Blacky's silk and brandy torch burned brightly for a few minutes, then died down without warning to a glowing ember on the end of the table leg. The smoldering stain on the wood filled the chamber with an acrid scent, overwhelming the smell of dampness coming from the black corridor.
As the assembled group stood with the door to the dark tunnel open, a skittering sound approached from beyond the feeble radius of light.
"Did you hear that?" Rumer turned to Blacky and Kaileer. "Kaileer, do you see what's causing that? It sounds like, I dunno, rats maybe?"
Rumer drew her sword and readied herself for attack. "Maybe we should get the others. Seems kind of stupid to investigate this by ourselves."
Rennirolas stood near the back of the group, his longsword in hand. "That would be a prudent thing, I do believe," Renn said. "And I do not mind saying that I would like to help finish cleansing the shrine as best we can."
Blacky grabs the torch from Jana as the other burns down and lights it from the ember. "Damn, we really need to get that lantern."
Blacky lit Jana's torch about the time a large beetle, four feet in length, charged out of the dark tunnel and made a bee line (a beetle line?) for Rumer. The gypsy swung her new short sword at the bug, but it chinked off its chitinous shell. The beetle snapped at her with its remarkable mandibles, but it failed to catch her with them.
People charged both at and away from the beetle in the general sense of chaos that usually surrounded the appearance of a giant bug. The beetle, apparently unhappy with this turn of events, presented everyone with its backside and with a deafening explosion, unleashed a reddish cloud of acidic vapor on everyone around it. The vapor settled on everyone's skin, which immediately began to eat away at flesh and exposed belongings. Blacky, Etienne, and Renn stood helpless in the midst of this, unable to do anything more than cover than ears with their hands and try to get their wits back about them.
Kaileer fired an arrow into the mess, but it was deflected off the beetle's hard back. Jana was unable to injure it, swinging her bastard sword two-handed. Rumer darted out from behind Blacky, who even stunned made a fairly good shield, and managed to get her sword under the beetle's wing, dealing it a good amount of damage.
Rumer, rather delighted with her success, tried to strike the beetle again, even as the acid it had sprayed burned into her tender flesh.
Jana growled and swung her sword twice more at the beetle.
Blacky made a good imitation of a statue. He appears not to notice as his skin burns and his leather belt pouch disolves away, spilling coins to the floor.
The priest of Selune walked into the midst of chaos. Taking one whiff at the smell of sizzling metal and skin, he cried, "Great Goddess of the Moon!" Lasiar raised his holy symbol to the ceiling and began chanting.
Kaileer swore as the red cloud did it's grisly work on his companions. The ranger kneeled and aimed his next arrow at one of the cracks in the giant insect's armor.
Aloysius scrunched his nose at the smell of acid and burning flesh. "Moons and stars!" he exclaimed upon seeing the beetle. He then focused his concentration and attempted to cast a spell at the offending insect.
Rumer watched the acid-eaten fragments of the bracers flake from her wrists like so much rusty metal with a sigh. "Guess I should have let Arachne keep them. At least they wouldn't have seen much use that way," she sighed.
Her shoes too dissolved around her feet. Rumer shook her head as she watched for another opening.
