Anger of the Morally Upstanding People [IC]

[PersonMan]

Starday, 16th of Arodus - Noon

Complete darkness. Groans, coughing. Your head rings, pain pulses from what feel like a dozen bruises across your entire body. You're covered in a layer of dirt, small rocks, a few stray pieces of wood - but not buried. The sounds of falling rocks clattering down stone ledges and the softer, longer ones of sand or dirt settling into place comes from the darkness around you. Sounds of pain, and one lengthy string of swearing, join them. As you begin to gather your wits, memories return, the question of what brought you here fading into an answer.


--ʕ*ʔ--

Lord Hulrun steps forwards, adjusting a bauble on his clothing that, after a tap, projects his voice across the entire crowd - though it doesn't project more than a firm clearing of the man's throat before a blinding light erupts from the west. For a moment, as sight returns, everyone in the plaza is of a single mind, looking off towards the source of the sound just as a thunderous noise crashes through the city, riding a wall of wind that knocks several people from their feet, sends unattended items flying and is immediately followed a tremor that shakes the earth. To the west, where the flash of light had erupted, was a horrifying tower of flame, smoke and lightning, the sight made worse by the fact that it rose from the spot that was, until a moment ago, home to the fortress of Kite, itself more than a simple bastion of stone and metal, as it housed Kenabres' wardstone.

Before panic can set in, the plaza is suddenly in the shadow of a familiar, reassuring being - Terendelev, the city's ancient silver dragon defender. Sharp eyes are quick to spot another shape in sky, however, this one much less calming. A demon three times the size of any human, skin crackling with lightning and ablaze with red fire; the so-called Storm King of the Worldwound has come to Kenabres, wielding his sword and flaming whip as his smoking wings carry him towards Terendelev. Before they meet, another tremor hits, this one more violent than the last, and the ground gives way, a rift growing in the plaza, leading down into unseen depths. Screams erupt across the open space, both from those unable to escape the opening earth and from the sight of demons crawling forth from several.

The wooden construction used to seat the crowd in the plaza is the only thing keeping you above the newly-appeared rift, and it sags as its support vanishes. Above, the sky begins to fill with demons, Terendelev and the Storm King clashing with a thunderous roar. The earth continues to shake, the plaza begins to empty. Solid ground is under your feet again for a moment. The air is filled with the sound of crumbling stone, crackling lightning and booming thunder, occasionally penetrated by the unearthly crack of the Storm King's fiery whip. Constant motion - you're able to barely haul someone away from an opening crevice, to help another to their feet, when suddenly a new tremor strikes. This one caused by the battle in the air, as Terendelev crashes into the cathedral, sending a shake through the earth and a massive statue of Iomedae falling downwards. For a moment it seems like you won't make it, but then you get just clear of the falling stone, only for the earth to give way as it strikes. Rather than worry about splinters of stone flying off the statue, you find yourselves sinking, a segment of the plaza suddenly falling.

Luckily, it doesn't go very far before grinding to a stop, leaving you perhaps fifteen feet from the surface, on what was once a section of the plaza's edge - a portion of a waist-high wall is on one side, a disconcerting crack in the center. Above, the statue is half inside the rift, head and shoulders caught in a narrower section, perhaps offering escape...Until the entire rift is suddenly covered, a massive body slamming into the ground with a loud roar and sending shakes through the earth. Terendelev's body lies partially atop the rift, blocking much of the sunlight before another impact causes another tremor. One of the others in the rift with you turns, holding an elegantly-carved wooden rod tightly, stammering some words about falling, safety, and extension, along with magical syllables that are almost cut off by the next sound. A roar, muffled by the dragon's body, comes from above; a moment later, something strikes the ground above with great force.

Enough force to cause the rift to shake again, and to break the statue half-caught in the opened earth. In a moment, a carved stone head representing Iomedae crashes into the stone you stand on, immediately breaking it along the crack and leaving you without ground beneath your feat - as if the entire slab of stone had been a trap door waiting to be sprung. A shout, cut off by the sound of crashing stone, comes from above as you begin to plummet, before you slow, some magic keeping your descent at a slow speed, though you are still battered by debris and the jagged edges of the stone on either side.


--ʕ*ʔ--

Now you must be at the bottom. If memory serves, there should seven others, who all found themselves in the rift at the same moment. You can hear three easily enough - one man, groaning softly in pain, and another who seems intent on cursing every stone that struck him on the way down. A few gasps, sounding more feminine, come from a third, who also seems in pain.

Your Darkvision allows you to see despite the complete lack of light. You seem to be in a cavern (http://i.imgur.com/jRgAAXQ.png), of some sorts, lying at the top of a mound of debris that it itself just to the side of a ten-foot-high wall of broken stone, splintered wood and the occasional arm or leg that tells the fate of others who fell through the earth. This 'wall' meets a tightening of the cave's walls, forming a seal you doubt you can get past, even though the cavern's ceiling seems to be far above.

Also on the mound of rubble are seven others, including a human woman who seems to be gingerly, albeit blindly, rolling a large rock off of her leg, an elf whose face is dominated by a fresh, open burn wound that likely destroyed his eyes and a human man in rich attire who is rolling back and forth despite bearing nothing resembling a major injury. (The other four are PCs, so I won't describe them here.)

Ahead from your location is an almost horse-sized spider, legs curled in the air, as well as pathways leading further into the cave, which extends past your ability to see.

[BelGareth]

Church was excited, she had never been to something like this before, and had managed to get some decent seats for this.

Her breath paused as Lord Hulrun stepped forward, and then, then everything turned upside down.

She blinked as she rolled forward and raised to one knee, surveying the dark cavern. Was that a spider? she shook her head. Sniffing the air, she tried to see if she could smell anything in the cave that shouldn't be there...though..that was hard, seeing as she shouldn't even be there...

Looking around she saw several wounded people, ignoring the rich wealthy man, she moved, gingerly, towards the human woman rolling the rock off her leg. Not for the first, time, she wished she was able to channel healing energy with her magic...

But she did have something, she grabbed a few pebbles, and cast light (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/l/light/) upon them, illuminating the cavern for the others, she scattered a few here and there, and took one in her left hand while she approached the wounded human woman.

"I've got you, " she said as she approached, whispering, even though they were in a cave, hopefully to soothe the woman, "let me take a look at that."


If the woman lets her, heal check (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/heal/), I'm not sure what specific action though.
[roll0]

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr takes a moment just to focus in the aftermath of her fall. Her body aches, but nothing feels broken, which is either a mercy granted by her armor or sheer dumb luck. When she opens her eyes, she's treated to darkness soon followed by clarity, which is itself pushed aside by a great deal of destruction. Her mind wants to linger on the devastation that just happened, above ground, but she knows that it would do no good to linger. Not while she's alive, and others are breathing around her.

She pulls herself to her feet with a faint grunt and watches Church tend to the most obviously-wounded woman. She should help, and she will, once the only present danger is taken care of. She unstraps her Lucerene Hammer, surveys her surroundings carefully, and approaches the spider until she's within reach - and crushes where its brain probably is.

Detect Evil on everybody, as well as this part of the cave itself.

Perception: [roll0]

And, obviously destroying that there spider.

[PersonMan]

"Thank you," the woman (http://i.imgur.com/kRCw48Z.png) says, as Church casts light into the cavern by casting Light. Unfortunately, the half-orc's attempt to aid her goes poorly, and she recoils with a hiss as her injured leg is prodded - quickly it becomes clear that Church underestimated the wound; the woman's leg is broken, and will need a different sort of help than the bruise cream she was going to administer.

As light fills the cave, the elf doesn't seem to notice at all, while the well-dressed man quickly rises, brushing himself off and casting a few concerned looks about the cavern.

As Brigadyr approaches the spider, before the enters striking range, she notices two large lumps moving beneath the surface of its body, as well as a sound distinctly akin to chewing coming from them.

[Hazuki]

"So." Brigadyr says, in as loud a whisper she can. "Problem one: We're trapped in a cave. Problem two: Many of us are injured. Problem three, and this one is my favorite: There are two creatures eating that spider from the inside out." She glances back briefly, then keeps her gaze focused on the arachnid. "Thoughts?"

To attack whatever comes out of that there corpse, if it does so suddenly.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa carefully tries to stand up, making sure nothing is broken. She stretches her back, cracks her fingers, wiggles her toes and carefully turns her neck and head around. Better safe than spinal injuries.
Then some woman starts speaking about problems.
"Your third problem isn't a problem at all. Just kill the bloody thing. Or things. Just swing your hammer at it's head or something."
She quickly looks at the injured woman, and sees what that other woman is doing to her. She then slaps her hands away from the injured leg."Dammit, what are you doing? Didn't you at least take a basic first aid class? Let me take a look at this." She grabs her healer's kit and surgeon's tools out of her pack. The surgeon's tools might be a bit much, but you never know.
Luckily she still remembers basic first aid, and basic first aid teaches people that you should give the uninformed a simple job to do to keep them from panicking at people's wounds.
"Talk to her, ask her name or something and get the dirt out of her face, i'll see what i can do about her leg."

Let's see if i can roll a bit better.
Heal: ]roll]1d20+10[/roll] (5from skill rank and 5from healer's kit and surgeon's tools)
Edit: screwed up the roll, rolling in OOC

[BelGareth]

Church was about to answer Brigadyr's question when she was rudely shushed out the way.

She snarled back at the girl "Touch me again, and I'll bite your fingers off!" she snaps, not liking being handled in such a fashion, she glanced down, and sighed in resignation, she wasn't doing the woman any help, so she stepped away, preferring to deal with the spider munching, it was much more up her alley.

"Anything inside a spider, is bad, let's kill it." she says simply and calm as can be, all anger from before gone, as she draws her scimitar.

[TheFederalist]

Domine libera nos... domine libera nos... domine libe-

Light suddenly shone brightly into the mind of Diana, as her eyes opened to the inappreciably bright illumination that seemed to radiate from a pebble in front of her face. For a moment, there was silence, as her mind pieced together her position in a dazed and slow manner. She had decided to take to the celebrations for the day, to see what had become of the celebration of her youth in the large fortress-city she now resided in. Avoiding the folks who were scattered across every one of the streets the best she could, she had made her way to the plaza, and taken a seat. Someone had already reserved it, and therefore angrily willed her to leave, but just as she got up...

The Storm King! Non non non!

Lifting her half buried face from the ground, she took a look around to verify her location and the safety of the others who had fallen with her. Of the two objectives she had set in mind as she gathered her wits, her location was impossible to figure out. A cavern, she assumed, considering how they had fallen. As for the others, it was obvious that she was the last to wake, for they were up and moving, or so it seemed so far.

She moved her hands to beside her torso, laying them flat across the ground, and pushed her upper body up. She grunted as she did this, the soreness setting in to make her realize that the fall had not left her unharmed. Likely not all of it was from the fall, but that was of no matter. Finally, she brought herself to her feet, wobbling to an extent before she pulled herself together, and realized that she could finally hear the conversation the others had been having.

"-ite your fingers off!"

Clearly, she had missed plenty already.

Groggily, she asked "Wh-What seems to be our situation currently? Is our condition safety? Th- The Storm King! That was the wicked demon assailing our wyrm-protector! Although I suppose I'm stating the obvious here..."

[Segrain]

Somewhere among the gathering on the plaza, a spearhead was towering over the assembling crowd. It was not an uncommon sight, certainly not in the land of crusaders where many carried weapons and a lot of those weapons were even forged of the same metal. Somewhere beneath that sharp point, easier to overlook amid many taller and yet far less belonging among them, was a head of a human. Ravenhaired head with scars and tattoos on its face could belong only to a Kellid; and that was rare, but still not surprising in the fortress garrisoned by warriors of many peoples coming from many lands. What was truly weird was the sight of the city itself around her. That is, it was weird to her - but any sight is, first of all, a matter of perspective.

And from her point of view, what little she could see over the crowd and what she already saw on the way into it was... educational. The word itself did not exist in her mind a month ago, and probably in entire Hallit as well - but travelling with a group of southerners, willingly or not she got some real practice in what they called a common tongue. And seeing such a diverse crowd both explained it and made it even more confusing. How could they all have anything in common? Was a common enemy truly so binding? Perhaps the speech that their chieftain was about to give could explain it. And, as always, she was ready to listen to the respected elder - but this time it was not to be.

Darkness and pain. The former was easy to dispel: blinking few times, she cleared her eyes of the dust and glared around herself. The world was black and white like the darkest starless night. But, surely, it was not so. It did not hurt enough to explain missing half of a day. The sky had to be bright, and yet it was not. Before she could properly ponder it, a light appeared - a light on the ground, like a rising sun or a lit bonfire, and yet neither of them. Twinkles like that belonged in the sky, and they had to be many. Was it not so? It was. It was meant to be. With a brief utterance mixing coarse Hallit with the speech of heavenly spirits, she moved her hand and pointed it thither where sky belonged. Cerulean sparks ran up her entwined fingers, white in the darkness, shoot like a comet through the black emptiness, met each other high above and exploded into a shape of the cross, shedding some proper lights onto the situation.

That did not help against the pain, but it could be ignored. By the sound of it, somebody else was hurt much more; luckily, her layers of heavy clothing protected her from the harm. Shaking off some small rocks, Keira raised another arm, which somehow still clutched the spear, and tried the ground next to herself before slowly rising onto her feet and taking a better look around. For some time, she had to watch, contemplating the strangers and their strange actions. It was far from what she expected - but what could she really expect, following the guidance of the spirits, barely knowing whither and even less why? She was meant to be here. Fate ordained so, and spirits ensured it. But what was she to do, not knowing even that what others thought obvious?

"Thank you for explaining", - Keira spoke, her young and soft voice carrying much less of Kellid accent than it did not so long ago in so different existence and seemingly devoid of any sarcasm. - "Safety this is not. But biting fingers is not to be, or safety will be less. Demons and wyrms are far; take them out of mind for now. Tell me: is this how spiders are in your realm? Spiders eat flies; what manner of beast eats spider?" Of course, if all that she heard about this land - and about her own land even more so - was true, flies could easily eat spiders. It would be a stroke of luck if that - whatever it was - ate only spiders.

Keira believed in fate; but luck, at the moment, was hard to believe.

Dancing lights.

[Hazuki]

"We're in a cave. The angry one is tending to wounds," Brigadyr nods in Hadwisa's direction. "Our newly-awakened friend is examining the scene," She nods at Keira. "And us two are getting ready to kill whatever's eating this spider! Oh - and I'm Brigadyr! Care to join us?" She smiles at Diana.

[TheFederalist]

She heard much of what Keira spoke, parts being lost to some sort of ringing sound that she could not place an origin for, and turned to look at the new comer, who he had seen next to her in the plaza. Her accent seemed vaguely familiar, sparking memories of home, but for the moment, she put the possibility of finding one such as herself to the back of the cart. But while how she spoke was of interest, her words themselves seemed as calming and wise, letting her realize that perhaps she would have to consider what mattered more in the present. The Storm King's assault would be dealt with when she could in fact deal with it.

Brigadyr's words filled her in decently enough, and she nodded in response to her, not knowing how exactly to respond. She attempted a smile, deviating from her mostly expressionless face til that point, though it was beyond her to figure if it were passable or not. It did explain quite a bit as to what she had heard upon her awakening, and it did seem that she would have to get her head back into crisis mode, for there seemed to be a threat to them immediately.

"I know naught of spiders this distance of Sarkosis, but... I do know that those which eat another from the innards do not bode rescue. Thus I shall join you, friend, though I know naught your names." she said, reaching to her back to retrieve her shield and long halberd, cracking the bones in her back in the process. As she assumed a stance prepared for combat, or... to strike down parasites before they emerged, she said once more "I am Diana Amberley, and I will be glad to fight alongside those beside me. Aroden... Aroden smile on our combat."

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa ignores the leg for a moment and looks around at the other people. "I'm not angry, i'm an annoyed professional. And i'm Hadwisa."
After that her attention goes towards tending the wound again.

[Segrain]

Keira trembled for a moment, grasping her spear with both hands to keep herself from showing weakness. It was not what she expected to hear. Back in Numeria, the name of Kingdom Lost was not spoken lightly; and beyond the lands of those who still preserved its memory, she thought, it was all but forgotten, replaced with an evocative moniker for what once blessed realm now became. And yet, here it was, on the lips of somebody who spoke of the dead god and the tainted kingdom with equal ease. It was so unlike what she heard from southerners so far; and she had to choose her next words carefully. Giving proper reverence to ancestral names could wait.

And speaking of names, she was yet to introduce herself. Taking an excuse to justify her hesitation, the Kellid stepped to a cave wall and relieved herself of a pack on her back, which, thankfully, endured the fall mostly undamaged. Her posture no longer drooped by its heavy weight, she straightened, lean build and long spear making her look even taller. Long hair, now brushed away from her face, revealed jagged scars on both her cheeks, as if she was crying blood, its flow finding new ways like a branching river; by contrast, her forehead bore a detailed tattoo of cascading aurora with the stars sparking across it. "I hight Keira, of Faxed Stars", - raising a hand to her heart and touching one of the fetishes hanging from her clothes, she awkwardly tried to replicate a southern bow that she recently was given along with a name - and, straightening once more, hurried to brush her hair behind her back again.

"Of spiders and their worms I know naught", - she hastened to get back to the topic, - "but do you seek to have a fight? Is... what it is... to be so feared?" Her spear once again held in both hands, young Kellid eyed the spider warily, but yet made no movement to join those too quick to claim friendship.

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr hears a few words that she doesn't recognize, and sticks them on the laterbase. It's getting particularly loaded. "Well," Her head tilts to the side at Keira's question. "We can't see what killed the spider - no fallen rocks, no obvious wounds, which means it's most likely that whatever's eating it, killed it from the inside, and I don't know anything that does that without being some kind of hostile. I've never met anybody who eats spiders, and, if what were there were intelligent, it would have heard us whispering - at length - by now and popped its head out to join in with the introductions, or at least ran from the cave-in a few feet away. Right now, we need to at least know what they are before we can get moving, and that means it's time to smash some spider." She demonstratively tips her hammer towards the spider as she beams at the hesitant woman.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Yes, please continue talking about the fact that you maybe should kill whatever is inside the spider. Don't waste time actually killing the bloody thing when you can stand around talking about it. Don't mind me here trying to tend to this woman with my back exposed, please keep chatting.
In my personal experience bloody creatures eating other bloody creatures from the bloody inside out are not something you want around.
So just bloody kill it will you! "
Hadwisa barely looks up from her patient while ranting angrily. She realises she's lashing out because she's actually quite nervous about sitting there tending to a patient while she and the woman she's healing are the easiest targets around. And angry, she's starting to get angry as well. These people are already referring to her as 'the angry one'. That nickname sucks....
Calm. Yes, better stay calm. Maybe a few more sarcastic remarks, sure, but calmly. She's going to be professional about all this crap.

[BelGareth]

Ignoring the panicking healer, Church took a step toward the spider sniffing the air, maybe she could figure out the scent of the creature.


Using scent [roll0]
Monster Lore (if applicable)
[roll1]
[roll2]


She looks and sees recalls something similar, albeit on a smaller scale. Those were maggots, large, huge maggots. "Looks like they are maggots, I'm pretty sure we should kill them, just to be on the safe side"

If not, she indicates to Brigadyr, who was wielding a massive hammer, to 'go ahead', and she would back her up.

[PersonMan]

The woman coughs, as the brief spat ends and Hadwisa tends to her leg - a process that takes some time, consisting of properly setting it and making a splint from nearby debris. The woman, who briefly introduces herself as Anevia Tirabade ("Can't have a woman poking around my leg without knowing my name, now can I?"), does what she can to help, mostly by grabbing a few pieces of nearby wood. As this begins, the elf speaks up.

"Do deal with the maggots quickly. I have a plan to get us out of here, but we'll need to get rid of these distractions first," he says, speaking with practiced authority that's made less impactful by the fact that he's still on the ground, only slowly pushing himself up against the wall. "My name is Aravashnial, to help complete our introductions"

The well-dressed man doesn't seem keen on introducing himself yet, alternating between wincing at the sight of the elf's massive facial burns, looking worried at his own minor scraped and seeming horrified by the mere thought of giant maggots. He simply nods as Church mentions killing maggots, edging a bit closer to the wall of debris to gain half a step's distance to the creatures.

[Segrain]

"...if so you say."

With a quite noncommittal utterance of a response to everybody at once and nobody in particular, Keira once again considered the strangers around her. Yes, strangers; despite the exchange of names, she still hardly knew anything at all about them. But they, it seemed, knew what they were saying. A spider of so impressive size was unusual enough to assume that she could not reliably assume anything; and if they said that there were maggots, then maggots they were. And if they stood on the path towards escape, then she could only trust the elf's knowledge of this place.

"It is being said: "Step first with your spear". Bravery is neither in anger nor in carelessness", - her voice slightly rising as she gave the healer a brief, but, hopefully, reassuring smile (which the busy woman probably did not have time to see anyway...), young Kellid nodded with approval towards the heavily armed warrior's quite impressive hammer and lowered her own weapon, pointing it at the spider. Proverbs were rarely meant to be taken literally; but when they were apt even without long pondering, there was little need to contemplate.

Carefully, fearing less whatever maggots could crawl inside spiders and more revealing her own inexperience, Keira took a step forward, joining others with their weapons ready and, staying full length of haft away from it, cautiously poked the supposed corpse - not at the moving lumps, lest the things within get agitated, but as far from them as she could, testing the spider's flesh and measuring whether it was truly as dead as being infested by maggots could imply. Where spiders grew as horses, she probably could not trust something as it seemed - but trusting somebody was still worthy of consideration, and she briefly glanced at Brigadyr, spear in her hands retreating from the poked body and turning to point at the suspected maggots in an inviting gesture.

[Hazuki]

"You heard the woman." Brigadyr says cheerfully, as she waits for the rest of the anti-maggot squad to get into position. Once she's sure they're ready, she readies her Lucerne Hammer, listens carefully for where one of the maggots might be, and brings down the hammerhead.

Lucerne Hammer, standing within Reach range, and attacking.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[TheFederalist]

With shield and glaive now in hand, there was a certain degree of comfort that was afforded to Diana that she did not have earlier. Whether this was an indication as to her preference for steel rather than conversation, or simply a relief of being capable of self-defense, was unknown. What was certain was that as she moved to the side of the spider's body, and thrust into the body, feigning ignorance to any possible hostility or hesitance from the others around her, was that she was now more assured in her movement. As the blade on her pike speeded towards the creature's hairy hide, a slight grunt echoed from her.



Assume Vigilant Keeper's Stance (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/disciplines-and-maneuvers/eternal-guardian-maneuvers/#TOC-Vigilant-Keeper-s-Stance) and use the Piercing Strike (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/disciplines-and-maneuvers/piercing-thunder-maneuvers/#TOC-Piercing-Strike) maneuver assuming that the maggots are adjacent by definition.

To Hit

[roll0]

Damage

[roll1]

IN CASE OF CRIT (PROBABLY USELESS)

Conf roll

[roll2]

Damage part two, electric boogaloo.

[roll3]

[PersonMan]

http://i.imgur.com/MiZM9jc.png

For a few moments, the nameless cave beneath Kenabres is host to a flurry of motion. As three women converse on the massive spider's corpse, the bulges beneath it burst, revealing massive white maggots, almost the size of a small human child. Even as they explode from their former host, however, their fate is sealed. One is immediately turned into a white paste by a hammer coming down on it, the other finding its end only a moment later, as a blade impales the maggot just as it exits the spider's remains. It's over almost too quickly to have started, and the cave grows quiet again, what's left of the two maggots passing into stillness, their feasting ended.

"Looks like you can handle yourselves," Anevia comments with an approving nod.

"Are they taken care of, then?" The elf, Aravashnial, asks, turning his head towards where the sounds of violence had come.

http://i.imgur.com/isUrQmF.png

[BelGareth]

Church harumphs at the quick kills, as if it annoyed her, even though it was what she suggested.

She turned and intoned a cantrip, her eyes lit up with an elditrch blue glow as she scanned the rubble and cave for anything magical, item, or aura alike.

[Hazuki]

"Oh, that's nasty." Brigadyr chuckles, as she gives each of the maggots a couple of good whacks to make sure they stay down. "Looks like we're finished up over here! How goes the triage, Hadwisa?" She asks, now leaning on her hammer.

[PersonMan]

You find nothing magical from your position, though this only covers the wider portion of the cave you're in, without performing a circuit of the entire cave and scanning the passages.

You succeed in making the splint, but will likely need another minute or two of work to finish it, due to the difficulties inherent in using debris to make it rather than proper materials.

[BelGareth]

Church will continue to scan the entire area they are in, but will not leave through on of the tunnels.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"I need a couple more minutes here, it's a bit more difficult with debris rather than decent supplies.
You're doing great so far, Anevia, won't take much longer.
If anybody else here is wounded you can start lining up next to me and i'll see to you next."
If Hadwisa finishes before some other crisis occurs she'll also use her Healing hex on Anevia.

Healing hex if there's time for it: [roll0]

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr takes the moments after maggot-swuishing to retrieve two torches from her pack, tying them together with some tools from her kit to form a single sturdy shaft. She marches over to the blind man, as well as the well-dressed one. "I don't recommend getting up yet, but take this." She passes the elf her impromptu staff. "It'll help guide you when we start moving." She looks to the well-dressed man. "You, my friend, have a very important job ahead of you! Those of us with weapons will make sure the way's cleared, Hadwisa is tending to the injured, Aravesh is making a plan, and you? You make sure our friend here," She gestures to Aravash. "Has all the support he needs for getting out and keeping up with the group. Now, I know you're fine, but what's your name?" She asks, as she helps him to his feet. Whether he likes it or not.

[PersonMan]

The well-dressed man regards Brigadyr with an almost shocked expression as she addresses him. "Me? I'm none other than Horgus Gwerm!" He says, before trailing off into sputtering yelps as she hauls him to his feet. "Ah, be careful! I was greatly injured during the fall!" He says loudly, wincing as he moves his lightly-nicked arms. "I think I have an idea for our direction, actually. Bring me back to my manor, and I shall see to it that you are well-rewarded! A thousand gold from my vault!" He continues, brushing himself off and seeming to forget his great injuries. "Obviously, under proper conditions. I won't let my noble personage be consigned to playing nanny for this conspiracy theorist!"

Anevia speaks up after a moment, looking over Hadwisa to Brigadyr. "I could stick with Aravashniel, if it's too menial of a task for the great Horgus," she says, the latter half soaked in audible sarcasm that earns a dark look from the man in question.

The elf in question is quiet, after having given Brigadyr a word and nod of thanks as she gave him the makeshift walking stick with which he now, slowly, comes to his feet, one hand on the wall behind him until he's standing.

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr smiles widely at Horgus Gwern. "What a fascinating tale, my friend! Unfortunately, your gold will do you no good here, and neither will your pride. So, leave the latter behind, and help those who need helping." She pats him on the back. "And if your arrogance starts to endanger anyone else in my charge, well..." She spreads her hands magnanimously. "It doesn't do to dwell on what won't happen, does it? Good man." She gives him a friendly boop on the nose and turns to Anevia. "Thank you, Anevia. Now, Aravash, what is your plan and how can we make it happen?"

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"You are most certainly NOT sticking with Aravashniel, thank you very much.
What we are going to do is make some sort of sled or travois with hopefully some more of those torches and with somebody's cloak and you are going to sit on that and try not to put any weight on your leg. Aravashniel can walk behind you while you give him directions.
And the great Horgus Worm is going to drag you with him.
Right? That's settled than." She says quickly, not giving the man a chance to object.
"Brigadyr, got any more of those torches? If nobody has a cloak i'll make straps out of my clothes, they're sturdy enough i think."

She'll also go over to Horgus. "Alright, where are you injured? And let's chat while i'm checking your injuries. What kind of noble are you and why are you referring to that guy as a conspiracy theorist?"

Heh, Horgus Worm. I'm bloody funny! She thinks to herself.

Heal to see what's wrong with him (if anything) ]roll]1d20+5[/roll]
Edit: Again with the terrible typing for my rolls! Sorry, rolling again in OOC.

[Hazuki]

"Eight torches. No need to strip - you can just unwrap the cloth on their heads." Brigadyr answers Hadwisa.

[PersonMan]

"I should be fine if I have a crutch for it," Anevia replies, pulling an adequately-long piece of wood with a splintered bottom out from under a few small pieces of broken stone. "Really, it won't be that bad."

"Horgus Worm?!" The noble sputters, turning away from Brigadyr just before she prods his nose, inciting a wordless cry of mixed anger and shock. He seems ready to burst into an angry tirade when Hadwisa asks him about his injuries, and he grumbles quietly. "Cuts, many of them," he says, indicating his arms which both have a number of scrapes. All are the sort of wound that is painful, bothersome, often annoyingly slow to fully heal, but harmless unless they grow infected. "Of what sort? Well, of the most honorable and talented! My fortune is one gained with wise business, not simply having peasants paw at great inherited estates," he says, puffing up slightly. "And this man," Horgus points an accusing finger at the now-standing elf. "Accused me of collusion with demonic forces! As part of some nonexistent conspiracy against the city. Obviously, this ridiculous idea was struck down before long. He's apologized and paid restitution after evidence of my innocence was confirmed, but I'll need more than that before I trust someone so prone to frankly ludicrous flights of fancy about others."

Aravashniel is silent as Horgus speaks, and seems eager to turn towards where Brigadyr's voice comes. "Well, you did pre-empt some of what I'd been ready to say. The most martially talented of our group should scout the way forwards, while the rest of us stay a bit further back, where it's secure. Once we know what's ahead, we can make a plan to deal with it - it's important that we consult the group first, and don't rush in blindly," he says, though it's clear that 'the group' means 'me'.

Up on a ledge, perhaps fifteen feet up, are two faint auras.

[BelGareth]

Completely ambivalent to what the rest of the group is doing, she scans the direct cavern even further, seeing some faint aura's up on a ledge to the right tunnel. "I found something down here, let me take a look, some one care to keep an eye out?" she says, before moving in, slowly and carefully.

She inspects the ground for tracks of recent travelers through, before taking her time to climb to inspect the aura's with more attention.


[roll0] to find recent tracks in the tunnel
Take 20 on climb -3 for a 17 total

[TheFederalist]

Funnily enough, Diana realized that the wurm-parasite that had its blood and guts now splattered over the blade end of her glaive were the first real threats she had engaged and taken down in her life. Running from demons and crawling through city gutters was certainly not any form of glorious combat, and while educating, neither were the many training fights she had taken part in against other Crusaders. With a tiny huff of air out of her nose, she jerked her glaive towards the ground, forcing the blood on it right off.

She'd hoped that the first drops of blood that her weapon would have tasted would have been Demon blood, and it was certainly infuriating to an extent, but a sigh allowed her to internalize her annoyance and move on. Lifting her shield from the ground, she looked over to the others with a confident nod, her eyebrows rising to an almost comedic height.

Her weapon-hand fell a bit, pointing to the ground instead of in a battle ready position, and she moved forwards towards the exit of the cave, waiting for the others to be finished with their duties and be ready to proceed. Her human eyes could not pierce the dark, but she found no harm in waiting for anything to come down the path.

She did break her silence, however, snickering as quietly as she could when she heard the pompous noble being put in his place by Hadwisa, but continuing her vigil towards the dark, hiding her smile from the noble and hoping that she hadn't been heard. Her fight was not with another crusader, no matter how absurd they acted.

Once they began to move, and Church had begun her scouting into the dark, she looked to the back, unnerved by her own inability to pierce through the darkness that wasn't lit up by the magic that surrounded her.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Self-made man? Alright, i can respect an intelligent businessman." She says to Horgus. "And you said that he apologized to you before. So if you could show some respect to a man that is strong enough to admit he was in the wrong, we will be better off as a group. And we may just find our way out of here.
And as to your wounds: they seem very painfull but luckily none of them will be crippling unless they get infected. I'm going to leave them as they are so we can save our limited resources, but talk to me if you believe your wounds are getting infected."

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr keeps one eye on the activities of Church and co., but makes sure to stay nearby Hadwisa, the elf, and the ignoble.

"I'm handy with more weapons than I can count, but I'm no good for scouting." Brigadyr raps on her full plate. "It looks like Keira and company are scouting already, so problem solved!"

[Segrain]

"...we are?.."

Mumbling something under her breath in confusion, Keira glanced around. While she was contemplating the strange land where wyrms protected cities from demons (quite poorly, it seemed), spiders grew as big as horses (only to be eaten by even weirder maggots) and noblemen bragged about some business of wisdom that could bring fortune (how could falling into this cavern be considered fortunate in any sense?)... Shaking her head, she tried to concentrate. While she was distracted thinking about all sorts of things that others took for granted, those others apparently arranged some transportation for injured and some scouting for the path out. And, unless she misheard it, she was assumed to be along the scouting party. Not entirely unexpected, considering what little prior experience with southerners she had; but even though she was a Kellid, last time she was at least asked whether she could show the shortest way... Still, nothing good could come out of arguing.

Sighing, she returned to her pack and hove it up, once more taking its weight onto her shoulders. Hardly appropriate burden for a scout, but tarrying in this place any longer did not achieve anything, and returning later to pick it up could only delay them even more. With her belongings on her back and her spear in her hands, she had no more excuse to hesitate - except maybe one. "Did somebody mention torches?.." - she looked around the cave, but saw no fires lit yet, the only lights coming from the sparks that she herself called into being and from some pebble that she noticed first thing after opening her eyes. Still, anyone who carried torches obviously had to have some mean of igniting them. - "If you have plenty fires for all, I trust this is not needed then." Not waiting for any answer, Keira turned away and went after the woman whose name she still did not know, four lights falling from their fixed places above and following her into the tunnel. "What is it that you found?" - she asked, her own eyes not even truly needing any illumination as she obediently took watch, looking further into the continuing cave.

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr dutifully lights one of her torches and hands it to the stubborn Anevia.

[PersonMan]

You find no tracks, and the way up proves just too difficult for you to climb - you almost make it far enough up, and can see that the auras are coming from inside what seems to be a backpack, but aren't able to get into a position to grab it. Your armor's just a bit too restrictive, and keeps you from getting to a handhold you'd need to get that last bit of height.

"I'd be more inclined to believe the 'strong enough to admit he was wrong' argument if he hadn't been forced to, by evidence and legal action!" Horgus replies, before sighing. "I'll keep an eye on them, then. Let's just get going, I don't have all day," he says, as Anevia stands, shifting on her good leg and crutch for a moment. She looks up and nods, seeming free of pain with the splint and crutch to keep her leg safe from further injury. Horgus is eager to move, it seems, heading up to where Church is just coming down from her last attempt to climb the wall of the cavern. Aravashniel barely notices his passing, and seems to shift aimlessly for a moment before Anevia steps over to him.

"I doubt it will be easy to restore, but - Hadwisa, could you examine my wounds?" The elf asks, giving a silent nod to Anevia as she guides him towards the healer. "Have they found anything so far?" He continues, turning towards where Brigadyr was when she spoke.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Absolutely, let's take a look at you." She says and starts to examine him. "Don't know if they found anything yet, i'm sure they'll let us know if they do.
Do you two have any special skills that might be useful here? Magic or navigation perhaps? Or got any items on you that might help up here? Anything that can help is more than welcome and Anevia you shouldn't carrying too much with you anyway."

Alright, let's see if i can finally get a heal check right on the first try: [roll0]
Edit: Finally....

[Hazuki]

As the rest of the group has something to do, Brigadyr takes a moment to examine some of the arms sticking out of the rubble. She doubts she'll find anything helpful, but if somebody might be alive, or somebody does happen to have a map of the underground cave system beneath Kenabres, it's worth trying.

[BelGareth]

"Damn" Church mutters as she is unable to make it up to the ledger.

She climbs back down, taking her time. looking around at everyone "Found a backup up there, it has some magical aura's but I can't make it, anything will help us down here, so, who can climb well?" she asks.

"Oh, and I checked for recent activity, there has been none....on the floor at least, I'll check the other tunnel while someone climbs?"


[roll0] with scent

[TheFederalist]

As soon as Church climbed back down, Diana made her way forward to the ledge, now being able to see better with the torchlight from the back. Confident in her ability to climb, she slowly let her tower shield onto the ground, and began to strip her armor. She would be able to retrieve it later, hopefully, and while it was worrisome to be without armor in a place such as this, she would be able to attach a rope from her kit to help the others come up as soon as possible. Something was up there, but she would keep her blade with her, and hope for the best. "Let me proceed, and do guard my armor. I will find out what is up there, and if I can, put down my rope to pull you folk up."

Then, with her armor dismantled and neatly placed on the ground next to her shield, the now clad in white cloth woman grabbed ahold of the ledge. With a tiny grunt and a heft, she began to attempt a climb, taking her time to find each and every foothold.



Take 20, with compartmentalized aid another for a total of 26.

[PersonMan]

The elf's face is covered in fresh burns, and his eyes seem to be far beyond the point of no return. Without magical restoration, he won't be able to see ever again. Even without, he's clearly taken quite a blow, bruising visible where his flesh isn't too burned for it to cover the discoloration. For the time being, you can bandage the burns and ensure that things don't get worse, but that's about all mundane healing can do for him in the short term.

Your search proves surprisingly fruitful - while the limbs themselves aren't of use, and none clutch something of value, you uncover several glittering silver scales while going over them, each having been barely covered by some bit of rubble or a crushed limb and remaining unseen before.

Touching the scales brings a flash of insight into the powers contained within, as well as a brief surge of emotion; a sadness tempered by determination, and glimmering hope.

Cloudwalking: Three times per day as a standard action, this scale can be used to cast Levitate. A pillar of roiling clouds rises below the levitating object or creature, growing and shrinking with the target’s altitude. This pillar is 5 feet in diameter (regardless of the target’s size) and provides concealment (20% miss chance) to any creature or object wholly contained within.
Disguise: Three times per day as a standard action, this scale can be used to cast Alter Self. While disguised, the target gains a +4 bonus on all Bluff checks made against evil creatures.
Resistance: Three times per day as a standard action, this scale can be used to cast Resist Elements; but only against electricity or cold.
Sacred Weaponry: Three times per day as a standard action, this scale can be used to cast Align Weapon, but only to make a weapon Lawful or Good. Unlike a normal Align Weapon spell, this effect can be cast on an unarmed strike or natural weapon.
Bladed Grace: Three times per day as a standard action, this scale can be used to cast Grace; while under the effect, the user also gains a 5 foot bonus to their land speed.


Your search leads you to what looks like the remnants of an old campsite, though little remains now save for some charred bits of wood and enough marks on the ground to let you know someone was here.

Coming up to the ledge, you find it too small to bring someone else up. Or bring yourself up, really - it's large enough to be an uncomfortable seat, at best, though at present it's home to a well-made backpack that sits amidst small rocks and similar debris, likely from a rift that opened in the ground and ended up dumping this here.

"I've got two things of alchemist's fire..." Anevia says, and sighs. "Which I'm lucky didn't hit anything hard enough to break, on the way down. Apart from that, there are a couple - literally - of smokesticks."

Aravashniel is quiet as Hadwisa tends to his burns, though his gritted teeth show that it's not due to a lack of feeling in his face. "I have...numerous spells. I am a conjurer of some caliber, trained in Kyonin." The elf begins to describe the arcane tools at his disposal, more than a hint of pride in his voice.



So, I have no idea how to organically work a listing of spells into dialogue that doesn't look terrible.

So, here's this instead.

Arvie's Prepared Spells:
0th - Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Flare
1st - Mage Armor, Shield, Sleep, Summon Monster I, True Strike
2nd - Acid Arrow, Levitate, Resist Energy, Summon Monster II
3rd - Heroism, Magic Circle Against Evil, Summon Monster III

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa cringes a bit when Aravashniel starts listing the magic he can do, luckily he can't see that. From what she knows about wizards he wont be able to cast any more spells after today.
"Aravashniel, i think i'm going to have to give you some bad news. I can't salvage your eyes, there's too much damage to them and the burning only made things worse. I'll bandage the wounds for you, but that's all i can do. If you want i can give you some magical healing, but it will not do anything for your eyes.
And..............well you're blind now so you will not be able to read anymore. What does this mean for your magical abilities?
Once we're out of these caves we might be able to get you some divine help for you eyes, but i'm not sure what they'll be able to do for you. Or in what state the city is going to be once we're clear of the caves.
I'm sorry i have to give you all that bad news at one time, but i prefer not to lie to my patients. And i promise to help you any way i can to get you the use of your eyes again. But that will only be once we're out of the caves.

Anevia, would you mind sharing the alchemist's fire and smokesticks with the rest of us? I'm not sure how good you'll be able to throw them with one broken leg and who knows what else we're going to encounter down here.

It might even be a good idea to................Oh crap. Oh crap, crap, crap." Hadwisa suddenly realises she completely forgot about her own familiar while tending to the wounds of the others.
"Dolmen? Dolmen, where are you? DOLMEN! Get here you stupid raven, caves aren't your natural habitat!"

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr has learned many things throughout her time fighting Demons, and one of them is that you should never trust anything that's been near Demons. But, seeing as she's already touched the scales, she puts them into a small pouch on her belt and approaches the rest of the group. She waits for a lull in the conversation before speaking.

"Good news, everyone! I've found some magic scales, and they told me what they can do. But I think we should examine them before trying to use 'em."

[Segrain]

"Proceed", - Keira nodded both to the half-orcish woman and to Diana as they announced their intentions. - "I shall keep watch." Leaning onto her spear next to the growing arrangement of removed armour on the cave floor, she curiously watched as Diana slowly made her progress through various arrangements that held her metal garb together. Surely, it had to be quite useful in battle, but by the time it took her to remove it somebody else probably could already get to that backpack... Still, there was no need to argue and little use to make haste. While the other woman was scouting ahead and somebody else was tending to the crippled, they could take time retrieving something that could be useful.

Just as she promised, once Diana moved to start actually climbing, the Kellid kept her eyes on the suit of armour and their surroundings, not letting go of her spear for a single second. Quietly, almost in whisper, murmuring something less like an idle tune and more like a chant, she from time to time sent a glance to the climber - and, guided that glance, one of the lights still circling over her head kept following Diana, giving her plenty of light to find purchase on the wall and her target on the ledge. And meanwhile, somebody else caught up to them. "And... what did they tell you?.." - Keira asked, turning to look at Brigadyr for a moment and then once more eyeing their surroundings for any sights of danger.

[Hazuki]

"Slipping the surly bonds of Golarion, bearing a new face, bolstering against the winter's chill or Summer's storms, turning one's blade to righteousness, and...dodging good." Brigadyr explains to Diana.

[TheFederalist]

After a few minutes of climbing, Diana had finally reached what seemed to be the summit. Taking two stiff footholds, she grabbed a hold of the ledge with both hands, and pulled herself up, dragging her leg to the ledge to give herself more collateral. Once she had found at herself on top, she realized that she had greatly overestimated the width of the ledge, though it may have been more obvious to the... other one. She leaned down, grabbed the backpack, and lay to the floor, with her hand letting the backpack down, calling out "Here, take it with care. I dare not risk climbing down with it, for fear of dropping it. It looks altogether too well made..."


Once someone takes it, climb down with the exact same routine as climbing up

[BelGareth]

Church comes back to the central chamber, "Found an old campsite, someone was down her, but I can't tell how long ago."

She reaches for the scales, but pulls back, as if thinking better of it. "How strange. Do you think..." she looks up, to where the image of the great Wyrm battling the demon had stuck itself into her memory, just above where they were now. She gently shakes herself from her sudden reverie, turning, she smiles. "You got it! Whats inside?" instinctively, she waves her hand and her eyes light up blue again as she uses her magic to detect what was inside the bag.

While she looks, she mumbles "We should probably get going, no telling how long that cave in will last, and we don't want to be here when it doesn't."

[PersonMan]

"Irrelevant for the time being," Aravashniel says, waving a hand with visible caution - he seems attached to the gesture, but also wants to avoid accidental collision with the one bandaging his wounds. "I'm sure it will be easy to find a solution once we're back at the surface."

Anevia nods, somewhat awkwardly shifting to the side, revealing a pack at her side. "They're in here," she says, opening the pack with her free hand but not able to easily reach inside without putting weight on her broken leg.

The backpack, despite its obviously skilled make, bears the mark of the Mendevian Crusades on its buckles. Inside are several packs of trail rations (10 days' worth in total), a set of flint and steel, two flasks of oil, a bundle of 12 arrows, a set of caltrops and two potions. Each glows under Church's vision, bearing faint auras she can't identify exactly.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

That man thinks it's going to be easy finding a solution for his eyes in a city recently attacked by demons? Clearly he's still in denial.
"I'll take them out of your pack Anevia, please don't put weight on your leg" She says and takes the alchemist's fire and smokesticks.
"I think i've done all i can do for you Aravashniel. We should probably try catching up with the others. Slow and steady at first and once things start going smoother we can try to go faster."

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr takes a moment to focus on the items in the backpack, the backpack, and the scales she'd collected. It wouldn't do to fall for a Demon's ticks.

All up in this business.

[PersonMan]

None of it's Evil.

"Slow and steady? Hmph! It's my eyes that were burned, not my legs!" Aravashniel says, and Anevia chuckles before moving forwards, leading towards where the others are at a good pace for someone in her condition - which is to say, at half the speed of the others.

A few moments after Hadwisa and her patients get moving, a loud sound comes from above, followed by the flapping of wings. A dust-covered raven comes into the light, seeming quite agitated, though it does nothing more threatening than bringing a cloud of dust onto Hadwisa as it lands.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Ah good, there you are. Did..... did you dig your way down here or something?
Wait, don't tell me now. You can talk all about it later, but right now we're trying to find a way out."

[BelGareth]

Church smiles at the contents, things were looking up, anything down here was a good thing, and finding this kind of gear means this place may have been used before, by someone who was in a similar situation.

Well, not similar, but similar in location.

"Alright, I'll scout ahead, Keira, can you back me up? Those of you following us, don't bring the light to close to us, it will ruin our vision."

Once Keira (if?) accepts, she nods to her and sets off, taking her time, and looking for tracks as she goes, sniffing the air, here and there.


She'll move through the top tunnel, and scout into the next cave, taking her time, and being careful.
[roll0]

[TheFederalist]

Once the others had taken the bag, Diana began the long climb down, jumping off once she had reached a height where she could safely do so. Once on the ground, she took a glance at the bag and its contents as the others looked through, before returning to her armor to begin another arduous process of wearing it once again. Indeed, the time it took was annoying and quite frankly, a waste of time, but it was well required for her to have the patience to do so. Trust in Iomedae, one other crusader had told her, but also trust in steel, and she took it to heart.

"Seems odd that all this is down here, and you said there was also a campsite her? I would question how or why once we reach the surface... depending on how greatly our attention is needed elsewhere." She said, strapping her shinplate together, and only suddenly remembering that above them, their stronghold burned.

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr lets the scouts do their job of scouting, but stays relatively close behind with her polearm at the ready. One never knew when giant flesh-eating maggots were going to show up.

[PersonMan]

The way forwards is relatively easy; despite the frequent evidence of the recent quakes, the ground is mostly flat, with the few piles of rubble easy to avoid. Aravashniel and Anevia move slowly, keeping the group from progressing as quickly as they otherwise could, but progress is consistent. The cavern grows smaller quickly, eventually leaving the group in a cave passage that rarely leaves room for more than one or two people moving shoulder-to-shoulder. It never grows too tight to comfortable move through, however, and the stone below sports occasional signs of clearing, the remnants of stalagmites long since removed jutting up half a foot from the ground. Silence and darkness dominate the tunnels, the party's magical light the only bright thing in the caves. Eventually, the way forwards widens, the pathway turning into a round chamber dimly lit by some sort of green glow. The ground is covered in broken stone - but, rather than the normal brown-red stone of the caves, these are the broken-up remnants of a stone construction of some sort. They seem to have been in the caves for quite some time, as a layer of dust and fine bits of rock has gathered on them.

This section of the cave extends up a good distance, before eventually ending at a ceiling of smooth white stone which looks like the bottom of some sort of cylinder. Two paths lie ahead, one smaller, about five feet wide, seemingly cut into the stone, with a sickly green light, the source of the room's slight illumination, coming from somewhere further along it; the second is of the same sort you just came through, continuing forwards into the unlit dark ahead.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Well, there's light coming from there. Weird, creepy green light. But still, light.
The other tunnel is just more darkness and a source of light could be a way out or maybe other people. Or weird light giving fungus if i'm being pessimistic about it.
I think we should try to see what's there. Safely and cautiously."

[TheFederalist]

As the tunnels narrowed, one of the few sounds that seemed to come from the group were the scratches of armor against the slowly narrowing walls. To Diana, the idea arose that perhaps they would narrow to an end, and swallow them up, but she discarded the thought for more practical matters. Such as figuring out which path they would take at the new junction they'd come across. "Steel in hand or not, there is... little to like about the light. Caution is certainly the proper way to go."

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr, from her position a short ways back, stares at the scouts in the hopes that they'll get to scouting out the oddly-lit room.

[BelGareth]

Green light?

She paused. maybe it was some kind of fungus, or...church shook her head, she had no clue.

Frowning, she nodded and turned to the speakers, "Green light it is then" she said, almost whispering.

She crouches, and moves in a squat slow crawl, sniffing the air as she does.

[PersonMan]

The way into the carved path is easy, and the illumination grows as the group gets further along it. Eventually, the source of the glow is revealed; a well-made lantern hangs from the ceiling ahead, a sickly green flame floating within it, occasionally sputtering as if it had blown on by some unseen force, despite being encased fully by the lantern. The lantern hangs at the end of the tunnel, where it opens into a thirty foot high cave dominated by a single stone building. Without windows, and made from smooth stone, it has an unusual, almost fortress-like look to it; its facade is decorated solely by a 10 foot long carving of a hammer. To the left, a door made of stone offers the only visible entrance to the strange structure.

The symbol on the building is Torag's holy symbol; the dwarven god of creation and protection.

http://i.imgur.com/CnDa6cy.png

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"I really want to throw a stone at that lantern, it's creeping me out.
I wont though, random acts of vandalism usually don't go to well with the people owning the lantern. And yes, i am assuming somebody is here to keep that lantern lit. That damned creepy lantern.....
So, what's the hammer all about?"

[BelGareth]

So, uh guys...there is a building, like an actual building over here.

She gestures for everyone else to come in.

I recognize that as a symbol of Torag, protector of dwarfs. Should we see if anyone is inside?

[Hazuki]

"If there's a temple of Torag down here, and we never knew about it, either we're not meant to know about it or they're up to no good." Brigadyr points out. "But a knock on the door couldn't hurt." She adds, as she turns her gaze on the building.

ALL THE THINGS

[TheFederalist]

Diana's eyes floated towards the lantern, her eyes flowing with the moving flames, as the group moved in through the path, finding the building in the area. But as soon as Church raised her voice to say something, Diana's eyes broke from the flames, gazing around herself to truly assess her location. Tora-h-g.... Odd, but not entirely odd. We are underground, and I find non oddities in the hammer, if there were truly dwarves here either. We should check inside!" she said, moving towards the door with a certain degree of speed in her gait.

[BelGareth]

Church nods at the words, she agreed with most of it, but, mostly, she was caught up with the excitement of the adventure, and her cautious mind was on the back burner.

She knocked on the door to the building.

*knock knock*

[PersonMan]

No evil detected!

Church's knock sounds a bit odd, and confirms that the door is indeed made fully of stone, but doesn't evoke a response.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"You people are so indecisive. Do try to remember that there's a city above us currently being attacked by demons that we should probably try to get back to. So out of the way, i'm going in."
Hadwisa triest to open the door.

[PersonMan]

Hadwisa finds the door refusing to budge. At least, at first, until she applies her great strength mediocre muscle in a surprisingly effective way, opening the door to reveal the room beyond, which is dominated by a stone bench along the southern wall and, at the far side of the room, a basin of water sitting atop a stone pedestal. Another stone door, this one engraved with another hammer, sits to the north.

http://i.imgur.com/1ExwHeo.png

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa stumbles over the doorstep, she didn't expect to open the door so easily. She's probably stronger than she remembers, must be from holding down patients. She walks on a bit until she's close to the corner of the fountain and the bench.
"Alright. Good. It's open.
There's an antechamber here, a fountain and another door. Want me to open the next one?"

[BelGareth]

Church lets Hadwisa by, and is mildly surprised when she sees her open the door.

She steps through and shakes her head to the question, "Not yet, let me take a look first."

She intones a similar orison, and scans the interior for anything magical, while sniffing the air, and checking for anything else


Detect magic
[roll0]

[TheFederalist]

With shield raised high at this point, and glaive at her side, Diana entered the antechamber, cautiously waiting for her clearly more skilled in the arts of vision comrades to find any traps or things of the sort. Something was odd here, for she found the existence of this... chapel underground to be simple, but the lack of knowledge on it's existence to be indicative of something out of the ordinary. And as she had now figured, the best way to prepare for the extraordinary was with shield and steel.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Hey, what's the holdup back there? You people coming in or what?"

[PersonMan]

http://i.imgur.com/IxAdUtj.png

The next door opens easily, revealing a room thick with dust. The air is cool and stale; the room's floor is littered with smashed bits of stone, only two things standing out from the rubble that seems centered on the corners to the right and left of the entrance. The first is a raised stone pedestal of sorts, cracked but unbroken. The second is the forward-slumped figure of a dwarf, covered in a thick layer of dust and motionless.

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr adjusts her grip on her weapon and, as she is wont to do, makes sure nothing evil lingers in the room.

ALL THE THINGS.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Move along in front, don't let us wait out here. What's in there?"

[BelGareth]

Church moves in gingerly, her eyes a bright with the magical blue of her favorite orison. Carefully, she approaches the dwarf.

[PersonMan]

The room contains evil! Further examination shows that the source is the slumped-over dusty dwarf.

No magic detected.

The dwarf remains still, just as the rest of the room does, silent and unmoving as Church approaches, the group shifting further into the structure as Brigadyr comes forwards to scan the room.

[Hazuki]

"The beard bears ill intent." Brigadyr warns the group quietly, gesturing towards the stock-still dwarf with her polearm.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"The beard? I'm assuming you mean the whole damned dwarf and not just his beard alone.
Well, he's not moving. And if you say his beard is up to no good i'm not going to risk stepping closer to him.
So either somebody goes and poke with a stick or i throw a rock at him.
I vote for throwing a rock, i bet i can hit his beard."

[BelGareth]

Church was leaning over, squat in a pose that helped her look for tracks and the like, but then she heard the beard had evil intent?

What the frell does that even mean? Beards can't have intent.

She shook her head slightly at her own bemusement, and smiled slightly as she rose up, "It looks dead, but if it's evil....then perhaps it is just a ruse?" she asks the air, or anyone willing to listen to her. "I like the rock throwing idea, perhaps this is some evil thing waiting to lure us into false pretenses" she muses, again, out loud, to anyone who would hear her.

She readied her scimitar, it was already drawn, but she had seen different fighting styles utilize different poses and tried her best to emulate one of those.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Alright, let's see what it does to the beard." Hadwisa says and she aims a rock at the dwarf's beard.
If she misses she'll throw again.

Throwing a rock: [roll0]
In case Hadwisa misses: [roll1]
If there's no response coming from the dwarf she'll keep throwing until she hits it.

[PersonMan]

http://i.imgur.com/6ujn95Y.png

As Hadwisa throws a rock at the dwarf, striking the dust-covered beard easily, which drives a small cloud of gray particles out into the air. A moment later, the dwarf lurches onto its feet, jaw falling open and an unearthly, piercing shriek coming from within. With another shriek, this one fading into a few long, drawn-out syllables none of you are familiar with, it flails both arms at those around it, both times missing its intended victims, but revealing grotesque, sharp bones protruding from the ends of its fingers - easily enough to serve as weapons.

From outside, a few confused voices come, asking what's happened, if everyone is alright - and a moment later, Horgus' distinctive tone, asking if they were safe outside.

Combat begins! To keep things going, I rolled initiative for everyone.

Brigadyr: 19
Enemy: 17
Church: 13
Hadwisa: 11
Keira: 4
Diana: 1

The dice were not kind.

Party Initative: 48/5 = 9.6
Enemy Initiative: 17/1 = 17

The enemy's first turn is included in the above, so that means it's the party's turn to act now.

[BelGareth]

Church (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1152464)

Church spurs into action after the thing awakens, maybe it was mad we woke it up from its beauty sleep?

Or maybe, it didn't like stones.

What a weird dwarf this was, not liking stones.

She edged forward, trying to flank the thing, and give her allies the advantage, and then swung at it.


5ft step to C5

+2 if flanking
[roll0] (crit threat on 20-22)
[roll1]

AC: 18
HP's: 10/10
Effects: none

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa quietly takes a small step back and locks her eyes on the dwarf. She feels the familiar twitch in her left eye and lets her power flow free.

5-foot step to D2 and Evil Eye on the dwarf for -2 AC.

[Hazuki]

"To answer your earlier question," Brigadyr rests her Hammer against the door as she hefts her heavy flail and...flails it at the Dwarf. "I think it's the whole Dwarf."

Free Drop.

Move Draw.

Standard Attack.

[roll0]
[roll1]

Bludgeoning, Cold Iron.

[PersonMan]

http://i.imgur.com/GaYwqm0.png

It's dead. Again. For real?

The once-dwarf lets out a howl as Church strikes it, and seems to begin to turn to face her when its suddenly struck by a powerful flail-strike. As quickly as it lurched to (un?)life, it now collapses, not even releasing a death-cry as it simply falls to the floor, its flesh seeming to rot and shrivel with incredible speed, until a dessicated corpse in tattered scraps of cloth is all that remains.

[BelGareth]

Surprised by the sudden end of combat.

She stands, suddenly aware of her crouched stance, heart thumping in her chest. Standing, she looked around almost in dissapointment.

"well, that was quick." she said wryly.

She turns to the door and yells out loudly "all good in here, you can come in!"

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"You're complaining you've killed the thing too fast? You soldier types are weird.
I'm more interested in what this place is. It's probably old, at least that dwarf looked pretty old and who knows how long he's been here."
Hadwisa looks around and tries to see what this place is all about. And she'll take a look around to find anything interesting.

Knowledge history: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[PersonMan]

Your search reveals little among the shattered bits of stone strewn over the floor...at first.

In the corner of the room, beneath a few broken pieces of stone, lies a dust-covered but clearly well-made warhammer, itself decorated with small images of the same hammer that is present on the wall of the structure.

A muffled exchange comes from outside and, a moment later, Anevia enters with Aravashnial, Horgus close behind them.

"What happened?" The blind elf asks, as Anevia leads him through the entryway into the main room, almost stumbling over some of the stone littering the floor.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Some dwarf that seemed dead came to life and attacked us. Church and Brigadyr put him back to rest. My guess is that he was some sort of undead. A disgusting, unnatural undead.
Oh, and i've found some sort of hammer here. It's got the same drawings as this building. Does any of you recognize the image?"
Hadwisa tries to see if the hammer's magical.

Detect magic

[PersonMan]

The hammer is not magical.

"An undead?" Aravashnial says, with some small measure of shock. "These caverns are more dangerous than I realized. Be sure to sever its head, and bring the remains out of this place. Whatever caused it to animate may be tied to this structure somehow," he continues quickly, straightening somewhat, his tone growing a touch firmer. As he speaks, he gestures, presumably meaning to indicate the fallen beast, but instead pointing at a scuffed portion of the stone floor.

"The symbol of this place...I think it's Torag's," Anevia says slowly, her gaze moving off to the debris-covered floor rather than looking at anyone present, shoulders tensing slightly as her brows furrow.

Horgus doesn't seem to notice, looking around the room in visible distaste as he enters. "What a mess," he says, then stops to stare as his eyes go to the dwarf. He takes a step back. "It came to life?! You're sure it's dead now though, right? I think the elf has a point, cut its head off to be sure!"

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr scratches her head. "Well, the heart wants what the heart wants..." Then cuts off the dwarf's.

[BelGareth]

Church was about to cut the things head off, but, she just watch grimly as Brigadyr did so, and probably much more efficiently.

She nodded at the apparent wisdom, it seemed fair enough.

[PersonMan]

Aravashnial nods at the sound of the beheaded un-undead dwarf's body slumping back to the floor, then shifts his head from side to side, as if casting a look about the room. "Anything else here?" He asks. "Any ways beyond here, in the other area? We should keep moving," the elf continues, and Horgus nods, himself nudging a broken piece of stone away from him with one foot.

"He's right. My time is valuable, and wasting it in whatever place this is, is...not good," the nobleman says, turning back towards the way out, taking a step before stopping. "Er. Of course, someone more, ah, well-equipped, should go in front."

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"While i completely agree that we should probably hurry back to the surface, we may want to do something about the dwarf.
We probably shouldn't leave a dead and decapitated dwarf to rot in a temple of Torag. We're trying to get back up and do something in the fight going on there and insulting a god by leaving his temple a mess might be a bad idea.
We should at least drag the body out. Maybe burry it if we have the tools for it?"

[BelGareth]

Church nods in assent. "This is a good idea, " she thinks for a moment about Torags ceremonies, seeing if she recalls anything.

[roll0]

[PersonMan]

Torag has several burial rites; which is used is determined by the life of the one being buried, preferring to keep the body in some form of well-made coffin or tomb, whenever possible. However, it is acceptable to burn a corpse that cannot be properly put to rest, and the bones then interred when circumstances allow. These prescriptions are for the faithful; enemies deserve no such honor, their remains being disposed of in whatever manner is most practical. Often, this means unmarked graves.


"It's best to respect holy places, even if they're in a place like this," Anevia says, helping Aravashnial towards the door to be out of the way, as Horgus softly says something like "As long as it doesn't take too long..." and follows.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Alright, let's first get him outside." Hadwisa says. She walks over to the body, looks at him for a moment and then changes her mind. She picks up the head and starts to walk out of the building.
"I'll take this part."

[BelGareth]

Church nods absentmindedly.

"I'm not sure how to do this, I can recall how Torag followers do burial's, however, it depends on if the person was honorable or not...I would not like to offend a deity."

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr, as some of the group carries the corpse outside, remains in the room with their charges, just in case some other surprise emerges.

[PersonMan]

It takes some time, but eventually a compromise between practical and religious concerns is met; the dwarf's remains are placed in a cairn made of the broken stone that was scattered inside the structure, piled in a way to properly cover the corpse as best as possible with the limited materials. Anevia seems slightly distracted for some of the process, but eventually returns to more alert state, keeping watch on the entrance to the cave until the matter is complete, leaving only the question of what to do with the hammer Hadwisa found.

Once this matter is settled, the group reassembles its earlier formation, leaving the oddly-lit cave and heading forwards through the path not taken earlier, a natural-looking way through the stone that leaves room for nothing but single-file movement, lit by the magic at the group's disposal and nothing else. It's quite some time - nearly another hour - before the route changes meaningfully, opening up into a cavern of comfortable size - about forty feet wide, extending another 35 before it narrows to a single, small way further ahead. At the edge of the light, odd shapes stand out on the walls, appearing to be carvings when fully illuminated. They cover the walls; depictions of what seem to be armored humanoids, relatively crude holy symbols adorning them, each bearing an expression somewhere between sorrowful and resigned.

[BelGareth]

Church sees the odd carved figures and notes them to the group, but otherwise ignores them, they were carvings, did they need to check each and every small detail?

She thought not, and moved on.

[PersonMan]

Passing through the narrow way forwards, Church finds herself entering another, larger chamber. Up ahead, another natural tunnel seems to go forwards; but this cavern isn't as empty as the last. A bedroll, with a relatively neat but visibly well-used look, lies next to the remains of what once was some sort of campfire. Not far off, near the wall to the left of the way in, a dwarven body lies motionless on the ground, face down, a number of head-sized stones lying on the ground around it.

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr does as Brigadyr does, which is search for evil in these deeply foreboding halls.

[BelGareth]

Church frowns.

Another dwarf? she muses to herself.

She turns to the rest of the party and describes the scene. "WE HAVE ANOTHER DWARF!" surprising herself with her volume.

It definitely was strange.

She searches for tracks around the dwarf and its strange stones, sniffing the air for anything stranger still.


[roll0] + Scent.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Another dead dwarf.....
I'll do the same thing we did before." Hadwisa says and she picks up a stone to throw at the dwarf. She keeps throwing from a distance until she hits the body.

[PersonMan]

The cavern has a noticeable smell to it; the dwarf clearly stayed in here for quite a while.

There's nothing else of note - apart from, perhaps, the lack of any scent of decay that would indicate the dwarf to be dead for an extended period.

No evil here.

Hadwisa's rocks hit their mark, but the dwarf remains unmoving.

[BelGareth]

Church frowns....she seemed to be doing that a lot recently.

"This dwarf...I think this dwarf is freshly dead....or even perhaps not?" she asks the last part as a question, the cavern stunk of the dwarf, must have been here for a while "I can't smell any decay here."

Looking at the dwarf, to decide if it was faking it, she decides and then if happy she will move forward and then attempt to heal the dwarf.


Cast guidance before both checks
[roll0] to see if he is faking

Then if she thinks he isn't she goes to try to help him with her healing kit.
[roll1]

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Hmmph, looks pretty dead to me.
If he's dead we should at the very least take his bedroll with us. Don't know how long we'll be down here, we might need the thing."
Hadwisa nudges the dwarf with her foot, just to be sure.

[PersonMan]

For a moment, Church is convinced that she sees the dwarf move - a slight shift, an intake of breath...proof that he's alive. But, as she comes closer, the illusion fades - he lacks a pulse, and after a moment's thought the half-orc woman comes to the conclusion that he probably isn't actually living after all. This inspection also reveals that the dwarf was fairly well-equipped, with a crossbow, various pouches and similar strapped to his person.

[BelGareth]

Church regards the dwarf and then turns to the others.

"Well, he's definitely dead. Though what killed him, I am unsure."

She then takes the crossbow, and bolts from the dwarf, riffling through anything else he might have.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Take everything he has. It's probably disrespectfull, but in the face of a demonic invasion going on i think we'll be forgiven.
And what's with those dwarves down here? I haven't even heard rumours about tunnels down here, if there's people here there should at least be rumours going around. People talk."

[BelGareth]

She nods as she casts detect magic on the items and the stones around the dwarf.

[PersonMan]

Church's search finds that the dwarf's cloak, while fairly dirty and with clear signs of a lack of proper mending, holds a faint magical aura. Further 'digging' reveals two sturdy metal vials, stoppered and with their own faint magical auras, as well as half a dozen opened, empty ones without signs of magic. Other pouches contain scrolls, in somewhat tattered condition and covered with illegible scribblings that, in two cases, have magical auras. His other possessions of note are a single dagger and a small pouch of jangling coins; eight platinum pieces, slightly bent (likely by past recipients testing their legitimacy) and seven gold.

The dwarf's ranged weapon has the build and weight of a light crossbow, with ten bolts in his possession (not counting two which are broken, in another pouch).

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr idly taps her foot against the ground, and keeps an eye on the inactive members of the group.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa eagerly awaits the results of the search Church is doing. Hopefully there's something to help them get out of these caves.
She quietly walks over to Horgus.
"So uum. I'd just like to say that.... Well the thing is...... I was probably a bit unfriendly to you back in the first cave. Maybe it's the shock about what happened. Or i'm just not that good with people.....I'm probably not very good at first impressions.
What i'm trying to say with this rambling is that i'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you Horgus Worm."

[PersonMan]

Horgus seems a bit confused as Hadwisa begins to speak, his expression betraying a hint of annoyance before it becomes clear, and he almost smiles. Almost; he quickly hides it and looks to his nails, picking at them as if he hadn't been cleaning them the entire time the group had spent searching the dwarf.

"Hmm, well, it was quite rude of you," he says. "...But. Most people are too stubborn to realize when they've made a mistake. I accept your apology," Horgus continues, looking back to Hadwisa with a slow nod.

Meanwhile, Anevia and Aravashniel have maneuvered to the side of the cave, where the former leans against the wall. "Any food?" She asks. "If this was some kind of hide out, it'd probably have food in it somewhere."

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa slaps Horgus on the shoulder and smiles at him. "That settles it then!"
Then she doesn't really know what to say anymore, awkwardly smiles again and takes a few steps towards Church hoping she doesn't make this more weird than it already is. "Some food would be wonderfull indeed. Found any food, Church?"

[BelGareth]

She shakes her head, detailing what she found on the dwarf, and pocketing the light crossbow and bolts for herself as she does. "No food, but I only searched him, she's correct though, maybe we should search this chamber"

She then moves about, carefully searching the whole chamber but pauses "We found some trail rations earlier however, are you hungry?"


taking 20 on perception for 27

[PersonMan]

Church's search reveals a small pack nestled away within the bedroll. Inside is a small statuette depicting a humanoid in the process of throwing a spear, along with several days' worth of dried meat, cheese and preserved fruit. Underneath the pack is a book, thick but not in terribly good condition, and lacking any outward indication of its contents. Further examination reveals it to be filled with page upon page of scribbled notation, though the letters and words resemble a mix between gibberish and sketches, of which there are also several, generally at the end of a few pages, all depicting a surprisingly well-drawn pair of hands, with wavy lines surrounding the exquisitely detailed fingers.

[BelGareth]

"AH HA!" she yells as she finds the food "You were RIGHT!" she beams with pride, "I found er,, some other stuff, " waiving the book with weird scribbles "Anyone able to understand that?"

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr does as Brigadyr does, which may seem like posing for an imaginary painter, but definitely isn't.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Let me see all that stuff." Hadwisa says and starts sifting through the items. She also takes a look at the book.


Spellcraftting:
- magical cloak [roll0]
- potion #1 [roll1]
- potion #2 [roll2]
- potion #3 [roll3]
- potion #4 [roll4]
- scroll #1 [roll5]
- scroll #1 [roll6]

Also Hadwisa knows Draconic, Abyssal, Celestial, Infernal and Sylvan in case the book is in one of those languages.
If not, maybe knowledge history? [roll7]

[PersonMan]

Cloak: Unknown
Potion 1: Cure Light Wounds
Potion 2: Lesser Restoration
Potion 3: Unknown
Potion 4: Invisibility
Scroll 1: Unknown
Scroll 2: Unknown

The book isn't in any of the languages Hadwisa knows, but examining the book reveals that it isn't written in normal text. It's a spellbook, with some notes interspersed between the arcane notations and spell instructions.

"Once we return to the surface, and my eyes are restored, I can identify any items that we are presently unsure of the function of," Aravashniel says as Hadwisa examines the potions, speaking in her direction. Anevia eyes the way forwards warily, frowning.

"We may need to be careful going on. What if this dwarf was driven down here by something up ahead?" She considers.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Let's see here. Don't know what that is. Or that. This is a....wait no it isn't, i don't know what that is. And this cloak i don't know either.
This is a healing potion. Invisibility potion. And lesser restoration.
And the book is a spellbook i think? Not really sure though, i've never felt the need to write anything down about how i do things."

[BelGareth]

Church stands up once shes done with her new crossbow, hooking onto her back, and stowing the bolts appropriately, she looked a little more like Brigadyr and her armory of weapons hanging of her, but not quite.

She waved her hand towards Aravasniel, "You make a good point, this dwarf was not long dead." she sniffed the air "Smelled a little fresh to me."

She stalks the opening to the chamber, sniffing the air, and checking for tracks.


Mostly in the exit, so it shouldn't have been disturbed by our search
[roll0]

[PersonMan]

The way to the exit bears the look of a well-traveled section of ground, though Church can't tell if it's been recently moved over or not - the mostly sandy ground of the room turns rocky as she approaches the exit, which itself seems to go no more than five or six feet before terminating in a wall bearing dozens of notches and small outcroppings; the way out seems to be going up, rather than simply further along.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

Hadwisa looks down on the dead dwarf one last time. "It's probably too late already, but may the Lady of Graves guide you to a wonderfull afterlife mate."
She then follows Church to what is hopefully a way out of here.

[PersonMan]

The way up proves an interesting mix of difficulty; the able-boded of the party find no difficulty climbing up, as the handholds and small outcroppings provide ample support. The top opens into a slim cavern; perhaps seven feet across, and not more than six high, providing a way forwards that bears no immediate danger. Despite numerous complaints, Horgus manages to go up without an issue as well.

The problems begin with Aravashniel and Anevia. The former's way up is fairly slow, as he resorts to sliding his hands along the stone to find the next handhold, though he eventually consents to being hauled up as soon as those already at the top can reach his hands - after restating the idea in a much more complex fashion after it's first brought up. Anevia comes up even more slowly; she's fit enough to go up with two hands and a foot, but having to effectively scale the quasi-ladder sideways to keep her leg from dragging or bumping into the rock means she takes a great deal longer than even the blind elf, passing her makeshift crutch up before she begins the climb.

Eventually, all reach the top, and the way forwards is clear. After a brief shuffling around to return to the earlier marching order, the group moves on, though it's not long before they find a change in scenery. The thin tunnel opens into a larger chamber, one where several tunnels seem to converge, almost pillarlike rock formations holding up the cavern's cracked roof - most notably, a single large rift sits over one of the exits, a few streams of pebbles and dust still occasionally falling from it.

Unlike the other caverns, it has visible signs of 'advanced' sentient habitation. A tower, squat and seemingly built from one of the stone pillars extending from the floor to the ceiling, guards the right side of one of the ways forwards. Another, on the left of the same tunnel, seems to have been unable to withstand the earlier tremors, and has fallen, partially collapsing but leaving a portion of its top resting atop a pile of rubble.

A rubble around which two humanoids crouch, scrabbling away at the rubble around the remaining segment of the tower and occasionally speaking at it, though their words are too quiet to make out.

The day was bright, the sun shining warmly, the festival to begin shortly, when it happened.

In moments, your world turned into a chaotic scramble to survive, as the sky turns black with smoke, the earth quakes and the ground tears itself asunder. After two narrow escapes, one of which involved you managing to pull a boy out of the same hole you nearly fell into, your luck runs out. As you lean against a merchant's cart to catch your breath for a moment, a few moments after watching a large statue of Iomedae fall to the earth, and the great defender of Kenabres is brought down by the Storm King. Just after he brings his weapon down on the dragon, partially obscured from view by the now-burning wooden seats now sagging over a rift in the courtyard, the cart gives way.

It's a confusing, bruising way down - all you know for sure is that you fell into a rift with the cart, which is ground apart by the stone on either side but luckily keeps you from falling too quickly, or from being scraped into paste by the stone. Of course, your landing is anything but gentle - the wood around you finally gives way, splintering and leaving you falling through a...cavern of some sorts, faintly lit, but gone in an instant, dominated by the sound of falling stone and screams, for the few moments you spend in it.

You land on something soft, which gives way instantly, and then you slam into stone, worked this time, and come to a stop just in time to see a few remnants of the cart rain down on you, followed closely by a large rock which is thankfully stopped by the broken-open wall of whatever structure you fell into.

Since then, you've spent an amount of time (you're really not sure how long it's been, but it can't have been more than an hour, maybe two) orienting yourself and then trying to get out. You landed in some kind of building, but on its side, and had to dig through an excessive amount of broken stone to leave the small portion of a stairwell you first landed in. Now, just as you break through, you begin to hear voices, from ahead - muffled, barely audible, but definitely speaking some kind of language.

Finally, you come into the next room; it seems to have been some kind of armory, judging by the handful of simple-looking weapons strewn about the former wall (now the floor, and doing a quite good job of adapting to its new role). The way forwards seems to be a stone door, perhaps a few feet above the floor, which muffles a voice likely directly on the other side.

[grifter730]

Cormac: (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1233884)

Cormac couldn't believe his eyes. After nearly falling into opening rifts as if paths to the Abyss itself was being carved, he nearly wished he had taken that path rather than live through what he witnessed: a massive demon had brought its weapon down on a majestic dragon protecting the city. He nearly wished he was back in the Abyss rather than witnessing that, but then his senses came back, and who in their right mind would ever want to go back to the Abyss? Forget that dragon, tough luck for him. Or her. He was making a self-satisfied grunt while lighting up a rolled tobacco when the cart he was leaning on gave way, and it seemed he was going on that trip to the Abyss after all. What a spiteful $#*^ of a dragon! Cormac had just enough time to think to himself.

The way down was bumpy, but Cormac knew from experience this wasn't nearly the worst of it. The very thought of being back in the Abyss terrified him, and he was surprised to find that it was a simple natural fall, and he did not in fact fall to the Abyss. He hoped so anyway.

The first thing Cormac did, before he even lifted his head, was to put the rolled tobacco that he was still clutching onto his lips. A deep inhale gave him self-satisfaction. That done, he lifted his head to look around. It was dark, of course. Using magical light spell on various debris about the area lit up the room, and Cormac took his time to check for wounds and get his bearing. He was inside of a building that had fallen along with him, that much seemed certain, given that it was on its side. Seems as if there were no openings other than a stairway that was, of course, covered by excessive amount of stones. After what seemed like forever, he finally dug through and found another room, only to hear muffled voices. His heart began racing again as his mind tried to catch up and determine whether he's hearing abyssal, or even infernal languages.

He was still listening to the muffled voices, having a hard time discerning the mumbles, as he examined the new room. Seemed to be an armory of sorts. Cormac was quite happy with the spear he carried, but he wasn't about to turn down potential free items, especially weapons that demons may be weak against.


Perception (listen to the voices): [roll0]
Perception (looking for weapons): [roll1]

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr slams her weapon twice on the ground to help get the attention of the scrabbling humanoids. "Hello! What's the happy-haps?"
She bellows.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"People! I hope they know a way out. Unless they're part of the demon attack. Or maybe they live down here and want to eat us. Hmm, i hope they're not hostile. Are you sure we should draw their attention like that?
They're a step up from dead dwarves, but we should probably still be carefull about this."

[PersonMan]

The instant Brigadyr calls out, both figures flinch, dropping away from the spot they were working at and moving into defensive postures, though they don't ready weapons or take similar action. One of them turns to the other and gestures, before approaching the group. At a distance, it becomes clear this one is a bit odd, with a curved ram's horn sticking out from his right temple. He doesn't seem armed at all, and holds his arms out so you can see he's holding nothing. As he comes closer, the group can see that the left half of his face is covered in scales, his left eye reptilian in form and entirely different from the more normal-looking right eye, though he does bear what looks something like a goat's ear rather than a human one on that side. He looks over the group slowly, before extending a hand with unusually large fingers, tipped with claws.

"A good day to you all, my name is Lann; I would ask of your intentions, and that if they are ill, you move on and leave us in peace. But, perhaps, if your hearts are light, you may see it in them to aid us, as we are currently in a difficult situation," he says, flowery speech in stark contrast to the unusual accent he has.

Listening closely, you hear words in Common, though it's unusually accented. One voice, giving what seem to be a mixture of instructions and constant commentary ("It's shifting...no, not there! Try lifting it on the left...no, wait, it's coming loose..."), with a much more muffled one replying with brief, mono-syllable words acknowledging the one inside.

Then, a faint sounding voice comes, and the other voices cease immediately.

"What was that? Is someone coming to help?" The inside voice asks.

"I'm not sure, I'll go see. Dyra, you stay with Crel," the muffled outside voice replies, before silence returns.

Inside the room, you find three rudimentary swords, all seeming quite battered, unusually short and thin, nicks in the blades, their handles black with layers of caked-in dirt.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa


Hadwisa accepts the hand of Lann. And then immediatly pulls it closer to her face.
"That is fascinating!" She grabs hime by the cheecks and pulls his face closer.
"Reptillian eye! He's got a reptillian eye! And that horn." She feels the area around his horn. "I think it's part of his skull.
Tell me, medical experiment or born this way? Or perhaps cosmetic changes.....Wait no, that's impossible with that horn as a part of your skull. Does it hinder you in any way? Is your vision different if you close one of your eyes? Do you need to keep your claws short like your fingernails on your other hand? Do you have anything else that's not visible? I mean, you don't need to show me i'm just interested.
This is great! Your build is obviously human, but you're different. You're wonderfully interesting!
Come one, don't be quiet. Tell me more."

Knowledge nature to see what he is: [roll0]
Heal because she's studying his body: [roll1]

[PersonMan]

Lann, seeming to focus his somewhat cautious gaze more on the armed members of the party, is visibly surprised as Hadwisa pulls him in. "I was born - what? No, it's just like - that's private, what - who are you?" He asks, the barrage of questions seeming to have knocked him off balance.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"I'm Hadwisa, a doctor. And you are interesting. Aaaaand i got carried away, sorry.
You were saying about some sort of thing you needed help with? A word of warning though, we're not doing too great either. We fell down some a chasm into these caves because the city above is under a demonic invasion and we're working our way back up. So whatever trouble it is you have, i hope you agree with me that an army of demons above you is slightly more pressing. Perhaps you could show us a way up first so we can help with the demons and afterwards we come back to help you?"

[grifter730]

Cormac:

It was a relief to hear the common tongue spoken instead of Abyssal, and one that seemed without malice at that, but one could never be sure. Readying his spear, Cormac pushed on the door to open it.


If the door doesn't budge, Cormac will do a strength check. If that doesn't work, he'll shout to the people outside to see if they can help open it.

[PersonMan]

Lann still seems a bit confused, and Hadwisa's explanation leads to a wide-eyed shock. "The Great City is under attack?!" He says, almost as if to remind himself of the words that were just spoken, to confirm that he hadn't misheard. "In that case, we will have to inform the chief. But first - our friend," he shifts to the side, pointing to the fallen tower. "Crel, was trapped inside when the tremors hit. If you can help us rescue him, we will bring you to the chieftan, who knows of the way to the surface. It should be a quick matter - there's only one stone left..." Lann's tone carrries a hint of desperation, as he looks over the group.

The door opens easily, a touch awkwardly, as it now opens from the top, dropping down onto the floor and forcing him to step back to avoid being struck. The next room is in a shabby state, the new floor consisting of broken-up stone and the wall dominated by large cracks, which extend up to the ceiling, which itself seems rather close to collapse. There doesn't seem to be a way out, though a large break in the wall would provide for an exit, were it not blocked by a large stone.

Hunched in front of the stone is a strange-looking man. His hair seems to be made up of thick strands of clumped-together material more resembling twine than hair, and various blotches of dark green are spread around his visible skin. The man wears dark-colored clothing that's clearly a patchwork of material, with at least half of the back of his shirt having belonged to some kind of banner judging by the cut-off coat of arms adorning it. On the ground beside him rests a large dagger of unusual make, but with the same signs of wear and tear as all of the other weapons in the last room.

Surprisingly, he doesn't seem to have heard Cormac enter at all, and is currently looking at what may be a small opening between the wall and the rock allowing him to see outside.

[grifter730]

Cormac:

Taking a long drag from his rolled tobacco, Cormac held his spear ready and advanced on the hunched man. He figures the man to be another survivor of the fall, but one could never be sure.

"What're you peeping at there?" Cormac asked the man. "I hope it's worth turning your back to a stranger."

[BelGareth]

Church was merely standing and watching his companions at work, her mouth slightly ajar at Hadwisa, and a display of shock on in her eyes.

She recovers, and merely watches.

[PersonMan]

As Cormac speaks, the man jumps in place, startled, shouting some angry-sounding words as his head hits the stone.

Turning, clearly surprised, he looks at Cormac incredulously. "What - where did you come from?! How did you get here?!" He asks, eyes quickly going to the spear as he raises his hands, palms empty.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"Alright, let's get your buddy out of there. One stone left blocking the door you say? Church and Brigadyr look pretty strong, so they could probably help you with that. Right Church? Brigadyr?"

[grifter730]

Cormac: (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1233884)

Cormac winced as the man bumped his head from being startled. "I came from the other room," he nods over his shoulder, "and before that, I took a ride down here from the top when the big demon took out the dragon and caused all this. I assumed that's where you came from to, but from your question, I guess not. So, my question is, what are you doing down here living under the city?" Cormac points his spear as he directs his question. "Don't worry, the spear won't bite so long as you're not meaning me any harm."

[Hazuki]

"We're hermits." Brigadyr explains, as she marches over to the door to start heaving that big ol' stone aside. "Here for the hermit convention. Every ten years, we meet up to talk about caves."

[PersonMan]

The man is visibly confused. "The...dragon? You're from the Great City, then? But how..." at the second question, he stares for a moment. "Well, mostly, living. Right now, I want to leave the tower I've been trapped in. You're free to come with me, my friends should be lifting this rock soon enough."

As Brigadyr approaches the stone, the woman by it turns to her, revealing a face dominated by odd bulges and not saying a word, though she does join the woman when she begins to work on the stone, doing what she can to help. At first, it seems like for all of Brigadyr's strength, she simply won't be able to lift it away from its position, being able to almost pull it up, but not quite having the right angle to - but the woman is able to give just the right push and the paladin adjusts her grip to fully grasp the stone, the support no longer as necessary but still present, before the heavy rock is deposited away from the hole in the tower, revealing a strange-looking man with hair seemingly made up of thick strands of clumped-together material, more resembling twine than hair, and various blotches of dark green are spread around his visible skin. The man wears dark-colored clothing that's clearly a patchwork of material, with at least half of the back of his shirt having belonged to some kind of banner judging by the cut-off coat of arms adorning it.

Oddly enough, there's another man inside as well - a much more normal looking one, currently pointing a spear towards the other one, though he doesn't seem hostile. Rushing over, Lann is visibly excited as the stone is set aside, but stops as he sees the second man.

"I - who? How?" He asks, before the odd-looking man steps out from the tower, shrugging, before stopping at the sight of Brigadyr.

"Lann, these people are from the Great City!" He says.

"I know! Crel, why's there one in the tower, too?!" Lann replies, gesturing to Cormac.

"I don't know. He said he fell, when a demon attacked," Crel says.

"Well, they did say the city was being attacked..." Lann replies, before sighing. "This is...if someone told me this would happen today, I would have laughed."

[grifter730]

Cormac: (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1233884)

Apparently the man lived down here, and he spoke of it as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "You look a trifle banged up. Want me to look you over? I'm a healer of sorts." Cormac felt foolish as he uttered the words and saw his spear still pointed at the man.

Just then, the rock outside moved, and the way out uncovered. Cormac grunted, and took another long drag from his cigarette before following the man out of the building. There was a bit more confusion outside, but Cormac stayed quiet for a few moments to assess the situations. He was clearly outnumbered by this point, and holding the spear seemed even more foolish.

"Well, they did say the city was being attacked..." One of them said, before sighing. "This is...if someone told me this would happen today, I would have laughed."

"If someone told me there were people living under the city, I would have laughed. So why don't we all laugh together and get it over with, and then I can move on. Some of you looks in really bad need of healing, I might be able to help alleviate a bit of the pain. Don't bet on it though. Would hate to disappoint you after all the laughing we're about to have. Now come on, let me look at the smashed-face man."

[PersonMan]

Crel seems confused as Cormac brings up healing, and the silent woman crosses her arms and glares at his last words. With an awkward cough, Lann steps forwards. "There's no need for healing, actually. We were all born this way. And Dyra is a woman."

Meanwhile, Crel steps over towards Brigadyr and the others. "You helped get me out of there? Thank you, I was worried I'd be trapped for good!" He says, giving a half-bow. "Are you looking for a way up? Has Lann offered our help?"

[Hazuki]

Brigadyr blinks. "Who?"

[PersonMan]

Crel pauses. "Oh, did he not introduce himself? Lann," he gestures behind him, to the man with the half-lizard face, before pausing. "Oh my, I'm sorry - I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Crel," he says.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"He did introduce himself, she probably just forgot. My name's Hadwisa, the forgetfull one is Brigadyr and there we have Church, Horgus, Aravashniel and anevia.
The only one whose name we don't know yet is the one claiming to be a 'healer of sorts'. So why don't you introduce yourself as well so we can collect whatever usefull items may be left in that tower and start heading out of these caves."

[grifter730]

Cormac: (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1233884)

Cormac kept a smile from appearing on his face as Lann explained the situation, and shrugged his shoulder. They all know I can heal now, got that point across, job's done. "So, some of you folks chose to live down here?" Cormac asks the ragtag bunch. "What in the nine hells possessed you to do that? But more importantly--wait..."[/B] Cormac flips another cigarette into his mouth and lights it up using the last bit burning from his last one. "But more importantly, anyone know a way out of here?" He finished his question, speaking through the side of his mouth.

[PersonMan]

"We live here because we were born here," Lann replies. "Our ancestors...they had less of a choice."

Crel speaks up a moment after Lann finishes, seeming to pre-empt some comment by Horgus. "We can bring you to Neathholm, where we live. Chief Sull can tell you the way back to the Great City," he explains, before turning towards one side of the chamber to point...directly at a settled pile of rock. "Oh. Well, that was the direct route. We'll have to take one of the other ways, then."

Lann looks over the group, especially Aravashnial and Anevia, and frowns. "Both ways could be difficult, with your injured friends. One of them leads through the lair of a dangerous creature, the spore-cougher. The other goes across a narrow bridge over a large pit."

Anevia coughs. "This bridge...how sturdy is it?" She asks. Lann seems confused for a moment, before nodding as realization comes to him.

"Of course. The tremors..." he frowns, exchanging a glance with Dyra and Crel. "Hopefully Neathholm will have remained intact. We'll have to take the risk of the spore-cougher, then."

Sorry for the slow reply here.

I'll post again tomorrow, going the spore-cough route, if no one objects, or if you want you can take the bridge-pit route.

[Hazuki]

"Light bridge, heavy armor...that's a recipe for a squishy Brigadyr." Brigadyr decides. "But then, nothing good ever comes from spores, either. We'll need to lure the beast out into more favorable ground, unless we all want lungs filled with plants."

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"I'm not moving injured patients over a dangerous bridge, that's asking for trouble. The spore-cougher sounds safer."

[PersonMan]

Lann nods at the group's decision, and after a last bit of preparation, the group is on its way, heading down one of the tunnels. Anevia and Aravashniel are joined by the silent Dyra, and Horgus migrates to the center of the group, seeming to want to be as far from the odd underground folk as possible. It's the better part of an hour later, going through a tunnel that has a consistently upward tilt, that the group reaches another chamber. Perhaps forty feet in diameter, it's covered in fungus, the air full of a thick odor that seems oddly sweet. In the center of the room, both with a light dusting of some odd yellow substance, lie two corpses, next to what seems like a deflated pile of fungus, which is stuck with a halberd that one of the corpse's arms lie just next to.

Upon reaching the chamber, Lann lets out a brief noise of surprise, before turning to the group, smiling. "We have nothing to worry about. The spore-cougher is dead!" He says, then pauses. "But, ah, it seems to have laid low two other surface dwellers."

The chamber sports almost a dozen exits, though only one, in the north, goes up.

[grifter730]

Cormac: (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1233884)

Cormac breathes out a long trail of smoke. "Huh. Bridge or mysterious deadly spore monster. Sure, let's try to face the monster, that sounds safe." He grumbles, but follows them all anyway, keeping and eye on the back.

After the better part of an hour, having gone through a tunnel that has a consistently upward tilt, Cormac reaches another chamber. "We have nothing to worry about. The spore-cougher is dead!" Lann says.

"Told you this was the right path to choose," Cormac says aloud to no one in particular. "So, which of the many paths leads to this Great City of yours?"

[PersonMan]

Lann coughs. "The Great City is not ours," he says. "It's yours, in fact. You're the ones who live there, not us. The tunnel that goes further upwards will bring us to Neathholm, which is our tribe's home."

"Two surface dwellers killed by the beast? We should investigate!" Aravashniel insists, as he and Anevia come into the room. Horgus grumbles, but mostly seems to be busy trying to stay away from the people bringing up the rear and staying off of the room's fungal carpet.

[Steckie]

Hadwisa

"What are you all standing there doing nothing while those two might not really be dead! Always check a body, some people just appear dead. I should really start training you all..." She says and kneels down next to the bodies to check them for signs of life.
If she finds signs of life she starts trying to safe that life, if not she'll search the bodies.

Heal, in case i need it: [roll0]
Edit: natural 20 somebody better still be alive here! :smallsmile:

[PersonMan]

Hadwisa's work is quick, the outcome unquestionable - both are dead. Each body is clad in armor bearing symbols of Iomedae on it, though both seemed to have been armed with glaives and spiked gauntlets. A closer inspection reveals that one clutches a brass bull's head with red gemstone eyes.

"Are they crusaders?" Aravashniel asks.

"I'm not sure, but I do know there are more of their type down in the tunnels. We've been seeing more of them recently. Not friendly types," Lann adds.

The bodies aren't fully searched yet, but if you do here's what you find:
129 GP between the two of them
Both are wearing a masterwork chain shirt
One potion, with a blue tint
One scroll
The brass bull's head is an unholy symbol of Baphomet.