Jibril took out his rope and looked at Rex, "Remember the cold challenge?. He started tying the rope about his waist. "He looked up from tying. Unless someone else would like to go?
"At bare minimum, it looks like your friends may have been taken here."
"Yes... so I have to follow," he said, nervously eyeing the preternaturally dark interior of the stone building. That place, if any he had ever seen, had 'ambush' painted all over it.
She gives Jibril a doubtful look, "You just got back on your feet. I think we should look for other options first."
Quinn dug out a small pellet from her bag. "We could see if whoever is inside is willing to come out. When this explodes, they won't want to stay."
She gives Jibril a doubtful look, "You just got back on your feet. I think we should look for other options first."
Jibril stopped for a moment. He looked like he had been running for three days straight and reconsidered his plan of, once again, fathoming a space from the end of a rope. As he watched Quinn pull out what looked to be a fragile jar bound with a little twine he stepped aside, glad to rest and let Quinn smoke out the inhabitants.
When Dizzy spoke, they heard a small noise - what could have been a movement from inside. However, there was no answer.
Quinn lobbed her smoke pellet into the chamber, and a moment later an acrid, spicy smoke started whisping out of it. Immediately they heard somebody coughing and choking - they recognized the "voice" of the moon cat they'd fought and spoken with earlier. However, it did not exit, nor did it speak. The darkness remained unbroken.
Quinn stared in disbelief as the moon-cat decided to stay in the structure than exit, "Huh."
She then took the end of Jibril's rope and began tying it around herself. "Appears someone needs to go in and you're still hurt. Plus I'm better fighting in close quarters if it comes to that. If there aren't any tokens in there, I'm coming straight back out. If I yell, pull me out."
Quinn made sure that her ioun torch was lit around her head before moving into the unnatural darkness. But she didn't go in straight, she made sure she went in moving in a random zig-zag pattern.
'A brave woman,' Vilhelm thought, as Quinn volunteered to step blindly into the unnatural darkness. The invoker considered following her - his friends might be in the building, after all, so he had plenty of reasons to go, but in the darkness, another blind ally would be more of a detriment than help... they might well end up running into each other and doing each other harm in panic.
"Come out!" Vilhelm shouted, hoping to help distract the feline or better yet, convince it to continue they previous dialogue. "There is no reason for violence, but you cannot stay in there - the signs point that my friends were dragged in, so we must follow to determine their fate! By staying inside you are just making things harder for us all! We promise not to attack you if you come out and offer us no violence, and with your help we can see to finding out what happened to the people you fought before, without needlessly desecrating your sacred site!"
Rex was not totally on board with Quinn's plan, "I might have a few cuts and bruises at the moment, but there's no way I'm letting you go down there alone!" He walked up behind Quinn, "You can go down first if you'd like, since you took the least scrapes in our last fight, but I will follow and back you up if something goes wrong."
Dizzy felt anxious as she watched the others get ready to enter the cave. It made her very nervous that she couldn't see into it. "I dinna like this, no at all. I cannae see nothin' in there. And I cannae call upon the goddess much more today, no before I rest." She had a thought. "Muscles, hold there. I can give ye a wee bit o luck 'fore ye go in."
She put her hand on his forearm so solid! and called upon the goddess. "There, that might help a bit. Careful now."
She watched them get swallowed up by the darkness, and held the line with Jibril, ready to yank them out again.
Quinn gave Rex an exasperated look, "I'm not some damsel who can't protect herself." She wasn't about to admit that she was secretly happy to have someone watching her back. "But if you insist on coming, who am I to tell you no. Just don't get in my way."
Jibril lay his bow on the ground and stuck three arrows next to it. ”one tug for ‘give us some slack’. Two for ‘so far so good’. Three for ‘trouble’., trying to sound a confident anchor. When he twrapped the rope about his waist he did so that he was facing outward and could also keep watch.
"Well, thanks to your goddess once more!" Rex said, as he seemed to flex his bicep for some reason and get a slightly smug look.
To Quinn, he let out a chuckle, "If I thought you were a damsel in distress, I wouldn't be letting you down there at all...let alone go in front of me." He nodded towards the darkness, "Now why don't we just get this over with..."
Quinn stepped into the darkness. It swallowed the light of her ioun stone as if it wasn't there. Underneath her feet were rough stones, begging to trip her.
Quinn moved through the darkness, her eyes straining for any bit of light, and finding none. It was rare that she'd ever experienced a darkness so complete; usually there was enough light coming from somewhere, even if just starlight, to see a hand before the face. But this was like being completely blind, this was to forget what light was.
As Rex stepped in behind her, he immediately lost all sense of direction. Though he knew he hadn't turned around, he suddenly was not confidant that Quinn was still in front of him. The strange darkness seemed to muffle sound, and although he could still hear the others outside, it was as if they were far away, or that he was hearing them through a thick pillow.
Quinn continued to move forward, first a few steps left, then a few to the right, not slow enough to be an easy target, not so fast as to run into anything. Her ears strained, but all she could hear was Rex's footsteps behind her, and both of their breaths. The coughing they'd heard earlier had subsided, though enough smoke lingered in the enclosed space to make her eyes water a little.
Rex followed the rope, not at all convinced it was still attached to Quinn. He seemed to be utterly alone in the dark crypt, which certainly was much bigger on the inside than it had seemed.
In his hand the rope shifted, and he started to turn to follow Quinn again. However, it did it a second time, and a third, and he realized that it wasn't responding to Quinn at all. The rope was moving on its own. In fact, it was thicker than a rope ought to be - his finger and thumb couldn't even close over it. And that smooth, scaly surface...Rex realized he was holding a rope at all, but a long and powerful snake.
Rex cursed loudly, throwing the snake down hard to the ground. "Quinn! You still there. There's a snake in here!"
Rex stomped down hard where he thought the snake had dropped. "Quinn! He called for the rogue once more, hoping he hadn't lost her in the trickery.
"What are you yammering about? Of course I'm still here. I can't see or hear any snake. Are you sure you aren't being hysterical?"
Rex relaxed a little upon hearing Quinn's voice. They hadn't been separated and she was safe enough to be her usual sarcastic self. "Ok." He replied. "Keep talking. I'm coming towards you. Do you still have the rope?" He listened around carefully for any hissing and tried to move closer to Quinn's voice. "Careful how you step, the snake might around here somewhere."
"One tug?", at that Jibril let out a little more slack.
Rex approached Quinn, who was still zigging and zagging in front of him. He reached out a hand to try for her shoulder, but instead, he felt a rough and greasy pelt under his skin. Even as he pulled back, he and Quinn stepped into the light.
From the dimensions of the room before them, they had travelled about half the length of the strange structure. The room was dim, lit only by a single candle, but both humans had to shield their eyes for a moment as they adjusted.
Several bodies lay on the floor. One was human, two were furred - likely mooncats, but the faces were turned away. The only furniture was a small stone block that seemed to serve as a table. It held the candle, and a variety of pens, papers and books.
None of the bodies moved, and there were no sounds from within the chamber. Also, no snakes, nor large, greasy-furred creatures.
Rex reactively pulled his hand away from Quinn, but quickly the light hit them. Rex regained his composure, hoping he did so before Quinn turned around to look at him. He didn't particularly want to talk about what he just felt and he hoped it was just his mind playing tricks. "Man...what happened here? Think that's one of Vilhelm's people? He hoped not, but it seemed like the likeliest explanation. Rex tugged the rope twice. "I guess to let them know we are still alive..."
Quinn's ioun torch added more light to the space and she remained on guard as her eyes adjusted. "Never thought I'd see mooncats playing possum. If they want to lie there pretending to be unconscious then that's their prerogative. But we should take the human back with us. It's most likely Vilhelm's initial companion."
She looked above her as well as around the room. "The only thing made of stone in here is the table. I'll take a closer look to see if it's made up of tokens. Otherwise, we're running out of places to look. They'd be too big to be inside something humanoid."
The rogue cautiously approached the table, keeping an eye on the bodies as well as looking for danger.
"Two tugs? They're ok for now. Dizzy? Vilhelm? I can stay as anchor if you want to follow them in," Jibril tried to speak with confidence though he wasn't fond of the idea of being left alone.
Dizzy cocked her head to the side. "Sounds like we can all go in. Quinn?" she raised her voice a bit. "Everything okay inside? Can we come in?"
"Let's all go in together. Come, lad, take me hand." She held out a hand to Jibril, and another to Vilhelm.
Jibril took Dizzy's left hand and followed in. His elven father was of a sun-worshiping tradition, Jibril had followed suit and this unnatural darkness was disconcerting - uncanny.
"I need to go there," Vilhelm said, steadying his resolve as he faced the darkness. "I need to know, one way or another, what happened to my friends. But is it wise for all of us to go in? Those cats were skilled in hiding, who knows if one of them is still lurking around the island somewhere, waiting for all the prey to step into their trap..."
Jibril and Dizzy seemed eager to follow their own friends, however, and Vilhelm doubted they'd want the one stranger in the party to be the only one remaining outside. "Let's at least secure this rope somewhere, so we don't need to grope our way all along the walls to find the way out."
The remaining three made their way through the darkness. It helped to have the reassuring presence of their friend's hands, and despite the strange, muffled quality to the inky blackness, they made it through with no problems. In a few moments they were standing inside the end of the structure with the others.
Vilhelm immediately recognized the fallen human as his missing teammate, Otto. The man's throat had been torn out, and it looked like death had come quick to him. He was lying on his back, on what turned out to be a rough woven mat.
The other two were curled into each other in the other corner. There were no visible wounds, but little could be made out in the position they were in.
Quinn's sharp eyes noticed a drawer carved into the stone that served as a table. Upon opening, she found it pulled out into a tray with five triangular slots. Two of them held tokens.
Rex was glad to see the tokens, but could tell with Vilhelm it was not the time to celebrate. He put a hand on his shoulder, "My condolences. Let me know if I can help...You know...With moving the body..."
"My condolences. Let me know if I can help...You know...With moving the body..."
”Thank you,” Vilhelm said quietly, kneeling next to Otto’s body. ”May you find sweet water and light laughter wherever you are,” he murmured, touching the body lightly on the chest.
”I never held much hope for poor Otto, not after what I already saw happen to him,” he said aloud, rising back to his feet. ”But I guess it’s better to know for certain than to remain guessing. I wonder why the body was dragged here, along with two of their own dead… What is this place’s purpose?” The invoker approached the table, but while Quinn seemed interested in the hidden drawer and the tokens she found, Vilhelm began inspecting the papers and books arrayed on the table.
”There is a mystery here. Something is not as it should be. The standing stones had two sorts of carving on them like one was asserting itself on the other, but I don’t know what should be done about it. Are these creatures under some spell?
At least this token is one of ours. Quinn, is it safe to remove?”
Vilhelm took a quick look at the books and papers on the stone. There two very ancient texts, one in a strange language. The symbols on the cover were similar to the new carvings on the standing stones. The other book was written in an archaic form of common. It dealt with transformation, necromancy, and other dark magics.
One was a journal, which described the writer's attempt to create his own version of were-animals. The rituals and magics used are horrible to contemplate. It's clear that the creatures Team Orra has been fighting are likely the products of these experiments.
The final entry said: The crocodile is getting out of control. The geas is breaking. I must find a way to strengthen it, or I will be forced to abandon the project. Fortunately the litter-ties among the swamp-cats seems to reinforce the geas; they are my greatest success. I have instructed them to collect three more humanoids - the next litter is nearly weaned, and ready for merging.
The papers held various diagrams, symbols, and scribbled notes. An inkpot had been overturned, marring much of what was written.
When they turned their attention to the mooncats, they realized that only one was dead. It was a female of the species, and she was cold and stiff, with several arrows in her chest. Vilhelm recognized the arrows as belonging to . They gently turned the other one other - it was the leader they'd been speaking to earlier. He had clearly come down here and curled his body into the females. He was unconscious, and his breathing was shallow and irregular.
"I think that one's still alive..." Rex observed, uncertain what to make of the creature's behavior. "Should we just grab our token and leave it be...or..." He tried to think what alternatives they even had. Rescue it, but risk it losing control and hurting someone? End it's suffering here and now...? His voice sort of trailed off.
Dizzy moved to the unconscious cat and tried to understand what was wrong with him.
Jibril went to remove the tile watching and waiting for Quinn to slap his hand and remind him that it might be trapped.
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Quinn slapped Jibril's hand away from the tokens. "They could be trapped or poisoned or many numerous things. Let me look, then you can touch."
Upon close examination of the drawer and the tokens, Quinn was almost certain that they were safe to touch. Turning to Jibril she said, "Touch away. I don't see any traps."
Once Jibril had collected their token, Quinn figured it was time to go. "We all have what we came for, we should get going."
"I wonder if the warlock who did this research is still around..." Vilhelm muttered, but nodded to Quinn's suggestion. This certainly wasn't a place to spend any more time than was necessary. "Considering both the crocodile and the trio of these felines... perhaps the mad magical researcher himself is still around." Suddenly the thought that two of his friends being still missing wasn't wholly reassuring... surely this warlock would have wanted his subjects captured alive...