Dayel 20 04 06

As Dayel crouched motionless, the strange pair moved level with his vantage point. Suddenly the man stopped, and looked quickly around, as if sensing something. Dayel froze, not wishing to meddle with this odd character. He was confident in his ability, yet this magic-user had an aura of power about him. The half-elf decided to postpone any confrontation. After a few moments, they moved on, following the kobold pack.

Giving them a long lead, and knowing that his elvish hearing would allow him to follow easily from a distance, he eventually moved out and down the passage. The groups moved on, each oblivious to that following, like a strange procession through the darkness. After some time, he detected the voices and noises moving off down a side passage, and he followed curiously.

The tunnel narrowed slightly and continued on. Dayel walked on for several minutes, and then sensed that the passage was widening. He slowed, and then stopped as the tunnel opened into a huge cavern. The floor of the cavern was flat, and the walls hung with icicles that reflected the light of a number of torches. Dayel’s eyes widened in surprise at what he saw…

At the far edge of the cavern, nearing an opening in the opposite wall, the party of adventurers were still bickering. Almost halfway across the open expanse, the pack of kobolds were creeping up on their prey, who were still unaware of their presence. Just off to one side from his hiding place, the older magic-user and the half-pixie were watching with interest. The magic-user was in the final stages of preparing he raw materials of a spell, combining elements in his hands and chanting.

Suddenly, the angry warrior woman at the back of the party spun around and cried “I fucking KNEW it!” as she spied the kobolds. Realising that they had lost the element of surprise, the kobolds howled and rushed at the adventurers. The female cleric ushered the children behind her skirts, quickly kissed the religious symbol on her shawl and took out her mace. “We’ll see how they like some Holy Water,” she muttered, taking out the “Gin” bottle with her other hand. Although some distance away, the acoustics in the cavern carried the voices clearly to our hidden hero.

The tall ranger turned and quickly stowed his huge pipe in a sheath on his belt that was clearly for that purpose, deftly took his bow from over his shoulder and nocked an arrow. Although he weaved slightly, the bow was as still as stone in his hands. The elven woman who had been at his side crept stealthily off, circling around the wall of the cavern. She moved silently and drew wicked twin daggers from her belt. All previous effects of whatever she had been drinking or taking also disappeared.

The human woman who had been shepherding the group along began chanting and making symbols in the air, and immediately a group of warriors sprang into existence between the kobolds and the party. “Ah, an Illusionist” Dayel thought to himself. The dwarf reached up and pulled some goggles, filled with glass, no less, down over his eyes, spun his contraption around and pushed something on the handles. “Come on you little cunts,” he cried, as the machine seemed to move itself under some magical influence. He held the handles with one hand, and took the first of a number of throwing axes in the other.