Burn

As Belphanior climbed back up into the main tunnel, smoke pouring from the shaft he'd come through, he saw the others clustered around Bosco. The halfling was lying on the rough floor of the tunnel, prone and unmoving.



Ged: Boccob!
Peldor: What happened to him?! (he turns his attention to Belphanior, frantic) What the hell is that thing on his face?!?
Belphanior: (coughing, he struggles for breath) Someone... guard that shaft.
Mongo: No problem. (he moves over, hammer raised, waiting to smash anything that emerges)
Gorin: (moves to help Mongo, axe ready) I wonder what it is we're waiting for.
Lyra: (thinking quickly, she works a spell, covering the smoking vertical opening with a thick slab of stone)
Mongo: Whoa. Damn good work.
Gorin: Yeah. (he stomps on the wall, as if to test its integrity)
Lyra: It will hold.
Mongo: (nods) I believe it.
Rillen: (like Mongo, he is no healer, and so he focuses his attention on guarding the party while they try to help Bosco)
Songa: (hefts her spear) I don't like this.
Rillen: Ged and the others will get that thing off of poor Bosco.
Songa: No, not just that. (she eyes the tunnel) This smells too much like a distraction...an ambush.
Alindyar: We shall be ready.
Songa: (eyes Bosco) Like Bosco was?

Ged, Peldor, and Tanya were bent over the halfling, trying to discern the nature of the hideous thing that was attached to his face.

Ged: Insanity...what kind of monster is this thing?
Peldor: A dangerous one, I'm assuming.
Tanya: Bosco's chest is still rising and falling, and his heartbeat is strong. A good sign...
Peldor: Whatever. Let's get that thing off of him.
Ged: (reaches out, tentatively, and touches one of the weird monster's "legs") Hmm, not a peep.
Peldor: Let's pull it. No, wait. I'll use my ring. (he invokes his magical ring's telekinesis power, tugging at one leg)
Tanya: Stop! (she peers in, closer) It's pulling his skin with it!
Ged: (eyes the thing) Boccob, so it is...
Peldor: We can't pull it off, then, without tearing his face off along with it.
Tanya: (produces a knife)
Peldor: Yeah. (he takes the knife, inserting it beneath one of the spindly legs)

The knife was razor-sharp, and a slight tug was sufficient to cut into the appendage. However, doing so caused the tail wrapped around Bosco's neck to tighten. Worse still, a thick yellow slime to ooze from the wound...and Tanya's knife began to smoke.

Tanya: Aie! (she drops the knife reflexively)
Ged: Boccob! (he steps back)
Peldor: Acid! Look out!
Belphanior: (reaches out quickly, turning Bosco so that none of the acid falls on his neck)

The acid smoked and sizzled as it hit the tunnel floor, quickly burning through, creating a two-inch wide hole down to parts unknown. Fortunately, the wound in the creature was shallow enough that the "bleeding" stopped relatively quickly.

Ged: It heals fast, too.
Peldor: And has acid for blood...
Tanya: (picks up her knife, which is missing the final three inches of its blade) Strong acid, at that.
Alindyar: (pointing at the burns in the floor) This looks identical to the marks we saw in the first shaft.
Belphanior: That's not good.
Arnold: Why not?
Belphanior: Because it means that other monsters here might have the same acid for blood. (he points his sword at the thing on Bosco's face) That little guy sure didn't climb up that first shaft and cause the burns there.