The Dark is Rising - WotW Part I (COMPLETED) (Inactive)

Game Master Darkness Rising

Still writhing from being hit by Tkaara's mace, the mist closes around her; but for some reason it just slides off, repelled by her unnaturally cold flesh and lack of warm, tasty, nutritious blood vessels. You hear a faint hiss of frustration.

Time seems to almost slow down from the Doctor's perspective as he gauges the trajectory. He hesitates a few seconds longer, not out of any true concern for the well-being of his fellows, but out of annoyance that they may very well spoil his aim...

After studying the complicated series of bars holding the door closed, Felrin concludes he'd be putting himself in great danger trying to open it while next to the strange, blood-sucking mist that has attacked them. He has little fear of fire, but doesn't wish to spoil the good doctor's aim either.

With all of this in mind, Felrin takes a couple of swipes at the mist with his claws, hoping it can't harm him with such brief contacts. He then steps away from the creature.

Not only heeding Ottakar's warning, but also taking into account his own grave condition, Erevan disengages and moves as far away from the strange mist as possible in an attempt to allow himself some breathing space and -why not?- let someone else take the brunt of its attacks.

Round 2
Not wanting to take a hit from the strange thing, Tkaara takes a swing at it before retreating back 5' to allow her companions to attack the thing.

Tkaara swings at the strange creature, and completely misses it, not even coming close to hitting it.

Etna hesitates for a moment: she was glad that Tkaara remembered to wish to enhance her spells, but the ifrit didn't precise that the gout of flame didn't count.
I doubt that now would be a good moment to explain the difference between a spell and-ah, nevermind.
Noticing that the other barrister had stepped out of the way, the flame-haired sorceress steps in position, too. For a moment, as she concentrates, her hair grows blindingly bright, only to grow an ashen grey when a gout of flames erupts from her hands.

As soon as everyone is out of the way, he throws, smashing the ceramic flask right at the center of the creature's amorphous mass, spattering fulminating liquid in every direction...

The mist writhes desperately to avoid the worst of the gouts of flame that burst from Etna's hands and Ottakar's projectile, but it still takes terrible damage.

Giving off a high-pitched shriek just on the edge of hearing (it numbs your teeth), the tattered remnants of the fog disperse.

All that remains are a few streaky wisps of red and the stink of burnt blood. Smells like... victory.

With the mist destroyed, Felrin takes a quick, calming breath, and wastes no time in stepping back to the strange locking mechanism on the door. "Nicely done, all. Tkaara, can you see to Erevan's wounds?" he asks as he re-orients himself to the workings of the multiple bars, dials and counterweights, noting its similarities to a clock.

Setting to work getting it open, he mutters quietly to himself, "I wonder if this weight and spring introduce a time element to the lock, causing it to open on its own after a certain period...ah, got that pin out of the way, allowing this rod to rotate...very clever, that."

Suddenly realizing that Erevan continues to leak blood all over the attractive grated floor, Tkaara moves over to him. As she gets there, her eyes once more roll back in her head to be replaced with two black voids showing nothing but the night sky full of stars. Her hand moves up, as though out of her control and suddenly a shower of tiny stars springs forth, surrounding the strange pale man. As quickly as they appeared, the stars suddenly sink into his wounds, causing the bleeding to cease and making his wounds at least partially seal close.

As the scream dies away and Felrin opens the door, the hellish mouth appears again, snarling:

The corridor beyond is dark, unlit. It continues for perhaps 50 feet or so before turning off to the right. The smell here is different: where the rest of the cellar has been dry, if slightly stale, here wet smells reach you: mildew, mold and damp - and... seaweed? Surely not.

All is silent. The last few drops of Erevan's spilled blood drip through the grating, forming a puddle on the ground underneath.

Are you

*proceeding forward in the dark (someone needs to guide Ottakar, tell me who)?

*proceeding forward with Etna's light show accompanying you?

*going back to check on Timeon (and maybe bring him with you)?

*doing something else?

Tkaara looks to the others:
I am unfamiliar with shriekers that the boy spoke of. Do they like moist places? If so, then perhaps that is why this area is damper.

Etna's hair slowly regain her usual coloration after the mist slowly drips under the grating. As Felrin works on the locking mechanism, the ifrit watches with interest as Tkaara heals Erevan's wounds: she never really payed attention to her casting magic until now, but it definitely looked like something was...off.
"Is everything fine?" she asks the other barrister as soon as the stars finish knitting Erevan's wounds.

_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_

"I do not know about them, either. It could very well be that they were connected to the paintings from before, and that we already avoided them successfully." Etna comments, before staring at the darkness for a brief moment. "Nonetheless, I propose that we move forward without lights, for now. I can guide you if needed, doctor."

Tkaara looks at the fiery sorceress with some confusion:
Why do you ask? Did something happen?

She shows the bruises on her side from falling into the pit earlier.
I am still black and blue, but other than that I seem to be fine.

Prior to the seaweed corridor
Etna raises an eyebrow at the woman with silver lips "So you don't remember that you just healed Erevan's wounds? Your movement had gotten a little...stiff? Mechanical? I don't know how to put it: it was as if someone else was moving your limbs."

Tkaara looks at Etna with a strange look in her eyes, making her eyes looks as though they are sparkling, or perhaps they are sparkling.

How would I have healed him? I have no magic that I know of. I was going to help him to see if I could aid with his bleeding. We do need him after all. But, when I got there the bleeding had stopped. I am sure that I had nothing to do with this.

Completely uninterested in the barrister's mysteries, Ottakar peers into the darkness and tries to recall whatever he may have read regarding a creature known as a "shrieker".

"They would indeed prefer a moist environment, I assume; they are plants, after all. Curious subterranean flora that emit a very loud, very shrill noise when they are exposed to light, or the air nearby is disturbed by passing creatures of sufficient mass." He looks at Etna, a moue of distaste clear upon his face at what he is to say next. "I suppose, for this next section, in the name of safety, I might allow myself to be... led."

With Ottakar opting to be led blindly by the flame-haired Ifrit, you continue lightlessly down the corridor, ignoring the plight of Timeon now several rooms behind you. There is indeed a turning to the right, and the corridor continues for another 30 feet or so before ending in a door. This door looks much the same as the other doors you have encountered, except that it has writing on it in phosphorescent script, which glows faintly in the darkness surrounding you:

The smell of damp and rot is very much stronger now.

Tkaara whispers to the others:
Remember, unless you wish to take the time to help me out of this armor, I will not be the stealthiest, even if is completely dark.

More focused on completing the tests laid before them than Tkaara's puzzlement, Felrin gives the door a careful inspection before testing to see if it is locked. Putting an ear to the door and gesturing for silence, he listens closely to it as well. Once this is done, he says very quietly, "I suggest we open this door and see what we face. If it seems that passing through quietly in darkness is the approach to take, we can close the door and plan best how to do that. But for now, I wish to know what's on the other side of the door."

He gives his companions a quick glance and an opportunity to voice opposition to this approach, whispers a quick blessing to Asmodeus, and turns to open the door a crack and peer through.

"I do not mean to be insistent, but you did heal him, I believe. You did the same in Brandescar multiple times..." Etna starts replying to Tkaara, before she stops as Ottakar speaks. Nodding, the ifrit guides the doctor until they reach the next door, waiting for Felrin to open the door and scout ahead.

The smell of rot and decay as the door opens is overpowering: wet wood, damp soil, mildew, fungus and something else, deeply unpleasant but indefinable amid the mix of other smells.

The Doctor's nostrils flare, compensating for his useless eyes. He whispers, "Something ahead smells of flesh in brine. I know not what it might signify, but be wary."

"I'm not going to ask how you know what that smells like," Felrin responds equally quietly. "But I can tell you what lies ahead." Peering through the crack in the door, he gives a brief description of the chamber ahead, for Ottokar's benefit as well as the others. "I'm guessing the toadstool is our biggest concern, but who knows what's in those coffins. And 'secrecy is our ally' - how do we all move secretly through this next chamber?"

If the mushroom can detect motion, then we are better moving around it an carefully making our way through the coffins. However, if there is something unholy in those coffins, then we are going to have a battle either way.

This test seems to be either stealth or strength. Although with my armor, I am guessing that we are going to require strength either way,

"We should move around the coffins, then. I doubt any of us knows how far that shrieker detects movements: staying as far from it as possible looks like the safest option. We should worry about the possibility that moving too fast could make it easier for it to detect us: it would be best to be as careful as possible.".
The ifrit pauses for a moment, looking at the moldy coffins that looked like they could break at any moments, then at Tkaara and the doctor.
"Tkaara, do you think that removing your armor while we cross this room could make things easier for you?"
We'll just have to pray that he can follow my directions, on the other hand...

Tkaara looks at Etna and coughs. Hopefully the persistent illness is not returning at this point.
If we get into combat, I will be pretty much useless without my armor.

Despite this, she will start the slow process of removing her chainmail unless someone else has a different idea.

A sudden wet, splintering sound interrupts the (doubtless fascinating) conversation.

The smell of brine-rotted flesh grows even more intense.

Having just started to prepare to remove her armor, Tkaara is slow on the uptake and completely unprepared for that sudden appearance of the strange corpselike thing.

"Don't let it get away! If he reaches the shrieker, he could use it to call reinforcements!" Etna says, slightly startled by the sudden appearance of the walking corpse.
As soon as she can, the fire-haired woman starts to cast a spell, pointing to the ground near the zombie.

Felrin rolls his eyes as another opportunity to craft a careful plan slips away. I guess I’m in front, it’s up to me. He steps forward quickly, coming up on the undead creature and grabbing hold of it with both hands, attempting to stop its movement toward the giant toadstool.

Ottakar growls in frustration at his inability to be of use in these circumstances.

Delay action. Wheeeee!

Moving quickly to join Felrin inside the room, Erevan has his spear already in hand when the apparently undead creature breaks out of its coffin and starts shambling its way towards the giant toadstool. Wasting no time the golden-eyed man closes the distance between them and stabs at it.

Knowledge(religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Having no clue what the creature is, Tkaara will move to follow the others, drawing her heavy mace as she does.

Erevan steps up to the undead thing and sinks his spear deep into it; the mush offers little resistance, but doesn't seem to take much damage, either. Etna's grease spell causes it to fall over; it scrabbles impotently, trying to get up, but fails. Lashing out from its prone position, it nevertheless lands a solid thud on the hooded man.

Felrin's attempt to grapple is successful, and he pins it to the floor, despite almost taking a knock to the head in the process.

Tkaara moves toward it, but takes no immediate action.

Round 2 is GO! Erevan is up

Felrin wrenches the creature’s rotting arm behind it, forcing its face to the floor and further immobilizing it. As the thing struggles, Felrin attempts to slash at it with his clawed fingers.

Hurt as he is, Erevan moves back, allowing someone else to take his places in the frontlines should they wish to do so, at least for the time being.

Tkaara moves next to Felrin and brings her big mace down on the undead creature hoping to turn it into a real dead creature.

Hold on to him big man, lets put this creature back in its grave.

Moving a step forward, the ifrit prepares to hurl another greenish orb. Thanks to the momentum (and a fair share of luck) the globe of acid hisses trough the air, safely avoiding Tkaara and Felrin and hitting the undead.

Ottakar strains to make out the battle in front of him, cursing his uselessness.

Wounded as he is and having seen that his spear had minimal effect against the creature, Erevan puts it away and draws his bow, standing ready to rejoin the fight, albeit from a safer distance.

Felrin holds the thing down despite its struggles, as Tkaara smashes it into lifelessness and Etna's acid bolt finishes the job. With a reek of rotting seaweed and fetid water, the thing disintegrates into a stinking ooze.

You don't have much time to savour a job well (if somewhat messily) done: somewhere at the other end of the chamber, beyond the reach of your darkvision, you hear a familiar tearing sound and the faint rattle of shackled feet.

Tkaara looks to the others:
I think that we should make our stand here. Let whatever that is, and it sounds like another of these undead annoyances, come to us so that we do not cause the shrieker to be alerted. One at a time we should be able to put these down.

As she finishes saying this, her eyes once more roll back in her head and small points of light appear around her hands. Uncontrolled, her hand raises toward Erevan and the light springs toward him, coalescing about his wound and sinking into it, causing the wound to stitch back together with a burning sensation and the faint small of burnt flesh.

"That's not going to work, Tkaara," Felrin says simply. "That one we just took down was moving toward the shrieker, and we kept it from getting close enough to alarm the thing. Whatever we're hearing now is going to pass right by the shrieker before it gets close enough for us to make any stand."

He considers for a moment, then concludes, "We may need to head it off." Stepping off the path and onto the coffin-strewn soil, he walks along the wall in the direction of the large mushroom, his eyes focused on the darkness ahead.

Could we just shoot the shrieker? If it is movement close that sets it off, then we just need to stay away from it.

Etna shakes her head slowly "I'm not sure that would work. If light and movement are enough to upset it, an arrow planted in it's...stalk or whatever is called would be even worse.". After replying to the barrister, the fire-haired woman walks further into the room, hoping to be able to discern where the enemy is.

Feeling her mistress moving into the room, Winston stays by Ottakar's side, growling at the darkness.

"Perhaps sticking an arrow or two in it will get its attention?" Erevan moves forward cautiously, but only until he gets a good look at the source of the sounds, at which point he shoots an arrow at it, at least provided it is a creature not unlike the other one.

As Felrin moves into the room, he can see that it is essentially a long hall, 100 feet or so in length. The path terminates at the other end in another doorway, which looks very much like all the other doors you have enountered.

As Erevan joins him (I've moved Erevan's position on the map accordingly), both of them can see the undead thing shambling slowly toward the middle of the room. Etna can see it too.

Erevan's arrow strikes true, but appears to have no effect whatsoever. The undead thing continues to shamble forward, constrained by the shackles around its feet.

Just behind Etna, another undead thing, draped in seaweed and the smell of brine and rot, rises up from its coffin.

Round 4 is GO!