Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle smiled back at the girl as she passed with the others. She seemed nice, at least. A bit odd, but Shuffle wasn't one to talk.

 

[Darkling0096]

Coming up on the tunnel, the fleshy surface started to fade back into regular stone and dirt as they passed through, until it was gone. Only when she was certain they were completely out of earshot for that monstrosity did Jerry finally let out a sigh of relief. "We're not going back that way," she decided out loud, "I don't care if we have to bust a whole in the ocean and polymorph into fish to get out, there's no way we could possibly fight that thing."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked over and tilted her head. "I thought we were going to have a feast?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"No, we're not, not with that thing," Adran shook his head, "Absolutely not!"

"That creature," even Joanne shuddered to imagine what that fight would have done to their numbers, "Is easily capable of consuming all of us should it have chosen to."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil nodded. “If anything, we would have been the feast.”

Shuffle glanced back. “She seemed so nice though...”

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry sighed, "Shuffle, do you remember how Niudisa described a thrall made from the tarrasque parts would have looked?" She was of course referring to the so-called 'nightmare fuel' of arbitrarily attached body parts and bones. "We were walking on that."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked at Jerry. "That didn't look like the tarrasques we fought."

Emil shook his head. "Perhaps it's best to just move on."

 

[Darkling0096]

Engaging with Shuffle in explaining danger wasn't as important as staying alive right now. Veo could handle that once they were out of danger. "Niudisa, collapse that once we're past it," Jerry pointed to a stalagmite running from the floor to the ceiling.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa looked at the stalagmite in question. “Be easier if I had a corpse to use, but I should be able to the manage.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Just do it," blocking the tunnel would stop whatever that was from following. Or so Jerry hoped. She'd asked Niudisa because the fairy could use magic at a distance, so if the collapse was larger than Jerry expected the fairy would be able to get out of danger easier than if Joanne bashed it down with her hammer.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Yeah, yeah." Niudisa fluttered over to the stalagmite to examine it and find a weak spot as she waited for the party to pass by.

Erina glanced around. "We should do a head count before she blocks the path. Just to make sure no one's left behind."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry went around the party, calling names. "Me, Asta, Shuffle, Joanne, Beri, Emil, Poli, Fia, Erina, Emfa, Niudisa, Urodor's in his cage, Nyah's in her box, Lyak, Nalla, Raine, you there?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine poked her head up from Erina's cart. "I'm here!"

Emil gave a nod. "And with Veo, that makes the full group."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Good," Jerry nodded, "Everyone get away from the stalagmite, and then blow it away, Niudisa." When the stalagmite was dropped, the roof began to collapse. If not for the fact that Niudisa was fast and the rest were far enough away, they would have been crushed. But that also meant whatever that monster was couldn't follow them.

Now the group found themselves in another small cave. Those familiar with the type could recognize that it had looked like a construction zone. Half built structures here and there, it could have been a village that was abandoned mid-building, or it could have been something else entirely.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa quickly got clear as she closed off the tunnel. She gave a nod before heading after the others. As the group walked along, she fluttered up alongside Joanne. "So, I have a question. Aren't paladins bound to their oaths?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"Of course," Joanne nodded, "A paladin's power comes from their oath. Without it, I am only a skilled fighter."

 

[Fangs9090]

"And what about the promise you just made? Swearing on your oath as a paladin to feast with whatever that thing was?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"On the contrary," Joanne shook her head, "I promised that when we passed through that area again, we would have a feast. I did not promise we would return."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa grinned. "So, the paladin can be devious as well. Interesting."

 

[Darkling0096]

Joanne raised an eyebrow. "So it is perfectly fine for the likes of yourself to use deception for your own ends, but when I do so for the survival of the group it is wrong?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"It's never wrong. Just unexpected from someone like you. You seem to be the more straightforward type."

 

[Darkling0096]

"I admit, it is not a skillset I am familiar with," Joanne nodded.

"Guys," Jerry pointed further in the mess where the sound of something moving could be heard. "Guard up."

 

[Fangs9090]

The group stopped to listen, the fighters getting ready up front. The sound seemed to be drawing closer, and it sounded like hoofsteps. Shuffle glanced at the others. "A minotaur?"

Emil shook his head. "No, their steps don't sound like that. This is walking on four hooves. And I can hear the shifting of metal, like armor."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Warhorse," Joanne reached for her sword and shield while Emfa reached for her axe. An armored rider on a warhorse was a dangerous threat even without corruptiion twisting it. Down here? The two armored fighters could only hope they could drop the horse quickly as they apprached, weapons drawn.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil tilted his head as he grabbed his lute. "How would a horse get down here...?"

Before his question could be answered, the horse in question stepped around the corner up ahead. Or rather, the centaur in question. There was no rider, but rather a humanoid upper half where the horse head normally would've been. As Emil had heard, she wore metal armor on both halves, and carried a spear in one hand and a metal buckler in the other. The centaur woman had long blond hair, with a single streak of black, and green eyes to contrast. She glanced around as she stepped out from the half-built alleyway before spotting the group with weapons drawn. She stood motionless for a few moments before casually just stepping backwards into the alley again.