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Gan, Bas, Anne, Tamora
The elf watched with little surprise as the three stepped forward from the dense vegetation, his expression wary, showing that he wasn't expecting any friendliness from them.
Nonetheless, his features broke into a grin and he lowered his weapon as Bas bowed to him, then replied in only slightly accented Common, "No need for such formalities! You are my saviors!" He returned an exaggerated bow of his own, almost scraping the ground with his forehead, "I am Balth Viera of the Sun Runners," he said after the bow, "And you have my gratitude for saving me from this Thri-Kreen, normally I'd have been able to handle him, but Lady Luck has not been on my side much of late, your arrival seems to mark a change in things."
"May I have the pleasure of your names? And what brings travellers such as yourself to this savage land? You are dressed and armed like lords, not adventurers."
Lorath, Ulik, Evon
The disgusting water enclosed Ulik as he dove, providing him with little visibility in any direction, his search was reduced to groping around with his hands almost aimlessly.
Unseen things brushed their feelers against him or bumped into him and hurriedly swam away into the darkness. As he surfaced after his first dive, he returned soaked in water and covered in filth that almost left him looking like a walking pile of compost. On his subsequent plunges into the darkness, he discovered that the basement consisted of three rooms arranged in a line, with the stair at one end.
It seemed like the dive was just going to be a wasted detour until he felt something with many little grasping legs scuttle up his robe, across his chest and out his left sleeve. As it reached his wrist, it stopped, wrapped it's thin legs around his limb and started squeezing. At first it was merely a tight grasp, but it swiftly became painful.
Reflexively he headed for the exit and burst out of the water with enough force to shower Lorath and Evon in stinking swamp-water.
The creature attached to his left wrist looked like some sort of crustacean with eight legs. They were thin and chitin-covered, almost sharp-looking and they were making severe indentations in his skin, one or two were already drawing blood. It had no apparent mouth, head or orifices.
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