"And you can definitely pull it off?" Will asks. When he sees the look on your face, he waves his hands, adding quickly, "I'm just saying, when magic gets involved, it tends to magnify a little screw-up into something quite…irrevocable."
"Yeah, like an explosion," Max says. "One of the few things that could make our current situation worse."
"I think I've got it," you say, your tone filled with more confidence than you yourself currently possess. "It should be fine."
Max makes a slightly skeptical noise in his throat. In his defense, it wasn't the most emphatic assertion. Still, he doesn't argue.
Trying as hard as you can to keep the incantation in your head, you step forward. Before you, standing only a few feet away, is a squat gray figure with a monstrous collection of features: blind white eyes with jet-black fangs too large for its own jaws.
The shock of seeing the creature almost sends the word out of your head, and your tongue trips over the syllables as you manage to gasp: "Vastrinat!"
The creature suddenly stiffens, a shudder shooting right up its body. Then, with a great, lamenting wail, it falls over backwards, clawing at its own face with the great red talons at the end of its long, thin fingers.
"Gods!" Will cries. "What's it doing?! What did you do to it?!"
"Who cares?" Sonia demands. "It's not a problem anymore. Let's go, shall we? We're on a deadline!"
Your party turn, leaving the gibbering creature to its agony, still ripping helplessly at its throat. You can see the pity and horror in Will's and Romilly's eyes through the gloom, and its meaning is all too clear.
Your group proceeds on through the catacombs, none of you speaking much. Finally, you come to a ladder leading up towards the sky, a hatch closed above it.
"Up we go," Sonia says. "I wonder what's waiting for us out there."
"Hopefully something better than what was down here," Romilly replies quietly.
You grip the first rung of the ladder, starting to pull yourself up.
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