Barry and Anna traversed within the trees, branch to branch, concealing themselves as they stalked the giant green humanoid brutes. They had already messaged the rest of their party about the giants through the system a couple of minutes ago before tagging them.
“These things look to be from one of those popular fantasy movies. Agh, what did they call them? Luna would know…” Anna sifted through her memories of all those movies she would watch with Luna, eventually thinking of the correct name that would describe them. “Trolls. I think that’s what they are called.”
“Trolls?” Barry would have to rely on her word since he had no memory of his own to recall. The name sounded like it suited what they looked like. “They seem to match the word, I’m not really sure myself.”
Anna was a bit puzzled by his response, she would have thought he might have at least heard the term once from pop media such as fantasy or horror movies. “Honestly, a lot of the things in this world seem to mirror what our world creates through media, like “Ring of the Lord” for example. Have you not watched or read any fantasy genres in your life at least once? ”
Her question made him feel like he should know whatever she was referring to and tried covering up his ignorance with a lie. “I’ve read some fantasy books during middle school, but that’s from a long time ago that I’ve forgotten.”
His response didn’t seem to be truthful to her, but given how he was ill a couple of minutes ago, she decided to let him off the hook and focus on following the trolls in concealment. “I see…well let’s keep trailing these guys. My passive isn’t detecting any ill intent from them, but we should still know what their motives are.”
The two continued stalking for a while, the direction they were going would eventually intercept the path their group was travelling so they could only hope that they were prepared to do whatever needed to be done in order to avoid conflict with the pack of monstrosities. Sometimes there would be a tree blocking their path and the trolls would clobber them out of the way, rather than simply walking around. Their great strength was needless to say very unsettling.
One of the trolls suddenly spoke in a deep, yet kinda slow, tone voice for the first time in a while. Anna was able to eavesdrop on the troll's conversation with her heightened hearing from afar. “Mudflap an’t been around here. Maybe somewhere else?” One of the trolls grumbled to the pack.
“No, no. We go further down, Mudflap told me he gone this way to find gator eggs to feast on. Promised to bring back more to rest of kin.” Another troll commented, confident that was what he remembered Mudflap telling him.
Based on what Anna was hearing from their chatter, was that they had also lost someone of their own in this swamp bog landscape. She shared what was learned back to Barry. “These trolls are scouting for one of their own as well. Just like the tamafrogs are looking for their pals.”
“Them too?” Barry found it odd how these trolls had also lost someone of their own all of a sudden. It was very strange. “Everyone can’t just be losing someone by coincidence. Besides, aside from these trolls being incredibly strong, they’re also pretty damn huge in size. So I find it hard to believe that one of these guys suddenly disappears from their group.”
“I agree. But maybe there is something that we don’t know that’s going on inside this swamp. We’ll have to be cautious as we explore this place, as if I wasn’t already the moment we entered this icky environment.” Anna was just as displeased about the change of scenery as Kat.
The two hoped that their group would be able to move away from the approaching trolls or at least find a place to hide from sight from the time that they messaged them. About 5 more minutes of following behind eventually led them to where Anna and Barry projected their group to be. And that was when something interesting would occur.
Anna and Barry observed the trolls from a distance as usual, spectating them while they strolled. When suddenly one of the trolls stomped on a log and accidentally slipped on it, falling into a large boulder. “Gobbles! Look out!” One of its pals warned.
Gobbles, the falling troll, fell forward into the boulder and braced for impact, expecting to slam head first into solid rock. But a strange phenomenon happened. Everyone else around Gobbles witnessed him phase right through the boulder, with half of its body sticking out. “Gobbles no! The boulder split you in half!” Another troll panicked, full of concern.
Barry and Anna were puzzled for a moment, but quickly came to the same conclusion that explained exactly what they were seeing. “Ron…” They mumbled, shaking their heads.
To the rest of the trolls astonishment, Gobbles stood back up by some peculiar miracle, completely unharmed and most definitely not split in half. “Gobbles! You're alive!” The trolls were relieved to see their friend in good health.
“Huh?” Gobbles was dumbfounded, he couldn’t process what had just happened. “Boulder not real?” Gobbles started waving his hand through the boulder with great curiosity, he watched as his arm continued to pass through it without any resistance. “What is this? Why is boulder not solid?”
Gobbles and his pack crowded around the boulder, all of them greatly interested in this ghostly rock that looked real. Anna was very intrigued by the trolls curiosity in Ron’s illusion magic, while Barry saw this as the trolls potentially finding out that Ron’s illusion was fake. He also figured the rest of the group must have been close by since Ron had constructed exposed illusion. “Anna, we need to find the others before these trolls lose interest in Ron’s illusion. Follow me while I locate them.” Barry suggested, unsure how long they’d have and how the trolls will react to being tricked.
Anna agreed, although she was curious how he’d be able to find them while they were inside Ron’s illusionary environment he must have constructed. Barry still hadn’t decided to tell his group what sort of skills/abilities he possessed, or that he didn’t have a Class of his own like the others.
Barry scouted the area in secret as best he could, sending out pulse scans as he went. He was the only one able to see the objects that were highlighted from his perception, helping him differentiate what was real and what was not. This made their search fast and easy just as he told Anna, eventually locating what could be Abe’s carriage and his group, overlapped and designed as a boulder. “There.” Barry pointed out to Anna.
They went ahead and zipped inside the boulder, phasing through it and discovering that he was right. His group was startled at first upon seeing him and Anna.
“B-Barry. How did you- Oh, that’s right. You’re somehow able to see through my illusions.” Ron was the first to speak to them. Curious how Barry was able to see through their disguise but recalled the time Barry was able to discern through his scary red dragon illusion before.
“Yeah. It’s not that hard for me. And those trolls are already suspicious about this illusionary environment of yours, one of them fell through a fake boulder. We need to get out of here.” Barry advised, he noticed that everyone was still able to perceive the world outside of the illusionary boulder they were in.
Ron already knew that, but he wasn’t sure how they’d be able to move out without drawing anymore attention. “Well that’s a given, but I can’t make everyone invisible as much as I’d like too. That’s something out of my field of expertise. I thought about having everyone else go inside the carriage while I disguise us as a large moving beast of some sort. But I’m sure those trolls will want to mess with that just as much as they are messing with that fake boulder.”
“Alright well…” Barry tried to think of another plan, as did everyone else.
An idea came to mind from Anna, remembering the discussion between the trolls about one of their own missing. “Hey, how likely are trolls to attack people? Are they really hostile or aggressive towards people like us?”
“Er, sometimes they are.” Abe chimed in. “It all depends on a troll's wants and needs. On a regular Monday, a troll might have an appetite and raid a farmer’s cattle to munch on some cows. And on a Saturday, a troll might pick on a passing merchant, be dazzled by their goods and leave them after being given a hairclip. Their mood varies.”
Acknowledging the information given, Anna put out her suggestion. “Alright, well, I just so happened to overhear them on their way here about searching for a friend of theirs just like these tamafrogs. Their name is Mudflap. I’m also not seeing any sign of bad intentions from these trolls. So I was thinking maybe Ron can create a passing scout of some sort and-”
Immediately, Ron was against this, shaking his head and waving his hands to the side multiple sides. “No! No, that is too risky. First off, trolls are not to be messed with, they may seem stupid and sluggish. But don’t let that fool you, they can be pretty fast, not to mention their tremendous strength. Also, they’re regeneration speed is nothing to scoff at. There’s no telling how they’ll react if I go with this. Besides, I’d probably stutter nervously as I trick them with false information.”
Anna, Luna, Kat, and Barry were hesitant about the plan from the way these trolls sounded formidable by Ron. Their decision would have to come soon though because the trolls were beginning to inspect their entire surroundings for anything unusual like the fake boulder they had found.
Seeing this now, Barry encouraged Ron to go with the plan. “They’re onto us, there’s not much time. Abe can’t get us out of here as fast as we would like given the difficult terrain in this swamp. So we have two options: the first being that we fight against these trolls, or we try Anna’s plan and trick them into believing that their buddy went off in a random direction away from us.”
Ron couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Those can’t be the only options we have. There’s got to be-”
“Hey!” Gobbles shouted, the troll had discovered a false tree after swinging his club at it. “This tree not real. What’s going on here? Somethings fishy…” The other trolls were noticing the same issues all around.
“Ron…” Barry said, eyeing their party’s illusion mage for his decision.
After mulling over the choices given, Ron begrudgingly gave in and went with Anna’s plan. “Alright, alright…this is not going to go well though…”
One of the trolls was just about to inspect the boulder that Barry’s group was hiding in, when out of nowhere a mysterious figure that the trolls hadn’t seen. “Hey there fellas! How’s it going there!”
All three trolls turned their jolly green big heads with surprised expressions, they were sure that they were the only ones present in the area. Standing near a tree was a short, tubby dwarf with an innocent appearance and cheery attitude. This dwarf was dressed like an honorary full fledged boy scout, carrying a rucksack. “Huh? Where did little pipsqueak come from?” Gobbles wondered.
Barry’s group wanted to question why Ron decided to create an illusionary scout who was a cheery dwarf. Ron could tell they were puzzled by his choice from the way they were looking at him and gave his reason. “What? You said a scout of some sort. Also, I’d like to believe that trolls would rather make fun of short people than murder them on the spot.” His group didn’t argue and went along with his choice of character, it was all on Ron now to try and get them out of this sticky situation of theirs.
One of the trolls besides Gobbles leaned in closer towards the fake dwarf, glazing at its small stature with amusement. “Heh, what's a little guy like you doing in this swamp. Looking for something?”
“Why yes, I am looking for a very particular sort of thing. And by the way, my great jolly green giants, you can call me Kibbles. Pleased to meet you all!” The dwarf replied back with a smile and tip of his scout hat. Luna wasn't the only one who couldn't help but laugh a bit at Ron referring to the dwarf by a silly name. Ron simply rolled his eyes and continued role-playing the dwarf, maintaining his composure.
The trolls wondered what that something was for someone so meek to dare enter this vast swamp biome filled with many dangers. Gobbles went ahead and asked Kibbles to sate their curiosity. “Is this something worth searching for to put your life in danger, little Kibbles?”
“Why yes, yes it is.” Kibbles replied, maintaining a cheery smile. Ron did not elaborate any further about what that something was, this caused Gobbles and the other trolls to continue staring at him with eyes that almost seemed demanding. Ron could not think of anything at the top of his head, his group could see him sweating bullets of nervousness.
“Well…” Gobbles pressed Kibbles for a clear answer to his question. “What is it?”
Ron looked at the people around him, he saw Anna and Barry toss out hand signals that basically urged him to make something up on the spot. “Uh…” Ron racked his brain for a satisfactory response for these meatheads, the trolls appeared to be a bit bothered by what was taking Kibbles so long to answer and that was when Ron blurted out a singular word. “Friends!”
“Friends?” Gobbles repeated, him and his pals honestly looked confused by what he just said. What Kibbles had just said, made them think more about their own friend Mudflap who was missing. Gobbles resumed conversing with Kibbles. “We’re also looking for a friend, his name is Mudflap. He went missing a few moons ago but hasn’t returned to us.”
Upon hearing this, Anna and Barry started telling him to stick to the narrative and ask them for Kibbles to help search with them someplace else. “Is that so? Well then, I don’t suppose we can look for our friends together. My skills in navigating these lands and scoping out clues for our missing friends will surely be of great help.” Kibbles told them with confidence.
Gobbles and his pals were skeptical of Kibbles appearance in the beginning, but with the way he was dressed professionally, looking like a bonafide tracker made for scouting, there was no way they could pass up this opportunity to gain some insightful help. “Y-Yes, I think we could really use your help, little Kibbles. But aren’t you in the slightest a bit afraid of what we are?”
Ron was terrified of what these trolls were capable of, he was relieved that he wasn’t as close to them as Kibbles was. But that was him, and he was role-playing as Kibbles currently. “Not at all! In fact, I’d feel safer if I was surrounded by tough looking bodyguards such as yourselves. With my skills and your brawn, we’ll be able to scour this swamp and find our friends in no time at all!”
The trolls were pleased with Kibbles reason and calm attitude, not minding at all to accompany the trolls in search of both their friends. “Sounds good, little Kibbles. We’ll keep you safe, just as long as you find where Mudflap went too.” Gobbles said, he then knelt down and extended a palm of his hand to the dwarf. “Care to ride on my shoulder as we walk?”
If Ron controlled Kibbles to accept Gobbles gesture, everyone else figured Kibbles wouldn’t be able to physically climb onboard since he was an illusion. But to everyone’s surprise, Ron took up Gobbles kind offer and controlled Kibbles to get on. “Certainly, it definitely beats walking in this hazardous environment. Thank you.”
Kibbles did not phase through Gobbles hand as everyone expected. Instead, it just seemed natural. The way Kibbles moved and was placed on the troll's shoulder was nothing unusual. By concentrating on Kibbles illusionary figure and making Gobbles believe the dwarf was real, Ron was able to successfully trick all the trolls senses into thinking Kibbles was an actual person. So long as Ron was able to concentrate on one of his illusions to the best of his ability and deceive them in the initial act, he would be able to convince his targets.
Ron and his party observed the trolls and Kibbles walk away in a direction instructed by Ron, role-playing Kibbles like a professional scout. Ron continued to do so a bit, his concentration on Kibbles illusionary figure would eventually disappear after a certain amount of time. He channeled some of his magic over to the illusionary figure to keep it stable for a while before disconnecting from Kibbles. “That was…very…taxing on me…” Ron still had unsettled nerves coursing through his body after deceiving the trolls.
Everyone else around him was in shock by what he had just done, it was unbelievable. Ron glanced at his group, people like Abe, Puck, and Luna had their jaws dropped. Kat, Anna, and Barry were immensely impressed by his acting skills and ability to trick the trolls senses into thinking Kibbles was a real person. “How did I-”
Everyone but Barry ganged up on Ron with applause and positive comments, expressing their amazement in what he had accomplished. The illusion mage couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed by the support he was getting from his team. “I’m in disbelief as you all. Can’t believe that actually worked.” Ron said, letting out a sigh of relief.
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Barry was proud of how Ron was able to pull off his stunt, they had avoided an unnecessary fight by relying on Ron’s trickery. “Well it did and it paid off. Good job, you were great.” Barry praised, this made Ron feel happier since it was coming from Barry.
With a potential crisis avoided, the team resumed their journey through the swamp. Everyone and the tamafrogs decided to stick close to the carriage and keep an eye out for the tamafrogs friends as they traversed, not wanting to draw any attention by going too far out. Abe sent out a couple of his spirit birds to do some recon instead and report back to him about any findings.
After traveling for about an hour, one of the birds returned back to Abe with some news to share. “Uh-huh…a suspicious tree, you say?”
Barry was next to Abe, listening to him talk to his raven. “Did your animals find something?” He asked Abe.
Abe gave a firm nod. “Sure did, this birdie’s telling me that there's a sinister looking willow tree with a cave close by. They suspect something unusual must be there based on the vibes they are getting. Nevertheless, I think it's something worth looking into if it's related to these tamafrogs friends…or maybe even those trolls.”
“Arlight, then let's turn there right now. Hopefully it's where they are at. It would be great to get their quest out of the way.” Barry suggested. Everyone but Barry, Abe, and the tamafrogs entered the carriage.
And with a command of Abe’s voice and a tug of his reins, the carriage horses steered in the direction shown by Abe’s raven, guiding them to where they needed to go. They travelled for about 15 minutes through the mushy mire until Abe ordered his horses to take things slow due to his raven informing him about their close arrival. Now moving at a gentle pace, Barry looked ahead, scanning with caution.
Their search soon brought them all to a large open bog, there in the center was a giant creepy willow tree on a patch of wetland surrounded by swamp water. It had a cavern entrance that seemed to go down into the earth to an unknown place. “This is the place.” Abe informed, putting a pause on his carriage.
Him and everyone else dismounted and observed the bog from where they stood, keeping an eye out for anything unusual. “Totally not creepy at all. Right, everyone?” Luna commented, thinking there might actually be something dangerous lurking inside the cave.
“Yeah…definitely not eerie.” Anna replied with a suspicious look. “So, how do we want to proceed with this? Should we send a small group to search the cave or- Hey, Barry!”
Everyone watched as Barry was already zooming across the murky water, his new leviathan ability made his expedition look effortless with how fast he was jetting across. “I’ll check it out. You all stay here. If it's too much, I’ll message you all. Just stay put.” He asked, Barry clearly wanted to rush the quest to completion so they could resume getting back to searching for the prism.
“Seriously!? No!” Anna was frustrated with how Barry was acting like he was in total control of the team, wanting to do things his way. She started teleporting across the bog, landing on floating logs for a brief moment before teleporting again. “I’m at least coming with you!”
Puck wanted to swim across the bog to catch up with Barry, but appeared to be having difficulty moving his arms and legs to traverse. “Ack! Water is too hard to move through, Puck can’t- Ouch!” The Kobold wasn’t too deep into the water, but urgently rushed out with the help of Kat and Luna. And to their surprise, they saw what was hurting him. “Huh? What’s this?”
What was causing him pain were a couple of black/dark green leeches that had latched their suckers onto his limbs, draining the life out of him. Puck received help from his friends to remove these vampiric creatures. “Yuck! What are these weird slimy things?” Puck wondered, burning the leeches to a crisp.
“Those would be leeches, little firecracker.” Abe answered upon closer observation. “Looks like this bog just might be infested with them. Luckily you didn’t go too far in for it to become a serious issue. Let’s wait here and see what happens. But I wonder what else those two might find living inside that cave…” He pondered, referring to Anna and Barry.
Barry successfully made it across and entered the hollow tree that led deep inside the earth, watching his step by utilizing his darkvision and sending out period pulse scans. The tree roots extended far out, acting as a type of barrier to prevent any breach of water. ‘Find these tamafrogs and get the hell out. I can get this done by myse-’
He stopped thinking the moment he felt a slight push from something behind himself. Barry spun around with his trident in hand aimed directly at whatever did so, only to clash against a familiar tomahawk, he was surprised to see who it was. “Anna? I thought I told you to-”
“Oh shut up.” Anna stowed away her tomahawk, shoving his trident aside and walking past him with an irritated look. “We can make our choices, why do I have to listen to you. Just accept my help at the least, I’m sure neither of us want to waste time arguing.”
Despite disobeying his call, she was right, he didn't want to waste his breath getting her to turn back. “Tch, fine.” He resumed walking by her side, the two of them taking a slow pace through the unknown.
Nothing but silence was all they heard, but a few minutes after, something unusual happened that only Anna could perceive. The temperature of the cave from the moment they entered was neither hot nor cold, basic room temperature. However, she felt a slight drop in temperature at a certain point during their walk which had eventually led them through an underground tunnel. She then felt her body tingle a bit, goosebumps was the closest thing she could describe it as. ‘What’s with this sudden feeling? I’m not detecting any threats nearby…’
Barry was not able to sense these experiences that Anna was having, as he continued scanning the path ahead for any danger or presence. She noticed this and had to let him know, so she whispered. “Hey, my senses are telling me something's not right.”
He was confused at first by what she was saying because he had been carefully observing the path he took, finding nothing out of the ordinary. “What seems off? Because this whole time I’ve been looking out for any traps and such.”
“Right now I’m getting goosebumps, which normally means that something strange or threatening is about to happen. Call it my sixth sense if you will, but that’s what I got a minute ago. Even if you haven’t seen anything, just trust my intuition.” Anna was hoping that Barry wouldn’t brush off her warning. Despite Barry’s cold attitude, even she knew that he was sensible to take advice when needed.
And Anna was right, Barry thought it over for a moment and acknowledged what she said, taking it into consideration. “Noted. You're the one with sharper instincts than me, I believe you. Let’s expect the worst.”
Anna couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief, feeling a bit glad that he accepted her warning. ‘I knew you wouldn’t ignore me. Still, it’s a bit surprising to hear you humble yourself. If only you could work on improving your social skills and be more open to the group…’
Further they went through the tunnel, the sudden chills that Anna experienced moments ago were gone but her speculation about what the reason was remained. The two later encountered a dead end which was a blockage of rough mossy green stone.
“This is it? A cave that leads to nothing?” Anna said, not wanting to accept this being the end of their exploration. She felt the stone with her hand, rubbing against the texture and wiping away the moss. “Maybe there was a path that we missed. We should turn back and look.”
Barry eyed the blockage, studying all there was about it, utilizing his enhanced eyesight and scanning it with his pulses. “No…” He refused, as he tapped on the stone with his trident, examining it very intensely. “...we’re in the right direction.”
Confused by what he was trying to say, Anna questioned him for a clearer answer. “Care to explain, Mr.Detective. This might have led somewhere in the past, but it’s clearly blocked.”
From Barry’s perception, based on the information he was receiving, he noticed that although his pulse scans were telling him that everything in front of him was in fact real…he was able to point out a few flaws in what they were viewing. On different sections of the blockage, were spots that weren’t being picked up by his scans. ‘This is reminding me of Ron’s illusions…if I use my detective mode right now, will I see anything else?’
He flipped on his detective mode, utilizing his heat signature feature to try and discern any odd temperature readings on the wall. ‘I knew it, I’m not that easy to trick.’ He saw a patch of red thermal signatures through one of the odd spots, an upper section of it.
Anna then watched as Barry leaped up and strangely grabbed onto a ledge of some sort that made no sense to her because she couldn’t see it. “H-Huh? Wha- How is-” She then thought about Ron’s illusion magic and it clicked in her mind. ‘But this wall feels real? No way this can be an illusion, yet…’
One moment Barry disappeared by phasing through the wall, and reappeared again in less than 10 seconds with a hand extended to her. “This wall looks and feels realistic, but not entirely. Whoever made this did a lousy job, and that someone might still be here. Now come on.”
She could understand the explanation he gave her, yet what she didn’t understand was how Barry was able to distinguish these sorts of clues. He still kept a tight lip on what his abilities and primary Class was, refusing to say anything about himself. Regardless, Anna knew he was never going to tell the group unless he felt like it and brushed it aside. She jumped up and grabbed his hand, pulling her up and through the false wall.
The two crossed the other side, entering a room filled with glowing lanterns that were the reason why Barry was able to thermal heat signatures from the gap in the blockade. Decorated around the room were hanging cages made of roots with skeletal remains of once living creatures of all sorts, radiant fungi and plants scattered about for aesthetic purposes. There was a section that seemed to be meant for dissecting and researching specimens with various tools and notes. Someone was for sure living inside this cave, a strange and uncanny being, that much was clear to Anna and Barry.
“Skulls for decor, a zone dedicated for dissecting specimens…just looking at everything around this room makes me think that there might be a crazy mad scientist living here.” Anna commented, she was more on guard than before now.
“Just might be…” Barry inspected a shelf of books that contained information about things such as the anatomy of different humanoids, creatures, etc. Nothing caught his eye until he spotted a specific book that he wouldn’t imagine being there. ‘Magic Mike? Even in this cave, there just happens to be a book published by you.’ He added the book to his inventory, planning to give it to Kat to increase her stats. He started to think that he should probably give these books a read sometime soon. Aside from that, there wasn’t anything else that was worth taking it seemed.
There were other paths leading elsewhere, it was up to Anna and Barry to make a decision of where to take it from there. Barry recalled Anna’s warning from before and wondered if someone was living here, then there might be a chance that they were still home. He activated his detective mode and started searching for any footprints, and to his discovery, Barry found his answer.
‘They’re still here, and recent too.’ Barry saw slightly larger than average humanoid footprints that were orange colored, telling him that whoever they were had left a bit ago since their arrival.
Anna noticed that Barry was in the process of thinking about something, based on how he was studying the ground with great interest. “What’s got you grinding those gears in your brain this time? Tell me.”
Barry saw the trail of recent footprints lead to one specific direction that stopped strangely in front of a wall covered with taxidermy, the pattern looked as if they had left in a hurry compared to the other footprints. ‘Must be some sort of secret entrance. But you really look like you were in a hurry…what for…’ He started thinking back at how Anna felt a disturbance sometime ago.
“I sure hope you’re still thinking and not just ignoring me.” Anna asked with her arms crossed in annoyance. “I’m just trying to-”
He raised a finger to his lips as he looked at her, a sign that she quickly picked up on and shushed. Barry tried messaging her via the system but discovered a strange phenomenon which was that he wasn’t able to send out messages within the area he was in for some reason. ‘Well this is fucking stupid, I can’t message inside this location no matter what. This must be the moderators doing…damn it.’
Barry glanced around the room and the door ways, making sure that they weren’t being watched and walked over to Anna. She wondered why he was being so quiet and was caught off guard when he leaned in to whisper to her. “That intuition you had before, it might have been because whoever lives here was alerted of our presence. A spell of some sort is my assumption.”
“A spell?” She thought about the sudden drop in temperature that could have been related to this spell of alertness. “Alright, then if that’s the case, let’s just act like we don't know a thing and expect to be ambushed. We can message the others-”
“Nope.” Barry shook his head. “I tried messaging you but I couldn’t, that’s why I’m whispering to you right now. That person could be listening to us as we speak. There’s no other way for us to let the others know what we found except for you turning around and messaging them yourself.”
She was bothered by this predicament they were in, the possibility of their presence being known the moment they entered the cave was bothersome enough, but having her turn back to inform the others just added on to it. “Then what, you just plan on scoping out the place on your own without help? We don’t even know what we’re dealing with, aside from them being capable of magic. Let me stay and help-”
“No.” Barry was very defiant when he rejected her offer and lowered his voice back down. “Listen, Anna, I'm sorry for being so secretive and acting like an asshole during our...talk from before. I am, so let me get that out of the way first. I just...am not comfortable opening up to anyone right now, let me put it that way." Anna was surprised to hear him being apologetic as she continued to listen to him. "But I can handle myself from here. I appreciate you coming here so far because if you hadn’t, then I wouldn’t have picked up on my presence being known without your sixth sense. So please, going back to inform the others serves as a type of insurance since messaging is no longer an option.”
His reason was fair and logical, her going back would act as insurance in the event that something happened to Barry. Yet still, she felt like he was trying to do everything on his own on purpose. “I…alright, fine. I’ll go back...”
Barry was glad that she was willing to do what he asked. “Thanks. And again, I’ll be fine now that I know to be more cautious. So-”
“If you're not back within 30 minutes or a reasonable time, I’m returning with backup and a load of shit to talk your ear off.” Anna replied in a stern tone. If he happened to take too long with his findings, it would be a good excuse to vent at him for doing something that proved to be too much for him.
There was no irritable feeling on Barry’s end, he thought it was perfectly acceptable for her to tell him something like this and nodded. “Sure, you can say whatever you want if that time comes. Now go, we’re already acting suspicious as it is by standing and whispering.”
Anna went back the way she came through, from the odd gap in the wall, disappearing from sight and rushing back to the group. Barry looked back at the footprints leading to the one pathway, he figured finding out who this person was, was important to do first. ‘Time to see the homeowner.’
He approached the taxidermy wall and studied it for a moment until his eyes spotted the head of a some sort of horned beast that looked like a cow, the text color of the head was yellow. This meant that something special was up with it. ‘Is it as obvious as I think it is?’
Barry attempted to pull one of the creature's horns, resulting in him receiving the exact effect he had predicted which was activating a secret entrance. ‘What a shocker this secret was. Still, this is a strange looking cow compared to those I’ve seen.’ He then followed the path shown before him with caution.
It would only take a few minutes for him to eventually hear some sort of noise echoing through the tunnel. ‘Yup, someone's definitely home for sure.’ Barry prepared himself for whatever was up ahead.
He slowed his pace down as he got closer to a light at the end of the tunnel, halting and kneeling outside of the entrance, taking a peek inside of the room with quick shifts of his eyes. And that was when he spotted something he would have never guessed, it was utter disgust. ‘This is…what the hell!?’
Inside was a large room with different caged areas withholding different types of beings of all kinds on binding chains and instruments to contain them. All of which appeared to be sickly ill, and either conscious or unconscious. They were all blindfolded. But the most disturbing thing about these captive beings was that there were black spiky leeches attached to their bodies, sucking the life force out of them, keeping them in a weakened state indefinitely, never killing them.
Continuing to use his detective mode, he kept track of the footprints that led him there, seeing it lead further to another section of this apparent torture room. He looked around the room one last time from where he was at, making sure the person responsible for these poor victims wasn’t in sight before tracking down the footprints.
As he snuck inside, Barry observed the victims in their sickly state. ‘What kind of vile bastard does this? And why use leeches of all things to torment them?’ Barry’s eyes fell upon something peculiar that would provide him some insight of the purpose.
Next to these victims cells were see-through containers housing some black spiky leeches with a funnel connected to a jar. Each jar was filled with some sort of sludge type substance with labels on them, supposedly the names referring to the captives being tortured. There was also a workshop table with what looked like witchcraft or chemist tools nearby. A couple of bowls were placed there, with names of different species labeled on them as well. Inside these bowls were dark-red colored beads, some had a different hue of color mixed with their consistent dark-red color.
It only took Barry a few moments to piece together what was going on. The thought was not only repulsive to him. It infuriated him. ‘Seems like this sick fuck enjoys making these things as some sort of hobby. Yeah, I’m definitely cutting down whoever's doing this.’
He resumed following the footprints and as he did, Barry would eventually come to a halt when he spotted a familiar looking bunch of species he had met before. ‘The tamafrogs!?’
Barry rushed inside one of the cells, withholding a group of different colored tamafrogs in chains and blindfolded, all currently being feasted on by the wretched leeches. “Tama…” One of them croaked in a meek tone.
His mind started thinking about what to do now. ‘These definitely have to be the friends those other frogs have been looking for. But I can’t free them right now, I need to look for the fucker that’s-’
Something had grabbed hold of his waist, yanking him away from the tamafrogs and through a hallway. He looked down, noticing that he was being taken away by some animated roots. ‘Damn it! I was too careless!’ Barry believed that he must have triggered some sort of trap in the form of a spell.
He tried breaking free from his restraints with a handaxe from his inventory, hacking away at it. His body would eventually be taken inside a cavern room with stalagmites and dark, murky water before he was able to free himself and roll across the hard ground.
“Hehe, looky who came wandering inside my cozy home. I wasn’t expecting any visitors, and most certainly not one as nosy as you.” Some raspy old woman with a malicious laugh spoke out to him.
Barry rose to his feet and looked ahead of him, spotting the homeowner within view from across the large pool of dark water. He eyed the torturer from head to toe, thinking that their appearance certainly matched the type of person he had imagined them to be. ‘Yup, you’re one ugly bitch.’
