The hasty jog through the tunnels was quiet most of the way, except for a few quick battles with some diminutive wormy things. They were easily dispatched though, and the run became easier as the tunnels started to cool off.

Back in the Hookah tunnels though, things seemed different. An odd moaning noise echoed through the rock walls and the Hookahs themselves cowered inside of their tunnels behind any bit of rock that could serve as cover.

Glot perks his ears up and whimpers. "Something bad happen – monsters." A growl escapes the Titanian's throat.

Matchstick hefts a broken stalagmite. "Wasn't Tock supposed to keep the monsters away while we were out fetching the wire goop?"

Hisses and growls emanate from the darkened shadows of the tunnels, followed by a sharp yelp from some odd beast in the central part of the hive.

The Hekoye nods to the Jupani, and replies, "He was, yes." His ears perk up at the yelping. "Though it could be that he requires help now… " adds Lochinvar, and starts to hurry towards the source of the commotion.

"Hookah mother that way. If machine break then she making more monsters," the Titanian growls and jogs behind the winged coyote. "Hope little fuzzy guy not run out of wire." He points down a smaller corridor towards the workroom. "You wants to try to keep monsters back or check on Technopriest?"

The Jupani sniffs at the air and sneezes loudly, picking up a rancid odor that's slowly oozing through the tunnels.

"Best we all check on Tock," Lochinvar replies.

Glot nods and darts down the tunnel. The moss on the walls brightens as he rushes past and manages to offer some small reprieve from the gloom.

"Guarding your back, as ever," Matchstick barks, twirling his stony bludgeon.

Nodding to Matchstick, Lochinvar hurries quickly after the Titanian.

The three canines find their passage hindered here and there by the corpses of some of the Hookahs, their shells empty and lifeless. The workroom is silent save for a gurgling hissing noise and as Lochinvar closes in, he can see the cause. The Rath'ani Technopriest is lying motionless on the floor, a few broken stones strewn about him hinting at an unexpected surprise falling from the ceiling above. Across from the Technopriest is another one of those large black wormy creatures with a tendril wrapped firmly around the unconscious raccoon's ankle as it slowly reels its prey in towards the larger bulk of its mass.

A small red puddle near the raccoon's head smears as he's dragged along. Tock whimpers quietly and flinches but still doesn't seem to be awake just yet.

Lochinvar gestures the Jupani over to the prone form of Tock. "'Stick, try and see if you can get him out of there without hurting him further." He hefts the stalagmite he's still holding and looks to the Titanian. "Glot, you're with me. We'll try persuade it to let Tock go."

The Titanian grins and pounds his fist against his hand. "Glot very good at convincing." Meanwhile the Jupani pulls out his knife and slinks in towards the unconscious raccoon. That black coat of his does a fairly good job at keeping him concealed… for now at least.

The Hekoye smiles just a little at Glot, and starts towards the creature, weapon poised ready to strike.

A guttural sounding gurgle burbles out of the monster. It's hard to tell if there's actually a mouth in there anywhere, really. One tentacle reaches up and grabs a stony protrusion from the ceiling and starts to yank on it, while another takes a swipe at both the Titanian and Hekoye.

Lochinvar attempts to gauge the swipes at him, trying only to strike when there's a good chance that the creature will connect.

The first swing misses the more agile (and smaller) Hekoye wildly, although a yelp from Glot indicates that he wasn't so lucky. The tendril pulling on Tock's ankle suddenly goes tight as "something" appears to have grabbed the raccoon's arm.

Gurgling angrily, the monster focuses his attentions on the raccoon again, giving Lochinvar a potential opening.

Lochinvar hits! Bits of black squirmy things spill out from the monster's innards and it flinches inwards. The tendril attached to the raccoon's ankle tears in half as it draws the remainder of the limb back in… and the tentacle wrapped around the stone protrusion on the ceiling yanks downwards, wrenching several jagged looking rocks loose.

The Hekoye pulls his dagger out from the creature and hurriedly gets out of the way of the falling rocks, at the same time looking around to the Jupani. "'Stick, get Tock out of there now," he shouts over as he moves. "You too, Glot!"

Glot whines and starts backing out of the room while the Jupani grabs up the smaller Technopriest and dashes out as fast as his legs can go.

The creature bellows as rocks start raining down on it, and thrashes wildly. One tendril limb manages to find the Hekoye's left arm and wraps tightly around it.

Lochinvar turns around and snarls at the creature cutting off his escape, and attacks the tendril with his dagger.

Thankfully it's not a hard target to hit and with one swift motion the limb is hacked off, the remaining bit dissolving into foul smelling goop as it is separated from the larger whole.

Rocks start raining down from above. It looks like Lochinvar's being spared for now, although a few stones strike the Hekoye's attacker.

The winged-coyote quickly makes moves out of the range of the monster, and the falling rocks.

Thankfully it looks like the rock slide is contained to the back of the chamber and it doesn't look like the whole room is caving in just yet. The coyote manages to jump out through the doorway and smack into the side of a Titanian.

Matchstick eases the raccoon down onto the floor. "Took a bump to the head. I can't tell how bad he is just yet."

"I'm not a healer either, 'Stick," Lochinvar says. "Can you do anything for him? At least treat his wound?"

Glot peers back into the chamber. "Hope machine no broken more. Otherwise hive in big zaki-doo."

"He's breathing," Matchstick replies, ripping off part of his shirt and tying it around the Technopriest's head. "That's a good sign."

Lochinvar nods to the Titanian. "You should check it. Watch out in case that creature wasn't finished off by those rocks," he warns, then bends down on one knee beside the Jupani to watch him treat the Rath'ani.

The Titanian nods and quietly creeps in. "More monsters coming, Hookah mother. You should try and stop them before more get hurt."

Tock lets out a soft yelp and weakly swats at Matchstick's hand.

The Jupani smiles, "I think he's not so grave… "

"Fortunate," the Hekoye says while nodding, then gets to his feet. "Right, Glot. How's the machine?"

"Still broken, bits of ooky bits get stuck in it. But Glot can fix!" The Titanian hunkers down and sticks his head in a panel, drawing out a length of the golden wire he forged in the lava pits.

"How long?" Lochinvar asks.

Something scrabbles along the hallway ahead. It's small, but moving closer.

"Glot need an hour. Insides need to be cleaned out," the large wolf bites back.

"Rotten circuits! They attacked me from behind!" Tock suddenly yelps out, slapping at the Jupani's arm.

"Quicker would be better, Glot," Lochinvar urges. "Work as fast as you can."

Lochinvar looks at Matchstick. "You'd better stay with Tock. I'll keep guard along the approach tunnel and buy you time here."

A baby Hookah limps into the light, except something seems to be wrong with it. Its skin is mottled black. It trembles on its unsteady legs and suddenly falls over.

"Glot work as fast as he can!" the Titanian barks back as he pulls out a hammer.

The Hekoye looks at the little Hookah, then looks back at Matchstick. "Looks like you have two patients now," he says, and heads into the tunnel, making sure of his grip on his stalagmite-dagger.

The shell of the small Hookah cracks open and something black and wormy-looking oozes out. It brushes against the Hekoye's foot as he passes, leaving an odd tingly feeling against his foot pad.

Lochinvar shivers slightly, and looks back. "On second thoughts," he says, and lunges at the ooze with his dagger.

The dagger impacts the empty shell of the Hookah, cracking it further while the wormy thing takes the opportunity to rapidly curl up the weapon and encircle Lochinvar's hand. The tingling starts to feel more like burning.

With his other hand, Lochinvar tries in earnest to get the creature off of him.

From this close up, it looks as though the monster is made up of several small "worms" that can separate from the larger body or work together. Thankfully this one must be a baby, as it's only comprised of a few of the things. As the Hekoye pulls it away he can see a few spots on his fist that sport chemical burns of some sort.

As it falls away, the creature falls into its individual segments and then begins to reform again, crawling towards the Hekoye's foot.

Lochinvar backs away from it, swinging at it again with the dagger.

The dagger slicks through the center of the creature, cutting into several of the worm segments, which quickly begin to dissolve. The remaining ones flop about wildly, looking for the missing pieces of their body.

"This doesn't seem to be working all that well," the coyote mutters under his breath. "Glot! Hurry up with that machine!"

"Glot trying! You think you can do faster?" the Titanian barks back.

Tock pulls himself up a little. "Let me help. I … think I can do it."

More movement up ahead in the tunnel. Looks like more company is coming.

The Hekoye looks at the Rath'ani. "If you think you're up to it, do so. Are you?"

"Only one way to find out. My legs feel like jelly but I've been trained to fix machines with my eyes closed," Tock calls back.

Matchstick pulls his knife out. "There's not much more I can do for him. I think I'd better serve fighting along with you."

"Suits me fine," replies Lochinvar simply. "Let's go."

The Technopriest crawls into the chamber with the Titanian and starts to work. Meanwhile the black Jupani jumps to the Hekoye's side.

Matchstick pulls out his canteen. "Here, let me get some water on your hand. It might help that burn a little."

Lochinvar looks anxious to go, but nods to the Jupani. "All right."

The liquid seems to cool the burning sensation in the Hekoye's hand as it dribbles across the small wound and with a satisfied nod the Jupani re-corks his canteen and readies his knife again. "I smell a couple coming up just ahead. Heh, I wonder if folks are even going to believe that we had to fight these things up and down the planet when we get back home… "

"Let's worry about home later. Right now, we need to give them time to work," Lochinvar says, nodding to where Glot and Tock work on the machine, "and make sure they don't get bothered by … distractions."

Two more small black shapes crawl into the light. One of them crawls across the other and there's what looks like a brief tussle between the two. Well, not a tussle so much as a … merging?

Lochinvar glances at Matchstick. "What do you think we can do about that?"

As an answer, the Jupani hurls his knife into the mass of the two creatures. The thing makes a high pitched squeal and half of it starts to dissolve away while the rest of it writhes around as though unsure of what to do next.

The Hekoye watches the two pieces. "Tried that. Doesn't seem to work. Tries to reform itself," he comments.

"There's less of it now at least," Matchstick answers as he moves towards the creature with his broken stalagmite. "Just as long as it doesn't eat my favorite knife."

The coyote nods, but doesn't comment further for the moment.

The Jupani takes a swing at the rest of the creature, although one wormy segment manages to latch onto his foot and burn his shoe. He manages to squash it enough to get his knife back while the remaining few bits flop around on the stone floor before finally growing still.

Lochinvar shakes his head a little. "That didn't stop it."

"It's smaller now, innit? Besides… you notice that it's not moving anymore?" The wolf pricks his ears up and sniffs at the air again.

"Almost got it!" Tock shouts from behind.

Turning around to where Tock is, the coyote calls back, "Almost, or you have got it?"

"Almost – OWOWOW!! Don't hold that sparker so close!" the raccoon yelps back.

Glot's whine is unmistakable, "Sorry."

A hookah – a real one this time – dashes down the tunnel. It steps in the wormy mass, honks angrily and shakes its foot off and then pushes through the Hekoye and Jupani. "Whoooonk!"

Lochinvar eyes the Hookah. "That one looks okay. That means the machine is fixed now?"

Matchstick bumps against the stone wall of the passageway as the creature bumps past him. "Maybe, or this is an older one."

The Hookah pauses and starts sniffing at Lochinvar's backside. He feels an odd pull on his tail as the bony-thing vacuums air in.

The Hekoye's eyes widen a little and he turns around to face the little creature. "Do you mind?" he asks it.

Looks like Lochinvar turned around just in time as the Hookah had managed to suck up half of his tail into its snout. It warbles, sounding a little embarrassed and a little like it just got caught with its snout in the cookie jar before backing away a few paces and then dashing down the hall again.

Glot re-appears through the doorway as the Hookah dashes past. He scratches his head as the creature runs by and shrugs, "Little guy almost done. We should go see mother and make sure she all right."

Lochinvar grabs his tails and checks to make sure that all of his shinies are still there. "Right. We'll follow you."

A couple of the baubles have been pulled out of place, but are still attached.

"This way." Glot heads deeper down the tunnel, his foot squishing down in the black mass that used to be the monster.

The winged Hekoye follows the Titanian, working on reattaching his shinies as he walks.

It looks like the Titanian is jogging towards the center of the maze of caves. Odd glowing wires and more bits of machines make themselves apparent here and there as the trio moves in deeper.

After beating back a few more of the minor worm-things, Glot leads Lochinvar and the Jupani into a massive central chamber. Bits of Hookah shell are strewn about and the wires converge on a central depression. In the center of it sits the largest Hookah Lochinvar has ever seen. Easily three stories tall, its snout could probably inhale the Titanian if it felt the urge. Its eyes glow the same color as the panels on the walls. All around, healthy Hookahs try to clean up the bodies of their brothers.

"The Hookah mother, I presume," Lochinvar asides to Matchstick.

The Jupani simply nods, blinking at the massive thing.

The panels on the wall start to glow brighter and the giant hookah convulses – then suddenly, it sneezes!

Lochinvar reflexively steps back at the sound.

Something flies from its mouth and rolls across the floor. Slowly it uncurls and takes the shape of another baby hookah, except this one is black and not quite right like the last one.

The coyote looks at the creature, then to Glot. "I thought you said you fixed the machine?"

"Glot say it almost finished!" the Titanian huffs. "But Glot want to make sure Momma is okay."

The newborn creature wobbles on its feet and makes a soft mewling noise as if in pain.

Lochinvar looks at the mother creature, then back at Glot. "How can you tell if it's okay?"

Glot whines, "Bad ones are black. Good ones are bone colored."

"I meant the mother," the Hekoye says.

The baby hookah falls over, except instead of monsters breaking out of its shell, it simply oozes liquid. Another Hookah wanders over and starts to clean away the remnants.

The Titanian shrugs and looks up at the giant Hookah, "Hey! You okay?"

"WHONK!!!!" answers the giant Hookah mother, with a voice so loud it vibrates the whole room.

Lochinvar's ears flatten slightly at the noise. "I take it that is a 'yes'."

The lights along the walls start to shift colors, as do the Hookah mother's eyes. Glot tilts his head sideways as the shifts happen, while Matchstick starts to get his knife ready.

The coyote also checks his grip on his stalagmite, just in case.

More sneezing noises erupt from the Hookah mother's snout, although this time the only thing that comes out is more of that black gunk that's left over from squishing the wormy monsters.

"Ew … Hookah snot," Glot comments, making a face.

"You should get that off you quick, Glot. It tends to burn," Lochinvar offers.

The Titanian yelps and starts smearing the goop off of his fur while some of the Hookahs come over and offer a hand.

"It's fixed! I fixed it." A raccoon limps in from the entryway, clutching his bandaged head. "I think it's fixed, any road."

"'Stick, let Glot have some of the water?" says Lochinvar, then looks around to Tock. "Let's hope so."

The Hookah mother rears her head back again and starts to make sniffling noises. Meanwhile, Matchstick pours the remainder of his canteen over the Titanian's fur.

Tock limps over and grabs onto Lochinvar's arm for support. "Amazing machinery. I'd almost say it was from the First Ones, with a smattering of the Sifras' work as well."

Lochinvar gives the Rath'ani a helping arm of support. "First Ones, huh?" he says, not looking overly impressed. "Though we still need to find out if your fixing of the machine did the trick."

As if to answer, the Hookah mother sneezes again! Something white and round shoots from its snout, rolls across the floor and slowly uncurls.

"Hoot?" the newborn Hookah squeaks out as it slowly stands up on long wobbly legs.

The Titanian bounces from foot to foot, splashing bits of water around the chamber. "Yay! Glot can go home! Glot can go home!"

"Just one good Hookah doesn't necessarily mean that it's all working now, does it?" asks Lochinvar, looking mainly at Tock.

The Technopriest nods, adjusting his glasses, although one of the lenses is now missing. "Well, we could always stay here a bit longer and wait, and Glot and I can watch the machine. It was hastily repaired and should have a bit more long-term work done to it."

Lochinvar thinks for a moment. "I'd rather not leave anyone behind here." he says, then looks over to the Jupani. "When are we due to be picked up at that tower?"

"We need to check in within two days or they assume something went wrong. I don't know if this constitutes 'wrong', but we all seem to be alive." Matchstick glares at the Titanian. "And you'll have quite a bit of explaining to do at the Temple."

Glot whines again.

"Then we have at the most two days to make sure that everything is running smoothly," says the Hekoye. "At that point, we all go back."

"I'll go get our gear… " Matchstick grins, twirling a finger over his head. "We can baby-sit while the big guy and the little guy watch the machine."

Lochinvar nods to the Jupani. "Right. I'll stay here … just in case we missed any of the monster Hookahs."