Kaileer fired another arrow, Rumer attacked again with her short sword, Jana smashed into the beetle with her bastard sword, and Aloysius threw two magic missiles, leaving it effectively as nothing more than a few pieces of crushed dark chitin, some slimy bug guts, and a tiny pool of reddish acid. No one got much of an opportunity to admire their bug-crushing handiwork, however, after Lasiar cast his spell. At the Silverstar's prayer, gallons of clean water appeared above the group who had gotten sprayed by the beetle and washed down over them. It had the fortunate effect of washing all the remaining acid off of everyone and the unfortunate secondary effect of dousing the torch that stunned Blacky had been managing to hold onto. Darkness rushed into the room...along with the sound of footsteps from the tunnel.
"Stay back," Jana whispered. She gripped her sword a little more tightly and moved a couple of steps into the tunnel, her sword held ready.
Blacky continues to stand in the soaking wet darkness, still holding on to the darkened torch and his ears.
Etienne stood still imitating Blacky.
Rumer shivered under the deluge, her teeth chattering, "Um, be careful, Jana. Or can you see in the dark?" she asked.
"I'll be careful," Jana whispered quietly. She moved her sword around a little, keeping loose, as she listened for the footsteps.
Lasiar crossed the room while drawing his mace. "Sorry about the drenching," he whispered as he followed Jana into the darkness.
As the room plunged into darkness and the sounds of approaching footsteps rose from within the tunnel, Aloysius knelt down right where he stood and covered his eyes with his hands. He focused on listening to the sounds coming from the darkness in front of him.
"Brave one," he whispered, "tell me what thou dost see."
Everyone, or at least those not stunned, stood in the darkness listening to what was going on. Falgout mumbled something quietly to himself. There were more footsteps from the direction of the tunnel, which Jana and Lasiar went to meet, followed by the clattering of several hard objects hitting the floor, a short-lived "eep" from something not Jana or Lasiar, the thud of something softer hitting the floor, and a flurry of running back down the tunnel. Soft footsteps came from the other side of the room, from the direction of Ranchefus' study.
"Not worry, It be Arachne coming from other room." Kaileer said as he stepped into the tunnel with Lasiar and Jana, keeping an arrow ready for another attacker. With the toe of his boot he prodded the body in the tunnel to see if it still had some life in it.
Lasiar looked back to see Kaileer and his bow. "Could you keep an eye out, fellow dark-sighted one? I should check on our frozen ones if Arachne has not already begun so." Lasiar waited a few seconds for the elf's reply and then walked back to the party.
Blacky began to stir and dropped the torch to the ground. "Gods, that hurts. What the in the nine hells.... Is anyone there?... Hello?... I can't see or hear anything." Blacky said rather loudly with a note of fear creeping into his voice. He began waving his arms about, searching for objects or people.
"Oof," was Rumer's reply as one of his flailing arms struck her stomach. She attempted to grab his arm and say, "It's Rumer. We're ok. Lasiar accidentally doused the torch with water and Arachne is back."
"Who's that? Is that you Rumer? Tap my arm twice for yes. What's going on..." Blacky continued in a very load voice until Arachne returned with the lantern. "Thank the gods, I thought I was deaf and blind. Is there a loud bell ringing or is that my ears." Blacky said in a slightly quieter voice with much relief.
Rumer tapped his arm twice, hoping he won't accidentally punch her in the face. She turned to Arachne: "You probably should have kept the bracers, Arachne. I just got them acided away. Sorry about that." Rumer sighed.
After hearing the commotion, Aloysius peeked out from behind his hands only to realize that it was still pitch dark. "Er, would someone please explain what hath occurred? Perhaps we could relight the torch or someone who can see could fetch Rennirolas's lantern from the shrine?"
"Someone found a goblin," Arachne said softly, coming further into the room. "And killed it, most likely. With spears? No, I guess it was carrying those. How'd it get wet in here? Someone kick over a bucket killing the beetle...?" She shrugged, then noticed Blacky. "I'll go get the lantern," she said, and ran out.
"A goblin?" Aloysius inquired in the dark. "Ne'er afore has Stargazer heard of goblins conspiring with giant beetles." A museful tone entered his speech. "Hmmm. . . wonder do I if these goblins be connected with those of the Mire?"
By the time Arachne returned with the lantern, Blacky, Etienne, and Rennirolas had regained their senses, although they were still having problems hearing. The lantern light revealed the dead beetle, a goblin who had perished from an acute encounter with Jana's sword, a collection of four spears on the floor, Lasiar's pool of water, and a quite wet Blacky, Etienne, Jana, Renn, and Rumer, all of whom were also injured and in various states of disrepair due to acid damage to their belongings.
Falgout continued to mutter to himself as he picked his way through the mess over by the tunnel door to examine the goblin and peer down the tunnel for a moment. "Anyone mind if I close this door?" he asked.
Falgout continued to mutter to himself as he picked his way through the mess over by the tunnel door to examine the goblin and peer down the tunnel for a moment. "Anyone mind if I close this door?" he asked.
"Well, I don't." Lasiar said. "But you might want to ask Kaileer to come in first." He smirked. "Let's see how much irreparable damage y'all took..." Lasiar walked over to Rumer first.
Aloysius looked up from his examination of the dead goblin, gave Lasiar an odd look, and then refocused on the dead body.
Rennirolas sat down hard just about the same time Blacky and Etienne came to their senses. The stump that remained of the the enchanted long sword slipped from his hand as he fell. It landed in a pile of cloth and leather, the ruined, nearly dissolved parts of Rennirolas' cloak, scabbard, and belt.
He held his hands up against his ears, and shook his head back and forth a number of times. Renn seemed to realize his longsword was gone, and saw it on the floor. "By Corellon's holy blade, that was quite the beast," he said too loudly, a hint of panic in his voice as he neared the end of his sentence.
Rennirolas took note of his wounds, and began a short chant. Still too loud, but softer than his first words had been. As he finished his prayer, Renn set his hands on the shoulder opposite each hand, a short glow accompanied the completion of the spell.
Through Corellon's healing power, most of Renn's acid burns disappeared.
The dead goblin was armed with a short sword and had six silver pieces, one of them from a mint no one recognized, on him. He also had two empty glass vials.
Jana deposited the goblin body and took stock of herself. "Oh, dammit," she muttered, seeing the holes in her boots. She cursed quite inventively upon discovering her backpack was also reaching the tatters state. She stuffed her belongings into Echo's pack, leaving out a rolled-up pair of soft walking boots. She sat down in a dry area with a metallic clank and replaced her destroyed footware. "And they were just getting comfortable," she muttered.
Kaileer nodded for Falgout to close the door once he had come out of the tunnel behind Aloysius. "Maybe Ranchefus leave more pet... it be best if bug not be close, we use bow next time." he said, taking half a dozen arrows from his quiver and handing them to Etienne. "Careful not lose," he said before unbelting his longsword and offering it to Renn, "but I have more weapon, take untill you get new."
Aloysius examined the glass vials carried by the goblin, wafting air from their openings to see if he could smell anything. "Odd," he exclaimed, "why wouldst a goblin carry such containers?" He placed the two vials in his pack.
"Collecting beetle juice?" Arachne suggested idly.
He stood back up and addressed the others. "Let us determine our course, and quickly. Still we have need of finishing the cleansing of the shrine. We also have need of locating the secret chamber the black one described in his note. I strongly suspect that Ranchefus did flee down yon tunnel, but methinks it would be best if we concluded our chores here afore pursuing him. We know not how long yon tunnel goes, or what denizens dark reside therein. What say you all?"
"Surely, not all the way to...?" Arachne started, her voice trailing off uncertainly.
"I agree. We should finish cleaning the shrine and rest for a bit to regain spells and heal before entering the dark tunnel. And collect more torches." Lasiar said.
Etienne stood quietly with his back against the wall. He looked down at the remains of his clothes, which barely covered him and shook his head. He looked over his wounds and shrugged them off. He took the arrows that Kaileer gave him then waited for the ringing in his head to stop.
