Anatoly pursues the Grimlock, leading the way for his fellows as he calls behind, "This way! Someone mark which way we go!" If he gets a clear shot he will take it.
William attempts to keep a step behind the halforc as to not ruin any shot he may take.
rushing after the disappearing grimlock, anatoly hurries forward and steps up into the door way. seeing the white grimlock with a couple of arrows sticking out of it, anatoly fires point blank. the arrow barely leaves the bow string when it suddenly smashes through the creatures skull, leaving a large entry wound and a wet sound of something falling from the back of the creatures head.
Saul, william, and Henry hurry after the enraged half orc, providing backup in this large empty cavern that they are in.
Isabella, using the stone axe, scratches a line on the door way that they passed through before running along to catch up. Every so often she slaps the axe out to the wall, causing a noticible scratch upon the stone surface.
As anatoly begins to see his kill, he is attacked from both sides on from behind the doorway. two more grimlocks, hidden from view, attempt to hack him down.
both axes swing around, one glances off his armor and the other buries itself up in the wood frame, tearing out a chunk of dried wood as it pulls it back.
Anatoly curses in russian, vigorously, as the axes narrowly miss his flesh. Knowing he must allow his companions into the room to confront this threat, he slides forward and to one side out from between the grimlocks. Brought to melee, he allows his bow to slide to the ground and draws the huge blade from across his back, whipping it down in an attempt to kill one of these creatures.
"Rushing into dark places, always trouble," Isabella sighs as she speeds up. Sword leading the way, she lashes out at the first grimlock she can reach...
Unable to see into the room to attack with his whip, the Professor tries to bring light against these creatures of the dark by moving into the room, whilst avoiding being hit. However his clothes are still wet from his swim earlier and hamper his movements a lot more than he was expecting.
William spins and attacks one of the things to the half orc's left.
Attack:
with a final attack, the william manages to drop the final threatening grimlock. the shadows flicker and flash as the Professor tumbles into the room. slipping his grip, it goes skidding across the room and stops in a corner. It's flame casts a dark long shadow up into the high recess, but you see another set of stairs rising high up into the darkness.
"Let me guess," Isabella says, "you boys want to go check up there for more grimlocks."
Anatoly shakes his head, "We go back to start, look at strange place more carefully. More .. what is word .. we take time, go slowly, look at all things."
"I do believe that would be wise."
William kneels and checks the grimlock for anything of value or interest.
Where we first saw the grimlock.
Picking himself up and trying to straighten his clothes, Henry collects the torch. " Yes well, I really must get dry at some point, the water disturbed my movement. How about we stop at that possible lantern type thing on the way? It might make exploration easier."
falling back, the group hastily heads back to the original room with the large statute and the dead bodies.
"Well, do we want to try sneakin' through the dark, or do we want to try to see if this thing will light up?"
Anatoly grins broadly, a somewhat unsettling sight leering out of the dark as it is, "I do just fine in dark. But for the rest of you I think not your best way, no? Perhaps light fire, Saul."
"I think sneakin is done for a while. Might as well see what we are a dealin with."
"That's what I was hoping to hear." He grins as he turns and beckons Henry over. "Let's have some light Professor."
"I think the sneaking ended with the first bloodshed," Isabella says, shaking her head. "If there's other critters down here, they're sure to've heard. Or else they'll be forewarned when their guard fails to report in."
Hmm let's see, I can't say this looks familiar, but the basic principles should be there. Perhaps if i try this here?
The Professir tinkers with the 'lantern'
picking up the strange clear pitcher, the professor holds it up to his nose and sniffs lightly.
smells like an oil, but not like whale oil. different.he says.
shrugging his shoulders, he splashes some of it onto the coals that hold several inches of dust. immediately the dust is washed away, and the liquid evenly coats all of the coals.
taking a step back, the professor gingerly reaches out with the torch and touches the top. Flames immediately leap up, pushing back the darkness.
The light, so brilliant, casts a wide glow across the massive underground opening that you stand in, revealing its shape and size.
You realize that you are not standing in an underground cave, but a carved tunnel.
looking up, you see the ceiling 100 feet above you, supported by a strange lattice work of steel and stone.
across the tunnel you see the opposite wall, 150 feet away. From floor to ceiling portraits and carvings have been etched onto the surface. those within 20 feet of the floor have been defaced, but everything above that remains untouched.
The floor holds your attention. Carved and polished rock, the foundation of the very earth you were born upon, is layed out before you. for as far as the eye can see in the underground chamber, this floor is of the same rock material. you look for cracks, either natural or man made, but see none. even thinking back on your run to the next room down, you see that the floor is level. you are not sure how level, but an obscene amount of attention went into ensuring this floor was level. Yet, set into the floor is something odd. Long iron rods or beams are set into narrow channels within the floor, in sets of two and 4 sets total. each pair running parallel to each other. but between each pair it appears to be a worn section, as if many feet had trod upon the same path.
"Is this... magic of some sort?" Isabella asks, hesitant. "Or something else?"
" What the lantern? No no just a different type of oil in a fancy casing..." As the Professor then looks up " ...Oh! i see what you mean now."
" I have no idea, I have done some study into the arcane and i have never heard of a spell like this, but I ...
The professor's voice trails off.
you see that some aspect of magic has affected this, but its not the oil, but the metal itself. the magic seems to be focused within a rune set upon the underside of the brazier.
"Well, it's somethin'. That's for sure." Saul says, pushing his hat back further on his head. "Wonder what those iron beams and channels are for... support mebbee? Or does somethin' run along them?" He shrugs and looks up at the carvings.
William looks around trying to figure out what this place is.
Knowledge, Engineering
" Well i say no magic,there is something here.. yes here we are, there is a.. um.. rune i suppose you would call it. I suppose it magnifies the light or something. Right where do we go next? Down the tunnel or where the thing was running to?
"If we're staying, I vote we go on the hunt," Isabella says. "Better that than have him come back with his chums and jumping us when we're mot expecting it."
"That is one approach, but as we could be facing a whole community down here, should we go on a mission of ethnic cleansing, when initially we invaded their territory? Perhaps we should aim to establish communication with either them or the race behind the armoured statues we saw, if that is achieved then we will know more."
Henry will attempt to make some sense of the carvings.
Saul raises an eyebrow. "Well, some here might dispute this 'their territory" business, seeing as how we're in lands belonging to the great state of Missouri, professor." He then grins. "Or is that whole claiming new territory sort of thing only for England and France, and not for the likes of us 'colonials', eh?"
Taking his hat off and mopping his brow, he shrugs. "Anyway, if there's a community of them down here, we're the ones likely to be "cleansed", as you put it. 'specially given we don't know the language while the one with Anatoly's arrow sticking out of 'im does. I suspect that fellow's word is the one they'll go by. But if you think you can communicate with 'em, I'm not exactly opposed to trying. Still, for my two cents, I think our best bet is to not be seen until we have a better idea as to what we're up against."
"As to who made the statues..." Saul points up at the carvings. "... I rather suspect this place's current occupants came later than our builders. Those have the look of a fairly advanced people to me."
Anatoly looks at the Professor in disbelief and disgust, "Grimlock think you are food. They do not negotiate. They do not do this diplomacy. They attack. They kill. They eat. It is not this 'ethnic cleansing' to exterminate vermin. If I find abandoned house in woods and decide I will live there, I do not consider morality of chase out rats. I do not think to self 'Anatoly, you are invading home of rats.' I simply kill dangerous vermin until again is safe. These grimlock must be killed soon or late." He folds his arms across his chest and stands back.
Saul's grin widens at Anatoly's comments, then he suddenly shakes his head. "I fear also that Miss Nigrelli has the right of it. If that creature comes back with help, we could be in a world of hurt if they find us here standing around shooting the breeze like it were a sunday picnic."
William pushes his hat back on his head and grins. "Ayup. I figure we are going to get overrun ifin we keep on sitting on our thumbs in this spot. I say we either get moving forward or high tail it out of here."
"Toss of the coin, then?" Isabella suggests. "Heads we go hunting, tails we high-tail it out of here?"
The Elf brings out a silver dollar...
I do not consider morality of chase out rats. "
Anatoly shakes his head at Isabella, "So we leave vicious eaters alone if little coin say so?"
"Ok, maybe you are right, I know very little about these 'Grimlocks'. I have no desire to risk my neck for no reason,just putting an alternative point across. If you think we need to exterminate them my large friend, i will argue no longer."
William shrugs and looks at the coin. "Might as well ifin we all agree."
"No objection here. Leave it to the fates eh?"
Anatoly shrugs, "I have never know grimlock to dig own hole. They are like rat. Only move into house build by other people. Maybe I am wrong, da? Maybe is something down here worth finding while doing what needs be done. But I will follow little coin and hope little coin agrees." He grins broadly, "And if no, perhaps we will find way back here later."
"The ayes have it, big man," Isabella says, grinning at the burly Orc. She flicks the coin into the air, then slaps it flat on the back of her hand...
the coin reveals heads.
"Time to hunt," Isabella says, pocketing her dollar.