[Nanglow]

Wood Meji

Lekki had finished his chant.  Bringing his hands down abruptly he shouted, "Cigam elissim!"  Bolts of pure blue raced down from above, as if the chamber were open to a stormy sky rather than closed by the low cave ceiling.  They struck the Beeetanke who spasmed as if getting hit by actual lightening.  Smoke poured from his stabbed-out eyes, he stiffened, toppled over, and lay still.

[Nanglow]

Imperial Rengosett

Glacial Bruma

In the silence, everybody took a deep breath, exhaling one by one.  Hreena stood up on one leg, leaning on her cane.

"Well," she remarked sardonically.  "That was unexpected."

Bruma leaned over the corpse, repulsed.  "Well," she sighed, "it's dead.  But," poking at it with her toe.  "It was already half-dead to begin with."

[Nanglow]

Void Carpetfang

Wood Meji

"A zombie Beetanke?"  Holloughey said dubiously.

Lekki twitched impatiently and rolled his eyes.  "My good man, everyone knows there are no such things as zombies."  He hopped on over and started sniffing it rapidly.  "But this is odd to say the least!  What on earth was it doing walking around with putrefied flesh?"  ("Well at least I don't feel bad," muttered Bruma.)  Lekki pointed to some certain large gashes under the Beetanke's shell.  "You can see here the original cuts.  The flesh around them became infected and putrefied -- it should have been amputated long ago.  But it wasn't, and for some reason it was still moving."

[Nanglow]

Imperial Rengosett

Wood Meji

Void Carpetfang

"Well," asked Hreena, "would that explain why it came out and attacked us out of an insane frenzy?"

Lekki scratched his chin.  "Well...the same thing that caused this might account for his emotional state?  I can't be sure.  Perhaps what did this bolstered his physical and his mental power until he overloaded, so to speak."

Holloughey shrugged, wiping a dribble of venom off his the side of his mouth.  "Time's a wastin'.  Did it have gold on him?  Get it and decide where we're going next, prof."

[Nanglow]

Imperial Rengosett

Tainted Nemuwit

Hreena quickly scrabbled around the dead Beetanke's corpse, fitting her tiny paws into the spaces and crevices behind it's armor.  "None on him, check the dais."  As if on cue, Elquhart emerged squeaking from behind the dais: "Ik ik ik!"

He was struggling to keep in the air with a moderately sized bag in it's claws.  He flew over Hreena's head and dropped it into her palm.  Hreena jingled it next to his her and tilted the bag into her palm.  "A few gold pieces."

[Nanglow]

Void Carpetfang

Imperial Rengosett

"What?!" yelped Holloughey.  "Just a few gold pieces?!  What the hell!  I planned on risking my neck for more than that!"

"What are you even whining about," snapped Hreena.  "All you've gotten is a few scratches and Lekki here just took care of all the work!  You do what we pay you for!"

Holloughey thrashed his tail in a rage.  "I ain't a damn musclehead!  I'm worth more than this!"

[Nanglow]

Wood Meji

While they were arguing, Lekki cocked his head, twitching his large ears.  "Do you hear something?" he murmured.  Then louder: "Guys!  Shut up!  Do you hear something?"

Holloughey and Hreena stilled their arguing.  There was a moment of silence.  Suddenly: the faint tootling of pan flutes could be heard.

[Nanglow]

Glacial Bruma

Void Carpetfang

"Where's it coming from?" Bruma asked, puzzled.  It was difficult to tell -- the sound receded and faded in different directions, suddenly coming from one corner, suddenly coming from another.

"Well," Holloughey said, grimly squaring his shoulders.  "Whoever it is, they'll just have to deal with us crashing their party.  Again, where next doc."

[Nanglow]

Wood Meji

Lekki, having the sharpest hearing of all them, still had his head cocked.  At the last possible minute before Holloughey would've exploded in rage, he suddenly pointed to the left.  "Let's go down this long corridor.  The sound seems to be echoing from there.  At the very least, it'll lead us back to the north part of the caves and we can just come down south from there back to the entrance.  We'll basically just end up circling around exploring the shortest route around the caves."

[Nanglow]

Void Carpetfang

Wood Meji

They entered the corridor, Holloughey taking the lead again.  "Keep quiet," he muttered.  "Don't make any more work for me than I need."

Lekki was muttering as he walked along, his eyes distant with concentration.  "There'll be 1 Kuchi Nagi, 2 Chimerantula, 1 Beetanke, and 1 Hydrolisk ahead."

[Nanglow]

Void Carpetfang

The Kuchi Nagi they dispatched with relative ease.  She landed right on top of Holloughey's head and he reacted with predictable fury.  What wasn't expected was the crazed look in her eye and the shrieking and spitting, unusual for an Organic Kuchi Nagi, to put it mildly.  

Holloughey dusted off his hands and clamped powerful jaws around the Kuchi Nagi, turning his back towards them.  He polished it off and turned around and grinned at Bruma.  "Happy now?"

Bruma wrinkled her nose.  "Ugh, did you really have to do it right away now?"

[Nanglow]

Imperial Rengosett

Hreena was the one who finished off the first Chimerantula.  When it came skittering out of the darkness, the echoes of its talons sounding like a rabble of footsteps, she literally leapt into action, rebounding off the wall and landing on its back.  Scrabbling up its chitinous armor, she found the crack between plates and plunged her dirk into the soft spot.  

"I don't think you can eat this one, Holloughey," she said doubtfully.  "Maybe Bruma can cut it up for some meat."

[Nanglow]

Wood Meji

In all cases, the combatants were oddly wild and crazed berserkers, not at all their usual fare.  Lekki was disturbed.

"I don't understand," he fretted.  "And none of you can hear that odd music?  What am I listening to?  Why are they acting like this?"

[Nanglow]

Glacial Bruma

Bruma shrugged.  "Well the obvious conclusion would be that the music's causing it...or maybe it's just correlation."  She scratched her chin absently, getting Chimerantula goo on her chin.  Cutting at one more Chimerantula with a hacking motion, she stood up.  "Done!"  She nodded at the neatly stacked pile of meat behind her she said, "Once I devenom it, it'll be good for eating."

[Nanglow]

[All right I think enough is enough.  Even as a practice RP, this has become ridiculously uninspired even by my rusty standards.  Time to finish and move onto a plotline I actually enjoy doing again.]

Void Carpetfang

Wood Meji

Glacial Bruma

Holloughey played a major role in getting rid of the others.  They reached the end of the corridor and explored the remaining chambers.

"Only 1 chamber left," Lekki said tersely.

Stepping inside...they found an oddly crouched boy with a discomfiting grin and a lazy eye.  He held a flute in one hand.

"You're the child who led us to the caves!"  Bruma gasped.  "What on earth is this?  Why would you attack your own villagers?"  

"Oh," giggled the boy, drooling.  "You found me out."  And with that he sprang at them.  Holloughey, reacting quickly, responded with a venomed claw and all was still.

Into the shocked silence, Lekki quickly mumbled a spell, one paw on the body, eyes unfocused.  "Temporary insanity?"  

They finished their business, exited the caves, shook the mayor down for their reward, and were on their way back home.

[See you next time with a new storyline!  Bye-bye!]