At Linda's statement, Aethon looks down at his stomach, still somewhat bloated by what was left of his earlier meals.  "Hmm.  I don't know if it'll be that bad, but this will certainly be the largest meal I've ever had."<br/><br/>Lifting it's head up to his, Aethon begins to unceremoniously swallow it down.  Although it's horns give him some pause, there fortunately aren't any pointing in directions that severely hamper his progress.  As he moves further down it's neck, a bulge begins to travel steadily down Aethon's chest.  Clamping its wings to its back, his efforts are obviously becoming more labored as he encounters the bulk of the dragon's torso.  As the limp form of the dragon steadily disappears, Aethon's stomach quickly begins to resemble a rapidly-inflating balloon.  Much as he did earlier, once past the halfway point Aethon laboriously hoists the remaining bulk of the meal up into the air to allow gravity to help as much as possible.  However, he goes one step further and simply drops his haunches to the ground, allowing his growing midsection to support some of the weight of it's occupant.<br/><br/>As the last bit of scaled tail slides into his mouth and down his throat, he slowly staggers back to his feet.  Although his stomach isn't<span style="font-style: italic">quite</span>touching the ground, its bulk is such that he is going to have trouble moving until it reduces in size.  Turning rather ponderously to Linda, he begins to speak but instead does his best to stifle a rather drawn-out belch, his stomach pulling up almost a full inch and obviously outlining the dragon's unmoving form within him.  "You know, in retrospect I think you might have been right.  This isn't something that my body can deal with as well as yours can.  I think I'll leave the next one to you."  In the meantime, his stomach has already begun the process of breaking down its new occupant, slowly kneading the massive ball of flesh and scales into as compact a bulge as it can.<br/><br/>Looking over at Alizome as she slides down the rope into the well, he hauls himself over to the edge before looking down rather dubiously.  "Well, I think you're going to need to find a different way for Linda and I to get down there.  Even ignoring our current states, we don't really...climb.  At all.  Or at least not this kind of climbing.  I can probably handle carrying anything you find, though.<br/><br/>[<a class="postlink" href="http://orokos.com/roll/160091">Perception check</a>:<span style="text-decoration: underline">1d20+3</span><span style="font-weight: bold">7</span>-> Fail ]<br/>[<a class="postlink" href="http://orokos.com/roll/160092">Knowledge (Arcana) check</a>:<span style="text-decoration: underline">1d20+6</span><span style="font-weight: bold">26</span>-> Pass both levels ]<br/><br/>As he looks around trying to find some way of helping his friends down the well, Aethon looks up only to see Linda move back as a rather large section of the wall pivots and reveals a passage leading further down.  "Well, it looks like we haven't yet found all of this place's surprises quite yet.  Judging from how that was concealed, though, I'd suggest caution for whoever goes down there; illusions like that weren't employed lightly."