Flies are already beginning to gather on the Thing's carcass.  They descend in humming caches of motion, blue and jade light flocking on their winking bodies.  In moments, the beast is surrounded by bustling galleries of tiny flashes.<br/><br/>Fern manages to extricate her arms and torso from the death grip.  She finds her leathers in wrenched tatters - plates flapping from ripped or severed straps, scales gouged almost all the way through and buckles snapped in half.  Her legs and hips remain snared in the rubbery fingers hardening around them.<br/><br/>Above, Miaren finds many knobby stones to attach a rope to, and a spill of handholds running down the face of the mountain.  It will not be an easy climb, especially with the water's slick covering everything, but it will not be too difficult.