The Omen Star: The Pit (Ch. 1)

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Donovan nodded, unsure if Gliss would even be able to notice a nod. Sitting down in front of Likt, Donovan wondered how best to phrase it. "Erm, Likt, you see that black orb?" Donovan asked, pointing to the orb in question, "It might not be a bad idea if you took it with you."
Wondering how best to demonstrate his point, Donovan held out both his hands and willed the daggers back into existence their ice blue blades across his palms instead of holding onto the hilts, "We each 'ave something similar to these. We got them from meeting powerful spirits." Donovan nodded towards what had been the person who'd tried to grab the orb last, "Gliss said that one was a Dark One, 'ence why it went the way it did. The spirits don't like them. But it's your decision to make. We each made our choices." Donovan felt like dismissing the daggers again, but instead kept them with the blades flat across the palms of his hand.
 
Donovan nodded, figuring that the daggers alone weren't proof enough. "Erm, Gliss, did you 'ear that? Might 'elp Likt 'ere feel more comfortable about touching that orb if you could show something physical 'e can see so 'e'd go speak to your brother. Maybe changing my clothes might be proof enough for 'im."
 
Suddenly there is the sound like the cracking of glaciers, in Donovan's mind. A great rumbling before Gliss' voice pierces through it with thinly veiled annoyance. "These are not parlor tricks. This One was not made for amusement, pray that you do not die," comes Gliss' voice as suddenly Donovan's whole body begins to feel like he just landed in the ocean in the dead of winter. Involuntary shivers as mist began to form around his body, and slowly it coalesced into ice. Dovovan would feel that the ice formed so closely to the skin that some of it actually dug into his skin. The ice glowed a pale blue glow seeming to give off it's own illumination, and within almost a liquid like energy seemed to flow as if water were trapped on the inside of the now ice armor. The designs that go through the armor seem to be delicately crafted as if a careful craftsmen had put a lot of work into making it, and despite the ice's apparent look of heavy weight, it feels very light in comparison. The cold ice feeling begins to drift away as it complete's it's shape before Donovan hear's Gliss' voice once more. "Is this adequate?"
 
Likt shrinks back slightly, muttering under their breath "Him, what is a him?" Before slowly moving to the orb. he crouches down awkwardly, pale limbs twitching nervously. "well, already got one voice in my head half the time, how bad could another be." he slowly reaches out and puts one hand on the orb.
 
Feeling the cold bite into him, Donovan momentarily wondered if Gliss were punishing him and he'd overstepped the line. As the cold ice feeling numbed away and she spoke again, Donovan looked to see Likt's reaction. Seeing Likt put a hand on the black orb, Donovan smiled.
"Very much so." Donovan said, wondering if Gliss could see his smile, "Thank you Gliss, I think your brother might be about to make a new friend." As Likt started to react much like they had, Donovan looked down over his ice armor. 'I hope this lasts, it looks exquisite.'
 
Blackie watches with interest a few steps away, noticing the way Likt's eyes gain a far off look before placing the orb suddenly in his chest. Blackie gawks for a moment before shaking his head. "Too many things being pulled and put into people's chests. I think I liked it better when I was alone down here," says Blackie as his feathers ruffle for a second. "Well I guess that means we head back the direction to say hi to Mr. grumpy before walking towards the room with human statues. Lovely."
 
Likt jerks to their feet, sparing a glance at the sand for a moment and casting a nervous glance at the others. "That's weird." They mutter, sparing a moment to see if their mind felt any different before tucking their limbs in and asking "Go now? Want out of caves."
 
Umi watched the exchange with eyes wide, amazed by the transformation that Donovan underwent, his previous fear momentarily forgotten as he pondered the possible applications of such a power. At Likt and Blackie's reminder, Umi's curiosity was saved for another time, and he turned and faced where they had just come from. "Looks like going back might be our best option...also has anyone got any idea how long we've been down here? We may need to consider a place to rest for real at some point in the near future, our bodies are not exposed to the same stimuli as they would be above ground to signal sleep cycles, so we need to be extra careful we don't overexert ourselves."
 
The Pit:
??? (Dark Tunnel?)
_______________________________

Blackie helps the group quickly search through the things found. When the newest member Likt finds some bottles he examines it a bit closely, and recognizes the substance by smell. "Sleep Poison.... this stuff might sell pretty well on the blackmarket if we could get it out of here," he says before moving onto the other boxes. Meanwhile as he approaches where Anduryn's body was left on the ground, there is a very quiet snapping sound that no one seems to hear as it stealthily detaches Anduryn's head from his shoulders. Within the first few flaps Blackie with his sensitive bird hearing doubles over on the floor as the shriek pierces the room. The creature seeing it hardly took affect bolts off towards one of the passages leading downward. Everyone got a good view that it looked like the bat creatures fought an hour ago. "What the fuck are those things?!?" Blackie exclaims as he finally stands back up clearly not happy and occasionally shaking his head as if to clear a ringing sound.

Spriggy looks grimly at Anduryn's body for a moment shaking his head. "I don't know but if one of those things were ever to get out into the general populace... It could become an epidemic fairly quickly," says Spriggy with a bit of concern.
 
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Malxus is considering eating the fungus -- his stomach had been making vague threats of revolt for most of the day -- as he watches Anduryn's head remove itself and take flight. He drops to his knees as an ear-splitting shriek fills the cavern, trying to block out the sound with his hands. But it's what he saw that affect him most. Malxus has seen more than a few horrible things, but this was a new level of horrible. As his stomach heaves, he's suddenly grateful that he hadn't eaten all day, because it would be all over the floor now. Instead all that comes out is a few rasping coughs.

It takes a few moments for him to regain his bearing, to wipe that image from his brain. He almost begins to retch again.

"Wait, wait. That thing was inside him?! That was his fucking head?!" The darkness was closing in on him more now. Instinctively he summons his sword, desperate for any bit of light. "Yeah, let's go back. We need to find a way out of this place." The last thing he wanted to do now was go deeper into this horrible place.
 
The Pit:
Room #10
_________________________

The group spends the next hour back tracking through the tunnels and heads up the wall past Valerin who barely gives any recognition that they are passing through again before once again hitting the double doors. Blackie gets his knives at the ready as they push into the Statue room. Eventually they push on through a narrow tunnel that leads them into an even bigger room with more statues. Cautiously making your way through something skitters past you. Blackie goes to call out the warning letting you know something is in here, when something attacks Spriggy! He struggles with the creature for a moment tearing it off his arm, and you see a weird Lizardlike chicken with bat wings! Spriggy's wound begins to turn to stone as he looks to you in fear.

"Their bite, it turns to stone!" he says as it begins to spread up his arm. Another one comes out of the shadows of the room on the opposite side of the group about twenty feet out circling and making weird calls. A larger one answers deeper in the room...
 
Darting forward as he saw Spriggy get bit and the bite start to turn to stone, Donovan reacted on pure instinct. Stabbing straight down with one dagger and then the other, he managed to wound the chicken-like creature pretty well, giving it a taste of its own medicine as its wounds had a distinctive frost pattern over them. Not thinking much beyond the imminent threat of getting bit and being infected and thus wanting to end the creatures as fast as possible, Donovan finished off the one creature before running over to finish another creature that Malxus and Umi had been fighting along with Likt.

Taking a breath once the fighting was over, Donovan looked around for Spriggy and saw what had become of their friend, the orb rolling across the floor away from the statue.
"No need to ask, we shouldn't leave that orb behind either." Donovan said, forcing himself to stay perfectly calm. "Anyone know if there's any way to reverse this?" he asked, "Did anyone else get bit?"

'If there's no way to reverse this,' Donovan thought, looking at his daggers and tracing the shapes in their surface with his thumb, 'Maybe we should leave something.' Glancing to the door, Donovan had half a mind to yell at Valerin that on the off chance someone else came through to warn them. Or carve something on the door as a warning. Though what he was thinking of was Spriggy. Leaving something behind to make sure Spriggy wasn't forgotten.
 
"I'm not skilled in these sorts of things," says Blackie observing the statue that was Spriggy. "He was a brave gnome to say the least. Probably worse people deserved to die down here." Blackie went back over to the orb and made a decision. Taking his rag tag piece of clothing off he wrapped the orb in his shirt and slung it over his shoulders. Even the most cursory glance of Blackie's main body shows that he is missing feathers along his body and some scars show like he had been through either a lot of battle or perhaps tortured before being thrown down here.

"Well there's only one way forward.... should we move? If we find a way out maybe we'll find someone that can come back and undo this...?" he asks suggestively. His one of his daggers lays upon the ground as he holds the orb in the makeshift shirt over one of his shoulders in the other hand.
 
Umi panicked when Spriggy began to slowly turn to stone, and threw up a spell to prevent that from happening to him, and a small crowd of Umi’s formed around him, mirroring his every move. This was not a spell he had used often, just a fun trick he had picked up over the years, and to keep it up negatively impacted his performance during the following skirmish. The high elf looses a couple blasts of fire, none of which hit before the beast was taken down.

Umi watched as the orb rolled out of Spriggy and was collected by Blackie, and at Donovan’s question he stepped forward to examine the now statue. While it looked extremely lifelike, Umi was unable to determine how it would be at all possible to save him, and he gave the half elf a helpless shrug. “I have no idea...we just need to be careful. This pit appears to be populated by nightmares, so we need to be smarter, no more rushing into rooms, keep as quiet as possible, and stick together. For now, let’s keep moving...quietly.” Umi’s voice shook slightly with fear, but he attempted to put on a brave face in front of his companions.
 
Malxus mutters another prayer, turning away from the group. It was one horror after another down here.

"Perhaps we should rest. Or eat? Does anyone have any idea how long we've been down here?" He can't help but notice the bird's scars as he lifts up the orb. "Looks like you've seen a bit of action too, feathers. Where did those beauty marks of yours come from?"
 
As the others talk, Umi began to walk around the room looking at the different statues. While he was certainly interested in the process of turning skin to stone, he had absolutely no clue how one would reverse the process. It wasn’t exactly something he had learned about in school.

As he walked around, a glint caught Umi’s gaze, and he noticed a statue wearing breastplate. As the high elf approached it, he also noticed a silver longsword in their grasp. “Uh, guys? Take a look at this guy, he’s got actual armor and weapons...I think...I think he might have come from outside! And not the Pit, like he may have wandered in of his own volition, that could mean we’re close to the exit!”
 
Malxus scoffs. "Why would anyone willingly come to this horrible place?" He walks up to examine this statue, eyeing the sword, only for Likt to quickly take it from the statue's grasp. He narrows his eyes at the changeling for a moment. "Well if there's an exit lets find it."
 
Blackie shrugged for a moment seeming like he wasn't going to commit to answer the question. "Law's apply differently to you and me. Us feathered folk have never had a high standing in society, as many think of us as scavengers, and thieves. Probably why most of us end up that way," said Blackie as he adjusted the weight over his shoulder. "I used to be one of the Bonded, and my master wasn't always the kindest. Half of the time I forget they are there, and the other half of the time they are screaming. I guess some wounds don't fade over time."

As the subject turned to being closer to the exit Blackie nodded. "Makes a kind of sense. Well lets proceed then," said Blackie seemingly wanting to avoid the previous subject.
 
The Pit:
(Intersection)
_______________________________

Proceeding forward down the hallway past the stone statues you see a few others down this hallway, and come to a four way intersection with pathways leading off to the left and right, and one proceeding directly like an arrow straight forward. A distant light pours forth from the path leading forward, while the other two seem to be of a similar gloom as before. Blackie looks at each direction and then to the others. "Alright, do we avoid the metaphoric going into the light? or do we think that's the way out?" asked Blackie adjusting the makeshift 'pack' he had on his shoulder once more.
 
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The Pit:
(Exit)
________________

Proceeding down the hallway your eyes are assaulted with a steadily growing intense light that is pouring in. At first you wonder if it is the sun but you soon realize it is a light spell that seems to hover at the end of a stick placed in the ground of the room you enter. Scattered about the room is more of the tattered clothing with daggers, and shortswords scattered about the ground. In addition there are also bodies, that seem to have been cut down, and they were a purple cloth, with a symbol on their tabards. The symbol appears to be a group of people in the center of a circle design. A symbol some of you recognize as the symbol of the Companions. It would seem a battle took place here not too long ago, as the bodies haven’t fully started to decay, but already smell.

Blackie takes the time to investigate one of the bodies before pushing towards the door with the floating light, and see’s the distant dawn. “Looks like we found the way out!” said Blackie yelling back to them as he proceeded forward. Anyone who exits with Blackie will see a man on horseback waiting at the exit of the cave. There is a pack on the ground in front of him and he hails anyone exiting the Pit.

“Hail and well met,” he begins. He wears nothing outwardly that would identify him, to anyone looking for sigils or symbols. A scar down the side of his face marks that he’s no stranger to battle, and his swept back brown hair is a very stark contrast to most of the groups unkempt hair. “Seems this is the largest group to ever survive the trials inside. Odd, I don’t remember a tengu being thrown down last night. Regardless you have survived the trials of the Pit and thus you are officially pardoned by King Alistair of all prior crimes. None may hold the past against you or they risk suffering the King’s retribution. Make use of supplies and gold as you will, and more importantly make better choices in your new life.”

He turns his horse around as if to leave but stops in place. “Sir Galahad, requested I deliver this personally to anyone that survived the Pit. An odd request from a Paladin of the Dawnflower but I owe him one,” said the man as he pulled out a rolled up parchment with a seal and offered it out to the first person who would take it. You get the feeling he does no feel inclined to stay here much longer than he needs to.
 
Likt pauses for a moment, skin shifting as it darkens into a general human look, with blue eyes and short cropped black hair and a short beard. "We....we are free?" He asks cautiously as he steps outside, eyes slowly adjusting to the bright light. "We...can just go?"
 
Malxus walks toward the light, expecting something else horrible, and mostly finds it. The light turns out to be not the outdoors, but a chamber full of the recently dead. He considers grabbing a shortsword until Blackie shouts, and then he races down the hallway after him into the sunlight. It takes his eyes a moment to adjust, but when he does he sees the man on horseback, the pile of goods.

The shield catches his eye first, with the symbol of Sarenrae on it, almost as if it was made for him. Malxus tosses the bone one aside and picks it up, then grabs the battle axe and swings it through the air a few times, getting a feel for the weight. Next he notices a book and envelope, and scoops them both up.

"Umi ... blah blah blah ... book of spells ... blah blah blah ... eh." "Hey elf, this one's yours." He tosses it to Umi and turns to the man on horseback.

"Well I appreciate the second chance, but there are better ways to go about it!" he yells. "Do you know what happened in there? Who are the dead guys wearing purple?" he asks the stranger. He could see the woman again, holding out her burned arms to him, healing his mortal wounds, then saw the picture of her in back in the chamber. Malxus holds the shield up and examines the symbol. He was missing pieces to this mystery, and he wanted to find them.
 
Outside the Pit:
Dawn
___________________________

"Better than the other option of getting your head lopped off yeah? At least it appears to be a better fate for you all," he said before shrugging at the question. "I don't know anything about what might have gone on in there. I was just assigned to wait here for two days to see if anyone came out, and submit the results so you may be pardoned of your crimes officially. Been a long while since we've had a survivor, years in fact."
 
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