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.
Rainer's face twists in disgust with an audible "bleck," and he has to turn away from the scene several times before he's finally able to stomach it long enough to take the whole room in. "Was gonna say... guy disappears ages ago and no one thought to look behind a door? ...Think he was with those bandits?" He casts his gaze down to the floor, a thoughtful frown upon his muzzle, and decides to venture into the room, doing his utmost to avoid stepping in the drippy gunk where possible as he makes for the remnants of the workstation. Well, alright, for the sake of brevity: he wants that corpse's clothes. For raisins. And soon as he has them he'll scoot right back out.
"Oof. This is quite a mess." Cassidy shakes her head and makes a face. "I doubt it, but I'm starting to wonder if we got set up or something! Or if this is all just a bad mess."
Bernard frowns and pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, placing it firmly over his sensitive canine nose. How had THIS not been uncovered before? It probably explained why the bandits had not strayed this direction. "It certainly could have happened at least a year ago, Lass," he says to Natska, "Looks like this all blew up in his face. Must have been during the elemental attack. Or just before." The hound turns and follows Cirra down the main hall. "Nothin' more to see here, methinks," he says, leaving the dead where they lay, "We can get someone to come for the poor body later. Didn't expect things to turn so unpleasant."
As Cirra moves closer to the end of the tunnel, the green light grows brighter. Taking a right turn at the end of the tunnel, anyone who enters will be greeted by an almost awe-inspiring sight. The tunnel expands to a large chamber, more damp, and wet than the rest of the cave, and with almost every surface covered in the glowing fungus. The room radiate a pleasant green color, awaiting the group to come and pick up their intended prize.
"Ah!" Bernard barks a little cheer, "That's more like it!" The old dog taps his way to the wall and reaches up to break off one of the luminous mushrooms to study. "Remarkable!" he says.
Natska wrinkles her nose at the mess, then quietly slips her arm through Cassidy's as she follows Cirra and Bernard down the hallway towards the glow. "Well then. This wasn't too bad at all! And who knows, maybe someone will put up a contract to clear out the elementals and such later on."
Cirra smiles a bit as she starts collecting the fungi, carefully placing them in the bag they brought along with them. She is still nervous about the overseer and hopes that whatever did all that fire isn't either causing more harm or isn't in pain anymore, since she couldn't tell if it was the overseer who cast it.
"Yuck yuck yuck yuck..." Rainer comes hopping back out of the overseer's room, lifting his feet one at a time to give them a shaking out, convinced he stepped in a puddle or two, before hurrying to catch up with the others, nondescript sacks over one shoulder, gawdawful-smelling magician's robe over the other. "...Yup, they're mushrooms. Woo-hoo, thrilling, into the saddle bags, eh ladies and gents?" He tosses one bag to the ground for the others and keeps one for himself, using his sword to scrape the shrooms into it quick as he can.
Cassidy raises her brow and peers at Rainer. "For someone that wants to fight so much, you seem to have an aversion to gore and dead bodies." She reaches up to rub at one of her ears before leaning into Natska again, letting herself be taken by the arm. "Maybe they will!"
The group grabs as much as they want from the fungus, hopefully filling the two sacks, while Bernard, and any other who chooses to, takes some for personal experimentation. The group then heads back the way they came from, facing nothing in the cold tunnels of the cave, fortunately.
Right outside the cave, the shrew and his owl bodyguard wait, with the wagon parked right behind them. Upon seeing the group exit, the fidgety shrew grins in relief, and starts speaking in a cheery tone, "Good good! You found the fungus? I hope you got as much as possible. I really appreciate your efforts Freeswords! Now can you please hand over the sacks? Your reward awaits you!"
Bernard pads thoughtfully from the mine, leaning on his cane. "Maybe I won't be doing this again soon," he says, "But thank ye all for lookin out for this old hound dog." The portly canine taps his way over to the owl. "So, William," he says with a smile, "How is it you keep this sort of thing up?"
Natska gives Benard a small pat on the shoulder, then snuffs her torch with another gesture of mathemagic. She offers it back to the shrew's guard, and then gives Charles a nod. "Filled the two sacks all the way, and there was plenty more in there. Not a bad job, all things considered."
Cirra nods, looking over to see what her reward is. She's hoping it's not a false reward. That happened a few times back in Cliffside. Have an underling do a job then get rid of them as a 'reward'.
"Um, yeah. Just don't go wandering in there unarmed hoping to score yourself s'more. Found some suspicious-lookin' folk holed up in there too." Rainer slants his gaze towards the others as he passes them, dragging along the two bags full of shrooms, both of which he's wiped that wretched stench of fiery death and alchemical mishap all over, during the walk back. Because Cliffsiders! He deposits the load before the shrew, presuming there'll need be some inspection of the merchandise, takes his new, slightly used mathemagical robes and starts walking away, not even interested in the payment, apparently.
Cassidy rubs her chin under her mask and shrugs. "It was an interesting enough night, certainly!" She rolls her shoulders for a moment and stifles a little yawn. "That said... I could use a rest now. All that walking around in a cave has left me feeling sort of tired!"
The moment Rainer sets the two bags on the ground, the small shrew's cheerful act quickly fades, replaced by a serious, and critical expression on his face. He immediately begins scanning all over the fungus. Satisfied with the results, his smile returns, and he motions for one of the guards to take away the sacks, and bring the payment. "Good job Freeswords! You deserve your pay for this!"
The aging owl chuckles at Bernard's comment, "Standing around the merchant looking all important seems to do the job for me." He then moves towards the wagon, "Give me a minute old friend." As the owl departs to the wagon, the raccoon, Roger, comes back with five pouches for the group. The shrew motions for Roger to hand the group their payment, as he says excitedly, "There five hundred crowns each and some of those tokens your guild deals with! It was a pleasure doing business with you brave adventurers. Now if you will excuse me, I have to depart. The Airship going back to beautiful Cliffside is going to depart tomorrow in the early morning, and I need to prepare." With that the shrew walks towards the wagon, taking a side inside it.
The owl after a minute of absence, with a bottle in hand. He hands the bottle of Cliffside wine to Bernard, "Have this for old time sake's old friend. 462 a good year that one, enjoy it just like the old days at the university." The owl then gives the group one final nod, and enters the wagon. The Cliffsiders soon depart, leaving the group to their own distractions.
