Friends in a Foreign Land

For the first time since coming to this new world the party was truly afraid for their lives. The worm was bigger than anything they'd ever seen. And this was a young one?

"Celeste, Dakota, and Wendell; back up as far as you can go and still be able to hit it." Miguel said while stepping toward the worm, his heavy armor and battle axe appearing.

"Wendell, see if you screw with it's mind. Maybe convince it to leave." Liam said, following Miguel's lead and equipping himself.

Wendell closed his eyes for a moment, focusing. "It's mind is strange. Like nothing I've ever seen. I'll need to physically touch it before I can do anything."

"Wait for us to distract it, then do what you can." Miguel replied.

The worm had now oriented itself in the larger tunnel and was coming toward the party.

Liam watched it for a couple moments moments before saying, "Either it can't move as fast in this larger tunnel since only it's spikes on bottom can grip on to something…"

"Or?" Miguel asked

"Or it's pretending to be slow and it's going to speed up at the last moment."

"Well, let's try something," Wendell called out from behind them while casting a spell. A moment later a colored wheel flashed in front of the worm but it didn't seem to have any affect.

"What was that?" asked Miguel

"Was trying to hypnotize it but it didn’t work."

"Lets see if it's sleepy," Liam said while attempting to one of his few spells. As it fired off, the worm slowed for a moment but then continued to crawl toward them.

"Well, maybe this will do something." Dakota said as he cast a spell. Vines shot out from the floor, walls and ceiling, wrapping and started to pull tight against the worm, lifting it a couple feet from the ground. Its momentum carried it forward even when the back half of its body was lifted in the air. As the vines pulled tight, it's forward progress was stopped. It was a strange sight with part of it on the ground trying to move forward and part in the air covered in vines.

"Hit it while it's caught!" Liam yelled

No sooner do the words leave his mouth than Dakota has loosed an arrow, followed by another. The first arrow bounced off the tough outer hide, the second went into it's mouth. It didn't even look like the worm noticed either shot.

About that time, Celeste thrust her hand forward, and a small fireball sailed over Liam and Miguel's heads. It hit the worm and exploded, shaking the tunnel and ripping all the vines free. The worm's body fell back to the tunnel floor with a loud thump. Immediately it lunged forward, trying to reach its prey as quickly as it could.

"I think that might have been a bad idea, baby!" Miguel yelled to his wife.

"Sorry!"

"Less talk, more fight!" Liam hollered as he stepped forward to meet the worm.

Dakota shrugged his shoulders and then cast another spell. His bow started to glow as he nocked another arrow. This time the arrow buried itself several inches into the worm.

Seeing this Liam lets out a cheer as he swung his greataxe as hard as he could. The blade hit the worm and glanced off, leaving Liam off balance. The worm swung it’s head and knocked him against the tunnel wall.

Miguel charged in from the side, activating [Power Strike] as he swung his axe. The axe buried itself in the worm’s head but before Miguel could remove it the worm twisted and tried to eat him.

This time an arrow from Dakota bought Miguel time to move.

"Guys, get out of there!" Celeste screams. "You can't hurt it."

“Can you stop time on it?” Asked a frantic Liam as he helped Miguel to his feet?

“I already tried,” called back Celeste. “It’s far too big for my skill level.”

Dakota continued to put arrows in the worm as his friends ran toward him. Then he saw something, a flicker. And Wendell appeared on the worm's back, psi-blade swinging down like a pendulum.

Wendell felt no real resistance to the blade as it cut through the worm which put him off balance. This lead to him falling to his knees as it thrashed around.

The monster had no clue what was happening. It had never been hurt by food before, and it did not like it. The worm also started to make a strange noise that echoed down the tunnel. It was full of bass and seemed to vibrate through everyone. When Wendell threw out his hand to steady himself he was also finally able to make a mental connection to the worm. He felt its rage, its hunger, but below that it was afraid. Suddenly Wendell knew. He cast a spell into the mind of the worm that caused it's whole body to seize and the sound to cut off.

"That yell was it calling for help from its parent." Wendell announced while summoning his psi-blade again. "Hit with everything you’ve got. We gotta kill it now and run."

Hearing this, Miguel ran forward and grabbed the handle of the axe it had left buried in the worm and yanked it free, only to activate his [Power Strike] skill again and started chopping.

Liam was on the other side using a war hammer along with his [Weighted] skill to increase it’s weight on every down swing, slowly starting to break through the thick hide.

As the worm opened it’s mouth again, Celeste tossed a fireball directly inside. The explosion singed Miguel and Liam but they continued to attack. Dakota peppered the face of the worm with [Piercing] arrows while Wendell continued cutting with his psi-blade.

In less than a minute from the time Wendell yelled, the final blow landed and the party was notified.

[Congratulations! You’ve slain a level 9 juvenile great worm.]

The party all turned and started sprinting down the tunnel. Celeste started casting and decreased the gravity around her and cast [Haste] on everyone. Before the party could cover half a mile they heard a deep bass scream behind them.

“Sounds like momma found the one we killed,” huffed Miguel as he strained to keep running as fast as he could. No one responded as breath was too precious to waste just then.

Two miles from the first worm they rounded a corner just in time to see a worm come up from the ground and go into the ceiling of the tunnel. Nearly all of them tripped and fell as they were trying to stop. Even with how fast the worm was moving it took over twenty seconds for all of it to pass through the tunned. After it was gone above them, they looked across the new tunnel that was in their path. It was nearly twenty-five feet to the other side. Most of them took a couple steps back, away from the edge.

Liam, on the other hand, walked right up to the edge and looked up and down then across before looking back to Miguel. “Any ideas on how we can cross this one?”

Miguel and Celeste walked up to the edge, leaning on one another as they tried to catch their breath. After a moment, Miguel shook his head. “No, that’s too far to jump and the fall when we miss looks fatal.” Looking to his wife, “How’s your teleportation magic coming along?”

“I’m getting better but I can’t teleport all of us at once and I’d be too tired to run if I cast…”

Before she could finish her answer Wendell yelled, “It’s coming back!” and started to run toward the rest of the party. Dakota, who had sat down tried to jump to his feet and stumbled, taking several steps before he could get his balance, by which point Wendell had already passed him. The two were running toward their friends. Then, without any further warning, the worm erupted from the side of the tunnel swallowing Dakota and Wendell in an instant and headed into the other side of the tunnel.

A "NO!!" is ripped from the throats and hearts of the three as they saw the worm continue to pass. Suddenly there was a flash and all three of them found themselves in a room lying on the floor. A circle glowing on the floor around them.

"What… what happened?" Miguel asked

"Where are we?" Liam asked, looking around confused.

A crying Celeste responded through her tears, "Luitwin's tower."

"How?" Liam said, stunned

"Teleportation magic." Miguel answered as he turned to look at Celeste. "You! You could have done this earlier! You could have saved them!"

"No!" A voice boomed into the room. "No she could not!" The men looked up to see Luitwin walking toward them with fury on his face. “She should not have done it now much less earlier!” the mage continued to rage until he got closer and saw Celeste curled into a ball, crying.

In a softer tone the dwarven mage continued, "Her skill level is no where near high enough to teleport the three of you more than just a few yards. There's no way she could have teleported whomever else you speak of. It appears something bad has happened. You wish to lash out. But your wife…" voice hardening again, "my apprentice is crying because of the pain that she's in from pulling far more mana than she should have. She just risked her life, her very ability to touch the aether of this world, to pull the three of you to safety." Stopping in front of Miguel, Luitwin stared him square in the eyes before continuing. "I suggest you learn to deal with your loss directly rather than lashing out at those around you. Especially when they just risked everything to save you."

Miguel just sat processing the mage's words, stunned.

Liam, trying to defuse the tension, spoke up, "Sir Luitwin, we were sent to help some miners. We were their rear guard as they were fleeing back to the city."

Luitwin nodded, "And what were they fleeing from? Kobolds? Driders?"

In a clearly strained voice, Celeste whispered, "An adult great worm. We killed her child."

Luitwin paled.