As the gnomish tune fills the chamber his companions feel the song in their bones, seemingly helping to guide their aim as well as hold aloft their spirits.
With practiced ease Sparks sends an arrow straight into the open maw of the gruesome beast rushing towards her. The missle soars with preternatural speed, its sharpened tip cleanly slicing through the creature and exiting out the back of its abdomen. It collapses in a heap, unmoving.
Almost simultaneously Cath, limbs finally unencumbered, swings his heavy blade in an upward arch, cleanly slicing two legs off of the retreating spider, it falls to the floor of the cavern, a mess of chitin and unknown innards.
The thrill of battle and the uplifting tune of Umros's's song egg the half-elf warrior to greater feats of might as he twirls, spotting the last spider scuttling behind a stack of rotted out crates of indeterminate origin.
With a burst of strength the fighter rushes towards the stack of crates, apparently disregarding its apparent stolid sollidness.
With a furious crash, the armored warrior bursts through the stack sending rotted wood and other detrius flying through that corner of the massive room. He swings his sword blidly as dust and splinters shoot up into his face.
His bastard sword whisps through empty space and the force of it nearly spins him fully around. The spider, for it's part, crouched behind the stack of boxes now lying decimated on the ground, freezes in place. Cath thinks he hears the tinniest of squeaks from the ugly thing, rooted in place, before the unholy creature topples over, breathing no more.
All the visible spiders lie dead on the floor, but before anyone has time to catch a breath, you all hear the disturbing, yet now familliar sound of webbing "thwipping" through the now quiet room!
A strand of the sticky substance lands a couple feet away from where Umros stands singing his song!
The true strike of the archer, and the impressive charge of the swordsman, inspires another line from the singer.
"Attercop! Attercop!
Shoot, chop, erm, hop!" he jumps back when the webbing splats beside him. His grey eyes catch the sneaking creeper overhead.
Dancing around the mess of web on the ground, he makes an underhand lob up onto the ceiling where the last visible spider.
Sparks' quick motion allows her to turn to find the next spider and let loose an arrow before she turns away again. She drops to a knee, shuts her eyes tight and covers her head against the impending fiery blast.
for
Though off target, Umros's lob strikes the ceiling a couple feet away from the beast. The vial shatters and as the reagents mix with the damp air, the volitile compound ignights brilliantly! The entire patch of webbing soaked in grease from the wizards machinations burst into a flash of quick flame, singeing the spiders carapace.
At the same time yet another arrow comes piercing through the dark, opening a nasty wound in the beasts side. The combined assults cause the creature to fall from it's increasingly precarious perch.
It's back, weakened from the fire, stoves in on the wretched beast and it lies still and unmoving on the floor.
For the first time since entering, the cavern is quiet. Save for the flickering flames of the grease fire rapidly dissapating on the ceiling. Any webs that were in contact with that area are burning away in an admittedly beautiful laticework of firey ribbons.
Umros lets his song fade as the danger passes.
"Is anyone hurt?" he asks as he lifts up his foot and looks under it.
Sparks' face contorts as the wave of heat from the alchemist fire briefly heats the room. When the blast is finished, she turns back to see the final spider dead and the its webs slowly burning.
She takes a deep breath, turns to the others, and says, "Rarely have I been so frightened, or accurate with my bow! I know in stories characters often perform better while under stress but I never really believed it until now!"
Clearly somewhere between being rattled and elated, the elf looks to her companions and reminds herself to ask, "Are the rest of you o..." she pauses mid sentence and places the tips of her fingers to the ground then looks around the room again, this time fearfully.
"What is that?"
“Well, glad that’s over with,” Cath says, moving back to the group and picking up his bow. He checks his gear and self, “Not hurt, just… sticky…” he says in reply to Umros’s query just as Sparks asks her question.
“What do you mean, what is that?”
"Something is burrowing up through the floor!" Sparks says as the shaking worsens beneath her feet. She retreats towards the tunnel the group entered from.
With some mental guidance, the True Strike spell finished its activation sequence. This was divination magic, the art of knowing what is, what was, and what will be. Little threads of arcane magic played over her crossbow, inferring its past performance from small nicks in the stock and stress in the metal bow. Another part of the spell, little different from the simplest scrying spells, analyzed the world around Tainesh. For a brief moment, she knew exactly where she was in relation to everything she could see. She could see the one remaining spider. All she had to do was relax and the spell would tell her how to adjust her stance and time her shot so that, barring divine intervention or legendary misfortune, the bolt would find its mark.
But before she could pull the trigger, the spell lost its connection with the spider. She knew it was dead long before she could understand how and why and what do you mean it's already dead?! It's still clinging to the ceiling and on fire and an arrow and falling and what?
The spell casts around for a target for a few more seconds, and then dissipates. The little sliver of will she'd bound into it this morning burns free of its arcane restraints and returns to her mind.
'I just wasted that spell.'
Frustrated, she tears at the spider silk entangling her...
And accomplishes nothing. Except her vision is now tinted blood-red, but that could be the grease fire on the ceiling. It surely has absolutely nothing to do with the blind, seething rage she's feeling at the moment, because she has no reason whatsoever to be upset. Not at the spider silk, because that's going to come off as soon as she gets her hunting knife out and starts sawing away without a single care about the clothes underneath. Not at the disgustingly overgrown critter that webbed her in the first place, and was producing far more silk than is healthy for a creature this far underground in a sealed chamber with no foot traffic. Not for wasting a spell, because she had activated spells without taking them to completion many times before. Mostly when she'd been a rank pupil who didn't know what she was doing. And certainly not because...
What? Because she didn't get a good hit in this fight? That her sole contribution to the battle was Greasing a patch of ceiling? Did that make sense?
"It's not stress," Tainesh says as she starts sawing at the webbing. "It's random luck. Someone up there is-"
She stops sawing. "What is what?"
Sparks hears Tainesh's seething declaration and turns to see her cutting haphazardly at the webbing around her.
"Hey... Be careful! Sparks says as she moves to assist.
With just a moment's consideration the elf grabs hold of two points of the silk wrapping and gives a small tug. It immediately parts, freeing Tainesh. What little webbing sticks to Sparks' hands is removed as she rubs them together and rolls the silk into a delightful, pea sized ball.
No sooner than Sparks issues her warning, the ground beneath your feet begins to grumble and groan with the shifting of earth and rock. Everyone feels it as the webbing hanging from the ceiling begins to jerk and sway with the, now ubiquitous, growl of tumbling stones.
Near the center of the cavern floor, those who look see the ancient cobblestone flooring begin to shift and give way as the dirt beneath looses it's cohesion. The stones part way and a jet of loose earth and scree fires off into some corner of the room. It's hard to see fully in the dim lighting of the underground hall, but whatever just started climbing into the room is shiny, and black. And long.
"James, there you are. Your mother has been so worried about you..." Sparks deadpans to the others, too shocked to do much more.
Umros stands stock still, unsure of the creature that just dig its way into this cavern. He decides to try to stall whatever it is from finding them.
Without an utterance or gesture, he does not use the power of his faith to Desna, nor in the arcane lessons from his travels. This time, he calls forth the magic of his kind with a moment of concentration.
The edge of Langblade's torchlight flickers on a large rock and a wooden crate, and he chooses the shadows behind them as the right spot. The clacking titter of one of the spiders they just fought echoes from behind the barriers. Umros hopes the sound will draw the shiny black creeper to the crate, or frighten it away.
"Don't worry," he adds a whisper to his companions, who might not understand what he's doing, "There's nothing there..." He points at the scuttling sounds he creates behind the crate.
Cath steps forward with his sword and shield ready, putting himself between the creature and the rest of the group.
"Thanks," Tainesh says absentmindedly. That's not to say that she isn't grateful for Sparks' assistance. Indeed, she is absolutely ecstatic that she won't have to face another monster with spider web constraining her. No, she is merely distracted by trying to figure out what is coming through the floor?!
Maybe she should poke it and see what happens?
More often than not, the change dies with the thing it affects, leaving no lasting mark on the world at large. But far more frightening are those cases where the alterations breed true, and a new manner of creature is born. Such is the case for the Golgoroths. Massive mockeries of nature already, giant spiders are no trivial matter, but a Golgoroth is a thing set apart. The hungry, preying mind of an apex predator turned and tuned by arcane leavings of long-forgotten spells, they are creatures born of earth and magic bringing dread wherever their feet land. And death to whatever they touch.
Unfortunately, no Golgoroth is the same as another, so it is impossible to be certain how it's magical abilities manifest. But you do know that the creature rapidly rising through the floor will not be a being of mere chitin and gore...
As Cath makes his stance and Umros spell starts it's course, Langblade rushes up to the other fighters side, sword held at the ready. Her usual mocking expression replaced by one of somber concern, though she does give the half-elf a reassuring nod as she braces for what is to come.
And come it does, up through the floor, rocks and stones falling from it's back. A massive creature of armor and sinew, it towers above everyone in the room. Eight legs each easily ten-feet long support a hideous carapace of black and red. Eight eyes stare blankly into the darkened cavern as wisps of ethereal light play about the creatures body. Strange half-images of smoke and magical intent.
Quick as a whip, the beast rotates it's unholy form to stare at the crate with the sound of it's mate.
The sight of the thing moving is sickening to behold, it's limbs a cruel mockery of what a living thing should look like as it scuttles across the room. Reaching the crate it looks behind it, only to find that there is nothing making the noises it knows all to well. Casting about, it takes but a moment for the monstrous spider to see the body of one of it's suitors, slain on the floor not far from the deceitful box.
It spots the torch, still burning on the ground, and it spots the webs still burning on the ceiling above, and it spots you as you bravely face the unknown with your comrades. It spots you.
The sound that issues forth from it's mouth is unlike any heard in the realms of man or elf. It is primal, pained, filled with hatred that doesn't know the meaning of the word. It passes like a plague through the room, like a physical force wearing a mask of grotesque clacking and a wheezing hiss.
The silver eyes of Umros Whippoorwill widen at the sheer size of the monstrosity. His skin crawls at the unearthly sounds it makes, and for a moment the fear nearly takes him. But in that moment floods the memories of times he fled when bravery was called for, and he finds resolve to keep his courage. The little wanderer grimaces in a way that twitches his white moustache, and he turns defiant eyes to the fearsome creature of darkness.
“As a candle to the moth,
So death draws the Gorgoroth!
In this dark, deeping smother,
She shan’t prey on another!
Attercop! Attercop!
From the top!
Down with the one who sups on wroth!”
Sparks cringes and turns her head and body away at the long awful sound the giant creature makes. But then, as the creatures roar ends and Umros' song resumes, the fear that should grip her is pushed aside.
"This thing... we can't run from this thing... it will just follow us up..." she says to the others, her choked voice barely above a whisper. Readying her bow once more, Sparks' hand shakes so much that her first shot doesn't even reach the large target.
But, she pulls on an inner strength she did not know she had and fires again with stunning accuracy.
Subtly, as if sensing some more in seen change, Sparks takes hold of her next arrow and flips it round so its sharp, hand carved head is facing the wrong direction.
"Golgoroth!" Tainesh screams.
She doesn't know what this thing is capable of, but she knows most of the things that it might be able to do, and that alone scares her. The unearthly shriek that resounds throughout the cavern only drives that fear home, drowning out Langblade's battlecries and Umros's chant.
Instinctively, she turns to magic to protect her. She is out of prepared spells, but there is still thaumaturgical potential stored in her ring. Enough for one spell. One that would blanket the creature in fire, or surround herself with a protective cloud of mist. But she's got pure unadulterated terror on her mind, and so she begins to construct one of her few necromantic spells.
No, wait. It's mind is too alien to affect. She ought to just shoot it.
The fighter shudders as the loud screech echoes around the hall and, despite years of combat experience, his palms start to become sweaty and his legs feel a little weak. ”Why’d it have to be spiders?” he asks no one in particular. Rather than stupidly charging at the beast, Cath moves forward a little and strikes his sword against the edge of his shield, hoping to pull its attention from the rest of the group. He puts his weight on the balls of his feet, ready to dodge at any moment.
Langblade recognizes the shift in Caths posture and changes her own accordinngly. Some of her earlier bravado comes back at Caths words as she replies "Why, because if it weren't than we wouldn't be having fun!"
Sword held ready, the raven-haired warrior waits to face the beast.
The gnome begins to sing, the elf releases her arrows, the wizard tampers with the power under all power, and the man with the shield begins to bang on it, drawing the beast, stinking of foetid bile, towards him with frightening speed. But he doesn't stand alone.
Two arrows zip overhead before the Golgoroth reaches the warriors, and Langblade gives out a 'whoop' as one of the missles strikes true, drawing blood-red ichor from the wound. The creature seems to ignore it as it scuttles, unervingly quiet, towards Cath. Lashing out with hardened mandibles seeking to pierce the steel hide of this strange, two-legged intruder!
Cath feels his arm shudder with the impact as he brings his shield up just in time! Two small holes tell the tale of where the Golgoroths mandibles struck! Rebuffed by the pit-fighter, the beast raises a massive leg and lashes out, blackened tip glimmering like a lance in the flickering fire of the torch. But Langblade is ready for it, bringing her sword up and across, she bats the attack away and leans in for a vicious stab in the creatures jointed armor!
Brave or not, Sparks scrambles for some sort of cover as the spider of unusual size charges.
Raising her bow, Sparks takes aim but with two friends... well acquaintances... so close to the line of fire she hesitates but then does her best to swallow her concerns and fires anyway.
Muttering, she tries again with identical results...
Another barely perceptible change sweeps across the room, and Sparks notices she had somehow tried to notch her arrow backwards onto her bow. Casting a quick glance to the others she expertly flips the arrow back round and begins to line up her next shot.
"At least it's not Orcs!" Tainesh shouts, though she's unsure of why Orcs in particular spring to mind...
...Something's not right. She could feel the True Strike spell going to work again, but it was different from the one she'd prepared earlier. Somehow, the divination aspect of the spell hadn't been formed right. It was casting all around the room, plying over the flagstones and the webs and the walls behind them. She could feel it casting even further, making a connection with something incredibly distant. Only the protective wards forged in her ring kept the spell in check.
And she'd never felt better. She should cast this spell more often. For the first time in two weeks, her crossbow feels natural in her hands. Two weeks! She feels as if she's been drilling with it for twenty years! The spell isn't guiding her; it's amplifying her own innate skill and whispering hints into her ear. It's telling her the secrets of estimating windage and repairing bent prods and the right way to weave horsehair and yew into an impromptu bowstring.
But it's Tainesh herself who aims her crossbow, Tainesh herself who picks out exactly which of the Golgoroth's eyes she wants to put a bolt into, and she alone who pulls the trigger.
"Yes!" she shouts as she hears the bolt hit home. Her exuberance fades with the spell, which imparts one last bit of knowledge before it disappears entirely.
'What do crabs legs have to do with anything?'
Oh, right. Umros Whippoorwill smiles to himself. Gorgoroth is a place, not a creature... An appreciative glance flits to the well-educated girl.
But the scraping of the beast's natural plating against the steel of the warriors brings his focus back to the battle. "That's the spirit, Langblade!" cheers the gnome wanderer, hearing her undaunted reply.
At Tainesh’s optimistic remark about orcs, Umros wonders if the Golgoroth’s alien mind is thinking the same thing. It reminded him of a story about a giant spider who fed on the foul brutes.
“You’ll find no sweeter meat, you big fat cob!
But you’re too slow! Too greedy is your gob!”
Snickering at his own jest, Umros' tiny hand goes for another flask of liquid fire, but hesitates. No… Instead he takes a flask of acid, and aims at the huge, round abdomen of the great spider, so that none of it splashes onto the frontline fighters. "Eat this!"
Cath arcs his sword back and thrusts the blade at the large spider’s legs.
Langblade follows up Caths attack with on of her own, swinging at the the beasts face!
Two arrows whistle off into the corners of the cavern, but one heavy bolt lands with a sickening thud deep in the eye of the beast. It recoils in pain as gore flows from the wound, a grotesque shudder runs the length of the creature as it's remaining eyes alight upon the crossbow wielding wizard.
It looks as though the enormous Golgoroth is going to make a beeline for Tainesh, but a vicious swing from Cath nearly severs one of the limbs off of the foul abomination. Langblade follows with a slash of her own, opening a new wound in the creatures "face" just as Cath starts to twist his blade! However the splash of acid that leaves oozing burns on the spiders back also lands on Caths arm, causing him to flinch back at the last second.
Writhing from the myriad wounds the unnatural fiend lets forth a blood-turning hiss and clacks it's mandibles together in fury. Rearing back, it unleashes a thick stream of silk at the crossbow and the one who holds it!
Perhaps though, it's aim is thrown off by the loss of vital fluids it has sustained. The vine of adhesive rope splatters to the ground harmlessly. Still, the beast is able to lash out in it's pain, again trying to skewer the raven haired blade woman! And again Langblade is ready for it, braced she shrugs off the powerful blow!
The eleven ran ranger takes a deep breath and fires a carefully placed arrow at the giant spider... then spits the multitude of smaller spiders moving towards the group.
for
"What reward could be worth this?" she exclaims as fear and practicality get the better of her and cause her to turn and hurry towards the tunnel they entered through.
Her uncertainty concerning the recipe for crab's legs fades. The eight-legged abomination is still alive, and Tainesh's last shot hurt it. It had turned to face her, and had been about to attack her out of all the party up until Cath and Langblade stepped in, which would be terrifying if it weren't so awesome!
Once again, the crossbow's mechanism works flawlessly. Nothing binds or rattles as she reloads, takes aim, and fires at the Golgoroth.
"Reward? This is e-"
Her reply to Sparks catches in her throat as she sees the glittering black carpet...
"SPIDERS!"
At first Cath thinks Tainesh is just being dense, but then he notices the swarms charging at them. He rolls around to the far side of the giant spider from Langblade and hacks at one of the new legs.
"Any bright ideas?!," he shouts to the others.
Umros notices the mass of tiny creepers, and he grins wildly. Now this will be a story worth telling!
"The reward of adventure, Clearpath!" cheerily sings the gnome.
"Do what you're doing, courageous Cath!"
His little fingers retrieve another flask of caustic fluid, and he lobs it toward the closer of the two armies of spiders.
Langblade grins as the creatures attention momentarily follows the half-elf fighter. Rearing back, she swings her blade seeking a blind spot in it's defenses.
The Rangers arrow and Wizards bolt both find their mark at nearly the same time, leaving deep holes in the rapidly deteriorating armor of the Golgoroth. Umros hurls his bottle of burning chemicals and after bouncing once it shatters dousing one of the swarms in the harsh fluid. Spiders die by the hundreds as the liquid eats through their newly formed bodies, reducing them to so much muck and slag. But the swarm as a whole continues forward.
Cath executes his roll perfectly, but old webbing catches on his boot as he comes to his feet. The mammoth spider lunges at his momentary lapse.
It misses but it's just enough to throw Cath's swing off, heavy blade whistling as it passes it's target a hairs-breadth away. Fortunately though the distraction affords Langblade a chance to carve a bloody gouge out of the beasts side.'
The vicious Golgoroth staggers visibly under the combined onslaught. It turns to face it's tormentors and for a moment you think you might see something beyond mere thoughtless murder in the creatures eyes. Is that, what, fear? Sadness? But the moment passes and the alien eyes once more reveal nothing other than determination to slaughter.
It's chitin clatters and clicks as the beast moves with surprising agility rushing past Langblade towards Umros and the pair of bow-wielding antagonists in the rear of the room!
As it scuttles towards the rear-guard, it lowers it's body to where it's mandibles are even with the height of a gnome. Though he see's the attack coming, there's nothing Umros can do to prevent the mythical creature from running him through with the two piercing points! There is a sickening sound that echos through the cavern as the massive spider raises itself up, lifting the small wanderer with it, before slamming back down to the ground. It's a wonder that the bardic gnome is able to keep his feet as the blood, tinged with something foul, runs from the twin wounds in his chest!
Not satisfied, the Golgoroths gaze alights upon the next closest interloper. Raising a scared and wounded leg, it strikes at the Ranger with all the force it's failing limbs can muster! Sparks feels a crushing pain in her shoulder as the strike hits home. The legs apparently aren't pointed enough to pierce skin, but the power behind the attack nearly breaks bones with it's force! The hunter from the woods feels a magical pulse accompanying the strike, spreading through her like hot tar it bubbles up at the edge of her psyche. A gnawing ache of uncertainty and hopeless terror that preys upon her mind!
Meanwhile the crawling carpets of spiders scuttle forward, intent on finishing what the Golgoroth started.
Langblade swings at the great beast.
But she misses.
Sparks hears the sickening, meaty sound of the massive spider's attack behind her and turns just in time to take the strong jolt to her shoulder. Her shoulder is broken, she is sure, but scared as she already is, the spider's magic does little that being badly injured while fighting for her life underground far from home had not already accomplished.
Too off balance to turn back towards the tunnel, Sparks steadies her feet then fights her bow shakily up through the severe pain emanating from her badly battered shoulder. With a anguished yell, she fires a desperate point blank shot into the creature.
for
Cath chases the big spider, who had made its move while he was distracted by the little swarm! The fighter makes sure to avoid the edge of the oncoming swarm. Catching up to the beast, he swings with his sword.
Sparks arrow strikes right where Cath had landed his heavy blow moments before and severs the limb from it's body! The Golgoroth thrashes in pain, legs jerking and spasming as it struggles to keep it's footing. As the beast is distracted by the loss of a limb, Cath sprints forward and finds an opening in the foul abominations abdomen. With a vicious upwards slash, the fighter from the city opens the Golgoroth from belly to head! A gush of gore and innards runs out on the dirty floor as the behemoth seems to collapse on itself as its life-force soaks into the stone ground.
The beast of ancient magic is dead.
With the magic of the elder spider dissipating, so too do the swarms. Each individual spider off to a life of it's own, whatever that may bring...
The silence that fills the room once more as the normal sized spiders disperse is quickly broken again by a sharp, loud impact as Sparks' prized bow drops out of her hand and clatters to the stone floor. A moment later, she lowers herself gingerly down to a sitting position against the nearby wall and reaches across her body to clutch at her crushed shoulder. After a moment, the eleven maiden begins to sob and cry as the fear she'd somehow managed to repress during the battle is multiplied by the intense pain of her injury and finally overwhelms her.
It is a stark reminder of just how small Umros really is, to be violently picked up and shaken so. It was not the first time a brute had picked him up and moved him against his will, but he always hated it. The holes in his chest left by the dagger-sized fangs were no improvement, either. “Oh ffwcio sy'n brifo…” The old performer suddenly realizes he is still singing, though switched to his mothertongue in his painful duress. He coughs once, and tastes blood on his tongue as he struggles to find the breath to finish the rhyme. “Your time is brief, foe…”
Heartbeat hammering in his ears, the wanderer is only dimly aware of Sparks’ terror, pinned up against the wall, and the two stalwart warriors in pursuit of the gigantic monstrosity towering over him. The ground shook. Did it just fall? Lifting the hand where dangles the bracelet of wood charms, his old thumb and fingers rub a wooden star. Umros frowns. He was supposed to remember something. Tainesh…
“Tain…” he breathes raggedly, his gnomish skin paling as he cracks a bloody-toothed grin to the young scholar. “Watch ou…” Umros’ silver eyes roll back and he collapses onto the cave floor.
"MORE SPIDERS!" Tainesh screams. "LITTLE ONES! HUNDREDS OF THEM!"
She didn't know what to do. What good was a crossbow against a literal carpet of tiny spiders? This was the part of their grand adventure when she was supposed to lash out with frost and flame and reduce her enemies to ash, but she had no magic left. She was a wizard and she was only as good as the spells she'd prepared, and what did she bring to a fight? What did she walk into perilous territory with? A few aim-assist spells and a grease conjuration? The best she could do, the best any of them could do, was flee back to the surface and-
"Umros! The wretched beast just seized Umros! In the poor light from the torches, Tainesh can't see if the thing was biting him or if-no, he's falling now and she can see two wounds on his chest glittering in the light and the spider's fangs were glittering too and it was moving again. Tainesh could feel the air move as it lashed out with one leg and struck Sparks! The damn thing had the nerve to attack someone who was smart and funny and kind enough to offer complete strangers jam with toast, and she must be tough as leather and brave to boot because she still had her bow and she was shooting it at a range where she might as well stab with an arrow.
But Tainesh was already moving, darting to Umros's side and maybe he knew that because she could hear him whisper her name. She had just barely enough time to curse the hundreds of wizards who had made titanic discoveries that forever changed the world's understanding of arcane magic, but had failed miserably to replicate the merest healing spell that the gods doled out so easily. She could heal him, she'd read tomes on treating battlefield injuries, but if she couldn't learn how to skin a rabbit from a labeled diagram, she wasn't going to trust her understanding of those books to save a Gnome's life.
No sooner than she pops the stopper and pours the contents into Umros's throat, Tainesh realizes that she just heard the echoes of a long wooden staff dropping to the floor, and she turns around to see Sparks clutching at her shoulder and weeping.
"Sparks!" she screams as she rushes to the Elf's side. "What happened? Are you hurt?"
Sparks forces her eyes open at the sound of Tainesh's worried voice. Before her, both the giant spider and the small gnome lay on the floor injured, dying or dead. Sparks winces and shudders as she foolishly attempts to move to help Umros. Planted firmly against the wall again, she notices the rise and fall of Urmos' chest, and the empty glass container beside him.
"Bag..." Sparks finally replies. "Would you please bring me my bag?" she asks, her voice choked by pain. She gives a glance to the entryway tunnel where her large, heavy pack still sits... from back when the plan was to dart into the room, wound the two spiders, then retreat back into the tunnel unharmed.
With shaking hands, Tainesh retrieves Spark's bag. While the Elf digs through the contents, she casts Light on her quarterstaff and holds it over the Elf's head.
While Tainesh scurries about to help Umros and Sparks, Cath drives the point of his sword deep into the body of the spider with a loud squelch and gives the blade a twist.
”Just makin’ sure…” he says, withdrawing the blade and cleaning it.
Cath moves over to Umros and goes about attempting to staunch the bleeding.
”For a little guy, you sure bleed a lot,” Cath says jokingly.
Sparks nods her thanks to Tainesh for the bag and the light, then before too long comes away with a fairly standard looking healing potion and a curious small, thin vial of liquid. Curious, since the glass twists and curves, somewhat, making the vial look like a remarkably artistic version of a small green garden snake.
The elf holds the larger bottle with her knees and works the stopper free with her good hand. Once opened, she adjusts her injured arm so it hangs extended by her side, then takes a long, sad look at the healing potion in her other hand.
"Asante, mama," she says quietly before downing the red liquid.
Sparks lets out a contented sigh as the magic flows through her body and seeks out her greatest injury. The feeling of closeness and connection to her mother being imparted by the potion is far too strong to ignore, and Sparks feels herself being drawn into her memories. For a few short moments she is home again with nothing worse than a twisted foot or cut forehead, and her mother is there too, ready and able to mend her and scold her for not being careful. But then, the worst of the damage to her shoulder is healed and Spark again finds herself deep underground with a bruised shoulder, a badly injured gnome and three others that she hardly knows. Not to mention several dead spiders of varying size.
"Do you know of anything about the treatment of injuries?" she asks Tainesh off handedly as she stores the empty bottle then again reaches deep into her bag and pulls out bandaging. "Let's tend to the others so we can leave before something worse happens."
"I know a little," Tainesh says, examining Spark's shoulder until she's sure that the wound has mended. Then she moves to Umros.
"But we might have to move Umros and then tend to him," she says, gingerly helping Cath with the bandage. "This is going to take a while to treat, even if he can summon healing magic. Um, it would be good to find a place we can defend while others rest."