To Keene's great surprise, after Palaren picked up the mushroom, instead of handing to him, the man popped it into his mouth as if it were the most nonchalant thing in the world. Even Keene wouldn't have eaten the entire thing. His eyes widened slightly, in limbo between confusion as absolute incredulity. There was little he could do about the situation and little he could do. Instead, Keene simply remained on the ground, blinking at the methodical chewing face of the trident wielding man, wondering just what exactly was going to happen to him. When Fallon finally spoke, it was an emotional interpretation of about what Keene was thinking. While he was plenty aware that it was highly likely the mushrooms were potentially poisonous, Keene had assumed a small amount would be suitable enough for ingestion to test. After determining whether the fungus was harmful or helpful, then he had planned to consume more. The experiment, however, was already underway, and there was a strange shifting in Palaren's eyes that didn't quite sit right with the young initiate.
There was little time to think on the matter more, however, as once Palaren started to show sings that the mushroom was having some, unknown effect, there was the sickening sound of skittering legs, rustling in the darkness. Small clicks resounded around the cavern as little bits of rock and dirt clattered about as the shifting shadows began to take form. Keene had begun to perspire under the circumstances, a small pallor of apprehension playing at the back of his mind as he cautiously twisted to stare off into the inky darkness beyond the ethereal glimmer of the mushrooms. Small flits of motion were caught in the pale light: shivering pieces of fur, a leg, a strange sheen of metal. When the creatures finally stepped out into the open, Keene flinched back involuntarily. There was something about arachnids that, while he was not explicitly afraid of them, instilled a sense of caution within him. It was like an innate memory of some terrible, forgotten past that he had not experienced but somehow seemed to remember. There was also the disconcerting fact that the creatures before them were the product of magical experiments, making them far more dangerous than they appeared; and they appeared quite threatening as they were.
He couldn't manage to determine how many there were exactly, the constatn shifting of legs and the manner in which they moved - like angry dark clouds rolling over each other in a gathering meaning force - left him guessing anywhere from three to eight, and as the larger the number, the more danger, Keene decided not to take chances and assumed the larger quantity. They rushed forward towards him, their skittering made all the more threatening by Keene close proximity to the ground, and from his perspective they seemed twice the size, making them intimidatingly massive. The glow of the fungus illuminated their hairy bodies in a sickly glow, and as they closed to descend upon him, he found it odd that only one stopped above him, its wicked looking blades quivering above him. The tickle of the hair was the last straw. Keene was only partially immobilized, and the feeling of the spider's fur against his face was more than he could handle. With little thought, Keene's right hand balled into a fist, res seeping out of his skin before he slammed his hand into the creature's body from below. As he did so, his res rushed upwards, most of it transmuting into a furious blast of air. Of the res that was left, Keene shoved it into spikes, gesturing a snap with his left hand - though with only his pointer and thumb, there was no sound - transmuting the jagged remnants of res into icy projectiles.
There was little time to think on the matter more, however, as once Palaren started to show sings that the mushroom was having some, unknown effect, there was the sickening sound of skittering legs, rustling in the darkness. Small clicks resounded around the cavern as little bits of rock and dirt clattered about as the shifting shadows began to take form. Keene had begun to perspire under the circumstances, a small pallor of apprehension playing at the back of his mind as he cautiously twisted to stare off into the inky darkness beyond the ethereal glimmer of the mushrooms. Small flits of motion were caught in the pale light: shivering pieces of fur, a leg, a strange sheen of metal. When the creatures finally stepped out into the open, Keene flinched back involuntarily. There was something about arachnids that, while he was not explicitly afraid of them, instilled a sense of caution within him. It was like an innate memory of some terrible, forgotten past that he had not experienced but somehow seemed to remember. There was also the disconcerting fact that the creatures before them were the product of magical experiments, making them far more dangerous than they appeared; and they appeared quite threatening as they were.
He couldn't manage to determine how many there were exactly, the constatn shifting of legs and the manner in which they moved - like angry dark clouds rolling over each other in a gathering meaning force - left him guessing anywhere from three to eight, and as the larger the number, the more danger, Keene decided not to take chances and assumed the larger quantity. They rushed forward towards him, their skittering made all the more threatening by Keene close proximity to the ground, and from his perspective they seemed twice the size, making them intimidatingly massive. The glow of the fungus illuminated their hairy bodies in a sickly glow, and as they closed to descend upon him, he found it odd that only one stopped above him, its wicked looking blades quivering above him. The tickle of the hair was the last straw. Keene was only partially immobilized, and the feeling of the spider's fur against his face was more than he could handle. With little thought, Keene's right hand balled into a fist, res seeping out of his skin before he slammed his hand into the creature's body from below. As he did so, his res rushed upwards, most of it transmuting into a furious blast of air. Of the res that was left, Keene shoved it into spikes, gesturing a snap with his left hand - though with only his pointer and thumb, there was no sound - transmuting the jagged remnants of res into icy projectiles.
