Smitefire Tavern Worldbuilding Thread

"No, that's kind of the reason I was in town in the first place. I am trying to gather information on where they are."

"Why are you trying to find them anyway?" Raven asked

"I'm holding up my end of a deal. When my mother fell ill a... woman made a deal with me to help her get better if I found the Editors and gave them a message. And no, I can't tell you what it is." he finished when he saw All4 start to ask a question. When would it be daylight? It was only a couple of hours away when they left the tavern, but who knew how long time had passed in this realm while they were in the Nevernever. For all we knew a whole day had passed and the next night had just sta-

Sir felt something deeper in the cave, giving him a chill. He snapped his attention to the rear entrance to the little cave they were in. Something very very wrong was in this cave with them. "What is it?" Raven asked, hand on his sword.

"I think," Sir said very slowly, "We should go this way." He started walking the opposite direction of where he felt the disturbance.

A chorus of shrill cries echoed throughout the cave. "LUMIOS" Sir cried, sending it down that area of the shaft. It revealed creatures that just didn't look right. They screamed, swatting at the light as if it burned them, and one of them...

Put it out. Like a simple match. That was not good.

Run you fool! Nixaze reminded him.

"Move." It was not panicked, but it certainly conveyed the urgency of the situation (as if it needed it) and they ran.

It wasn't very long before one of the creatures caught up to them. It was a tiny one, but it had claws just as big as the others, and it had caught All4 by surprise. It jumped at his back and the impact knocked him over. The creature poised itself to rip All4s throat into 4 neatly spaced pieces. "Ventas!" Sir shouted, and wind slammed into the creature, knocking it off. "Thanks." All4 said quickly, and kept moving.

They ran through the cave, half-tripping on every rock and root in the place, and eventually made it into a cavern.

"We can't outrun them like this, one of us will trip and it will be over." Raven pointed out.

Sir nodded. "Fight it out here, what happens happens."

"What about that portal thing you did?" All4 asked.

"Right back into the forest with the killer plants? I think I prefer whatever these things are. Lumios" A sphere of light appeared in the air above the wizards head. It was bright enough to light up the entire cavern, which was pretty big. It did not reach the ceiling, which went up so far they could not see anything. They all turned and looked at the hole they had just come out of. It wasn't very long before the creatures burst out of it, and squealed in the light.

He didn't get a good look at them the first time. Now that they were adjusting to the light, he got a few seconds to analyze them. They were pitch-black, and most of them were fairly spindly.

One of them was very small. It couldn't be more than 4 feet tall standing straight up. It had a long and vicious looking set of claws, and a couple of antennae zig-zagging out of both sides of its head. As it had shown before, it was quick. Its movements were erratic and jerky, as if it were on a permanent adrenaline rush. It switched between quadrupedal and bipedal. It probably could have caught back up with us several times during our little run, but was scared of what would have happened if it had been caught out.

The other one was very big, probably just under 7 feet tall, and wide enough to match. It was triangle shaped, broad shoulders narrowing down to its hips, with nothing but muscle in between. It didn't have claws, it had big meaty hands that looked like the could bend steel. It had a mop of greasy black tentacles that looked like it meant to emulate hair. It was also not particularly quick, moving like a sumo wrestler.

The last one was... Average. It was somewhere between 5 and 6 feet tall, and very slim. It didn't have claws either, and its hands were rather small and human, even if they were a little bony. But it seemed to wear clothes, it had a leather shirt and made a *****ing sound when it moved, it sounded like ti wore chain mail. Unlike the others, it moved smoothly and... with purpose seemed to be the only way to describe it. This one was smart. And it was the one that had snuffed out his light spell earlier, so it knew at least some magic.

The creatures didn't reel in the light for very long. When they recovered the little one made a dash for All4, and the big one moved towards Raven. The other one just stared at Sir, as if waiting for him to make a move. They had each picked their targets, but that didn't mean we had to comply. The little one was darting around All4, teasing him with small cuts from the lightest slips against its claws. It was toying with them. Raven seemed able to hold his own against the big one, although it seemed more of a matter of avoiding its blows rather than deflecting them. Despite it's slow walking it was still fast enough to prevent him from going on the counter-offensive.

Sir began gathering power, his first target was the big one. Tagging the little one with magic would be difficult and probably a waste of time. The smart one obviously knew counter magic, so that made the big hulking one the best choice, Raven could help deal with-

Suddenly the smart one thrust his hands at Sir and shrilled something unintelligible. Sirs grasp on magic disappeared, and the fire spell he had been gathering simply faded into a slightly warmer cave. He didn't know how to react, nothing like this had ever happened before.

The small creature continued to tease All4. He was bleeding from dozens of small cuts but seemed more pissed than anything; every time the small creature darted in, cut him, and darted out before All4 could retaliate. But Raven had worse problems, he tripped. The creature landed on his leg HARD, you could hear the bone crunch all through the cave, and he screamed. Sir tried to gather more power, and...

Sir looked up dazed, the light he conjured fading. Whatever hex the creature had put on him was keeping him from even beginning to cast magic. He knew about this sort of magic, and he knew there was nothing he could do about it, except interrupt his concentration. Then he noticed something. There were stars in the ceiling. STARS! Stars that revealed the way out. 'Too bad...' he thought. For a brief moment they ceased to be. But that wasn't the case.

Someone was blocking them. About time he got here... Nixaze said.