Finding none of the marks she was looking for, Valeria scratches a butterfly-shaped mark onto a bare spot on one of the pillars with one of the points of her starknife. She glances at Leynus as he approaches, nods, and returns to her work. When he's in earshot, she remarks aloud, "It would appear that I'm the first Varisian traveler to make a found-mark here. It's actually a bit of an honor to find something new." She adds an odd glyph under the butterfly. "My personal sigil."
Val smiles enigmatically when Leynus asks his question about the healing song she'd sung earlier. Noticing that Teral was attempting to eavestrop, she gestures him to come closer as well. I think I can trust these two. We're going to have to work together after all."That was the Song of the Spheres." she states simply.
She continues, "It's not a mere magic trick. Such power is not mine to give, but I would be honored to show you the way, if you are so inclined. The path requires commitment, dedication..." she smiles that enigmatic smile again, "...and not a little faith..." She tugs at a leather cord around her neck with her left hand, and pulls a carved wooden pendant from under her blouse. The pendant is in the shape of a butterfly, with a star on its left wing and a moon on its right. "...If you catch my drift." The shape of the pendant exactly matches the shape of the purplish birthmark on the back of Val's hand. She tucks the pendant back beneath her blouse.
Val glances toward where Bellicus and Elion are examining the knotted rope. She leans in closer to Leynus and Teral and drops her voice to a whisper. "I'd prefer our Chelish-hearted companion not know until I'm sure I can trust him. I wonder if he's actually another of our keepers."
At that she brightens again, and points out the strange runes. In her regular voice, she states, "This looks like some kind of writing, but decyphering strange runes isn't my strong suit. Can either of you make sense of it?"
"Really? It seems like such a notable landmark would have had visitors before." Leynus peers off into the distance, hoping to find a more specific indication of where they were. They were in the center of Cheliax, certainly, but where? And why would none have visited such a strange phenomenon? Then he glances at the dozens of small campfires and strange drawings, and shakes his head. Goblins. Right. A silly question.
Leynus eyes widen when he sees the pendant and hears Valeria's words. He had not immediately recognized her meaning when she mentioned the song, but seeing so obvious a holy symbol jarred his memory. His surprised reaction is brief, and he quickly smiles and hushes his voice as well. "Of course. Bellicus can remain in the dark on this. I won't relate it to any of the others, if you wish it." "Aha! So this is what our freedom singer has been keeping hidden. A priestess of Desna, is it? Well, I'm glad to know we at least have one blessing on our side."
He straightens up, having unconsciously crouched slightly at the conspiratorial nature of their conversation. "Haven't a clue, I'm afraid. Teral?"
Teral, who'd moved up somewhat sheepishly when Valeria beckoned him closer, found himself feeling just a bit slow on the uptake. Varisian by birth, he should have recognized the Great Dreamer's influence on his fellow traveler sooner. He nodded ever so slightly, his usually apathetic expression softening slightly as he acknowledged her confession, and the trust that giving that secret away entailed. It would not be him that betrayed it.
Turning away, he gave the scratchings a glance, expecting to miss their meaning as well, but then he blinked and ran his eyes over them again. "Huh. Actually, that looks like dragon script, but..." He shakes his head, translating aloud for the others. "No dragon wrote that. Some of the littler lizard races use a broken kind of Draconic, though. One of them could have written it."
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"Dragons, you say?", Bellicus remarks, oblivious to the whispered conversation between three of his team. grimacing at the revelation. "Now that's a turn for the worse. Let's hope it was written by one of those lesser races, Teral. I would prefer not to dwell on our chances against a real dragon." He glances over the side of the chasm, into that yawning abyss, hoping to see some sort of bottom.
"Our mission is clear," he finally states. "Descend into the chasm, find the man we came for and end him for House Thrune. We have tarried long enough upon this ridge. I suggest we lower the demonspawn into chasm. It can clearly take care of itself." He glances at Akshara, idly licking fox's blood of its sticky fingers. "If something tries to attack it on the way down, it can fend for itself. Those of us not lowering it will cover it with our bows. Once it has secured the ground, the rest of us descend. Your thoughts?"
"She," Anton corrects. "Proper nomenclature is important. You would not wish to be properly mislabeled as a female ...or as a true knight."
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Having not shied away from the topics of religion before, Akshara slinks around on all fours when Valeria begins speaking of Desna, faith and the aspects of religion that have been so carefully woven into the Varisians' upbringing. She doesn't directly ask anything, though her wide-eyed and alert stare implies some form of interest. Though with a twitch of her ears, Akshara flits away and scurries over to where the rope is, sniffing around the edge of the crevasse.
She peers down into the darkness, ears perked forward and alert. Behind the tiefling, her scaled tail lashes back and forth slowly in a predatory motion. She's had her attention grabbed, maybe by a smell or a distant sound. Now, Akshara is in hunting mode.
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Leynus can't particularly tell any more about where they are other than what you already know - somewhere in central Cheliax.
Akshara can see that the rope descends about 50 feet to a wide, sandy ledge in the side of the ravine wall. It is covered in rocky debris and what look like small animal bones. From the ledge, a roughly hewn stairwell descends further down along the wall.
Akshara thinks that she hears some sort of creature skittering around somewhere below the ledge.
Val walks over to the rest of the group that is clustered near the knotted rope, and gazes down into the chasm. "That's actually a reasonable plan, Bellicus. I would not have phrased it as if Akshara wasn't standing right there, but still, that would work. With one addendum." Val turns to Akshara. Ignoring the blood on the tiefling's hands and face, Val says, "Akshara, we all need to go down there. Would you be willing to lead the way down? The rest of us will follow you."
With a glance and a smile at Bellicus, and also looking to Anton for support, she waits for Akshara to respond.
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Straightening her back in her crouched position, Akshara looks over her shoulder to Valeria and then cants her head to the side. The tiefling's ears flick in different directions, and then she quickly snaps her attention back to the cliff edge. Without so much as a word, or a thought to preparation, Akshara bounds to the edge of the cliff, grabs the rope with one hand and swings around, quickly lowering herself down toward the ledge below without much concern for how much racket her clattering and scrambling makes.
She just wants to be useful.
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"I'm not so good a climbing. I've got 50' of rope, can someone hang onto it while I climb down? If someone else has some rope we can tie them together, loop them around one of these columns and belay whoever is last down from the bottom."
Akshara and Elion easily descend from the rope tied to the pillars, landing noisily on the ledge below. Akshara still can't see the bottom of the chasm, nor can she see the far side - it seems that the rift is much wider down here than it is up at the surface, forming a sort of underground cavern.
Elion can't see much past the ledge, which is barely illuminated by light coming through the crack fifty feet above.
Akshara hears the sound of frantic skittering somewhere below, then silence...
Leynus peers over the edge at his two companions. Seeing them yet unharmed by anything possibly small and unpleasant, he climbs swiftly down after them.
With a slightly worried expression, Valeria tests the rope and begins her descent. "Desna's wings! I hope we know what we're doing!"
Valeria easily descends the knotted rope and alights on the sandy ledge. She draws her starknife and looks around warily. She whispers, "Do any of you sense anything?"
"Theral, Valeria ...have neither of you a light spell? Cast on a stone and dropped into the chasm might be ...helpful."
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With a flick of her ears, Akshara seems startled by something. She quickly backs up straight into Elion and reaches around with one blood-stained hand to press her palm towards his mouth. The tiefling never looks back at him, instead keeps her eyes trained on the darkness as the fur at the back of her neck by the collar of her quilted jacket begins to stand on end. Behind her, Akshara's lashing tail belies her anxiety as it swishes back and forth.
___________
Val gestures with her left hand and whispers softly,
Blessed Starsong, shine your moonlight into this darkness.
She taps her buckler, which now glows with a pale silver light.
Well, if I ever wanted to know what fox brain tasted like...
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Bellicus gives Anton a harsh glare, and for a moment it looks as though he's about to spew a torrent of profanity at the druid. However, his demeanor calms after a moment, and he straightens, inclining his head to look down his aqualine nose at the man. "As I have said before, sir, I am no knight." Not yet, at least, he thought. The color in his cheeks betrays any outward show of civility, as inwardly he seethes.
Once a few of his compatriots have descended, Bellicus takes the rope and clambers down into the chasm as well. Despite the weight of his armor, he has no trouble lowering himself to the ledge below. Once there, he withdraws an oddly-shaped sconce from his pack and affixes it to his shield. He places one of his torches in it, and begins lighting it while the others search for anything unusual.
Val steps away from where Akshara and Elion are hiding, hopefully providing them some shadows to lurk in...
Having climbed down onto the ledge fifty feet below the surface, you strain your ears to listen for any sounds of danger below. The skittering that Akshara first heard has stopped.
You begin your descent along the stairs, and pass three switchbacks along the ravine wall. You find yourself treading carefully, for the stairs are rough and crumbling. As you reach the third landing, those of you who can see out past the torchlight (those with darkvision) can barely see, at the edge of sight, the top of a fortress emerging from the darkness. The subterranean citadel, though impressive, seems long forgotten, if the lightless windows, cracked crenelations, and leaning towers are any indication. All is quiet, though a cold breeze blows up from below, bringing with it the scent of dust and a faint trace of rot.
The narrow stairs empty into a small courtyard, apparently the top of what was once a crenelated battlement. The buried citadel has sunk so far into the earth that the battlement is now level with the surrounding cavern floor. The floor stretches away to the north and south, and it is apparently composed of a layer of treacherous, crumbled masonry, which reaches to an unknown depth. To the west looms the surviving structure of what must be the Sunless Citadel. A tower stands on the west side of the courtyard, straight ahead of you. The courtyard "narrows" as you approach a door in the side of the tower, the result of rubble piled high to the north and south.
You find yourselves standing outside the tower door. No sounds emanate from within. You open the door, and...
Elion will move to I4 and listen at the door then check for traps. Assuming he doesn't perceive anything he'll take hold of the handle and look back at the group, "Everyone ready?"
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With wide eyes and trepidation, Akshara leads the group alongside Elion towards the Sunken Citadel. The structure's appearance is otherworldly to her, a man-made artifice so deep underground that she cannot fathom how it came to be there. Listening to the echoes within the cavern, Akshara walks in a stooped crouch with her arms out to the side towards the door. Her ears flick this way and that, nose twitches and tail gives a slow, rhythmic flick left and right behind her.
As she and Elion approach the door, Akshara gives a sniff of the air and looks back to the others, then comes up to stand beside Elion at the door , brushing one blood-stained hand over the rough, ancient wood. Briefly, she looks back at Anton, as if expecting some sort of answer from the wise young man about how this place came to be and what it is.
"Shelyn's shiny tresses!" swears Val in a whisper, "This is incredible! What could have caused a fortress like this to sink beneath the surface?" As the party approaches the only obvious entrance, Val holds her starknife such that she's ready to strike with or thow it at any sign of danger. As Elion examines the door, she raises her four-pointed weapon in anticipation of attack.
Leynus does not speak as they approach the citadel, but he shares Valeria's sentiment. It was an impressive sight, but eerie and ominous at the same time.
Leynus stands opposite Valeria and straps his buckler to his left arm, shifting his drums around on their strap to sit in front of him, slightly to the left. This was much more convenient than simply holding it under his left arm, as he had done with the night before. In his right he holds his shortsword.
He waits with nervous impatience as Elion checks for traps and the like. He nods when Elion addresses the group.
"Magic, perhaps. Though one may get a little lazy by explaining everything that way. Perhaps the earth itself swallowed this place for some dark, forgotten sin. Or this was a method of defense ...we shall likely see." Anton takes out his scythe and stands at J5 behind Akshara.
Teral snorts in a sort of amused resignation. "It's always bloody magic." As if to accentuate his point, he chants a few words in the tongue of magic, and the ethereal dragon scale armor surrounds him again. Armored again, he hefts his spear in both hands and waits for Elion to throw open the door.
Hearing nothing suspicious and seeing no sign of traps, Elion opens the heavy door. On the other side, the interior of the circular tower is cobbled with cracked granite, upon which sprawl four goblins, all apparently slain in combat. One stands with its back against the western wall, the killing spear still skewering it and holding it upright. Three wooden doors (including the one you just opened) lead off from this the area. Above, a hollow tower of loose masonry reaches 30 feet, but the intervening floors and stairs are gone, except for a couple of crumbled ledges.
A filthy rat the size of a small dog, with a coat of coarse dark fur and glittering red eyes, is busily munching on one of the dead goblins when you open the door. It shrieks in anger at your interruption of its meal and its fur bristles, revealing bony protrusions along its back. Suddenly, three other rats of similar size and disposition scrabble up through the crumbled masonry to the north and south, surrounding you!
"Akshara, I don't care if you eat them or not but "
Throws a dagger at the rat at I2
(flat footed)
Elion's quick reflexes pay off and he tosses a dagger into the rat just as it is clumsily emerging from the rubble, catching it in the mouth and penetrating deep into its head. It falls to the ground with a gurgle.
The rat in the tower darts forward and bites at Elion's leg, barely puncturing Elion's leggings and scratching his flesh.
The rats to the south scramble towards Leynus and Teral and attempt to find out what adventurer tastes like. Unfortunately, neither of them gets a very good taste: Leynus's armor proves too thick, while Teral's attacker stumbles a bit on the rubble before even reaching the sorcerer.
Round 2
Elion will attempt to leap over the rat at H5 to land in G5 to flank. He won't be able to attack this round, since he already threw his dagger, so he'll draw his second knife.
"Dire rats," Anton says. "Nastier and angrier than usual rats. Diseased ...best to be put down." Anton moves up and strikes with his scythe. He wobbles and nearly even drops his own weapon, though.
Leynus recoils from the rat lunging at him and retreats to assist Teral . He takes a swipe at the rat attacking the sorcerer, leaving the others to handle the two nearest them.
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Letting out a trilling sound in surprise when the rats are on the other side of the door, Akshara recoils and hisses in reflex when one of them scurries right past her. She wheels around, looking at the ones that have gone by, but hears the claws of another scrambling near her back. Turning sharply, Akshara leaps on that creature, jaws open and teeth ready to rend flesh. Her tail lashes around wildly behind her, and Akshara seems to be eager to rip these scurrying beasts limb from limb.
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As the giant rats leap from the shadows, Valeria shrieks in surprise and fear.
"Calistra's c--t!" she swears as she defensively raises her starkife against the rat nearest her, but Elion's faster reflexes dropped it before Val could react. "Thanks, Elion!
Noticing that Teral is also being attacked, Val circles around back to attack the rat with her starknife, being careful not to get too close to the vile creature before slashing at it. But the rat manages to dodge her blow.
Teral, eying the rodent that closed in on him warily, backs up a few feet, getting the room needed to spear the thing if it should come at him again.
Fortunately, Elion and Leynus both manage to avoid the rats' gnashing teeth as they reposition themselves for more advantageous attacks.
Akshara's powerful bite slays the rat in the tower. The rat writhes on the ground as blood streaks down Akshara's chin. The other adventurers try to stave off the rats, but the disgusting creatures duck and weave around the attacks and continue their assault.
One of the rats bites at Anton, while the other goes for Leynus.
Anton easily dodges the rat's jaws, but Leynus is not so lucky and the creature's filthy teeth scrape his leg.
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Bellicus shakes his head at the rest of the group's apparent ineptitude, and raises his blade and shield. "Honestly, people, it's rats. Can we at least look as though House Thrune had a reason for bailing us out?" He steps up to the rat nearest the bards and thrust his sword into it.
Move to K6, flanking Rat 3 with Valeria. No Power Attack. It's rats.
Leynus shakes off the rat and tries to hit it yet again.
Teral, with a guttural growl, lunges at the rodent within his reach. The rat, still occupied with biting at Leynus, suddenly finds a spear plunging deep into its belly.
The rats lie dead in and around the tower, which once again falls silent. Elion and Leynus suffered minor scratches from the rats' filthy teeth, but otherwise the danger seems to have passed.
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Akshara smears the blood off of her mouth and look sback over her shoulder at the other, rankling her nose before loping into the tower on all fours, sniffing at the air. As she comes ot a stop, the tiefling looks around, squatting in the middle of the tower with hands and feet close together, back straight. She looks towards the goblin corpses, then ambles over to the one pinned into a standing position by a spear. She sniffs and then and prods at the creature with her lashing tail.
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Elion spins, dagger in hand, ready to slay the rat in the doorway only to find Akshara reeving it limb from limb.
"Ah good." he thought to himself, wiping blood and viscera from his face, "First I find out what fox brains taste like, and now I know what mutant rat tastes like. When I tell my grandchildren of this adventure I can describe exactly what flavor everything was."
He limps over to the first rat he killed and with a grimace of disgust recovers his thrown dagger. Sitting on a convenient pile of rubble he does his best to clean out his wound then hobbles into the tower to help with the search.
Leynus assists the others in searching the goblin corpses, limping slightly as he walks. The wound on his leg aches, but does not seem to be immediately pressing. He also takes a look at the upper areas of the tower, searching for anything of note on the crumbled remains of the floor, or perhaps an opening or entrance that yet remains.
Leynus doesn't notice anything in particular up above - the tower stretches up about 30 feet, but the crumbling masonry and collapsed ledges reveal no sign of other exits above.
Leynus and Elion quickly discover a secret door in the south wall - part of the tower wall actually appears to be a panel that could slide to the side.
Seeing that Elion appears to be treating his own wound, Val turns to Leynus while rummaging in her backpack for her healer's kit. "Let me take a look at that rat bite."
Examining the panel that Leynus and Elion say makes up a false wall, Teral shakes his head in an expression of appreciative disbelief. "Well done," he says simply. It's not clear if he's speaking to those who built the mechanism, or those who found it.