The Curse of the Witch-King Chapter 5

[ewancummins]

Kat leaps forward, as far as she can given the light, trying to get to the thing in the crevice before it can start making a meal of the unfortunate man!

She is shifting to the defensive, though, to give her companions time to back her up...

KAT rushes ahead, sword at the ready, and stops short of the crevasse.
Down below, in the weak green light reflected off of dank cave walls dusted with mica, she sees the man scrabbling up towards her with something big slowly rolling up behind him. Whatever the Thing is, it looks like a mass of flowstone.
And then the lumpy rocklike Thing opens an eye and a fanged maw, and long pseudopods burst from its body. The mans' fingertips reach the rim of the crack. He looks up at Kat with hope burning in his eyes. And then one of the creature's protean tentacles seizes him by the legs and drags him screaming back down the steep slope toward that terrible mouth...

[ewancummins]

Rushing up to a spot not very far behind Katrin, Klokulf hastily rattles off a spell.

The Thing in the Pit releases the man it seized and waves its pseudopods slowly above its body mass.
A rumbling, crackling voice issues from its maw,
"WHY DO YOU INTERRUPT MY MEALTIME?"

The man scrambles up again toward Kat.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Klokulf takes a short step back, horrified that the monster can speak, but he maintains concentration on the spell.
Perhaps slightly touched by his own calming magic, he cannot help but reply, "Sorry, but I am sure we will be going soon."

[Lord Skybolt]

Fala steps to edge to see what Kat is seeing in the pit .

[ewancummins]

Klokulf takes a short step back, horrified that the monster can speak, but he maintains concentration on the spell.
Perhaps slightly touched by his own calming magic, he cannot help but reply, "Sorry, but I am sure we will be going soon."

"I AM HUNGRY. BUT YOU WANT THIS FOOD?"
It indicates the man resting, sweaty and breathing hard, at Kat's feet.
"BRING ME A BIG FOUR-LEGS. THAT WAS GOOD. MORE MEAT, BETTER TASTE. THEN YOU CAN HAVE TWO-LEGS.''

[ewancummins]

Fala steps to edge to see what Kat is seeing in the pit .

FALA does not recognize the monster.
But she does notice a cow skull down there.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"BRING ME A BIG FOUR-LEGS. THAT WAS GOOD. MORE MEAT, BETTER TASTE. THEN YOU CAN HAVE TWO-LEGS.''

"What sort of four-legs?" Klokulf replies. "The ones covered in wool, or perhaps one of the ones two-legs ride?"
As he speaks, his right hand slips behind his back and makes three quick waving motions toward the exit.

[Lord Skybolt]

Fala on seeing the remains of the cow thinks that is what the thing wants, instead of "two legs" . Fala moves close to Alain and whispers to Alain :"Hey I think it wants cow as I see the remains of one in the pit ."

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain on hearing what Fala whispers to him; says in the loader voice to the thing in the pit :"We shall then bringing you a Four Leg meal then as you seem to prefer it to the taste of the two legs . Just give us some time to go get one for you ."

[ewancummins]

''I WILL WAIT."

The Thing shoots one of its pseudopods out with lightning speed, snagging the man who has just gotten to his feet and staggered away from the giant crack in the floor.
With whip-crack quickness, the limb retracts, dragging the captive back down into the big crack with the monster.
The man squirms in the creature's grip, unable to free himself. He feebly moans, eyes rolling in his pale face.

That horrible mouth opens again to speak in rumbling tones,
"TRICK ME AND THIS FOOD I WILL EAT.... SLOWLY."

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

On seeing the man slip away a second time, Klokulf makes a rash decision.
"Now now," he says, stepping to the edge of the pit, "I think the two-legs has suffered enough. Let him go back to the surface."
Awkwardly, he slides down the side of the crack, leaving the sunrod on the edge behind him. "I can stay with you. That way, you can be sure my fellows will bring you that four-legs."

[ewancummins]

On seeing the man slip away a second time, Klokulf makes a rash decision.
"Now now," he says, stepping to the edge of the pit, "I think the two-legs has suffered enough. Let him go back to the surface."
Awkwardly, he slides down the side of the crack, leaving the sunrod on the edge behind him. "I can stay with you. That way, you can be sure my fellows will bring you that four-legs."

The Thing swiftly attaches an arm to Klokulf.
It doesn't hurt, despite the steady pressure, but the priest feels a sickly tingling at the touch of the slimy, cold, alien flesh.

The monster then releases its other prisoner, who crawls back up to Kat and the others.

"I WILL KEEP THIS TWO-LEGS UNTIL YOU BRING THE BIG FOUR-LEGS. YOU GO."

[kintire]

Kat gapes down at Klokulf but looks relieved that they won't be fighting the creature... yet.

"Right...okay then! one four legs coming up. we'll make sure to pick the fattest one left!"

She steps backwards, keeping her eye on the thing, only turning away when it is well out of reach

[ewancummins]

The party warily withdraws from the cavern-lair and retraces its steps through the dungeon.

But as you come near the the opening of the burrow, Kerillith recoils from the weak daylight in the tunnel mouth.

"I'll wait down here. "


Back up in the gray, drizzly day, you find Lara and her hired man waiting anxiously.


Upon catching sight of her father, the young woman rushes to embrace him.
Your explanations about Klokulf and the Thing, the need for a cow, meet with quick nods and fast action.
The hired man hurries off to bring back a plump brown bovine.

The farmhand says, "You might have trouble getting her to go below ground. That hole is no barn."

Lara looks pityingly on the animal, but hugs her father all the harder and turns her eyes away.

[ewancummins]

MEANWHILE, BELOW GROUND

Klokulf feels the Thing's pseudopod changing shape, little stony feelers prodding and probing him.


The monster whispers to him in a strange language of murmurs like waters flowing underground punctuated by sharp clicks and dull tapping sounds. Now and then, it speaks a word he understands: food, slow, hurt, kill.
A smell of lime or wet mortar fills his nostrils.

And from elsewhere in the cavern, the priest hears the slithery voices of the reptilian humanoids. After a moment, he realizes he can understand their language, which is akin to the tongue of dragons.
He doesn't catch all the low conversation, but he does pick up something about ritual sacrifices and the 'servant of Laogzed.'