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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 528005" data-attributes="member: 96">Ahoke leaps backward like a scalded cat, her axe coming up in front of her defensively. "What?!? That is /not/ supposed to happen."Sen-Jyu turns several shades of pale at seeing this abominable choir, and takes several steps back, katana held in between two shaking hands. Panicked, he looks at his companions, though he looks as if he might bolt.Harvester speaks succinctly, his feelings apparent as he shifts his scythe into readiness.The screams continue: rasping, bubbling, shrill - setting your teeth on edge and no doubt warning whatever lurks in the darkness beyond.Sen-Jyu lunges forward with a frenzied look in his eyes, striking at the heads with several quick slashes of his katana.Harvester raises his scythe on high, and begins to slice the heads apart.Ahoke grabs her great club and begins to smash one of the thanork heads.Ahoke's club comes down on the thanork head, crushing it beneath the heavy wood. Ichida-sama licks out beside it like a silver flame, silencing the other thanork, but the twin blows have knocked the elven head from its precarious perch atop the pile. It rolls a few feet further down the corridor, the scream continuing unabated.Harvester's startlement is so severe that the wickedly curved blade of the scythe swings wildly, snapping the hairs atop the short dwarf's head in the back-swing, and brushing Sen-Jyu's cheek as it comes around.Sen-Jyu turns on his companion and the blade that came close to cutting his head from his shoulders. The katana is positioned at the ready as he attempts to assess whether or not the Harvester has gone mad.Ahoke chases after the rolling head, and crushes it brutally. "Shut /up!/" she screams at it. And it obeys.Harvester looks at Sen-Jyu and Ahoke apologetically. "Erm... Sorry. My hand slipped.... yeah, that's it."Ahoke turns back around. "We had best take up strategic positions. Our element of surprise is gone."Sen-Jyu lowers his katana ever-so-slowly, keeping an eye on the Harvester all the while. "As thankful as I am to your god's support of our endeavors, I don't want to shake His hand."Silence once more reigns over the mine - except for the constant drip of water. Three corridors continue from the intersection - ahead, left, and right. The light reveals that the corridor ahead continues past the range of the spell, while the others both open into larger spaces at the very edge of the glow.Harvester shrugs a shoulder. "Today or tomorrow, Sen, He does not care..." The priest walks towards the elven head and lifts it by the long hair as he moves back. He mumbles to himself.Ahoke looks at the other two. "Do we hide in the darkness and hope to ambush them, or do we proceed down the corridor and hope they ambush us?" She doesn't sound like she really cares, either way.Sen-Jyu sighs heavily as his nerves painfully uncoil from being tauntly wound. "I'm busy both days," he rasps as he returns to facing forward, Ichido-sama agreeing silently as its edge winks in the light.Ahoke steps to one side of the cavern so that she's at least not run over by a herd of thanork while the others make up their minds.Harvester plucks something from the elven head before casting the head aside. "In darkness, I cannot see. 'They' might well slit my throat before I knew they were there." He bends down to inspect the thanork heads."At this point," Sen-Jyu says with deadly earnest, "I would rather resolve this. They can outwait us."Ahoke shrugs. "There's three choices, then. Whch direction shall we go in?"Sen-Jyu nods in the left direction. "No harm in starting there and doubling back if we're wrong."Ahoke starts sniffing the air, suspiciously. She glances to the right, narrowing her eyes. "Something's over here..."Sen-Jyu turns to the right and, presumably, toward what Ahoke's referring to. "Something moving?" he asks in a breath that could scarcely be discerned from a passing breeze.Ahoke sniffs the air again, frowning. "Korhorrag. In the same place as thanork?" She sounds puzzled. Glancing at Sen-Jyu, she blinks. "Huh? Oh, no. I smell them."Harvester's attention is diverted towards Ahoke, "Eh? What's that?" He winces as a hand reaches up to his left ear for a moment. "Ow. Damn."Ahoke grumbles. "Remember those undead lizard things that we saw? That's a korhorrag. Except that they're not usually undead."Sen-Jyu murmurs matter-of-factly, "I find the undead to be extremely irritating."Harvester gives a cursory scan across the ground, "Korhorrag? And is that what you noticed here?" He moves nearer the dwarf, and says to Sen-Jyu, "Irritating? Nah. Just abominable, is all."Ahoke nods, seeming to agree with his assessment. "Yes. So do we try a different corridor that doesn't have korhorrag, or do we make the assumption that it's all related somehow? I'll bet that it is, in some way..."Sen-Jyu shakes his head at Harvester. "Yes, they're blemishes on all that is hale and benign in the world. But they -irritate- me."Harvester gestures Ahoke forward. "You've done good leading us through this maze so far. Keep a-goin."Sen-Jyu pauses. "Could it be that the thanork tracks that we found -leaving- were those of undead thanork?"Harvester considers, "Mmmmmmmmaybe. We can ask when we see them?"Ahoke makes a noncommital grunt, but says, "I want to see what the races are doing living together." She veers off towards the right hand tunnel. "Anything's possible. Undead thanork. What /is/ this world coming to?" She sighs heavily, as if the weight of it is all on her shoulders. "Well, let's go find out.""Mmmmm," agrees Sen-Jyu, unusually happy with this idea. Maybe it's just the 'moving forward' bit.Harvester murmurs, answering Ahoke's question softly, "The world is coming to it's end... and a new beginning..."Ahoke mmphs in response. "Yeah, alright," she says. "You're the god person." She sighs. "I just kill when wolverine tells me to."Harvester follows his companions into the darkness, and attempts to calm his nerves.The tunnel is short - about twenty feet - and opens up into a large room. The stench of korhorrag is strong here, almost overpowering, a foul odor reminiscent of dead skunk, that twists your stomach into knots. But the korhorrag who exude the foul odor seem not to be present - unless they are the source of the piles of rotting flesh that are almost invisible beneath a carpet of emerald carapaces. As you move closer, the sound of thousands of tiny jaws chewing can be heard. It stops, to be replaced by the scuttling of feet as your presence frightens the beetles away from their feast.Scattered about the room are the damp-rotted remains of cots and beds, and on the far wall a masterful carving that seems somehow out of place in this abbatoir.Ahoke looks shocked. "This is... a surprise." She also looks repulsed. "Do you think that these things get up and move around sometimes, or are they really dead?"Harvester enters slowly, raising the torch on high as he turns to take in the entirety of the scene. He breathes carefully, through his mouth. "Rather.... unpleasant, this..."Harvester blinks once, and turns again, more quickly. He raises a hand and lowers the torch, head tilted as he listens.Ahoke nods, sighing. "We're not going to be fighting any of these creatures... unless they /do/ get up again," she adds, looking at them suspiciously. "Are they? Surely not, if they're being eaten..."Harvester hisses, "Did you hear that?"The piles are no longer even recognizable as creatures.Ahoke looks back at Harvester, shaking her head. "What is it?" she whispers."Being eaten never stopped anyone from getting up again. I've seen more than one meal come up once mo..." Sen-Jyu stops at Harvester's hiss, falling silent and alert.Harvester moves nearer to his companions. "I heard my name," speaks the cleric, softly. "And then I thought I heard Waterman saying I was 'strange'... his voice trailed away...""Visions... er, listens, from your god?" asks Sen-Jyu gently.Harvester looks slowly about, attempting to divine where the voices came from - or if they were only imagined.Ahoke blinks, and whispers, "Do you think that Waterman is down here?"Harvester shakes his head slowly. "I do not know... I don't think it was from my Lord, though.... let's look about. Maybe Waterman's near and neck deep in the sh-t." He glances back. "If he is, I intend to see he drowns."There are two "exits" from the room besides the one you came in through: a well along the southern wall, and a tiny vertical crevice on the east - too narrow for even a thanork to fit down. Taking a closer look, it seems as if the rock directly above the crevice has been carved into a crude seat, making for a stone garderobe.Ahoke smirks at the garderobe. "Do you want to see if he's neck deep in sh-t?"Aside from that, the only feature of note are the piles of flesh and the carving on the back wall.Sen-Jyu begins to move toward the carving on the back wall, though he doesn't go out of the range of the light. "Come with me, please?" he asks of the Harvester, gesturing to the carving.Harvester snorts at Ahoke, then moves to inspect the carving briefly. "Doubt he is, but I'll look in a sec." He turns, to Sen-Jyu and grins, having had the same thought.  He continues to speak softly, to Ahoke, "Can you see where that goes?" He gestures south.Ahoke looks at Harvester as if he's crazy. "It's a well... it goes down."The carving is a triptych: three panels on the wall. From left to right, it portrays: a graceful dragon gazing beneficiently over dozens of man working happily in the mine; men working in a forge, smelting ore and forming goods from the copper - including bells; and last, the men presenting these offerings to the dragon by placing them in an enormous fiery bowl, while the creature looks on in pleasure.Ahoke walks over to the well, looking it over carefully, to make sure that there aren't any undead thanork crawling out of it.Harvester murmurs to Sen-Jyu, grinning as Ahoke checks the well, "See anything here, Sen?"Ahoke adds, "Yeah, it's a well. There's rushing water underneath it." She moves away, walking back to the center of the room. "You know, it smells bad in here. Let's get out."Sen-Jyu runs his fingers over the carving's topology, caressing its curves adoringly. "This means something..." he whispers to himself, then looks back at the Harvester. "No."Ahoke frowns. "I've killed these creatures before. Every one that I've ever encountered has had bones." She gestures at her bone armor. Some of this is crafted from such a creature.."Harvester whispers softly, "Skeletons... animated?"  He glances at Ahoke and begins to move towards the rotting flesh, then pauses. "Finished, Sen? or shall I wait?"Looking a bit glassy-eyed, Sen-Jyu says, "I'm... finished, thank you." He turns to smile at his two companions, then looks quizzical at their frowning faces. "Something wrong?"Ahoke gestures at the pile of flesh. "Yes. These things generally have bones.""... and they don't?" comes Sen-Jyu's next question.Harvester nods once, then moves to the rotten meat, and pokes with the haft of his scythe. "These all lizard and thanork, or...."Ahoke shrugs. "Let's go see if there's anything elsewhere. And no, these don't."Harvester nods in agreement with Ahoke, "Yeah, they do. I wonder if they've been made walking skeletons..." He moves to the garderobe, briefly, and shines his torch in."Hmm. Sounds like something is bone-collecting and these are the discarded piles. Either that, or the beetles are able to chew through bone." Sen-Jyu shrugs, oddly calm to the revelation.Harvester shrugs, and turns to walk out with the dwarf. "He ain't there," he remarks softly. He pauses to look back in.Ahoke nods, leaving the way that she came.Sen-Jyu follows behind the other two, gazing one more time at the triptych.</blockquote>

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