As soon as Salbadore touches the cube, a very large and very loud mouth appears on its surface.“BEWARE, THIEF! THIS BOX AND ITS CONTENTS ARE THE SOLE PROPERTY OF LORD VIRGIS GRIMRUNE, ARCH-SUMMONER, DEVIL-TAMER, AND HEADMASTER OF THE FREYBOURNE COLLEGE OF HIGH CONJURATION! UTTER ANNIHILATION AWAITS ANY OTHERS WHO DARE TO OPEN IT!”
The powerful voice reverberates throughout the cavern even as the mouth vanishes.
As its echoes die, you can all hear something shifting in the darkness. Something big…
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Markus groans. "Well, fekk, cannae git worse." He says as he walks over, pulls out his morning star, and knocks the shield out of place.
Behind the shield is a small, dirty human child curled into a tight ball. She appears to be unconscious, and barely breathing.
Orthos calls down louder. "Hey! I've been looking for that. Can you bring it up with you? We should probably leave while we can. If you throw the rope up I can try and hold it, or should I find a way down?"
Laurie rushes over to the child and gently picks her up, wincing slightly at the pain from her wound. "Let's get out of here. Can someone help us get up the rope?"
Markus is taken aback at seeing the child. He's only shaken from his reverie after Laurie picks up the young one.
He immediately snaps to attention. He turns to Womblie, "Yeh clime us ou' wiffa rope, roit brutha? They moit be-," he turns to look at Salbadore, "Snake Buggas, y'sey?" He turns back to Womblie. "Be caeful up in tha'. Oh!"
He bounds over to stand under the cavern's entrance. To Womblie, "We go' a mate up innat." To the hole, "Oy! Orthos! We sennin summun up innat! 'E look a li'l... uh... 'es on our side, tha'."
The flesh golem grabs the fallen rope in one hand and a human skull in the other. He feeds one end of the rope through the skull's empty orbital sockets and hurls it up the chute with incredible force, like a shot-put.
[Fil, send me a reflex save.]
Surprise!!
Mercurio, knee-deep in liquefied filth, suddenly feels a sharp pain in his calf (4 damage)! Before he even has a chance to register that he’s being attacked, he feels something incredibly strong and sinuous trying to wrap itself around his legs. He struggles to extricate himself from its grip and maintain his balance…
[We are now in rounds. Colin, please send me two d20 rolls: an opposed grapple check, and group initiative.]
[In the future, please email or IM your combat actions to me rather than posting them directly to the blog, as this should keep things more streamlined. Thanks!]
Mercurio struggles for a moment to keep his balance and manages to yell, “’ELP!” before toppling face-first into the muck.
Laurie and Varel, preoccupied as they are with tending to the unconscious child, are oblivious to the stealthy attack. In fact, submerged as he is in the thick guano soup, no one can detect Mercurio’s peril. He silently screams as the thing around his legs encircles itself around his body, pinning his arms in the process. It begins to constrict the life out him, aqueezing so hard that his ribs crack (6 damage)!
Salbadore courteously dashes over to lend his clumsy companion a friendly hand up, and is quite surprised to feel something hard and scaly when he reaches into the muck. He draws back in shock and exclaims, “Gadzooks!”
“Womblie” slowly shuffles over to where his new master fell. With one hand, he reaches deep into the guano and pulls forth a huge snake, which by now has wrapped itself so entirely around Mercurio that only his boots and the top of his head are visible. With the other hand, he grabs the body of the serpent and attempts to unwind the thick coils from around its prey. There is a brief contest, but the golem’s preternatural strength is more than a match for the reptile. It is forced to relinquish its grip on the scoundrel, who falls to the ground gasping painfully for air.
Aghast, Varel rushes over to Mercurio and, cradling him gently in her arms, administers magical healing to his crushed body (+5 hp).
Meanwhile, in the tunnel above, Orthos succeeded in catching the skull as it whizzed just past his head. Huzzah! He is now holding one end of the rope.
The overgrown snake thrashes madly in Womblie’s indelicate grip. “What shall I do with this creature?” he asks.
Salbadore snaps. "Killit! Kill the snake!"
Markus takes a moment to come to his senses. He smiles at Varel, then turns his attention to Womblie and Salbadore. "Yeh, yeh, kill it, mate." He starts to sit up, then slumps back into Varel's arms. "Sorry, lass, still a bi' wobbly in th' brain-box. Jus' 'ad me ins-an-outs squeezed from me."
The flesh golem takes the snake's head and beats it against a wall until it stops moving. He drops the body and it sinks into the muck.
"You should leave," he says to the group, "Now. This one was a juvenile, much smaller than the one that swallowed me."
Markus closes his eyes and summons the strength to pop back to his feet. "Roit, les' git. Whea this rope up ta at? It saffa cli-."
He blinks and looks back over to The Creature. "Wai', whot?"
Mercurio's incredulity is lost on the golem. It stands there blankly.
Looking at the skull, Orthos calls back down. "Sending someone up? You have a strange sense of humor Marcus. I don't have much to tie or brace against up here, I'm gonna try and climb up more and find something." Orthos then begins his climb.
Markus blinks at The Creature, then blinks again.
"Roit," he finally says.
He looks at the rope, "So wha-." He stops as he hears Orthos' response, then starts laughing. "Na wot I mean', mate, but... yeah. An' 'urry ya bes' can."
He looks back at Varel next to Wolfie, then to Laurie carrying the child.
"Sheiss," he utters as he takes off his cloak and starts tying it around his body. He looks at Laurie, "Nae affense, lass, bu' iffin' I getta good bag onnis, I can carry ya wee one betta'n ye can."
He looks over at Varel, opens his mouth, then closes it, then opens it again: "Lass, I guessin yeh pup nae climb. If we c'n tie ya enna th' rope on its, we can pull 'im up we got loft up there, roit?"
Laurie walks over to Markus and starts helping him with his cloak. "I bet we can use this to help tie the little one to your back."
Varel gives Mercurio a serious look. "Wolfie's a good boy. He'll behave if I ask him nicely."
Markus nods at Laurie. "Thenkyeh, lass. Bu' les' put i' on me ches'. Easier ta defen' iffin I falls."
He turns to Varel. "Ya, I ken ye' pup loyal. Jus'... ye awroit wiffim bein las' up?"
Markus's skinless automaton tosses three full coils of the constrictor's body onto the cavern floor, keeping hold of only the tip of its tail. Salbadore gasps and -
the hulking patchwork of muscle whips the snake into the wall with such speed -
stumbles backwards, throwing his hands out -
that it whistles through the air -
once again forgetting to keep his nudity covered -
just before slamming into a prominently protruding knob of stone -
and he shrieks -
like the bare crown of a skull -
the first blow leaves a wide red splatter -
covers his gaping mouth with one hand -
but does not kill -
and starts to cry -
the snake writhes weakly -
as he catches one brief glimpse -
then is swung through the air, its head inches from his face -
of its scaled-over reptilian eye -
and then bursts against the skull-like knob.
Salbadore hyperventilates briefly and then falls against the cavern wall. He clutches his chest and spits.
He recovers only slowly.
Finally, he declares, "You - you must - kindly allow me to go up -" he pants for another moment and adds "- after the baby?"
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