Rescue Party

Helena rushed through the broken door and fell to her knees to take Brintley into her arms. The young Gnome had already gathered up her crossbow, several vials of alchemist fire, a dagger long enough to be a shirt sword for her size, and a pack of gear.

"I swear we will find your mother! I'm so sorry that i wasn't here to stop this."

"Y-you can't be everywhere a-at once Helena. Just p-please... help me..."

"We will. I promise you that."

Because of how scattered everyone was, their numbers were small. Liam had managed to gather Helena, Dolan Vaas, Reese and Natalie. Including Liam and Brintley, that made only six members. Ashlin and Grace volunteered to go, but Helena shut them down. She wanted Grace checked out at the fort by a medic and Ashlin to stay with her.

"I know it's getting late Natalie, but how are we looking for tracks?"

"I found some outside. Not a lot but some of that pink stuff that they use for nesting. Looks like they **** some out with them when theycame up top."

Natalie led the way while holding up a lanturn. The beasts had used the back alleys to keep out of sight until they found their potential targets. Their path had thankfully been easy enough to follow and eventually it led to an old sewage drain in the slums. Because it was tucked behind a row house, no one had even known it was there.

"I will have to get a patrol out here soon to secure this. We could have more casualties if this is left alone."

"M-my mother isn't a c-casualty," squeaked Brintley angrily.

"My apologies," Dolan said, "What I said was insensitive given the situation. I just mean we don't want others being hurt."

The party lowered themselves down into an unmapped are of the tunnels and Natalie took a moment to look around. She noticed a shoe laying near a path and Brintley confirmed that it belonged to her mom.

"I would say that this thing moved quickly once it had her. It had a good hour lead on us and we haven't been moving quickly in the dark."

"If we try to rush, we may walk into an ambush," added Helena.

She knew how frantic Brintley was to find her mom, but Helena had to keep her friends safe. Realistically, it was too late to stop her from being used as a broodmother, but they could still save her before they broke her mind or spirit. The group stopped for a moment to light more torches and then proceeded to follow Natalie down the tunnel.

They followed the tunnel slowly for another hour before suddenly a monster was before them. It looked as if it had come out of the wall, and caught them off guard. Natalie backed up quickly to avoid the tentalces reaching for her before Liam rushed past her. Daggers flashed in his hands and several twisting limbs fell to the floor. The creature screamed and retreated back through the hole it had come from with Liam and Dolan giving chase. The hole had ioened into a cavern that held a nest. As Dolan and Liam fought the beast, Brintley swept her torch around the room until...

"Mom!"

She ran for her mother, but another tentacle monster came out of the darkness.

"Move!"

Brintley threw a vial of alchemist fire and kept running as the creature burst into flames. Two more creatures were revealed by the flames of the dying one and Helena raced forward with Reese and Natalie to meet them. An arrow loosed from Natalie's bow drove theough the mass of tentacles and hit one, causing it to flinch and give Reese an opening. Helenablicked the second from attacking Brintley and drove it back with skillful slashes and dodges. When it tried to press forward, Helena swept her torch in front of it and **** it back

Across the room, Liam had sliced through most of his monster's arms and gave Dolan his own chance to attack. He charged in and plunged his sword into the beast to finish it off. The group converged on Helena's foe and quickly finished it off once it was surrounded. With no more enemies in sight, Helena turned to find Brintley cutting away the nesting substance to free her **** mother. Bristol's stomach was swollen from being filled over and over, and it gave Helena flashbacks of her own recent capture.

"Helena!"

Liam and Natalie caught her. It seemed that she had started to faint as the memories hit her.

"I'm... I'm ok. Just bad memories. Lets-"

She was interrupted by an angry screexh and turned to see....

"Round two then. Natalie, get those other beasts on fire so we can see better! Dolan, Liam with me, Reese, keep Brintley safe and then evacuate with Natalie once her mother is free."

Out of a tunnel on the far side of the cave, the Slasher from before came into the light. It was hard to make it out in the darkness, but Helena could see it's burn wounds and the thentale that was healing after losing its scythe.