Enoli's instincts kick in upon Abraham's signal and he leaps towards some foliage to hide but raises his rifle in front of him, moving it as his body moves to scan the treetops.
Enoli spots the movement in the trees, but...what is that?!
Abraham's eyes focus in on a bit of movement in the trees, a monkey swinging in the foliage. There is just a momentary glint of light in its hand and Abraham's eyes widen as the gout of flame erupts from it.
"You have to be kidding me." Abraham thinks as he moves out of the way of that strange ball of fire. The charred smell fills the air as he takes cover behind the most solid thing he can find. Either a rock or a ruined vehicle. "It's...It's a g$&~!+n monkey with a gun!" Abraham shouts, leveling his rifle on his shoulder as he takes aim at the creature. Taking a quick breath, Abraham slowly exhales as he pulls the trigger.
And just like that, the fight is over. Abraham's battle-honed reflexes drop the monkey, who falls from the tree. The silvery weapon bounces once and falls on the ground not far from you. It is a strange device, sleek, silver and a little long for your hand, but clearly recognizable as a firearm.
Antonio jerks his head up at the sound of the shot. He hadn't even realized where the danger was. He looks over to the body of the monkey with the weapon. "Is...is that a monkey? What does it have?" He walks over, grimacing at the gore of the animal corpse.
He picks up the weapon carefully as to not activate it by mistake, carrying it over to Abraham. "What is this?" He switches languages. <Gregorio, this isn't anything your people use, right?>
Abraham carefully approaches the fallen animal while still scanning the hidden canopy above. Where there was one, there was almost certainly more. The shot was clean through the chest as Abraham stepped over beside the good father.
"Some sort of weapon. Looked like a pistol." Abraham takes the strange pistol carefully, looking over the weapon. There were a lot of new weapons used in the Great War but he had never seen anything like this before.
Louise isn't quite sure Abe is serious, or that she believes him if he is, about a monkey. She follows him though, since he seems to think all's clear.
Then she sees the monkey. "Huh! What in the world?"
<No, Padre,> says Gregorio. <My people are simple hunters. That is a gun of the Spanish, no? Or the Norte Americanos?>
"I told you it was a g!$+$$n monkey. I'll hold onto this...thing...for now." Never had Abraham seen such a weapon before. The Germans were ingenious with their destructive creativity just as much they were but this, this was a weapon he had never could fathom.
"Let's keep moving. C'mon Gregorio." He would motion for their guide to join them at the front. The temple was still a ways off.
Louise continues to follow Abraham.
As the others are starting to move on, Enoli inspects the dead monkey looking for any sort of abnormal sign, other then the hole in its chest. Enoli looks into the eyes, the gums, maybe there are signs of a disease.
It doesn't take long for Louise to sling the rifle on her back again, even with the threat of more armed monkeys looming. It's heavy and unwieldy.
"Are we there yet?"
As you trudge through the dense jungle, Gregorio is obviously nervous.
You reach a clearing that has seen heavy shelling in the recent battle. Bodies and shell craters are everywhere. There in the midst of the clearing is a large stone circle laying flat on the forest floor, like an immense manhole cover. Covered in ancient runes and strange hieroglyphs, it looks vaguely mesoamerican. But the stone circle is smashed, having taken a direct hit by a large artillery shell. Only a large fragment still covers what appears to be an immense pit beneath the earth, completing the manhole image. If the man were hundreds of feet tall.
Gregorio's sharp intake of breath is followed by what can only be a string of curses in his native language.
<No, no!> he says to Father Antonio in rapid Spanish. <I cannot make the offering to the Dreamer. Nothing like this has ever happened! We are cursed!>
<Slow down, Gregorio. What is this place? One of the Stone Pillows? What is below?>" Father Peña glances at the broken cover. <Why can't you do the offering to the Dreamer with the stone broken? What happens if we have no offering?>"
He quickly looks at the others and translates for them.
<Slow down, Gregorio. What is this place? One of the Stone Pillows?"
<Yes, the stone pillow of the Dreamer.>
"What is below?>" Father Peña glances at the broken cover.
<I...No one knew there was anything below. It was... we thought it was... just the pillow.>
<Why can't you do the offering to the Dreamer with the stone broken?
<Does the Spanish God accept offerings on a broken altar, father?> The native man looks both anxious and heartbroken.
"What happens if we have no offering?>"
<I don't know. The People have always made the offering to the Dreamer. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps the People are now accursed...>
He quickly looks at the others and translates for them.
And that's when the strange roar sounds again, echoing across the jungle floor, sending a thrill of fear down each of your spines. It is very close... and coming from the pit.
Suddenly, the warm atmosphere of the jungle feels cold and clammy to you, close and stifling like a room with too little air.
Louise don't like the look of the pit, but she also wants to look into the pit.
"So what do we do now? This doesn't seem like something one would describe as a 'temple' does it?"
She doesn't trust standing on the edge of pit, so she gets down on hands and knees to approach it, then down farther to belly crawl the last couple of feet for a peek over the edge.
<Does the Spanish God accept offerings on a broken altar, father?> The native man looks both anxious and heartbroken.
<Well, yes actually. I mean, our offerings now are more symbolic. Money or...But that doesn't matter now.> He stares at the pit. <Gregorio, quickly tell me about how you performed your offering. What would you offer? Livestock? And would you simply leave it here and it be gone later?> He grips his shotgun tightly.
Minerva trudges along silently through the jungle. Monkeys with weird guns. Can't get the truck started. It's hot. Did something just bite me?
She sighs when she sees the destroyed "pillow", and shivers as the roar sounds. Louise. That's a terrible idea. Get away from that hole." Minerva draws her pistol and spins in a circle looking for anything approaching from outside the pit. Her hands shake, and she shivers no longer hot from the heat of the jungle.
<Just flowers, Father. Just flowers. Of course they're not gone. The Dreamer is asleep. What was that sound!?>
Both adventurous ladies see a vast pit that descends into the earth so far that despite being over fifty feed wide, the bottom is lost in shadow. A set of wide stairs spirals down the inner wall. By their height they weren't made for people of a normal height.
Abraham approaches the opened pit as well, rifle in hand as he crouches down low and comes closer. The roar of whatever that terrible thing is seemed to come from within the pit, the thought making his stomach roll slowly and tighten. Crouching down further alongside the girls, he would see the little staircase that descends on the sides. Swallowing his instinctive fear, he would give a nod.
"Maybe your Dreamer has woken up, Gregorio." Abraham murmurs, loading another bullet into the M1 Garand before making his way over towards where the staircase would begin heading downwards. [b]"We're not here to just look down a damn hole. I'll lead, watch my back." He says to the others, warily beginning to walk down. He looks for anyplace he could misstep, not wanting to fall down into that dark abyss.
Antonio looks at him incredulously. <Flowers?> He looks back at the pit. <You said there were five Pillows? And then the Temple itself, but it's closed. Is it possible these are connected to it?>
Antonio translates for the others. "If this is broken, the temple might be too. Maybe we can get inside. But whatever is down below here does not sound good."
Enoli also creeps closer to peer into the dark depths. He speaks in a hushed but audible tone, "I know that some of you are not believers in the spirit world, but it seems to me that this seal was meant to keep something in, something that might be out now that it has been broken. Maybe this leads to the same area as the temple, maybe not, but I think we should check this out since we are here.
Seeing Abraham already stepping onto the stones he starts to follow, trying to gauge how far each step is from another, and also being careful with his weight with each step.
"Well there's something scary here and now. Let's see what we can find. There's a reason someone blew the top of off this pit." She pulls her handgun, sighs and follows Enoli into the darkness.
Louise doesn't understand the logic behind traveling down into the hole. It's not the temple, it's clearly very deep, and something does indeed seem to be roaring down there. The most sensible thing to do would be moving along to find the temple.
HOWEVER, Louise is annoyed, and even moreso curious. They were without question lied to by Caduceus about the purpose of their trip. They have been tasked with a ridiculous mission. They have been placed in harm's way without their consent being sought. Yes, annoyed describes her reaction to these things very mildly, angry is probably more accurate.
Since she's not feeling inclined to faithfully follow the directives of her corporate masters, especially since they reek of tomb robbing and antiquities smuggling, Louise sees satisfying her curiosity as justifiably the higher priority. Lots of weird things are afoot, including semi-zombified soldiers, monkeys with hand cannons, and giant man-made holes worshipped by the locales and holding growling things. She wants some answers, things need to make sense.
Louise follows Minerva down.
Antonio looks at Enoli and then gives a sidelong glance at Louise before giving a short sigh. "May the Father bless us in our path." He turns to Gregorio as the others moves to enter the underground space.
<Gregorio, do you wish to come with us? Something tells me that there may be things down there that we could use your knowledge of. But there may also be things to try your faith. You already know the Pillows are not what they had seemed a day ago. What more lies ahead, I don't know. It is right to be uncertain and fearful. To see the things of your god laid broken or bare is enough to shake the most righteous. If not, return to your people to help save them from the soldiers.>
Gregorio indicates that he will come, following the priest into the pit.
The stair descends into the earth, winding clockwise around and around the walls of the vast stone-lined pit. To your left, the wall is ancient and timeless, cyclopean stone blocks held together without mortar, endlessly repeated down into tho stygian depths. To your right, empty space and a long, long fall.
All is quiet as you descend, stair after stair, into the cool, dim underworld. Soon the sunlight no longer reaches as deep as you are and still the stairs go down into shadow.
What do you do for light?
"S#$%...anyone got a light?" Abraham asks, stopping for a moment. He was curious to where this could go but wasn't willing to head any deeper with just a lighter's flame to let him see.
However...
The team realizes that this pit plunges into inky blackness below and decides to head back up top. As you are working your way up the cyclopean stairs, you hear the roaring again. This time it is definitely coming from below you and seems to be getting closer!
The group begins to ascend once more, Abraham in the back of the group as they make their way closer to the surface. There was another roar though, one that felt closer than anything before. A primordial fear crept down his spine and he would hiss to the next in line. "Faster. Must move faster!"
Once he has breached the hole's opening, Enoli rushes to a larger tree, rolls behind it and stays in a prone position with the rifle at the ready.
"Abraham, we may need those grenades ready when you get a chance!" he shouts back towards the hole.
Antonio had barely made it down the first couple of the large steps before he sees the others retreating and then the roar makes him do so too. "What on earth is that?!" He scrambles back up to the surface, looking over the edge warily.
Minerva picks up the pace as she scrambles back toward the light. "Father the roaring. It's getting closer. Back away from the pit, and don't stand near each other." She yells as she moves as quickly as she can.
Louise, Move!! The other two are coming up the stairs at a clip and so is the roaring thing."
Behind you [url=https://i.pinimg.com/736x/03/2d/f4/032df4a1d214ad1caf99ec94bb674a31.jpga nightmarish figure[/url] rises up out of the blackness and flops its huge bulk onto the stairs a dozen yards below you. The force of its bulk causes the edge of the stairs to crumble, but it holds on. Twice the height of a man, the dimly-seen figure is a writhing mass of tentacles and mouths, each roaring in a different voice! It moves with a liquid grace that belies the hideous form, a thing of pure, stygian horror!
Abraham's eyes widen as this thing manifested from the darkness and began to climb the stairs. It was unlike anything he could ever have imagined in the worst of his nightmares. Falling back against the wall, his eyes were wide as he grabbed at the grenades that he had placed on himself.
"Move! Move, move, move!" Abraham shouts to the others. He would pull the pin and wait for just a few moments before tossing it down towards the eldritch monstrosity.
Fixed the picture link for y--- OHMYGOD WHATISTHAT?
The priest's eyes go wide and his mouth drops as he sees this...thing loom over the others as they flee. He merely stand there staring until Gregorio grabs his arm and then the Paraguayan hustles up the stairs, pushing the nativo up out of the pit. "Dios mío! Sálvame, Santa María!"
Once out of the pit, Antonio turns back, looking for the others. He glances down and is startled by the sight of the shotgun still in his hands, having been entirely forgotten in his fear. He takes a breath to steady himself and realizes that the shepherd must save his flock. He brings up the gun to his shoulder, ready to fire on it as the others escape. A small thought enters his mind as to whether the gun will harm the demon.
Enoli almost senses the presence before hearing the loud crash of it's body leaping onto the stairs. He whips around, one hand against the wall for balance, the other holding the rifle, and sees the abomination. The horror of it's existence is there, but also something familiar, beyond the stories that Grandfather told about the skinwalkers, spirits, or creatures that the Father would call demons.
Enoli continues to run up the stairs, but turning occasionally to keep an eye on Abraham.
Louise had wavered on the good sense of going down into the hole to start with. She needs no prompting to turn around and get back out tout suite.