None of the hapless guards are able to affect an escape from their fleshy prisons in time to survive as acids and powerful muscle contractions steadily start breaking down their bodies. Just as in Gorun's case, muffled shouts and struggles give way to the much more peaceful sound of overworked stomachs doing their job and transforming their contents into nutrition for their owners, with the noise seeming almost loud enough to worry about waking the next building. Not that that could be helped, of course. The only stomach not doing strenuous work is still the naga's long gullet, still holding Ambrosia and an unconscious guard in a tight, immobilizing embrace but without the surge of burning acids that work mark genuine intent to harm. The fairy hears the conversation dully, at one remove; the naga's own voice blasts her ears, of course, powerful lungs being just a few feet over her head, but everyone else's responses muffled by layers of fat and muscle to get into the bulge she makes in the captain's tail even as she loosens her coils to let Xarithe have a bit more freedom of movement, coils drooping down towards the floor and freeing his upper body.<br/><br/>The naga's face freezes as Xarithe mentions his own employer. "Sir Moss." She echoes, voice gone flat and emotionless. "You mean you're not here to..." trailing off, she pauses, and takes another stab. "You're just here to..." A long, deep breath, as odd emotions flit across her face, and she adds, "I just blew my cover for... I need a drink. You're just here to free the kids, and you had no idea that someone was already working on..." she mutters a powerful curse in serpent-tongue before switching back to common. "I love it when a bureaucracy starts to go senile, don't you? Right hand, meet the left hand, you two have never met before I'm sure. Great. I could have just ordered my people to fight to the death, broken out into the woods, and hid forever without any of you being any wiser that I wasn't just a cowardly cultist, and my cover would be intact. This is going to look<span style="font-style: italic">fan-tastic</span>on my report..." Xarithe's ministrations get a tight little grin as she works on the frosted-over wound, but she's clearly to distracted and anxious to really be appropriately appreciative. As Ambrosia speaks, she absently pats the bulge in her scales that marks her current resting place, before answering, "Of course there is. And you've already got one cultist down there- your friends took care of the<span style="font-style: italic">almost</span>all the rest quite quickly." Despite that encouragement, the stomach only relaxes a little to give Ambrosia a little wriggle room inside the dark, humid sac, not actually trying to bring her back up. Weaving through the carnage, Kaheksa says, "I could do that, for any that prefer-conventional healing would possibly be preferable to some of you if you have ample resources, but I cannot know who will prefer what until I try."<br/><br/>[[Here we go! Trip is over, and regularly scheduled updates can now continue.<br/><br/>Final status:<br/><br/>Albali (17/20 HP, ate 1 gnome)<br/>Turilia<br/>Sira (Barkskin, Feather Step, ate two humans, 33/35 HP)<br/>Xarithe (Barkskin, Resist Digestion, 23/35 HP)<br/>Gorun (ate a human and a feline, 19/31 HP)<br/>Eiyre (ate a gnome)<br/>Ambrosia (12 nonlethal damage, swallowed)<br/><br/>XP: Everyone receives 540 XP for the encounter. Bonuses: The felines had 3 HD and the humans and gnomes each had 2, so- +50 XP for Albali and Eiyre, +100 XP for Gorun, and +50 XP to Ambrosia.<br/>Loot: ???]]