Umdrak shakes his head.  Things had gone blurry for a moment, something certainly not welcome in a fight.  But his companions seem to have the situation in hand.

Answering the voices, he waves them to come over.  "The more the merrier," he says with not an ounce of humor.

"Oh my goodness! LIGHT!!" comes a female voice.
"I told you, my love. I told you someone would come."

Into the flickering torchlight come two figures: A halfling with a floppy red hat, and a scarred young man behind him who smacks the halfling on the shoulder with the flat of his longsword.

"I'm Tarin," the halfling says in a flat, dejected sigh. He jerks his thumb at the mercenary behind him. "These good folk are Elan," he says, then gestures further behind, "And Morris and Cianna." Elan the mercenary smacks Tarin again. His tone remains dejected. "We were cast down here for cheating the caravan boss at dice."

"You were cheating," Elan hisses, then squints towards the party's torchlight. "We were unwitting dupes. Not that the caravan boss believed it."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:12, Sun 21 May 2023.

Pyke's eyes dart from one newcomer to the next appraising each in turn. Then he sighs.

"For the love of... why the gods thrust one witless fool after another upon me I cannot fathom."

Another sigh.

"Well, let's hope you're better at fighting than you are at cheating. Jack, catch them up then let us be on our way."

In reply to Pyke the Astrologist (msg # 82):

"Welcome! That rosy fellow is Pyke. I'm Jack! Jack Quick. Stealer of shadows and deadly of blade!"

He ignores Pyke's snort of derision and continues.

"The townsfolk were taken over by worm-like creatures, so we incinerated a bunch of them when they came up a well. Now we've come down to clear out the rest! ...and claim the fame and fortune we're due."

Chayce the hunter rubs her forehead at the improbability of it all.

"That was... clever?" she says. "If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid. So, well done. Have you seen or heard anything that would be helpful to know?"

Ocrin the cornfarmer grunts a greeting. "Yar," he says to indeterminate effect.

Sharper the gambler has a bad wound and looks like he should be recuperating in bed somewhere and not crawling around underground. "Let's get moving so we can get out of here," he growls in discomfort. "The sooner we defeat whatever unspeakable evil resides down here, the sooner I can get paid." After a moment he adds, "Oh and so the rest of you can get paid too."

Umdrak nodded to the new arrivals.  "Umdrak, the third son of Nonolin Stormbraid, he the second son of Whunoir, he the sixth son of Origgerlug, he the first son of Beryltank, he the third son of Bhadgrumlin, he the first son of Barirneg Coppergut, they all of the Black Magma clan, the fifth clan of the Three Ruby Dwarves, they who are the lords of Mount Horginen and Mount Feldtra, destroyers of the Salmon River Valley Hill Giants, Bluetongue Orcs, and Bloodied Hand Orcs, and slayers of the red dragon Balumontifichronidell the Conflagrator."

After finishing his terse dwarven hello, Umdrak sniffs the air.  He heard humans throw coins down wells, thinking it would somehow bring them luck.  Perhaps some poor unfortunate had thrown down a gold piece or two in an attempt to turn that around, unlikely considering how things were in the unroofed world.  Still, what someone else's bad luck may wind up being Umdrak's good.

Sniff out any stray gold coins dropped into the pit.

The filth of the pit and the cloying foam risen by the worms writhing within overcomes even your dwarven nose.

"If we're done with introductions, let's be on our way. Jack.... Jack! Go on down and have a look."

Jack sighs in resignation then starts making his way down the ladder while keeping an eye out for any more zombies.

The new meat are filthy, but fall in with the group.
Elan, the mercenary, stays near the front of the group.
Cianna and Morrissink to the middle of the pack, and keep Tarin from slinking any further back than them.

Yeah, there's some mixed feelings in this group.

As you search the edges of the room you find a door of rotting planks leading to a tiny room where four more villagers were cowering for fear of their lives.

[Welcome to the Swimdoll Pier squad!]

Urmdrak waves the villagers over.  "Join us if you want to live," he says.  "There's safety in numbers."

They'll probably die, he thinks.  But maybe they'll take some of whatever lay ahead with them.</i>

"Alas, the rabble continue to grow..."

GM, could you please refresh our memories on where we are and what exits are available?
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Sat 27 May 2023.

you are in a mud-encrusted L shaped chamber.The body of the chamber contains three mucous pools stirring with immature worms.  The ladder going up is at the top of the L and the trap door from the rotting planks above slides you down to the middle of the north-south passage. At the other tip of the L is a narrow muddy passageway leading roughly northeast from what you can discern.

Pyke wrinkles his nose.
"I don't think there's anything more to see here. Let's be up and continue on our way,'

Jack finds no objection with Pyke's request so he again takes to the ladder, attempting to reach the NE passageway.

"Aye," Urmdrak says, wrinkling his nose.  "The sooner we get out of this stinkpile, the better."

The dwarf follows behind Jack.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:35, Wed 31 May 2023.

Ocrin and Sharper object to the three mucous pools stirring with immature worms.

"Oi, seems like there's an opportunity here," he says, pointing at a pool with his club. "Let's squish 'em here and now before they grow up."

He goes to work with his club to smash the little beasties, trying to splash as little mucous around as possible.

"Yar," Ocrin agrees with a nod, and goes to work with his pitchfork to skewer any worm large enough to fit on the pitchfork tines.

Chayce supervises, although she'll squash any worms that get away with the heel of her boot.

Pyke's faces squeezes into itself into a prune as he witnesses the worm mashing.

"Once you've satiated your hunger for violence, feel free to join us above."

He then climbs up after the others.

Elan joins in with the mayhem, while the others in his cadre help the group to ascend the ladder. Well, really they're just making sure to keep the halfling Tarin between them on their way up.

"Yar indeed, Elan grins at Ocrin when they're done dealing with the worms.

At the top of the ladder, Pyke peers down the passageway to see what he can.

"Get your thumbs out of your butts and keep moving up the ladder," Urmdrak barks.  "It's not smelling any sweeter down here."

In reply to Urmdrak the Rebel (msg # 101):

"And when a dwarf complains about the smell..."

Ocrin and Sharper continue squishing the worms.

"Better to get this done now when they're small," Chayce reasons, "rather than when they're riding villagers straight at us."

She supervises the men closely.

"That's some good stabbing, boys," she commends them.

Once the worm massacre is complete, Ocrin, Sharper, and Chayce will follow the others up the ladder.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:20, Sun 11 June 2023.

Elan will stick with Ocrin and Sharper for the next bit, enjoying the comraderie of a good stabbing.

Heavyset Morris ambles up toward the apparent (to him) leaders of the group, Urmdrak and Pyke. He doesn't say anything, he just stands ready and observes. Mostly, he observes people's shoes.