Saturday, January 11, 2020

Master of Strings Ch 113: In the Heart of the Dragons

Zilo spread around a few Cure Light Wounds to his companions as they prepared to continue further into the lair of the Green Dragons. Once done, they make their way over to the next door forward into the Green Dragon hideout, but before they can open the door they look to see that the door has three different knobs.

"What's wit dis?" Asks Jin looking over all three of them. Alaroc takes a swig of his drink and as he uncranes his neck back down he remarks, "Probably a trap."

Zilo,  Alaroc, and Jin all halt and rub their chins in unison, considering how to proceed, until Sparky reaches up and grabs the lowest knob. Before Jin can grab him the door is open and Jin hits the deck. A crossbow bolt fires out the door and misses the diminutive Sparky.

The bolt fires out over the short goblin and prone Jin, embedding itself into the mattress of one of the bunk beds behind them at chest level. Zilo's eyes move with the bolt, and as he saw the bolt drip with some form of purple liquid he gives Sparky a short little thumbs up. Jin breaths heavy as Alaroc moves forward to take the lead followed by Zilo, Sparky, and Jin into the narrow 5-foot wide hallway.

The monk shouts, "Keep yer eyes careful. Who knows what else dey set up here."

Alaroc shouts back, "Well they set up a little warning here." Alaroc points at a sign sticking out at eye level in the hallway. Alaroc begins to read it off. "Lieutenants only, do not continue, or your meals and takes will be significantly thinner."

"We must be getting close then." Spoke Zilo.

Jin's nods and points forward, Alaroc nods to him and crouches down to go under the sign. After he does so the floor tile he stepped on depresses and the doorway that they had come from was replaced with a solid metal slab that shuts down from the ceiling.

Jin dashes back and examines the door before trying to punch it down like he had done to the secret door to the hideout. The door stands firm without moving an inch. He then tried to punch the walls around them, only to now realize it is made of the same type of dull dark green metal.

Zilo examines the walls and says, "I think it's adamantine. Underdark metal that is dense beyond anything humans can dream to craft. Ain't breaking through this easily."

Jin sighs and begins to walk back until his ears perk up and he begins to run and point forward," We gotta leave! Now!" As Jin makes his way back, the walls suddenly make a loud shifting noise, and then they slowly begin to close in on the group.  The three others turn and begin to run.

Alaroc's armor makes it a bit tougher for him to move easily, especially in this slowly closing hallway. He makes the party behind him move much slower. Once they make their way to the other end of the hallway, the walls only give them about 3 feet of clearance. Alaroc slammed into the door, only to find that it also is solid adamantine.

"What we do!" Shouts a panicking Sparky. Zilo grits his teeth. He double-checks the roof and ground to see if they are made of anything other than adamantine. When they both also prove to be made of the metals his face begins to grow paler. Shaking the feeling away, he begins to form an idea and kneels down to Sparky, casting Eagle's Splendor on him before saying.

"Sparky, I need you to put everything you have into one circle in the wall from about 2 feet away." Sparky looks up to Zilo. The bard gives the goblin a smiling face and a nod, then Sparky steps between Alaroc's legs and begins letting loose a torrent of Burning Hands at one part of the metal slab at the end of the hall.

Alaroc steps back as he, Zilo, and Jin gather about 30 feet down the hall. Zilo begins casting a slew of spells on Jin. He casts, Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance, and Haste across all four of them to get ready in case there's something past that door.

Zilo then tells Jin, "You need to drink, cause you are about to bust that wall and you are gonna need a bit of liquid courage."

Jin looks at the bard in shock as beads of sweat begin to form on his head. Alaroc looks back to Sparky, and the air of the hallway is beginning to shift and shiver from the sheer amount of heat being used to weaken the metal into slag. Jin begins to drink and Zilo takes off his hat to wipe off the sweat.

"Alaroc lend me your gauntlets." The cavalier removes his gauntlets, and Zilo begins to wrap them in clothe and dump his water skin on them. He then explains, "Adamantine isn't something you can brute force, even the smiths who use it can't make it into ingots from how condensed it is. Best they can hope is to use enough heat to make it malleable. That's our best shot out of here"

Zilo gives the gauntlets to Jin who slips them onto his hands as his tail continues to pour his drink. Zilo looks to the wall to see that it only has less than 2 ft of clearance now. Zilo grits his teeth and tells Jin, "Go now we don't have much time!"

Zilo and Alaroc squat down a bit and let Jin clamber over them and he takes off at full blast. As he begins to run, the closing wall makes running tough, make it probably impossible to build up the speed he needed for his charge. To solve this, he begins to cartwheel to make up for the room he doesn't have and it ends in a leaping double fisted slam into the wall. The heat of Sparky's spells makes the wall start to flex but not break as Jin impacts the spot.

Jin forces his fingers in and pieces through the metal slag. He shouts in pain from the heat of the metal as he rips out and forces a hole to form, enough for him to hop in with his hairs getting a few flecks of fire on the tips. Sparky follows after and Zilo and Alaroc begin to also make their way over.

Just as Zilo and Alaroc are a short 5 feet from the door, shimmying with some side walking, Alaroc stops. Zilo bumps into him. Alaroc's helmet is held in place and immovable, beginning to bend from the compressing force of the wall. Zilo tried to force the helmet off, but he doesn't have the room to maneuver his hands.

Jin and Sparky look back at the hole they just leapt through, only to see the wall close completely with a thud, leaving no room for anything to be in the hallway. The two of them sit there speechless. Sparky's eyes begin to well up and Jin begins to punch the cool parts of the wall with his burnt hands.

Jin shouts, "Damnit! Why! Why didnae we just find de dragon's lair..." Jin falls to the ground with a kneel and says, "I did dis, I got dem killed, Gods be damned! I killed them!"

Sparky's tears echo through the room, but then he is suddenly bashed by something that tackled him from the left. Jin spins about, landing on his butt from his kneel, to see something that leaves his mouth a gap.

He sees Sparky, in a dogpile, and a wispy looking shadow portal off to the left. Atop Sparky is Zilo and Alaroc, with the bard smiling, and saying, "Phew! That was close!"

Jin stands and approaches as Sparky hugs Alaroc's leg. Jin asks Zilo, "How? I saw de wall crush ya!"

Zilo waves his hand about leaving a faint trail of shadow wisps on his fingertips' trail. The bard speaks, "Shadow Walk, I took us on a little detour to get out." Sparky leaps up onto Zilo's back giving him a hug, but then, after a nod, Jin's eyes snap and he asks, "Zilo what was stoppin ya from doin dat in de first place?"

Zilo shrugs and says, "I forgot, my bad." Jin shakes his head and facepalms as a now annoyed Sparky begins to cast boiling blood to superheat the bard who beings to shout and run about in pain. Meanwhile, Alaroc and Jin set about exploring the new room they are in.

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