[Game Thread] Chapter 2: The Haunting Horror

[darthcharon]

You have been traveling for only a few hours, but already the sky has begun to grow dark. Heavy clouds have moved in to obscure the sun, and deep rumblings from above tell you all you need to know. You continue traveling, having no other alternative, but those of you who glance upwards note that the sky continues to grow heavier, swollen with it's watery payload. Even the very air reeks of rain, and you know you don't have much time before the floodgates open.

Sure enough, only another minute passes before a final peal of thunder rocks the sky, and water begins coming down in visible waves, soaking you to the bone in seconds. A chill wind blows by you, and, wet as you are, it sends involuntary shivers through your spine and goosebumps down your arms. The pounding rain begins to form a thin mist, which swiftly grows in strength until you can barely see the ground beneath your feet. The conditions make it virtually impossible to travel, and yet the mist makes finding a good place to camp virtually impossible. You will need to find something soon, however, or you may end up with hypothermia.

No sooner does the thought enter you mind does a very faint orange glow appear just beyond the edge of the mist. As you get closer to it, you notice a small campfire set up just inside a suddenly very inviting cave. Whomever set up the campfire is nowhere to be seen, though the fire looks quite fresh, as if it has been burning for a few minutes. The rain has let up ever so slightly, but you still doubt your ability to continue onward with such conditions. The horses become visibly spooked the closer you get to the campfire, but other than some minor resistance they don't attempt to stop you from guiding them there. Quickly huddling inside, you immediately feel the warmth from the fire, a welcome feeling indeed. However, now that you are at the threshold, you can see clearly a very old, wooden door on the far wall of what is otherwise a very small cave.

OOC I took some creative liberties with your characters, having them all enter the cave on their own, mostly to speed things up. If any of you are opposed to that, post as such and I'll retcon. The room is a 10ft radius circle, with the campfire in the middle and the door in the far back.

[Quadra Wield]

"Of course it would storm again as we are traveling to Middenheim." Holly thought as she pushed the hair out of her eyes. The rain really wasn't that great for working with gunpowder, and the cold wasn't going to be great for keeping her hands steady.

As Holly's horse trots along she crosses her arms to try to retain some body heat. When Holly sees the campfire within the cave however, she immediately redirects her horse towards the cave. Not paying attention, nor caring, what her companions are doing. When she gets inside the cave, and after taking care of her horse, she immediately goes and huddles near the campfire trying to warm and dry herself off. As she warms up however she notices the quite odd door at the end of the cave, and a look of befuddlement crosses her face.

"Wait a door, in this cave?" Then as the cold is fought away by the warm fire she begins to wonder why there was a fire set up here in the first place. "And who set up this fire? Is this someone's dwelling?"

[Insacrum]

Ollona can't help but admire the tenacity that the other side now has. It seemed that that chaos was determined to put as many obstacles in the way of this group as it could. After a long ride, with Chompy quickly scratching his way into the layers of clothing that she wore, the fire-lit cave would be a welcome reprieve from the rain.

Walking into the cave after taking care of her horse as best she could, Ollona quickly entered the cave, seemingly behind Holly. Ollona begins to look around the cave given Holly's remarks. Looking around as well was chompy, shivering within her clothing looking for warmth. "I don't think this is a dwelling, this fire is one the wrong side of that door if it was." Ollona, quickly grows more and more suspicious with every passing second.

[DukeofTuring]

Soaked to the bone and stumbling grimly into the cave, Marcus leads his equally wet horse after him with one hand while he scans the cave and grips his weapon with the other. Eschewing the comforting warmth of the fire for now, the cleric tries to tie his horse off on something convenient and at least somewhat out of the rain, then makes sure that the others are making their way into the cave. "It looks damnably suspicious, but perhaps whoever made the fire fled out of general fear of strangers," he muses. "I'm tempted to just call out beyond that door to see if there are any friends or foes behind it, but I don't suspect that the rest of you would support such a direct measure. One way or another, we'll need to explore beyond that door if we're to wait out the storm in here, and I don't see anywhere else to go."

[dbaque]

"How you let the elements test us, my Lady," Lunigen thinks to himself, drenched even beneath his shield held aloft. The rain thwarted even his nightly senses. The sight of the cave brought a welcome whisper of "Thank the Lady!" from his lips. The knight led his own chilled horse beneath the cave's shelter. Dismounting, he patted its neck to help settle him down from the ordeal.

"Aye, queer indeed, friends," Lunigen makes reply. "Perhaps, we can try something more subtle first." The knight walks up to the door, stopping a step away; he'd rather not trigger anything while everyone was still warming themselves. He concentrates on Detect evil (sp, 60' cone)sensing anything fell beyond the door &

Dice Perception:

d20+2

(19)+2

Total = 21

listens for sound of anything (beyond the din of the monsoon outside).

[darthcharon]

[dbaque]

"Lady's grace encircle us!" the knight mutters. An unsettling chill creeps through him, far colder than the grip of the elements outside. "Stand fast, friends, & be wary. I sense malice through this strange door, but not as a single malevolent creature or a number of them. It's unlike aught I've sensed before, as if evil lay lingering everywhere like noxious fumes in a bog." He shakes his head to cast off the eerie chill. "Ollona, Holly, might your keen senses spy any track or sign of whoever wrought this fire?" "Hopefully not through this fell portal." A thought occurring, the dhampir knight extends forth a rarely used sense, calling on his tainted blood to racial ability: Detect Undead (sp, 60' cone)feel for other poles of negative energy.

[Insacrum]

Ollona starts looking around the cave for anything that might help her determine the origin of the fire. Ollona begins looking around the cave, staying clear of the door, and makes sure that Chompy can see as well, as the little guy sometimes offers his own help.

[darthcharon]

[Insacrum]

Ollona is unable to determine any type of tracks, which is odd given the fire within the cave. That is when she takes a Cast Detect Magiccloser look at the fire itself, tilting her head to the side as she does so, mimicking how chompy would curiously look at something interesting to it.

[punkrockguy]

Hefting his heavy pack on his shoulders Grimnash holds his axe a sheild at the ready as always at hearing the knight speak of un-ease, he speaks up "well, Sir, if you feel un-ease and I too feel it, then we had better sort this place out. My Axe thirsts for battle!"

[darthcharon]

[Insacrum]

Ollona finishes looking at the fire, and continues her spell and looks are the rest of the cave. "Have you guys ever heard of an Angler Fish? It's a fish that lives deep underwater. We sometimes are able to get them when one of our blue dragons gets frisky and decides to take a swim... a deep swim. Anyway, these fish have this little stalks on their heads, that glow with a light. Nothing magical mind you, but a light none the less.

"We believe that they use this light to attract other fish to come nearby, then they eat the fish who decided to come too close.

"I think this fire is like that light on an Angler Fish, and something is about to try and swallow us."

[Quadra Wield]

"Evil beyond that door?... Blue Dragons? Angler fish?" Holly looks around at her companions with a confused and slightly unbelieving expression on her face. "Look I don't know any of these magic things nor do I "feel" evil, but that seems just like an ordinary door." Holly stands up from where she was sitting and dusts herself off. "You sure you didn't fall off your horse or maybe get too cold? Maybe that's messing with your magic detector or whatever. Some peasant couple was probably just enjoying sound of the rain by the fire and we scared them off riding in here with our horses and weapons. I mean, besides me of course, our group looks pretty scary to some peasants living all the way out here."

Holly approaches the front of the door, and says rather uneasily, as if trying to convince herself, "I mean no one would bother with setting up all sorts of magical traps out here in the wilderness right? See this'll just be some ordinary door into some peasants' hovel and we'll laugh about this later." Holly's expression tightens and she tries to keep a nervous smile on her face, as she pulls(or pushes) the door open trying to show everyone that they are "probably" wrong.

[darthcharon]

The door swings open, creaking slightly as it did so, revealing a narrow tunnel that went on much further than your eyes can perceive. The walls and floor are made of worked stone, and the less than worked stone ceiling is supported by clearly old support beams. The cavern looks rather dusty, as if it has not been used in some time, yet there are neither cobwebs on the walls nor moss on the stones, and despite it's age it seems to have kept well.