Once more unto the hole (Deathtrap Dungeon, Mature, Closed)

[Lisky]

"i'd say race. But that would be a bad idea.  Leapfrog at each intersection, keep us both on our toes, and will give the leader time to mark the passage.  First passage is '1'  We make our turns with L or R.  We don't know these caverns very well, and we'll need to make our way back to report.  This is a reconnaissance in force.  If there's trouble, i'd rather error on the side of caution right now."

So saying he took a second hunk of wood, sliding it into an empty belt loop, letting his eyes adjust to the dim glow of her torch.  "also, best only to use one torch.  If it goes out, at least we'll have a spare." 

"Ladies first, since you seem so eager to lead anyways"  Flashing a slight grin as he fell in behind her.

[Inumo]

Thinking for a moment, Jio carefully checked through the door for people, then exited once the coast seemed clear. He repeated, "Rish-molk," and started writing out, piece by piece, "Look away!" with an arrow pointing to the right. Then, he began using the spell to form handholds in the wall, allowing him to climb up to the theoretical catwalk.

[techmaster-glitch]

Checkpoint Part 2

   Thankfully, the people Xephelon talked to this time were much more cooperative. One of them stepped forward and offered his crossbow.
   It was then that Xephelon realized this group didn't seem to be part of the strike force, but a rear chokepoint guard. Oh well, still a place to apply his abilities. There was very little Xephelon could do to actually fortify the chokepoint without crafting some object to serve as a foci for his magical enchantments, which obviously would take hours. Instead Xephelon decided to focus entirely on the crossbow, but give it an enchantment with some...stopping power.
   The four spindly, multi-jointed metal arms turned the crossbow over and over as ribbons of magic began to issue from two built-in crystals in two of the arms. The magic flowed into the crossbow, bound to the physical object, in one, two, three, four...ten discreet pulses. About three minutes later, Xephelon had finished, and offered the crossbow back.
   As the man took it, he could feel the energy thrumming in the crossbow. "I have imbued two enchantments into the weapon." Xephelon explained. "Both are trasferred into a quarrel when you fire it, and release on impact with anything solid. The first is a cacophanous sonic blast, and the second is an explosive discharge of electricity. Neither partiularly require accuracy, as they can affect a group of hostiles. It should be a very effective incapacitating combination, with the disorienting sonic blast, and the damaging and stunning discharge of electricity. Be warned, however, that this power is limited. Ten shots will expend all the energy I have placed within the weapon."

[Meany]

Deals with the Devil
"As you command..." And away he went, to the outside.  To where the guards were waiting. "We have a problem.  Big, big problem.  Find Baseel, find the exploration party, quickly!" And so they were dismissed, while Barbarus went off, shifting into the form of a feral cat, while he looked around the tunnels, for a pit.  He never left too far from the main cavern.  This was bad, bad, bad.

And in a cave network this developed, what were the chances of finding one pit?

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Into the tunnels(Baseel)
Aleyna strides off into the tunnels, coughing every so often from the smoke of her brand. You take a left turn first, and then a right at the next intersection, leaving markers so you can find your way back. As you trudge down the corridor, you hear a high pitched scream, similar to that of a young woman that you know the mine doesn't contain. Unless the echoes are deceiving you, it's about ten feet behind you. You can feel something in the gloom, gathering itself to spring.


The checkpoint (Xephelon)
The guards are disinclined to leave their improvised shelter to go out into the caverns as Barbarus rushes through. They more or less ignore him. You can, however, feel the impact of someone working some kind of earth magic, slow and steady, and along the edge of the cavern where no entrances exist.


More Markless tunnels (Barbarus)

Your search is frantic, but without any clear indication of what you're looking for, you spend perhaps ten minutes running down corridors that all look the same. Your search is interrupted by a high pitched scream, about 50 feet in front of you, sounding like a young woman. Even further ahead, you feel a faint trickle of some kind of magic usage.


Carving a path (Jio)

Nobody interrupts your work, for the moment. Judging by the sounds, it seems like almost everyone is about the cavern entrances, probably watching for intruders. Assuming nobody comes along and petrifies you, it should take about one and a half hours of solid effort to get up to the height you'll need, two if you count the time you'll need to rest.

[techmaster-glitch]

Checkpoint

   The three lights on Xephelon's 'face' flickered as a Were passed by, telling everyone to go out and find Baseel. The checkpoint guards didn't seem to budge to follow the request as the Were sped off down the tunnels by himself. Xephelon wondered what all that was about.
   But then, with his race's innate magic sense, enhanced by his exoshell, Xephelon started to 'see' bursts of earth magic behind one of the cave walls.
   "Alert." His droning voice buzzed, as he pointed to where he was sensing the disturbance. "I am detecting emanations of elemental earth magic in that direction, inside the rock face. I surmise that an unknown party is attempting to tunnel their way towards us. Unknown party may be hostile, I recommend preparing for contact."
   Xephelon then thought. "However, in the possibility that this unknown party may not be hostile, I further recommend you do not strike the first blow, allow unknown party to declare intent, with word or deed." Xephelon then scuttled on his four spindly metal legs around behind one of the barriers the guards were taking cover behind, and waited.

[Lisky]

Seeing the shape in the gloom, Baseel's first thought was to throw himself in front of Aleyna, get his shield between the pair and the coiling shape.  He cast a quick dark-sight spell so as to better observe things.  At this point they'd been found anyways, giving away their ability to cast magic wouldn't harm things.  He then gathered a concussion spell on the edge of the shield, and braced his free hand behind the boss.

When then thing charged, he planned to shatter it's body with a combination of demonic strength, and the added force of the concussion spell.

[Meany]

When coils attack!
The cat made for the disturbance.  Making sure to not make a sound as it approached.  He had it in him for one last big transmutation, he could probably close whatever it was in a cocoon of solid stone with minimal effort.  But he hung back, trying to get a bead on this thing first.  Maybe The Loa would take something interesting to whet it's appetite.

[Inumo]

Having worked up to about eye height, Jio stepped onto his first hold and looked up at how much farther he had to go. That was a bad idea... he thought, seeing how far he still had to go. With a sigh, he returned to working. "Rish-molk... Rish-molk... Rish-molk..."

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

The Checkpoint(Xephelon)
The guards thank you for enchanting their weapons, but they don't even turn around to look at the disturbance. "I'm sorry, but absent a clearly defined threat, we need to hold the outer entrances. We know there's something out there, and besides, we have the defensive set up right here. Sorry, we can't help you."

Digging along (Jio)

The digging goes uneventfully, but you feel a brush of some kind of magic you don't recognize, and hear voices. It seems likely someone has detected you working; there still should be time to get to cover if you want to hide.



Out in the Tunnels (Baseel, Barbarus) 
For the first time, you get a good look at what's been attacking the miners. They're big, they're purple, and they're vaguely insectesoid, having a triple-segmented body that must extend ten feet from head to the tip of the abdomen. There are three of them, standing side by side and crowding the width of the tunnels. Some kind of greenish slime drips from their mouths, and they bound towards Baseel and Aleyna.

The central one and the one on the left leap at Baseel directly, and the concussion spell catches one that hits the shield, blasting it backwards into the tunnel wall, where it hisses and scrabbles to get up, obviously having difficulty. The other one catches you right below the kneecaps, and while you stumble, you don't fall, although something is seriously painful down there, and you can almost feel your left leg swelling up. The third one bounds past you and heads instead straight for Aleyna, who fires off a spell shooting some kind of purple ray at it, which seems to be hurting it and slowing it down; it's still advancing towards her, but doing so much more slowly.


They don't seem to have noticed Barbarus yet, or perhaps as a cat he's simply too small to be worth eating.

[techmaster-glitch]

Oh great, return of the Dimwits

   Xephelon's light-eyes flicker on and off in succession yet again. "You misunderstand." He says. "I meant that the anomaly I am detecting is heading straight for us." Xephelon tries to focus his magic detection to try and figure out how close the thing is now.

[Meany]

How fortuitous.
There was the man he'd been looking for.  And his women.  And those bugs.  Wait, the bugs weren't supposed to be there.  The cat observed the fight.  Hmm, already a Demon Lord looked to be having trouble.  But he didn't want to offend the older gentleman by leaping in with aid that might do more harm than good.

The cat's shadow grew, until his full Furre form stood, shaking the dust from his coat, and entering into the hallway, sharply clacking his staff upon the ground.  "Good greetings my lord and lady.  I have been looking for you, and lo and behold.  Do you require assistance, my lord?"  If Baseel agreed to the help, Barbarus would tuck his staff into his elbow, clap his hands together then slam them into the ground.  And from the lightning that followed would rise three large firsts of stone on stretching stone arms, reaching through space to deliver harsh strikes to the poor bugs.

If Baseel said no, then that would make things a bit easier.  Barbarus could take time to study the bugs, how they moved, where their armor did not cover, whether or not they showed intelligence, and above all, if there -was only three of them around.-

[Lisky]

Baseel ignored the offer for assistance as his shield's edge slammed downward, and his weakened leg flickered back.  He brought his axe down as his shield lowered, deterring any more of the things from trying to get through.  He quickly spun and cast a barrier spell between himself and the offending bug in front of him. 

He then hurled a bolt of solidified dark-energy at the beast.  It was meant to pierce and explode once it pierced the carapace of the bug-like beast.

[Inumo]

All these interruptions were beginning to get tedious. Glancing around, he figured himself about a quarter of the way up the side of the wall, and decided it'd be more time-consuming to go down the ladder, then back up it than to simply stay there. As a result, he made one more rung on his ladder, then altered it to have a hole right in the center of it. Looping his arm through the rung, he fidgeted slightly as he waited for whoever was coming.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fight in the Tunnels (Barbarus, Baseel)

The hurt purple monster turns to wave short antennae at Barbarus, but doesn't seem to be gathering itself to spring at anything anytime soon, instead approaching cautiously. Aleyna is backing up slowly, still firing her purple ray, and you get the impression she has the upper hand against that one, but if he concentration falters, she could be in trouble.

Baseel is having a lot of trouble with his left leg, it's feeling hot and feverish, but it gets you away in time for the bug to skitter against the barrier. The bolt of dark energy is weakened from your almost immediately preceding magical work, but it catches the bug in the head, exploding it in a shower of ichor. Immediately, the one charging towards Aleyna breaks off, and starts scampering down the tunnel; no longer directly heading into her ray, it's moving pretty fast, although it's leaking something nasty smelling from it's thorax.

By the checkpoint (Xephelon)
Whatever was working at the stone, it's slowed, stopped almost. It's not getting any closer, and now that you have a better grip on it, you think it was making something creating a perpendicular path up a wall somewhere. You could still track it if you want.

Bimhayra, Bimhayra. (Jio)
Glancing around and listening doesn't reveal anything hugely important, certainly nobody approaching. You're sure you feel magic being worked though, and occasionally some drift in your direction. Still, hanging here like this is surprisingly comfortable, and you can feel your wind returning to you.

[techmaster-glitch]

Checkpoint

   "No, wait...it has stopped." Xephelon amends himself as the 'face' of the black buggy metal thing stares at the stone cave wall. "It...is making a path in another direction...Hold. I am going to attempt to learn more about it."
   Two of the four spindly arms of the thing bend to touch the three light-eyes on the front of its own body. In the hands of the two arms are small focusing crystals, and Xephelon begins to work his magic through the crystals and into the light-eyes of the exoshell. He weaves a temporary enhancing enchantment into the sensory functions of the exoshell. The enchantment is one of divination and transperception, that will allow Xephelon -- for just a few minutes -- sense through the rock and stone, and try to 'see' what exactly is the source of the tunneling. After a minute of setting up the enchantment, during which the tunneler may have moved, Xepehlon finishes and steps forward to the rock, pressing up against it and trying to find the source of the tunneling again, and find out what it is.