Chapter 22: Underworld

[ravenn4544]

Amethu grits his teeth behind the mask at this unforeseen path unfolds. He follows the others ahead of Zahra.

[Bluetongue]

Grigor and Gnasher continue to inch across the chasm path.

He thinks of goats, as he suggested earlier.

Grigor & Gnasher climb the ledge [1d100]=40[1d100]=1

[jemmus]

Torix looks back and she's the other companions making their way along the ridge. Young barbarian warrior that he is, his impulse is to side with reckless courage over cautious prudence. But he has seen that the outlanders from the south, east, and north have fought much and some still bear wounds. From what he has heard, one his died. Yes, I think good to wait for everyone. He pushes the torch forward to full arm's length, so as not to silhouette the Zamoran swordswoman, the Cimmerian, and himself so much to any watching eyes.

The Pict doesn't like the feel of this quiet, ancient, hole in the side of a dark underground cliff. He's curious about the odd textures on the floor-- but he doesn't look forward to walking across them. Who knows what kind of ancient sorcery is made them? Who knows what treading on them might awake? To distract himself, he notes the location of this hole in a cliff. "Obsidian all around. Can be fleched to make very sharp knives, arrowheads, and spearheads. Harder than steel, but more brittle. They can break, but they never go dull. The supply in this room is enough to make a warrior a chieftain, and if he's smart over time and not murdered by rivals-- a chieftain a king!"

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri calmly makes his way along the cliff face to where the scouts await. He hums a weird nasal tune quietly to himself as he goes.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

With a grunt, the Cimmerian launches himself across the black gulf to the second doorway. The void swallows the pebbles loosened by his leap, surrendering no sounds which would testify to its depth.

Upon landing, his gleaming sword is out of his scabbard in one fluid motion!

He strikes a torch.

[Inferno]

The Caverns of Thracia, Pictland, the World of Hyboria
Day Eleven. Past Midday. 21st day of the month of Qrot, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







After edging along the perilous cliff, the explorers regroup near a black tunnel hewn from solid stone.

At the dizzying precipice, Cruloc of Cimmeria throws himself across the bottomless abyss. He lands cat-like in the second doorway, bares steel and faces into the shadowed tunnel, ready for whatever comes. Nothing lunges from the darkness to push him off the ledge.

The barbarian gets a torch ablaze and by its writhing light, he sees the second corridor is similar to the first: cold, black, silent. There is no strange texture on the floor, nor does it open into a chamber. But here too the light is unnatural, ranging closer than it should.


Actions?!


Map Detail:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.

Map:





PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 15/17, Spells: 3/8 1st lvl, 4/5 2nd lvl, Lantern
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 30/45, Torch
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 16/25
Grigor: Zamoran Nomad Cleric/Fighter 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 19/29, Spells: 2/4 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 18/21, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 28/28, Torch
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 1, HP: 10/29
Gnasher: Grigor's Hound: Move: 12", AC: 5, HD: 2+2, HP: 10/11, AT: 1, D: 1-4

PC Magic:

None currently.

Player Resources:

The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

The rogue lights her own torch off the flame of Torix's and moves further into the corridor. She stops short of the dimpled flooring and begins to examine the surface and the walls for traps. She looks for footprints or vestiges of a trail to follow.
(Marked another torch off her inventory.)

[Bluetongue]

Grigor

In the right confines he draws his scimitar which adds some magical illumination to the group. By the tunnel entrance he will help folk who traverse the chasm path and also relay any communicate from Cruloc in the neighbouring tunnel.

Gnasher has a sniff around and marks his territory as hounds do.

[jemmus]

Torix follows Dahinna into the tunnel, bow slung, spear in hand. He also examines the strange patterns on the floor. Some form of arcane devilry, of course. He avoids touching it.

[ChubbyPixie]

Disliking the notion of being penned in the middle of a single file line in a narrow tunnel, Kiri will cast a spell and scuttle over to the second doorway, providing Cruloc has vacated the ledge to explore the second tunnel.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu will also investigate the first tunnel if possible. "What are those round things? Rocks? Or the eggs of giant bats!?"

[Urson]

Zahra
Zahra takes a silver coin from her pouch and rolls it down the corridor.

DEX 15 attribute check [1d20]=19

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Not for the first time, Cruloc is astonished by the arcane powers of the unaccountable Easterner. The shock of seeing Kiri clambering barefoot along the wall towards him nearly sends the Cimmerian reeling backwards over the precipice.

"Crom's nostrils!" he blurts out. If all Kambujans are capable of such a feat, what might the architecture of their cities be like?

[Inferno]

The Caverns of Thracia, Pictland, the World of Hyboria
Day Eleven. Past Midday. 21st day of the month of Qrot, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







In vaults deep beneath the city of Thracia was once the greatest library on Earth. Verulia's lost past would be found there. Maps of the Old Kingdom might locate sister cities and more Verulian survivors. Recovery of the royal lineage of Pharaohs would ensure that the rightful heir sits upon the golden throne of the Great Pyramid once more. Thus came Amethu and Zahra to Thracia. Others came in exploration. Still others in search of treasure hidden for centuries uncounted since the fall of Atlantis.

Now, whether motivated by altruism, curiosity or greed, they delve into the unknown, foregoing rest and healing. The undaunted adventurers divide their number between twin black tunnels over a bottomless chasm. Aided by sorceries unimaginable, Kiri crawls impossibly across the bare cliff face to join Cruloc at the second doorway! Meanwhile, their companions edge deeper into the first corridor.



In each passageway of the ancients, torches, lantern, or glimmering blades push back the dense, ageless darkness, barely. The beleaguered light reveals that unlike the Death God's temple rotunda and sacrificial altar, these regions are undefiled. Of the engineering and architecture, Amethu and Zahra recognize Atlantean ingenuity of a forgotten age, before Thracia's horrific descent into catastrophe, barbarism and madness.

The black stone that surrounds them seemingly consumes all light. Darkness presses unnaturally close. The icy air seems almost frozen and a deathly stillness permeates all like a shroud. The crypt-like aura of death that impregnates this area is an unsettling sensation, eerie, otherworldly and frightening. (Please make a Wisdom Check on 1d20 or suffer a -1 penalty to all rolls here. -2 penalty for Barbarians.)

Zahra rolls a coin a few yards, triggering nothing. Dahinna too finds no deathtraps and leads the advance. The asymmetrical forms at the edge of the blackness in the first tunnel are revealed to be an unwholesome subterranean growth that has taken root.



A path might be threaded through the infestation without touching the weird, unnatural fungi.


Actions?!


Map Detail:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.

Map:





PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 15/17, Spells: 3/8 1st lvl, 4/5 2nd lvl, Lantern
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 30/45, Torch
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 16/25, Torch
Grigor: Zamoran Nomad Cleric/Fighter 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 19/29, Spells: 2/4 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 18/21, Spells: 2/3 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 28/28, Torch
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 1, HP: 10/29
Gnasher: Grigor's Hound: Move: 12", AC: 5, HD: 2+2, HP: 10/11, AT: 1, D: 1-4

PC Magic:

Spider Climb (Kiri): Target: self. Duration: 3 rounds.

Player Resources:

The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[Bluetongue]

Grigor

Grigor: Wisdom check vs 15 [1d20]=14

"Unwholesome growths for sure. I am wary of strange fungus and molds. This place reeks of rot and decay and surely draws malignant flora to decorate its halls."

He suggests burning the flowering substance and in preparation makes himself a mask and stuffs old cloth into Gnasher's muzzle, fitting it despite the barking protests. I don't want him sniffing the stuff or licking it from his paws.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Wisdom Check vs 9 [1d20]=5

The Cimmerian, raised on a diet of heady superstition and shadowy folklore, is predisposed to leaps of illogic and terror-borne bursts of ultra-violence. Uncharacteristically, however, he tamps down his fear and contains the sensation of panic which threatens to race unbounded up his spine.

"I fought Zargoth. I knew Zargoth. Zargoth was an enemy of mine. Whoever you are, you are no Zargoth."

He holds his torch high and pads slowly forward.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu urges caution as they plunge into the dark. "The air is heavy here - unnatural. Be on your guard."
He too will avoid touching the moss - perhaps it is the source of such melancholy.

Wis (17) [1d20]=9

[Urson]

Zahra
WIS: 9 attribute check [1d20]=19
We can thread the needle here- but I wonder if it is worth the risks? For the moment, Zahra stays clear of the yellow fungus.

[ChubbyPixie]

Made uneasy by the unnatural darkness, Kiri is encouraged by Cruloc's bravery.

WIS check (8): [1d20]=3

He nods in acknowledgement at the barbarian then gestures towards the tunnel, shrugs and steps inside to explore.

I didn't realize until this moment how deficient in wisdom Kiri really is. That's why he needs Grandfather around, I guess.

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

"No! Don't burn anything in here! We don't know what type of noxious fumes may result. We can carefully pick a path through it." With sword and torch in hand, Dahinna picks her way through the fungus forest.

Wisdom check (10): [1d20]=17