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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 4097133" data-attributes="member: 16069">Dungeon Crawl Classic #3 The Mysterious Tower Level 3-5Turn 89: Top Scat.Anya touches Bec, who is instantly flooded with warmth, her Endurance spell adds density and body-mass to the already thick-set Barbarian, Bec grins and lumbers away, first down the ladder.They Gang reassemble at the bottom of the shaft.“Which way?” Jim whispers.There’s a secondary passage heading south, the main passage heads west. Newt points west, the Gang creep forward, Newt filters to the rear.“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,Guess I'll go and eat worms,Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.”“That’s it.” Newt whispers, while hiding behind Anya’s robes.“Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,Oh how they wiggle and squirm.”The Gang are close…SPLATThat surprised them.“Hur-hur.”Followed by chomping sounds.“Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,Oh how they wiggle and... Whassat?”Thump-thump-thump.Huge feet plod towards the corridor, where the Goodman Gang are hiding, which is nicely illuminated by a pair of glowing sunrods.“Ha ha.” Jim leaps into the room, the others shuffle in quickly behind him, seamless.Their lights illuminate the foul creature fully.The thing has a bloated body, perhaps some eight feet wide, and is covered with a rock-like skin, brownish gray in color, which is in turn covered with dung. It’s huge, it must weigh half a ton at least.It stands on three thick squat legs, with a massive gaping maw filled with jagged broken, and therefore razor-sharp, teeth- which even as the adventurers stare is being filled by the remains of a Giant Dire Rat, which is in turn being gripped by one of its three barbed tentacles, the other two wave in the air.It eats with its mouth open.“Bleuurgh…”Newt says goodbye to his lunch.But comes up with his crossbow in hand.The Otyugh makes up its mind.“BUFFET.”And launches itself at the Goodman Gang.FWUNGNewt’s crossbow bolt scratches a fairly pathetic gouge in the creatures armour like hide.The other members of the Gang come alive, Ala is the first off the mark, a tentacle swoops around towards her, she ducks low and comes up on the other side longsword in hand- slashes wildly, but only just manages to pierce the thing.Jim is next in line, he leaps the tentacle aimed at him, lands safely and brings his axe down hard- BOING, it rebounds, he juggles his weapon but manages to keep hold of it.Cas and Bec take the direct route- head on they charge, the third tentacle comes round in a swatting arc, Cas gets it all wrong, he leaps up, hoping the thing will pass beneath him, it wont- the tentacle slams him in the side, knocking the wind out of him instantly (again), and in the same moment picking him up and batting him into the wall of the chamber, some fifteen feet away, the Paladin is unconscious before he hits the deck.“SANDWICH.” Bec counters, and buries a good half of his greatsword in the Otyugh’s right hand side, almost severing a tentacle.Bec pays the price, the tentacle that swatted Cas away continues its arc, the Barbarian rides the blow, he’s two close to the creatures body for there to be any real force behind it.“OOF.”This time it’s the Otyugh.Bec’s not done, he thumps his boot into the crap-ball's gut, or where he thinks its gut might be, the creature staggers backwards, the Barbarian it seems has plenty of momentum and brings down his greatsword again, on the top of the Otyugh, between its eyes.His sword bites deep into the thing.“Surrender, surrender, surrender.”The giant ball of filth staggers backwards further, as far away as it can get from the Gang, its tentacles flailing madly in the air.“Me no hurty. Me no hurty. Me freeeewnd.”Ala is quickly over to Cas, who opens his eyes the instant she gets there.“I’m ok.” He winks and grins.“Please yourself.” Ala wanders off leaving the Paladin still lying on the floor.“Me no hurty. Me Scat. Me freewnd. No hurty.”Jim sheathes his axe, puts his hands in the air.“I’m Jim- what are you?”“Me Scat. No hurty, freeewnd.”“But what are you?” Jim wrinkles up his nose, he’s now close enough to really get a whiff of the foul creature.“You’re covered in…” Anya begins, “how can you… Do you not… Ohhh.”“No hurty. Scat good boy.”“But what are…” Jim tries again.“He’s Scat.” Anya concludes, “move on Jim.”“Oh. Yes, ok. Hello Scat, I’m…”“Jeeewm.” Scat finishes.“Right. Yes. What are you doing here?”“Pooooor Scat trap-edd. This Scat home now. Nice, plenty ratty. Buffet. But baddy.”Jim starts to laugh, spots Bec, the Barbarian doesn’t look amused.“Right. Good. Tell us about this place, what’s through there?”Jim points at a shut door on the far side of the chamber.“Mekal stuff, no eaty, and big Aruggah’s.”“Big… What?”“Arrugah’s. Not freewnd like Scat.”“What’s an Arrugah?” Ala asks.“ARRRRRRRUUUU-GAH.”Scat lurches forward snapping his mouth open and closed, flailing his tentacles wildly, it seems they’re playing charades.“I have no idea.” Jim mutters.“Neither do I, put it seems they’re not as friendly as Scat here.” Cas whispers back.“And down there Scat, the other passage?”Jim points back the way they came.“More mekal- no tasty.”Scat’s tentacles flop on the floor, forlornly, a rat suddenly darts from one of the cells, and he’s off.The lumbering Otyugh gives chase, which causes all of the Goodman Gang to take sudden and evasive action.FLOPThe rat gets away, leaving a despondent Scat.“Whatch yew ere fur?”“We’ve come to free the Wizard’s Ghost from the Tower.” Jim states.“White light fing?”“Yes the ‘white light fing’.”Scat nods, flops his tentacles around a bit, itches one of his legs, loosing great slabs of caked on dung.“Scat freewnd.”Half-a-ton of faecal matter shuffles towards Jim, a tentacle twirls out, gingerly reaches out for the Ranger, coils around Jim’s waist- friendly like.“Scat hungry-mungry.”The Otyugh’s belly rumbles.It farts to punctuate its point.“Right. Good. Bec come with me, Cas keep Scat company.” The Paladin nods, eventually, not so keen on taking orders perhaps, “I’ll be back in a minute.”Jim trots off with Bec lumbering behind. The Ranger’s as good as his word, less than five minutes later the pair are back, and dragging most of the remains of one of the Bombadier Beetles they encountered earlier.Scat flaps his tentacles together excitedly. “Somebody likes me, nobody hates me,I'm gonna chomp on a Beekul,lumpy bits, slimy bits; juicy bits and loosey bits,Crunchy, munchy bumpy lunchy Beekul.”The pair sling the carcass of the Beetle on the floor, Scat blinks once or twice, a tentacle skitters out and splats into a newly formed pool of Beetle ichor, nonchantly retracts and heads to Scats maw. A flopping red tongue licks at the end of the tentacle, Scat grins.“MMMM. Buffet.”Scat blinks some more, looks at Jim, love in his eyes.“Go on then, if you’re hungry.” Jim kicks the Beetle corpse.Scat doesn’t need a second invitation- he’s on it.CRUNCH-CHOMP-CHEW-TEAR-SLUUUUUUURP.All accompanied by a fairly constant stream of farts and hisses from Scats backside, and then a stream of excreta, or as its known in the Otyugh world- cladding.It gets too much to watch very quickly.“I think I’m going to be…” Newt is, again, all down his leg.Scat suddenly looks up, sniffs the air, spots the pile of puke, and licks his lips.“Oh Pelor.” Newt moans.“Right then, let’s get on.” Cas declares.The others nod, quickly.“Scat, we’re going through there- to see the Arrugah’s.” Cas states.Scat nods back, very briefly, and continues to stuff his mouth full of filth and gore.“Scat. SCAT. SCAT.” Jim shouts.The third one gets the Otyugh’s attention, he stops eating, looks at Jim, smiles.“We’re going on, you’re in charge of our defence, of this place- I want you to defend this place- come and tell us if anything nasty comes along. When we get back me and Bec might go and get you another Beetle, I mean Beekul, you know- BUFFET.” Jim croaks, and gets a stare that could melt lead from Bec.Scat nods furiously, and then launches back into scoffing the Beetle.The Goodman Gang head off, through the western door.Next Turn: The Arrugah.</blockquote>

Verification