| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Zoren focuses on a single specimen and begins to see the slight movement, "You are right Alexander, they are moving. I think that this is a place to let curiosity go by the wayside. This Lich's Lair has never been successfully penetrated in hundreds of years if not longer. To survive we need to retrieve what we are here for and leave".
I wonder if this place could hold the secrets to Black Blades. Unlikely but would it be worth the risk to discover?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Izura gestures to the others. The obelisks surround this entire hill. | And it may be this hill houses Acercerak's lair. | We may HAVE to go past them. | But give me a moment. | These will not stay long. | But they will let us test the obelisks' magic. She begins a series of complicated gestures, more mouthing the words than speaking in her attempt to avoid drawing undue attention. Yoikhtlo, tmokho uftoin, uaaah!
As she gestures, a strange void begins to gather in front of her, almost malevolent in its blankness. The chant continues, and the void begins to reshape itself, separating into five distinct pockets of emptiness and taking on vaguely quadrepedal shapes that seem to twist and writhe with her movements. As she lets out her final sigh, their form becomes more clear - ponies, although they remain shadowy and indistinct, their outlines twitching and flickering slightly.
She walks forward and begins to smack each of the dark forms in the rump, baring her long, sharp teeth, goading them toward different locations on the perimeter created by the obelisks.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"We need a foe soon,"Kor manages between gritted teeth,"my mind is... slipping, a throwback to my race's beginnings... the rage is becoming... harder to control."
The trox slumps to a knee and holds his head in his left hand. His massive tail flicking wildly.
The killing urge is palpable here... not again... you will get release against the enemy... patience
Seeing Kor's distress and hearing his words, she runs in front of the last pony before her and growls. The beast pivots from her and begins to run - straight for the seething trox. I'b bwot you a givd, Kow. (I've brought you a gift, Kor.)
Izura: Just so I have this clear, you have 4 ponies moving to the cardinal points of the perimeter staying on the outside of the flesh obelisks and 1 is going to Kor to have the snot beat out of it?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The appearance of the void creatures causes Kor to stand quickly, his head hanging low. Eerily he turns to look at Izura, his face in a rictus of rage and the tendons in his neck taut.
"Pretty ponies, dark one,"a thick gobbet of drool smacks against the ground,"it seems we all have to bare our teeth sometimes..."
Kor's voice has taken on an almost playful quality as he contorts his head to face the rest of the group, his mouth open in a twisted smile with the bizarre maxillae inside buzzing softly.
"I think I have a beautiful smile, don't you all?"
As the shadow horse barrels toward him, Kor cocks his head to the side, drool oozing out in a syrupy string.
"A gift? For me? You shouldn't have!"
Kor swings his hammer is an overhead arc, laughing maniacally all the while.
Kor: A pile of entropic paste is all that is left of the poor pony
Kor bends down and dips his hand into the goo and smears his face with it.
"Less than satisfying but it'll do for now... thank you..."
Kor makes an extravagant bow to Izura, a look of genuine joy on his slime-covered face.
Izura returns his bow, an equally terrifying grin on her face. Ad dow fow de oversh... (And now for the others,) she croons, turning around to watch the other ponies charge for the obelisks' perimeter.
That... need of yours, it could pose a problem at a later time in this journey. Tell me, do you merely require battle? or must you make paste of everything that you come across?
Hmmmm, I wonder if anything I can brew up would stem that urge of his...
"My people are bred for labor or the fighting pits. I come from a long line of fighters, a rare thing given the lifespan of the average trox gladiator."
He wipes the goo from his face and frowns,"The toll of such a breeding program produces certain conditions, one being a schism of the mind... today you met Rok, what you have seen so far is but a fraction of what's to come..."
Kor watches as the void creatures breech the circle.
"Only blood and death sate the hunger... Maybe that's why I am here? To glut myself on one final feast of DESTRUCTION!!!"
Kor's voice shifted to a sibalant tone with the last sentence and he grips his hammer tightly while screeching the last word. His maxillae chatter discordantly.
"Do I make you nervous,"Rok leans in close to Valen's face,"Don't worry your pretty head. Kor's friend's are Rok's friends."
William watch's as Kor destroys the summoned creature. As the single hit destroys the creature, Williams eyes widen.
William then slow claps his hands for a few seconds.
I see why you are on this journey with us. I too can feed that hunger with my spells, when the need comes about.
Ceasing his display, Rok turns to face William, a maniacal smile still stuck on his monstrous face.
"I appreciate the thought,"Rok's face droops into a deep frown,"speaking of thinking. Have I ever told you about what my master thought in his last moments?"
The crazed trox puts a hand on his chin thoughtfully,"I'd like to think it was 'Ahhh! Kor'rok, don't kill me, I'm your master!',"Rok snorts,"Never could find his thoughts in all that brain matter, musta' been hidden pretty well."
Rok claps William on the shoulder,"I like these talks. We should have them more often."
As the ponies head into the circle, Zoren draws his still silent Black Blade and readies for a fight, if that is what this come to.
"We should ready ourselves if this, experiment, riles up these things..."
The brave ponies charge the circle breaking through the perimeter and...
Izura: Your ponies run around for 9 rounds and then dissapear
"Pretty ponies have gone,"Rok sounds genuinely distressed,"Izura, what happened?"
They wew conzhured fwom de vewy eshensh ov chaosh...they onwy howd togeva foh sho long befow thad eshensh ish cawed bag. Wew, ad weasht we hav shome weashuransh we cad wag id...shaw we, ded? (They were conjured from the very essence of chaos...they only hold together for so long before that essence is called back. Well, at least we have some reassurance we can walk in...shall we, then?)
"I suppose we have little choice but to do so. Let us file forward in the same order as before".
Zoren keeps a tight white knuckled grip on his Blade hilt.
Well isn't this guy fun. I may be able to perform some very interesting experiments on him. Perhaps I should keep him close and observe.
Rok I believe we will be good friends.
You all pass through the obelisks and well now you are on the southern side of the hill.
Rok saunters past an obelisk and scoffs,"So much for a fight. Maybe the rocks ahead will offer up a fresh corpse to put back in the ground."
Kor: The Rocks forming the skull do not in fact offer a corpse...But you do notice that the north side of the hill has crumbled, forming a cliff of loose gravel and sand against a stone ledge.
Ah yes Rok, perhaps one day we could have a friendly spare? Or, that is what I had considered. However, I feel that may not be wise unless I am 100% sure I can defeat you. As it stands now... I am far less.
as they walk
Also, the hills have been dug out many times. I wonder why?
Perhaps not dug out from the top, but something dug its way out from here?
Kor: Yes you are at the top of the skull which enabled you to see the other side of the hill.
Rok reaches the crest of the skull and pauses to surveil the area and then lifts his hammer high above his head with both hands.
"Knock! Knock!"he growls as he smashes the weapon into the top of the skull formation.
Kor: So you are banging on top of the hill yes? If so this will yield you no results except working out some frustrations.
Kor: You may inflict as much collateral damage as you wish upon the skull
Valen will rest the tip of his cane on the Trox's left shoulder.
Easy now, save it for the things that will be trying to kill us. I know we aren't particularly subtle, but lets not give away our position to everything withing 100 miles!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Is this the entrance? Perhaps we should search for another way in?"
The trox barbarian stops smashing the skull, which has now devolved into a large bowl with teeth at the bottom, and plops to the ground.
"I apologize,"he huffs to Valen, Kor's voice is back but weary,"I can't cage him for long under certain conditions, but he's resting for now. On to the task at hand, yes?"
Kor stands and shakes off rivulets of sweat that shower the area near him,"Unlike that rash fool, Rok, I don't think this is an entrance, maybe a warning of some kind to ward off intruders,"he turns to Zoren,"We can circle around or slide down the gravel, time is the only difference here."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Izura shakes droplets of Kor's sweat from her lank hair, seemingly unperturbed at being drenched in another creature's perspiration. She finishes in time to see the last part of Kor's query. Wesh go awound. Shwidig ish wesh fud wid wogsh idvowved. I wodew, do, cowd da edtradsh be behide da gwavew? Id bay be wowv diggig a bid. (Let's go around. Sliding is less fun with rocks involved. I wonder, though, could the entrance be behind the gravel? It may be worth digging a bit.)
Izura: Your idea of digging around pays off, as you are probing the loose sand on the northern cliff you manage to reveal an area below, although it will take a few rounds of excavating as the ground is full of petrified roots and stone to be able to make a hole large enough to crawl through.
Izura keeps working at the hole she has begun, nodding gratefully to Kor as he moves in to help. Her travelers' any-tool is in her hand, transformed into a shovel for the occasion.
With the help of Kor, you all make a long and tedious job much easier. You manage to clear an entrance revealing a corridor of plain flagstones, roughly hewn and fitted together. The ceiling is about 20' high and thickly strewn with cobwebs. The passage is about 30' long and at the far end is a pair of large, wooden double doors with great iron pull rings
"Back in formation, friends,"Kor hefts his hammer to the ready,"after we check this area for traps."
Izura falls into place behind Kor. I fowd id, (I found it,) she says, a slightly over-excited grin on her face.
Zoren keeps an eye out for danger until the digging is complete.
"Let me have a look at that door first".
Checking for traps on the near the door as well as traps related to the door itself.
Perception
William shall slowly walk up and also look for anything out of the ordinary.
O dear gods, don't let us all die before we make into this place.
Ok then, I have Kor and Zoren up front examining the door, I have Izura behind Kor and William behind Zoren also examining the door.
Kor/Zoren: It all looks good to you
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I see nothing out of the ordinary,"Kor whispers to Zoren,"What do you think?"
+4 to find traps.
well well, what have we here? Don't open that door Kor unless you want the ceiling collapsing on us. Let me do what I do. Valen makes his way past the group. and looks at it.