Party 6

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Leader's Den:

The spirit seems to take pause at Benson's words, though his blurred visage gives no insight into his judgment. "It is your hope to have," he notes quietly, before turning to Varis. "I do not think I sense a creature of the night, it is a presence more... intimate. Almost as if it is calling to me."

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Leader's Quarters:

Moving further down the tunnel where the spirit had mentioned a pull, the group comes what appears to be a master's bedroom of sorts -- except with no view but the damp, dead dirt below. A spacious but dinghy chamber sweeps out before you, sparsely decorated with old furniture. A wardrobe leans against the earthen wall, facing a creaking bedframe sporting a moldy feather mattress. At the foot of the bed is a small iron footlocker, unlocked and even slightly ajar. Inside, your light illuminates the silhouette of what seems to be a store of various items inside.

As the spirit enters the room, his gaze falls not on any of that but what seems to be a pile of debris upon the floor, just in front of the footlocker. As he moves closer, the faint glow he emanated himself casting a soft glow on the ground, it seems not to be debris but shards of steel. Of a blade. "This... was mine," he says softly, kneeling upon the ground in front of the broken pieces. He tries to reach forward but his hands merely pass through the shattered sword. "Who would do this... and why? What do you want?"

Though he turns his head upwards at the walls upon saying the latter, there is no answer to that question save the insistent chanting reverberating around the walls.

 

[Chinchster]

Varis quickly peers around the room as he enters. As the spirit comes to the box he winces slightly at the pain it must be feeling to not be able to reclaim what was his own. Bowing his head he bends down to grab the dagger and bracelet.

"I will take on these items for you, hopefully we can return them upon releasing this house of it's monsters," Varïs says trying to watch his wording and not offend their new helper.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Leader's Quarters:

As Varis picks up and puts on the strange bracelet, a thick leather cord decorated with a rough metal disk, the metal needle on top seems to twitch for a moment, springing to movement before quickly falling lifeless once more. There seems to be a weak spark of magic to it but nothing

"And return them where, might I ask?" inquires the spirit softly, an extended gaze upon the shattered pieces of sword. He shakes his head and stands back up again, turning back towards the door. "I would not see them with me into the beyond, if I can even make it there. And I doubt there is any sort of grave attached to my --" He pauses, looking to the doorway. Matching his gaze you see nothing coporeal in the darkness beyond, yet get the slightest sense that... something was there.

"[______]...?" A voice, too blurred to recognize, creeps into the ambient soundscape around. "Why did you leave me, [______]...?" It fades as quickly as it came, and you are left in the relatively silence of the chanting once more.

The spirit seems to stare beyond for a few more seconds before turning away, a weary tone in his voice. "I do not like what this entails. Let us keep moving -- if you have business here, make it quick." Restless, he begins to wander the perimeter of the small sleeping quarters as if something could crawl out and attack at any moment.

 

[Chinchster]

As the spirit talks Varis walks next to it. "Wouldn't you want these to be buried with you? If you don't mind me asking, what do these items do?" He tries to pulse magic through the bracelet to see if anything happens.

As they continue down the path, Varis stops, listening, looking to their ghostly friend. As he begins to move, Varis follows behind, "Is that someone you knew?" Varis readies himself for combat ahead, for this might be the end of this mystery.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Leader's Quarters:

"That is what I am saying," the spirit responds to Varis, walking in turn with the sorcerer. "I do not have a grave, I do not even know where my bones lie -- they are certainly not at that accursed statue. There is nothing to bury them with in the first place." Glancing down at the bracelet, then at the doorway, he seems to stare for a moment before turning away again disappointed. "If I could tell you, I would. But I remember nothing -- barely flashes, glimpses of what was. Perhaps that woman will come back and tell me what I am lacking."

He pauses. "That was... that was a woman, yes?" he asks seemingly to no one in particular. He shakes his head and continues to lead the group forward, taking the left path out of the previous room which they hadn't explored yet. Continuing down that path you eventually come across a set of stairs -- and it is only now that you clearly hear that the persistent chanting is hailing from below, yet another level deeper.

You descend.

Reliquary:

Descending yet another floor, you find yourselves in what appears to be a ruined reliquary. Carved alcoves line the chamber walls, dusty and damp containers seeming to house all sorts of gruesome trophies and strange crafts of unknown maker. The chanting has swollen into one great song that shakes the very stones of this wretched place, and at last the words of the once-muffled chanting rings clear in your ears:

"He is the Ancient. He is the Land."

Those booming words are repeated endlessly and incessantly, over and over, in a cacophonous unity of countless, endless voices -- seeming louder still from the direction of the two passageways to your right. One slopes downwards towards a rusty portcullis gate half-submerged in murky water, while the other continues into a dark hallway with no end in sight. Out of the corner of your eye you swear you see a hint of movement down the latter, but it is gone and you are left with naught but the chanting and the distant ripples of still water.

 

[Locke9558]

Hazel goes and peeks through the portcullis. Her brow furrows as she looks around. Figuring that she could maybe try to force it open if she needed to, she'd rather go explore other options first. Heading back up to the Reliquary, she takes a look down the other hallway. She frowns as she takes a look at the skeletons chained to the wall, "Hmm. Musta been where they kept people prior to taking them into that big weird echo chantin' chamber over... wait look a thing!" Drawing her sword she charged into the cell lined hallway in pursuit of some thing she had seen.

 

[Chinchster]

Varis stands clear of the water not wanting to get his robes wet. I don't know what nonsense is in that water, it could make these robes stink for weeks! Clearly the exhaustion of this Manor taking an effect.

Seeing Hazel charge down the hallway, Varis follows behind, "Did ya see something?!"

 

[AtomGray]

Benson follows after Hazel and Varis, the tip of his spear lit like a torch.

 

[ratbot]

Not feeling like arguing in the deep dark basement, Reppip quietly comes along.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Prison:

The second path quickly leads into what seems to be a series of jail cells, lining both sides of the hallway as it descends deeper into the darkness. Most of the cells are empty but a few house the skeletal remains of a long-forgotten prisoner, collapsed to a dusty pile next to rusty chains that still cling to the stone walls behind it. Based on the depth some of them have sunken into the earth beneath the cells, some of the bones have been here far longer than the others; all of them rattle under the continuing echo of the chanting. "He is the Ancient, He is the Land..."

The whip of movement is quick, fleeting, almost playful; it teeters at the edge of Hazel's sight with each sight she runs deeper through the halls. Once the end of the prison hall is within the view of the group's light, the movement suddenly shifts -- jumping near instantenously to the left wall, halfway through the hall behind one of the empty cells. A flicker shadow dances on one of the bricks on the wall before shrinking away in the light, disappearing entirely.

"Taking your sweet time aren't you?" Pipes up a smooth female voice, slicing through the ambient chanting. "Even though you seem to be chasing every little shiny thing that you can get your hands on. Now come on, I haven't got all day and this chanting is really getting on my nerves." As if on cue the brick from before shakes and shudders before falling down, revealing what appears to be the knob to a hidden door.

 

[Locke9558]

Hazel draws up as the voice/shadow thing seems to travel through the wall and disappears. "Well then, that wasn't ominous or creepy at all y'all. I do agree with that weird voice though, enough is enough. I'm ready to be done with this creepy ass basement. It's time for the pala-girl to earn her shield. I'm heading in, I fully expect some big stupid monster to be there getting ridden by that weird ghost or something. I also fully expect we're gonna whoop it good. My bro Leroy would be proud of me right now."

Steeling herself, Hazel clears some of the debris and opens the door. She decisively steps into the next room and takes a bold look around.

 

[ratbot]

Reppip starts chugging out a march on his lute, bum-bum-ba-BUUM-ba, helping Hazel brace for whatever's behind the door.

"Be it for the better, or the worse,
None are more brave n brazen than Hazel,
Charging her righteousness in like a horse,
She is living the beginning of a fable...

I'd rather be a wolf's sleeping prey
than whatever's behind that door,
Ghost or goblin, its seen its last day,
And this house shall be foul no more..."

 

[Chinchster]

Feeling inspired by their courage Varis entered the room behind Hazel bracing for what was next.

"Yes, let's finish this place for good and get going. I'm used to creepy places, but nothing like this."

 

[AtomGray]

"It's time to burn away this ancient darkness!" Benson says, charging after the others.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Ritual Chamber:

The spirit follows warily after the group, staring intensely at the various features within the prison and beyond. At the threshold into the chamber beyond his form seems to shimmer for a second before reforming -- albeit, ever so slightly fainter than before... or was it a trick of the light? In any case, he doesn't seem to make a fuss about it as he stands guard behind Varis and Hazel.

A ledge lines this chamber, overlooking a dais that rises from the dark water. In its center, chains suspended from the ceiling swing above a bloodstained altar carved with gruesome depictions of grasping ghouls. To the right wall, there is a massive pile of refuse, nearly a mountain of dark mass that seems to have been rotting here for years, if not decades. The waters lap hungrily at your ankles, sending ripples throughout its black surface. The chanting -- that insidious, wretched, incessant, unforgiving chanting -- falls short, as if it were nothing but a distant dream.

All's quiet. All. Then a soft breeze seems to circle the perimeter of the room, twisting to and fro before exiting through the grates of the porticullis. At the edge of your light you can see what appears to be a small crank mechanism, likely meant for lifting up the rusted barricade. Before you can think to question it, the voice from before creeps back, its source hard to pinpoint from the echoes through the room but seemingly from the outside. "So excited, aren't you? That might have been a problem, since this is the part where you are normally expected to die. But you like those trinkets I left, yes? With them, you may just survive this house of death." There's a slight rumbling sound beneath your feet -- almost as something is moving, shifting. "And it looks like the show is about to start," continues the voice, seeming to get more and more distant by the second. "Make it out alive, and we may yet speak again. Ta-ta, now..."

As it fades out of earshot, there's a soft whoosh as you look to the dais and there is suddenly a shrouded figure standing in the middle, appearing out of thin air. It appears to be a woman, long frazzled hair falling down to her waist as she stands in a tattered dress and looks away from the group. She is muttering something under her breath, too soft to make out from this distance, as she keeps her head lowered and hidden.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Ritual Chamber:

Even though Hazel calls out to the ghostly figure and the rest of the party begins to position themselves for a battle, the woman barely seems to even acknowledge them, merely shaking her head as if trying to ignore something. Moving closer Hazel can start to hear her voice, the same one they heard in the hallway before; she mutters the same word over and over. "Die, die, die..."

Approaching with more speed now, the apparition suddenly freezes when Hazel takes a step onto the raised platform. Almost as if on cue, wispy shadows begin dancing in the far upper corners of the room as a chant of cacophony echoes throughout the room:

"One must die. One must die. One must die! One must DIE! ONE MUST DIE!"

"No, wait..." The spirit falters at the sight, almost as if he had been struck with some knowledge. He struggles against an invisible weight but eventually pushes himself to stand next to Hazel, looking down at the sorry woman. "I didn't mean to, I--"

"Why... why me? Why. WHY. DIE. DIE --" Wailing in pain as the surrounding voices get louder, she eventually lets out a piercing shriek as she looks up to Hazel -- the paladin's gaze meeting with her cold, dead eyes. She rushes forward, the pounding chants emphasizing the clashing of life and undeath.

​

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Ritual Chamber:

Quickly the scene within the ritual chamber descends into a flurry of chaos and action, as the group tries to destroy the foul spirit. In response to the assault the ghost lets out a shrieking wail, piercing and painful. Surviving the psychic assault the group continues to whittle away at the spirit, pieces of her ethereal form starting to scatter away as she is torn into time and time again. Benson calls upon holy magic to summon a spiritual weapon and blast the spirit with divine energy, while Varis sends a barrage of magic projectiles before working to open the rusty portcullis, creating a means of exit. As a last resort she reaches for Hazel and gets a lucky strike, grasping her by the neck and draining her of all life. For a split second, the paladin loses consciousness and falls...

While Reppip works on bringing Hazel back from the brink with his healing words, the radiant spirit allied to the group pauses and locks eyes with the enemy ghost. He had been hesitating, not wanting to hurt this entity who clearly had a connection with him somehow, but after that attack on Hazel they felt a drive to protect, to vanquish this clearly evil creature. Focusing their energy within they reach out to the spirit and unleash a powerful ray of pure sunlit radiance, nearly blinding everyone else in the room. When the flashes subside the spirit is gone, utterly eradicated.

"I...." the spirit stares at their hands, much more see through than before. The attack had drained them greatly, to the point where they were barely even visible anymore. Despite combat subsiding for a second there was still an air of unrest, of tension.

Then the chanting continues, as if it had never left. "One must DIE! ONE MUST DIE! ONE MUST DIE! ONE MUST DIE!"

"Are you not happy?!" cries out the radiant spirit in frustration, its very voice starting to shake and distort. "No, no more deaths, no more darkness! Begone, you foul creatures!"

Almost as if on cue, the chanting stops abruptly once more. Then they speak in unison, deliberately and in controlled rage. "If you will not give us death, then we will claim yours."

There's another deep rumbling beneath the ground as the water ripples intensely -- as if the foundation of the house itself was losing stability. Looking to the far side of the room you notice that the enormous pile of refuse begins to shift, and then lift itself up as it begins to lurch towards the group...

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Ritual Chamber:

Your radiant spirit ally, though starting to feel scattered from vanquishing the other deathly specter, turns around and looks aghast at the large mass of vines and refuse approaching the group. Despite the group's best attempts the slaying of the creature proves difficult, as the vines twist and turn and somehow avoid the brunt of the force despite how slow it would appear to be. Even Hazel's ferocious strikes and Varis' magical bolts seem to only pick away at the edges of the monster.

He was weak, starting to fade, but he had nothing to lose now. Mustering all his power once more he lunges forward and drives both hands straight through the creature, searing it with pure concentrated light, even brighter than before. Averting your eyes at the last second you hear a loud "fwoosh" -- and when you look back, the right side of the creature is significantly seared, vines wrinkling up and falling off as they are burnt to a crisp. "

It's, still..." The spirit seems to hesitate at this, before looking back to you all. He's barely visible now, faint from expending all of his energy, but for the first time you can get a sense of expression on his blurred out face. It's fear. "Get out, while you still can, I --"

Suddenly a shadow eclipses the flickering as the remaining mass of the monster descends upon him, almost seeming to engulf him whole as murky water splashes up. In an instant the chamber becomes significantly darker, like something was ripped from you, and though it has no eyes you can tell it's looking at you next.

 

[Chinchster]

As Varis enters the room his hands begin to shake, looking at his friends he remembers what they need to do. Holding up both orbs he fires magic missiles at the spirit. Their new friend blasts it with a radiant bolt of light and Varis has to look away and as his vision returns the spirit is gone, but a new viney mass approached.

With the flickers of his new friend Varis knew they had to act fast. Wiping his brow of sweat seeing his allies fall from the devastating strikes Varis saw a light within his new orb. Channeling his force through this object more magic fired out looking similar to what their shiny friend produced. Reinvigorated at the sight their friend was still helping them Varis used the new orb again. Between breaths he maintained his powerful stance saying, "Show me your moves!" And with the final bolt the light in his new orb went dark but the enemy fell.

Falling to his knees Varis looked into the orb what did I do?! Did I kill what was left of our friend? I wanted him to see the fruits of his labor and have this house become clear of demons once again. A tear streaking down his face he looked to his team

 

[AtomGray]

During the battle, Benson commanded the summoned spiritual weapon to attack the creature. Then with a combination of spear attacks and blasts of radiant energy, the cleric whittled away at the mass of roots and vines slogging towards him.

Finally, he had to back off to heal his teammates who had been struck down by the monstosity. As he heals Hazel by channeling holy white light across her wounds, Varis delivers the final blow to the beast, and it collapsed into a pile of harmless debris once again.

"W-where is he? Varis? What happened, where did he go?" He looks helplessly at his teammates.

 

[ratbot]

Reppip, during the battle, attempted a few times to stab, and managed to cut off a piece of vine, but not much else.

 

[Locke9558]

Hazel clangs her shield with her sword as she feels the familiar excitement of battle come upon her. She charges into the fray against the spirit lady. After landing a blow or two she feels a chilling grasp grip her shoulder, and she loses consciousness. She regains it just as the spirit shrieks and disappears. She gives a grateful nod to Reppip, and hasn't even bothered to finish catching her breath before she charges the mass of vines approaching the group. Something... happened while she was unconscious, something had spoken to her. She didn't pause to consider this much though, she flexed her shoulders and bore down on the mass. It wasn't mighty like she was, it didn't deserve to continue living. Seething with anger she strikes deep into the mass of vines, but falls again as it retaliates against her. She wakes up to the face of Benson reviving her. She gives him a grateful nod, and stands. Her blood is still boiling but it seems that there is nothing else to fight. She paces around the altar, casting about for anything else that deserved purifying.

It takes her a moment, but she eventually catches her breath. A part of her recognizes that this amount of indignant rage is unusual for her, but she pushes that aside. There will be time for dealing with feelings later. The group was still in the middle of an unholy dungeon. She couldn't afford to let her attention slip again. She looks over at the mass of vines, "Uh... has anyone seen anything else of Mr. Shiny? I'd hate for us to have killed that thing and for him to have been dead already."

 

[Chinchster]

As Varis stands back up, he wipes a tear from his eye. "When Mr. Shiny dissappeared I saw some illumination in this orb I got. I thought he was helping us by giving some of his ability so I used it and it seemed to work well. Inspired by that and fearing for our lives I used it again. But after the second use the illumination went away. Did I kill him?" He sniffles as he thinks of what happens and looks around for any shred of hope he can that Mr. Shiny is still with them.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Ritual Chamber:

For a moment there is simply silence, as the death of the colossal creature sends ripples around the murky waters lapping around your ankles. There is a satisfaction not just in the vanquishing, but in the breath, the chill, the realization that you were still alive; and yet, there was still a feeling of tension, of anticipation, like there was a silence still waiting to be broken at any moment.

While the others gather their bearings, unable to see anything of their radiant spirit ally, Varis can sense a faint lingering presence in the air, that of the energy he'd lobbed at the creature to burn it up. Though it was faint, it seemed to coalesce around his orb as well as Hazel's cloak, drifting like soft snow; it almost felt like he was still there, in at least some dissipated form.

However you don't get much time to consider it, as the ground beneath you begins to shake violently. Stone bricks topple from the ledges, as chains above the dais rattle like broken bones. You thought it was over and yet, the very foundation of the house seemed to be crumbing down around you!

There was no time to dawdle, to contemplate nor to mourn -- you destroyed the evil creature below this deathly house, but if you didn't make it out in time, you would be joining it under the ground...