The light from Xantrius' sword winks out and he moves closer to the wounded members of the group. "I think it better that someone else carry the light. Who wishes to volunteer?"
After casting the spell once more, he starts down the passage after Tera until he catches sight of her. "I do not like letting her go alone, who knows what is down here." he states softly before leaving.
"I volunteer," Teofil said. "I have a few sunrods that should last us some time.
Moving further forward, Tera realizes that the short creature and its wobbling frame are bent over a body and currently tearing at chunks of flesh with its claws, clumsily devouring them and engrossed in this task that it doesn't pay any mind to the Tiefling scoping it out. The pungent stench of something hits her, too powerful to ignore but something otherworldly and completely new.
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As Tera moves forward, Xantrius follows trying to make as little noise as possible. Upon seeing the creature she is spying on, he abandons all pretense at stealth.
"A Dretch! A demon has followed us down here, come quickly!" he calls out to those behind him as he charges forward to engage the enemy. Studying his foe, he starts calling out in a stentorian lecture it's weaknesses.
Tera does her best to melt into the wall when Xantrius gives his warning and waits patiently for an opportunity to strike. She does her best to ignore the stench, and gives a quick prayer for luck before quietly drawing her sword.
A demon! But then what else would it be? For a moment Teofil scoured his mind for all the things a crusader must know, but he pushed it aside. He didn't have time to go through everything he'd learned. The fell spawn of the Abyss had come. He had to stand and fight it.
Steeling himself, Teofil stepped forward with his sunrod held high and free hand poised.
The clamour of Xantrius's performance and everyone's arrivals finally form enough noise for the Dretch to take notice, making a horrible noise in no language as it spun around and looked warily at the fresh meat gathered around it.
Hunkering down, the lowly demon defends its meal and itself, emitting an even more foul stench that rolls out all around it ten feet in all directions, enough for the narrow cavern to have little way past it without inducing the olfactory assault.
Xantrius's swing moves right past the small demon, who wheezes as it narrowly glances its throat.
Seeing that the demon wasn't going to be coming to them, or rather, her companions had decided to meet it, Tera rushes forward and tries to flank the wretched creature.
Teofil spoke an incantation and a silvery sword appeared in the air, streaking toward the demon.
Despite its tough, demonic skin, Tera's blade sinks hard into its side, making it scream out in agony and bringing it near the point of death. Before it can finish screaming, Zyranus drives the demon down to its feet, just in time for Teofil's spell to finish off its last grip on life, the dretch going unconscious and beginning to bleed out.
Helped by a limping Anevia, Aravashnial slowly makes is way toward you. "I take it you found a demon," the Riftwarden notes, face scrunching as the pungent, foul smell hits his nose. "A Dretch, I believe? Not a great task, but you have performed decently so far."
You're now standing in the former campsite, fire still flickering and the dretch's victim lying torn apart before you. One curious note is that his still intact face resembles that of a rat, with an inhumanly upturned nose and whiskers, jagged and rotting teeth, and stray streaks of fur along his remaining flesh.
"I don't think I've heard anything about people like this below the city," Tera tells Zyranus before turning to Aravashnial, "Are they small, and do they look like a madman's vision of a child?"
Tera is unable to recall any rumours about rat-men and Xantrius has never seen a creature like this before.
Aravashnial looks curiously toward the group. "How human is he? This is not a ratfolk? Oh, this is quite the turn of events." His voice begins to pick up speed as he leans back a little, teeming with thoughts. "It's only a legend, but some--including I--believe that after the First Crusade, a group of crusaders who had become infected with Abyssal energy fled down into the tunnels beneath the city to raise their deformed children in peace, willingly isolating themselves from the people they'd fought to protect. The children were said to possess strange, animal-like features, but not in the manner of a catfolk or a nagaji. The corpse before you may be evidence of the legend."
An examination of the campsite turns up a lot of worn-down objects; bent fishhooks, the torn bedrooll beneath the victim, and ten feet of badly frayed rope, but also a masterwork backpack weathered and worn but very intact. Within it are ten days of trail rations, a flint and steel, a set of caltrops, two flasks of oil, a undle of twelve arrows, a potion of Cure Light Wounds, and a potion of Lesser Restoration. On the victim's body are tattered clothes--from sheer, exhaustive use more than the Dretch--and a copper brooch depicting a bat perched atop a mushroom, both of the bat's eyes being tiny gemstones.
"Evidence or not, he needs a proper burial," Tera tells the elf. She begins looking for stones to build a small cairn.
You notice that Tera's hands check the scarf and hood covering everything but her eyes when Aravashnial mentions abyssal energies.
Tera's shoulder's tense and she looks away from everybody when Aravashnial mentions Abyssal energies. It seems like she is scared or nervous about something.
"Evidence or not, he needs a proper burial," Tera tells the elf. She begins looking for stones to build a small cairn.
"Agreed," Teofil said, moving to help with the cairn. "Whatever this creature's nature, it died at the hands of a demon. Nothing deserves that."
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Zyranus looks about:
Not much that may be done in these stone passages. We could build a cairn of pieces of fallen stone I suppose.
Perception: <-- Zyranus is not paying attention to his party members
Sense Motive:
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Zyranus also picks up the items.
Don't think that he will be needing these any more, and I am sure that we will find some use for all of them before we are done. Enough food for about two days for all of us, and the potions will assuredly come in handy.
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"May you find peace." Xantrius intones as the last stone is placed on the makeshift cairn. "Let us be on our way now." he states, mostly for Aravashnial's benefit as he places the unclaimed items in his pack, feeling that he could best bear the weight until they were needed.
While the bedroll and rope seemed to be rubbish, perhaps some magic could be used to return them to a usable form. Waste not, want not...
Horgus grumbles about distractions as you begin to move forward once more, restating his 'kind and generous' offer to pay each of you handsomely for returning him to the surface. This rant goes on for quite some time, especially at the slow pace you have to move to accomodate Anevia's limp, which he won't say is part of his frustration, but the looks he shoots toward the injured scout tell a different story.
After twenty minutes of walking, whether anyone asks him to shut up or he's allowed to continue speaking, you come to a curve in the cavern's path, but you see a de facto hole formed by a narrow split in the wall, too unruly to have been naturally made, with a faint green glow along the walls, sickly pale and profane, sending a shiver down Xantrius's spine.
"This is curious," Teofil said, happy to have a distraction from Horgus. He consulted his memory for anything familiar that might have come up in his studies.
"Wait here, I'll see what's ahead," she tells the others before slipping off to see what lay in the room.
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After the second of Horgus' long tirades, Xantrius slows his pace to fall back alongside the man. In his low, chilling voice he tells him "We are most assuredly going to get you back. While we thank you for your kind offer of payment, it is not necessary. It is our duty to see all of you safely returned. I would advise, however, some caution. We have already seen one demon and there might be more about. We should probably avoid attracting their notice with any noise right now. We can talk further once we have found someplace safe. I am sure a man of your status can see the advantage in travelling in numbers and using every resource at your command." With a respectful nod, he lengthens his stride to return to the lead.
As Tera starts to move towards the hole, he holds up his hand. "Wait! There is something wrong here, I can feel it." He reaches out with his other senses to feel the ebb and flow of the life energy in the area. First, noting the bright patterns of his fellow travellers along with the somewhat dimmer lights of the wounded, then any other energies that might be connected to the glow or beyond it.
Tera stops just as she gets to the hole in the wall.
"I know. That's why I was going ahead to see what's in there," she says in a small voice, almost like a child being scolded for trying to help.