Last Stand of the Dorinthians (Chapter 3 - The Imperials)

[Land Outcast]

The Half Orc does not sheathe his blade, and instead -as an answer to the brown ant's pointing- he points upwards with his left arm, then he points to his companions, and points again firmly upwards.

"Had enough with tunnels" he mumbles.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

The brown ant-men look at each other and shrug. It is evident that they do not understand your language. One that stands behind Alexander pushes him a bit more forcefully with the butt of a spear. From the jolt, it seems that these creatures are somewhat strong.

 

[GlassEye]

Silas shrugs and glances at the troll. Looking towards the ant-men with an obvious look of excitement he says, "Perhaps we should go as they direct. They seem pretty serious and well, they do outnumber us."

 

[Land Outcast]

Alexander mumbles something else about tunnels, looks upwards longingly, and follows nods to Silas.

 

[Fenris]

"Besides which we have no way to climb back up anyway, so let us press onward. Thus far they have not slain us so hope remains" says Dartis as he follows the antmen.

 

[D20Dazza]

Kel nods in agreement with his friends, he grimaces in pain as he looks at the blood still flowing from his wounds and utters a quick prayer to the Huntress to cure his wounds.

OOC: clw (giving up cause fear) - lost 15hps all up.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

OOC: Kel restores 6 hps.

The creatures guide you through what feels like several miles of tunnels, and during your journey you notices smaller ant-men working at digging at more passages and collecting food, which you watch them sometimes eat and regurgitate into a smelly, decayed goo, which is piled and stored in various corners. Many of them stop to watch you for a moment before going back to work.

Finally, your escorts guide you to a final cavern, where a larger ant-man in armor stands over a naturally-made desk of solid stone. Scraped on its surface are various notes, cleanly made in a language that you do not understand. The guards get his attention with some chittering, and he stops his studies to look at you in surprise. After a moment he motions you towards him and says, "Do you understand me? I think this is your language, bipeds. My fellow formians say you landed among them before they had a chance to wreck our enemies' food supplies. I take it this was accidental."

 

[GlassEye]

Silas looks from the ant-man to his companions and back again. "Yes," he begins. "It was an accident. We tracked the troll after it killed some of our people and the floor where it holed up collapsed beneath us. Is there a way out of these caves?"

 

[Land Outcast]

Alexander, completly stunned at all this, is with his alarms all on, ready to be set off at the minimal incident... this is far too weird for him.

So this is how an antmound looks inside... worse than the gnomes' tunnels, the worst features of a city and of tunnels, together he shrugs.

Decided to let the arcanist do the talking against tunnel-dwelling... ants? formians, the half-orc just examines the room, already considering the desk for Dartis and Silas to take cover, and the exit for him and Kel to block it and take these ants one-on-one if necessary...

"My fellow formians say you landed among them before they had a chance to wreck our enemies' food supplies."

I take it he doesn't like that

 

[Deuce Traveler]

"There is no real easy way out, except perhaps by climbing the walls from where you had come. Probably not an easy task. There is a tunnel that leads from between my territory and my enemies' that goes to the surface, but it is a day's journey and I cannot spare the men since we are in open warfare with our opponents. However, if my enemies were somehow removed... say with a dose of poison in their food supply," he taps a small barrell filled with a foul liquid as he mentions this. "Well, if something horrible like that were to happen, then I'd have nearly all my men free to aid you. Of course, it would have to be delivered by someone they might not suspect to be an enemy..." If a formian could smile, you think his face would show one now.