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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1214163" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #245] They're Creeping Up On you[/PLAIN]Windstryder stopped and sniffed at the air. She smelled smoke... and nearby. Turning, she spotted the dark plume against the star-filled sky and was about to head back to the cave mouth when she spotted the faint trail in the grass. The same inhuman tracks in the soil indicated a path to and from the forest to the east. It was barely visible in the dim light and she wouldn't have spotted it at all except that it seemed to end nowhere. She stooped and spotted the concealed hatch with little difficulty now that she knew where to look."Yallume," she hissed in elvish, pleased that she'd finally located the object of her search. "Amin utue ta." She reached out a hand to trace the outline of the trapdoor, and was almost struck by it as the door was thrown open from below. Something large and hairy swelled out of the opening and Windstryder's first thought was: gnoll. But it was a gnoll whose mouth sported a pair of sharp mandibles and whose arms ended in snapping pincers. It surged upwards on numerous spindly legs and a thick segmented tail curled up from its hind-quarters surmounted by a wicked-looking barb as long as a shortsword.Windstryder took a step back from the opening, raised her bow and sent an arrow at the thing. The shaft struck and drew blood from the deadly tail making the creature bark in pain. It came at her, one of its claws drawing retaliatory blood from her right thigh. Staggered slightly by the blow, the ranger brought her bow wide, away from her body and drew her rapier with her other hand. The slender needle of steel stabbed outward, piercing the chitinous armor on the transmogrified thing's right forearm. Enraged now, the creature sought to grab her with its pincers and skewer her with its tail, but she danced nimbly around the attacks.Behind her opponent, Windstryder saw other multi-limbed shapes moving out of the hidden bolthole."We need to watch for traps," Feln said immediately. "The ceiling fell on me because of a plate in the floor."Vade surveyed the rubble that littered the floor of the wide tunnel. "Ow that had to hurt," he said, wincing as he did so. "I heard the the rocks fall on you, Feln, so I went and got Morrier and Ixin.  We took care of the guards and Braath, the not-so-tough. hee hee!""Thank you, Vade," Feln replied. "Can you keep your eyes peeled for traps?""I always do," the halfling lied and the monk hung his head."Sorry for charging in like this," he apologized. "My expertise is in cities and buildings. I did not expect a trap... careless." Vade smiled and drew out his last tin of Rherram's healing salve."Don't worry about it. Use some of this on your wounds," the rogue said and tossed the tin to Feln. It pinged off of the monk's cheek, eliciting a disapproving growl."AAAAHHHHH, I cannot see, damn it," Feln grumbled, waving his hand around blindly. "Ixin, can you break this spell?"Ixin shook her head and then said, "No. But you must maintain your control or that bastard will have won." She stepped in close to him and laid a hand reassuringly on his broad shoulder. "Remember that you have finely-honed senses beyond your vision. Rely on them and on us now. We will fix this."Feln grunted his acceptance of that logic then whispered nervously, "How long will this trickery last?" Ixin sighed."I have no way of knowing at this point," she admitted. "We will lead you out and get some answers in town.""Is that the girl we came to find?" Morier asked as he cleaned the gore off his greatsword. He nodded to the elf chained in the chamber just beyond."Yes!" Feln said quickly as if he'd just remembered she was there. "Vade, can you-?"The halfling jingled his lockpicks and began trotting toward the shackled girl. "I'm already on it!" he sang as he went.Ledare redirected her attention to her adversary and fired another quarrel at it. The thing dodged and shot back at her, its bolt drawing blood between the plates of steel that protected her left thigh. As it circled around, she saw it toss its crossbow to the ground and draw its shortsword. It yapped out a few words that Ledare couldn't understand.But the words weren't meant for her, she discovered as the droning of wings drew her attention to the sword wielding bug man that was coming at her from the direction of the smoking cave mouth.Realizing that her position was about to be overrun, Windstryder broke off her attack and moved quickly to the top of the hill. Her opponent wasn't about to let her get away so easily, and it was faster than she. It scurried forward on its six legs and snapped at her with its claws, but connected only with air.Behind it, a second of its ilk moved forward. It would be within striking range of her in seconds, and a third was scrambling up out of the bolthole. They were too fast, so clearly, running wasn't going to get her very far."Caela ie'lle, saurar!" she cried and stabbed outward with her rapier. Unfortunately, she fumbled the attack and lost her footing on the crest of the hill. She staggered sideways, arms pin-wheeling wildly and her opponents chuckled darkly as they moved into attack positions."Thank you, kind sir," the girl said as Vade nonchalantly popped the lock on her shackles. He looked up into her bright green eyes and gulped. He'd seen that same look of zealous righteousness flickering in the eyes of a paladin or two whose path he'd crossed."Oh, I was chained up like this just last moonsdance," the halfling explained as he put away his tools."I did not like it one bit either."The girl got quickly to her feet, rubbing at the chafed bands circling her wrists. She looked outward at Feln, Morier and Ixin, her expression and body language managing to somehow convey both innocent humility and imperious indignation. "Thank you all for freeing me," she said. "Much evil might have been done if you had not come."Vade was close enough to see that she had been both whipped and beaten rather severely. Numerous bruises and cuts marred her otherwise perfect skin, but she seemed not to notice them. She was likewise unperturbed by the fact that she was standing naked in a dank cave. Vade produced a blanket from his pack and wrapped it around her thin shoulders. "Are there any more big nasty creatures we need to worry about?" he asked and the girl turned, her eyes flashing like emeralds in the light from his sunrod."Yes," she said with an eager tone. "There are other dark monstrosities here, but Braath the Lesser was their leader. With him dead, the others will quickly fall to our swords.""Ummm," Vade began. "I think we just want to get you safely back to the village.""We're in no shape to deal with this now," Feln agreed, but the girl shook her head savagely."These abominations pose a direct threat to Hillville Junction," the girl said grimly. "Without Braath the Lesser's strong rule, these things are certain to swarm out of the hills onto the unprepared village like a plague, devouring anything they can get their claws into. Once this region is depleted, they will simply move on despoil another area." She surveyed the group with a stern expression. "We must smite them now while they are unprepared and reeling from your successful attack!"Somehow, Windstryder managed to avoid the attacks from the creature she had already wounded twice, but she couldn't seem to regain her footing. Wherever she placed her foot, the ground seemed to collapse, or her ankle would turn. She lurched to the side, directly into the pincer of her second attacker. Its claw crunched down on her left elbow,  grinding against the bone and the pain was tremendous. Somehow, she managed to remain conscious and avoid the tail that curled up and stabbed down at her over the thing's shoulder.Another of the creatures was right behind these two, she saw, and there was more movement at the bolthole.Ledare holstered her hand crossbow and drew Ruze's matched scimitars in one graceful motion as the two transmogrified bug men took op flanking positions on her. The creatures struck as one, showing a fair amount of tactical savvy, and Ledare was only able to deflect one of the sword thrusts. One of the blades nicked her side just below her breastplate, and she could feel blood slowly trickling beneath her armor.She had to end it now. Twisting the twin moon blades around, she stabbed at both of the bug men before they could fly away out of her reach. One blade severed a wing, sending the creature spiralling into a nearby tree with a bone snapping crunch of finality. The other scimitar deprived the janissary's tormentor of his shortsword... along with most of its sword arm as well. The creature joined its brethren at Ledare's feet.She turned in a circle looking for any further threats before she moved back into hiding. At the top of the hill overlooking the cave mouth, Ledare spotted Windstryder being harried by three creatures that she recognized at once. Several moonsdances ago, one of those same things had very nearly killed Soriah. It had taken the combined might of Finian, Kirnoth and Ledare, herself to put the creature down and Soriah's very life had been saved only through Finian's expert healing skills.But now, Soriah, Finian and Kirnoth were no more. And there were three of those things attacking Windstryder.</blockquote>

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