Cor rummaged through his backback. 'I know it is in here someplace' he thought. After much digging and the utterance of several words of questionable usage by a cleric, Cor found what he was looking for. "Ahh, here we go. I rememebred a wee draft that may solve two problems at once. Since nay can sleep all cramped in here nor do we have the spells required at the moment I suggest one of you use this here potion of rest. Will allow you to become refreshed as though you slept for 8 hours in a matter of moments. I'd suggest casting as many spells as possible that might be helpful before you use it."

The party having been told of Niamedris’s findings concluded that to move forward they must clearly decrease themselves in size. However, after taking inventory of the availability of spells and abilities they found they were short of such for two people. The talk then turned to once more resting for another 8 hours to gain the two needed spells but with the enclosed space, the party was currently in, this was no easy thing. The only one of the party to possible have even a 50-50 chance was Ulthok due to his small size.

However, the idea to wait another 8 hours yet again, after having done so before entering the tunnel, was not greeted favorably by some in the party and it seemed that a continued discussion on the matter was inevitable. However, it was Cor who remembered that he had the solution to the problem before them. Rummaging in his pouches, he was quickly rewarded, withdrawing a Potion of Rest. With an almost beard hidden smile on his face, he addressed the party around him.

"Ahh, here we go. I remembered a wee draft that may solve two problems at once. Since nay can sleep all cramped in here nor do we have the spells required at the moment I suggest one of you use this here potion of rest. Will allow you to become refreshed as though you slept for 8 hours in a matter of moments. I'd suggest casting as many spells as possible that might be helpful before you use it."
After a few moments of thought and discussion it was decided that the honor would go to Haila and after carefully passing the potion to her and a few minutes to ready the spells in her head, the human Mage drank the potion down. Within moments, the spells were memorized and ready for use with 1 Polymorph Self and 2 Polymorph Other the party was no longer 2 spells short. With a somewhat confusing suggestion from Maggot, that since the party was going as smaller versions of themselves, the distance to travel would be greater then normal, creatures with the ability to fly would be useful. Cynil, always a quick thinker, suggested to her fellow female Druid that they both take the form of medium sized bats to cover the distance to the larger area that Niamedris had found more quickly.

With everything decided and ready, Alasdair gave the go ahead for spells to be cast and forms to change and with system shock checks successful, the party was on its way forward once more. In less time then at first thought the party, half riding Cynil, the other half Sirene, made the trip and within an hours flight time the party directed by the Elvin cat through Haila arrived at the ’larger area'. Here at once both Conall and Alasdair could detect the presence of evil all around them without concentrating, it was as Niamedris had warned, everything ingrained with evil. The stone, the dirt, the few bits of grass and even the air itself to the parties two Paladins it all seemed somehow almost alive.

The ‘larger area’ the party could now see was nothing more then the low roof of the tunnel having caved in long ago raising up the ceiling height at this point in the tunnel and revealing golden colored stone, the bottom of the Pyramid above. As both Druid bats flew closer a medium sized opening, large enough for the bats to fly through, could be seen at the Pyramids lower left base. Cynil hesitating not did just so flying up and through the hole forcing Sirene to follow. Cor noticing the hole at the same time as the rest of the party had very little time to study it but just enough to know the hole looked to have been not created by time, but by teeth and claw, and then they were in.

Finding themselves in what appeared to be the lower floor of the main central area both Druid bats quickly landed and discharged their passengers. As the party gathered themselves after the flight, they were able to see the area they were in was in shambles with small pieces of trash now enormous. The smell and hardened chunks of brown and black insect excrement lay everywhere, some clearly, years, months, days old, yet quite a bit squishy and clearly new. As with everything else these bits of excrement bigger due to the parties current size.

With gear checked and the party grouped closely together, other then the Druids Cynil and Sirene who had moved a slight distance away to change, Ulthok cast over the group a Dispel Magic. With all system shock saves made successfully a second time, the party reverted back to their normal sizes.

As a thin medium sized cloud of ages old dust rose around them, disturbed by the rapid change in air pressure as the party grew in size, each member once more slowly became used to normal size once again. What had seemed for the moment to be of giant size was once more rendered small yet now the party could finally see the truth of where they were. The interior of this 150x100 foot first floor of this supposed magical Pyramid was in ruin, trash and rubble littered everywhere. The party found that they were standing to the rear of the Pyramid in its most southeast side, a number of rooms, totaling 6 in number, 3 to a side, stood open their wooden doors in tatters looking to have been targeted by roaches or termites. In the center of this large area was a single set of solid metal stairs curving up to lead into darkness.

However as the party was taking this all in a chattering type of sound slowly began to be heard and Conall peering down at his feet saw that the sound was coming from a few roaches scurrying across his boots. His booted feet quick, he crushed the few below him only to hear, along with the rest of the party, the sound start to get louder. Gazing into the darkness around them those with the gift of night sight or infravision were able to track the sound to a large mound of trash, wood, rubble and dead insect bodies to the left of the main doors raising at least 50 feet high and 30 feet wide. The mound clearly held together by some type of paste, excrement or saliva had at its base a number of medium sized openings. It was from here that the origin of the sound became clear as hundreds upon hundreds of varying sized roaches emerged in mass!

Most were thumb sized, colored red and black, many others were the size of large mice and larger rats, these the color of sickly green, and yellow. Yet others, the least, yet largest, of the sizes seen so far, were the size of small dogs. Colored a pasty gray and blood red with mandibles backed up by teeth and various clawed legs, they had the blackest of dead looking eyes.

Clear to those party members with sight all of the roaches were mutated in some way, extra legs, 2-3 heads, more then 1 set of mandibles, some even with useable wings, which they now used to raise into the air. Even though all were different, seemingly no two the same, one thing was for sure, all were headed the parties way....................

(Ok everyone here is this week’s post. As you can see your about to be in combat and you have 1 ½ rounds before the main mass of mutated roaches gets to you. You could try for the stairs or the nearest room but that will cut down the time before melee to ½ a round. Therefore, it’s your call. Ok Next Post two Sundays from now on Sept 4th giving you a week and a half to decide on your course of actions....Good Luck)

"Conall, get beside me!" Alasdair called as he stepped forward, placing himself between his comrades and the coming tide of foes.

"This whole place is saturated by evil. Perhaps the aura of our faith will hold them at bay long enough for the others to render them into smoking bits."

The sound of metal rings as Purifier clears it's sheath once more.

"Odin protect us." he spoke with force as he unleashed a blast formed from force of will alone at the floor ahead of the foremost line of the crawling creatures hoping to stall their advance without negating the effect of his faith aura.

"Kenji, you are the rear guard now. Your sword must defend our flank while our spellcasting friends take on this hoard."

(OOC: If someone else creates a light source, Alasdair will also try to use his control light psionic power to amplify it, allowing better vision amongst the group, and perhaps sending the roaches scattering.)

The old man saw what was heading his way. His skin began to crawl before the creepy things even got close to him, instinctively his hand went out and these words fell from his lips, "A blade unto me when all others fail." A flame now danced from his hand. At first he waved the blade back and forth as a deterrence, but if any drew close they would feel the sting and flame from Maggots Flame Blade.

OOC: Maggot uses his 'Flame Blade' Spell; Second Level Ranger.

Kenji was a bit uncomfortable when a spell was cast upon him and he was shrunk down o miniature… but he was more at ease this than being turned into something else… but nevertheless he was grateful when they arrived at their location especially as they were traveling in what was to him complete darkness… being human he didn’t have the unnatural visions that the other races shared… he wouldn’t admit it openly but he silently wished he had such capabilities

When they arrived and returned to their usual size… the Samurai was doing a quick survey of his gear by touch when he started to hear strange noises… he listened as he couldn’t see anything … he heard Alasdair starting to issue orders … and he recognized the sound of a sword being drawn…

"Kenji, you are the rear guard now. Your sword must defend our flank while our spellcasting friends take on this hoard."
Kenji grunted his acknowledgement… he would gladly defend the flank… as soon as he could see… he was about to say something to remind them that he couldn’t see in the dark as they could… when suddenly a flame sprang up … he saw a blade shaped flame in Maggot’s hand… it allowed him to see now and he saw the large moving insects headed their way…

His Katana sang from it’s scabbard … he moved to a position where he could guard the flank as was said… he knew that once again magic was their best offense against a mass of small enemies such as this… he would be ready to defend the spell casters… his sword held ready defensively to protect his companions…

(OOC: Basically he is in defensive mode and if any of the bugs get to the party he will attack to protect those that are casting…)

"So fire it is for these wee beasties is it? I believe I can join in that fun." Cor took a moment to retrieve his axe of demon fire. "I wonder exactly how this thing works." He stood ready to engage one of the large sized roaches if one got close.

"Alasdair, what is the plan lad? You need to make a decision beofre the wee beasties close the gap."

Haila drank the potion provided to her by her companion nodding her thanks before putting bottoms up. New spells memorized and feeling refreshed, she followed suit with the others and used her polymorph self and polymorph other to get the party members to the next chamber.

Upon arriving they had noticed an odd sensation filled them from the inside out. Something that sent chills down the back of the woman. The evil that surrounding them was bone chilling, the type of evil that would give nightmares to children for months. The party members had released the spells without injury and were already being confronted by evil creatures.

Haila did not hesitate but cast Wall of Fire between her companions and the mutated creatures. Muttering the spell under her breath as she cast it ensuring her companions were not in the line of fire.

The general cry of “Bugs!” murmured around the chamber as the party began transforming back to their original state. Seconds flew by as they tried to determine the best course of action, and the general consensus seemed to be fire.

Okay. You want fire for protection? We’ll give you fire for protection.
Sirene stepped up to the line of casters, and shared a look with Halia. She waited until Halia’s spell began to solidify, then lined up her own wall of fire next to it to seal the gap.

Oh Goddess, I hope this works. she thought as she gritted her teeth against the flow of magic.

The party had returned to normal size and found themselves in a dark chamber. As the group attempted the orient themselves the sound of movement, a chittering of many small legs, emanated from the far end of the room. Ulthok was able to make out images in the dark and to his horror he saw a flowing mass of life emerged from the huge mount.

“Bugs, hundreds of them coming right at us. We need light quick. Rayne can you cast Continual Light? Sirene, Maggot, Haila, Cynil we need spells to kill a swarm. I’ll go for the nest and those nearest to it; Maggot perhaps your help there would be good. Sirene, Haila, Cynil, fire to keep them away from us and the stairs may buy us time. There are so many and they are UGLY!!”

“My warrior friends Pray for us and prepare for a large battle against a tiny foe, smashing instead of slashing looks like the mode of the day.”

Ulthok stepped forward while reaching into his element pouch to find the what was needed to cast out a surging bolt of shocking energy. Through the darkness he judged distance to the nest and where to release the energy to spread across as many critters as possible and hopefully stop the flood from nest.

Stretching his arm toward on rushing mass and concentrating on the area he shouts ”Shazam” and releases a great surge of power. About thirty feet from the nest a bright blue flash of lightening erupted, spreading shocking force through the swarm as it moved forward into the nest.

(O.O.C., , I need to write these posts with my spell check working.)

As the party watched the horde of mutated cockroaches pour out of the huge mound, they sat for a moment unsure of what to do. Perhaps having grown small and large within the span of only two hours had taken its toll or the sight of so many enemies had paralyzed them for the moment with fear. Whatever the cause the party seemed unable to act then once more Alasdair came to the fore and started giving commands.

"Conall, get beside me! This whole place is saturated by evil. Perhaps the aura of our faith will hold them at bay long enough for the others to render them into smoking bits. Kenji, you are the rear guard now. Your sword must defend our flank while our spell casting friends take on this hoard.”
Alasdair stepped forward, placing himself between his comrades and the coming tide of foes, the sound of metal rings as his sword Purifier cleared its sheath once more. As Conall joined him, both the newly found Holy Avenger and Holy shield at the ready, “Odin protect us." Alasdair spoke with force as he unleashed a blast formed from force of will alone at the floor ahead of the foremost line of the crawling creatures. His intent to hopefully stall their advance without negating the effect of his faith aura a failure, the horde of roaches continued forward.

With the two Paladin’s quickly joined by Maggot, a sword of fire in his hand, and Cor, with Divot’s old rune engraved axe, at the ready the spellcasters moved, most following Ulthok’s yelled suggestions.

“We need light quick. Rayne can you cast Continual Light? Sirene, Maggot, Haila, Cynil we need spells to kill a swarm. I’ll go for the nest and those nearest to it; Maggot perhaps your help there would be good. Sirene, Haila, Cynil, fire to keep them away from us and the stairs may buy us time. There are so many and they are UGLY!! My warrior friends Pray for us and prepare for a large battle against a tiny foe, smashing instead of slashing looks like the mode of the day.”
Haila and Sirene were the first to move each quickly casting Walls of Fire to the party’s front just forward of the metal stairs. However, though not touching those same stairs, the heat of the magical fire was still hot enough to reach them and the metal slowly began to glow red. Ulthok having yelled his suggestions was the next to act the spell of Lighting Bolt upon his lips. Timing it to cast just after the walls of fire were up he caused the bolt to manifest 30 feet from the hive and sent it roaring in.

At first it seemed as if nothing happened, the hive simply having absorbed the bolt without damage then with an almost ear pounding sound the hive exploded!
BBOOOMM! In seconds the air was full of burning scraps of what had once been home to hundreds upon hundreds of mutated roaches, slimy pieces of the roaches themselves, and drops of liquid like excrement that had held it all together. The scraps, dead roach’s and the rest slowing falling to the ground around and on the party as if a light snow.

As it was Cynil was the last of the spellcasters to act. Seeking to add her Wall of Fire to the two before her she readied it then before she could cast, something caught her attention from out of the corner of her eye...Movement behind them!.

Turning quickly she saw what she had feared as a second smaller mass of roaches was gathering from the rooms around them and emerging from the same hole in the floor the party had so recently entered from. Gauging the distances from the front walls of flame to the area the party now occupied she saw she had very little time to stop this second smaller horde. Casting her Wall in a ring around the party she connected the ends with the walls created by Haila and Sirene and in doing so closed off all access to the party within.

The party now completely surrounded by magical fire found they had the same problem as the metal stairs, however the heat from the flames though very high did not burn them as all were wearing some type of magical armor.

Then the party watched hopefully safe within this ring of fire as first the front, then the rear hordes, hit the walls of flame. The first hundred or so of the smallest roaches that attempted to cross were cremated at once, causing those behind similier to them to stop and spread along the walls length staying far enough away not to be killed, yet close enough to surge forward once more. The rear host consisting of mostly the smallest along with a few rat sized ones died as they too hit Cynil’s wall. The party continued to watch as the mice and rat sized roaches hit the flames and for a moment passed right on through them, only to die seconds later, ablaze in magical flames. However, it was the dog-sized roaches and the few flyers that caused the party to fear the worst as they passed through the flames totally unharmed!

At a quick count in the time left before melee, the fighters to the front counted twenty of the dog-sized roaches and ten of the flyers still headed towards the party. In only half a round, the thirty creatures would be close enough to attack. With the Walls of Fire, the slowly falling pieces of excrement and scrap, the need for light was for the moment no longer a necessity...............

(DM OOC: Ok here is this week’s post, Hope you like it. Ok your still facing 30 critters inside a ring of flames roughly I would guess 50 feet around with a half round lead on actions. I will try to post or send by email a map to all to help you have a better idea of the area you are in. I just wish I knew how to post a damn map on here myself rather then sending it to YeOlde . Next post, next Monday night as the ‘Boys’ play late on Sunday.)

" Well done, well done in deed." Cor nodded to the casters. "Ring the casters to keep them safe so they can continue to attack the flyers. The walkers are ours." Cor took a place making sure there was room to swing his axe.

"Ring the casters to keep them safe so they can continue to attack the flyers. The walkers are ours."
"Agreed." The paladin spoke with grim determination. He had failed his companions too many times. There would not be another.

Alasdair moved between the oncoming insects and his companions, hoping that his faith would protect at least some of them. His eyes strayed to Althena locking with hers for a moment as he took a step nearer her position. She was the reason they were here. Without her, the quest would be at its end. And without her, Alasdair would be left an empty shell, devoid of feeling, devoid of hope.

(Assuming the bugs move through the protection)

With a roar of defiance he turned his attention to the oncoming cockroaches, swing his sword with the fury of one who stood tall in the presence of devils and led a group of the most worthy companions the world had ever known. His pride, his honor, and his determination to protect them all went into each swing. Tears formed on at the edges of his eyes. He would not fail them again.

Kenji actually smiled a little when he saw some of the roaches make it through the fire… now here was an challenge that he could handle… true it wasn’t an honorable opponent but it was something e could face with steel and courage…

"Ring the casters to keep them safe so they can continue to attack the flyers. The walkers are ours." Cor yelled
Kenji nodded his agreement to the course of action… he already had his Katana “Tetsumeka”.. named Peacemaker… in hand.. he switched it to his right and drew his Wakazashi “Sashoujoshu” .. name Little Helper… in his left… he took a deep breath… activated his sandals of speed and charge towards the group on the right (#20) …. Placing himself between Rayne… Cynil and the roaches… using his speed he quickly reached his target.. there he Shouted a mighty “KIAI” (Ki Power) and then attacked any creatures that came within striking distance (#s 20, 18, or 10) .. using both of his swords in mighty sweeping arcs… he tried to prevent any from passing his designated check point… he guarded the right flank and he would chase anything that attempted to bypass him there and get to the casters that were under his protection….

The group was working together even more slowly now. with the end of their quest so near and yet still underachieved, it seemed to Rayne that everyone was conscious of the need to work as a team. The Ranger/Cleric knew a good suggestion when she heard it and cast continual light on on her headband that she used to hold back her hair. While the light not enough to illuminated much beyond where the group had gathered ,it would help those without infra-vision or dark sense. Once that was cast she had a chance to really see more details. She had not see the like of some of the cockroaches before--certainly not the larger ones with the green and yellow nor the back and red ones.

"Kith Jora preserve us all." Rayne pray a for Kith Jora's divine grace to Bless the party as her very next act. on then. For her next actin she would cast flame blade and stand guard of the casters that had offensive spells, Rayne had taken mostly healing spells.

Having barely found time to wrap her mind around the parties’ rollercoaster ride of shifting dimensions, Althena found herself surrounded by fire and of all things cockroaches. Sometimes the trials they faced amazed even her.

"Ring the casters to keep them safe so they can continue to attack the flyers. The walkers are ours." Cor called out.

"Agreed." Came the reply from her beloved Alasdair as he moved to stand closer to her position, his gaze locking briefly with her own. She was grateful for his strength beside her and sent a silent prayer to the Gods for his safety. She didn’t want to imagine a life without him in it.

Pushing thoughts of her love aside Althena looked out at the enemy before her, she was not going to die here eaten by a giant mutant cockroach she thought determinedly to herself. And neither was anyone else. Drawing her sword she stood, alert, weapon at ready, and prepared to face the oncoming horde.