[Game Thread] V. The Darkening Dawn Part 2

[mountainbound]

DM's Note Krimchee and I are resuming this story as a solo game once again. Apologies to the other two players, I will NPC your characters and be writing them out of the story shortly. Thanks for understanding!

Dan scratches his head. He could count on his right hand the number of times Karla had actually spoken to him (though they DID spend half a night spooning). It was like fireworks just exploded in his head! "Wha... what? Burn it?" It takes a moment for his brain to make sense of her words. "Burn it. Yes! I can do that, powerful wizard that I am!" He hands Karla the torch and then puffs out his chest, suddenly un-skeeved by the dripping purple fungus just inches away from his head. "Get back, I don't want you to get hurt," he says with the utmost chivalry.

He looks to the glowing blue runes on his staff, but the powerful Ichvaal item seemed to have a life of its own, and kind of scares him. Instead, he draws upon his own limited magical knowledge, summoning up the words of a little incantation he once glimpsed in his mother's Hymnal.

With a pinch of bat guano and some sulphur, he speaks a word and suddenly his hands burst into flame. "Holy Shite! It worked!" he says. Without wasting another moment, he points his fingers toward the rubbery green wall and lets fly a gout of bright orange flame. A fireball it was not, but the magical attack has enough Oomph in it to make the fungus blacken and sizzle. The young wizard concentrates the force of his fire in the very center, and in another moment the jets of flame flying from his hands are streaking completely through the wall and into some unseen chamber.

"I did it! Silas, Fahd! You guys see that? I bloody did--!" His words are cut off as the wall explodes from the other side and a creature of darkness launches through like a seven hundred pound arrow. Claws extended, it bursts through the hole Dan made and tackles the wizard head on, ripping and tearing at his flesh.

From the light of the torch in Karla's hand, the beast looks and moves like a tiger, but is covered in hard, shiny scales. And, was that a harness it's wearing?

Combat Notes Karla: you hold the only light source. You can set it down as a move action, keep holding it in one hand, or drop it as a free action. If you drop it, you run the risk of it getting snuffed out. Party Status Dan: 14hp damage from the Tiger-Lizard. OUCH! Enemy Status Tiger-Lizard: AC 15, Undamaged

NPC Actions

KARLA/HenryLockwood Karla hesitates, just for a fraction of a second, as the creature hurtles through the gap to attack Dan. Not for long, though, and she steps forward to fight the creature. Her sword, blazing with reflected torchlight, Dice * Rage Attack: 1d20+9 (15)+9 Total = 24 1d6+7 (5)+7 Total = 12 slashes forward. The blade seems to resonate with Karla's own fury; she shrieks "Back off! Mine!" as the tiger-lizard turns to face her. There's not time to worry about what happens next. It's simply a case of fighting, trying to survive, trying to finish the enemy before it drags her down. This confrontation may be ill-advised; it may be her last, but there's no way Karla's going to let this animal tear apart one of her people.

FAHD/Mal Radaghast Brown-blooming mushrooms and white button mushrooms, long-stemmed mushrooms and twisted-root mushrooms, all through the long-dark-deep halls of this place. Fahd plucks them off the walls as he walks, judging by sight and by smell as well as he can, stuffing as many as fit into his bag. The smells are all mushroom and moss and stone, all cool-damp, refreshing. The calm of it all is begging for a breath of smoke... The moment they stop, he rolls up a patch of moss and breathes deep...breathes the deep...the deep of the cavern, the deep scent of the stone, the depth of thoughts... Spotting patch of little brown creminis, his favorites, Fahd haunches down to gather them up. There in the middle, a plain button mushroom but bright living green...those aren't common. Distracted as Lynx bumps her head at him, Fahd scratches behind her ear with his free hand. (His other hand takes another drag.) Absently, he scratches behind his own ear as Lynx wanders off, still staring at the curious little-green mushroom. Is it... "Glowing! Was I too quiet for you?" Fahd chuckles...too quiet? Surely not that. Standing, turning then to peer at the odd stone, he nods. "So it is." Taking a few steps toward it, he pauses - senses dilating, Ichvaali cloak shivering-warm. Something is...wrong? Off. He shakes his head, trying to clear it. Bad timing. Another drag, breathing the setting into sharp relief. Fahd sees the scent for what it is, breath of stone, breath of moss, breath of mushrooms and fire. ... Fire. Oh hell. OOC Made the post a little spacey to account for my inaction - also, I have to clean up his new sheet! Ack! Meanwhile, I think Lynx was trying to tell him something, and it probably now already backing up Karla, possibly trying to flank? Let me know what's doable, and/or what to roll, and then Fahd will be running over next post. Probably to try for some healing, what with Dan being ood-tackled by that tiger-lizard!

[Krimchee]

Silas jumped back with surprise, adrenaline immediately spiking through his body. "What the...." Momentarily stunned, it took Silas's brain a second to wrap itself around what he was seeing. The fecking thing was huge, and there were claws and...."Dan!"

Silas cursed as he saw Karla move towards the beast. Silas sidestepped to get a clear shot. He didn't even bother nocking an arrow. With a cry he drew the strangely humming bow to his cheek and let fly one of the strange bolts of energy that he still didn't really understand.

Attack Dice Roll: 1d20+8 (18)+8 Total = 26

Damage Dice Roll: 1d10+1 (8)+1 Total = 9

Status HP: 26 AC: 16

[mountainbound]

Karla slashes forward, flames leaping and guttering from the torch still in her left hand. Her sword is instantly covered in tiger-lizard blood. An arrow made of psychic power whistles over her shoulder, sent forth from Silas's psionic Ichvaali bow.

"Hep me! Hep me!" Dan calls, gritting his teeth as the creature thrashes his head back and forth. He lands with a wet thud on a pile of purple fungus when the tiger-lizard lets go of him. It growls a low, menacing growl and turns its green eyes on Karla. With a lunge it snaps at the lady barbarian, tearing the flesh from her arm. She drops the torch with a curse. In a few seconds... all will be darkness!

The catlike creature scrambles up the wall, growling and dripping ooze from the arrow wound and Karla's sword stroke. It seems like it's trying to decide if this group of humans is worth the trouble. "Silas, shoot it quick!" Dan yells.

Combat Party Status Karla: 8hp damage from the Tiger-Lizard. Enemy Status Tiger-Lizard: AC 15, 21HP damage so far; Seriously Wounded

[Krimchee]

Feeling Dan's urgency, Silas drew the bow back again without nocking an arrow. He had to put this thing down. And he had to do it now. Silas took a moment longer than usual to really focus his aim on the growling, oozing beast as it glared in the guttering torchlight. As he did so, the runes on the bow glowed brighter in response. A glowing, angry golden filament of energy larger than the last stretched from Silas's temple to the bowstring. With a roar, part rage, part shock, part desperation, Silas released. The bolt of energy left the bow crackling and humming with deadly intent through the dimness....

Attack and Damage attack Dice Roll: 1d20+8 (11)+8 Total = 19 Damage Dice Roll: 2d10+1 (4, 5)+1 Total = 10

[mountainbound]

The bolt strikes the tiger-lizard square in the head, and it drops heavily to the ground, a few feet from where Dan is laying. Golden energy sizzles around its giant muzzle, and its paws twitch as life drains from its body.

Karla sits down, trying to get a better view of the ribboning that her arm took. Nearby, the wizard cautiously rises to lean on one arm, grimacing at his wounds. "Nice shot, he was a fecking big fella--" at that point Karla's torch gutters and goes out. "****!"

Aside from a few last sparks of energy around the tiger-lizard's head, and the glow of the Ichvaali bow, blackness falls over the group.

[Krimchee]

Silas didn't even have a chance to heave a sigh of relief at the creature's death when his already dim surroundings plunged into blackness. "Gods blast it!" he exhorted, frustrated. By the dim light of his bow, Silas quickly set about getting his gear ready to relight a torch.

"Come on, you...." he muttered as the flash of sparks danced across the walls. Silas ignored the glimpses that flashed of the strange, felled beast. He wanted to get a closer look at the thing, but they'd not last twenty minutes down here without a gods blasted light source.

"Come on...."

Survival check Survival Check Dice Roll: 1d20+9 (20)+9 Total = 29

[mountainbound]

A few flicks of the whetstone is all it takes for the young ranger to rekindle Karla's still-warm torch. The wrappings flare and bring light back to the dripping tunnel. Fungal growths clog the further end of the passage, where the tiger-lizard broke through. Rip sniffs the air. Above the dank, you can sense an air that's different. "Different, there's something down there," Rip grunts. The grizzled tracker casts a hard gaze in the direction of the opening, and on the edges of your peripheral vision you detect the slightest glow of light.

Silas raises the torch and takes a step in the direction of the opening, and notices at once that the runes on his bow glows a bit brighter with every step closer to the opening.

"OK, so we're going that way I guess," Dan remarks, wiping his slime-slick hands on his racoon-skin cloak. He gets up and follows Fahd through the hole in the fungus at the far end of the tunnel.

You all duck through the opening made by the creature, and find yourselves at the top of a steep embankment of slightly glowing fungus. Huge shelves thirty feet across made of leathery mushroom form steppes fan out above a menacing crevasse. "Oh feck!" Dan whispers, looking down into the black. It wasn't so long ago that he slipped from a precarious wall and found out what waits at the bottom of these subterranian crevasses. Hard stone.

Somewhat below you, but on the other side of the fungus-encrusted gap, you see a circle of runes, glowing blue and white. The circle is empty, except for every few moments some kind of static interrupts the solid glow and reveals the shapes of three figures sitting cross legged. The image brings memories of the last time you traveled in the secret tunnels beneath Jessup and Archeebald. The runes on Dan's staff and Silas' bow pulse in slow rhythm with the circle across the gap.

DM's Note The gap reaching the mysterious figures is perhaps 50' wide at this height. You could climb down the fungal ridges extending out over the gap to get closer and see if you can jump across. Silas: Climb DC 9. Failure means you slide down two levels taking 3hp damage. Perception check also if you like.   Dan Dice Roll: 1d20+3 (15)+3 Total = 18 Fahd Dice Roll: 1d20+6 (14)+6 Total = 20 Karla Dice Roll: 1d20+7 (18)+7 Total = 25 Rip Dice Roll: 1d20+11 (19)+11 Total = 30

[Krimchee]

Standing at the edge of the gap, Silas pondered what it meant to see the cross legged, glowing figures down here. It was no coincidence for sure. Usually, this kind of thing would set him off cursing, but the truth was that at this point he wanted information. He couldn't help noticing how his bow and the glowing figures seemed to sync to each other. He wasn't sure why, but that seemed....like a good sign? But how to get over there?

As Silas pondered the gap, the wolf came up to him, pressing against his leg, almost leaning against him. Smiling, Silas scratched the beast's head. There, he thought. I can climb down there. With an experienced eye for climbing, Silas was fairly sure that he saw a line down that he could manage without too much problem.

"I'm going to try to get over there," he said, gesturing to the glowing figures. Silas handed his torch to Dan. "You wanna hold down the fort here while I go over? I'll keep an eye open for another way around."

Silas slung his bow over his shoulder to free his hands, and then began his descent.

Climb Climb Check Dice Roll: 1d20+8 (8)+8 Total = 16

[mountainbound]

Dan takes the torch as he joins up with Silas. They stand in silence looking across the darkness at the circle of flickering figures. Others in the group are at various heights, picking their way down among the shelves of fungus growing for hundreds of feet along the vertical wall of rock. At this point the two boys are about 5' above the floor on the opposite side of the cavern, with a fifteen foot wide chasm separating them. There was enough room on the fungal shelf for two good steps before leaping. Of course, it was also slimy as hell on this side.

"You're gonna jump? Alright, but I don't want to have to go down into that hole looking for you." Dan grins. His hand shakes as it holds the torch. For all his words, the wizard was terrified. Whether he was terrified for his friend, or terrified at the prospect of having to jump also if Silas succeeded, one could not be sure. "I guess either way, we gotta find the way out of here. At least there's light on that side. Weird, creepy, Ichvaali light, but it's light..."

DM's Note Acrobatics check, DC 12 to leap the chasm. The difficulty class accounts for the height difference and slight runway.

[Krimchee]

"I'm going for it. It's just like jumping across to go up the Bat Cave." Silas leaned himself up against the wall so he could get a solid push off with the side of his foot. Silently he gaged the distance. He could do it, he was confident. He rocked back and forth to build up some momentum. One, two, three....

With a heave Silas pushed off. He had a solid push off the wall but when he went to launch into the air, the ball of his left foot just....slipped. Silas grunted, arms flailing as his foot shot out behind him, taking most of his forward momentum, and power, with it.

Acrobatics Check Acrobatics Check Dice Roll: 1d20+4 (2)+4 Total = 6

[mountainbound]

Dan had seen Silas hop many a flowing stream, completing feats of acrobatics that tested the laws of physics and common sense. Mossy logs half submerged scampered down, rocks in a river skipped over, icy paths traversed without issue. The wizard knew if anyone was capable of getting across to the glowing figures on the far side of the chasm, it was Silas. They were higher up than the other side, and Silas had some running room, so Dan didn't feel overly concerned. At least not enough to tell his friend to wait for the others, or tie himself off with a rope.

In the flickering light, Dan watches as Silas tests his footing and then takes his leap. And he sees the slip as clear as day. Enough to disrupt the rhythm of the run across the fungal outcropping. "Silas!" Dan yells, but it's too late.

Silas sees the glowing side of the cavern whisk past his eyes and darkness takes hold. The air whistles in his ears for a heartbeat before. "OOOF!" The wind is knocked out of the young ranger's lungs as he slams into a fungal shelf growing about 30' down in the darkness.

DM's Note Damage from Fall: 7hp This mushroom seems older, and is much slimier. Judging by the smell and squishiness, you'd guess that the shelf you're on is rotten. DEX check, DC 13. Failure means your movement starts to cause the mushroom to pull off the wall. Without a torch, you are effectively blind where you are, except for the glow above of Dan's face, searching the darkness.   Dice Roll: 3d6 2, 4, 1 Total = 7

[Krimchee]

"OOOF!" Silas grunted as the impact slammed the air out of his lungs. Instinctively, Silas clung to whatever it was he'd landed on. With a gasp Silas loudly tried to refill his lungs and get his bearings. When he'd caught his wind again a few moments later, Silas felt around with his hands and tried to stabilize his position on...What the H am I sitting on, he thought, confused. It wasn't quite solid like stone. It'd help if he could actually see anything. And the smell...Whatever it was Silas was sure he didn't want to trust it to hold him for long.

"I'm alright Dan. But I can't see a flaming thing! Cautiously, Silas felt around whatever he'd landed on to find the edges. He didn't want to tumble off. He didn't know if it was two feet down into the inky blackness, or a hundred.

"Dan, can you guys throw me a rope, or a light at least? I don't know how long whatever I'm on is going to hold! Whatever this slimy thing is, it smells like it's seen better days!"

Dex check Dice Roll: 1d20+4 (13)+4 Total = 17

[mountainbound]

Silas sees the outline of his friend's head poking over the fungus overhang, about 30' above him. "Holy crap, I thought you were dead! You sure you're ok?" Dan calls down in a loud whisper. After a brief exchange, he unslings his pack and begins rummaging around in it for his rope. "You know I don't have any, brother." This was not a surprise, since the young wizard rarely had anything of practical value on him. "But Karla might," he continues. "We'll need to wait for the others to climb down. Hang tight!"

The seconds drag on for Silas in the slimy darkness, waiting for help as he tries to stop his mind from conjuring a hundred disturbing things lurking below him. And just what was he sinking into anyway on this moldy shelf?

"Hold up," Dan suddenly hisses from overhead. "Something's going on..."

Then Silas catches a faint call, it might be Fahd's voice. There is the echo of steel, and the unmistakable roar of something NOT human from above. The torchlight from the fungal shelf above flares and lights up the darkness for a few seconds. One of Dan's spells! Silas then hears Dan shout: "Stay back, don't come any closer or I'll melt your eyes this time!"

A most curious sound meets Silas's ears, like the crack of ice and the sound of bark being ripped off an old log together; and then the unthinkable happens. He witnesses the fungal shelf above rip away from the rest of the outcroppings.

"SH!T!!!" Dan calls as suddenly he, a tiger-lizard, and two tons of rotting fungus topple down. There isn't time to do much of anything except brace yourself as the debris crashes down, pummeling you and causing the already unstable shelf where you lay to also give way. In a moment, Silas, Dan, and the tiger-lizard are in free-fall!

In a second it's over as everyone splashes into a thick, muddy water. Gasping, Dan surfaces calling "Sy! Sy! Please don't be dead!"

DM's Note Silas and Dan suffer 15hp damage from the from a long fall into water. A successful Acrobatics check, DC 20, means you take 1/2 damage instead (7hp). (Dan passes.) You're currently swimming in cold water. Dan's voice is not far away. The torch is out so we are completely blind!

[Krimchee]

How the H. am I going to get out of here Silas thought, fighting back panic. Around the edges of his struggle to be calm was a whisper of thought that worried, more than worried that if he couldn't get out, that he might....that he would die down here. He tried to ignore the thought, but it kept snapping at his attention like one of those rabid, gods damned tiger-lizards growling in a circle just outside the light of a campfire.

This grim thought was interrupted by Dan's shout, "Stay back, don't come an closer or I'll melt your eyes this time"

Then there was a ripping crack. "Ahhhhhhhhh....." Silas's scream was cut off by a hard impact, a flash of white lancing through his brain and mouthful of water. There was pain, surprise and as he unexpectedly inhaled water, panic.

Instinctively, Silas kicked up to the surface of the water, his lungs screaming as he spat and gasped for air.
"Dan!" I'm over here!"

Silas began swimming towards Dan's voice. "Keep talking., I can't see shite down here. I'm going to try to come to you. Let's try to find an edge, or at least a wall to hang on to."

Acrobatics Check Dice Roll: 1d20+4 (14)+4 Total = 18

[mountainbound]

With no lack of splashing and yelling, the two adventurers are eventually able to find each other in the utter darkness. The water is frigid, but there doesn't seem to be a current dragging them away.

Dan splutters what sounds like a curse, and a moment later three small orbs of blue light flicker into being over his head. They dance around a few feet above the water, seeming to bob and bounce where he wills them. Of the tiger-lizard, there's no sign. However, a small cavern above the water level is revealed by the lights, and the two friends quickly swim in that direction.

They pull themselves out of the water and onto the dry rocks, teeth chattering. "T-that was c-crazy!" Dan says, huddling in his soaking cloak. The blue lights show the small cave recedes back into darkness, as does the water you just crawled out of. It's probably the bottom of the cliff-side you had been scaling far above. "I w-w-wish I could make f-f-fire, but I used up that s-spell when we g-got attacked."