Krim spent the rest of the day recovering and rifling through the bandits loot. They'd only been operating for a few weeks so it wasn't a mountain of gold but there was plenty of metal ore and bolts of fabric which were Kriefs main export to Triton.

“Not much worth taking is there.” Saul said with his head deep in a large sack of nicknack's.

“Nah, I could carry a lot of this but who's going to buy ore and linen from some stranger covered in tentacles?” Krim said laughing. The two of them had spent the day getting to know one another and Krim found he enjoyed the healers company. 'Feels like I've known him as long as Bargus.'

“True enough. I guess the guards will get to keep it. I'll grab a few of the empty sacks though, we should probably get all the bandit gear together to sell in town.”

After a few hours of wiping down bloody armour and stuffing it into the canvas sacks they heard an odd rhythmic hammering. Krim stopped what he was doing and followed the noise around the room. Due to the caves shape the sound bounced and echoed making it nearly impossible to pinpoint. “What is that?” he asked

“Not sure. It comes and goes but its been getting louder for about a week now, drove the bandits crazy.” Saul said joining him in the main chamber. A short while later the speed of the hammering picked up and they could hear voices during the short pauses in hammering. Krim leaned his ear against a wall but the voices where high and spoke in a quick garble he couldn't make out, though their loud cheering made it much easier to find the source of the noise. He crept away from the wall and waved Saul into the adjoined room.

“Something's coming through that wall any minute. We should get the gear and go to the entrance tunnel.” just as he said that a loud crash thundered through the cave. Whoever it was had just broken through. They both peeked through a crack in the door and had to stifle a gasp as a dust covered crew of tiny, foot tall miners flooded into the chamber. They had stubby little arms and leg which struggled to hold their pot bellies and large heads. They all raised small four fingered hands to shield their huge black eyes from the light in the cavern as if it was the sun itself. Krim and Saul shared a look and quickly blocked the door with whatever they could find including the bags of armour they'd just filled. They huddled in the far corner of the room and whispered to each other frantically.

“What the fuck are gnomes doing here?” Krim asked shooting wide eyed glances back to the door. he'd never seen them but he'd heard their description enough that it couldn't be anything else.

“How would I know! There's never been any around here. We need to tell people, we need to tell the guild.” Saul said also watching the door.

“Fuck the guild we need to tell the king. They'll swarm across land like they did in Venult eating and tearing apart anything they find. Bargus' dad went to Venult, said you couldn't even tell there used to be a kingdom. I don't know if we can..”

Saul's slap was hard enough to rattle teeth and sent Krim stumbling. “Sorry but you were loosing it.” he said steadying Krim. “We need to fight our way out. That's not a swarm out there, not yet. We can fight through and get to the exit.”

Krim rubbed his cheek in pain but agreed. Deciding the more tentacles the better he grew them from everywhere except his face. Each one felt stronger than before and he couldn't resist flexing them like muscles. He tore into the bags of armour and weapons grabbing swords, axes, spears and shields. He didn't care what it was, if it could be a weapon he picked it up. Saul moved to the door to give him space to grow the tangled mess. Krim thought of the horror stories he'd heard of the gnomish pluage, he imagined what would happen if they invaded Krief. He thought of his family being torn apart by the tiny fiends. He stoked his anger with that fear and when he gave the signal, Saul opened the door.

Krim erupted into the room in a whirl of flesh and steel. The celebrating Gnomes gaped in horror as a giant writhing monster tore through their party. Tentacles numbed and crushed the instant they made contact. Limbs that could lift tons barely registered the toddler sized bodies as resistance. Krim was in a full on panic every second he was amongst them. The stories of the tiny evil creatures had been drummed into every child. He'd had nightmares for a month after hearing about what they did to people. His many weapons cut him just as much as the enemy, there were too many to keep track of but he refused to let a single one drop and focused on killing his nightmares.

Saul watched in shock as Krim slaughtered the gnomes. Their advantage came from their numbers but Krims tentacles were endless. They writhed and flicked like living whips crushing and slashing anything standing. “This is way more than Val described.” he said numbly.

The last of the gnomes ran back down their mine as fast as their little legs could carry them, an unlucky few were caught by Krims reaching tentacles and their bodies were dragged back into the cave. Krim was balanced on a thick tail like tentacle in the middle of the room and held all his limbs perfectly still feeling for the slightest movement but there was none.

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“Well that was horrifying” Saul said inspecting one of the more intact gnomes.

“I know, I can't believe they're here.” Krim said misunderstanding the pale healer.

Saul shook his head “I was talking about you. That boon isn't normal.”

Krim shrugged but stopped. He looked down at his arm and laughed, He'd forgotten to take off the arm band that enhanced a boons power. 'No wonder I felt so strong.'

“It's not normally like that. Well it is but not as strong” He pulled off the arm band and tossed it to Saul who pulled it on and suddenly received the same information Krim had.

“You should keep this on in case they come back.

Krim spent the night sleeping in front of the hole with a mass of tentacles filling it. No gnome would be getting through without chopping through him. They'd decided to stay and fill the whole while the others returned since they should be bringing guards with them but Krim was getting impatient. The gnomes took it upon themselves to ensure he didn't grow bored however and launched attacks on his tentacles. He couldn't see what was happening but he managed to smack more than a few of the tiny warriors. The small cuts they made were hardly more than a nuisance and Krim began to feel the danger of the monsters was extremely inflated. As he fought them he tested his powers limits with the band on. The furthest he could extend his tentacles was roughly a hundred meters but they became too unwieldy long before that. He tried something he'd been wondering for awhile and attempted to grow more tentacles from his current tentacles but nothing happened. It was disapointing but he'd expected as much. 'I could've just stayed in Krief and tentacled the monsters from my bed'

It was half way through the next day when they heard familiar voices coming along the tunnel. Val rushed to hug her brother who took her to the side to talk. Fredd and Bargus came next followed by a group of ten guards. After everyone was happy and sure that their friends were alive and well the group turned to Krim and asked what he was doing.

“Yesterday a group of gnomes broke into the cave, I'm holding them off.” They were all stunned at the news but the guards seemed sceptical until Saul showed them the pile of bodies he'd moved into another room. The guards came back ashen faced and panicked until their leader snapped them out of it.

“How many are on the other side of 'that'?” he asked gesturing to Krims tentacle plug.

“No idea, feels like a lot though. Their not that bad though, not very strong and they're only a foot tall.”

The man shook his head and knelt down to Krims sitting level. “That's all well and good when you have a hundred arms and a choke point son but when a few hundred thousand of them are crawling over the town you wont be saying the same thing.” 'That was a bit intense.' Krim though but kept his mouth shut.

The guard began barking orders to the men sending some to Krief and the nearest settlements. One he told to take a horse from the wagons they'd brought for the stolen goods and ride to Triton.

“We could go and warn Triton.” Fredd volunteered but the guard shut him down quickly.

“Your all wood rank adventurers. They wouldn't even let you in the keep to speak with Lord Boswan. We'll take care of it from here.” He motioned for Krim to withdraw from the hole in the wall and for another guard to placed his hands on the stone. They heard the high pitched shoutes down the rough tunnel but the guard was quick. The wall turned into soft malleable putty as the man concentrated, then he smeared the stone across the gap until it was closed. After he lifted his hands the stone set as hard as it had ever been. The scar in the was was very noticeable however and Krim doubted it would stop the gnomes for long.

“Lucky captain Fen sent me along.” the stone shaping guard said cheerfully.

Krim and his team grabbed their bags of loot and quickly left the cave. To Krim it had felt like he'd spent an eternity down in the odd caves but it had only been a handful of days. 'The life of an adventurer.' he thought and leaned his head back to enjoy the feeling of the sun warming him. They stuck to the road going back and decided to stop in Hadens Ford to sell their extra gear instead of carrying it all the way back to Krief. Belatedly Krim handed over the armband to Fredd who's eyes went wide when he put it on.

“Where did you even get this? Are you sure I can have it?” he asked ready to hand it back but Krim waved him off. Fredd had been fretting about his strength ever since getting his boon and it was nice to see him becoming more confident in his own abilities.

“I was actualy thinking about some new things to use my boon on.” Fredd said adjusting the armband. Krim tried to look enthusiastic but Fredds ideas for his boon were often far more brutal than he seemed to realize.

“You know mushrooms, the way they make spores to grow more of themselves? What if I could get someone to breath in the spores and grow the mushrooms inside them, Its dark and moist so it should work right?”

'What the hell!' “Fredd that's bloody horrifying. Please don't ever do that.” Krim said sickened at the thought of choking to death on lung mushrooms.

“But it could work.”

“Yeah but it should never happen. Even the gnomes don't deserve that.” Krim decided to change the subject to finding supplies for team but decided he'd keep a closer eye on Fredd. 'Just in case.'