Vitro carefully leads the group forward into the room to take a peek into the pits.
"Justin, I'm pretty sure you don't get to just say, 'dibs', claim this as yours and start moving stuff in. Yer prob'ly gonna have to run this by the Mayor, if nothing else... ah hell, he aint listenin'...!" Oskar casually glances into one of the pits.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Before he peeks into the pit, Oskar sees Justin scampering off. "Oh, son of a...
He turns to Vitro, "I prob'ly better go get him..."
Scooting forward carefully, Vitro peeks down into the first pit.
Staring up with empty sockets is an emeciated figure. It stretches its arms upwards and moans.
Luckily the pit is 20 foot deep.
"Aaaaaaand maybe we should just put that lid back on now, eh?"
Vitro takes a moment to assess the moaning figure, trying to determine whether it's a human in need of saving (silly roundears) or way past that stage.
Vy walks over, still 'scanning'
When Snowflake looks into the pit, the creature at the bottom is evil.
Vitro thinks the creature is a zombie, and most likely too stupid to climb out even with the lid on the pit removed.
"Why... just why..."
Disgusted at the stupidity of this installation Vitro begins walking from pit to pit, looking in to see if it contains a zombie or something else, flipping the lids closed on the zombie pits. (Assuming all the ones from left to middle are the same.) After that he's checking the remaining closed-lid pits. He keeps barking the open/close formula, starting to sound more pissed off at every pit.
Oskar just grabs some wall and watches. "Long as they're down there and not up here, it's all good by me."
The first few zombies are looking worse for wear. Old wounds debilite them, probably because they were corpses slain in battle that were raised later.
The others look very emaciated, but are otherwise in good condition (as far as one can clain a zombie to be in good condition). Intact, pale skin. All teeth still present. Hair on the scalp.
The last pit also contains an emaciated figure, but this one does not move.
"Hey you down there, are you a zombie or still alive? Try to do something other than moaning if you're not a zombie."
Taking a piece of suspicious-looking beef jerky from a pocket Vitro ties it on a piece of string and lowers it in the pit to see if there's any reaction.
There is no reaction. Not to the calling out and neither to the jerky.
When Snowflake comes up to scan, it doesnt ping as evil.
"Okay, if he ain't a zombie, should we go fish him out, see what's what?" Oskar looks around the room for a place he can tie off a rope.
The room is quite featureless. Not even a torch sconce in sight. Best place to tie a rope would be the hinges of the door.
Oskar glances around the room, until his eyes finally settle on the door. He takes his rope out of his pack and starts looping a knot around the door hinge. "I ain't sayin' this is a great idea, but I'm not crazy about the idea of leavin' someone down there just 'cuz they're too f*!$ed up to call for help." He glances at Vy and Vitro. "Any other thoughts?"
"Which way does the door close? If the door swins outward, the doorpost will keep the door close if you used the entire door as an anchor. The weight of that guy will keep the door shut"
Vitro looks over the edge, with a "this is a baaad idea" look on his face.
"Do we even have enough rope for that distance? Let's just try whatever tests we can do at a distance and if nothing pans out, you two should be able to hold my weight. So I'll go down with a rope around my middle and hitch up the guy. But if I scream at you guys to pull me out, you gotta do it immediately..."
Vitro peers over the edge again, flicking a very small pebble at the figure and scanning for magic, looking for any reaction at all.
No magic. No reaction. The figure is crumpled on the floor of the pit, clothing filthy. Having looked at the figure for a while now, you can see breathing, but its shallow.
"let's perk him up a bit"
Vy channels holy energy around him
The figure at the bottom stirs for a moment and you hear a small groan. But then the figure falls silent again.
Oskar stands at the edge of the pit, ready to pull up Vitro and/or jump in if there's trouble.
"C'mon Vitro, don't throw stuff at him. When he takes a swing at you we won't know if it's 'cuz he's a bad guy or 'cuz you were bein' a pain in the ass flickin' stuff at him."
Being lowered into the pit is claustrophobic. Being only 5 by 5 foot and very deep, the walls feel closer then they actually are.
The smell in the pit is also unpleasant. It smells like bad body odor and old poop.
"He's got a pulse, but he's been here too long.. We need to get him some water and easy food."
Vitro brushes off the worst of the filth with magic, then grabs the dude in a strong hug and signals Oskar to pull them up. He carefully holds the guy to ensure he doesn't get bashed up even more.
"Uhhnnng..."
Getting a closer look at what you initially thought was a human you see a few golden scales accenting his jaw line and eyebrows. He must have some sort of Draconic heritage to him.
"Never thought I'd be goin' fishing down here. Vitro, this one looks big enough to keep," Oskar quips as he hauls the two of them up out of the pit.
Vy takes out a ration, his masskit and his waterskin, and starts mashing something that resembles a porridge.
"I guess the state he's in, this will taste like ambrosia anyways"
When the man is comfortable on the ground, Vy holds a spoon with some of the stuff in front of the man's lips
After dribbling water down his throat, grimacing at the coughing that ensues, and prodding the man to eat, he eventually comes to and begins to devour whatever is offered to him.
When he speaks, his cracked lips obscure some of his words. "Oh s-eet dragon's nectar! A-su s-iles. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I -eared the -orst down there!"
|
Justin returns a little bit later, smelling strongly of soap
"I don't think dragons work that wa....do you think he can walk? We don't need him to fight, but he should be able to run away if something down here eats us. I think we took out the management, and I'd like to give any remaining minions an offer before something else does...or there may be more trapped down here like him. "
Justin's appearance probably isn't doing Dayo's mental state any good. A bipedal talking rat in a schoolgirls outfit and princess tiara...
The man turns between Justin, Oskar and Vy.
"Oh! My. You're all so... furry!"
He attempts to stand, wobbles a bit, nearly falls, and then finally rights himself.
"I don't know how long they had me down there..."
He then STRETCHES to his full six-and-a-half feet height.
"I am called Dayo," He smiles. "Do you have names?"
"Oh! Uh..." Dayo at first tenses up as Justin starts climbing over him and rubbing him down, but he can't defend long in his exhausted state. "Ooooh oooo uhhho oooo that actually feels really goo..."
Vitro cocks his head and eyes Justin.
"You didn't drink any water from fountains dedicated to an ancient magical tradition of wrath or grumpiness, did you?"
As the group gathers to probe the final tunnel he shifts his shoulders more into a fencing stance, left hand held back to avoid getting it cut and/or to grab colored sand to throw in people's faces.
Down the hall is another collapsed staircase, this one leading downward.
As everyone checks out the staircase you a hear the distant, muted howl of strange dogs coming up from somewhere below.
If you motion the others to silence so you can hear better, it has stopped.
As everyone does a short check of the staircase, you see short scribbled threats written in Thassilonian on the walls.
When you get your notes to help with translation, or turn away for a moment to ask Vitro to help with translation, the words have disappeared when you look back.
"Hey, my name's Oskar, Oskar Dragenaev," Oskar extends a hand to the new guy as he does. Damn but this fella's big for a roshka, he thinks, as the newcomer looms over the burly half-orc by a couple of inches.
"Where'd the goblins get a hold of you? I know you're a little roughed up, but are you okay to move under yer own feet? And you got any gear we should be lookin' fer?"
Oskar follows Justin's gaze to a blank wall. "Th'hell are you talking about?"
There is no other magic then the preservation magic you've seen throughout the catacomb.
"It is pleasant to meet you, Oska..."
Dayo freezes mid-sentence and looks away from the group.
"Say... Do any of you have dogs?"
"Say... Do any of you have dogs?"
Oskar's facial expression changes to one of almost puzzled irritation*. So I had to leave Averaka to get myself surrounded by fricking lunatics?
"He has a kinda-imaginary wolf," Oskar nods his head at Vy, "But nothin' else besides that. Should I even ask why...?"
"Oh. It's probably nothing. I just hear howling getting closer."
"you got any gear we should be lookin' fer?"
"Oh, goodness! Yes! I was so parched that I completely forgot! They took my tambourine! Do you know how hard it is to hum when you haven't had anything to drink for days? I was losing my mind down there!"
Oskar pauses at the request.
"Hmmm. Well we ain't seen the music conservatory, but we can keep an eye out. In the meantime, shall we keep on?"
Vy looks at Justin trying to do something sneaky, but choses to ignore it. this ti,e.
" Well, I vouch for this man. Sir, do you need something for protection and defense? I can loan you my shiled, my spear, my mace or my crossbow"
While Snowflake hangs back to keep an eye on Dayo, the rest proceeds to the door down the hallway.
This strange room is a fifteen-foot-diameter sphere. Several objects float in the room, spinning lazily in space—a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven surrounded by a halo of floating
and writhing maggots, a backpack with most of its contents floating in a halo around it, a strange sword and a twisted iron wand
with a forked tip.
Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every
once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance.
That is your backpack and sword. It looks like someone has eaten a large part of you stack of papers (judging by the teeth marks, it was the goblin). Your rations are nowhere to be found. There are notes in a tiny handwriting in the margins of your holy text. Its in a language you cant read. Your shaving kit has also been used. You dont want to think too much about who would have used it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Dayo reaches for the crossbow.
"I suppose I can make use of this. Thank you kind..."
And then the door opens.
"My sword! And... Oh, no! Not my origami paper! Those monsters!"
Dayo walks into the room.