12. Salted Bat & Soured Friendships

The group of adventurers left the unconscious Pippa Sowgarden in the care of Gnillish outside the Salt Mine Entrance. Once more, they travelled down the manually cranked lift and delved into the dry, salt mine. As it was pitch black and Gilles and Surina could not see anything in the dark, the cleric summoned a light spell on his mace, guiding the way. They quickly tracked through the mine shafts to the trail of blood Pippa had left and followed this, judging this would lead back closer to whatever had attacked the band of Halfling mercenaries.
Following the trail they again passed the strange pristine room with the statue, and past this they reached a part where a swarm of bats gathered on the ground, their chittering mixed with the sounds of feasting. One of the adventurers threw a torch to scare away the bats but overshot, so Bal’Aur stepped forward and tried to scare the creature away. At the noise, the flock of bats scattered, but not before swooping through the half-orc and then back deeper into the mine, where Pippa’s blood trail continued. As the half-orc checked annoyingly at the fresh bite wounds from the bats, the adventurers checked whatever the bats had been eating.

It resembled a silhouette of a smaller body, but the skin, muscle and organs had been mostly devoured, with the skeleton raised on whatever flesh remained underneath facing the salt floor. Bal’Aur peeled up where the face was and it was evident this was one of the halflings.

They continued to trudge through the mine shafts, and the evidence of the foul bats was ever more evident, with growing pools of bat shit soiling the white salt and their chittering becoming louder and persistent.

Judging by the state of these parts of the mine, they had been exhausted and claimed by the bats fully, perched above on the cavern ceiling.
Finally they reached through an entry what seemed to be an end of the mine, where it gave way to a large cavern, tall enough that its ceiling could not be seen in the dark, even with those adventurers who could normally see better in such conditions. There was evidently a cavern further upwards, maybe even reaching the surface, as air pushed down and carried the foul smell of this spoiled cavern to wash past the adventurers.
Eberond volunteered to go in further first to scope the cavern room out first, and the rest waited, just past the transom holding the entrance to this place.
The floor was sticky, and gave way into a ramp and here the muck was a few inches thick, and in some places deeper. Eberond trudged through, taking all care to be as quiet as possible. The cavern was perhaps used by the dwarves previously to place waster and tailings, but such waste had now been covered by the vast amounts of bat guano. As he reached near the end of the far side, the light from Gilles’ lit up mace reflect something metal in the muck. As he took a further step forward he stumbled across something, though managed to keep his balance. Glancing down, there was a half digested body of a Halfling. Looking around, his improved eyesight, a gift from his elvish heritage, could see evidence of other bodies in the cavern.

Before he could say anything further, a large shape fell from the darkness above and smashed into the centre of the cavern. The mine shook, and there was a commotion just beside the other adventures as the transom of the entry collapsed, along with it some rubble, blocking a quick escape.
The large black shaped was still for the briefest of moments, before it unfurled its massive, leathery wings to the ground, and violet light dimly lit most of the cavern. It was a massive body of a bat on its back, its disgusting head lolling left and right whilst its cataract filled eyes stared blankly. The light was emanating from its immense belly, which bulged and pulsated. Fleeting shadows writhed inside its belly, silhouetted by the sick light inside. There was a series of sounds like that of snapping bones, as the entire laying body of the bad was raised up a few feet off the air, supported by legs that had punctured and sprouted from its spine, somehow supporting the body which was the size of a small home.

The adventures took in the sight for a moment, their minds trying to apprehend what horror their eyes revealed to their minds.
Surina, seeing that what was unnatural, struggled to contain her mind, and suddenly she saw Gilles’ face emerge from one of the cavern walls, laughing directly at her.
She was beginning to be convinced that the cleric had drawn them into a trap!
Meanwhile, the monster lunged at Eberond, but the elf was able to deftly dodge it attacks.

Bal’Aur charged at the monster, sword and shield in hand, whilst Gilles circled around it from a distance to hit its flank from range. Meanwhile, Brutalitops was trying to shake Surina’s reverie and get the dragonborn to throw the diminutive goblin on top of the monster.
Giles called upon the favour of the divine and arced his fingers in a divine synergy. He called upon a Guiding Bolt, however as the stream of super charged energy raced across towards the monster, Bal’Aur had charged into the creature’s flank, and a miscalculation by the cleric’s aim had the energy smash into the half-orc. Sizzling energy shimmered across the wounded Bal’Aur, and his skin sizzled with smoke, much like the Smoldering Armour he already wore.
Seeing this, Surina’s conviction cemented. She heard the gruff demands from the goblin and picked Brutalithops up. The dragonborn was aiming to throw the goblin towards Gilles, but whether by accident or fate, ended up somehow throwing the goblin exactly where requested – atop the monster. Brutalithops stabbed his twin short swords into the glowing belly of the monster. Clear liquid oozed from the punctured hide.
The creature ignored the goblin and struck out at the half-orc. Its enlarged rear orifice expanded and partially swallowed Bal’Aur, including his head and weapon hand. The sphincter muscles convulsed and tightened around the half-orc, the pressure starting to crush upon him.
The bat was evidently female, for below its belly was its enlarged sex, and from the orifice between suddenly belched out a swarm of bats, much like the ones they had encountered through the salt mine. Whilst Brutalithops managed to hold on atop of the creature and stabbed the glowing belly repeatedly, Eberond concentrated his attacks against the bat’s neck, like a woodsman chopping at a trunk of a tree.

Bal’Aur tried to use his shield that was still outside as leverage to pry himself free of the monster, but his strength failed against the disgusting monsters’, and felt himself be swallowed up further inside. He was struggling to breathe in here.
Surina marched forward, down the ramp where the monster scuttled around. He called out in the cavern, that he had seen enough and would put a stop to its wicked ways – that he was addressing the cleric was not evident to the others. The newly born swarm of bats assailed him, finding places in between the armour to bite deep, but she mostly ignored them.
The goblin also yelled out, calling for someone to throw him something volatile. Eberond threw a lantern up to the goblin, who successfully caught it. He then quickly splashed the oil across the monsters belly and back flipped off into the muck below.
The bat’s head uttered a strange moan, and continued to truck at the adventurers. All the meanwhile, sucking up poor Bal’Aur deeper inside its body.
Eberond called out to the goblin to follow him, and together they managed to shear off the last tendons holding its head, and with a pull and a gruesome sound, it came off and splashed across the spoiled floor. Yet the monster bat somehow kept moving, and even more bats surged forth from its second orifice.
From a distance, Gilles whispered the primordial words to call upon the Weave, and an orb of flame flickered into existence above his hands. With a push of his hands, the orb then smashed into the monster, catching the oil alight. The monsters’ fore leg suddenly gave way and crashed into the ground as the flames enveloped it and the surrounding guano. The rest of it dropped down as well and the flames rapidly devoured the flesh.
Inside the creature, Bal’Aur tried to use the last of his strength to strike the creature from within, but it was simply impossible. Vile blood and sour excrement suddenly assailed him and just as he was feeling the tendrils of unconscious grasp him, the muscles of the monster relaxed, and the half-orc was promptly evacuated from the monster and he felt himself fall into the sludge below.
The flesh of the monster quickly turned to ash, leaving only a strange glowing orb at its centre.
Before the flames burning the guano could spread further, Gilles called upon divine powers to cast a shower of water, and this quickly quenched the flames.

Above them and in the darkness, the smaller bats started to turn into shimmering streams of the Weave, dissipating into nothingness.

Gilles heard a strange noise in his pouch and rummaged around to find that the strange vile that had appeared the other week was emitting a whining noise. He noticed that as he held it up closer to the orb, its whine increased in pitch.
He continued to approach the orb and unstoppered the vial. Suddenly, the large orb started to melt into a swirling miasma and arced across and funnelled inside the vial.
As Surina stared at this event, she gripped her sword firmly and turned to face the man she had known since childhood.

When the last of the Weave had melted into the vial Gilles quickly put the stopper back in. The violet light across the cavern vanished and was cast back into darkness except for a sphere where Gille’s mace’s glowed.
As the adventurers thought their ordeal was over, Surina continued her stride over to Gilles, weapon at the ready.

"I can’t force you to stop your evil ways, but my sword can. The Light of Helm smites thee, heathen!"

Surina, to Gilles

Location
Salt Mine, north of Trg.
Date
Sune 9th, 5249 AC