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Xizor nods its head in greeting to Rizzen, then sits quietly during the averted confrontation. Pity they're all as confident as they seem, it thinks to himself. I would have liked a meal.
"I am Xizor," the hood introduces itself. An unusual name, but by no means as unpronouncable as the non-goblin and the body possessor. "I specialize in information. I suspect that means I will be our scout, if such is needed."
The vampire stands up from his chair and gives a long courtly bow. Even the uncouth 'goblin' gets his time. With a plastered on smile and empty eyes he speak.
"I am Viktor, of the Esperkrantz line. Simply delighted to make your acquaintance!"
While the words ring hollow, he does seem to have some interest in behaving civilized - even if only out of habit. Old habits die hard they say - and his were ancient.
With a satisfied nod he picks up his glass and moves about to mingle at the strange gathering. A strange concoction. This shall be *interesting* at the very least - but it doesn't look like it is about to explode just yet...
"Tell me, Sanriel, why does a priest of stone and nature raid tombs? The Osirian dead at least have the good manner to stay put - surely they doesn't draw Druids ire as easily as others?" Like you and I, unbreathing kin ...
As that last comment is made, the entire room shakes and shudders as if something has slammed into the side of the space. All of the Monkeys seem to be unperturbed at this state of affairs and from a new door that has just now shown up along the western wall of the space a gout of mist and steam escapes from around the edges and corners of the door. It felt like a gigantic titan had taken a step, or perhaps some leviathan had passed close by or bumped against the hull of a ship while it would have been out at sea. Obviously this should be an alarming state of affairs, as none of you know just how far underground you really might be.
All of the Monkeys, except for the one on Sanriel, all head into the various doors in the space leaving all of the characters alone for a few moment.s
The room shakes a few times more, as if something had twitched or shrugged just outside of the large stone room. It only lasts for a half a dozen heartbeats or so then it is all steadied out.
Just then Shivered comes out from the door she had entered into. Accompanied by all of her Monkeys behind her. She has the same outfit on that she had going back there with the addition of a faceless mask that seems to be made of a diaphanous saffron color.
"So everyone, a reminder. Through that door there," pointing towards the new doorway that had just shown up, "Lies the pathway by the navigator to the destination chosen by The Lady In Linen."
"Once you exit the passageway you will find yourselves in another place. I have no idea what you will encounter, nor where it is at. Just that this is the place The Lady requires you all to be at."
She straightens up a little more.
"Once there find the stone she is sending you all to retrieve. Once it is secured think of her, all of you, picture her in your minds and thoughts and she will send the transportation that will take you to where this stone needs to be delivered to. Once that is done, then use the talismans I have provided to have you brought immediately back to here. I suspect this will be very easy to accomplish."
She points to the door, now limned with frost and with ice creeping along the hinges and solid brass appearing I shaped handle.
"Go."
What kind of place is this?
Zorryn made for the new door slowly, hoping he wasn't being sent into the sun or something equally deadly. He doubted such would be the case, she wanted him to do something for her, but it still crossed his mind.
"Into the belly of the beast." Then he walked through the passage.
Well then, time to leave neutral ground. We will see how this works out then! The vampire smiles to himself. Draining the last of his drink he nods towards the flaming steed and the pair follows Zorryn into the passage. He briefly contemplated disguising himself, but then ... If they exited where others dwelled, his own appearance would hardly be the greatest shock!
As the first two open the door, they and the rest can see a long stone tunnel. Just large enough to accommodate the Nightmare so long as Viktor is not mounted otherwise he would have to be crouched over. It is a smooth dark stone like wet granite in appearance although dry.
There is a wan diffused lighting coming from somewhere outside of the tunnel, or maybe from the air inside. Either way no one could determine the source. It is low enough to not ruin any nightvision having a very faint red tinge to it. Dark or Ultravision reveals the same, just a stone tunnel with a slight downward slant.
It does seem to sway a little as everyone passes into it. Once the last party member enters Shivered does shut the door gently behind them, which causes the entrance way to disappear, leaving only ahead to go.
"Hmmm, how convenient...
Oh well, what is the worst that could happen."
Rizzen muses as he walks with the others.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"... Cave-in, hungry giants, fire from the sky, The Rough Beast escapes, ..." Viktor comments with half a grin.
OOC: Excellent ideas
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As Xizor approaches the door, it turns to Shivered and queries "No final description of what we're looking for? I assume an arbitrary pebble plucked off the ground won't satisfy the Lady, despite being a stone from the location we are going to."
Once it's received whatever information the necromancer has to impart, it silently nods its hood in thanks and departs though the door and into the tunnel, moving fast enough to catch up with the others who went before, without truly hurrying.
With the sudden and shaky arrival of their path to the mission and the others in the group already beginning to move into the newly formed tunnel the black armored creature takes a moment to reform her appearance shifting back into the form of the young Drow girl, once back in her disguise the the Drow girl would give Shivvered a brief wave goodbye paired with a smile that might be found slightly off-putting knowing the true nature of the being behind the face of the child with that done she would scurry off to join the rest of the odd group.
"Ow that is all manageable. Mow it would be a problem if we ended up in the sun. Especially for the bloodsuckers among us." Rizzen jokes.
"Don't you worry. I have never seen the Sun take an active role in assailing me. Merely an ... occupational hazard. And those can be migrated."
The vampire stops for a moment with a solemn look on him as if he were to perform a great feat of magic or something. With a quick show of hands he displays that he got nothing hidden up his sleeve. Then he reaches into his backpack and pulls out something. Something long. A full sized parasol?! With a quick bow and a grin he slings the backpack back to his back.
"Voilà!"
Rizzen laugh generously. "Haha quite fashionable. I spent so many years raiding surfacers my eyes got quite adapted to the surface light. Always amusing when a cleric tries to blind me with a daylight spell. I hope our other daylight challenged companions have similar solutions? It would be quite limiting to our progress otherwise."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"The worst that happens is that this isn't actually an exit and we spend the rest of a very long eternity drifting through the screaming void that the tunnel we are to travel through passes due to breaking the natural laws to bring us where it does." the druid states flatly looking to the dead simian on his shoulder before standing and making to push in his chair, failing. The skeleton looking at the chair for a moment before trying again, a crack making the man reevaluate before having a moment of understanding and lifting the chair removing the 1/2 inch of wood that had sunk into the ground.
Ready to leave he nods to Xizor "I can only presume this is a test of some kind it seems to be a running theme with individuals that punch holes in reality for transit." scanning back to the group and the vampire with its... Umbrella? I have not seen on since my times in the caravans, too frail. the druid nods "I do not possess such a flaw as exploding in the presence of the sun but for those in the group that do I can produce an adequate equivalent to the item Ser Esperkrantz has obtained. I would require an object of wood, about a medium sized branch of oak, which you would not lament losing."
Now to see where this leads, I would be very unhappy were it not to at least bring me closer to my goal. the druid states as he casually scans the room going from undead to abomination and others Justice will come, but not today, though my list grows longer the more I travel.
The shrouded skeleton strides toward the door skeletal monkey crouching on his shoulder. Moving with no haste, hand sliding on the smooth stone of the wall as his feet clack on the floor.
Skittering behind the group is Ckkxxchtki, his desiccated body moving silently as he comes through the portal that was created for them to use.
As Xizor approaches the door, it turns to Shivered and queries "No final description of what we're looking for? I assume an arbitrary pebble plucked off the ground won't satisfy the Lady, despite being a stone from the location we are going to."
Once it's received whatever information the necromancer has to impart, it silently nods its hood in thanks and departs though the door and into the tunnel, moving fast enough to catch up with the others who went before, without truly hurrying.
"No, I am sorry. This time the directions are a little vague. Just that you will know what stone it is once you have located it somewhat close to where you will be arriving. I suspect this will be the easiest task you shall ever have to do."
As you all pass down along the swaying and moving tunnel of stone the definite sense of the passage of time and distance comes to each of you. Still there is nothing unpleasant in the journey and at one point along the way a giant electric blue butterfly, about the size of a dwarf in body with an appropriate wingspan, flies from one side of the tunnel, passing through the stone wall and out the other. It makes no sound, just flies from left to right in front of you all. It had no scent, no tangible mass to be discerned as the stone could be seen through it.
It is perhaps 1 to 1 1/2 turns of a hourglass and the tunnel stops moving a dozen more steps all can see it terminates in another door. This one is pure worked stone with a stone knob for a handle. It looks like it will open outward.
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It opens up into a large cavern. A good 100 foot long and about 35 or so foot wide. It is at least 50 feet high in most spots. The ground is mostly smooth at this point.
The door opened on one side of the wall. If North is designated to the left, then this would be the western side of the cavern.
To the north there appears to be an exit, as well as one to the east side, almost directly across from the characters, as well as one to the southeast of the space as well.
There is glowing fungus about the place, providing a low level of illumination across the entire space. It feels like a typical cavern deep underground.
For those that grew up underground, it could feel like home in many ways.
Inspecting the surroundings Rizzen says
"Hmm It appears we are deep underground. Those fungi are the type that grow at around 500 ft below ground. (making a guess, adjust to real range)
Shall we let the brave non-goblin try his best at grabbing the stone on his own? We can always assist him when it is too difficult for him. "
So do you all want to do a marching order, split up to check out and around, stay together, what?
Go ahead, split up the party. Dare you all
Viktor gives the passing butterfly a long and thoughtful look before he shrugs and files the memory under 'other strange things'.
Stepping out trough the door, he surveys his surroundings and returns the parasol to his backpack. If the sun manage to penetrate so deeply into the earth, I don't think it would help anyhow. He chuckled to himself. "Well, I can not say I see anything particularly "grab"-worthy yet. And considering she said it would be easy, we can not risk that he manage to succeed somehow." He smiles. "We would look quite silly, no doubt. Now - how do we decide on a path. Ene mine moe?"
So let me know who is going where or doing what?
"Still underground at least. If the stone is just lying around here it could be hidden. Hopefully it is magical." Zorryn spreads his black wings and rises to scout the cavern from the air.
Rizzen pokes Viktor in the side with his elbow.
"Quite the dramatic showoff isn't he?"
Oh well, let's get to action. I guess any direction is as good as any."
"Which way do we go? I can look ahead for prey I am usually only seen when I wish it so." the girl says giving the group a grin not yet making an effort to lead in any particular direction but instead taking a few moments to take in the scents of the cavern and attempting to discern if anything else has been through here recently, the entire sight is most certainly quite odd as the tiny drow begins sniffing at the air, floor, and around the others.
"Worried he decides to show off his wrath instead of wings?" the vampire replies. "Let him fly - with any luck, he spots our quarry. And worst case our rivals shoot him first."
Viktor points towards the northern entrance. "Shall we?" and starts to make his way towards it.
"Oh please, bigger and scarier things have tried. Every foe is defeatable with the proper information and preparation." Rizzen dismisses the suggestion with a wave of his hand.
At Viktor's suggestion Rizzen responds "Might as well."
"Still underground at least. If the stone is just lying around here it could be hidden. Hopefully it is magical." Zorryn spreads his black wings and rises to scout the cavern from the air.
Once up in the air there is nothing different to see than has already been noted. The ceiling is somewhat smooth, like it was partially worked to expand this overall. There is very little airflow, the air is pretty stale to those that breath still.
"Which way do we go? I can look ahead for prey I am usually only seen when I wish it so." the girl says giving the group a grin not yet making an effort to lead in any particular direction but instead taking a few moments to take in the scents of the cavern and attempting to discern if anything else has been through here recently, the entire sight is most certainly quite odd as the tiny drow begins sniffing at the air, floor, and around the others.
[dice=Scent based Tracking Survival Roll] 1d20+12
All of the scents, outside of your party members, come up as very old, very stale. A very faint mixture similar to some of the party members, some definitely animal. Nothing recent, like in years. But with the lack of traffic, it seems, the scents still linger on lightly.
As the stalwart party descends into the treacherous.....Ohh wait.
So as you all assemble in a rough group towards the northern direction they enter into another cavern, approximately the same size, after passing through a short tunnel.
There are a few trickling streams, water flowing lightly down one wall, some scant ventilation still, and it then opens up into other older caverns, with both stalactites and stalagmites in it.
There is a series of smaller caverns, none any much larger than the first one. All with similar features and nothing of interest. After about 5 such sets it essentially dead ends out.
If anyone looked, no hidden doors, no traps, no magic, nothing of that nature.
Presuming, I am, that you all head back to the first cavern what next?
The goblin goes forth into the eastern tunnel... moving ahead of the group with its dull red eyes, its flinty dagger is drawn, and its footsteps are very quiet.
seemingly to fade into the shadows as it skitters, even the party would have trouble discerning its location
Rizzen whispers after it.
"You might want to be a bit more stealthy, I can still clearly see you and I am not even trying."
Zorryn glides around. When he sees others trying to be stealthy he attempts the same, shifting into a black misty cloud slinking along the ceiling.
as the party scatters to scout Sanriel sits down performing a small ritual. Why search caverns blindly when we can simply ask directions from those who have lived here for ages?
"I have cast a calling, a creature that has lived here for many years is likely to arrive soon. I would prefer that you avoid killing it so I tell you it is arriving now." Sanriel states to all who are in the room, assuming the echos of his speech would reach those down the caverns.
As the Goblin heads down into the Eastern passage Zorryn takes off from the ground and is floating up in the air.
Sanriel begins his ritual. The power goes out into the surrounding area and begins to summon what might be around. It takes only a few moments for the call to go forth.
It does not take very long at all for the call to be responded to.
The scrabbling of claws on stone marks the approach of a large multi-legged creature. It is coming from the south/southeast direction.
A minute or so later a very large spider arrives in the immediate vicinity. The body is the size of a large barbaric human male, eight long legs tipped with claws carrying it along. It is huge and almost bulbous, with a small in comparison head. The coloration is the black of deepest space. The claws are more like swords than hooked claws. It is carried across the ground with ease and confidence.
Once it is closer it looks like a Giant Black Widow spider, gravid with age and venom. Even closer though some strangeness is noticed in the external appearance. There are splotches on the body showing severe aging. A rhythm to the walking sounds almost like someone humming to themselves. In a thin clicking fashion.
Up close there is something wrong with the giant spider. There is a strangeness to the skin, like it is writhing underneath the exterior. There seems to be bits of shadow or darkness that leaks out of the joints with each step it takes.
She, you presume, comes right up to Sanriel and brings her head, mandibles and fangs dripping with shadows, up to his head level, compound eyes staring directly into his.
In UnderCommon a dry rasping voice asks "Yes little one, what do you want?"
To the Goblin, how fast are you moving along the Eastern tunnel
Which ever one is greater, not stacked.
A few hundred more feet and the Goblin can hear the sound of running water. It might be an underground river. It is not very long before the Goblin Body makes it up to the underground river. The section widened at that spot and it can see by the phosphorous light of lichen and mold that it is about 30 feet wide, slowly moving water of an underground river.
Visual Perception Check Please
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Xizor stoops to the ground as the party travels, collecting a loose pebble to put into a pocket in its robe. When they reach the dead-end, its comments are limited to a single quiet "Curious..." before turning around to head back.
Xizor's dark cloak blends in with the shadows, although its form is still distinctly humanoid and can be made out as it moves.
When Sanriel announces his intentions, Xizor offers up "A good plan.", and finds a place nearby to wait for the information to come to them.
When the spider arrives, it considers the shadows leaking out of it and tries to find some identifying information in its extensive mental trove.
Which ever one is greater, not stacked.
** spoiler omitted **
The goblin lurks close to the wall, wary of the liquid and what it can potentially hold.
Ckkxxchtki lurks quietly, using its hosts uncanny ability to remain utterly silent and see in the dark.
the drow girl remains close to the druid as he begins his ritual to summon a spider to aid them finding herself curious on the nature of the druids magic and as well curious exactly what sort of spider will come to his call. It was certainly unfortunate that he requested that they not attack the creature as the spider that crawled forth from the darkness looked to have aged into quite the formidable creature.
As the scent of the spider drew near the drow girl would take a few steps back to find somewhere dark to hide herself and hope that the spider would do something foolish like try to attack the druid all the while keeping a lookout for any unwanted visitors.
the drow girl remains close to the druid as he begins his ritual to summon a spider to aid them finding herself curious on the nature of the druids magic and as well curious exactly what sort of spider will come to his call. It was certainly unfortunate that he requested that they not attack the creature as the spider that crawled forth from the darkness looked to have aged into quite the formidable creature.
As the scent of the spider drew near the drow girl would take a few steps back to find somewhere dark to hide herself and hope that the spider would do something foolish like try to attack the druid all the while keeping a lookout for any unwanted visitors.
[dice=Stealth]1d20+30
I am pretty sure the spider did not notice your character
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I am pretty sure the spider did not notice your characterthe drow girl remains close to the druid as he begins his ritual to summon a spider to aid them finding herself curious on the nature of the druids magic and as well curious exactly what sort of spider will come to his call. It was certainly unfortunate that he requested that they not attack the creature as the spider that crawled forth from the darkness looked to have aged into quite the formidable creature.
As the scent of the spider drew near the drow girl would take a few steps back to find somewhere dark to hide herself and hope that the spider would do something foolish like try to attack the druid all the while keeping a lookout for any unwanted visitors.
[dice=Stealth]1d20+30
Which ever one is greater, not stacked.
** spoiler omitted **
The goblin lurks close to the wall, wary of the liquid and what it can potentially hold.
Ckkxxchtki lurks quietly, using its hosts uncanny ability to remain utterly silent and see in the dark.
1d20+7+3+1-2
I am pretty sure the spider did not notice your characterthe drow girl remains close to the druid as he begins his ritual to summon a spider to aid them finding herself curious on the nature of the druids magic and as well curious exactly what sort of spider will come to his call. It was certainly unfortunate that he requested that they not attack the creature as the spider that crawled forth from the darkness looked to have aged into quite the formidable creature.
As the scent of the spider drew near the drow girl would take a few steps back to find somewhere dark to hide herself and hope that the spider would do something foolish like try to attack the druid all the while keeping a lookout for any unwanted visitors.
[dice=Stealth]1d20+30
Well it is not concerned with her at least
Had Sanriel eyes still in his sockets he might have blinked. Fortunately nothing remained to give his tell to his surprise "And the spider speaks undercommon, why am I surprised that even the creatures I can call are now tainted with magic? We shall see what this creature has to offer, and I shall hope my allies follow through with my request. Though if I can obtain a measure of this creatures power I might very well kill it myself."
Turning his head Sanriel bows respectfully to the insect, sure to avoid touching her with his antlers. He settles himself at a comfortable height to the spider kneeling or sitting as needed before speaking I apologize for my interruption of your day Ancestor, I am new to this area and would not presume to summon you other wise. I am Sanriel and I ask for a boon of knowledge. My allies and I come hunting these halls, to avoid us upturning every rock and inflicting harm on those we do not need to I would ask if there are humanoids in these caverns and where they are. We hunt a legend and such creatures are commonly the starry eyed owners of such things. Leashing a tiger and foolishly believing such an act will keep it from eating them."
For all we know this creature could be guardian of the "Stone" we hunt. She seems old enough and warped by magic to the point she could become very dangerous if threatened. Better to take the circular route and see if there is an answer waiting for us elsewhere. Though I would imagine killing this aged creature would be of little trouble I prefer such things to be on my own terms."