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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1450023" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #262] Ants in Their Pants[/PLAIN]"Yaaaaa!!!!" Vade squealed as he ran toward the portal of swirling green vapor just as fast as his tiny legs would allow. "Burn them! Burn them!" he urged and Morier pulled one of the wands from his wrist sheathe."My thoughts exactly, Vade!" the eldritch warrior smirked, pointing his wand and speaking the command word: "Irakulos!" A sheet of fire erupted from the wand and settled across the swarm's left flank, instantly crisping a dozen of the large white ants. Immediately, a dozen more swarmed over the charred remains to take their place."Not good..." Morier grimaced."Head for the portal!" Ledare commanded. Even as she drew Ravager and waved the blade overhead in a rallying gesture, the Janissary began moving toward the standing stone that bore the arched portal. "Ixin! We need you to activate it!""Right!" the mage responded and darted after her. Unencumbered by any armor, Ixin quickly overtook Ledare, reaching the portal a good five paces ahead of the half-elf. Vade was already there waiting for her and hopping nervously from one foot to the other like a child who needed to use the privy."Which one?" Ixin asked, pointing to the various runes that she had already tried and naming them each off in turn. "Caves, mountain, unicorn, or dungeon? Or one of these others?""Caves!" Vade shouted, but Ledare skidded to a stop behind him and shook her head."Wrong way!" she told him. "We're heading south, remember?""Unicorn?" Ixin asked, looking wide-eyed at the Janissary."Do it!" Ledare answered with a nod just as Morier cried out in alarm.The ant swarm had reached him and their pincered mandibles quickly found their way beneath his mail. He felt dozens of painful stings as they ran wildly up his body, giving the impression from a distance of the albino melting into a mound of ants. That was all the more that Karak needed to see. He turned and clanked toward the portal."Oi! These little creatures look like they be havin' a mind to think we are their next meal!" the dwarf cursed as he neared the standing stone. "Lassie, what be ye doin' o'er by this 'ere stone gate?" Before Ixin could answer, however, Feln came bounding up, very nearly bowling the mage over in his haste."We should get out of here!" the half orc urged. He was visibly shaken by an opponent that he couldn't fight. "This is a fight that gains us nothing but more trouble.""I'm trying!" Ixin said as she reached out a hand to anchor herself to the portal. Vade and Ledare readied themselves to jump through as soon as the mist cleared, signalling that Ixin had successfully activated the portal.Morier, cursing and spitting ants from his mouth, ran as fast as he could toward the others, and quickly left the main body of the swarm behind. The ants that were still under his armor continued to bite him, however, and he could feel blood flowing beneath his mail. He reached portal seconds after the mists cleared, revealing crumbling stone walls overgrown with flowering vines beyond. He jumped through the portal right after Vade and Ledare, landing in the soft loam beyond.Karak scowled at the magical doorway, delaying long enough for Feln to dart around him and through to the other side. "Are ye sure ye ken how this thing works, girl?""Just go!" Ixin urged, her voice, infused with the raw power of the nexus, sounded hollow and otherworldly. Karak paused again, glanced back at the swarm which was moving ever nearer, then harrumphing once, stepped through into a distant woodland.Ixin moved to do the same, just as the ants reached her and began tearing eagerly into the flesh of her legs. She cried out in pain, lost control of the portal, and barely managed to fall through the gateway before the mists swirled closed over  Spiderwood. The swarm was left on the far side of the portal except for the few dozen that continued to crawl angrily over Ixin and Morier's bodies. Vade and Karak darted forward to squash the remaining insects while Feln continued to back away from the things.Only Ledare saw the figure on the far side of the clearing, standing beside one of the enormous standing stones, and she glimpsed it for only a moment before the portal clouded over, cutting off her view of Spiderwood. The figure was humanoid and robed in mustard yellow. It gestured with one arm as if it were directing the actions of the ant swarm, and  that one visible arm was covered with filthy scabs and infected lesions.Then the mists closed in, obscuring the view beyond completely."Morier's bleeding an awful lot!" Vade said loudly, and it was true. The albino's armor was dripping with blood from the many bites he'd taken."Help me get this off!" the eldritch warrior implored as his fingers worked at the straps of his custom fit scalemail."What about Ixin?" Ledare asked as she turned away from the portal and sheathed her sword.Karak looked up from the mage with a huge white ant squeezed between his fingers. It flailed around and snapped its fiery orange mandibles for a moment before the dwarf crushed it to a pulpy mess. "Aye! She's bleedin' a wee bit more'n seems right for the wounds she took," Karak said grimly. "These ants be unnatural creatures.""Can't we stop the bleeding?" Ixin pleaded, an edge of panic creeping into her contralto voice."We can try, lassie," Karak said. "But healin' ain't me be best skill. That was me chalak's strength, not mine.""Let me try," Ledare said as she dropped down beside Ixin and began to work on the drakeling's many lacerations. Karak backed up and watched her work for a moment before turning to examine his surroundings.They were in a forest, but it was quite unlike Spiderwood. Firstly, the trees were huge, towering taller than any trees the dwarf had ever seen. Many of them looked to be almost as tall as the bridge pylons connecting the twin delves of Zhufbar and Kadrin in the Thunder Mountains. Secondly, they were surrounded on three sides by the crumbling remains of a stone wall that had clearly been built by human hands, and had long ago succumbed to the ravages of time. It was pierced everywhere with gaps in the stonework and what remained seemed fairly held together by the flowering vines that grew over it. The portal was built into a single flat standing stone that faced in toward a shrine. The shrine itself was bathed in shadows, but Karak's darkvision clearly revealed the presence of a rectangular altar of some kind flanked by two elaborately carved, but weather-worn stone statues of snarling lizards."I can't stop the bleeding!" Vade cried out again. "We need to use one of your potions, Morier!""Not yet," the albino protested weakly. His words were slurring from blood loss, and his white hands looked startlingly red as he and Vade worked futilely to bind his wounds. He had a smear of blood on his forehead where he'd wiped away a drop of sweat. "With no cleric to heal us, we'll need them for emergencies.""This is turning into an emergency!" Vade cried. He looked a little sick to his stomach from the sight of so much blood."Just keep at it, both of you," Ledare urged. "I'm almost through with Ixin."Karak strode over to Vade and thumped down beside him. He looked at Morier and watched the elf work skill-lessly at his own wounds. The dwarf harrumphed and swatted away Morier's hands. "Ye be doin' it wrong!" Karak growled. "This be how Malak always did it." The dwarf laid his hands on Morier's head and chest, closed his eyes and muttered some words in dwarfish under his breath. The holy symbol of Shaharizod that Karak had taken off of his brother's corpse, slid free of his armor and hung free on its silver chain, winking in the twilight as it spun back and forth.Morier felt something move through him, like a wave of sunlight or the heat from a forge and his wounds stopped bleeding. Karak harrumphed again and got to his feet. "That be the proper way ta heal," he grumbled and backed away from his patient.No one was in a position to see the eyes on the rightmost statue flare with a cold, baleful light, but they all felt the sinister urgings of a Fear spell wash over them as they did so. Feln, Vade, Morier, and Ledare all dropped what they were doing and ran off screaming into the surrounding trees.Karak and Ixin blinked at one another. "That's not good," the drakeling told her remaining companion.</blockquote>

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