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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1447019" data-attributes="member: 99">Well, despite a chaotic and awful week, I'm going to manage an update.  Hope you enjoy it.Underground HighwayThe following day the party discussed their options and decided that if they could parley with the Scorpion Men and somehow buy passage through the caves they controlled into the passage under the mountains that they should.  Fighting was only delaying their quest and, with the weather threatening to turn sour, they needed to be on their way.  Speaks sent Animal Messengers into the cave bearing their intentions to talk rather than fight.Most of the day passed with no response as the party gathered a few small fish from the stream and Speaks found a few berries still clinging stubbornly to their bushes that he could use for Goodberries.  Resigned to the fact that they would probably have to do battle with the Scorpion Folk again, they readied their weapons and magic and returned to the cave once more.They cautiously made their way into the caves, their ears and eyes keen for the telltale signs of the Scorpion Men appearing in their midst.  They came to the scene of their last battle and found that the bodies of the dead lay where they had fallen.  They carefully listened at the thin stone wall that Speaks had fashioned to shelter them as they rested but heard nothing.  Speaks used his magical ability to Shape Stone once again and carved a hole for them to pass through.They moved forward even more cautious than before and soon found themselves at the cave in the Stinger Queen had caused.  There was still no sign of the enemy.  Perhaps the death of the Queen had sent the remaining Scorpion Folk fleeing deeper within the caves, demoralized and unwilling to do battle?As they explored further, this seemed more and more likely to be the case.  They found a large chamber that seemed likely to be some sort of common room and another that looked like a barracks that would have housed the more elite warriors they had encountered.  These rooms were laid out in a rather unusual fashion such that the passages leading to them curve back on themselves while sharply ascending or descending.  The end result was that it seemed the chambers were stacked on top of one another.  They also found that there were passages that precisely paralleled the one that led from the outside to their lair, but were directly over and under it.Lazarius surmised that the creatures’ uncanny ability to Teleport themselves may have been limited to only doing so through thin partitions of stone.  This led them to suspect there was a hidden room sandwiched between the common room and the barracks of the elite warriors.  Speaks plied his Stone Shaping magic once again and found this to be the truth.Beyond the hold made by the Druid they found an ominous chamber with a dark pool on one side and what appeared to be an altar and magical circle on the other.  Marcus moved forward toward the sinister looking altar and saw that a dagger with a vicious barb at the end lay atop it.  The dagger emitted a faint red glow that cast the whole room in shadows of crimson.  The Cleric of St. Cuthbert knew evil when he saw it but his training instructed him to make sure in such cases.  He began the incantations to try and Detect Evil on the altar when the pool nearby erupted with frothing water.The bloated form of one of the large Fish Men, whom they had encountered out by the waterfall, lunged at Marcus’ exposed back.  The holy warrior’s thick armor protected him from the creature’s claws as he turned to face it.Scipio leapt toward the creature and raked its pale green skin with his claws.  To the shock and horror of all present, the Fish Man split open like the shell of a bean and out of its nearly hollow body poured a swarm of larval Scorpion Men.  These creatures spilled around the twitching remains of the Fish-Ogre as they raised their glistening claws to threaten the party.Marcus swung his mace into the swarm and smashed at least three of the tiny creatures into pulp but it made little difference.  Speaks gave Scipio an order to “heel” and the Dire Mountain Lion sprang back to the Druid’s side in one mighty leap, but not before he was stung by several of the swarm.Marcus was still standing in the middle of the swarm and was momentarily stunned into inaction.  There were so many of the creatures and they were starting to climb all over him, fruitlessly slashing at his armor with claws and tails.  He was startled into action by the sound of Lazarius’ voice.“Get the hell out of there!”He could see the Imperial War Wizard already starting to weave his right hand in a menacing pattern as he spoke words in the Tongue of Dragons and his left hand emerged from his haversack holding a familiar rod.  Marcus bolted toward the altar, doing his best to ignore the sickening crunch of the bodies of the Stinger young beneath his feet.  He had barely stepped out of the edge of the swarm when he saw his shadow starkly against the wall ahead of him and thunder roared from behind.He turned to find that the newborn Scorpion Children were now as stinking, smoking ruin of corpses.  He felt his gorge rise but fought it down.  Nearby he saw Marius and Speaks swat and crush another pair of the hideous spawn that clung to Scipio’s fur.Wanting to turn his attention anywhere else, Marcus looked again at the altar.  There was no question that the dagger lay in a pool of dried blood.  He lifted the blade in his hand and could feel the taint of evil upon it.  He dropped it back upon the altar as though it had stung him and raised his mace.  “Lord Cuthbert, give my arms strength that I might destroy this foul blade!”  He brought his mace down and the blade of the dagger shattered into pieces and its light faded.The group retired from the room and the carnage inside for a few minutes to escape the acrid smell of burnt scorpion flesh.  None felt much like talking about it.  After a few minutes Speaks returned to the room and conjured a Wood Wose and bade it to gather up the burnt bodies and throw them in the dark pool.  Soon the room was clear of the corpses though the smell of ozone and death lingered, if only in their memories.The “magical circle” was ringed in stylized symbols of claws and stingers and was determined to be another area of thin stone with a hollow beneath.  Speaks had expended all of his magic capable of molding them a passage through the stone and they did not want to risk alerting any enemies ahead to their coming by pounding through the stone with brute force.  They retired to the barracks room to rest and see if there was anything interesting left behind.The found little of value save an odd vest that, while not magical, seemed to have been woven through with gold threads.  They also found some coins of an unusual mint.  On one side was an image of what appeared to be a gate and on the other was the face of a bearded man.  On the edges (not merely at the edge, but on the edge where Imperial coins were reeded) were the words “DoKun-Ghul”.  Speaks knew the Dwarven tongue and said that it meant “Delve at the Crossroads”.  Intrigued, they stowed the coins away and tried to get some rest.They arose when Lazarius indicated that he had rested enough to prepare his spells again, not knowing exactly how much time had passed in this sunless underworld.  They made ready and returned to the Queen’s chamber.  Speaks carefully carved a hole in the center of the circle and they gazed down into the darkness below.  It appeared that the hole opened into a chamber below that had another hole in it almost directly below this one with a broad ledge surrounding it.  It smelled terrible down there.Cathal led the way, nimbly descending and leaping onto the wide ledge to find that some benches had been carved into the wall.  Upon them lay a variety of alchemical equipment.  Most of the remainder of the party descended the rope and joined the Brigante in examining the bench, while Marcus stood careful watch by the pit.  His mace was ready in his hand should any of the Scorpion Folk come up out of the hole and challenge them.  He felt his stomach lurch as a smell of carrion rot wafted up out of the hole.Lazarius quickly determined that some of the alchemical components we of a kind he could use in crafting a magical wand if he ever got a bit of time.  He gathered these up and indicated that he was ready to proceed.  As the group regarded the stinking hole, none relished the idea of descending individually on a rope.  Speaks solved this problem by turning all but Lazarius into small birds using his Feathers magic.  The Wizard had his own means of magical flight ready.  He led the way, descending into the dark hole, desperately trying to peer beyond the meager torchlight.Some 80 feet below the top, he could see the hole open into a much larger chamber and descended into it as the rest of the party flitted from one small ledge to another above.  Just as Lazarius started to clear the entrance to the chamber below, a cluster of tentacles lashed out from the cavern roof.  He felt his body want to go rigid but somehow fought off the paralysis and flew down into the chamber away from the ceiling.Marius, followed by Scipio both let go their perches and soared down into the darkness below, chasing the fading torchlight carried by Lazarius.  Once in the chamber, they sought to land and resume their normal forms as quickly as possible.  Neither enjoyed the prospect of trying to fight while in the form of a Swallow.Speaks, on the other hand, was perfectly at home in bird form and his hawk-form dropped like a stone into the chamber before he flared his wings and slowed his descent.  His keen raptor-vision picked out several large, worm-like creatures atop a mountain of smelly detritus.  He summoned the power of nature and a column of Flame Struck down from the cavern ceiling and engulfed them.Marcus and Cathal both dodged around this pillar of fire and soared over near where Marius and Scipio, still in bird form had alighted.  As they descended, Marcus saw what looked like a giant centipede with an octopus in its mouth charge toward Marius.  Marius saw the creature coming and decided to forestall his resumption of human form.  He flapped his wings and flitted out of reach of the ugly creature.Speaks was quite enjoying his position, high above the fray, as he swooped by and destroyed the worm threatening Marius and Scipio with another Flame Strike.  He could also make out the form of another of the carrion worms heading in the same direction but his piercing hawk-cry failed to get the point across to his friends.Marcus landed and regained his human form just in time to be charged by one of the creatures.  It grasped at him with its tentacles but none of them managed to get through his armor to touch him.Across the cavern a deafening explosion of crackling light erupted as Lazarius unleashed his magic on one of the worms, boiling its blood and causing hot ichor to spray that side of the cavern.  Marius couldn’t tell whether he wanted to be near any of his companions right now.  He decided that the safest place to be was away from the worms where all the fire and lightning was accumulating.Marcus drew his mace and smote the worm before him but it still struggled.  It rose up on its back legs, bringing its writhing mass of tentacles to the level of his face.  Suddenly his vision was eclipsed by a wall of dun fur as Scipio leapt past him and onto his foe.  The lion’s foreclaws grasped the creature as his back legs kicked twice quickly, eviscerating the creature and leaving the cavern suddenly quiet.Marius took off from where he had settled atop a tall stalagmite and swooped low to the ground as he changed form back into human.  He executed a mid-air tumble and…his foot caught on a chunk of stone, sending him sprawling gracelessly across the floor.  He stood and bowed to his laughing companions and resigned to leave that little episode out of his travelogue.A brief search of the malodorous cavern revealed that the pile of refuse was comprised largely of bones from the Fish Folk.  The group speculated that these were the bodies of those who had been eaten or sacrificed by the Scorpion Queen and discarded.  Regardless of the story behind the pile of stinking bones, they were only too happy to find a way out.At the other end of the cavern, a pair of large, 20 foot diameter, horizontal passages led in opposite directions.  Marius’ training by the Imperial Explorers Society was sufficient to determine that one led roughly north and the other roughly south.  They gazed in silence for a few moments down the long, regular tunnel.The War Wizard broke the silence, “Well, what are we waiting for?  I’m already starting to hate the underground!  Let’s get on with it.”NEXT:  CrossroadsI'll note that it seemed like Cathal didn't do much during this session.  I think he had to miss it.  Regardless, these were some fairly easy encounters compared to my usual rat-bastardliness and the swift blade of the Brigante hero was not as necessary as it is most of the time.  Don't worry, I get nastier later on.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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