Odelia landed in the dark. She could hear crunching somewhere ahead of her. She shook her driftglobe until it lit up. Before she could get a look at what was making the sound, she was thrown to the ground by Shaynen dropping on top of her. Then Haagut dropped onto them both and finally Cleatus came down; crushing Odelia at the bottom.

A loud crunch made them all still in the heap. Looking up at an ugly looking monstrosity. It was nearly obsidian, with a black horn protruding from the back of his head. Picking little glowing crystals off the wall and eating them.

“What is that?” Shaynen whispered.

“A Babau.” Odelia said, shoving herself free from the pile and yanking her glowing blade out. The babau turned suddenly to the party in surprise. It yelled in a guttural language that no one understood. Shaynen waved, unsure of what else to do. Cleatus jumped to his feet and pulled his bow free as he ran around the cavern, he clicked his tongue and there came an echo from off the babau as Cleatus marked it. Then he shot the babau, the arrow’s impact knocked the creature back.

The beast snarled and held out a hand to what was left of the party. Haagut had no idea what happened, he was trying to stand when Odelia beside him stiffened and Shaynen on his knees, stilled. Then the creature was beside him as well. It swung at Odelia, she knocked his claws away. Then she and Shaynen both ran back and away from the beast.

The beast turned to Haagut, and Haagut jumped onto his feet in a second. Ripping his spear out of his pack and plunging the spear’s tip into the ground with an earthshaking sound. The ground opened up and spewed a cloud of white mist. Haagut, Odelia, and Shaynen all vanished behind the fog cloud.

The babau turned to the only still visible party member; Cleatus started another arrow. The creature charged him, knocking the bow and strung arrow away with a clatter across the floor. Cleatus pulled his sword out in time to block the second of the babau’s attacks. Haagut appeared through the mist with his spear raised; the babau twisted it’s head all the way around to face him. Making his stomach lurch and jump into his throat.

Shaynen, at the back of the cavern shook his head free from the babau’s spell. He ran into the mist, once he was able to see the creature he vanished in a shower of sparks and appeared behind the babau in a blaze of fire that seared the creature’s skin harmlessly. Shaynen’s arms went up and the glow of the blue astral arms separated from the material. They landed solidly against the babau’s side, it turned and smacked away the second attack from Shaynen’s physical form. Haagut swallowed the bile creeping up the back of his throat and jumped forward a few steps. Shield and spear in hand. He spun the spear around the back of his hand and clanged the tip against the dragonscale covered shield. The tolling of the bells had no effect on the beast but the glowing spear that flew out from the shield’s center pierced right through it.

Cleatus side-stepped and stabbed up into the babau. It gave no reaction, it turned to fully face Shaynen. Shaynen braced to fend off the attack but was startled when instead he rose up into the air. Crashing into the top of the cavern nearly fifty feet in the air. Then whatever held him in the air dropped him. But he didn’t fall, not as he expected to. Air caught just behind him as if he were holding out a parachute. After falling slowly, his hair standing on end, he dropped the rest of the distance. He hit the ground and rolled, bouncing back up in shock.

The babau had turned and attacked Cleatus. It swung it’s paw at Cleatus, Haagut swung his shield, a small scale flew off of the shield and knocked the babau’s hand away. Returning back to its place onto the shield. Odelia rounded the fog cloud swearing. Her eyes were glowing, her skin had a strange shimmer, the beast turned to look at Odelia and recoiled. She continued forward, reaching out her hand and lifting the babau off the ground. The creature flew in the time it took to blink and slammed into the opposite wall. It’s bones breaking instantaneously.

With the creature dead, the party all slowly turned to look at Odelia. She stumbled slightly, her head spinning. She held her head until her vision cleared. Shaynen stared at the creature then back to Odelia. He remembered the sorceress who called to Odelia and her distaste of academies.

“Ohh..” He suddenly realized. Odelia looked up and on her forehead a third eye opened. She turned to leave down the hall but Haagut stepped ahead of her.

“Whoa, whoa, no! Wait a minute!” Haagut held out his hands but didn’t come close. “What was any of that? Y-you have a.. Something on your forehead…”

“Magic,” Odelia said. She reached up and carefully felt around the eye on her forehead and grumbled. “Y’see this? THIS is why I don’t do magic! Whenever I DO magic, it goes wrong! Horribly wrong!”

“This went right,” Shaynen pointed to the beast’s corpse. Cleatus walked to the body and looked over it.

“Heh, this thing looks funny.” Cleatus pointed at the body with a few short laughs. Cleatus kicked at it and inspected the body as the rest of the conversation continued.

“Why didn’t you tell us about this?” Haagut asked.

“Because you didn’t need to know. I didn’t need you all judging me.” Odelia snapped. Her eyes ice cold as she looked at Shaynen when he opened his mouth. He closed it just as quickly with a snap and bit down on the inside of his lip to keep quiet.

“Yeah, you hush.” She pointed at him. He raised his shoulders.

“Wha? I-I wasn’t gonna say anything.” He said with an unconvincing tone. “Just that. Y’know. We wouldn’t have judged you at all and I-I don’t think we would have had the-the. Well we all have dirty secrets, right?”

With a sucking pop, Cleatus ripped one of the babau’s teeth from it’s skull, holding up a tooth as big as his hand and nearly as long.

“Gods Almighty y’all see the size of this thing!?” He called. He shoved it in his bag and strut towards the door. Pausing for only a moment to look at Odelia’s third eye. “Heh, neat.” He pointed briefly and continued on down the hall. Shaynen smiled and shrugged at Odelia. He followed Cleatus with Odelia coming next and finally Haagut. Together they entered the next large cavern. In one little alcove was a large dishevelled pile of armor and weapons. In another was a pile of corpses in multiple states of decay and stripped of any metal whatsoever.

“Uh-oh. Do you guys think that guy’s brother is here?” Shaynen asked quietly. The group stilled hesitantly. Shaynen took a breath and went to the pile of corpses. He awkwardly reached down and pushed around as little as he could to look for any red haired elves but didn’t find anyone matching the description.

Odelia went to the pile of armor and weapons; she pulled out her sword and started flipping through the items. She kept back on her heel in case it sprung to life. But it didn’t move without her prodding.

“Not seeing any special bows,” She said. “So, I doubt it.” Shaynen stepped back and wiped his hands off on his pants.

“No red-heads,” He said. He looked up to the solid ceiling, then kicked at the rock floor. “I’d say we should properly lay these bodies to rest but the ground is solid and there’s no ventilation. So we can’t bury them and if we try to burn them we’ll just smoke ourselves out.”

“Don’t worry about it, I got this.” Cleatus walked up beside him and ushered him to the side. Shaynen and Haagut both sat to the side as Cleatus made the ground move up and over the pile of corpses.