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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3848594" data-attributes="member: 11760">Blood trails down into Renraw's moustache, making it even greasier than it was before. He stands with his hands on his hips, frowning at Ragglus."It had to be done, Chaplin. You were invaluable to the mission."Ragglus gives Renraw a look conveying that, unless the wizard wants to forcibly be the lone participant in a one-man giant rat turd eating contest, he'll give no further commentary on what just occurred.Tock, following Ragglus' gaze, realizes in horror that Katadid has been carefully examining an enormous rat turd that the wizard is holding in both hands. Tock kicks it out of his hands, making a frustrated noise as he does."So," Ragglus asks, pointedly having turned his back on Renraw, "Which way?""Which first?" Katadid says, looking up, as though clutching a massive rat dropping to his chest was the most normal thing in the world. "The smiley?""Smiley?" Tock asks, a bit dazed by all that's just happened. "Oh, yes, the smiley."Renraw, feeling something unusual in his whiskers, runs his tongue along his upper lip and tastes the familiar copper. He is shocked for a moment, but he stifles an outburst and makes himself a mental note about Ragglus."Yes," he hisses. "Forward to the smiling face."He takes a quick, tentative poke the discarded rat turd with the end of his staff and then follows the group.And so the Gentlemen Delvers find themselves now walking through a cavernous tunnel up to two feet high, picking the middle tunnel in the north wall of the dwarf's cave.As they approach the first cave marked on the map, a strong animal smell fills the corridor.The cave, to their new perceptions, appears 40 feet in diameter. Along the north wall is a large pile of straw in which the dwarf-badger lies, his wounds still wet and raw, his breathing shallow. A pair of 12-foot long badgers stands in the center of the room, growling at the Delver's approach, their fur on end."Renraw," Kat says, backing up and almost stumbling as he readies his sling. "A sleep spell would be nice ...""Nonsense, Leach! We shall subjugate them as our mounts! Chandler, you have an affinity for animals! Get to it!" Tock's expression threatens shocking violence of a life-altering sort, and Renraw sighs, looking back at the badgers."All right, but before this is through, I want to ride around on something abnormal."He briefly fumbles with his bag of sand, the other adventurers remaining frozen."Hurry, damn you," Ragglus whispers."SLEEEEEEEP," Renraw intones, hurling the sand with a flourish and using a deep baritone not quite within his range. "SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!"One of the badgers slumps to the floor and begins to snore. The other, alarmed by this, begins to back up, until the wounded dwarf-badger barks something unintelligible and the badger advances on the party, snarling.Simultaneously, the wounded dwarf-badger leaves the nest, straw sticking to a wet wound, also heading for the party.Katadid pulls out a piece of cotton and tears it, shouting something out, even as Tock takes aim with his newly acquired bow and shoots at the wounded badger.Katadid casts the spell perfectly and it takes him a second of rapid blinking before he remembers with a groan Professor N'dege in Nammor Hall giving him a gentle rap on the back of the head when he tried casting daze on an animal in class: "It only works on humanoids, foolish boy!""Oh, that's right ..."Beside him, Tock does little better: The bow might be enchanted, but the arrow still cannot penetrate the shapechanging dwarf's hide.But it's the regular badger that reaches Ragglus first. Ragglus grins when he discovers that his newly shrunken size is much more nimble than before, and he dodges the fangs of the badger easily. But that goes both ways, and the badger pulls back from his counter-thrust with the spear. A moment later, the shapechanged dwarf snaps his badger fangs at Ragglus, equally fruitlessly.Kat takes a silver sling stone and whirls it above his head toward the werebadger. The silver sling stone goes wide, burying itself in the straw on the far side of the room."Crapweasel," Tock says. He begins to improvise a song as he draws another arrow. This time, he strikes the normal badger in the shoulder."Proicere," Renraw whispers grimly, pointing a finger at the werebadger. A magic missile flies from his fingertip into the creature, which roars in anger.The dwarf-badger then swats away Ragglus' blow with one claw, snarling angrily before clawing and biting at the warrior. The first claw scrapes off Ragglus' armor, but the second digs into the flesh beneath, as does a punishing bite a moment later.Lothian, Ragglus prays silently, I know we ain't been on good terms but if I'm about to die, at a size that makes a gnome look like a bloody giant, at the hands of mother violating badgers of all things, you got to admit, this is pretty damned embarrassing. Keeping that in mind, do me a damned favor for once: Make sure that every last damned Kem I ever met dies too. Painfully, if you can arrange it. Thanks.Kat's next silver bullet bounces off the dwarf-badger's skull, making it wince, and an arrow sinks into the regular badger as it charges at Tock.Despite favoring his shield, Ragglus manages to poke the enormous dwarf-badger in the nose with his tiny long sword, calling forth a gusher of blood from one nostril.A flash of light from Renraw's spell sparkles in the werebadger's eyes, but it blinks at precisely the right moment, and it shrugs off the effect of the spell as it leaps at Ragglus again. The warrior bats away the beast's claws with his sword and his shield, but again, the teeth bite down on his shoulder.The other badger is now upon Tock Chandler, blood mixed with its saliva as it attacks. The bard dodges its first claw, but the second one hits him soundly, almost knocking him off his feet. And then the beast finds Tock's neck with his jaws, sending a gusher of blood out across them both."TOCK!" Katadid screams, seeing his cousin shaken about like a rag doll. "NO!"Tock breaks free and runs. The badger gives chase, snarling with rage at the intruder. A sling stone pings off the badger's skull, and it snorts in frustration, but never slows down enough to let Tock begin to entrance it with his singing.Renraw squints his eyes at the gravely wounded Ragglus, making a few internal calculations, sneering in disgust. He charges into the melee, thrusting himself between Ragglus and the wounded were-badger and preparing to cast another spell at the creature."Out of the way, you oaf! Retreat!" he shouts, attempting to wrench the magic spear from the big man's hands. "But I'll have a poke or two before we go!"Ragglus is in a daze, simply hears the word "retreat," and pulls back. He figures he must have dropped his spear at some point, not feeling it in his hands.A magical dart streaks from Renraw's fingertip a second time. He locks eyes with the werebadger for a split second and then the beast collapses, dead.The tiny adventurers remain in a cave now with one slumbering badger and a second, angry and frothing at the mouth, chasing their bard around the den.</blockquote>

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