Turn 43

Alais peeks into the passage, hardly noticing any longer that he is wounded. Judging by the light reflected from the walls farther down, there might be a window or some other aperture down there.
    At the silence following the xixchil's demise, ibn Fadil glances up from his efforts with the lock. "Keys!" he echoes Gorn, with no less urgency but far greater self-control. Praying that the keys will quickly be found, he starts putting away Val's tools.
    Above, the cowardly dwarf hesitates between going below to look for the keys that can free them, and the prospect of being closer to whatever waits in the darkness.
    Meanwhile Yestin strides over to the junk mountain, keeping a wary eye on the skullbirds all the while, and roots through it for something that might be used as a weapon. He finds a long pole of rough-forged iron and hefts it thoughtfully for a moment, nodding, then locates a second one which he passes to Nyala. It is a bit heavy and awkward for her, but at least it will confer more distance than a knife blade from whatever might attack them.
    Val immediately starts searching the xixchil's corpse for keys. He focuses on the task at hand, ignoring the note of panic in Gorn's yell. The wizard's exoskeleton is elaborately inlaid with copper tracery and a number of gems, included a large black stone set into his chest.
    Emmett watches the scramble for the keys while changing his position, putting the corpse between himself and the door. When Val needs to check the xixchil's other side, the half man stoops and flips it over for him, happy to help the process along.
    There is also a small bag on a fine chain worn around his neck; feeling this gingerly reveals what feels like keys, muffled in something else to keep them from clinking while the wizard spied invisibly on his unwilling helpers. Val frees the bag and brings it over to the door, shakes the keys out. There are almost a dozen, long-barrelled and finely crafted. They are all clearly different, but there is nothing overt to tell which one might belong to this door.
    Emmett then drives his knife into the chitinous hide while getting a good grip with his other hand. One smooth motion gets the creature over his head, and he takes a few steps forward, ready to throw the corpse at the head of whatever comes through the door.
    He is also prepared to yell, "Lunch!"
    It drips on him. Delmar takes up a position nearby, his expression grim.
    Ibn Fadil picks up his blade and moves out of the way so Val can try keys, turning to stand with Hiro, facing the door and whatever waits there.
    "Does anyone else smell salt water?" the Kensai of Kara-Tur says aloud. "I think the dead wizard may be the least of our worries...."
    As Val tests the first key, there is again that slight shifting, and then something whips out of the darkness, faster than the eye can see, toward Hiro and ibn Fadil. Both nimble warriors evade the viciously spined tail that has attempted to knock them off their feet.
    The thing emerging from the shadows is large--ogre-sized--and semi-reptilian, with four long, curved talons on each hand and foot and more teeth than anything should possess. It does not appear to have been well fed of late, and saliva drips from between the three rows of teeth as its tongue flickers, scenting for them.
    It has no eyes, they realize in the split second they have to in which observe the thing. That does not appear to hinder its motion. Also, some of its hide appears to be missing--the source of the bear's unnatural armor? Another one must have donated the tail, for this creature possesses a similar limb, flicking about in a deadly, eye-defeating dance as it advances.
    "Yitsan," Delmar says in a slightly strangled voice. Behind them, the skullbirds' shrieks set the entire cavern ringing.
    

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