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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1178764" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #242] Alone in the Dark[/PLAIN]"Monsters around is a good time for carrying a big sword," Morier muttered and unsheathed his glittering silver greatsword. Vade looked at the huge blade and shook his head."Sheesh!" he grinned. "What are you compensating for with that thing?" The albino gave him a scathing look, but Feln interrupted before the two could really start going at it."Morier, your blade is most powerful, but I do not think a direct assault will save the girl," the half-orc said. "I doubt if we could even defeat them all. What do you think of having a distraction at the cave door? Ixin, Ledare, Windstryder and yourself would need to handle whatever comes out.""While you sneak in with the halfling?" Morier asked and Feln nodded. "I don't know if the two of you can sneak in and rescue the girl, but a little recon could certainly go a long way toward helping the fact that we're drastically outnumbered. I suggest that you go ahead and scout out what's up, but if things go south...""I know these are unaccustomed tactics to you, sneaking and soft footing around," the monk replied. "If things go poorly for me, you must decide what is best. I will fight my way back to the cave entrance but... in any case, I don't expect you to dive in after me. Things will be bad enough as is.""We're not leaving you," Ledare said flatly. "Let's make a direct assault our last option, but I'll take it before I leave you in the clutches of Andamacles' creations."Feln nodded and said, "I volunteer to enter first - Vade behind me a short distance - and see if we can locate the girl.""I can't see in the dark," Vade said in a small, small voice. " Everyone turned to look at him and the halfling realized for the first time that with both Ruze and Draelond gone, he was suddenly the only one in the party who didn't have some form of night vision."I did not realize you could not see in the dark," the half-orc admitted. "I think that is a pretty major drawback but I have no problem going in on my own. I think I can handle it.""Wait! Here is an idea," Vade said quickly, trying desperately to circumvent his... ahem... shortcoming. "You wear the invisibility ring and carry me to the cave entrance. If you are carrying me perhaps we both can be invisible. This way I do not need to see. If it is lit, I will go in with you. If not I will hide by the entrance and observe and wait. You can take the ring." The halfling pulled off the plain band and held it out to the monk."I will take your ring, Vade, if you can stand to lose it," Feln said. "I make no guarantee of its safe return.""Well, the ring is not really mine," Vade admitted and pressed the magic item into Feln's rough palm. "I am protecting it for Kitten." Ledare snorted."Yeah, right," she said. "I don't remember the last time I wore it. And please stop calling me that.""Enough talking, for Brogine's sake," Windstryder growled, her eyes constantly surveying the surrounding trees for any sign of ambush. Feln nodded his agreement and quickly explained his plan."Ixin, you go a short distance - say 100 feet - and light a fire," the monk offered. "Maybe it will distract these... things.""I will cast Dancing Lights as a distraction instead of a fire-substituted Acid splash," Ixin told him. "It offers me more options as I can control the lights from a distance. And we don't run the risk of starting a forest fire.""The dizzying lights may let the bugs know there are adventurers nearby," Feln warned. "Do you think that is too risky?""Ixin knows her spells better than we do," Ledare defended and the monk nodded."Windstryder, I think you might be best to cover the entrance with your bow... if you agree," he went on. The ranger nodded silently and drew an arrow from her quiver. "Ledare and Morier, you two stay in reserve. If there's trouble, you know what to do. Vade, leave behind everything non-essential."Then Feln stood and stripped off most of his gear, leaving it in a pile at his feet. Vade did the same, although the halfling's pockets were still bulging with supplies. Feln crouched again and Vade hopped lightly onto his broad back. Feln winked once at the party before activating the Ring of Invisibility and vanishing from sight."Wee," Vade whispered into Feln's ear as they eased toward the top of the hill. "This kind of reminds me of piggy back rides my Papa used to give me!"Feln stopped abruptly and whispered in his gravest voice, "Hold your stories, Vade. I will listen to them over breakfast... if we live 'til breakfast.""Okay," the halfling replied glumly and settled into waiting for Ixin's distraction to come. While they waited, Feln edged closer and closer to the narrow cleft in the hillside. His gaze moved constantly from the ground at his feet to the trees to the air above and back again, following a pattern that had been drilled into him from an early age. Despite the persistence of his training, his gaze kept being drawn to the things floating lazily in the air around the cave entrance. They were, as Windstryder had said, the same size as Vade, but there the similarities ended. They were skeletally thin with heads shaped rather like a dog's. Covered with a segmented exoskeleton and buzzing about on translucent wings their insectile origins were indisputable, but apart from bulging, multi-facetted eyes, the rest of their appearance spoke of a goblinoid heritage. Ledare's belief that these creatures were the result of magical crossbreeding - what she had called transmogrification - seemed to be correct. At this close range, Feln could see that what Windstryder had identified as stingers were actually light crossbows secured to the creature's belts.It didn't take long before Ixin began her distraction. Feln and Vade spotted four glowing balls of light whizzing through the trees about 40 paces to the south. The two transmogrified things flying near the entrance also saw the multi-colored lights and let out a chittering bark of alarm. Another pair buzzed out of the cave mouth and the four of them took wing off into the trees.Feln crept closer and peered into the opening. It was dark inside... too dark for Vade to see anything. Without a word, Vade let go of the half-orc's neck and scuttled into the shadows around the cave mouth. Despite the fact that he knew the halfling was there, the half-orc couldn't see him at all... even with his darkvision. The rogue was good, Feln thought, hoping silently that he would be able to say the same about himself when this was all over.Taking a breath he eased inside.The fissure sloped steeply downward, opening into a roughly circular chamber that had obviously been hewn from the rock of the hill deliberately. Looking closely, Feln could tell that the hands that did the hewing were less than skilled. The floor was damp and sandy underfoot, and the walls were rough limestone. The ceiling was high, at least 20 feet above the floor, and mostly hidden in shadows, although Feln's darkvision easily picked out the strange, papery nest that filled the vault overhead. It looked like a wasp's nest of colossal size, and the monk spotted two more of the humanoid insects sleeping in the circular entrances.Feln's breath caught in his throat and he listened intently. A distant dripping sound was audible, as if water were filtering through the limestone roof and making its way down the walls. But he could hear no sound of the girl; if she were in the nest, she was either unconscious or dead.The monk licked his lips and headed for the tunnel opening on the opposite wall. It was of the same construction as the chamber and continued on straight-ahead, terminating in a T-intersection at the limits of his darkvision. He crept silently down the roughly cylindrical tunnel, his feet making less than a whisper on the wet sandy floor. At the intersection, he paused, looking both ways. He saw no movement, although the tunnel continued on past the 60-ft. range of his vision in both directions. There were two openings leading deeper into the hillside and one that went back the way he had come leading off of the intersecting corridor. One of the openings was across the hall, ten feet to his right. He stepped gracefully across and listened.Apart from the ever-present dripping of water, he could hear the furtive clicking sound of insectile armor coming from somewhere down the corridor. A quick glance revealed a passageway leading off to the right about twenty feet down as well as the fact that the corridor elbowed off to the left at a point thirty or so feet beyond that. It sounded like the chitinous clicking sounds were coming from the nearer opening. He was about to head back - the complex was simply too expansive for him to search on his own - when he heard something else. As he turned, the sound of crying briefly reached his ears by some acoustical trick of the caves. It seemed to be coming from further down the passage, beyond where it elbowed off to the left.</blockquote>

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