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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 867943" data-attributes="member: 6294">"Good Friends & Fine Spirits" by Mystic Eye Games  - Part 12The Padre frowns, glancing around at the Company's bloodied condition."We'll need a plan if we're going to fight a lot of those things at once -"Macwood shakes his head, interrupting,"That's the weird thing ... none of them seem to be moving.  It's like they're all dormant or something.  I saw a couple of antennae twitch, but otherwise they didn't even react to me." He grins, "Which is just as well, since they were right at the hole.  We could have had dozens more of them down here with us.""That would have been unfortunate." Ming Li acknowledges, while Anastria shudders and Briar goes visibly green."Well, nothing for it but to go forward." The Padre sounds like he is trying to convince himself, "There's not doubt that the creatures must have come this way with the girl.""What gave it away?" Macwood deadpans.No-one has any better alternatives than the Padre's suggestion, however, and thus, one by one the adventurers move forward and then clamber out of the tunnel.  They emerge into what may once have been the kitchen of a small cottage, but the infesting roaches have wreaked such damage to the furnishings that it is hard to be sure.Several of the Company stifle expressions of disgust as they pick their way across the room.  As Macwood reported, the place is literally filled with roaches, forming an almost unbroken carpet across the floor.  They are forced to step carefully, struggling to find clear patches on which to place their feet, for fear of crushing one of the smaller insects and somehow galvanising the others into action."We should burn this place down." The Padre whispers."But not while we're in it." Briar counters."Or the girl." Ming Li reminds them, then raises her eyebrows at the Padre, "Is there a reason you always want to burn things?""Can you hear anything?" the Padre changes the subject by gesturing Macwood toward the door of the room.  The halfling shakes his head,"It's quiet out there." The bard slips the door open and pokes his head out into the hall, "and empty, too.  I can see a couple of other doors.  It's pretty dusty.  Makes me want to sneeze.""Dust?  Are there any tracks?""Looks like it.  Gimme a second." Macwood scurries a short way down the corridor, while the others pensively stare at the roaches all around them.  After a few moments, the bard returns. "Yes.  A whole bunch of roaches went through the hall recently.  They turned left at the corner and went into another room.""Right." The Padre nods, "Here's the plan: first, we find a way out of this place, then we find a girl, grab her, kill anything that tries to stop us, and run for the exit.  Then -" he glowers at Ming Li, "- we burn the place down.""Works for me." Briar nods.  There are murmurs of agreement from the others.The adventurers slip quietly out of the room, and into the hall.  Sirdros - the last to exit - closes the door behind him."That should stop any of those roaches from coming up behind us." He whispers.The group are in a short corridor, which they follow to a T-junction.  Macwood points to the door where the tracks lead - it is slightly ajar - then gestures for Briar to check in the other direction.  The rogue pats him on the head with a grin, then slips off, prowling silently along the dusty corridors.  Within a minute, he is back, grimacing."There was someone living here when the roaches moved in." he reports, pulling a face, "They made it to the front door.  Key's still in the lock.  Take the first right turn there, and the doors at the end of the corridor.""Any other exits?" Anastria asks.  Briar shakes his head,"Nothing off the corridor.  I didn't check the rooms - didn't want to end up like the poor bugger at the door.  There's not enough left of him to bury.""Right," the Padre looks grim. "Let's get the girl."There are nods of agreement, and the group move quickly, bursting through the door Macwood pointed out.It's like walking into a nightmare.A grotesque creature lies sprawled on the bed.  Her torso and head is that of a human woman, though huge mandibles jut out of her grotesquely oversized jaw.  Her lower half, however, is a bloated egg-sac, terminating in a sphincter-like orifice.  As the adventurers watch, aghast, foot-long white grubs squirm out of the opening, writhing on the dirty, matted sheets of the bed.Arrayed around the bed are nearly a dozen roaches, mostly of the 'small' foot-long size, but also including several of the larger specimens.  Behind them, wrapped in some kind of strange webbing, is what can only be the cook's daughter.  At first, it seems like the girl is wriggling, trying to get free, but then the group realise that she is unconscious, and the wriggling of the webbing is caused by several large, fat grubs, which appear to be trying to force their way inside to reach her.For a moment, no-one moves.  And then the creature on the bed turns its head toward the adventurers.  Baleful, multifaceted eyes regard them for a second, before the deformed mouth opens in a hissing scream.Instantly, there is the sound of scuttling roaches, coming from every corner of the building.Many, of course, are trapped in the kitchen, kept imprisoned by the door that Sirdros closed.But there are several other doors leading off the corridor, and every one of those is open.</blockquote>

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