World Tree MUSH

    Discovering the 'active' tunnels left the group with an idea of what they were up against. Those creatures weren't super tough for people hardened by battle, but who knows how many of them are down there?!

    Actually, Krystal can say: there's a good number down there, enough to be worrying.

    This just leaves only one question: how to approach this 'nest' now. Breaking through the school again would be the shortest path, but there is always the option of starting at the tunnel uncovered at the mansion. It would be a trek through that, and no telling what other obstacles were there, but it's an option at least.

     Krystal reaches out with her mind to assess the situation, then turns to the group. "So, how do we want to approach this? I can sense that there are a lot more down there, and if we enter from here we'll get to them faster, but we'll also be going into tunnels these creatures are familiar with. We could take another path in, perhaps the tunnel Muradin made at the mansion, we'd have to find our way to connect with this other tunnel network though, so it'd certainly be slower. If a child's life is at stake, maybe we should take the risk of going with the direct path."

    Whatever other business Lian might have had, she's not talking about it, but it kept her from joining the group on their trip to the school. She is, however, here now; her walking staff is not present, but she still wears her adventuring garb and cloak, and her expression is as placid as ever. "I'm in favor of the direct path as well. I trust in the Force to steer me well, and if it comes to a battle for a child's life, I don't mind contending with numbers."

 
 The choice was clear for Muradin. As much as he wanted to try his own tunnel, everything changed when he saw the blood on the floor and the implication that these monsters had already claimed a victim- and considering that they were in a school the possibility was too high that it could be a child. "Nay, we donna have time to go back to the mansion and try me tunnel, Krystal." Said Muradin to the blue vixen, "If these things are already dragging people inside we 'ave to get in there and take the fight to 'em." He rubbed at his beard, he knew the risks of diving head first and he had no fear himself, but as a proper leader he knew that he should not risk the lives of his companions needlessly. "I know! If things get hairy, maybe we can use me tunnel to escape! There's that possibility. Wotever we do though we have to go now." 

    Morrigan...
    Is no longer playing around.
    The Warlock has come, tonight, loaded for bear; dressed openly in her full studded leather armor, robes worn over the dark armor. At her hip is a nasty sharp shortword and several daggers are stuffed into sheaths on her hips, thighs, and ankles. In her hand is a magical text of somekind, and her fingers crackle with eldritch energies.
    "Okay. So. When we go in I want Muradin up front and Kamoya taking up the rear. Misaki, Krystal, you two and I will be in the center of the group, perfect position to hit anything at range while those two are engaged. Treat every step as though it were trapped, every corner as though there's a monster lurking, and every tunnel as extremely dangerous, and we just may get out of this alive."

    There's no word on whether or not a child is missing yet. They're still doing roll and trying to make sure everyone made it home, because school isn't going to be in session right after a murder like this. Which, even though it's locked, makes it actually trivial to sneak in this time, since there's not nearly as many people to keep away from.

    Going down into the taped off basement and opening the grate again, the tunnel from before is... sealed off. It looks more like a discoloration, like the pipe needs maintenance, rather than a former opening. That said, the actual wall is not too thick now... the work to disguise it was done very well, but most of the effort was on that, not on shoring it up. Even someone NOT a dwarf like Muradin could probably bust through pretty easily, with the right tool.

    But the tunnels beyond? Well... the good news is, they're wider than the one Muradin discovered. A lot more room to move around. But unlike those, it reeks of something dead, and the walls are... pulsating. While not thinking, Krystal can immediately tell that, Lian also can immediately tell that the walls are /alive/ in some way, and the prickly sensation of reality warping becomes more apparent for Misaki. It's like the tunnels are burrowing in a thin thread, and altering spacetime itself to provide more room than they actually take up. No wonder these comparatively large tunnels haven't been detected.

"We should be careful, I think these tunnels are much wider on the inside than they are on the outside." Misaki speaks up eventually, she has looked tired, but she's still alert. "Mister Muradin, if they do collapse, can you dig us out?"

    Morrigan is here and serious; Lian arches an eyebrow slightly at seeing the woman so loaded and ready to go, but it's unsurprising in the grand scheme of things. "Likely I'll move as needed. I'm good at sensing ambush or reinforcements, I have a talent for battle. But rearguard is as good a place as any if I've nothing more pressing."

    She falls into step at the back as promised, and when they head into the tunnels, she reaches down to unclip her lightsaber - or rather, one of her lightsabers, for she has brought both - from her belt. She walks with an ever-increasing frown, particularly once they pass the false wall. The reek is bad enough in and of itself, but what she's sensing on top of that...

    "Have care," the Jedi urges softly, eyes tracking around them. "Life pulses through these walls. How, I don't know. But we may already be inside something."

 
 "Wait till ye see me in action!" 
 
 Muradin had to say that for a Warlock, Morrigan had some proper style. He agreed with the marching order and happily took point, bringing his magical warhammer and axe to bear and BANGING them hard against each other just to psych himself up and his companions. Finally.. it was time to bash some skulls in, and when it came to tunnel fighting dwarves always lead the way. 
 
 The Mountain King entered the dark tunnel first, unhindered by any darkness that may lay within thanks to his dwarven darkvision he walked cautiously but with determination forward very ready and willing to play the tank for his group. Reaching the fake wall, Muradin gave it a few look overs and waited to see if any of his companions noticed any traps before he bashed it down with his hammer and opened the path deeper in. 
 
 As Krystal had surmised earlier, the tunnels appeared to be alive giving the sensation that they were inside the belly of some kind of beast. An annoyance since it differed from regular tunnels but it was still close enough that Muradin could trust his dwarven senses on where to go. "Stick close to me, lassies.." He muttered as he looked about. "Lemme know if any of you all can sense beasties coming our way, I know Krystal and Lian have mind tricks that can feel them coming, that'll keep em from them getting the drop on us." 
 
 Muradin looked upwards as Misaki wondered if he could dig them out if the tunnel collapsed. It was something that Krystal had already mentioned and he had made some contingency plans in the event of that happening. "Dunno about digging us out, but I got a few tricks up my sleeve. Donna worry, lass. I can get us out of these tunnels one way or another." 

     Krystal nodded to Muradin when he gives the idea of using his tunnel as a potential exit. "That does sound like a great idea if we find ourselves near enough to bridge the gap between this tunnel and that one, so I hope you're good at keeping track of where we are underground." She offers before moving to the middle of the group as they enter the tunnel, following Morrigan's thoughts on that. She didn't mind fighting up close, but her staff had ranged capability and she wasn't going to argue with having the armored dwarf up front. "I just really hope this tunnel doesn't have an actual stomach, I'd rather not wind up the dinner of some giant subterranean alien."

    At the young age of 'in her fifties' (still young for a half-elf anyway) Morrigan is a seasoned and experienced adventurer. Right now, she's in her element as well as she can be. Though she nods to Lian's statement of her own skills.
    "I'll trust your judgement then." She says simply. "We're all going to have to trust each other and watch each other's backs down here." Added for the rest of the group as she raps lightly on her backpack.
    This causes Mary Contary to pop her head out.
    "Mary, I'm gonna need the thing. From the thing, if you please." The shinki dips her head in a nod and fires off a quick salute before diving back into Morrigan's backpack.
    There's a moment of rustling around inside the pack before the pop of a lunchbox opening can be heard, and a moment later, the little helper robot pushes a can of cola into the Warlock's hand.
    Morrigan nudges the still ice-cold soda to Misaki's forehead.
    "You look beat. Drink this. It's not much but get some sugar and caffeine in you." She says while stuffing her magic book away.
    As soon as the group is in the tunnels, she has that shortsword in her left hand and her head is on a swivel.
    "Think of it this way." She asides to Krystal. "IF the tunnel has a stomach then that means it also probably has a heart. We find the heart and destroy it and that should solve our problem, right?"

    As the group goes further down, it becomes more clear that this IS a living thing. Pulsing, and with a dim glow about it. It's an alien sensation, and even Muradin has SOME trouble keeping track of where they are. Fortunately the reality distortion here is very faint... it's enough to make things confusing, but a seasoned traveller and stoneworker like Muradin can still figure things out, especially if Misaki gives a little help on the worse parts. So in this part, the party is well-equipped.

    Further, Krystal gets a better sense now, being IN the creature. It's something like a hive mind, and it's feeling angry and violated. Maybe from having adventurers in it, but maybe something else! Lian's life sense certainly helps though...

    The group has plenty of warning for the dozen 'creatures' that are swarming to them. They'll have time to arrange themselves, and prepare any defenses, before the chittering, multi-limbed yet oddly humanoid insectlike things burst through a side passage and toward them, some crawling along the ceiling. Though what may be more of a surprise is the hissing stream of acid they can squirt several feet ahead!

"Miss Lor'osa, didn't they teach you not to accept food or drink from magical beings who have no regards for ethics or morality? Because they taught me that." Misaki grouses, opening up the can anyway to take a sip from the drink. "But I guess I have a habit of ignoring that kind of advice, otherwise I wouldn't be here. How did you get your magic anyway?"

She's beein keeping her light going, no way she'd be going into this blind. When the creatures arrive, she finishes her soda and summons her guns, going for a quick potshot at the nearest of the creatures.

     The things Krystal can sense now are making her own stomach churn a bit. "Well, let's hope we find the heart before the stomach then..." She responds to Morrigan. When the creatures come, she almost doesn't need her telepathy, as she can hear them before they get terribly close anyway. She readies her staff and takes aim, waiting till she has a clear shot before firing at one of the creatures. Before she fires she speaks a warning. "Might I suggest we avoid hitting the tunnel walls for now? Probably best we don't anger this huge thing while we're inside it before we know how it can be killed. It already doesn't seem too happy, and I'm not sure if it's angry with us or something else."

 
 Muradin listens to Lian and Morrigan's mini argument with some hint of amusement. It actually made a lot of sense to Muradin why Lian was at the back, it was one of the most important positions since if they were going to get ambushed the most likely spot was to go from behind to dive the backline. The dwarf didn't interfere though as he felt it really wasn't his place to argue in favor of either one, and more importantly he had to focus on the mission. His mind kept going over if this really was a monster they were walking -inside of-. But like Morrigan, he also thought if they were inside a creature that meant they could strike in deep hard, the heart, the brain, even just explode it from within were viable tactics. 
 
 As he walked though, soon enough came the monsters skittering in a mad rush towards them, a monstrous sight indeed, the adventurers gazed upon horror itself... 
 
 And Muradin grinned... 
 
 "Here they come! Face those beasties and show them our beards!!" 
 
 A pause. "And just so we're clear, that's a dwarven saying, I know full well I'm the only one with a beard here." 
 
 Dang, he really missed Shirou. 
 
 Hopefully his companions would forgive him in advance, because when Muradin fought things got LOUD! And in the tunnels it was going to go doubly so. "HRRUUUAAH!!" The Mountain King charged his hammer up which crackled with electric power. He hurled it at the creatures sending it spinning towards the first one and as soon as it made contact with a monster's forehead, the hammer exploded in blinding light and booming thunder hitting the surrounding monsters around its original target. Seconds later, the warhammer Mithrios appeared once again back in his hand ready for melee combat. 

    As the insectoid beings draw closer, Lian's head turns - as if hearing something, long before they're actually audible. The instant before they charge into the tunnel, her lightsaber ignites, and the Jedi falls into a deep ready stance at the back.

    However, her first act isn't to leap in. She'll leave that to Muradin at the head of the pack. Her first act is to lift a hand, and release a surge of force - a surge of Force - down the tunnel ahead of the dwarf. All those globs of acid are going to get blasted right back down the tunnel. Return to sender, courtesy of the Jedi Temple.

    Immediately after that, though, the Battlemaster hops up, running briefly along the wall to move around the pack, so that she can join the fray behind Muradin. She's confident that if anything approaches from the other side, she'll sense it in advance.

    "Nope." Morrigan says. "No one taught me that one." Morrigan replies cheekily, flashing a fanged grin as the party progresses. Then Misaki asks her how she got her magic.
    "Ah..."
    The Warlock purses her lips. "That's a long story." She says at first. 
    "My old man wanted me to be a great Wizard." She explains. "I had the potential but no amount of book learning could do a thing about it. ... And believe me, I did a lot of book learning." Added with a sigh.
    "So I made a deal with something that promised me great power and a wish in exchange for servitude, and BAM. Instant cosmic powarrrrrr...!"
    Morrigan pauses there.
    "So yes, Misaki. It's true. Watashi wa mahou shoujo desu."
    There's no more time for her to be cheeky though as the creatures come.
    "Ah. Lovely." Morrigan mutters as she considers how to handle the sudden assault.
    She settles on 'violence with extreme prejudice' as she makes several gestures with her hands and speaks a series of harsh and guttural words.
    The result is a sudden psychic assault launched at the ceatures in hopes of disrupting the hive mind with a spiking surge of sudden indescribable mental agony launched at a group of the creatures as she takes a position behind Muradin to avoid the acid--.
    Acid which Lian handily takes care of.
    "Huh. Neat~."

    The hissing acid spatters back, and the creatures are NOT immune. Perhaps resistant, as it just makes a few of them stagger back while the rest rush forward. It also dribbles some on the tunnel walls, but while there's a convulsion along the floor, it seems more reflex... there's no great reaction, so either that wasn't enough to cause a problem, or it ignores it for some other reason.

    The bolts from Krystal cause the mass to shy back, then surge forward again... which is perfect for Muradin to slip in and block the tunnel by crushing with hammers! Now that Lian took care of the acid, that momentary delay has allowed the dwarf to splatter two of the things right away, meaning the others spread out... making them easier for Misaki and Krystal to snipe a few more down.

    A psychic assault has a weird effect though. None of them seem harmed, and instead of doing damage it just... briefly breaks their connection, causing a confused flailing about, precious seconds lost while they reassert their minds and, in that time, over half are crushed or blasted. For now, the remainder retreat, skittering back into side tunnels smaller than the main, though it definitely gives the impression of regrouping.

    Lian's charge halts, as the psychic blast proves the final push needed to drive the creatures off. Her saber shuts off, but something in the way they retreat... "They're not done with us yet. We were simply stronger than they expected." She frowns, already falling back to take her place at the rear of the group, then adds, "They'll soon be back, and in greater numbers. Is anyone hurt?" Muradin never reached the front; in theory, no acid blasts got through. But it still never hurts to be sure.

"Please tell me I won't grow up to be like you." Misaki grouses at that revelation, clearly not pleased with it. She takes a few more shots as the enemy pulls back to regroup, and pulls out some light to roughly map the tunnels as they've been going through so far. "I'm fine, master Kamoya." She answers, "Psychic damage caused by uncomfortable truths aside."

 
 Muradin was getting ready to simply tank the acid blasts sent his way and towards his companions as well. Avoiding them would defeat the whole purpose of playing tank, and he was fairly confident that his armor and weapons could withstand a bit of acid splashed on them. Fortunately, Lian had other ways of dealing with projectiles that didn't involve blocking with the face, and the dwarf grinned as she reflected the acid blasts back at the creatures. "Hah! Excellently done!" Grinned the Thane of Ironforge. 
 
 Muradin grinned fiercely as he saw the mass of monsters falter. Even reality bending horrors could still fear in the face of such martial prowess it seemed. "They're faltering! Push the attack, lassies! With me!!" The dwarf raised his hammer high and moved in to take advantage of the confusion, with the beasts confused by blaster fire and Morrigan's magical spells, they were easy pickings for the dwarf who went to hack at them with axe at hammer. Cracking skulls and rending their bodies apart as he swung both his weapons in deadly arcs. 
 
 The real surpise was, however, when the monsters instead of holding their ground and fighting to the bitter end decided to retreat. "Oi!! Come back 'ere! I wasn't done killing ye lot!!" Screamed the dwarf after them, but he knew better than to rush forward and abandon his companions by giving in to his bloodlust. "Weird.. I think they're using.. tactics? These beasties aren't as mindless as I first thought." 
 
 Muradin glanced at Lian as she asked if anyone was hurt. "Didn't even scratch the paintjob of me armor... I think we're fine." He said as he looked behind him and glanced towards Krystal. "How's yer head, Vixen? Everything ok in there?" 

    When Morrigan's spell bewilders the monsters instead of harming them, the Warlock knots her brow. Before she ultimately decides "Well that was cool. I'll take it." She says, watching the creatures flail pointlessly as the others lay into them and they ultimately make their retreat.
    For now.
    "Mmm. We better be fast then. I can only do that about two, maybe three more times, tops, before I'm tapped." She says.
    "I'm good." She asides to Lian checking in on everyone.
    "Oh I'm sure you'll grow up to be whatever you want to be, Misaki." She says as the party regroups.

     Krystal watches as the things skitter off and tries to follow them with her mind and get a sense for how many might be coming in the next wave, though for now there is a good revelation. "That psychic blow seemed to disrupt their hive mind for a moment, long enough for us to finish them off. That could come in handy, especially if we soon end up facing more than what we just saw." Turning to Muradin she shrugs a bit and gives a nervous laugh. "Don't know if I'd say OK, but I'm hanging in there. This is the first time I've been inside a creature like this, and the hive mind of those things is certainly disconcerting. I hope I don't have to go crawling around inside a living tunnel again anytime soon, though that probably goes for all of us."

    Between Krystal and Lian, it's getting easier to tell... those creatures are multiplying. Spawning, in fact, numerous more erupting from the walls. Yet not HERE, not where people are. They're gathering in most places, but there's a place where the buzzing concentration isn't collecting, though they surround it. A giant 'pit' in the middle, where LIFE certainly is, but not the massed creatures. Though in this case 'middle' is relative... it's only in the middle of the massed creatures, it's at a seemingly arbitrary place in the tunnels.

    Somewhat disturbingly, though, the crushed remains of the dead creatures sink into the floor, melting away as if absorbed... and going deeper, everyone can faintly feeling an uneasy tingle. In this case, Lian is the one who can detect more fully that something is trying to 'feed' on the group, though whatever mechanism it uses doesn't seem to be working?

 
 Muradin placed a gloved hand on Krystal's back and tried to smile reassuringly at her. "I'll buy ye a drink when this is over, lass. In fact.." He turned back to the group. "Drinks are on me after this!" Gotta keep their eyes on the prize after all, particularly because the deeper they went the harder the resistance would likely be. 
 
 "Hm, I canna say I mind too much." Said the dwarf in regards of trudging around a creature's stomach. "Not me first time going inside the belly of a beast, likely not me last neither. But I canna blame ye for not wanting to trudge 'round 'ere." Muradin tried not to treat Krystal too much like a Princess, after all, he was aware that she was a hardened warrior as any of them, but if he could spare her some gruesome trouble in here or in the future he would. 
 
 The Thane glaced at the corpses of the creatures and made a face seeing them dissolve on what was the ground of the dungeon. "Stranger and stranger... huh..." He limbered his shoulders. "Alright, keep moving forward then? Mantain formations, and keep an eye out to see if anyone can find any surviving humans. We still donna know if the monsters already ate them or not." He shook his head, hoping against all odds that the monster hadn't eaten any children. There would be hell to pay if it did... 

"Thank you for your vote of confidence, miss Lor'osa." Misaki's voice drips with sarcasm. She keeps her mapping up and stays close to the others in her position, "Can I have beer when we're done, mister Muradin?" She asks, in a tone that's clearly expecting to be told no.

 
 "Suure, I did say everyone." Muradin responded rather surprisngly to Misaki. Until.. "Oi! Wait a minute! How old are ye again??" His eyebrows twitched irritably. "Trying to pull a sneaky on me, aye? No way, yer getting a root beer!" Nice try, Misaki. 

    There's amusement in Lian's eyes, looking between Misaki and Muradin. Root beer? "That would still be keeping his word, from a certain point of view," she points out. As they move out, the Jedi shuts her lightsaber off again, but it remains in her hand and ready. But the longer they go on, the more troubled the older Master looks, eyes slowly and steadily sweeping the tunnel, and then occasionally closing outright. At one point, when she opens them again, she announces, "This place is... trying to feed upon us, somehow. I'm not certain how. It's hard to describe what I'm sensing. But whatever it's trying, it doesn't work."

    "What?" Morrigan asks of Misaki. "Whaaaaat?"
    Moving on though, watching the bug-like creatures get dissolved and re-absorbed is fascinating if grody.
    "She's fourteen." Morrigan points out when Muradin questions Misaki's age, as the group presses on. Root beer it is.
    "Well we better get moving before it figures out HOW to make it work."

     Krystal grins a little at Muradin's offer. "Yeah, I could certainly go for a few drinks after this, maybe a hot meal too if I have the stomach for it by then..." She then grins at Misaki's attempt to get alcohol, and Muradin's reaction. "Maybe a Shirly Temple too if you'd prefer." Lian's remark though snaps her back to the reality of the situation. "Oh great, just what I feared. Though, you did say trying, as long as it's not succeeding..."

    As the group moves deeper into the depths of the network of tunnels/creature, it starts to get... stranger. Glimpses of things. A horrifying monster here, just a translucent visage lasting for an instant. Then a young boy flying through the air, like a superhero! And then... is that a boy wearing only his underwear in class? Then a young girl at the beach, taking a test at a school desk in the middle of the sand. Beyond all this is a glimpse of a larger, wider open area, which has a more disturbing 'twist' in reality to make it fit. The 'creature' here is both physical and not, a pulsating green orb with tendrils of pink twisting up to attach to the walls.

    All that is disrupted by an incoming of twice as many of the creatures as before, hissing and clicking. Soa many they're actually having trouble fitting into the tunnel properly! But the 'early warning' system also tells that a smaller number are rapidly coming in from behind, a new tunnel opening nearby to let them pour out, a half dozen or so to attack what they likely think is a weak point. Good thing a pretty powerful Jedi is back there!

 
 "Meebe.." Muradin gave an amused chuckle at Krystal's suggestion of getting Misaki a shirley temple. They'll have to see what kind of celebration is in order after they are through with this adventure, though of one thing Muradin is quite certain- it will be grand. It will have to be, because so far this has been quite the slug fest. All these days tracking this monster to finally find it is some kind of reality warping tentacle beast. Ah, it will only make things all the sweeter when Muradin finally bashed its skull in. 
 
 Can't do anything about the weirdness though. The Thane furrowed his eyebrows seeing those strange scenes. What was all that? Children flying and girls in the beach studying? Felt like he was looking at someone's dreams. Though it soon gave way to the real nightmare, hundreds of those beasts surging forth again, and now they had them good and flanked. 
 
 "Here they come again!!" Muradin raised his hammer to meet them in battle. "Lian! Make sure they don't get to our backline!! I'll cover the front!!" There was hardly any time to give orders in the heat of battle, but Muradin yelled a general battle plan and hoped for the best. His job was to keep these monsters off their psychics, he'd keep the main force entertained while hopefully Morrigan, Krystal and/or Misaki did something about the pulsating green orb with tendrils. 
 
 "Blood and Thunder!!!" Now it was time to dive in. Muradin charged head first into the wave of monsters fully putting himself in harm's way, if only to make sure that they didn't get to attack the rest of the girls. The dwarf didn't care how many claws or splashes he took as he began swinging his axe at hammer at the beasts, splattering skulls and slicing with his cleaver as many of them possible, trying to make sure that the monsters understood one thing. The dwarf was the biggest threat here, and they better do something about him quick or he was going to plow through them and get to their leader. 

    Progressing through the caverns... Morrigan frowns.
    She sees the boy flying. The boy in his underwear in class, the scary face, the girl studying at the beach, and she remembers something the man in the suit from the elevator manufacturing building had said...

    'Now that you mention it, no. I can't think of the last time I had a nightmare. Or a good dream, now that I think of that. I don't always dream but it's been a good few weeks.'

    "It's been eating people's dreams... That's why everyone it's come in contact with is so exhausted." She mutters loud enough for the party to hear.
    And then they come. They come in *droves*, and they come fast.
    Morrigan retreats to the center of the group and raises her right hand as though she were taking aim.
    She squints. It's not easy to see her target amid the absolute swarm that comes rushing for them. The warlock narrows her eyes, energy dancing between her fingers.
    She's not aiming for the monsters.
    Her target is that orb- just a speck of pulsating green light buried amid a mass of beasts.
    "Cover me a sec!" She calls out while trying to line up a shot.
    A harsh word utters from her lips and with a flash of light and a thunderous clap, a single ray of eldritch energy lances from her palm, aimed squarely at the orb as she takes her shot.

Misaki begins to charge her focusing guns, kneeling down on the ground to steady her posture and aim, letting magic collect inside Joyous and Marvelous. She trusts the others to have her back, to protect her from these enemies, and so she tunes out everything except for her magic and the target.

When she's done, she puts both her guns together and sends a cyan beam from Joyous and an orange beam from Marvelous, both charged as strong as she can make them, and she gets them to rotate around eachother like a drill she's trying to slam right into the orb, at the same point that Morrigan was aiming for.

    After the first brush or two of dreamlike imagery, Lian Kamoya begins guarding her mind, steeling herself against the likely-unintentional assault. She can guess what they are, but right now it would be folly to focus on them. Not when they're so deep in...

    Lian's instincts tug. She switches on her lightsaber in prescient reaction yet again, just before the first wave appears in front... but then there's a step and a turn, and before Muradin even shouts his warning, the Jedi Master has turned her back towards her group and drawn her second saber as well. "They won't," is her simple reply; the only warning she gives to the insectoid beings is a quick double-flourish of her twin blades, letting the sound of them be her implicit threat.

    And then she brings both blades up, and snaps them together at the base.

    For this many enemies, weaker individually but large in number, a single-blade style won't do. Oh no. She needs the sheer area coverage and volume of strikes that a pair of blades will give her, and a way to defend opposite sides of herself at the same time. A saberstaff gives her the ability to just fill the air around her with lightsaber, becoming a whirling one-woman onslaught.

>> GAME >> Misaki Sakai spends an Edge for: Warlock Girls think alike. Blast the orb

>> SUMMARY[Lian Kamoya] >> Fun fact: Lian can connect her lightsabers into a saberstaff.

>> GAME >> Morrigan spends an Edge for: I rolled a crit. Eat 8d10+20 damage, evil orb thing!

     "Interesting, that might also explain why it was fleeing from any kind of psychic connection too. Some kind of defense mechanism" Krystal says with a shrug. Also, that green orb looked about as much like a potential 'heart' as they'd seen inside this thing so far, though it could be more like a brain. Krystal decides to go for it, leaping into the fray shooting or smacking with her staff any of those creatures that are in her way or get too close. Once she gets close enough, she joins the others in the attack on the orb unleashing a powerful blast from the end of her staff.

    Well, it's a mess... mostly for the creatures. Muradin dives right in, and though a few of them may land slicing cuts on the dwarf, he's a pretty canny fighter and also covered by the bulk of the group's firepower. Most of what hits him is goop, the 'blood' of these things splattering on him, which doesn't seem toxic but does sort of feel... slimy for some reason. His furious assault shatters carapace while the blows that land are shallow... and it does the job, because the others can concentrate on the orb.

    Lian, of course, has a bit of a task. She has to bring up the rear and keep the long range firepower alive with an ambush headed their way! That saberstaff linking up is ideal for that, and a whirling dervish of bright light fills the tunnel. Limbs skitter across the floor, and the things rapidly realize that crawling along the ceiling won't stop them from losing an arm, leg... or head. Hissing steam rises from the cauterized slashes, though with these numbers, even the Jedi will be pushed back eventually unless she does something else.

    Fortunately, Krystals blasts manage to blow away a few creatures, helping clear a path. The first few that connect with the glowing orb make it pulsate and shudder... and then Misaki and Morrigan have a 'combo attack' of powerful magic, slicing through the press of bodies to connect HARD!

    There's no loud shriek. No shuddering. The orb just... stops glowing, and suddenly, all the creatures are dropping dead, twitching without thought. The tunnels pulsate, light starting to fade, but the strange visions vanish.

    That said, the tunnel is also starting to ripple. The reality twist effect maintaining its size is wearing off...

    Morrigan and Misaki nail the orb.
    "GREAT shot, kid, that was one in a million!" The Warlock exclaims as the light dies from the sphere and the monsters begin to just... Die.
    But then the tunnel ripples.
    "Oh. Oh we should probably..."
    "Do the thing?" Mary pipes up from Morrigan's backpack.
    "Yes, we should do the thing." Morrigan agrees.
    "Good master dwarf, would you please see us the way we came or find us a similar method of egress please?"
    She's a half-elf. She'll defer to the dwarf for underground navigation.

    It's a sign of Lian's skill as a warrior, and her mastery of the Force. Not a single movement is wasted. Every swing accomplishes something, whether it be parrying a blow (and likely destroying the claw in the process), removing a limb, or even just a swing meant to stall an insectoid's attack before it happens. She has taken utter ownership of her small stretch of tunnel, but with the enemy bearing down, there's only so long she can keep it up.

    So, of course, she flips the script.

    A whirl of the staff, into a backwards shift - and suddenly her free hand comes up, releasing another blast of force into the group of creatures. A well-placed push to shatter their momentum, break up their advance, and give her a moment of surprise she can use to move in and strike down as many as possible. By the time the survivors recover, she'll be ready for them...

    ...except it looks like they're not going to be recovering. Down go the bug people, as the dream-eating entity is slain. "...oh dear. I think it may be time to leave." The Jedi deactivates and disconnects her sabers, and turns to yell to the group. "Muradin, can you lead us to the nearer exit from here?"

"Saw this coming." Misaki was prepared for the tunnels to collapse, and so immediately resummons the map she's made of the way here. "Mister Muradin." She asks, "Is going back the fastest route, or do you know something faster?" She asks, making her own light a little brighter.

 
 "Hraah!! Come on! Is that all ye bloody got!!!?" Muradin swung in a desperate frenzy. When surrounded by enemies the dwarven Thane often preferred to fight defensively and move around a lot in order to lessen the damage, but in this case he was purposely drawing as much fire as he possibly could. The more monsters that were on him, the less were attacking Krystal, Morrigan and Misaki, which meant that they could get to get on the giant green orb. "GRRAAAH!! Bloody buggers!" Muradin traded every claw and bite he got for a hammer to the skull and an axe to the face. The toxic goop made him dizzy, but not too different than drinking copious amounts of ale which was just a regular Friday afternoon for this dwarf. Swamped with frenzied monsters that wanted him dead, deep in some caverns and with a bad hangover.. that the life of a dwarf! 
 
 Just as Muradin was getting his third wind, bashing and slicing with wild abandon.. the monsters just... sorta.. dropped dead all around him. "That's right..." He wheezed, covered in sweat, goop and blood. "Ye messed with the best... punks!" He spat some blood down on the ground and staggered, still somehow keeping his grip on his weapons. 
 
 And yet, there was no time to rest. As Misaki and Krystal had mentioned, with the monster dead the tunnels felt like they were about to collapse. 
 
 "Right! Always have yer holes dug... that's wot me brother Brann always says.. hehe.. oof..." Muradin winced and shook his head as he tried to orient himself. One look to the left and then the right, and then his dwarven senses told him that the tunnel that he dug was... "Right this way! Through 'ere!" The Master Dwarf dismissed his magical weapons and hustled down a tunnel, climbing it would bring the group back to the abandoned manor of the Mayor they had investigated the first day. 
 
 He knew digging that tunnel would come in handy! 

    As mentioned, the tunnels only had a slight twist of reality. It was stronger toward the middle, but where Muradin leads is out toward a less 'alive' tunnel... which has less of a twist on it, and the expansion is both less, and easing up more slowly.

    Of course, as the tunnels collapse into narrow tubes behind the hurrying group, there's... not much different up above. Krystal and Lian will no longer feel that alien presence, and Misaki isn't picking up any more reality alteration.

    A pity the creature had to die, but in this case, it was incompatible with the world we live in.

    DAYS LATER: While one child was missing, they had apparently glimpsed one of the creatures and hid. Of course nobody in town takes the description seriously, especially since she didn't get a good look at it. The only actual casualty was one of the janitors, who did live... but is in a coma. The community banded together to pay his hospital bills and care for his family, so in all it ends up looking like an unfortunate accident.