>>5294257>18The monster opens its maw, and you exhale right on cue, filling its face with fire from the depths of the Dark Gods’ own forges and furnaces. The Devourer devours more than it is prepared for. Trembling with agony and staggering backwards with a low groan of agony.
“Now!” you cry.
>19Oluwadamilre and Paeris fire heir bows, peppering the beast with arrows. Most simply bounce off of its shell, careening into the shadows beyond your sight, but a few strike true, and the distraction is enough to allow you precious time to rush to the side of the Pti-Guard’s Apprentice.
“Quickly!” you demand. “A sword!”
>1“I… Have a mace?” he answers, holding it up in confusion.
You curse your luck, for you are little-trained in this weapon… But damned if you’ll waste your fine, elven blade on this abomination, before you’ve even drawn it against your ACTUAL assigned adversaries, the Bloodrise Kobolds. You take the mace, and make due. You have no more time to waste.
You expend a full half of your remaining mana on a <Jump> which carries you high up , nearly to the ceiling of this especially-great cavern. You alight upon a stalactite, clinging while you wait for the Devourer to stumble beneath you…
>16And then, like the hammer of the Persecutor of the Weak, you fall upon your massive adversay. You bring the amce with you,c rakcing the carapace of the enormous rust-eater right across the forehead. Blood splatter,s but you avoid being covered in it overmuch; you’ll need to wipe your armour clean to avoid corrosion, you know, but the gold filigree should protect it. The amce is not so lucky, but with two more hard smashes of its jagged edge, you at least get your money’s worth out of it.
The Devourer swings its whirligig-tail about, the fins swiping at you. You avoid them again and again, but eventually are forced to bail off of the beast’s back. It shake itself, as if to ensure you are gone from its back, and then with another bellow, it whirls about and starts down the side of the deep chasm behind you.
“It retreats!” the Pit-Guard’s Apprentice cries in celebration, despite his disarmament.
“Our prisoner retreats, also,” the Pit-Guards notes bitterly, and you see he is right: your bound, spike-covered stalker has liberated itself (himself?) from the corded rope by rubbing it against nearby cavern walls and its own body, and is now fleeing in a separate direction.
What do you do?
>Pursue the Devourer—to slay it would bring great honour upon you with the Drow>Pursue the stalker—an intelligent adversary with a grudge and unmatched shadow-stealth is a greater threat in the long run>Beat a retreat yourself—you need to regroup with the rest of your forces, and clean your armour, and you do not wish to be here when devourer or barbed devil return>Write-in 