Onward: Purple

[voidtreckermods]

The second night of their trek is interrupted by the shaking of the ground. It only lasts a few moments and all the tunnels hold, but it is enough to be a frightening experience.

And it seems to have agitated the monsters. A wave of crabs attack not long after the shaking has stopped, emerging from the rocks around them.

They are close to one of the sandbanks and as they emerge, for a moment out of the caves they will find darkened skies and choppy seas. There is a feeling of a storm approaching. It is cooler then it has been.

But that is the least of their problems. As they cross the sandbank, wading in the water a giant squid attacks. Tentacles reaching out of the sea, to wrap around limbs and pull the voidtreckers and those they are escorting off the sandbank and into the ocean depths.

The tentacles at least seem to withdraw if damaged enough, hopefully they can be fought off before anyone drowns.

Comments

[laurefindil]

"I wish I could say no," Glorfindel said. He shook his head. "How does it have so many arms?"

He's starting to wonder if they shouldn't just charge it and attack the body. Except then they'd be in its element, and at a distinct disadvantage. Too bad they didn't have a handy wall they could drop on it.

"Here come two more!"

[alongtailtalltale]

"Aw geez," Tangle whined, as she got into the proper stance. "Get ready... there's no way I can snag two at once!"

As the tentacles cam at her, Tangle jumped, dodging both... while lashing out with her tail in an effort to snag one of them. She succeeds, but by the time she lands, the other tentacle is swinging at them on the offensive.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel stepped in between her and the second tentacle. He slashed at it with his sword, twice, scoring an X into the skin. Then he managed to grab one of his bamboo spears and struck right into the point where the slashes met, driving it in deep.

The tentacle recoiled in pain, giving them some breathing space.

"That'll buy us a few seconds!"

[alongtailtalltale]

"That's great!" Tangle exclaimed, as she landed... and then immediately struggled to hold onto the other tentacle she managed to snag.

"Maybe help me with this one while we have the time?!"

[laurefindil]

"On it!" Glorfindel said, springing forward. His spear was in use, so he slashed with his sword. Once this was over, providing the sword even survived, he was going to have to spend quite some time polishing it up again.

This time, due to the flexing appendage, and having to keep an eye on the one behind him, the ichor that flew out of the severed tentacle got him good. "You didn't get any on you, did you?" he asked.

[alongtailtalltale]

Tangle let out an "Ugh" as she got the ichor all over her wetsuit, only to find it starting to slough off in the surf. Gritting her teeth, she turned to him.

"Wish I could say I was that lucky. But do you think we need to keep fighting, or do you think we gave everyone a good enough headstart?"

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel took a quick look around. Most everyone had gone by, except for those like them who were fighting the squid.

"You're right, we should probably wrap up. We don't need to kill it, just keep it from harming those we escort." That was a new lesson to learn. Orcs would just chase you down or go running for more, but the squid was not going to get into the next set of caves. Not without taking a lot more damage, anyway.