A too-curious halfling...

Your perspective is somewhat warped, since you can only really experience the subterranean space through the senses of the baneworms, but you can dimly make out a small figure approaching down the half-flooded corridor. Through a thousand murky perspectives you put together the image of a halfling rogue, cautiously making her way through the ancient rubble, holding a guttering torch high. She pauses at the waters edge, clearly unwilling to step into the sludge. Come now... what's a little water? You didn't make it this far to turn back... She shakes her head in irritation, "Come on Nyreen! It's just a little water, you didn't come this far just to turn back empty handed."

You raise an etherial eyebrow. Logically you know that could have merely been coincidence... but still. Perhaps the aether favored you today.

Unfortunately the halfling doesn't immediately wade in as you desired but edges carefully along a fallen pillar, taking deliberate steps on the ancient stone so as not to slip. No matter. The baneworms were just as aware of her presence as you were, the tiniest effort of will...

Splash. The halflings head whips around towards the sound. Splash. You feel her heart rate spike and she slowly sinks into a crouch, free hand falling to her knives. Splash She jumps slightly at the movement directly beneath her perch. You wait. She shakily lowers her torch closer to water level... the baneworms strike. Your essence surges forward in a million squirming bodies, like some kind of unholy tidal wave. The halfling gets out a shriek before the wave falls upon her, extinguishing her torch with an angry Hisss and knocking her from her perch into the water. You can feel her hot fear and panic surging against your cold presence and a thousand fleeting thoughts bombard your consciousness. Most are inconsequential to you: the memory of her first kill, a score-count of her xp versus every companion she'd ever travelled with, a shady deal she made with a cloaked traveler to retrieve a lost artifact... her life was flashing before her eyes.

Unnecessarily. You had no intention of killing her and neither did your minions. Even now you can feel them seeking the heat radiating off the panicked halfling. You are about to relax and enjoy the show when a stray thought catches your attention: Please! Anyone! Togos! Anari! Helia! Save me! A prayer. Hm... you think you could probably disperse the baneworms if you tried... it would certainly make the halflings day and she'd no doubt be grateful to her savior. Even if she didn't know what her savior was she would certainly have you in her thoughts...