Underneath a pile of massive stones, Jace felt the onslaught cease. Lightning still flashed about the peak, occasionally smashing other pillars, but the available rocks near his position had been exhausted, and the collection above him couldn’t grow any larger. Feeling confident, Jace entered his inventory and redesigned his Stone Tunneling spell. He grew it to an impressive diameter with only a few feet of depth. It only worked on uninterrupted rock, so he couldn’t tunnel through everything at once and had to pick individual stones. He chose the biggest ones first, and the negative space of his summoned tunnel eliminated each stone he selected.
He made poor choices at first, dissolving a mammoth slab resting on his chest, which allowed smaller rocks above to crash on him. He winced at the damage and chose rocks off to the side instead, letting their sudden vacancy empty the pile above him. It was a tricky game of Jenga, trying to pull out the stone that wouldn’t cascade everything back down on him. Eventually, he got most of the pile to topple to his left, sparing him more damage and allowing him to get up.
He found a wasteland of jagged rubble all around him. In the center, the wand still stood upright, its crystal head glowing brightly with intense power. Jace ran to retrieve it, receiving another strike of lightning through the top of his head. He saved against the attack and made it to the pedestal without incident. He pulled the magical item and stored it in his inventory. Before escaping the volatile landscape, he scoped out a retreat that kept him away from any of the remaining large rock structures. This meant he had to climb over the jagged terrain of already destroyed slabs, but his tunnel spell was available, and he cleared a path back to the downward trail. Within a minute, the lightning storm was behind him, and he jogged down the slope, eyeing up the valley before him that marked where Wallace’s peak joined his. He hoped the paladin hadn’t met anything she couldn’t handle.
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“Yes, good,” the wind witch said as Wallace drew closer. “Enter my embrace. Shield yourself from the wind and learn to control it. I ask only that you lend me your strength so I might live.”
{Wally,} Brodie said, trying not to yell at his sister. {What are you doing? Everything I can see says you are saving against the charm spell. Why are you still walking forward?}
Wallace ignored him for now, focused on the beautiful woman before her, acting as if hypnotized by the billowing gown that enveloped her voluptuous body. “What strength shall I give you?” she asked, drawing close enough to reach out and touch the woman. The wind still whipped about them, but a tunnel of relative calm had sprung up along the path to the cliff edge where the witch hovered.
“I only need a few levels,” she cooed, reaching toward the paladin suddenly, her gentle hands transforming to claws and her face morphing into a veiny, hideous visage. Her spirit body now matched the translucent nature of her garments and moved against the flow of the wind, threatening to plunge deep into the approaching human.
Wallace was ready and drew her vorpal blade. She had the all-important Solid Spirit feat, which allowed her to strike against ghosts and other insubstantial foes as if they were flesh and blood. The blade struck up into the witch, surprising the spirit with the successful attack. Her clawed hands stopped their assault, only a foot away from sinking into Wallace’s flesh. Instead, the paladin cast Turn Undead through her blade, and a burst of light blasted through the witch as if the distant lightning storm had jumped to this peak.
Wallace took a stumbling step back from the blaring sight and withdrew her weapon for a second attack. The powerful wind witch hovered motionless, Stunned by the turning spell and unable to offer any defense as the armored knight struck again, this time with a sweeping arc that earned two more criticals and almost sent the evil spirit into a death spiral. Wallace followed up by raising her shield and bashing the limp foe backward, off her precarious perch and into the gust around them. The witch released a scream that rattled the few rocks and fled like a kite caught in a hurricane, disappearing in the night.
With the spirit gone, the wind was back, and Wallace almost followed after the witch as a gust hit her in the back, dropping the knight to the ground, her head hitting the rocks where the witch had stood. Her helm saved her from a bloody nose, yet the hit still produced exploding stars before her vision.
Wallace blinked several times and shook her head until all the sparkling light was gone save for a small circle a few inches from her face. Getting her hands beneath her, the knight pushed herself up slowly to a kneeling position and focused her eyes on the glinting object before her. A silver ring lay nestled among the rocks. She picked it up slowly and tried to analyze it, but her magical knowledge wasn’t sufficient. She remembered the blue diamond ring Vithium had given her at the end of their last quest. He had claimed it belonged to Tamar, but the paladin hadn’t remembered it or been able to decipher what that ring could do either. She found that diamond ring in her inventory and placed this one right next to it.
Wallace started to rise and felt the wind at her back, threatening to toss her off into the night. Instead, she stayed on her hands and knees and returned to the stone altar. Her eyes watered from the wind, and she blindly groped about the pedestal until she felt the stiff wand through her armored gauntlets. It came free from the stone, and she hoped it was full because she didn’t want to spend one more second atop this mountain. After storing the item in her inventory, she crawled to the edge of the plateau and off the rise, not finding the confidence to stand until she was several dozen feet down the trail and again in the mountain's wind shadow. In the distance, she saw Jace descending his slope at a run and hurried to meet him.
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Esther hacked and slashed at the creatures around her, constantly staying on the move and offering her raised shield to her opponents as often as her blade. Finally, after what seemed like a dozen minutes, she tumbled into a clearing and saw the ice mound, the magical wand sticking straight out of it. Two more of the frozen creatures stood in her way, and she hacked them to ice shards to gain access to the altar. The crystal pulsed with snow-white energy, and Esther had to sheath Char for a second to free a hand to grab it. A freezing pain jolted through her left side from an enemy attack, and she jumped straight over the ice pedestal to avoid another strike as she hastily stored the wand in her belt.
The rogue turned to face off against the creature and found five waiting for her. She kept her sword sheathed another round and tossed her last dragon fire ruby at their feet. She raised her shield and charged through the flames, already feeling more of the creatures behind her. Esther managed a peak around the guard and saw the way before her relatively clear, only a single foe approaching from the right. She drew Char to deal with it and dashed through the gap in the stones where it had emerged.
Suddenly, she found herself out in the open again, the trail back down the mountain just visible ahead. Closing off her path from the left and right were hordes of creatures desperately trying to prevent her escape. Despite the night, the snow shone with a magical glow, preventing her from using her Shadow Step boots. So, instead, Esther cast Haste on herself and raced for the clearing’s edge. The downward slope was steep enough to look like a straight cliff to her as she raced toward it, and the woman hoped she wasn’t making a mistake by flinging herself off the wrong side.
With the ice fiends closing in, Esther desperately jumped, swinging the shield below her, and landed on the guard like a small sled. Bladed hands stabbed and sliced through the air just above her head as the hot scales beneath her slid over the snow with tremendous speed. She zipped over the plateau's edge just in the nick of time and cried out in terror at what she saw.
It wasn’t a straight drop-off, but it might as well have been. Her speed was so fast that she went forward more than down at first, and the ground perilously dropped away. She was airborne for several seconds before gravity kicked in, bringing her down to the snowy trail. She hit the white powder and nearly turned into a human snowball, but her Dexterity saved her, and she maintained balance on the improvised sled.
The shield had warded her from several dragon fire rubies, and the scales retained that magical heat, melting the snow they touched and speeding her down the slope as if she were sliding on ice. The guard didn’t have a steering mechanism, and as the trail wove around rocks and under trees, Esther leaned and ducked past objects whipping by her at tremendous speed.
Soon, the trail leveled off, and the obstacles thinned, yet she was still going way too fast when she saw something ahead she couldn’t dodge: the end of the snow. Once she dropped far enough in altitude, the snow turned to rocks and grass, and she didn’t think the shield would have a successful time sliding over it. Not knowing what else to do, the rogue unsummoned the magical dragon scales while she was still a few dozen feet from the transition.
Esther fell hard into the snow, the wet slush finding entry into her clothing from every uncomfortable angle. Ice covered her arms and legs, finding its way down her front and back while soaking her hair. As she tumbled over the wet slope, her arms and legs grasped at anything to slow her descent but only found loose snow. The hard ground met her unceremoniously a few seconds later and finally ended her journey. After rolling over twenty feet of rough, unyielding gravel, she collided with a wide tree trunk.
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The woman lay there for several seconds, breathing heavily and trying to assess the damage. She hurt everywhere. She was wet everywhere. And she was freezing cold. Her health was dangerously low, and she wasn’t sure she had the strength to sit up. Still lying on her back, she retrieved one of Gromphy’s health potions from her inventory and poured it into her mouth with a shaking hand. Most of the magical liquid made it to her stomach, and a surge of strength went through her. She sat up.
After taking a quick stock of herself, she thankfully found nothing missing. Somehow, she had managed to sheath her rapier during the descent, and both her swords hung at her waist. All her rings and jewelry were in place, and even her hat had stayed magically affixed to her scalp. She tugged on the brim to produce a momentary cylinder of darkness, and then Shadow Stepped out of it further down the slope. She knew Jace would want her to keep moving.
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Thursa had transformed into a grizzly and sprinted up the steep cavern trail as fast as he could. The ground shook behind him as the lava hound gave chase. The druid wasn’t fast enough. At first, Thursa could outsmart the beast, sensing when the closing monster was about to lunge and dodging to the side, often running along the wall for a few dozen feet as his strong claws bit deep into the stone. The hound’s maw would smash into the ground where the bear had been, disrupting its forward progress and providing Thursa enough time to pull further ahead.
Soon, that wasn’t enough as, instead of going for the kill in one attack, the hound tried to swat the bear with its paws, tossing the shapeshifter into the stone. The rock druid didn’t take much damage from the collision with the wall, but the claw attack ripped through his thick fur, and he had to dance amid the hound's massive paws after rebounding off the stone.
Even as a grizzly, he was small enough to fit under the massive creature’s belly. After playing peek-a-boo with the hound’s fiery eyes for a few rounds, he could usually get the beast to turn around, allowing Thursa to bolt back toward the exit. One of the few spells he could cast as a bear allowed the druid to run upside down along the top of the cavern, his vicious claws securing into the stone. This fooled the lava hound momentarily, enabling Thursa to build another lead.
The druid was running out of tricks as he felt the hound resume its pursuit more cautiously. The end of the tunnel was fast approaching. In the tight, rocky corridor, Thursa had the advantage as he was quicker and more agile. And if the hound did toss him about, it was into a rock wall, which caused minimal damage. His agility wouldn’t grant him the same advantage in the open, and any swipe from the beast would likely send him over a steep drop-off and probably kill him.
Still, he had a chance to cut hard to the left upon exit to head back down the trail and possibly gain a little distance on the beast, who would have to slow down upon exit or send itself tumbling down the slope. The hound cut off that option by belching lava after him. The bear ducked out of the way and saw the vomited stone streak ahead of him to build a wall at the exit, cutting off any quick retreat he might have.
Starlight greeted Thursa upon his exit from the cave. He looked to the left briefly, saw a narrow ledge along the cooling barrier, and decided it wasn’t worth it. He could squeeze by if he canceled his bear form, but it would take him time, and the hound would attack him in a vulnerable state where he couldn’t dodge. Instead, he turned to face the beast, shapeshifting back into a human and readying his spells.
The druid tried his stone pillar attack again, punching three rocky spikes at the cavern’s mouth. The hound didn’t fall for it, stepping back when Thursa swung his fists, allowing the granite to rise unchecked. The resulting pillars created a momentary jail cell for the beast, which it promptly smashed a few seconds later.
The druid wasn’t rich in mana, and all of his spells revolved around rock and fire, which wouldn’t hurt the lava hound in the slightest. He figured his only chance was to enact his demonic rage and see how much damage he could do with his axe. He backed up a few more feet as the beast cautiously approached. Thursa absently kicked a few stones backward and listened as they bounced down the steep slope behind him. The only safe descent down the incline was cut off to his right. Directly behind him and to his left, the drop would kill him. Thursa used the last of his mana to cast Rage on himself, tensing his legs and gripping his axe tightly.
Once it figured its prey had nowhere else to go, the hound pounced and lowered its maw to snap at the man. Thursa jumped, flipping and twisting in the air, so he landed on the hound’s back, just behind its neck. He gripped the scorching body with his powerful legs and began pounding away with his axe as if he were chopping an impossibly thick tree. The lava hound howled in response.
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Esther was halfway across the ice wall to retrieve the wand when the cacophony sounded from below. She had promised herself not to look down, and she broke that promise to glance sideways toward the noise. Just over fifty feet below, she saw Thursa atop a lava creature, bright orange lines of magma crisscrossing over the monster’s body and illuminating the night. The druid’s axe tore at its stone scales, opening wider tracks for the lava to spill out like blood. Despite the heat resistance she knew he had, it likely didn’t give him 100% protection against lava, and eventually, the beast would find a way to smash its rider against a stone and dislodge him. She had to get down there.
Esther turned back to the task at hand and moved as quickly as she dared. The wand was only a few feet away, and she reached out to pull it free and store it in her inventory. As she moved back, she felt tremors in the wall from the battle below. Snow from above rained down on her, and she feared a larger avalanche that would wipe her out. When it didn’t come, she glanced back down at the fight.
The giant hound shook the whole mountain as it smashed against the rock, attempting to throw its rider. The rogue tried not to let it disturb her concentration, but as she reached back toward safety with a knife in hand, her blade cut a new hole in the wall instead of finding the old one. That probably wasn’t enough on its own, but the earthquake from below shook the glacier again, and a tiny crack formed, connecting the two puncture marks.
The rogue held her breath as she hung from the wall and then watched in horror as the crack zapped through the rest of the wall like lightning, severing the lower half of the ice sheet and sending it crashing down with the water below her. Her legs hadn’t been helping her climb, and now they were drenched with a torrent of ice-cold water. She felt the ice she still clung to tremor from the change in pressure and hung on desperately as the waterfall tugged on her lower body, threatening to drag it to the rocks below where the chunk of ice shattered like a massive chandelier.
She no longer had a path back to the ledge as the crack had taken out more of her handholds, and Esther took a few calming breaths, already losing sensation in her lower body as her legs went numb from the cold. Instead of going sideways, she ventured up, stabbing with her knife and pulling hard against the solid ice. Soon, her legs were free from the water, and she kicked them furiously to generate warmth, missing the days when she was cold-blooded.
A clear path lay to her left, but she had to create new holes in the unstable ice, and she plunged her knives in cautiously, waiting for a full round between each before proceeding. She thought she would make it, but another shockwave coursed through the mountain, and a small crack grew from a hole right before her face. She watched it grow nine inches and then stop, teasing her. She knew it could expand in a heartbeat, and if it did, she would fall to her death in an icy grave. This time, she knew she would wake up in her bed in Jace’s stronghold, but the shaman needed her on this quest.
She glanced back down toward Thursa and saw that the lava hound’s antics that had produced this last tremor had also thrown the druid to the ground, and he lay limp on the stone just before the monster’s smoking maw. Acting on instinct, Esther shoved off the ice wall using all her legs’ limited strength. Before her, she saw the crack instantly extend in both directions and separate the ice from the wall.
As if in slow motion, the graceful woman twisted in the air as she sheathed her knives so she was flying head first and face down toward the distant cliff edge. She had no chance of landing on her starting ledge as it was already a dozen feet above her. Instead, she drew Chill from its sheath, grasped it tightly in both hands, and raised it over her head as she dropped like a diving falcon.
The lava hound below heard the massive crack in the glacier, and without the druid on its back to distract it, its large head turned to investigate. The ice had already fallen out of view to smash on the rocks below. Instead, the beast perceived a black figure emerging from the shadows of the night and streaking toward its back.
Esther tried to transfer as much of the impact as she could into her rapier as she thrust down with both hands, securing the frost blade deep into the lava creature’s spine. The game gave her credit for the effort, letting the attack absorb most of the force and only dealing half the damage she should have received from the fall. She rolled off the monster’s back as it reared up in pain, the icy blade stabbing into its fiery soul. Try as it might, it would never be able to knock the blade free, and its chaotic efforts of smashing its body against the stone only drove the weapon deeper. Eventually, the best careened off the ledge and fell out of view, howling into the night.
Esther rose slowly from where she fell and crawled over to Thursa. He was unconscious and covered with burns and wounds. She fed him a potion and drank one herself. The game only allowed her to carry five of the potent elixirs; she had already used four on this brief mission. Thursa opened his eyes and smiled up at Esther. “It’s nice to wake up to you.”
“It’s nice of you to wake up. That thing nearly killed you.”
Thursa shook his head. “No. I had it right where I wanted it.”
Esther laughed. “Oh, is that so? And where was that?”
“Right beneath you,” he said with a straight face.
“I bet you’d like to be beneath me,” she teased, swinging a leg over to straddle the shirtless man who lay on his back.
Noise to her left stole her attention as the cooled lava wall exploded and rocks showered them. A few seconds later, Jace’s orc form stepped through a hole Diamond Etcher had cut. He took one look at the characters in a compromising position and sighed. “Esther, we don’t have time for this.”
She pouted like a child and stood up, offering a hand to help Thursa off the ground. He took it, but not before sneaking a peak up her skirt. Wallace was right behind Jace and rolled her eyes at her companion’s antics.
“Did you get what we need?” Jace asked once both characters were standing. They nodded. “Good, then let’s get going. Psycho and his group are moments from a pirate attack. If we are going to weaken Cloudspark, we need to do it now.”
The NPCs fell in line, and they hurried down the mountain trail. At the bottom, Esther made a brief stop to retrieve Chill from the cold, dead lava hound, and they continued to the Silver Dragon as Jace explained his plan.