Haven Forum

BAD COMPUTER

Lucas and Lightning follow suit, laying low on the catwalk.

The strange wall creature looks in the direction the noise originated, staring down that way for a good ten or so seconds before it loses interest; it's eyes closing over and seemingly going back to 'sleep'. Quercus slowly stands up again once the coast is clear.

"Half the stuff these things are doing down here doesn't make any sense," he whispered, beginning to resume his pace and motioning for the others to follow. "Ordinarily, you could easily label these ones on the wall as sentries, since they like to.. well, scream at you a lot if they see you and send hundreds of the small blob fellas after you - but even they seem to have a purpose, judging from how much they're growing over the tunnel. Why, just yesterday, that one there whom nearly caught us used to be three smaller, individual blots on the same wall.."

Lucas and Lightning stand up, resuming the path.

"So these things are multiplying even as we speak?" Lightning responded.

Terrus and Duma get up, barely understanding anything but keeping pace.

"Multiplying, combining, and then multiplying some more, yes," replied Quercus. "But I haven't been able to figure out how nor why. It'd certainly help my studies if they weren't so irritable all the time, and if it also weren't for the whole 'turn-you-into-one-of-them' thing, as well."

The group eventually reaches the end of the old catwalk, which halts just over what appears to be the only solid floor in this tunnel - the concrete stretching out for a few feet before stopping at another peculiar stone wall up ahead, which for some reason is largely untouched, despite the vast amounts of biomass coating the walls this far inside. Quercus quickly hops down and walks up to the dead end, setting aside his lantern as he starts waving the staff around again.

"It's odd, though. Normally there's many more of them down here, swimming about in that pit of foul water or clinging to the ceiling," he resumed.

"Odd," said Terrus. "Where are they?"

Lucas and Lightning touch down at the dead end as well.

"Who knows," Lightning said. "Maybe they're waiting in hiding. For all we know, they could be just as intelligent as you or me."

"Lightning - !" Lucas responded. "We already have the topside hunting us! I don't need any more reason to be nervous!"

Quercus thinks on this for a few moments before eventually shrugging, and goes back to channeling his spell; the untouched stone starting to crack apart and neatly levitate out of the group's way, one brick at a time, as it opened the way outside..


..and flooded the area with bright sunlight, which causes the entirety of the creature-infested tunnel to stir awake at once and shriek upon seeing the group; many more of those sickly yellow eyes suddenly appearing all over the bubbling, fleshy ichor-like substance once again - some of said bubbling masses seemingly ripping themselves out of their resting spots and falling into the tunnel's watery pit, yet quickly rising back up and starting to swim after the group, sprouting many grotesque limbs in the meantime.

Shortly thereafter, additional screeches can be heard farther down the tunnel, followed by the faint sound of footsteps and many sharp appendages scratching against stone and metal, which steadily grows louder as numerous figures start appearing in the distance, coming down the same path the group had just taken.

"..Oh, there they are. Um, this way, if you please," mumbled Quercus to the others, before he promptly runs out through the hole in the wall, exiting the Forum.

Terrus and Duma follow Quercus quickly through the hole.

Lucas and Lightning also go through the hole with all possible haste.

Some time later Quercus reappears in the sewers, wading about in the section of the vast network just under Sanctuary as he makes his way home; quite content with the idea of burying himself in his studies for a while after his little adventure. Maybe he'd also do something about the rising number of those infected things, he figured, but right now the old magician was feeling pretty tired. Now if only he could find some corks or something similar to plug the listening pipes dotting the walls of his house..

As he mulled over what to do when he got home, however, he suddenly snapped to attention once he reached an intersection within the tunnel, having seen a group of shadows on the walls start to violently jitter and thus quickly ducked behind a dark corner; peeking his head out cautiously. Why would he be doing this? Perhaps it has something to do with the handful of salivating tar monsters currently shambling down one of the well-lit corridors, one of them in particular carrying a dead rat with it in its jaws - or something that looks like a dead rat, anyways.

The sight of these creatures prowling about in such a bright, commonly traversed sector left the lizardman quite concerned - he was pretty sure he wasn't gone long enough for them to expand their hunting grounds so drastically, yet here they were, roaming about and looking for prey - and with that sobering sight in mind, he suddenly began to feel a lot more paranoid about living down here.

Thankfully it appeared that the sewers were devoid of civilized life for the time being, or so he hoped, so he had little incentive to stick around out in the open now; slinking from his hiding spot once he was sure the creatures were out of earshot and resuming his jog through the sewers.