Awakening

Faena couldn't stop the gasp of excitement that escaped her lips. A safe place ... that already told her a few things.

First, that there was a safe place that would be good to get to - but very difficult to get to.

Second, that where they were now was not a safe place to be.

Now if only she had any idea about who had written it.

She decided to see what Patience thought of it, and whether she had anything that might help them to get across the chasm ... doubtful, but she didn't know what the cleric had. She turned back to where Patience was and started in her direction.

"You look like you've made some connections in the Dream," Tural said, smiling that dazed, lazy smile of a Follower of the Dreamer.

The rat sniffed and some blood trickled out of it's nose. It lift it's paw and slowly moved closer to Patience and then leaned back, as if afraid that she would attack. What remained of it's whiskers twitched.

"I wonder..." Patience murmured.

She was too distracted by the rat earlier to have taken a good look at that corpse, so she didn't know how long the person had been dead. She rummaged around for the pouch and looked at it. Then, against her better judgement (because really who did this), held out the pouch carefully to the rat.

The rat perked up and trotted over to the pouch. It tried to stick it's nose into the pouch, but the crystals kept it from bending it's head all the way. It squeaked, a strange, gravely sound some more blood ran out of it's nose.

It's whisker twitched. It sat up on it's hunches and, like a dog, held out it's paws in front of it and squeaked.

Faena didn't bother answering Tural. She had no patience for the followers of the Dreamer. They were all in dreamland, as far as she was concerned, and while he might have some knowledge that was useful from time to time, he was, so far, otherwise useless.

Instead, she hurried towards Patience, slowing when she saw that Patience was dealing with a rat that also had crystals growing out of it. Again wishing her bow was not broken, she pulled out her blades and prepared to defend herself (and Patience if necessary).

Still, the rat looked as though it was acting ... quite strangely ...

She re-sheathed her blades but kept them loose and readily available. Just in case.

"Huh...." Patience took a chance and setting aside her shield opened the pouch.

Inside was a biscuit that was awfully green, but she was sure it was green because of what was used to make it, and it kind of looked like bread. That being said, it looked kind of moldy to her. Despite the fact that the creature was already in bad health, she tried her best to get the mold off before offering it to the rat.

"I wonder if you were the pet of that child," Patience murmured.

But if that was the case, the child might not have died too long ago, depending. Though clearly the rat either touched or even ate something that it shouldn't have.

The rat snuffled forward and tried to grab at the biscuit with it's creepy little rat hands. It snuffled and tried to get as close as possible to Patience. It's whiskers twitched.

It grabbed the biscuit and then sat back on it's hunches to eat the biscuit, messily. Patience could now see that some of the crystals were expertly cut off, so that they wouldn't drag the ground when the rat walked.

The crystals kept the poor creature from getting much of it into it's mouth, but the rat was determined. After almost a minute of eating, the rat tried to groom itself, but this was made almost impossible by the crystals growing out of it's stomach and back.

"Ah, and who is that?" Tural called as he followed after Faena, unperturbed by her walking away in the middle of a conversation.

"Someone's pet I guess," Patience called over her shoulder as she grabbed her shield but put it away.

She checked the pouch, there were three biscuits left, and despite the mold she fastened them to her belt. It was clear that someone had cared for the rat. She wondered if it was infected before the child died.

"I'd like to go back and study the grave again," she told her companions while waiting for them.

Again she tried to think of why anyone would have a rat as a pet,but she supposed a druid could have. Surely the child was too young to be one though, but the pouch was near their body. She actually felt sorry for the creature now that it proved to be a pet of some sort. It was clearly not going to live long, she was surprised it hadn't gotten a blood infection with those wounds the crystal was making.

Faena nodded and followed after Patience.

"I don't know if it helps, but I found some writing over by the chasm, next to the remains of a bridge ... it indicated a safe place," she told her. "The problem is, I don't know of any way to get across. I have some rope but it's not nearly long enough."

Suddenly she realized she hadn't asked either of the others if they had a way to repair her bow.

"Unlikely as it is, I don't suppose either of you have a way to mend a broken bow," she added, without hope.

"I do not," Tural said, simply. He reached out to the rat and the rat sniffed his hand. He stroked the rat's head, like one would pet a dog. The rat seemed to enjoy the attention, but then it turned tail and sniffed the air. The rat waddled after Patience back into the cave, sniffing, presumably to find the Person with the Biscuits.

's not entirely clear what killed the dwarves child, but they appear to have been disabled in life. Their legs were underdeveloped. Underneath the shroud, Patience spied what looked like stone-carved crutches that were beautifully carved with what appeared to be crystals, vines, and something that looked like a flower, though not she had ever seen.

"Someone must have cared for you quite a lot," Patience murmured before putting the shroud respectively back on.

What bothered her the most was that this child had died not that long ago. The body was a fresh body, and she was sure the rat had been the child's pet if the pouch was anything to go by.

"Which probably means whoever is 'burying' these bodies might be still around..."

She looked up from her thoughts to see the rat follow after her, it looked like she had a new friend. She had heard earlier Faena's question and turning her attention back to her companions she shook her head.

"Sorry, I don't know the Mending spell at all."

Despite not having hoped, Faena was disappointed.

Well, perhaps they would come across something else in their journey.

"Then I suppose we ought to give up on the idea of crossing the chasm and just following this tunnel again," she mused aloud, gesturing towards the nearby tunnel. She thought briefly. She didn't like that idea, and if the writing showed the other side of the chasm was safe, then maybe they should try to get back there.

"There was the second stair we didn't take, back where we woke up," she remembered suddenly. "Let's try that. See if it takes us to the other side of the chasm."

Tural hummed quietly.

The return walk took the party back through the lesser chamber, past the crystalline landslide, and back up the stairs. The rat trailed along after them at a much slower clip. It did not seem disheartened by it's slower pace.

The westward end of the hallway, where they spotted the second set of stairs, did not have nearly as many crystals in it. It was much darker and everyone could only see in shades of gray.

"Shall we?" Tural said as he pulled a small torch out of his bandolier bag and a small cloth bag. He stuck his fingers in it and murmured quietly, casting Light onto the torch. The group could now see plainly for a good twenty feet, "There," he said and then it was much easier to see. "I do not know how well our little friend back there," Tural paused and the rat's wheezing, out-of-breath noises could be heard as it stumbled down the hall after them, "Can see in the dark, so I thought this might be good idea,"

Patience blinked, she didn't realize Tural could use the Light spell. Now that she thought about it, she was a bit embarrassed for not thinking about the rat (it needed a name really), as she could cast that spell as well.

She turned to see the creature trying to follow.

"It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for those crystals," Patience murmured, "I think the crystals might be keeping it from breathing well."

Among other things... Honestly she didn't even know how it was possible for the crystals to grow in a living being.

"Head on down the stairs first, I'll follow," she assured the others, she kind of just didn't to leave the poor creature behind.

Faena led the way down the stairs, watching carefully. It was slightly more challenging than the previous route had been, only because the crystals had lit their path before; but at the same time, she felt slightly safer now because there were none of those infectious crystals around.

She reached a stone landing, saw nothing noteworthy, and continued down the next flight. At the bottom of it, she came to another natural chamber, but with no crystals to light it, she couldn't see more further than her DarkVision allowed - not far enough to note anything.

She turned and waited for the others to catch up.

"Come on," Patience motioned to the rat and once she thought it was close enough began to descend the stairs.

As she did so, she wondered, how did the child end up here? Now did any of those other people end up here. When she reached the bottom she gave a brief glance around the chamber.

"Let's take a closer look," she suggested to her companions, there might be an exit we're missing, if we do this together, we might be able to find something."

And with that she began her search for an entrance.

Once Patience (and the rat) had joined her and Tural, Faena looked around again, walking around a bit to see further. It was barely visible, but she was able to see what looked as though it could be an opening in the southern wall.

"This way." She beckoned towards the others to follow, and led the way towards the darker spot.

"Found an exit?" Patience asked rhetorically as she followed Faena.

Once she made her way over to Faena, Patience could see why this exit would have been easy to miss in the dark.

The rat scuttled after Patience the best that it could. It had a lot of trouble with the stairs, but it was determined to follow after. It's wheezed, coughed, snorted, sometimes blood, sometimes just phlegm as it followed the Holder of the Biscuits.

As the group followed Faena down the corridor, they could see the faintest trace of that sickly blue-white light at the end of the jagged tunnel. Once they made it out of the short, winding tunnel, it opened into another, smaller natural chamber. There, on the east-side wall, directly in front of the party, was a mostly crystallized, but rotted corpse.

There were three large, crystallized rats that nibbled on the piece of the corpse that were still flesh. They all turned as one and hissed at the party.

The looks in the rats' eyes was familiar to Faena, and she didn't hesitate. She drew her blades and moved forward quickly but without panicking to the nearest rat. She thrust both blades into the rat's face: the first went through the back of its jaw and came out the other side; the second found the soft spot where its earhole was and slid silkily into the creature's brain.

Blood and gray matter spilled out over her blades, spraying as she pulled her blades out again, letting the rat fall, lifeless, to the chamber floor.

Tural strode across the chamber, taking his Lighted torch with him as he went. He reared back and punched the second rat, closest to him, hard enough that knocked some of it's teeth loose. He could not do another hit with his non-dominant hand, because it held the torch.

His second strike wasn't so lucky, because even though he was quicker than the rat, he ended up punching the rat in it's open mouth. He arm became stuck in the creature's teeth.

"Ah!"

The second rat squealed and tried to dislodge Tural from him, causing his arm significant damage. In only a few moments, the stone floor under him was covered in blood, both from him, but also the rat. The crystals that grew out of the rat also imbedded themselves into his body, causing wounds.

"Ahhhhh . . . oh, the Dream, the Nightmare,"

The third rat, confused by the pair, snapped it's jaws at Tural, but missed as the two were flailing about.

Patience rush forward and brought up her mace, bringing it down on the rat that tried to snap at Tural. It hit the back of the rat, making it bloody, but the creature was still standing.

She cursed because she had hoped to take it out completely before dealing with Tural's wounds. Granted they had to deal with the rat attached to him first.

The pet rat, which had taken quite a long time to even get into the chamber in the first place, snarled and hissed at the second rat. It stumbled forward and bit straight through the spine of the second rat that Patience had tried to clobber with her mace. The rat squealed and struggled for a few moments, before it suddenly went limp and quiet.

The pet rat squeaked and looked to Patience.

Faena was at a disadvantageous angle to attack the final rat, but she tried anyways: it was instinctual after seeing Tural being attacked yet again!

But this time, her efforts were futile: the crystals that infected the rat acted, ironically, as protection for it, and both her first and second swing glanced off the crystals without touching the rat's actual body.

Tural slammed his fist into the side of the crystallized rat's face, a horrid krunkkkkch echoed through-out the cavern. The rat, teeth still embedded in Tural's flesh, went still.

Tural hissed and groaned. "Ah . . . I require assistance . . . "