Dae'ran turned his head to where he knew Nameless was hanging on the wall. "What's going on?"
"Can't you see drow?"
"I'm stuck in the plasma pit you moron. My mist form spell won't recharge for another six hours; I can't fly out."
Nameless sighed. "TK, Pamun, and Kai are surrounded by assassins, Borbori's making his useless minions to try and help, and Gareth and Star are still coming across the pit with the poles. Here, I'll let down a rope. Try to climb out."
It took a moment for Dae'ran to catch hold of Nameless's rope. The greenish haze of the plasma made the lifeline nearly impossible to see. Finally he was able to grab hold and scramble up beside his wall-crawling ally, panting. Warlocks weren't made for scurrying about like rogues.
"I never thought I'd say this to anyone, but it's good to have you around Nameless."
The shadar-kai shrugged. He wasn't fond of others either. Both reclusive males were only part of the raiding team to get rich. They'd had other reasons for adventuring at first, but those reasons were long gone.
Dae'ran wiped the plasma from his eyes and looked over the room. TK, an elven ranger, and his cougar Pamun were hiding behind Kai. The paladin had jumped in just in time to save the woodland pair from the assassins. Borbori was building something that wouldn't be ready until it was no longer needed- it would have been so much more useful to have a cleric in the party than an artificer. All was going as usual.
A huge shadow flew past, announcing the arrival of Gareth the goliath. Only Star, a wizard apprentice, was still crossing the pit of poles. She was going slow as she leapt from foothold to foothold, pausing on each to regain her balance. Star was probably the least graceful eladrin Dae'ran had ever met- he was embarrassed that their races shared even the most remote ancestry. But she was beautiful.
Star was almost across when she let out a cry of alarm. Her foot slipped and she fell backwards off the pole she was standing on. Dae'ran was startled by his teammate's shout- he nearly lost his grip on the wall.
"Use your flight spell Star!" The drow warlock looked around to see who had shouted, then realized it was him. Nameless looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"She doesn't have one drow. Anyway, since when do you care?"
Biting his lip, Dae'ran looked away. "I- I don't know." His fingers ached something fierce, and for some reason, so did his heart. His delicate, black-skinned hands lost their grip on the wall and he fell back into the greenish haze of the plasma.
-this is a line(dance)-
Amanda and Kayla both stared incredulously at the D20. "Not again!" Kayla groaned at the red number facing them. It was the third critical fail of the day. She had rolled two in the plasma pit and Amanda had lost her wizard to one over the deep hole in the previous room.
"At least you didn't die," Amanda sulked. "You're only taking ongoing five acid."
Wade raised his eyebrows and looked at the malicious black polygon on the table. "Kayla, your D20 is evil. Get a new one."