Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dragonteuthis 04-08-07, 01:03 PM	This morning I woke up, and wrote this. I'm partially inspired by an idea a friend of mine had. Anyway, there's no stats here, just an idea for you to put into your own campaign. A story, really. Oh, and if this is the wrong place to post something like this, I apologize; I wasn't sure where it should go. Kurrhg Shadowpaw moved through the twisting tunnels like a living wraith, as visible as a shadow and silent as the grave. The half-orc's dark eyes glinted slightly as the hint of light appeared from the tunnels ahead. His brow furrowed a bit. The two sentries he'd killed earlier had been hobgoblins, fellow denizens of the dark, and so had no need for light. Perhaps there was a forge ahead, or maybe - Kurrhg made a motion with his shoulders, a silent shrug that, to a trained eye, conveyed incredible grace and power. It wasn't his style to guess on things; he was a creature of action. He glided forward. As he stealthily crept forward, it appeared that the tunnel opened up into a larger cavern ahead, with the floor below the level of the tunnel. The angle of the light gave this away. Without a sound, Kurrhg stepped out of the cave, never leaving the shadowy shelter of the rocks. Even though there was light, he knew there could be hobgoblins that would see through shadow alone, thus he did not depend on them for stealth. The half-orc's keen eyes scanned his surroundings; a broad ledge running the length of a gargantuan cavern, with the floor far below the edge of the ledge. The far wall was over fifty feet distant. To his left, the left curled downwards with the cavern wall, no doubt meeting the ground at some point. Satisfied that there were no sentries, Kurrhg stepped cautiously forward, attempting to gain a look at what was causing the illumination. Lying on his stomach, he peered over the stone ledge...and his stomach tightened up. The light was caused by torches...dozens of them. Carried by humanoid creatures about forty feet below on the cavern floor, beings dressed with dark-colored skin draped with even darker-colored robes. These beings, however, were not what caused his discomfort. In the center of the long cavern lay a gigantic, hideous worm. It's shape reminded Kurrhg of nothing more than a massive, hideously fat grub, except that it's skin was the pitch black shade of a lightless cavern. There wasn't even the reflection of a torch's glare on it's skin. The grub, lying on a raised block of stone, measured over twenty feet in diameter, and Kurrhg guessed it's length at over 60 feet...the tail, he could not see. As he was silently cataloging the creature's dimensions, he heard a noise emanate from the giant creature, and his attention snapped to it's head end. The grub had stirred slightly, pulsating. This was apparently taken as a signal by the robed figures below, who eagerly ran forward to stand beneath the grub's proboscis, raising their dark, streaked arms high. Streaked? Kurrhg's brow furrowed in puzzlement. He had assumed these dark-skinned people where drow, but now he cursed himself for making leaps of logic. His left hand silently dug into a pocket, and he drew forth a telescoping spyglass. After quickly making sure the glass would not glint in the torchlight, he drew it out to full lnegth and trained it on the throng below. Apparently these were not drow after all, as Kurrhg noted the small, rounded ears, but rather humans who had taken to covering themselves in a black dye of some kind. Perhaps mud. but why would- Kurrhg's puzzling was cut short as suddenly, the mouth of the beast opened and a torrent of pulpy, black liquid gushed out. The half-orc's skin blanched slightly, and his nose wrinkled as a rancid, rotting smell wafted up to the cavern roof. Only years of training kept him from making a sound. Kurrhg lay there, stunned at the sight, for only a trio of heartbeats before regaining his composure and once again peering through the spyglass. The robed humans had been knocked flat by the gusher of black filth, and were laying in the disgusting, sticky puddle, apparently writhing in ecstasy. Ecstatsy? No...as Kurrhg focused, he saw something that caused his stomach, already tightened up with trepidation, to curl completely into a knot. There were tiny black worms in that sticky black mass...tiny worms crawling all over the soaked victims, crawling into their ears, mouth, whatever openings they could find. Even as he watched, he noticed one figure stopped struggling and stayed still...then another, and more. The torch-bearers, who had silently stood aside during the entire process, moved forwards, and helped up those who had stopped struggling...they were clearly not dead, as they seemed able to stand on their own, but their manner had changed. Their movements seemed stiff, unnatural. Kurrhg was just pondering on the implications of this, when he heard the faintest sound of a footstep behind him. He did not respond immediately, however, as he recognized the step; it was his wizard companion, the elf Naironê. Instead, he merely grimaced at her as she crawled up next to him, grabbing a look of her own. She thought she was silent as well, but her every motion screamed to him. Luckily, the gentle noises from below disguised her approach. Kurrhg rolled his eyes in frustration as he heard a barely audible gasp escape the elf's lips. These fools will be the end of me some day, Kurrhg thought silently. "So the book of the Dramer Moir wasn't entirely composed by a madman!" she hissed, whispering to the half-orc. Kurrhg barely heard her...with a sinking feeling, he realized she had given away their position. Kurrhg's dark skin and blackened clothing was practically unnoticeable against the stone cavern walls, but apparently an alert torch-bearer had seen the glint of Naironê's eyes, or perhaps her pale skin. In any case, he was gesticulating wildly, And several robed figures had drawn swords and were rushing towards the slope leading to their ledge. "Damnation!" Kurrhg hissed, all hope at maintaining stealth now gone. "Quickly, back into the tunnel! We'll have to regruop with the dwarf and Molen!" Kurrhg said harshly, referring to the other members of their tiny brigade. He grabbed Naironê, who seemed entranced at the sight of the giant ebon worm, and pulled her into the tunnel. Shaken out of her trance, she began to run after the half-orc, and he let her arm go. "We can't leave, you know! We'll have to come back and destroy that thing!" Kurrhg shot a glance back over his shoulder, as the elf cast a light spell on her staff to light her way as they rushed through the tunnel. "Why should we?" Kurrhg barked, then after a pause, asked, "And what was that thing anyway?" The elf's face showed little emotion. Her voice was calm and flat, which was always a bad sign, Kurrhg had learned. It is the Doom Maggot," [i]Naironê replied, "And it is death on this world."
TheCrawlingSpleen 04-10-07, 09:47 PM	Well, while the "doom maggot" title suggests it is a unique entity, an ulgurstasta sounds sounds like it would work for stats, perhaps with slight alterations for what appears to be a mind-control ability. It would be great to see more of the story you've written here. Should you decide to continue it, it should probably go in the "Once upon a Time" forum in the "creative corner" section of the boards.