"Magic? Pah! It is well that you know another skill. Leave the demon-spawned magic behind you, lest you find yourself at the wrong end of a bargain gone bad."
"And what do you know of demon-spawn, human?" Allysen snaps. Her eyes are focused on the the disturbing spider, but the still flash in anger all the same.
But in an instant it is gone, she shrinks as she lets out a sigh.
"Sorry, I just... What you said brought back some bad memories."
There may be bad memories, but there is a lot more going on than what she is telling.
"Now what is this inside the body of a dead spider?", Ozgo mutters as he moves forward to confront the creature.
Nenthil takes the words spoken in stride, such was the darkness of ignorance. Still it was his responsibility to spread the light of understanding, or at least attempt it.
"Magic is nether inherently evil or a source of evil. It is those that make use of it in such a manner that are evil. Otherwise I could say that any who wield a blade are evil, for they only cut. Hold those who make the choice accountable not their means."
He wonders what caused the reaction in Allysen, she was normally pleasant in his opinion.
As Ozgo strides forward, sword in hand, the spider's body bursts, disgorging four enormous maggots the size of greyhounds. The two nearest spit foul bile and fluid all over Ozgo, coating him in unthinkable gorge.
"I really, really hope you guys have some way of squishing these things!"
Allysen moves closer, trying to avoid putting Ozgo between her and the maggot to his right. She nocks the arrow in her hand and, after a silent prayer for luck, lets it fly.
Unfortunately, the arrow goes sailing into the darkness.
Nenthil reacts to the sudden emergence of the foul fly spawn by aiming his crossbow. Quickly remembering the positions of all on the field and their conditions he offers his advice.
"Elf it would be best if you did not move for now, we have enemies to deal with. Ozgo you may wish to retreat before they swarm you. Reinnwulf and Weyland, you may want to support Ozgo. I recommend you flank the enemy targeting one at a time. The rest of us could support from a distance if we are ill suited to close range."
He studies the creatures just as he is firing at one.
Nenthil's crossbow bolt thuds into one of the maggots as it charges toward Weyland. It tries to bite him, but fails to connect. The other three move to surround Ozgo, all trying to bite him, but only one manages to connect.
"Disgusting"
Weyland draws his sword and swing at the nearest maggot(B):
but fails to connect.
Ozgo grunts as the maggot penetrates his armor. He returns the effort by swinging his sword at the vile creature.
As Weyland strikes the maggot in front of him, it gives a loud squelching noise and bursts open, leaking fluids as it collapses to the cave floor. Ozgo manages to daze one of those attacking him with a slash of his sword, then he retreats around the carcass of the giant spider.
Reinnwulf leaped forward as soon as the maggots burst from the spider. His hunting spear darted forward, but he was jostled by Orzo, and missed.
Moving to within 10'. I have 3 potential AoOs, which I will go ahead and roll.
Seeing the nearest one fall with no small amount of relief he reloads and targets another. He was unused to combat of any kind and the closer the creatures got the more his nerves started to get the better of him. He takes a deep breath and exhales before shooting.
Allysen takes a steadying breath. Her mind races as she thinks about what she could do.
The stars shine in the sky.
The time has come to do or die.
Raise your swords and spears up high,
And bellow a mighty war-cry.
Nenthil's bolt takes the injured maggot in the ... chest? head? Hard to tell. Either way, it must have hit something important, because the Maggot keels over. His remaining fellows move to attack Ozgo and vomit on Reinnwulf, respectively.
Inspired by Allysen's short poem, Ozgo again swings his sword at the repulsive creature.
Attack-Melee:
Damage:
Reinnwulf twists away from the vile sludge that spewed from the maggot, trying to avoid retching as he did. He lashed out at the creature with his spear, hoping to dissuade it from any more such attacks.
AoOs, if necessary
A flurry of blows from Reinnwulf and Ozgo dispatch the remaining Maggots, leaving the group energized, alone but for the three strangers, and slightly puked on in the case of Ozgo and Reinnwulf. Silence falls but for heavy breathing and the sound of small rocks settling in the pile of rubble. After a moment, the older man yells out, "A thousand golden crowns if you can get me back to the surface. I want no truck with this place. I want to go home! Keep me safe, and you'll be rewarded."
Ozgo turns to look at the man and frowns.
"I would ensure your safety without the need of monetary compensation, sir."
He then gets to work trying to clean his armour of the mess the maggot spewed upon him.
"Done then! I have done guard work before. Now is a good time to return to the profession, I think."
Allysen stops singing and moves over to where Ozgo is and beings a soft singsong chant. The filth that was clinging to Ozgo's armor crumbled away and dissolved into nothing. After only a few moments, Ozgo is cleaner than when the fight began.
"I'm afraid that I can't do anything for your wounds. I'm not much of a healer, and I don't have the energy to heal them with spell."
She turns to Reinnwulf and hesitates for a moment before speaking.
"I apologize for my anger earlier. Not all that demon's taint turns evil. I can help you get that filth off you clothes and armor if you wish."
Smiling, Ozgo thanks the girl.
"My thanks! The filth was more worrying to me than the wounds. Those I can care for myself."
Nenthil reloads his crossbow, keeping it ready in hand should anymore surprises be forthcoming. At the man's words, he does not even look over.
"I intend to help everyone stay alive to see the surface. But I can promise nothing or claim safety. I am not that confident in my abilities."
Taking a moment more to make sure nothing else was coming he starts to look over the silver items he had ignored earlier. Casting a simple spell of magical detection quietly once his back was to the others.
The elf begins to lever himself unsteadily to his feet, bracing himself against the rock behind him to compensate for his blindness. "Good, good. I suppose whatever unpleasantness was going on is now dealt with? I believe we were introducing ourselves and trying to establish our capabilities to determine our best capability of survival. My name is Aravashnial." At this, the older man sputters.
Reaching for the glittering object, you retrieve what looks like a scale the size of your palm. It has a strong magical aura, and as your grasp it, you realize that you would be able to use this scale to cast a levitate spell three times per day. Unlike other spells of such nature, though, you would rise into the air on a pillar of roiling cloud-stuff, which might be able to hide somebody standing within it.
Studying the scale he now had in hand. His mind goes over theories and sources as well as the magical aura. Could it be connected to the silver dragon in some way, even if it was a scale from the dragon. It made no sense for it to have magical qualities once shed unless it was a component of a magical item's creation. Even if that were the case it showed no signs of modification of any kind normally seen in magical enchantments placed on items.
Allysen smiles at the cleric's thanks, though all Ozgo can see is the twinkle in her eyes. The warmth is familiar, but it's different in subtle ways. It's invigorating, like a warm meal or a good mug of ale. She wouldn't mind becoming friends with this one, she decides as the lights she had conjured began to fade.
She whispers something under her breath after they go out completely. A few seconds later another quartet of butterfly shaped lights flutters from her hands to surround the group.
She looks around at the others, waiting a second for them to respond. When none do so, she turns inward. Her mind wanders the bits and pieces of knowledge that she had gained through her life, seeing if any of it was relevant to their present predicament.
"They are quite beautiful, as was your poem. Are you a follower of Desna?", Ozgo asks pointing to the butterflies. He also strengthens his own light spell before it fails.
He casts a curious eye towards the plane-touched man who seems to have located some sort of silvery object from the debris.
"huh? Uh-wha?"
Allysen looks up at the cleric, then blushes as she realizes she must have gotten lost in her thoughts.
"I...I am. Someone saved me years ago, and I noticed she had a silver pendant shaped like a butterfly. After I got here, I studied as much as I could about it, and started following the Starsong myself."
"We may want to collect these scales. They seem to now have magical power that could prove useful. If nothing else they should be returned to the city to be laid to rest properly."
He pockets his own but does not go after the remaining scales.
"If I remember correctly, there's also good news and bad news about actually getting back to the surface. The caverns under Kenabres connect to the catacombs and tunnels built during the first crusade and those should go to the surface. The bad news is these caverns also connect with the Darklands and between the tunnels, catacombs, and caverns, there's plenty of space for all sorts of nasty beasties and people to hide. We'll have to be careful or else we may find ourselves wandering the Darklands for the rest of our lives."
Allysen looks around and tries to see what the other's reactions are. She waits a moment before turning to Nenthil and asking.
"Nenthil, what kind of magic do they hold? Is it something we can use to help the injured?"
"I have only picked up one. It seems to have the ability to levitate the wielder with a pillar of clouds. May be useful if we encounter a shaft upwards. But it only has the ability to be used three times in a day."
Looking at other scales near by.
"I am somewhat cautious about picking up more then one scale. It is just a feeling mind you."
His lone scale was powerful, without knowing how they came about being empowered he did not want to chance a magical reaction.
Listening to the talk between Allysen and Nethil, Ozgo walks over to the plane-touched mage and looks at the other scales. He waits to see if his hand is directed to any specific one, then picks it up.
No particular force guides Ozgo's hand, so he snags the one nearest him from the rubble pile.
Reinnwulf looked up sharply as Orzo's spell took hold. He growled deep in his throat and shuddered slightly at the effects of the magic. He didn't have as much of a problem with clerics and such, as he did with other spellcasters, but still...
"Warn me before you do that again, will you? I don't like magic, and it makes me jumpy. We wouldn't want to have an accident down here, now would we?"
As the party talks and assesses the situation, the older man moves to stand near, but not too near, Reinnwulf. "Well, are we going? Is there a problem?"
The woman who had been pinned by the rubble pile begins to try to stand, then cries out and sits down rather suddenly. She begins to murmur to herself quietly and quickly, rocking a bit as she does so.
Ozgo looks over at the barbarian and frowns.
"You have a problem receiving the gifts of the Inheritor? An inquisitor would be interested in such a negative reaction."
He is distracted by the woman crying out in pain. He gives the northerner a final disapproving look and moves on to the woman.
"Be at peace dear lady. I am a priest of the Lady of Valor and will try to ease your pain."
He lays his hands on her wounded leg, and send a brief prayer to Iomedae to help heal this poor person.
Weyland goes over to the pile of scales and picks one up, as a memento of the great creature that saved them all.
Heading over to join the woman and Ozgo, he takes a critical look at the woman's leg,
"That's a pretty bad break. I don't think you're going to be dancing any time soon."
"I have a problem with magic, and those that abuse others with it. Your inquisitor can take his interest and bugger himself sideways with it. If others want you to use it on them, that's their problem. But only if they want it, right? Gifts of the gods are one thing, but even they are too often turned to unsavory ends."