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Aliisza was ar seereat manor Pharaun and his coh, she wasn&039;t nearly as surprised as the droere guarding the place The gray dwarves, whom she estimated nu one side of theoff a volley of crossbows They also lobbed several dozen se balls of fla the stoneall that surrounded thearound near the palatial front gates scrambled for cover as the hail of bolts and incendiary bombs struck The blast from the initial attack shook the entire web street, and Aliisza had to i fro on the opposite side of the open plaza When she could look again, she saw that few of the dark elves had survived the first attack

An alarm was quickly sounded inside the courtyard of the cyst-like building, and ent of them, in fact Aliiszawatched as they formed a line across the protective wall and returned fire with their hand crossbows Several duergar dropped before the barrage, but the gray dwarves exhibited wise tactics, throwing up a shield ith the front rank and firing a second volley from behind that protective barrier In several places, the stone itself seear fire bo

In the plaza, citizens of Ched Nasad scrae colu, one web street over, in her direction The duergar were about to have unwanted coht

That&039;s when the secondthe droho had forates

Oh, how clever, the alu-fiend thought They look like they&039;ve done this a time or two

Pharaun never hesitated

"Scatter," he said sharply to the two droith hi Ordinarily he would have needed at least a few seconds to speak the phrase and perfor the effect about, but he had enhanced this particular ht it, with no gestures, words, or delays A thick, roilingaround the wizard He knew that Ryld would kno to take care of himself, and he hoped that Valas would understand, too He promptly dismissed them from his mind as he levitated upward

Another concussive blast shook the House, though the wizard, hovering in the air, only heard it this ti a spell of invisibility on himself He kneouldn&039;t completely obscure him from the more clever wizards and matron mothers, but it would at least prevent the co him From below, he could hear the turmoil and confusion as a host of drow reacted to both the er&039;s words and the ru, Pharaun reached inside hispiiand extracted a s as the dust vanished in a sparkle of light It would further conceal hiic

By then, soically dissipate Pharaun&039;s mist, and the floor beloas clear once more The Master of Sorcere surveyed the entire chans of Ryld and Valas The scout was nowhere to be found, which didn&039;t surprise the wizard in the least, and Ryld had maneuvered himself off to one side of the room The weapons master crouched behind so as the ene, Pharaun reasoned, knowing the matron mothers still intended to mete out their own personal justice just as soon as they could restore so out a bit of fleece from one of his pockets With it hea little enhance place When he was done, a new, illusory statue stood where Ryld was, further concealing him

Pharaun turned his attention back to the center of the roo Another was carefully turning, peering in every direction, and Pharaun could see thatfor us, the Master of Sorcere realized

Fu around in his pockets, Pharaun found what he was looking for: a tiny haainst the bell, the wizard produced another ical effect This tih the floor beneath the wizards&039; feet, causing them to clap their hands over their ears and stu the rooh he planted his feet and continued searching As the vibration reached a crescendo, the stone of the floor itself could no longer stand the strain and began to fracture A thousand spiderwebbing cracks shot through the floor,many of the wizards down The floor continued to fracture until it was nothing but pulverized powder, half a foot deep The doizards kicked up dust as they flailed about, trying to regain their footing Several of theht, but his elation was short-lived Ryld had been discovered and was engaged in a fierce battle with several House Melarn soldiers and at least two priestesses Though blood streaash across one ar his own, but Pharaun knew that it wouldn&039;t last long if anyone was able to bring e could see a priestess unfurling a scroll Before he could act, though, Valas stepped up behind her, seely froed one of his two curved daggers into the small of her back As the cleric dropped woodenly to the floor, the scout was turning away, and Pharaun lost sight of hiain when the wizard turned his attention for a moment to the other side of the rooether, protected by a significant portion of their entourage, and were huddled around so Pharaun couldn&039;t see He considered whether to strike at them while they were in such close proximity but dismissed the idea

Don&039;t want to draw any more attention to le ofcast at hier pointed in his direction Somehow, they&039;d discovered his position Pharaun realized he was gloith a pale violet flame, despite his invisible state Already, several other wizards were looking in his direction, and a handful of soldiers were arht

He quickly pulled hispii around himself and turned away as the first volley of bolts crashed into the ceiling around him He felt a pair of the missiles strike his back, but thepii did its job There was no way he could eli the invisibility, he knew, but if he siet, he would wind up a pincushion Shaking his head in consternation, Pharaun quickly dropped fro the floor

The contingent of wizards and soldiers had followed Pharaun&039;s descent and wereswords cah he was able to duck the first attack cleanly, the other one caught hi hispii Blood spurted froe cried out in pain A heartbeat later, he and his two adversaries were engulfed in a torrent, as though they had danced their dance into the center of a waterfall - only it wasn&039;t water It burned like fire, and both of the sielders shrieked and thrashed as their skin blistered and reddened Pharaun felt his own skin bubbling and boiling as he flung hispii up to shield his face and threw hi at an unnaturally rapid pace, thanks to thefree of the downpour of acid, Pharaun su his forward progress right at tworapier to hold the pair of drow at bay just enough so he could pass between theh, he headed in the direction of Ryld, while ht and fire fizzled out as they reached his forain, but Ryld was hard at work, surrounded by no less than six opponents With each swing of Splitter, the burly warrior parried several weapons at once His chest was heaving, and he was covered in blood fro on the offensive with sohiical rapier slash at the back of one of Ryld&039;s adversaries The blade jabbed into the drow soldier froony and cruround Grimly, Pharaun ordered the rapier to return and protect hi himself into a defensive position near the same statues that Ryld had used to hide himself earlier, the Master of Sorcere extracted a second pinch of the powdered diah, the spell he wove created an invisible barrier between himself and the dozen or so soldiers and wizards who had been pursuing him The location where Ryld had chosen to hide was reat audience cha his invisible wall at an angle, sealing hithere off from most of the rest of the cha Ryld to contend with

The Master of Sorcere turned his attention to aiding Ryld as the other soldiers painfully discovered his nored the thumps they made as the first two or three slammed into the barrier, but he couldn&039;t help but smile Ryld had fatally wounded a second foe, a priestess rithing on the floor in a growing pool of blood Pharaun drew out his own crossbow and loaded the weapon even as he brought his dancing rapier to bear on a drow et in behind Ryld

The rapier slashed, grazing the guard&039;s shoulder, and as the soldier turned to protect himself fro true The soldier grunted in surprise and pain as the bolt took hi sword and staggered backward, eyeing the rapier as it flitted about in front of hi aiuard froasped and tried to say so, seemed confused that his words wouldn&039;t for to the floor as the scout freed his kukri from its victim

"I assu invisible if you&039;re going to glow all purple like that?"

"I&039;s," Pharaun said, then staggered as another ru on out there?" he said, steadying himself from the aftershocks

"Whatever it is, I don&039;t know if it&039;s better to be out there or in here," Valas replied, wiping his curved dagger clean on the dead drow&039;spii"We&039;ve got to get out of here"

Pharaun nodded, forgetting that the scout couldn&039;t see hi to see how Ryld had fared

The warrior was facing only a single opponent, stepping warily around the slick pools of blood as he feinted a few tiasping for breath His close-cropped white hair was et in another attack from behind the e turned his attention back to his ical wall, confident his two companions had the situation well in hand

On the other side of the barrier, several of the droizards were levitating, testing to see if Pharaun had left any gaps along the ceiling Another wizard was obviously casting, trying to find so that would dispel the effect Soldiers stood at the ready, fingering their weapons and eyeing Pharaun and his two coical partition still held, but it would only be a ht co it down

At that moment, Pharaun noted the smoke on the far side of the room It here the er there

Of course not, theto coain

The s into the roo the stone, and he realized as going on

"We&039;ve definitely got to get out of here," the e said to Valas

"That&039;s what I said," Valas replied, "but you seem to have sealed us in here"

Ryld had dispatched his final adversary and sank down to one knee, trying to regain his breath

"Hello, Pharaun It&039;s good to &039;see&039; you You two aren&039;t going to walk through walls again, are you?" Ryld asked, heaving hiain

On the other side of the barrier, soation had lost interest in the toward it Whatever was happening in the obscured side of the audience chaitated

"Alas," Pharaun answered the warrior, "I have exhaustedfor the day I&039;ll have to rely on ress, I&039;m afraid Still, we shouldn&039;t tarry That s the insurrection back in Menzoberranzan"

"The fire bombs that burned the very stone?" Valas asked

"Then thatwith associates of Syrzan, or others, who are inciting the populace to riot and arht you said the alhoon was operating alone, an outcast fro every nook and cranny of the corner of the room

"I did," Pharaun ad our captivity, it clai Perhaps whoever supplied it or itsit, we kno grave the situation is," Valas said "We need to get out of the city"

"Again, I agree," Pharaun said "I suggest we make a run for it once I lower the barrier"

"Into that mob?" Ryld countered "We should try to find another way out"

"But that&039;s the quickest way to the streets We don&039;t know our way around in here, and House Melarn could be an inferno before long"

"Look," Ryld argued, "youfine, but I can&039;t take another stand-up fight right now" He gestured at his own bloody forot to be other ways out of this House Let&039;s go find one" The warrior gestured toward a door in the corner and added, "Leave your barrier up and let&039;s go"

Valas nodded and said, "Ryld is right We can&039;t fight through all of thehed, "but if the House falls down around our ears, I will personally bla Valas to lead the way

For the first few minutes, the halls of House Melarn were remarkably eh the footsteps in the twisting, winding passages that threaded their way through the massive structure, but they were able to avoid confrontations by either taking a detour or there thattheir attention outside, where the bulk of the fighting was taking place

As they reached an intersection, Valas held up his hand for ahalt, and the scout slunk off in one direction, investigating the route ahead Ryld and Pharaun pressed theht The wizard was no longer invisible, nor was he gloith that annoying, flickering purple hue Ryld had taken care of that with a pass of his enchanted blade The warrior could see that his coined that Pharaun was in considerable pain His oounds troubled hiht about theic that can help us locate an exit?Ryld flashed to the wizard as they waited

Pharaun shook his head

Such spells exist, but I don&039;t know the the e could be down here forever This is a fool&039;s errand, Ryld

Then perhaps we should just follow the soldiers They can unwittingly lead us out of here

Pharaun waved away the warrior&039;s suggestion, though whether it was in exasperation or acceptance, Ryld wasn&039;t sure

The risk of discovery or disaster is greater if we do that

Ryld shrugged but gave no other reply Instead, he turned to Watch for Valas&039;s return

Why do I bother arguing? the weapons ht as his listened for telltale sounds He&039;s alreadyfor theether, they crept forward into a new corridor, and Valas pointed to a doorway on the opposite side

That&039;s a kitchen,he signaled,and beyond it is a pantry On the other side, here - the scout pointed to a door near the trio - is a mess hall I think we&039;re in the barracks section

Well, that&039;s not a good place to be,Pharaun gesturedWe want to avoid the guards, not coave Pharaun a baleful look and motioned for the other two to follow hi up just past this area, he flashed as he led the way through the passage

Ryld thought they uards&039; quarters unnoticed, but as they neared the opposite end of the passageway that bisected the barracks and the ent from ahead of them As one, the three drow turned to scamper back in the other direction, but at that moment several House Zauvirr soldiers appeared at the other end They were pinned between the two forces

"Darowled as he reached inside hispii "Hold the, Ryld slipped Splitter free and approached the group co froh them, the warrior reasoned, at least we can continue the ant to go