WQ - Not So Beginner's Cave

OOC: Closed to @Noah Krane and @Hanno Futaba

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It was an unusually brisk morning, but that really shouldn't have surprised her. The game world was essentially based on New England and all; and being from New York (which had to its own springtime cold snaps and awkward weather patterns) (and is also not a part of New England, we know) her body was used to it anyway. Bundled up in a light jacket, hood pulled over her head, she made her way into the small outpost.

The camp consisted of three dozen or so tents, each providing a different service. Merchants, armor and weaponsmiths, temporary guildhouses, barracks, tents for military personnel to strategize in... A little something for everyone. Madison made he way to the most posh-looking one of them all. Banners flanked the entryway that were embroidered with the symbol of the Astorean Royal Cartography Office.

She never quite understood why a world with all this magic hadn't devised a way to scan the nearby countryside and have a magical pen draw every map needed on magical parchment, but she supposed it was a concession to the more game-y aspects of Terrasphere. Why take away that sense of wonder and exploration by having everything laid out for you? It takes away a lot from players to have the map entirely filled out the moment you first spawn into the world.

The plagueslinger gently pushed aside the canvas flap and entered the ARCO tent. Inside, eight or nine very official-looking people were milling about, preparing messages, talking to volunteers, compiling expedition notes. Madison glanced over to a map of Astorea hung on a nearby post, blown up to the size of the paper itself, each little forest and river expertly denoted except for several areas circled in red ink. These were the parts of the province that adventurers had been tasked to uncover.

One of the men approached Madison, a professional smile on his face. "Good morning, ma'am. Are you one of the volunteers here to help with the exploration effort?"

The officer extended his hand in greeting. Madison took it. "Yeah," she affirmed with a quick nod. "Not, uh, sure how to go about this process, but I'm here to help."

"That's why we put people in parties," the man replied. "Tell me, Miss... ah..."

"Freebird."

"Miss Freebird, then. What kind of skills do you have? Magical? Combat? Pathfinding?"

Madison quickly scrambled to find a way she could be useful. "I'm an expert-level nature magi," she offered. "I've developed a way to tap into the nearby environment with a sort of root system to kind of 'see' my way around, if you will."

The officer tapped his chin with his pencil. "Hmm. We could probably use you in one of the cavern expeditions, then. That kind of skill would be useful for topography, I suppose; but some of the previous groups that came back from cave duty reported some untapped mineral deposits that the Crown could use for the rebuilding process."

He paused for a moment, arching an eyebrow. "You're not afraid of the dark, are you?"

Madison simply smiled. Bitch, I am the darkness.

The man took her grin as an answer. "Very good, Miss Freebird. We have a few forms for you to fill out, so if you'll just go see Tibbs over there, he'll get you sorted out. Then just hang around camp for a bit, and when we find a group that can supplement your abilities and cover your weaknesses, we'll send you on your merry way."

 

“Why does it have to be so cold?” Noah leaded against a makeshift seat composed of a log with a itchy wool blanket draped over top of it. There was a small campfire that him and a few NPCs were huddled around for some warmth. Noah was a West Coast kid born and raised, in the real world for him it was already reaching the 90s in some areas. Too bad for him Terrashpere was based on similar weather patterns of New England, a cold, wet, and dreary place. He was not made for such weather conditions. Noah had found himself resting in a camp composed of the Astorean Royal Cartography Office, after he had gotten lost in the wilderness around the area. It could have been seen as a blessing is disguise though, he was running low on food and water so finding these guys was a life savior. Even though he had the Hunter Mastery and the Herbalism vocation, he was still rather new at using either of them to provide for himself.


In exchange for some basic items and gear, Noah, had pledge his services towards mapping out some of the nearby area. He was quite alright with a job like that, he’d been trying to explore more of the world anyways and this whole new area was ripe for the taking. Who knows, perhaps they will come across a gold mine or some rare gems that will make them all insanely rich. Not that Noah cared much for gold anyways. He had been saving up the bit that he had found to date. There wasn’t too much that seemed to peak his interest and everything that he had seen that he would possibly want was at a skill set much higher than his own.


As he leaned on the log with his eyes close a rather stout man made his way to the player. “Ah, uh Mr. Krane?” Noah’s eyes drifted open to see one of the men that had greeted him when he first made his way to the camp. “I do believe that we’ve found a party suitable for your skill set. If you could please gather your things and follow me I shall introduce you to one of the players you’ll be accompanying this morning.”


Finally time to get this show on the road? About time. He thought to himself. He grabbed the small stack that he had been using as a makeshift pillow of sorts and followed the man towards one of the nearby tents. Noah had already filled out all the proper paperwork and answered all their various questions when he first arrived but he imagined that anybody else that was going on this adventure would need to do the same thing. Inside the tent was a young woman filling out some of the paperwork. “Ms. Freebird, this is Mr. Krane. He will be one of the members of your party. He specializes in aeromancy as well as hunting. I believe you two will get along splendidly. We should have one more member to add to your party, than you will be good to go.”


With that the man scurried out of the tent leaving Noah and this Ms. Freebird alone together. Noah reached out his hand for a formal shake. “Hey there, name is Noah. Hope we can get along and find something interesting out there.” A wide grin crossed his face. He was rather hopeful that the two of them would get along and have some fun. That was the whole point of playing these video games to have fun right?

 

The Faerin was still trying to find the military camp, according to the map he was very close to get to it, but the fact that the weather was cold made the journey to get there extremely uncomfortable.

"Brrr..." He shivered as he rubbed his hands on each other, in a vain attempt to get some warmth. "Kibou..." Hanno called a name with a somewhat trembling voice, making a trustful fire sphere emerge from his backpack, getting closer to the Faerin while emanating a cozy heat. With a relief sigh Hanno continued to walk hoping he wasn't getting there too late.

After hearing the King's speech about all the changes that were going to happend, the Faerin decided to volunteer for the Restoration cause. Apparently uncovering a few areas that remained unknown was one of the many things that needed to be done, and as soon as Hanno found a tent in Astorea requesting for helpers, he instantly signed up. And here he was now, on a journey to find the military camp. Once again Hanno checked his UI, and noticing the map was saying that the camp was right after the next hill, he accelerated his footsteps.

Passing over the hill he finally spotted the camp. "There you are!" He grinned before getting slapped by his Dissonant Shild's tentacle. "Eep! Stop that, do you really need to do this every time? Also, make sure to behave well." The Faerin said to the Shield, that didn't look like it cared too much. "Well, let's go." Hanno walked into one of the reception tents, making a few NPCs frown at his exotic shield, before a familiar officer walked to him.

"Greetings Mr Futaba, I'm glad to see you could make it to here. Was your journey too harsh?" The man asked to him as he stretched out a hand for a casual shake.

Hanno took it and gave it a shake. "Hello! And well.. Yeah, I should've heard you when you told me to come with you guys on one of the wagons. It was a long walk." The Faerin said, letting out a chuckle and looking up at the officer. "So, when do I start?"

The officer grabbed a paper on the table and looked at it, making a smile on his face. "Well, luckily there's a group that only needs one more member to get ready to go." The man said walking out of the tent, looking back at the Faerin. "Follow me."

With a nod, Hanno adjusted his shield on his back and followed the officer, that guided the Faerin until they walked into another tent that had a pair of players. Apparently they were waiting for the third member, that would end up being Hanno himself. "Greetings Mr. Krane and Ms. Freebird. This is Mr. Futaba." He introduced the Faerin. "He's one of the volunteers for the exploration missions." The officer looked at him. "And as you can see, he's specialization is wielding shields and covering his allies while battling face-to-face with the enemy, while at the same time he can give you some support as he have White Magic abilities, so don't get the wrong idea about him being small. He's actually pretty tough, so he should be a good addition to your exploration party."

After introducing Hanno, the officer patted his shoulder and left the tent. The Faerin looked at the other two members and smiled at them. "Nice to meet you! My name is Futaba, Hanno Futaba." He bowed slightly at them. "Let's do our best on this exploration. Who knows what kind of things we will discover, right?" Hanno looked at Madison. "Heh, I kind of know you." The Faerin grinned at the woman that he already had saw before.

 

Madison gave the last two recruits to join her group a quick once over.

Turning to @Noah Krane, she offered a curt but friendly nod. "Hunting, eh? That should be useful. Probably means you have a bit of experience tracking things, recognizing when trouble's around the corner, and other things that would be marginally helpful in most quests but deceptively useful here. Nice to meet you. I'm Madison." She extended her hand in greeting.

She swung around to meet @Hanno Futaba, the faerin. Madison quietly noted how many people were opting to pick the smols as their avatars for the game--not that they didn't have their own perks, of course. "Great," she said as she clapped her hands together. "You're our meat shield. Perfect! I might need you to stick by me while I'm dug into the earth, finding our way around."

Hanno's White Magic might be helpful for healing too, but she quietly hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Assuming control over the expedition group on the basis of being the strongest motherfscker around, Madison got everyone's attention and commanded them to leave the camp and begin the trek towards the mountains.

The trip wasn't that long. Only a couple hours on foot. And given they covered distance four times as quickly as they would in the real world, it amazed her how quickly they arrived.

The maw of the cave could've easily been missed if they weren't specifically looking for it. A small tunnel choked in darkness at the bottom of a shallow pit on the other side of a ridge. Madison motioned everyone to follow her into the darkness.

Several of the NPCs who traveled with them lit their torches, illuminating the stone walls of the cavern. The flickering shadows danced all around her as she tried to get her bearings. Everyone was quiet, everyone stood still.

"No sign of anything yet," Madison said as she knelt down. It was time for her to work her magic and begin mapping the place out. "Hanno, cover me for a second just in case, will you?"

Her gloved fingers pressed against the damp earth. In a flash, briars emerged from underneath her sleeve, digging into the ground. The witch took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

What the rest of the party didn't see was the vines splitting and spreading out in a vast network of roots, digging through the soft dirt and rock of the hillside and pushing further down the tunnel. Through this, Madison could get a sense of what lied ahead--forks in the path, sharp inclines that led to certain doom, hungry inhabitants that were setting up an ambush.

Satisfied that they were safe for the time being, Madison unrooted herself. Standing up and dusting off the knees of her pants, she said, "The tunnel looks to be pretty straight for a bit. We should be safe for now. Let's get moving. Keep an eye out for any deposits the suits at the camp would be interested in."

 

Noah gave a light chuckle and rubbed the back of his head as the woman mentioned his experience in tracking. Haha, we’ll we will have to see how up to snuff I am won’t we?” He had a decent amount of points into his Hunter’s skill but stating that he had experience tracking was laughable. Really, Noah, had primarily used the skill to avoid trouble. He wasn’t one that liked to jump into the thick of battle too often, so the skill’s tracking ability allowed him to pick up on tracks and other notable signs about beasts paths, allowing him to avoid them.


The third member of their group arrived shortly after Noah entered the scene, which was great for him. He was chilled from this nippy morning weather, some movement would help get his virtual blood flowing and warmed up a bit. The third party member was named Futaba, an odd name. It sounded Japanese themed, perhaps this player was from Japan or at least liked the anime and manga scene from there? In real life, Noah had watched a few series but he couldn’t get over the hypersexualized atmosphere that it promoted. In truth it made him a bit uncomfortable. Still the action scenes were pretty cool. Regardless of that, it was nice to hear that this Futaba had some healing based skills and abilities, at least they could be a bit reckless now right?


Noah waved at Futaba and introduced himself to the little Faerin. “Nice to meet ya Futaba, let’s have some fun out there right? I’ll try to make sure that you’re at least aware when an enemy tries to pounce on ya.”


This Ms. Freebird assumed leadership of the group, which was fine with Noah seeing how he was not the authoritative type. The trip to the mountains was rather quiet, nothing notable at all happened it seemed. The woods were still this morning, perhaps all the creatures had started to migrate elsewhere due to the influx of players? Noah had passed several kills while he was lost through the woods earlier. Most of them seemed like they were for sport, seeing how paws, heads, and other various body parts were left behind. It was a grotesque practice but at least these beasts were virtual and not like those in the real world.


Noah wasn’t really expecting a troop of NPCs to venture with them but he was pleasantly surprised to have them light their path with torches. They also served as pack mules for some of their supplies. Once they reached the cavern, Madison started her work in mapping out the system’s channels. Noah placed both of his hands behind his head as Madison and Futaba did their thing. Once Madison had gotten a decent idea she was ready to venture deep into the cavern.


Noah noticed that there was a worn path on the ground before them. With the low light it was hard to get a full idea on what sort of creature might have made this path but it was clear that this cavern had some sort of beast within. Due to the echo of the cave, Noah kept a low tone as he spoke to the rest of the party. “Not to alarm anybody, but I think there might be something of substantial size lurking in here. Theres markings and a plenty of disturbed dirt on the floor. I’d think its something at least of humanoid like size, but whether it is two legged or not is hard to say. The lighting is too dim to get a total grasp. We should be prepared regardless though.”


Due to his fighting style, Noah had positioned himself near the end of the group letting both Madison and Futaba in front of him. He’d be more useful back here anyways due to his range skills. The cavern was tight though so it would be hard to get off too many shots without the off chance of hitting an ally so he would have to pick his moments carefully, but they would have to wait and see what that enemy would be.

 

'She meant to say meat shield, didn't she?' Hanno smiled in a silly way, he already knew Madison had a slightly insensitive personality considering what he have saw in the previous time he have saw her, but it didn't matter! She wasn't a bad person. "Sure!" He shaked his gargantuan Shield for emphasis. "I will do my best to cover you through all our mission." It shouldn't be too hard to protect her with a giant shield, and that woman was powerful so any battle probably wouldn't take too long anyway.

Then he turned at @Noah Krane, waving back and giving a chill grin. "Just tell me where the trouble lives and I won't let a single blow get past me!" The Faerin gave a thumb up, it seemed they were with a good composition: a mage, an archer and a tank. Not bad, that mission was just on their hands, though Hanno was a little worried at first because tracking wasn't his biggest strength... But seeing the situation, as long as he could keep those two protected, the rest would be a piece of cake.

After the fast introductions, @Madison Freebird took the lead and made the group go for their journey. Hanno followed along in the quiet trip. Normally he would be more talkative, but the cold weather was making he get more focused on getting warm than anything else. Though his shield constantly slapped his head and pulled his ponytail, giving him a huge test of patience that he had to endure in hours of walking.

Finally getting to the cavern, Hanno wasn't surprised to see NPCs, after all it was a big mission that involved all Astorea. But that still gave him some thought... Even if Astorea was a player town, it had a lot of NPCs living on it, which basically meant a lot of people's lives depended on all that. It wasn't just something that would help players that can easily jump back to their worlds if they want to... With a few exceptions of players that lost their UIs. This thought made the Faerin get a little more serious about that quest.

Accepting Madison's request, the Faerin covered the woman while she attempted to do some sort of magic. He wasn't sure what she was trying to do, but considering what she said right after finishing it, apparently she was trying to understand the terrain they were. 'That's nature magic for you, huh... Who said the wild is just grass and forest?' He chuckled to himself.

Then, Noah said something about a possible creature? That meant it was time to Hanno act. "Well, if something dangerous is walking around here, let me stay in the frontline." He whispered looking back at them. "I will go in front of you, Freebird. But I won't be too far just in case something attack from behind, if you guys detect something tell me..."

The Faerin started to walk foward while wielding his shield. The cave was extremely quiet, the only sound that could be heard was the sounds of their steps. Hanno looked around while walking, trying to make sure there wasn't anything on the top of the tunnel or hiding behind a rock... And it didn't seem to have anything too worrysome at first, until something unsettling appeared on the cave's wall...

You didn't need to be an expert to realize, that the mark that was on the cave's wall was clearly some type of scratch. A scratch of some creature's claw, peharps remains of a fight that happened a long time ago? It wasn't a big scratch, but it seemed like a powerful one. Powerful enough to probably cut off someone's limb. "Uhm, you guys know what's this?" Hanno looked back at his group, wielding his shield prepared in case something happened.

 

Madison approached the marks in the cavern wall that the little one pointed out. She looked over her shoulder and pointed at one of the others who tagged along with their group. "Light, please."

As the caenis approached with his torch, she got a better look at the gouges.

The witch thought out loud for the sake of everyone else present. "These are definitely claw marks. Dug a solid inch into the rock, curved like a swipe." Madison drew closer and squinted at some dark splotches next to the the lines. She gently prodded and rubbed them with a gloved finger. "Blood, maybe?"

Whatever it was, it had long dried.

Madison stepped away from the wall. Turning to the caenis that held the torch, she said, "Can you smell anything? I couldn't sense anything living here when I was mapping out the cavern, but you've got stronger senses than I do."

The man's ears twitched slightly as he raised his nose into the musty, damp air. He sniffed for several seconds, turning his head in different directions whenever he thought he might have picked something up.

After a few moments, he said, "Nothing out of the ordinary, ma'am."

Yet, she mused to herself.

Madison pursed her lips, but nodded in acceptance. Caves like these were always a crap shoot. They were either packed with riches or monsters. That was her first lesson in Terrasphere. And from the looks of it, this one contained nothing the Astorean Royal Cartography Office would want to harvest.

But, they still had a duty to fulfill, and plenty of teeth and claw fodder at the ready in case things went south. Madison motioned towards Noah. "Can you do us a favor and walk up front with Hanno? You've got an eye for this sort of thing. Just need you to keep an eye out for any hints that whatever left these marks in the stone might be lying in wait for us. The faerin will protect you just in case it is."

 

Claw marks that were deep but not wide? That was curious. It wouldn’t be too big of a shock to find a bear in a cavern like this or some other sort of forest predator, perhaps a Dire Wolf or mountain lion, but all of these beasts’ claws wouldn’t be so fine and narrow. Noah ran his fingers along the lines of the markings. He closed his eyes for a second, upon reopening them a small flicker of red had filled them as he activated one of his hunter’s skills, predatory mode.

Predatory Mode

The skill started to hone in on the claws and the dried rust tinted stains near the markings. Though he was using a more advanced version of the inspection skill, he was still pulling up no clues whatsoever. Noah took a step back and looked at the picture as a whole to see if his skill might self target another marking that they had not yet noticed. A small box of text hovered along the grounds as more dark rust colored stains made a trail deeper into the cavern. During this time the NPCs that were with them had started to do their own investigation but alas it seemed that all of them came to the same conclusion, they had no freaking idea.


“Hmm, yea I’m not picking up anything. I wouldn’t say that these markings are the cause of a fight or scuffle, there's too few of them. Though I’d think that these dark spots are blood, though from what manner of beast I couldn’t say...It appears possibly wounded though so we might get lucky and just find a corpse of something up ahead. We should still be wary though.”


Madison seemed to have a decent idea and a logical one. Noah’s hunting skills really would help out in this sort of situation. He was primarily a range fighter but he could throw some mid-range attacks here and there thanks to his aeromancy mastery. As the group ventured deeper into the cavern, Noah would fidget with the ring on his right ring finger anticipating that something was lurking in the darkness of the cavern. “Can do.” He gave a thumbs up and a wide grin. There was no point in being too scared, it was a game after all. What was the worst that could happen?

 

Hanno looked at eveyone doing their investigations, but it seemed that the answer was pretty much the same: "We found nothing again then." The Faerin sighed, leaning on his shield a bit. 'That creature is very sneaky... Was it really somewhere in that cave?' He looked hopelessly at the scouts, if people that were professionals at tracking things weren't finding anything, no one else would be able to.

He looked foward at the tunnel and began walking deeper into the cave as soon as Noah got beside him. The Faerin doubled his attention on his surroundings, focusing more on reacting to a possible dangerous situation than trying to actually find something. "You know, maybe whatever that was inside this cave ran away?" Peharps? They have been walking in this cave has been hours already... It didn't seem anything was inside it.

There wasn't any claws marks in the whole path they took, the walls all seemed pretty much intact, which lifted even more questions in Hanno's head. That meant the claws marks he saw before were an isolated situation? Probably just some random fight that was in the wrong place and in the wrong time.

A little distracted on thoughts, Hanno was suddenly surprised by his Shield widening it's central eye and slapping his back softly with a tentacle. "What's wrong with yo-" An unsettling roar made the Faerin instantly raise his Shield in front of Noah, blocking a powerful attack that made a deafening scratching sound against the surface of the Shield. "ME AND MY STUPID MOUTH!" The Faerin yelled to himself, of course something was wrong!

In a fit of strength Hanno swinged his Shield, throwing whatever creature he had blocked at the closest cave wall. Making the monster let out a pain yelp... "What's this thing?!" The Faerin took the frontline and covered @Noah Krane and @Madison Freebird , hearing other roars coming deep inside of the cave.

Whatever this creature was... It wasn't alone.

 

Madison immediately went to work, flashing a playing card that erupted with purple flames, briefly illuminating the stretch of cavern. A bolt of dark energy rose from the flames, striking the creature in the flank as it recovered from Hanno's deflection. It immediately yelped in pain and slammed into to the rocks.

The party remained still, on alert for any other monsters that might be lurking in the shadows. Maddy quietly cut her deck of cards in one hand, recharging the magic within and readying it for another spell.

Nobody made a sound, save for the pained whimpering of the creature off to the side. Her breath caught in her throat, the witch drew closer to it, motioning the caenis with the torch to follower her.

What she saw was twisted and reptilian, with tufts of fur covering various its shoulders, neck, and crown.

"What do you think it is," the caenis asked, his voice hushed.

"Dying," she flatly replied.

Madison had cast a spell from her deck that inflicted untold pain on its victim. Every nerve ending was on fire, overloading their senses, paralyzing their muscles and frying their brain. Eventually, the curse would be too much for their body to handle, and the heart would give out, killing it.

"Leave it be," Madison whispered. Returning to the group, she quietly said for everyone to hear, "This thing already alerted the others to our presence."

As to punctuate the witch's statement, another beast roared. This time, it was closer.

But how many of them were there? The woman knelt down, another web of vines reaching out from inside her sleeve. She pressed the tips of her fingers against the cold, damp rock. The tips of the vines began to dig into the earth.

She closed her eyes.

And immediately sprung to her feet, ripping her hand free from the ground. Her footsteps echoed through the cave, lost in the increasing cacophony coming from deeper within.

"RUN!!"

 

Though the lighting was dim in the cavern, the NPC’s that accompanied them, torches allowed Noah to see an odd shadow like tentacle manifest itself from the tiny little warrior before him. At first he believed that the object was the creature in question but his hunter’s skill quickly assessed that the tentacle was apart of the faerin’s shield. That was an odd shield to be carrying around, seemed like it would be more of a liability than an asset. To each their own though.


It wasn’t long after that incident that Noah picked him some more movement up head. “Hey gu-” He was cut off before being able to warn the others. Thankfully, their protector was able to sense the creature as well and threw up the shield to block the incoming attack that seemed to be poised right at Noah’s head. “Shit that was close, thanks.” Noah said in a bit of a shocked tone, he had almost been hit dead on if it wasn’t for his little friend.


He held up his hand and started to focus his energy into the ring on his finger. Shortly after various odd shaped characters would appear floating in a circular manner in front of him, followed by a bolt of blue lightning poised right at the odd creature’s gut. His hunter’s ability gave no name to the beast, it was just filled with ???. It did point out the creature’s weak points, the gut, eyes, and oddly enough it's left leg.


After being assaulted by a volley of attacks from each of the party members the creature collapsed to the ground dead. Noah was half tempted to go an inspect it when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. A small pop up would form before him.

KILLING INTENT DETECTED​

“Um guys….” He would mutter as he peered into the darkness before them. Sounds of claws scratching and guttural sounds could be heard quickly approaching the party. Madison seemed to pick up on it as well as she yelled loudly for the party to run. Noah, not being one to go against the flow of things, quickly decided that it was probably best to do the same. Wind and lighting circled his body as he quickly sprinted off with the rest of the group back down the path which they came They all knew they had to get the hell out of there.


The beasts seemed to be unphased by their dead brethren, they charged right past the corpse, trampling it further into the ground with each step. Noah being near the end of the pack due to being at the front of the party just moments before kept turning his head around looking to make sure that their little Faerin buddy was able to keep up with those short little legs. That was Noah’s biggest mistake. By not paying attention to the path before him, he did not see a cluster of roots that had protruded from the cave’s floor, causing him to trip and slam face first into the ground before him.


“Ow ow ow…” Noah had just became the single biggest liability to their group. Forget the weird tentacle shield. The reptile-mutants were still charging full speed towards them. Would Noah be able to recover in time to escape, would his allies take the time to help him, or would he become their next meal? Dying wasn’t so horrible for players but it still was a nasty blow to their self confidence, so there was that, hopefully he wouldn’t be taking that blow today.

 

"Don't mention it!" He smiled at @Noah Krane, giving a thumb up before looking at the horrific creature agonizing. "Good job there." The Faerin said to @Madison Freebird, as expected from a practicer of dark magic, that was sure a very useful offensive spell.

'What's this thing though? It looks so... Weird.' Hanno tilted his head while analyzing the monster, just what kind of twisted abomination was that? Not that the Faerin didn't see weird things before, after all on his perspective a giant dissonant octopus was far more unsettling than that. He looked at the woman telling something about others being alerted about their presence, which didn't surprise the Faerin, after all that thing was extremely loud.

But what Hanno didn't expect was that said 'others' were already so close, he looked at the darkness after hearing a roar... His Shield widened it's eyes again, making the Faerin look at it. "Ah... This isn't good news, right?" He whispered to himself, giving a nervous smile as he wielded his shield, prepared to the fight... But when he heard the mage that looked so fearless yell to everyone run as an echo of what sounded like a stampede could be heard, he knew that what was coming next wasn't something as simple as a couple of monsters... It was probably a swarm of them.

Waiting for everyone run in front of him, Hanno finally darted off while aiming his shield at the unknown darkness. Despite his size, his legs were extremely strong and he could run really fast even though he was wielding something as heavy as his shield. "No gooood! no goooood!" The Faerin said outloud while running with a nervous smile, as he wasn't too worried since everyone was pretty far ahead. 'As long as everyone keep running, we should be fin-' His thoughts were interrupted as soon as he saw the man tripping.

His eyes widened and his smile faded away, it wasn't time to fool around anymore. Hanno speeded up toward the fallen comrade, leaning down and wraping his left arm around the guy as he lifted the man and began carrying him. "Are you okay?! It's not time to fall!" The Faerin tried to keep the pace as fast as he could. He looked back trying to spot the monsters, but he couldn't see anything. 'I'm not sure if they are far, but I'm sure it's not time to stop!'

 

The moment she heard one of her teammates cry out, Madison whipped around. It was the ranger guy, Noah.

Goddammitgoddammitgoddammit, the witch cursed to herself as she hesitated. Glaring at the NPCs who were assigned to her, she barked at them, "The rest of you, get the hell outta' here. Keep running. Don't stop."

"What about you and the other two," one of them hurriedly asked as she rushed by.

"I got 'em," she snapped back.

Madison did the most un-Madison thing ever and turned to help Noah. She quickly covered the distance between them, but as she reached out to help him up, the faerin Hanno swooped in and did the most un-faerin thing ever and hoised the ranger on his shoulders.

The sight of a smol carrying a moderately big around normally would've inspired humor in the jaded, dour woman; but this was definitely not the time for levity. Not when you had an entire pack of scaly fur-bastards breathing down your neck. Save the ugly giggling for after they reached safety.

The thunder of a million footfalls and shrieking roars of a thousand hungry mouths was getting louder and louder. There was no friggin' way they were going to make it; the pack of monsters was just too fast.

"Get the fuck outta here," she hissed at Hanno. "I'll take care of this."

Madison steeled herself, gripped her cards tightly, and gave the deck a quick shuffle. The light of the group's lanterns were quickly fading, casting her in a cloak of shadows that threatened to engulf her.

That was okay, she wouldn't need it.

With a deft flick of her fingers, she ripped the top five cards off the deck and arranged them in the air before her. Full house, sixes and Jacks.

The earth at her feet split and crumbled as a wave of thick, springy mushrooms grew out from where she stood, the stalks shooting upward and the faded caps expanding as they built up pressure. Little red dots began appearing on the mushrooms, growing in size until the color seemingly bled out of its bounds, covering the caps.

Madison's gaze fluttered up for a second. She could barely make out the first wave of reptile beasts fast approaching.

With a snap of her fingers the caps burst, and a thick cloud of spores filled the air. She took two steps back, and immediately made a break for the cave entrance. Behind her, everything turned into chaos as the front-most beasts began to turn on one another. The hallucinogenic spores were doing some serious work, forcing one reptilian beast-thing to imagine his kin as a nice turkey dinner fresh from the oven.

Unfortunately, the spores weren't strong or numerous enough to affect them all. With a bit more time, Madison could have cast a ritual strong enough to absolutely wreck them all--or maybe if she had put a few more MP into Illusion Magic--but what she did would have to do.

 

Noah was quickly rescued by their pint-sized friend, who was surprisingly much stronger than he would have first given credit. The little man was able to scoop Noah up and help him get back on his feet right before their hunters caught up to them. “Thanks, I owe you one.” The two of them sprinted back towards the group. As they ran towards them, Noah noticed the woman had halted and seemed to be playing with a deck of cards. Perhaps these were her tools that she used as a medium to cast magic? Either way he was not about to question her commands for them to keep running.


The light of daybreak was within reach. As they approached, Noah conjured his bow from his inventory and quickly did an about face, sliding along the loose dirt until he came to a stop. An arrow was quickly notched in his bow as he waited for signed of the woman to emerge from the darkness of the cavern. He was ready to unleash a volley of arrows the moment he saw any of the nasty scaled beasts.

Steady Aim

He heard the sounds of the beasts crying as well as what seemed to be a skirmish within the cave. His bow was still all the ready to let loose. “Where is she….” He muttered under his breath. He would wait for a few more moments, if she was not within sight by then than he would have to go back in and find her. It was his fault for falling after all that placed her in this sort of position.


He was close to lowering his bow when he saw the raven haired woman’s figure running right out of the cavern. Which in turn he let out a small sigh of relief, all the while he kept his eyes poised right at the cave’s mouth, for the sounds of the beasts still seemed to draw closer. Madison might have been able to slow them down momentarily but they were still clawing their way towards the surface.


“You all good?” He asked Madison as she ran past him. They wouldn’t have much of a chance to talk, the cavern lizards were upon them. That’s when Noah came into action. His arrows started letting loose, one after another. In quick succession he would aim at the creature’s heads and fire off an arrow.

Rapid Fire

His bow was of slightly poor quality but his Steady Aim skill and Range Mastery skill helped make up for that. His shots wouldn’t all be kill shots but they all found a home in some part of a lizard at least. He’d leave the wounded ones left to Futaba and Madison to finish off. These little thorns in their side would quickly be disposed of one way or another and the party can get on with their investigation of the cavern.

 

The Faerin frowned at Madison saying to him get away. 'Damn it, I need to help too!' He thought, but he couldn't do it while carrying Noah so he just kept running until the man finally got his balance back and hopped off from Hanno's hold, letting the Faerin properly wield his shield again. "No problem! But let's not lose time, we need to help her out!" He said, and luckily the man didn't look like he was scared off by the situation, as he took stance to fight back against the monsters.

"Great! Let's do it!" Hanno charged to prepare an attack, they couldn't let the woman fight against those things alone, it was way too dangerous. When he finally got the sight of @Madison Freebird, he noticed she has already halted many of those aberrations, but there were still a lot of them standing.

"You are going to pay for this!" He said angrily, speeding up the charge and stepping on a rock to gain momentum for a jump, while raising his shield, that made him pass over @Noah Krane arrows that pierced several monsters, making many of them drop dead or gravely injuried.

While Hanno was finally falling from the jump, he targeted the ground, while charging at it at full speed with his shield until he slammed it with all his strength.

EVERLASTING GROUNDBREAKER

The ground trembled as it cracked with boulders rising from the cracks as it disrupted the reptilian creatures, knocking some of them up making them even more vulnerable. While two tentacles from the shield stretched out, grabbed two of them midair and smashed them together, breaking their bones with the impact while finally finishing them off.

"And you better not come back!" Hanno shouted at the lifeless corpses while looking at the remaining monsters that were just about to get finished off by Madison.