"I'm no scholar..." Erix started "But seems like knocking might be a good start?"
Alua nodded at Erix's suggestion.
Moving to the door, she knocked firmly on it with her morningstar. "Hello?" she called loudly in common. "Who's back here?"
Baran, having had his ear pressed to the door, snapped it back and rubbed it as it rang.
Phin raised an eyebrow as Alua knocked on the door and called out. "Do you not remember what happened the last time when you yelled out a hello? I mean it just happened."
The rogue made sure she had weapons at the ready, "I say we just break the seal on this door and find out where it leads. I have a feeling that whoever is on the other side doesn't want the door opened because they assume that the abberations will come through. It may be better to just go ahead and do it. It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission...and that's only if you're actually sorry for doing it."
Sheepishly, Alua backed away from the door. "It was Erix's idea," she said with a small grin.
Lupi was watching in confusion on all the actions that took place, but kept away from the door. "I hope the goblins on the other side don't get too confused... They might not have ever seen an elf or a human."
"I said knock!" he complained. "Besides, the bad guys already know we're here."
"OK, so, what's the set-up? Alua and Erix open the door? Phin, off to the side ready for a precision attack? Lupi and I back a few feet, ready with some missile fire and, well, an encouraging word? Anything with arcane skill or innate ability we try to take out first? ... Alua, what do you say? 'If now be not the time...'" Baran moved to a position in front of the gate but twenty feet back.
The impacts of Alua’s morningstar on the heavy stone slab of a door echoed in the small room, but from the far side of the door there was no reaction to the sound. The voices from below the stairs, however, certainly took note or it – unless they were reacting to Baran’s heartfelt plea to “broker the upper farthing” and grew even more excited. The voices were hard to make out – strangely hard, really, considering how relatively close by they seemed to be originating, but their general nature seemed unmistakable – they were eager to show you something. Too eager, Baran thought after listening for a few moments longer. Desperate, almost.
"Alright. Any plan is better than no plan, so what're we doing?" Erix asked quickly. "Other than blaming me for things, obviously!'
With two voices urging you to first check the voices below since there was no heavy door between them and you, preventing your entry or whatever lurked below to come after you once you moved further into the ruins, you made your way down the fire-scorched, moss-grown stairs, careful to avoid slipping. With every step, the flicker of flames became clearer, although you still could not see its actual source. Like the stairway, the walls and ceiling of the room below were scorched and blackened by flames and the floor was largely covered with rust-red patches of moss.
At the foot of the stairs, you were met with a ghostly figure of a goblin warrior, not too unlike the creatures you had fought in the chamber of trapped souls or the one caught in their eternal war against the dolgrims in the barracks. The phantom figure beckoned you to approach and then turned to walk further into the room, towards the source of the light. Yet Phin, the closest to the creature, thought she spotted the expression on the phantom’s face slipping just as it was turning away from you, revealing a mask of pain and yearning, its face covered with burns and blisters, and in its eyes, a look of dark malevolence.
Lupi kept silent to enable the more charismatic members of her party to do the discussions. She was more interested on the goblin-warrior-phantom's equipment. She wanted to see if there were any hints of their ancient origin.
"Does anyone else have that feeling? Like a diner bell being rung verrry slowly?" Baran continued forward and recalled how the spirit goblins turned peaceful, almost grateful, when they were slayn. He stayed within arm's reach of Phin.
The hairs on the back of Phin's neck stood up on end as she caught the look on the ghost's face. What she saw stopped her dead in her tracks. "It's a trap. I don't know what that thing's intentions is but it is not good. I'm turning back and focusing on the warded door and I suggest you all do the same."
Alua followed a few more steps before stumbling to a halt. Phin sounded genuinely rattled, and she knew better than to discount the elf's instincts. "If there aren't any living souls down here, it does seem better to focus on that door. Who knows how long we have before that abberration returns with his friends."
She followed Phin back to the door and studied it. "This is going to be brute force. Erix, shall we put our shoulders to it?"
Lupi responded to Alua "*Ummmm.. I am worried there might be someone on the other side that may not like that we break through... How about if we listen first." Lupi put hear ears closer to the hole on the door.
As Phin called for an immediate halt rather than follow the phantom deeper into the room to satisfy her curiosity something moved to strike at her. A mere ripple in the air, as it a heat-mirage, and the dancer was quick enough to step aside to avoid its touch, but she came close enough to, for a fleeting moment, sense a confusing jumble of emotions and memories. Of pain, of fire, of being burned alive… or wanting nothing more than to pass the feeling along to anyone who still lived and breathed, unlike the phantoms trapped in this room.
As you quickly retreated back up the stairs the voices of the lost souls followed you, keeping up a constant cacophony of voices that urged and pleaded you to return, and cursed you to deaths most foul when you didn’t reappear before them.
Back in the foulspawn barracks, Alua and Erix went to work on the stone doors and, after quite a few minutes of sweat and struggles finally managed to push the doors open enough for even the brawler to squeeze through. Baran maneuvered his magical light through to give those of you not blessed with Erix’s or Lupi’s vision to see. Beyond the portals was a rather large chamber, divided in two by what seemed a slow-flowing subterranean river. On the far side, two sheer cliffs rise, the one to the southwest around 10 feet high, while the other cliff to the northwest rises almost 20 feet from the chamber’s ground level. Your field of vision through the barely-open doors is hardly ideal, but you do spot a number of goblin bodies in states of advanced decay litter the floor. Also, you noted that in addition to the magical ward inscribed on the door (that is now quickly dissipating just like the previous such ward you had encountered), someone had gone to the trouble of piling stones against the doors, to keep them from being pushed open.
Erix looked worried. "Alright. Boss, I think we need someone to stand guard at that tunnel, and give a signal if they hear incoming. At that shout we run, back up the cliff and out of the ruins."
He looked around "Agreed?" he hesitated "Though if we run into danger here it makes sense to call the guard back and just pray we don't get caught between two forces."
Alua was feeling very anxious after their near-miss down the stairs. Over the cacophony of the spirit chorus, she was straining to hear the sounds of the foulspawn returning with its army of fiends. Stepping nervously into the new chamber, she stared at the fading sigil, hoping they hadn't done the wrong thing by breaking it.
Turning back to the room, she called out, "Okay, my spirit guide. Where are you taking us?" I hope it isn't into a trap, like the other spirit was attempting.
"The whole thing is like a puzzle. An ancient scene. Two great houses locked in an eons long war. A tragic calamity. We are in a ghost house of the ages. Like phantom invaders in someone else's dream of a lost past. There has to be an answer to 'why'. I can't stay behind to listen for attackers from the shadows. Please, choose someone else."
Phin shivered as the tortured thoughts brushed her mind as she sensed a presence that she neatly avoided. She shuddered to think what would have happened to them had they gone further in.
The clamour of crying and cursing voices tugged at the elf's sanity and she began to sing to try to combat them. She did it quietly to herself at first but then louder when it seemed like she could drown them out a bit.
She watched and waited as Erix and Alua worked on the door. As soon as the door opened enough to move through, she cautiously entered the new cavern.
What drew the rogue's attention first were the decaying goblin bodies. "Surely there's another reason that those aberrations wanted to get into here. I highly doubt it was to loot nearly mummified bodies."
Phin found the underground river to be a curious find. "I wonder where the river goes."
Boss, I think we need someone to stand guard at that tunnel
Please, choose someone else.
The elf allowed her eyes to roam around the cavern. "We may find another way out...like the river. It has to exit somewhere, right? Maybe no one needs to guard. Besides, if an army of those creatures comes back then there's no way all of us are climbing one single rope to escape. That being said, I'll stay back and guard if needed."
"I can stand guard back here," Lupi said I... umm.. have only one spell left anyway, I would not be much help, if you run into trouble." Although Lupi would have wanted to check the decayed goblin bodies on the floor and the cacophony from ancient goblin phantoms was ringing in her ears.
Baran moved to the centre of the space to their side of the river and took his light with him. He wanted to see to the far side of the room.
Erix considered. "Good point Phin. Long term I dare say Lupi's goblin knowledge is going to be more useful in there than my ability to lift heavy things. Alright. How's this, boss? Lupi guards here for a bit while I head back to the top of the cliff, grab some scaffolding, and tie off another rope. Then I come down here, relieve Lupi, put up something to slow them and stand guard at the same time. Can't see how to delay them long, but a few more seconds might be enough."
As Phin crept carefully onward into the chamber, down the low, long steps leading to the door you had just opened, she could see the bodies on the floor beginning to stir… or, rather, the mostly-decomposed bodies stayed where they were but something began rising from them, forms dark and corrupt.
Four forms were indistinct, inky-black shadows the size of the goblins from whose bodies they arose, wielding wicked sickles, their eyes white holes burned through the darkness of their own forms. Two wore the forms of beasts, deformed and dripping foul liquids as they staggered towards you, growling and snarling in evident hunger. And the last creature was the strangest of them all, a multi-armed nightmare all disproportionally long claws and a huge mouth the size of its whole torso. This last creature stayed back at the far side of the room, gesturing wildly with its hand at the intruders encroaching their domain.
"Faaaa.... Left or right, Phin?" Erix grunts, drawing sword and shield as he steps forward. "Anyone with range, feel free to open up. Anyone know what these things are?"
"Back!" Alua cried, "back through the door! Let's make them come at as two at a time. Erix, you and I will hold the line. Everybody else, fire what you have."
The oracle wished she had more magic at her disposal, but she was drained. As she stepped backwards, she took a moment to touch Phin's shoulder and instill the elf with a little bit of luck.
Moving his light a little closer to the creatures, Baran drew out his shortbow and rushed to Lupi's right hand. He turned suddenly and fired into the distant dark.
Phin's eyes widened as the malevolent forms rose from the bodies on the ground. "Khyber below...what fresh hells is this?"
She stopped mid-step and began to back up.
"This is what the Dolgaunt wanted to get to and Alua's spirit wanted us to find? This is not cool...at...all."
She took another step towards the door, "I don't think that any of us can survive this. We've been too beaten and battered and we have no idea what these things are or how to fight them."
The rogue brandished the byeshk spear at the phantoms to see if they'd possibly respond to its presence, possibly hinting they may actually have a chance.
"Alua, any sign of your spirit?"
Any sign of the spirit? Is it laughing at us?
Lupi was happy to hear the idea of retreating was on table. "Yes, let's retreat before they come closer." She moved away from the door.
Any sign of the spirit? Is it laughing at us?
Following Alua’s orders you retreated to set up a defensive line at the gap between the stone doors, with Erix holding the center. You did not need to wait for long for the enemies to come to you – the two hound-like foes rushed at you, leaving behind a trail of foul mucus – and what seemed to be chunks of their own flesh. One of them was close enough to reach Erix and promptly launched itself at the brawler, only to be foiled by his ever-present shield – although the nauseating stench of rotting flesh and sewage nearly did what the beast’s teeth and claws could not to knock the sturdy warrior over. As he retaliated with a swift slash of his knife he realized the creature was already severely wounded… or perhaps deteriorated might be a more apt term for it. Its body seemed on the brink of collapse even before his own attack, with only some necromantic magic keeping the thing still moving.
Indeed, the same seemed true of all the six creatures that were running, stumbling and lurching their way towards you… with the singular exception of the strange shadow-creature that kept to the back of the room, moistly out of your sight now that you had retreated behind your chokepoint.
Lupi watched the obviously very undead creatures come closer trying to recognise them. She then cast Magic Missile to the closest one.
Baran yelled, "Withdraw to the cliff! These seem like corrupted goblins. The others seemed like corrupted aberrations. Maybe we can get them to fight each other!"
Alua shook her head. "No, hold! If we leave now, we're surrendering for good. These things are barely holding together. We can take them!" As much as she hated fighting undead, she was loathe to give up when they were this close (she hoped) to their final goal.
Squeezing under Erix's arm, Alua lashed out with her heavy weapon, hoping a sold hit would send this thing tumbling apart. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough room between the door and the bulging bicep, and her weapon grazed the door instead.
Phin moved back quickly and slipped through the door to take up a flanking position. Since she hadn't seen any strong reaction to the byeshk spear she carried, she chose to attack with her thornblade instead.
She studied everyone's movements which seemed like some sort of deadly dance before she saw her opening and lunged forward to strike the dark form trying to get through the gap.
Her blade felt resistance before slicing into something. It wasn't quite flesh but it had substance and she was fairly certain that she had wounded it.
Really sorry if Alua's stubbornness gets anybody/everybody killed!!
Baran stood his ground on Lupi's right hand.
Erix took a couple of swipes and backed up a few feet, tempting to mindless target to walk into the killing zone. "C'mon Karnth, one yard further... that's it..."
Lupi's force missiles punched straight through the strange hound-creature, splattering the stairs with back ooze. Those wounds proved too much for the creature barely hanging onto its form and the beast promptly collapsed, beginning to dissolve into black, tar-like liquid before Erix's disgusted eyes. Not that the fate of the first hound seemed to trouble its companion, as the second beast followed the example of its predecessor, charging at Erix's shield jaws wide, ichor splattering the floor, but it got no further than the first beast had, as its charge spent itself on the brawler's sturdy shield.
It was promptly met with a lunge from Phin's and Erix's blades, though, and you could see it wavering on its feet, already close to a collapse. Meanwhile, the sickle-wielding shadows continued their slower, more methodical advance, their burning white eyes focused on Erix...
"The gallants stood firm against a wave of evil. Hands firm on blades, feet steady on the ground, and not a one with thought of turning from a new foe. Thus it was at the bottom of the well." Baran tried to raise the spirits of the team as they made their stand.
Relieved that the others were being more effectual than she had been, Alua began to get the rhythm of the dance at the door, and stepped forward for another swing. This time she was in sync with the others, and managed a solid blow on the foe in front of her.
"So - we're not trying to turn these against those other guys, right? Is Lupi going to try talking to these ones?" Erix asks, swinging his sword in something half-kata, half-gardening.
Phin stowed the spear and then flicked her wrist to release her dagger from her wrist sheath. Now armed with two weapons, she squeezed herself into the space beside Erix to slash and thrust her deadly blades at the shambling shadow trying to get through the door. "Lupi, if you are going to try talking to these things then it better be quick. The window for diplomacy is closing quickly."