Home and Hearth (Callon2132, Alabastyr Steinforge)
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The fifty shield dwarves marched forward in the customary warblock formation, shield front, pike second rank, Priests and what few arcnists there were in the third ranks. The cavern opened up a way to both the Block's left and right flanks, the flank shieldmen swinging forward to form fourtyfive degree angles off the main force.
The Block came to a halt as one, disciplined and prepared for the on rush of their unseen foes.
Silence. Not a sound from the darkness. The dwarves of Clan Steinforge stood ready, sure that today, they would remove the problem that had been plaguing their hold-fast for weeks.
Then, the greyed, scarred, eyeless creatures swarmed the Block, cries of alarm erupting among the ranks, the sound of shields setting for a charge, the various prayers to Moradin, to Berronar Truesiver, and loudest of all, the prayers to Clangeddin, the din of a dwarven battle.
Small, bright flaming orbs shot out into the back ranks of the grimlocks in unison, detonating in giant fiery whooshes, decimating almost a quarter of the swarming creatures.
The flame haired Faenor, began her chanting, calling upon the Revered Mother to protect her clan-mates, her family. She moved about the second ranks, healing the wounded alongside a few of her sister Faenor.
The blessings granted by the trio of the dwarven gods represented seemed to begin to turn the tide of the battle, the front ranks barking the order to advance. The small skirmish seemed to be turning to a rout, the grimlocks trying to back away from the press of the dwarven shield-wall.
Then, as quickly as the rout began, it fell apart. The ceiling of the cavern began to collapse onto the dwarves, almost as if the grimlocks had perhaps planned the ambush, yet surely, they weren't capable of such cunning tactics…..
The Faenor woke to the sounds of cries all around her, that of dwarf and grimlock both, many seemingly pinned or just broken under the massive press of the earth that had collapsed the cavern.
"Agantyr! Aeroun!…." Her first fears were for her two brothers, born to the respected Aerik of Clan Steinforge. She found her brother Agantyr defending a fallen clansmen, two wounded grimlocks hounding him, as wolves harry a much more dangerous animal.
"Agantyr, yer eyes!", she called out as the spell came to her lips, her brother quickly looking away as the blast of searing, bright light hit the grimlock directly in the face, flipping hte creature over backwards. "I'm coming brother, keep it a' bay 'slong as ye can!"
The small battle continued between both the remaining dwarves and the surviving grimlocks for what could have been days….She couldn't have known...everything became a blur as the throbbing in her head overtook her senses.
She woke up, a bandage about her head, one of the older priests of Clangeddin at her side, as well as her two brothers, both of them battered, bruised, bloody, but not yet beaten.
"Can we get back t' th' others?" she asked weakly.
"We're lucky tha' th' five o' us survived sistah" came Aeroun's dour reply. "I look'd fer a way fer us t' get back a day ago….there ain't one, nae th' way we came anyhow....I found a few tunnels branchin' off t' th' east though...maybe we can get t' th' surface, an' get back tha' a'way"
She tried to not let the situation show on her face, but it was obvious to all the remaining five, that it would be a long, hard trek into the underdark. One none of them had prepared for.
A day later, the five members of Clan Steinforge made their way into the passages leading eastward.Login: Callon2132
PC Name: Alabastyr Steinforge
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