Being the rope holder and last, Caladius shrugs, coils up the rope and stows it back in his pack. He calls down the tunnel, "All clear down there? If I slip and land on one of you..."
After a few seconds, he tries his best to descend.
And descend he does, though at a much faster and uncontrollable rate than the tiefling would prefer. As he slips and starts to rocket forward, the dour ranger simply mutters, "Balls," then braces for a painful impact.
The group all makes it down with the help of Caladius and the rope without fuss, but Caladius's own descent is not so easy as he slips and falls, picking up speed down the steeply sloped tunnel.
The rest of you, before Caladius slips see a long tunnel running south to end at a closed door, and another path leading west about 15' down the tunnel. In fact all hear what sounds like a distant, beautiful voice singing wordlessly in a low, rhythmic chant coming from the westerly hallway.
Caladius careens down the sloped tunnel and crashes to the floor with a painful sounding crunch. Groaning, he pushes himself up.
"Ngh. That hurt."
"You're looking a little battered, and we don't know what lies ahead. Time for a little healing."
Sabinus pulls out his wand of CLW and uses it 3 times on Caladius.
"Anyone else need healing?"
Caladius nods to Sabinus, "Thanks."
"I am okay. Whatever those shadows did to me, they did not leave any wounds."
"What is that sound..."
Ava takes point, moving quietly towards the western hallway to investigate.
Sabinus puts in a pair of earplugs. "Sounds pretty, but just in case..."
A circular pit takes up much of this room. Thirty feet above, dozens of strange shadowy stalactites descend from the ceiling, their lengths transforming after a few feet into iron chains that descend into a tangle of chains suspended over the center of the pit below—the tangle wraps and suspends what appears to be a mutilated humanoid body at its core. Many chains dangle from this sphere into the glowing red depths of the pit below, but several chains float and writhe in the air like strands of seaweed in a churning tidepool, the tips of each fragmented and flaking away in bits of rust. The chanting sound dies out as Ava enters the room, but startlingly, the lips of the mutilated body can be seen to be moving slightly, even though it's doubtful anything could survive the mutilation the figure has suffered.
another.
Caladius' eyes narrow in obvious unease as he slips his bow from his shoulder. As he looks around the chamber he mutters dryly, "Creepy."
Pulling out his earplugs, Sabinus looks around, crossbow in hand.
"Creepy is an abandoned house with creaky stairs, this is a real horror show."
He then says quietly to the Viscount and Caladius, "What do you make of those chains?"
Enko makes the sign of Iomedae unconsciously and takes a defensive position, ready to (defensively) attack.
The group, after being captivated by the macabre scene above the pit, notes a path leading out the other side of the room, heading off at an angle.
"I'm no arcanist, but my gut is telling me not to get near that thing."
The pit occupies three quarters of the room, leaving a 10' path around the northern end of the pit. The figure wrapped in chains, and extra chains, are in the center of the pit, occupying roughly the entire central area of the pit leaving a slight 5' space between the chains and the edge of the pit.
Ava thinks for a moment.
"The General mentioned something about the manor's power coming from a Pit Fiend, didn't he Lucon?" the dwarf looks over at him for confirmation before continuing. "If that's the case, then I definitely don't think we want to mess with this device. There's no shortage of cautionary tales about playing with these sorts of infernal artefacts."
Corneleous is unable to recall anything additional learned about such a device as he considers it further.
The proximity to a presumed devil, seemingly securely bound but not caged, is deeply unsettling to Sabinus in his cursed state. "Moving on, nothing to see here," he mumbles, apparently trying to convince himself.
"So he did. But... can we really just leave him? ...it?" Lucon says, fidgeting. "Ooooh, bother! I'm beginning to hate this wretched place." he says, leading the way down the next hallway and not looking back.
"If that thing is what powers this place, we certainly DO need to leave it. If not we could get trapped in here, I think. I certainly wouldn't want to take the chance." Assuming the whole group looks ready to follow Lucon, Sabinus will do so as well, putting his earplugs back in place. When passing the pit, he will hug the wall and refrain from even peeking in the pit, his natural curiosity overcome by his newly acquired devil-phobia.
"Lucon...have you considered that the chains don't go into that body, but emanate from it?" Enko's tone is academic, then his face goes stony with seriousness. He follows behind Lucon, ready to deflect any blow that comes from the pit.
The chains twitch slightly in your direction as you exit the room, causing a soft jingle, but nothing else happens. It was probably just s breeze...
This next chamber lacks a visible floor and ceiling—instead, what appears to be an endless shaft stretches to infinity both above and below. A ring of stone stairs winds upward counterclockwise around the room’s perimeter, winding back on itself in a mind-bending twist that, impossibly, brings one back to the starting point’s elevation despite the fact that the stairs themselves seem never to change their ascent or descent. Stone archways, some opening into other similar rooms and some sealed with stone, extend off from landings here and there on the ring of stairs. There is a stillness in the air, a feeling like the air itself is waiting for something or someone.
Enko approaches the stairs with caution.
Eyeing the knot of chains warily as he passes by, Caladius mutters, "I still think we should free anyone we find." As the group passes into the twisted stairwell, the tension in the air prompts Caladius to ready his bow.
"So, which arch do we want?"
Ava grips her head as she looks over the room. "Another one of these..."
Sabinus looks around with detect magic and tries like his companions to make some sense of all this.
Sabinus doesn't detect any specific source of magic just yet.
Corneleous's coin exercise fails to produce anything more than confirming the gravity in the chamber is very strange, like the previous pits encountered already. The gravity is about half as powerful as outside this strange place.
Enko, you don't see anything right away... but there are several things coming to your senses that you're starting to form a suspicion you are not alone in this area.... even if you can't put your finger on why.
"Something is in here," says Enko quietly. "Invisible or hiding."
"R-... right!". Lucon takes a battle stance, eyes darting about the room and readying a charge against any nasties.
|
The Viscount mentally flips through his spellbook. Why haven't I learnt glitterdust? I am a shamefully unprepared caster.
Well, if we're hunting something invisible, let's see how light of foot they are. I'll flush 'em out for us.
Earth elementals have tremorsense of 60ft. The Viscount will use his staff to extend the summon monster II of a small earth elemental (augmented), and have it appear in the middle of the room. If the floor is stone, the elemental should be able to sink into the ground and swim around looking for the unknown unknown.
"What is it?" Ava says, eyes wandering around the room as she grips her hammer tight. She presses up against the wall, slowly edging along the path.
Sabinus also presses himself against the wall, holding his loaded crossbow and ready to unleash a hex.
Corneleous starts the summoning process, when suddenly, from above you all, a crossbow bolt suddenly twangs and flies right towards the wizard, striking him in the upper arm and possibly disrupting his spell.
Having attacked, the invisibility spells fades to reveal a particularly evil-looking tiefling levitating 10' above you in the air, with bloodred hair and gray skin that shines almost like polished steel. Her horns sweep back over her head, and her eyes and smiling mouth glow red from within. Her leather armor is black and gray. "Welcome to the Knot! It will be your grave." she calls in a surprisingly feminine voice.
INIT:
Lucon
Enko
Corneleous
Ava
Caladius
Sabinus
???
- Enko
- Ava
- Corneleous
- Lucon
- ????
- Sabinus
- Caladius
"You're not the only one who can shoot." Caladius shuffles around the pit to cut off any avenues of retreat then draws back, levels his aim, and looses an arrow.
Enko sails across the pit, just under the tiefling, to land on the other side behind her. He draws his rope dart.
"Everyone who has predicted our death so far has died instead," he says in an almost sad tone.