Merrin couldn't hold back a smile. She could understand his bewilderment - happening to possess the very key they needed, by what seemed mere chance, must appear a remarkable coincidence. "The druid gave it to me," she explained. "After you'd...gone."

She did not particularly feel inclined to explain why or how, and continued hurriedly. "He...he said I was to keep it safe." Upon recalling this part of his instruction, Merrin turned and reached for the key again, buried in the stone door as it was, but it seemed inclined to remain. "I don't think we should leave it," she opined doubtfully. "If the Meiltha are following this is a rather obvious sign of where we've been."

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"However, if the Meiltha come this way at all the'll see the open door and guess, a key won't matter...unless of course we close the door behind us and trap ourselves in with the Gaurdien...?" She said with a hint of sarcasm.

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Made by Lembas

Kendath leaned his weight on the massive stone door, but to no avail. He grunted and pushed harder. The obstinate door didn't budge an inch. "That settles it," he said, glaring at it. "If the... the Meiltha are on our trail, I suggest we move." The name stumbled awkwardly over his tongue, like he was referring to him and Evlyn in third person.

He took a torch off the wall and muttered a small charm under his breath. It flared to life, illuminating a meager circle of firelight in the perpetual darkness. Other hand resting on his falchion, he entered the tunnel.

The air was refreshingly cool, if a bit oppressive. The tunnel itself gradually sloped upwards. Shining the torch around, he discovered engraved runes lining the smooth walls.

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(hello? what happened to weird crimson guide of Evlyn and Garthag?)

Semri shuddered as she entered the tunnel, it seemed she was comeing to something, not the Crystal, something more personal. She couldn't care less about the Gods to be honest, so what was it?

Evlyn and her guied entered a vally benath the Sigl. Before them she thought she could see a dark spot at the other end of the vally.

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Made by Lembas

Merrin stopped to trace an odd shape with her fingers - a spiky rune cut into the passage wall along with a string of meaningless others. The torchlight shifted and she stepped back with a little gasp as it revealed a startlingly lifelike dragon's head painted above the runes. With a glance back at the door, which was now only a small patch of light behind them, she shuddered and hurried after the other two.

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"There," Xandir rasped, pointing across the valley to the hole Evlyn had spotted at the other end. "A tunnel leading to the heart of the mountain and back up, to Hell's Finger." With certain steps, he began crossing the valley.

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Kendath thought he heard a faint skittering noise in the tunnel ahead, almost like...

"Lovely. Spiders," he commented, scanning the floor as to not squish any of the skitterish arachnids.

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Merrin sidestepped a spider that scuttled past her into the darkness, and peered ahead of them for more. Suddenly the torchlight illuminated a fork in the passage - and from the left way emanated an ominous clicking and rustling. Merrin scanned the walls.

"There," she said abruptly, and pointed to a sign etched into the wall of the right way. It was the same that had adorned the jewel in the tiny key. "This way."

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Evlyn looked in aprehension, but followed him though the vally into the tunnle entrace, she had no light, but Xandir's eyes gave off a faint glow in the darkness.

(hmm i think i'l go right)

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Made by Lembas

Kendath eyed the left passage with extreme wariness. The skittering sounds only amplified... until... was that the clicking of mandibles? How big would mandibles have to be for them to hear it all the way...?

He got his answer soon enough. Perhaps sooner than he would have liked.

A horde of arachnids, their crimson bodies glittering in the torchlight, swarmed from the left passage. Each exceeded three feet in height. Waving the torch to keep them at bay, Kendath whipped out his falchion and stabbed it in the abdomen. A morbid explosion of ichor sprayed him in the face.

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Merrin let out a shriek of unpleasant surprise, was summarily disgusted with herself, and stifled it forthwith. Rapier out, she studied the oncoming monsters warily and moved forward, slashing experimentally. All but one skittered out of her path but advanced instantly, their clicking amplified. She cast an uneasy glance up at Kendath beside her.

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"Time to go," Kendath muttered, launching into a run. He waved the torch before him, sending giant arachnids scattering. He worked his falchion in fluid motions to the side, gutting more than one spider and sending more ichor spraying. Lethal pincers bit into his sides. The sting was not as bad as he'd anticipated, so he hardly faltered.

After about ten minutes of battling for every inch of headway, he began feeling a strange numbing sensation in his legs. Weariness tugged at his eyelids... Had to keep them open... had to run...

It was then that the epiphany hit him. The arachnids carried poison.

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Evlyn heard a scream up ahead, and feverish sounds of scutteling. "The Renagades..." She turned round to face Xavir. "What traps are there?"

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Made by Lembas

Several spiders retreated before Merrin's onslaught with her rapier and for a moment there was time to breathe - until she noticed very suddenly that Kendath was swaying dangerously, his eyes threatening to close.

"Kendath!" she gasped, and moved forward to support him if he fell, and he looked as if he might. "Semri - keep the spiders off! Use the torch - burn them, do something!"

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She nodded silently and opened a small vial in her pocket. Spilling a line of its contents between them and the spiders, she picked up a torch and dropped it on the liquid. Instantly a wall of fire sprung up. "Another thing to always carry, oil." She said with a grim smile before attacking with her daggers.

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Made by Lembas

"I'm fine," Kendath growled. Gritting his teeth, he forced his eyes open and righted himself again. The sight of the arachnid swarm sent another wave of adrenaline pumping through his body, and he utilized the adrenaline to keep the poison at bay.

The swarm of arachnids. Semri's flaming wall kept one large group hindered, but more were scuttling madly down the walls. Their sheer numbers would overwhelm them.

He launched into another offense at their attackers across the way. All the while, his gaze scanned the tunnel, searching for some method of egress. He saw it then - a small alcove set in the stone wall. A calculated strike could bring the overhang down and seal them into the alcove, but would they be able to lift the debris to get back out once the spiders were gone?

They could figure that out later.

"Here!" he shouted, launching into a sprint for the alcove.

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Merrin turned, bewildered, and in disgust brushed a swarm of the tiny beasts off her cloak. "What are you - " she started to say, hurrying after him, and then realized Kendath's intention. "You can't be serious..."

But at that moment pincers clicked near her ear and Merrin very narrowly avoided a spider bite herself. She jumped back with a yell and brushed arachnids off her - only one option now. Diving after Kendath, rapier still in hand, Merrin didn't even check over her shoulder to make sure Semri followed.

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