The Southern Continent (part 2)

[Alberich]

[OOC: When the time comes Udo definitely wants more details on the research notes - though I suspect that Khoo and Drusia are going to be better than he is at reading them - but anything he reads or sees, he will share freely with the group, so feel free to say it in public - or put it in "background noise" if you think it's beside the point or dull]

Udo found that the shards all over the floor were residually magical but not in a way that justified collecting them. Sure, he could sweep them into a bag and try to make a magic mirror out of them -- but the thing would probably be cursed by its evil Ralkin magic. Probably make him look fat or something (perish the thought!). Likewise, the overturned stand contained nothing of interest, not even an excuse to delay looking in the stinky charnelhouse room. Though it delayed him enough to let Khoo freshen it up a bit.

At some point [OOC: Fair assumption, I think.] Drusia came through the door to that room -- and various red points around the wall of the domed chamber began to glow. From a distance they'd looked just like red spots in the elven frescoes that decorated the place, but now they glowed -- and now they detached themselves. With an evil buzzing sound they cycled around the room, then flowed to the center near where the pedestal had once stood, where they formed themselves into a roughly man-sized blob, glowing an evil fiery red, shaped like a long-armed, dome-headed eyeless ogre. Before the shocked eyes of the adventurers, the thing extended an appendage into one of the burning torches -- and they could see it glow brighter as it drew strength from the fire.

Udo rushed back into the domed chamber and fired a bolt from his staff. But the beetle-swarm anticipated the blast by a fraction of a second, and a hole opened in the middle -- so that his blast passed through harmlessly. An arrow from Tamina likewise went through without killing a single buzzing firebug. The construct gave a rhythmic buzzing pulse that to some ears sounded like a mocking laugh.

[OOC: I'm making a few assumptions here about things people would try, so's to avoid wasting time]

Seeing he couldn't kill it with a blast, Udo thought at least he could stop it from strengthening itself. So he blasted the torch, then created a magic light in the middle of the ceiling. "The torches!" he yelled. Tamina and Alleece, with their kobold speed, but careful of their feet (the broken magic glass scattered on the floor was not right for a high-speed barefoot kobold battle), the kobolds snatched up the remaining fires, save one that Khoo blew out with a wind blast.

As the creature started towards the group, Khoo tried blasting the swarm with another gust of wind -- but the glowing firebugs beat their wings faster and were not driven back; indeed, they seemed immune to this wind, so that it didn't even affect the patterns of their movement. Then they formed into a column and flowed to another part of the room where the wind wasn't, before getting back into a long-armed ogrish humanoid shape, which now stalked forward directly for Drusia. A slash with her durus blade, though blindingly fast, was likewise anticipated by the bug-swarm man-thing, so that a slash-shaped gap open. One firebug, hit by happenstance, fell to the ground.

(Any mage who looked could see it hadn't been made of fire, but some kind of brittle crystalline stuff; it wasn't actually all that tough when struck by magical weapons, but was quite immune to nonmagical attacks. Though this property quickly faded after the thing died.)

The man-thing lashed out at Drusia with an arm, and while she dodged the brunt of the blow, fire-stings made even the lightest touch painful. A teleport saved her from the next blow. Udo squirted water at the thing from his water bottle, but the bugs made a hole and dodged the stream - and the thing then kicked a buggy foot-blob back at Udo, who yelled "Gyyaaaaaakkkk!" and jumped back, hurt in the leg. (A puff of steam indicated that the nonmagical water had not even hurt the bugs it hit, no more than the air blown around by Khoo's magic.)

A claw-slash from a loyal kobold only made the kobold scream, and the monster took a swipe at her that was mostly dodged, but agan even the brush of its arm was more painful than hornets. The thing then formed into a column again and flowed fast to the exit nearest Drusia, before advancing again menancingly on legs of bugs. Udo tried another blast from the side, but it opened a hole again and avoided it. (His attacks were "telegraphed" pretty obviously, and apparently this thing could see in all directions.)

This frightful, frustrating magical construct seemed unstoppable by their usual attacks. It was hostile and focused on the elf, though it would attack anyone else who got near. What would the adventurers do?

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina was by Alleece's side moments after her injury and healed the younger kobold as quickly as she was able. The magic-user tried to infuse one of her arrows with energy before firing it at the man-shaped mass, but the effect was the same, a clean miss and a blood-pressure raising parody of a chuckle from the monstrosity. She hissed in frustration, then ran over to Udo to fix his leg in absence of any offense moves she could make. As she fixed her burly knight protector she racked her brain for a way to deal with the surprise attack. An idea occurred to her, a page taken from the Killikah book when they discovered a hornet's nest too close to a settlement.

"Can anyone make poison smoke?" She called, more optimistically than was perhaps warranted in the circumstances. "Big cloud could hit them! Ow!"

The kobold stepped backwards involuntarily and hopped awkwardly on one foot to pull out an errant crystal shard which had been pointing upwards at just the right angle to puncture the leathery skin of her foot (OOC it's thick enough to run on rough surfaces, bit like a hobbits, if anyone's wondering./OOC). She threw the thing away with an annoyed expression and returned her attention to the fight, keeping her eyes peeled for more injuries in case she was needed.

[Graybeard]

Khoo blinked. Poison smoke? By the Sea God's Great Green Gills, what was this world coming to? Everything had been so nice and orderly until yesterday...

"If someone else can supply the poison, I'll supply the smoke," he said, almost hoping that he wouldn't have any takers.

[Alberich]

"No poison!" said Udo - "I think we need magic to hit 'em anyway" - going by the way Drusia's durus flamma had managed to hit one, while nonmagical air and water had failed to have any effect. But she couldn't be expected to get within sword's reach and kill one or two at a time; she'd be long dead by the time she hit more than a few of the thousands of firebugs that made up the awful thing. And while she could avoid the thing by teleporting, he feared she'd exhaust herself in time, and they'd all fall prey.

Inanely Udo was reminded of a joke he'd heard years ago, of three master swordsmen demonstrating their skill by killing flies. The first split two flies with a sweep of his blade; the second made a fancy twisting move and killed three flies; the third took aim at one fly and slashed. The others said, "But, sensei, the fly is still alive." To which he replied, "True...but that fly will never make love again."

Now where were guys like that when you needed them?

[Graybeard]

I may actually be useful here after all, Khoo thought. "Give me a minute... WIND WALL!"

Magic flared from his fingertips into a column of air that picked up the glass shards and tossed them about, producing a whirling, swirling column of death.

"Now what?" he asked, now that he had a weapon of sorts, but no clear idea of what to do with it.

[Alberich]

Udo was frantic and tongue-tied..."Why don't you..." -- he made some overarm gestures suggesting that the vortex of magical broken glass should be made to go over where the fire-bug beast actually was, so that it might have its intended beneficial effects -- "...you know, that...!" -- he interlaced his fingers as if to show the wall and the monster trying to occupy the same space. "There! Here! Now!" Really, what more needed to be said?

[Drusia]

A swarm of magic bugs.

Really? This is what you left behind to kill elves, Ralkin members? Really?

Not that it isn't effective. Or, no, not really. Not that it isn't incredibly annoying and difficult to get rid of. My Durus can take out an individual bug, but to little overall effect.

<"Look at me!"> I shout in elven, giving the bugs a target. Better they go after me than the others - at least I can get out of the way. I try to stick to the old fashioned method - ie running - but occasionally I have to rely on gating. That is going to tire me out quickly.

"Anyone have any ideas?" I ask hopefully.

The waiter casts a spell and suddenly there's a whirlwind of flying glass to dodge as well. Great.

"Anyone have any useful ideas?" I ask, less hopefully.

Then again, Udo seems to have a plan. What it involves, I'm not entire certain, as communication is not his strong suit.

"Whatever you're doing, do it fast!" I shout by way of encouragement. Or possibly just panic. You know, one of the two.

-- Drusia

OOC: Sorry for the delay - more papers mean more slow replies from me for the next couple of weeks.

[Alberich]

"The broken glass is magic!" said Udo, managing more coherence. "The bugs the glass together in zwoop!!!" he added, managing less, but gesturing expressively.

Whenever Drusia got far away, the thing formed a colum and flowed over to the exit nearest her, then began to stalk her again. When she teleported, same thing. It didn't seem to be dimming or getting any weaker, and buzzed with evil patience as it kept up its pursuit. Judging by the extreme pain its lightest touch caused -- once she tired and it caught her, she'd be in real trouble.

Udo, like Alleece, was staying away from it -- both wanted to join in the fight and preserve Drusia, but neither had an effective attack against it, at least not that they could think of.

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC That's alright Drusia. I know something about work swamping free time (just coming off a 28 hour weekend). I'm sure Dru'll kick a lot of arse in your absense. Also...

A swarm of magic bugs.

Really? This is what you left behind to kill elves, Ralkin members? Really?

...I can picture Aleron cursing like a scooby-doo villian at that cutting elven sarcasm.

I hope you don't mind me kicking this forward a little, the plan's all worked out and the whirlwind of crystal (sounds like the title of a bad fantasy novel, doesn't it?) is about to shred a few firebugs after all. Let me know if you want me to retcon Grey./OOC


Tamina, after a brief but intense verbal exchange, managed to 'borrow' Alleece's spear and channeled for a last attack on the swarm. It was partly bloody-mindedness, but mostly to keep them pinned for the last few seconds as the wind-mage's whirlwind bore down upon them. The kobold channeled with a feral snarl and shot towards the firebugs.

She stopped a short distance from the humanoid shape and moved her arms in a frantic blur with her weapon extended to it's maximum reach. Even faced with a magically enhanced attack the monster's reaction was swift, but the kobold's wild swings succeeded in cutting down a handful of the critters. Her final sweep took a reaching hand off at the elbow (which promptly struck the floor and returned to the main mass) before Tamina reversed her direction and sprinted away.

The tornado of sharp crystal, still carrying a faint whisper of the power it had had as a whole, struck the bugs with stunning violence. The shards lanced through the mass at speeds which were too quick to dodge. A chittering screech filled the air and the creature began to sink into itself. As it strove to get clear of it's magical prison it left a thining line of eviserated firebugs in it's wake, before finally collapsing and ceasing it's struggles altogether.

A moment passed, then a single bug staggered uncertainly out of the mound, trying awkwardly to get airborne on wings which were broken. Tamina scurried over and stamped down with an audible crunch.

"Got another one! That makes seven!" She cheerfully announced, then looked at Khoo. "Umm... think you won." She finished flatly.

[Alberich]

Udo felt the urge to buy Tamina some kind of gaudy garment, commemorating the day she slew seven, though he couldn't say how many blows she'd done it in...well, it was seven with one spell anyay. He raised his spear in salute and went "Yeah!!!" Switching it to his staff-hand, he clapped Khoo on the shoulder. "That was some bad-ass broken glass wind tornado bug killing twisting up magic there!" (He wanted to give congratulatory hugs to all his other companions, but an instinct told him these wouldn't be welcome just now.)

Clearly, his incredibly insightful instructions had been the key to the whole victory, or at least they would have been after his imagination got to work on them for a few days...

In addition to joining whichever others were looking over the left-behind magical notes (which, in fact, he meant to take along if they looked like being valuable) and noting the drag-trail from the charnelhouse to the right-hand door, Udo also followed an impulse to look at the left-hand wall - just to see if there was something that completed the symmetry with the three visible doorways. And if his eyes occasionally lingered over the frescoes from a people who had no nudity taboos and a robust approach to sexuality in their religion, well, who would think the worse of him for that?

[OOC: GB - so I know for future encounters - could Khoo have used the broken glass to "give substance" to a wind sprite, the way he used talcum powder in this happy memory? That was my inspiration for this encounter.]