Psalm taps his chin under his lip and curls his chin spoke beard around his finger. He is clearly in thought. "Both plans so in fruitful. One is more easily reached. But the pus plan might work going forward. "
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Upon waking the cinched up, swirling-rainbow skinned worm, the group watches as it immediately thrashes wildly, emitting an ear-piercing and high pitched shriek that echoes in the distance. The bound creature whips its body in intensely vigorous motion, attempting to break free of the bonds wrapped around it. Unable to do so the worm suddenly falls still, resting limply, bound by pants, in the bottom of the wagon. Awake, but restrained and helpless, the worm then does nothing.
"This probably won't work, but its worth a try"
Boddy will try and communicate with the worm in the same way he'd try with a small animal. Basically, make soothing noises at it, chirrup at it, etc.
Psalm nods, "great minds think alike Boddy."
Crossing her ankles and leaning back, Nikeisha mused, "Be wary. We know it eats the minds of its victims. Might not need to see or move to do it." Hopefully if it tried Shenkt would sever the problem midpoint.
Let me know when you need it carved up.
Boddynuck's attempt to communicate verbally with the creature is met with complete silence, audible silence; however, in a moment he is assaulted with an overwhelming sense of dread, a fear so palpable that he himself feels deathly afraid for the barest of moments. It is then he realizes that it is the creature's telepathic communication that washed through his brain. The worm is overwhelmed with complete and utter terror, a fear for its life so strong that it is incapable of any other instinct or communication.
"The poor little thing is afraid. Very very afraid. Maybe we should try and let it go?"
You have lost it, Boddynock! This thing is killing children!
"It also sounds like there were more of them in the distance, so we should be prepared for incoming enemies."
"When a faithful dog bites a child, the dog dies. When an animal comes down from the mountains and mauls a child watching the flocks, the animal is hunted. When a mortal kills a child, he hangs by the neck for the gods to judge. Just because this thing isn't evil doesn't mean it doesn't need to die, that it is exempt, especially if we can't prevent it killing again." Nikeisha looked at it. "Or you can go and explain to those girls parents why you felt it being afraid meant it gets to live and their girls don't." Still, fear was good. Maybe they could use it as a weapon.
"How do you know it is afraid Boddy? Is that just an assumption on your part or where you able to communicate with it?" Then turning to Hack, "Calm down Hack! We need to find the source so that we can put a stop to this! Killing just one of these creatures is not going to bring an end to the killings."
"Maybe you can try to calm it down Boddy? Maybe you could try to make it think of home, and family? Hopefully you can get some images of home and family back from it, so we can get an idea of where to look for it's home? Maybe a direction at least? - Though I strongly suspect the nest will near the center of the area covered by all these holes & tunnels or whatever. Maybe we should try to find out where that is & head that way in the morning. Though these wagons are good for protecting people from the worm attacks. Anyway we can take them with us, since we apparently will still be on the same man's property?"
Psalm thinks, "I might be able to speak with it. It will take me a few minutes. We might not have that much time. I need about 10 minutes to cast a ritual that might allow me to speak to larger animals."
A stern visage takes over Hack's visage. He stares down at Luna.
Psalm gets a chance to talk to the creature, then I WILL be killin' it. Are we all clear? I doubt our ability to learn anythin' from the worm.
"I felt its fear in my mind. It was very, very, very afraid. I've never felt something like that before so I don't really know but it felt like it was even more afraid than an animal caught in a trap."
"Rather than kill it perhaps we SHOULD let it go. No wait, listen for a moment. Luna is right, it might lead us to the nest.
If we attach something big to it (part of a wagon, a door, something like that) it might well run away from us in fear and head home. But with a door it should NOT be able to burrow. Or, if it can, we should be able to follow its track.
We can then follow it home"
"That makes more sense," Nikeisha agreed, "But it's on our heads if it escapes and kills again. Plus, we're going to have to hurt it to attach something to it. Nothing that can bend and shift like that will work with something just tied or strapped on. We're going to have to hook whatever it is into the flesh, hurt it, to the job." It wasn't nice. But Nikeisha could see the dead girls parents breaking down again in her mind.
Nice wasn't required. Dead brain worms was.
"No, we should just be able to tie a rope tightly around it. Think of it like a belt cinched uncomfortably tight. Uncomfortable but not painful"
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”I believe” Lindaer said ”That we should bring it to town and show the authorities. Perhaps they have access to magic that would allow us to track it, or we can send for a Wizard who can. If we kill it we lose our lead. If we let it go with a mechanical way to follow, and it escapes, any future deaths will be on our heads. Especially as it has proven so adept at stretching itself. We may not have as much Glory this way, but I believe it to be safest.”
"Following it implies a means to keep up with it. Can it not just burrow away."
Psalm sits and moves through a number of sensory isolating exercises, breathing, shifting his hand to a claw shape, taking a deep breath through the nose to take in foreign scents. He begins to chant in sylvan a feral incantation.
Psalm rises and regards the worms lumpy form through the pants.
Jun draws his blade and begins looking for more attempts to burrow close to the group. He will even jump out of the wagon and walk around a bit.
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Psalm's attempts to magically communicate open up a mental doorway to the creature's mind, and it is violently uncomfortable for him. The assault of mental imagery is so intense, so vibrant, so vigorous that it actually physically knocks the small gnome over onto his rear-end. The overwhelming flood of visions is so acute that Psalm feels like he is walking in an illusory landscape, like he is living in the worm's skin for a moment, and what he sees frightens him to no end. Using his feywild blood to calm himself and to collapse the flood of imagery into usable bits and pieces he is able to, finally, get a clear look at the creature's ecology, and it is frightening. The worm is one of many, possibly more than two dozen already grown to maturity, and there are more hatching every day. Hatching, yes, in a cave deep underground from eggs laid by their mother. Each child, as soon as it is able, burrows to the surface to put other creatures to sleep, and then feed on their energy. Psalm gets a clear mental image of the worms' ability to manifest themselves inside the dreams of their victims, for animals they manifest as a feast of their favorite foods, and while the animals feast in their dreams, sleeping pleasantly, the worms feast on their psychic energy. Once they've absorbed enough energy, they return to the nest to transfer part of their psychic meal to the mother, who grows fatter and stronger every day, and lays more eggs, every day. When Psalm stands up severing the disturbing mental connection, he feels himself physically drained a bit . When he turns to the group, his face gives away his feeling of dread.
Psalm sits up shaken his eyes wide. He wipes blood from his nose with his sleeve.
"This is just a baby one of many. They gather food for a queen." He stands, "We need to find the queen. Underground. How can we follow this thing if we let it go."
"Monstrosities are monsters in the strictest sense, frightening creatures that are not ordinary, not truly natural, and almost never benign. Some are the results of magical experimentation gone awry (such as owl bears), and others, are the product-of terrible curses (including minotaurs and yuan-ti). They defy categorization, and in some sense serve as a catch-all category for creatures that don't fit into any other type."
"Ok, we have to deal with this. Psalm, the whole point of tying it to a door is to STOP it burrowing. Hopefully it knows a way into the cave other than by burrowing.
It sounds like this may well be beyond us, though. We could barely fight one of these. How can we take on dozens, together with a mother? Maybe we should report this and let them send a larger, more powerful force?
And Gomdebo, such spells do exist. But certainly I am not powerful enough to cast any of them. Perhaps Luna is."
"Beyond us or no this abomination will grow exponentially. It must be stopped. It is truly unnatural."
"We can ask the townfolks for anyone willing and able to fight," Nikeisha suggested. "Fire might work too. But most likely the nest proper won't be that defended. Momma's gotta eat, right? She'll have some guards but the bulk will be out hunting or too young to hunt."
Quint stands over the worm. He holds his shortbow in the left hand and knocks an arrow, tensioning the string slightly so that he can hold the arrow in place with his left thumb. He then draws his rapier and holds it on the creature with his right, ready to strike if he can reach the creature, or to drop so that he can fire the arrow if the it gets too far away too quickly.
Hack raises his axe, ready to strike.
So, who the hell is tying the door to this thing. Do not say I didn't warn ya. This is likely goin' South in a hurry.
"Well, it was my idea so I'm willing to risk it. Although I'm not exactly the best person to tie a rope around a worm"
If nobody else steps up, he'll try and tie a rope around the monster
I have no clue what I'd be rolling so that is a raw D20 for you to do with as you wish :-)
As soon as Boddynuck releases the cinch on the pants the worm explodes in a flurry of movement, too fast, and much too strong for him to do anything about. It moves, with uncanny speed, for the side of the wagon.
Hack swings at the squiggling worm.
Hack brings down the axe again!
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Lindaer leapt forward, his rapier in hand. Part of him didn't want to kill the creature, as it was their hope of following it back to it's lair. However, to let it go untracked was the worst of all possible worlds, for it would just keep killing. His blow was well aimed, but didn't quite have all of his strength behind it.
Psalm snaps out at the creature with a whip of thorny vines.
Nikeisha tapped the staff on the ground again, a bolt of raw force shot out to blast the escaping worm.