Game Thread A detour delayed but not defeated - Page 7

Elwen · #91 12-08-2009, 03:00 AM

Lorilei watches the creature's reaction trying to judge from what little she knows about him exactly how well received the offer is. On the one hand, it seems odd to consider knowledge more valuable than gold, but then she would pay quite a bit of coin herself for some answers right now, so in a way it makes sense.

Codger · #92 12-08-2009, 08:24 PM

A general droop of disappointment is Lerpha's initial reaction, not surprisingly. Perking up at Slade's offer of presumably inconsequential information, the lizard plucks a single tiny ruby from Liria's cache, and promptly swallows it. While such an act strikes some as quite odd, Rin knows that many larger lizards have multiple stomachs, and the use of one for storage is not so strange once considered.

"A tale of minimal value to me just now, as I cannot keep track of different Houses" he admits to Slade "but one that very well might grow in value over the coming days. So we shall call the exchange even, once all of you gather near enough around me to cast the spell."

Once in place, the actual casting is barely noticeable. Everyone can still see each other quite clearly, and only the faintest of shimmering around the group as a whole reveals the spell's effect. Not one to dawdle when action is required, Lerpha immediately directs Rin to lead them in the desired direction. Describing a stream bed nearby to the south, which very recently dried up, he opines that it should get them very near to Ivorial Tor with little risk of crossing any patrols. Once moving, he explains the limitations of the spell, especially the fact that while they are invisible, footprints and branches pushed aside remain visible. Of course there are spells that could allow someone to see them, hence the choice of route.

It takes less than a quarter of a candlemark to reach the still drying stream bed. Deep enough to avoid distant scrutiny, it is also littered with exposed rocks that will reveal no sign of their passage. The downside is that they are forced into single file for the majority of the way, stepping from rock to rock. While quite agile in many ways for a lizard his size, Lerpha does struggle from time to time spanning the gaps without using his stubby tail somewhere that would leave a trail. Still the pace is rather sprightly, all things considered. The heavily puddled ravine meanders south and west, in turns, with the higher portions of both banks cluttered with all manner of animal tracks of those seeking water where it no longer flows. With the sun rising towards mid-morning, the forest around them is alive with birdsong, but little else. That is, until screams erupt from a cave in the riverbank they are approaching.

Of course everyone in the group halts abruptly with the first screams, with Slade nimbly stretching between two boulders at the rear, instead of finishing his planned hop and crowding Lorilei. The sound of people running hard over loose gravel blends with the screams, all coming from the cave mouth on their right, as members of the halted group look to each other for opinions on how to proceed. Lerpha begins waving towards the left bank when the first gnomes explode out of the cave, running blindly in stark terror. Luckily none of them angle towards the invisible group, instead charging right up the opposing bank as if they will not stop until their legs give out. Three adult gnomes, two of them women carrying squalling children, scramble up the steep bank. A fourth adult belatedly brings up the rear, a grizzled old gnome hacking away at something behind him with a gleaming shortsword. As he grudgingly retreats after his fleeing companions, swinging for his very life, his foe is abruptly revealed.

Slimed with brown mud, likely from its hiding place within the cave, a gray-skinned ghoul snarls relentlessly after the brave gnome fighting a delaying action so the others can escape. At least one more fiendish ghoul lurks behind the first, merely waiting to exit the cave, before it will surely take advantage of the open space to assault the gnome. There may well be more behind, as the fleeing screams still drown out any ghoulish noises issuing from the cave.

Not even Lerpha could have foreseen this. With so much happening in the space of a few heartbeats, the group is forced to make some choices here. The lizard has explained that attacking anything will abolish that individual's invisibility, but no one else's. They could backtrack, and hope that the ghouls notorious sense of smell does not reveal their nearness, but that would leave the gnome outnumbered and hard pressed, if not worse.

Nimlos · #93 12-09-2009, 01:45 PM

For a brief time, Liria's thoughts are light. Presuming Lerpha can be trusted, as the blade seems to suggest he can, they are well on their way to resolving at least one of the troubles that have plagued them since that day at the spring. Perhaps, she thinks, just perhaps in time all the curses will be put right.

Hopping from stone to stone in the muddy creekbed, she abruptly realizes the enhanced balance and agility the curse gave her is something she's begun to take for granted, something she's come to expect, much like how she can see as well as midnight as at noon. It's a disconcerting realization, one that weighs down the lightness of her thoughts, dragging them back down again toward the anger and despair and confusion that always seem to be waiting for her.

She has little time to dwell on it, however, as the sound of terrified screams pierce the deceptively peaceful forest around her and she spots the gnomes just ahead of them, bursting from their cave in a desperate race for their lives, one brave soul among them staying behind to fight ... she sucks in her breath when she sees what the lone gnome is facing.

In the space of a moment, thoughts collide. If she acts, if she breaks the spell, the chances of reaching Ivorial Tal may be gone. If she acts, she may be changing the past. Who can say what would have happened? In her time, all these gnomes are dead anyway. She spits out a curse under her breath. None of that matters. There are oaths she took before the Curse: to give aid where it could be given; to strike at evil wherever it lay. She rips the blade from its scabbard. Beyond even the oaths, there is good and there is evil, there is right and there is wrong. Her hesitation a moment before leaves a bitter taste of shame in her mouth.

"Stay," she hisses to the others, even as she leaps from the stone she's standing on and races toward the fray. The blade whistles over her head as she brings it down on the ghoul.

Elwen · #94 12-09-2009, 02:10 PM

Lorilei balances precariously on the rock, blinking at the commotion. When she sees the gnomes fleeing for their lives she frowns, her eyes focused on Liria. Don't do it...don't you do it...Please don't run out there.. She silently pleads, focusing her thoughts and will on the paladin.

When she rushes off after the ghoul, Lorilei whispers a rather unlady-like expletive, she certainly did not learn that from her tutors. She then follows the paladin, moving to try to flank the creature and lend what aid she can. Burn every god...of course she'd want me to help a suicidal paladin...I should have just took the punishment...

Whispers · #95 12-09-2009, 05:36 PM

The moment Rin realizes the source of the commotion his blades are in hand and he is sprinting towards the undead monstrosities. The ranger does not pause in the slightest at Liria’s request for them to stay put, how could he just stand idle and allow a family of gnomes be slaughtered or his companion engage a pair of ghoul’s. It was a foolish though, he would rather taking his chances finding their way to Ivorial Tal unmolested than not do what was right.

With his emotion worked out in his mind, Rin slips away from the riverbed and rushes towards the lead ghoul slashing wildly with his pair of kukri, he comes at the creature with a pair of slashes aim at the creature’s legs, hoping to hamper its mobility.

Codger · #96 12-09-2009, 11:47 PM

There are few creatures more unequivocally evil than undead, and ghouls are no exception. Nearly as one the group surges forward to attack the pair, sacrificing their cheaply bought protection from prying eyes. Yet in those few paces run towards the vile ghouls, a number of surprises come to light. The first is an overwhelming stench of decaying flesh wafting from the cave's interior, foul enough to sicken any living creature. Clearly a harbinger of a notorious ghast, the deadlier version of a ghoul, the horrific reek exudes from the lead creature coated in slimy mud.

On the heels of that disturbing surprise, comes the transition into a veritable beam of unadulterated evil pouring straight out of the gaping cave mouth. More than strong enough to cancel out the benevolent effects of the elven mythal overhead, and then some, the change is so abrupt as to nearly stagger those that cross its invisible edge. It latches onto any dark emotion being felt and amplifies them, while dimming any light emotions within its reach. Even worse, something truly insidious squirms into any affected minds, to dredge up thoughts of overweening confidence.

Last but not least, those that draw near enough to the pitch black cave mouth hear frightening sounds from within it that chill the very blood in their veins. The muffled cries of a very young girl, likely gnomish, relate abject terror and mindless desperation. Over those faint sounds, the disgusting hisses of the ghouls, and the combat itself, is a woman's voice boldly singing with a heartless snarl in her voice.

"...tremble lightly,
as I claim your soul most rightly,
Feed my pretty with all your fear,
while I take all that you hold dear,
..."

The gnome literally wets himself as swung weapons on muscled arms suddenly become visible. Falling hard on his backside, it takes a few moments for his brain to accept what he is seeing. Rin and Liria reach the ghast almost simultaneously, as the ranger was a step ahead, while the paladin charged a moment earlier. Rin delivers a minor cut to its arm stretched towards the fallen gnome. Liria delivers a modest cut to its upper back. It squeals loudly at the wounding, almost as if in delight.

Having started off at the same time, Lorilei arrives a moment later on the far side of the ghast, having run through the space where the gnome fell back. In passing the man, she noted a wild gleam in his eyes, but initially put it down to concern for his family. She too inflicts a minor cut on the ghast, to its other arm. Again comes the loud squeal, reveling in the pain. A second glance at the sitting gnome reveals madness in his dark eyes.

More than a full step behind the rest, Slade nimbly runs up the worn ledges of the rock face, unraveling his wicked chain along the way. He swings it ruthlessly down at the head of the trailing ghoul, but upon entering the cone of desecration flowing out of the cave, the lethal barb drops limply instead of connecting. As he yanks the chain back for another swing, only his significant dexterity and familiarity with the weapon keep it from drawing his blood as its fang veers strangely at him! In his possession for many a day now, the rogue must wonder if some actions on his part might improve his relationship with the trapped soul within.

Having begun levitating at the first sign of trouble, Lerpha's absence from the battle causes a concern or two as he remains invisible, even to those he is guiding. A searing ray of blistering orange though, striking down over the heads of Rin and Liria at the ghast, reveals the lizard floating above where he earlier stood. Unlike the pleasure seemingly enjoyed from the cuts received, to this the ghast howls in pain.

Just as the hardy gnome gets back to his feet, the ghast bites him again, this time on the cheek. One clawed hand swipes at Lorilei, the other at Rin, but neither connects. The trailing ghoul, wary of Slade above, scores only one scratch on Liria with its clawed hand, but the wound burns as if poisoned.

"Now we take your virginal blood,
which we trample in this dark mud,
Soon you will feel the fever's grip,
and from your bones your flesh will rip,
..."

Greaven · #97 12-10-2009, 02:32 AM

Growling over his mosfortune, the situation and his unnatural hate of these things. Why did he hate these things so much? And that smug look on the paladin's face was begining to eat away at his last nerve. And the noble... blinking he shakes his head, trying to banish the vile thoughts as he twirls the chain, "You hunger? Or do I displease you? I am sorry my friend, I am a bit thoughtless, and I shall have to correct this." Growling he pushes his heart into the motions, smirking with confidence as he swings the chain about and lashes down, "Yah Mule!"

Elwen · #98 12-10-2009, 05:27 AM

Lorilei hesitates for a moment as she passes around the ghoul, frowning a little at Liria. Then she shudders. Oh...good....they speak in verse...at least we'll die to poetic corpses... She hesitates, glancing towards the darkness beyond the ghast with a strange look in her eyes. She thrusts her rapier half heartedly forward, not even pausing to see whether or not it connects.

Nimlos · #99 12-10-2009, 01:58 PM

Liria's breath catches in her throat at the sound of the young girl's terror and the chanting coming from within the cave. A wave of darkness washes over her, a sense of anger and release that she can feel worming its way into her mind, stretching forth to touch the darkest parts of herself with a tantalizing feel of familiarity, but she forces it back, focusing herself on the battle and the thought of the helpless child within the cave.

The scratch of the ghoul's claw is little enough of a wound, but there is more to it than merely the filthy talons of the undead. Around the scratch, her joints stiffen and muscles tighten, threatening to leave her frozen in place until that, too, is thrown off.

Teeth bared in anger, she swings Heironeous' Light once more at the ghast in front of her, taking advantage of the distraction provided by Lorilei on the other side of the monstrosity to strike well and true. But her own distraction, a muffled scream from within the cave, robs her stroke of its power.

Whispers · #**100** 12-10-2009, 09:58 PM

As the stench of the undead creature wafts into Rin’s face the ranger is suddenly overcome with a gut wrenching pain. His insides feel as though they are being clawed at from within. Nonetheless the hardy ranger attempts to bite back the overwhelming nausea and lunges forward with his kukri. The sickness within him takes its hold over him and he has trouble mustering a proper assault.

“This one is already lost.” He manages to sputter between violent gags of his throat. “His eyes are wild already.”

Codger · #**101** 12-11-2009, 12:33 AM

Another swing of the eldritch blade, another scratch carved across the mud-slicked gray skin of the ghast, and another gleeful squeal of utter madness. If anything, the foul undead seems to be straining for more severe wounding, its foot long tongue slapping wildly against face and chin. While Rin swings a pair of attacks, his nausea prevents him from posing any real threat. Almost indifferently, Lorilei lightly skewers the ghast, but the lack of strength behind the thrust leaves it too little more than a scratch. Cajoling his suddenly temperamental chain, Slade flings it out again at the ghoul blocking the cave's dark mouth. This time the metal fang penetrates the ghoul's skull with uncanny accuracy, but the chain goes rigid in response. Almost as if frozen in place, the dead or dieing ghoul, and the chain's entire length, hang there unmoving.

The male gnome remains lying on his backside, paralyzed and wounded, but with a pair of fat teardrops ever so slowly inching down his ruddy cheeks towards his thick beard. Unaware of many details transpiring below, Lerpha casts a magical arrow of acid into the ghast, turning its playful squeals into screams of pain. Unable to refrain from taking a more active part, despite the inherent risk of drawing debilitating attention, Heironeous Light unleashes its bluish-white nimbus of Lawful Good energy. But it still suffers from the touch of the Mad God, and the holy nimbus is far weaker than its previous displays. Already screaming from the acidic arrow, small wisps of smoke begin rising from the near side of the ghast. The impaled ghoul finally drops dead to the ground, and Slade's chain returns to its normal limpness. Despite all of that, the nimbus is not strong enough to prevent the desecration's burgeoning effects.

Two skeletons slowly rise up from the stream bed's dried mud. One from a horse sheds chunks of dirt next to the paralyzed gnome, while one of a horned ox struggles to its feet near Slade's perch partway up the rock face. How long they might have been buried in the silt is anyone's guess, but their intent is not in doubt.

"Feel the poison burn in your veins,
far worse than all your whole life's pains,
Succumb to that which is your fate,
from now on you'll only know hate,
..."

Suffering the melt of acid and smoldering holy energy, the ghast lashes out wildly in all directions, but fails to connect with anything besides itself. Eerily like grazing in a pasture, the horse skeleton begins eating away at the paralyzed gnome. The ox skeleton finally gains its feet, and begins plodding towards Liria, its horns swinging low.

"Choose now, torment or unlife!" the woman's voice hoarsely shouts.

The girl's scream that follows, cut short by a wet ripping sound, leaves no doubt which choice was made between the horribly unfair options given her. The woman cackles insanely for a moment or two. An errant gust of malodorous wind marks her departure, as she flies off invisibly, leaving undead in her wake. A tiny pearl bounces off Lorilei's shoulder, to land somewhere in the drying mud at her feet.

Already the darkness within the cave begins to falter, but such desecration will not be easily dispersed. Ungainly footsteps can just be heard moving closer from within, hauntingly like those of an uncertain toddler taking its first steps. Whatever else might lie within the cave, no longer is there a girl child in need of rescue, but some new enemy instead.

Nimlos · #**102** 12-11-2009, 02:00 PM

Even as she starts turning to push past whatever may be in her way to get into the cave, the horrid wet ripping noise from within tells her she's too late, that she's failed again to do what needed to be done.

Liria's breath gasps from her lungs in a long exhalation of fury, of frustration, of useless efforts, but there's no time to dwell on it now, as long-dead livestock lurches from the soil of the creekbed, shaking off the mud and clay and shambling forward.

"That one!" she shouts, pointing the tip of her blade at the horse skeleton that's begun to dine on the paralyzed gnome. "Kill that one!"

An ill wind of rancid air passes over her, trailing the witch as she flees the cave. Her heart beating with burning anger, Liria marks well the sound of the witch's voice, the smell of her filthy body. If they meet again, she'll know it, and for one of them, that day will be their last. The witch gone beyond any hope of capture, Liria addresses herself to the ghast in front of her, intending to put an end to this thing at least. She snaps Heironeous' Light in a wicked arc, sliding with ease past the ghast's defenses, but just before she strikes, the sound of a toddler's stumbling footsteps echoes from within the cave, and a knot of horror forms in Liria's throat, sapping the force from her blow just as it lands.

Elwen · #**103** 12-11-2009, 02:07 PM

Lorilei's stomach twists in a sickening knot at the sounds she hears. This is hell, this is a scene far more nightmarish than any she's yet seen. She fights the urge to vomit, feeling overwhelmed by disgust, loathing, fear. Her rapier is useless against the bones of the horse. At any rate, her feet feel like lead weights...she does not trust her legs not to start running into the woods if she has the chance to move. She stays put, acting as a distraction for the ghast's attention if nothing else. She thrusts forward with her rapier again, trying to tune out the horrors all around her.

Greaven · #**104** 12-12-2009, 12:43 AM

Jumping down beside Liria with a leery look on his face, eyes darting to the ox to his side, the ghast and worst of all. Concern fills him for the chain's behavior, his eye looking to the glinting chain in his gloved hand, twirling it quickly, he tries to shake off his doubts, but his stomach begins to fold in on him as the stench overpowers him, retching his innards, though surprisingly his shot is still fairly straight as he launches the chain at the foul, stench exuding ghast.

With a disgruntled growl, spitting the foul flavor in his mouth as he stumbles through the words and even a bit of his footing as he desperately drew in his chain again, "I have your flank, but I cannot reach him just now... Rin, Lorilei? Ugh.... What is this ugly thing?"

Codger · #**105** 12-13-2009, 06:36 PM

Both of the ladies skewer the ghast yet again, only to hear it murmuring to itself, ignoring all else. Rin turns his attention to the horse skeleton, at least distracting it from feeding on the paralyzed gnome. Slade hops lightly down beside Liria and buries his chain's fang into the kneeling ghast's chest. Something freakish happens as he tugs it back a moment later though. With a long hiss like escaping steam, a dark could of serpentine shape hangs momentarily in midair where the chain passes. As the ghast dies and crumbles to dust, the freed serpent spirit that was trapped in the chain slithers through the air into the dark cave, elongating as it goes. A girl's welcoming coo greets the vengeful spirit as it disappears from view.

Three purplish magical bolts of energy slam into the horse skeleton from Lerpha, which proves to be enough for it to clatter harmlessly to the muddy ground in a hundred pieces. A distant female grunt of pain turns heads to the southwest, as the voice is almost certainly the same as she who so recently sang a foul tune within the cave. Lerpha immediately begins to descend towards the ground, calling out the obvious.

"Pointies'll be here quick, likely a patrol."

Sluggishly the ox skeleton ambles towards the group, or the cave. Slade flings his chain at the easy target, but misses by a wide margin with no trapped spirit within the weapon. Forced to give way to the determined skeleton, he leaps back up next to the gaping darkness of the cave's mouth. Liria slams the skeleton's head, surely inflicting damage, but more importantly, halting its minimal momentum. At least temporarily. Its attempt to gore her with a horn misses by a wide margin.

An insubstantial clawed hand abruptly emerges from the rock and clamps onto Slade's ankle. Weakness spreads from the contact, as his strength is sapped. Simultaneously, two similar clawed hands of ephemeral darkness lash out from the cave and scratch Liria's left side, with identical effects. They can only be shadows, an even more fearsome type of undead than ghouls or ghasts. At least three of them, as the two striking the paladin were not from a single creature. Using the chain's fang like a dagger, Slade stabs the offending limb, and it sinks quickly back into the rock. Evil still emanates from the looming darkness within the cave. Elves are approaching, almost certainly inhospitable, and possibly hostile.

"If we're going, it must be now, back the way we came. We'll circle around all this later." Lerpha spurts out in haste as he reaches solid ground again.