Victrix follows a few feet behind Quinn, supporting Anevia in her walk as best she can. Bloody big spiders were not on her list of things to kill today.
Then again, if the beast tried to eat them, it'd shoot right to the top of the list.
Brighton audibly offers Aravashnial his hand, and if refused, his shoulder. "I will serve as a guide, by Today's grace."
He slows then stops a safe enough distance from the creature. He relays the information about the surroundings to Aravashnial.
The three survivors follow after you as you keep your distance from the corpse, which writhes harder as the writhing, slimy sound of maggots inside the carcass grows louder from your proximity. Horgus makes a disgusted noise as you make your way along, but ultimately doesn't raise too much of a fuss about it.
A little further down, you find a narrow passage as the only way to continue along. The tattered remains of a campsite lies in front of you; a torn bedroll lies beside a cold makeshift fire pit. Bones and broken equipment, as well as general rubble, lie in a pile.
As you try to make your way through the campsite, the pile begins to shake, and before anyone can pull away three dog-sized cockroaches burst out of it and begin to skitter toward you.
Momentarily taken aback by the emergence of the grotesque vermin, Hrodlan quickly steels himself and steps forward to fight the creatures back before they bring harm to the injured among their number. The torch that had been secured in his left hand is discarded as he approaches, replaced by his smaller sword with an accompanying hiss of metal as it slides free from its sheath.
"Pen them in and strike true before they can skitter around to our wounded!"
Sword raised before him, Hrodlan steps forward nimbly to deliver a vicious arc with his longsword; his shortsword remains poised to deflect any retaliation the creatures might offer.
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†
Cringing at the sight of the approaching cockroaches, Victrix turns to Anevia.
"Sorry 'bout this." She says before leaving Anevia's side. She moves over to the nearest menacing cockroach that nobody has claimed yet, and brings her axe down on it.
He charges the last cockroach holding warhammer in both hands.
"Lets kill these vermin!"
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Quinn turned to Horgus and Anevia. "Keep your eyes open while we deal with this." He raced to Hrodlan's side, striking the first cockroach.
Brighton stays near Aravashnial and apprises him of the situation. He motions to Anevia and Horgus to come closer to him as he grasps his symbol of Torag.
The unarmed survivors all crowd behind Brighton as the cockroaches approach. Aravashniel seems visibly perturbed by the sounds that all the vermin thus far have made, his lack of sight meaning that their sounds seem to probe a little deeper. Another noise of disgust comes out of Horgus, and Anevia remains quiet, resting her back against the wall to allieve the pressure on her leg.
The roaches skitter forward, seeing only a plentiful bunch of prey and not the deadliness they can bring down on them. Hrodlan manages to pierce one with his blade, and it makes a shrill screech as it turns back onto the human and strikes.
Victrix attacks another, striking it with such power that it doesn't make more than a meek noise before falling limp and dead.
The third goes right for the unarmed dwarf and the clearly injured prey behind him. Dodging strikes from both Quinn and Konny, it snaps up at Brighton's arm.
Victrix is incensed by the cockroach going after the cleric instead of her.
"OI! WHERE D'YA THINK YER GOIN'?!" She roars, taking off after the blighted thing.
Positioning herself so that the cockroach is between her and the priest, she swings her axe again.
Quinn thrust at the skittering vermin to no avail as it scampered past to lunge at Brighton. With a growl, he clacked his teeth together making a shower of small sparks, spun his spear end over and brought it down hard on the cockroach's back.
"Persistent bugger" Konny moves and strikes the same one again.
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Shifting his weight from one foot to another, Hrodlan visits a couple of mocking blows against the enormous cockroach that now bears the gift of his first attack. Seeing that the thing is focused on him, he does not immediately press the assault overmuch. The young Kellid notices that the other two vermin have been dealt with quickly, so he waits for everyone to encircle the beast and put it down as well.
"To me now! Slay this pest and let us be done with the lot."
________________________________
Konny flanks the last cockroach with Hrodlan and swings the warhammer.
"Uncle Anvil always said, do not underestimate the importance of pest control."
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The crimson-haired witch was struck even more melancholic at the flood of recent memories than the rest of the survivors. Nearly catatonic, she did little save nod & follow in acknowledgment of their words or actions. As the fell vermin roused & began to threaten her new-found companions however, she rallied.
She cried as she began summoning arcane energies to her.
Konny shuts down the last of the vermin, and heavy strike of his hammer echoes in the chamber, now fairly silent save for the distant wriggling of something inside of the spider carcass a short distance back. Anevia leans a little more comfortably against the wall. "Please, a moment for me to collect myself?" she asks, taking in deep breaths and looking around. "Perhaps scavenge for supplies here. There were certainly people down here, but that doesn't tell us much about how close we are to getting out."
"Now is not the time to do anything but move," the elf insists. "Standing around is a waste of time, and we'll only whittle away at our resources faster if we have to take these continuous breaks."
Victrix grins at Konny as he squashes the last cockroach.
"Uncle Anvil sounds like a smart man."
She then turns to look at Aravashnial. "An' if we just run on without a clue as to where we're goin', we're likely ta nevah get outta 'ere. Believe me, I'm all fer leavin' as quick-like as possible, but searchin' this spot fer anythin' we can use shouldn't take very long."
He looks in Victrix's general direction, embarrassingly trying to stare the aasimar down, but he relents, sighing. "Very well. Continue as you will, then."
"Yeah, uncle Anvil was all kinds of smart, some people even called him smart-ass" Konny grins back at Victrix.
"And he would definitely agree searchin' the place here might be the smart thing to do now, so lets take a look"
Brighton thanks Konny and Victrix. He makes his way towards the bones to see if he can figure what they are from and how recently they've found their way there.
Quinn strikes the head of his spear against each of the carcasses, checking that there are no extraneous movements from the vermin. He then moves into the campsite, rummaging through the remains. He stirs the fire pit ash, guessing blindly how long it had been abandoned.
"Let's not tarry here too long. I doubt the roaches are responsible for the campsite owners' absence. They are probably just scavenging."
Hrodlan begins rummaging through the old campsite with practiced ease, sifting detritus aside as his eyes turn over the place for anything of practical use or inherent value. It is a task to which he is accustomed to. Tracking something down meant recognizing clues. Traveling light meant not always having everything you needed on hand—finds such as this filled in the gaps. They're not prepared for this. Hrodlan surveys everyone in the room quickly once more, particularly those carrying an aloofness about them. Heavens, I'm not even sure if I am.
"With the exception of perhaps the dwarves numbered among us, it appears that we are sorely lacking in experience with the environs we find ourselves in. The extent of these tunnels and what lives within them is unknown. Getting out of here is important, but rushing headlong through a labyrinth of caverns and tunnels is tantamount to suicide. I've been beneath Kenabres before. It is an awful, foul place. We must be prepared to accept what few boons luck affords us, or we won't last long enough to feel the sun's embrace again. In this, we must be as the roaches: scavengers." Despite every effort to avoid such, Hrodlan's tone comes across as an admonishment. He understands the value of working together, but trapped here with so many strangers of unknown scruples is taxing his patience. His training had not prepared him for this sort of thing. He had always thought to be working alone, in the shadows. It would seem he got the shadows part right, at least.
Victrix arches an eyebrow at Hrodlan.
"That's more or less what I said. Jus' with a few dozen more words tacked on."
She moves to assist him in poking through the campsite.
"Yeh don't need ta sound so disappointed in us."
Especially since you're sounding so much like those f**king inquisitors.
Your communal search through the camp ruins turn up a torn bedroll, three candle stubs, a bent fishook, 10 feet of badly frayed hemprope, and a copper brooch depicting a bad perched on a mushroom--both of the bat's eyes are tiny amethysts. Hrodlan also espies something onthe wall above; a stone ledge jutting out at a right angle on the south wall of thecavern, fourteen feet off the ground. The leather strap of a backpack hangs from the edge of the ledge, while above, a narrow fissure yawns up into the dark.
Victrix picks up the bat brooch.
"Now, that's odd."
Looking up to where Hrodlan spotted the backpack, she turns to him again.
"Would yeh loike some 'elp gettin' up there?"
"Lend me that, will you?" Quinn asks as he gathers the frayed rope and bent fishing hook. After tying one to the other, he takes a few moments to make a few practice casts, then flings the hooked end at the pack.
Quinn steps up to the edge to catch the pack as he pulls on his line.
The pack itself is a masterwork backpack that contains ten days of trail rations, a flint and steel, a set of caltrops, two flasks of oil, a bundle of 12 arrows, a potion of cure light wounds, and a potion of lesser restoration.
"Something is not right with these bones...they're fresh but...not entirely human. It's almost like they are human but there's a cloven hoof here and look at some of these bones. Aravashnial, feel this bone."
He takes one of the odder bones over to the blind wizard. "Anevia, do you know anything about animal bones?" He beckons for her to come over and look at the bone as well.
"What am I feeling it for?" The blind elf takes the bone, gives it a feel, and hands it back to Brighton. "It's a bone. I can certainly attest to that. I know nothing of creatures that would lurk this deep down."
"Neither do I," Anevia said with a shrug. "My knowledge doesn't run quite this deep."
"At least we are not going to starve," Quinn quips as he rummages through the packs contents. He pulls the potion from deep in the bottom.
"I've no idea what we face ahead. But, if you ask me, the faster we get there, the better. And, if we need to run, faster is way better."
Victrix grins at Quinn as he uses his makeshift fishing pole to retrieve the backpack. "Clever boy."
She takes a look at the potion of lesser restoration. "Think that'll help wit' Anevia's leg?"
"Well, that was very clever indeed, Horny-boy. Gotta remember this trick." Konny smiles at Quinn.
"But I would not worry about starving. Most of my backpack is filled with food and way better than trail rations. So if anyone cares for an apple or cheese, just ask."
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Victrix grins at Quinn as he uses his makeshift fishing pole to retrieve the backpack. "Clever boy."
"Well, that was very clever indeed, Horny-boy. Gotta remember this trick." Konny smiles at Quinn.
Quinn can't help but grin at the complement. Rather than appearing ingratiating, though, the gesture is quite horrifying.
She takes a look at the potion of lesser restoration. "Think that'll help wit' Anevia's leg?"
Quinn weighs the potion in his hand before sighing, "Perhaps not. I would be happier to see Anevia's pain eliminated, and her movement restored. But, I guess getting to the surface is the best step towards that end."
To Anevia and Aravashniel, he says, "When you have rested, we'll get back on the move."
"Intimidating someone must be really easy with a grin like that. I would hate to see Horny-boy give me an angry look."
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Victrix's eyes widen a bit at Quinn's grin.
Bloody hell. If I didn't know better, I'd say he's going to kill somebody with that.
She moves back to Anevia & Aravashnial, leaning against the cavern wall.
Shaking her head distractedly at Quinn's display, Belledonna adds to the conversation as well. "It is not uncommon that I go a week or more without being allowed the opportunity to acquire sustenance," shrugging in embarrassment she adds, "Today was a good day in that regard. I had managed to procure at least a week's worth before the...
events." She shudders once more in remembrance.
Rather obviously diverting her thoughts from the past, Belledonna crouches over the bones. "Perhaps another such as yourself, Quinn, though not so favored. I've known others warped by Abyssal energies to suffer such disfigurements. They might have considered 'out of sight, out of mind' and elected to eke out their remaining days down here only to fall afoul of something?.."
As attention is turned to the matter of the campsite and the recovered backpack, Hrodlan suddenly reacts as if enduring an epiphany. He fishes around in his own pouch, withdrawing the dislodged scales of Terendelev he had discovered only moments prior in the rubble mound.
"Such is our state that I had nearly forgotten a discovery of my own—I discovered these strange boons in the chamber we awoke in." Hrodlan circuits the motley crew arrayed around him, pressing a scale each into the hands of those he deems combat ready.
"I know not why, but they seem to have retained some measure of righteous will from whom these once belonged to. Surely, it is Iomedae's will that they came to be placed in our own possession, yes?"
"I'm better now," Anevia said, leaning off the wall and taking a few uneasy steps. "Thank you for waiting for me."
Aravashniel sighs. "I'm unlikely to get better, so it's best that we continue onward."
As each of you accepts a scale, you feel a rush of sorrow push through you as the dying thoughts and acts of Terendelev echo immediately in your mind. Along with it, the innate knowledge of what power that scale holds, and how to call on it.
"Thank you Hrodlan, I am sure this gift will help punish the beasts responsible for today's events." Konny accepts the scale of Cloudwalking.
Then he turns to Aravashniel. "Yes, let us continue, I will scout ahead again."
As he leaves Konny stops by Quinn "I have a small request, sonny. Could you hold onto my backpack while I scout ahead. With all the food it is quite heavy and should the need for silent movement arise, I would be quite hampered." With hope that Quinn accepts, Konny sets out to scout ahead. (if Quin does not, Konny takes the backpack with him)
Victrix takes the Resistance scale from Hrodlan. A wave of sorrow washes over her, causing her smile to fade from her face.
"A dragon savin' our 'ides... gotta make it up to 'em somehow."
She leans back against the cavern wall again, stowing the Resistance scale away on her belt for easy access.
Quinn accepts the backpack, wondering how he could possibly tote all three through the caverns. "Give me a moment while I get this organized."
Quinn takes a few minutes to transfer his equipment into the other pack. He gets it organized as well as possible, finally stuffing his old, empty pack into the new one, and slinging the bulging backpack over his shoulders.
"Alright," Quinn grunts as he loads himself up. "Got any boulders you want me to drag along with this?" he snarks. Despite the initial sarcasm, he trudges along without any further complaint.
"Father Torag's ministry has hardened my muscles and burdens aren't necessarily so for me. I would be happy to carry anything I can. Anevia, Aravashnial, please feel free to use me to steady your walk if necessary. You, Gwerm was it? Do you think you could manage to stay with me and these two injured? It would help if we could all draw into a circle if danger arises."
Konny tries to find out what is making the noice and get back to the group without drawing attention to himself.
He also checks the place for possible exits.
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