MINDSCAPE 1 (Only Rayne)

The cell is empty and quiet as it has always been. The mul's body is sore from a hard day's work and training as her master had been specially brutal with her today. Suddenly, there is noise outside her cell and chains are heard dragging across the floor. The cell door opens and Grondor, the house's worst slave driver, enters the room. Spiked whip in hand, the man turns towards the young mul. "Lessons not over yet, dumb mul." A young Rayne turns her head towards the voice but she recoils in fear as she sees her master's body with a hideous scrab's head…

MINDSCAPE 2 (Only Mendi)

The forest was bustling with activity as normal and Mendi felt confident hiding in its depths. The noise suddenly stopped and all the birds took flight quickly. Mendi strained his ears and could discern strange buzzing sounds coming from afar. The elf raised his head to try and see above the canopy but the sun was blocked a weird, dark cloud. The elf's face drained its color as he recognizes the cloud as millions and millions of small flying scrabs coming towards him…

Rayne shudders at the sight of the scrab guard - remembering what was done to Mendi before. Reaching far into herself, She pulls forth the needed energy to aid her in her defense against her attacker. Another wall of bars, thicker and stronger and this time without a door, spring up between the scrab and the young mul. The scrab guard swung his whip at the bars that suddenly came into being, the whip struck true and the bars bent out of shape allowing the hideous guard to step closer to the mul. The guard clacked its mandibles and whined, "I said lessons not over yet, dumb girl!" With that his hand came back and the spiked whip left blood marks all over the mul's back. A young girl whimpered and cowered in the corner of the cell while the slave driver prepared to strike again.

On the physical plain, the mul moves forward slowly, seeking out the scrab who is attacking her mind. "Koreth! Elric! Gaigin! they are attackin' me mind!! - I must find the one attackin' me!" Rayne calls out to her friends, feeling a little desperate as this is the first time something like this has ever happened to her. Trying to control the fear welling up inside, Rayne focuses on finding her attacker. The mul strides purposefully towards the scrabs still hiding in the nest entrance as she defends her mind against the unwanted invader.

MINSCAPE

Mendi looked at the terrible cloud that darkened the sky with a fright that was visible in the real world as well. Then, slowly, the elf's face regained its composure, as serenity was slowly winning over fear. <This cannot be... this is only a trick... they don't exist... they don't exist> In the mindscape, Mendi was meeting the onslaught with utter denial… But the scrabs came and enveloped the elf as surely as they did last time. Each of the little scrabs bit, stung and scratched the elf in every possible place. The elf screamed and squirmed himself loose until all the little scrabs withdrew leaving a terribly wounded Mendi.

Back in the real world, the elf peddler tried to find where the psionic attack came from. He had to finish the leader first, but afterwards... Once more, he leveled his crossbow and fired at the screaming leader, praying for a last quick blow that would finish the beast. Hate boiled in Mendi's mind, and clouded his judgement. Even though the scrab was heavily wounded, the elf's hands were too rigid with anger to hold the crossbow correctly, and the quarrel flew once more off his mark.

The movement out of the corner of his eye turns Elric to face the opening. The deep shadows of the hole keep him from learning more about the scrabs coming to the surface. <I wish I knew if one of those was a spell caster. Best to be conscious.> "There's more coming to join the party, 'Ware the hole!" Charging toward the opening, Elric watches the forms within. Closing fast using his great running ability, the young half-elf plows into the opening.

Gaigin stopped his spear in mid-thrust as the scrab in front of him fell dead to the ground, three holes burned in its chitinous skull. The big warrior shook his head, he'd never get used to working with spellcasters. Ignoring the Scrab leader, who was effectively immobilized and posed no immediate threat, Gaigin turned his attention to the new creatures coming up from the depths of the nest. Making a quick mental calculation, Gaigin lowered his spear and stepped back. The situation here was well in hand, and a charge down into the depths to meet those scrabs would only serve to separate him from the pack and put himself at great personal risk. Pushing his mask back atop his bald head, Gaigin winked and grinned at the ensorcelled scrab, stepping back out of the entrance and positioning himself to one side, where the scrabs wouldn't be able to get him until they had nearly emerged from their hole.

Absently wiping the sweat from his face, Gaigin laid his spear on the ground and drew his club. Gripping the gnarled weapon tightly in his fist, Gaigin tensed and waited for the scrabs to come. Suddenly, the big warrior saw Elric barreling towards the hole at top speed, swords at the ready. Gaigin flashed the half-elf a bloodthirsty grin before flicking his mask back over his face and hefting his club. Quickly checking to make sure his mental defenses were still intact, Gaigin turned and readied himself to leap back into the hole behind the charging warlock.

Aryus heard Elric's warning, so he quickly scanned the area. He saw some movement in the hole area, but he was still intent on eliminating the threat of the leader first.

Since Mendi's attack didn't kill the scrableader, Aryus attacks him. His hand and arm blurred by the quickness of the trained archer, Aryus fired two arrows at the scrab leader, hoping to achieve the grueling job of killing it. The first arrow bounced on the chitin but the windmage's second shot struck its mark, piercing a deep hole in the chitin. Ichor poured out of the scrab body from many holes, now, and the beast was probably dying as it fell to the ground with the cerulean energy still crackling about its body.

Koreth growled curses at the scrab whom he faced. His arm throbbed with pain, blood dripping from his new wounds. <So much for invincibility> he thought, sneering at the scrab. Gripping his sword with both hands, Koreth fainted to his left. The scrab's pincers lashed out to his left, having been fooled by his ruse. The whites of his teeth shining in the bright light of the sun, Koreth brought his wicked blade down upon the scrab.

Barely missing a joint in the scrab's chitin armor, his blade clacks onto its outer shell and skitters down its back harmlessly. Koreth curses, sidestepping as the scrab lashes out with its pincers again. Not quick enough as one of the claws slashes the warrior near his forearm leaving three distinct blood trails behind.

Seeing that he must quickly dispatch with this scrab, Koreth feints a forward thrust at the scrab's midsection. The scrab nimbly dances back, its arms quick to block the ghost strike. The noble warrior grins, a feral glee upon his face as he brings his sword down upon the scrab's undefended head. His blade slices deeply into the side of the scrab's head, shearing off part of its mandible. It screeches horribly, ichor dripping from the side of its head as it wobbles about.

The elven sorceress looks about as she pulls forth more energy form the barren land. The girl struggles at first but soon smiles as a blue wave of energy jumps from the ground and penetrates deep into her being. She repeats the same motion she did last time but changing the direction of her light missiles. This time they passed really close to Koreth's body but hit unerringly in the scrab's white chitin. Smoked lazily left towards the sky from the three blackened holes in the insectman's midsection.

Tak danced into battle once again, blades flashing deadly white in the waning light. The small hunter feints a low blow drawing the scrab forward leaving him off balance. The halfling sidesteps the scrab's lunge and spins both his blades towards the insectman's head. The life dagger struck deep and was almost torn from his grasp but Tak pulled hard bringing back the dagger and tearing pieces of chitin loose. The scrab screeched and blindly swung its claws but Tak was too fast and blocked with his sloth tooth dagger.

Lirón jumped in and swung his sword in a downward motion taking advantage of the insectman's prone position. The sword penetrated the insectman's head with a sickening crunch splattering ichor about. The scrab promptly fell to the waiting, hot rocks bringing the elf's bone blade with it. Lirón quickly placed his booted foot on the beast's body and pulled out his blade with another sickening, rending noise.

ROUND 4

Rayne Pulls forth her sword and tortoise blade and charges the first scrab she sees inside the hole. Seeing Elric and Gaigin about, she feels renewed with confidence. Bellowing out a Dwarven war cry at the top of her lungs, Rayne charges the scrab, bringing her sword forth in a deadly arc. The mul spins around, bringing her sword across in an arc filled with such force, the impact violently shatters the forearm of the scrab as it pulled its arm forth in defense of the coming blow. Striking the scrab, Rayne hears the familiar crunch that makes her smile. "Get out of me head!' She snarls as she brings her tortoise blade across scoring another hit, but not enough to break through the scrab's natural armor.

MINDSCAPE

Near the elf's bright mind form, ruins not unlike the shanty town that he had grown up around the elven market of the city of Tyr appeared. Mendi soon hid himself from any opponent's view, and relied on this crude but easy defense.

Back in the real world, Mendi leveled his crossbow and looked for a chance to fire. One of the scrab was surrounded by Koreth and Lirón with an unsafe shot at best. The scrab was being taken care off so the elf decided not to harm his friends. The other scrabs were even further away and also surrounded by three of the elf's friends. Mendi walked around making sure the fallen scrabs were truly dead and seeing if any of his companions were in any real trouble. A similar fate had Ayrus as he held his shot until the right time; the windmage waited but the shot was never released; there were too many companions about.

Blades swirling in a deadly pattern, Elric rips into a blur of movement. Tempest flows from a defensive block into a viscous thrust. The mirrored blade slices easily into the soft crevice between the segmented chitin. The warlock struck a backhand with his bone blade trying to put a quick end to the fight. The scrab ducked and whined as if in pain when his psionic concentration was broken.

Gaigin waited until Elric rushed past before rushing in behind. Hefting his club for a swing, the big warrior renewed his war-cry, eyes burning with the fury of battle. "TYR AND THE PACK!"

Moving quickly to Elric's side, Gaigin lashed out with his club, swinging the gnarled haft of wood in a great down-stroke, aimed straight for the scrabs bulging eyes. The scrab saw the blow coming and dodged quickly to the side, but too late to save itself. The gnarled halfling-wood club whistled past the beast's head by mere fractions, but cracked down hard against its shoulder-plate. Chitin cracked and shattered, and ichor oozed from the wounded shoulder. Still grinning beneath his mask, Gaigin stepped backwards lightly, club held ready for another attack.

Hoping that he could aid Rayne in time, Koreth again launches himself at the scrab before him. His sword flashed in the harsh light before beginning its deadly decent. The scrab tried to lunge at him, hoping to avoid his blade. Koreth caught the bugman in the shoulder, his blade spraying ichor onto the dusty ground. The scrab's lunge turned into a roll as it moved out of the reach of Koreth's blade.

Lirón was right next to Koreth and any rivalries were not evident at this time. The elf yelled, "Let me in, Tyr-man." The elf stepped in and looked lankier next to the stocky Koreth. Elven sword flashed upwards and quickly lashed out in a flat circle. The tip of the bone blade caught the scrab's face tearing half of it out. Ichor splashed both elf and nobleman as the insectman fell down never to move again. The elf slapped an open hand on Koreth's shoulder and silently nodded his thanks.

Meanwhile, the two remaining scrabs were faced by three strong warriors and had apparently retorted to physical means trying to make their way back into the nest. Both scrabs try to maneuver themselves and have a clear run inside the nest again.

Your actions…

OUT OF CHARACTER

HEALTH STATUS

Remember the scale:

Healthy (H) 100% hitpoints remaining

Slightly Wounded (SiW) 75% to 100% hitpoints remaining

Wounded (W) 50% to 75% hitpoints remaining

Seriously Wounded (SeW) 25% to 50% hitpoints remaining

Mortally Wounded (MW) 0% to 25% hitpoints remaining

Gaigin (W), (W) Scrab1 (SiW)

Elric (SiW), (W) Scrab4 (SiW)

Rayne (SiW), (MW)

Ayrus (H), (W)

Mendi (SiW), (MW)

Koreth (SiW), (SiW)

Female elf (H)

Tak (W), (SiW)

Male elf (SiW)

GENERAL

Alright good going here. Please give me 2 more rounds of actions. No more than 2 characters may fight one scrab at a time and it will take anyone 1 full round to reach the nest's entrance except those already fighting the scrabs.

I promise the fight will be ended next turn.

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian