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Message: <blockquote data-quote="carpedavid" data-source="post: 555951" data-attributes="member: 6971">11.9.2002 - Session 3, Part 2With four dead winter wolves and three rapidly dying companions lying in the snow around her, Laurel wonders how much worse the day will get. She wipes blood from her eyes, sheathes her swords, and fumbles in her backpack for healing potions. The warm, red, cinnamon-flavored liquid revives Quara, Shoji, and Erendil, and keeps her own wounds from overcoming her."Ow. Everything hurts," comments Shoji, who fishes a Tanayaran balm out of his pack and begins rubbing it into his bruises."I think we need to find shelter," Quara says through gritted teeth. "We'll never survive the night out here in our current condition. Maybe there's a cave somewhere."Laurel nods in agreement, then sets out to look for shelter, thinking to herself, please let there be no more wolves. After a few minutes of searching, she finds a small cave opening in the side of the hill, and then directs the battered party inside."How deep is this cave?" asks Quara, "I don't want anything sneaking up behind us in the middle of the night."Without responding, Laurel lights a torch and begins looking around. Shoji helps her search, and they find a tunnel in the back, hidden behind a large stalagmite."I'm not happy about that tunnel," Quara muses, "I think we should check to see where this leads.""I'm not sure that's a good idea, in our current condition," Laurel replies."I know we're pretty hurt, but I'd still rather see what's down there," says Quara."I think I would too," says Erendil."Ok. Let's go," Laurel says as she walks into the tunnel entrance. With the rest of the group following, Laurel leads them through the cave system. After a minute or two of winding through cave passages and small chambers, the tunnel empties out into a larger cavern. Laurel begins cautiously moving forward, her torchlight gradually revealing the features of the chamber. The bumpy, limestone floor is littered with small, broken bones that crunch and snap underfoot as the party moves forward."Oh crap," Laurel exclaims as two giant scorpions are suddenly revealed. Their glossy, black carapaces glow an unholy red in the torchlight as they turn, stingers raised, and begin skittering toward the group.Arrows fly from Erendil and Quara's bows and pierce the thick exoskeleton of the lead scorpion. Its eight legs twist beneath it as it crumples, crushing piles of rat skulls and bat carcasses. Laurel drops her torch and hits the other scorpion with an arrow from her own bow, while Shoji pelts it with a stone from his sling. Laurel's arrow penetrates deep into the scorpion's flesh, while Shoji's stone bounces off relatively harmlessly. It does, however, draw the scorpion's attention to him.Oh great, now I made it mad, Shoji thinks to himself as the scorpion snaps at him with its claw. Fortunately, additional arrows from Erendil and Quara drop the giant arachnid before it can do any more damage to the monk."Well, that wasn't so bad," Erendil says happily."I wouldn't say that yet," Laurel flashes her torch around the chamber to see if anything else is waiting to eat them. She notes that the tunnel continues on the other side of the chamber, but, seeing nothing of immediate threat, begins a more thorough search of the cavern. Quara also searches with her own torch, and stumbles upon a small spring at the far end of the chamber.  As she peers down into it, she can see a small iron ring, glistening in the bottom of the spring.Hmmmm, I've heard legends about this sort of thing, she thinks to herself. I wonder if I should pick it up? She looks at the ring for another moment, decides that it looks an awful lot like the one on her right hand that provides her a magical shield of force, and then reaches down and picks it up out of the water. She waits for a second to see if an overwhelming urge to don the ring comes over her, and sighs in relief when it doesn’t. "Hey, I found this ring," she says as she turns back to her companions, "Do you think it's magical?"Erendil mumbles a few words under his breath and looks intently at the ring, which begins to glow a soft blue. "Yes, it looks magical," he says, looking more closely, "some sort of protective magic, I think."Quara looks at Erendil suspiciously. "I didn't know you could do that." Erendil just shrugs, and smiles mysteriously at her. "Hmmm," she grumbles, "I'll hang on to that until we can get examined more closely."Laurel finishes her investigation and points out two items of interest to her companions: a pile of bones that are obviously humanoid, and a large hole in the western wall of the chamber, about five feet above the ground. The humanoid bones make the group nervous, but the hole in the wall makes them more nervous."What do you think is in the hole?" Quara asks."It's probably the scorpion nest," Laurel replies, "But I can't tell from down here.""Ok," Quara sighs, "I'll go in and check." She drops her backpack and bow and lifts herself up into the small opening. Squeezing in head first, she waves her torch around the small chamber. It does indeed appear to be a nest, as she can see a large egg sack stuck to one wall, and the remains of another humanoid unceremoniously dumped against another. She punctures the egg sack with her sword, grabs a belt pouch she sees near the remains, and quickly evacuates the nest."Well, we've got one tunnel left," Laurel says, gesturing to the chamber exit."I'll go first this time," Quara volunteers. Everyone nods, and she begins leading the party down the tunnel. Laurel follows immediately behind Quara, with Shoji behind her, and Erendil bringing up the rear. They carefully make their way deeper and deeper underground, following the tunnel as it twists and turns. After what seems an eternity, the tunnel opens into a small chamber, and then continues on the other side.Quara stops them before entering the chamber. Two large stalagmites on either side of the tunnel entrance make it impossible to see the entirety of the chamber, so she cautiously moves out into the center of the chamber. "Oh gods, what's that stench?" she exclaims as a blast of rotten air hits her in the face. The rest of the group reacts with similar disgust as the overwhelming scent of mildew and rotten meat invades their noses. The source of the stench is quickly revealed as four emaciated figures emerge from behind the stalagmites and advance toward Quara. The figures look like they might have once been human, but have since been twisted by something dark and terrible: mottled blue-gray skin pulled tight over skeletal frames; fingers ending in long black claws; unblinking eyes black as pitch; and faces frozen in a terrible, maniacal rictus.Realizing that Quara is now surrounded, Laurel drops to one knee, pulls out her bow, and fires at the closest ghoul. The arrow pierces its leathery flesh, but doesn't stop it. Instead, it turns and rushes her, raking her across the face with its claws. She gasps audibly as the breath rushes from her lungs. All of her muscles seize up, and she feels a wave of cold wash through her body, like ice water running through her veins. She collapses, unable to move, but aware of the goings on around her.The other ghouls swarm Quara, covering her with deep gashes and tearing hungrily at her flesh with their fangs. She, too, feels the numbing cold wash over her, and she finds herself unable to even scream as she collapses, unmoving, to the ground.Shoji leaps over Laurel and attempts to knock one of the ghouls off of Quara. He does not succeed in knowing the ghoul anywhere, but he does succeed in drawing their attention. The three ghouls that swarmed Quara now swarm him, and their bites succeed in paralyzing him as well. Erendil hits the ghoul that attacked Laurel with two arrows from his bow, and manages to disable it, but the other three move off of Shoji and begin down the tunnel toward him.He starts backing down the tunnel, trying to suppress the ghouls with his bow. They ignore the impact of his arrows, though, and charge him. The lead ghoul pounces on him, pulling him to the ground, even as its teeth sink into his flesh. He tries to yell, tries to pull himself from its grasp, but the paralyzing wave washes over him as well. Oh gods, help us, he thinks, as the rest of the ghouls stand over him, salivating.More to come...</blockquote>

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