Vapourware [Play-by-post] Lamentations in Averoigne

[Snorkack]

"You look weary, Finn. Did you have a rough night? And, more importantly, are you ready for the things to come down there?"

 

[AdamReith]

Grima smiles thoughtfully as he regards Finn's state. "It seems the transformation has already begun."

Also he salutes Marcus in Roman fashion. "Salve, bonelord. Today we delve so tomorrow we may feast!"

 

[SoupNazi]

Finn tries his best to collect himself, but his weariness is almost palpable. "Ready, always. Whether I'll be useful this time, mes amis, I'm not so sure. This place is truly filled with darkness, darkness that gnaws at you even when you try to sleep, attacks all your senses. I can see why it's ill-advised to camp here now, I did not get a minute of good sleep, when I did shut my eyes, my mind was plagued by something that felt like an assault on my very mind and soul. If we can delay, I'd much rather go rest is Les Hiboux for at least a full night and day..."

 

[AdamReith]

"Mayhaps thou couldst stand by this mule here."

Grimas indicates the fully restored combat mule w/eye patch standing by the group.

"Just as you did not so long ago."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Finn tries his best to collect himself, but his weariness is almost palpable. "Ready, always. Whether I'll be useful this time, mes amis, I'm not so sure. This place is truly filled with darkness, darkness that gnaws at you even when you try to sleep, attacks all your senses. I can see why it's ill-advised to camp here now, I did not get a minute of good sleep, when I did shut my eyes, my mind was plagued by something that felt like an assault on my very mind and soul. If we can delay, I'd much rather go rest is Les Hiboux for at least a full night and day..."

Requin stares wordlessly at the good lad, troubled by his state.
"Maybe a prayer will do you good?"

 

[SoupNazi]

First, the young lad looks at the elf with a cocked brow. "I will do what's necessary, as always, it was after all my own decision to stay behind with Marcus. If it's to guard Sancho, then so be it." He then walks over to the mule and pets it, scratching Sancho behind the ears.

Finn shakes his head at Requin. "I prayed all night, and the Christian God did nothing as these nightmares clawed and bit at my soul and mind. I am done with prayers."

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Is your character really that fucked?

Sure come along and stay in the rear guard, you'll be grand. Maybe we'll find some ancient preserved Meztopatanian coffee beans down there for you.

We can make this delve a short one.

 

[L'ennui]

Guillemin looks unsettled and speaks in a hushed, almost conspirational tone: "Mother Mary, have mercy on this one. You should rest, friend, you do not speak soundly." He turns to Marcus: "What happened on this accursed night, that our comrade should utter these things?"

 

[SoupNazi]

Finn interrupts "Nothing happened beyond what I spoke of, Guillemin. I am just tired. But my shield is yours, and I'll go forth with you, if the plan is to delve into the dungeons once more."

With that, he considers the matter sorted, and beckons that they should proceed.

 

[L'ennui]

Guillemin shrugs, reflecting that the destiny of Finn's immortal soul is best left to God and Finn, and that these things were above him anyways. "Very well, then. Shall we?"

 

[Grimgravy]

"Do not abandon prayer so quickly, friend. We learn through adversity. Perhaps you have learned to heed warnings and choose better places to rest?"

 

[nikolokolus]

After your reunion with Finn you all realize that there has been this looming sense of dread and anxiety hanging over you ever since you left him behind. After hearing of his harrowing night spent inside a barrow, your measure of his bravery (or foolhardiness?) frankly astounds you.

The plateau is wide open today. The heavy mist has rolled back and you have visibility that probably extends almost to a couple of furlongs (~400 meters give or take). To your south, about 50 paces away, you can clearly make out the obelisk in the bottom of a shallow, flooded pool and before you is the Great Barrow that you previously entered the under-crypts.

What would you like to do today? It's probably 2 hours after high noon, giving you a limited window to explore.

 

[Grimgravy]

"The sun does not tarry in its movement. I suggest we descend, but keep close the entrance. More thoroughly scout the area. Finn needs rest and my reserves are low after healing Requin and Sancho. So let's not push are luck."

Spoiler

Does Marcus look any better?

 

[SoupNazi]

Finn removes his bastard sword from its scabbard and spins it at hip-level to test the grip, then tightens the leather straps holding the shield to his forearm. "Just stay behind me. Preferably, one of you with the long pole to check ahead of me for traps, s'il vous plait."

He then leads the expedition into the depths...

 

[L'ennui]

Guillemin follows Finn with his pole at the ready. "We should check out that obelisk some day..."

 

[nikolokolus]

One by one, you file into the Great Barrow and then open the secret trap door to the ladder that leads below. Finn, taking the lead, carefully pokes his head out of the secret door behind the bas relief and peers into the wet gloomy tunnels, with his lantern held aloft. Everything looks much the same as you left it. Water drips and produces tiny, uncanny echoes that break the silence of the crypts. Stepping out into the passage and walking a few short steps to get a better look reveals that the door you had previously sprung open along the south wall a short distance away is now closed again. By whom or by what means you can scarcely guess.

Marcus steps out of the shaft and into the passage and stands silently next to Finn, waiting for the others to come. Marcus very slowly draws his spatha and fixes his scutum to his left arm. His uncanny phantasmal eye gives off a faint, eerie blue light as he stands at the ready. With his sword held before him he utters a short incantation sit lux and his sword instantly flares to life, casting a soft amber light roughly as bright as a torch all around you.

 

[Grimgravy]

"The door. I wonder who or what down here cares enough to close it."

Spoiler

Still think we should scout the entrance area. Fully map the big room to the west, at least.

 

[nikolokolus]

"The door. I wonder who or what down here cares enough to close it."

Spoiler

Still think we should scout the entrance area. Fully map the big room to the west, at least.

Spoiler

Big room to the west? Not sure what area you are referring to . . .

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

Maybe the one to the north with the dropping slab trap?

It's in the most Westerly part of the explored dungeon.

 

[L'ennui]

Guillemin approaches the newly shut door. "We should check that first, just in case there's something or someone inside." He approaches the door to inspect it, curious to see if anything has been tampered with. If nothing stands out, he puts his ear to the door to listen inside.

 

[nikolokolus]

Guillemin inspects the door and notices that it isn't stuck, and that the wood around the jamb and the door where you used a prybar is still splintered and chipped away. with a small push, the door gives a finger width with little to no resistance. While he's testing the door and listening intently he hears a weird squelching, suctioning noise from beyond the closed portal. He passes this information along to Finn, who decides to seize the initiative and bull rush the door with his shield. The door slams inward and they see . . . nothing. Well, not exactly nothing; there is a pile of bleach-white bones laying in a pile near the old firepit at the center of the room. Grima peeks his head through the door and has the good sense to look up. Affixed to the ceiling is a weird lumpen gray blob, glistening with slime and moving! It drops from the ceiling and before Grima can back out it, it attaches itself to the front of the horrified elf. His chainmail hisses and starts to fall apart in a matter of seconds. Quick thinking, Finn carefully pulls up on the hem to help Grima free himself and the nimble acrobat slithers out of it as it drops on to the floor, and melts away inside the gray blob of goo.

Combat Begins!

 

[nikolokolus]

The slow moving creature proves remarkably resilient as the company does what it can to attack it without using their swords and spears, knowing that it will likely just dissolve whatever touches it. Sling stones are hurled, blocks of masonry are tossed and for some reason people can't seem to shoot or throw straight. At Marcus' urging folks begin to fall back and regroup. Daphne calls upon spell that summons an ethereal hound from beyond the veil. She marvels as the beast rips and tears huge globs of flesh from the thing, but quickly vanishes almost as soon as it is called. Eventually the group falls back to the funeral procession chamber, and fires arrows, slingstones and bolts at the thing and it finally stops advancing and "dies" (if such a thing can even be called alive in the first place).

XP!

A whopping 7 XP per character! You're on your way!!

With the threat dispatched, people carefully file into the room it was laired in, and look at a pile of weirdly shaped, bleach-white bones in the middle of the room. It seems human at first glance -- a ribcage, a femur here, a jawbone there -- but its skull is oddly misshapen, with a single spiral goat horn coming out of one side of its head, and something akin to a pincer attached to a radius and ulna, and a cloven hoof attached to a tibia and fibula.

 

[Grimgravy]

"Demon skeleton!"

 

[SoupNazi]

a pincer attached to a radius and ulna

Spoiler

What, like a single-bladed Wolverine? Is this Requin's long lost brother?

Either way, Finn would like to collect the odd parts - the skull, the forearms, and lower legs - wrap them in a piece of burlap, and carry it all out to Sancho the mule before returning to the dungeon (unless we're limping off again).

 

[nikolokolus]

a pincer attached to a radius and ulna

Spoiler

What, like a single-bladed Wolverine? Is this Requin's long lost brother?

Either way, Finn would like to collect the odd parts - the skull, the forearms, and lower legs - wrap them in a piece of burlap, and carry it all out to Sancho the mule before returning to the dungeon (unless we're limping off again).

Spoiler

more like a lobster claw made of bone.