The sound of a hammer slamming down and wood splitting echoed off the walls of the mine. "Later, suckers! Thanks for the help!" This has got to be some sort of sick joke. 

Vi'ira whipped her head around, but it was too late. The man dashed out of the cave as the ceiling began to crackle and break. The cracks appeared like veins spreading across the stone. Soon enough, stone collapsed in a heap in front of them, completely blocking off the entrance. All sunlight had vanquished right before their eyes, leaving only small rays that snuck between small cracks to light the room. Before Vi'ira could even react to them, Blue Raspberry began to shift in form. Where they once stood in armor, they now appeared as a giant wolf, and a blue one at that. He stood with their back against the ceiling, preventing that section of falling any further. 

Her mind raced. They were trapped. Her voice spoke in her head, 'Use yer magic, ye half-wit!'

Vi'ira turned to the collapse the rest of the miners were trapped behind. She took a deep breath as she conjured up the air around them and thrust it towards the debris¹. The wall of stone gave way and revealed pickaxes strewn about with abandoned packs. They were close. She jumped over the small wall of rocks at her feet and turned back around to see Blue Raspberry still holding up the ceiling. She reached both her arms out in their direction and manufactured the wind to pull them closer to her². It was much harder due to the shear size they had grown to, but they hurdled towards her and the miners as the part of the cave they were once holding collapsed.

A voice emerged from the darkness in the distance further into the mine, "Has someone come to save us? A rescue team?"

Not quite.

---

1. Gust Thrust
2. Push/Pull

Blue Raspberry felt themself being pulled by something, as if a strong wind was sucking them in a direction. They couldn't hold this stone ceiling up forever, so they welcomed the feeling and leapt toward it, just clearing the collapsing rock and finding themself in pitch black darkness. They were confused. Why had the man broken a beam and collapsed the tunnel on them? Also, where were they now? They couldn't see anything around them at all. The man had run away after breaking the beam. Did he get out of the mine?

Suddenly, Blue Raspberry heard more voices from the dark and morphed back into their armored knight form. They didn't think the people trapped in the mine would be very relieved to see a giant, blue wolf.

"Hello? Did you break down the wall?" a voice called out.

With a small swish, a lantern was lit and the group could now see each other in the dark. Before the Elf and the Ooze stood a group of six miners. Three looked to be human, two were Dwarves, and one had the pointed ears of an Elf. All of them had on similar clothing including dirty overalls and shirts. Typical miner's garb. They all looked past Blue Raspberry and Vi'ira who they thought had finally rescued them and saw the new wall of collapsed stone. Their faces fell into a mixture of confusion and fear.

"What happened? The tunnel collapsed even more!? Damnit, this is impossible!" one of the Dwarves called out angrily, kicking a rock on the ground.

Six miners emerged from the darkness, a lantern held firm in the hands of a dwarf. They stood with looks of confusion and defeat across their faces. The dwarf holding the lantern yelled out, frustrated. In all fairness, it had been many days since these miners were meant to return, and when people finally show up to come and save them, another collapse happens. Who was that man from before? Had he gotten trapped on his own? Was he with the miners?

Vi'ira turned to face the group, coughing from the dust floating in the air. "A man who was trapped, 'e told us 'e'd lead us to yes. Then 'e broke the damn beam and ran off, trapping us in. 'e one of yes?"

The miners looked at one another, their brows furrowed and mouths set in a line. The tallest of the humans spoke up. His voice was deep and he spoke with a growl behind his words.

"Theon, that bastard. Leave it to him to only mind his own." A couple of the men sighed. Vi'ira joined them, frustrated by her blindness in that moment. The old man seemed harmless enough. What did he have to gain from leaving his men and two strangers trapped? You had to be deeply selfish to do such a thing, or entirely mad.

"We'll get ye out of 'ere, come 'ell or 'igh water." She looked to Blue Raspberry, still utterly lost about how he managed to transform into a giant blue wolf made of some sort of slime. She hadn't even begun to start to piece that together. Everything was happening much too quickly. The miners breathed out, moving to sit against the cave walls, seeing as they weren't going anywhere for the time being. The dwarf with the lantern still stood, staring at the two rescuers for a moment. "Don't get us killed," he huffed before going to join his friends.

Vi'ira placed her hand on Blue Raspberry's iron-clad arm and pulled them off to the side, a bit further from the miners. "Care te explain 'ow ye did all that?" She pointed to where they had just come from, which was now full of loose stone. "And can ye do it again?"

Blue Raspberry was a little surprised as they were pulled away from the others by Vi'ira, but they let her do so without much resistance.

"Uhh, no. Yes? Yes and no. I mean, no and yes! No, I don't care to explain how I did it, but yes, I can do it again. Do you want me to turn into a wolf again? Just a moment!" the ooze answered hesitantly.

They held their arms up in front of them as they were questioned. They felt nervous and didn't like being questioned, so they broke away from Vi'ira and went back to the rest of the group.

"Are you all okay? You must be thirsty after being trapped in this mine for so long. Here!"

Blue Raspberry reached their hands behind their back and began pulling out glasses and cups of a blue liquid and handing them off to each of the miners. The cups were all mismatched, made of wood, metal, and glass. However, the liquid inside each of them was all the same.

The miners each took a cup, a bit puzzled at where the knight was pulling these from, but too thirsty and hungry to really care. They'd had to ration out whatever food and water they'd brought into the mines as their lunch the day of the collapse. They were glad to have something to drink. The beverage was unnaturally blue colored, but it smelled like raspberries with a slight tingle of static electricity for some reason. They each drank it happily.

"Oh, also, are any of you the son of a woman that prays at the big temple in Skypeak village? She sent us to find you."

One of the miners raised their hand. He looked fairly young compared to the others. With that important issue solved, Blue Raspberry went back over to Vi'ira.

"Um, so, did you have some kind of plan that involves me being a giant wolf?"

---

Ever Flowing Chalice

Vi'ira could barely process every word Blue Raspberry had said before they moved away to the miners. She wondered what it was they would do next, seeing as they were apparently full of surprises. She watched as they pulled an array of cups full of liquid from behind their cloak. What were they? When they had become a giant blue wolf, while it was hard to see, she didn't make out any skin or fur on Blue Raspberry, but rather a smooth, almost see-through gelatin. It was strange, but Vi'ira wanted to know more.

The miners seemed immensely grateful for Blue Raspberry's generosity, and they took the cups without haste. They asked once more about the woman from the temple, and surprisingly enough, a young man raised his hand slowly. He looked young, and there was no wonder why his mother was worrying to the extent she was.

Vi'ira's attention was brought back to Blue Raspberry as they spoke of a plan. Her left hand fidgeted with the hilt of their sword. She looked off deeper into the cavern as it continued to descend. Where they were standing, it was decently flat, but the steady decline resumed only a couple feet in front of them.

"Can ye turn into anything else? Something bigger? We could combine forces. I can only assume the ceiling is still unstable, and it'd be too dangerous to try to charge through. But if ye are able to support it, I could try to dislodge the rocks with the wind and send it deeper into the mines. We could make a hole in the wall big enough for ye to get through and go from there, unless ye have a better idea." She pointed off to the wall of debris right beside them. If she was gaging this correctly, the rubble shouldn't collapse any more by making a small enough hole, and by allowing Blue Raspberry to enter first, it could conceal their transformation from the miners. They seem to keep that secret, and Vi'ira wanted to respect that. 

Blue Raspberry silently listened as Vi'ira explained her plan to the ooze. They didn't understand what she meant. She wanted them to support the ceiling again while she blew the rocks farther down the tunnel? But, they were on the wrong side of the rocks to be able to do that, weren't they? Well, they had blown away the wall earlier. Blue Raspberry didn't really know how, but maybe they could do it again. But, they didn't know if they could support the ceiling even as a wolf. It had been extremely heavy and they would have been crushed if they hadn't been pulled out from under the collapsing ceiling.

"A wolf is the biggest thing I can turn into, but I can turn into other animals. I don't understand the plan though. I couldn't hold the ceiling up for very long before, it was really heavy. I don't know if it would work." they responded quietly, not wanting the miners to overhear.

As the two were trying to discuss this plan, one of the miners approached them. The Dwarf with the lantern that seemed to be somewhat of a leader among them.

"Hey, you two are strong adventurers right? You can handle yourselves in a fight?" they asked.

"Super strong! I've fought lots of stuff!" Blue Raspberry responded confidently, giving them a thumbs up with their other hand on their hip.

"Uh-huh, well, good then. We know of a way out that doesn't involve risking any more tunnel collapses, it was just a bit too dangerous for us to go through. But with you two strong adventurers protecting us, it seems like our best bet. A nest of giant spiders we accidentally broke into while mining a while back. We sealed it off with a sturdy iron door to keep the spiders out of the mine, but the spiders must have their own way in and out we should be able to use to get back to the surface." the Dwarf explained to them.

"That sounds good to me. Way easier to understand!" Blue Raspberry replied, nodding.

Vi'ira rolled her eyes at Blue Raspberry's response to the miners offering up a different way to make it out of the cave, but in all honesty, she wasn't sure if she entirely understood her plan either. She was rambling, desperate to get the miners out as quickly as possible. However, a cave full of spiders did not sound like much fun at all, especially when the only two with weapons, aside from pickaxes, were Vi'ira and Blue Raspberry.

She turned to Blue Raspberry once more, lowering her voice, "Ye don't 'appen to 'ave any weapons tucked away with the mysterious cups and the tools, aye?" She still couldn't wrap her head around where he was pulling all these things from, but those questions could be saved for the journey home.

Blue Raspberry nodded their head excitedly, reaching behind their back once more and pulling out Vi’ira’s rapier. Seriously, where were these coming from? To return the favor, she unsheathed their sword from her belt and held it out to them.

“Guess that means we’ve got each other’s trust, aye?” It was an optimistic comment, but she had come to learn Blue Raspberry meant no harm to anyone, and there was no use in remaining suspicious of them when they hadn’t done anything worthy of being suspicious of. Besides…pulling things out of thin air. They could make a hefty coin in the traveling magician industry.

The miners had begun to collect what they still had on them as they prepared to enter the spider-filled cave. Vi’ira wasn’t too excited about the idea of having to fight off arachnids, but she wouldn’t necessarily say she has a fear of spiders…hopefully...she thinks. It’s moments like these where she’s thankful for living on the sea, far far away from bugs with eight terrifying hairy legs, let alone giant ones. The thought made her shiver. When they finished gathering their things and fueling up on blue liquid, Vi’ira turned to the group.

“Let’s get going, shall we?” She pointed to the youngest, “Ye’ve got a mother who desperately wishes to see ye again, as do all of yer families.” Please don’t jinx that. She thought of her moon and began to silently pray to herself for all of their safety.

Blue Raspberry was confused for a moment as Vi'ira gave them the sword, but then remembered that they had made the sword from ooze as a way to prove their trustiness, and she had given them her rapier to do the same. They'd kind of forgotten that whole situation, but they were glad they'd given back the sword before they went to fight the spiders. If she'd swung it, it would have just splattered into goo and she probably wouldn't be very trusting of the ooze knight anymore! They exchanged the rapier for the sword happily.

"Right, let's trust each other while we fight giant spiders, aye?" they replied, giving a small slap on the shoulder to Vi'ira, shocking her slightly with static electricity, though not enough to do any actual harm.

The miners also prepared themselves, handing back the cups which Blue Raspberry proceeded to store away, and arming themselves with whatever they had on hand. They wielded pickaxes and shovels. The Dwarf also had a small knife on their waist. Some extra pickaxes and shovels were left behind as the group started to move. Or, they would have been, if Blue Raspberry hadn't gone and picked them up to store away while the miners weren't paying them any attention.

They also reabsorbed the sword behind their back as the group made their way deeper into the mine toward the door to the spider nest. They just hoped no one would question why they weren't using the actual sword they apparently had as a weapon once they began fighting, but honestly, they usually fought with their fists and lightning anyways, so they didn't even need the sword.

Soon enough, they arrived at the door. The Dwarf took out a key from a key ring and unlocked a heavy padlock on the door holding it closed and moved back. He looked at the two adventurers to take the lead. Blue Raspberry immediately stepped forward and pulled the door open, revealing a long, round tunnel of inky blackness. It was more cramped than the mining tunnel, only wide enough for one at a time comfortable, or two if they didn't mind being shoulder to shoulder. The tunnel was also not as tall, making most of the group have to hunch over a bit as they walked.

"I guess I'll go first." Blue Raspberry said, looking at Vi'ira before walking through the door and into the dark tunnel. The Dwarf waited for Vi'ire to enter as well before walking in behind them both, holding the lantern for them to see by. The rest of the miners followed suit, the final man closing the door behind him as he'd been instructed by the leader.

The cave was vast and open in front of them, extending off into all sorts of directions. The cave resembled a ravine, with rock ledges coating the sides of stones and paths of the cave going even further down. Many of it was still covered in darkness, the lantern only light a few feet in front of them, but it was easy to make out the intricate cobwebs covering almost every inch of stone. It was no wonder why these miners were wary about venturing inside. It was creepy enough as is, but the spiders would only aid in making that worse. Vi'ira's rapier was already out and ready, her grip firm on the decorated hilt. As if the arachnids were not making her uneasy enough, she felt off balance surrounded by so much shadow. Her Moon was no where to be found so far underground, but nevertheless, she trusted that she would be guided safely out alongside Blue Raspberry and the miners.

Vi'ira focused on the sounds all around her: the sound of thick shoe soles grinding against the loose rocks, water dripping on wet stone, yet no little legs skittering about. The cave was almost...eerily quiet. Something was off. As if the arachnids were anticipating prey, or perhaps waiting for someone brave enough to journey into the terrifying cave. Almost on cue, spiders began to quietly hiss as a handful of decently-sized spiders emerged from in front of Blue Raspberry and Vi'ira. The lantern reflected off of the dark hair that grew out of their spindly legs. Their many eyes darted around, focusing back and forth between the adventurers and the miners. They were hungry.

Vi'ira closed her eyes as she honed in on the magic within her. Air began to circle rapidly around her, slowly focusing on her hands¹. The wind began to wrap around the rapier in her hand, extending out and strengthening the blade, while it formed an entire sword in her right hand. She now wielded two blades, and she made sure to waste no time waiting for the spiders to attack first. She charged towards the one standing on the far right and spun herself around. The spider got cut, but jumped out of the way before the second blade could make contact. It hissed ferociously, and Vi'ira felt a grin tug at the corner of her mouth.

This was certainly going to be fun.

---

1. Summon Wind Blades

While Vi'ira charged forwards to engage the spiders, Blue Raspberry's armor started to spark with electricity. One spider charged at them, and the knight responded by slamming down on the top of its head with a gauntleted fist. It let out a shriek, reeling from the strike, and wobbled on its eight legs. A feeling of numbness spread through its body from the electrical shock to its system. While it was struggling, Blue Raspberry struck out at it again, punching one of its legs in the joint which broke off, the end of it seemingly melted by something.

Seeing the danger of the two individuals in front, several of the spiders skittered up out of the pair's way, climbing onto the walls of the cavern and up out of reach of Vi'ira's blades and the knight's fists. They began to circle around to try and assault the group from behind, aiming for the miners.

"They're circling behind! Look out!" the Dwarf called out to the others who turned toward the incoming threat, their makeshift weaponry in hand.

As one of the spiders lunged for the miners, it was suddenly wrenched away, swung through the air on the end of a blue tentacle-like whip and slammed down onto the back of another spider. Blue Raspberry stood with their hands together, the ooze appendage connected to a glob of blue goo between their hands. The whip retracted and disappeared back into their gauntlets quickly and they ran back toward the group of miners. They jumped up, landing their feet on the wall, and began to run directly up it, a coating of the same blue goo as the whip had been made of on their boots.

"I got these ones!" Blue Raspberry called to Vi'ira, taking charge of defending the miner's from the spiders on the wall while she handled those on the ground.

---

Lightning Armor
Flesh Rend
Rubber Whip
Slimy Hands

Vi’ira barely had time to watch Blue Raspberry in dismay as blue goo coated their boots while they scaled the wall like it the same ground underneath their feet moments ago They were truly unlike anyone else Vi’ira had met: so aloof, yet strong and knightlike. And with such a name as Blue Raspberry? She surely wasn’t going to forget this individual any time soon.

She regained her balance from her last strike to the spider, a clan of three standing before her and the miners. She sneered at the creatures, clutching onto her swords with white knuckles. One of them pounced, launching itself directly towards her. Vi’ira matched its ferocity and sprinted towards it before dropping to a slide underneath it and holding her swords out above her. The blades sliced through the stomach of the spider, and it went flying lifelessly to the rocky ground. The miners at the front of the group jumped back, pressing themselves further into the wall and away from the spiders.

While her attention was directed towards the spider she had just downed, another jumped onto her back, a great weight. From afar, the giant spiders were a scary sight, but now that this one was up close and directly on her, she couldn’t help but squirm. It’s legs wrapped around her waist and around her neck. Without second thought, she inhaled and felt electricity pulsing through her veins, making its way all the way across her body. A thin shield of lightning covered her clothing¹, and as soon as it made contact with the spider, it lost its grip on her back and collapsed to the ground. It’s long, hairy legs twitched viscously. She turned to face the lone spider ahead of her, but as she looked up, she noticed a spider rapidly approaching Blue Raspberry from behind.

“Blue! Behind ye!”

---

1. Lightning Armor

Blue Raspberry punched another spider, sending a jolt of electricity into it, partially melting it, and knocking it off the wall to the ground where the miners finished it off with their picks and shovels. They heard Vi'ira's warning and turned their head around inhumanly far to see the spider coming up from behind. They couldn't kick because they needed both feet against the wall to keep from falling and there were still more spiders in front of them to deal with, so they couldn't just turn around to face the new threat.

Luckily, the ooze did have a trick up their sleeve to help deal with this. As the spider pounced toward them, a blue, oozey tentacle emerged from behind their cloak and smacked down on the spider, crushing it against the wall and electrocuting it. The slimy tentacle quickly changed in texture until it resembled more of a blue-scaled snake tail that was emerging from the back of the knight's chain skirt. Blue Raspberry just hoped the slimier truth behind their tail hadn't been noticed before they had been able to disguise it as a tail. They also hoped the miners wouldn't be too freaked out that the knight suddenly had giant a blue snake tail... Well, for now, they still had some spiders to deal with. Talking to the miners and trying to badly explain how they did everything they did in this battle would have to wait.

While Blue Raspberry was fighting spiders on the wall, a much larger spider than the others crawled forth to face Vi'ira. It's mouth opened wide and a stream of web suddenly shot forth toward its Elven opponent.

---

Prehensile Tail
Lightning Armor
Flesh Rend
Web (Bigger Spider)

Within only a few seconds of turning her attention away to warn Blue Raspberry, a large spider had approached Vi’ira and a stream of webbing shot directly at her. Thanks to her lightning armor, the web propel instant, ricocheting off the electricity protecting her¹. Her gaze shot to the large spider and her eyes widened. They can get even bigger??

Of course the spiders can get even bigger.

She honed her attention back on the smaller of the spiders ahead of her. Getting the minions out of the way was a priority if she wanted to get a few good swings in on the larger spider. She held her blades high, waiting for it to approach. The arachnid hissed, shooting another web that quickly bounced off of her armor. With its ranged attack deemed useless, the spider lurched at Vi’ira. As it pounced forward, she quickly stepped on what seemed to be invisible platforms, using the wind to get herself behind the creature². She raised both blades and brought them down on the center of its body, slicing it into two clean parts.

With her back turned to the larger arachnid, she was unaware of the incoming swing of its leg directly to her back. She felt the leg hit her hard in the square of her back, but felt it quickly recoil as it reacted to the stinging lightning. She collapsed to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. She quickly rolled the side right as another leg came barreling to the ground towards her. Hoisting herself up into a kneel, she sent a large gust of wind straight for the spider³. It propelled backwards with great speed, slamming into the cavern walls away from her and the miners, but it remained conscious.

Vi’ira whipped her head around to the miners, pointing at the opposite end of the dark stone path where their exit lay ahead, “Now! Cross while we finish ‘em off!”

The miners scuttled across the path, some with their knees shaking. They ran as a group, running as fast as they could towards safety. Vi’ira turned her attention back to the giant spider and cracked her neck.

---

1. Lightning Armor 
2. Steps of the Wind
3. Push/Pull

Blue Raspberry followed behind the miners from on the wall, defending them from the rear while they crossed to safety. The spiders were a lot more cautious now after seeing Blue Raspberry fight. They kept their distance and closed in a semicircular formation, trying to overwhelm the knight. One spider shot a line of silk at them, like they had tried with Vi'ira, but the webs were burned by the lightning arcing off of their metal armor before it could have any effect.

All of the spiders pounced at once on the knight, but it was to no avail. With a swing of a slimy, whip-like tentacle, they were all sent crashing to the ground behind the fleeing miners. They swung their slimy whip a few more times to make sure the spiders wouldn't get up and chase after the fleeing miners. They squashed them, the sound of their crunching exoskeletons echoing through the cavern and their bodily fluids being flung in every direction.

Finally, the last of the miners ran down the path, away from the giant spiders and toward the exit. Blue Raspberry walked down the wall and finally stepped onto the ground again. They looked to Vi'ira who was locked in combat with a much larger spider than the rest.

"You need any help?" They called to her. She looked like she was handling herself, but they couldn't be too sure. They wanted to help as much as possible, but the miners might also need some more escorting in case there were any more spider ahead. They were armed with pickaxes, but who knew if that would be enough?

Should they help Vi'ira in her fight, or stick with the fleeing miners? Ah, why was making decisions so hard?

---

Rubber Whip
Static Stature