Go-glob was in dire straits, though it didn't know what straits were. After the tall one with the long pointy-stick took its glob-hood it had been left alone. Probably because it had fainted. As its senses returned to it, it saw its gob next to it taking a nap. It moved to poke its gob but then it froze. It sensed them there in the back by the spidery soft stuff making vibrations at each other. Thankful that its gob had been smart enough to teach it things, it listened in. It was a good glob, it could do it if it focused. "I swear, I saw it move." It puddled like a glob had never puddled before. Several seconds passed. "... Nevermind, probably just my imagination." It sighed internally, still doing its best puddle impression. "Well, only one way to find out." This was bad. It saw the vibrations stand up and slowly come its way. "Hey you!"
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After their hour long discussion of foreign exchange, the group was arguing with each other about what they should do concerning the worm corpse blocking the way. Unable to stand the rotting smell emanating from the entrance they huddled together by the beds, shirts covering their mouths and noses. Eileen had stated that they needed to harvest the mana core from the prince since she was pretty sure that it was worth a lot of money. This meant that they had to find the worm's brain through at least 40 feet of dead, putrid flesh but she had no idea where to start and Zanis was ignorant of worm anatomy as well.
Zanis was making his case, a look of apprehension on his face, "There's no way I'm touching that, it's disgusting!" His expression settled into a self-deprecating look as he continued, "Besides, you know how strong I am, I'd just get in the way."
Eileen was fingering a blue jewel between her fingers as she responded, a smirk on her face, "All part of being an adventurer. Sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty." Zanis scowled at that and the others weren't too happy either. The problem was they didn't have any good tools for the job. The work ahead of them was daunting to say the least. Lina had been staring off into the distance for awhile now when Darc poked her, "What's up?"
She had a look of concentration on her face as she stated, "I swear I saw it move." A moment ago she thought she caught a twinge of movement from the pile of flesh however it definitely wasn't moving now. Several seconds passed. She sighed, she was getting jittery being stuffed in this room that stunk of rotten flesh. "...Nevermind, just my imagination."
Zanis's face brightened and a smile broadened across it as he looked over at the pile of flesh that had drawn the girl's gaze. With a glint in his eyes, he stated, "Well, only one way to find out." He stood up and walked over to the puddle of glob on the ground. "Hey you!"
The glob gurgled frantically which drew looks of disgust across the party, however it was seemingly giving off the impression that it really didn't want them to hurt it. Darc frowned, was this another translation thing or was his mind playing tricks on him? Zanis was standing over the glob with his hands held out wide in a welcoming gesture as he exclaimed, "We're all friends here, you've nothing to worry about."
Go-glob's flesh undulated in a disturbing manner that meant it wasn't sure. They certainly hadn't seemed to be very friendly earlier and now that it had a good look at it, it was pretty sure its gob-master was dead.
Zanis was already reaching for it with his right hand slowly in a calm manner though he was trying really hard not to vomit from the revulsion he felt.
Go-glob was about to go glob on the elf when it felt the smooth-skin's fingers brushing over it. That felt really globbing good. The tall skinny one was touching it in all the right places and it purred. Maybe this really was a friend? Was this its new master?
A thoroughly disgusting sound emerged from the glob, permeating the room but it seemed content for the moment. Zanis's eyes were twitching as he tried to keep the revulsion he felt from painting his features however his lips were smiling as he looked upon the useful tool before him. "I've got a job for you..."
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The job went rather well, all things considered. Over the next few hours the glob ate through the worm at a rapid pace with Zanis playing overseer. Although it couldn't climb walls very high, it never needed to rest as it spit out more of that purple-fur material at regular intervals. Darc frowned, had he been stepping in shit the entire time? He was just glad he didn't land face down when he lost consciousness like Zanis had. By the time the glob had found the mana core, which it spit into Zanis's waiting hands, it had already eaten into nearly 10 feet of the left turn of the intersection.
While Zanis and the glob were busy with their work, the others were searching the room, making sure they didn't leave anything valuable behind. After thoroughly going through all the barrels, they found that most of them were filled with wood with only a few having dried meat or some kind of bitter alcohol that was strong but with a horrible taste. Seemingly the only valuable things here were the 6 spider-silk covers on the beds. Eileen created a makeshift bag from one of them, stuffing the rest inside while Darc worked on making more torches from the readily available wood and strips of his shirt which he had given up on.
Having finished the torches, Darc was chewing on some meat, a satisfied look on his face. The last time he had something other than bread or nutty nutrient bars was yesterday morning. Or was it the day before yesterday? Hard to tell when they'd been sleeping so much. The bacon was much better, but this wasn't bad, just a bit tough and chewy. He turned around as he saw a frowning Lina next to Eileen, both of them with their arms crossed. Eileen stated with her usual smirk, "Not gonna cure you if you end up ill."
As Zanis and the glob finished, they decided that the food was safe and refilled their rations while having another group talk. Eileen said that the quest would probably be completed considering how many moleclaws they had on them and the prince's mana core should net them an additional bounty. There was probably still a lot more of the dungeon to explore, however she didn't want to wait gods know how long for the glob to make a path through to the other room. With the stink of rot entering their every pore, the rest nodded in agreement.
Go-glob's flesh was billowing around, curious as to the new development as Zanis finished tying the knot, completing another make-shift spider-silk bag around its body. Eileen turned around, a look of incredulity upon her face as she fiercely asked, "You're not thinking of taking that... thing with us, are you?" She almost looked angry for a second.
Zanis looked sheepish as he held his hands forward in a calming motion, "Well... yeah. It's kind of grown on me. I mean, it looks disgusting but he's got a heart of silver." A revolting gurgling could be heard, strongly denying that it had anything remotely like that. Eileen was still scowling but she let the elf have his way in the end.
Thormak's bag of moleclaws had been discovered crushed into the ground in the intersection but still intact, however Zanis's bag of gob weapons was nowhere to be found. They spotted a trail of something being dragged across the ground towards the exit, only stopping at each trapwire. Recalling the gob and glob that had been blocked off when the worm entered the tunnel, the party minus Zanis sighed.
The journey back to the exit went uneventfully and as they opened the hatch they saw the first rays of sunlight peaking through over the forest canopy. Darc was carrying the bulging bag of 92 mole claws while Eileen was tasked with carrying the glob since it couldn't move very fast and Zanis hadn't the strength to carry it himself. Eileen was irate. Lina was in charge of the silk bag with a single bow and a few arrows from Zanis's glob's dead master poking out of it.
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They trekked through the forest in silence, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention as they concentrated on the path before them. They were heavily burdened and every now and then cracks of broken twigs rang throughout the air. On a few occaisions, more wolves visited them again as they rested however the seemed reluctant to attack. When Darc drew his pistol they disappeared never to appear again. After that Eileen looked like she wanted to say something but settled on gazing at the weapon.
The walk to the road took 5 hours altogether and it was coming close to noon. Now that they were on the relative safety of the road, Darc was questioning Eileen and Zanis. Apparently no, it was not usual for a prince to be with the tunnelers. The molemen typically acted on their own and didn't need to be controlled since they worshipped the worms like gods. They would usually send out smaller groups looking for resources or to capture more converts to their side.
In response, the kingdom would send out a detachment of men-at-arms led by a knight or lord, however they were currently caught up in a war to the north. Their enemies, which they called the Swarm consisted of many different types of insects. Lina shivered at that. The war was not going well, so the word had it. The kingdom had resorted to hiring mercenaries such as adventurers to aid them in the war and it had drawn into a stalemate.
At Darc's behest, Eileen went over what it would involve to reach the Republic of Gant, where Estra's order was located. Although the distance was around 1000 miles away, the journey was not as straightforward as that. The Republic lay nearly straight north from Westhaven through a large swath of wilderness that was pocketed by Swarm. Taking the short path would most likely mean fighting the entire way and they would have to find a way to cross several rivers as well.
Normally, one would head east, passing by more towns and villages before arriving at the kingdom's capital, Zenith. From there, they would either charter a sea-worthy ship or keep traveling along the road north. Taking the entire journey "safely" by foot on the road would mean a trip of around 2000 miles. Darc groaned after taking in the fact. He didn't feel confident about taking to the insect-filled wilderness, especially after how things had gone with his recent ventures into the unknown.
As they crested the last hill before Westhaven, they could see a river barge docked at its port with a bustle of activity concentrated around the area. An hour later, they were at the west-side gate, the guards giving them questioning looks upon noticing the dwarf was nowhere to be seen. Eileen answered them with a hand in her trousers pocket and a grim expression. Darc thought he saw the glint of tears forming in her eyes as they swept past the guards. After that Eileen and Zanis were unusually withdrawn and quiet, so they continued in silence until they entered the guild.
The elven woman was there to receive them again at the guild's counter. Apparently this counter was usually empty and was set aside specifically for bounties or quests that involved killing. The other counters had lines of civilians and they processed quests involving crafting or menial labor. The elf before them was studying the mana core from the prince intently between her two fingers. The core was a very light shade of purple and around the size of a fist. It also had black veins running all throughout it. When she pressed a brass tube to the core, the veins suddenly turned white and writhed around inside the core.
Nodding her head, she gave them her verdict, "It certainly is a Prince's core. How the four of you managed to defeat it..." She stopped when Eileen flared up with a glare, "The five of you, of course, my condolences."
Clearing her throat, she set a professional expression upon her face as she continued, "We will consider the quest for clearing out the molemen complete for one pound and you will receive one penny per moleclaw. As for the bounty for the prince, you must wait."
Darc frowned as he asked, "Wait for how long?" She responded after eyeing him critically, "Until one of the lord's men arrives with the bounty. Perhaps two weeks, maybe more."
He rubbed his stubble as he followed up, "How much is the bounty anyway?"
The clerk sighed and she pointed at a parchment on the billboard beside them. It was old and withered however it had the stamp of the crown upon it. She answered his question as he was slowly reading the bounty, "Twenty pounds."
Zanis's eyes bulged in their sockets as Eileen stood there with a shocked expression. A few seconds later with no further inquiries, the woman before them started counting and placing coins into a bag as the party waited. Darc was mulling over the implications. He was still unsure what they could buy that would be useful, but more money was a good thing right? Unless they started drawing the wrong kind of attention... Am I gonna have to start looking over my shoulder? He glanced around but it didn't seem like anybody was paying them much mind. Ok, getting paranoid.
The woman finished and pushed a bag towards them with a polite smile stating, "52 shillings, 8 dimes, 2 pennies." The party accepted the bag of clinking silver coins and then went to enter their souls in shifts. Eileen and Zanis went first and it barely took any time before they came back, Zanis taking around 30 seconds longer. Then it was Darc and Lina's turns.
Eileen sat next to Zanis, giving him a glance which he returned with a knowing look in his eye. They stood and moved over behind the two that were currently kneeled before the shrine, unable to respond. It took around 15 minutes. Then Darc was frothing at the lips, the flesh beneath his skin churning grotesquely, eerily similar to a glob. There was blood running out of his nose as Eileen poked him with her foot and turned his head to the side. Zanis waited for the same to happen to Lina.
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Darc was in his soul, looking around with an inquisitive eye. It looked like the room was brightly lit with almost every option available to him. The orbs were there and even a book on the third shelf from the bottom of the Spell bookcase was glowing. Then there were the books of feats, which instead of glowing seemed to make the air around them ripple. He took his time, choosing carefully. Perception. He didn't want to get stabbed in the back by a rat again.
After an indeterminate amount of time, he continued with his selections. Martial: Knife. Spells: Bolt, Stitch, Rejuvenate. Thinking back to his constantly ruined shirt, he chose stitch. The spell was on the lowest shelf which meant that the cost would not be high. As his eyes settled upon the rejuvenate spell, he got the feeling that he had grown too reliant on Eileen's healing hands. Lina had chosen it already, however... if there was ever the case where both she and Lina were incapacitated... he shuddered at the thought.
He also needed the versatility of bolt, the spider had taught him that. He couldn't throw away his only weapon after he ran out of bullets. It had only been what... 3 days? And he had shot 6 bullets in that time. The journey to Gant wasn't promising to be any less dangerous and he would likely have to travel for months. Counting in his head, he arrived to the conclusion that he had 28 bullets left. Lina was down to only one clip, so he reminded himself to share some with her later.
Standing before the shelf of feats, the flesh-like bookcase beckoned him and he reached for the book he needed.. Sense Magic. As he read from its passages, a needle-like tentacle reached out and stabbed him through his brain. He once again fell unconscious.
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Upon waking up and taking note of his surroundings, Darc peered through the exit to his body. He wasn't where he was supposed to be. He reentered his body to find himself on a bed in a dark room alone with Lina. Apparently he had been unconscious for a long time as night had fallen. Then he felt it. Something in his body had... changed. Examining himself in the dark, he didn't notice anything out of place, however it felt like his muscles had grown denser, tougher. Clenching a fist, it didn't seem like he was any stronger though. Looking inwards, he felt as if he could squeeze out more mana than before and then there was... something else. It was like he had another muscle in his head, however it didn't feel like it was connected to anything.
His brow furrowed and he looked upon Lina to see that she was still sleeping. Maybe he should go find the others? He gently placed a kiss upon Lina's forehead and then stood up, walking out of the room. The others were in the common room sitting at a table near the stairs. He sat down next to Eileen and asked about the changes in his body.
She had a grin on her face as she responded, "What, you didn't notice anything different before? You must've noticed.." Thinking back, he guessed that it was a little odd that he hadn't died from his wounds on multiple occaisions. He'd also cast a lot more spells than he'd ever been able to beforehand. Damn, I really am an idiot. She continued in more muted tones, "As for the brain muscle thing, yeah... Thormak always said the first time was the worst. He was the only one of us that went through it twice."
She fell silent as Zanis took over the conversation, "Basically, depending on what you pick, you may or may not feel a... connection." The elf continued, answering Darc's questioning gaze, "I don't know what it means either, only Thormak had them." He fell silent as well.
Damnit Darc, pull it together. He looked up from the table and went to talk with Wilfred. Coming back, he held three pints of beer in his hands which he set on the table. Holding out his mug, he toasted, "To Thormak."