Indrana was pleased at the effectiveness of her blow and only slightly disappointed when Greygar finished the creature off. She looked at Greygar's preening as she shrunk and felt the usual wave of exhaustion hit her and said, "That was a disappointing fight, it died to quickly." She had the but of her scythe on the ground and was leaning slightly on it as she worked on catching her breath.
Atma looks sleepily at the succuwannabe. "Bleh," she says swaying slightly unsteadily.
"I want to take a nap." Atma eyes droop as her strength doesn't return quickly.
Geygar seems completely oblivious to Indrana's displeasure. (And to the fact that she likely did far more damage to the beast than he did). He watches Myth take his gory samples and store them away for later use with a slightly nauseous look on his face.
"Not the souvenirs I would have chosen, but to each their own." Ash shrugs, then goes to peer down the exit that he was originally headed towards before being distracted by the creature.
Kanir looks somewhat unsteady on his feet as he sheaths his blade. It is not like him to be caught unprepared. He looks upon the felled aberration with quiet disgust.
Ash:
"Oo! Shiny!" Ash says out loud, before catching himself.
He non-nonchalantly walks over towards where the creature originally was hiding, and empties out a small niche in the wall.
"I'll just, put these away where they're safe." He says casually, tying up a pouch.
Mareth leans his earthbreaker against a wall for a moment while Ash and Myth do their thing.
Myth stands and smiles, "Are we ready to move forward once more?"
"I want to sleep," the dhampir says. The droop of her eyelids has definitely taken on a tired bent rather than their usual bored expression.
"Is anyone injured? Please come by me if you are. Miss Leere, I am afraid we should keep moving until we absolutely need to rest."
"Is anyone injured? Please come by me if you are."
"Hurt or not, you can lay hands on me any time, lady."
"Is anyone injured? Please come by me if you are.""Hurt or not, you can lay hands on me any time, lady."
Geygar blinks at Eddin.
"I do not think that means what YOU think that means."
"You know what I mean?"
"As thrilling as it is to know I meet your undoubtedly high standards, Mr. Costayne, it pains me to say I prefer to keep my relationships on a professional level while we are on a dangerous assignment. If you are injured, I will certainly heal you... preferably with a prayer that allows just proximity, not physical contact. Alas." Chandi sighs deeply.
Behind Eddin, Geygar licks one fingertip, and makes an imaginary mark in the air.
"Proximity, eh? Aw, heck, I'll take what I can get."
"I am well and ready to move forward once the Handler finished metaphysically touching Eddin with the taint of her God".
Before silently sheathing his dagger, Geygar gives a brief, but longing look at Eddin's back. And Myth's.
Too be fair though, he always looks at unarmored backs that way,... so,...
The stink of the aberration's blood lingers in the cavern as the group suddenly feels a subliminal shudder, as if someone walked fingers up their spines. The cavern takes on a slight unreal tinge, then then feeling is gone. Just one of those things ...
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Kanir looks at the entrails of the tentacles creature, then at Eddin. Then again at the creature, then again at Eddin. ”I’m sorry for the loss of your mom, but we had to put her down.”
Kanir looks at the entrails of the tentacles creature, then at Eddin. Then again at the creature, then again at Eddin. ”I’m sorry for the loss of your mom, but we had to put her down.”
"Pffft... buddy, that ain't my mother. For one, it weren't nearly ugly or mean enough. Heck, only reason I never bothered with hittin' it was 'cause I thought it was your sister. Guess I'm a real dummy for tryin' to be nice, eh, Cool Guy?"
Chandi clears her throat. "Right. So, shall we move along?"
After the shudder, the party notices a few of their comrades are...gone. No trace of them can be seen. Was there some ancient curse that disintegrated them? It’s strange, but this cavern is strange
"Handler, I do hope these disappearances do not trigger our collars. Perhaps you should remove them just to be safe, hate to not complete our mission..."
Geygar rolls his eyes at the interchange between Kanir and Eddin. The clear look of a professional humoring the attempts of amateurs.
After the shudder, Geygar blinks, for one brief second he does have the look of 'What the,...?!?', then his usual 'I got it all under control' look reasserts itself.
"Huh. Ok. I have to admit THAT was pretty good. I thought I had a good vanishing act." Geygar smirks. He is once again holding a pair of daggers that weren't there a moment ago. When he realizes it he replaces them in their sheathes with a wry look.
"As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm with Tall, Dark and Gloomy here. If we're gonna be subjected to pitfalls that's one thing, and one thing I can handle I might add. BUT teleported or plane shifts are something else. If you wanna lose the necklaces that'd be OK by me!" Ash says with a smile.
The narrow cavern the creature guarded worms deeper into the distance. It bends around a corner, and anything further cannot be ascertained without traveling farther up the passageway
"Certainly, come over here and I will remove the collars. It's the obvious thing to do," Chandi says stoically.
As Geygar approaches, she bonks him gently in the center of the forehead with the heel of her hand. "Be HEALED of your madness," she intones piously, eyes closed, then peers into the man's eyes and shrugs.
"Had to try."
Myth frowns as she bonks Geygar, "Well, if we all die then I suppose you'll be fine down here all alone Handler.
Lead on Eddie, we've done well so far, only lost some of our most powerful allies to mysterious circumstances. I am sure this endeavor will only get better".
Myth remains near the Handler in the back where a Wizard should be.
"With any luck, the others have been shifted to a location not too far away. Otherwise..." she shrugs.
"Your concern for the health and well being of your charges warms my dead black heart Handler. I fear I am not familiar with Irori, is a tenet of her faith callousness? Your devotion to that virtue is clearly abundant".
"You could always seek for traces of whatever spirited them away instead of complaining. It is typical, though, for people in your position to blame anyone but themselves for their plight." Chandi shrugs. "I did not commit their crimes. I did not force them to come on this journey. I did not spirit them away. I do not know what to do about it other than go on. For if we do not go on, your lives are forfeit - again, none of my doing. There are limits to what I can do for you, astonishing though it surely is."
"I fear I too have limits Handler, I've no spells that could aid in the detection of such magic except the most rudimentary of spells which I doubt would reveal much.
I suppose if our heads were going to explode, they would have by now.
You are correct though, we waste time bickering, we'll never see eye to eye. You set in your ways, I in mine. Let's complete this mission and go where fate takes us next".
"You are correct. The only difference between us is that my ways are right."
She surveys the remainders. "I fear we are a scant few to tackle this work. Let us hope we find some of the others along the way. If they have been magicked away, it may be that so puissant a spell will preserve their lives." Frowning, she adds, "Or they found a way to escape and leave the rest of you to your fate."
”This cavern was getting crowded anyway.” Kanir begins cautiously making his way further into the cavern.
"You could always seek for traces of whatever spirited them away instead of complaining. It is typical, though, for people in your position to blame anyone but themselves for their plight."
Eddin looks at his remaining companions, his expression serious.
"No, listen. You gotta listen to me here..."
He makes a chopping motion with both hands for emphasis, clearly having trouble collecting his thoughts.
"So, there were... actually, I can't really remember how many of us there were. Did they have names? Ah, never mind, I couldn't understand the noises coming out of their face-holes most of the time anyway. But this is important. There were..."
Eddin pauses again to count on his fingers, giving up after around six.
"Whatever. So there's what, five of us now? And before... the heckin' hey are you sad potato sacks arguin' for? Don't you realize how much more stuff I'm gonna have when I take all of their shares? This is pretty gosh-danged important."
"By the way, burning question for you folks here..."
Eddin holds up his right hand, the little finger of which is missing down to the second joint.
"If you were counting on my fingers, does half a finger count as one, and if it does, does a whole one count as two? I gotta know."
Myth regards Eddin and nods, "Greater risk, greater rewards, the wisest thing you've yet stated. Still. Most of our so called "front liners" went poor so much greater risk".
Chandi nods at Myth in turn. "At least our point man is still here. Mr. Yates, would you care to take the lead again?"
In an aside to Eddin, she posits quite seriously that both stumps and full fingers should be counted as one, since they are each complete in their own way - one as a stump, one as a finger, both with value one.
Chandi nods at Myth in turn. "At least our point man is still here. Mr. Yates, would you care to take the lead again?"
In an aside to Eddin, she posits quite seriously that both stumps and full fingers should be counted as one, since they are each complete in their own way - one as a stump, one as a finger, both with value one.
"Don't that beat all... that actually makes sense. And here I was, thinkin' I was the smartest one here. Boy howdy, I'd bet you even had more than a couple years' worth of schooling. Lady, I ought to make somebody buy you a drink."
"You know, that reminds me of a joke. One time back in the war, the Marshal himself invited me to dinner at his own table. I think that was right after the time my whole squad got killed on purp...trol. Patrol. Yeah, patrol duty. Anyway, I took the enemy stronghold myself, and to poor ol' me fell the grave duty to claim all the spoils all by my lonesome, you see. Terrible, terrible business. The medal and the prize money were the heaviest of burdens.
Anyways, I was having dinner with the big chief, and he says to me, 'Ned, me boy, I hear you're the smartest, most charming man in my whole battalion. My captains tell me you know all of the best jokes. Please, before you retire to your unit tonight, would you tell me a joke?'
So I tells him one that totally wasn't based on something that ever happened to a ah... friend one time? And it went something like this:
"So there's this man and this lady at an inn, and the lady asks the man if he drinks ale. 'Yes,' says the man, to which the lady asks, 'how many pints each night?' 'Three or four,' replies the man. 'And how much do you pay for each pint?' asks the lady. 'one silver,' answers the man, to which the lady asks again, 'how long have you been drinking?'
After a minute's thought, the man replies, 'about twenty years, I suppose. The lady responds, 'So, a pint of ale costs you one silver, and you have four pints a day, which puts your spending each month at twelve gold pieces. In one year, it would be 'round one hundred forty-four, yes?' 'Yes indeed, one gross,' replies the man.
The woman presses on, 'If in one year you spend one hundred forty-four gold, the past twenty years puts your spending at two thousand, eight hundred and eighty. Is that right?' 'Yes indeed, good lady,' replies the man. Again, the lady presses on, 'Do you know that if you didn't spend your nights at the tavern drinking this swill, that money could have been put into an account at the exchequery, and after accounting for interest for the past twenty years, you could have purchased for yourself a well-appointed household? A peerage, even?'
The man thinks for a moment. 'Do you enjoy ale, my lady?' he asks. 'I do not,' replies the lady. To which the man replies, 'And how large is your manor?'"
Eddin pauses for effect.
"What's the deal with that? Eh? Eh? Let me tell you, it was one heck of a hootenanny that night, oh boy. Iyyyy...my friend barely got away before the town constable found the body. Sheeesh..."
"You know, it always seems like bad stuff happens to people who don't laugh at my jokes. There was this one time, I was drinking with a merchant. He wasn't looking at me, but I know he was hanging on my every word, and I says to him, "You know, my lady friend told me she was leaving me because I keep pretending that I'm a shapeshifter, so I told her, 'Wait, wait, I can change!" And then this total jerk, pardon my language, says to me, "He that would pun would pick a pocket." So I stabbed him and took his wallet."
Myth chuckles at Eddin's stories, "Your knack for attracting the gullible is truly astounding Costayne. However did they catch and imprison you?"
Myth chuckles at Eddin's stories, "Your knack for attracting the gullible is truly astounding Costayne. However did they catch and imprison you?"
Eddin flashes a broad grin.
"Hey, look at this guy. Got a sense of humor after all. I mean, life is murder if you can't laugh at yourself. Well, sometimes it's murder anyway, but you get my point."
Pointing at himself with both thumbs, he continues:
"Anyway, I let myself get caught. I figured I was just getting too good, you know? I mean, broad daylight? Really? Only a complete idiot would try that on accident. Figured I'd give the ladies some time to miss me, you know?"
Geygar approached Chandi with a smile on his face, possibly thinking that his logical entreaty was obviously well-received. (And why wouldn't it have been?)
When Chandi 'BONKS' him on the forehead, Geygar is momentarily shocked into silence. (A fact that Chandi no doubt files away for later)
But instead of the likely-expected angry explosion, Ash blinks and smiles at the blue woman, (Almost, but not quite, a leer)
"Easy Angel-cakes. I know I'm irresistible, but it's a teensy bit too soon to be so flirty." Ash growls low, then waggles his eyebrows.
"Besides, your supposed to be playing hard-to-get. Being the boss and all. Don't worry, I know it's not personal, all part of the game." Ash smirks his usual, insufferable, smile as he backs away from Chandi.
"Personally, I think you just like to watch me walk away,..." Ash smirks, then turns and does so, waggling his hips from side to side as he vanishes into the shadows near the exit,... leaving Chandi and Myth to continue their bickering uninterrupted.
"Rampant insanity," Chandi sighs. "Evil is easier to battle."
"Rampant insanity," Chandi sighs. "Evil is easier to battle."
"I know what you mean," says Eddin, pointing toward Ash. "That guy is nuts."
As Ash follows the hallway, he suddenly freezes. His hands were lightly touching the rough cavern walls, looking for anything out of the ordinary when his fingers appeared to sink INTO the wall itself! Slowly, ever so slowly, he withdraws them and inspects more gingerly. The entire left-hand wall for a distance is an illusion.
"Handler shall I dispel that magic or do you prefer we leave the illusion be as to not alert whoever may have created it in the first place?
I'd hate to make a decision without getting input from someone whose ways are always right", he states giving a slight nod of deference to Chandi.
Chandi shrugs. "Is it necessary to dispel it, or can we simply walk through? No point in wasting your considerable powers on trivialities, Mr. Barronion."