Once More Into The Breach

Yaz' form starts to morph once again, shrinking while growing feathers of white and brown. After a minute, he has assumed the form of an owl, a spitting image of the departed Heathcliff.

The owl-druid gives a hoot and then starts to fly back down the passageway from whence they came. To say that the journey back was not very interesting is a bit of an understatement, with only the slight element of fear and discomfort to break an otherwise tedious, tiring and, most definitely, long, journey.

After a little less than half an hour, they return to the cavern where they came across the Death Kiss. Although it has been beaten about quite badly as a result of your fight with it, it is still vaguely ball-shaped and so they decide to roll it back to the room containing the fungus, after hacking off its remaining tentacles. Rolling the eyeball takes a little longer than walking normally, but not tremendously so and, a little less than an hour later, they have maneuvered the beholder-kin to the fungus room.

Upon entering the cavern, they can see that the remaining fungus spread throughout the cavern has already started work on decomposing the carrion crawlers as well as the purple and white fungi that caused the party so many problems. They roll the beholder-kin into the fungus and watch it a while until they are sure that the fungus is starting to grow over it. Once this is done, they continue on their return journey once again.

They carry on for another half an hour, following the signs created from lichen whenever they come to a junction. As the passageway continues to narrow, they step over the fallen piercers and then continue, stepping over the remains of the rust monster that Aithne beat to death with her quarterstaff.

The passageway then narrows to the point where they are forced to return to single file in order to maneuver through the tunnel while wading through the cold water. They then reach the small natural waterfall and have to use the knotted rope in order to haul themselves up.

They then reach the narrowest and most unpleasant part of the tunnel, where they are once more forced to crawl on your hands and knees in order to get through it. It doesn't seem to be quite as difficult to get through it going back, nor does it take quite as long, but it is still a far from pleasant exercise. Eventually, the narrowest section is complete and they are able to stand a little and continue onwards, stooping as they go. This part continues for another half an hour until they are able to stand upright once again.

They remember that, once they have reached the point where they are able to stand upright once more, then there is only a relatively short distance to go. This serves to spur them on to quickly finish the journey, although every single muscle in their bodies are now aching like crazy. Eventually, they see the opening ahead of them, with the welcoming sight of the snow outside and, with great relief, they finally emerge to greet the outside world once more.

It is totally dark by the time they emerge, with Yaz estimating that it is around 8.30p.m. as they start to traipse through the snow in order to get back to the village. They arrive back in Litultovitze a quarter of an hour later, heading straight for the 'Traveler's Rest'.

They enter the bar to see that Rolex is waiting for them, puffing away nervously on a long clay pipe, despite the fact that it is making him cough his guts out every time he exhales. Upon seeing them enter, it appears as if Rolex is not sure whether to be incredibly relieved or worried by their re-appearance:

"Zemnye below," he exclaims, "whatever has happened to you?"

As their eyes adjust to the bright torchlight of the inn, they can see the reasons for Rolex's fears, as they can now see that they all look to be in a fairly terrible state. They are all absolutely filthy, their faces covered in the grime of the delve and their clothes are little more than dirty rags now; bloody, dirty rags in the case of the vestments belonging to Aithne, Porter and Yaz.

"It's alright, Brother," Timex reassures him, "all of the damage is superficial and none were lost during the day's exploration."

Rolex sighs with relief at this, which starts him coughing once again:

"So what did you find down there?" Rolex asks excitedly.

"It was incredible," Timex replies with equal excitement. "We got down as far as Pre-Crustaceous era igneous basalt."

"Never!?" Rolex exclaims.

"It's true, Brother," Timex says, "and before that we passed through Post-Fintabrian limestone sediment."

Rolex shakes his head:

"It cannot be," he replies, "to think that we are standing above such wonders."

Upon seeing that the Quartz-Movement brothers are settling down to some serious geological discussions, the party decides to head back to their rooms to clean the grime away and to change into fresh clothes. When they all return a half-hour later, the two dwarves are still wrapping up their discussions.

The party members head over to the bar to order some drinks to slake their thirsts. As they do so, the innkeeper speaks to Joy:

"Excuse me, madam, but I thought I better have a word with you about that ... thing ... that you have in my cellar," he says a little nervously. "It's just that it's been squeaking its head off all day and smashing things to pieces down there. I need to get some more barrels up soon, but I'm afraid to go in. Could you ... errm ... do something about it?"

Porter leans over to Joy:

"If we're not going to get any more use out of him, I'll take care of him. I suggest you lead him outside rather than making a further mess of his cellar."

"Do you guys think it might be useful to bring him with us?" Winnacer asks. "If not, we should turn him over to the town's authorities, to be punished as per the will of the town. The townspeople should be allowed to look upon the face of what has brought such plague upon themselves and their children."

Winnacer's question is met only by shrugs all round from the others.

They take their drinks and head off to join up with the Quartz-Movement brothers at their table. The dwarves bring their conversation to a close as they see the others' arrival:

"Oh yes," Rolex says, suddenly remembering why they all went underground in the first place, "did you find anything else down there other than interesting rock formations?"

Timex nods and informs him regarding the creatures that they overcame, and the reason as to why they were forced to return.

Rolex shakes his head as he hears the news of the ratmen's defensive position:

"That sounds like a tough one to me," he ponders. "So what ideas have you come up with so far?"

Winnacer is the first to respond, looking hopefully at the clerics:

"This is how I see things going down tomorrow. Please chime in if any of you disagree."

"Our first priority is to keep the entire complex from coming out to fight while we take down the rats guarding the entrance cavern. A single silence spell cast strategically over the iron door should help us here."

"Secondly, we wish to set off all four of the flame barrels simultaneously and from surprise. This is not going to be the easiest thing to do. But I had this idea. The barrels of the flame guns were bound with iron for strength. I well remember the spell that causes a warrior's arms and armor to grow hot enough to smolder one's clothes beneath. I think that this spell, if cast upon the barrels bindings, would lead to the explosion of the barrels. Most importantly, it does not shine bright, keeping the ratmen and ratogres unsure to what is happening until they blow up, buying us some time to get into position and not revealing the position of our casters."

"If we can get our three priests into position to cast the heat spells immediately, then cast the silence spell and a spell to bollix the fourth barrel, we will have them where we want them. The question is how do we get our clerics into range? Or is there a way to utilize the more stealthy members of our group to focus the spells for the priests?"

"With the cannons' explosion imminent, the ratmen will either be scrambling for their lives at their high perch or unknowingly awaiting their deaths. It is then we make our move, using missile fire to kill the choke-gas flail-waving ratmen, the sneaky looking rat, and most importantly the ratogre handler. With Spravedelna's graces, good archery will release the ratogres from control while the ratmen in the other cave are closer to them than we are."

"With the alcoves swimming in flames, the iron door silenced to the protests of the ratmen, and the ratmen ground forces in disarray, we can move forward to mop up."

"If this plan goes by the book, it uses a paucity of spells and leaves the group out of the range of injury. The only problem is how do we get into position? Yaz has his various animal forms, Joy has her cloak. But how can we move Timex into position?"

"If you guys feel that the metal heating is too risky, we can use ensorcellments such as the wood ruining or fire producing spells I've witnessed Yaz call upon. Even his whirlwind spell can work here, shattering the poison globes against the walls and punishing the rats with their own gases."

"One last thing. Do you think that we need the help of your giant insect friends, Yaz? It may help to have quick flying allies here as well."

Porter answers:

"If it will work, I think this metal heating thing is a great idea. From what you've said, when those things blow, they kill everything around them. I think that we can only get Yaz and Joy into position, as even if we could keep Timex hidden, his coughing is going to give him away. Perhaps Yaz and Joy can cast the heating metal spell twice each?"

"That is very true," Winnacer agrees. "Brother Timex may be better suited for other things."

"My other suggestion would be to get the other ratmen into the central chamber somehow to get some further collateral damage," continues Porter. "My idea is that using Joy's shadow creatures might help with that. To finish it off, that big gunne thing you got might be very useful. Oh, and finally, we need to make sure none of us are in the central chamber when those things blow."

"I'm not sure if the explosions in the alcoves will affect those in the central cavern," the LawBringer responds. "The alcoves are a bit higher, so there may be some splash of the volatile liquid, but I don't believe it will have a profound effect on those below. But I've been wrong before."

"You know, if we timed this with the changing of the guard of the alcove above us, we could have Timex shape the stone to allow for our access of the empty alcove. If we have the mass of ratmen in the middle, we could teach them the taste of their own flame cannon. We would also have the higher ground and a gunne at our disposal, which would be doubly nice if Porter was right about the explosions."

"The problem with the gunne is that it takes two people to really fire it correctly. It also takes about five minutes to load, although I've been practicing a bit. Not the most effective weapon in our arsenal. It may be easier to obtain one when we get there rather than lug mine."

"But I'm still unsure about how we are going to get everybody into position - or where those positions are going to be. How well does one have to see the flame machines to affect them with the ensorcellment? And how far away can one be to cast it effectively? If they need a good view, they are going to have to get up on the walls a bit."

Yaz yawns a cavernous yawn that lasts fully ten seconds. He flails his arms in front of him as he speaks, clearly bored of planning:

"Joy can make an eyeball out of shadows," he mumbles, "then plant it in between two of the hideyholes, like, northeast and southeast, out in the open. I can be hiding against the wall in between as well, somehow. If the eyeball makes the flame-machine carrier guys come look at it, then they'll both be in range of one heating spell and I can get them both at once. Plus one o' them bronze masks, too, maybe.

"We still need to get somebody in far enough to silence the iron doors," Winnacer comments. "And if we decide to use an illusion, we need to have it come from somewhere, not just appear from nowhere."

"If the eyeball thing was to rush forward from our entrance during the guard change into the mass of ratmen in the middle, it would hold up all the rats there, while we made our way into the alcove. That could work. That should draw the flame machines forward in anticipation anyway."

"I'm not sure Joy would be too wild about the idea of sneaking alone into the lion's den to cast the needed spells. So we still need to figure out a way to silence those doors."

Porter replies:

"I can go in with Joy to be close at hand in case she gets in trouble. Besides I want to keep an eye on that sneaky rat bastard in case he tries something fishy. Now how long does this silence spell last? If you can cast it on something, say a coin, and give it to me, I can make sure it ends up in the tunnel with the iron doors."

"That trick has worked before, if you think you can get over there," the LawBringer adds. "The only problem as I see it are the censer bearing rats by the door. You'll have to coordinate the coin's introduction with our attack, or they may notice something's up. And with you 100 yards away, we won't be able to come to your aid with ease."

"If we do it during the nearest thingy's guard change, you guys can sneak up the hole Timex makes," suggests Yaz. "Can you make holes, Timex?"

"Yes, I can," Timex coughs in response, "but I have only recently learned how to harness Zemnye's power in order to do so, and so I can only summon this power once per day."

"That's cool," Yaz responds, "then we got three out of four alcoves finished. Or I can send a bunch of giant bugs in to the fourth hole to break the little glass balls... or just fetch them and drop them on the priests..."

"It might also be advisable to bring along more oil," Rowan suggests. "It couldn't hurt to help the conflagration along... in fact, Joy, in her cloak, could surreptitiously pour some vials of the stuff in the two tunnels without the door. It'd give the vermen there something else to deal with, and might slow them enough that we wouldn't have to deal with everyone at once."

The druid shrugs, takes a long toke, then drops his head on his chest and closes his eyes:

"I don't care, let's just do it," he mutters into his tunic.

"I agree," Rowan says. "If it is to be done, best it were done soon."

Porter nudges Yaz, saying:

"Say, could you pass that? I need to unwind after today."

Yaz wordlessly passes his pipe carelessly by the mouthpiece, spilling a small amount of ash on himself, without looking up.

He still hasn't exhaled...

Porter takes the offered pipe, striking a small match taken from his pouch and firing the pipe a bit more. Drawing hard upon it, he inhales a full breath and then passes it back to Yaz with a thankful nod.

Aithne sits silently, a glazed look in her eyes:

"Yeah, let's do something. That stuff sounds good to me."

She fidgets nervously, not saying much after that.

Misunderstanding Aithne, Yaz takes the pipe from Porter and holds it out to her with a straight arm, still without looking up. Some seconds later, he flings his reddish blonde straggly hair back with a toss of his head, and exhales a thin stream high into the air, which is nearly clean of smoke:

"It IS good, man... It IS good."

He smiles the pothead smile, with heavy lidded eyes.

Aithne gives up and takes the pipe, also inhaling deeply. She passes it back to Yaz, afterward.

"We're gonna do some serious shit tomorrow, man," the druid continues. "So dead, them disease-makin' ratnosed tree-killin' bastards. Damn."

Suddenly Yaz sits up straight, and looks around the bar furiously with a hand on his stomach. His eyes narrow as he attempts to focus on the nearest person... Joy. He scowls:

"Is anyone else getting a little...hungry?"

Aithne exhales in a whoosh of laughter. She tries to stop, but seems to be unable to control her fit of giggling. She finally gets it down to a small chuckle, but by then has forgotten what she was laughing about or what she wanted to say.

Winnacer watches the communal smoking, ordering a glass of mulled wine instead:

"Before you all get too silly, we need to do something with Joy's disease-spreading friend."

"I dunno," Aithne replies. "I don't think we should share with him. I mean, he's charmed and all, but this is really good stuff."

Aithne beams up at the paladin, then dissolves into another fit of giggles at the expression on his face. It is quite clear that she is already 'too' silly.

Winnacer sighs and then turns to Timex:

"I believe we should turn over this ratman into your custody to do with as per the will of the village. Is there a prison of sorts here?"

Timex shakes his head:

"No, I'm afraid that there's nothing like a prison here. There's never been much crime in the village, and so there's never been any need. If anyone did cause any trouble, then they would be sent to Opava and dealt with there."

He pauses for a moment and nods:

"I really don't know what to do with it and I'm sure that the villagers won't either. Normally I would say that it deserves to die for its part in what it has done towards the suffering of the village. However, it just looks so pathetic that I'm not sure that I could do it myself."

Winnacer nods:

"In that case, I shall have to use to the powers invested in me by Spravedelna to pass Judgement upon the creature myself and exact the proper punishment."

Yaz just shrugs and takes another toke from his holy ganja.

Winnacer nods and then leaves the others in order to speak with Milan who is interested in learning what has happened during the delve. The young Lord tells his squire all that happened during the day and that the plan is to return to the tunnel the following day. He informs Milan that the squire is to remain in the village until the party's return and that they may be gone for some time due to the fact that the rat hole leads half way to Opava and that there is the possibility that the trail might take them to the city before it is possible to return in order to retrieve Milan. Milan just nods, happy to stay in the village for as long as necessary. Winnacer then heads back down in order to join back up with the others.

During a lull in the conversation, Joy checks everyone's wounds. She sees that no one is in too bad a shape as a result of the healing that they made while in the tunnels, with a good night's sleep for everyone being sufficient to heal most of the remaining cuts and bruises. Porter is the only one who has any significant wounds left and so Joy casts her final healing spell upon him. The spell is fairly effective and Porter is just a night's sleep away from returning to full health.

The conversations continue for a while longer, but everyone is thoroughly exhausted after the long underground walk of the day and so no one is in the mood for staying up terribly late, especially as they want to make an early start in the morning. As a result, members of the party start heading up to their rooms around 9.00. The Quartz-Movement brothers take their leave of them as the dwarves see the others starting to yawn. The dwarves arrange to meet up with the party again at 8.48 the following morning and then head off for their chapel.

Porter and Winnacer are the last two remaining in the bar. As they finish draining their flagons, Porter looks over at the LawBringer and grins:

"What say we go and take care of the ratman downstairs now?"

Winnacer nods:

"If the villagers do not want to take responsibility for it, then I believe that the task lies with us."

The pair of them leave the bar and head to the kitchen, where Porter manages to dig up another hunk of cheese after searching for a short while. The pair of them then head for the door to the cellar. Porter listens at the door for a moment, but can hear nothing below. He unlocks the door and heads down. As he does so, the ratman stirs, nervously approaching the rogue.

Porter holds out the cheese to the ratman:

"Come with me, rat-thing," he says, "you can eat it outside."

With that Porter walks back up the stairs, holding the cheese in his hand. The ratman follows close behind him, his eyes never leaving the cheese as he nervously follows the pair of them.

As Porter continues to lead the rat outside, he takes a flickering torch from the entrance hall of the inn, saying:

"I got to be able to see."

Once outside, he hurls the hunk of cheese a short distance away and the ratman gleefully scampers after it. As the ratman eats, Porter douses the rat with a flask of oil from behind, then sets it aflame with the torch.

As the oil sets alight, the ratman shrieks from the shock and pain and starts to run around in circles, totally confused by the situation After watching it run around on fire a bit, much to Porter's obvious amusement, Porter then kills with hack from his bastard sword.

Winnacer scowls and shakes his head at the rogue:

"I think that a quick death would have been a more Just end," he frowns.

Porter shrugs and says:

"I did that once when I was a kid with a rat. I just wanted to see it on a grander scale 'cause I thought it would be pretty cool."

As he walks back to the inn, he calls over his shoulder:

"And it was."

Winnacer shakes his head once again. At knowing that Aithne and/or Joy would be incensed were they to discover what has happened to the ratman, Winnacer drags the burning body of the ratman a distance away from the inn, disposing of the evidence. He then returns to the inn and heads for his room, locking the door securely behind him.

Due to the tiredness that everyone is feeling, it takes no time at all for any of them to get to sleep, despite the incredible cold outside as it is easily the coldest day of the year so far.

 

20 DECEMBER 3460

The night was without incident once more and the party starts to rise from their beds just after 8.00, while it is still dark. Joy makes her devotions inside her room, while Yaz makes to head out of the 'Traveler's Rest' in order to make his devotions outside. Upon leaving the inn, however, he realizes that the temperature is still in the minus numbers, as the sun has not yet risen. Instead, he heads for the stables and makes his devotions alongside the horses.

He then returns and meets the rest of the party, who have already started on a light breakfast prepared by Milan, as still no one is too keen on dining on the food from the village. They are finishing breakfast when, exactly at 8.48, Timex and Rolex show up. The dwarven brothers greet them all and then Rolex takes a look at everyone's wounds. After the night's rest, only Winnacer and Aithne are suffering from very minor cuts. Even so, due to the difficulty of their coming mission, Rolex insists that they should all be in nothing less than perfect health for the exercise and so casts minor healing spells on the pair of them, finally bringing them all back up to 100% fitness.

Not wanting to waste any time, they then check their weapons and spell components one last time and then leave the inn, heading for the crevice. The sun is still not quite fully up on this, one of the shortest days of the year, and the short, half-mile journey to the crevice is bitterly cold, as the frozen snow beneath their feet cracks with every step that they take. As they see the crevice is before them, their relief at getting out of the cold and windy hillside is even greater than their trepidation at returning to the narrow confines of the passageway and so they head straight into the hillside.

As they start to descend, Aithne takes the lead, with the marching order being as it was the previous day. They make the journey in silence mainly, each of them concentrating their thoughts on the inevitable battle that they all know is before them. As this is the third time that they have made the journey, they have a fairly good idea as to what is before them. As a result, a cursory glance at the ceilings and walls every time that they come to a junction is sufficient in order to ensure that they are still heading in the right direction. Even so, the journey is no more pleasant than it was the previous times, as they stoop in order to avoid hitting their heads on the roof of the passageway and then have to crawl on all fours through the narrowest section that they reach after two hours of delving.

Although hoping that there will be no hostile encounters prior to getting to the vermen's guard cavern, Aithne tries hard not to let the boredom of the journey lull her into a false sense of security and so is vigilant as she continues to lead the party, following some 50' behind.

Eventually, the narrowest section of the tunnel opens up a little and they leap down over the miniature waterfall and continue to walk through the wider section of the tunnel, moving up to walk two abreast as soon as they are comfortably able to do so. They all look up at the stalactites as they pass beneath them, checking that none of them are, in fact, piercers, but all are quite as they seem.

After another half-hour of more comfortable movement, they re-enter the fungus cavern and check the situation before looking through. They see that, as they had hoped, the fungus has disposed of all of the evidence of their encounters with the beholder and the carrion crawlers, with green and yellow fungus having slowly broken it down and so they continue through the room.

While passing through the center of the room, Yaz, who appears to be fascinated with the fungus, notices a small red object glowing in amongst it where the Death Kiss had been disposed of. Not wanting to risk touching the item directly, he uses two of his throwing daggers as tweezers in order to remove the object. He brings it up to his face and sees that it appears to be a gemstone. Deciding to risk touching it, he picks it up and thrusts it in Timex's face:

"Hey, you know what this is?" the druid asks.

Timex takes it from the druid and studies it intently:

"It doesn't appear to be anything from Zemnye's demesne," he says, handing the object back to Yaz. "It appears to be more organic in nature, despite its gem-like luster."

Yaz holds it a little longer and notices that it starts to glow a little as he does so.

He shrugs:

"Well, whatever it is, it seems pretty cool to me. I'm keeping it."

With that, he pops it in his pouch and then rushes to catch up with the others.

They continue with the journey, knowing that every step that they take is bringing them closer to the ratmen's guard cavern. They pass through the cavern where they met the beholder and continue onwards. After a further half an hour, during which time they move through several more caverns, Aithne brings the party to a halt:

"The guard cavern must be just 100 yards or so ahead now, so we need to move quietly."

The lanterns are extinguished and those of them without infravision continue to move forwards through feel alone. A few minutes later, they stop once more, knowing that the cavern is just yards away.

Rowan whispers to the others:

"Someone needs to check that there are no changes since yesterday."

He looks over at Joy:

"If I could borrow your cloak, cousin, then I would volunteer for the task."

Joy nods and hands her cloak to the swashbuckler. Rowan drapes it over his shoulders and then leaves the rest of the party in order to make a quick reconnaissance of the cavern.

He returns a little after five minutes later, removing the cloak and handing it back to Joy:

"Thank you once again for the loan, cousin," he says to her before turning to address the party.

"Well, everything seems to be exactly as we left it," he reports. "So are we ready to put our plan into action?"

Winnacer nods:

"I believe so, but before we all go rushing off and throw ourselves into this venture we should take care to know what we shall all be doing. This is probably the riskiest mission that any of us have ever undertaken before and, should our plans not be perfect, then we could all very well perish in the process."

"So, putting everything that we discussed last night together, this is what I believe the current plan is:"

"The first part of the plan is to get Joy and Yaz into position where they can use their abilities to heat the metal bindings of the flame-thrower barrels. I'm still not completely sure as to how we are going to do this, however."

"Well Joy should be alright because of her cloak," Yaz replies. "Rowan's already shown that it makes whoever wears it pretty much undetectable. Then, if Joy can cast her shadowy spell over me, then I should be able to get into position as well."

Winnacer nods and then continues:

"Then I believe that we should wait until its time to change the guard of the alcove above us."

"But we don't know how long that's going to take," Timex interrupts. "It could take minutes or it could take hours."

"Good point," Winnacer agrees. "In that case we need to wait here until we know that they are changing that particular alcove. That means that we need to move really quickly once we know it is that alcove containing the guards that are being changed."

Timex nods, which starts him choking again.

Winnacer continues to face him as he continues:

"Then, Timex, it will be up to you to cast your stone shaping spell on the alcove above us once the guards are in the middle of changing, using the rock displaced to form a stone ladder. Do you think that this is going to be possible to do without creating too much attention?"

Timex nods once again as he continues to cough quietly:

"I think so," he replies once he is breathing normally once more. "The ladder will be a very crude one, but I think it should be possible to get you up there. Also the hole that I can cause is going to be a tight one."

He studies Winnacer carefully:

"I'm really not sure that you are going to be able to get through it while wearing your armor, although none of the others are going to have any problem."

Joy then interrupts:

"Before we do anything, I want to cast the blessing of Zlodey upon all of us. It should make it easier for all of us to hit the ratmen, while making it more difficult for them to hit us."

Yaz grins:

"I just thought of something while I was speaking with Prirodna this morning. What I can do is create this mist that will pretty much obscure most of the cavern."

He looks over at Winnacer:

"That's how we got round the last ratmen guard post in the Nemotz temple, if you remember?"

He looks back to the others and then continues:

"Obviously we'll lose the element of surprise when I do it, but once those barrels start exploding, we haven't got anything to lose. It will last for the best part of half an hour, so we don't need to rush it. It should be able to cover most of the cavern, as I can cover a 70' square, while the cavern is a 90' diameter circle. As long as none of us lurk around the edges, then none of us should be seen. The mist covers up to 10' and so no one down below should be seen. The alcoves are going to be above the mist though."

"In any case, we need to do our thing with the barrels first, which means that Joy needs to create the shadow illusion of the eyeball so that we can see them first."

"We need to make sure that the inevitable alarm doesn't alert any ratmen waiting behind the iron doors," Winnacer adds. "I suggest that Porter uses the mist to approach the tunnel and then fires a silenced arrow towards the door."

Yaz nods:

"Sounds like a good idea to me. Have you got that silencing spell ready, Joy?"

Joy shakes her head:

"I thought you were taking it?"

"Errm .. . no," Yaz replies.

He looks over at Timex, but he shakes his head:

"I already told you yesterday that Zemnye has little use for stealth. It is not within my powers to cast it."

Winnacer shakes his head:

"So no one has a silencing spell then?"

Yaz shrugs:

"I guess not."

Winnacer lets out a long sigh:

"Well in that case we had all better pray to our gods that there are not a hundred ratogres waiting behind the door in case the alarm is sounded."

He pauses:

"It also means that there is no point in Porter going through the mist. He might as well join the others in the alcove."

"That's possible," Porter replies, "but I thought that I might be better off going into that passageway and trying to backstab the assassin while hiding in the shadows."

Winnacer looks a little concerned:

"That could be useful, but it is not without its risks. Those smoking morningstars that the ratpriests have are pretty nasty items though. We encountered them in the Nemotz temple. The fumes coming from them are noxious and were able to bring several others and myself to our knees in a coughing fit. If you were alone in that passageway and you fell to the vapors, then I wouldn't rate your chances of survival too greatly."

"The decision is yours though."

He pauses once again:

"So, if everything goes to plan, then we should end up with the other three alcoves being taken out through the exploding flamethrowers and us up in the alcove where we can rain down fire, arrows, the gunne and poison grenades on those down below."

Yaz nods:

"But the problem is that you won't be able to see anything down there because of all the mist, so be careful that you don't catch us with it."

Winnacer nods:

"Perhaps it would be better if you and Joy were to come back to the alcove as soon as you have done your stuff in the cavern in that case," the young Lord continues. "Once you are up, we will know that everyone down below is a hostile and so can just toss everything that we have down there."

"OK," agrees Yaz. "I plan on enlarging some flies or something now so that they can take the poison grenades and drop them into the carnage once we're in the clear. I'll also have Gertrude with me in case she can be of any use, but I'd rather that she stayed out of the way as much as possible."

There is a pause and then Winnacer summarizes:

"So, let's put everything together and see what we've got."

"First we have to wait until they change the guard on the alcove above us. Joy quickly gives us all the blessing of her god, then casts the shadowing spell upon Yaz. The two of them then head out into the cavern."

"Joy then casts a shadow illusion of the flying eyeball, which will hopefully draw the others in the alcove out, at which time both Yaz and Joy cast their heating spells upon the bands of the flamethrowers, hopefully taking out the occupants of the other three alcoves. As soon as the heating spells have been cast, Yaz immediately covers the area in mist, obscuring the area."

"While Joy and Yaz are casting as fast as possible, Timex makes a hole in the alcove above us and the rest of us scramble up there, hopefully getting there before the relief guards. We then use our own missile weapons and whatever we find up there to rain down death upon those that have been alert to the caverns."

He looks around at the others:

"So is everyone happy with that?"

Porter considers it for a moment, then says:

"Well, if that mist is going to be obscuring everything, then those ratogres might just go bashing freakin' anything if they got loose. I'll think I'll try to sneak in and take out the handler with a nasty backstab, but stay clear of those crazy morningstars. If I stay back in the alcove, hopefully I won't get hit by any of you guys."

"OK," Winnacer replies, "but keep to the edges. If we accidentally hit you in the mist with a flame-thrower, then that could very well be the end of you."

"I believe that all we can do now is wait," Rowan says as the others go quiet. "I volunteer to keep watch at the mouth of the passageway using the cloak. I'll be back as soon as there's something to report."

Joy lends him the cloak once more and Rowan silently heads off towards the tunnel mouth. The others, realizing that it is unlikely that there will be any activity for a while, sit on the cold floor to wait for Rowan's report, all except for Timex, who continues to stand:

"It's my piles," he says by way of explanation.

Timex starts to mold a shape out of clay, which has a flat pancake shape at the top and a knotted rope type effect dangling from it. As Yaz does so, Yaz begins to scout around the passageway, eventually finding what he is looking for; a ratman dropping upon which there are several flies buzzing around. He takes his holy ganja and starts to cast an incantation. After less than a minute, nine of the flies start to grown in size until they are each two feet long.

Yaz grins and tells the flies to stay put until they are needed. He then sits and waits along with the others.

After just a little over twenty minutes, the party can hear the sound of activity coming from the cavern and all get up ready to move in case it is the alcove above their passageway that is the one that is changing guard this time around.

Timex, however, does not seem to be in too much of a hurry to move:

"It's probably one of the other alcoves," he coughs calmly.

However, after just over a minute, Rowan comes running back looking excited:

"They're here already," he says, already taking off the cloak and handing it to Joy. "The guards from the alcove above here are getting ready to come down."

"As well as one set of guards, they are also changing over the ratogres as well. There's a new handler and three more of the brutes about to change over."

"We need to move fast."