Hydra 2

The hydra howls as Agar's repeated acid orbs continue to sear into its flesh, and it swivels all sixteen of its heads to try and target him. Dozens of lethal revenant worms squirm and burrow into the halfling's flesh, actually justifying his worst insect phobias. Forty feet away, a zombie containing the spirit of the Puppeteer is casting Mordenkainen's Disjunction, and only Agar is close enough to stop him.

No pressure.

"Get them off get them off get them off. . ." The alienist cudgels his will and tries to think over the panic. He's only going to have one chance at this, and no one else can help him in time. He could lay down a fireball at his feet. He could block the line of effect somehow. He could, he could. . . Behind him, the Puppeteer's voice is rising to a climax as he begins to finish the spell, and the grubs are all over his body and squirming in his hair. "Got to think!" In his mind's eye Agar scans the twitching arcane spell structures that he has already prepared that morning, looking for the perfect one that could stop the Puppeteer and rid himself of the revenant worms all at once. Amazingly enough, he finds just the thing.

As he starts casting, Agar gasps as a worm pops through the skin of his throat and burrows towards his lungs. It takes almost unnatural concentration to not cough and botch the spell, but he spends hours every day contemplating the hideous possibilities of the outer realms; surely he can finish a simple spell! The syllables trip from his tongue in a dissonant cacophany, ripping a hole towards the plane of radiance, and he blocks out distractions long enough to finish his incantation. As he does, a brilliant sunburst spreads out of the halfling.

The heat and searing radiance give him something of a sunburn, but it also instantly turns the crawling revenant worms within his body into tiny charred mounds of sizzling and blackened fat. It's a worthwhile tradeoff. In the process, the spell blasts the spellcasting Puppeteer into rancid dust, and vaporizes a layer of flesh from the hydra. The half-formed structure of Mordenkainen's Disjunction dissipates harmlessly.

"Auggh!" cries Velendo from across the room as his eyes boil in their sockets. "I'm blind!"

"Sorry!" Agar collapses to his knees, blinks, and looks up at the hydra. Does he still feel the acceleration of Nolin's mass haste coursing through his body? Yes! He uses the extra time to cast chain lightning at the hydra, targeting a different head with each lightning bolt. Electricity blasts from his fingers and smacks into the beast's body, arcs wildly, and all sixteen heads simultaneously explode. Rotted flesh showers the grotto.

"Agar, you're my hero!" crows Nolin.

Thirty two heads begin to regrow.

Nolin swallows drily. "Agar, you're not my hero any more."

"I can see why," mutters the halfling in horror.

"We're going to have to kill the body!" cautions Galthia. He leaps onto the mass of necks and slashes down with his hand. "Target the torso, not the heads."

"But not with electricity, damn it," thinks Stone Bear in the water. "It travels through the water. That hurt!"

"Sorry," says Agar, but it's not entirely clear who he's talking to. "I think I still hurt it, anyways. I hope." His voice is uncertain.

"The sunburst did." Mara considers casting remove paralysis on Burr-Lipp, but the bullywug is nowhere to be seen. Instead she lays hands on herself and heals all of her wounds. Then she instinctively draws upon the power of Aeos to give everyone nearby a bonus to their defense, moves closer, and attacks the hydra's body with her mace. She hits it twice, and takes putrescent chunks of flesh out of it with each powerful blow.

Malachite triggers a positive energy burst that fills the room with emerald light. Unable to see him with no heads, the hydra just shudders as another large layer of skin is seared away from its body. It rears its elephantine bulk up out of the water, displacing huge waves of water that slap at the people nearby. Cruciel grabs Velendo and pulls him backwards just as a massive neck stump whirls through the place he was just standing. Then Malachite releases a second positive energy burst that blasts right through the undead abomination. Revenant worms cascade into the water, and the corpse of the hydra sinks down out of sight.

The angel's clear eyes widen. "We've got to get them away from those worms!" Cruciel dives into the depths to find Priggle. Velendo is blinded and can't see the hydra's body, but he isn't taking any chances. He flame strikes where it was just to be sure, and a huge gout of steam and smoke rises from the blackened revenant worms as they die. Cruciel's beautiful face surfaces next to Velendo, and she thrusts a bedraggled and disgusted svirfneblin at him before diving back down for Burr-Lipp. Stone Bear surfaces on his own, frustrated and hurt.

Cruciel looks pained as she reaches the surface a second time. "I have several of those things in me. Can you destroy them, please?" She shows her pearly skin, and the wriggling bulges that squirm inside it.

Nolin's face twists, and he pats Velendo on the shoulder. "I'll get it." Nolin cuts open the angel's skin and burns away the worms one by one, and the angel manages to almost not make any noise as she bites her perfect lower lip.

"Everyone, I'm sorry if I got a little carried away," confesses Agar. His voice is faster than normal, still riding the edge of hysteria. "There were worms on me. I had them in front and behind and they were trying to turn me into undead and..."

"You blew up the Puppeteer," answers Nolin. "I'm okay with that. Hey, someone should probably keep an eye on that rubble."

"Why are you apologizing?" asks Galthia.

"It was very well done," comes a voice from a pile of rocks.