You awaken in one of twelve cells lined up six on each side of a fairly large room, with the light of a single lantern casting shadows of the bars upon the floor and walls. The air of the room is musty and almost uncomfortable to breathe and despite the fact the room is made of stone no echoes can be heard. The last thing you remember was hearing some hauntingly beautiful flute music that seemed to call out to you.
There are more children in the other cells, most are human, but there appears to be a Half-Orc, a Sylph, a Nagaji, a Catfolk, and one that looks...different. The strange one looks like an elf, of which you have seen a few, but this one's head is hairless and has skin that is very dark. So dark in fact, that the Elf seems to blend into the shadows of the cell.
"Hey... What happened?" Flynt says wiping the gunk from his eyes. "Are you guys okay?"
Pharnox awakens roughly, he examines the area warily and spots other beings in the cells nearby... What are they...
Then he hears one speak but the language is strange, it's sound inefficient, gravely and the like...
Pharnox begins looking around for things, locks, padlocks, rocks and so forth...
perception
As he does this he speaks in Elven...
Qua es nos? Quod quis es vos?
Where are we? And what are you?
"Gaah!"
Ash gasps and his eyes open wide. He is not in his bed.
"Pa!?! Where are you?" Ash looks around. Whatever this place is, it is most definitely not his house. A cell. He is a prisoner!
Asho is immediately worried for his father, and then himself. He hears Flynt, and the strange tongue from the mysterious dark elf.
"Flynt! You all right?" [looks around,sees Gashka, Tikkle, Anyka, Valltera and Lo'laan's recumbent forms] "Who all is here? Where is here?"
Crestfallen, Ash tries the door to his cell in the merest hope it is actually unlocked.
"No, I'm not. I'm in a cage like I'm a pet. Nat, where are you little brother?" Fynt says looking around.
Jin stirs from his sleep as the others begin to make a fuss. His mother had always warned him that his pranks would land him in jail someday, but before Jin can proclaim his innocence he spots the others in their cells.
He looks around taking count of the other children, most he recognizes a few he doesn't. Some of the kids here Jin knew would never do anything bad enough to be locked up. Panic begins to set in as he realizes that he's not in jail and that this isn't a rouse created by his mother magic.
There came a groan from the cell next to him. "Here." Nathaniel answered weakly.
"Are you alright? What in the world happened to us? I don't remember anything."
"I...I don't know. I feel...weak."
"It'll be alright little brother. Do you remember anything?"
"Other than the creepy flute music when we went to sleep, no I don't." He said with a little more strength while trying to get up from the floor.
Terra felt the stone floor. it felt different that she was used to. slowly her eyes opened. the room she was in was blurry, blasted eyes she thinks to herself.
She hears the other voices. Terra tries to get a view as best she can. but everything further than only a few feet away seems a blur.
listening to the other voices she tries to place them.
hello? does anyone know where we are? Terra asks out the bars.
She recalls hearing a foreign voice as well a language she was forced to learn, she never expected to ever speak it.
salve mihi videtur, qui es?
hello, I am Terra, who are you?
Pharnox looks at one of the prisoners to his immediate right across the hall, her tongue was like his but different. The language felt alien, as if it were an aberration of the language he spoke... She looked strange as well, definitely female but her skin was like a strange bronze and her hair was as black as darkness...
Ego sum Pharnox Sootfingers, Drow et de semine inventore nuper. Audivi mirum advena sonat et caliginem... Quis enim es tu?
I am Pharnox Sootfingers, of the Drow race and an explorer of late. I heard strange, alien sounds and then utter darkness... What are you?
Salve Pharnox. Quid, quid agam? Ego sum homo, eduxit eum: Quid est?
Hello Pharnox. What do you mean, what am I? I'm human, What is a Drow?
Hearing the others and feeling the cold of the floor under her, Gashka wakes with a start.
"What the....Flynt, Nate, I hear you. Where are we?" She pulls herself up off the floor and takes a look around.
She looks around and sees the others around her, "How did we get here? Is that you Ash? I don't remember anything either....but, it looks like quite a few of us are here." She thinks about her mama and papa and hopes that they are okay. Trying to keep herself calm she takes a few deep breaths, then regrets it as the musty air gets in her lungs and makes her cough. "I don't know where we are, but I really don't like it."
Pharnox examines the "human" quizzically and speaks...
Humanum dico ... numquam talibus. Numquid forte a mutant ab germen animus? Numquid super populum obviam venit nobis obviam procedit ad aliquid simile in umbra?
Human...I have never heard of such folk. Are you perhaps a mutant off shoot of elves? Did your people encounter something akin to the radiation we encountered in the deeps?
Ash smiles in the darkness. "Yep it's me Gashka...I don't like it either.
Thinking on their situation, and the odd inclusion to the village children, Ash calls to the vanaran.
"Terra - what's the elf gabbling about, does he know anything about who put us here, or why?"
Thinking on their situation, and the odd inclusion to the village children, Ash calls to the vanaran.
Anyka stirs awake to the sounds of hushed conversation, some in an unusual language. Looking around she realizes she is in a cell, causing her to focus to fight down the rising panic.
"Does anyone know why we're all here?"
Narima's voice piped in, "I sscertainly do not missstresss."
"Not yet Anyka." Ash thinks quickly.
"We're all kids. No adults. Whoever took us, they didn't want old people."
Ash paces back and forth for a moment.
"Who is all here? Flynt, Anyka, Terra, Jin, Gashka. The elf. Anyone else?"
"Nate is here as well as Tikkle. I...I don't know very many people." She looks at the others, "I'm Gashka...from the farm at the edge of town."
The elf doesn't know why either, he's just as stuck as we are.
responding to the elf:
Quidnam tibi est? Quid est homo, nescis? in mundo, ubi "abyssus"?
What in the world do you mean by that? you don't know what a human is? and where in the world is the "deep"?
Well whoever has us here is gonna be in some serious trouble when my daddy finds out. General Hastur is probably the strongest soldier anywhere
Ash nods.
"My father will be worried. After that, probably mad. Most probably at me." he finishes dejectedly.
"Tikkle! Wake up!" shouts Ash, before realising that perhaps shouting and alerting their captor may not be the wisest option. Then again, its not as though they were in danger of escaping here. At least seeing their captor would at least make this much less mysterious.
"So, anyone got anything that might help get us out? I'm not exactly busting my cell door down here...."
Gashka looks down, her fists tightening around the bars of her cage. "I want to know who's holding us here, and why.....there has to be a way out of here." She starts pulling on the bars to test how strong they are.
Gashka looks up and across at Ash, "Don't say things like that. There is no way anyone can blame any of us for what's happened. When we get outta here and back home, your pa will just be happy to see ya again."
Ash nods again, realising Gashka is just trying to cheer him up.
"Sure. Once he works out what happened. Until then, he'll be mad. Never mind, my father's anger is probably the least of our worries."
After recovering from the stress of being kidnapped Jin pipes up with an idea. "Does anyone have a hair pin or a comb, anything long and narrow? Check your pockets and toss it here."
Pharnox looks at the girl again quizzically...
Tectum venio quae super terram non potest magnum vidit novi generis faciem tuam. Tu autem similitudinem ad corpus tuum, et similia, sunt in cute capillum tuum, et aures ut non tantum non ...
I come from the land where the great ceiling that rises above the ground cannot be seen, I have never seen your kind before. Yet you seem similar to us, your body and head are similar your skin and ears not so neither your hair...
"I wish, Jin. I have tattoo needles in my room at home, but I tend not to sleep with them. I don't even have a hairpin in my 'locks. Wait, I have some carved bone wrapped around one. You could break it and hope to get a long splinter..." Ash wrestled with his matted hair and there is a faint ripping sound.
[+2 BAB, +2 Dex, +1 Point Blank shot]
"I have a bad feeling about this. Think you can slip through the bars, little brother? Pretend its the.stairwell back home"
"Don't worry Narima, I won't let anyone hurt you. We'll get out of here somehow, just be brave." the young noble girl says bravely, her voice defiant and reassuring.
Quietly she clenches her fists angrily.
Jin reaches through the bars and grabs the bone. He gives it a careful once-over before attempting to pick his cells lock.
Tikkle's eyes snap open, finally awakened after the spell wore off. "aww what'd I do this time? I dun even remember!" sitting up, he takes stock in the situation and lets the wheels start to turn in his head...
He surveys his cell and gives a hard kick to the lock or weakest part of the cell that he notices.
He then sees Gashka standing in the cell across from him.
Gashka looks over at Tikkle and shrugs, "Dydw i ddim yn siwr ble yr ydym, neu sut y cawsom yma. Ymddengys nad oes unrhyw un arall wybod chwaith. I. .. Nid wyf yn adnabod pawb yma. Hyd yn hyn, y rhai yr wyf yn gwybod eu Flynt, Nate, ac Ash. Nid wyf wedi cwrdd â'r eraill cyn."
"None of us did anything. We just woke up here, someone took us....we just don't know who or why. Right now, I don't care I just wanna get outta here."
"Me too. Problem is, how do we do that?"