"Oops. Sorry"
for
Quick as lightning, Gomdebo, Shenkt and Quint stick the pointy end of their weapons into the scurrying worm, killing it instantly, then Lindaer steps up and jabs his own weapon into the thing for good measure. With crimson blood spilling into the wagon, the group looks down and watches as the swirling colors in the creature's skin slow, then stop, then darken altogether, leaving it looking very unremarkable. Like nothing more than an earthworm of extraordinary size. So, now the group is in possession of a, mostly, intact specimen, but still not close to finding out where its mother's nest is located. There were many ideas put forth, one with decent promise. If the group couldn't burrow into the earth, they might be able to find some other friendly creature that was capable of it to send as their scout. Psalm and Boddynuck had both shown the ability to communicate with animals. Yet, even if they could narrow in on a particular place where the nest was located, they still had the barrier of the earth to get through. Camatil had made it clear that there were no natural caves near Blueblossom Haven, at least that he was aware of. All that made worse by Psalm's telepathic episode with the creature, since it revealed that this was a problem that was getting exponentially worse by the day. If the problem was to be ended, once, and for good, the queen needed to be killed, and that quickly. Every day she was left alive, was another day of her children hatching, growing, and feeding, on anything and everything that slept.
"We should head towards the center of where all these sink-holes and attacks started, and explore the area."
Psalm nods at Luna's, "And keep a look out for a big mole or shrew. Something that can burrow as well."
Psalm and Boddynuck had both shown the ability to communicate with animals.
By sleeping in the wagons, we are under no threat.
"Night all." Pulling the blankets back up, Nikeisha lay down again.
-- Byrthelm Republic, Midvale Province, Gaukridotr Lands, 1st of Ilsa, just after sunup, 146 R.R.--
Spending the night in the wagons, provided a bit of extra trapped body heat, which is good, because it seems the land somehow knew that the calendar switched from the last month of summer to the first month of autumn, a brisk and cool wind began to flow out of the north, and many pulled their blankets a bit tighter around them as they slept. Meandering groggily around the camp, occasionally turning an eye to the ground, or to the now rigid corpse of their captured and killed worm, there's not much talk today. The group has all the knowledge they need, but very few tools. Even using another burrowing animal to locate the queen worm's nest might not be the most accurate locator, as it would be very difficult for such an animal to show the location above ground, of something it had located below ground... So the party sits around their morning fire, some breaking their fast on rations, other's roasting some of the mutton from the sheep they dressed the afternoon before. The warm sun does much to dispel the cold of the previous night, but doesn't seem to do much for downtrodden spirits. What to do and where to go from here in order to protect the agriculture and lives in Midvale, occupies the thoughts of the entire group. That is until Ryne comes running up from the northeast.
"Oy! Wait'll you see what happened!" He yells at everyone. A great bloody hole opened up in the earth, forty feet of sunken soil just collapsed in on itself. An' I'll be damned to the Abyss if there isn't a massive tunnel entrance poking into it! Ten foot round the tunnel is, and carved out of the hard packed earth like dwarves digging mines. It was probably due to happen any day, any where. If them worms been digging to and fro underneath for weeks now, they've pulled all the strength out the ground underneath us!" Ryne says, and then looks down at the ground beneath his feet, terrified for a moment, that you all might be sitting and standing on another place that could fall out from under you with no warning.
Psalm wakes early and prays and sings as is his custom. He fixes breakfast as he sings.
Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! My darling!
Light goes the weather-wind and the feathered starling.
Dawn along under Hill, shining in the sunlight,
Waiting on the doorstep for the cold starlight,
There my pretty lady is, River-woman's daughter,
Slender as the willow-wand, clearer than the water.
Old Tom Bombadil water-lilies bringing
Comes hopping home again. Can you hear him singing?
Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! and merry-o,
Goldberry, Goldberry, merry yellow berry-o!
Poor old Willow-man, you tuck your roots away!
Tom's in a hurry now. Evening will follow day.
Tom's going home again water-lilies bringing.
Hey! Come derry dol! Can you hear me singing?
As more come to the morning cook fire he smiles, "Morning is on us friends."
He engages those who will in strategy sessions rendered moot by the run of fortuitous news from Ryne. "Well that's certainly news." He looks at the corpse of the worm. "Me had some success as well."
"We need to make a decision if we are to head right for the caves or do we wish to raise alarm and gather forces as was suggested last night."
Jun will stop Ryne and say "Head into town as quickly as possible and warn the mayor!"
Turning to the group, he will say "We should go to this cave at once. These creatures must be stopped."
"Lets load up the Worm in the wagon." He offers his reason, "It will lend weight to any message he gives. The senator should know as well."
"I agree with Jun. We should send word into town with the farmers, together with the Worm. Warn everybody, tell them what we know. And we should at least investigate the caves. Suicide isn't a good idea, if the caves are too heavily guarded we should run. But we need to at least check them out"
"Easy to do both." She nodded to Ryne as she butters some toast. "Would you mind going taking the beastie's corpse and the message to the Mayor while we go check out the hole you've found? It would save us a touch of time in getting this all sorted out." Time might be important.
"These things hunt at night, yeah?" Nikeisha considered. "We'll want to be cautious. They might come back to the nest to rest after a night's hunt." Which would mean there would be more of them in the nest than usual.
These things have magic that can put most of us to sleep. Before we go in, we should try to figure out some defense against that. Maybe this sender would have some way to help?
Hack stands at the hole, looking at all of the deep thinkers.
Can we go to the hole now? It is not comin' to us.
Psalms fingers wave about a gesture indicating people have expressed two options. "So go straight to the cate or to the sender to see if the sender has a means to protect us from sleep stuff?"
"I think that we should act as soon as we can. Its possible that the mother or the other brood have sensed the death or cries of the worm we killed. The sinkhole might be increased activity. The creature feeds on brain energy it is possible it is aware of the thoughts of its kind."
Luna looks at Psalm with a bit of surprise on her face at first, but quickly changing to a more concerned look. "That is a very wise & logical thought, that they may be able to communicate telepathically. It is also quite worrisome because if they are alerted then our job will be that much more difficult. Let us go to the cave-in as quickly as possible!"
"Let's go blast some worms." Nikeisha was deffintely of the thought that attacking sooner was better than later.
"To the worms!!!"
Quint is more than a little aghast that everyone seems so unconcerned that they are going up against enemies that can take them out of the fight literally with a thought, and that most of their group (including himself) has no real defense against it. This strikes him as an exceedingly bad idea, but he doesn't want to seem cowardly in front of members of the Arcane Order, so he refrains from objecting further. He spends the time as they are traveling trying (probably in vain) to invent something from what he has on hand to wake himself up.
Ryne had his underlings hitch horses to the wagons so he could take the party's recently killed worm into town to spread the news of their discoveries, and to try and get him to elicit any help the Republic can offer. Then, the group, still against some of their own members' better judgment, takes a walk in the direction of the hole. It takes less than an hour, and Ryne's description of the phenomenon becomes completely clear. There is, indeed, a massive bowl of sunken earth, at least forty feet in diameter. There, dug perfectly round, in the western "wall" of the sinkhole is a ten foot diameter tunnel that descends further into the bowels of the earth. Staring at it, some members of the party look at each other, and the expressions on their faces give away their feelings. This looks like either a direct intervention of the Light to further our cause, or an invitation-cum-challenge to enter the lair of the dream-eaters. And those thoughts cause more than a few of them to pause at the lip of the sinkhole in consideration.
Let's go worm huntin'.
Jun draws his blade and slides down into the pit.
Far, far less eagerly Boddy goes into the pit, trying to stay towards the back.
Nikeisha followed behind, hoping that nothing jumped her.
Cinching the straps of his ragged backpack tight, Quint climbs down into the hole. This is his opportunity to prove himself. If we're going to do this, we should be smart about it. Before we all go stomping down that tunnel carrying torches, I'll go see what we're dealing with. Quint knows that if he gives anyone a chance to convince him otherwise, they'll probably succeed, so he doesn't give them the opportunity. Before anyone can object, he disappears into the shadows.
Using every rock or bend in the tunnel for cover to first listen, then peek out and look for activity, Quint checks that the way is clear as he inches his way forward.
Luna will pull out a sheet of paper and use her cartography tools to make a map of the area and indicate the direction and approximate location of the hole.
Upon arriving at the hole she will pull that sheet back out to make any corrections/improvements to the marking of the location of the hole, and surrounding area.
"Umm ... I do have 50 ft of rope if we want to use it?"
Since the others had chosen for her to be towards the rear of the group instead of near the front where she could charge in flailing her fists & feet, Luna gets out her bow and makes sure it is well strung and ready for action, nocking an arrow in it. Seeing as to how she has been forced to the rear, she will be one of the last to jump in.
Luna sketches a map of the lands they travel across, the sinkhole, and the first few feet of the ten foot diameter tunnel, while she waits for Quint to report back. Quint appears back out of the dark and his report is about as unsettling as it could be. The tunnel does not divert left or right, there are no junctions or offshoots, it descends, rather rapidly in fact, down, down, into the bowels of the ground. He also mentions that since their enemy can burrow, any part of the tunnel could be an ambush, as the creatures could appear above them, below them, or at their sides sight unseen. This, again, makes many people think this is some kind of invitation/challenge by the queen to get rid of the enemy that has killed one of her young. It's hard for the group to think anything other than that they are walking into a trap, set by a creature that can put more then half of them to sleep in an instant.
"Boy, it would be just awful if a bunch of mind eating worms popped out right now," Nikeisha muttered, keeping an eye out. It wasn't like she could think of a better way to do this, and if she hadn't seen those parents at the grave side she'd have said 'stuff this job'. But she had. And so she was going to help.
She really wished they had some super coffee, though.
"Worms definitely have home advantage on this one. Keep sharp eyes out."
"I've got a really bad feeling about this. Maybe we should retreat until we have a better idea on how to handle the sleep than "hope it doesn't happen"? Build something to wake us up quickly, drink LOTS of coffee, SOMETHING"
Sounds good to me. Quint adds, a little too quickly.
He covers, trying not to let the relief be too apparent on his expressive gnomish face. He is mostly successful, but it's just dumb luck that he is facing away from most of the group as he says it.
Psalm looks back at Boddynuck. "That's what the ropes and the buddy system are for." He looks among them, "When people were killed and a senator pled for help. None was sent. Hence we are here." He considers, "We have been wracking our brains. What could be done are we aware of something magic or otherwise that might help? I have not heard it. But the enemy has changed its behavior. Sinkholes are new. And they might not always happen in open fields. The sundial has shifted."He uses an expression meant to denote that things are under a time crunch.
After some time to think, and fully process the dangers of what lies ahead, the entire group stands around inside the sinkhole at the entrance of the wormhole, staring at each other. Expressions waiver between, Let's do this if we're doing it! and Are we sure this is the best first option?! Moments like this beg for clear and decisive leadership, and it seems like this group is still waiting for someone from among them to declare themselves as such, and either lead the charge, or make the call to rally help. As Psalm so astutely pointed out, though, time is not their friend in this situation, as more worms could be hatching at this very moment, and soon the problem might be too big for a ragtag bunch of adventurous volunteers to tackle.
