Cerise grabbed the closest wolf and started dragging it backwards.
Chaetris rolls backward attempting to avoid the slashing blades. Kneeling beside the wall she waits for a clear shot before she lets another arrow fly.
Kael brings his greatsword down with a grunt, eyeing the incoming swarm carefully, then making a move outside of the range of the vermin.
Percival continues to keep the slasher at bay, running back and holding his spear up and ready.
Pythia hurries backwards, like she's been told to, until she comes upon Cerise dragging a wolf body into the way.
"Well, that's clever!" she exclaims. She continues on, past Cerise and over to the next wolf corpse.
Kael takes a huge chunk out of the Slasher but things take a terrible turn as the companions attempt to continue their tactical retreat. As soon as their backs turn, the creature slices into both Chaetris and Kael, leaving vicious gashes and dropping Chaetris to the ground. Kael manages to get some distance before the creature leaps at Percival, deftly dodging his spear and connecting a minor blow on him as well. The swarm follows closely behind, and finding fresh meat, stops over Chaetris' unconscious form. You can still see her under there between waves of roiling beetles. They're eating her skin, tiny bits at a time.
It would be really good if this hits... Kael makes a slice at the Slasher... praying that it connects.
Pythia grabs the dead wolf and drags it down the hall, stopping when her gut tells her the wolf is in the right spot. Then she steps back a few paces... riiiiight... HERE!
Perfect!
"Bring her to me!" Pythia tells Percival. "Quick!"
Chaetris' wounds stop bleeding quite so profusely as the blood begins to congeal.
Chaetris! Percival runs forward, ignoring the slasher as Kael engages it, reaching into the pile of hopping, churning beetles. Come on now, he pulls her back, away from the biting insects, Pythia, she's got a device, grab it.
Cerise finishes dragging her wolf and dumps it in the swarm's path, hoping it will slow it down. Then she ran to Chaetris' side to help drag her away to safety.
"Get her clear first! Healing her will not help if those things catch us."
Through concerted effort, Kael finishes off the slasher, leaving it in two pieces; Percival rushes bravely up to the briefly stationary swarm and grabs what little of Chaetris that is still visible and pulls her away, spurring the swarm back into roiling action; and Pythia and Cerise drag battered wolf corpses as hopeful surrogates for their live companion.
The swarm surges forward hungrily over the first wolf corpse, several of the beetles pushing forward, but the bulk of them thankfully feasting on the convenient meal. That's still a lot of beetles. It definitely won't take long.
Chaetris clear but bright red with rash and contiguous bite marks, Pythia quickly digs in her pack and pulls out a strange device. Happily, she presses the button and it whirs to life, somehow managing to revive Chaetris.
The companions, severely wounded but whole and together, rush out of the cairn, the swarm not far behind, having devoured a pair of wolf corpses in seconds. As they rush out into the rain, the swarm recoils at the water and light and retreats back into the cairn. There are wolf bones to pick.
"The mining office." Cerise said, starting to head in that direction. "We need to rest and recover."
The companions limp their way in the rain to the old mining office and find some small amount of shelter in a section where the roof is somewhat intact.
With some amount of effort and the hours left before dark, you are able to make the place somewhat habitable. It's still pretty run down, but there are dry places to sleep at least. The rain and the dark provide a safe night's rest and you awake in the morning, somewhat refreshed.
It is pouring outside now, the occasional thunder accenting the wet gloom.
As Pythia presses Chaetris' fingers to the clockwork device it unfolds, growing tiny legs that propel it to her wounds at a speed unexpected of the tiny creature. It crawls over the raw red welts and cuts spraying a foaming liquid as it goes. The foam quickly absorbs into her flesh as Chaetris opens her eyes. She sits up as the device rattles to a stop and falls apart.
"Thank you Pythia,". she says as she gathers the tiny gears and parts. "And everyone else. That was most unpleasant."
Most unpleasant indeed. Percival is clearly glad that Chaetris is alright. Come on, he repeats, this time with a grin, better hurry up.
Percival works hard and quietly on the house, not talking much. He seems worried. I hope we're not out here too long, Chaetris, don't you have to be back soon? I wouldn't want you to lose your job...although...
...you might not need it anymore.
Okay, Cerise, what's the plan?
"That swarm is loose and could be anywhere. We do not want it coming on us unaware, so hunting it down and destroying it should be our first priority. I beleive I can make short work of it with the proper spell." Cerise said. "Afterward, yes I can clear the mold."
As the light of the outside shines on Kael, he thinks to himself, It's been a while since the sun was a beautiful sight. Gritting his teeth at the pain of his wounds, the half-orc helps his companions back to the mining office. Looking at the relative safety of the structure, he remarks, "See? Aren't you glad we cleaned things up earlier?" When things are secured enough for the night, he strips off his enchanted maile and inspects the savage wound the strange creature had inflicted, removing the tatters of his padded shirt underneath, soaked with blood. "I don't suppose there's much more healing to go around? That might come in handy before we go to far."
Barechested, the strange geometric pattern on his arm shimmers in the light of the everburning torch against his green skin. Sparing it a glance, the corner of his mouth turns up in a grim grin. "I also suppose that after our blood has mingled on the cairn floor, there is little point in hiding this."
Cerise eyed the pattern with intrest. "Where did you get that?"
Percival looks at the tattoo with some interest, then turns away rather abruptly.
Very well, we'll go after the swarm first then. It will probably come right out of the hole, just like it did last time, and then you can burn it.
You will burn it, right? Percival doesn't want to assume anything, he doesn't know you that well, after all.
"Of course." Cerise smiled. "I have quite a fondness for fire."
Percival looks at the tattoo with some interest, then turns away rather abruptly. Pythia, I think you were right.
We are meant for this. Am I really supposed to be here? Me?
After a nights rest, Chaetris rises to the sound of pouring rain. "I was hoping that we might get to see some sun during our rest-day." She sighs as she lays our her tools and begins fiddling with her spare parts. "I was thinking last night, I have a device I've seen some schematics of that'll keep you warm. I think I can modify it to spray fire as well. That should help some with those beetles."
When she has finished assembling her new devices for the day, she stands and stretches. "As bad as some of the things that happened yesterday were, I still find this much more invigorating than working down in the pit." She smiles, "Thank you again for inviting me. I think this may be our ticket out of this lousy town."
Might be our ticket out of this lousy town? Percival looks terrified. Yeah uh...you're welcome, he stammers nervously. It is invigorating. It's good, don't you think? Invigorating in a good way?
Kael looks clearly uncomfortable talking about the strange markings on his arm, but grits his teeth and continues. "The militia members that raised me said that I had these marks on my arm when they found me abandoned as a wailing green newborn outside of the keep. I think they always assumed that it was some sort of superstitious tattoo to ward against the evil of abandoning me, though that... never felt right." He shrugs widely. "That doesn't seem to make sense given what we saw down there; there was nothing orcish about that." He slowly runs a finger as if tracing the lines from memory. "Most folk outside of the militia needed little enough excuse to be suspicious of a half-orc, without some strange blue markings, so I've kept them hidden to cut down on potential "torch and pitchforks" from people thinking it's some sort of witch craft. And that's about that... unless we learn something more in the Cairn. I think I've learned more in ten minutes there than I had in ten years."
The half-orc snorts a bit. "You realize that I'm wearing more coin right now than you could make in a lifetime of working in the pit? I don't know about you all, but I was a few day's rations away from 'living of the land' myself, so it's going to be a bit of an adjustment. But one thing's for certain. Things are never going to be the same for us." He chuckles, lounging back. "Invigorating is one way to describe it. We've had a taste of the adventuring life now. I'm sure Lirr will keep us on our toes, until we retire or die from it."
While the party rests, Kael faithfully records the strange explorations of the day, although he leaves out the part of almost dying to bugs himself.
Percival nods at Kael as he talks about the tattos, sounds rough. Everyone has secrets, I'm glad I don't have one on my arm. Percival looks down for a moment. They are definitely connected to the Cairn. I wouldn't tell you if I wasn't certain, he makes a downward gesture with his hand to emphasize this last word. I'm glad you're learning about them, he says genuinely.
Percival looks energized. Yeah, it's uh...really something. Yeah, I'm really ready to get out of here. I think I knew I wanted to leave when I was...um...ten years old. It's scary though, isn't it?
The half-orc's deep belly laugh in reaction to the word 'scary' continues for a second until he manages to tweak one of his wounds, wincing. "'Scary'? You just calmly covered a tactical retreat in which a few of us nearly died to someone's nightmare made skittering and slashing, and you think is scary?" The half-orc flashes a tusked grin.
[b]"Strange abominations are scary, panicked people are scary, starvation is scary. Leaving is a luxury very few people in this trap of a town can even consider. I'm more worried about having to defend our finds from those that want us to leave.
"Fear is relative." Cerise said. "Sometimes nightmares made flesh are easier to face than the hopes of a ten year old."
"Thank you Pythia,". she says as she gathers the tiny gears and parts. "And everyone else. That was most unpleasant."
"You are most welcome, Chaetris!" Pythia replies happily. "Welcome back!"
---
Percival looks at the tattoo with some interest, then turns away rather abruptly. Pythia, I think you were right. We are meant for this. Am I really supposed to be here? Me?
Pythia smiles sagely. "Yes," she replies with conviction. "We are. All of us."
---
Pythia awakens with a jolt and scrambles for her papers an inks. She frantically records the many symbols and sigils she's seen in her dreams onto paper. She gets more and more frantic and messy the more she writes, as if she's worried she'll forget something if she takes too long.
By the time she's done her fingers, hands and face are smeared and smattered with ink, and she has at least a dozen new sheets of paper filled with drawings. She packs up her things and examines her papers for a while, spreading out her old ones alongside the new in a futile effort to place the images chronologically.
"Here...? No! Here? Hmmm... What it this was first...?"
So absorbed is she in her efforts that she barely notices her companions at all.
"Hmm? Invigorating?" she remarks distractedly, "Yes, I suppose it could represent that... I have a feeling this image is more ominous than that, though..."
As the conversation turns to leaving town, Pythia's finally begun clearing away her papers and is less distracted.
"Leave?" Pythia asks suddenly. She shakes her head. "Oh, it's not time for that, yet. But, soon... Yes... Soon I think it will be." she smiles.
After shoving the last of her papers in her backpack, Pythia straps on her armour, loops her morningstar onto her belt, pulls on her cestus and straps on her shield.
"Well?" she remarks. "It's time to go."
In the morning, the rain has somewhat abated, leaving you with a slightly cold and damp, but very windy trek back to the mouth of the cairn.
15 Patchwall – 595 CY – Starday – 8am
As you approach the mouth of the cairn, you see obvious signs of your retreat the previous day, in the form of blood spots and an oddly churned up path in the dust that leads deep into the cavernous structure. With extreme caution, and with a tense nervousness, you follow Kael as he tracks the obvious trail within. Almost immediately, you come upon the wolves. They are nothing more than bones, pocked with thousands of little bite marks. Stripped clean. You can't help but imagine that could've been Chaetris. The trail continues on.
As you get deeper into the cairn, you start to notice beetles here and there. You squash what you can, but they're numerous. Luckily they're too spread out to be a danger at this point. When you reach the alcove that leads to the wolves' den, you see several beetles moving among the rubble there. You're likely to find more in the den itself, but you cannot see that far from here. The trail continues on.
Down the short stairs and into the large star-shaped chamber, you find that the sarcophagus is pointing right where you left it, toward an ominous pit in the floor beneath the green lantern. The trail leads to its edge, and presumably down.
With caution and uncertainty, you resolve yourself to look down the pit and prepare yourselves for whatever may happen. Pythia casts light on a stone while everyone else prepares for the possibility of a mass of beetles once again.
When you drop the stone down the pit, it falls 80 feet into a chamber. You can hear the chittering of what must be thousands of insects faintly from below, but you do not see any. The 5-ft wide tunnel leading down is severely pitted and scarred and ends about ten feet above the floor. You can't make out any detail of the room below other than it looks to be the same kind of stone you've been walking on in the cairn so far.
The tossed stone makes a soft clattering sound as it lands and bounces out of view. You can still see the light emitting from it.
The insect sound is still distant, but obvious in the silent room.
"Do we have any kind of meat to drop down?" Cerise asked.
"I have some cured meat," Pythia offers, pulling out the meat from her trail rations. She hands it off to Cerise. "Nothing fresh, I'm afraid."
Before the meat gets tossed down the pit, Pythia mutters some gibberish under her breath and places a hand on Cerise, Chaetris .
Percial watches Pythia pull out her meat. Speaking of rations, we're going to need to refill our water soon. I suggest we do so after we kill this swarm.
Percival holds his spear ready, closer to the hole than he should be, considering how ineffective his weapons will be.
Chaetris walks with the others past the bloody reminders of yesterday's events and stifles a shudder, obviously avoiding looking at the bones of the wolves. "At least they seem to have disbursed some." she says stomping on a lone beetle. Deeper into the crypt they venture, carefully reexploring the space.
Looking down the broken hole, she marvels. "It looks like the bugs may have damaged the system long before we got here. There may have been nothing we could do to keep it from collapsing." She runs a hand along the pitted stone, "Y'know, I may be able to use that quarterstaff we found yesterday. Wedge it into a couple of these holes, then tie a knotted rope to it. That might get us back up those last couple feet. I'd use your spear Percival, but that staff is probably tougher."
Pythia brightens in excitement. "Oh, yes! That sounds exciting!" She nods her head vigorously in agreement.
"Very good idea." Cerise agreed.
"Sometimes nightmares made flesh are easier to face than the hopes of a ten year old."
Indeed... Percival looks around, feeling safe after having slept the night with these people, no longer strangers, ...but I'm not ten anymore. He grins, mirroring, Kael, though it's difficult to tell if he's not just putting on a brave face. Whatever happens, it's going to be for the best.
Pythia drops the cured meat down the hole...
The meat lands eighty feet below with a splat. After a moment, you notice several beetles crawling over it, though it's hard to make out too much detail at this distance.
It's nothing like the mass of beetles you dealt with before.
Looks like they're elsewhere. We should definitely take a look at the wolf den first, huh? Percival keeps staring down at the meat. Knowing what to do doesn't always mean doing it.
I suggest we toss forward some meat again, that does seem to attract them. If that doesn't work... Percival looks at Cerise, how confident are you that you can kill it on sight? Do you want to...um, crawl down there? Might uh... he bites his lip, eying Cerise's high quality clothes, might get dirty, but uh, well, I'm sure if that were a big problem for you you'd not be here. Right? Percival smiles his most polite smile.
When you toss meat into the wolf den, a few beetles do casually inspect it and over time, it attracts several, but no swarm emerges.
"The concern is appreciated but unnecessary." Cerise said. In spite of traipsing around in a cave and getting into fights with wolves and bugs, she still looked as clean and pristine as she did when she first arrived. "Keeping clean is among the first things an apprentice learns."
She spent some time tying knots into the length of rope to make the climb easier, then helped Chaetris rig it across the hole with the quarterstaff.
She was a bit nervous. Climbing was not her strongest skill, but she made her way down carefully, ready with fire on her lips. Her dancing orbs of mage-light went down ahead of her to light her way.
It looks like they aren't back there. Maybe we should try climbing down the tunnel? Percival looks back the way they came. If we affix pitons and use a quarterstaff like Chaetris suggested, we'll be able to get back up. And I suspect there's not a lot of living matter down there, the beatles would've eaten it.
Percival moves towards the hole, ready to climb down.
Cerise descends ahead of everyone and finding it safe enough, gestures for the others to follow. The climb down is tedious, but otherwise easy. The room below is in a state of devastation. In some ways, it looks like a mirror of the elevator room you were in before.
Dozens of bas-relief figures, similar to the one on the sarcophagus lid in the room above, stare disapprovingly from the walls here. Many sport crossed arms and stern expressions. A few of the statues' heads are missing, and some have huge chunks torn out of them. Others have a weird melted appearance, as if they'd been sprayed by something terrible. A large glyph that looks like a stylized arrow points down a short corridor to the north that leads to a four-way intersection. There is no sign of an elevator, unless it's present in the pieces of rubble strewn on the floor here.
The ever-present sound of chittering emanates from the corridor ahead.
Cerise touched down, trying to stay quiet but the echoes of her heeled boots on the stones were hard to muffle.
When nothing immediately jumped out at her, she waved the others down and readied herself in case something happened.