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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3821787" data-attributes="member: 11760">"Get to cover!" Renraw, with head ducked, runs to the eastern stalagmite and puts himself between it and the wall. "Come on, Chaplin, suck it up!""Giving up, then?" the dwarf calls. "Good! Get your asses on home before I cut you all some new holes!""Rest assured, we mean you no harm," Tock responds. "We are vampire hunters by trade, and we chased one into this cave. Have you seen it? Very dangerous."There's a pause at the far end of the room."You're what?""Vampire hunters. You haven't heard about the bloodsucker plague in this area? Dozens slaughtered. We lost half our party just chasing him here. Wait ... you're not one of them, are you?""Naw, I'm not a vampire ..."From where the Gentlemen Delvers are hiding, they can hear a quiet woodwind instrument begin to be played."Just the same, let me check for traces of vampirism."Huddling between the stalagmite and Ragglus, whose rage was palpable even in the dark, Katadid feels the wall with one hand and turns north toward the stalagmite."Logically, he has to be behind the stalagmites," he whispers. "Ragglus, charge as I cast the spell. If he isn't there, we'll see him soon enough. I get the feeling we need to stop this music shortly ..."Renraw thinks the dwarf is playing the musical instrument, but before he can be sure of it, everything seems to happen at once. Tock begins to sing, Katadid says a word, there's a flash of light, and then Ragglus is roaring forward, squinting into its glare.Spots are still dancing before Renraw's eyes when the new noises come: There's a snarling sound, like that of a large animal."Son of a --" He hears Ragglus yell, and there's another voice, too large and bassy to be the dwarf, but it's saying something extremely nasty about Ragglus' mother in Dwarvish.The music is a faint memory at this point."You're DEAD!" Ragglus rages, clearly attacking something out of view from the rest of the party with his sword.Hearing the screams and battle, Kat pulls out a piece of wool. Tearing it once quickly, he starts an incantation.Renraw pulls the hood off his staff, and magical flames illuminate the room once more. Ragglus is fighting with what appears to be a badger the size and proportions of a dwarf, standing on its hind legs, attacking him with massive claws and fangs.The werebadger shakes his head, confused by Katadid's enchantment for a moment. A second later, magical dart of energy leaps from Renraw's fingertip, striking the creature in the side.Ragglus presses the attack, but it's no good: The creature's hide is too thick for such a glancing blow to penetrate.Watching Ragglus' sword seemingly bounce off the monster, Katadid blanches as he loads his sling with the silver bullets he found. As Tock's inspiring lyrics echo through the cavern, Kat purses his lips and begins whirling his sling over his head."Use the silver, hit him hardGive them to me, you useless 'tard!Dargus Carter will throw with mightHe's not contagious, so Chap can fight!"It takes a moment, but Katadid realizes what Tock is saying. With his other hand he reaches into the wet pouch of silver bullets and tosses them behind him to Tock.As the pouch of silver sling bullets sails into Tock's hand, Renraw fires an icy ray from his fingers, hitting the badger creature, which shrugs off the blow.A moment later, a rounded disc of silver cracks the badger creature in the temple, and he howls with rage.Ragglus presses the attack, his finely made long sword stabbing the creature in the gut, but it takes more force than he expected, and the blow consequently isn't as damaging as it should be.The creature snarls and attacks Ragglus angrily. A slash from his claws knocks Rags off balance, and the creature seizes the opportunity, biting down hard, causing the fighter's blood to spurt vividly.Renraw, marching in a straight line towards the melee, flanks the creature and tries to thwack it on the head with his staff.Kat hears Rags cry and sees the blood run down his arm in thick rivulets. He grabs a small piece of butcher's paper containing a small dab of butter inside and tries not to grip it TOO tightly.Tock continues to sing as he lets loose another bullet."Die, you freak, die you <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />,Burn in some infernal pit,We will take all your gains.Die soon and please end our pains."As the badger creature and Ragglus fight, Katadid and Renraw begin to move, edging around behind the creature, albeit along different paths.As Tock tries to think of a word that rhymes with "concussion," he lets another silver sling bullet fly, again striking the beast.Renraw, now almost on the opposite side of the creature from Ragglus, swings his quarterstaff over his head and tries to bring it down on the wide skull of their opponent, but he succeeds in only striking the floor."DIE, DAMN YOU!"Ragglus shoves the sword home again, again meeting the uncanny resistance to the sharp blade, even as it penetrates flesh, releasing blood and gore as he withdraws the blade.The creature breaks off, its eyes staring in fear. It turns towards the tiny corridors and as it breaks and runs, its form shrinks, its clothes dropping away, until an ordinary-seeming badger crawls from the open neck of the suit of studded leather armor and disappears into one of the small caves."Got it!" Katadid stands up with an air of triumph, the creature's fallen panpipe in his hand, before looking around and realizing what has happened.</blockquote>

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