Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry smiled and patted the two on the back as she went back towards the party. "Don't worry about it, I've got you covered."

 

[Fangs9090]

It seemed neither of them was satisfied with that answer as they both pouted before speaking in unison. “But what is it?!”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry turned, squatted down to Shuffle and Fia's level, and looked them both in the eye. "Don't worry about it. It's my job to keep you guys safe from weird stuff, and right now we're looking at weird stuff. I promise, it's not important, but I need you to trust me so I can do my job. Okay?" She looked at the two again. "Just trust me."

"Found the door!", Adran called with the rest of the party at the exit from the arena.

"Good job, elf!", Jerry called, before looking at the two in front of her, patting them on the shoulder, and then getting up to go rejoin the party.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and Fia sat quietly as Jerry turned to join the group. Once her back was turned, they looked at each other and nodded. Fia took flight as Shuffle charged on all fours, leaping for where she saw Jerry put the pouch.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Part of the problem with scaling rubble, is that it's still rubble. By some chaotic miracle, Jerry slipped on a loose stone and went sliding back down the pile as Shuffle and Fia collided midair. The impact she made on her rear down at the bottom burst a smoke bomb, surrounding Jerry with a large cloud of opaque white smoke. Jerry grunted as she got up, still obscured by the smoke and put up the Poli hood. "Today is the not the day," she decided, tucking her kit inside Poli to keep from accidental triggering of any of her doodads that she'd fashioned while down here. This also concealed the pouch with the rest of the kit.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and Fia tumbled down together, coming apart from each other at the bottom and shaking themselves off.

Erina stopped to look as she noticed the smoke cloud. "What are you doing over there? We need to get moving."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry scaled the rubble pile once more, only coming out of the spreading smoke cloud once at the top. "Yeah, yeah, we're on our way." She slid down the pile on the other side and rejoined the party as Adran pushed the door open.

"You three having fun back there?", Adran asked as they started onward.

"They're probably having fun, you know my situation," jerry replied, positioning herself between Adran, Beri, and Emil.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and Fia caught up as well, eying Jerry at every opportunity. Erina noticed the change in their disposition, but she wanted to see what would happen, so she said nothing.

Emil looked at Jerry as she joined them before glancing down at the chimera. "Did he sleep through all of that? Is he breathing?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry shook her head. "I'm really not sure what's going on," she lifted up the fleshy blob. "It's still alive, I know that much, but he's basically in a coma and turning into... something."

"It is likely the next stage in its evolution," Joanne piped up, "Sometimes the surviving head of a chimera may alter the rest of its body to better suit its survival needs. I've never heard of it happening with just the lion, however, only the goat. The snake dies with the rest of the body.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Mm. I hope he still likes you when that's done. It would be a shame to carry him all this way just to fight him again."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Love potions affect the mind and heart, at least one of those two should be the same," Jerry shrugged and put the comatose creature away. "Either way, even if he doesn't still like me, he's too small to do anything to any of us unless I say the magic word." Jerry shrugged again. "I'll figure it out when we get to it. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to hook him up with some storage space and shrink it down with him." Jerry smiled at the idea of having her stuff carried on the chimera. Better than carrying it herself.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle spoke up. "If you're look for space to carry stuff, why not ask Erina? She has a lot of space on her backside."

Erina looked at her but said nothing, knowing she didn't mean it the way it sounded.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry stifled a giggle at Erina's reaction. Adran, however, did not have that level of self-control and almost had to stop and lean on the wall, he almost broke down laughing.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked over at Adran in confusion, not sure what he found so funny.

Erina crossed her arms as she looked at Adran as well. He didn't get the benefit of ignorance.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

It took Adran some time to recover, and by now most of the ladies in the party were looking at him, many emulating Erina's crossed-arms look of disappointment. "What? My patron's the archfiend of lust and Shuffle's basically a kid, that was a funny combination!"

You could almost hear the eyes being rolled.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina huffed. "You're lucky you have that charm of yours, or I'd give you more than just a look." She paused before glancing back, finding Fia had hopped up onto her abdomen. The harpy simply looked at her as if she'd done nothing.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, really?", Adran asked with raised eyebrows, but he didn't push his luck beyond that, only to start giggling again as Fia hopped onto the arachne's abdomen.

"Well, you two are getting along," Jerry commented.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Surprising for a spider and a bird." Erina shrugged and kept walking as Fia just settled down for the ride.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"There's a lot of spiders that eat birds," Jerry shrugged as the group arrived at the next area beyond the hallway.

 

[Fangs9090]

"That still doesn't make for a peaceful relationship."

The next room had a pack of blight hounds feasting on a recent kill, numbering about six.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Blight Hounds were an easy kill for the large party. Six hounds, ten party members, a chimera, and a mimic. Only a couple members of the party were non-combatants, and even then, they still outnumbered the hounds. "Well, let's just kill those things and move on," Jerry muttered, pulling the magick bow as Adran lifted his. Joanne and Emfa drew their sword and axe, Beri prepared to pounce, and Veo went behind everyone that was hanging back, fishing through her bag for something.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle dropped to all fours as Erina hung back, the hounds taking notice of the group. Emil grabbed his lute and began a high energy battle song. It was hard to tell if that was actually necessary for the boost spell or if he was simply showing off. The hounds howled before charging. Shuffle howled in response and rushed to meet the one leading the pack.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Joanne and Emfa blasted into the room, meeting a hound each with a mighty swing of sword and cleave of axe down on their respective hounds while Jerry and Adran took aim with their bows, taking aim at vital spots on the hound before loosing their shots, Adran's arrows glowing green with magic and Jerry's being the threefold bolt she had consistently been firing so far.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle collided with hers, pushing against it before she managed to slam it to the ground and sink her teeth into its neck. Four more fell from Joanne, Emfa, Jerry, and Adran, and the last fell to a fireball from Fia. As quick as it started, the battle was done.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Wiping off weapons, retrieving arrows, and putting weapons away, there was a brief examination of the room from Jerry before the group continued onward. "Shuffle, before you get excited," Jerry cautioned, "We outnumbered the hounds eleventy to one."