Nightmare in Katapesh IC

[SanguinePenguin]

While Gex vomits and Gurmok heals himself, Mauricio rushes to the side of the unconscious man in the yellow turban. Kali and Sadar rush forward to the swarm, as does Kharesh, drawing a bomb as he goes. Sadar levels a powerful blow, but aside from severing a few stray tendrils, he fails to connect with the swing. Kali tries to remove the egg from the boy, but she can't reason with him through his panic to stop flailing wildly.

Bodies pack more forcefully into the street, as the screams intensivefy, while the boy and the two others covered in the creatures flee as fast as they can back into the plaza and away from the horde. The swarm of creatures begins to move deeper into the street, screaming and wailing in their eerie cadence. Sadar seizes the opportunity, and swings his falchion low and through the bulk of the remaining creatures. Purple goo splatters everywhere and the horde is reduced to about a dozen moving creatures, most of which are trampled underfoot as they attempt to work their way into the frenzied crowd. While the battle began in a abrupt and terrifying blast of confusion, its end is a slow and melancholy ebb of confusion. What was moments before a true threat is quickly reduced to a few horrifying, but rather small creatures, some eggs, which hatch into more small creatures that are quickly killed, some truly horrendous odors from the foul spidery corpses, and some wounded people.

With the threat gone, people stop crushing each other to get out of the plaza in terror and start to help one another. Mauricio stabilizes the man in the yellow turban, and the other injured people receive some first aid from others. Though not as dangerous as they were en masse, the scattered remaining vile creatures and their purple leathery eggs represent smaller dangers, certainly unfit for the market. The application of weapons or medical talents make short work of these issues though. Only a few moments after these dangers are removed, a squadron of the Zephyr Guard finally pushes their way through the crowded street and into the plaza with a daunting 14 ft tall Aluum golem in tow.

Their leader surveys the scene, deems you and Zetath, who stays close by, persons of interest, likely due to the thick coating of purple goo draping most of you, then sends her underlings to question other members of the crowd. The Vudrani woman who approaches you is tall, very broad-shouldered, and powerfully built, with her weapons sheathed and helmet in one hand. Around her neck, she wears one of the famed items, a pendant with a block of faintly glowing amber, that controls the massive golem acting as her shadow. She has long black hair, thick eyebrows, a rigid jawline, and an aquiline nose. She also bears the irate and despondent expression of a woman just realizing that her day is about to devolve into more paperwork than she thought possible. "Sergeant Tuthani," she curtly introduces herself, "now, what in the nine hells am I looking at here?"