She nods as she huddles beneath her cloak, looking miserably out at the forest.
"I was told to lead him here with the stag so I flew overhead, guiding the illusion. These little people came out of the woods and started to swarm him, so I fled. It was dark and so I could not make out too much."
Well. No time like the present. Nilan says, and he begins moving forward to the spot that Jerend was last seen.
Fingers, no expert in woodcraft, starts looking around on the ground for any signs or tracks that might indicate what happened here.
"Anyone see anythin' magic 'ere? Might jus' be a portal of some kin'" he mutters as he searches.
"Excellent point," Koriko agrees and incants a cantrip. "Zoresk, perhaps you can find tracks?"
As the group starts to mill about Irina moves to follow the headstrong priest worried he may get too far from the rest if he means to trigger the same event as Jerend...
The group begin to explore the area. After the initial fear of something jumping out to grab them, it turns out that this section of the forest is fairly benign. The most dangerous thing they see is an elk in the distance. Zoresk begins scouring over the ground, looking for months-old tracks or any sign of regular activity. Although he does not find something, he does quickly call out as he notices a strange seam in the ground.
Zoresk points out a strange break in the earth in the open field. Following it, the seam apparently forms a large, perfect circle in the centre of the field.
As the group finishes circling the odd break in the ground, Zoresk thinks over the cause of such an unnatural formation. "It's damned odd, for sure. One thing I'd like to know though, Miss Wigguns, you said you saw him getting dragged underground. Was that here within this circle? Some hole in the ground or something?"
Serunda nods slowly, her arms wrapped around her midsection.
"This may have been where the hole was? It was dark and I was high up. Hard to tell."
The seam goes down around five inches before the dagger taps rock. She can't seem to find the seam in the rock itself, even with her sharp dagger.
Fingers watches curiously, but stays well back from the circle in the ground.
A door of some kind? Should we clear the earth out to see if there is something we are not seeing?
Serunda remains a little ways back from the party as they investigate the circle on the ground.
"Can... can I go? Do you need me? Please, I'm worried."
"It may be a lid to an underground space. Made to be opened from below. So we have a crowbar perhaps, or some other lever? We should try to lift it. Serunda, perhaps you know a spell that might help us open this?", Koriko asks.
Serunda shrugs, and quickly chants a spell, gesturing at the circle on the ground.
There is a strange, loud CLUNK sound that comes from below the ground. The circle shudders briefly with the sound, but nothign else happens.
She frowns.
"That did... something."
Nilan begins inspecting the the ground carefully
Zoresk watches Serunda, scowling, as she begins her casting. I must try to learn what all that hand wiggling actually means so I'm not caught off guard again. His mood doesn't greatly improve when the spell finally goes off, but he gives the woman a grudging nod, "Well at least we know there is something there."
He nods, "Trying to search the edge of the circle carefully and doing some clearing around it seems like a solid start. If this is some sort of door, then the obvious place to open it is right here somewhere."
The layer of topsoil is partially cleared away, which reveals a hard stone platform underneath. After Serunda's spell, it now shows a clear seam against the edge of the ground, although poking a dagger in it does nothing.
Zoresk continues to pace around the area. He notices an unusually round boulder ten feet to the left of the circle, the only boulder and and at the top of the hill. The ground beside it seems particularly worn down, almost like a groove in the ground. He rolls it to the side, and it reveals a depression in the ground like a large button or pressure plate, too small for the boulder to press.
Zoresk eyes the pressure plate like he would a particularly vile and venomous serpent. "It might just be that I'm paranoid anymore, but maybe you want to have a look at this Fingers."
Irina looks back at Serunda and hitches a thumb over her shoulder, Beat it. You have plenty to answer to at home. We will come for you if we need to.
Serunda backs off, nodding rapidly.
"Trust me, the only people who scare me more than Snedley is you lot! I'm going to lay low, my husband hates me and a crime lord will probably want me dead now. I'd say good bye, but there's nothing good about this."
With that the somewhat severe-looking middle-aged woman casts a spell, and takes off into the air, shooting away from the party.
"Snedley will be dealt with.", Koriko states grimly before Serunda is out of earshot.
"What have you found, Zoresk?" she walks over to Zoresk and looks at the pressure plate.
"Something that I suspect will open the door, but I'm worried that it's almost too easily found." He replies, still eyeing the pressure plate warily. "Hence I was hoping someone with keener eyes then mine would take a look and make sure I didn't miss anything. I suppose we can give it a try though. Shall we?"
Fingers steps over and examines the pressure plate, looking for traps or any other mechanism it might be attached to.
Zoresk shrugs as his nimble fingered friend finishes looking over the plate, "I suppose that's good enough for me. Stand back and off that circle and let's see what this does."
Zoresk waits a moment until the others are clear, then presses on the pressure plate firmly.
Irina stands by with arms crossed waiting to see what happens next...
Fingers is unable to really determine much about how the mechanism works. However, as he tries to sort it out with his tools he can feel some sort of mechanism detached from the button, so something happend to disconnected the button from a mechanism.
That said, once Zoresk presses the button a low rumbling sound is felt beneath the entire party. The circular platform begins to descend.
Nilan casts Light on his cane and holds it aloft. Let's see where this leads... he says, gesturing everyone to follow him as he descends.
Irina moves to follow Nilan, continuing in her trend of wanting to be close enough to the cleric to grab him if she needs to...
You all quickly clamber onto the platform as it sinks into the earth, slowly rotating. The sky above winks out suddenly as something covers the top, and soon everyone descends in utter darkness. The platform continues to lower for a good five minutes until finally settling down with a click.
Before you is a strange sight. A dim purple light fills the area, coming from what appears to be a sort of fungus on the walls. A wide hallway stretches forwards in front of you, statues of dwarves bedecked in armour flanking each side. However, the statues are garishly painted, with bright, contrasting colours splashed on their hair, weaponry, armour, even lips.
The hallway stretches onwards out of sight.
The long descent through the dark and gloom did little to settle Zoresk's nerves. As the strange platform comes to its abrupt halt, Zoresk eyes strain to look down the long hall into darkness. The garish status outline the darkness with their absurdity. "Right, I wasn't expecting anything quite this deep. I think Irina or I ought to take point now, Father. Got the nagging feeling that this place hasn't been seen by too many human eyes. Best be on our guard."
Koriko pulls her sword including sheath from her Haramaki, she casts a light spell on the sheath before drawing the weapon from it with the left and holding the glowing end of the sheath above with her right hand.
"I will guard the rear."
Irina pauses for a moment and gestures to Fingers, Probably best we have Fingers in front, I'll follow close behind. If we put you behind me Zoresk and Nilan in the middle with Kumyo and Koriko on the flank I think that is about the best we can do until we can spread out a bit...
An an afterthought Irina pulls out a torch and lights it, then looks at Fingers, Figrue you have the sharpest eyes and the best reflexes. IF you want me to lead though, say the word.
As the group settle in to look over the area properly they notice that the hallway ends in a four-way intersection around 40' ahead. There is a door to their immediate right. The stonework looks to be of high quality, with ceilings reaching roughly 15' up with a slight arch in the ceiling. The corners are rigidly squared off, and the statues look to be of exceptional workmanship.
Zoresk nods his assent to Irina, taking up the position she indicates as they begin to make their way through the pitch black tunnels. Zoresk's eyes strain against the darkness, hoping to pick out any shapes as they begin their exploration. As their eyes adjust and the shape of the room begins to come into focus, Zoresk shrugs in reply to the sorceress. "I don't think any of us know. Maybe their will be some tracks or something to gives us an idea of which way to go. Irina, bring that torch closer to the ground here and let's see if I can figure out which way we ought to go."
Fingers nods when asked to take the lead, and quietly steps off in the direction of the tunnel. He takes a moment to look at the strange statues and looks back his face a question to the rest of the group.
Moving on, while they examine the dwarven images, he comes to the corner and, keeping his body back as much as possible, he peers around the corner, straining to see what he can in the odd luminescence of the fungus.
Irina obliges Zoresk as he attempts to discern some meaning from the floor while doing her best to keep an eye on Fingers to make sure nothing happens to him in the fading light.
Fingers begins to creep off down the tunnel. The fungus has grown all over the walls, some of the ceiling, and the floor. However the floor looks to be well-used and any fungus growth on it has been trampled. Fingers creeps down the end of the hallway, peering north and south. South is an alcove in which lies a pile of weapons and armour in a disorganized heap. Directly westwards is what appears to be a chapel, an altar to some God set up in it.
Northwards is a long hallway lined with doors one each side. However, as Fingers peers northwards he hears a shout from the north, and a door flies open. Strange, pale-blue creatures begin rushing down the tunnel from the north! Although they are moving south, quickly, Fingers does not believe he has been spotted.
This pale-skinned dwarf-like creature is a derro, a degenerate and evil creature of the underground. They are notorious for preying on surface dwellers and for their bizarre behaviour.
Koriko tears her gaze off the overgrown architecture: "Footsteps, a lot of them, be ready."
Nilan will cast Bless using one of his scrolls.
Zoresk hears the patter of feet, undoubtedly the same feet that had trampled the fungus he had been studying a moment before, only a moment after Koriko does. He nods silently to her, hefting his blade and prepares to fight against whatever comes down the hallway.