The piercing crackle of lightning shakes the walls
of Hammerknell Fortress. Flashes paint jumping and twisting shadows of the
weary group of adventurers on the cavern’s walls. Wind and rain whip the group, pushing them back with unrelenting force. Verminaard looks at his hand; it
starts to shake, but not from the chilling wind and rain - it’s something more
dreadful. He puts the armoured glove back on and pulls out his sword to stop
the shakes, hoping that nobody noticed his weakness. A deep and hollow laugh
hangs in the air and three forms emerge from the misty weather. In the middle
there is Inwar Darktide, an abomination that has haunted the dreams of many
Telarans; at his side are the ever-watchful minions. A deep gurgling voice
echoes from the stone walls of Hammerknell "Welcome to my domain
weaklinssssshh, prepare to be devoured by Akyliossshh!”
At that same moment lightning strikes at the huge
pine tree nearby and the sound makes Verminaard’s ears ring; the smell of smoke
and electricity fill the air. Everything sounds like it’s underwater or in a
dream; everything is muffled and seems to be distant. The elven warrior looks
to his right and sees his trusted friend Kadora who turns to look at
Verminaard; he nods back at her and sees her lips moving but can’t hear what
she is saying. He doesn’t have to hear, though, as he knows what will happen
next. Throwing his shield at the minion on the right and yelling a battle cry the
soaken elf grabs the attention of this unholy horror and starts running down
the ramp to split the the minions apart. As he takes his first steps down he
glances behind him and sees Kadora running down the opposite side with the
other minion at her heels. Ethelwind and Elentaari order the rest of adventurers
to split on both sides to take the enemy down. While racing down the slippery,
wet ramp a thought comes unbidden to Verminaard, "Vigil help us now,” and
that makes him more scared than the enemy they are fighting; it almost makes
him lose his concentration, but after a few strikes from the horror he gets back
to the fight and tries to forget what he just thought.
Slowly his hearing starts to return and he can hear
yells from the other side of the ramp where the other group is fighting. It
sounds like it’s all going down as planned, but as much as they consulted the
dwarves and old scripts about the water dragon, they are moving soon to deep,
unknown waters and have to make it up as they go along. The shakes are coming
back. Verminaard can feel it while parrying the blows from the slimy monster.
He curses silently under his breath, "Not now damn it, hold it together. Don’t lose it!” The deep-voiced laughter echoes again from the walls and an
occasional thunderclap interrupts it for a few seconds. This is the beginning
of the end and the end is very close.
Verminaard
