Party 16

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Cassandra finds herself looking to the old woman as they sink. As she speaks something...strange occurs. The face isn't quite right, almost as if...
And then she sees it. The horrible visage beneath. Predatory eyes. Sharp teeth. The half elf hears a scream as they descend. She failed to realize it was her until earth, kicked up from the sink, flies into her open mouth. She coughs and gags, the noise subsiding, but the panic burning. Away. I have to get away. Her heart becomes hammer blows now, rhythmic and crashing. As she slides to level ground, the coiled spring of her muscles release, and she began a sprint. To where she isn't sure. But all she knows was she couldn't stay here. Her lungs ache and burn in protest, the dirt only finally dislodged, causing coughing as she runs. She thinks she might hear something else in the air, something her more rational mind might have cared about, but her ears only hear the drumming of her own heart.
 
Faria uncertain at the new rules of this place she is in watches as she is absorbed with everyone. She really hopes the woman was right that it was starting to be a way out. The place seemed to be something wizards would have a field day theorizing about but to her it was just another strange place in a far away land. Taking a deep breathe half to prepare herself and half because she was instinctually afraid of suffocating. When they fully transitioned it appeared they were underground. 'Hadn't the other two just been arguing about the safety of mines?' she thought as voices could be heard in the distance. She heard Varius speak in Dwarven to the singing in the distance. She was about to comment back but ended up seeing Cass fly by her in a rush. A soldier's curse came to her lips like a bad habit, learned from one of her dwarven squadmates. "Her parents call this a masterwork?"

Took a moment for Faria to catch up but she grabs Cass to try and calm her down. "Careful! As the other two were just saying mines can be dangerous..." said Faria trying to hold Cassandra and calm her down. 'In fact that's a mighty fine coincidence, maybe if we...' began Faria's thought as she instead switched to speaking it out loud. "Cass bear with me. Think of a way out, a doorway or portal and hold that in your mind. I think whatever this place is, it goes off our minds, maybe fears too. Keep thinking of that door, an escape."

She hoped this was along the right line of thinking as she began to imagine a doorway underground leading to a brighter sky outside. She'd have to tell the other two once they caught up. That's when she noticed the thing that Cassandra has stopped before. It was an... undead. Specifically an undead dwarf with no arms. 'Great... am I supposed to believe this is the undead that were doing 'good' in the mines or not..?' Faria took a step or two back to create a small amount of space. "I think maybe we should go the other way..."

She then heard something happening from behind them and decided maybe leaving a zombie at their backside wasn't a good idea. She reached out summoning the words her mother had taught her, and for a second a dark energy pooled at her hand as she spoke the arcane incantation for a Necromancy spell. "Fade."[elven] The darkness around her hand that she placed just past Cassandra's head propelled itself forward away from her hand as if it were the ghost of Faria's hand but made of pure darkness, straight towards the zombie lying it's hand straight on the Zombie Dwarf.
 
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The drumming of her heart grows faster and faster as Cassandra picks up speed. She almost doesn't realize the corner is approaching, forcing her to pivot hard. She prepares to continue forward as she feels hands grab ahold of her. She tenses, ready to flee, her muscles coiled, when it registers who it actually was. Faria...
The elf speaks. Something about doors? Cassandra can hardly hear the woman over the sound of her own heartbeat. That's when she noticed. They aren't alone.
It is a decrepit creature. Rotting, it is armless and stares blankly at the two. The elf speaks again, but Cassandra is already turning. An attack will come, she knows this.
The half elf sees a blob of inky darkness, with fingers outstretched, strike the creature as it shambles forward towards her. Cassandra takes a single deep breath.
The creature impacts, but the monk is prepared, stepping back as it harmlessly grazes by. She curls a fist, and releases the tension she had been holding.
The fist sails clear of the corpse's head.
Frowning, Cassandra lets the momentum of the punch carry her, sending her into a spin. She raisesa leg, and feels the familar weight of connection as she strikes the once-once-dwarf's torso. She feels it stagger, absorbing some of the force and standing.
Sloppy. I'm getting sloppy.
 
Varius, still blind, feels something sharp punch into his leg. Reaching down, he feels the wooden handle of some tool, and with a grunt, pulls it out of his leg. Forced to rely on his other senses to locate his attacker, he listens carefully, and hearing something scuttling about on the floor near his feet, slams his newly acquired weapon down on top of it, feeling it squirm beneath the blow before wiggling away.
"Anyone care to tell me what in the nine hells is going on here?"
 
Astryos recoils from the grasping arms. He answers them with his fists knocking them loose from the wall, "Careful, Varius," the Elven monk warns, "The arms, they are...disembodied and still coming at us on the floor!"
 
In the twenty-foot length of passage between them, Faria and Astryos can see earth sliding down from the right-hand wall in several places. A sudden gout of earth drops down on Faria's head and something the size of a melon drops from the ceiling above her and hits the dirt at her feet with a thud. It is the partly-decayed head of a dwarf, its mouth full of dirt that it spits out to snarl at her.

The distant voices continue in dwarfish:

Precious metal is hard to find
Precious metal is hard to find
Down in the hole and down in the mine
And I dig my life away-o
And I dig my life away

Then, midway between the two elves, the right wall of the passage bursts and a headless, decomposing dwarf staggers into the tunnel. It pivots to face Astryos, and its right arm is so tenuously attached that this motion causes it to fall off. Indifferent to the loss of a limb, the headless zombie advances on Astryos, while its wayward appendage begins pulling itself the other way, towards Faria.

Perfect ruby is hard to find
Perfect ruby is hard to find
Down in the gold slush and shine
And I dig my life away-o
And I dig my life away
 
Cassandra tries to drown out all the other things around her, focusing on the assailant before her. Still, she can't help but notice the singing now. She tries to collect her thoughts, focus on the task ahead...
And then the ground shakes.
The tremor was minor, but reflexively the half elf falls off balance. The opening was more than enough or the corpse in front of her. It lunched, managing to bite into her defensively raised arm. Cassandra lets out a reflexive shout, throwing another jab. It flies high, but it repositions the dwarf, giving the monk the opening she needed. With a forceful step, Cassandra strikes the undead square in the jaw, bringing a knee upward. She smirks a little as the creatures head topples to the ground. Gross...but that's more like it.
Much to her dismay, the creature still lurches towards her, motion not hindered by the loss of head. It seems harmless, but still...She turns to call to F aria, only to see the new chaos behind her.
 
Astryos turns to meet the one-armed headless zombie, dipping low to strike at its legs trying to fell the creature. His fists make purchase and the creatures legs are removed from the body, leaving a one-armed torso standing before him, "Careful, Varius. These still fight when they've been thoroughly maimed!"
 
Slamming the pickaxe into the ground, Varius feels the scuttling thing beside him twitch, then fall still, at the same moment as whatever is on the other side of him stops its scuttling. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Varius looks around blindly.
"I'd like to see it continue to fight after that."
 
As what's left of the decaying miners stubbornly persists, a tremor begins to shake the passage, growing steadily in intensity. Earth streams down from above, and the unbraced walls slough away, revealing more entombed, rotting dwarves. With an ultimate shock, the left-hand wall of the passage bughead.jpgbetween Astryos and Faria bursts open and the head of an enormous insect burrows through. Black, platter-sized eyes face Astryos and wildly dancing tendrils grasp the legless zombie torso from in front of him. With another shudder, the creature retreats back into the earth and the tunnel around you begins to collapse like a punctured bladder. Chunks of earth and rock rapidly bury the undead arms, legs and heads. Shortly after, you too are entirely encased in earth.

Not content to merely entomb you, the earth continues to shift and press, drawing you ceaselessly along with it. For how long, you could not say, because in a matter of minutes, you have lost consciousness from lack of air and the weight on your chests.
 
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Chapter 1: The Art of Necromancy
  • Index
    • Chapter 1: The Art of Necromancy


    Once more Astryos wakes from unconsciousness, this time to a cool breeze tickling his bare feet and the smell of incense. Light reaches his eyes through a thin sheet that covers his face and torso. Based on the sensations along his back, he is lying on a hard pallet.

    There is an itch on Astryos' nose. In fact, he feels itchy and gritty all over; dirt seems to have insinuated itself between his clothing and skin.

    Nearby, to Astryos' left, a soft, feminine voice begins repeating, "Bella, Bella," over and over, interspersed with gentle clacks and clicks. Astryos hears a brief sliding metal noise, then footsteps approach.
     
  • Index
    • Astryos lays still a moment listening to his surroundings. Crinkling his nose, he tries to suppress a sneeze "Banana." he whispers recalling an old childhood trick for stopping sneezes. He blinks feverishly before setting up from his resting place, removing the sheet that had been placed over him.

    He sees the woman, No, she possesses all the traits of a monster of some sort and calls out to assuage her alarm, "Not undead! Just took a nap!" Believing this to not be ample reassurance, he takes notice of the room, picks up the machete and uncovers the other shrouded bodies.
     
    The first thing Cassandra hears is a clatter and a scream. Her eyes dart open, ready to see what new horror awaited, only to see a sheet draped over her. What? Everything is muddled and full of confusion in the half elf's mind. It seems that going from one situation to another with little sensible explanation has become her new way of life. She coughs, and a bit of dirt kicks up around her, as the sheet is disturbed. She slowly rises, fully removing the sheet and noticing the dirt all over her. The zombies, the tunnels...so that was real then? She frowns. She had been hoping it was some nightmare, but it seems to Cassandra that it isn't likely the case. She starts to scan the room, and eventually settles on Astryos. "...what happened to your boots?"
     
    The Morgue


    The room Cassandra and Atryos are in is not large; the five pallets in here make it quite cramped indeed. Light enters through a broken window on one wall and a cone of incense burns on a table that also holds rags, vials and implements fit for a barber-surgeon. An open door leads out to a hallway.

    The broken window looks out onto an overcast day. You appear to be on the second floor of a large stone building, with an expansive, walled vegetable garden about fifteen feet below. Beyond the garden walls a thick, mist-shrouded forest stretches out for a few miles before vanishing into the fog. Stone cherubs and other figures decorate the outside of the building; a large black bird perched on one near the window cocks its head and croaks at Astryos as he looks out.

    The three pallets that Cassandra and Astryos were not on have dirty white shrouds draped over forms that are likely bodies.

    The rags on the worktable range from washcloth to bath towel size. Most of them appear to have gone through several cycles of soiling, rinsing and drying, without any of the stains really getting removed along the way. There is also a bucket of dirty water on the floor under the table, with a rag in it.
     
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    Faria struggles in the darkness the deep weight pushing in on all sides. As she comes to consciousness her mind registers the presence of the sheet over her as just more solid dirt pressing in on her, and she pushes and moves trying to escape flinging the sheet around and looking around as she stood up quickly. Her golden eyes sweep the room seeing some familiar faces before she takes a step forward and then stops. Something akin to worry passes over her face for a moment, and then she convulses once, twice.

    Falling to her knees Faria vomits up dirt onto the floor. She spits after the deen is done looking up and wiping across her mouth. "Where are we now... anyone recognize anything...?" asks Faria as she runs her tongue through her mouth. The sediment of dirt that was still in her mouth crunched as she talked which was really uncomfortable. 'I know my parents talked about taking care of the forest and it would feed you in return but that's a little ridiculous. I think I'll stay away from mines for the next while. Do not want to have a repeat experience like that again.'

    Faria decided to take a quick look around the room to arm herself with anything that might look a bit deadlier and her fist. While she could throw a nice punch occasionally she wasn't going to rely on just that. The other two were much better at that.... how did she know that again? She tried to think before shaking her head. 'Forget it. It's not worth trying to figure out now, not when we could be in danger again. Not even sure we are... out of that place yet.'

    As she goes to move around the room she feels an odd sensation in her side. She sees a divot cut into the side of her clothing and inspecting underneath. She'd used a shovel enough times in her squad to bury bodies, cover their trails, or make hidden campfires that she recognized a shovel shape easily. Faria noted, that for a moment, before looking over to the snoring voice.... She looked at the others with a questioning a look before moving over grabbing the sheet hesitantly. Her hand firmly gripping the sheet and then pulling in one smooth motion.
     
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    Astryos stares down from the second floor disappointed that they are so high up. His stomach growls, "There is a garden." he says with relief in his voice. He stares at the large black bird wondering. Doubting. He turns to see Faria spit up some dirt, "We seem to be in a monastary of some sort. One that caters to monsters, if first impressions are anything to go off." He hands Faria the machete, "Here. I suspect a straight razor can be found among the implements over there." he says nodding over to the barbers instruments.

    Careful to step over the covered bodies he peeks out the door way to see what waits in the hallway.
     
    Cassandra winces as she sees Faria heave. Her own stomach turns, and she is sure that she must have ingested her own share of earth as well. Nonetheless, it feels horridly empty. She staggers a little, realizing just how dry her mouth was, how much she ached. She notices the missing boots, lying on the ground. So someone pulled them off...

    She walks over to the table, staring at the bandages, the chemicals. The other bodies pack the room. She tries to reject the question, but can't. The dam finally breaks, potential realization and dread finally washing over her. "...oh gods...we really...were we actually dead?" The thought had been always lingering there, just out of sight. She had been pushing it aside, not willing to acknowledge it, but now the evidence makes the thought sit in her mind, repeating over and over again.

    She shudders, stumbling towards the window and staring into the distance. She hopes she's wrong. She desperately waits for someone to tell her she's overreacting, jumping to conclusions, but for now she continues to look out the window, staring at the cloying mists in the distance.
     
    The snoring form beneath the shroud that Faria pulls off is Varius. However, his shirt has been cut away, his torso washed and his left arm removed at the shoulder. The site of the amputation is closed up with crude sutures.
     
    Awakening, Varius jumps to his feet, only to immediately fall over, his balance thrown off. Getting back up, he looks around the room, trying to figure out where he is now.
    "I'm getting really sick of not knowing where we are, or how we got here."
     
    Hallway outside the Morgue

    The door from the room where you just regained consciousness opens towards one end of a long, dim stone hallway that stretches off to the left. Carvings of smiling cherubim and other celestials look down from an arched ceiling, surveying the passage until it reaches a heavy, partly-open wooden door at the far end. There are two more doors on the left-hand side of the passage, as well as one on the right, towards the center of the hall. This right-hand door is painted with large, elaborate glyphs.
     
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    The monk looks at Varius, concerned about his amputation, I'll return shortly. I'm going to get an idea of our immediate surroundings. Take care of him."

    The elf lithely makes his way down the corridor, barefoot, to the first door on the left I should've put my boots on...

    Creaking open the door, he peers in taking in a most odd scene of destroyed and discarded furniture and, "Cribs?" he says concerned with the implication. He stares at the one area not disrupted with splintered wood wondering what it is for.
     
    Room of Broken Furniture


    The first door on the left, which is directly opposite the glyph-inscribed door, opens easily, though creakily, into a room about the size of the morgue. While the morgue was fairly clean, this room is crammed with broken furniture, piled especially high in one far corner. Those fragments that are large enough to recognize appear to be from cribs. A slight breeze and a hint of light come in through a window that is mostly covered by a length of board. The splintered legs and posts have been pushed aside to clear a path from the door to the center of the room, where the clearance enlarges into an uncluttered circle about five feet across.
     
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    Cassandra hears the sound of Varius dropping to the floor, breaking through the melanholy she had fallen in moments before. She turns and sees the one arm fighter. Her had shoots to her mouth, supressing what almost was a barking laugh of sheer surprise. She tries to take a deep, calming breath, but it falls short, hoarse and raspy. She moves across the room, looking for somwthing to occupy her and distract from the insanity of the situation. She begins inspecting the table, looking for things of use. Her eyes settle on a bucket on the floor. Muddy water reverberates inside, jostling a wetted rag. Her throat burns.
    ...Maybe just a little.
    Cupping her hands, she dips her hands into the bucket. She brings her hands to her mouth, drinking in the water. It...isnt wholly pleasant, but it there were times she had been far less choosy when she spent her time in the alleyways. Regardess, the water makes its way down her throat, balming the dry heat. Sustained for the moment, she turns to the table. She quickly begins grabbing at assorted rags, tugging and comparing somewhat manically. She takes a larger cloth and creates a bundle. "Always could come in handy.." she mutters, more as mantra than declaration to the group.
     
    Faria is at first relieved that it was just Varius however her eyes wander to his missing limb and she has to stop herself from double checking that she has all her limbs again. "I'm not convinced we are out of it just yet, but if we aren't," says Faria looking over to Cassandra for a moment. "Being dead or once dead I think is the least of our problems Cass."

    As the girl seems to stare out the window her attention turns back to Varius and she puts a hand on his shoulders. "I'm sorry Varius about you're arm," says Faria a frown worn upon her face. Her attention is again drawn to Cass as she drinks some water. She feels her own thirst for a moment but shoves it down, there was more important things to focus on at the moment. 'Where are we now? And what is going on I wonder...?' she thought as she glanced down at the Machete that had been offered to her. She had accepted it as second nature which she reflected on might say a great deal about her.

    "We shouldn't let Astryos get to far, and he's been gone for a good second now I'm going to go check on him at the very least, though I don't think we should remain here much longer..." said Faria knowing at least in whatever place they had been before, the key seemed to be to keep moving and transitioning.
     
    Last Room on the Left

    The last door on the left looks in on a tidy room of similar size to the "morgue" and cluttered room before. A lone, waist-high pallet occupies the center of the space, with higher, long tables against the walls. Several unlighted candles and small lamps adorn these side tables. There is also a small wooden chest, maybe two feet wide, and a pile of folded, blood-stained sheets. In the corner behind the open door, a mop stands inside an empty bucket.

    An open window across from the door is covered by a clean sheet, which is buffeted by wind from outside.
     
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