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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3715657" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 236ONCE MORE INTO THE DUNG MONSTERSome instinct, a subtle warning from the shift of mass above her, triggered Shay’s body into motion.  The scout leapt to the side, but while she was able to keep from being crushed under the entirety of the dung monster’s mass, she could not escape it completely.  She cried out as a heavy slick of noisome material splashed across her back and stuck hard.  As the entirety of the monster dropped to the floor, its weight dragged her down, its caustic substance already burning at her back, legs, and hair.  “Shay!” Talen yelled, rushing forward to assist.  But Dar was ahead of him, and the fighter moved even quicker.  A dagger had appeared in his hand, and as he charged he used it to stave in one end of the small cask he carried.  Clear liquid splashed up around his hand as the wooden planks collapsed, but most of the two gallons or so remained inside until he upended it over the monster.  The nearly pure grain alcohol splashed over the body of the creature, forming a clinging slick that trailed down its body, dissolving the sticky secretions that oozed from its body.  Dar had tried to focus the discharge toward Shay, but in doing so, he had gotten almost on top of the creature, and it was quick to counter.  A massive pseudopod formed out of its body and smashed into the fighter’s chest, driving him back against the empty threshold of the ruined door.  The alcoholic dousing had weakened the adhesive properties of the creature’s skin, so it did not get a grip on him with the attack, but it had still struck him with the force of a battering ram striking a castle gate.  Unfortunately for the creature, Corath Dar was a bit tougher than your typical castle gate.  Talen rushed past him through the doorway, Beatus Incendia flaring in his hand as he rushed to Shay’s aid.  He clove into the creature, opening a big gash in its foul substance, but the flames spilling from the blade appeared to have no effect, and the wound, if it could be considered such, quickly vanished as the monster’s bulk twisted and roiled in the face of the knight’s assault.  Flames flared up from around the impact, as the sword’s fire ignited some of the alcohol spilled upon the creature, but that too seemed to have no effect save to add a new smell to the fearsome stench radiating from the monster. Shay was still struggling to get free, but even the alcohol had not been enough to fully loosen the monster’s grasp.  But she was on her feet again, trying to rise against the weight of the creature splayed across her back.  Dar took his club into both hands, and strode forward at the creature.  His boots smacked into its bulbous slime, hissing as the creature’s substance swelled and engulfed his legs almost to the knee.  Dar smashed his club down into a pseudopod as it formed, driving it back into the mass of the creature.  The blow opened a tear in the creature’s body, from which a gout of utter foulness rose, splattering upon his armor.  Vomit exploded from his mouth as his stomach roiled, but he did not stop raining blows upon the monster, two-handed strikes that sent quivering pulses through its entire hulking body.  Each time he hit the head of the club clung to its outer hide, but not enough to prevent Dar from yanking it free and striking again. Beside him, Talen staggered and nearly fell as the creature surged, but Nelan was there at his back, and steadied him with a ready hand.  The knight hacked at the part of the monster that was holding Shay, careful not to strike her with his blade.  His first attack cut a long swath in its body, but on the second hit Beatus Incendia stuck in its body as its substance swelled around the blade, and he nearly went down again as the monster tried to pull the weapon from his grasp.  The others were attempting to aid in the melee, but the crowded space of the doorway was limiting their effectiveness.  Selanthas had fired a few arrows into its body, aiming for the densest portion between Dar and Talen.  A wave of heat accompanied a series of scorching rays that knifed past the melee combatants and blasted its body, but the spell’s potency dissolved without affecting it.  The same thing happened to a series of magic missiles that peppered it a moment later.  Talen had warned them about the creature’s resistances, which apparently were proof against even an archmage’s magical talents.  And with them so closely entangled with it, a wall of force could offer no protection against its attacks.  But they were hurting it.  Its regenerative powers put those of a troll to shame, and the wounds that the companions tore in its hide oozed back together with each shifting of its amorphous “body”.  But even the dung monster could not absorb the punishment that the companions, and in particular Dar, were inflicting upon it. Mehlaraine appeared in the doorway, and leapt out over the creature’s body, narrowly avoiding another pseudopod that was forming in front of Dar.  The nimble elf landed just clear of it, and hurried to Shay’s assistance.  The scout, unable to bring her longspear to bear, had dropped it and drawn her elf-forged blade, trying to hew away at what was left of the vile substance clinging to her back.  Blood was running down her shoulders now, coming from the mangled flesh at the base of her skull where the creature’s vile substance had struck her.  The duelist struck with Avelis, her flashing blade, finishing the cut that Shay had begun.  The scout fell away from the monster, stifling a cry as its acids continued their terrible work upon her skin.  Talen held onto the hilt of Beatus Incendia, shaking the blade through the creature’s insides like a maid churning butter.  He could still not get the weapon fully free of its substance, but the sharp edges of the sword continued to tear into it, countering its regenerative powers. The monster heaved and surged forward, but toward Dar, not Talen.  The fighter was driven back against the threshold of the doorway, threatening to overbear him completely.  Dar lifted his club in both hands and plunged it hard into the creature’s body, thrusting it down and off him.  It refused to relinquish him entirely; a wide splatter of its substance clung to the stone, completely enveloping the fighter from the waist down.  Dar was beyond conscious thought now, and he roared something incoherent as he thrust the club’s head down, again and again, into whatever part of the creature seemed densest.  He was covered now in sprays unleashed from his impacts, and he looked like nothing human.  The others were doing the best to aid him.  Nelan was smashing the monster with his mace, but he was too far back to do much damage, and he was striking the floor as much as the creature’s substance.  Behind him, Allera channeled positive energy through the doorway into her companions, countering the damage that they were taking from the monster’s caustic secretions.  Selanthas only had a small opening between them, but was using it to put precisely aimed arrows into the monster’s body, one after another.  Alderis, realizing that his spells could not harm it, instead cast a grease spell on Dar’s armor, causing the creature’s grip on him to loosen.  It was still trying to flow up onto him, the simply envelop the struggling fighter, but Dar’s furious assault was hindering that attempt.  Honoratius likewise aided the fighters with a haste spell that added speed to their attacks. And then the monster just started to come apart.  The dense core of its body slumped, and a spread of foul gunk splashed outward, covering the floor in every direction for a good twenty feet.  It still sizzled somewhat as it reached their boots, but it no longer held the deadly effect of the creature’s secretions when it had been fully intact.  Dar collapsed and heaved again, spewing what little remained in his stomach.  He was coated in the monster’s gory innards, and despite Allera’s healing his flesh burned where it had been most exposed to the monster’s touch.  Allera, ignoring the filth, came to him and helped him up, offering him a clean towel for his face.  He nodded gratefully, too overcome to speak. “Is everyone all right?” Talen asked.  He supported Shay, who looked worse than she was.  The scout held another rag against the back of her head, where there was a wide patch where all of her hair had been destroyed.  Looking around, he saw that everyone was intact, although he, Shay, and Dar would need new clothes, and likely some repair work on their armor as well. “Let’s get to the river, and get this freaking gunk cleaned off,” the knight said wearily.  Shay pulled away from him, somewhat reluctantly, and took up her longspear, moving once again into her position at the head of their column.  Honoratius lingered behind a moment, and knelt over the center of the creature’s remains, where the puddle of filth was densest. “What are you doing?” Nelan asked him. “I am taking a sample,” the archmage said.  She efficiently scraped a portion of the sludge into a small glass container, and tightly stoppered it.  “A truly unique creature; it would be interesting to study its properties, and possibly determine its origin.”  The container disappeared into one of her magical pouches.“I have never fought anything like that before,” Mehlaraine said, her expression tight as she struggled to retain her equilibrium against the lingering stench. As they were leaving, Dar glanced back.  “I can’t believe we killed it,” he said.  He spat back at it.  “That’s for Ukas,” he muttered, and turned back to join Allera as they moved ahead once more, deeper into Rappan Athuk. As the light of their everburning torches faded, darkness surged back into the tunnel.  The slick covering the floor glistened as the last lingering glow shone in its repellant surface. A bubble appeared in the mess, and then, a few seconds later, another.</blockquote>

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