Four Adventurers

The paladin stood tall among his allies, his sheer bulk and mass making those around him seem even smaller by comparison. His head and body was covered in thick bronze scales and his face an extended snout. His eyes yellow with a single black line for pupils. His mouth was filled with razor teeth, his tongue long forked. His armour was made of large plates of steel strapped to his body with thick leather straps. He had a shield strapped to his left arm, its surface engraved with a large steel dragon.  His had a sword was slung across his waist; its dual edged blade had inward facing curves, leaving the blade a fearsome weapon against bare flesh.
A stout dwarven knight stood next to him, the dwarf was only 4 feet tall. His face was deep and weathered; his hair was short and dark brown; his beard fell to his stomach and was braided. His body was covered in a thick mix of chain mail and steel plate, each plate was inscribed with ancient runes made of straight angular lines. His helmet covered his head but left his face free. He had a large two handed battle hammer across his back, both flat surfaces engraved with a God’s face, with names of previous bearers across the bronze handle. His eyes were stone grey and deep in his skull, his face was wrinkled and ancient.
The elf that stood with them could almost see eye to eye with the paladin. His face was smooth free of deformities, age was impossible to tell. His black hair fell to the back of his neck while his facial features were defined. He wore thick leather armour that covered his chest, shoulders and legs but left his head and arms exposed. He covered this with a green tunic and a pair of thin leather bracers. He had a small dagger and large bow slung over his arm. The bow was made of fine wood with intricate patterns engraved on the sides. His arrows all were tipped with a finely crafted arrow head: barbed with a thin silver layer across the top of the iron head.
The group stood in a semi-circle around a table in the centre of the room. The table was covered in scrolls and open books covered with ancient scriptures and jumbled notes written on the side. Books littered the floor; old maps and charts coated the walls, different pieces of coloured rope linking different symbols to locations and vice versa. The original colour of the walls could not be seen from underneath the plethora of charts and maps that were draped over the walls. The only light came from a fireplace it cast a bright orange glow into the room; embers leaped from the fire, landing on the fire guard to stop them damaging the fragile documents that contained unknown or unreadable information.
A door opened bringing a quick rush of air that kicked the documents, maps, charts and scrolls into the air. Out of the door walked a small man, no more that 5ft4”, his features were sharp and rat like, his hands were fidgeting in front of him and his eyes twitched nervously. Upon seeing the papers scattered around the room he drew a quick breath and began to clean them up and then he put them in the right place and positions that made sense in his head. He was covered in dirty clothes, ripped in certain places, covered with stains. He wore what was left of a waist coat and finely made trousers. His hair was black and stuck to his head. Only after he had finished cleaning the papers up did he, at last, see the group. He jumped up in delight and finally spoke; with a heavy stutter
“H-hello, I t-t-trust you are the o-ones I c-c-c-called?” The large paladin stepped forward to speak for the group “We are, so what did you call us for? We have been waiting for over an hour now, we could have been doing something else in this time,” His voice was half way between natural speech and dragon like growl. The next to speak was the dwarf who was gruff in his speech but spoke with humour underlying in his tone “Torrin please keep a calm head, this makes us money which we need more than you need your precious gods,”
“Hold your tongue Fthor; speak ill of the gods and you speak ill of me,”
“Torrin, Fthor you two need to shut up, we have a client in front of us now how about I handle the talking instead of this talking leather satchel?” Fthor chuckled lightly while Torrin let out a sigh and said “Fine, but don’t get too arrogant you elven wretch,” He was direct and serious with his tone, no humour could be heard.
“Thank you,” The elven archer turned on his heel from facing the bulk of the paladin to the more measly and meek frame of the client in the room “I do believe we ended up getting off on the wrong foot, I am Bael, this is Fthor,” gesturing towards the dwarven warrior he then motioned towards Torrin “That is Torrin, who are you and why do you want us here?” The small man had shrunk away from the three men and stepped back, with obvious caution. “Xavi, I have s-s-summoned you b-b-b-because I n-n-need you h-h-help….”
“We guessed as much,” The remark came from Bael,
“Y-yes….well I have something s-s-s-stolen from me…..”
“Hurry up, man! Time is money!” Fthor said with seriousness in his tone, the small man jumped back in fear from the strict tone of the dwarf in front of him. “Err well i-it was a small l-leather box…it h-had something of g-great value, an a-artefact, Err I would r-rather not s-speak of what it is…… just a l-little gift…”
Torrin whispered into Bael’s ear “I don’t trust him, why wouldn’t he tell us about this artefact? Can’t be that dangerous, surely” Bael turned to him and spoke
“I agree, let’s keep a watch out for anything weird going on with this dastard,”
“Right,” Torrin nodded his head and they both turned to face Xavi
Bael took a step forward and continued his discussion with the nervous customer “So Xavi, do you have any information we can use to track the “gift”?” Xavi sweated, his nerves evident
“W-well it was being delivered to a monastery m-merchant called Travian. He w-was supposed to get it there by n-night fall two days a-ago but I haven’t heard from him…..” He shrunk away from the group, scared by Bael’s questioning
“Which monastery?” Fthor finally added to the negotiations at hand
“Faerios, God of trade…..” He waited a few seconds before he actually mentioned the god at hand, he was obviously holding something back from the group
Torrin spoke next “I know of the monastery, I visited there for a few months a couple years ago,”
Bael turned to Xavi “Thank you, we have all we need now, we will take our leave,” He bowed his head in respect and turned on his heel; walking out he avoided stepping on any of the parchment littering the floor, Fthor and Torrin followed in suit but  not care if they stepped on the paper. Once they were outside, Torrin quickly glanced up at the midday sun “We have about 9 hours before nightfall, we can make have the journey the monastery before nightfall, then we can camp put for the evening, then start up again in the morning, shouldn’t take us that long,”
Bael and Fthor quickly agreed and the trio began to walk forward towards the large and imposing city gates, large crossed bars of tempered steel. They walked up and requested to leave from the guards, the guards had well-fitting steel plate armour, with blue tunic; they held spears tightly. The guards nodded their heads; turning on their heels they marched up to a large wooden winch attached to some chains; leading up to the Iron Gate, after a few strained grunts, the gate began to slowly raise with the sounds of pained grunts and sliding metal. The three thanked the guards and walked out of the city and began on their mission.
After a few minutes of walking on the main road, the shadow of the grand city was far behind them and a large horizon lay ahead of them, the sun hanging high in the sky with the occasional white cloud floating gently in the sky. Some beasts dashed across the open plains, they were too far away to be a threat if they were dangerous. The grass had grown wild without any villages nearby to look after surrounding area. The path they had been walking on came to a fork. A large sign stood in the middle pointing in different directions with city names imprinted on the wood, Argonia, Obsidia, Merces, Ustengrav and the city they had come from Carthia.
Torrin quickly read the names and made his choice “If we go to Ustengrav we can stay over there for the night, then we can set off for the monastery tomorrow morn,” They all agreed and set off on the path due west and began to walk off to the city of Ustengrav. The city had local legends surrounding it, no one thought it could be true; neither did the group. While they walked they could see the sun began to set down on the horizon, an orange glow was cast across all that one could see. The trees cast long shadows across the ground making the surrounding forest eerie and less inviting than normal. Small animals and birds grew silent as the evening slowly descended.
While the sun was just starting to dip towards the horizon the group was talking. Bael was discussing his exploits before coming into contact with Torrin and Fthor. While Fthor just chuckled at certain absurdities in the tales and knew they were nothing but stupid boasts; Torrin just scrutinized every detail trying to verify it with cynical questioning. They would have continued the talks had they not noticed something not too common but not all too rare either; a cart had broken down near the side of the road.
Two  people were next to the cart, one of them laid on the ground, moaning in sheer agony, a large gash in his side. A young woman paced around the cart and tried to gather fallen items. Plentiful amounts of items were stray and all over the grass next to the roadside, everything from potions, spell tomes, magical items, weapons and food was now cast onto the floor. The woman tried to pick the items and gather them up and keep them in one place. The wooden cart was smashed and broken, wheels missing and boards splintered. The horse pulling the cart lay dead on the ground. Upon getting closer to the accident the group looked and took stock of the situation. Bael walked up to the woman pacing up and down with Fthor following him, Torrin walked up to the man on the ground.
The woman paced back and forth, she turned on her heel and saw the trio her skin was deathly pale and her eyes a dark brown, she walked up to them and they could see her features clearer, her face was soft, her hair was black as polished obsidian, hidden behind the cloth hood she wore. She wore simple robes with a turquoise sash across her chest. Upon seeing Fthor and Bael approach a look of relief washed over her face and any panic turned to concern for her fallen partner. “Thanks  Abraxus someone finally turned up! We’ve been stranded here for hours!” She was frantic and she started spilling out information, sweat ran down her face and her heart pounded like a drum.
Bael looked at her frantic expressions and quickly grew concerned he tried to calm her down quickly “Calm down, please calm down, I’m Bael this is Fthor and the man over near your companion is Torrin, we are friendly, what happened?”
“We were attacked, goblins I think but I’m not sure, err I’m Ceren, I am an apprentice mage and the man who was injured is called Arkeo my mentor, an arrow hit him in the back, then they cut his sides open,” She started to get nervous again as she explained the details of the assault, Bael paid close attention to her description on bit caught his attention, more so than the rest “Wait who were you traveling with?”
“Areko my mentor and a man called Travian, he was a merchant heading to Ustengrav to restock before heading up to some monastery or something,” While Bael and Ceren discussed the details of the attack, Fthor paid little or no attention to woman, not interested in her plight his thoughts to the money that could be lost wasting time talking to this stupid mage,
While they were locked in conversation Torrin kneeled beside the dying man and took a bag of his back and opened the cloth sack up. He took some salves out of this back and some simple bandages, after performing some simple techniques with the salves he began to save the wounded man, soon enough the moans of pain stopped and the blood stopped spilling onto the ground, Torrin bowed his head and placed his hands together reciting some ancient chant in an attempt to save the wounded man. Soon the near dead being on the ground began to cough and his eyes fluttered open, he let out short pained breaths. “W-what…?” He coughed again and some blood came up this time,
“My name is Torrin, you were attacked by something I don’t know what, I’m helping you just try and sleep, it will help,” Arkeo began to drift off again from either the suggestion or the lack of blood. Soon Torrin joined the group again and asked what happened; Bael and Fthor filled him in on the details. They took a few steps away from the girl and began discussing what happened
Bael started “Goblins attacked her and they stole the “gift” we’re looking for, we need to track them,”
Torrin was the next to contribute “Goblins couldn’t have done this without someone else leading them; they would have killed Ceren and stolen everything of the merchant’s someone told them not to, there is something more to this I’m sure of it,”
Fthor was next into the conversation “Normally I would say we pass this by, but if she has something to do with this stupid box of Xavi’s then we could get paid by both Arkeo and Xavi, win win,”
Torrin glared at him “Is all you ever think about the amount of coin in your purse?”
“Better than praying to useless deities!”
“Watch your tongue Fthor before I cut it out!” Both of the fighters held the hilts of their respective weapons, ready to draw them and fight at a moment’s notice “Will you two quite squabbling! We are going to find this stupid box, help this poor woman and her mentor then we will get paid! Now shut up and get back to work!” Fthor let go of his hammer without a word Torrin mumbled something and let of his sword, the three then turned to Ceren, like normal Bael took lead on discussing with people “We are going to help you with your goblin attack, but you need to get to Ustengrav soon, you need to get your mentor into somewhere safe, we will go after your assailants,”  
She quickly responded “I’m staying with you, I refuse to let someone get away with attacking me! Besides you don’t know which way the goblins went do you?”
“We don’t but we can find out just get to Ustengrav and let us deal with it! We’re warriors we know what we’re doing and we don’t need to babysit some little mage!”
“You can’t stop me from following you, now let me stay with you,” They heard  a pained groan from the wreckage, they saw the old man whom Torrin saved earlier hobble to his feet he coughed a few more times and stood, his back hunched, his torn robes orange with blood stains dotting the fabric, his face was ancient, his head bald and he had wrinkles deep set in his face he coughed before talking “I can handle myself and walk myself to Ustengrav, I will not let you leave without Ceren, if she can prove herself she will finally be a Grand Mage and if you do I will pay you handsomely” Upon hearing the prospect of being paid Fthor’s face lit up “OK we’ll take to the goblin dungeon, we will take care of her” Bael sighed when he heard Fhtor’s comment “Fine…I can’t believe you…fine we will look after her!” Ceren smirked and started leading them down a section of trampled grass they didn’t notice before, they saw dropped weapons and half eaten rations every now and again.
“We’ve been walking for hours and no sign of a goblin are you sure you know what you’re doing,” Torrin looked over at apprentice mage “Yes I’m sure we just need to keep going and we will reach were the goblins turned off from,” The sun had already fallen by this time, they only reason they could see is because Ceren had her hand outstretched in front of her face holding  ball of light in her palm. Soon they heard gentle murmuring, slowly growing into loud screaming and balling accompanied by bestial growls Bael crouched down and the others followed suit
“We may have found us some goblins,” He pulled his bow from his back and knocked and arrow into the place, preparing to pull back on the string. Torrin pulled his sword from his sheath and held his shield up in front ready to block. Fthor held his hammer in both hands holding it at his side, Ceren snapped her fingers and caused the ball of light to disappear with a gentle hiss, within moments her hands were alive with colourful light, every colour of the spectrum. She held her hands in front of her just below her neck. Bael peered up and saw some goblins huddled around a campfire at the mouth of a cave; they saw the goblins murmuring something and occasionally growling like wild animals, they wore loose fitting and ill-suited armour, covered in stains and rust. They had curved short swords covered with chips and kinks among the edge, their faces were disgusting and contorted, a shade of sickly green. Their black hair covered in grease. Bael aimed for the nearest goblin’s head and fired, his arrow flew through the air and hit its mark with a thud, he quickly took count of the remaining goblins. He saw 5 more standing. The goblin was knocked to the ground with an arrow in his temple, black blood pouring from the wound, upon seeing this the other goblins jumped to attention and charged at the group easily seeing them with their black marble eyes. They charged screaming and shouting in a fit of rage; they were only short. Once they got within a few feet of the group Ceren let loose with a burst of energy streaming from her hands in torrents knocking down a goblin, Bael stepped back before pulling another arrow out. After Ceren launched the burst of power she darted back once they got close, narrowly escaping the sharp blade of a goblin. Fthor and Torrin stepped in the way of the charging goblins, with a single swing of his dwarven hammer Fthor brought both goblins to the ground easily, snapping their feeble skeletons. Torrin was less brutish in his assault and sliced the first creature down the chest causing its black blood to pour from the wound and onto to his armour, he then raised his shield to block the second attacker before striking it in the face with the raised shield and the impaling it on his sword. The group glanced around for any more attackers but saw non. The foursome sheathed their weapons and lowered their hands. Ceren looked happy and smiling, the adrenalin running through her veins Torrin looked down on the creatures. “Disgusting creatures,” He spat on the corpse of the creature and looked down with disdain and hatred. “It’s ok, Torrin no need to get mad at some little animals,” Fthor said with jest, Torrin shot him a glance and simply sighed and gathered some equipmet and rations from the goblins. Bael began scouting out the cave and seeing it lead in deeper, he grabbed a torch in from a holder in the wall and held it ahead of him. He looked down the dimly lit cave and saw a large stone door. It was flanked by granite statures covered in steel plate armour, the armour was dull and worn out, it had lost its shine years ago. He carefully approached the door, his senses heightened by the thrill of battle. He struck the door once with a closed hand. A large thud resonated through the cave, echoing. He walked back to the others “I found some stone doors, assuming these are the same goblins that Ceren told us about then we may have found out  were that stupid box is,”
“Bout time too,” Fthor added
“Yeah…anyway the door is sealed tight, but it’s been opened recently, so Torrin get the door open,”
“I am a Paladin of Sabathiel not some brute!”
“I don’t care if you’re the Emperor of the world! Just get the godsdamn door open!” He barked the order at Torrin who simply walked away down into the cave and looked at the door, he put his clawed fingers into the stone door and began to pry the door open. His eyes gleamed with steely determination and looked forward at the door until it was open, he shattered the hinges of the door almost pulling the door of the wall. He breathed deeply and then looked down at the now battered door. The other three followed him in and looked forward at the door, or what was once a door, Ceren quickly lit another ball of light in her left hand and had it float about 7ft air. They walked into what they thought would be a vast cavern but turned out to be an expansive temple, with a marble floor. They looked forward and could see the walls were covered with ancient runes and symbols. They saw a body lying on the floor in front of them, the man was fat and had a thick beard of black hair but non on the top his head. He was wearing nothing more than peasant’s garb. Ceren took one look at him and then stated “It’s Travian,” None of the others spared more than a passing glace at the dead merchant and they cared about was finding that box. Soon an arrow flew past her vision, she jumped back in fear and fell down from the shock.  Quickly readying themselves Bael dived for somewhere safe to fire from while Fthor and Torrin drew their weapons ready for a fight, they looked to were the arrow came from, they saw a small man cowering in fear holding a small crossbow with a few bolts by his side. He had tattered armour and robes he looked like a town guard, he was surrounded by the corpses of men dressed the same as him; he saw the two mercenaries holding their weapons and he quickly dropped his. Torrin put his sword back in his sheath and then he grabbed the man by the shoulders and slammed him into the , he let out a low growl “Why did you fire on us?!” He shouted the question. The guard sweated, his face was covered in blood, dirt, sweat and other wounds “I was scared…some weird freaks creatures attacked us! They looked like zombies…but that can’t be true, zombies don’t exist necromancers have been extinct for over a hundred years now! They couldn’t possibly be around…” The talk of necromancers put Torrin on edge, he thought the practices they performed were an insult the Thanatos the god of death.  The man could continue to speak he coughed up large amounts of blood and his head went limp, Torrin tossed him to the ground and saw a small needle in his neck, laced with some form of posion. A woman stood in the corner and looked at Torrin and the latest kill, “So the boss was right, some fools have turned up to try and get that box back,” She stepped out of shadowed corner and into the light of the glowing orb suspended by Ceren. She had a cloak draped over her shoulders with a hood, that hung from the back, her skin was pale as snow and her hair was a faint grey, her eyes looked like silver marbles. She had a full suite of leather armour, it covered every inch of skin below her neck, the leather was a pure midnight black, she had a belt with several potions, needles, daggers and other thieves tools on it. She drew her dagger and spun it her fingers and walked closer to the group, after about three steps she was stopped by Bael pointing an arrow at her head, “Stop right there! Do not come any closer or I fire an arrow into your neck, who are you?”
“Jinx,” She replied with a little smirk on her face
“OK, Jinx what are you doing here?”
“Now why would I tell some sell swords that?”
“You’re no better, Jeria!” Fthor shouted over the pale woman who took a step back from the dwarf; a look of shock covered her face “H-how did you know that?!” She shouted at Fthor
“I remember you, surly you can’t forget that one day in the Dwarven Hold of Istvaan?”
“Fthor? You were that mercenary who saved my skin on that job a few years back, well never thought I would see your ugly mug again,” She smirked again “Well, as much as I would love to play catch up with you, I have to earn my money somehow, so sorry Fthor you and your friends need to die now,”
She tossed a dagger at Fthor in a spilt second and landed in a gap in his shoulder pad, he recoiled in pain, she tossed a small pellet at Bael and Ceren and smoke began to erupt into the room, while Ceren tried to clear the smoke, Torrin charged the woman, who simply danced out the way, she turned to him
“Any last words?” She held a dagger ready
“Yes…pick a god and pray,” He charged her again and slashed downwards trying to shatter her skull with a staggering blow. She sidestepped out of the way and tried to place a dagger in his side, he raised his shield in quick defence stopping the dagger in its path, he quickly turned around slamming the shield into her face; staggering her. She took a few dizzy steps back away from the paladin, he tried to take advantage of the staggered foe and slashed at her stomach, the blow almost severed her in two. She fell to the ground blood poured across the floor, in her last few seconds of life she grabbed a vial of red liquid on her belt and poured it down her throat. The moment the liquid hit her throat a bright light began to spiral around her body, her skin was reknitting its self. Healing her and replenishing blood lost from the lethal strike. She got to her feet breathing heavily, sweat covered her brow. Torrin readied his blade seeing her stand, “Just die!” He roared at her. She raised her hands in surrender, “No thanks…I give in your good…too good… job doesn’t pay enough for me to keep fighting, listen I’ll tell you about this dastard you’re looking for and you let me live, fair deal?”
“Fair deal, now speak you wretch!” His temper began to simmer but he was still ready to strike her with his blade
“Fine… keep your scales on. He’s called Malreth, he walked up the bar in Ustengrav and said he was looking for a mercenary, so I told him I was a merc and he then started asking all sorts of weird questions, guy was a nut”
“What sort of things did he ask you?” Torrin asked before she could answer the smoke bomb she had used earlier had finally worn down and it had all faded away, the room was clear again. Bael and Ceren walked up to Torrin and looked at the wannabe mercenary. Fthor limped behind them.
Torrin turned to face his allies and explained that Malreth had hired Jeria to kill lead the goblins and attack intruders, he had also ordered her to raid Travian’s merchant cart, not expecting the mage and her mentor to be on the cart. She had no idea what was so important about the box he had asked for only that he called it a little gift from an old friend. She said she disregarded that and couldn’t care any less about his intentions so long as she got paid.
The four discussed what to do with her, Torrin had said he had allowed her to live as long as she told them who had hired her and what she was doing here, Fthor and Ceren complained that he was insane, Fthor wanted to kill her for spitting in his faith and Ceren wanted to see her burn for almost killing her mentor. This lead to the debate becoming a frantic argument, Bael shouted over the rabble before him and forced them to be quiet, he let her go. Jinx dashed off away from the group and then left their sight; hopefully not to cause them any more inconvenience.
They looked around for anything they could use, apparently this Malreth was a major problem, they disregarded him as threat not expecting any problems from him. They walked through a large oak door; they heard a scratching at the floor from the other side and a large thunderous roar. They thought before going into what lays ahead, Torrin placed his hand on the iron handle of the door, with his sword at the ready, Bael took a firing stance behind him, with Ceren and Fthor flanking him; taking no risks. He twisted the door, opening with a creak, it swung open wide, a breeze rolling in casting dust to the side. They expected some fearsome beast or an army of warriors on the other side, they tensed ready for a fight. Nothing greeted their vision, apart from a dull stone corridor, a large red carpet running up the middle and statues of horned warriors down the side. “What the heck, what did we hear?” Fthor walked in, lowering his hammer and slinging it over his back.
“Nothing, well nothing we can see,” Torrin followed he also lowered his weapon.
“I’d stay on my guard you three, just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there,” Bael trailed in; bow still at the ready
“You’re being paranoid Bael, we are safe,” Ceren waltzed in and went a few more feet into the room
“The girl’s right, Bael, nothing here, we can feel safe in that fact, must have scared them off,” Fthor chuckled.  While Ceren walked forward, not taking stock of what was going on.
Like a bolt of lightning a small dagger flew from the shadows of the room; had the small throwing knife had been thrown a few inches lower then Ceren would have been dead on the floor, with a blade in the back of the head.
She turned around and fired blindly in the direction of the thrown weapon, bolts of blue and white energy flaring across the room, they landed shattering in fragments of light. She took steps back, before her allies could realise what had happened; another dagger flew from the darkness, from the shadows in the room, while it thankfully missed, it was much closer than the last; some of the fabric of her hood being ripped off by the close blade. Finally the remainder of the group actually realised what had happened, Bael still with his bow in his hand, ready to fire the bow turned around in time to see a gremlin like creature crouched in the corner, with a short javelin in its left hand a third throwing knife in its right hand, the creature was no more than three feet tall, its skin a sickly green, the face of the beast was similar to that of a shaved dog, its skin covered in boils and blisters; it had armour of lose fitting leather. Bael fired his arrow off and landed a hit on the creature knocking it to the ground, dead. Upon the arrow hitting its chest the creature let of a shrill cry before finally going silent. Torrin took one look at the monster and spat out a name “Kobolds…” With a rage his allies had never seen he growled, soon turning into a roar that could shatter weak stone. He growled “Get out the way!” Heading the warning of the enraged paladin Ceren, Bael and Fthor quickly moved out of the way, once he saw his friends move Torrin let loose with a gout of flame from his mouth, it covered all of the room, the flames raging and finding their way into every spot. Every corner of the room was burnt in the blazing inferno that erupted from the paladin, Kobolds ran from their hiding places, their skin ablaze, they cried in pain and tried to beg for mercy before their vocal cords broke under the heat. As sudden as it came the flames had died down and every Kobold in the room lay down dead, burnt to death under the rage of a paladin. Bael and Fthor ran up to Torrin, who fell to his knees seconds after the gout of flame had ended, he breathed deeply. “Torrin! What was that!” Bael cried, he tried to make himself known to the paladin, who seemed to ignore the company or the cries of his comrades, minutes went by as they tried to reach the head of Torrin. Eventually he let out some words “God forsaken Kobolds…” He muttered with hatred, even mentioning their name seemed to get him ready for another gout of flame despite it leaving him weakened.
“What happened, Torrin?” Bael sighed with concern, he refused to answer the question, he simply stood up, shakey at first but he eventually he regained full balance. When he stood up, Ceren gingerly approached him.  “Torrin, you need to tell us!” Fthor yelled at Torrin, he remained silent for a few seconds before simply stating “Come on we have a necromancer to kill,” He stormed to the end of the room, the carpet burned to nothing and the statues charred. Bael ran after Torrin, Fthor followed, Ceren still careful she approached him. “Torrin, you over sized reptile! Just tell us!”
“I do not need to talk to you about my reasons for killing Kobolds, now let’s move!”
Bael and Fthor thought it best to be quite about what had happened and chose to ignore their allies sudden rage. Ceren was now scared to even go near the hulking warrior, she kept her distance; fearing his rage.
They soon heard the thunderous roar again, this time louder than before, they must have been closer. They saw the corridor took a corner and they saw a colossal shadow lurking through the corridor not capable of seeing the beast in true form, all of them took a battle stance and readied themselves for a fight. Ceren nervously asked “What is that?” Her voice filled with hesitation and doubt, with what she said. They all butted in with their own answer, Fthor went first
“Daemons,”
Bael went next “No, Stalkers,”
Torrin followed “Absurd, Beholders,” They shut up when they saw the pure white head of a dragon poke its head around the corner, looking at them with sapphire blue eyes. It’s maw filled with razor teeth, the mighty beast hulked around the corner, its wings battered and torn. It’s scales ripped from its body, it’s crimson blood pouring over old wounds forced open. Its claws removed and stolen from it, the pure white skin stained with blood.