Rhyson could not help the grim smile that crept across his face as his chain lightning spells struck home. He had been sure lightning was the answer against these foes. He was as pleased about the value of his knowledge as he was about power of the lightning. Power and knowledge were a dangerous combination. He hoped he woild have the answers in the future as well.

But future encounters were still in the future and they were not yet done with this one. But it looked like they just might make it through. He would withhold his lightning for now to preserve mana. Instead he backed up a few yards to give himself some room to fire and perhaps safety from the bugs. From a bit of distance he prepared to cast arcane bolt as much as needed to finish the task.

Máiréad nodded as she saw the effect of the lightning and sword attacks on the bugs. It seemed to do a great deal of damage to them, but they were not dead yet. Seeing the Lum was ok after one of the bugs attacked him but failed to penetrate his armor, she turned towards the bug closest to her, the one by Tomiki, and thought about what she could do.

She didn't have a lot of offensive powers, but she could strike at them from a distance, though not as damaging as Rhy's Lightning powers. Before Tomiki could move and get in the way, she held her staff in her left hand and swirled it in the air as her right hand made some quick gestures. Suddenly she thrust her right hand towards the bug by Tomiki and a bold of Arcane energy flew from it towards the bug. She doubted she would kill it but she might distract it slightly, or even stun it, so that Tomiki might be able to finish it with his swords.

(OOC: Yes, she is casting the Arcane Blast at the bug. She didn't move any closer, but she just made sure that she was just within the range of the spell.)

The party had advanced as Mairead had suggested. When in range Ry loosed the chain lightening. The bugs caught by surprise were hurt but not killed. One drove toward them and the big Orc stood his ground to defend Ry and Mairead. The bug got through enough to chomped down on Lum's arm but his armor saved his limb.

Though making an attack the bug only succeeded in make the Orc angry, and he return the favor with his mighty axe spraying its green ick on the ground.

With the bugs now attempting to attack the mages Lum knew his duty and again stood between the glowing oversized insects and his squishy partners. Axe at the ready Lum prepared to again hack the bugs to bits.

Tomiki moved quickly to take on the half-baked beetle and attacks with his swords. The first attempt failed to move pass the armor but the second scored well and deep. Green ichor and goo ran down his blade and oozed out of the wound to the ground.

As the second of his Ninja-To's bit deep into the creatures side the Elf knew that these created monsters could be hurt. Reversing his attack he lashed into the same beetle as before, both swords hoping to strike true and again deep.

Bring forth her spiritual powers to attack, Máiréad casts an Arcane Blast at the Firebug attacking Tomiki, and the mystic energy hits the beast, causing it to shriek again. But even though grievously wounded, or perhaps because of it, the bug darts forward to clamp its mandibles around Tomiki and haul the man up in the air while it attempts to snap him in half.

The other bug attacks Lum as he protects the mages of the party. He takes a swift blow to the side fro ma razor sharp leg, another from an upper leg and another bite as well. Fortunately, his armour takes the worst of the damage and Lum is once again thankful that he let Dwan talk him into the light battle armour.

Tomiki feels the pain in his sides and then he starts to feel a numbness spread into his body. He knows that he may not hold consciousness for long but the creature made a mistake bringing him so close to the unarmoured head. The elf drives both blades into the eyes and deep into the brain of the firebugs. It drops him with a wretched screech and them collapses dead beside the still form of Tomiki.

Lum slashed the armoured underside of the creature with a powerfully strong blow, cracking the armour plate and burying the axe into flesh and ooze. Wit ha gesture and a few words of Magic, Rhyson cast his arcane blast at the firebug which proves to be the final stroke against it as it too dies and falls to the ground.


OOC: Tomiki is seriously wounded (50% down) and poisoned. Lum has only light wounds (25%) and the poison never reached him.

"TOMIKI!" Máiréad yells and rushes to his side as she sees him finish the bug and both fall to the ground. As she approaches she gestures with her staff and other hand in complex movements as she speaks low words that don't sound like they belong to any language. As she reaches him she reaches down and lays her free hand gently on his side where the wounds are from the bite.

"Spirits," she says, "klaatu barada nikto!"

Her hand glows a faint blue which spreads to his wounds, healing some of his injury plus doing battle with the toxins within. (Revival should be enough to handle the poison and partially heal him.)

After he starts to recover, she assesses his injuries and sees if he needs further healing. If so, she will once again call upon the Spirits to heal her companion. (Healing Touch 1-2 MP whatever seems necessary to bring him back to, or real close to, full.)

Once Tomiki seems to be better, she will go to check on Lum. If he still needs healing when she gets there, assuming he hasn't already used a potion or something, she will ask the Spirits to him his injuries. (Healing Touch 1 MP should do it for him, I think.)

(Now, since I assume combat is over, that she will be able to do these things, if the others will allow it. Let me know if I need to adjust my post for any reason.)

As the second bug collapsed to the ground, Rhyson watched as the groups healer rushed to do what healers are supposed to do. He could only hope it worked. Such arts were not his to command.

But what he could do was to make sure that nothing snuck up on them. He took out his light and quickly scanned the dark areas of the room - was there anything that had escaped their attention as they launched their assault on the door's guardians? Once he had made his examination of the dark corners he moved to the doors, anxious that nothing come at them from that direction.

(OOC: Depending on how long other actions take - Rhys would also examine those doors. Are there windows? is that how the light is coming in? Are they open at all? Can he hear anything on the other side of the doors? Alternately, if Lum or someone else goes to those doors, he will take up a position by the stairs to keep an eye out in case anyone follows them down.)

The bug were proving to be a tough as Lum had heard. Even with the solid attacks they had placed against them they still leashed out. protecting his party memebers he still took painful hit from the bug in front of him. Tomiki was brave but his proved up to his attacks. The Orc saw the Ninja was in trouble but he had own hands full.

A hard hit caught the Orc but once again his armor proved its worth and limited his wounds. The team worked together and even the hamped Tomiki pressed on and bested to foe that was crushing him. Lum saw that bug drop but he also saw Tomiki drop.

With a mighty smash of his axe Lum was able to crack the shell of the and finally kill it.

Surveying the carnage he saw M rush to Tomiki's side and the healing they had come to expect. While she worked on him Lum studied the structure of the doorway and the door. He tried to remember anything he could about this kind of place.

As he studied M approach him too and placed her healing hand on him. The surge of power from he touch eased the pain and once again gave him renewed strength. Raising his bald scared head to the healer, Lum let out a low growl that could almost have been described as a purr.

The poison in Tomiki's system is designed to incapacitate the victim so they can be consumed later by the bugs. Mai uses all of her healing touch just to reverse the effects. Once he starts to revive, she applies the same spell again to get him properly healed and moving again. (MP total - 6)

Lum wounds are not serious and a single healing touch is more than enough to get the orc back to full health. (MP =1)

Looking around, one of the dead spiders has something caught on one of its legs. It looks like a messenger's bag that became wound up around the leg .

There is no way in or out of this cavern that you can see but there is a lot of ground above you so unless you are willing to climb around, it is unknown to you how the firebugs got here.

Going up the stairs to the doorway, there is a section of the steel that has been melted away on your left. When you look at it, there is a pool of ... Firebug spit? ... and two eggs within. There area is very hat and radiated heat even as far as the stairwell.

The doors are partially open, and will have to be forced apart if the bigger members of the party wish to get through. Looking from this side with your lights, beyond is a 20x20 room with steel walls and another set of security doors opposite to these. That set of doors is closed but there is no indication of power so it is not likely magnetically sealed.

Feeling the pain and slowly crawl of numbness in his sides Tomiki knew the damn creature had surely poisoned him. No matter the creature would pay for pulling him closer with its life . With a cry of pain and anger the elf assassin raised up both his Ninja-To's only to bring them down seconds later into the creatures brain. However as the firebug died ,it's poison did not, the toxin rushing through Tomiki's body and causing the Elf himself to fall to the floor and start to lose conciseness.

His mind a swirl of past and future the shrill call of his name brought him back to the present.

"TOMIKI!"

Opening his eyes, his mind still in a daze, a women kneeled before him touching him, a warm feeling coming from her hands..

"Kaiyo?" His mouth asked the question before his brain relayed that girl before was not his murdered lost love but the parties healer, Máiréad. Looking at her with thanks he accepted her help to get him on his feet, clearly she had used her magic to remove the firebugs poison from his veins. As he made to move back to his feet his eye caught a strange symbol, no a brand much like a mark on cattle to show ownership, on the firebug he had killed. On his feet again he moved to the second firebug finding the same brand. Moving back towards the steel doors he turned to Máiréad once more.

"Thank you for your healing, I stand once more in your debt. I apologize for calling you another girl's name."

Bowing to her he made his way to join the rest of the foursome by the partially opened doors. Moving up the stairs to the doorway, Tomiki could see an area of the door had been somehow melted. He could see a small pool of some type of liquard by the door but what caught his attention at once were the two egg's within the room.

Egg's what the hell? Firebugs were created not born.

Moving quickly Tomiki moved to the eggs and made ready to destroy them.

"Whatever these eggs hold be it Firebug or something else they must be destroyed. The two firebugs we just killed were branded as if owned like cattle. If somehow they are being breed or someone has found a way to create more of them, then these too must be destroyed."

Looking to the other three he waited a few moments for any responses from them.

((If no cries of STOP! Lol I'll bring my swords down on first one then the second hopefully destroying them both. Below is a pic of the symbol ))

"Kaiyo?" Tomiki said as Máiréad finished healing him. When his eyes opened and focused fully on her, she smiled at him.

"Thank for your healing I stand once more in your debt. I apologize for calling another girl's name."

"No apologies needed, my friend," she replied as he climbed to his feet and she went to heal Lum who appeared to be the only other one injured. She then joined the others to review the door and the mysterious find of what appears to be Firebug Eggs. She frowned at the eggs as she approached and voiced her concern.

"Firebugs can't bred," she hissed. This was something totally unexpected. They were creatures of dark magic and technologies and were not natural life forms. This was something new that had to be investigated.

She found Lum looking at the eggs and she flinched at the heat of it when she came up next to him. It seemed the 'spit' or whatever it was still retained a lot of his potency.

"Whatever these eggs hold be it Firebug or something else they must be destroyed" Tomiki said as he came up.

Máiréad saw Tomiki move close and start to draw his swords, but she reached out and put a hand on his forearm gently to restrain him.

"I agree," she said, "but I fear you may be splashed by the hot 'goo' there if you use your swords," She then smiled, "I just healed you so please don't get injured again so quickly. Maybe we can use something else." She glanced around for something that might resist the intense heat.

(Since it was Ody's idea, I will assume Lum says something like: "Why not use bug leg?")

Máiréad looked at the legs of the dead bug and smiled, "Good idea Lum." She approached one of the bugs and then saw something, a pouch with a strap, a messenger pouch perhaps. She doubted the bugs were messengers; more likely they ate the messenger and the pouch's strap got tangled in the leg.

"Rhy," she said to the mage, "there is a pouch on the bugs leg there by you. Why don't you see what it contains."

Approaching the nearest dead bug, she gestured to their ninja, "Tomiki, see if you can cut off one of those legs here, so Lum can use it to dig the eggs out of that goo?"

(OOC: If everyone is ok with all this, and the actions are done. )

"Be careful," Máiréad said as they approached the eggs again, "don't get splashed or touch the eggs with your hands. They will still be hot enough to burn. Taking them out of the heat will allow the eggs to cool. I think that will kill them, otherwise there would be no reason to keep them hot. The heat is probably to incubate them."

Rhyson examined the room around him while the healing was done. There wasn't much of interest in the rest of the room, although he wondered what might be found by going up.

He joined the rest of the group examining the eggs. When asked to get the message bag, he did so carefully. Were the legs of the beast hot? He cut it free carefully with a dagger. He prodded it lightly with the weapon to see if he could feel anything on the side - without breaking anything that might be there. Although he doubted the bag received gentle treatment from the bugs. He opened it carefully, wondering just what would be kept on the leg of a firebug.

As he did so he spoke to the others, "Be careful with the eggs. Lets remove them from the heat. That will likely kill them. Then we can check the bag. After that, can someone shoot one with an arrow? I agree that a sword might put one close to an explosion- bad idea. But I'd like to see what is on the inside of those things. It shouldn't be a firebug. If an arrow won't work, maybe there is something around here we can toss on it. But I'm curious." With that he turned back to the message bag. "And is anyone good at climbing? I'd be curious to see if there is an alternate entrance for these bugs. But I doubt I can climb well enough."

Lum had studied the door and the surrounding area. The radiating heat had drawn his attention and noticed the orb objects nesting in the flaming ooze. "Look like eggs,.may worth something. Bugs not hurt by ooze,.maybe a leg can get them out."

As he headed back to the bugs where Rhyson had gone he noticed the brand mark on the bugs. Pointing to the brand,"That symbol is orcish. ,It a symbol often associated with a figure of legend named Spiros,, He was an orc that Saurians genetically altered to be giant like and have eight arms,. Legend says he fought in the wars before the darkness but turned against his masters to fight for the orc people. The symbol of spirits represents forbidden knowledge and freedom won at a awful sacrifice."

Taking his axe he chopped off a long leg and emptied the fleshy inner body to form a hollow scoop section. "If them bugs can make eggs and they be raised by Orcs, me take eggs to show proof." Walking back to the hole the big Orc scooped out the eggs and moved them over to dirt area and dumped them on the cool ground. "Them must need heat to grow,them die now and cool off." Hacking a section on the leg the Orc stuff a rock in one end. "Make carrier for eggs from legs,Dwan will want to see these." When the eggs had cooled enough the Orc pushed them into the hollow leg and sealed the other end with another rock.
Lum strapped the makeshift carrier to his pack, "We need to move on,let's get those doors open."

Rhsyon listened with interest to Lum's history lesson. it was interesting.

"Lum, the story is interesting. But the old 8-armed orc must be dead by now. Genetically engineered doesn't mean immortal, I would think. So, who uses the brand now? Just orcs generally? What might it mean if it is here?"

he waited to hear if there was a response. There was no guarantee the orc knew the answer, and he would probably have told them already if he did, but it was worth asking. He followed it up by saying, "Lets open the doors and try to move into the next chamber. Lum - want to break off another leg? Maybe we can use it to wedge open these doors, just in case they want to shut on us once we are through."

Máiréad watched quietly as the other handled the eggs and even stored them away. She shook her head as it was a bad idea in her opinion; the things were unnatural and should be destroyed but she was not going to say it again. She would wait to see if it came back to bite them and when it did, as it often did, she would say that she had told them. She turned to Rhy and his talk of climbing the walls, she looked up and shook her head and then back to Rhy.

"Forget climbing," she said, "would you want to be the one up there if more of these bugs came out of some hole up there?" She smirked knowing that she would not and doubted the he would either.

"What of the Messenger bag, Rhy?" She asked, "what did you find?"

Here they were talking of leaving and it appeared that no one had looked into the bag; it probably held more clues then could be found crawling about the roof of the cavern.

She turned to look Lum for a moment and thought of this Orc symbol; some super orc? She didn't say it, but she agreed that the orc was probably dead now, but that didn't mean he couldn't have followers still. Followers who could use Firebugs and maybe a way to let them breed? This was a problem. They had to find out who could do this and put a stop to it. Such creatures couldn't be allowed to run free upon the surface; such a force could wreak havoc among communities there.