Varien raised his shield as the elven
ranger cast hunter’s mark and swung
with his sword. The first blow clanged off the paladin’s shield, but the second
cut deeply.
Varien pivoted and tried to block an
incoming sword from a second elf that emerged from the shadows, his eyes
flashing with fanatical ferocity, but the fighter was too nimble for him, stabbing him
in the guts with the point of his rapier.
Erwen-Tiger sniffed the ground, growled,
and bounded into the northwest tunnel in search of the prey who had dared
riddle him with arrows. He smelled the fey creature hiding behind a concealed
door, and dove through the thatch of woven vines, clawing at the surprised elf.
“Tank inbound!” Bob shouted as he heard
Varien’s shouts of distress. He rushed into the chamber, taking note of the
tripwire as he moved.
The floor gave way to reveal a deep pit,
its floor covered in sharpened wooden stakes.
“Whoops!” Bob shouted as he misty stepped to the far side of the
chamber.
“All right then!” He stood up and cast mirror image , creating three duplicates
of himself. “We’re here to help!” he shouted in stereo.
The elves ignored him. Bob began to shout
as many Elvish curses as he could remember.
Xylon moved gingerly around the open pit in
the centre of the chamber and cast fireball
on the group of elves.
“Xylon, no!” Varien shouted as flames
curled around him. He watched in horror as the fallen elf at his feet burned to
a crisp.
The other elves fared little better,
writhing in agony as the wizard’s fireball rolled down the tunnel.
Xylon’s eyes gleamed.
Radegast saw the orange-glow of blossoming
firelight illuminating the southern chamber and rushed forward, catching the
tail end of Xylon’s inferno as it burned its way through the tunnel.
The ground beneath her shook, flinching as
if alive, and from all around there was a keening, mournful wail that turned
into a hideous shriek.
Then, a voice, amplified by magic, rang out
through the earthen tunnels.
“Sisters!” it shouted in Sylvan, tinged
with an Elvish accent. “Remember our bargain! Cleanse your home of these filthy
intruders!”
Varien and Bob heard the voice above the
rushing fireball, but couldn’t make out what it said. “Can we all speak Common,
please?” the paladin shouted.
In the northwest tunnel, the elven archer
dropped his bow and pulled a dagger, stabbing Erwen-Tiger.
The screaming intensified as fire blistered
the roots and vines that made up the ceiling, floor and wall of the tunnel.
“This will shut it up!” Radegast said, and
cast silence into the conflagration, instantly drowning out the crackling of
fire and coughing of the burned elves.
The scream continued.
“No, it didn’t,” Radegast muttered to
herself.
From the now silent flames, a figured
dashed forward as if in pantomime. It was an Elven woman, her crown of holly
now singed and sagging, swinging a quarterstaff. She exited the sphere of
silence in mid-scream, casting shillelagh
so that her quarterstaff glowed with arcane energy. She swung the staff at
Radegast, missing.
Alec stepped up and struck the druid with a
mailed fist, laying her out.
In the northwest tunnel, a second elf
stepped out from behind the archer and cast entangle
on Erwen-Tiger. Instantly the corridor filled with ropy vines that snared the
wildshaped druid in place.
Erwen-Tiger yowled and flexed, bursting the
vines, and then snapped ineffectually at the elves as he lunged forward.
Alec stood triumphantly over the prone elf.
Arrows began to whistle past the fighter
and the bard, one of them jabbing Alec in the back.
Radegast flinched as an arrow sliced her
shirtsleeve and her concentration faltered. The silence ended and the sounds of
conflagration resumed.
“We got one!” She shouted into the flames
as Alec stooped to pick the elf up. “We have to leave RIGHT NOW!”
Xylon raised his hands. He wasn’t finished
with the Eldreth Veluuthra yet.
He cast burning
hands and more fire rained down on the elven attackers.
Bob rounded on Xylon and let out a stream
of curses in Elvish.
“Speak to your mother with that mouth?”
Xylon snapped back.
There was a slippery squelching sound from
the roots in the wall near them. One of the roots bulged horribly, splitting
open to reveal a humanoid figure, clad in a corset-like outfit made of thorns
and vines. Its clawed hands were sharp, and its eyes glowed with freshly
kindled rage.
“Going somewhere?” it hissed as it cast entangle on the trio.
The room filled with twisting vines that
snared Bob, Varien, and Xylon in place.
Bob cast a healing word on Varien and then fired off a firebolt , which missed the creature.
In the southern chamber, Alec double-timed
it with the elven woman cradled in his arms.
The vines in the wall near Radegast bulged
and twisted open, revealing another creature, its long limbs unfolding
unnaturally as it raised a thorn-covered fist at the bard. The humanoid’s shape
was vaguely female, its clothing fashioned from thorns and twisting vines.
“You’ll pay for your intrusion,” the
creature cackled in Sylvan.
“You’ll pay for that awful outfit!”
Radegast shouted back, also in Sylvan. The bard recognized the creature as a
dryad.
The creature made a fist as its cast magic missile .
Radegast grabbed a chardalyn stone from her pouch and held it up. The black stone glowed
and pulled the magic missile darts
right into it with a whooshing sound.
“Neat!” Radegast said. She winked at the
dryad.
Xylon fought to free himself and then
shrugged, casting burning hands on
the creeping vines around him. They began to burn.
Alec rushed into the northern tunnel, the
unconscious elf held fast in his manly grip.
The dryad saw him coming and cast entangle again.
Alec strained against the vines, his shirt
tearing from his chest.
An elven assassin stepped out of the
shadows and raised a blade at Alec’s back.
“No, you won’t be following us, laddie!”
shouted Radegast as she moved to block the elf’s attack.
Varien burst from his bonds and cast a vow of enmity on the dryad. He swung his
sword Talon with a divine smite that connected, wiping the cruel grin from the
creature’s features.
The dryad stared at the paladin, an animal
cunning in its eyes as it cast suggestion .
“Now, now, fighting’s not your game,” she hissed playfully at the paladin. “I
think you’ll enjoy yourself much more if you explore the depths of my warren.”
“You’re making a lot of sense,” Varien
said, and began to sheathe his sword.
“Hey, if anyone’s going to manipulate my
friend, it’s going to be me!” Bob shouted, hurling a firebolt at the creature.
The creature hissed as the bolt of fire
struck home. The spell was broken.
“Hey!” Varien said. “I’m not going to do
what you just said!” He pulled his sword out and readied another attack.
The elven rogue stabbed at Radegast,
cutting her twice with his shortsword.
Xylon stepped free from the burning vines
and rushed into the chamber where Varien was fighting the dryad.
“Hey beautiful, how you doin?” He asked,
casting a fire-based chromatic orb at
the dryad, which slammed home.
Alec broke free from the vines and rushed
out of the warren into the glade.
Radegast was finished with trying to cover
Alec’s retreat. “Bye now!” she shouted at the elf as she dashed through the
north tunnel, dodging the dryad on the way.
The dryad’s hand filled with a hidden
dagger and she stabbed at Radegast as the bard ran by, catching a glancing cut
on her foot.
“Ow!” Radegast stumbled at the mouth of the
tunnel. “I stepped on a thorn or something!” She cradled her injured foot.
“Begone, wench!” Varien shouted as he swung
Talon, landing another divine smite on the distracted dryad. “You can’t fool
me!” He shouted for emphasis as he stabbed her over and over, knocking her
against the warren wall, where she splattered into a leafy, thorny mess.
Varien turned to Erwen-Tiger, who was
padding up the hallway. “We have to get out of here, now!” The pair disappeared
into the tunnel, heading for the entrance.
Bob and Xylon were about to follow when the
floor before them erupted in a shower of leaves. The dryad from the southern
chamber leapt into view, screaming in rage as she saw the dead body of the
other dryad slumped against the tunnel wall, green ooze still leaking from her
shattered corpse.
“MY SISTER!” the dryad screamed in rage and
grief. “YOU KILLED MY SISTER!” With a howl she lashed out towards the retreating
Varien, casting wall of thorns.
There was a rumble in the tunnel.
Erwen-Tiger had enough time to turn around and meow in panic as the tunnel
filled from top to bottom with a menacing tangle of rushing thorns, which
overtook both him and Varien in as much time as it took to tell. The druid and
paladin felt dozens of stabbing wounds open on their bodies as the thorns
pressed in on all sides. The force of the attack threw Erwen out of wildshape.
Varien sagged, suddenly impaled by the thorns.
Radegast looked up from her seat on the
ground to see a tsunami of roiling thorns rushing towards her.
She didn’t have time to scream.
Alec gaped in horror as the rampaging wall came
to rest just a few inches from him, Radegast’s blood dripping from the dense
thicket of needle-sharp thorns.