Adrian: Baldur's Gate

Adrian wiped sweat and blood off his forehead. They had been tromping through these damned catacombs for an hour now, and had found no tomes. They had found gold, and some magical items, including what Xzar asssured them were wands of Fireball and Summoning, but no tomes.

In the meantime they had fought giant spiders, wolves, undead wolves, a few Kobolds armed with those fire arrows, zombies, skeletons, the lot. No single foe was serious, but the combined number of them was wearing the party down.

Then there were the traps. Endless numbers of them. Safana had earned her pay today, and neutralized most of them, but the last one had gone off, dousing the party in flame. None of them had yet recovered from that.

Hssssssssss...

"What in the Nine Hells is that?" Safana said, looking genuinely afraid.

Hsssss

"Whatever it is, it ain't friendly!" Kagain spat.

Adrian nodded. "Fireball it, gentlemen."

The wizards nodded. One by one, they ducked into the hallway and lanched fireballs down it, getting back out quickly lest the blast radius affect them. Indeed it would have been; the flames licked the edge of their hallway.

But the dreadful hissing noises continued, and it was clear they'd have to fight.

"Does it remind you of anything from the Underdark?" Adrian asked Viconia.

She shook her head. "Any number of creatures could make that hissing noise, but more likely it's something that's been down here in the magical mists too long."

"Transformed," said Edwin. "Mutated."

"All right," Adrian sighed. "Kagain, you and Viconia charge it. The rest of us will hit it with what we've got left."

"I ain't fighting blind!" said Kagain.

The hissing grew louder.

"All right, fine, the mages and I will start shooting it first, but in any case MOVE!"

Together with Safana slinging bullets from her rapidly declining supply, Adrian and the mages hurled magic missles and minor drains down the hallway, then Adrian went down on one knee and started shooting crossbow bolts.

Finally, Kagain and Viconia rounded the corner and charged....

...and stopped staring.

"WHAT IS THAT?!?" Kagain howled.

"Kill it, kill it, kill it!" Viconia screamed.

IT was almost too tall to fit in the hallway. IT looked like some form of undead giant insect, perhaps a centipede, only standing upright. Slime dripped from it's body, and red evil glowed from it's compound insect eyes. This mist-created abomination hissed and flung itself at them.....