Xanth pushed aside his anger, remembering himself before rushing headlong into what could've easily become a trap. He allowed the rest of the group of individuals to catch up with him, and, together, they crept along in the shadows around to the mouth of the cave. They saw a couple of kobolds guarding the front, but decided that it would be simple enough to sneak around them. Except, when he peeked in he could see another grouping guarding just inside. "Anybody got ideas for a distraction?" He muttered.
Boar chuckled, took out a small metal looking ball, and pulled the pin out of it with his teeth, tossing it into the distance before covering his ears. "Oh, uh, fire." He warned them quietly seconds before a booming noise shook the earth nearby.
Nebula rolled her eyes at Boar's method, but, she had to admit, it was effective. She waited for the guards inside to run outside to check on the ruckus before being the first to walk in. Her eyes assessed the dimly lit cavern, walking straight in with single minded focus. There were a couple pillars of stone that helped support the ceiling, and she passed those without much thought, stopping only when she got to a ledge at the other end of the cavern. She leaned over the side to take a look at what was below, finding a room full of strange white stalked masses with caps atop them in a dark purple color. There was a strange lattice to the tops that looked like the tops could fit things through the mesh there.
Having never seen it before, she wasn't exactly sure what it meant. Regardless, she needed to get closer to inspect them. Her head turned, and she started to walk towards a set of stairs before logic took the reigns. If she were somebody trying to defend this cavern, those stairs would be trapped all to the Hells. Midstep, she turned to ask the group their opinion on what to do. When she turned, almost directly behind her stood the large figure that was Boar, reaching out for her as she started to fall.
Her mind barely had a second to figure out what was happening, but, one thing, she knew. If this asshole was going to push her, she was taking him down with her. Her hands grabbed onto him, and she yanked him down with all of her body weight as gravity kicked in.
Boar saw the blue skinned, white haired woman turn back around, and her foot leave the ledge. His instincts were highly honed, that much was true. He jumped in to save her, reaching out to catch her, but what he didn't anticipate was Nebula not just falling, but trying to drag him down with her. He'd prepared to catch her partial weight, thinking that she would be trying to help him not hurt him, so he hadn't properly shifted his weight to compensate. The next thing he knew, he was toppling down several feet, landing on top a soft, yet pointy object.
"Get off of me, you idiot!" Nebula barked as loudly as she dared, given where they were. She pushed him off of her, and started to scramble up to her feet, brushing off the dust from her clothes. She was so focused on herself, though, that she completely missed the signs of movement coming from the mushrooms nearby, and, seconds later, several pseudopods, wrapped around her as the fungus started trying to devour her whole. She let out a surprised scream, trying to hack and slash at it with a dagger.
Up above them, Xanth gave Kalinthe a deadpan stare, and moved a single fist in the direction of the fungus room, instantly summoning a ball of fire that burnt most of the mushrooms to a crisp, causing Nebula to fall to the ground looking worse for wear.
Kalinthe rolled his eyes, and hopped down to the blackened ground below, grunting once when his ankle tweaked as he hit the dirt below oddly. He reached down, and touched Nebula's shoulder, watching life breath back into her. He stepped forward, and his scythe appeared in his hand as he used it for its actual purposes with plants for once, reaping the room of the fungus in but three swings.
Elli shrugged, and pranced over to the stairs, tapping a toe on a step, and watching as it became a ramp. A smile came about her lips, and she slid down with surprising dexterity, landing at the bottom on her feet with not even a scratch to her person. She opened up her bag, and quickly patched both Nebula and Boar back up, smiling at them as she hummed a tune quietly to herself.
Once Nebula was doing better, she turned to Boar, and glared at him with hatred in her eyes. She jabbed a finger into the man's chest. "If you so much as think about touching me again, I will stop your fucking heart with my hand." She threatened, punctuating the sentence by allowing lightning to arc into her fingers, and poking his arm this time. The yipping sound of surprise that he made giving her a feeling of victory, which made her smile.
"No- miss," Boar replied with waning patience. He sneered the second word though he did look and sound like he was, at least, trying to be civil. "You don't understand. I was trying to help you."
"Your supposed help nearly got me killed." She retorted without so much as a moment of consideration. "And, almost you as well. I'm the stronger one. Let me take the damn hits, and trust me to get up afterwards." She told him with a flare to her nostrils. She twirled around, and stalked off, deeper into the cave. She growled. "I don't have time for this." She complained.
The next room was dark. So dark that Nebula could hardly see anything, but she was at the front; after everything that had just happened, she sure wasn't going to give up her lead to somebody else. She reached out, and ran a hand along the roughly hewn and somewhat damp wall on her right. Her steps taken slightly slower than normal so that she knew that each one was in a safe place that wouldn't cause a fall.
Back behind her, Boar took the rear of the group, grumbling slurs under his breath that had Kalinthe grinning like mad just ahead of him. "Fucking genasi. Just djinns unfavorable farts."
Just ahead of Kalinthe, Elli overheard the insult, turning to tell him off for her friend. "Excuse me, you vanilla ice cream of a race-" she started only to be interrupted by a weight suddenly landing on her shoulder, and a shooting pain stabbing down into it almost simultaneously. She covered her lips to muffle a scream, throwing the thing off of her over her shoulder, and pulling her walking cane apart to reveal a shiny blade before stabbing it through the chest in one quick movement.
"Look alive." Kalinthe commented as another of the same bat-like creatures came down at him. Suddenly, his body faded from existence, and all that remained behind was a floating skull surrounded by a purplish haze. The creature flew by where his shoulder had been seconds before, and, like with Elli, a single slash downwards dispatched it. He made a tutting noise. "What a hassle." He complained, pushing Elli forward as he heard Boar's sword slashing out behind him, which he was grateful for. At least, he had the sense not to shoot while they were trying to be stealthy.
Xanth summoned a maul to his hand, and bashed into two more of the creatures mid flight as they came down for a snack. They fell to the ground uselessly just in time for another to land on him, digging in with its claws, and starting to drink his blood. His eyes flashed with anger and, perhaps, a little pain. He growled, swinging his maul with the intent to hit the stirge on his person, but also injuring himself in the process. He growled, making the same fist as earlier, preparing himself to be surrounded by flame.
Instead of flame, a glaive swung beside Xanth, and another stirge fell. Then, a weapon zinged by, ringing with an unmistakable metallic sound. With a thunk, the throwing star sunk into a stirge that was feasting on Boar at the back of the group. Nebula looked down at Xanth. "Save it for something worthy." She sneered, stalking over to Boar, and retrieving her weapon from the dead creature. All of them now had large stains of blood coming from the area around their neck, and she sighed, pointing with her glaive. "Go on ahead. I know you can see better than any of us."
Xanth glared at Nebula with resentment. She was giving him orders again. Like a child. He was no child. He shook his head, grunting as he walked passed her, and into the room on the right only to see carcasses of animals hanging from the ceiling. The putrid smell that assailed his nostrils seconds later made him turn around instantly. He returned to the group a moment later. "There is nothing- useful, there." His low voice informed them before he continued into the next cavern.
Alright, I can already see your eyes glazing over. If you're just going to tune this out so quickly, I don't see the fucking point in going on with this story, so are you going to listen or not? Look, I get it. Nobody wants to hear about slaying troglodytes in a trash heap or sneaking past a bunch of kobolds and guard drakes only to find the adventurer dodging their way from spike traps, but it's what happened. Got it? Good.
Now, where was I? Waukeen damn it. You made me lose my place! Okay, I think, maybe, I left off around the dragon hatchery? As I was saying, we destroyed all but one of the eggs, and took the last one with us. They were black, and large enough that we had to steal a cart to move it around easily. Now, no more interruptions. This is my story. Not yours. Who do you think you are? That useless idiot Volo?
Boar could tell immediately from the feel and the large shape of the room that this was different from the other chambers thus far. The floors were smooth where they had been roughly hewn. Even the stalactites and stalagmites were polished to a gleaming shine. This room was warmer, too, and damp. Carvings of dragons adorned the flat walls; their tails coiling in ornate patterns and knots as the art continued across surface after surface. In one corner, a creature stood out above the rest. Instead of the normal dragons, this one had five heads, and was depicted erupting from a volcano.
Now that he'd seen the individual drawings, he could view it as a whole, and he realized what he was seeing. The motifs were depicting the other dragons joining the side of the great beast at the center. And, finally, Boar's eyes moved down to find a wooden chest with silver and other inlays that he would need to be closer to inspect. It was resting just below the illustration of the great dragon.
Boar took a step closer, solely focused on the treasure before a voice rang out. "You survived! I don't know whether to be disappointed or pleased. It's a mix of both, I think." Out of the corner of Boar's eye the all too familiar and intimidating figure of the half dragon, Cyanwrath, stepped into view proper beside him, flanking on either side, were two humans with axes who looked prepared to fight.
A glaive lowered on one side of Boar, at the ready. A scythe repeated the motion on the other side. There was a tense silence until Xanth rolled his eyes from behind them, and growled. A fist extended, and the cultists were wreathed in fire. Seconds later, each one of them sprung into action. Well, except for Elli.
Elli did a pirouette in place, and pranced over to the chest that Boar had seen, thinking that, since the cultists were outnumbered, they had things well in hand.
Behind her, Nebula used her glaive's reach to corner one of the humans quite literally, striking him decisively, but he was wiley and it was taking quite a bit of time to put him down. The effort drew her attentions almost completely away from the struggles of the other three.
Xanth extended a finger, and muttered a word that sounded a bit like, "blast." Seconds later, a bolt of force struck into the other human whom Kalinthe rushed up to, slashing and striking at with killing intent, which left only Boar and Cyanwrath.
Staring each other down.
Motionless.
Moments later, Boar drew his gun, and, in seconds, unloaded it. A smile came about his face as the smoke cleared only for it to be instantly wiped away when Cyanwrath still stood, stepping closer and closer. His movements casual, and a sneer fixed in place as he lanced through Boar's gut with his mighty halberd. "Still not good enough." He rumbled as the human fell to his knees, bleeding out.
A glow came from behind Cyanwrath, and a flash of metal and movement. A slick, wet sound could be heard before a thunk as a half dragon head hit stone. "No, you weren't." Kalinthe smirked, closing his fist as that same ethereal smoke flew into it.
The action settled down almost as quickly as it started, and Elli turned from her work picking the lock on the chest to find a dying Boar. She sighed in aggravation. These new people liked to get hurt far too much for her tastes. It made her- angry- to have to fix them all the time with such little thanks. "Do no harm." She muttered quietly to herself. "Do not harm." She said again under her breath.
Elli kneeled at Boar's side, and pulled the weapon out of his gut, suchering it closed, and wrapping him up. "You're fine. Now, get up and stay back like you should." She ordered in a clinical manner, looking around, and pointing out a door. "This way, I think."
Nebula nodded, and took lead, tapping her polearm on the ground to test for any traps. They walked down a slightly darkened tunnel, finding candlelight at the other end. The light came from atop a desk. Beside it was a stool. A couple of other tables were scattered about as well as books and papers strewn atop each of those in some semblance of order only the owner could perceive. A standing mirror stood in one corner, and two lamps hung from corners to illuminate the room better. Thick rugs covered the hard, stone floor.
Kalinthe stepped up to the table, and noticed that one of the papers opened up was actually a map of the Greenfields area that they were in. A couple of towns looked to be marked off, and an arrow was sketched from the Greenfields towards Beregost. Nearby, a separate sheet of paper that was covered in numbers contained a note. Everything must be freighted north to Naerytar. Rezmir allowed us to keep some pearls, a ring, and a handful of small stones. He picked up another paper, and looked at it critically.
"A dragon so gentle and kind, saw a unicorn badly entwined, his silvery mane, caught up in a chain, so she helped him out of his bind." He read as a limerick, sneering slightly before reading another. "A dragon whose hoard was admired, thought a housekeeper required, while dusting the coin, a few she'd purloin, so the housekeeper had to be fired." He paused now, and shook his head. "These are terrible."
Behind them, a familiar figure stepped out of an attached chamber. "I think they're actually quite good."
"Because you wrote them." Nebula retorted with a scowl.
Xanth stepped past all of them, and stood just out of polearm range from Mondath. "Stop." He ordered the room before regarding the taller woman with disdain. "You are a waste." He stated simply. "All of this potential, and you waste it on what? Dragons? You could have greatness, and, instead, this." He told her scornfully. "Now, you useless piece of filth. You are going to tell us absolutely everything you know, and, maybe, I'll feel nice enough to let you leave with your miserable life."