[PurpleXVI]

Lorath, Evon, Ulik

(Ulik loses 3 HP, 9 HP remain.)

Lorath's spell caused no apparent damage to the gathering blobs, the bright missiles of force simply struck the oily matter and disappeared.

Just as the things were going to topple the pedestal, Ulik was there, grabbing a hold of it and keeping it up right as flames began to boil from the runes in his skin and even from his orifices.

Evon did not need any encouraging to get the hell out of the room, he was already down in the water at the bottom of the stairs by the time Lorath got there, apparently searching the deep water for the Other, of whom there was no sign. "Damnation," he muttered, as he knelt down, his head barely above the murky water, to search the floor with his hands, "Mind helping me, Lorath?"

Meanwhile, back in the chamber of the spheres, Ulik's flames were spreading and half of the room was a veritable firestorm. Most of the pedestals were smoldering and the symbiotes on the floor were swiftly shrivelling up, like slugs covered in salt. They shrank so fast that the few pieces of bone and cartilage within them literally burst through the thick membrane which formed their outer layer.

From somewhere in the room there came a sound like someone stepping on crushed glass, then something cut Ulik's right ear, sticking in the lobe. As he reflexively reached up to remove it, he found that it was a tiny, needle-sized shard of crystal like what the spheres in the room were made of.

All around him, the searing heat of his flames was boiling the contents of the spheres, causing them to start cracking from the internal pressure. The shard which had struck him had come from a sphere behind him, which had already broken open, literally exploding. It's contents appeared to be another one of the dagger-beetles that he'd met twice before, and the carapace of which was already starting to char and blacken as it writhed in it's death throes.


Tamora, Bas, Anne, Balth

The group's host waited to respond until Anne was part of the "conversation," apparently not wanting to leave her out.

"We have met no others from your world," the shaman told Tamora, "But I am sure you realize that does not matter, sooner or later some fool from your lands will meddle in our affairs or a hotheaded Il-drim from the deep jungle will decide to jump some of your kind on a dark path." It shrugged, "There will be a reason to fight sooner or later. Some of us will fight to the bitter end for our ancestral lands, others of us will find new places to hunt."

Then it looked towards Bas, "I cannot speak for my tribe, or for the other tribes, or even for the Sage, but I can speak for myself, and I will assist you as long as it does not harm my people. You joined the fight against Old Mushtu when you owed us nothing, and for that I feel we owe you."

Balth remained silent, looking lost in thought, or perhaps daydreaming.