Ava nodded. "You may call me as you vish. As for a drink, anything strong will do. The vines here taste of goats-vater."
She inspected her new master closer. Lean. The North did not breed thin people - the giants, the humans, even the Arctic elves that lived savage in the ice-forests were all stocky, especially once wrapped up in furs.
She had lived her entire life alone, in a sense. Certainly without companionship, with the frost giants, and then truly alone as a brutal bandit. It still made her uneasy to be walking amongst other people, and she sometimes longed for the tundra, wolf-howls her only companion. The feeling of sitting in a tavern, conversing, was alien, and she hid her discomfort behind an stoic façade.
Still, a tiny spark of warmth ignited in her chest at the idea of a friend.
The gnome irritated her, but it wasn't worth the effort of killing him. Together, they were sitting underground, in a half collapsed chamber. The half that had collapsed contained - or had, rather - the wagon the gnome had been on and Avalanche had been in the process of raiding. The ground literally falling out from under them had been rather surprising, she admitted. They'd been the only two to recover in time to scramble away from the second collapse that buried the wagon, it's occupants, and blocked out the sunlight bar a few tiny beams. A human would see nothing, but her low light vision could at least pick out details.
The only way out had some kind of magic barrier, a bunch of words written in what she recognised from the cultists she'd raided before as Draconic, and a engraving of a skull. She supposed she could eat the gnome when she ran out of food, and try to dig her way out. The gnome was mumbling something. Draconic? She sat against the wall, her massive hammer resting next to her. Maybe the gnome could get them out.
Triumphantly, the gnome said something in Draconic, and the portal swung open. What also entered was a half-dozen skeletons, eyes glowing with cold fire as blue as Avalanche's own. The gnome stumbled back, outmatched, giving a good go at it. Ava supposed she should help him. That might not be the only Draconic barrier. With a steady step, she waded in, shattering bone with ease. When the skeletons were so much bonemeal, she stalked past the gnome into the next room. It was a copy of the one they'd just left, mouldering bones stacked around the walls suggesting more skeletons who's enchantment had not held. She waited for the gnome to enter, and begin working out whatever puzzle the creators had left.
They settled into a rhythm as the rooms repeated. The gnome would solve the problem, Avalanche smashing the hordes of skeletons within. The gnome was no slouch with his mace, but it couldn't match the mass of her maul and the powers of her god. Sometimes the gnome tried to talk - or curse, his Giant was atrocious and her Common was poor - to her, but she remained silent. Finally, the ultimate room: she was sure they'd been heading deeper, but they didn't have much choice. The door ground open. Inside was nothing but a pool, endlessly deep, flickering in the light of eternal torches burning along the flat stone blocks of the walls. She exchanged a glance with the gnome and walked forward. She dipped her fingers in the pool and felt... a breeze on them? Before she could do more, she felt a violent shove from behind. She began to topple, desperately spinning, a hand snagging the arm of the gnome. She fell into the deep cold - cold, cold, even for her - of the pool and onto soft grass, the gnome landing with a oof. She sat up, not even damp. She was on top of a hill, not far from where the wagon had collapsed. She stood up, dusted herself off, nodded to the gnome, and left.
They'd fought together, after all.
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Topic: City of Aretrian - D&D 3.5 [5/5] OOC Thread - It's dead, Jim! (Read 78107 times)