Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
In the dark, Mara cautiously moves forward into the room. As she does so, something huge smashes her back against the wall. She feels acid soaking her front and peeling off her skin, and the pain is intense. She grits her teeth and continues forward, swinging blindly into the darkness. As far as she can tell, she doesn’t connect with anything. Next to her, Tao squints blindly into the darkness, trying to use her other senses.
On the other side of the hall, Malachite rounds the corner with several people behind him, all bunched up as they try to stay in range of the sunlight produced by Malachite’s holy sword. Agar pokes his head around the corner as well, and blinks in surprise. “Oh my… be careful, everyone! I still have arcane sight up, and there are….” He hastily counts magical auras coming from the dark room in front of him, “almost THIRTY spells active on whatever is in there! Something has been really heavily enchanted for a fight!”
“Noted,” growls Malachite, and he swings Karthos over his head as they advance into the large room. Sunlight streams out from the sword and is immediately swallowed by the pervasive darkness. They cancel each other out, though, and the torches on the wall suddenly flutter back into life.
In the flickering torchlight, the group sees something horrible. Galthia hangs suspended in mid-air, turning and struggling as his skin is eaten away by powerful acid. The thing holding him is invisible, but Galthia seems unable to break free from its overpowering grasp. He’s completely silent. Beneath him, drops of smoking acid fall like rain onto the stone floor.
Malachite steps forward one more pace and swings, taking his best guess at where the invisible monster is. His sword misses. Splinder is luckier, his axe chopping into the unseen assailant and passing through cleanly. The blade begins to pit even as he watches, and Splinder mutters an oath in dwarvish. “Acid!” he explains. “Watch yer weapons! One more hit ‘n this’ll be gone!”
Velendo silently calculates how much trouble they’re in, and with a frown pulls out the wand that he hurriedly grabbed on his way out of his room. “Not many more of these,” he complains to no one in particular, and levels the wand at the invisible monster as he triggers one of the few remaining charges. A maximized dispel magic emerges from it.
The effect on the creature is remarkable. Enchantments peel away from it like wet tissue, one spell after another sparking and crackling as it is dispelled. There is a horrible burbling, slurping, wet noise as the silence and fly spells fail, and the massive creature drops four feet to the ground with Galthia still firmly encased inside of it. The air is filled with a horrible hissing noise that sounds like an alchemical experiment gone awry.
The creature is hideous… and gargantuan. Fully 35 ft. long and 20 ft. wide, the pulsing ooze smells of brimstone and acid, and it glows the blackish red color of cooling coals. Unseen skeletal hands and faces push out from the inside, pressing against the bulging surface as if trying to reach fresh meat, and dozens of humanoid mouths open and close along its surface. The monk is literally encased inside of the creature, being eaten alive by the hungry mouths.
“Oh my God,” someone says.
“How did that get in here?” shouts Velendo.
“Who cares!” yells Tao from the other side of the room. “Just kill it!” She catches something out of the corner of her eye; a second monster, some sort of skeletal soldier, stands unmovingly next to the only door to the outside. She groans to herself, shouts a warning to the group, and focuses her attention on the ooze-like thing in front of her.
Something interesting is happening where Splinder slashed it, however. A throbbing sore has traveled across the creature’s body, a wound that looks like a thickened scab. With a wet sucking sound, the monster separates into two huge monsters, each easily 20 ft. square.
Galthia decides to take advantage of the situation. The split down the monster’s middle occurs right over the place where his struggling body is trapped, and the monk desperately wrenches himself up and out of the acidic ooze. Teeth and claws do their best to hold him back, but he manages to pull free, tumbling away and staggering to his feet.
“That’s better,” Galthia manages to gasp. He focuses his mind and pounds his fists against his own body, healing his wounds by force of will alone. Then he takes one more step, and the hideous creature surges hungrily after him. A vast pseudopod slams down against the back of Galthia’s head. He tries to escape, but the pulsing monster is too strong, and once again he’s sucked back into its midst. A large piece of his loose clothing is sheared off by the acid, and lies disintegrating on the pitted stone floor where his feet stood just seconds before.
Across the room, the other portion of the monster that isn’t busy digesting Galthia bulges forward to engulf Mara. The paladin crouches behind her magical shield as the acidic pseudopod slams into her, and she barely manages to avoid being drawn into its bulk. Behind her, Tao quickly reaches out with a healing prayer, reducing some of the brutal acid damage that Mara has suffered.
As the pseudopod is reabsorbed into the monster, Mara moves forward to attack its bulk. “Think blunt weapons will split it?” she calls out urgently, but no one has a good answer for her. She doesn’t have a chance to find out. As she advances, a second tentacle bursts out, and Mara is knocked backwards before being involuntarily engulfed. Tao watches helplessly as Mara disappears into the monster, her recently healed wounds reopening under the flow of fresh acid.
To be continued…
On the other side of the hall, Malachite rounds the corner with several people behind him, all bunched up as they try to stay in range of the sunlight produced by Malachite’s holy sword. Agar pokes his head around the corner as well, and blinks in surprise. “Oh my… be careful, everyone! I still have arcane sight up, and there are….” He hastily counts magical auras coming from the dark room in front of him, “almost THIRTY spells active on whatever is in there! Something has been really heavily enchanted for a fight!”
“Noted,” growls Malachite, and he swings Karthos over his head as they advance into the large room. Sunlight streams out from the sword and is immediately swallowed by the pervasive darkness. They cancel each other out, though, and the torches on the wall suddenly flutter back into life.
In the flickering torchlight, the group sees something horrible. Galthia hangs suspended in mid-air, turning and struggling as his skin is eaten away by powerful acid. The thing holding him is invisible, but Galthia seems unable to break free from its overpowering grasp. He’s completely silent. Beneath him, drops of smoking acid fall like rain onto the stone floor.
Malachite steps forward one more pace and swings, taking his best guess at where the invisible monster is. His sword misses. Splinder is luckier, his axe chopping into the unseen assailant and passing through cleanly. The blade begins to pit even as he watches, and Splinder mutters an oath in dwarvish. “Acid!” he explains. “Watch yer weapons! One more hit ‘n this’ll be gone!”
Velendo silently calculates how much trouble they’re in, and with a frown pulls out the wand that he hurriedly grabbed on his way out of his room. “Not many more of these,” he complains to no one in particular, and levels the wand at the invisible monster as he triggers one of the few remaining charges. A maximized dispel magic emerges from it.
The effect on the creature is remarkable. Enchantments peel away from it like wet tissue, one spell after another sparking and crackling as it is dispelled. There is a horrible burbling, slurping, wet noise as the silence and fly spells fail, and the massive creature drops four feet to the ground with Galthia still firmly encased inside of it. The air is filled with a horrible hissing noise that sounds like an alchemical experiment gone awry.
The creature is hideous… and gargantuan. Fully 35 ft. long and 20 ft. wide, the pulsing ooze smells of brimstone and acid, and it glows the blackish red color of cooling coals. Unseen skeletal hands and faces push out from the inside, pressing against the bulging surface as if trying to reach fresh meat, and dozens of humanoid mouths open and close along its surface. The monk is literally encased inside of the creature, being eaten alive by the hungry mouths.
“Oh my God,” someone says.
“How did that get in here?” shouts Velendo.
“Who cares!” yells Tao from the other side of the room. “Just kill it!” She catches something out of the corner of her eye; a second monster, some sort of skeletal soldier, stands unmovingly next to the only door to the outside. She groans to herself, shouts a warning to the group, and focuses her attention on the ooze-like thing in front of her.
Something interesting is happening where Splinder slashed it, however. A throbbing sore has traveled across the creature’s body, a wound that looks like a thickened scab. With a wet sucking sound, the monster separates into two huge monsters, each easily 20 ft. square.
Galthia decides to take advantage of the situation. The split down the monster’s middle occurs right over the place where his struggling body is trapped, and the monk desperately wrenches himself up and out of the acidic ooze. Teeth and claws do their best to hold him back, but he manages to pull free, tumbling away and staggering to his feet.
“That’s better,” Galthia manages to gasp. He focuses his mind and pounds his fists against his own body, healing his wounds by force of will alone. Then he takes one more step, and the hideous creature surges hungrily after him. A vast pseudopod slams down against the back of Galthia’s head. He tries to escape, but the pulsing monster is too strong, and once again he’s sucked back into its midst. A large piece of his loose clothing is sheared off by the acid, and lies disintegrating on the pitted stone floor where his feet stood just seconds before.
Across the room, the other portion of the monster that isn’t busy digesting Galthia bulges forward to engulf Mara. The paladin crouches behind her magical shield as the acidic pseudopod slams into her, and she barely manages to avoid being drawn into its bulk. Behind her, Tao quickly reaches out with a healing prayer, reducing some of the brutal acid damage that Mara has suffered.
As the pseudopod is reabsorbed into the monster, Mara moves forward to attack its bulk. “Think blunt weapons will split it?” she calls out urgently, but no one has a good answer for her. She doesn’t have a chance to find out. As she advances, a second tentacle bursts out, and Mara is knocked backwards before being involuntarily engulfed. Tao watches helplessly as Mara disappears into the monster, her recently healed wounds reopening under the flow of fresh acid.
To be continued…
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