Chapter 9 - Garden of Ruin

            Piling into the small room beyond the goblin door, Brick cautiously opened the next door onto a huge underground gallery. Nodules of luminescent fungus hung from the ceiling and walls, and grew in clumps on the flagged floor. The vaguely nauseous light illuminated portions of grand bas-relief carvings on the stone walls that weren't covered with the self-same fungus. The carvings all consisted of dragons in various stages of raining fire down upon terrified people. Soil and compost covered half the chamber's floor, which allowed a variety of wan grasses to grow.
            Peeking around the doorframe to his right, Brick saw a muttering bugbear with a massive scythe standing by a bench that contained simple gardening implements. There was a half-open door a bit farther down the gallery, from which low goblin voices emerged. To Brick's right, there was a closed door, and another across the gallery, midway down, barely glimpsed past the alcove it lay in.
            Unfortunately, in leaning farther and farther out the door, the dwarf accidentally stepped onto the compost - and the dead vegetation crackled loudly. The bugbear glanced up, and Nominis heard him say in annoyed Ghukliak, <"What took you so damn-?">
            His gaze met Brick's, and he stopped short. <"They're here! Get out here, you idiots!">
            Vol followed the others into the large room and fired at the bugbear as he walked.
            Despite Vol's nonchalant manner, his aim was impeccable. The bugbear grunted in pain and surprise as Vol's arrow took him in the chest. Vol felt an urge to bounce about and gloat - unusual for any elf, but in particular the laid-back, easygoing Vol.
            Brick internally chided himself for spoiling their stealthy approach. Though, how stealthy were Dwarves anyway? But he decided to make the best of it.
            "'Ey, lizardbreath," he called to the bugbear, "Ya ain't seen nothin, yet. Wait til our mad little barbarian sees ye, she'll eat yer heart out while it still be beatin!" As he spoke, he stalked out into the gallery, his eyes never leaving the bugbear's.
            Shaken by the dwarf's confidence and the menacing shadow warrior coming up behind him, the bugbear took a step back, then another, raising his scythe protectively and glancing over his shoulder.
            Coming as bidden, a number of goblins burst out of the door at the end of the hall (lit by fungus from within, just as this one was), unsheathing their swords as they went. Their shields were all Durbuluk-painted, and they glared at the party with pure hatred in their piggy eyes. The party could see movement behind them - something else was in there!
            Erky followed Brick, hefting a javelin in his hand and a murderous gleam in his eyes, as Nominis stalked behind.
            Nominis enters behind the frontliners, shield held in front, and whip upraised a bit behind. It may not hurt as much as a more substantial weapon. But it can hit from afar and do other stuff if used properly. Not that he practiced crazily with it. But he was competent enough.
            He would prefer knife in the dark, but these things all saw in the darkness and his advantage against this soft world is weaker than above the ground. Still, his scarred presence and shifting shadows adds some malevolence to Bricks threats.
            Growling, the bugbear made threatening gestures at the party - but it didn't budge. However, back from the door the goblins had come through, another bugbear charged out screaming - a female brandishing a morningstar in one hand and a javelin in the other. She hurled the javelin at Brick, grinning widely as it punctured his armor.
            <"Looks like you hopped out of the pan and stuck your beard into the fire, shortlegs. Now let's see you burn,"> she gloated in Ghukliak, shifting her morningstar into both hands eagerly.
            And still, something moved in the far reaches of the room down the hall.
            At Brick’s words, Nala gave a roar as she raged. With greataxe in one hand, Nala reached back and pulled out a javelin as she ran toward the bugbear.
            “Die, you walking carpet!” she cried as she threw the javelin, but she must have got some kind of goo on the shaft as it slipped from her fingers and lazily clattered to the flagstones on the floor. “Gods damn it!”
            A strong baritone echoed in the fungus-laden hall as Draugrim stepped forward, the volume of his song rising as he grew angrier. He sang of the glories of his parents and their endeavors, and of the wickedness of those who stood against them. It was easy to be moved by such passion; the others felt it tug at their hearts, a spark that could be kindled to a flame.
            Vol focused on the bugbear closest, trying to chase the urge to caper and hoot away. Even as he loosed his arrow, a spell was on his lips - and while the bugbear had been expecting the arrow, she hadn't been expecting the spell. She roared with outraged pain as acid ate away at her shoulder, and she ripped off her pauldron and lobbed it at Vol furiously. The chunk of armor was more hole than leather by the time it hit the ground.
            With everyone now in the room and Brick's words delivered, the dwarf did what a dual-axe-wielding dwarf is wont to do. He charged his target. His short legs thumping hard against the stone to deliver him and his axes to his target. His weapon struck home, but must have deflected off of a piece of leather, for it didn't embed itself as far as he expected into the bugbear's flesh.
            Still, the monster didn't appreciate the attack one bit. She howled as he ripped his dwarvish axe free - and as they faced off, the goblins came pouring up to join the assault. They swarmed Nala and Brick, though the last one to arrive caught a javelin in the chest from Erky's hand. The emaciated gnome pulled out his looted sword and stalked forward.
            "You know what this is for."
            Nomins slid behind he combatants and shadows poured forth engulfing the scene
            The goblins jerked with fear and surprise as Nominis' shadows tugged at them, but they had to keep fighting now.
            The scythe-wielding bugbear Brick had threatened and Vol had shot hung back yet, snarling nervously, while the female who had skewered him with a javelin, tried to knock his head off with her morningstar - but to no avail.
            Nala grinned as goblins poured out, and another bugbear. She shifted into a stance to give her more power, and then brought her axe down on one of the goblins.
            Blood sprayed as the goblin collapsed with a screech, all fight gone out of it the instant Nala's greataxe connected. Erky grinned fiercely, his expression macabre with goblin blood splashed across it. "Nice work, lass!"
            Draugrim, still singing of victories grand, stabbed another with his glaive - two down, mere seconds into the fight.
            Vol couldn't help but grin himself, and he practically skipped forward as he edged closer to the melee. Another spell on his lips, he pulled out another arrow and let fly.
            His arrow clipped the female bugbear, making her back up a step, growling uncertainly in the face of these dangerous foes.
            Brick grunted as the javelin's impact made him step back a step. He made a face at the female, rolling his axes in his hands, eager for them to cut these monsters down. "I canna unnnerstan a single word yer gruntin," he replied to the taunt, in Dwarvish. His axes went to work then, his attacks focused by Draugrim's inspiration.
            Like hewing timber, he cut the bugbear down; she fell beneath his axe, unable to hold off the rage that powered his blows.
            <"Morka!"> the remaining bugbear howled, snapping out of its cowardice at the other bugbear's imminent demise.
            Yapping with less confidence now, the remaining goblins swarmed the dwarf, the one standing against Nala withdrawing in favor of not standing alone and outnumbered and possibly flanked. All the same, Brick suffered only superficial cuts from their assault.
            Erky stalked forward to shank one of the goblins facing off with Brick. <"How do you like it? Huh? HUH?"> he growled in passable Ghukliak at the bleeding goblin.
            Nominis moved closer to the action and his whip flicked into melee, cracking toward the big goblinoid.
            "You are overmatched. Your souls will feed my spirits. Can you feel them tugging at your skin? Surrender. The Outcast will not help you."
            The other bugbear gulped, and hung back, not entering the fray. Whether it had understood what Nominis had said or not, the shadowy warrior had struck fear in its heart.
            <"Burzak!"> it yelled, falling back a few steps. <"BURZAK! Get in here!">
            Nala swept her greataxe, spinning goblin blood off of it, then stepped around to flank with Brick as the dwarf fought off three goblins. She brought her greataxe down, and connected with the goblin, and though it danced to the side just enough to turn it into a less damaging blow, her furious power was still enough to cut it deeply.
            The goblin, already wounded, couldn't withstand her strength, and fell on its shattered shield, drooling blood.
            Still singing of glories old and yet to come, Draugrim stalked toward the bugbear - but at the last instant, he stabbed his crescent-moon glaive into another of the goblins around Brick. It didn't fall, but it was badly wounded; blood gushed from the puncture in its armor.
            Still grinning, Vol skipped forward another couple of steps launched another pair of missiles at the remaining bugbear.
            His arrow stuck in the bugbear's arm, but even with his skip forward, he'd misjudged the range to his foe, and his spell rained acid on the dirt and stone of the floor.
            "Ah, got ye right where I want ye," Brick growled at the goblins swarming him. He grinned toothily at them, and the bugbear behind them. "Yer next," he said. He swung his axes in an impressive display, though he wasn't able to actually connect. He at least made it look good.
            Nevertheless, the party's steady inroads were beginning to affect the desperate goblins' morale. One fumbled another attack on Brick, while the other limped off to hide behind the bugbear.
            Erky was quick to cut down the last goblin still facing off with them, raising hateful eyes and a red sword with a thin, shaking arm toward the last, cowering goblinfolk. "You're next."
            "What do you want?" the bugbear growled in passable Common, eyes flicking about for an escape. "Take it and go!"
            "We want your lives," Erky snarled right back. "And we intend to!"
            Nominis stepped forward and snapped his whip at the bugbear's legs, but the heavy monster managed to jump away from the leather cord. Snarling fearfully, it retreated, all but trampling the goblin behind it as it took up a position of relative safety behind the doorway down at the end of the long hall. <"Burzak!"> it screeched again, desperate.
            “You took some people with Erky here,” Nala told the bugbear. “Where are they? Oh, and the kobolds are sick of you terrorizing them!” Nala accused. If the bugbear moved, and refused to do as asked, she would continue the fight and strike the goblin down.
            Draugrim stalked up to the terrified goblin the bugbear had left behind, his face dark red with fury. With a hard swing, his sickle-shaped glaive lopped off the wounded goblin's head.
            "TALK OR DIE," he roared at the bugbear, the words somehow a part of the story he was telling.
            "Wait," the tall archer said as he took a few steps closer. "Tell us what you know about this level. Maybe we'll let you live if you can be helpful." That said, though, Vol put another arrow to the string and started murmuring the words to another spell, more putrid acid congealing near the tip of his arrowhead.
            "Okay! All right! I'll tell you everything!" the bugbear snarled, tiny eyes trying to watch them all at once. "There's some crazy human down here, calls himself Belak the Outcast. Him and his frog took over the Durbuluk, makes us do all this stupid farming. He's got your humans! He's the one you want! Go the other way, he's down there!"
            "We should kill him anyway," Erky whispered to the others, teeth clenched. "The only good goblin is a dead one!"
            The door behind them swung open, and yet another bugbear peered in. <"What, Gogbul- what the?!"> It snarled and raised its morningstar, standing ready in the doorway.
            Vol looked up and loosed at the doorway, deliberately missing the new bugbear. "Stay there! We're having a chat. Don't move and we might not kill you and your friend."
            The tall elf looked at Erky and the others. "I don't want to kill anyone I don't have to." He turned back to Gogbul. "If we go take care of your Belak problem and come back through here on our way out, are you going to ambush us? It will probably go as well as this attempt did if you do."
            Nominis pulls the shadows back when it becomes apparent they won't fight. "I don't care as long as they don't bother us. I'll leave a shadow to watch them."
            He mumbles something and from the corner of the room a shadow dettaches itself from the darkness. "Watch them!" It moves a bit forward, vaguely humanoid shape made of shadows. And then floats back into the corner disappearing into the wall.
            Cowed by this display of both martial power and unnatural forces at the party's command, the bugbears exchanged looks, then lowered their weapons.
            Nala panted, the rage still on her, her burning blood urging her to kill these bugbears. But they weren’t attacking, and she felt her rage slipping away. She sagged and leaned against the wall.
            “We know where your friends are,” she told Erky. “We can kill more goblins later if we have to, but right now let’s get them.” She walked over and picked up the javelin she had thrown.
            Erky frowned, hit hatred of the goblins still strong, but a glance at Draugrim changed his mind. The half-elf had finally ceased his story, and worry for his cousins painted his face.
            "Aye, all right. Let the beggars go. We'll kill 'em later if they cause trouble," he said loudly, staring straight at Burzak.
            Brick was momentarily confused. Nala was sitting down? The others are talking? His axes dropped a little, but he remained at the ready. If the bugbears weren't amiable, he would burst into action.
            “So we’re going after this human guy now, huh? How does a human take over a goblin tribe?” she wondered. “And what’s he up to down here?”
            Vol gestured at Nala. "Gogbul, you have any answers to that?"
            "He's farming," Gogbul growled. "Got a big ugly tree, makes a fruit twice a year. He calls it the Gulthias tree. Sends us to sell it to humans. Lots of little tree-animals helping him - he calls 'em twig blights. They're dangerous. Spends all his time bossing us around. Chief Durnn should have killed him."
            "We will fix that mistake. Just make sure you and your friends don't get any ideas about trying to ambush us again. We won't be this friendly twice." Vol nodded at the hobgoblin and walked off with his companions.
            "They'd better be alive," Draugrim warned the bugbears as they slunk away through the goblin commons; fighting overwhelming (or even equal) odds was never a favorite goblin pastime.
            For his part, Erky went around the fungus-covered room, putting an end to the goblins who still drew breath.
            "I've heard of Gulthias," Draugrim told the others once the bugbears had left. "He was a vampire, from ages ago. Legends say he was put down in a buried citadel filled with his minions, who were destroyed in the process... I can't believe it. Orklar's story about the Sonless Citadel... might be right, too. And whatever this tree is, if it's named for a vampire, it can't be good."
            Nala considered. “Tree blights? We’ve run across them. How does a tree grow underground though,” she wondered. “Vampire? What does a vampire need with a tree?”
            Brick grunted as he watched the bugbears and goblins retreat with a suspicious eye. "We'll prolly hafta end 'em sooner or later," he commented. "Gotta go back through 'ere when we be leavin... unless dere be a magic portal or wotnot." He glanced at his combat-weary companions and clicked his teeth. "We should stop an' rest. Canna do 'ere innae hallway. Mebbe check one o dem doors?"

            Putting action to words, Brick went over and opened the door he had indicated. In the octagonal room within, luminescent mists blurred the walls. Nodules of growing fungus dotted both the stone walls and ceiling, as well as the caps of toadstools and mushrooms, small polyps, puffballs, lichens from deep underground, and less identifiable growths - several of which appeared scorched and dead. The humid air reeked with rot - and smoke.
            Vol felt oddly drawn to the room. His sharp eyes pierced the mists, tracing out the outline of... a bow? It hung from high on the back wall, mostly-hidden by the fungus burgeoning around it, black and as twisted as mangrove roots. It... called to him.
            "We can't rest now!" Draugrim was telling the others, his voice slowly rising. "Talgen and Sharwyn might still be alive, but who knows for how long?!"
            "Easy, lad - we don't know what we might run into, and if we're not ready, we won't do 'em a lick of good," Erky attempted to soothe him.
            Nominis looks disbelieving at the group "We should rest. This fight was tempting fate. Coming upon ready druid with his servants without spells and hurt is asking for death."
            The tall, white haired archer was only half listening to the argument. Vol was almost always in favor of resting. Most things could wait, in the elf's estimation. But he took a few steps forward without even meaning to, moving closer to the mist-shrouded back wall.
            "Rest, right, right. Let's do that," Vol said dreamily.
            What was that? It looked like a bow. But why would there be a bow here? And why did it smell like charred wood on top of fungal decay? The lanky elf moved deeper into the room, his steps languid, heedless of danger, like he was drifting through a dream. 'Why are you here,' Vol thought as he closed in on what he could clearly see now was a bow. A magnificent bow. The darkwood bow on his back was a masterpiece of elven craftsmanship, but the black bow on the wall was a piece of art. Was it black? It almost seemed to hold other colors inside it, like flickering reflections of a fire in an obsidian mirror.
            All of a sudden he was standing right before it, looking up at the bow. 'How did you get here,' he thought to himself.
            Nala dragged herself after the others as Brick opened the next door. She slumped against the doorframe, leaning on her axe, closing her eyes and snoring a little.
            “What’s Vol going on about?” Nala yawned. “Gods above, this place stinks.” She looked around at the rotted fungi in the room. “Something burned in here.”
            "Oi lad, whatcha doin?" Brick asked of Vol as the magus stepped into the room. He seemed to see something he didn't, and that worried the Dwarf. If they were to rest and recover here, there shouldn't be anything... weird. He made a circuit of the room, looking for... weirdness. As he passed Vol, he laid a reassuring hand on the elf's back.
            Vol climbed up the fungus to reach the bow, and the moment his hand closed around its handle, he felt his senses expand. It was an almost mystical feeling - he felt the distance to every other thing in the room sharply. But he again felt that vertiginous feeling of being... shorter? And when he took a deep breath of awe, his lungs still burned from the poison he'd inhaled days ago, exacerbated by the smell of smoke in the room.
            Wait. The bow wasn't hot to the touch, despite the flickers of fire that ran down its twisted length. What was causing the smoke? He took another look around...
            ...And he, Nala, and Brick realised that the room was covered with holes, the way they'd seen back where the glowing worm had set fire to Brick's beard. They were nearly-hidden by the fungus, scorched though it was, but they were there. And in one of them, the glow of heat was increasing.
            In the background, Erky and Draugrim were still arguing about whether or not they should rest, or forge on. Nominis, however, seemed to have a sixth sense that something was about to happen as he looked toward the doorway, while Brick was just a moment slow to act.
            Nala felt herself perk up, regaining her vigor and strength. “Uh oh. There’s another one of those hot worms coming!” she warned the others, indicating the slightly hidden hole where the glow was coming from. She transferred her great axe to her off hand as she moved into the room and reached back to draw a javelin, feeling her blood boil in anticipation of the fight.
            Vol barely heard her. He felt strangely whole with this bow in his hand. It was like he'd been missing something his entire life but he'd never even known it until now. And the bow... he knew the bow agreed, somehow. He could feel its approval radiating into him. It felt like greeting an old friend. It was so familiar, but he'd never seen this weapon before. This weapon that fit perfectly in his hand, with the balance exactly where he liked it and the pull precisely at the weight he preferred. This bow had been made for him, he could tell. But how had it gotten here? And who had made it?
            The tall, lanky archer drifted back toward the door, wrapped up in his thoughts as he stared at this strange, new, old, familiar bow.
            "Say what lass?" Brick exclaimed, his eyes widening in the gnome's direction. He scanned the room until he saw the glowing hole. He focused on it and he held his axes in front of him defensively. The memory of their last encounter with one was all-too fresh. His beard would never be the same! Keeping his eyes on the thing, he moved into position for when combat would begin.
            In the haze of his musing, he wandered directly past the hole that the glowing worm suddenly burst out of - but it must have been expecting him to swerve away, for it turned and rushed the wrong spot, then stopped in confusion as Vol peacefully wandered on, absorbed with his new bow.
            Nala hurled her javelin, piercing its plated hide - and the weapon burst into flame, blazing like a torch from the sheer heat surrounding it! Vol, belatedly realizing his peril, feinted to the side, then hurried back out the door when the worm lashed out where he'd been before yet again.
            Seemingly enraged, it charged at Nala - who simply stepped aside and let it smack into the wall. Coiling about with surprising speed, they traded blows for a few moments - long enough for Brick to come up behind it. His attack was a bit rushed, and ricocheted off the thing's red-hot scale-plates, but Erky and Draugrim finally realized what was happening, and hurried to join the fray. Erky managed to lob a javelin at it, but unlike Nala, the power of his emaciated arm wasn't enough to penetrate the thing's armor.
            With the worm on top of her, Nala growled and drew her great axe, swinging hard at the heated annelid.
            Seeming surprised at what was happening, Vol's hand blurred back and forth from quiver to bow and back again, firing off a flurry of arrows, the first of which was rimed with frost.
            Nominis was hoping to splash the water into the hole and prevent the creature from coming out at them. But now that it is here, he moves closer. While not yet ready to risk his whip or hide, he comes close enough to be ready to easily attack or exchange places with Wee Fury if she needs to retreat.
            He calls upon his shadow weave again, tiny barbs grasping the creature and spreading in the wide radius around him. But this time, it immediately collapses upon the worm in a spiky coccoon.
            Brick was still wary of the fire-worm. He focused his attack with one axe, using the other to shield himself from the worm's heat. He kept his combat dance in motion, staying behind the beast.
            Between them all, the worm stood no chance, white-hot or not. As they released their combined wrath on it, Vol felt again that vertigo sense of being too tall - but the twisted bow in his hands steadied him, almost as though it was a grounding force, and his arrows struck home with such power that the worm skidded along the floor.
            Draugrim and Erky looked on in amazement as the party reduced the worm to a hot stain.
            Brick grunted at the worm's destruction and nodded satisfactorily. "If we be restin here, best make sure dere ain't nuttin else wot gonna pop out at us." Putting his words into actions, he made a circuit of the room, looking carefully at everything, including the hole the worm was previously in.
            Nala nodded, blowing on her great axe to cool it down before she wiped off the worm’s heated blood. [b]“Secure the door. Who’s taking what watch?”[/b] she asked.
            Nominis clears up some space next to a wall and far from the door. That way they will have time to hide or react if something comes during their rest. Other than that he doesn't prepare too much, sleep is sleep and rest is rest. You grab both when you have a chance
            Both Draugrim and Erky agreed to take any watch given, though Draugrim seemed bitter that they weren't going any faster. Erky spoke to him quietly, but whether or not he was getting through to the stubborn half-elf wasn't clear.
            Once the worm had cooled, Nala cut it open again, just in case there were more gems inside it, and checked the hole, as well.
            Sadly, this worm wasn't as well-equipped as the other one had been, nor was there anything of interest in the cooling hole it had burnt in the rock.
            Brick closed the door and stationed himself near it, plopping his butt on the floor and setting his axes in easy reach. "Wake me up when me shift is," he commented.

            Feeling refreshed after a well-rested night (after the door had been secured), Brick set about his morning routine of axe maintenance, eating, and brushing his much-reduced beard.
            Vol also felt somewhat better after spending a few hours communing with his new bow. The elf hadn't let the new weapon out of his hand since he acquired it, and he even sometimes seemed to be talking to it. He stood and made ready, prepared to fend off the things that had been scratching at the door overnight.
            Nominis looks around the room once more, just in case he missed something when tired and wounded. But when Brick started opening the door he stood ready with his net right next to it.
            Despite being able to breathe easier now that the poison he'd inhaled had finally been purged from his lungs, Vol was constantly struck by vertigo when he moved. Only holding his bow at all times seemed to ameliorate the effect. At breakfast, he snarfed his food down without thinking about it. It was an effort not to eat another ration.
            Nala yawned and stretched as she awoke. She made her business in the corner, and then munched on some rations before packing up her gear. She eyed Vol as he talked to that strange new bow of his.
            “You okay, elf?” Nala asked.
            When they were ready, Nala took her place with her greataxe beside Brick.
            Nala and Draugrim both seemed flushed and sweaty; Draugrim, at least, didn't seem very willing to talk to anyone anymore, much less about that. His face was closed and determined. Erky gave him a few words of encouragement and a pat on the back, but Draugrim shook off his hand. Nala was feeling distinctly under the weather, too, if less clumsy than the day before.
            Vol took a deep breath and let it out, trying to get a hold of whatever it was that was going on before answering. "No, to be honest. Dizzy, I can't shake it. I'll be alright eventually. How do you feel, though? Are you alright? Draugrim, you too."
            "Feeling a bit hot, to be honest," Draugrim grudgingly admitted, but hefted his half-moon glaive with grim resolve. "Nothing getting my cousins the hells out of here won't cure."
            When everyone was ready, Brick made for the door. "Right. Lessee if we got visitors, aye." He pulled the pitons free that were securing the door and returned them to his pack. Then he pulled the door open, his axes at the ready.
            The door grated open on the glowing fungus outside. It showed them a sea of skeletal remains - not of the goblins they had killed, but of what looked like various humans and other travelers and adventurers. They wore rusty and holed chain shirts, the rags of their former attire hanging off their bones - all except for the main attention-grabber.
            Towering above the others, a huge, tusked skeleton in dented and rusty half-plate had stood ready, an enormous club of strange, ash-grey wood clutched in its hands. At its feet, one of the twisted plant monsters was rooted in the mulch-lined floor.
            Now that their prey had appeared, the undead wave slowly began to move toward them, picking up speed. The twisted sapling jerked its roots from the mulch.
            "What in the Nine Hells is that," Draugrim breathed from behind Brick, the most he'd said all day.
            Nominis takes a quick look "By the look of it, it is an ogre. Just...not as muscled as he was before."
            With a grim smile "We may have to fight, but we can surely fight them smart. Brick, try to fix the door in half-open position. Prepare what you have of blunt instruments. Elder, can you turn them?" "I can scream so hard they break appart. At least little ones."
            Erky, not used to the nicknames Nominis was fond of and occupied with trying to see past everyone in the door, missed his cue.
            Brick eyed the collection of animated bones waiting for them outside the room. "Dunnae rush out," he said, looking specifically at Nala. "Let 'em come tae us. Ain't no reason tae run out there an' git surrounded."
            "'Ere lad," he added to Erky as he unhooked his crossbow and bolt case from his belt and let them fall, "so ye got sommit tae do."
            Nominis eyes the big skeleton "Maybe we should step away from the door? That large one could probably hit the door from far away we couldn't harm it. And if we step back anyone and anything entering between us will not be long for this wolrd."
            Brick looked to Nominis's suggestion, "Ain't a bad idea lad, cept we got two heavy hitters innae front. Need tha room fer me an' Nala tae swing. Long as we stay innere, tha bottleneck'll work." He anchored his feet at the door and readied his axes, awaiting the onslaught.
            Erky snorted at being called "lad," but grinned at Brick as he came over, sheathing his goblin sword. "Much obliged, kid," he chuckled.
            The usually calm elf had gasped at seeing the sea of undead and their enormous champion. "At least the big one can't get in here," Vol squeaked, very un-Vol like. He started singing a spellsong under his breath as the undead rolled toward them and as he did felt somehow buoyed by his new bow, more confident and capable. He knew he wouldn't miss, that his arrows would hit harder and his magic would bite deeper, all because of this new weapon. The elf didn't really have time to think about it now, but it would bear meditating on later.
            "Say the word," Draugrim growled, preparing to strike from behind them.
            Nala wiped a clammy sweat from her brow, unsure why she wasn’t feeling so well. Of course, not all the injuries she had taken yesterday had healed up overnight, though they were now bandaged and cleaned.
            “Not feeling so hot, either,” Nala admitted to Vol. “Maybe slept wrong?” She rolled her neck.
            When Brick opened the door and revealed the skeletons, Nala sighed. “I hate undead,” she said angrily. “You said blunt weapons?” she asked Nominis, replacing her great axe on her back and strapping on her shield instead.
            The skeletons to the right, rather than approach the room, clattered into formation a short way away - and began firing arrows at Brick and Nala in the doorway. Arrows struck the stone wall, and Nala's shield, and Brick's intervening axes, but none hit home.
            The three skeletons on the left clacked up to the door with clawlike fingers outstretched - but Draugrim was ready for them. He shoved his glaive past Brick and directly into the skeleton's ribcage, then levered it apart with a mighty wrench. "Who needs blunt weapons when you have style?" he commented with a nasty grin at the rest of the skeletons. The one behind the skeleton he'd destroyed stepped up with no fear, no anger, just undead determination.
            Once the skeleton stepped up to him. Brick's axes went to work. He held his off-hand back to shield against more arrows, but his main weapon swiped viscooisly at the skeleton's midsection.
            With crushing force, his blows rained down on the skeletons that had approached, smashing them to shrapnel and dust - with one hand.
            Then the massive skeleton stepped up behind them and took a swing at Nala while she was settling her shield. Its ugly dead-whitish greatclub smashed into the doorway, knocking loose stone, but Nala had already stepped back.
            The uprooted plant monster paused while the skeletons arrayed themselves, then tumbled down the great gallery to the right, coming to a stop by the open door there.
            Nominis focuses on the shadows in this place and they thicken at his call. But, as soon as they gathered, they rush all around the great skeleton. He originally planned on casting a spell, but the skeletons can hit him even under the cover of the doorway. And besides, only this morning, he thought of the way to focus the power of his shadows. So he is eager to try it.
            In the other room, the skeletons' shadows crawled off the floor and up along the bones of the uncaring dead. Beside Brick, Erky scooped up the dwarf's discarded crossbow and bolts, settling them on as quickly as he could.
            The tall elf bared his teeth at the enemy archers. "Oh, you want to shoot? Alright, then." With that, Vol started pumping out spells and arrows as fast as he could.
            Unfortunately, with so many gaps in their "bodies," and with the armored ogre skeleton filling the space in front of them, Vol's arrows narrowly missed doing real damage, instead dealing only glancing blows as they moved.
            Nala ducked behind her shield as the arrows came, and the ogre skeleton smashed at her. She drew her warhammer then and prepared for their advance.
            Stepping forward, Brick continued to lay into the skeleton in front of him.
            What should have been a devastating blow against the dead ogre turned into the skirl of steel on armor, sparks flying, with only a small chip in its heavy legbone to show for it.
            Draugrim was right behind him, thwacking the enormous undead thing with his half-moon glaive, but his weapon proved no more effective at harming the monster.
            The ogre skeleton, deceptively fast for its size, brought down its massive tree-branch club down on Brick, damn near knocking the dwarf silly. Even as it did, its own shadow wrapped around its bones, trying to pierce them with shadowy barbs. Their tips cracked the bones, ever so slightly; hairline fractures ran all along the dull bones where dried remains of dead meat didn't cling to them.
            "Brick! Keep fightin', lad!" Erky called out, alarmed. "I'll beg Gaerdal's will to smash these abominations!"
            Now that he could properly see the area, Nominis thought to use grease under the skeletons...but they don't move. His next was to move forward and cast a net on the ogre. But that would require him to take place of someone who could hit harder. Finally, he could try to trip with his whip...but with Brick and Cousin on the way...snaking it around ogre legs just seems too difficult.
            With a sigh, he concentrates again and shadows envelop all of the undead, hindering and slowing their attacks.
            When Nominis stepped in front of Erky, the little gnome grunted and circled around behind him instead, oversized crossbow in one hand as he raised the arm with Gaerdal's sign imprinted on the iron armband. "Gaerdal, hear your servant's plea! Bring down these foes, and let us serve you in this world longer!"
            A pulse thundered out from where Erky stood, flowing into the hall and rattling the bones of the dead. One of the archers was rattled completely apart, while anothers ribcage clattered to the floor, but it kept firing. The huge, armored skeleton's bones merely shifted a bit out of alignment.
            More to clear his line of sight than because he felt it was necessary, Vol shifted his aim to the ogre.
            With precision that would be the envy of any wild elf of the Misty Vale, Vol hit key points in the enormous skeleton, his new bow thrumming in his hands. His second arrow, rimed with frost, went through the thing's eye socket and into its skull - which cracked, then exploded a second later, a mass of snow spilling from it.
            The massive thing fell like a tree trunk, its bones flying apart as they struck the mulch. Its armor clattered loudly, and the little plant creature by the door turned to flee.
            Following Brick, Nala took a few tactical steps forward, swinging her war hammer into the bones of the archer beyond the ogre wreckage.
            It smashed apart easily under her furious rain of blows, leaving just the last two archers standing. The one beside her dropped its bow and reached out with bony hands, catching her by the throat and throttling her despite its own shadow binding it, until she managed to wrench free. The other mindlessly continued to try to shoot her, with predictable lack of success.
            Brick was about to lay into the ogre skeleton when vol's arrows completely obliterated the thing. He looked back with a "not bad" nod and said, "Oi, nice bow, lad."
            Turning back to the battle in general, he noted that most of the skeletons were already destroyed. One was still trying to pepper Nala with arrows, so he stomped over to that one and laid into it with his primary axe.
            The skeletal remains of some hapless adventurer didn't stand a chaince. Three quick, powerful smacks with the broad side of his axe, and the magic holding the bones together failed, sending bones rolling in the fungus-y mulch.
            Draugrim followed him out, and when he spotted the twig blight, he charged after it with a roar of fury. It turned to run, but Draugrim's glaive was long enough to reach it before it could escape - and he whipped it through the plant's branches, severing several of them cleanly.
            Erky emerged, stepping over the wreckage of human bones carefully. With a glance at the last few enemies, he shook his head, not worried... about them. "Brick, you don't look so good. I can ask Gaerdal to heal both you and Nala, but His patience is short, an' I can only ask a few times afore His answer will be 'no.' I've a few more favors I can ask in a day, shall I use them?"
            The usually laconic elf grinned back at Brick, excited as a child with a new toy. He dashed out of the room, eyes sweeping for remaining enemies. arm sped back to his side as he conjured more arrows, smooth and quick as a metronome.
            He sped up to the corner, but when he saw Draugrim in front of him, the vertigo hit again - was Draugrim too big? Shaking off the momentary confusion, Vol realised that the enraged skald was blocking his target, and his arrow hit the gallery wall.
            Nala growled and spun around on the skeleton that had tried to choke her, swinging her warhammer at its skull.
            Before it could lash out at her again, her warhammer crushed its skull, shattered its arms and legs, and smashed apart its ribcage. There wasn't much left of it when she was done.
            To their right, the twig blight tumbled haphazardly away like a weed in the breeze of the sunlit world above, but Draugrim's attack had carved off so many of its branches that it dragged and caught on the uneven floor, slowing it.
            "Up here! Don't let it get away!" Draugrim raged.
            Vol shook his head, long white hair streaming as he tried to clear away the dizziness. Taking a deep, centering breath, he jogged up to the door, lined up another shot, and fired at the retreating blight.
            Nala chased after the fleeing twig blight, charging through the door.
            Nala chased down the twig blight, only to see Vol's arrow melt it into steaming mulch. Looking around as fatigue overcame her, she saw that she and Draugrim were in another gallery of glowing fungus and mulched floors, much like the last one. There was an alcove with a door to her right; straight ahead, another door hung ajar.
            "I think I stepped in something squishy," Draugrim complained, scraping some noisome fungus off his boot and onto the fallen twig blight.
            Back with the others, Erky prodded Brick with concern. "Are ye all right, lad? That great honking ogre didn't knock what sense you had out of ye, did it?" He chuckled at his own joke, but patted Brick's arm gently. "Gaerdal will likely give His blessing to ye, for what you've done. Say the word, lad." He set down Brick's crossbow and quiver of bolts, lifting a starvation-thin arm to prepare a hymn.
            Brick wiped the back of a hand against his face, pulling it away and noting the blood still seeping from his lip. "Aye lad," he said with a deep sigh, "I tink I need sommit dat divine innnervention. Dat big bone lad got quite tha wallop." Whilst Erky did his thing, Brick accepted the returned crossbow and bolts, and clipped them back on his belt.
            Wearily Nala trekked back to the other room to rejoin the others. She put up her shield and warhammer tiredly in the midst of an adrenaline crash.
            “You okay, Brick?” she asked. She could use some of that healing, too, not having fully recovered from the day before. “There’s another big room of fungus and mulch like this one,” she reported. “Door on the north side and the east side. Door north is ajar. East is closed. Don’t know if it’s locked.”
            Meanwhile, Vol did what he could to recover his blunt arrows. He'd been able to amass a decent cache of goblin arrows, but if they were going to be fighting skeletons he needed to preserve these blunt arrowheads since he doubted he was going to find any more down here.
            Following his companions into the main room, Nominis wondered past returning Nala. As soon as he was out of their light, his movement turned slow, measured and careful. Following her path, he went to the open door and took a peek. Afterwards he went over to the other door and listened at it for a minute before returning to the group to report.
            The room at the end of the gallery held more fungi, glowing a different color this time, but little else that Nominis could tell at a glance. Behind the other door, he heard nothing.
            Erky prayed to Gaerdal, but the deity was not terribly moved by his worship, and Brick and Nala remained wounded, though their wounds did knit slightly - a mercy.
            “Thanks, Erky,” Nala said, rolling her shoulders. She winced as a few of her injuries protested, but she did feel better, if not a hundred percent. “So which way we going next?” she asked. “More weird fungi.”
            Vol stood, stowing an arrow whose fletching he had just finished assessing, and nodded at the door to the east. "Let's see what's in there."

            The door opened on another arboretum, this one with the pungent smell of guano thick in the air. Looking up, they could see why: bats were flitting all over the artificial cave, snapping up the pale insects that flew everywhere amid the fungus, and dangling from the ceiling. It appeared to be quite a healthy colony.
            "So... is there anything worthwhile in there?" Erky asked.
            "Any doors or passages?" Draugrim asked, almost on top of Erky.
            As he often did, Vol held his position by the door in case things went south. Which it seemed like it might, momentarily. "Do we need to go in there? I don't see any doors or anything of value."
            [b]“Shhh…”[/b] Nala said, quieting the others. [b]“Bats. They aren’t bad alone, but when they swarm, it could be dangerous. They’re attentive, so be quiet and careful,”[/b] she told the others. [b]“I don’t see right off any other exits from the room, or anything but the fungus and bugs, but we can check.”[/b]
            Nala quietly crept into the room to try and search it without disturbing the bats. Unfortunately, she stumbled noisily over a loose piece of flagstone on the floor, dropping her axe momentarily with a clatter.
            The Dwarf was unusually quiet, standing behind Nominis and peering around the man into the bat-room. "Nay lad," he softly replied to Vol, "Dunnae see why we need ta go innere. Close tha door an' lessee 'bout tha next one, aye?"
            Nominis rolled his eyes. "Always rushing out without thinking. Wee fury, we could have smoked them out or disturbed them and let them pass."
            Still, he followed her, she already started in so there was nothing to lose. But his words stopped her for merest of moments which was enough that he collided with her since he looked up and not where he was goind. Momentary entanglement caused quite a rukus and the bats squicked excitedly.
            Nala noticed a number of bat remains scattered here and there amid the fungus and noxious guano piles, though never a whole one - and also a scattering of broken weapons, rusty and filthy. What was more strange, there were scoops dug out of the guano mounds, completely missing. The bats fluttered overhead, not yet too upset at the intrusion... but the stench of wet fungus rolled over her - and then there was movement of something much larger than a bat behind her and Nominis - it caught him and Erky by surprise.
            Absolutely covered in guano, and tucked into the fungus nearer to the door, was a lumpy yellow creature that at first they'd mistaken for more fungus. White cave bugs (with bats chasing them) flew through the air in clouds all around, obscuring its movement - until now. It stepped forward, silent, then paused, its spike-tipped tentacles waving slowly, as though it were underwater.
            The tall, white haired archer usually gave new meaning to the phrase 'laid back.' Vol hardly ever hurried, rushed, or stressed about anything. 'It'll work out' was his catch phrase. So it was all the more jarring when he yelled "Get out of there! That's an otyugh! Get out and close the door!"
            "A what?" Draugrim asked, but Vol's tone alarmed him - he stepped out of the way of anyone exiting the room, lowering his crescent-moon glaive in readiness to defend against anything pursuing.
            “Something has been working in here,” Nala said, noting the shoveled out areas of the guano piles. “And other things.” She toed at a rusted spear, the wooden handle collapsing away with the light touch of the gnome’s boot.
            Then Vol was shouting a warning. “Otyugh?” she with surprise, readying her warhammer as she spun around. “Go!” she ordered Nominis, keeping between the scout and the monstrosity covered in bat guano.
            Like Erky, though, Nominis was surprised by the creature appearing behind them, and was slow to react.
            "Wot in tha nine 'ells is dat?" Brick complained to Vol's pronouncement and the emergence of the creature from under the fungi. Nominis and Nala were still in the room, and they needed to get out. Grunting, Brick stepped around the door to provide a bit of coverage, keeping his axes at the ready.
            The otyugh shuffled forward, its weird trunk-like feet squelching in the guano and mushrooms, its tentacles still waving gently in the stink of wet fungus - but Nala was having none of that. The moment it came close enough, she swung her greataxe, slashing the fungi-like thing.
            The otyugh recoiled, and the stench of rotting fish in vinegar drenched the room. Rather than attack Nala in turn, though, it thrashed its tentacles defensively, accidentally dragging the spiked ends through the dangling swarm of bats, who immediately dropped into the air and began flying about, screeching and agitating the other cluster of bats.
            "Nominis, Nala, get out of there! It's too much for us!" Vol took a dancing step to get a better angle through the door and loosed a pair of arrows at the monster, one of them swirling with snow.
            The first punched through the thing's rubbery flesh easily, and the smell of rotting fish and flowers suddenly flooded the room. The creature's flailing tentacles knocked his second arrow aside, a burst of snow falling harmlessly to the ground along with the broken arrow.
            Draugrim and Erky, not wanting to get in the way, took up positions behind Vol. "I don't know what that thing is, but if Vol does, then run!" Draugrim called.
            "It's an otyugh!" Erky yelled.
            "What the hells is an otyugh?!" Draugrim yelled back.
            "Dammit, lass!" Brick said, exasperated. She should have just run, but Barbarians gotta Barbarian, he guessed. He shook his head and stepped over to the thing, his axes leading. "Withdraw!" he said as he laid into the weird creature, attempting to pull its attention.
            Skilled though he was, the creature's wildly flailing tentacles slammed into his waraxes, smacking them aside before they could do real damage. The smell of flowers intensified, and was joined by the stink of vinegar.
            Snapping from his surprise, Nominis pulls back from the creature toward the door.
            Half the agitated bats flooded out the open door with Nominis, swarming around Draugrim, Vol, and Nominis. Draugrim broke off his discussion about the otyugh to scream at the new, more pressing issue. The other half of the bat swarm flapped about the otyugh arboretum wildly, flying lower and lower as they began to flit out the door as well, filling the air with tiny flying bodies. The bats seemed more to be trying to escape than to actually intend to attack, but they weren't shy about biting as they smacked into the three adventurers.
            “I’m working on it!” Nala yelled back when Vol yelled at her to get out of there. “I wasn't leaving Nominis in here with that thing!” The gnome was still clearly tired from the last fight, though, her greataxe moving slower as she fended off the tentacles.
            Nala took a tactical step closer to the door and slashed with her axe at the otyugh to try and drive it back, but barely scratched the creature.
            The otyugh's flailing defensive tentacles abruptly stopped thrashing and shot out at Vol - but the agile elf managed to avoid their long grasp. The thing's mouth opened to reveal rows of fangs, which it snapped at Nala with, but likewise, the canny gnome was able to stay out of its way, even tired as she was. The air absolutely stank of flowers and vinegar now, the rotting fish smell dissipating to be replaced by the hint of sour wine, and the otyugh retreated a few steps into the fungus growths.
            Vol was gripped by strong vertigo suddenly, and the urge to crunch down on the delicious swarming bats, paralyzing him. Draugrim was not similarly confused. "EAARGH," he yelled, backing out of the cloud of tiny bodies and taking refuge by crouching by the wall nearby.
            Erky hadn't been caught in the swarm yet, and didn't intend to. He scooted the other way, but also huddled close to the wall. "Lass, Nominis, Brick - get out of there!"
            Brick glanced around, noting the weird creature had backed off. "Oi lass, git outta 'ere," he said to Nala, his axes held before him, awaiting her.
            Nominis keeps moving, getting out of the swarm, letting them fly out wherever they want, he just crouches down next to the room corner outside of the swarm.
            The swarm didn't disperse, but it did move on into the larger chamber, flapping at random all over the place. Unfortunately, half of it swarmed around Draugrim, who was now nigh-covered with bites and scratches. "Get these things off me!" he screamed, swinging his glaive ineffectually. "Erky, help!"
            With the otyugh backing of, Nala retreated through the door with the others, keeping her eyes on the monstrosity in case it pursed them.
            The otyugh, though it had backed up, hadn't forgotten who had attacked it. Another tentacle snapped out at her, stretching far beyond the gnome's own reach. It slapped and scraped against the gnome's armor - but couldn't penetrate it.
            Noting Nala's retreat, Brick followed her, waving an axe generally through the bat swarm, trying to keep them off his head and out of his already wrecked beard. Finally through the door, he shouted, "Close tha durned door!"
            Before anyone could, though, the otyugh's tentacles whipped through the doorway! One slapped against the stone, thwarted, but the other latched onto Vol! It squeezed around him, making bones grind and flesh bruise. The stink of rotting fish and vinegar rolled over him in a wave, faintly tinted with sour wine.
            Grabbed out of his nauseated state, Vol was completely taken by surprise. He started cursing in elvish, beating the monster's tentacle with his new bow.
            Draugrim burst out of the cloud of bats, bleeding heavily now, but when he saw Vol's predicament, he dropped his glaive and grabbed the elf, trying to help pull him free. Fortunately, the swarm of bats didn't pursue - they merely flew all over the room, screeching and trying to fly away.
            Erky also rushed back, with a prayer to Gaerdal on his lips. Gaerdal must not have been too impressed with their strategy, though, for the healing energy that swept over them closed only a few of their cuts.
            Not having at the ready anything that could affect the monster from afar Nominis cast the spell on grabbed Vol, covering him in grease and making him hard to hold.
            Nala angrily pushed herself up and ran over to the doorway. “That thing is still being ornery?” the gnome asked, rushing over with her great axe to hack at the tentacle, but it writhed out of the way.
            Brick growled as the tentacle shot out and grabbed Vol. "Durned thing be insistent," he commented. Hefting an axe, he tried to hack at the tentacle, but between the jerking about of Vol and the bats swarming around his head, his axe strike went wide.
            The pulsing tentacles began to squeeze again - but this time, with Vol being coated in supernatural grease, instead of the tentacles crushing him, Vol squirted out of its grip, flopping onto the ground nearby.
            "Close... the door," Draugrim gasped, his face now a mask of red.
            Vol scrambled back away from the door, launching another salvo at the beast inside. "Nala, get that door closed!"
            With Vol freed, Nala pushed against the door to close it, hacking at any tentacles that tried to poke through.
            Brick grunted and assisted Nala in closing the door, ensuring any tentacles were either severed or drawn back into the room. Taking aim at one of the tentacles, he hacked at it.
            Vol felt a brief burst of clarity he hadn't felt in days. His arrows punched into the hapless otyugh, and the strong smell of old wine rolled out the door. It slumped as Nala and Brick slammed the door shut.
            Nominis readied his crossbow, but by the time he loaded it the show was over. The bats flew away, the tentacle retreated. Still, he waited tense and ready until the door was secured.

            After the nuisance passes Nominis stalks back to the group, his normally stoic behaviour agitated.
            "I've had it with you all! What the f**k are you thinking just barging in everywhere?! First, you Wee Fury are still tired from the last fight! Sit it out! Second, let me, the invisible one, scout first. Finally, don't get ahead of the group! Look how well we did against that horde of the goblins and whatever those big things were. Same against skeletons! When we have coherent line, healer behind you, spell support safe. But no!!! Lets go into the unknown, charging in one by one!"
            He takes a deep breath and looks at the group and focuses on Nala. "It is not that I don't value you staying to protect me. But then Brick entered to protect you and then we're all at the begining, fighting every which way. I wasn't directly next to the creature. Please, please, fall back next time, stop only if you actually see someone in danger, not because someone might be threatened. When you're out hunting with the tribe, you don't grapple the lion by its tail. You go in with the rest of the group in coherent and organized way."
            Nala glared back at Nominis. “And we don’t bring the weak along on a lion hunt, either,” she told him. “Next time I’ll just leave you in there alone then, let the monsters snack on you!” She stalked away and sat down against the wall.
            Nominis was taken aback by the statement. "Weak?! You think I'm weak? Why? Because I don't have an eye? Nonsense! I'm neither old or disabled. I survived alone in the Shadow for months! Sure, I learned caution. But so does every non-apex hunter. I protected you, all of you, as I could. I went into a fight with goblins covering Old One-Eye. I fought in every fight despite my protestations. And you call me weak? We are a tribe, close-working group, we need to protect one another. That wasn't the subject. It was that you WOULD NOT have to protect anyone if you didn't just hare off through the door without checking it first."
            Nominis walked to Nala, crouching next to her and offering his hands. "We don't always see things the same way. But you don't need to prove to stubborn lion warriors anything anymore. Your stature does NOT equal your ability as you proved again and again in this place. Come back to us."
            Nala shook her head. “You don’t know. I have to always prove myself,” she said stubbornly. “I won’t be the one that drags everyone down. No one needs to carry me because I am small,” she insisted. Gods, she was so tired! She knew it would pass momentarily, but it was still there. “No one saw anything dangerous in that room anyway. Just the bats. I didn’t go haring off. We just didn’t know that thing was in there. Did you want me to just leave you in there?” she asked him sarcastically.
            Nominis looked at her and shook his head. "There is a difference between carrying you around and you dragging us down. If you go alone, charge recklessly and we all get more hurt because we're not willing to let you die...that is dragging us down. Not because you're not capable, but because you don't work with us. Look at Cousin, he wants to find missing adventurers and all we do is heal and heal. And yes, you could have left me there. I'm not some helpless pup that has to be protected and I wasn't grabbed or blind or something. After all, I left you. BUT! I wouldn't if that thing grabbed you and held you down.
            I couldn't stand against you trading blows despite our relative sizes...but I could stand against you if you give me moments to prepare. Or I could run away. Nothing wrong with that."
            Nominis tried once more. But she was as stubborn as when he laughed at her size with the rest of the warriors.
            "Wait, what?!? When did we...I wouldn't...where do I come from?!?!?" his internal monologue causes him headache, this almost memory trying to surface, but unable to. He closed his eyes and held the hand to his forehead. Taking a moment to center himself, he again offered the hand
            "Brick is somewhat larger and higher than you, but he has no problem with his size. We are not in the Lion tribe anymore. You have proven yourself. Now it is time to prove to yourself you can be part of the greater whole without endangering us all."
            Nala sighed. “I am only doing what I know to do,” she said. “I can’t cast spells. I hit things with an axe.” Wearily she took Nominis’ hand. “I can’t promise anything,” the little gnome said, “but I will try.”
            All the while, the screeching bats swarmed through the hall, flying back and forth and biting anyone in their way, though the entire swarm did not attack.
            The elf slumped against the wall, too, holding one arm around his creaking ribs and cradling his bow in his lap. "Go check it out," he wheezed.
            "Is it dead?" Nominis asked. "I thought I saw it fall down with this last arrow. Not that I'm too keen on going through all that literal crap inside...but remember we found the remains of the ranger with the rats above. Maybe we should look?" He looked at the group, realized how that must sound after he just berated Nala, but still... "I can take a quick look and shoot another bolt into it just in case. And maybe let these bats settle."
            "Aye lad," Brick replied, waving his axe futilely at the bats that came close to him. "If'n that thing be dead, mebbe we should look."
            "Gotta do sommit 'bout dese bats," he grumbled.
            Nala pushed herself up “I could maybe talk to the bats,” she offered, going to the door. “You want me to take a look?” She tried to quietly pull the door open just a crack to look into the room again, ready to quickly slam it shut if she saw a tentacle come at her.
            Nominis looked at Wee Fury, confused. "If you can calm them, sure, talk to them. I didn't know you could do that, sounds very cool. And you said you cannot cast spells." As Brick and Nala opened the door he slipped inside. And promptly caught his klars spike in the damaged wood of the door, pulling him off-balance as he slid sideways into the room. Pulling the shield he ends up on his back, bathing once again in the noisesome stuff as the spike suddenly gets unstuck.
            Still, his 'eyes upward' position and resultant scrabbling to right himself resulted in good look around the room, without blasted light from the others ruining his darkvision.
            “It’s a gnome thing,” Nala told Nominis.
            As the scout stumbled through the door, Nala walked toward the bat swarm and cleared her throat.
            “Sorry for disturbing you, friendly bats,” she apologized. “We are here to deal with the evil that plagues this place, not to disturb your sleep. We will be gone soon. If there is anything we can get you, let us know.”
            For whatever reason, the bats didn't like that. They circled the room in a spinning vortex, a cloud of squeaking and chirping wings, and every now and then one would drop down and harass the party with a bite. Individually, it didn't really amount to much, but it was clear that the swarm wasn't happy with their presence.
            Draugrim slid to the floor beside Vol, grunting from the pain. Erky tsked and went to bind their wounds with strips of cloth, apologetically explaining that he'd already exhausted Gaerdal's favor. His efforts were interrupted often by a screeching bat or two that flapped into their midst, but fortunately, the swarm seemed to be sticking to the center of the hall for now.
            The otyugh sat slumping in the corner, Vol's arrows protruding from its hide, and its tentacles lay limp along the ground. The eye-watering ammonia stench of the guano was leavened with the stink of rotting fish and, most of all, the penetrating smell of old wine.
            A search of the disgusting room turned up a number of broken bits of garbage, arrayed as though to be visible from the entrance to the room; a pot with a hole in it, a bent and tarnished silver plate, a collection of large shards of colored glass, a few broken goblin shortswords, a pair of traveling boots of stout brown leather (now fouled with guano), and the like. However, buried arm-deep in muck, Nominis also found a large leather pouch, within which lay four vials of green liquid.
            Nominis emerges from the room, retching, barely holding it in. "Blergh! If you send me forward, I'll surprise no one, but no one in their right mind will attack me. Terrible."
            He produced the pouch and opened it, offering it to the group. "Please, someone clean take the content so I can dispose of this. And I need to clean myself. Any and all water would be welcome."
            After the cleaning and the vials were done with... "Do we need to wait for something else? Rest? I know Cousin would like to charge forward."
            Brick grunted and eyed the group, particularly Vol and Draugrim who looked worse for wear. "If'n all o ye be up fer continuin, I be too." He eyed the doors north and south. "We ain't seen what be south, aye."
            "We should press on," Draugrim immediately said, but Erky hemmed and hawed.
            "I don't got more juice with Gaerdal today - pressing my luck as it is," the emaciated gnome admitted. When Draugrim scowled at him, he added, "They obviously know we're coming. No need to meet them weaker than we need to be."
            "My cousins won't survive us dawdling!" Draugrim snapped.
            “Bloody bats!” Nala cursed as they ignored her very nice please for them to leave them alone. She swatted at them with her greataxe. She was feeling better though, having gotten her second wind.
            “I can go on,” Nala told the others. “But if we’re down too much, it won’t help your cousins survive if we don’t survive,” she pointed out to Draugrim. “You’re hurt, Vol is looking bad, and even Brick is injured a bit. Do we have a good place to rest nearby? Otherwise we press on a short bit more to find a place.”
            Nominis looked miserable, with stink coming off him in waves. "I'm with Cousin on this one. I know I'm usually advising caution and I'm not saying now we should just rush onward. But we should explore a bit more. I will take the point as usual, you follow with your light. Elder, you kept us alive until this moment. Without you, we would probably retreat and come back more prepared, but with more chances for something bad to happen to Cousins' cousins."
            Vol groaned as he pushed himself onto his feet, bracing himself against the wall to help supplement his waning strength. "I can go on for a while more," he said weakly, even though he looked like you could push him over with a feather.
            Brick rolled his shoulder and started walking south. "Aye, if'n yer all ready fer more. Might's well see wot be fer seein down 'ere."
            Draugrim rose to his feet with Vol, grunting but looking satisfied that they were making progress. Erky, though, shook his head and sighed as they prepared to head back to the first hall.
            As they walked, Nala realized that the screeching bats all had the same complaints - they weren't hungry, but they felt far too confined - apparently, they'd been confined to that arboretum for as long as they could remember. They continued to flap crazily about, occasionally getting in the party members' faces, as the swarm searched for some way out. For his part, Vol had to restrain himself from grabbing and eating the bats that ventured too close.
            Nala paused to listen to the bats. “Oi, mates,” she told the flying creatures. “I can tell you the way out if you just calm down and listen.” She proceeded to give them directions that would eventually take them to the surface.
            For some reason, the peabrained bats didn't understand the concept of "directions." They continued to flap about, being pesky as they slowly grew more angry.

            The last arboretum displayed yet another example of Underdark ecology, though parts of it were scorched by the fire-worm that was apparent in one of the holes in the ground. Steam rose off it as it raised its rhinosceros-horned end in their direction.
            Nominis looked around the area and stands firm in the doorway, not letting Brick and Nala through.
            "How about we just let it be? The druid is not here with his captives. I don't see anything of import here. Let's return and check the other arboretums and then we to go beyond hunters lair into the tunnels or give up. This thing is dangerous and for what little it offers we can return after the victims are secure."
            If people agree, he will simply step back and pull the door behind him.
            They got to the next arboretum and Nala sighed. “Another one of these?” she said.
            Vol nocked an arrow but didn't let fly. He looked at Brick and Nala and the others. "I'm all for not fighting if there's nothing in there."
            Erky and Draugrim agreed, Draugrim already disinterested in this arboretum once it was clear that his cousins weren't hidden within.
            Brick frowned at the fire-worm in the room. The memory of singed beard still fresh. He glanced to Nom's suggestion, "Aye lad, I dunnae see nuttin in dere. Ain't no reason tae bother tha thing. Close tha door an' lets see wot be up north."
            Even as the thing slithered toward them, Nominis simply closed the door. It grew noticeably warmer as the worm on the other side approached, but the animal didn't bore through to pursue the party.
            Back the way they'd come, they looked through the final arboretum, finding even more bizarre specimens of Underdark life. Glowing mushrooms, white spiders, and dripping mosslike fungus covered everything - except the door that Nominis hadn't seen on his first glance into the room.
            Draugrim was relieved that they hadn't hit a dead end. "Good job, dragonscale warrior," he grinned as they trod into the ground-mist and reek of rot that all the arboretums had. They noticed that there were holes in the floor and walls here, just as in the other chambers, but no fireworm came out to menace them.
            Erky was hesitant to move on, looking around at their state - much to Draugrim's annoyance. "We don't know what we'll meet," he argued, even in the face of Draugrim's glower. "We should block up that door, and heal what we can."
            "We don't have time for this," Draugrim growled. He placed a hand on Vol's back, and began to tell a story of bravery and derring-do by a band of adventurers, and there was magic in his words beyond the ability to enthrall - Vol felt his hurts melt away, until he was standing tall again. Draugrim, by the end of his tale, also stood unhurt and ready, and he gave Erky a triumphant grin. "And that's how the Battle of Wemic's Claw was won."
            He motioned for Nominis to open the door. Erky sighed, long-suffering. "You're not careful enough down here," he grouched.