Bradford was having a nice dinner along with his charges Stacy and Lindsey. There was a veritable feast laid out along a 20 foot long table in front of the trio. He spotted on the table a variety of fish, some pot roast, a beef stew, a fully roasted pig and several types of birds that he didn't recognize... although one was eerily similar to a duck, if a duck had teeth. Minoa was there as well, standing off to the side behind their host with what Bradford had found to be her typical stance of being a living statue. Estra herself looked to be a normal human to his eyes, however he suspected that he would do well not to underestimate her. She smiled knowingly at him.
She had long platinum blond hair which ran down to her waist and eyes a deep shade of blue like sapphires. The contrast between her hair and eyes almost made them seem to glow in the candlelight. She had also been staring at him the entire time, not saying a word.
Clearing his throat, he spoke, in an amiable, respectful tone, "Greetings, Goddess. May I ask to what do I owe the pleasure?"
She smiled once more as a voice entered his mind. It was soft. Alluring. "Oh, I think you know exactly why I have summoned you. Indeed, I have already acquired that of which I seek." Bradford immediately felt around his shirt pocket, not finding the marble Seed.
A bit bewildered at first, he settled himself down as he went for his next question, "Ah... so I see. I suspected as much, however... what do you need me for now?"
Stacy and Lindsey tilted their heads towards him, a bit worried. Lindsey eyed the food, perhaps suspecting foulplay while Stacy set her eyes on the woman sitting across from them.
"Call it... curiosity. I see so many secrets hidden in here. It shall take time to sort them all." Her eyes were still locked on his, her lips tilted in a small smile.
He cleared his throat again in response, a hint of consternation creeping into his eyes, "And what of my charges? My people? Are you... collecting us?"
"Oh, nothing so unsavory. I was merely sating my curiosity with these young maidens however now that you have arrived, they are no longer of interest to me." A frown crossed Bradford's face as she continued, "Worry not, for I am not without kindness. They may remain as my guests here if they so wish. They may also leave if they so desire."
His thoughts drifted towards his other people and settled on Darc. "Ah yes... an unfortunate accident... You must forgive my servant, she is not known to show leniency towards others." She looked genuinely apologetic, "Minoa is determined to face any challenge no matter how... paltry. It's a matter of honor for the paladins." Bradford had the distinct impression that she was doing the equivalent of rolling her eyes in his mind.
His thoughts drew back to the Seed... did she know? "I know." He could feel her hands cupping his head though she was sitting motionless as ever. "...You poor thing... the burden you must have borne..." He closed his eyes as tears welled within. A few moments passed before he asked, "What will you do with the Seed?"
This time she spoke from her own lips, a righteous anger bubbling to the surface beneath her placid facade with her voice firm and resolute, "I will kill them all."
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Darc was worried. After the small battle their group's condition was not looking good. He glanced down at his side where Lina was resting, the both of them sitting against a tree. Her face was pale and her closed eyes looked weary. He'd helped her bandage her back, however she'd lost a lot of blood. One of Darc's lungs had been torn by a rat and he was having trouble breathing, however Thormak had been the most injured and it had taken some effort to get him out of his gambeson in order to treat his wounds. Eileen sat over the dwarf, a look of concentration on her face as she poured her golden light into him.
Only Zanis and Eileen had come out unscathed, the former was now relieving the dead of their weapons and stacking them in a pile nearby. When asked, Eileen had said that she needed twenty minutes with the dwarf. It spent a lot of her mana just to charge her spell and she couldn't let it go to waste. Afterwards, she would barely have enough leftover to heal Darc's lung. Zanis dragged the two paraplegic molemen over towards Thormak, his head drenched in sweat as he did so.
Thormak, upon seeing the molemen nearby sat up slowly, wincing as he did so. Eileen scowled as she pushed him back down with her healing palm and spoke over the dwarf, "Look, whatever you want to ask them it can wait. They're not going anywhere." Thormak frowned but he nodded as he spoke from the ground with a grunt, "Zanis, finish one of them. It does not matter which."
Zanis shrugged and pulled out his dagger from his belt. With a look of trepidation he started stabbing at the one on the left. The elf was weak. The moleman couldn't even move and yet it took him 10 stabs of the dagger to put him out of his misery. Darc closed his eyes at the scene as the sounds of screaming and wailing inundated the forest scenery. The elf had also been screaming by the end of it in a roar of frustration. And then the screaming finally cut off, leaving only the weeping sobs from the lone moleman soaked in his comrade's blood.
After a few minutes, its sobbing died down, replaced by a loud sucking noise. The tendrils from its nose seemed to stiffen before wriggling in a disturbing manner as it spoke, "Kill... me..." Its voice was deep yet soft and resonating. "But... not like that... him..." the tendrils settled down before pointing in Darc's direction. "Let him do it."
Shifting his body to look at the mole with an exasperated Eileen above him, Thormak answered "We have need of you yet. You will take us to your base." The tendrils curled, "If you do not... you will not find the experience pleasant." The tendrils curled even further, blocking the openings of its nose entirely as liquid seeped from its nostrils and the mole continued to weep softly.
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Half an hour later, they were ready to move on. Over his shoulder Zanis had a silverwheat bag filled with 3 shortbows, 2 iron daggers and 2 iron clubs from the gobs and the dwarf was sporting a bulging bag filled with all 80 of the molemen's claws. The make of the gobs' weapons was surprisingly of comparable quality to what they would find in town. Eileen had wanted to return and rest before continuing however Thormak was set on completing the quest immediately. "We do not know if there are other adventurers out here. Indeed, Joren and his wife may still be around." The dwarf had explained, a stony expression on his face. Eileen looked like she had something to say, however she remained silent as she picked up the moleman, slinging it over her shoulder.
Darc leaned in to whisper to Lina as they walked, taking to the rear as per usual. "Listen, you're in bad shape and... I'm not doing too hot myself. We should head back... I know Eileen wants to too, she just won't speak up without support." Lina shot him a fierce look, her mouth open with a ready retort before he quickly assaged her, "Ok, ok. It was just a thought. You're a big, tough girl, I know. Just... stay behind me, yeah?"
She shot him a glare as she spoke, "You're an idiot. Just you stay behind me." She ended by leaving him alone to walk up ahead with the others. Great... way to go Darc, real smooth.
He watched as Zanis waited up ahead and joined him in the rear guard. He looked a bit hesitant as he asked, "Something happen?"
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Darc rubbed the back of his neck as he answered, "It's nothing. She'll come around. She al- she wasn't that upset."
The elf shrugged as they walked in silence. It was awhile before he spoke, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "You know, the others might not notice but I'm the smart one of the group." Darc shot him a look before Zanis added, "Despite what Eileen may tell you. Anyway... and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, I'm just curious after all. But yeah, where are you from, really?"
Darc began with his story again before the elf cut him short. He had a disapproving look over his face and his eyes glinted with a hint of anger as he said, "If there's one thing I don't like, it's a liar. You know, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I think I know why you drove her away just now." His lips were upturned in a slight sneering expression before returning to his usual casual appearance, "Well, who am I to judge, just keep your fibs away from me."
The elf walked up to the front as well, an indignant look on his face. Damnit... It wasn't long before Eileen came strolling over to join him in his solitude. She just gave him a questioning look then stated with a smirk, "Aren't you a sweet talker?" However he was done talking. Perhaps she could read the aura of his bad mood floating in the air, as they simply walked in silence until they reached their destination.
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The walk had taken around half an hour and they were now posted behind trees, looking at... something before them. The moleman had started yelling about 5 minutes ago. That's how they knew they were close. Thormak had ended the mole's shouts of warning with one of his bone-shattering fists before they continued onwards in the same direction, eventually stumbling upon the strange structure. Disturbance of the earth my ass, Darc mused as he looked upon solid jet-black obelisks stacked next to each other around 15 feet high. There were barely any gaps between them and their tops stood out like jagged teeth coming out of the earth. Walking around the structure, they spotted an opening between two of the obelisks. In the center of the structure was an iron hatch, a depiction of a worm with a gaping maw filled with teeth engraved onto its surface.
Thormak spoke for the group, "We will rest nearby in shifts. I believe we have most likely dealt with most of their combatants already, however we should proceed carefully." There was a glint in his eyes as he continued, "Watch for other adventurers, I am not going to allow others to steal our prize when we have come so far already."
It was still close to noon, the sun shining its rays down from straight above through the forest's rooftop canopy, however Darc fell asleep immediately. They had spent the entire morning moving through rough terrain and for the past half hour his back had ached the entire way leaving him tired. Their rest went uneventfully and 5 hours later they were preparing to move on. They were still not in top condition, however they would probably be ready for trouble if it reared its ugly head. Besides, it took time to recover mana and they could ill afford to wait around much longer with only a couple hours of sunlight left.
Upon approaching the hatch once again, they noticed a problem. There was no handle on the door and upon prying at the sides that jutted out of the ground, it seemed to be locked. They searched around for a few minutes until Lina discovered that there were several holes in the door beneath a sliding cover. After some finagling, they fit 8 of the mole claws into the holes and turned them together as one would a key, causing a handle to pop out where the engraving of the worm's maw was.
Within they only saw a tunnel with a smooth 30 degree incline, leading off down into the darkness. It seemed like the entire tunnel had been layered with a strange purple material that was soft to the touch and had tiny little hairs like fur all along it. The tunnel was also painfully short for the humans & elf since they had to stoop or risk bumping their heads as they moved with Thormak's torch leading the way. Eventually, after half an hour they reached the end of the ramp, the tunnel leveling off now with an intersection up ahead.
Darc whispered ahead to the rest, "Don't move!". He pointed towards a wire along the bottom of the floor. Whatever it was connected to was behind the wall, out of sight. Stepping carefully they bypassed the trap and moved onwards, spotting 3 more wires before they reached the intersection 40 feet ahead. The tunnel went on in 2 directions both to the left and straight ahead. As soon as they stepped within, however, there came a shrieking shout, "Now!"
2 Arrows followed by 2 bolts of water sprang in from straight ahead and from their left, one of the arrows pierced Zanis through his stomach and a bolt of water splashed over Thormak. Holes started forming over where the water had hit his gambeson and a faint sizzling sound could be heard. As he sprinted forwards Thormak shouted, "Eileen, left!" Darc followed the woman while forming a light in his right hand with Lina straight on his heels.
They were all still hunched over until they entered the opening of a large room 10 feet down the hall and he blinked as he saw a pink mass of flesh about 2 feet wide straight in front of them. Underneath its slimy mucus exterior the flesh was undulating grotesquely. Next to it was a gob poking its head out above a table on its side. The gob had just now pulled an arrow out of its belt towards its bow's drawstring when it faced Eileen who had continued sprinting forward, jumping over the small barricade. She caught the gob before it could fully draw its bow with a fierce stab through its heart and tumbled back onto her feet as the creature let out a shriek, red blood pulsing out of the wound.
Darc and Lina had entered not far behind Eileen and he was moving towards what he would later learn to be called a glob. A few steps behind him, Lina shouted out "Dodge!" He dove to the side, barely managing to avoid a ball of water that splashed into where he was standing before looking up to see a 3 foot wide spider hanging from the upper left corner of the ceiling. It's six eyes were black voids and there were eight exposed meaty tendrils with fangs at their ends sticking out of its mouth, almost like the mole's nose. It seemed to be magically forming a ball of water before its two pincer-like forearms with the tendrils reaching into the water as they pulsed. He heard a shout behind him as he hurled his dagger at the thing. The spider nimbly leapt out of the way, letting go of its ball while clinging to its home and his dagger thudded against the purple-fur ceiling before getting caught in the web.
Before spotting the spider, Lina had also caught a shadow of movement in the corner of her eye from the right-hand side of the room. She spun around while sliding to a halt just in time to face another ratman... no, the same ratman that had fled from them earlier that day. Its claws were already outstretched towards her as she swiftly swung her knife with a shout, deflecting its dagger-like claws uselessly to the side. It seemed to have a wicked smile on its face as it circled her while it spoke, "Silly human, weak human. You come to die?" It seemed confident.
Lina felt a surge of anger at being called weak, yet she smothered the feeling as she heard a deafening roar ring out from across the room. As the ratman's attention shifted for a split second, she weaved her way through its defenses and gathered her mana. Sweeping high then low, she sunk her dagger through its ribs, empowering the force of the blow with magic. The ratman's face gave the impression of surprise and pain as she twisted the dagger which faded into a look of relief. As it gasped its last breath it whispered, "Finally..."
Meanwhile Eileen had quickly turned to face the glob which had been forming a fist sized ball of water at the end of a short, stubby tentacle which was aiming towards her. She stabbed forwards, piercing the mass of flesh with her shortsword and the ball of water splashed over the ground between them, corroding the purple flooring beneath. She must have hit something important because it was undulating faster and slithering away from her like a slug. Showing no mercy she lifted off her back foot and thrust again, her blade piercing into nearly the same spot within it. A putrid smell arose as thick white liquid swirled within the dark red blood pouring out of its wounds. It flattened onto the ground as if deflated and lay still, the flesh no longer undulating.
Darc, having lost his favorite dagger was not in a good mood. He carefully watched the spider that was probably laughing at him from the safety of its web 15 feet up in the air as he rummaged around in his pack for his pistol. Just as he grabbed it, another ball of water sped towards him. He quickly leaned to the side and he heard a wet splash on the ground behind him. Whipping his pistol out in front of him, he let loose a shot at the spider and its face exploded into a shower of gore. Having come this far, he didn't have any faith that it would amount to anything but he quickly moved to hide the pistol back in his satchel.
That was when he heard the words speaking out from behind him, "Hiding secrets are we?" He could already see the smirk resting on her face in his mind's eye.