Bari held the stave high; he held it low. He waved it in all the nooks and crannies it could go. Robin noted some things of interest: There were no visible tracks on the floor of the fissure. There were, he saw, numerous little rock falls and piles of scree - could they have been dislodged by something small crawling around in the space above them? The stave showed mainly jagged rock, and certainly not enough apparent space for a human-sized figure to move about in. But someone or something small could manage it. Given the kobold's propensity for tunneling, it was the obvious answer.
Bari looked gloomily at the shaft in front of him - there was no way around it, unless they were adept at scaling walls, and no way to know if there was another side to it anyway. They could go forward down the slide, up (somehow) into the fissure, or back to the pit...
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Seu's whispered prayers made little echo in his prison of darkness. The nearby screaming had stopped, replaced once more by the oppressive silence. And yet... was there something? He strained his ears, hoping to catch whatever faint lilt he had heard. There it was! It was... could it be?
Someone was singing. As the wavering voice grew stronger, Seu recognised it as Yngwie's voice. The song was low and sad, but full of hope and beauty too. The paladin felt a sudden hot flush of anger, tempered by purpose - if his friends hadn't given up, even in their darkest hour, surrounded by pain and death and sorrow, then neither would he - somehow, some way, he would escape this place and vanquish the evil that lurked in it's dark heart. He wrenched at the bonds that held him, prayers spilling from his mouth in bursts of hot breath laden with the tang of blood.
Deliver me from darkness, lady, and take me to him.
Deliver me from darkness. Take me to him!
Deliver me from darkness!
TAKE ME TO HIM!
Lights danced crazily in his vision, spots of colour that threatened to overwhelm his conscious. Red was his mind, and black, the darkness. The darkness claimed him.
And then there was light.
Go to him.
Seu found himself on the shore of the frozen lake once more. The sun was high above him, remote, it's light was feeble. He was naked, and the cold gnawed at him. Before him stood the frost knight, and once again his scornful words rang out with crystal clarity in the still, frozen air.
"Do you call yourself a knight?" the figure said.
I am a knight of the Order of the Lady of the Lake.
"Where is your armour?"
Faith is my armour.
"Where is your shield?"
Faith is my shield.
"Where is your blade?"
Faith is my blade.
"Pathetic!" the figure stepped forwards and struck at Seu, but the paladin was faster. His gauntleted hand caught hold of the frost knight's wrist and held it in a grip of iron.
"What is this....?" the frost knight hissed.
""Faith," replied Seu. "Faith is both my strongest armour and shield and my most lethal weapon. Steel accomplishes nothing without a heart behind it and no shield or armour can protect a weak soul. It is the Lady who grants me my power. There is no evil that Faith in the Lady cannot smite and there is no blade or arrow that can cut or pierce the resolve of a just man."
Seu released the frost knight, who stumbled back. Seu stood before him resplendent in armour of purest white, with a shield to match it. The symbol of the Lady glowed brightly upon his breast and on his helm. At his side hung a sword in a white scabbard wrought with fine-spun gold. He was truly a paladin of the Lady!
The frost knight drew a longsword that was wreathed in cold fog. He leveled it at the paladin, and from every joint in his armour, white mist oozed forth, forming the shape of two ice wolves that stood at either side of him, baring icicle fangs and snarling. "Draw your blade then, knight, and fight me. The frozen heart of Winter will soon be bathed in your warm blood..."