Monday, June 14, 2021

Chapter 3, The Trader's Gate, Part 2b

Behind the door, they find a band of rats, who seem to have been cornered by a wandering band of mindless plague daemons. The two groups brandish their weapons at one another, but have not yet come to blows. When they see the party approaching they forget their quarrel however and turn their hostility upon them alone! 

We didn't mean to crash your party...

'Get back,' the Shard hisses, and he steps back himself to let the lumbering creatures teeter through the door one at a time, while the others block the entrance, preventing the seething Skaven from lending aid. The work is exhausting, as the stench of these foul demons makes their eyes water, and the blows they do land seem to have little effect. Suddenly, before even the first Plaguebearer is felled, another swarm of rats appears out of the muck! 

It never rains but it pours... rats

Desperately they manage to fend off the surge of bodies, and as the Mistweaver and barbarian beat back the ugly swarm, Kyre and the assassin begin to land telling blows on the demons assaulting them. Finally the Tenebrael Shard is able to move swiftly into the chamber where the skaven await, menacingly, and divide their attention enough to allow the others to slip through the door. Kyre effortlessly bisects the Clawlord's companion, but the Skaven commander merely squeals with joyful bloodlust, the warpforged blade of his halberd clanging off each adventurer's weapons and armor, and occasionally finding their mark, one swift strike catching more than the Mistweaver's robes. The Assassin, though, slips past the Clawlord and reappears on his other side, his claws tearing deep into the rat-man's flesh, and as he screeches Kyre's murderous hook rises and falls, once, cutting off the dissonant cry. The Darkoath Champion rushes to the Mistweaver's side and helps her with her wound. 

I thought I'd seen the last of you! 

The party gathers at one of the doors, and Kyre pulls it open. They find a narrow passage leading downwards, the floor slippery and befouled. Chittering creatures stir in the dark, their red eyes glowing hungrily as they dash madly towards Kyre, silhouetted in the doorway. Once again the creatures prove elusive at first, and once again they are eventually beaten away. 

The passage leads to a staircase, leading down. One at a time the party proceeds down the stairs. 

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