A Tale of Three Druids

Chapter 7: The Deadmines

Resdlen tumbled through the Twisting Nether for a moment, all of the lost ideas and thoughts rushing past him.

Then he was on an island. Collapsed on an island, in fact. He staggered to his feet, clutching his stomach. Fliflax stepped away hurriedly, but Yeow was unfortunately oblivious. The troll forced his head towards the sea and was violently sick. His whole body shuddered, and he turned, slid a gauntleted hand over his mouth, and grinned.

"Dat was real good, mon. Gets all of da badness out of ya system." He declared, and then glanced at the forbidding entrance to the cave. He simply cracked his knuckles and a ferocious smile lit up his face.

He felt his essence tugging, pulling, elongating, and then connecting to Fliflax and Yeow's. This intimate contact only proved to him the difference in strength between him and the Taurens.

Fliflax trudged through the entrance, going through the familiar shifting and warping that signaled a change in form. A large heavyset bear trotted into the caves, seemingly very familiar with it. Resdlen followed, on two legs, not four.

As they kept progressing through the damp caves, Resdlen heard snatches of strange noises, like distant explosions, and the clink of metal on stone. Fliflax continued, either not hearing or not caring about the noises. Yeow also showed no response to them.

Finally, a rippling vortex of blue light spanned the tunnel, casting an eerie view on the proceedings. Fliflax stepped through, then Resdlen, and then Yeow. The world distorted for just a moment, and then shifted into recognizable shapes and colors.

Fliflax bared his teeth in what could be described as a bear smile. The members of the Horde standing around saw Resdlen and all began crying out "I got just what you need, just help me with this!" "A real easy task-""Don't listen to them, mine is much-

"HUSH!" Fliflax roared, somehow forcing his bear form to shout out the syllables, albeit roughly. He growled, and then deliberately turned away from them and trotted deeper into the cave. Resdlen followed, but added the showy touch of flipping the quest givers the one-fingered salute, and then running on the side of the wall for a few moments. Yeow walked away, very dignified, very stately, after her brother. The effect was slightly ruined by a loud raspberry blown after her back. The health of the raspberry blower was slightly ruined by Yeow blasting him a few feet through the stone walls.

She jogged after her friends, a mild grin gracing her face. Some ogres stood in on either side of the passage, holding some rather nasty looking hammers in their grubby hands. Fliflax roared, attracting their attention. A blow from Fliflax's powerful paws tore one of them in half, his blood spattering the party and the ground, and a mild spell from Yeow disintegrated the other. Fliflax spat, a foul mixture of blood and spittle falling in a gob to the ground.

He continued down the hallway, and then caught sight of a large room with several ogres and a few cannons manned by ogres.

Suddenly, Fliflax remembered his previous concerns about the Deadmines. He whirled around to Resdlen; he stood there, his eyes wide and twitching.

"DIBS!" the massive troll roared, and leapt into a flying tackle. His head crashed into one of the ogres at a cannon, and deep gouges were punched through the ogre's fleshy chest by the curved tusks of the troll. Resdlen tore his head free, sending the ogre reeling away, clutching his wounds. Seizing the cannon, Resdlen cried "BIG BOOM! NO MORE OGRES! MA CANNON SHALL DESTROY YOU WITH IT'SH AMAZING POWAHS OF EXPLODONATING!" He swung the massive cannon around to face the crowd of ogres. "Boom." He grinned, and the Deadmines began shaking.

Fliflax and Yeow scampered out of the room, seeking to avoid flying cannonballs. After a few moments, the pounding in their ears stopped, and they peered around the corner. A gruesome scene awaited them, the only living thing a bright blue grinning troll, in a suit of crimson armor. Wait, no, that was blood. He gestured for them to follow.

That sort of thing repeated itself for a while, until there were very few cannons left. They emerged into a large cavern, and Resdlen smashed open the great oak doors. A stocky Ettin awaited on the other side, dressed in the manner of a Mosh'ogg shaman or warlock. He screamed something about arcane power, and began flinging spells at the trio. One glowing emerald nimbus clipped Resdlen's shoulder, launching and spinning him.

The Taurens didn't seem to be having any trouble. In fact, they just stood there and were bombarded. Fliflax sent a small quantity of energy into the ogre, not even bothering to shape it with an incantation or even into a spell. The ogre roared, and then connected to the crystals strewn all over the chamber. Energy flowed into him, and superheated boulders began raining from the darkness that Resdlen observed when he looked towards the ceiling. The rocks were mingled with deadly sharp icicles.

Resdlen used the connection to Fliflax and Yeow to draw upon their strength like reservoirs and placed his hands in a sumo pose. He let the arcane energy flow to his extremities, warming him, but did not release it. His hands began to glow and spark with an eerie light, but still he contained it. Finally, he let it release, a mighty nimbus that flung the warlock from his perch in midair. Resdlen watched as whispers of the ogre essence began to curl off him, and then his flesh just dissolved, and his black ManaStone fell to the ground. A crack split it, and then spread, like ice in hot water.

Fliflax reared upon two legs while Yeow and Resdlen dove behind him. A blast of, well, non-light filled the room, and Resdlen felt the fell energies searing, and knew they were capable of great destruction. He worried for Fliflax, but then remembered that Yeow could fortify him against most any attack. The energies melted away, and Fliflax, Yeow and Resdlen all looked at each other. And cheered, smiling and laughing. Maybe I can abide by this crazy old troll after all, Fliflax thought.

Whoa! Craziness! Well, dat be me, signin' off!