Fetzen

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@POOHEAD189Uh... well... it seems I've screwed up again. Sorry :/ An-Hasst was intended to go down the tunnel the stones were removed from. However if I remove those wrong parts there will hardly be anything left of my post because there's no information about that other tunnel.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

Well I guess I should apologize for the delay :/ @POOHEAD189

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

An-Hasst had performed nothing less than a backwards sumersault through the air in order to escape the little mishap. Had it been him who had relocated that last, wrongly situated rock ? The Skayleigh wasn't sure, but right now his thoughts were more focused on physical pain anyway. While his sudden and instictively executed maneuver had probably an astonishing demonstration of how quickly he could move his giant bulk around in full armor, it had also certainly had a disruptive effect on his healing.

Still there was no time. Even without thinking about lava spirit's and all that other fancy, 'extraordinary' stuff those dwarves were talking about so often, one couldn't deny that the molten minerals around them sounded rather... angry, to put it in a personalized sense. An-Hasst didn't look forward to be fried alive, so he got himself moving again through the opening which luckely had become large enough. It wasn't until he was on the other side and halfway stopped that he recognized the strange, particular and yet very intriguing picture in the next chamber.

A stairway. Given that they had travelled over a somewhat dilapidated looking bridge that could very well have offered all of them a quick death by gravity-induced high-speed impact and had just witnessed the glory of a dwarven smithy surrounded by angry lava this almost human-made looking commodity was nothing the Skayleigh would have had expected. The question was... where did it go ? In an act of selfish curiosity, An-Hasst didn't hesitate to try and find out how well the stairs could handle his giant feet and got going, not delivering any explicit callout to his comrades about what he was doing.

@BCTheEntity@The Fated Fallen@POOHEAD189[@Banana]

_{edited 12-03-2017 to fix errors}

Descent into chaos

Ferthyr was glad to see that his companion managed to control his rage -- with a little, frightening bit of dead time though. Luckily, there wasn't much to be collected from the hut they had passed the previous night in. If Bardeck was right with anything then it was that they needed to hurry. Frankly, had there been any day in the past weeks when they had not experienced the need to be fast ? He couldn't remember, so all that was left to do was to get back onto 'his' horse's back and pull at the reigns to get it going. Over the hills and away.

Over the course of the next hour, Ferthyr wasn't exactly sure if they should actually pursue the goal they were pursuing at the moment. He didn't feel much of an association with that region or its inhabitants, at least at the moment. But if they could help prevent some foul trick with little effort, why not ? What he really hoped for was that Bardeck wasn't after that cache of gold. First of all the thing would slow them down, and secondly they were in no position to go to any merchant and convert the noble metal into anything really useful. And there was fear that this could be a cleverly laid out trap that could bring their downfall after what right now appeared to be victory. Great care was to be taken, that was sure in his mind.

Luckily, once the encounter happened, a bunch of trees impeded the line of sight. Ferthyr immediately brought his mount to a halt and hopped to the ground. He patted Bardeck's muscular leg to silently tell him to do the same thing. With their profiles lower to the ground they'd be less visible and exposed. He tucked his wings tightly behind his broad back. "These are six men. Are you sure we should try that ?" Ferthyr squinted while whispering this, doubts blatantly visible in his facial expression. "We probably have the moment of surprise on our side, but I seriously doubt that a chest full of gold would be escorted by anyone but very, very experienced fighters. This could be a trap, laid out by the vanquished."

So far the men did not seem to have noticed their observers. Their backs were already halfway turned towards them as they were virtually encircling the treasure -- or whatever really was in that reinforced box. The path was well beaten, but that didn't stop them from making considerable progress.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

So at this point I'd like to express my gratefulness to you, folks. You've patiently waited for me to try and get something through the cloud of shit I'm currently in. It took me way too long to succeed I guess.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

Dumping the rubble into the magma had been a very convenient and even somewhat funny way to dispose of it, however if a dwarf came to the conclusion that this could invoke the anger of those they were trying to escape from maybe it indeed was the better option to turn around for each and every rock and pile them up neatly along the way, leaving enough empty space for everyone to get along without tripping. Who else knew so much about stones, even though the theory was weird ?

The only problem was that there some wounds along An-Hasst's flank whose complete healing was still pending and which did respond to some of the moves required in the process with surges of pain. A good opportunity for everyone in the vicinity to learn something about the Skayleigh language, even though the vocabulary mainly revolved around curses and other things one could consider to be despicable expressions. It just was the half-elf, half-giant's way of compensation for unfortunate personal circumstances.

Then Ursaren dropped out. With a what's wrong with you ?-expression on his face, the Skayleigh turned arounds towards the man. If it hadn't been for the recent demonstration of his true capabilities An-Hasst would simply have suspected that this was a case of an old man having over-exerted himself, but that was somewhat out of the question. Unable to feel the same intensity the bear-man did, already having experienced the much more mild level of it and last but not least with the strict order to get this passageway open, the Skayleigh continued to work. By now it would already have been possible for the smaller members of their group to sneak through, but not for everyone.

@POOHEAD189@Banana@The Fated Fallen@BCTheEntity

Allaria - Classical Fantasy Ch. 5 - Recruit the Shadowwald!

I am trying to do the same, however it merely takes a look at my status message to see that this might be delayed :/

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

Last Part of part 1 ? I never knew there actually are parts...

Descent into chaos

"Why not try it out ?" came Ferthyr's voice, somewhat annoyed and certainly with impatience in mind. Bardeck's companion drew closer towards the scene, resting assured that noone else was around anymore who could pose any threat.

"If I understood it correctly we're not planning on staying much longer here anyway. If there's such a meeting we could at least try to get there in time and watch from the distance. We don't need to engage." Ferthyr was honest with saying this. While he had interest in finding out if they were being told the truth since there was hardly anything else with real purpose they could do, he had no interest in deliberately maneuvering himself into yet another fight.

Clearly, Ferthyr was speaking towards his companion and not to the man on the ground. That didn't stop the latter from being an issue though. "What do we do with him ? I don't see any reasonable point in killing. We will never be able to clear this place from any signs of a recent fight anyway. So maybe just give him a chance and let him go ?" Ferthyr doubted that the man could go fast anywhere anyway, given the massive injuries.

"I suggest we just use those horses they've gladly left behind for us..." Each time Ferthyr grinned, a row of razor-sharp, small teeth became visible even to the less attentive observer. He turned around, walked towards one of the steeds that had not run away during the fight, put his left foot into the stirrups -- and inadvertently demonstrated that there could be some serious issue with his weight.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

Internally, An-Hasst let go of a large sigh of relief. Ahhh, finally a hotspot of competence inside of this overcrowded mess of utter ignorance. Not exactly generous, charming or maybe just even not providing him with that certain impression of repudiation, Geradin at least appeared to know what he was doing. Only a few moments of self-praise later there was a bit of information that the Skayleigh considered vital: Foul magic ? Infused into the rock itself ? Now the original constructors of this dwarven forge wouldn't have done that to their sacred environment, would they ? So the answer was clear

"Thank you." he told the dwarf, before noticing that progress appeared to be made on the other side. It was obvious that it would take a while to clear that passage, but it would be a second way out. An especially good second way, since a passage which had been blocked previously probably would not be used by any dark elves as a second way of ambush vice versa.

The Skayleigh found it wise to stop wasting time and help Ursaren -- after all he was a damn large heap of proud half-giant muscle who could help move at least a few of the smaller rocks until his wounds would have healed completely. However there was something else... Something... ugly and very uncomforting. Why had he not felt it earlier ? Maybe because it was too faint and he had been distracted, but there also was the possibility that it had just started now.

The idea of that made him thud over towards the excavation site and try and help digging. The earlier this passageway would be free to use, the better!

@Banana@The Fated Fallen@BCTheEntity@POOHEAD189