

"Adrian Temperust the day has finally come for you to become a Paladin."
Adrian knelt down
"Many thought you would fail, but you proved them wrong and now stand proud."
"The responsiblity you now face Adrian is great, but i must warn you never can you save everyone."

Adrian nodded "Yes Sir i understand." In his head he said lets hope it never comes to that.

The Lord picked up the blade, the finely crafted blade scattered with preicious stones in hilt.

"Adrian you promise to uphold honour laws and redemption?"

Adrian didn't need to think he knew he wanted to do this. "Yes Sir!"

The blade dubbed both his shoulder.

Adrian eyes shot open. He looked round wearinly Where was He? he then remembered the trap he sat and rubbed his back. God that was some fall he thought. He looked to see Tarquin has knocked out as well. He sat up and looked to see Henry.

Henry saw him "So up then? he joked"
"I, where is the others?."

I jumped when Carmenia touched something cool and wet against my sore face, wincing. "You look terrible," she joked weakly, and for a moment I just stared, wondering why she bothered. She just smiled and me and kept cleaning the scrape; I sat quietly, only flinching occasionally as she brushed a particularly tender spot.

"Thankye," I said when she began to put her rag, now speckled a rust-color by my blood, away.

She smiled again. "We have to stick together with all these men around," she said. "Besides, you wouldn't want that--" she motioned elegantly to my the side of my face, which was probably sprouting spectacular bruises even as we spoke, "--to become infected and fester, you would? Hard enough with an injured ankle." Her smile became almost sly then, which was enough to make me wish I could back away without hurting myself. "You know, you could be quite pretty, if you tried."

I glowered, but could only manage a half-hearted, sullen expression that I imagined made me look rather like a child who'd had her favorite toy taken away. "Don' wan' ta try."

"Seraph might appreciate it," she whispered.

I gaped. What else could I do? There was absolutely no rational response to that--that--completely inane statement! Why would Seraph care? Better yet, why should I care if Seraph cared? Her statement had so blindsided me that I just sat there, speechless and gaping; she smirked (though how elves could look that elegant while smirking was beyond my comprehension) and began trying to put order to her own hair.

A few moments later, Henry spoke, followed quickly by Adrian; I latched onto the distraction as a way to save my quickly diminishing sanity. "They lef'," I muttered mutinously. Sure, I wouldn't have been much help with this feckin' ankle... but did they really have to leave us behind? The women and the injured. And Henry, of course. I snorted.

How predictable.

Inside Sirloaz's troubled mind raged, as If fighting a battle against invisible foes, killing him slowly. He woke with a start, his body drenched in cold sweat and breathing hard. "I.. I can't see" he said frantically, then attempting to move he realized he was bound. The Hard bite of the ropes cutting into his limbs. He suddenly sensed that he was not alone.

Poor little child the voice said mockingly. lost are we? it said laughing at his futile attempts to free himself. Unable to see? Are we hurt by their evil eyes? it said as the room was suddenly illuminated. Four Duregar lining the walls standing at attention their gray skin covered in dark black armor. Their soulless eyes staring into nothingness.

After a few minutes of struggling Sirloaz stopped right as the stone doors creaked open and Hooded figure with markings covering his left eye akin to the ones that once appeared on the skin of seraph strode in, two other Duregar flanking him, their armor covered in spikes their wild eyes darting around.

"I see our visitor is awake" He said as he walked behind Sirloaz out of his view while the two berzerkers stood on either side of the bound man. "What were you doing here?" he asked the tattoos that surrounded his face moving with each word.
"struggling will bring you only pain, speak!" he said grasping Sirloaz's head as the priests fingernails dug into Sirloaz's skin. Closing his eyes and grunting against the pain he worked to free his hands. "So be it, you will truly suffer, for it is the will of Bane" the priest said muttering an incantation, then suddenly Sirloaz's body was racked with pain.

Like a thousand needles digging into his body, he screamed, a deep primal roar of pain as the priest began to dig through his mind ripping apart his thoughts delving into the chaos. The priest only laughed as he went deeper forcing Sirloaz to relive every moment of pain he experienced, his thoughts of joy shredded away leaving him bare. Suddenly the priest began to struggle. "What is this!?" he yelled at the duregar. the blood draining from his face.

One of the berzerkers reached for a small dagger he had kept in his belt only to find it missing. Sirloaz just smiled his eyes clouded over as his arm darted out slashing the duregar's throat blood splattering across the table and Sirloaz. Then quickly he shoved the dagger deep into the throat of the other berzerker before it could comprehend what was going on blood spewing from its wound. Cutting the ropes with a few quick slashes the small blade doing its job he leaped of the table and tossed the small blade into the chest of the closest dark dwarf.

Drawing his daggers he dashed towards the priest that had backed against the wall. The priest put up his arms in defense Sirloaz's quick attack rendering them useless as he began to repeatedly stab priest. His life blood spewing forth with each new mark, the mutilated body smeared across the floor. Turning around to face the new threat He ran head first into the trio of duregar. His two daggers lodging themselves into the skulls of the ones to his right and left.

Then jumping atop of the last duregar he stared it in the eyes, its Black quivering eyes meeting Sirloaz's own clouded eyes and in one last yell he thrust the dagger through the helmet of the duregar ending its life in an instant. Retrieving his daggers the blood soaked Sirloaz walked over to the door past the now red stained room stepping on the bodies as he opened the door. "I'm back" he said laughing a deep evil laugh as he ran out into the tunnel.

Arrogance. It ws the word that had stuck in his mind since Seraph had roughly grabbed his collar. Total and utter arrogance.

Adrian wanted to know where the others were. "Gone, the bloody fools. To fight the bloody Dwarves by 'emselves or summit. God knows what. Bloody suicide."

Adrian groaned and rubbed his head. "So what do we do?"

"Stay here, shoot anything that has a beard," Henry muttered, indicating is crossbow. "'Cept Cyrus, of course. Wait."

It was completely stupid plan to Henry, but then he knew he had no better plans. To be so completely disregarded by Seraph had hit home though. No longer would he take orders from that stupid human. Henry took orders from no man. The next time Seraph did, and there was longer than a sword stretch between them, Henry would leave a bolt imbedded in his neck.

Driving the murderous thoughts from his brain, he tried to stay calm. The bulk of the defence of the half-wounded was laid on him. He was the best shot here. Carmenia could fire her bow, but he had never seen her in action and was dubious to her effectiveness. Finn was injured, Adrian was half-conscious and Tan'quin was out of it. He would have to be extra alert.

He gazed at the catwalk above with venom. Maybe if Seraph was the first back he could shoot him "by accident." He smiled at the thought.