Vuzi moves up to where she can see into the room. "So many rats." She casts Bane on the rats. "There harder to hit uz."
Dalkk's eyes light up and laughter erupts from his chest, "Are ye t'inking o' da flames Magsy!?" the normally stoic and dry dwarf is clearly excited at the sight of such a large clumping of enemies. He chucks a bomb hard as he can to the center of the the rats nest.
After he tries the bomb he reaches for his bandolier, removing a vial of Alchemist's Fire and handing it to Vuzi "Come on, you know you want to"
"Ehhh, and that's why I hate rats-frchrr!
No normal animal should like to swarm like that-brchrggrr!
Emily, help Cain. It's too small for us both!
If they come at you, draw them in a bit so we can encircle them-meowi!"
With a quick draw he pulls his bow and sends a quick arrow down into the shifting mess of rats.
With a smooth movement, Emily joins Cain at the front-line, biting and scratching at the closest rat in a wild fury.
Maglin closes in behind Cain and Emily, hurling a bomb over top of them and then taking a step back bravely. The flames indeed, the rest of us should concentrate on those rats nearest to us or the woman. Maglin's voice remains even, and he speaks only slightly faster than normal.
Youall definitely have the rat's attention. They come pouring out of the hole like champaigne from a shaken bottle. Emily and Cain cut down the first two out, but the rest bully their way through. They are generally burned, reek to high heaven, and seem VERY upset with your life choices as of late. Vuzi takes a bite on the calf that burns like acid, but the rest of you fend of their snapping fangs.
The lady is holding her own now that the pressure is turned to you. The still has a few rats to contend with, but she seems to be doing a little better. Not well, by any stretch, but better.
Vuzi growls at the rat. She grabs the Alchemist Fire from Dalkk, and tumbles away from the rats. "Thank vu."
AHah...ahhh! Maglin cries out as the rats push past their frontline, and again as they surround him. There are really only a few, but they've got very large teeth which could easily remove chunks of flesh. Emily, Simon, this is you, Maglin says in a steady and soft voice, rather at odds with his earlier shriek. He looks over at them for a moment, waiting for the flurry of claws and steel sure to come, before loosing another bomb.
"Cain Marko-Cain! Get to the Girl!" The dwarf shouts. He reaches for the light crossbow at his side as he takes a step away from the pair of rats on his sides.
The dwarf takes a breath and focuses before letting loose the scent bolt at the rat next to Simon "C'mon lad git yer head inta game, ye look like yer t'inkin o'a lassie on 'er special day"
In discussion thread Simon said he'd be delayed this weekend due to getting married despite not inviting any of us.
He's probably still recovering? [/Ooc]
Cain more or less ignored the nearby rats to focus on ranged attacks on the ones near the downed woman
The twin bombs go off and, in spite of Maglin's landing a bit short, several rats fry. The other try to swarm and Cain cuts one down after skewering a rat near the lady with his bone spear things. Emily swipes at and wounds another as the two rush by. This means that just one rat remains by the woman and she manages to land a blow that only makes the rat more angry.
The rats scratch and bite, but Cain and Emily hold them back.
Cain launches the last flurry of bone spikes at the rats by the woman so he can focus on the ones close by again
Seeing that Cain is likely able to handle the last rat by the woman, Maglin raises his crossbow, focusing his attention on one of the closer rats. Let's hold ranks, we can't be sure she's friendly, Maglin says in an even tone, reaching for another bolt and reloading with barely a glance down.
Dalkk had figured that the up close rats were handled but is happy enough to oblige them. He grips his crossbow tight and levels it with the rat next to him. He takes another 5ft step back and looses a crossbow bolt.
With a snarl, Simon drops the bow and draws his blades again.
Those rats have come into melee range way too fast for his liking!
He steps forward, forming a triangular fighting formation with Cain and Emily,
back-to-back against the remaining rats.
The following slash, surprises the rat cutting a huge part off it's
foul hide, drawing blood!
Emily needs no further instructions.
There are still rats to kill after all!
"Meowfrchh!"
With the rats now all dead the party can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The lady cowers at the back of the cave among numerous dire rat corpses.
She is human with wide eyes and a slight twitch when she looks at you. She looks half crazed, to be honest. Her hair and clothes are a mess. She doesn't react to you immediately. She keeps looking around at all the rat corpses.
The dwarf ratchets a new bolt into place in his crossbow and makes his way into the cavern. He keeps the heavy crossbow lowered until he gets closer. With all the friendliness, care, and hospitality he can summon he raises the crossbow again once he's nearly on top of her. "Ye dinnae know me, but I've bin in and bin ta cause o' more explosions then mos' will e'er see. Nah one of ta rats were singed before me an my friend back der had our fill but sometin' did explode already. If'n you dinnae want to be what's next you best start sayin' everytin' you know."
The lady stares down three business end of Dakk's crossbow with eyes wide in shock. She's clearly confused and scared, but she doesn't start talking. Perhaps because she didn't understand the question.
Greetings, Maglin begins, checking to make sure his crossbow is still tied to his belt. He walks behind Dalk, approaching the lady without a hint of fear. We are adventurers, here each for our own reasons, who wish to know who you are and where you come from. He glances back behind him, signaling that the others should keep an eye out for an ambush. Perhaps you're another adventurer whose party became lost and killed one by one? Maglin reaches out and tugs gently at Dalk's shoulder, two fingers moving toward's the dwarf's crossbow.
Maglin turns to the others behind him, sighing. We should clear away the rat corpses at first, she seems to be afraid of them. He kneels down and begins to toss those nearby backwards, occasionally grunting with the effort. If she continues to act crazed and afraid, I shall prepare an infusion which will hopefully prove calming. He glances up at the woman, hoping that she merely has musophobia.
"Hello. Are vu alright? Do not mind him. He haz issues with people. Vy are vu here in dis place?" Vuzi takes a chance and puts her hand out to help the woman up from her cower.
While Emily enjoys her success by feeding on the dead rats, Simon follows the group inside to take a look at the woman they had saved.
Seeing her on the ground, shaken with fear and shock, his good hearts starts to melt and he sits down at her side and tries to drag her into a fuzzy hug while purring a barely audible song of sleep and calm.
If she is obviously wounded, he will cast a basic healing spell to ease her pain a bit.
She smells of rat, which is understandable. When you get closer she seems to snap out of it and says, Oh thank the gods, we've got to get back!
Marko stabs a dead rat and asks "anyone got a source of fire?" he walks over with the rat-kebab and looks the woman over
The dwarf lowers his crossbow at Maglin's insistance. "Surely ye realize sometin' abou' ta fire just ain't right Magsy?" He trusts just about any of his companions other then himself to handle such affairs. As Vuzi pointed out, he doesn't do well with people. His reflection does give him an idea though. "If ye cannea make sense of her, I bet with some help Vuzi could like she did with the shopkeep."
The dwarf laughs but shoots a look at Vuzi to ensure she knows he was not joking. He starts to leave figuring the situation well in hand. Dalkk stays mindful of the group but faces exit, keeping watch on the rear. He shouts back, almost barking, "If we dinnae find ta' source o' ta' fire marks we should be all ta more concerned."
Somewhat surprised that his planned aid is no longer necessary, Simon steps back to get away to let Vuzi do her thing.
He never got the grasp of 'fine' talking.
As Dalkk continues to babble about the fire, Simon remembers as well.
Still in the movement he asks the women over his shoulder:
"So you're trained in magic, aren't you-iih?
Roasting those damn rats quite nice-grpurpurr."
She shakes her head. I have to get back! Why are you all just standing here talking!?
I regret saying this, but we cannot trust you right away. Tell us what it is you have to get back to, why it has to be now, and we'll be inclined to help. Maglin stays standing, arms crossed, though there is a hint of sympathy in his voice.
Perhaps a little water, Simon? Should soothe the nerves, make this next part a bit easier.
What are you talking about? My friends are across the cave! They might be in trouble! They're probably up to their necks in rats as we speak!
If they are up to their necks in rats, probably the best thing is to stay as far away as possible. How many friends do you have, and how did you get separated? Maglin keeps the questions a bit more concrete for now, hoping to get straight answers.
She give Dallk a nod of understanding at his message. "Ve vere just across de cave. There was no vone else. If you think they need help we will go, please lead the vay." She give everyone a stay on your guard look.
She at the shop keep as they leave the smaller cave. "Haf you met Mr. Thulian Vance? He haz been here for a while. Vat is your name. Vy are you here?" Vuzi watches her reaction at being introduced to the ghoul.
She doesn't approach Mr. Vance, but she does nod as she hurries off toward the fallen rocks in the north west of the cavern. Hello. I'm Vilaar. My partner and I were down here when we met some rats and separated. He should be over here!
She easily jumps the stream and scrambles up the rubble pile. it blocks access to the passage from the rat room. Once the rubble is negotiated, it can quickly be seen that there are stairs beyond. Past the rubble, the walls and floor are covered with spattering of blood, several broken weapons and marrow-sucked bones. Jarvik! Jarvik are you there! she cries.
Cain has his sword drawn and his shield up, not trusting anything going on
Lady Vilaar, I'm sorry but I don't trust you enough to let you lead the way. Maglin sounds sorry; every word that comes from his mouth is like a weight. Please stand near my good friend Cain, he will kill you if you seem to be against us. Maglin looks away from Vilaar quickly, focusing on the path ahead. In this context it would also be a bad idea for Simon to go first, so Thulian shall lead the way.
We shall hurry, he says to his companions, but be wary. Anyone able to tell at a glance how recently these bones were sucked of marrow?
"Mr Vance will you go ahead with Simon please?" Vuzi asks the ghoul as she follows along longspear at the ready.
Looks from one to the other casually while mixing the essence of several mushrooms together. He smiles when it begins to glow.
He jogs forward and hands off a coil of rope to the calcium abundant warrior Cain and motions for him to come along side. He continues to jog forward until he reaches the woman. He signals to the others who would like to get involved to follow him. When he gets in front of her he speaks "Ye dinnae seem to understan' me earlier, so I made a potion to help..." he knocks back the potion he just made and immediately begins to grow. His eyes which were locked on her go from looking up to looking down with his new found size. In a fittingly slightly louder and deeper voice
Dalkk Reaches out to grab the woman.
Vance dutifully takes the lead over the rocks and runs into no trouble. Then Dalkk steps up and commands the lady to stop. He grabs her by the waist and starts yelling. The lady screams and a bag appears in her hand. Maglin's magic sight, thus far blocked by the small traveling bag that the lady was carrying, is suddenly hit with a dangerous arua! Before he can warn the dwarf, the lady bursts the bag over his face! A fine metallic dust settles over the area around him. His face looks like it's made of metal momentarily...
take . As a result you take a 32 HP penalty which can knock you out until the damage is healed enough to get the penalty below your current HP.
With those around her disabled, the woman disappears into one of many small tunnels that line this room. They are big enough to crawl through and she seems well practiced at navigating them. She is gone before you can catch her.
The now much smaller woman fumbles through his fingers, while struggling to keep the idget in place he drops her all together when his whole world goes shiny
As warned earlier, the dwarf had been in more explosions then most and keeps his head clear even at the center of this blast. His sinuses however were a different story, and the pollen count just got higher.
The still enlarged dwarf falls to his knees and buries his face in his left arm, still hacking away and hoping his buckler will keep his face protected for the next minute and a half while he recovers.
Simon is taken completely by surprise by this new development, his attention fixed on the way forward. As the struggle and screaming happens in his back, he whirls around ... only in time to see the rescued lady disappear into a small tunnel at the side of the cave.
"What happened-iii?
Dulkk, you're okay?!"
Noticing that Dulkk, and probably Cain too, are in no way able to fight or even talk coherently, he takes Dulkks hand to lead him back to the entrance they had come through. Better fight off a possible attack at a narrow space, than in the middle of a cave.
"Lets go back a bit-meow.
If more rats come at us, I don't want to get surrounded with you two out out of it-grfrch!"
"The f%!% achu! Get he-heahchu her"
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Oh dear, Maglin says softly as the bag appears. He reaches out a hand powerlessly, mouth open wide, but no words come. A moment later, the lady is gone.
Maglin turns silently and approaches Cain, stopping a few feet away. Cain, this is Maglin, follow me. Maglin touches him on the shoulder gently, leading him after Simon.
He stands sullenly beside Simon, looking at the ground. Occasionally he looks up at Cain and Dalkk, but there is nothing Maglin can do to help.
Are you all right? That bag seemed to be quite deadly, I'm glad nothing worse happened to either of you, and I'm also glad that she did not detonate it while we were all leaving that small tunnel, which I think would have been much more damaging. However, I feel that I contributed to an attitude of trusting towards her. I think we should have been more thorough before allowing a potential foe to take advantage of us like that, more specifically, I think we should have searched her and bound her arms despite her protests. Maglin looks around at the others for a moment, hoping they agree.
I will remember this incident with perfect clarity for the rest of my life, but we cannot let the mistakes we made here cause an unhelpful negative mindset. It is imperative that our spirits are not let down. We will learn from this.
Any comments? Maglin pauses to look around at the others.
Thulian, we need to search you and get a better understanding of your condition and history. You seemed quite confused when we first met you, and after Vuzi's magic it was as though another spell had been broken. Do you know if that was the case? Perhaps you were under the control of another spellcaster, or the creature who slew you? How exactly did your expedition fare? What are your current capabilities, as far as you understand them? How long have you been down here, and were you locked in that room the whole time?
Last of all, Vuzu, how long will your spell last?
Maglin will repeat any of his questions patiently and methodically until they've all been addressed.