Matthew Nesheim
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Chapter 54: Random Encounters
🕑 Added 2023-07-31 17:00:05 +0000 UTCTwo hallways later, they rounded a corner and came face to face with a small patrol of trolls on the opposite end of the hallway. Before Calista could draw her bow or Lefty fire off a spell, the nearest troll grabbed his war horn and sounded it. As the horn bellowed against the stone walls, the entire troop drew their weapons and charged.
Lightning crackled past Calista’s shoulder as she charged forward, blade in hand. The bolt ripped through three trolls and Calista wall jumped past their spasming carcasses and brought her sword down in an overhead blow that split the skull of the next troll.
“Look out!” Lefty shouted and Calista ducked as a trio of blue bolts zipped over her head and struck the next two trolls, killing them both.
The last troll, holding his halberd with both hands, seemed caught off guard that he was suddenly alone and outnumbered, so Calista calmly stuck her Emberblade through his belly and spilled his guts all over the floor.
Too late, she realized there was still one troll to her left. Time froze as she watched the single bladed axe cutting through the air. She tried to spin, to bring her sword around for a parry, but she could feel in the pit of her stomach that this time she was a half second too slow. He had her. This was it.
Then suddenly it wasn’t. The troll stopped mid-swing and staggered to his left. The light in his eyes began to dim and he let out a long, slow gasp before he fell to the floor. Narene stepped from behind the body and bent down to wipe her blade clean on the corpse’s hauberk. “You should be more careful. He could have given you quite the haircut.”
Calista wasn’t sure if she should thank her or tell her to shove off, so instead she just smiled and said, “We should keep moving. They’ll be following that horn.”
“Sure, the library is still a few rooms away, but if we hurry, we should make it without much trouble,” Narene said as she pushed past Calista and led them around the next corner. They followed a long corridor until it turned right, met an intersection, turned left, and finally reached a locked and barred double doorway.
Lefty clutched his staff as he glanced behind them. “I would cast knock, but after that horn blast I have this feeling I need to save my mana.”
Calista rubbed her brow in frustration and fatigue. “I can get it. It just might take me a minute to get that bar out of the way.”
The lock came easy and she was working with her pry bar when she heard a blast of ice. She looked back to see a small crowd of kobolds frozen to the floor.
“There’s more on the way,” Lefty said as he readied his staff.
She continued to push the bar against the crack in the door, hoping to pry the rod on the other side. She could feel it slip up and down against the wood as she tried to force the point of her pry bar against it. However, each time she nearly had it free, there was a “clack” as the rod fell back into place. Behind her, another ice blast sounded.
“Don’t worry, I got it!” Lefty shouted over the wind. “But if we don’t get out of here soon, we’re going to have a problem.”
Her pry bar slipped again as the rod fell and clacked back into place again. Frustrated, she pulled her pry bar free and took a step back. The door was just too tight for her pry bar, but she didn’t have anything else. Unsure, she looked around the hallway for something, anything, that might be a better fit.
Then Narene appeared at her side holding a piece of metal wire.
“Where did you get that?” Calista asked.
“I stole it from the last room.” Narene then shimmied the wire between the two doors and then handed the wire to Calista. “Here, you’re taller. You flip the bar while I hold the door open.”
As Narene held the pry bar in place, Calista took the wire and lifted it until the rod was free. With a heave, Narene had the door open.
“We’re clear, let's go,” Calista said.
They were closing the door just as a squad of trolls came rushing around the corner. Calista slammed the double doorway shut as Lefty barred the door. Seconds later, the trolls were pulling at it from the other side while Lefty began his incantation.
“What’s he doing?” Narene asked.
“Discouraging our pursuit,” Calista said.
The room they had entered was a hexagonal affair with runes carved all along the floor. Candles were everywhere, in holders, on the desk, on the floor, on the tables, on shelves along the wall. There was a sinister feel to the air and as Calista looked down, she could see strange patterns of runes had been carved into the stone.
Beside her, Neera let out a nervous sigh, “Okay, I don’t recognize this room. This looks very different from what was here before.”
“He’s been changing stuff all night, why stop now?” Calista got down on one knee as she studied the floor. There were no visible triggers or traps that she could see. That is, excepting the runes. I suppose it’s best not to step on them. She waited until Lefty had finished trapping the door and then she led them around the outside of the room to avoid stepping on any of the runes or knocking down any of the candles.
They found the door on the other side, but as she pulled it open something grabbed at the pit of her stomach and she stopped.
“What is it?” whispered Lefty.
“I don’t know, but something’s wrong.”
