"Well why do you think we said not to wander off?" Luci said, giving him a push to help him back to the others quickly. "Everyone; back to that temple. I'd rather not fight these things with so many of us un-armoured."
Luci kept herself between the monsters and the others - better they attack her or Verim than the others.
Verim grits his teeth trying to grow accustomed to the darkness, knowing at least that Luci was nearby. " Did the Idiot get to safety!? I can't see anything but I know I hit one pretty hard. The question here is will we have to deal with these creatures later? An what the gods are they? If the target is fine Im alright with backing out assuming they dont follow Verim still holding a firm footing and keeping a defensive stance.
Retreating from the Darkness, the party regroups in the tunnel several minutes walk from the large cavern. The monsters do not seem inclined to pursue and you are sure one of them is seriously injured.
After his narrow escape from death, Horgus is extremely flustered. While grateful for being rescued he still seems very upset.
I thank you for saving my life. As soon as we get to safety I'll thank you for you aid and allow you to move on. I know I'm not particularly well liked, but I have no desire to die in these tunnels.
Listening to Horgus' description of his attacks, Aravashnial pauses in consideration for a few seconds before answering. From your description, it sounds as if you were attacked by Darkmantles, a common if deadly pest in underground areas. We should head back and finish them off now. They can create darkness only once per day.
Verim slams his shield firmly upon the back of Horgus' neck " Listen! I could care less about how you will reward me when we get out of here. Your actions put others lives in danger and was utterly bereft on any thought. You split our strength to save YOUR ARSE and if we were attacked by another of those.. Darkmantles, there could have been a casualty. From this point on, If you ever go out of sight of anyone else, I shall personally knock you unconscious and carry your body into battle and back up to the surface if I have to. Now, the Elf actually seems to have grasp of the situation, who else agrees with his idea to finish them off? Afterward we could rest at the Torag chapel. "
Laris buttons herself back into her armoured coat, "Who's skilled with ranged weapons, since we know they're there we can pepper them with arrows and anyone who can't shoot can stand ready for them coming close."
Erm...yeah..well guess what i'm carrying hidden within my outfit...
Relieved that her travelling companions both old and new are safe, she hands everybody their armor.
"Alright Maxwell, you help Verim back into his armor, I'll help Ms. Lucianna. If we help them we can take care of the darkmantles sooner. Aravashnial, is there any other information that could prove useful to us about these creatures?"
While getting Lucianna back into her armor, Tallina hands her a waterskin. She also gives a small lecture to Horgus, her voice neither harsh nor serious, but calm and pleasant. The worst thing that could happen would be somebody else panicking or infighting.
"Horgus, it's not that we don't like you, you show no consideration for others. Right now we need to stick together, even if that means moving a bit slower than we would like or sharing resources. Here, take this, it might not be very tasty, but it will keep us moving. Make sure you share with the others because that's almost all the food I have aside from what I've been scrounging up."
Tallina tosses Horgus a small bag containing some food rations.
After finishing up with Lucianna, Tallina greets Tobongo and a ruffle of his leaves to show her appreciation for a job well done.
"Laris, I hope this one was helpful. He may not know too much now, but he makes a fine bodyguard when you need to sleep."
"Heh.. I'll explain that later if we get out of this. A kid like you shouldn't hear my story. I do apologize, but people are better off not knowing about my past, or anything about me." he says, putting his hand on your head and scruffling up your hair as he walks on off.
"We'd best hurry. Won't be long now, and I think I hear fighting."
Maxwell laughs at the idea of helping out Verim. "I think the boy is big enough to change himself, don't you? Me helping wouldn't do a lot of good." he says as he walks towards the so-called "Darkmantles" with his mace drawn and on his shoulder.
Verim happily goes through the motions of 'allowing' Maxwell to help him if possible cracking a few jokes here and there about being gentle. When it is all said and done he feels much better with his scale mail upon his body.
Verim walks over and ruffles Mia's hair a bit " I might not look like it but I was a fair bit accurate with bows, I just never had the need for one as someone seemed to always have that job instead. If you can point them out and give me something to throw or shoot with, I could probably hit one or two easy. That way the ones like Mia here dont have to worry about a surprise from above. "
Strapping his shield to its place on his back, chuckling at his lack of preparation. He fiddles with the glaive there, " All else fail, might have to use a pointy stick.."
Well i "could" do so, but it'd be really weird you know? Pulling a crossbow from underneath my clothes and the implications it would cause. One of the rules mother pressed onto me....keep up your disguise.
"If anyone has skill with a bow, but doesn't have one, I'll loan you mine, I'm not a great shot in all honesty."
Maxwell, wipes a bit of sweat from his brow as he walks away for a second before turning around to look at them. "You know, we've literally not stopped moving for quite some time, and frankly, I'm tired of walking. Our clerics are out of miracles and a lot of us are generally out of juice, so, gentlemen, I have a favor." he says clapping his hands.
"Once we've dealt with these dark mantles, can we, and I really beg this. If we don't find the entrance down the way, can we stop to rest and regain our power? Maybe, I don't know? Chit chat?" he says as he throws his arm up in the 3 other's general direction. "Aside from damnable Horgus who's almost gotten himself killed, I don't know much about these 3 save for the fact that one is blind, one has a broken leg, and one's a bit of an idiot when it comes to self-preservation..."
Feeling somewhat quirky, he throws in a little bit of a joke as he backsteps towards the dark of the tunnel toward the darkmantles; "You." he says, taking steps back and pointing at the blind man. "Name, occupation, importance? Any family? Any friends? Dammit all we could all very well die in here if the tunnels are collapsed. I suggest we cover our bases. No histories, mind you, unless you want, but we don't know anything about each other and I don't much trust folk I don't know much about, you understand?" he asks with a huff as his voice trails off.
"I'm happy to tell you all about me, but lets deal with the darkmantles first."
Listening to Tallina and Maxwell, Aravashneil nods in agreement, Darkmantles are only really dangerous if they get a good grip on you. They can crush a man to death in seconds. You were really very lucky Horgus.
If we go in prepared and use bows, they should pose little threat. Afterwards, I agree with Maxwell. We should retreat to the temple and rest. The last thing we want is to rush blindly ahead unprepared.
Horgus scowls at Aravashnial's words, I still don't like staying down here any longer then we have to. If you had your way, you would hide in your damned library and point fingers at everyone else until the world came to an end.
Nevermind, You already did that, and you were so busy sticking your damned nose into everyone else's affairs that your missed the real threat.
Anevia, sitting on a fallen rock with her broken leg stretch out, listens to the exchange for several minutes before answering.
No Maxwell, most of us know very little about one another, even those who think they do. I'm nothing special, just an ex-thief who fell in with the right crowd. We all, except for him,[b] Anevia points towards Horgus, [b]have friends and loved ones in the city above. I'm sure we would all like to get back as quickly as possible. I know my wife is fighting on the front lines, if she's still alive. It's all I can think about down here.
After donning your armor, the party moves back up towards the darkmantles more cautiously, easily spotting the pair of monstrosities hanging from the ceiling. Without knowing they were there, you would have never noticed two false stalactite's in the shadows. Now, one of them slowly drips ichor on the cavern floor.
Luci kept quiet for a while; she was still pissed at Horgus and worried it would get the best of her. She wanted to leave talking to him about it til she had a level head. That and having an attractive Mwangi woman helping her back into her armour was somewhat distracting. She was grateful for the waterskin, though and took a drink before handing it back. Ordinarily she might have tried a 'spilt drink on shirt' gambit to see if Tallina was interested, but ordinarily she wouldn't have such a large audience or be gods-know how far underground. Better to save that for a quiet booth at the tavern.
As they went back to deal with the darkmantles, Luci gestured towards the wounded one. "Best we finish that one off first; I've already wounded it so it should go down quicker."
Once again readying her sling Tallina moves towards the cavern. Spotting the so called darkmantles she loads and begins to spin the weapon, readying to attack. Tobongo set to guard her should one come near.
"You saw these things moving Tobongo, get ready to defend us."
Verim borrows Laris' shortbow, intending to give the weapon back, he asks her to act as support for him, using her glaive as a guard, when he gets within range and the creatures are pointed out, his shot goes for the one still spewing ichor.
Verim's arrow strikes true, killing the wounded darkmantle.
"Ahh....achoo! Sorry.."
Tallina lets loose a sling bullet into the ceiling, missing the darkmantles, quickly she reloads her sling in case they come down.
Ready action to attack with glaive, should any come within range.
Luci moves up and braces herself, ready to attack the remaining darkmantle if it comes for her.
Maxwell
---------------
Darkmantle
---------------
Tobongo, Laris, Mia, Verim, Luciana, Tallina
Maxwell doesn't waste any time, firmly gripping his mace. Again he traces a dark hand across the air and covers himself in supernatural darkness and causes his form to shimmer beneath his clothes all before they too, turn to starlight. The dark figure stands a moment, looking about as he waits for an opportunity to flank one of the creatures.
The remaining darkmantle drops on Maxwell, missing.
Darkmantle
-------------
Maxwell (delaying), Tobongo, Laris, Mia, Verim, Luciana, Tallina
Tobongo will double move, and take 1 attack of opportunity as he moves to flank with Maxwell.
Mia carefully moves 4 squares, faking another sneeze there
"Achoo"....
As Tobongo rushes past the darkmantle, it lashes out, wrapping itself round the treant.
Seeing the bush entangled, Maxwell doesn't waste any time, taking his action accordingly, raising his flail on high since both of the strange things fight amongst themselves.
Twisting around, he swings the flail as hard as he finds himself able, hoping that the blow lands accordingly amidst the darkness. These things didn't seem phased by his shadows...
Verim hands the bow off to Laris, placing it near her feet as he moves and draws the glaive from his back in one swift motion swinging at the Darkmantle.
Between Maxwell and Verim, the darkmantle is quickly hacked to pieces.
With the darkmantles dead and time to look around uou notice stone figures are carved into the walls of this cavern. Each depicts a different crusader, clad in armor and wielding weapons, but their carved stone features contain expressions of sadness.
Tallina rushes to Tobongo, pushing the others out of the way to get to her friend. Ripping the dead darkmantle from the sapling she assesses Tobongo's wounds.
"Oh goodness, you've seen better days haven't you? We'll get you all patched up before you know it."
Moving her fingers over the bark she gets a better idea of what the darkmantles were capable of.
"Until we can get some more healing, Tobongo won't be rushing in anymore. He's tough, but this amount of damage would have seriously hurt any of us in our current state."
"Then we'd best head back to that temple, maybe try and clean it up. Whatever happened to that dwarf, it's still a place of worship to Torag and having His help down here might not be a bad idea." Luci suggested. "These statues are impressive, though, but any archaeological fascination's probably gonna have to wait a while."
Laris glances at the statues
"Lets fall back to the temple, rest up where it's reasonably secure"
At Luciana's words Aravashnial starts, There are statues down here? What do they depict?
The trek back to the ruined temple takes an uneventful 20 minutes, where you are able to secure the temple door.
"They are armed and armoured warriors, they seem sad."