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Dunkel eyes the tree he chopped suspiciously.
"Ach, 't jumped in front of me, it did!"
He then eyes the stunned cannibal even more suspiciously.
"Hey now, this one's nae even movin'"
Dunkel debates whether or not he should bury his axe in a target that isn't moving, as if it were some tree disguised as a cannibal making itself an overly easy target.
He shrugs.
"Ahm thinkin' too many questions t' meself!"
for
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The stunned cannibal is effectively filleted by Dunkel's axe. Meanwhile, the more fearsome one near Amiri continues to stare at her with unnatural red eyes. This time, Amiri feels an inky black chill envelop her. Again, the frigid void between the stars doesn't seem as cold as one might expect.
The screaming rises in pitch.
Everyone is up again.
Amiri grunts in pain, but continues to hack away at the cannibal!
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Dunkel's axe fells this cannibal. The screaming immediately ceases.
Not far away, you find one more cannibal, lying face up in the mud. The ground around him shows clear signs of his thrashing about, but now he lies still, seemingly catatonic.
The weaker cannibals carried only clubs and hide armor (who or what the hide came from is probably best left unknown.
The more powerful one had a masterwork quality club and hide armor. Three potions, an amulet, and a ring detect as magical. He also carried some sort of wooden holy or unholy symbol.
Near the unmoving humanoid, you see a post supporting a gruesome scarecrow constructed of tree branches, jungle vines, and bloodstained human bones. The skull-headed effigy accusingly points a bony arm down the trail leading west.
Following the arm, you come to an open area. In the center of this clearing stands a large standing stone, about five feet in diameter and twelve feet tall. Carved into the dark stone are dozens of leering one-eyed humanoid faces, their mouths agape as if preparing to appease some unspeakable hunger.
Not far away, A crack in the earth splits the ground here, most of it covered by thick weeds and the roots of a huge strangler fig tree. There are several gaps between the roots through which an adventurer might squeeze. Below the tangled roots is a deep shaft that descends into the gloom.
A definite chill comes over Amiri as she regards the standing stone.
"Well, that is rather disconcerting..."
She then regards the hole in the ground with some discomfort.
"Lovely. So we need to descend through what very well might be a mouth, deep into the bowels of the earth...?"
Not liking the small entrance, she starts using her sword to hack the roots and weeds away to open-up the entrance.
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Hacking open the entrance, Amiri sees the crack remains narrow for as far as she can see (all you medium sized folk count as squeezing). It's nearly pitch black, but with a light source (or if you ask one of your shorter companions) to take a look, you can see that it goes about thirty feet before abruptly ending in a hole leading further down.
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Doubtful seems relieved when the screaming finally ceases.
When they find the comotose cannibal, he frowns, poking it suspiciously with one booted foot.
"So what's his problem?" He mutters, unhelpfully.
"What to do we do with him?" He adds later, when it appears the man is not going to revive.
His mood does not get any better at the sign of the strange effigy pointing their way, nor the monolith with its screaming one-eyed faces.
"We really want to go down there?" He whispers as he peers down the dark crevice.
"Whole place will probably seal up behind us."
"No sign of collapse, here." He adds to Dunkel, after a moment. "Must be further down." He glowers unhappily.
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Investigating the obelisk, Jair detects a faint necromantic aura. The comatose creature looks exactly like the others he was with, down to the hide armor and pointy teeth.
The shaft appears to go about forty feet down. Dozens of niches line the crevice walls. Most have crudely carved statues of one-eyed creatures, though about a third are empty.
The floor at the bottom appears flooded and muddy, with a number of broken statues poking out of the mud. It's hard to tell exactly how deep it is, but probably not more than a foot.
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Doubtful pulls out his rope and knots it up to make the climb easier, but then realizes it shortened the rope too much, so will need someone elses as well.
"Knew it wouldn't be enough." He mutters to himself.
Sure that something horrible will happen to him wherever he goes, he then volunteers to go down first, if only to get it over with sooner.
"Don't worry Doubtful; I have another 50' of hemp rope we can use, too."
Amiri waits patiently to see if anything happens to Doubtful on the way down, before following him.
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Dunkel shudders at the sight of the standing stone.
"Ach, dun wanna go near tha' if we dun hafta."
Dunkel eyes the shaft.
"Now we can always set up camp and get to diggin'. Widen up that shaft, perhaps make it a 60 degree incline?"
As the others seem unwilling to spend a week excavating, he sighs.
"Alright, down we go."
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"Three days." Doubtful mutters. "Bennary said we get only three before this whole cursed place goes all out of sync again, or whatever, and we're trapped here for half a year."
"If we're lucky." He adds with a sigh. "Which we won't be."
He starts the decent muttering gloomy thoughts to himself as he goes.
"Will probably be only two..."
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Once the strange monolith observed and notes about it written in her journal, Jair while his comrades try to find a way down looks at the different magical object founds on the canibals.
She tells to his comrades once the rope is secure and no dangers are visible I will climb down. As I'm not very good at climbing I prefer going last once the route is cleared.
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Doubtful climbs down without incident, finding himself ankle deep in muck. On the way down, he notices that a number of idols appear to positioned precariously, and a number of thin filaments, resembling spiderwebs.
Further inspection reveals the remaining masonry appears secure, and the remainder of you can make it down with little trouble. Once you're all down and recovered, you can proceed through the room's lone door.
A short hallway leads to another door. This one opens to a low-ceilinged chamber. The perfectly square room features a large bas-relief carving portraying a wide-eyed hag devouring her own hands on the east wall.
The room is filled with the sickly sweet smell of rotting meat. The obvious source is a decaying body, dressed similarly to the humanoids you fought earlier. The bloated, wormy corpse—now missing its left arm and bearing several horrific bite wounds on the torso and neck—now sits propped up in the room’s southwest corner.
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Doubtful hits the bottom, managing to avoid the thin tendrils connected to the statues, and sinks ankle deep into the muck.
He glowers at the mud for a moment, then motions for the others to come down, as nothing immediately worse happens, indicating the apparent trap, and how best to avoid it.
Of course, he's busy holding the rope steady and watching for threats down below instead of statues tumbling from above as Dunkel comes down and triggers it.
He is swearing quietly to himself while nursing a nasty bruise on his temple, as Dunkel finally floats down to the bottom.
"Its only gonna get worse." He mutters.
Once everyone else is down, and ready to continue, the dwarf gloomily leads the way towards the next door, stopping to check it out before opening it.
Only to find himself looking at the grim room beyond.
"I think its watching me." He grumbles as if he expected nothing less.
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Also, general details on the rooms ahead: unless otherwise noted, rooms are unlit and ceilings are 8 feet high. Doors are thick stone slabs, requiring a move action and DC 8 strength check to open (which we can just handwave outside of combat). The doors seem like they provide excellent soundproofing.
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Imrana taps Doubtful on the shoulder from behind.
"If you would allow me to stand there, Doubtful, I would appreciate it. I would like to test something."
Imrana points a finger at the decaying body, firing off tiny rays of white positive energy at it until she hits it.
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Dunkel lands on his dwarven arse, complete with much shouting, hollering and guffawing.
"Well... ach, ah told ye we should've dug ourselves a nice 60 degree tunnel down instead!"
He digs through his pack and presses his wand into Jair's hands.
"Ah need a couple o'those, jess in case."
Dunkel gives Jair a nod as he rubs his hands together, picks up his axe and considers the rooms ahead.
"Ye can hold onto tha', ah'm sure more'll be needed soon 'nuff."
Dunkel moves along, admiring the workmanship of the diggin' before taking a look at the armless corpse.
"Now what d'ye all think did tha'?"
Dunkel looks about, trying to stay aware of anything that could chew his arm off, or make him consider chewing his own arm off.
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Doubtful glances back at Imarna for a moment, then shrugs noncommittally.
"It won't work." He mutters, as he steps out of the way to allow her try whatever her plan is.
As she goes about filling the corpse across the room with positive energy, he taps her on the shoulder from behind.
"Shoot that too." He says, pointing towards the bas-relief on the east wall.
"Not that it'll help." He adds.
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Dunkel nods at his kin's sage advice.
"Ach, Doubtful's right. If ye mean to be diggin' through the carvins, ye'll be needin' a pick or an axe. Ah didn't mean to exclude ye from the diggin' chores, lassie."
Dunkel presses one of the picks granted to the team by the venture captain.
"We can see if Amiri wants t'study the books so ye can flex some muscles and make yer way through that sour tart there on tha' wall."
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Imrana's eyes are large and childlike as she looks at the digging tool being pressed into her hand.
"A pickaxe? For me?"
She wraps each finger around the haft gingerly, finally taking it up into both hands, her grip shifting to find the right balance. She does a practice swing in the air, testing the application of force along various angles in a precise, systematic manner.
"Ah, I see. You just need to understand momentum and energy transfer."
She taps it against the wall, testing the device's effectiveness at various sections, nodding sagely to herself and making mental notes as she disproves her various null hypotheses.
"And a bit of engineering combined with a bit of structural physics of course."
She turns back to Dunkel and gives him an approving nod.
"A simple tool, especially since the underlying principles are so basic. I did not finish my physics and engineering studies until I was five, and it even makes sense to me."
She has not a hint of irony in her voice; she sincerely believes that these are commonly taught early subjects.
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Once climbing down Jair uses the wand Dunkel gave her on him.
Then she look around and cast detect magic in the small room they are in before going further. Taking a look at the idols.
She stays as far away as possible from the mining tools letting the other plays with it.
She cast light on her weapon.
This area is quite strange... she says for herself before drawing her note book and beginning writting.
On the east of the strange obsidian obelisk we must climb down through a shaft with strange tendrils and idols in alcoves.
The climb gives to a small room. A short hallway leads to another door. This one opens to a low-ceilinged chamber. The perfectly square room features a large bas-relief carving portraying a wide-eyed hag devouring her own hands on the east wall.
I will be last.
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Dunkel begins examining the stone hag, while Imrana's spells don't seem to impact the body. Suddenly, Imrana falls to the ground, seemingly asleep, while Dunkel moves towards her, a strange look in his eyes.
--
Round 1
Amiri moves forward, and tries to shake Imrana awake, positioning herself between Imrana and Dunkel.
"Imrana, wake up!"
Amiri wrinkles her nose.
"I take this is not normal behavior for a Dwarf, then?"
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Jair hearing the dwarf eating the rotting flesh is a little disgust by the sound he makes.
Dig, dig, dig... how far he will go ?
Too far away to be able to do anything and not wanting to go in the room, she stay afar and began writing in her journal.
Careful, in the room of the self-eating Hag, some sort of urge to eat "something" seems to curse the first person going in and the others to sleep.
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Dunkel unsuccessfully tries to shake Doubtful off of him. Doubtful is able to pry him away from the worm-ridden corpse, but they struggle for some time. After a while of wrestling, Dunkel returns to his senses, having only consumed a handful of dead flesh.
This long, high-ceilinged hall is partially flooded with murky, stagnant water, and the sound of slowly dripping water echoes ominously throughout. A massive banyan tree has breached a large section of the south wall, and the tree’s enormous invasive roots now extend several feet into the hall. Long sheets of thick moss and other detritus cling to the twisted tree roots, forming a curtainlike barrier.
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When Dunkel finally starts to calm down, Doubtful continues to hang on, sure that he's probably faking it.
A while after that, however, he finally releases the other dwarf, eyeing him suspiciously.
"You still want to eat us?" He asks, hesitantly.
He glances back at the others. "Can we get out of there, before someone else decides to chew on one of us?"
He does his best to avoid looking at the chewed on corpse, or Dunkel for some time.
----
Looking into the next room, and seeing it flooded, he frowns unhappily.
"Its probably full of zombie fish or horrible flesh-eating waterborne diseases." He surmises with certainty.
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Imrana holds her hand up to her face, steadying herself as she slowly stands, still a bit dizzy.
"Well...that was very...not so fun."
She pulls out a pen and parchment as she looks over Dunkel.
"How are you feeling? Do you desire to consume more flesh? Are there any other new symptoms that are arising?"
Amiri looks at the water thoughtfully, heeding Doubtful's concerns.
"In that case, why don't we use the boat to cross it, and avoid having to swim?"
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Doubtful looks at Amiri with a puzzled frown for a moment, but eventually his thought processes catch up, and he digs out the small box that is their folding boat.
He looks between it and the water-filled room dubiously.
"I suppose..." He offers hesitantly. "But what if they're zombie flying fish... ?"
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Jair was torn between going first or going last and waiting alone. She decides to wait, hoping nothing will happen to her while waiting.
Good idea Amiri ! I will wait for the second passage.
As soon as she takes her decision she takes her journal and began writing.
After the last room and small passage gives way to a long, high-ceilinged hall. When discovered, the hall is partially flooded with murky, stagnant water. A massive banyan tree has breached a large section of the south wall, and the tree’s enormous invasive roots now extend several feet into the hall. Long sheets of thick moss and other detritus cling to the twisted tree roots, forming a curtainlike barrier.
We decided to take the magical boat the Captain gave us to cross the water.