Open for business
You spend a long day marching in the hot sun and though it's been several years since he's last seen it, Sverrir manages to guide you faithfully to the entrance to the Whispering cairn. Pushing your way through the heavy undergrowth mostly obscures the grand stone block bounded entrance, you make your final preparations and enter the ancient tomb.
Light from outside dimly illuminates a long hallway extending north, off into darkness. A faint breeze brings along its sibilant whispers that sound almost like a sighing breath. It must be trick of the wind, you hope.
Bands of geometric patterns run along the walls at waist hight, surprisingly well perserved in some places. Above it, flakes of still vibrant pigment give the impression of what must have been an impressive fresco, though the ravages of time have nearly erased it completely.
A thick layer of dust covers the floor, though it is disturbed in several places.
The gentle faced half-orc Grimmuk surveys the scene, his hands resting easily on his crossbow. He kneels to inspect the dust sniffing at the air as he does, a poor decision as his eyes quickly water preceeding a sneeze that sounds almost painful.
"Well, let's see what we can find." he says, wiping his nose with an old rag from his trouser pocket.
Byden strides forward into his old stomping ground, pushing aside memories of scrawling graffiti and groping Mildred Dresh. Glancing back at his new companions he asks,
"Are we all ready? We need to wring some profit out of this expedition, or I'll have to sign my life away at the garrison again. I'll tear this place apart if I have to."
So saying he steps forward into the darkness relying upon his orc blood, and detecting evil ahead of him - because if you have the blessings of Heironeous it seems daft not to use them.
Adotiln stops to take a breath, resting casually against his warhammer. 'Lads, I dunna mind a bit'a dark, so unless you want to light a wee torch i'm all for headin' in'.
Seeing no objections, he hefts his hammer again, and follows Byden.
"Lemme move a bit ahead an' look fer danger. Byden, keep me in sight, but out o' the range o' th' light."
Byden nods, but rumbles,
"Don't know what your sneaking for, this place has been explored more times than that Chezbet from the Emporium, she's an explorable lass, but I suppose caution can't hurt. Don't need light do we? No humans here, hah, makes for a nice change."
Just to the inside of the tomb, the hallway branches to the east and west, ending in shallow alcoves. These are marred with the crudely etched names of a generation of Diamond lake teens some of your own among them. At the end of the western alcove rests a small bundle of cloth.
A search of the entrance and alcoves reveals the following:
- Carefully worked into the geometric patterns are a number of cleverly hidden holes. You can feel air flowing out of them and they appear to be the source of the sighing whispers.
- The bundle of cloth in the western alcove is a moldering bedroll, probably left behind by the last teen brave/foolish enough to spend the night in this foreboding place. As it crumbles at a touch, you suspect this was quite some time ago.
- Off down the darkened hallway a sickly green light, so dim that it would be easy to pass of as a trick of the imagination could you not all see it, flickers ominously.
"Habit, an' t' keep in practice." Ratchet grumbles. "Now pipe down. I'm tryin' t' trace the source o' this air flow. It's faint 'nough wit' out yer yappin'."
Byden snorts, and moves towards a wall tracing his finger across the legend, "Big B and Milly forever."
"Don't remember that green light, I'd say we check that out before messing about with the whistlin' holes."
"Green, ominous light..." Grimmuk snorts, "that's always a good sign." Grimmuk levels his crossbow and peers down the hallway.
"Jus' keep a bead on it. I'm almost done here, then I'll head that way. 'Less of course you feel like doin' th' scoutin'." Ratchet says, surly as ever.
'Keep a lid on it lads, we dunna know what it is but best not shout ta tha world we're in here. Le'me give you a hand with tha' Ratchet.' Adotiln growls before moving to inspect the stonework closer.
The air holes probably serve to generate the whispering sighs that the cairn is known for. If there is any other function, you can't tell.
There is a passage continuing deeper into the cairn, towards the faint green light.
"Bah. Jus' theatrical nonsense." Ratchet grumbled before slipping down the hall towards the glowing green light.
Byden snorts at Grimmuk's remark,
"Aye, a sure fire sign of glad times and picnics if I ever saw one, we're like to be in for a treat. Ha."
"I'll cover you as you move."
"Aye, thanks."
You creep slowly deeper into the passageway and your path is bisected again by paths to the east and west.
East: 15ft in, it ends abruptly in a tumble of stones.
West:The path extends 40ft before ending in a raised platform topped by a strange broken apparatus.
North: The passage extends another 60 or so feet before opening up into a larger chamber. The green light is coming from this direction.
Ratchet eyeballs the broken apparatus for a moment, checking to see if it's purpose is anything obvious before continuing toward the light.
Adotiln peers at the strange device and tries to figure if he's seen anything like it in a book before.
Byden shows little interest in the apparatus, moving to cover the north passage, but allowing Ratchet to go on ahead.
Grimmuk seems to be more intent on the eerie light than the strange device, though he does spare it a cursory glance. His crossbow remains pointed down the corridor.
The remains of a curved oval frame, not unlike that of a dressing mirror, jut out of the support frame. Only about a third of frame remains upright, the remainder of it and what appears to be a large ceiling stone rests on the floor nearby amongst shards of glittering black "glass'. An unusual arcane glyph has been carved into the baseplate of the support platform.
Rachet's keen eyes pick up a series of delicate runes tracing the inside of the frame where the 'glass' would have sat, though Adoltiln is unable to identify the nature of the runes..
"Frame o' some kind, but missin' the lens, or reflective dish, or whatever. Maybe tha' black glass used t' go in th' frame b'fore it broke. Interestin'."
Making a quick sketch in a journal he used to take down survey notes, he moved on toward the light.
Byden grunts,
"Well all I can tell you is its always been like this. Green light ain't nothing new, been here for years, since I used to come up here as King of the Reprobates at any rate."
Continuing on, the central hallway opens into a large chamber with wings to the east and west. Across the chamber to the north is a 20ft wide open arch draped from to to bottom in translucent cobwebs. The eerie green light flickers from beyond the webs casting strange shadows about this room. The sibilant, almost human whispers present in the passage become a chorus in this massive chamber, eerily echoing off the walls. The whole place reeks of animal spoor and wet fur.
To the west, three stairs lead to a wide marble dais, that extends into darkness.
A glance to the east reveals huge slabs of cracked masonry and irregular piles of scattered debris seem to choke the passage way. Yellow eyes reflect the light as four shaggy forms slink out into the open. Three of the wolves are lean and slavering, while the fourth is a larger, healthier specimen with a line of scar tissue running from forehead to muzzle. Growing menacingly, they advance.
Round 1:
21 Grimmuk
21 Wolf A
20 Wolf B
15 Wolf C
13 Byden
10 Adotiln
6 Ratchet
Grimmuk looses a bolt from his crossbow into the nearest wolf, his hands mechanically moving to load the next bolt before he realizes if he has hit or not.
to hit
damage
Grimmuk strikes a solid hit on one of the wolves.
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
HP: A:3/9, B: 9/9, Alpha: 15/15
Growling, the wolves attack:
misses
hits
Ratchet receives a grievous blow and to torn from his feet.
Snarling Byden steps in front of Ratchet and feints with his shield at the injured wolf while pulling free his sword and slashing out to draw a red line across the beasts shoulder sending it slumping to the ground.
"One down! You see that puppies? No easy meals here!" He bellows.
"Hurk!" Ratchet grunts as the wolf sinks it's teeth into him, but manages to stay on his feet.
Staggering back next to Adoltin, he winces as yanks a flask full of silverish liquid from his bandoleer and hurls it at the wolf in the back.
'Poor wretched creatures.' Adotiln mutters as he hefts his warhammer in one hand and shield in the other. Stepping up to the closest one he takes a swing, hoping to put it out of its misery.
Grimmuk looses again, this time at the largest wolf.
to Hit
damage
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
HP: A:0/9, B: 1/9, Alpha: 9/15
Byden, Ratchet and Adotiln all hit, dropping one of the wolves.
The wolf that Adotiln hit lashes out in retaliation and the last wolf advances and attacks Byden:
miss
hit
PC's up again.
Grunting as fangs sink its fangs into his forearm Byden skips back keeping the larger beast at bay with his shield as he whirls to strike its companion, forcing it to split its attention between himself and Adotiln on either side.
Unfortunately he only catches the beast with a glancing blow which is robbed of its remaining power by the wolf's hide.
"Damnation!"
Ratchet yanks a metal flask from his belt, yanks the stopper with his teeth and takes a swig.
miss
Grimmuk's is up.
Grimmuk looses another bolt, targeting the smaller wolf.
Going wide with his aim he lets fly a few choice curses and reloads.
Wolves are up:
One wolf attacks Adotiln:
and misses.
The other moves to attack Grimmuk:
and hits
It bites him hard, but fails to pull him from his feet.
Byden, Adotlin and Ratchet to finish the round.
Byden swings as the wolf turns to look at Adotiln and hacks into its throat sending it to the floor in a pile of its own gore. He then moves cautiously over to the last and largest of the small pack, keeping his shield trained upon the beast.
"Adotiln get in behind him, we need to finish this!"
Adotiln roars, 'Just die yah mangy beasts, hang in there lads, I'll heal yah up just as soon as we finish this.' before swinging his warhammer hard at the remaining wolf
Ratchet slides past the wolf along the rock wall and hurls a javelin, hoping to finish the fight.
Ratchet and Adotlin both inflict cruel wounds to the remaining wolf, but it does not fall.
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
HP: A:dead/9, B: dead/9, Alpha: 4/15
Grimmuk is up with a chance to finish the fight.
Grimmuk steps alongside the wolf dropping his crossbow and pulling his morningstar, with Byden across from his to distract the beast he brings his weapon down.
to hit
damage
to confirm
damge
He strikes true, but not hard enough to finish the fight.
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
HP: A:dead/9, B: dead/9, Alpha: 2/15
miss
Hustling over behind Byden, Ratchet couldn't really get a clear shot with a ranged weapon, so he resorted to his spear.