Into The Dark

Descending into the cave the light slowly vanished and before long it was already dark enough that the pair had no other choice but to light a lantern. The darkness eventually grew so dark that other than the light from the lantern nothing else could be seen.

After a few moments passed the pair eventually saw a ugly sight before their eyes, the bodys of those who unknowingly participated in Shalidors caltrop trap plan.

In front of their eyes was a group of kobolds who were most likely the guards for the cave and surprisingly the goblin from outside wasn't part of the group. Seeing the kobolds who passed away without even knowing what happened Febbs felt slightly sorry for them thinking to himself that they never even stood a chance.

After maneuvering around the kobold Shalador and Febbs finally reached the first "room" of the cave. The wall of the cave broke off from the narrow descending tunnel style from earlier and is now is a room with rough stone walls and another tunnel on the other side of the room leading deeper in.

Looking around the room Shalador and Febbs both noticed a few bedrolls lying around a small light emitting from the ground. Walking over towards the light Shalador found that it was some kind of red stone able to emit light. After a few failed attempts at removing the stone from the ground Shalador went on the examine the rest of the room and found something strange.

He noticed that one of the walls in the room was… oddly flat for a cave. Putting is hand against the wall Shalador felt a gross sticky feeling against it. After quickly pulling his hand back in disgust he saw the liquid on the wall seem to smear because of him touching it. Having a odd feeling about the wall Shalador pulled out a bar of soap and took a few steps back before hurling the bar of soap at the wall.

The bar of soap after sticking to the wall for a second before sliding down and taking what turned out to be paint with it. Seeing the now revealed door Shalador grabbed a cloth from his bag and began cleaning the rest of the door until it now mostly looked like an actual door.

Seeing his Shalador suddenly touching a wall then throwing soap against it was not something that Febbs was expecting to happen at all and thus when it did happen he was once again shocked by Shaladors actions. Feeling that he should talk about this Febbs walked over to Shalador who was currently rubbing a wall (with a cloth) and said "Uhhh Shal? What you uh doing there?"

Not even turning to look at him Shalador spoke back "There is a door behind this. It was hidden but if i just... wipe this paint off then we should be able to go through". A few moments of time passed before the door was fully cleaned and was pushed open by the combined efforts of Shalador and Febbs.

When Febbs tried to take a step through the door he felt a hand at his chest, looking over he saw Shalador looking at him with hollow eyes "Did you call me 'Shal' ?"

At this moment a thousand thoughts raced through Febbs' head yet the only words he could put together was "Yes… No… I… Ugh… Maybe"which was just a combinations of all answers

The chilling smile on Shaladors face grew even colder "Oh? Did you or did you not call me Shal?"

Falling to his his knees Febs apologized a few times before eventually swearing not to call him "Shal" again.

Walking through the door and down the narrow tunnel both Shalador and Febbs found it eerily quiet when a sudden noise appeared

*Click*

"Huh what was that?" Febbs asked confused

Looking around for the source of the sound Shalador didn't notice what it was till it was too

late, a trap. Flames rained down upon them burning both of them. Although the flames were not strong enough to give them heavy injuries that doesn't mean that they got of unscaved.

"Ow ow ow ow" Febbs complained relentlessly for a little before eventually stopping and then the tunnel once more fell into silence. While walking down the tunnel this time however the duo was much more careful in fear that the would set off another trap like last time.

More time passed and the pair continued to walk deeper in while they would occasionally exchange words but for most of the walk it was in silence.

As the two nearned the end of the secret tunnel they once more encountered another opening where the cave turned into a large room light up by more of the strange stone from before. As they looked around the room they saw a pedestal with a orb sitting atop of it.

Surrounding the pedestal were four tents each of which seemed to currently be occupied by someone or something.

Leaning over to Febbs, Shalador whispered 'Do you think you can sneak over to one of the tents and see who's in them?"

Giving a quick nod Febbs ducked down and slowly started approaching the closest tent. Upon sneakily opening the tent Febbs saw a large man lying down, sleeping. Now knowing what it was inside the tent Febbs began backing away to go tell Shalador what it was when a burly hand grabbed at his neck and threw him casing him to crash into the stone wall.

Falling to the ground Febbs had all the air in his lungs blasted out when he crashed into the wall. Looking towards the man who now is stepping out his tent revealing his goliath size, a size that no human could hope to reach naturally.

[Magic Missile]

Shalador seeing his companion in trouble counterattacked with three blue arrows that launched towards the goliath. The goliath seeing the three arrows coming towards him stopped and knocked two of the arrows out of the way with a flick of his arm and grabbed the third one and threw it back to Shalador.

Not expecting the goliath to throw it back Shaldor was caught unprepared and suffered the same fate that others have, being stuck by a magic missile. Fearful of the goliath doing the same again Shalador gave up thoughts on trying again so no whe turned his attention to the other three tents.

Exiting the three tents were two other males in black robes like the one from the tavern while the fourth one was a gnome girl in the same robes.

Having no time to think Shalador cast his next spell

[Burning Ray]

After casting the spell six beams of flames shout out towards the three robed opponents, two per opponent.

The three had little time to prepare thus when the attack was in front of them they each used their means to defend against the attack. The first black robe cast some sort of shield spell and thus was able to successfully defend, The second black robe tried to block via brute force but ultimately failed and was quickly reduced to a pile of ashes but before the last of his body turned to ashes he uttered his last words, "I don't feel so good…". As for the gnome she was able to dodge out out the way of the two beams and thus made it out safely.

After jumping out of the way of the flames the gnome pulled out a two throwing knifes from her push and threw them at Shalador.

Being stabbed by both the daggers Shalador prepared for a counter attack when he heard strange words being uttered by the other black robe.

After seeing the goliath easily defended against the the magic missile Febbs was strangely excited. Laughing he go back up and pulled out the a new staff, this staff was black in design with white carving on it. "You like?" Febbs asked seeing the goliath looking at his staff.

Running a few steps forward then jumping towards the goliath Febbs uttered " Its brand new. And you know what…" while swinging the staff at the goliath.

The goliath raising his arm to block it was not stuck in the arm instead of the head and after getting hit he used his other hand and reached up to Febbs' neck when Febbs continued on "It has a sick enchantment!".

Hearing the other party's words he tried to backup but it was to late, The staff began glowing while Febbs opened his mouth and a streak of lightning shot out while the staff created an explosion.

However on the other side of the battlefield it was not going so well for Shalador. By this point he had a few throwing knives sticking out of him but fortunately was able to finish off the robed mage only leaving the nimbe gnome.

*BANG* *ROAR!*

As Febbs used his final attack the large boom distracted the gnome for a split second causing her to look over towards Febbs and the goliath.

"Now!" Seeing the gnome distracted Shalador knew this was his moment!

[Fireball]

A ball of flames launched over to the gnome striking her distracted body.

When she realized she was still in a fight she quickly turned back to Shalador but unfortunately for her it was already to late and the flames were upon her.

Seeing the gnome collapse finally Shalador relaxed. Looking back over to Febbs side he already saw him walking over with a stupid grin on his face "You aren't going to collapse this time right?"

Slightly irritated by Febbs, Shalador ignored him before looking towards the pedestal or more specifically the Orb on top of it.