"Okay, let's go" Jibril tells Karlya.
The two adventurers take to the escape route entry between the narrow passageway. Jibril goes first before moving on, the mimic is still in its lair digesting the tail as i gnaws on the bones with it's wooden teeth. Jibril hisses lowly at it before gesturing Karlya to follow her, keeping an eye on the faint heat signature. Flicking her tongue is quick succession, the broodmother is approaching quickly that she can smell it very close. Jibril smells the air once more when it became eerily quiet as the two sneak through the narrow passageway.
Jibril crooks her head to the side to look directly above her.
It's the Broodmother!
Ten feet of monsterous white furry hide and same number of legs drops down from the ceiling with thunderous drumming on sand and stone. Jibril shoves Karlya through the narrow passageway quickly to evade the broodmother while Jibril distracts the broodmother. Karlya collapses on the other side of the passage when she quickly flips onto her side to see Jibril alone against the Wraith Spider: a lethal and tough trapdoor type spider species growing between 8 to 15 feet tall and 16 to 30 feet wide with a stinger the size of a bastard sword capable of delivering neurotoxin that induces paralysis and respiratory failure in higher quantities, even death.
With the Wraith Spider looming over Jibril, its thorax is exposed but then she sees it unsheathe its stinger that pulsates with the intent to envenomate Jibril. Jibril uses her superior reflexes and agility to sway her body side to side, rolls to her shoulder into a backwards roll followed by a slide to the left facing the stinger and pushing herself in direct face to face contact with the wraith spider itself. The spider lunges at Jibril with her mandibles and Jibril grabs onto them to prevent seizure and forcing it back ... forcing it to its hindlegs and a few feet away. Karlya crawls back through to help but see that Jibril is actually forcing the spider to back down with incredible strength!
"Jibril, I'm here! What do I do?!" Karlya shouts.
Jibril is gritting her teeth and thinks on her wits while holding off the broodmother. If they fight, either one of them will be killed. Going back they way she came, they have a chance of making it home free but the freezing waters might kill Jibril this time without the dwarven bracelet and the waterbreathing amulet. The sheer climb into the narrow passagway is a one way trip with the loose rocks. Looks like they don't have a choice: they're abandoning the treasure and make a retreat back through the cathedral waterways. It's reliable, safer from the spider and the mimic with a familiar risk to it. If Karlya can pull Jibril out of the water and restore her warmth in time before hypothermia sets in, they'll live.
"Down the tunnel, there's a-" Jibril is interrupted by the jerking motion of the wraith spider swinging her head to the side to shake Jibril off.
Jibril digs her feet in and digs her nails into the tough hide then forcing her weight into the mandibles to get the broodmother under control as it tries to strike at her with its stinger. Karlya jumps in and flings an igni spell of fireball at the broodmother's legs to stagger it, it does so. The broodmother collapse on the one leg that was scourched by the fireball and Jibril forces the spider onto that particular leg with her supernatural strength.
"There's a cave in the wall, small hole, get in. Be ready for a tight squeeze!" Jibril yells.
"Got it, I'm going ahead to clear the way!" Karlya shouts of the grawling and hissing of the spider brood.
Karlya turns towards the mimic in the tunnel and approaches it quick muttering incantations under her breath. The mimic turns towards Karlya in mid-feeding and spits out the dissolved bones of Jibril's tail. It begins to sprout tentacle arms then contorts to form rudimentary arms to help it move more quickly. Of course, Karlya was ... overzealous of the fiendish creature hurting her friend. Karlya casts Hellfire on the insignificant mimic - ashes and the tunnel is cleared of all of the acid piles, only scorched earth remains. Karlya yells out to Jibril.
"Jibby! We're clear!" Karlya generates a fireball in both hands and hurls one at the broodmother bearing down on Jibril, it nearly forcing her to her knees.
Jibril twists the mandible hard enough with all the torque she can muster to rip the damn thing off. The mandible snaps off like a twig and with a dagger hold, Jibril plunges the sharp mandible into the face of the broodmother's eyes, blinding it. Jibril ducks as the broodmother lunges its mouth at Jibril's head when she struck it and crawl on all fours to escape. Jibril quickly crawls away and then hurries to the tips of her toes running into a full sprint after Karlya. The two meet inside the tunnel with Jibril running and removing her satchel and reaching behind Karlya utility belt to grab the rope as they run towards the escape shaft that Jibril climbed out of at the start of the cave network. Screeching to a halt, Jibril removed the satchel and stuff the porcelain doll inside the thick coat and ties the rubbish of the second coat inside as well. Wrapping herself up tightly and insulating herself as best as she can while still trying to fit into the small cavern, Karlya is confused.
"Will we fit?" Karlya panics.
"I'm leaving these here. I gotta protect myself from the cold. I'm going to have to trust you to pull me out if I pass out, K" Jibril explains, tying the knot tightly and feeling nauseating. "We got one shot at this. I get too cold, I will die"
"You gotta be kidding me. How far is it to this place?!" Karlya is under a lot of pressure to step up with the broodmother charging in the tunnel after them.
"Go! Go! Go!" Jibril removes Karlya's cloak and throws it away then shoves Karlya quickly down the hole as the broodmother is ramming against the walls of the tunnel in a rampage.
Karlya goes head first into the tunnel and slides on through with Jibril packing herself tightly into the hole after her. Jibril is stuck with the doll pressing uncomfortably on her stomach. Jibril climbs out and removes the head of the doll and keeps only the drider silk hair pieces and tosses the doll at the broodmother thrashing about and hearing the shattering of the porcelain made a good distraction to allow her to empty the wool and excess linen from the second coat enough to allow Jibril to squeeze through quickly and with ease. Sliding into the hole, Jibril slide a third of the way down before catching a face of Karlya's leathery cladded ass and Karlya's face dunking into the water pool leading into the water caverns below. Jibril is wedge inside the tube leading to the small air pocket room with Karlya taking up the rest of the space and head submerged in water. Karlya swings off to the side and Jibril slides between Karlya's legs smooth like and Karlya pulls her head of of the water with her red hair completely soaked and covering her face. Karlya coughs up the water in her lungs and sinuses before collecting herself, parting her hair to the side and seeing Jibril all wrapping up like a burrito between her legs stirs a laugh.
"You weren't kidding about it being a tight squeeze!" Karlya jokes.
"I'm cramping" Jibril groans weakly.
"Okay, how far in is this tunnel going?" Karlya asks.
"Three chambers, hard to tell how far, but it is deep where we are, there's drawings, hieroglyphs or something in the church that lead the way. Follow the pictures and go that way"
Jibril gestures in the supposed direction she guesses she came from. It was all a blur after she had blacked out from the hypothermia midway in here. Karlya shifts around to get over Jibril, Jibril crawls out from between Karlya until both are lying beside each other.
"Hate to leave that treasure back there" Karlya moans, lying her head on her extended out arm.
"We'd both be killed, or eaten. I wasn't expecting a giant bug to be here nor you trapped in its web." Jibril quips.
"I'm sorry about your tail" Karlya apologized.
Jibril says nothing on that comment.
"We need help, there's no way only the two of us are going to pull this off without it. I said I would help, I meant it." Jibril remarks.
"But not at both of our expense ... I know" Karlya answers, he pauses for a moment.
"Jibril ... Thanks. I wouldn't be here without you" She finally answers.
"You're my friend" Jibril replies.
Letting the moment settle before pressing on. Karlya removes her amulet and wraps the band around her wrist and presses the pendant against Jibril's chest.
"Tactus Caloris" Karlya chants, the pendant glows an orange hue and a magic seal forms on Jibril's chest and reamins there even after the pendant leaves.
Jibril felt a strong fiery warmth overwhelming her senses and gives her a very much needed pep, waking her up quickly. Jibril even gets her heart pumping with some added vitality from whatever spell Karlya gave her.
"Whoa" Jibril rolls from her bated breath.
"Touch of Warmth. Great on cold nights, it should keep the frost at bay until we get to the other side. You ready for the dive?" She asks her.
"I'll go first to lead the way" Jibril answers crawl towards the pool.
"Right behind you"
The two slide into the water and the nippy frost clings to them like the frigid water wants to chill them to the bone before reaching the bottom in mere moments! Jibril is barely affected from the cold thanks to the spell placed on her, but it is temporary at best. Jibril holds her breath and quickly swims ahead of Karlya, whom is the better swimmer than she, keeping up with Jibril's swiftly rush to escape the caverns.
Traveling the first chamber backwards, Jibril is retracing her trek with some hesitations as her blackout makes this leg of the journey difficult as she doesn't recall which of the multiple exits she came from. The walls of this chamber were covered in tunnels leading elsewhere and based on her weighed down gear, her walk along the ground like a deep sea diver. Her educated guess would suggest two of the tunnel below, fortunately the other tunnel was shallow enough to reveal that it was a dead end leaving the other as her original entry. Jibril and Karlya enter the second chamber with Karlya swimming beside Jibril as they enter this cavern with a higher current knocking them about. Karlya grabs a hold of Jibril and swims ahead of her as her strength carries Jibril through the strong current and the two sink to the bottom where there is less pressure and they dig their hands into the sediment to crawl out of the second chamber and into the last. Jibril struggling with the crawl, the spell had worn off mid climb and the cold had seeped into her coat, the insulation is flying out of the neck lining from the rush of the water current pushing out the rubbish. Jibril is keeping her coat closed while holding on to the bottom of the ground, Karlya grabs Jibril by the rope of her coat and drags her up beside her with Jibril grabbing the same lip of the rocks Karlya had been holding a firm grip on. The two fight the current until they crawled into the last chamber then floated to the top following the hieroglyphs Jibril mentioned earlier. Jibril tries to swim, but her limbs are stiff and the water weight of her coat is causing her to sink more than floating.
Karlya is nearly at the top when she notices Jibril is sinking and struggling for air to breath. Jibril is blacking out again and the last of her breath bursts from her maw and passes out.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Jibril hears faint voices.
...
"Wake up"
Jibril awakens within a darkened place where the stone is blackened and the floors were smoothed obsidian, a shadowy figure appears before her from the darkness. Only by the burning fires of his eyes luminated the room around her to be his domain, he stood before her once more and still as obnoxious as ever.
Kane.
"Kane?"
"She speaks. How are you, kiddo?" Kane says in a fatherly tone.
"Cold" Jibril groans.
"After swimming in cold waters to save your best friend, I imagine you are."
"Am I dead?" Jibril says, finding herself laying on the ground before Kane, who sat on the ground with his legs crossed.
"If it were that easy. No. I pulled your soul here with me" Kane answered.
"Why?"
"Only way we can talk without interuptions." Kane replies. "Dont worry, Holostein saves your body. A friend of mine is trying to bring you back to life as we speak."
"What do you want?" Jibril say annoyed.
"Is that any way to thank someone keeping you alive?" Kane says insulted by Jibril's tone, "Were it not for my blood I've given you, you'd been food for that spider."
"Forgot about that" Jibril answers, "Thanks, i guess."
"Some gratitude" Kane scoffs, "To think, I went through all this trouble to contact you like this to tell you I've confirmed your little girl, Hana is in Sou'jour."
"Hana is there?!" Jibril spoke up anxiously.
"There's a bit of a problem with that part though. She's definately there, only evidense we have is a ledger with a manifest of all the slaves kept there. She being amongst them. Whether she's alive or dead is another matter."
"What do you mean by that"
"Fjornia's economy just collapsed under its own weight. Which means their country is in open revolt, slaves are fleeing at every given opprotunity, lords are locking themselves inside their castles, the people are facing a deeply rooted famine enough as it is. Without the lords keeping order, people are resorting to skulldrudgery, murder, thieving and desperate times are calling for desperate measures. They're eating each other, Jibril. This war with Shurifon is the only way Fjornia can survive this famine of theirs. Sou'jour and Halifax are the frontlines of this war, urgency for you to get there is paramount and get her out before we invade the territory. It's no longer a survey mission anymore, it's a rescue mission to get every slave out of there before the people start turning into cannibals."
