The Omen Star: The Pit (Ch. 1)

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Donovan nodded as Squiggy told his portion, "So wind," Donovan said, pointing to Squiggy, "Ice," Donovan added, pointing to his own chest. "Wonder what the others will get?"

Looking at his hands for a second, Donovan smiled, "The spirit I met said her name was Gliss and that she was a spirit of Ice. Her temple looked very ornate. Big temple made out of ice in the middle of a blizzard." Donovan said, wondering if he'd get to see that temple again. 'Should be a great help dealing with whatever's beyond that door, though I wonder what Gliss meant when she said the fight against the Dark Ones."
 
Malxus watches the orb disappear into Squiggy, and the the crossbow appear and evaporate, and couldn't help but touch one himself. He was drawn to the warm glow of the red one.

Next he found himself staring out at a blasted, fiery landscape, a volcano blazing below him. A massive figure emerged, leaning down to stare him in the face. He called himself Igneous, and offered a partnership of sorts, in exchange for one important detail: his true name. Always seeking power, Malxus accepted, and found himself back in the cold, dark pit a moment later. The apparition of a jagged, fiery longsword disappearing from his hands.

Malxus listened to the others' tales. Wind and cold.

"Seems we all made a bit of a bargain today. Some sort of elemental spirits perhaps?" He summoned the fiery sword back into his hand. "I was standing on a volcano, and a giant emerged from the lava. He offered me fire."
 
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Anduryn looks at the last orb left after listening to what everyone else had experienced, and he picks it up. His gaze goes distant much like the others and before too long he places the black orb into his chest and upon coming back to consciousness a wicked looking greatsword appears in his hands for a moment, before it begins to fall apart into a blackish goo that fades before ever reaching the ground. He looks to the others regaining his bearing on where he was. "A landscape of bones. Endless death, and a spirit called Caedos who offered me.... Entropy."
 
“Entropy? That sounds different to what we got, how are you all feeling? Surely this will help us make our ways out of here” Spriggy let out a nervous chuckle as the menacing greatsword appeared in Anduryn’s hand “So, I’m assuming you were all told to fight the dark ones as well? If so, that makes us bound to one another I think”
 
"Yes, I was told similarly," says Anduryn seemingly still taken aback by the very magical display he had witnessed. "I guess that leaves only one direction as the way out. At least we have weapons at our disposal now should anything threatening be further in this... Pit."

Anduryn heads for the doorway and waits in the room with the rats looking at the door forward. The rats continue to munch on their meal, and all of you have a feeling the spirits you have just met must have been hidden in a secret room for some reason.
 
Seeing Spriggy's crossbow appear, and seeing that he was overall intact, Umi eyed the other orbs. Seeing the black one, Umi immediately shuddered and stayed away from that one. He was a bit disappointed to not see a yellow orb, as it was his favorite color, but he instead chose the deep brown which reminded him of the pages of some ancient tomes he had perused in his time. Upon touching it, Umi had to blink repeatedly as he found himself outside in some mountain range. He was facing a stone statue, who spoke to him about using the power of Rock, then mocked his clear lack of upper body strength. Telling the statue that not all strength came from the body, but from the mind, Umi spoke his name and accepted the bond. When the high elf found himself in the cave once more, he felt the weight in his hand and glanced down to see a razor sharp diamond dagger in his palm.

As soon as he lifted it to inspect it, the dagger crumbled away into dust. Glancing over at Spriggy, he said "I spoke with Grine, the spirit of Rock. Before I came back here, he also mentioned something about using his power to defeat 'The Dark Ones.' I don’t know much about them, as they have only been mentioned occasionally throughout the tomes I’ve read. Any information on them disappeared about a millennial ago, but I know they live down here, underground, and they also are related to some past disaster. I agree that we are bonded together ourselves now, so we should continue to take great caution as we proceed." His warning uttered, Umi looked down at his hands and knew that the dagger he had summoned once entering the Pit would never suffice in a real battle. The trinkets he pulled from the magical aura he felt in the air were not often very durable. Umi closed his eyes and concentrated on the earth beneath and around him, holding out his palm as the sharp diamond dagger appeared in it. Nodding with satisfaction, he looked to the others and said “Shall we continue deeper?”
 
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Squiggy, now more confident thanks to this newfound power, walks to the wizard and barbarian nearing the exit of the room “yes, continuing sounds favorable. Dark ones huh? Terrifying stuff really, a weird prophecy to say the least” the gnome chuckled to himself but his eyes display a kind of fearful pride of this new duty
 
Following along with Squiggy, Donovan kept looking at his hands. 'Terrifying. Especially since Gliss said others had been to her temple before. I don't know enough yet, but the implication can't be good.'

"Yes, let's continue deeper." Donovan said, trying to avoid looking at the rats as he thought about what the paladin had said before booting them into the pit.

'I hope you use this chance to reforge your life and keep that flame you found there in the pits burning to craft your way to something greater than you have achieved with your lives thus far.' Donovan repeated to himself, 'Did they know those orbs were down here when they tossed us in?'
 
No doubt his goddess would approve of slaying these dark ones. He was beginning to see purpose in having been exiled into this hole. Perhaps she even meant for him to find this sword, and awaken the power of the weapon. Part of him knew somewhere that was unlikely, but his thirst for power was always lingering there in the back of his mind, whether it come from Sarenrae's blessing, or a magic weapon.

Malxus kneeled a moment and said a silent prayer. "Forgive me for doubting your guidance. I shall smite these dark ones in your glorious name." He stepped around the rats, still gnawing hideously on the corpses.

"Aye, let's get away from this disgusting room and see what awaits us in the dark."
 
The Pit
4th Chamber
______________________________

Upon entering this chamber it is different than the other chambers, not due to it's walls or texture but due to the features it has. To the north is a pool of sunken water. The surface of the pool is placid and reflective and in the current darkness your darkvision sees it almost as a sheet of glass. Not surprisingly across from you is a door seemingly to lead forward. The room is full of broken traps that seem to have activated and fallen into disrepair long ago. Long bladed pendulums hanging at odd angles. There comes a voice in the far corner however of someone whispering to themselves.

"They're not real. They will go away. Ignore them. Don't look at their faces. Shhh!!" is some of the dialog you can hear before coming across a dwarven woman huddled in the corner in rags. She seems to be clinging to something desperately in self defense, and after a moment you can see it is a sharpened bone wrapped in leather to act like a dagger. She pointedly avoids eye contact with all of you hoping that you will leave her in peace. There are dead and chewed on rats around her in the vicinity.
 
Malxus was running out of patience with this woman. He had tried to talk nicely to her, but now he only wanted answers.

"What killer? What cannibals? Speak woman, and we'll make short work of whatever horrors lie ahead." Malxus conjures his flaming longsword again. He was really starting to like it. "There's nothing down here I can't handle."
 
At first, the gnome did not approach the woman, he instead walked to the pool of water and, noticing its darkness, dropped his glowing pact sword into it, It seemed to go down a bit before hitting the bottom. : Too deep to swim through safely " he thought to himself. Spriggy approached the woman cautiously, he wanted to help her and get her out of here "Ma'am, you must come with us, we are going to be getting out of here and we hope that you will come with us" as he did this, he put a hand on her shoulder as if to prove he was real. This, however, didn't help as she replied more to herself than the group. "Well fellows, it seems as if there's a cannibal who has this next room on lockdown, what say we deal with it and make our way out?"
 
The woman who had talked a bit madly at first babbling for awhile before Donovan managed to calm her down after knocking her weapon away finally met eyes with someone. She turned to Malxus before looking towards the forward door. "The Killer I saw thrown down here with of course! It's only me and him left from the last group but I won't let him get me killed too! He's further in trying, plotting.... thinking.... conniving his way out." She then points to the door forward as the way to go. "You're free to go die with him, but I'll be staying here."
 
Still not comfortable with the knife in her hand with the way she was behaving, Donovan moved forward at the first sign that she was about to swing it again. Snatching it out of her grasp, Donovan tossed the knife behind him, letting it clatter across the floor. With the threat of a weapon gone, Donovan knelt down in front of her and looked straight into her eyes.
"'ey, it's alright. You're safe." Donovan said, trying to calm her down. "Look, no one is going to force you to do anything." Hearing someone shouting behind him, Donovan glanced over to see a flaming longsword appear. Turning back to the dwarven woman, Donovan said, "My name's Donovan. If there's cannibals down 'ere we can deal with them. You can come with us or stay here, its your choice. But there's safety in numbers." Donovan said as a phrase came to mind. Something he'd heard one of his father's say repeatedly, almost like a mantra.

'A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow.' Donovan thought, realising the irony of the situation and that phrase coming to his mind. "And someone up there," Donovan pointed at the ceiling "Said we're down here to try and redeem ourselves. Which means there's a way back. You don't have to live in this darkness." Donovan reasoned, "You could live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow. No more having to eat rats."
 
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"You believe that peddling paladin? I don't trust no godly intervention. I'll wait here a bit longer, just wait. Then I'll find my own way out. Out and up. Got to go up," she says as she starts to mutter to herself again towards the end of the sentences. "In the end killers get their dues." She says this last part to no one in particular but instead as if it was an echo of someone else's quote. Her gaze eventually found its way to the water to which she cautiously stood up to go drink some more water before heading back to her defensive corner.

The Pit
5th Chamber
______________________________

After briefly diliberating the group decides to push on through the next door. After about thirty feet of hallway they come to a door which upon opening enters a similarly shaped room as the last minus the water and triggered traps. This room has a door to the left and right upon entering, and a black feathered figure that turns your direction upon entering the room. Two daggers are quickly drawn from the bird man's makeshift rope belt around his waist, and two eyes stare curiously out at the group gathered. He notes the flaming sword almost immediately and an eyebrow raised.

"So two assassin's weren't enough to finish the job, how much did they offer you four? Hope it was more than the other poor bastards that tried before," says the black feathered figure. It's clear he's in fairly rough shape like the woman from the previous room, and upon speaking there is a scratching coming from the south door which the birdman seems to ignore for the moment instead intent to keep his daggers at the ready and a cautious eye on you all.
 
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Donovan held his hands up to show he was currently unarmed. 'Bet he won't be expecting ice daggers, but for the moment let's see if we can talk this guy down.' Donovan thought to himself.

"Erm, nobody offered us anything. We got chucked down 'ere courtesy of a paladin's over shined boot. Same as you I'm guessing?" Donovan said, hoping a slight joke would help ease the tension a little, "My name's Donovan, what's yours?"
 
The birdman cocked his head to the side for a moment as if considering or trying to remember something. "You'll forgive me if I don't quiet take your word for it, though I have a feeling that we indeed were chosen by the same foot to be the first ones down," says the bird as he looks towards the door scratching and then shrugs, his hands out wide with the gesture, knives held loosely in hands. "Well Mr. Donovan seems we find ourselves in need of finding a way out of here. I could use the help since the lady back there is convinced I'll stab her in the back the first chance I get. Honestly, I'd be ill convinced myself if someone else had killed two people who had been sent down here with the group. Luckily I was the first awake after that nasty fall."

He shakes his head for a moment before looking back among the gathered people entering the room. "My friends call me 'Blackie' though I'm not sure I have any more. So what do you say? Is there any honor among thieves?"
 
Donovan was surprised that Blackie admitted to killing so readily. Though remembering the note that was found by Umi, a picture was forming in Donovan's mind. Someone trying to assassinate Blackie, Blackie discovering that fact while the rest of his group were unconscious, Blackie killing before he was killed, the dwarven woman from before waking up afterward to find two of her group dead and the third having killed them. Deciding to play for time so that the rest of his group could make their own decisions, Donovan asked, "'eh, are you in 'ere for stealing too?"
 
"Offically?" he asked taking a moment to let the word hang. "Yes, if you count stealing life along those terms. Didn't actually kill the guy but they set me up pretty good. Called a meeting, and when I showed up the guards were there in numbers. Should have seen the trap but figured we'd cleared the place out before. Far too quiet for that though."

Blackie tapped one of his daggers against his beak for a moment. "Real reason is closer to sleeping with the wrong woman. That doesn't quiet get you convicted as quickly to be put down here though does it? Down here where they're is little were to run, and even less to fight with. Though you lot seem to be doing a bit better than me." says Blackie as he uses his other dagger to point off towards Malxus' flaming longsword. "An oddity keeping me from believing you are down here just like me, and not here to collect on a nice gold reward for my life."
 
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"The upside of working together."

Malxus lets his sword disappear in a wisp of smoke. This must be the bird the note was talking about. Not exactly what he'd expected. He looked like he could have his uses. He would have jumped at the chance to collect a bounty in his old life. Nowadays he'd have to determine whether the guy deserved it first. Life has gotten complicated.

"So you're the bird from the note we found. Looks like those hired daggers didn't do much good." Malxus holds up his empty hands and puts on his best smile. "I've got no reason to kill you as long as you don't give me one. For instance, if it turns out you have a taste for flesh." He points a thumb over his shoulder at the room they just left.

"Crazy lady says there's cannibals up here. Know anything about that? And what's that damned scratching?!"
 
Spriggy, upon hearing the bird’s side of the story, had no reason to distrust him. After all, you only make so many friends down here “So, it seems like you’ve been down here a while, any idea on a way out?”
 
"Negative, went to the room over there and four sets of eyes was enough to dissuade me and the dwarven lady back there from going any further. She almost shut me in there with them, poor Tim got left in there and eaten though. Wasn't a slow process from the sounds of it. After Tim's death that was all that was left of our group and she didn't necessarily like me so much. Not uncommon for people to distrust us Tengu. No better than thieves, the lot of us," says Blackie flipping a dagger in his hand and catching it. The last part of his speech held some emotional charge to it, but he seemed to let that go rather quickly. "If you want to put that fire sword, though don't let me stop you."

Blackie then points the dagger he just caught over to the other door. "The other direction is a dead end. A sort of office so to speak and where I found this second dagger. A few books, rotted paper, desk, chair and not one hidden compartment. Pity really."
 
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Waiting for the woman to take her fill of the water, Umi knelt down beside the pool and inspected it for himself. He could see through it fairly easily, and didn't see any nasty particles floating around in it, so he drank a few mouthfuls as well. Never know when we could encounter water again in this place, but I wish I had some way of bringing some with us. Still, good to know it's here.

Umi followed the others into the next room, seeing the Tengu with his daggers drawn, and Umi stayed far away from him as possible. Once the others seemed to talk him down, he cautiously walked towards the door Blackie said was a dead end, making sure to avoid the daggers. "I'd love to take a look for myself, I've worked with books my whole life. I'm quite interested to see what books will be down here in this place." And with that, Umi opened the door and took a look around, only to find it exactly how Blackie had described it, much to his disappointment. The only difference was a completely faded mark on the wall that he could neither make heads nor tails of. He reentered the room and shrugged, "Couldn't even read the titles of the books unfortunately...oh well. Ready to move onto these evil eyes if you lot are."
 
Malxus prepared himself for the battle ahead when he heard Umi coming out of the office and glanced back at him. As he moved away and the torchlight faded from the room, it was a replaced by a greenish glow, not unlike the one they had seen in the room with the levers and the arrow-riddled bodies.

He followed it into the room and saw its source. A glowing map covered the wall. It seemed to show Highwall and the surrounding cities, but it was ... wrong. Cities were in different locations, and some were marked where none existed. Was this map extremely old, or was it something else entirely?

"Umi, douse that torch and come take a look at this."
 
The Pit
Side Room
________________________

Inside the room now a glow held. The map showed what looked like a large scale version of most of nearby lands with a ring symbol around Highwall, and various other points. One each located in the cardinal directions from Highwall. Spriggy having nothing to write with starts to try and copy at least some of it onto the leather armor he wore for later viewing. Blackie whistled from the side peering into the room. "That's new. Is it possibly activated by light? Didn't see it the first time I was in this room." He says from the side before looking over to Malxus. "Good eye. Might have made a good spotter. As for the evil eyes... I guess we'll see. I don't envy the scrap but it's the only way forward that I know of."
 
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