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<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 1517963" data-attributes="member: 18280"><p><strong><u>Third Session</u></strong></p><p></p><p>In the morning, the dwarf was well enough to be up and about. The Green that permeated the world brought many gifts, and one was that time healed wounds. Where the Green tangled with living, growing things spirits were formed. There were some shamans of the Lakashi who believed that even the Great Spirits – the Horned Lord and Mother Moon – were merely aspects of the Green, and that Death was the shadow the Green cast over the material world.</p><p></p><p>The Lakashi were matriarchal. Among the tribes, women hold the key positions of power, though some male druids, warriors, and shamans are held also in high esteem. It is rare to see a Lakashi man within the inner circle of the Tribal Council. Desu knew that this was not true among many other peoples, including those with whom he traveled. Yet it was often true within the Green. Among the fey, it was often the Queens who held the greatest power. Still, he had perhaps underestimated the lack of compassion that a male-dominated society could create.</p><p></p><p>In the Hooth Marshes, there was a tradition of autumn feasting, when neighboring tribes would invite each other to share in the bounty of the season. It was a mark of pride for the Hooth tribes to be able to provide more bounty than a guest could possibly eat – the remainder becoming another meal, or a sacrifice for spirits. It had been natural for Desu to believe that the dwarf would be willing to share what he had with his companions in need. After all, didn’t they share their skills at arms, and Desu the grace of the Green with his magic?</p><p></p><p>Yet when the dwarf awoke and discovered a portion of his food missing, he turned to Locke, demanding to know what became of it. Locke, rather than answering, deferred the question to the half-orc. Whether it was because of racial animosity or some deeper malaise, the dwarf did not even ask Hrum. Forgetting that he was no warrior, the dwarf charged the half-orc with his staff…but Hrum was not caught unaware, and he was far quicker. In a second, the half-orc’s sword was from its sheath, and the dwarf was once more in the abyss of injured unconsciousness.</p><p></p><p>Desu quickly rushed up to intervene. He placed himself between the half-orc and the fallen dwarf, preventing Hrum from finishing Darwin where he lay. “What are you doing?” Desu demanded. “We need him! And now I shall have to waste a valuable spell to knit his injuries.” He knelt beside the fallen dwarf and began to reach into the Green, feeling his way toward the necessary healing.</p><p></p><p>“I’m sorry,” Hrum murmured. “He just attacked me.”</p><p></p><p>Desu had a sinking feeling that some spirit of malevolence held sway over these two, and it would not end its mischief until one – or both – were dead. As the healed dwarf arose, he stood up. “I took your food,” Desu said, and the dwarf looked away.</p><p></p><p>When they had eaten a modest breakfast, and had prepared their gear, the four entered the caves once more. Where the taller three had to duck to enter the wider entrance, the dwarf had no difficulty. Again they came to the first chamber. The dwarf, who had not seen it before, looked about with interest, but the rest when directly to the narrow eastern passage. They decided who would go first, then descended. They went past the second passage in the ceiling, where Locke had been attacked, and continued down to the source of trickling water they could hear.</p><p></p><p>The passage ended in a dark watery expanse, some twenty feet wide, but narrowing to about half that after about twenty feet. The ceiling seemed to be about ten feet high. There was a constant noise of trickling and dripping water. The water itself was scummy, with an oily sheen, and Desu knew instinctively that it was not fit to drink. He could see signs of bat guano. This was an area disease spirits might well enjoy dwelling in.</p><p></p><p>The dwarf made a magical light upon a pebble, and had his raven carry it over the dark water. When the raven returned, they conferred briefly in the Dwarvish tongue, and Darwin told them that the ceiling was much higher than it appeared, a little farther on. Also, there was a passage eastward on the far side of the water.</p><p></p><p>Still Desu was not a good swimmer, and he distrusted the look of the water. After a brief discussion, they decided to go back up the passage, and try the narrow way they had passed – the way through the ceiling, where the crayfish-like creature has attacked Locke the day before. They were able to pull their way up into the ceiling passage without too much difficulty, but the way was tight. They came upon the remains of the crayfish-thing – normal-sized beetles and ants had already begun their work upon it – and beneath where it lay they found a dismembered human skeleton adhered to the floor, some of its bones still held together by stringy bits of desiccated flesh. The studded leather armor the body once wore was damaged beyond repair, but there was a serviceable short sword adhered to the floor with it. Try as he might, Hrum could not pull the sword free from where it was glued to the floor.</p><p></p><p>Beyond, the cave floor evened out somewhat, opening into a nodule some ten feet in diameter and seven feet high. Beyond that, there was a choice to go left or right. The left way was narrow and tight, about three feet high and four feet wide, damp, with a trickle of water running along a slick floor rising at an angle of about twenty degrees. The water spread out as it flowed to the right, where the passage opens out until it was about fifteen feet wide.</p><p></p><p>Hrum stepped out to look to the right. The passage sloped suddenly and steeply, and he lost his footing on the slick stone. His sword dropped with a clatter, waking some bats and sending them flying about. He slid into a wide chamber, where he managed to catch himself against an even steeper slope. He looked around at the chamber, and saw that it was some thirty-five feet across and twenty-five feet wide, but the area in front of him was a slick ledge maybe five or ten feet wide with a twenty-five degree slope. He could hear the steady trickle of water in a pool more than ten feet below. Hrum got shakily to his feet, trying to keep his balance.</p><p></p><p>The dwarf sent his raven up the other passage, but it ended in a cul-de-sac. He jogged down the passage quickly to check the raven’s report, and saw another camber, fifteen feet wide and twenty feet deep. The area was some fifteen feet high. Water had carved a sinkhole through the stone from the surface. The sinkhole formed a chimney leading out of the caves, entering the room near the far wall. It was the source of the trickling water in the area. Had they meant to exit the caves, it might have been a good find, but they would never find Brand Oarsman if they left now. He jogged back to tell the group the disappointing news.</p><p></p><p>When Desu tried to join Hrum in the slick-floored cavern, he lost his footing and went shooting over the edge. Bats, which had been roosting on the ceiling, flew around, disturbed, and chanced to put out the group’s torch. Luckily, however, they could not put out the magical light the dwarf’s raven was carrying. Desu slid and dropped fifteen feet into the brackish water with a huge splash that echoed loudly throughout the caverns. The water was deep enough that Desu took no injury from his fall, but as he struggled to make it to the surface, he took in water that he knew was not safe to drink. It was the least of his worries. Barely able to tread water, he broke to surface enough to gasp out a cry for help before the weight of his equipment pulled him under again.</p><p></p><p>Without a moment’s hesitation, Darwin Ravenscroll flung his bandolier to his companions and leaped into the water. He pulled Desu up, and brought him safely to the nearest shore. They discovered that this was the same shore they had looked at earlier, before trying the higher passages.</p><p></p><p>Locke gave Darwin’s bandolier to the dwarf’s raven, and the bird carried it down to its master, dropping the light-stone into the water, where the light would slowly diminish and go out. They swam across the calm, cool water, trusting to fate and their fortitude that none would become ill from the contaminants it contained. Darwin assisted Desu across. Archimedes, Desu’s owl companion, and the dwarf’s raven familiar flew.</p><p></p><p>The passage rose gently out of the water. They shook the foul water out of their cloaks the best they could, then sat and emptied their boots. The passage east was about ten feet in diameter. After about thirty feet, the passage split in a Y-shaped intersection. The way to the right descended sharply, but the way to the left seemed more or less level. They chose to try the left.</p><p></p><p>However, after only a short distance, the floor dropped suddenly away as a ten-foot diameter shaft interrupted their passage. The shaft extended into darkness both above and below the passage they had been traveling along, though they could see it continued beyond the ten-foot wide drop. The rock of the shaft was much smoother than the surrounding rock, so it seemed unlikely to offer an easy climb. They turned back, and tried the other passage.</p><p></p><p>That passage was very steep, but after climbing their way down for a bit, a large passage opened up to the left. The passage they were in continued to descend sharply into the earth. The other passage had a far gentler slope, although it was still descending. It varied between nine and fifteen feet in diameter. The ceiling was spiked with sharp stalactites, some thick as a dwarf’s torso and others thin as straw. Most of the stalagmites had been worn down to smooth nubs on the floor, which made it far easier to walk.</p><p></p><p>They had not gone far down the new passage when four crossbow bolts shot from the darkness ahead. Luckily, none were accurate enough to hit a truly solid blow. Two short reptilian humanoids with scaly skin the color of dark rust charged forward with spears as two more crossbow bolts flew from the darkness. Somewhere in the distance, something squealed.</p><p></p><p>“Kobolds,” someone muttered, and in the confusion it was hard to tell whom. The creatures hissed to each other in some variant of the Reptile Tongue, attacking in a coordinated fashion. But it wasn’t enough to save them from the swords of Locke and Hrum, who waded into combat with gusto. Before long, the two kobolds that had charged the group were dead, and arrows had felled those with crossbows farther on.</p><p></p><p>The group scavenged the crossbows and what bolts remained from the kobolds. Who knew when they might prove useful?</p><p></p><p>There were passages crossing the main corridor, both to the north and the south. Those passages to the north rose, while the ones to the south descended. The group ignored all of these, and continued along the wide passage they were already in. At least here the footing was good. Their wet things had begun to grow clammy, but the combat had warmed them a bit.</p><p></p><p>For a long way the party went on in silence, noting side passages to the left and right, but largely ignoring them. Then a long grayish-pink tentacle reached down from the ceiling, wrapped itself around Darwin, and drew him swiftly to the ceiling.</p><p></p><p>The animosity of that morning forgotten, Hrum immediately set arrow to bowstring and aimed upward. A large mass of gray and pink flesh nestled among the stalactites, clutching Darwin with two tentacles. The dwarf was again unconscious due to wounds. Hrum fired and his arrow found its mark, glancing off the creature’s central mass and drawing blood.</p><p></p><p>“A thousand pardons,” the creature said, rotating a many-fanged mouth toward the floor. It lowered Darwin gently among them with two tentacles. It was obvious that the creature’s grab had reopened old wounds. “I mistook you for one of those miserable hissers. Never attack anyone whose friends can fight back, that’s my motto.”</p><p></p><p>Desu knelt by the fallen dwarf, looking to see if he could stop his bleeding. It did not look like an easy task.</p><p></p><p>“Who are you?” Locke asked.</p><p></p><p>“No one important, really,” the thing replied. “Just an opportunist out for a meal, you understand, and I didn’t really look to see what was walking below. More instinct than anything else. I wouldn’t have touched you had I known you could fight back.”</p><p></p><p>Locke looked up at the creature. He could see nothing resembling eyes, with which it could have looked. Desu also looked up, curious despite himself.</p><p></p><p>“Do you know what’s down this way?” Desu asked.</p><p></p><p>“Keep going the way you are, and you’ll end up in the Borderlands. Nothing past there but hissers and mushrooms, if you understand me.”</p><p></p><p>Locke looked at Desu. “Do you think they would have gone that way?”</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know. Maybe we can ask Tentacle Guy.”</p><p></p><p>“You’re looking for someone?” the thing asked. “I imagine your friends have taken the other passage, the one the one that the spider-folk travel along.” It pointed toward a northward tunnel with one of its long tentacles. “Seems I’ve heard some screaming up that way not too long ago.”</p><p></p><p>“We might as well try it,” said Locke.</p><p></p><p>“Thank you,” said Desu.</p><p></p><p>“I’ve been a bit of a help, right? Well then, what about some reward?”</p><p></p><p>Desu looked up suspiciously. “What kind of a reward?”</p><p></p><p>“How about him?” The thing brushed the fallen dwarf lightly with a tentacle. “You don’t seem to care about him.”</p><p></p><p>Desu suddenly realized that Darwin Ravenscroll was still bleeding to death at his feet. He quickly knelt and finished binding his wounds, using pressure until the bleeding stopped.</p><p></p><p>“Do you like hisser meat?” Locke asked. “We killed four just down the tunnel. We’d be happy to let you have them.”</p><p></p><p>“You get a lot of hissers down here. I just caught one a few moments ago, before you people came along.” The thing sighed. “I was hoping for something sweeter. How about one of those flying things?”</p><p></p><p>With a start, Desu realized that the creature meant the raven and the owl. It had been helpful, and it did deserve some reward, but could he really deliver his animal companion to it? That would be an evil deed of the worst sort, and it would reverberate through the Green. Desu found himself wishing that his spirit quest had been successful, that some friendly spirit was there to advise him.</p><p></p><p>“I’m afraid I can’t give you my owl,” he said gently. He found himself truly feeling an attachment, and sympathy toward, this creature. “But we can bring you the hissers.” </p><p></p><p>They were ready to grab the kobold bodies for the creature when another thought crossed Desu’s mind. “I suppose we ought to leave someone here to guard the dwarf,” he said. “I’m not sure we should trust this creature completely.”</p><p></p><p>A few minutes later, the group was carrying their fallen companion into the north-leading passageway, and the creature was bringing the kobold bodies up to the corridor ceiling to eat.</p><p></p><p>The passage led to a cave some thirty feet in diameter, with other passages to the west and northeast. In the center of the room they saw a natural pit with steep, smooth walls, twenty feet in diameter and equally deep. Within they could see five men-at-arms, four living and one dead.</p><p></p><p>When they came into the chamber, the men shrank against the pit wall. Then one called out “Hrum my friend!” Hrum recognized the man as Cedric, one of the guild mercenaries he had served with. “Thank the Good Gods! We’re rescued.”</p><p></p><p>The other three were named Anlaf, Garmund, and Douglas. Soon the group had pulled them out of the pit, using rope scavenged from the ogre’s tower, and Cedric was telling them what had happened.</p><p></p><p>“Just a job for us, right? Young Master Oarsman snoop around for a bit, look for a bit of coin or whatnot. Do a bit of fighting, maybe. But young Oarsman, he brings along this girl, and that’s where the trouble begins. She keeps talking about this really big treasure. Little risk, big reward. How do you say no, right?”</p><p></p><p>Cedric looked around, as though waiting for response. When there was none, he met each of their eyes in turn, and continued. He addressed himself to Hrum.</p><p></p><p>“So, no sooner do we get to the Lair when we lose one of the lads. Pop! Old Bill is being reeled up into another passage by some kinda giant crayfish, and he’s dead before we know it. But we knew there’d be risks, and there’s naught we can do for Billy, so we hope to recover his body on the way out for his widow and son. But we keep going. A couple of kobolds stick their noses out, but we fix them all right. We’re thinking we’re home free. Got this idea of the big treasure in our minds, see?”</p><p></p><p>Hrum nodded. He gestured for Cedric to go on.</p><p></p><p>“Then suddenly there’s these guys in black robes, and that bitch Kara is on their side. Some of us got knocked into this pit in the scuffle. Johan there broke his neck, I reckon, but the rest of us are in pretty good shape, I suppose. But these black robes – they were talking about Mellythese and sacrifice and full moons…and some of them didn’t seem rightly human.”</p><p></p><p>“I’m surprised you’re not afraid of me, then,” Locke said. He was dressed in a black hooded robe himself.</p><p></p><p>“These folks didn’t seem right, you have to understand,” Cedric said. “And their robes…they weren’t like your Badurite robes. They were…inhuman.”</p><p></p><p>“Did you see which way they went?” Desu asked.</p><p></p><p>“I’m not certain, but I think they came from there,” one of the men, Douglas, said, pointing toward the northeastern passage.</p><p></p><p>“Will you come with us?”</p><p></p><p>“Strength in numbers,” said Anlaf, “but I’m for going home if it comes to a vote.”</p><p></p><p>“Not me,” said Cedric. “I’ve got friends they took. I’d be for saving them, if it can be done.”</p><p></p><p>“We still need to carry the dwarf,” Desu said. “I’m afraid we’ll have to leave your friend behind for now. We’ll come back and get him later, if we can.” He briefly considered giving the dead human to the tentacled creature as a reward – to the druids, one creature was a worthy as another, and among the Lakashi the dead were dead, and held no special significance – but he realized that his companions would not see it that way.</p><p></p><p>They walked down the northeast passage, and were pleased that it provided a fairly level way. After a while they saw a steady red light ahead, like a malignant, unblinking eye – but it turned out to be the abdominal organ of a large beetle. Like many of the verminous creatures that hide from the Sun’s eye, the beetle was hungry and seeking prey. Even so, it was no match for the small band of adventurers. When it lay dead, Desu cut its still-glowing abdominal organ free. It was not unlike the light-giving organ of a firefly. Desu lifted it up, so that he could use it as a torch.</p><p></p><p>The passage came to another Y-shaped intersection. The way to the right began a very sharp descent, of almost fifty degrees. The way to the left rose gently. However, the left-hand way was shrouded with thick cobwebs that fluttered as though with a faint breeze.</p><p></p><p>“It doesn’t appear as though the left way has been used in some time,” Desu noted. “Perhaps we should try the right.”</p><p></p><p>“It will be difficult while carrying this dwarf,” Anlaf pointed out. “We could always turn around and leave, while we still may.”</p><p></p><p>The others ignored him, and began the arduous descent to the right.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 1517963, member: 18280"] [B][U]Third Session[/U][/B] In the morning, the dwarf was well enough to be up and about. The Green that permeated the world brought many gifts, and one was that time healed wounds. Where the Green tangled with living, growing things spirits were formed. There were some shamans of the Lakashi who believed that even the Great Spirits – the Horned Lord and Mother Moon – were merely aspects of the Green, and that Death was the shadow the Green cast over the material world. The Lakashi were matriarchal. Among the tribes, women hold the key positions of power, though some male druids, warriors, and shamans are held also in high esteem. It is rare to see a Lakashi man within the inner circle of the Tribal Council. Desu knew that this was not true among many other peoples, including those with whom he traveled. Yet it was often true within the Green. Among the fey, it was often the Queens who held the greatest power. Still, he had perhaps underestimated the lack of compassion that a male-dominated society could create. In the Hooth Marshes, there was a tradition of autumn feasting, when neighboring tribes would invite each other to share in the bounty of the season. It was a mark of pride for the Hooth tribes to be able to provide more bounty than a guest could possibly eat – the remainder becoming another meal, or a sacrifice for spirits. It had been natural for Desu to believe that the dwarf would be willing to share what he had with his companions in need. After all, didn’t they share their skills at arms, and Desu the grace of the Green with his magic? Yet when the dwarf awoke and discovered a portion of his food missing, he turned to Locke, demanding to know what became of it. Locke, rather than answering, deferred the question to the half-orc. Whether it was because of racial animosity or some deeper malaise, the dwarf did not even ask Hrum. Forgetting that he was no warrior, the dwarf charged the half-orc with his staff…but Hrum was not caught unaware, and he was far quicker. In a second, the half-orc’s sword was from its sheath, and the dwarf was once more in the abyss of injured unconsciousness. Desu quickly rushed up to intervene. He placed himself between the half-orc and the fallen dwarf, preventing Hrum from finishing Darwin where he lay. “What are you doing?” Desu demanded. “We need him! And now I shall have to waste a valuable spell to knit his injuries.” He knelt beside the fallen dwarf and began to reach into the Green, feeling his way toward the necessary healing. “I’m sorry,” Hrum murmured. “He just attacked me.” Desu had a sinking feeling that some spirit of malevolence held sway over these two, and it would not end its mischief until one – or both – were dead. As the healed dwarf arose, he stood up. “I took your food,” Desu said, and the dwarf looked away. When they had eaten a modest breakfast, and had prepared their gear, the four entered the caves once more. Where the taller three had to duck to enter the wider entrance, the dwarf had no difficulty. Again they came to the first chamber. The dwarf, who had not seen it before, looked about with interest, but the rest when directly to the narrow eastern passage. They decided who would go first, then descended. They went past the second passage in the ceiling, where Locke had been attacked, and continued down to the source of trickling water they could hear. The passage ended in a dark watery expanse, some twenty feet wide, but narrowing to about half that after about twenty feet. The ceiling seemed to be about ten feet high. There was a constant noise of trickling and dripping water. The water itself was scummy, with an oily sheen, and Desu knew instinctively that it was not fit to drink. He could see signs of bat guano. This was an area disease spirits might well enjoy dwelling in. The dwarf made a magical light upon a pebble, and had his raven carry it over the dark water. When the raven returned, they conferred briefly in the Dwarvish tongue, and Darwin told them that the ceiling was much higher than it appeared, a little farther on. Also, there was a passage eastward on the far side of the water. Still Desu was not a good swimmer, and he distrusted the look of the water. After a brief discussion, they decided to go back up the passage, and try the narrow way they had passed – the way through the ceiling, where the crayfish-like creature has attacked Locke the day before. They were able to pull their way up into the ceiling passage without too much difficulty, but the way was tight. They came upon the remains of the crayfish-thing – normal-sized beetles and ants had already begun their work upon it – and beneath where it lay they found a dismembered human skeleton adhered to the floor, some of its bones still held together by stringy bits of desiccated flesh. The studded leather armor the body once wore was damaged beyond repair, but there was a serviceable short sword adhered to the floor with it. Try as he might, Hrum could not pull the sword free from where it was glued to the floor. Beyond, the cave floor evened out somewhat, opening into a nodule some ten feet in diameter and seven feet high. Beyond that, there was a choice to go left or right. The left way was narrow and tight, about three feet high and four feet wide, damp, with a trickle of water running along a slick floor rising at an angle of about twenty degrees. The water spread out as it flowed to the right, where the passage opens out until it was about fifteen feet wide. Hrum stepped out to look to the right. The passage sloped suddenly and steeply, and he lost his footing on the slick stone. His sword dropped with a clatter, waking some bats and sending them flying about. He slid into a wide chamber, where he managed to catch himself against an even steeper slope. He looked around at the chamber, and saw that it was some thirty-five feet across and twenty-five feet wide, but the area in front of him was a slick ledge maybe five or ten feet wide with a twenty-five degree slope. He could hear the steady trickle of water in a pool more than ten feet below. Hrum got shakily to his feet, trying to keep his balance. The dwarf sent his raven up the other passage, but it ended in a cul-de-sac. He jogged down the passage quickly to check the raven’s report, and saw another camber, fifteen feet wide and twenty feet deep. The area was some fifteen feet high. Water had carved a sinkhole through the stone from the surface. The sinkhole formed a chimney leading out of the caves, entering the room near the far wall. It was the source of the trickling water in the area. Had they meant to exit the caves, it might have been a good find, but they would never find Brand Oarsman if they left now. He jogged back to tell the group the disappointing news. When Desu tried to join Hrum in the slick-floored cavern, he lost his footing and went shooting over the edge. Bats, which had been roosting on the ceiling, flew around, disturbed, and chanced to put out the group’s torch. Luckily, however, they could not put out the magical light the dwarf’s raven was carrying. Desu slid and dropped fifteen feet into the brackish water with a huge splash that echoed loudly throughout the caverns. The water was deep enough that Desu took no injury from his fall, but as he struggled to make it to the surface, he took in water that he knew was not safe to drink. It was the least of his worries. Barely able to tread water, he broke to surface enough to gasp out a cry for help before the weight of his equipment pulled him under again. Without a moment’s hesitation, Darwin Ravenscroll flung his bandolier to his companions and leaped into the water. He pulled Desu up, and brought him safely to the nearest shore. They discovered that this was the same shore they had looked at earlier, before trying the higher passages. Locke gave Darwin’s bandolier to the dwarf’s raven, and the bird carried it down to its master, dropping the light-stone into the water, where the light would slowly diminish and go out. They swam across the calm, cool water, trusting to fate and their fortitude that none would become ill from the contaminants it contained. Darwin assisted Desu across. Archimedes, Desu’s owl companion, and the dwarf’s raven familiar flew. The passage rose gently out of the water. They shook the foul water out of their cloaks the best they could, then sat and emptied their boots. The passage east was about ten feet in diameter. After about thirty feet, the passage split in a Y-shaped intersection. The way to the right descended sharply, but the way to the left seemed more or less level. They chose to try the left. However, after only a short distance, the floor dropped suddenly away as a ten-foot diameter shaft interrupted their passage. The shaft extended into darkness both above and below the passage they had been traveling along, though they could see it continued beyond the ten-foot wide drop. The rock of the shaft was much smoother than the surrounding rock, so it seemed unlikely to offer an easy climb. They turned back, and tried the other passage. That passage was very steep, but after climbing their way down for a bit, a large passage opened up to the left. The passage they were in continued to descend sharply into the earth. The other passage had a far gentler slope, although it was still descending. It varied between nine and fifteen feet in diameter. The ceiling was spiked with sharp stalactites, some thick as a dwarf’s torso and others thin as straw. Most of the stalagmites had been worn down to smooth nubs on the floor, which made it far easier to walk. They had not gone far down the new passage when four crossbow bolts shot from the darkness ahead. Luckily, none were accurate enough to hit a truly solid blow. Two short reptilian humanoids with scaly skin the color of dark rust charged forward with spears as two more crossbow bolts flew from the darkness. Somewhere in the distance, something squealed. “Kobolds,” someone muttered, and in the confusion it was hard to tell whom. The creatures hissed to each other in some variant of the Reptile Tongue, attacking in a coordinated fashion. But it wasn’t enough to save them from the swords of Locke and Hrum, who waded into combat with gusto. Before long, the two kobolds that had charged the group were dead, and arrows had felled those with crossbows farther on. The group scavenged the crossbows and what bolts remained from the kobolds. Who knew when they might prove useful? There were passages crossing the main corridor, both to the north and the south. Those passages to the north rose, while the ones to the south descended. The group ignored all of these, and continued along the wide passage they were already in. At least here the footing was good. Their wet things had begun to grow clammy, but the combat had warmed them a bit. For a long way the party went on in silence, noting side passages to the left and right, but largely ignoring them. Then a long grayish-pink tentacle reached down from the ceiling, wrapped itself around Darwin, and drew him swiftly to the ceiling. The animosity of that morning forgotten, Hrum immediately set arrow to bowstring and aimed upward. A large mass of gray and pink flesh nestled among the stalactites, clutching Darwin with two tentacles. The dwarf was again unconscious due to wounds. Hrum fired and his arrow found its mark, glancing off the creature’s central mass and drawing blood. “A thousand pardons,” the creature said, rotating a many-fanged mouth toward the floor. It lowered Darwin gently among them with two tentacles. It was obvious that the creature’s grab had reopened old wounds. “I mistook you for one of those miserable hissers. Never attack anyone whose friends can fight back, that’s my motto.” Desu knelt by the fallen dwarf, looking to see if he could stop his bleeding. It did not look like an easy task. “Who are you?” Locke asked. “No one important, really,” the thing replied. “Just an opportunist out for a meal, you understand, and I didn’t really look to see what was walking below. More instinct than anything else. I wouldn’t have touched you had I known you could fight back.” Locke looked up at the creature. He could see nothing resembling eyes, with which it could have looked. Desu also looked up, curious despite himself. “Do you know what’s down this way?” Desu asked. “Keep going the way you are, and you’ll end up in the Borderlands. Nothing past there but hissers and mushrooms, if you understand me.” Locke looked at Desu. “Do you think they would have gone that way?” “I don’t know. Maybe we can ask Tentacle Guy.” “You’re looking for someone?” the thing asked. “I imagine your friends have taken the other passage, the one the one that the spider-folk travel along.” It pointed toward a northward tunnel with one of its long tentacles. “Seems I’ve heard some screaming up that way not too long ago.” “We might as well try it,” said Locke. “Thank you,” said Desu. “I’ve been a bit of a help, right? Well then, what about some reward?” Desu looked up suspiciously. “What kind of a reward?” “How about him?” The thing brushed the fallen dwarf lightly with a tentacle. “You don’t seem to care about him.” Desu suddenly realized that Darwin Ravenscroll was still bleeding to death at his feet. He quickly knelt and finished binding his wounds, using pressure until the bleeding stopped. “Do you like hisser meat?” Locke asked. “We killed four just down the tunnel. We’d be happy to let you have them.” “You get a lot of hissers down here. I just caught one a few moments ago, before you people came along.” The thing sighed. “I was hoping for something sweeter. How about one of those flying things?” With a start, Desu realized that the creature meant the raven and the owl. It had been helpful, and it did deserve some reward, but could he really deliver his animal companion to it? That would be an evil deed of the worst sort, and it would reverberate through the Green. Desu found himself wishing that his spirit quest had been successful, that some friendly spirit was there to advise him. “I’m afraid I can’t give you my owl,” he said gently. He found himself truly feeling an attachment, and sympathy toward, this creature. “But we can bring you the hissers.” They were ready to grab the kobold bodies for the creature when another thought crossed Desu’s mind. “I suppose we ought to leave someone here to guard the dwarf,” he said. “I’m not sure we should trust this creature completely.” A few minutes later, the group was carrying their fallen companion into the north-leading passageway, and the creature was bringing the kobold bodies up to the corridor ceiling to eat. The passage led to a cave some thirty feet in diameter, with other passages to the west and northeast. In the center of the room they saw a natural pit with steep, smooth walls, twenty feet in diameter and equally deep. Within they could see five men-at-arms, four living and one dead. When they came into the chamber, the men shrank against the pit wall. Then one called out “Hrum my friend!” Hrum recognized the man as Cedric, one of the guild mercenaries he had served with. “Thank the Good Gods! We’re rescued.” The other three were named Anlaf, Garmund, and Douglas. Soon the group had pulled them out of the pit, using rope scavenged from the ogre’s tower, and Cedric was telling them what had happened. “Just a job for us, right? Young Master Oarsman snoop around for a bit, look for a bit of coin or whatnot. Do a bit of fighting, maybe. But young Oarsman, he brings along this girl, and that’s where the trouble begins. She keeps talking about this really big treasure. Little risk, big reward. How do you say no, right?” Cedric looked around, as though waiting for response. When there was none, he met each of their eyes in turn, and continued. He addressed himself to Hrum. “So, no sooner do we get to the Lair when we lose one of the lads. Pop! Old Bill is being reeled up into another passage by some kinda giant crayfish, and he’s dead before we know it. But we knew there’d be risks, and there’s naught we can do for Billy, so we hope to recover his body on the way out for his widow and son. But we keep going. A couple of kobolds stick their noses out, but we fix them all right. We’re thinking we’re home free. Got this idea of the big treasure in our minds, see?” Hrum nodded. He gestured for Cedric to go on. “Then suddenly there’s these guys in black robes, and that bitch Kara is on their side. Some of us got knocked into this pit in the scuffle. Johan there broke his neck, I reckon, but the rest of us are in pretty good shape, I suppose. But these black robes – they were talking about Mellythese and sacrifice and full moons…and some of them didn’t seem rightly human.” “I’m surprised you’re not afraid of me, then,” Locke said. He was dressed in a black hooded robe himself. “These folks didn’t seem right, you have to understand,” Cedric said. “And their robes…they weren’t like your Badurite robes. They were…inhuman.” “Did you see which way they went?” Desu asked. “I’m not certain, but I think they came from there,” one of the men, Douglas, said, pointing toward the northeastern passage. “Will you come with us?” “Strength in numbers,” said Anlaf, “but I’m for going home if it comes to a vote.” “Not me,” said Cedric. “I’ve got friends they took. I’d be for saving them, if it can be done.” “We still need to carry the dwarf,” Desu said. “I’m afraid we’ll have to leave your friend behind for now. We’ll come back and get him later, if we can.” He briefly considered giving the dead human to the tentacled creature as a reward – to the druids, one creature was a worthy as another, and among the Lakashi the dead were dead, and held no special significance – but he realized that his companions would not see it that way. They walked down the northeast passage, and were pleased that it provided a fairly level way. After a while they saw a steady red light ahead, like a malignant, unblinking eye – but it turned out to be the abdominal organ of a large beetle. Like many of the verminous creatures that hide from the Sun’s eye, the beetle was hungry and seeking prey. Even so, it was no match for the small band of adventurers. When it lay dead, Desu cut its still-glowing abdominal organ free. It was not unlike the light-giving organ of a firefly. Desu lifted it up, so that he could use it as a torch. The passage came to another Y-shaped intersection. The way to the right began a very sharp descent, of almost fifty degrees. The way to the left rose gently. However, the left-hand way was shrouded with thick cobwebs that fluttered as though with a faint breeze. “It doesn’t appear as though the left way has been used in some time,” Desu noted. “Perhaps we should try the right.” “It will be difficult while carrying this dwarf,” Anlaf pointed out. “We could always turn around and leave, while we still may.” The others ignored him, and began the arduous descent to the right. [/QUOTE]
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