Zilo and the gang would be lost and wandering for days, possibly weeks through this sadistic maze of false doors and dark passages if not for their newest friend, Sparky. Sparky lit the way with his personal flames as well as pointing out the corridors that would lead to dead ends.
When the chimeras of the hall would approach Sparky would twist his wrist, point a finger, and shoot a quick ray of fire at it and it would flee away burning alive. After viewing this 2 or 3 times, Alaroc walked up to the little goblin and asked,
"Say Sparky, I must ask-"
"Like I say before, doggies hate Siz-siz."
"No, no, not that. How are you doing that without saying any magic words?"
Maldrek steps forward and places a hand on Alaroc's shoulder and says, "Because that isn't a spell. Our friend may be able to harness magic through words like before, but he's a Sorcerer, they don't need spells, only their flesh and blood."
Sparky nods excitedly and lifts his hand, and then the tips of four of his fingers glow a crimson red before he says, "Only 4 more pointies left though, gonna need them before nap."
Leo butts in to answer this one, saying, "Yeah, if he uses too much of his raw magic then he'll run out, just like with spells. His quick magic is nice in a pinch though." Sparky shakes his head, but stops confused then nods before trying to nod and shake his head at the same time.
May face palms and says, "Just talk ya little freak."
"Yes, I nap to get back pointies. No not my nap me talkin bout."
Cruxis raises his eyebrow and responds, "Not your nap? Then who's?"
"Her's." Sparky points in at a giant echoing ruined room with huge holes in the walls, floor, and ceilings the room looked to be some sort of ancient ball room, possibly a castle that was forced underground while the rest of the dungeon was the hallways and rooms of the same castle.
In the room a writhing mass of something looks to be scurrying around from hole to hole, and it looks massive, at the very least ass large as the Bonesaw is, but this is long and moves along the room with a rhythmic, choir of terrifying tapping. It looks to be slinking back and forth around a dozen giant horse sized pasty orbs arranged like a nest.
Maldrek's eyes go wide and he panicky begins looking through his spell book as he speaks, "That's a Titan Centipede, Oh gods no. I am not ready to meet Necros today."
The rest of the group begins reaching for their weapons as Maldrek finds the spell he needed and casts, Fly, to try and avoid the creature's ability to hit him. Leo is right behind him gathering a small amount of magic and invoking his Magus Arcana, The Arcane Cloak and blended into the darkness.
Cruxis and Alaroc unsheathe their weapons and lead the charge as Zilo's violin floats up and begins making use of the room's acrostics with a tune of valor. Once the tune begins, Zilo quickly strings an arrow and plants it in the monolithic creature's side.
The creature rears up then steams forward toward the two warriors, Alaroc leaps out of the way just in time, but Cruxis gets his shield arm caught in the creature's bite. The pain is excruciating, almost ripping the arm off his shoulder. May leaps forward with her Scythe scraping on the exoskeleton.
The slash doesn't manage to do any damage, but the creature does rear back and let go of Cruxis's arm, revealing the bent and shredded bicep plate. Cruxis moves as if to stand, but then falls onto his face, his face pale and his veins pulsing with a purple hue.
May notices this and shouts, "It's poisonous!"
Zilo knocks another arrow, and responds, "Actually it's venomous! If it were poisonous then we wou-"
"Can we focus!" Shouts Maldrek letting loose a flurry of magic missiles before stopping at a spot in the air and pointing to May and a figure behind a rock. "May, get him back up! Leo, distract it!"
The figure rises with a sign as is flanks around the creature and slams it's hand into the side of it's blade and the blade suddenly becomes covered in shining frost. he flicks the blade about and it slashes two of the creature's legs off, shattering them as if frozen.
Meanwhile Alaroc stands and sees Sparky cowering behind a rock and he runs over to defend him. The creature whips it's entire body around to circle around, knocking Leo out of his stealthy form and stampedes all over him, crushing him against the rocks, and retreating down a hole.
May arrives at Cruxis who stands again, a bit wobbly waving May away as he restores his shield arm, saying, "I'm fine, just woozy, get to Leo."
"Already there." Shouts Zilo, kneeling to cast the last of his healing spells to get Leo back on his feet again as the rest of the group crowd in, except for Alaroc, who is still with Sparky, both still close enough to hear the game plan.
Zilo worriedly looks to Maldrek and says, "Maldrek I'm out of spells, If someone goes down, they may stay down."
Maldrek swears under his breath and flips through his book, "Leo, tell me you have a heavy hitter in your book!"
"I'm set for an infiltration job not freaking... That!" he shout pointing at the hole.
Cruxis kneels and plants his sword in the ground and holds it, closing his eyes, then looking to the giant orbs. He rises again, leaning on Leo for support and speaks,
"She's not coming back, but I don't know a mother to leave her eggs, she might be looking for a different angle." May looks around before spotting a hole directly above them and pointing up to it. The group moves away from underneath as Maldrek takes out his sword and stows his spellbook.
"Okay, no spells to hit hard, so we'll need to get at the head, and kill it fast, we can treat injuries after it's dead, don't hesitate for casualties, cause she damn sure won't, you all understand me?" The rest of the group solemnly nods.
You'd think only May and Cruxis would be praying to gods, but all 5 of the adventurers mumble a short prayer until they all hear that terrifying taping from above and small rocks landing near them. They all ready their weapons as the giant creature flails out of the ceiling and falls intending to spread out and crush them.
"FIREBALL!"
Suddenly a giant explosion of flame from a spark of a flame demolishes the creature in mid air, and blows the group back, pieces of the creature fall and hit against the group as they begin getting up and putting out any flames that caught on them. Leo and Cruxis look to not be getting up.
The rest look over to see a very wobbly standing Sparky facing his hand to where the monster was before falling flat on his back. Alaroc stands beside him motioning to his flask and says, "Little guy got cold feet, so I gave him a bit a courage."
May and Zilo begin tending to Leo and Cruxis's burns as Alaroc lifts the goblin. Maldrek looks at the two downed warriors and says, "Well done, but best not to do it again, I'd rather the pyromaniac not be... loosened up."
Zilo manages to lift Cruxis, and May drags Leo. Zilo looks back to the nest then turns to Maldrek.
"Hey Maldrek, That thing was guarding it's nest right?"
"Yep, that's why she was so hostile."
"So she was a single mom?"
Everyone in the group freezes as Zilo nonchalantly says that. Maldrek immediately snatches the Goblin and smacks him twice, but Sparky simply lets out a dumb, drunk smile. May steps forward and places him on the ground. The group can suddenly now here distant tapping, slowly getting louder.
"Create Water."
A gallon of water washes over the goblin and he shoots up and Zilo drops Cruxis and grabs Sparky, saying,
"Sparky, we need to leave now, show us the way."
Sparky shakes off some water and points to the large double doors on the other side of the room. The group bolts toward the door, with Alaroc grabbing Cruxis, and Zilo helping lift Leo by his legs. Maldrek hoists the stumbling goblin up as well.
The group can hear the Tapping slowly getting closer and they double time it, before bashing into the door, bursting through it and quickly looking around for anything to block it. Zilo and Alaroc point out a large boulder they can use. May quickly casts Lighten Object on the solid rock to make it somewhat movable.
They just barely manage to get it in place as May breaks the spell and they hear the tapping scurrying around, as if looking for something. Maldrek wipes his brow and smiles to the group, "Lets get outta here before papa can get this open."
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