Kearan shakes his helmeted head, and lifts the visor in order to speak up. "No. Our duty is to help. We should press on." After a moment he looks to Ordric. "Milord?"
"We were tasked to see to the safety of the Carim pilgrims - I understand she is one of them. We move forward."
You move on, cautiously working your way through the town. It's eerie, as you don't see any sign of life, excepting for a few dogs and rats that have abandoned their homes among humans and are scavenging in the streets. They flee when approached.
You find where the 'thing' went easily enough. The town center has a fountain that trickled water at all times. Engraved with images of Gwynevere, the princess of sunlight, the white marble fountain is a beautiful centerpiece of the town. At the moment, no water pours from the beautiful goddess' carafe. A spire of crystal skewers the center of the fountain statue, ruining her curvaceous form.
The ground under the northeast quarter of the fountain has sunk, partially collapsing the fountain walls. The marble has slumped to either side of a sinkhole in the dirt, forming a white stone archway that reveals a doorway-like entrance into a subterranean cavern.
Underground, it's immediately evident that this is no natural cavern. What looks like a long-abandoned structure seems to exist barely a dozen feet underneath the town.
You recognize the stonework to be old, very old. It depicts ancient dragons with stone scales doing battle with numerous knights and even normal men.
You recognize this as the beginning of the age of fire, and get the feeling that this structure was constructed around that time.
Kearan rides into town at the forefront of the party, but nothing that he sees makes any particular sense to him. It just seems... off.
Annalise runs a hand against the cavern wall as they move underground. Her pertenatural senses are in no way effected by this new environment and she breathes in sharply at the touch.
"This place is old" she stammers "far older than the town and these lands even..."
= 7, a Success
"Hmmm...yes, indeed, this place *is* very old."
Drystan holds a torch in his left hand. He doesn’t touch the cavern’s wall. ”So somebody built a town on top of this? Maybe or maybe not knowing it was here.”
He looks out to the sky through the sinkhole. ”I’ve been in cellars before, but I hope this doesn’t go deep underground. Maybe a king is buried here? Do you know why this was made?”
Ordric touches the cold stone.
"What structure a man usually builds underground? A crypt most likely. I very much doubt that anyone lived here. We should go further. And be careful not to stumble."
Your group moves carefully into the chamber, and while Annalise is examining the wall something very quiet happens.
If you make the check you will hear the telltale *click* of metal tapping on stone from further down the only corridor leading out of this room. Looking to that direction you see at first only one pair of ruddy red pinpoints of light coming down the corridor before seven more appear behind it.
Eight... people spill into the room near-silently on bare feet. Their bodies withered and sallow-cheeked, they look like they've been starving and dehydrated and were barely clinging to life. Their clothes are in tatters, bearing the signs of battle or burns of spells. Of them all, they only clutch at broken farm implements or kitchen knives as weapons. Their eyes gleam with an unnatural red light.
The first one seems to set his sights on Ordric and unleashes a hellish shriek, alerting anyone who failed the above notice check that danger was upon them.
Initiative
The order of actions are currently:
That's Ordric (with the joker +2 bonus)
Kearan
Alder
The Hollows (8/8)
Onion Knight
Drystan
Annalise
So feel free to post your actions as soon as you can, and I'll work everything together.
"That sounds like metal tapping on stone," Drystan says tilting his ear towards the corridor. He turns back then gives a yell of surprise as he sees a pair of red eyes. Since he is holding the torch with his left hand, he can’t use his bow. ”Their eyes are red?!” he says switching the torch to his right hand, ready to use it as a weapon.
Ordric turns around to see what makes the noise, and just in time - at least he can ready his sword and shield.
The shriek happens, just as Ordric is about to ask if they need any help.
"What are they?" he asks in shock. "Are those the dead Lord Hiram warned us about?"
In the chamber, Kearan readies his sword and shield as soon as he hears the sounds. The appearance of the enemy is disturbing, no doubt, but Kearan is a well-trained knight of Astora. It takes more than sallow cheeks and hollow looks to frighten him. He steps between the creatures and Ordric, his shield raised, ready to strike if any approach with ill intent.
Alder calls upon his god to destroy the undead abominations!
Since the TN is 4 as for missile weapons, three bolts of lightning fly from his fingers, striking their targets :
Annalise hears the sound of a fight breaking out but is still unsure of the degree danger so she opts to conjure a flame in her open hand to aid her companions in the dark of the cave.
Kearan impales the first hollow-faced villager to charge at the group almost on accident as she throws herself at him, watching with some horror as blood spurts from her once-beautiful body. The lance skewers her through the chest and heart hard enough that the lance is almost halfway through her, and yet she doesn't die immediately. She lasts long enough after to reach out with a withered hand, her fingertips touching the protective armor of your gauntlet before she slumps lifelessly.
Alder's bolts of holy light blast out, hitting one of the attackers and dropping them where he stood, while one seemed to be badly burned by the light. The last, unfortunately, seemed hardly inconvenienced.
The once-dead mob rushes forward with absolutely no concern for or even awareness of their safety.
The group manages to defend against the group, though 2 of them managed to slip past Kearan and Ordric. Drystan manages to draw them away from Annalise, though his armor gets scraped up in the process.
The onion knight steps forward, swinging her weapon.
The close quarters and large weapon made the attack not very effective at all.
[ooc]Drystan, then everyone else gets to go again![/dice]
Ordric attempts to distract one of them with a slash across the chest.
After that he fights off the rest together with Kearan, slashing and lunging with his sword.
Kearan starts as the first villager dies on his sword, and he quickly shoves the body off of the blade with his shield. What manner of dark magic is this? He has little time to wonder, though, as the creatures seem set on injuring the party. With a glance at Ordric, Kearan turns and strikes at the nearest foe, his sword coming around in a mighty arc.
Drystan swings his torch back and forth attempting to keep the enemies at bay so his companions can attack them. ”Don’t make me hurt you!” he shouts.
Annalise feels the mob pressing in around her and she withdraws to the protective presence of her companions. She pushes the lingering flame in her hand outward, willing it to pass into the spirit of Kearan and invigorate him.
Alder again calls on his god to smite his enemies!
= 4
= 15
= 20
Onion Knight (KD)
Hollows(JS)
Alder (JC)
Analise (10D)
Drystan (8H)
Kearan (8C)
Ordric (5S)
Your knight friend continues trying to destroy some of the foes before her.
She cuts down one of them hard.
Of the remaining people attacking you, only one serves as a threat, clipping Alder and Drystan but not doing enough to cause them harm. Alder's response is more than capable of knocking one enemy off balance, and blasting two enemies down entirely.
"Are they even conscious?" yells Ordric, hacking the mob.
Annalise hides in the midst of the others in the group. Clutching her mind she racks her mind, hoping to maybe think of something that may help in this situation.
Seeing how effective the knight is fighting their enemies, Drystan confirms being defensive is the proper course of action. He’ll distract and let the knight and the count do the killing. ”Awwwwgh!” he screams as he thrusts the torch to keep the enemies at bay.
Analise doesnt know much about this, but she knows one word that sends shivers down her spine.
Undead
Kearan continues to slash about with his sword, thankful that he's fully armored as always--what chance might the common folk have against creatures such as these?
A bit more frantic combat ensues, but the withered undead are no match for the defensive formation and martial skills of the party.
The bodies lay strewn across the floor, but you're still a bit in shock over what just happened.
You can see that your wounds you inflicted, while they may have drawn blood, did not draw nearly as much as it should have from their bodies.
You see that these people were very much dead, yet even now as you stare at them, the wounds you inflicted are very slowly knitting themselves closed. You would estimate that they will be fully recovered within 6-12 hours at best.
"We better hurry." the Knight of Catarina says, her voice coming out of her helmet sounding tinny and a little ragged. "There are people we need to rescue."
Continuing down the hallway, the walls are carved with murals repeating the scene from the prior room. They seem to indicate a massive battle with thousands of humanoid forms among giants as they battle dragons. Bolts of lightning carve off chunks of stone from the dragon's hides.
You find signs of travel through the room, dusty footprints and several drag marks, as if quite a few people had been brought down there. Following them proves to be no trouble, and you find yourselves arriving at a large set of iron double-doors that are surprisingly shut.
Through the door you hear the sounds of a woman sobbing, and a man shouting angrily while something metal clanks into the stone at a regular tempo.
You can hear the man's voice distinctly. "What do you think you're bloody doing! Leave the maiden alone. Take me instead! Gods, I swear to you I will crush you!"
The metal sound seems to be an weapon of some sort that is being rhythmically tapped against the ground."
Kearan breathes heavy for but a moment as the fight finishes, and then wipes his blade clean on a rag before sheathing it. What madness is this? Dark sorcery of some kind, I'd wager. Behind his steel helmet he scowls at the corpses, but he makes no outward motion of distaste or distress--merely nodding and keeping side-by-side with the Onion Knight.
At the doors, the Astoran knight gives pause. He glances to Ordric, wondering if the lord has any inclinations, and draws his sword in case combat lies ahead.
"Dark magic..." whispers Ordric. "They are dead, yet they walk and something heals them."
The Count doesn't hear a thing, and, as his knight, draws the sword to prepare for any surprises.
After making sure that all the undead were now...really dead..., Alder takes stock of the situation :
But doesn't see anything extraordinarily unusual in the situation.
Once he gets to the doors, he inspects them :
= 5
"Do you hear that? Behind the doors a woman is crying, and a man is shouting. There's also a metal-on-metal clanking at a regular beat. What on earth is going on in there?"
At Alder's words, Kearan steps forward and shoves open the doors with all his might. He may have a duty to his lord, but even more than that, a knight must act with honor and protect those who can't protect themselves. If a woman may be in trouble, he must do all he can to help.
Kearan throws the door open. His great strength pushes the iron doors open despite their loud, groaning protests. As the door opens a pulsing, pale blue light pours into the hallway, drowning out the yellow flames of the torches. At the sound of the door opening, the sobbing and shouting both stop.
Within is a large chapel-like chamber, sixty feet deep from the door and thirty wide (about 15 on each side upon entering). the room is bisected by a red carpet that rolls from the door you opened straight through. On either side of the carpet are several stone pews, many of them crumbling or overturned. A grand chandelier of tarnished gold and melted wax candles lies in the center of the room, the chain slack.
Several smaller chandeliers provide the light to the room, but at second glance you see that they aren't chandeliers, but rather, hanging cages with bodies stuffed inside them. Bodies that are a pallid blue color, and seem to be bristling with glowing shards of crystal growing out of their flesh. The shards gleam with a brilliant blue light.
Several more villagers and a few of the soldiers from the keep are here, their still-clothed bodies sitting askew in the pews.
You find yourselves being drawn into the room despite any sense of self-preservation. As you do so, you feel a shiver run down your spine as something entirely unnatural shudders through you. Something writhes within you, a feeling that is old, and familiar, yet something you've never felt before.
As the last of you walks into the chamber, the doors swing shut behind you.
The room rumbles, and the chain to the chandelier's chain slowly loses slack, tightening until it starts to drag the chandelier into the air again. As it does so, it rocks, crushing several pews and sending bodies flying.
Behind the chandelier is a peculiar sight. A stone altar is flanked on either side by two figures. One is a man in dark black molded plate armor, who is slumped to the ground leaning against the altar. His armor and flesh are rent by numerous wounds. He's been injured so bad that he should be unconscious, but has stayed awake by force of will.
The other is a human-like figure, easily eight feet tall. Dressed in heavy robes interwoven with links of armor, it wears a strange, six-eyed helm, and carries a large golden trident in two armored mitts. It turns to view the group, and raises its trident.
A brilliant beam of blue-white light shoots out from the trident and impacts the knight of Catarina, sending her crashing backwards to slam into the stone wall. She slumps to the ground, a rattle escaping from her lungs.
Ordric, Count Ethelred (10 S)
Kearan the Short (JOKER)
Alder Claybourne (K D)
Drystan Kressothe (6 D)
Annalise of Astora (9 C)
The Channeler (Q H)
Kearan steps into the chamber after throwing open the doors, sword drawn in one hand, shield raised in the other. He quickly surveys the room, and his eyes settle on the tall, armored figure with the trident. The knight starts to hold, and even try to call out, but then the light flashes and the Catarinan is flung into the wall. Even as she crumples, Kearan dashes forward, bringing his sword to bear against this new threat.
When Kearan closes with the armored figure, he swings his blade in while retaining his shield's defensive poise. Best not to strike too wildly before knowing your foe's skill, and this being is clearly more than a mere warrior.
In the room Annalise ducks away and covers her face as she feels the blue energy makes its way through the room. Ducking behind her companions, she scurries to the side of the Catarina knight and prepares her Pyromancy.
Alder stands agape at the scene, until the flash of light from the figure's trident strikes a comrade, then he takes action, calling on his god to smite his enemy!
= 12, 5, 9
Since it's a Ranged attack, even the 5 hits (no Ranged penalty since Short Range is 12" is 72 feet)...
= 10, 8, 15
...oh, yeah, the Vigor check :
= 17
Ordric comes into the room and freezes at the sight of the... thing. "What is that?!"
A few moments and he pulls himself together, charging into the giant.
Standing before the doors, hearing that scream, Drystan partially thinks that opening the doors will be a mistake. As the blue light bleeds from the widening gap, Drystan tells himself never to arm wrestle Kearan. Seeing that the blue light gives enough light to see by, Drystan drops his torch and pulls out his bow. He thinks it will be needed much more than a redundant torch.
Drystan plucks an arrow from his quiver and fires at the robed figure. He’s not aiming for any particular body part at this point. He simply wants to know if arrows will hurt this being.
The arrow goes to the left of the robed figure and strikes the wall.
The blue light seems painfully bright for just a moment, but you adjust to it quickly enough. Something feels... different inside you. Wrong, even.
The trident-wielding foe's blast is met with a flurry of divine bolts, though not nearly damaging enough to cause it to miss Kearan and Ordric's charge. Though they were able to get up to the large man, the channeler was able to deflect Kearan's attack. Ordric's sword sinks into the creature's thick robes, but not nearly deep enough to cause it any harm, from what you can tell.
The Channeler attempts to skewer Kearan with his huge trident, since he came close first.
;
;
His trident is surprisingly swift and sure, slamming into Kearan's armored body.
Drystan's arrow goes wide, but Annalise casts warmth upon the Catarina knight. She is rewarded with the sudden sound of her taking a ragged, rattling breath.
Ordric, Count Ethelred (9 C)
Kearan the Short (3 H)
Alder Claybourne (5 D)
Drystan Kressothe (6 H)
Annalise of Astora (6 C)
The Channeler (J C)
Initiative:
The Channeler, Ordric, Drystan, Annalise, Alder, Kearan.
The Channeler follows up its jab at Kearan by raising the trident and slamming the butt spike into the ground. A brilliant ball of blue light appears on the center point. The beam of light blasts out faster than the eye can track, striking the one who actually managed to injure it so far.
;
The ray of sorcerous magic drills into him, spraying refracted mini-beams of light out from where it hit the cleric.
Kearan gasps as the trident spears through his armor. It's only mail, but against lesser foes, even that much can fend off a thrust. Against this monstrosity... The knight can only fight through the pain as the weapon draws back out, and he sets his feet. So be it.
Kearan raises his shield for a moment, but upon seeing the enemy gathering energy, he swings it about to gain momentum. Just after the bolt of lightning surges from the trident to strike Alder, Kearan comes in with his own mighty attack, a heavy slash that disregards defense in favor of putting all his strength into the blow!