Turning on heel as the iceman knocks Havark's teeth out, Azul tries again.
Overshooting his crossarm slam, Azul follows it up with a solid clothesline that connects.
He wraps his clothesline closed at the last second attempt to secure their foe in a vicious headlock.
The Jotun's massive arms slam shut into an iron like lock.
As the ice man slips into two pieces, there is yet a slight semblance of animance left to its form. But when Azul clothesline the split foe and attempts a hold, he instead crushes what's left, and ice falls from between his forearm and bicep.
Fanna goes wide-eyed, staring at the blood all over Havark's mouth. She gives a single slow nod as she stashes her dagger.
Havark take a potion from his bag and drinks it. The bruise on his chest and face start to regain normal color. He brings hand to jaw and rubs it.
"Not broken. Loose. Chewing this cold jerky will hurt." He then looks to Fanna.
"Not to worry. I am no fairest as you. My fighting does not rely on my looks."
Then back to the rest of the group.
"It seems this place has surprises. That one had a trap set for us instead of coming and investigating us. Be on your guard. Let us continue."
Glowen is quite relieved to see the fierce foe fall. "Um... wow" is all he can say at first. "Sh...Should I go first? You have sharper eyes, but I'm a bit quieter." He refreshes his message spell, pointing at each member of this group. He whispers, "and I should be able to warn you about trouble without attracting too much attention."
Glowen takes a deep breath and prepares to go first up the stairs, keeping a sharp eye and light foot. "Can't let them get surprised like that again. Better if we do the ambushing, or find a way around entirely!"
"By all means little one. If you wish to lead you may but while your steps do not echo that one walks with thunder." Pointing to Azul
"If you wish to take the brunt of the next creature that surprises us it will help protect Fanna at least."
[ooc]How far ahead of the party would he have to be for their noise not to matter (if at all, since I figure there is nothing here to absorb sound, resulting in lots of spooky echos).
[ooc]Glowen does not want to lead if he does not have to. But if stealth is a viable option, he will do it. He'd rather not 'take the brunt of the next creature that surprises us', hoping to avoid the surprise all together and have Azul and Havark surprise the monster instead. BUT, given my crummy rolls on this forum, you will probably be trying to pour my healing potion into my unconscious (or dead) body).
[ooc]Glowen is an illusionist, not a (real) rogue and definitely not a fighter. However, I'm beginning to worry that nothing here will be susceptible to illusions, so he may have to make due as a rogue for now.
Tyv squats and picks up one of the shards of what's left of their attackers. He turns it over in his hands, tastes it, shrugs, tosses it away and resumes following the others.
"Oh no, Havark, it's... nevermind..." Havark's undercutting his own appearance seems to have made the young woman uncomfortable.
The staircase steps are covered with a thin layer of ice. Observing the situation before them, it is apparent to those in the room that, due to the tower's northern tilt, navigating the southern half of the loop will require a careful step.
"There isn't really a better option... is there?" Fanna muses after a moment, a tinge of determination riding under the nervous question.
Nord display a little flexibility with some light stretches. "Mo dime like da presemd!"
Frowning at the small staircase, Azul cracks his knuckles and focuses the elemental power in his body, drawing it inwards. His form magically changes, shrinking to the size of a large man.
"There." he says.
Havark offers his free hand to the girl.
"No we have to move forward. If we are lucky we will find something here. Something to help us survive or get past that monster outside. Going down may even open into the earth and allow us to move away from here. Right now we can not go back outside."
Havark follows along remaining cautious.
"There is something moving around down there," says the rat-man suddenly, "I hear it. This dang place is far from dead/abandoned." He wiggles his whiskers in frustration. [b]"Wait here," he says, as he moves cautiously downward, hoping to sneak a peek at what lies below.
Glówen peers down the staircase leading to the lower levels. There's no light below, and before his eyes even have a chance to switch to darkvision, some unknown terror pierces his heart. Swallowing hard, he keeps looking, but seeing nothing but the wall and stairs.
Let the big guys go first. :)
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The rat man comes back shaken, looking more rat than man. "I don't think it saw me, but I didn't see it either. Whatever it was, undead maybe, it radiates an aura of fear"
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"Stand aside then little one. Fanna stay here. I will investigate."
Havark heads down to check out what this may be.
As Havark descend the stairs, a sense of unease tugs at him the whole time, but his nerves are steel. He descends three levels to the bottom level of the tower. Through the ice, he can see forms stirring in the icy walls. Skeletal figures lethargically scratch at the thick ice, wearing the same armor seen elsewhere in the tower, but their faces are warped in a hideous horror. Though they have some distance to go, It takes no more observation than this to deduce what is happening - these perversions are awakening, and now trying to get free. When this dawns on Havark, fear finally pierces his resolve, and his feet carry him against his will back up the spiral staircase.
Havark runs back up stairs the blade of energy no longer in his hand as he dropped it out of fear. Once calm he looks to the others and spoke of what he seen in the ice. He manifest his blade and they decide where to investigate next.
"We can move on from here, but once what is bellow awakens and works free from the ice they will come an overwhelm the others. So we could prepare an ambush from here or just move on."
You mean us. "Come and overwhelm the others, and us," is what you meant right? Just so we're clear.
So, all the corpses trapped in the ice down there are waking up and trying to get free and... Tyv stops mid sentence as a thought occurs to him..Erm, be right back.
He dashes off back to the main room where they left those "others" that Havark mentioned, fully expecting to see the corpse they liberated from the wall come to life and feasting on the defenceless oarsmen...
As Tyv runs back to the other survivors, his expression betrays him as he finds them resting and warming up. "Yes, boy? Something have you spooked?" says Ragnfast in a bit of mean humor. As he considers, Tyv notes two distinct differences between the description given by Havark, and those in the walls here. The men described by Havark looked skeletal and wore terrified expressions, while those here could be mistaken for quite healthy were they not encased in a wall. Secondly, those up here have shown no signs of animating.
Come to think of it, a third difference is that the lower levels differ from the rest of the tower he's seen. They hold no suspended lights: it is pitch dark down there.
Oh, hey, yeah. Tyv laughs awkwardly. He strolls into the room and nonchalantly gives the frozen corpse in the corner a rather violent kick then cringes, as if expecting to to explode. When it doesn't, he lets out an audible sigh, then waves at the assembled crew with a smile. Okay, bye! and runs off to rejoin the others at the staircase.
He return to the staircase, slightly out of breath. Right, where were we? Ah yes, ravening soulless horde clawing their way up from the basement. Perhaps we should see what's upstairs, since we have some time.
"Necromancy." Glowen's eyes glaze for a moment as if almost remembering something..."We should end them before they break free of the ice. If we could stand it down there.. light the place up real good and start working on the getting at the closest one. You know, like drill a hole in the ice and drive a steak through their hearts or something? Sure, it is not a stand up fight, but we are not at festival. These two frail lives are at stake if we fail... Suggestions?"
That could work. Chip them out and deal with them one at a time. Though I doubt its just the dark that is gripping the hearts of whoever goes down there. Still, worth a try.
If that doesn't work we can make a stand at these stairs - limit their approach. Maybe we can even weaken or narrow the stairs to make things more difficult for them.
Ensuring they have ample illumination, the group moves to set foot down the stairs. Peering down the staircase, Azul, Glówen, and Tyv immediately feel their heart rates jump up, and no one gets further than a few steps before Azul and Tyv bail out, terrified. A new plan is required, then.
"I saw no exits bellow. My best guess is that it will take an hour for them to free themselves. I suggest we keep searching and mount a defense here when they come."
Bringing up the rear Azul makes it about a third of the way down the stairs before his claustrophobia kicked in. Turning he ascended the stairs rapidly. "Nope. Nope. Nope!" tolls.
Reaching the top he says. "Up. Up is the way for me. The tops of mountains are much more appealing than the bottoms."
Azul
Glówen
Nord
Fanna
Tyv
Havark
"Yes, up is a much better plan!" gulps the rat man, quite relieved that he is not the only one unable to control himself downstairs. He shadows Azul on the way up the stairs.
Tyv takes a moment to cast a spell which chases a bit Havark's physical discomfort. As the six ascend the stairs, they reach the second level entrance - a threshold filled straight through with solid ice. Turning to continue upwards, Ragnfast suddenly calls from the main level, popping his head through the door: "Are we all so jittery? What was the Jotunman hollering for?"
Ragnfast, the sour one, Tyv thinks to himself. He yells back to the oarsman. Because he like to holler. It had nothing to do with what's in the basement. Nothing at all. Now go back to your little fire and keep warm.
"There's no sense to be had in your speech, is there boy? Bah..." Scoffing, he does exactly what Tyv suggests.
The staircase circles upwards for fifteen levels from their initial position. The climb is bit more treacherous whenever the path is leaning into the fall, but with measured pace, the group has little trouble. Each level appears as the second did - frozen ice filling the entire floor. At least, that's how it is until the reach the 9th floor, where bright white light emanates from somewhere behind the threshold! It travels through what seems only more solid ice, but there is in fact a narrow fissure that corkscrews its way inwards.
It is difficult to tell what lies beyond.
Glowen muses, "I think we may have found the next part of the mystery of this tower." He then whispers to the others what he sees.
He then wiggles into the fissure to get a better look at the dark figures, ready to retreat in an instant.
Glówen slips through, twisting, weaving, and spinning around just to move into the room. Viewing out the other side, Glówen is shocked to see that those dark shapes are now standing, running their bony hands across the ice-encased woman. Their look matches those frights that Havark described, and their touch makes the shining light flicker, casting shadows that contort the woman's face in even greater horror.
Glówen scrambles back in fear, with little time to spare, as the two undead now lunge forward with uncommon speed. The faster slams into the space where Glówen once stood, working to wriggle through at the expense of its own cracking bones. As the others see this, its terrible form in plain view through the ice, their own hearts skip a beat.
The horrified scream of a man echoes up from the tower below.
Tyv hears the scream from below - his jaw dropps in incredulity. The fool didn't actually go into the basement did he?
"undead. Undead! UNDEAD!" Like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, Glowen backs out of the fissure and looks for an escape route. At first he heads back down the stairs, but the scream sends him back up again. He starts to go up but then realizes it is unknown. So then he heads back into the room, only to see the fissure. Again he turns and heads back to the stairs, desperately seeking a window to jump out of.
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"What a fool, Go check on him if you must. I will protect the girl."
Seeing the creature now working at the ice to get to them Havark lets them work as he hurls his blade through the break in the ice at one of the creatures.
The blade of energy fly's out from Havarks hand and smashes into the creature It then manifest again into his hand.
[dice=Init]1d20+4[/ooc]
"I will continue to attack them as they work to get to us. Ready yourselves for when they break through."
Seeing Glowen react in terror Havark thinks for a moment then closes his eyes.
Though he has no fear in him now he hopes not seeing them will help.
"Everyone shut you eyes. Do not look upon these things. The will be here soon enough. Ready yourselves."
As Glówen scrambles in fear, everyone closes their eyes, with the rat eventually following suit. Those they yet hear the scratching at the ice, a certain stillness washes over them. Havark opens his eyes, completing the testing of his theory, and that twinge of panic returns, but he remains calm.
"Now listen to me. We are going to open our eyes, but only look at your feet. We need to climb down. These creatures will break through soon enough. IF we are to engage them, then it best be done on sure footing. Looking upon them puts fears in the heart. Pray to the gods to take this fear away. Wotan will lead us to victory this day if you follow my words."
Havark squeezes Fanna's hand. Then whispers.
"It is alright. Keep your eyes shut. I will lead you down fairest."