In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 40):

"We hid something in a narrow shaft but the only one of us small enough to get in there a get it back was killed by broos. Now we can't collect it, we're hoping you'll do us a favour."

Verzeg nods "yes, I can do that. Show me where it is." He goes and collects his sword-spear.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 42):

Skreena leads Verzeg about 20 meters to a small hole in the ground. It is wide wnough to allow and armoured trollkin to enter it. It is very dark down there and Verzeg can feel an enticing cool breeze coming from it.

"What am I looking for?" He says, scanning for handholds. He sniffs the hole to see what it smells like, not quite knowing what to expect. Once Skreena answers he clambers down the hole.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 44):

"A spear, it is 1 and a half meters long. The point is made of gold and has rune carved on it."

Verzeg is able to lower himself down the shaft slowly so he doesn't fall. The bottom of the shaft drops into a room about 2m below. There is no sign of the spear but the rooms smells strange.

(OOC: Track by scent to recognise the smell)

Verzeg gathers up his spear and readies it in a crouch, scanning the dark. He sniffs almost theatrically trying to place the scent.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 46):

He remembers the smell well. The scent of chaos monsters that drop from tunnels onto unsuspecting prey below. The Uz called them Krashtkids and wouldn't eat them.

Verzeg's mouth compresses into a thin line. It occurs to him that Skreena wasn't as forthcoming to him as he might have been, it looks like the baboon runt was killed by chaos down here.

"Spider-Crabs" he mutters.

Still, nothing for it now. If there are monsters down here he'd best see where they are in case these things spread. Verzeg knows only too well that if he doesn't do anything about chaos then Nasty Uncle sends him lurid nightmares that get progressively worse until he does. He decides to see how bad it is so he can go and find Rostakos the Baresark who'll know what to do. At least the kin aren't here or they'd try and be brave and fight them.

Watching out for overhead gaps and chimneys he sees if there's other exits to this space. If there's not he creeps along until he finds something.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 48):

The room is more of a wide corridor, it is about 3m wide and disappears off into the distance. His darksense detects a long pole  on the floor several meters ahead.

(OOC: Listen roll please)

In reply to Adrian (msg # 49):

Above the pole on the ground is another opening in the ceiling, from within this opening a scraping noise can be heard.

Verzeg, who is timid and fearful if he has time to think on things, is far too focused on the serious danger of the creature above to be scared enough to flee. It starts to dawn on him that this thing might be quite smart, smart enough to have set a trap. He knows that there's variations in intelligence and even things that can't speak or have families can be clever enough to out-think those not paying attention or those who let pride make them think they're smarter than dumb animals. Those individuals who do that get eaten in The Big Rubble. Verzeg has the luxury of being an extremely intelligent example of a notoriously stupid category of trolls and thus has a long experience of what stupidity can do in the face of threats.

Crouching quietly, he considers the situation. His troll senses give him a pretty good idea of the area. He only knows these things are savage ambushers, not how fast or how big they are. He quietly scans the area, making sure nothing is creeping up on him or in case there's more overhead shafts he hasn't sensed yet.

It occurs to him that either he carefully removes what he assumes is the spear before the monster can react, or he quickly destroys the creature before it can attack - something he's unsure he can achieve - or he distracts it. The problem he faces is he doesn't know how these things sense, he assumes they sense just like he does so if he does anything it must be utterly without sound. That means he can't use spells to prepare.

Slowly reaching down he softly feels around for a few pebbles, being extra sure not to create any sound. If he finds some he'll quietly toss the pebble some distance further down the the gallery and see what happens, readying his spear to strike if the creature drops to the ground and rushes him.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 51):

Verzeg's hand feels around and come to rest on a fist sized stone. He chucks it along the corridor, the clatter of it it echoes loudly. Quickly a krashtkid drops from the hole in the ceiling and scuttles after the stone.

(OOC: My assumption is they detect prey by movement/vibrations so making a noise will attract them but remaining still and silent will foil them.)

Verzeg reaches for another stone to cast and after he finds one, creeps forward to the pole. Just before he's near the pole he'll throw the other stone even further down the tunnel.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 53):

The stone skitters along the corridor, the krashtkid gives chase. As Verzeg picks up the spear the glowing golden point gives a small metallic ring as it scrapes along the floor. The krashtkid stops its pursuit of the stone and suddenly changes direction, charging straight towards the trollkin.

Cursing softly, Verzeg drops the weapon obviously associated with The Burner and grabs up his trusty elf bone, chitin and flint spear. Grabbing the sweat-stained haft he grits his teeth and drives it at the monster scuttling towards him.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:45, Mon 16 Nov 2020.

The charging krashtkid spits its sticky pratzim at Verzeg, it misses and the gluey substance lands behind him.

His spear thrust slices clean through the armour and neatly lops off a leg. The monster now slowly advances on the trollkin.

Moving sideways so the monster doesn't have time to aim, Verzeg sends in a storm of cuts from different directions.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 57):

Verzeg's first cut removes another leg and the creature slumps to the floor. Life has fled before the second cut chops off a third leg.

Avoiding the revolting pratzim, Verzeg snatches up the golden spear and looks around, wondering what sort of place this is. He's not at all happy these things are here when he's been told he's not far away from Smalltown.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 59):

As far as he can tell with his darksense it is a long straight corridor. It runs east-west and is empty although there are several holes in the ceiling.

(OOC: He can see about 30m in each direction with his darksense)

Deciding that exploring this particular death trap has no lasting interest for him he makes a mental note to inform either the Uroxi or the Zorak Zoran people so as to keep the Death Lord out of his dreams or worse. He sincerely hopes that killing the krashtkid was enough of a propitiatory sacrifice for the god of murder and revenge to be satisfied.

Carefully retracing his steps he takes his prize back to the surface.

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 61):

The baboons chatter excitedly when Verzeg resurfaces with the golden spear. He quickly finds himself surrounded as the all reach to touch the weapon and paw at the trollkin.

Verzeg holds up the spear to Skreena and says "you could have mentioned that the chaos was actually in the hole, I had to kill one to get this back."

In reply to Verzeg Black Beetle (msg # 63):

Skreena is taken aback by Verzeg's accusation. "Chaos? There is no chaos down there that we knew of. If we though the devil's spawn was down there we would have sought a Storm Khan. We will double what we offered as compensation. How does that suit?"

Verzeg, easy going as always, is happy with that. "That would be generous, the Monkeykin are truly magnanimous." He hands the spear to Skreena and says "as you have said, the chaos hunters must become aware of this nest noble Skreena. The spider-crabs live in shafts in the ceiling of that hole, I killed one but there were many more shafts".

"It may not be safe here. The uzko that survived the fight might be looking for vengeance if there were followers of Nasty Uncle among them or if any of the slain were high status. If there were any clan fetishes on the uzko bodies it would be best to leave them here hanging from a wall or something, do not lay them on the ground as that is an insult. Also I do not know if spider-crabs will follow a person out of their holes so they too might be a threat."