Taking a quick glance around him, Terion lumbwrs down the corridor towards Bizzle - "Here!" - he shouts in an attempt to pull the attention to him.
"Ah! Strang, help!" Bizzlemont exclaims as he finds himself surrounded again. The wolf tears at his leg and the gnome falls in a heap. Terrified, the gnome instinctively reaches out for his magic.
Suddenly a series of barking and howling comes from above the stairs, like a pack of dogs.
"Rraagh!
Felgarr charges the goblin, flail flailing.
The fighters continue to swing and miss. Terion puts defense over offense and narrowly misses the goblin.
In response, the goblin hits the downed gnome with his scimitar.
The wolf tries to hit the gnome too.
Bizzlemont blocks out with vision of teeth in his shoulder.
The reptile tries weighs swinging a single attack at Strang or ensuring Maggie stays down with a flurry. Having seen Terion back up and fighting after a healing of wounds, he takes no chances.
Just as he prepares to attempt a lethal flurry, Ramne reads another piece of paper. The buzz of magic projectiles fills the air, and four force missiles strike the reptile.
The reptile falls with four large holes in him.
The blind reptile rises defensively, trying to keep from being hit by Elgoron. He does not look very healthy.
Then the voices start. Softly at first, but soon rising to a mighty crescendo that rumbles through the bones of the mountains and the earth.
"Join us. Join us. JOIN US."
Fear propels the red-haired woman forward. She dashes through the village. noticing all too familiar landmarks and signs along the way. Her armor drags her down as it gets heavier and heavier. She can hear the breath of something foul just behind her...
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Noticing the reptile rising from its stupor, Elgoron reflexively swats it across the nose, drawing blood with a satisfying crack; the creature collapses in a heap. He then moves to rejoin the others at
Survival first, trading later. Let's make sure we get out of this mess with vital organs intact, shall we?
Bizzlemont screams as the wolf bites down on him. The little gnome slumps to the floor.
<Gurgle>
Felgarr maneuvers around the goblin, wincing as Bizzlemont is mauled. He delivers a bone-shattering blow to the goblin's face.
"Die, goblin scum!"
"Ama, Mags is down. Bizzle, too."
The warrior advances to stand protectively over and defending Bizzlemont - "Fight me you overgrown DOG!"
Terion cannot see Ama, but he can feel the wave of energy wash over him, mending some of his grievous wounds, and smiles.
Magnhildr whimpers a little as the wave of light closes some of her wounds.
The goblin is driven to the ground bleeding by Felgar.
The last wolf standing agilely bounds up the steps headed to the swamp.
The elder wizard nods and speaks slowly and soberly.
"Yes, a regular military complex here with frequent patrols."
"I'll be damned if we are able to take a single step in this place without being surrounded by enemies!" - Terion roars as the wolf runs away.
"I need to take a break" - the huge man leans heavily against the wall - "Is everyone ok?"
Bizzlemont lays still on the ground, but you can see his chest rising and falling.
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Elgoron peers down each hallway as he inspects the group's condition. Noting no more approaching disasters, he stands guard over his fellow wizard, fighting exhaustion himself.
"At this rate, we will be entering every section of this compound with more injuries than we have spells left; sooner or later, we're going to strain our luck too far. I sincerely hope we were fortunate enough to have defeated the bulk of their forces just now, but I doubt it. The choice of whether to even use a spell is compounded by the high likelihood of my casting failing without my ring. Do keep a close eye out for any finger-based jewelry on any bodies you search."
For an eternity it stood and bared its teeth before snatching from the ground and opened its jaws wide.
With a jolt, Magnhildr awakened in a pool of her still warm blood. what almost started as a scream was quickly drowned by a coughing fit as she tried to pull herself off the floor.
Ramne leans heavily on his staff.
"We have searched just a portion of this complex. We may want to rush out to the swamp to avoid another patrol. That gruel we found will make a filling, if not delicious, meal.
He thinks and continues in a weary, soft, slow voice.
"We may try to hide in that little used store room that was locked. I don't know if patrols would search that regularly."
Bizzlemont sits up and blinks. "Huh. Not a dream. Or still in the dream." He scrabbles to his feet.
Of course this isn't a dream.
What is real? We sense things, we react to those stimuli. Even our illusions, from a spell or self-delusional, are real to us. They can cause us pain or drive our action just as much as anything 'real'.
Well, trust me, when they're twice as big as you are, you like them even less.
"Actually, the storeroom sounds good. If they don't use it much, then we stand a good chance of remaining hidden. We can try to bar the door. If they do investigate, they will probably assume we are camping in the swamp. Them and anything else could find our camp and come form any direction. At least with the storeroom, we know where the attack would come from."
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"I don't believe the storeroom is a good place to camp ourselves. There are so many of us, it will be almost impossible to remain silent and watchful at once, and if we are discovered, they have no reason to attack us when they can simply barricade us in, leaving us to starve to death. I'm afraid I haven't any spells that can simply make us an exit, and digging a tunnel is completely impractical. If we're going to find a place to camp, this is not a good place to do it."
"We need a rest, and returning to the swamp will be a gamble for that - nothing prevents any more roaming creatures of the bog from taking a liking to us, and decide we make for a nice snack. In the storeroom we can be sure to be out of their reach - My vote goes for that, but you already know I will follow you guys wherever you decide to go"
"We are wounded, almost all of us. The storeroom is our safest choice. We feed the bodies to the slime, do our best to obscure our tracks, and shelter in the room. If they find us, we fight. Camping in the swamp would be worse. They could surround us. They will not have time to barricade before we hear them."
"Agreed" - Terion nods gravely.
"I-I guess the storeroom is fine."
There's a brief flash of panic when Felgarr mentions someone trapping them inside in Magnhildr's eyes.
The group tosses the bodies with the slime and rush to the store room. Magnhildr does a passable job at covering your tracks. You did disturb the store room earlier. Rather than risk causing problems, Magnhildr uses a cloak to drag over your tracks.
Strang uses his knowledge of locks to make the lock appear locked, but with some jiggling, he can open it.
The afternoon and then night passes uneventfully, with not the faintest sound disturbing the carefully set watches.
The morning dawns, and all spellcasters are restored.
Bizzlemont wakes up and groggily goes over to study his spellbook. It's the quiet times like this that he really misses Razzle. Finally he stands and dusts himself off. "We need to agree where we want to go, assuming nothing has really changed out there. We can try to clear that slime with us fresh or investigate the door with the 'X'."
"Torag be praised, we survived the night. Yesterday, we were planning to deal with the slime before we got attacked by the lizardmen and the goblins. I'm still of the opinion that that needs to be our next move."
Felgarr looks through the pile of items looted from the bodies of their defeated enemies. He'll test the weight and balance of the weapons and select one he thinks will be effective against the slime.
Magnhildr sleeps, but instead of the dreamless sleep of exhaustion, she was treated to a feast of nightmares that left her shivering and more than a little frightened of what the next day holds.
"Terion, since you and Mags are still wounded from the last fight, I'll take point today, and both of you use your polearms. I'll hold the line and knock 'em down while you fight from the second rank. Going to need someone else up front with me, since the corridors are to wide to hold on my own. Strang, you up for that? Terion, give him that ring we found to ward off blows. He'll need it. Ama, you hold the rear, in case some thugs come up behind us again. Wizards, in the middle. Let's go kill that slime."
Felgarr makes his choice, selecting the cook's heavy flail to use against the creature.
"Naaaaah Felgarr, I'm fine. I'll be up there with ya. Lets move out!" - the man nods with a huge smile.
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Elgoron rises from his seated position wordlessly, snapping his new spellbook shut and nodding to Felgarr's marching order.
Certainly. Though they may have assumed predators were to blame, or simply have sturdy enough defenses not to care.
Then we have every motivation to use our wits more heavily from this point on.
Feeling the warmth wash over him, and listening to her soft chant, Terion turns around with a smile - "Thank you Ama"
Turning to the others, he adds - "Now then, shall we get this thing rolling?" - as he heads to the door.
"Good man. You going to use your own blade on that slime? Got me this to use," Felgarr pats the cooks flail. "You can probably find something in that pile there."
"Cold and Fire will hurt it most. Elgoron and I have our Rays of Frost, but the rest of you might be better off with torches or oil. If it comes after us, we can try to lure it up the stairs. Sunlight will also kill it."
Magnhildr jumps as she feels the warming energy flows over her. More of her wounds clothes, leaving pink scars behind. She turns to Ama and nods her thanks.
After the bodies were thrown in the muddy water of the northern hallway, some of them where quickly covered in a green coating.
As you head to the corridor with the slime you notice a slight fog with a light green tint as you approach filling the corridor. Ramne speaks in his quiet voice "The slime colony has been busy."
"I have to agree with Ama - I still do not understand why this insistence in dealing with that thing..." - Terion adds.
"And I do not plan to ruin my weapon against it" - he says matter of fact to Felgarr - "I feel I will still have a lot of need for it"
"Well, there's that door with the X and the part blocked by water too. Plus the other two corridors. Perhaps we should explore those areas and ferret out the cultists." He muses a bit. "I would favor the central corridor."
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"It seems to me that the cultists have allowed this thing to live for the same reason we just utilized: disposal of bodies. It's unlikely that anything of value lies behind it for that reason, now that we think on it."
The fact that all these cultists haven't bothered to remove it suggests it's been more trouble than it's worth.
"I would favor anything else BESIDES the slime - the centrsal corridor look as good as any to me, though it still bugs me to ignore a door with an X on it... It really does" - the man grumbles.
Strang explores from the stairs a little straight ahead and a little right.
The forward direction leads to a muddy pool in the center of a huge room. The right hand passage leads to a large door.
Ramne speaks: "Didn't think that slimy fog would be good for my cough and congestion."