Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1548708" data-attributes="member: 3433">Trails of slime..."Floth!"  The female voice echoed ominously through the watery cave.  "There are intruders.  Be prepared to deal with them."The humanoid frog motioned his hand over the nearby water, clearing his magical view.  "It shall be done, mistress," he half-croaked.  "Will you grace us with your presence?""Not this time.  They have invaded my lab, and they have proven rather resourceful.  I'm not sure the wards in place will be enough to deter their progress.  In any event, I'm heading to alert Fluopolith and then send word to the others.  I have faith in your abilities Floth.  Do not disappoint me.""Yes, mistress.  You are kind to Floth.  These intruders will be dealt with and fed to our pets.  Or did you have other intentions for them?""My sister said that she already has enough subjects to test the portal, so we do not need more at this time.  However, if you are successful in capturing some of them alive,  I would be very interested in questioning them to learn who they are and who sent them.  These are certainly not like the miners sent to explore the mine, nor are they like those damned relentless witchhunters we managed to ambush & decimate on the east branch.  Could be adventurers, I suppose, but this area has had little to offer thrillseekers.  Why choose to come here, and now, when we are so close...""Fear not mistress, Floth will deal with them."  The image faded leaving floth seeing his own reflection in the filthy murky pool.  Floth barked some commands to his followers and prepared for visitors.  "Soon you will enjoy fresh carrion", he croaked while lightly stroking the tentacle of the creature in the garbage mound next to him.Meanwhile, back in Malthyn...A cry rose up from the grainery, and everyone turned to look that way with fear.  Could a giant or troll have gotten this close without the guards sounding the alarm?  Gabby pulled out her bow and ran toward the sounds.One of the townsfolk was wrapped by a hideous tentacled worm.  One of the tentacles was wrapped around his neck strangling him.  She took a shot, but missed, nearly hitting the farmer by mistake.  She called for help, but almost everyone seemed paralyzed with horror at the sight.As she closed, she dropped her bow and drew her sword.  Then she charged at it and landed her blade deep in the slimy body of the worm.  The skewered worm loosed it's grip on the farmer, convulsed wildly and finally lay still.  Quickly, Gabby knelt down, let go of her blade, and helped tend to the farmers wounds.  His eyes were still in a panic from his near death experience.  His lips tried to move, but his crushed wind pipe was unable to sound any words.  "Rest now.  No need to talk," Gabby reassured him.  She started to cast a healing spell on him.But he kept trying to say something.  Suddenly, Gaby felt something wrap around her arm and neck.  It was another one of these worms!  She reached for her sword, but before she could grab it, the worm had pulled her to the ground.  It was strangling her and now had both her arms wrapped as well.  She struggled to break free, but couldn't seem to escape its grip.A few townsfolk had seen this and started shouting for help, but only a few moved to aid her.  They came bearing pitchforks, but were tentative to strike at the creature.  Then a large figure rushed forward and swung a hammer.  The blow connected squarely with the worm, but grazed Gabby in the process.  The hammer felt very hot and even singed her skin, and she immediately knew who had come to her rescue.  It was the half-orc blacksmith.  He struck at it one more time before it finally let go and lay motionless."Thank you."  Gabby said after catching her breath.  She'd had deep bruises on her arms and neck from this, but at least she'd be able to heal herself.  However, she saw yet another worm scurrying out of the grainery.  She quickly pointed and reached to recover her sword.  The blacksmith closed with it, but missed.  On the next round, she got to her feat and started singing a song to hopefully inspire the blacksmith's ability.  It seemed to help, as the next turn, the smith connected with a crushing blow that broke the gooey worm into two quivering pieces.  Fortunately, unlike earthworms, this kind died when divided.  After a few seconds, this one stopped moving.Gabby finally healed the farmer then herself.  Then she and the blacksmith searched the grainery for more worms, but found none.  They had to watch their step as the worms had coated everything with a slippery coating of slime.  They did find the remains of 3 large egg sacs that appeared to have recently hatched.  These were the likely source of the worms.  Could the moths that came each night be laying these?  They relayed the information to the villagers and then started searching building to building for any other eggs or worms."Where are those guys," she thought to herself.  Had the others encountered hideous creatures like these as well?  Hopefully, they'd come back soon, and the town would be back to normal...whatever normal was for this place.</blockquote>

Verification