The Shrew in the Cervice - RPLOG
Participants
Date
27/10/477
Log
Natska gives Bernard a quick, apologetic glance, then takes off down the hallway after Cassidy. She doesn't move quite as fast as the fennec did, but she is determined to not let her out of her sight. "Better move quick, then! Come on everyone."
Bernie sighs as everyone dashes off without him. "Go on!" he waves at Rainer, "I'll catch up!" The old hound continues along at a sedate pace, his eyes bright and lively as he examines the tunnel, following after the others.
Cirra, coated in a healthy layer of mathemagic, dashes off after Cassidy and Natska. She's possibly faster than either of them, though they both have a headstart on her. She prepares another spell, but keeps this one on the brink of casting, waiting to see what happens. Kinda hard to do the diplomacy if you can't speak.
Rainer feels the rush of air on his fur as Cassidy zooms past him, prompting him to further grit his teeth and STARE at the rest of the team dragging their heels, until finally they all jump into action! ...except the old mutt. Still bouncing eagerly at the mouth of the secret passage as Natska and Cirra join the charge, he keeps looking back and forth between it and the plodding hound, starts whimpering, and finally throws back his head with a sighed "dammit." So he squashes down all his impatient mannerisms and forces himself into a more relaxed posture, brushing a hand through his hair, acting all nonchalant. "Well, -I'm- not leaving you back here by yourself. Who knows where else these passages open up? Can't have them getting the jump on you while everyone else's lost behind the walls, eh?"
Cassidy comes to a halt just outside of the potential ambush sight and flashes a little grin. She lets her book hang from the belt at her waist to free up her hand as she pulls up a few black pouches. "Now... Let's try this," she murmurs. Without any sound to give the foes ahead a tell, she opens each of the three bags and places them on the ground before kicking up a bit of air magic to try to carry the powder down the tunnel, dispersing it in the room. The only thing off would be the sudden breeze, but by then it'd likely be too late.
Rokarion __;*
The voices of dropping bodies can be heard from the eastern tunnel. Was it all of them or not is hard to tell without going into the tunnel. The rest of the group meanwhile reached Cassidy, and now they only needed to move into the tunnel to see the bandits. However, Bernard and Rinaer are still behind, reaching the first intersection as the rest of the group are already at the far end of the tunnel. They are treated to the sight of the rock formations, and water dripping around them. Also, they would notice that in the first intersection there is obvious movement of something in the western tunnel, obvious from the outlines is that they are elementals, most likely due to the nature of the cave, and its old overseer.
Bernard stops Rainer gently at the intersection. "Just a moment, lad," he says, stopping to fumble at his plain soul pendant for a moment before tucking it back into his fine linen shirt. "There," he says, patting the spot where his pendant is hidden, "Let's catch up with the others now. No need to bother the rocks back there. We're lookin fer fire, after all."
Natska comes to a stop at Cassidy's shoulder, glancing down at the bags then over at the fennec. She takes a moment to set herself, then nods her head. "Shall we?"
Cirra headtilts at Natska, blinking as the pair ahead of her stop, looking beyond them to see the bandits that are down. She keeps her spell ready, making sure the coast is clear before rejoining the old dog and the younger wolf.
Rainer watches the shadowy forms of the elementals moving about in the distance and... starts bouncing again. He turns his head to cast a gaze down the tunnel to the rest of the group, then back to the elementals again. "...I really wanna though..." the excitable pup moans as he ushers Bernard ahead, sparing a look back the way they came for signs of pursuit before following. "Also I thought we were looking for mushrooms." Seeing the sharkess heading towards them he gives her a wave before motioning her back the way she came, "All clear back here~"
Cassidy takes her book up in one arm again, drawing her rapier in the other. "Yes. Let us. We can get the mushrooms after we deal with them. Maybe they have the mushrooms, themselves," she says, striding forward, approaching with soundless steps.
As Cassidy and Natska step into the tunnel they notice it opening up into a small hallway, with another passageway going to the north, most likely the bandit's 'room'. However, much more urgent is the scene in front of the two, five beings lie on the floor dosing off, with a sixth one throwing a bucket of water on top of himself.
The being is obviously from the heavy clan if his stature is any hint. He looks like he is a fish being. Looking closely, one would notice that he is a herring being, with deep red skin color, a wicked looking scar on his face, and ginger hair. The large herring looks at the two with bloodshot eyes, before screaming in a gruff voice, "I am Clancy Roth! The Crimson Scar of the East Bank Forest! Who dares challenge me?!" Clancy then takes out a wicked looking, great sword, and points at the two, "Your trickery won't help you. Face me honorably if you dare!"
"Aye, lad," Bernard says, "But the mushrooms aren't like to be that way or this." He nods at the passage ahead where the shouts are coming from. "I fear I made a wee misstep back in the stone room," he admits, "Y'see, we should have gone West to reach the mushrooms."
Natska levels a flat stare at Clancy, then gives her head a tiny shake. "We are just passing through. Don't mind us." She takes a step back, and a chilly breeze begins slowly swirling around the jaguar.
Cirra leaves the talks to Natska, preparing her most powerful spell. Granted, she doesn't have enough space for her full lead-up, but she might as well keep the spell ready. This guy looks tough.
"Hah, admit it: you were more interested in picking a fight with whoever was setting the traps!" Rainer brings his teeth to bare in a big old smile, shrugging the two still-empty collection sacks off his shoulder and dropping them aside. "Well you better get up there before the ladies hog all the fun, then." Himself, he just looks for an optimal place from which to witness the spectacle.
Cassidy raises her brow at the fish and does her best to not laugh. "Oh pipe down, we're just here to look around. We don't want to kill you. Or I don't. That's why they're asleep. We're looking for fungus. Have you seen it? If you've got any, I'll just turn around and make my way. I've got no quarrel with you." All the same, a number of fireballs start to flicker into existence around her, just in case. "So please. If you can tell us if you've seen one, or at least let us go to keep looking, that'll be the end of it. Well. From us, anyway!" She couldn't speak for the other three, when they managed to catch up.
The red herring squints at the increasing number of opponents, before letting out a growl, and saying in a gruff voice, "I have no idea what mushrooms are you talking about. My lads and I have yet to finish exploring the caves. However, there are none such at the eastern side of the caves. Try western." With that Clancy gives another growl, "Now get out of my sight. All of you." He then looks at the group, sword still in hand, waiting to see the group's actions.
Bernard lets Rainer go ahead and watch the face off with the bandits with a chuckle. "Aye, lad," he says, "Ye got me." The old hound then turns and quietly saunters back the way they came, being careful of traps. The bandits were handled, but there were mushrooms to find!
Natska keeps a wary eye on the fish as she backs down the corridor, then glances behind to see Bernard is already off; she waits for Cassidy, then hurridly walks after the elderly Saint Bernard.
Cirra curses mentally, returning to Bernard and Rainer, looking down one of the westward halways as she goes.
Rainer thrusts out his lips like he was expecting any one of the women to plant a smooch on him as they passed, brows furrowed and glancing about between the players in this little be of suspense drama. "What, are you kidding? We're just gonna ignore the bad guys?" Despite the protesting tone he collects the bags and follows anyway. "Auuuaahhhuuuaghhh. Worst. Adventure. Ev-ur."
Cassidy turns and strides off alongside Natska, returning her sword to its scabbard. "Yes. There is no need for pointless bloodshed. We, at least most of us, I hope, are not murdering psychopaths. That's Thel's job."
The group leaves the growling herring as he goes back inside to his own business as he heads into the northern cave-in. The group, following Bernard all head back towards the room they were in previously, passing the intersection with the elementals, and exiting the secret passage, before standing once again in the room. The room remains the same, a trip wire on the eastern tunnel where the group is arriving from, a northern tunnel, and another western tunnel.
"West then," Bernard says, "Like the stone up front said." He turns a joweled smile back on his younger compatriots. "That was well done back there!" he says, "Shall we press on?" He holds out an arm for whoever might like to take it, standing by the western corridor.
"Sure, west," Natska agrees, nodding her head. "This place is huge, goodness." Her tail swishes back and forth, and she waits for everyone else before continuing on.
The Nurse sharks deactivates her spell, not wanting to seem threatening to the shale elementals. She's kinda curious where they are expected to find mushrooms, and if those bandits were telling the truth.
Rainer's eyebrows go up and his mouth starts to open when Cassidy's remarks first reach his ears, but he abruptly smacks his muzzle shut and keeps it that way, just quietly stewing and loitering at the back of the group. His gaze frequently turns back to the path behind them, likely hoping he'll spot the thugs trailing them or otherwise doing something he could use as an excuse for provocation.
Cassidy chuckles softly and nods. "West is fine, yes. And it certainly is quite large," she agrees, leaning against Natska for a brief moment before starting off down the west, fishing a flask from one of the pockets in her cloak. After taking a sip, she offers it towards the jaguar. "Care for a bit of tea? Ought to keep our energy up, incase we run into a giant bullfrog or something."
The group moves towards the western path, one would notice that the walls here were somehow looking more sturdy than the rest of the mine. As the group move through the tunnel they reach a small fork, obviously not a main path, as the fork only has one other small, side tunnel that leads directly to a closed and battered door. One could check what was inside or continue their path at their leisure.
Bernard is in no hurry. "This is more adventure than I've had in a decade!" he says happily as he taps his cane along the hall, "What do ye suppose that is?" The portly hound nods at the small branch. "Don't spose our mushrooms are behind the door," he says, "But it could be most anything else!"
Natska glances over and eyes the door. "It certainly could... I suppose we have no way of knowing if we don't check." She thinks for a moment, then her ears perk and she grins, turning to the sulking wolf behind the party. "Hey, Rainer! Do you want to have the honors of opening the door?"
Cirra blinks. She'd like to explore the smaller path if at all possible, but is reasonably sure that's not the path to their goal. She looks around for clues, keping in mind the clues from earlier.
Rainer jumps when his name is called, as he'd been checking for followers yet again when it came, and stares bewildered for several beats before he catches up with the situation. "It's probably just the foreman's cabin." he remarks, less than enthused, as he approaches the door, "Er, hole. Cave. Y'know what I mean." Grabs the knob, gives it a twist, pushes! ...And then/or pulls. Whichever way it's meant to open.
Cassidy shrugs and tucks her tea flask away, leaning back to watch Rainer and the door. "I was expecting more mushrooms, actually. It's a little disappointing! I'm surprised we've not found a single one, yet."
The main tunnel still stretches beyond, with a faint flicker of green light promising some form of compensation for the group; however, Rainer receives a whole different form of compensation. Opening the door, he is met with quite a grizzle, and strange scene. The room looks like that it used to be the Overseer's quarters, with many destroyed alchemical equipment, and strange liquids on the walls. The room looks as if it suffered the fury of a powerful fire mathemagician, or the most likely story, an alchemical mishap. Around all of the charred debris, near the alchemical work station is the skeletal remains of what one would assume the old overseer, his, or maybe her, charred robes and the damaged equipment around him belaying their mathemagicial vocation. There seems nothing to do here, except notice how that some of the compounds and mixtures seem to be still clinging or dripping from the walls.
Natska peeks around Rainer as he opens the door and then frowns. "What, really? This can't have happened that long ago, especially for nobody to have found it..." she trails off and frowns, and something makes her glances around as she checks up and down the hallway.
Cirra continues heading down the main hall, trying not to retch from the scene she saw past the blind charge into the overseer's office.
