The mists are clammy and unpleasant for both of you as you move into the narrow canyon. It sticks to your exposed skin and fur and seems to cling on, unwilling to let you pass as its chills seeps into you. Very soon it feels like you have been swallowed completely by the unnatural fog and you can barely see your own limps.
The only directions that make sense are deeper in or back to the sunlight of Scrapwall. Guided by Redtooth's words you go in deeper, and deeper. You've almost lost all sense of time and direction when you finally stumble into a sharp turn south where the mists clear just enough for you to see, in front of you, at an odd slanted angle, a metal door hanging loose from a larger metal structure. Most of the structure seems to be buried into the surrounding rock.
Almost eager to get out of the chill mists and into any other enviornment, Criek forces himself to hold back, creeping forward only slightly towards the doorway in an attempt to see or hear anything inside the buried structure.
It's dark inside the door and when Criek approaches and peeks inside he can see, with his darkvision, the slanted floor is strewn with strange bits of rubble and twisted lengths of metal. The ceiling is badly damaged, its gray metal sheel shattered in numerous places exposing coils of rusty, mold-covered cables and wires. With all the ancient rubble and debris littered around the floor Criek can tell it will be difficult to move around.
There is a door open to the south. This one yawns open too, in a similar state to the entryway door.
Seeing nothing of immediate danger inside the first door, Criek beckons to Sharae to follow, before slipping inside and going to the interior door to look deeper into the complex.
Sharae, less attuned to the dark than her more nocturnally minded friend, pauses to whisper a quick prayer to Desna... as her words are heeded, her starknife suddenly bursts with a brilliant luminosity.
...and then, momentarily grateful that they aren't receiving the 'welcome' that Redtooth's Raiders previously endured, she follows Criek through the door.
Criek moves in and peeks further in. He can see a small corridor, slanted downwards and three doors. Two facing each other across the corrdior and one at the end of it. It is silent and the air feels unnaturally cold.
Criek continues to creep further into the complex, checking behind him to be sure Sharae is behind him.
He pauses between the two opposing doors, examining each for any distinguishing markings and pressing an ear and a hand to each in turn in an attempt to detect any sound -- or vibration...or difference in temperature...any anything that would give a clue to what might lie beyond.
As if I'd know how to interpret anything I find, ruined spacecraft expert that I am! he smiles at himself, realizing how out of his element the pair are.
Unless something distinguishes one door from the other, he'll shrug at Sharae and indicate the door to the north as a suggested path.
Whilst Criek is busy examining the doors, Sharae keeps a watchful eye... worrying that the light of her starknife may prove to be more of a beacon to those who would wish harm upon the friends, she covers it slightly - letting only a dim light out into the corridor.
Criek creeps deeper into the ship so quietly that Sharae loses sight of her friend completely in the cool darkness of the mysterious structure. As soon as she steps in however madness ensues.
The debris and twisted bits of girders and metals which had been lying scattered in the metallic interior start to shudder and shake. Then they rise up in whirling cyclones of refuse. A large chunk of rock hits the dog following Sharae while a sharp edged piece of metal hits Sharae dead on.
As this happens A ghostly, skeletal figure rises up in a whirling tornado of hate. It looks like it was once human dressed in oddly technological looking bulky armor but the faceplate is shattered in what look like glass shards, it has a missing arm and its face looks like swaths of flesh were scorched away by blasts of fire. It's visage is absolutely chilling and terrifying as it seems to stare at you directly before vanishing again but Criek, Sharae manage to shake off the feeling of horror that threatens to settle on them. Pinki shakes it off as well though the cat does starts up a hissing yowl in response to the madness. All sorts of debris continues to be hurled around the very cramped interior of the ship. It'll only be a matter of moments before you're hit again by something!
Sharae, 6 damage
Dog, 8 damage
Hearing the commotion in the entry behind him, Criek turns and gawks at the whirlwind before glancing around for some sort of mechanism that might be causing this effect.
Criek doesn't see anything like that.
Damnation... I thought that our luck would hold a little longer, Sharae winces as a piece of shrapnel cuts into her thigh...
Sharae can't quite tell what they're facing but she's pretty sure that it's undead of some sort.
Sharae can't quite tell what they're facing but she's pretty sure that it's undead of some sort.
Raising her symbol of Desna aloft, Sharae calls upon the cleansing light of the Starsong... her voice is soft and lilting as she beseeches the unliving creature to travel onwards on its journey.
Sharae calls out to Desna and Densa responds as a wave of cleansing light washes over the destroyed room. The light from Sharae is weaker than she expected however, the force of undeath seems to be very strong in this haunted valley.
The angry spirits intensify their fury and the debris whirling around seem to get more violent and erratic in their activity.
At a loss to tell what's causing the tornados of refuse, Criek resorts to his now-default reaction to a threat: blow it up. He targets the nearest swirl with a bomb --
Criek's bomb hurtles towards the debris and explodes in a conflagration of fire as soon it penetrates the closest whirling tornado. A high pitched ghostly scream seems to echo from it and the debris falters a bit but soon enough it's back at full strenght.
Pinki keeps hissing constantly while the clockwork dog holds completely still.
The debris hurtles around again and rocks and pebbles are flung at Sharae, Criek and the dog, but Sharae and Criek manage to dodge the large objects flung their way while a girder just seems to bounce off the dog.
3
3
10
Sharae, 6 damage
Dog, 8 damage
Making her way into the room, and trying her best to avoid the whirling maelstrom, Sharae raises her symbol once more, "Let Desna guide you onwards..."
Sharae channels Desna's will again through the deathly interior and again she feels to very atmosphere itself pushing the star goddesses energy back. Still it's enough for the whirling tornado that Criek had attacked to suddenly fall still. The large stones and metallic debris that had been swirling around in that area drop to the ground unceremoniously.
Heartened to see the first cyclone fall, Criek targets another with a bomb!
This time Criek's bomb seems to hurtle through the whirling debris instead of exploding in the middle of it. The fire from the mini explosion creating a brief flare that adds of the dancing shadowy madness.
The remaining whirlies of destruction remain active, one of them lashes out but the jagged rock goes wide of any target, hitting one of the walls with a thud.
The one that Criek attacked though suddenly resolves into a figure a lot like the one briefly seen earlier. Only this one seems to be on fire and screaming as what is left of its flesh melts away and seems to dribble through the shattered faceplate and onto the bulky armor.
Sharae manages to steel herself against this sight but Pinki, yowling at the top of its lungs, springs away from the figure and flees back outside as fast as it can, disappearing into the mists outside this structure.
Criek feels the same way, he feels like he has to run run RUN from the horrifying sight.
All that's left with the two whirlwinds of hate is Sharae, and the impassively clockwork dog who is just standing there.
10
12
Gone
Sharae, 6 damage
Dog, 8 damage
Criek, frightened 3 more rounds
Pinki, frightened 2 more rounds
Thankful that the maelstrom is starting to subside, Sharae considers helping Criek fight his fear of the apparition... instead, hoping to end this before it escalates further, she raises her symbol aloft once more.
Another swirling mound of debris falters and goes silent. There's only one left, a half melted slag of metal bounces near Sharae but goes spinning away.
His own lips peeling back to expose gritted teeth, Criek manages to think better of diving through the nearest door, instead following Pinki out into the mists.
This constant call upon Desna's grace is, Sharae worries, going to result in her powers being exhausted more quickly than she would like... but, with the chaos subsiding at last, she feels the need to channel divine energy once more...
Sharae's power of will and connection to Desna finally wins through against the oppressive aura of undeath and as the final whirl of debris falls. Sharae sees a flash again of the same kind of oddly armoured skeletal figure that was seen twice before. It's screaming in what seems like agony before it vanishes.
The cabin falls silent.
It takes about 10 seconds for both Pinki and Criek to regain control over themselves and push away the overwhelming fear they felt. Pinki creeps back into the first room with a plaintive mewling sound.
Criek peeks carefully back into the room from outside. "So, eh, I think we found whatever threw debris at Redtooth's scouts? Is...is it gone?"
With confirmation from Sharae, he'll reenter and toe through the debris a bit looking for any intact tech -- in part only from a new reluctance to venture further in too quickly.
Uttering a silent prayer of thanks to her goddess, Sharae lets her tightly gripped holy symbol relax once more around her neck... "As far as I can tell Criek... it is gone. Whatever it was, it once died in terrible agony - maybe that is why its spirit could not move on. Hopefully", Sharae wonders whether she may need to consecrate the ground, "it will not return".
Just as Sharae finishes speaking.... a globe of light suddenly flashes next to her and reaches out to savagely electrocute her before vanishing. THe feeling of a massive amount of electricity coursing thorough her is excuritaing to say the least!
Sharae bends double with the pain of the electrical current arcing through her body... flashes and spots in her eyes explode in her vision but still she looks around desperately to see what has attacked her...
Sharae can tell that it's not undead for certain. She can also tell that it is *very* good at lashing people with its tentacles and it can go invisible seemingly at a whim!
She's also completely certain that the monster is still right next to her!
Criek recognizes that this is a Will o Wisp! These are very hard to kill and very deadly!
"Will o Wisp!" squeaks Criek, "Oh, why didn't I prepare that see invisible extract?!"
Setting his sights on the location Sharae indicates, Criek tries his best to be useful!
- or -
"Hound! Attack -- er, over there!"
Sharae has her pistol to hand as soon as she can, her finger hovering across the trigger as she waits for the Wisp to reappear...
The dog leaps into action snapping his jaws at the air next to Sharae from where she'd been attacked.
The dog's bite is hard and well aimed but it snaps through empty air. Pinki starts to hiss from the doorway where it'd crept back as it followed Criek.
The Wisp reappears, it seems to pulse a sickly yellow before tentacles extend back out, crackling with lightning as it turns on the new threat.
Sharae's pistol fires at the monster, who neatly dodges it with a bobbing motion, it seems incredibly agile.
It easily whips at the dog causing a massive spike of electircity to go through the dog. The dog goes rigid as clockwork gears seem to go haywire for a second and the smell of burning gears adds to the cramped chaos of the battle.
Criek, you remember that clockworks are vulnerable to the kind of electricity the Wisp seems to be wielding! This is the first time that the dog has looked seriously hurt. It's still up though and it's looking focused right at the place it attacked. Seems like the wisp is still in exactly the same place!
The wisp vanishes again.
Sharae, 26 damage
Dog, 23 damage
Wisp unhurt, invisible
Taking Criek's cue, Sharae lets her pistol fall to the floor... if this being was to be defeated then it must be made visible... calling on Desna, she sings a delicate prayer of rain...
Since Sharae did not take any evasive actions the wisp, right next to her, is able to take the opportunity to hit her again.
The pain of the attack causes Sharae's spell to fizzle out.
However the will o wisp is visible again. Floating malevolently as it's dangerous tentacles lash out towards you.
Sharae, 33 damage
Dog, 23 damage
Wisp unhurt, Visible
The tablet crackles to life We... hearing noises Anody's voice comes over faintly. Oh dear.. is everything alright?
"Hound, get back!" Criek squeaks, seeing the damage the jolt did.
He steps back himself, pulls out a vial of acid, and smashes it to the ground under where the Will-o-Wisp was, testing to see if he can catch it in the splash.
Moving backwards and away from the wisp, Sharae hisses towards Criek, "We need to get out of here... there's nothing I can do to hurt this. The Professor... he might have some ideas..."
The Wisp gets hit with acid damage and seems to writhe in anger for a moment. As it does so the dog takes Criek's order and withdraws, clanking out of the structure entirely.
The glowing ball of light ignores the ineffective enemies it's facing and floats over to the one who caused it harm. it's tentacles
Criek gets shocked for 9 damage.
It's still visible as it floats there, the swirl of shapes within the glowing ball seem to resolve into first into an angry skull and then a laughing one.
Sharae, 33 damage
Dog, 23 damage
Criek, 9 damage
Wisp 6 damage Visible
Choosing to take Sharae's advice, Criek tries to get away from the orb and make for the exit.
The group makes a hasty withdrawal out of the structure. The glowing light doesn't bother to go invisible and follows them out for a bit swirling in shades of sickly yellow as confused images of laughing teeth whirl into existence within it. Soon enough though it returns back to its lair.
What is happening? Is everyone alright? Anody's voice comes through the tablet again.
Her hair sticking out at shocking angles where the electrical currents ran through, Sharae replies that, "We're alright... just!!! There's something in there... something that didn't want us there - at all!!! It was able to turn invisible at will... and it seemed to be able to manipulate electricity as a weapon. There was little we could do to harm it - have you heard of such things? Any ideas?"
Anody's face, a little distorted and flickering in the clammy mists, grows serious.
Those things are quite horrendous the gnome explains An electric attack that goes right through armor, can turn invisible almost instantly whenever it wishes. And so very very agile. They feed on death and fear so no wonder one of them has created a home for itself in that place. If you can negate its invisibility and... stop it from being mobile in some way then, and only then, it might become easy to drive it off or kill it.
Electric attack? Dinvaya breaks in That is a concern for the clockwork dog. Not fortified against those at all. There are some divine powers that may help with that, Cleric Sharae. I believe the followers of the Star Goddess should be able to call on her to cast them as well as I.
"I can put together an extract that lets one of us see it even when invisible," offers Criek, "but that leaves the question of actually hitting it with anything - the way it moves, it can shock us much more easily than we can damage it. ...unless I just splash it to death?"
Splashing it would seem like a wise move. If you could hamper its movement that would help as well. From all the literature I have read on them Wisp's have a very... alien intelligence... but do prize self preservation over other incentives Is the only advice Anody can give.
"Well then Criek, are you ready to try again? If we try dusts or water again, maybe we can make this thing visible... and then, assuming it can't be reasoned with, you bomb it out of existence", Sharae is already readying herself to return...