Episode 2: Welcome to the Jungle!

Disappointed to have not found the source of the crash, Baracus stalks the room impatiently. The discovery of the crawlspace makes him feel no better. This enemy is using his size against him.

"Can you shrink me?" he rasps to Erden, Rydler, and Ybus.

Erden pulls Timear off of his shoulder, "Go my friend, let me see through your eyes what's in this tunnel..."

With that, Timear takes off down the tunnel while Erden watches through his familiar's eyes.

Baracus marvels at the never-ending ingenuity of his friend.

"Too clever by far"

Ybus kneels in front of the crawlspace and leans over to catch a sideways view, conveniently blocking his own Light from entering.

Urban sees that Ybus' eccentric habits are culminating up towards self-destructive habits once again. Knowing his own role here, Urban heaves a heavy sigh - it's time to do it: a maintenance intervention.

"Stop, Ybus. That's poison. Those are dangerous drugs. You don't need those - you're going to hurt yourself." Urban starts pilfering through the halfling's pockets and bags, setting the nefarious substances back on the table.

He shakes his head at the string of rat corpses. "And this? Come on, Ybus. We're in a RAT CULT TEMPLE right now! Did you notice? It's full of monsters trying to give us DISEASE and turn us into ORGAN SLUDGE. Don't you think it might be a good idea to at least decide not to carry around PIECE OF FILTH STRING OF RAT CORPSES!"

Urban takes the string of rats and pulls them away. "Use something else for a light. I know it doesn't matter what you use, so don't argue with me. Here use this if you want." Urban offers a small bauble-handled whirling drum that he bought back at the craft market at Pradesh. "Or use something else. The rats are disgusting. You're driving me crazy right now."

Urban keeps an eye on the tunnel as he motions through the chastisement, moving Ybus back for safety and restoring him to some level of order. "Come on look sharp, Ybus. We don't know what's going to happen next. Be ready and stay behind me."

Urban takes position with shield forward to protect his friend.

"Noooo! Not my lucky penis sheath!" Ybus complains as he is frisked and all his precious belongings confiscated. "Wait! Wait, I need that jar! Aww."

He glumly settles behind Urban and the shield, and waits for the report from animal reconnaissance. While attention is fixated upon the tunnel, Ybus lithely stretches out a hand to reclaim the vials of pale blue crystals, and the jar of a black pudding.

Baracus grabs the vial of pale blue crystals before Ybus can.

"Urban is right. Don't do drugs!"

Ybus pouts, jumping twice to reach up in vain towards Keep-Away-BA. Unable to traverse the insurmountable mountain, Ybus tries to settle for the slime-jar.

Erden can be heard to let out a deep sigh, but doesn't say anything, focused as he is on seeing through Timear's eyes.

Rydler stares at Ybus with a mix of disgust, amusement, and utter confusion. He opens his mouth to talk but words escape him briefly. He opens again, stammering out his words "I...You...Did you really put a rotting rat corpse around your..." he looks down and shudders at what horrors might lay behind Ybus' pants "I don't see the problem with just carrying it around, I mean it was a savior of ours when Urban and I were in the portal. You really shouldn't put it around anywhere near where your body has openings though. What is this jar? Why is it so important to you, Ybus?"

Ybus speaks in a conspiratorial, child-like whisper, as though letting Rydler in on the secrets of the universe. "It's got stuff!"

Rydler shrugs and whispers back with a wink "Good enough for me." Addressing the rest "I say give the little guy the jar of goop back. One, it probably isn't the weirdest thing he owns. Two, it beats the alternative of him wearing a dead rat on his member. If the jar of goop prevents that, I say what's the worst that can hap..." He gives a sideways glance down at Ybus before looking back and continuing "We can give him guidelines! To begin, Guideline 1: Don't eat the goop. Guideline 2: Don't stick the goop in any of your other orifices or your orifice into the goop."

Rydler bends over to Ybus and whispers "Feel free to pitch in your own guidelines; it'll show them you have chutzpah and are responsible enough to carry the jar."

"Wererats," Erden says quietly to the others, "Wormtail and Wormtongue are their names. They're talking about their boss, it sounds like."

As they begin to climb down the ladder, he pulls his consciousness back into his body, silently calling Timear back to him, and turns to the others, "They're heading to the room with the well, let's go!"

Ybus ensures that the black goop has settled to the bottom of the jar, then snatches a vivisected rat in the distraction and tears off the head. He pops open the jar, drops the dried head and skull in, and re-seals. "Science!" he hisses, wanting to observe the reaction.

At the call to action, Ybus diverts his attention to the new orders, reasoning that an unobserved experiment ought to conveniently delay itself until the appropriate time. Meanwhile, he mentally commands his Unseen Servant to acquire the pale blue crystals (For Science!) from the confiscation table and follow him with the party.

Ybus tries to follow Erden as quietly as an overburdened donkey with conniption.

As they begin to move, Erden turns to Ybus, "Quiet down!" he whispers harshly.