Today’s snippet, titled “Murdering the Queen (pt 1)”, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark’s new (Good) Pathfinder Campaign.
      Be forewarned, there are mature themes and naughty language below.
– – – – – – – – – – –
      “I feel utterly useless!” Rhiallis said, holding her sword before her. It may as well have been a spear of asparagus for all the good it would do.
      “Yeah,” Graves nodded. Radiance glowed in her hand; even that powerful blade was little use in their present circumstances. “This fuckin’ sucks!”
      The stood behind a cyclonic wall of wind, a barrier Jensen had cast to give them some small relief from the swarming vocacores, absolutely impotent. Every time they ventured out into the cavern, the bastards coalesced around them – biting and stinging and screeching. The sound was enough to drive you mad; certainly, it had confused Mytra so badly that she had tried to strike Celeste a few moments ago.
      Luckily, Celeste was heavily armored and Mytra was still so weakened from the poison they had encountered in the defiled temple on the hill that she could not even make a scratch.
      That brief bit of insanity had been followed by a fit of vomiting. Rhiallis could still smell it, though she thought she had seen some of the insects eating the bile. Still, at least she had not been standing as close as Kumiko; her foreign friend would be scrubbing bits of half-digested hard tack and berries.
      “Why don’t we just kill the lights?”
      “We aren’t exactly quiet,” Celeste said, thumping her knuckles against her breastplate. “What would darkness matter?”
      “Maybe nothing, but-” Rhiallis motioned to Mytra to kill the light she carried.       “Worth a try, isn’t it?”
      Mytra tucked the coin into her shirt, quenching one light source. Graves commanded Radiance to quell its light as well.
      “It won’t matter,” Jensen hissed, then whipped the wand over his head again and shot a perfectly placed fireball into the midst of the swarms beyond the wind wall. “And I won’t stumble around in the dark down here.”
      “We don’t have to stumble,” Graves said. “Rhiallis and I can see. Her eyes are even better than mine.”
      “Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
      “And maybe monkeys will fly out of my ass. Not worth risking my neck on ‘maybe’.”
      The three paladins exchanged a look, but seeing as Jensen was the only one really able to affect the swarms in any meaningful way, they did not press the issue.
      Athynacious had summoned a swarm of his own – boulders from the floor of the cavern tumbling around atop each other in an animated mass of stone – but it had only been marginally effective and when one of Jensen’s spells exploded around it, the rocks had given way to the flames and died.
      Kumiko, Celeste, Mira, Graves, and Rhiallis had found their attacks utterly futile; swinging a blade into a flying mass of bugs might kill one or two, but a hundred more roiled up in their place. Mytra did her best, but she had not prayed for any spells that were useful and she was loathe to use any that she did have remaining to her; in her weakened state, who knew if she would be able to cast them at all?
      “We can’t just stand here. We have to find the Queen. If we slay her, these little buggers’ll scatter.”
      Rhiallis nodded. “We should just keep moving in – ignore them as much as we can.”
      “Its our only chance.”
      “We’re just burning resources here, totally ineffectual.”
      “Damn it.”
      “What else can we do?”
      The voices of her comrades were a jumble and she could hardly tell who said what. Rhiallis pressed her hands to her ears, trying to block out the incessant, evil hum.
      “We should-”
      “Jensen!” Mytra’s voice was shrill. “They are eating the clothes off your body! We’ll all be naked or dead if we don’t find the Queen!”
      “Naked and dead,” Athynacious said, shifting his weight to the other foot. “We gotta go for it. Find the Queen. Kill her.”
      “Fine.”
      Once the decision was made, they agreed on which tunnel to try first and took off toward it. Except for the light spell shining from Jensen’s bandana, the caverns were plunged into utter darkness.
      That did not bother Rhiallis, for her aasimar heritage granted her with eyes that could see no matter how much or little light was present, but she was not as well trained in the nuances of running in her armor and found that she could not keep up with Graves and Kumiko.
      “What’s that?” Graves’ voice echoed back.
      “Cannot see,” Kumiko said.
      Breathless, Rhiallis came up behind them. Just beyond the limits of Graves’ aasimar-blooded vision, but well within Rhiallis’, there was an eerie mauve light. A hulking thing of ragged wasp-like wings, huge black eyes, and writhing appendages – the Queen was a hideous demonic insect. The same slick, crystalline ichor that covered nearly every surface in the cavern was present in her nest – it would almost be beautiful if it weren’t so reminiscent of fresh, dripping snot.
      “There! The Queen! By the Name of the Inheritor, I shall smite you!”
      Rhiallis felt the surging of holy energy through her sword and as her friends ran forward, she struggled to keep up.
      Mira ran ahead, dodging and bobbing and weaving. The Queen belched a glob of acidic mucus at the hin and though she screamed, tearing at her face with one hand, her little feet did not hesitate. Sliding across the floor to come up beneath her, Mira drove her blades into the insect’s abdomen.
      The sound she made was just as maddening as the vocavores’ screech and Rhiallis nearly tripped over her own feet when the screaming intesified.
      Kumiko and Graves made it to the Queen’s side several strides ahead of Rhiallis. Both lay their steel into her carapace; Radiance glowed with glorious power and with her feather-light blade, Kumiko landed a blow that nearly ripped the Queen in half.
      Lashing out with what seemed like a thousand arms at once, the Queen pierced Kumiko’s unusual fiendish-looking armor. Flesh ripped and blood spilled but with her almond-shaped eyes blazing Kumiko stood fast.
      “AAAAAAH!” Rhiallis swirled around, desperate to make contact, and brought her sword up in dramatic fashion. It flashed with Iomedae’s grace, smiting the evil insect, and when she drew back to make a second attack, the Queen was already toppling. She hit the ground with a sickening thump.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Note: Image is “King Jagiello Statue Central” by (Mulligand) from SXC.hu; edited by me