Party 8

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As Tazkul and Baltair accept the spirits into them, Cassia is stunned by the turn of events, her mouth agape. Of all the unholy...I cannot wait to be rid of this cursed house! She draws her sword, and hurries beside Tazkul. "I suppose you're leading us to that monster. It must be finished, one way or another. But you should have a sturdy sword-arm by your side, to face whatever it is that lies ahead."
 
Tazkul looks over towards Gaarek, and nods a bit towards him. "I'm here, Gaarek." He then looks towards Cassia, and although she was right...he was rubbed a bit the wrong way that she felt the need to even tell him. "I'm aware, Cassia. As long as the thing is still in the basement, that's what I'm leading you to."
 
"This is a really good thing you are doing guys. Giving these kids a chance to stand up to the monster themselves... kind of. I'm proud of you." Gaarek says as he follows along to the basement.
 
Baltair draws a deep breath as a strange chill runs down his spine. But then, he turns to the group, saying half to them and half to Thorn inside him. "Heh, it sure is weird but not necessarily unpleasant. You have to try things before you reject them anyway, am I right? Don't worry, I wasn't born for some monster to eat me! Besides, I'm too young to die!" He then stretches his back and flexes his muscles a bit. He then draws his sword and follows the others.
 
Storage Room:

Heading down the hall you open the door at the end and peer inside. The chamber is packed with old furniture draped in yellowing sheets -- chairs, coat racks, couches dappled with mold, standing mirrors, mannequins that loom out from the shadows. A wooden trunk sits nearby, its cover slightly ajar; peering inside you spot the silhouette of a frail skeleton, wrapped in a bloodstained bedsheet.

To the right, carved into the wall, stands a thick, black door. Behind it is a tight staircase that leads only down into darkness. There is a pull, a draw to the depths -- even to those who have not accepted another consciousness into their own. It is a dark energy, but you only feel resolve as you push forwards. There is no turning back now.
 
Tazkul moves inside, using enough precaution to not simply charge in, and enough to make sure nothing was about to sneak up on him. As curious as he was about what was here, this place was forsaken. He opens the door with authority, looking down into the darkness, filled with resolve and vigor as he steps down into the darkness. "This way. We end as much of this blight as we can today."
 
Dungeon Level Access:

A tight staircase spirals down into darkness between walls of mortared stone. Cobwebs and dust are everywhere, the once undisturbed citizens of this cramped passage now being brushed aside by your steps. Down and down into the depths you go, the shaft growing tighter and tighter. The air is stale, even bitter. Just as you can handle it no longer, just as your lungs are fit to burst, you find yourself before an archway that leads to a tunnel of carved earth and cold stone.

Moving forward the tunnel forks left and right, both leading into the darkness. For a long moment, as you grasp your bearing, there is a pressing silence. But at the faintest depths, far beyond recognition but barely within perception, the sound of something rumbling or echoing begins to stir. Still, at the moment, nothing seems to be bothering you... yet.

Boonslayer Boonslayer
"They had all this down here, and never told us...?" There's a shiver down your spine -- rather, felt by proxy through your own spine as your gaze wanders between all the possible paths to take. "No wonder they never let us down here... but still..." Your mind starts to race with errant thoughts, ideas, possibilities. "Was it a maze for the monster? What else could they have hidden down here?" There is a instinctual push to explore, to wander, to seek satisfaction in answers that could not have been gained in life.

RuneRW RuneRW
The cramped walls of the staircase make you feel cramped, claustrophobic even -- so much that you find yourself pushing through your teammates to race to the bottom and breathe again. But you are not satisfied by it, finding only damp, stale air and a looming sense of dread as you feel like something is lurking beyond every corner. "I-Is this what's down here? I hope we don't run into anything scary...." You feel yourself audibly gulping as any errant sound from the distance causes you to tense up. Who knows around which corner the monster could be creeping behind?
 
Gaarek stepped into the hallway as his eyes adjusted to the complete darkness that enveloped them. Looking down both paths he was unsure which way to go and worried what might be lurking in the shadows. He decided to play it safe and drew a torch from his pack but before he lit it he turned back to the group, "mind if I light this?"
 
Cassia smiles warmly at Gaarek. "Please, go ahead - this place could use some light." Peering around as her darkvision kicks in, she notices a side passage around the corner. Time to find out what remaining horrors this place has in store... She proceeds down the passage, sword and shield drawn.
 
Cassia looks around at the empty tomb, calmly considering the name on one of the spaces. "It appears we are in the family crypt." She turns to Tazkul and Baltair, a little unsure. "Was Walter the given name of one of you?"
 
Tazkul seems to cringe a little bit at first, but he pulls his quarterstaff out, casting light on it so that they can see well enough to be able to create more permanent sources of light where possible. A crypt. That explains one answer going through his brain as he moves behind Cassia. "Nothing is...coming to mind just yet, no."
 
Family Crypts:

Boonslayer Boonslayer
There's a moment of silence within the errant thoughts before the bubble up once more. "I... I remember. Our nanny told us to keep the secret, that we were going to have a brother soon, even though Mother was away on a trip... but then one day she never came back..." The ideas feel fuzzy, faint, distant. "That was... so long ago..." It fades once more to contemplative silence as you near the second set of crypts.

Moving down the path, you find a similar setup of two empty crypts, except the slabs upon these have two more familiar names: the one to the left reads "Rosavalda Durst", while the one to the right reads "Thornbolt Durst". All of you, even those free of a ghastly influence, can feel an instinctual feeling linger in the air: longing, tiredness, rest. It had been so long.
 
Baltair tries to steel his voice but the words barely come out as whispers. "Just... a little more, kids. It will soon be over. I... promise that you can... have your rest then."
 
Cassia peers into the third and final crypt, noting the names Gustav and Elizabeth and the filled coffins. Must be the parents - no need to cause distress to the spirits on this. She then goes back into the hall, looking left and then right. The tip of her tail twitches nervously, as she is uncertain of where to proceed; turning to Tazkul and Baltair, she asks: "Do you have a sense of which way we should go next?"
 
Tazkul shakes his head. "Unfortunately not. During life, they...were not allowed down here. Seems clear why that is. It seems that Walter may have been...a child that they never met." He looks down, towards the grave, then away for a moment, muttering under his breath. "I'm sorry, Rose..."
 
Sleeping Quarters:

As you finish inspecting the various crypts scattered about the halls you decide to take the northward passageway, setting down a small trap on the other end just in case. Taking a hard left and then descending a small flight of cracked stairs you find yourself in what appears to be a sleeping quarters of some sort.

Alcoves line this filthy room, each stocked with a moldy straw pallet that clearly has not seen the light of day in a long while. At the end of the hall a wooden table leans on uneven legs precariously supporting its own weight, its surface scratched and stained with age. In front of you, a slender hallway crawling with insects leads to another set of stairs.

Entering the room, the stench of rot tainting the air finally registers on your senses. Accompanying it is the sound of something shuffling within the darkness of the alcoves, and a faint, guttural snarling of something... inhuman.
 
Cassia wrinkles her nose, and suppresses a gag as they enter the foul-smelling room. The noises from the alcove instantly catch her attention. Her eyes dart to to an alcove at the far corner. She gestures towards it to the rest of the group, and begins to slowly approach, sword and shield drawn.
 
Sleeping Quarters:

The sound of Cassia's armor clanking echoes into the darkness, and for a moment the snarling seems to pause. You watch as a silhouette creeps out of the furthest alcove, shuffling step by step, until the sight becomes clear: it is a ghastly, sickly corpse walking upright and covered in ancient rags. Its head turns slowly towards the group, its deathly visage scrunching into a snarl, and in a moment it is charging, hungry for fresh blood.

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Inspired by Baltair's courageous charge, Cassia follows with her sword raised high. Something stirs in her when she sees the decrepit creature. Some things are beyond redemption. She strikes deep into the thing's chest, and in doing so, a soft glow emanates from her chest. A wrong thing - but I make it right! The glow jets across from her chest onto her sword-arm, then spreads from the sword onto the ghoul itself. It is quickly enveloped, and its skin crackles and burns as if being scorched by the heat of the sun. It manages a brief shriek before being completely consumed, and the charred remains topple unceremoniously to the ground.

Cassia gasps as she pulls her sword out of the corpse, taken a bit aback by the spectacle. The light - so beautiful, so terrifying... Catching her breath, she turns to Baltair and Tazkul. "Is...was that the monster you spoke of?"
 
Baltair sees the monstrous creature and the spirit of the child possessing him is immediately overcome with despair. Despair that he himself can feel too. He shores up his willpower nonetheless, as he was trained to do so. He knows their best hope in this fight will be Cassia, the paladin. He cries out to her, his voice barely thinner than usual. "Cassia! Cleanse that monstrosity from this world!" With a last strain of his resolve, he holds his sword up, grasping it with both hands and meets the creatures charge with his own...

But it wasn't enough. He relents in the last moment, his half-hearted swing going wide. His sword falls out of his hand and clatters to the ground and he himself nearly falls over, taking a knee. He then feels the sorrow of the child inside him well up stronger than ever before. He can no longer hold back the feeling and begins to sob, a sorry sight for a full-grown dwarf.
 
Tazkul was a bit slow reaching the rest of the group, by the time he got to the room, they were already standing over the re-killed corpse, looking as Baltair is on a knee, making his way over towards him. "Are you--?" He then moves down to try and comfort Baltair before he can finish, in part realizing what was going on.
 
Gaarek could smell the fiend as soon as he entered the room, but was slow in pinpointing it. While Baltair and Cassia were striking down the enemy Gaarek was still preparing for battle and by the time he drew his maul and got within striking distance the threat was dispatched. "Was this creature really the cause of all this?"
 
Sleeping Quarters:

For a moment Gaarek's question echoes out into the silence of the halls, accompanied by naught but the distant drippping of water and the skittering of insects within the cracks of the walls.

And then? Floating out from that utter blackness from the nighted depths beyond the limits of your vision? Chanting. Ethereal chanting by a score of souls, chanting that echoes off of every stone and corner of this wretched place, rising and falling in intonation; the words too distant, too faint to discern, but eerie and incessant. The chanting caresses you like an old lover, too far-gone to be touched, but too close to be forgotten.

Boonslayer Boonslayer RuneRW RuneRW
Though it is wordless, there is a feeling that bubbles up that you know to be true: the house is shifting. The spirits you house within yourselves feel a pull to it, a bond that sticks to the soul; it leaves you uneasy but with a silent urge to press on, into the depths of this forsaken place. With an urge to seek the truth.
 
Cassia's head snaps up at the sound of the chanting. "Seems we've not yet finished here." She puts her hand on Baltair's shoulders. "It's alright, the strain is getting to us all. But we have to press on!" She looks momentarily back at the pile of charred remains, then turns and continues out the passage to the West.
 
Gaarek takes a moment to drink from the waterskin hanging from his belt. He knew he was slowing down, tiring from their battles and the beating the armor had given him. The others took care of that monster and I barely reacted. I can not become a burden to them. He began to follow Cassia, his weapon in hand, trying harder to focus and be ready.
 
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