Crawling back to your enemy

"So, Mary, that last tunnel didn't turn out so bad, but unfortunately your ice wall blocked our vision when the goblins escaped. Where to next?" She closes her eyes and moves her finger a few times again before settling on a passage.

"... that way!"

"You sure? That one is so small it doesn't even have a cart track. I'm not even sure the wolves could fit through there with their riders still mounted." Tlax slithers over.

"The wolvesss went thisss way," she motions to a much larger passage with a cart track. "There are bitsss of burned hair." She picks up a strand, which disintegrates into ash as it's exposed to the breeze from her breath.

"Hey, do I get to pick the way or don't I? I still say we take the small tunnel." Mariel pouts.

"Fine, you got the last one right, so I guess you've earned it. I just hope we don't end up in some rat warren because you fancy yourself an oracle." You have to stoop to fit into the narrow passage, and after a minute of walking you're **** to switch to crawling on your hands and knees.

"Ouch, my wing!" Sera's pained voice comes from behind you. "Remind me whose idea it was to crawl through this hole again?"

"Mine, sis. Now quit whining, adventure awaits!" Mariel is cheerful despite the scrapes you can see on her own skin.

"You two-legged daemons are ssso clumsssy," Tlax laughs and slithers effortlessly through the tunnel ahead. She disappears from view, then a moment later her head sticks back towards you. "It opensss up here, come on already."

You pull yourself out of the tiny tunnel into a small cavern, an empty mine cart sitting on the end of a section of track and a pickaxe resting against the wall. You turn and help Mariel out, then Seramiel, then Arialle.

"Ohhh, that's nice," Mariel's chest pushes out as she leans back and reaches her arms and wings in a huge stretch. "Let's not go crawling through any of those again."

"Well, I know just the angel to complain to," Sera grumbles and picks bits of stone out of her feathers. "Maybe little miss oracle should divine a path that she can actually fit through?"

"Hey, I'm at the mercy of The Finger just as much as you are." Mary shrugs and then stretches again. "Mmm, this is actually really nice, though. I should stretch more often." Yes, your lower body agrees, she should.

"Well, at leassst there's only one way forward," the gorgon's slithers in a dizzying circle as she waits for the rest of you to recover. "Unlesss any of you want to go back. Hurry up, I'm ssshedding here." You flex your wings, bits of rock and dust falling off of the bones as you do. Probably should've put those away. After one stretch of your own—hey, maybe you should stretch more often—you follow the eager snake woman into the passage ahead. It only takes a moment before voices reach your ears, a pale glow flickering around the corner ahead.

"Where do you think Orin and Lana have gotten off to? Hey, you don't figure they're hooking up, do you? She's been kind of frigid today, and she knows I don't like her banging other guys when I'm not there. Was she sneaking around behind my back the last few days?" The deep voice of a familiar warrior reaches your ears.

"Not all of us are so weak to the pleasures of the flesh as you, Jared Swiftblade. Elena Frostmantle is a devout follower of our master, and she would not be tempted so."

"Hey, uh, I know you might not quite get us, but don't you think you're taking this whole 'master' thing awfully seriously? Like don't get me wrong, these new powers we got are sweet and all, but maybe we should go check out some other quests? And what's with this 'Swiftblade' stuff? You know it's just Jared to you guys." You motion for Ari and Mariel to sneak up next to you, and the three of you peek around the corner to see the three remaining adventurers from David's group sitting around a table with three wax candles, their tiny flames dancing in the gloom.

"Alex Tigerheart is right, Ser Swiftblade. You should not doubt our master's favoured necromancer so. It is unbecoming of one of his elite. Perhaps you should speak to our master once again, that he may clear your doubts." You mouth something to your two champions, and they start nocking arrows in their bows.

"David, dude, and Alex... what the hell did I miss last week when I was offline? Like I know you were always 'Shadowdagger' this, 'Shadowdagger' that, but this is way out of—" he's cut off as a massive pillar of flame crashes down on the archer. "Never mind, let's talk later. Company!"

Three chairs scrape away from the table, the archer staggering a bit from the **** of your flame strike, and green and blue arrows shoot out towards the rogue. They pass through the wisps of smoke where he was merely a moment ago, and you groan in pain as a dagger lodges itself in your back. You spin around and try to claw him, but your fingers pass through yet more smoke, the rogue leaping off the ceiling and falling towards you once again. You duck, but he suddenly vanishes under a mass of blue and green as Tlax crashes into him and bites into the side of his neck.

"Snake bitch! I'm going to flay you piece by piece!" He vanishes and materializes on the far side of the room, uncorking a potion as blood gushes from his wound. Sera leaps out in front of you, crossing swords with the bone-clad warrior, and the archer rights themself and draws their bow. Two arrows lodge in their two shoulders, and the archer collapses to the ground again with a groan.

Another pop announces the rogue has teleported once again, but Tlax is ready for him and the screech of metal against metal rings out behind you. You trust her to keep him busy and rush into the room, more arrows striking Alex as they desperately throw back a purple potion. You extend your claws, but go flying to the side with a sickening crunch as Jared's bony fist connects with your cheek, spitting out a tooth which cracked from the impact. The warrior steps after you but stops as a red tongue of flame wraps around his waste and pulls tight, then turns around and takes another swing at Sera as his bony armour sizzles and crumbles to ash.

The archer pushes themself to their feet but then is downed once again by another two arrows. "Jesus... freaky... monster... bitch," Shadowdagger teleports and blocks Tlax's **** as her snake hair hisses angrily at him, his movements growing more and more sluggish.

"Shadowdagger," the archer's pained voice wavers, "we need to get out of here. We're outnumbered and... urgh," they collapse again as another two arrows strike their chest.

"David, Alex is right. Fall back!" Jared spins his blade in a circle, staggering Sera as she blocks the blow, then uses the opening to flee into the tunnel beyond.

"This isn't over, circus sideshow," the rogue hisses at the snake before vanishing in a puff of smoke, appearing next to the warrior and breaking into a sprint. You let out a triumphant roar and dash after them, Sera, Mariel, and Ari joining you. Tlax slides over to the archer and finishes them off, grabbing a towering longbow out of the loot bag. She draws it back, the string creaking as it bends, then lets loose an arrow. It flies faster than you can see, lodging into the rogue's back and knocking him flat. Another puff of smoke and he's once again sprinting away. The gorgon's next arrow passes through smoke as the rogue jumps even farther into the distance.

The temperature drops and ice grinds as both fleeing adventurers slam into a newly-formed wall of ice created by Mariel. Ari and Tlax fire another set of arrows at the rogue's back, Sera's flaming whip reaches out, and your fireball careens towards him. A puff of smoke later and he's gone, his blurry form continuing to run on the other side of the glacial barrier. The warrior lets out a grunt as the conflagration burns away the last of his crypt armour, then turns, leans against the wall, and drops his massive sword with an echoing clang.

"Urgh, monsters, you win." He slides to the ground, sitting and panting as the five of you surround him. "Just get it over with."

"Why are you working with the goblins? I admit that we haven't always gotten along, me being a dungeon boss and all, but you always struck me as the most reasonable member of Shadowdagger's group." You sink into a crouch, bringing your face level with his.

"Yeah, David always seemed like kind of a massive prick, and you... didn't?" Ari chimes in and sits down next to him, although she still holds her sword at the ready.

"Hah," he lets out a single bitter laugh, "well if it wasn't for that cutie I met who was travelling with him, maybe I wouldn't have. Although it seems like if my suspicions are right I might be on the market for a new girlfriend right about now."

"Serves you right, teaming up with this lot." Sera doesn't seem to have nearly as much patience for the warrior as the rest of you, only holding back because of a stern glare from you.

"Oh, don't worry, she's not cheating on you. We actually killed her and Orin earlier when they tried to jump us. Why not just go meet up with them in Broadbridge or wherever?" Mariel speaks encouragingly, but Jared lets out another dark laugh.

"Maybe you're right, but what the heck did she get herself into? What the heck did all of them get themselves into?"

"Start at the beginning. I don't remember you being able to summon bones. Last I checked, warriors aren't big on spellcasting."

"Yeah, well, fair enough. David convinced us to sneak after you when you went into that ice dungeon a week or two back. He just wanted to jump Tashila, but I admit I was curious enough about why Sarah and the rest of them were teaming up with a dungeon boss. We ambushed them and did some damage before retreating, but then we found this weird golden room. Opened the sarcophagus and this... voice spoke to us. Said it would give us power in exchange for us doing it some favours. We agreed and we each got some sort of magic item that modified our class powers. I've never seen anything like them." He shows you one of his bracers, which you see has a ring of ivory skulls running around the edge.

"So anyways, after we ambushed you, I had to head off most of the next week: work stuff, crunch and all, and then a trip to Lana's—sorry, Elena's—place out west. The rest of them said they were going to start helping that voice, doing quests and all, other than Lana for the half of the week when she was with me. I just got on today and they said we were raiding this mine, and I figured whatever, a bit weird but worth the loot we got. Talking to the group and stuff just felt off. And now here we are." He stares at the ground for a second, then looks up. "Hey, isn't that Alex's bow you have there?" He nods to Tlax.

"Yesss," she gives it a twang without nocking an arrow. "It'sss a good bow."

"Aye, it isn't bad. Alex was so proud when they found it." He frowns. "Wait a minute, didn't he have it equipped? How did you get it?"

"He dropped it." Tlax states matter-of-factly, cocking her head at the question.

"Right, but since when do adventurers drop their gear? You don't figure—" he stands up. "Hey, can we wrap this up? I need to go."

"Sorry, but we can't let you do that. For all we know you're lying and trying to trick us." He frowns at you. "Sorry man, wouldn't be the first time. Heaven, wouldn't be the first time today."

"Fair enough. Just kill me, it'll be faster than walking anyways and I'll eat the penalty." Sera readies her sword. "Wait, just a sec." He unclasps the bracer and throws it at the ground as if it burned his fingers. "There, that's probably for the best. Now do it." Sera stabs him through the heart, and he vanishes into a pile of valuables. You collect them and stare at the bracer, but before you come to a decision it melts into a black goo and seeps into the floor.

"Well, sounds like I'm not the only one who might be corrupting adventurers, and whoever this 'voice' is, he doesn't sound like he's half as fun. Let's move." Mariel waves her hands and shards of ice crash to the ground, opening the way forward into the gloom.