The heavy dart drove precisely into the eye socket. Its metal tip deformed inside the skull, churning the fragile brain tissue into pulp.
A blissful smile remained frozen on the fallen Duergar's face, creating a bloody, grotesque tableau.
Flori planted a foot on the corpse's head, gripped the end of the bolt with both hands, and pulled hard.
The tip emerged from the skull trailing red and white matter. The dungeon scout casually wiped the blood off on the corpse and returned the bolt to his quiver.
The fight was over. All three Duergar had been dispatched in an instant.
Balin pushed open the heavy stone door. He signaled the other two with a glance, and together they dragged the three corpses inside, bracing the door and easing it shut before the next patrol arrived.
A thick stench of decay filled the fortress.
Rather than a fortress, Renato would have called it a hideout. After all, it had no firing slits, no well, and no narrow, winding passages that could be easily defended. It served little purpose as a fortress.
Fragments of limbs littered the floor: shriveled fingers, strips of skin and flesh... but not a single intact corpse.
Large black scorch marks remained on the stone walls, spreading outward in radiating patterns. They were the traces of a Mind Flayer's psionic lightning.
Clearly, surviving warriors of the Deepforge Family had once held out here, fighting the brain-eating aberrations to the very end.
Their fate, however, was equally obvious.
A shrine to Laduguer stood directly opposite the entrance, visible the moment they entered. Unlike the other looted ruins, its ritual vessels remained untouched. Stone bowls, plates, and an incense burner lay on the floor, their rims inlaid with fine gold edging.
"May Laduguer claim all." Flori knelt on one knee,