Chapter 6: Unhallowed Halls

[GreyWolfVT]

Kragg "Bah I don't need no masks. An don't you worry Osprey I'll remember that well."

[coil23]

Unsure of what is left to consider, Osprey simply gets started. He takes a mask of each type off the wall. He asks Kragg to hold onto the sealed mouth mask for him and then goes to the room. He will step up to the eyeless picture and place the sealed eyes mask on before "staring" at the picture. He thinks he had a fairly good life and this could be a fitting ending so now he waits a moment for consequences to come crashing down.

[GreyWolfVT]

Kragg will hold onto the sealed mouth mask and look at it "Hey Phineas you should try this mask on."

[Grognardsw]

"I would wear none of them, lest they become your death mask," broods Aric.

The barbarian sniffs the strange ozone smell trying to determine if it is natural or not... animalistic like a skunk, or of the earth like the venting gases of angry fire gods below, or of natural things rotting in a swamp, or like the breaking wind of his fat grandfather.

Aric crouches low to see if the smell floats above, like smoke does. He moves just beyond the party to examine the floor for tracks.

[greyarea]

Your fear is telling, Barbarian, replies Yon to Aric. He will don a sealed mouth mask and mirror Osprey's actions. If nothing happens, he will suggest that they switch places (i.e., eyeless to mouthless rather than same to same).

[GreyWolfVT]

Kragg "Wears that distrusting of magic openly on his invisible sleeves." the dwarf comments smiling.

[mjulius]

Morris Grumm, Magic-User

Morris stops prodding the masks and simply leans upon his pole. He watches Osprey prepare to don the mask and muses quietly about the relative safety of cages.

[Mant72]

The group gathers in the darkened hall before the rows of strange masks, and Hexalon fires a precautionary sling bullet down the corridor. The lead missile bounces off the stone walls with no adverse effects.

Morris cautiously prods one of the masks with the butt of his pole and carefully lifts it to have a look at what lies beneath. He sees the inside of the mask is covered with indecipherable runes and finds it odd that it has no apparent means of fastening.

Following Morris’ inspection, Osprey collects a mask of each type, and the group proceeds to the chamber marked with the luminescent faces. The smell of ozone grows ever stronger.

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Pushing past the half open door, all eyes are immediately drawn to the ghostly pair of murals on the western wall. Beneath the murals stands a marble altar covered with a purple shroud. A silver bell and four votive candles rest on its surface.

The north and south walls are draped in thick, purple curtains, and a frieze of alternating sunbursts and moons runs along the tops of the walls. A number of reed mats surround a large, embroidered rug in the center of the floor.

The whole room is infused with the smell of ozone, and the air itself seems alive with electricity as the hair on everyone’s arms stands at attention. Aric breathes in the heavy scent, trying to determine its source. He quickly scans the dusty floor for tracks and spots many sets of footprints leading to the north wall where they abruptly stop.

Osprey determinedly steps into the center of the room and places the eyeless visor over his own visage. He is soon joined by Yon, who adorns the mouthless mask. The masks are immediately grafted onto their faces, and a tremendous surge of eldritch energy sends them both to the floor.

The warrior mage and priest lie motionless and unresponsive.

The rest of the group stare in awe as the pair of murals shimmer and ripple, slowly moving along the wall until they merge together and overlap as one.

Actions?

[GreyWolfVT]

Kragg shaking his head "Darned fools."

[Grognardsw]

"Crom!"

As soon as Osprey and Yon fall, Aric grabs them by their collars and drags them out of the room.

Outside, he tries to tear the mask off Yon first.

[mjulius]

Morris Grumm, Magic-User

Nearly dropping the pole, Morris watches the paintings merge.
Slowly, steadily raising his arm and rubbing his middle finger and thumb together, he reaches for a flask.
He mutters, "Show me one wrong picture and I will light you on fire...

[Storm11]

Hex cries out in alarm as Osprey and Yon fall. He watches intently the shifting mural, trying to discern what the images are showing. The rainbow halfling will search the walls for signs of vents or rods, anything from which electricity might eminate.

"Do they yet live? Hmmmm yes? he asks the Barbarian.

[GreyWolfVT]

Kragg "Sees as magic did this to em and curiosity may take more than the big ones brute strength to free them of the masks. I too fear that the mouth-less mask will soon make the end of our friend Yon the other might be fine since it has a mouth hole for Osprey to breathe through."

[Inferno]

P.T. Codswallop, halfling impresario:

The normally effusive entrepreneur is struck speechless. Phineas helps drag the masked men out. When Aric tries to pull off a mask, Phineas hopes Yon's head doesn't come off with it.

It looked to Phineas that he was about to earn Osprey's trust.

[ravenn4544]

Wil helps drag any remaining member out of the room. "Amazing and confusing magic abounds in this crypt - what will we encounter in the actual temple I wonder? Perhaps only a priest of this temple's persuasion is able to wear the masks? Perhaps the murals are a magical doorway now opened?"

Wil takes a silver coin from his purse and tosses it at the now merged murals to see if might pass through.

[Mant72]

Yon and Osprey succumb to the effects of esoteric magicks, and the party reacts quickly in an attempt to ensure their safety. Once the downed adventurers are dragged outside the chamber, Aric desperately tears at the mask adhering to Yon; however, the barbarian’s brute strength proves ineffective in removing the relic.

Hexalon calls out to Aric, “Do they yet live?” The slow shallow rise and fall of their chests denotes that they do indeed. The tiny illusionist then moves about the chamber, searching for the source of this inexplicable sorcery. Other than the shimmering mural, he finds nothing of note.

Wil tosses a silver coin at the luminous face on the wall, wondering if it is a mystical portal. If the mural actually is a gateway, the secret remains hidden as the coin bounces off, lands on the floor, and rolls to a stop.

Where there were once a pair of murals, now there is one. The glowing countenance silently pulses as the adventurers anticipate their next move.



Yon and Osprey find themselves free of their corporeal forms, and their astral selves are rapidly pulled toward a point of greenish light in the far distance. Their minds merge until it becomes impossible to discern individual thought, and the pair come to develop a collective consciousness.

As they are draw toward the green light, a succession of obscure images begins to unfold:

A weary procession travels a barren landscape toward a temple of ash and bone.

A king wearing a crown of flies points to a wall where the word "SHAME" is etched in Dwarven glyphs.

A blinding snowstorm batters a dilapidated priory. A red bell hangs from the heights of its long, thin steeple.

The visions fade.

The distant green light grows until the priest and spellblade find themselves facing what can only be described as a giant honeycomb. The honeycomb stretches from one end of the horizon to the other, and its indiscernible height disappears into a shroud of a thick, green mist that billows overhead.

Each hexagonal cell houses a bizarre infant-like creature…

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Crouched before the honeycombed wall are a pair of mummified corpses.

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Yon and Osprey stare in abject horror as they recognize the equipment on the desiccated bodies as their own.

Suddenly, the living honeycomb wall undulates as one of the beings speaks, “Who…”

“Comes…,” adds another.

“Before usss?” the strange beings inquire in sibilant unison.

Actions?

Yon and Osprey, please include a Save vs Petrification/Polymorph roll with your next post.

[Inferno]

Phineas T. Codswallop hears that their colleagues yet live. It seems Osprey's trust is even harder to win than he thought!

He notes the round, blank, pale masks evoke full moons. Could these be the moon portals?

He strokes his generous mustache in thought as he regards the shifting mural.

Mant, What did the mural depict before? What does it depict now? Thanks.

[Mant72]

The murals looked exactly like the eyeless and mouthless masks before they joined. Now they are singular. They moved together to overlap into one painting.

[GreyWolfVT]

Kragg "So it takes a roguish dwarf to tell you that the masks are magic you need magic to remove magic not brute strength anyone able to dispel magic while they yet live? With haste if at all possible otherwise we best start with a grave for the two of them I fear at least for the one with no way to breathe through the mask."

[greyarea]

Save vs Petrification/Polymorph [1d20] = 10

Yon says (if able) I am a humble servant of the Lord of Light.