Finale

The surviving adventurers watched in horror as a gigantic monster broke through the tunnel wall, scattering chunks of stone and slime everywhere.

Ged: Boccob!
Otto: In other words, holy shit...!

The thing before them bore a resemblance to the other monsters they'd encountered earlier, except that its body was more squat and bigger. A lot bigger.



Otto: Maybe that's the egg-layer...

This statement had merit because of the trail of burning eggs and egg-sacs that dragged behind the huge monster.

Lyra: A queen?
Otto: Looks like it...though that last fireball did a number on her batch of future kids, I'd say.
Songa: Well, that would explain why she's not happy...
queen monster: (rears up, towering over the adventurers) SSSSSSSS!
Belphanior: The hell you say. (he points a wand at the thing)

A great blast of fire shot forth, searing the beast, which half-screamed, half-hissed in pain.

Ged: Why didn't you use a fireball?
Belphanior: Because we'd have caught some of the blast - or did that thing's sheer size fail to impress you?
Alindyar: This is no time for such bickering. (he sends a barrage of enchanted bolts at the thing's head)
queen monster: (recoils, then lunges forward with surprising speed, grabbing the nearest foe in one huge, clawed hand)
Songa: Aaargh! (she stabs at the limb with her spear, drawing acid blood but doing no real harm to a monster of this size)
queen monster: (crushing her, swiftly) Ssssss!
Songa: AAAARGH!
Peldor: (having moved around to the thing's flank, he sizes it up briefly before leaping at its head, propelled by his magical boots)
queen monster: Screee! (it whips its tail forth)

That tail ended in a great sharp spike, which neatly impaled the thief, causing blood to spew from his mouth!

Peldor: <glurk>
queen monster: (waving Peldor back and forth in the air before her great fanged head)
Peldor: (hurls his sword, using his TK powers to send it right into one of the monster's eyes)
queen monster: (screams in agony as her eye explodes in a gout of acidic blood) SCREEEEE!

In a rage, the huge foe grabbed Peldor with both clawed hands...

Peldor: Not again-
queen monster: (rips the thief in half, showering those below with his blood) Sssssss!
Songa: (discarded, her broken, bloody body falls to the passage floor)
queen monster: (tosses Peldor's halves aside, turning her attention back to the others)
Belphanior: Fuck...
Lyra: (launches a spell, pelting the thing with fiery arrows that take numerous small chunks out of its hide)
queen monster: Screeeee! (it lumbers forward)
Mongo: (stands up, finally, between the foe and his friends, sword in hand) No more! Do you hear me? No more!

The monster took a swing at the dwarf, only to lose half its hand as the smaller foe plied his weapon with great skill and strength. Enraged, the queen leapt forward, landing atop Mongo and his sword, crushing him.

Ged: Mongo!
Otto: Smashed him...
Belphanior: Enough of this. (he cuts loose with a blast of freezing cold, encrusting the foe in icicles)
queen monster: Screee! (it whips its spiked tail around again)
Otto: (slashes at the thing as it whistles by, nearly severing it) Hah!
queen monster: (turns, grabbing the dwarf in its good hand, bringing him to its mouth)
Otto: To hell with you! (unwilling to be crushed, he begins hacking at the foe's hand and wrist)

Otto freed himself, but at a terrible cost: acidic blood sprayed everywhere, dousing him.



Otto: AAAARGH!
queen monster: (rears up again, dropping the dissolving dwarf and bearing down on Ged, Belphanior, and the drow)
Belphanior: Shit.
Alindyar: Never fear. (he blasts the thing with a Prismatic Spray, causing a number of harmful effects that wound and slow it to some extent)
Lyra: It's still coming-
Ged: No.
Belphanior: Huh?
Ged: (raises his voice) For Boccob, for our fallen comrades, and for the good of Oerth, I now end this! (he launches a spell, bringing a Mordenkainen's Sword to bear, the huge force-blade coming down on the gigantic foe's midsection)

Finally, some real damage was done, as the queen's body was cut almost in half!

Ged: YEA!
Belphanior: Keep hitting it! Slice it to bits!
Ged: (eyes the other elf strangely) Of course.

Ged was true to his word; his magical weapon continued to hack at the fallen monster, shredding it as acid burned holes in the floor around the scene of battle. Finally, at long last, the thing was dead.

Ged: Whew.
Belphanior: Damn.
Lyra: What now?
Alindyar: Now, we gather what remains of our friends that we can, get back to the cave-in, dig through it, get outside, and bury this place so deep that none shall ever find it again.
Belphanior: Agreed.
Ged: Yea!

With that, the weary adventurers finally realized triumph over this strange place, with its even stranger monsters.

Ged: Uh...what about that evil artifact we're supposed to recover?
Belphanior: I've had a Detect Magic going on for a while now, and I don't see any sign of any artifact. How about you?
Ged: No, nor is my Detect Evil picking up anything.
Belphanior: (looks at the bodies, acid burns, monster chunks, and other evidence of carnage) Fuck the artifact. We came in as more than a dozen, and now we're four, without even a trace of any evil artifact in sight. The Circle of Eight can go take a flying fuck, as far as I'm concerned. Or, better yet, they can come over here and find that artifact themselves.
Alindyar: Well-put.
Ged: (shrugs) Makes sense to me. After all, who wants to be dead?