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<blockquote data-quote="Arabesu" data-source="post: 4048192" data-attributes="member: 534"><p>The cave turned out to be a rough-hewn tunnel of ancient construction. Here and there, Urol pointed out what looked to be primitive carvings, although to Yens’ eyes they could have just as easily been the claw-marks and scratchings of the bears or dinosaurs that must surely call this hole a home.</p><p></p><p>It was much colder in this tunnel than in the surrounding jungle above, but thankfully it was dry. Just before they had found the hole, a downpour had soaked their gear, which made the chill of the cave more noticeable. As they proceeded, Yens was reminded of a nagging smell, a foul odor from up ahead. It was something that he had encountered before, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint its manner or origin. He didn’t bother to bring it up with the rest of the troop, as their noses were much too insensitive to register the odor.</p><p></p><p>“Rowyn, why don’t you scout ahead? Cyrus will keep the torchlight at the rear of the line. Keep to edge of the shadows… where Kira and I can see you.” Ordered Yens with a facetious smile, “We don’t want you wandering off accidentally.”</p><p></p><p>Rowyn scowled back at Yens, but moved forward anyway. Her progress was much stealthier than Yens had anticipated: while Kira’s keen eyes and ears could easily track her, Yens actually had difficulty. Descending further into the mountain, further from the diminishing circle of daylight at their backs, Yens lost himself in his thoughts.</p><p></p><p><em>The scent is stronger and very familiar. It reminds me of somewhere I’ve been before…</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Parrot Island… and death…</em></p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">It was just after Levinia had learned of Vanthus’s robbery of the family vaults. At that time, they had no idea just how low and depraved the Vanderboren’s scion had fallen and simply wanted to return him to his sister for rehabilitation and reconciliation. </p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Fen was still alive, the company was still operating around Sasserine, and Tsuan Tse had just joined their group. The group’s reputation had grown considerably after they “recovered” the Blue Nixie from a swindler and animal smuggler named Solar Varc. Tsuan had already been on the Vanderboren’s payroll as an engineer, thus the enthusiastic water mage had jumped at the opportunity to be transferred to an adventuring group alongside these seasoned fortune hunters. </p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">They had chartered a boat to investigate the mysterious Parrot Island where they believed Levinia’s brother and his associates might be found. A former contact of Vanthus’, Shelfton, was leading them to Vanthus’ headquarters. </p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Landing on Parrot Island in the precise spot indicated by Shefton, they followed the grimy smuggler into the forested isle along an overgrown path. They descended through a secret trap door in the forest floor on ropes. Just as Shefton, the last in the line, was to descend, he was stabbed and his body thrown in after. As Yens looked up with a severed rope in his hand, he saw and heard Vanthus Vanderboren taunt down to them:</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">“You lot are gullible fools! You allied yourself with my insipid sister and now you’ll be trapped here… forever. Ha, ha, ha, ha.” As Vanthus slammed the stone trapdoor shut he called in with a laugh “Oh, I almost forgot! Say hello to Pancus’ ghost for me. Ha, ha, ha.”</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Darkness. Then torchlight. Then suddenly they were struggling through the catacombs under Parrot Island as a horde of zombies chased after them. These turned out to be no “ordinary” zombies as they were lightning quick, and could easily surround the heroes. With no priest at hand to exercise the restless spirits, the group was nearly worn down by the relentless task of hacking to pieces each animated body as it surged toward them and yet on they fought, finding the hidden reserves of strength they needed to escape and explore the tunnels. The entire time, Yens was reminded of the lyric from that old sailor’s shanty about the walking dead, <em>Oh that smell, Oh that smell, the smell of death around yee…</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Finally they broke away from the hordes of zombies to find an underground river and the body of a very much dead Pancus. His bloated body reeking with <em>The Smell,</em> they covered their faces to search it and found a note. The note was written in the colorful sailor’s cant so familiar to Yens that he felt he new this dead pirate as if he was a long lost friend. Translating for the rest of the party, Yens elaborated the dead raconteur’s tale: It told of Vanthus’ treachery and how he left his “mates” here to die. Obviously a scheme for power, Vanthus had betrayed them to rise through the ranks of the “Lotuses,” a group that Yens would soon learn was a Sasserine thieves guild. It ended with curse upon Vanthus’ soul, a sentiment now shared by Yens and his companions.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Having now learned of the tragic vileness of Levinia’s brother and his plots, they vowed to scrub out the stain that was Vanthus at the first opportunity. They also found a treasure cache near Pancus’ corpse, containing many chests of coins and a powerful gem that could summon an earth elemental. Swimming the river, Tsuan and Fen exited out into the lagoon, to free the heroes from their prison. </p><p></p><p>“It’s a throne room.” Commented Urol.</p><p></p><p>Urol Forol’s comment broke Yens’ daydream, dragging him to the present. The tired adventures had just emerged from the long tunnel into a great hall beneath the mountain. A throne at the far end of the room held a long decayed skeleton wearing a golden necklace that glinted in their torchlight. The shaft of a longspear protruded from its rib cage, its noticeable lack of rot and decay suggested something unusual about this weapon. A short-walled pool of water just inside the entrance to the room was revealed to be a deep well by a quick inspection.</p><p></p><p>The group made a quick search of the corpse to verify that it was not a trap and that it in fact was not some kind of undead creature. Kira discovered that this spear was far superior to his own and was even slightly magical, and thus he took it as his possession. Yens took the necklace; although it was not magical it seemed shiny, exotic, interesting, and, most importantly, valuable.</p><p></p><p>The group rested in this throne room and while most broke out rations and eased their loads, Yens washed out his braids in the cold pool of water near the entrance to the room. As he dunked his head beneath the surface, he noticed an odd glint near the bottom. Reeling his head back out of the water violently, he readied for the attack but none came. After a moment he then called to Tsuan. After they probed the bottom with the butt of Kira’s old spear, Tsuan dove in and quickly recovered a small red-stone tipped rod. They could not find an immediate use for the rod so Yens pocketed it.</p><p></p><p>A set of steps, hidden in a shadowy alcove near the back of the room, exited the room, and thus Yens and his companions proceeded downward. After a time, the steps emerged onto a vast cavern spanned by two stone bridges. As Yens and Rowyn eased forward on separate bridges, two giant centipedes, each twenty feet long or more, dropped down among the party. Yens and Cyrus were bitten by the enormous insects and looked on in frustration as their joints and muscles locked up, rendering them immobile. Klem, the warforged smith, proved himself to be a mighty combatant, since he seemed immune to the centipede’s toxin, and proceeded to smash the two bugs into pools of ichor with his warhammer and assistance from Amella, Rowyn, and Kira.</p><p></p><p>After a time, the centepede’s venom wore off. By then, Rowyn had scouted ahead and found two sets of doors terminating each bridge. Beyond was a large cavern area partitioned into alcoves by walls just bigger than a man. As Yens and his companions wove through this winding maze of alcoves they observed a number of corpses tucked into a few of the recesses. Inspecting one, Yens found a necklace similar to that worn by the skeleton on the throne. They felt unease at looting the ossuary and so continued onward until they reached a dead end.</p><p></p><p>Retracing their steps, Rowyn was able to find a secret door. As she touched it, the sound of caked dust and fused bone cracking could be heard throughout the catacomb. Before Yens could react, a mummy rounded the corner. And for the second time in as many hours, Yens was forced to watch from a body stiffened by paralysis, this time caused by the gut wrenching fear created by their horrid visage. The three mummies lunged at him. One swung wide and crushed the stone an inch from Yens’ head, another grazed him spinning him on the rigid ball of his foot. The slam of the third impacted him full on, knocking both the breath out of his lungs and nearly knocking him from his feet. </p><p></p><p>A line of steam scoured the two of the mummies as cloud of hot vapor, steam and dust began to coalesce near the third mummy. Only Kira and Tsuan seemed to have had the will to remain mobile in the face of the mummies gaze of dispair. Two of the mummies turned to move toward the druid and mage, but they were two far away and so they pummeled Klem and Rowyn instead. The third nearly passed Yens by, but unfortunately for him decided to continue to attack him, nearly crushing him to the floor.</p><p></p><p>A creature of stone, magma, and fire appeared behind one mummy and slammed it with a crunch, while just as suddenly a ball of fire erupted at the feet of same mummy, igniting it when it made contact with surface of the spongy flaming orb. This mummy was already nearly destroyed by Kira’s spells. </p><p></p><p>Yens felt his limbs loosen and he stabbed at the mummy next to him nicking it feebly. Out of the corner of his eye saw the cone of steam and raw heat before it would have struck him and ducked behind his mummy. The undead took the force of the blast full on and was instantly destroyed as was the one damaged by Kira’s orb and Thoqqua. </p><p></p><p>Tsuan called out, “Sorry, if I gave you a bit of a scare, but I knew you’d evade once you could move again.”</p><p></p><p>The third mummy still clung to unlife, but now Rowyn and Klem were upon it and it too was soon destroyed.</p><p></p><p>The group paused for but a moment to gather their breath. As they did so, Kira sent his Thoqua on ahead into the chamber beyond the secret door. Luckily for the heroes, none of them had decided to go first as a viscous spear trap impaled and destroyed the summoned elemental. </p><p></p><p>The trapped room held a large stone sarcophagus with double doors at the far end. After a thorough search, it was opened to find a blue-stone rod, a silver dagger, golden medallion, and shiny pink pearl. The double doors lead to chamber beyond with massive heavy stone doors and ports for the rods. </p><p></p><p>“They are storm doors.” Added Yens. “Look here and here. Reinforced. A titan would have to strike twice to bash these in.”</p><p></p><p>“Nay,” contradicted Rowyn, “they are ice cold. I think they hold back the tide.”</p><p></p><p>After passing his hand through the collected condensation, Yens reluctantly agreed, “Tomorrow morn should coincide with low tide. We should rest here but open them when we wake.”</p><p></p><p>And so they rested, uncertain as to what was really beyond the doors.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arabesu, post: 4048192, member: 534"] The cave turned out to be a rough-hewn tunnel of ancient construction. Here and there, Urol pointed out what looked to be primitive carvings, although to Yens’ eyes they could have just as easily been the claw-marks and scratchings of the bears or dinosaurs that must surely call this hole a home. It was much colder in this tunnel than in the surrounding jungle above, but thankfully it was dry. Just before they had found the hole, a downpour had soaked their gear, which made the chill of the cave more noticeable. As they proceeded, Yens was reminded of a nagging smell, a foul odor from up ahead. It was something that he had encountered before, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint its manner or origin. He didn’t bother to bring it up with the rest of the troop, as their noses were much too insensitive to register the odor. “Rowyn, why don’t you scout ahead? Cyrus will keep the torchlight at the rear of the line. Keep to edge of the shadows… where Kira and I can see you.” Ordered Yens with a facetious smile, “We don’t want you wandering off accidentally.” Rowyn scowled back at Yens, but moved forward anyway. Her progress was much stealthier than Yens had anticipated: while Kira’s keen eyes and ears could easily track her, Yens actually had difficulty. Descending further into the mountain, further from the diminishing circle of daylight at their backs, Yens lost himself in his thoughts. [I]The scent is stronger and very familiar. It reminds me of somewhere I’ve been before… Parrot Island… and death…[/I] [INDENT]It was just after Levinia had learned of Vanthus’s robbery of the family vaults. At that time, they had no idea just how low and depraved the Vanderboren’s scion had fallen and simply wanted to return him to his sister for rehabilitation and reconciliation. Fen was still alive, the company was still operating around Sasserine, and Tsuan Tse had just joined their group. The group’s reputation had grown considerably after they “recovered” the Blue Nixie from a swindler and animal smuggler named Solar Varc. Tsuan had already been on the Vanderboren’s payroll as an engineer, thus the enthusiastic water mage had jumped at the opportunity to be transferred to an adventuring group alongside these seasoned fortune hunters. They had chartered a boat to investigate the mysterious Parrot Island where they believed Levinia’s brother and his associates might be found. A former contact of Vanthus’, Shelfton, was leading them to Vanthus’ headquarters. Landing on Parrot Island in the precise spot indicated by Shefton, they followed the grimy smuggler into the forested isle along an overgrown path. They descended through a secret trap door in the forest floor on ropes. Just as Shefton, the last in the line, was to descend, he was stabbed and his body thrown in after. As Yens looked up with a severed rope in his hand, he saw and heard Vanthus Vanderboren taunt down to them: “You lot are gullible fools! You allied yourself with my insipid sister and now you’ll be trapped here… forever. Ha, ha, ha, ha.” As Vanthus slammed the stone trapdoor shut he called in with a laugh “Oh, I almost forgot! Say hello to Pancus’ ghost for me. Ha, ha, ha.” Darkness. Then torchlight. Then suddenly they were struggling through the catacombs under Parrot Island as a horde of zombies chased after them. These turned out to be no “ordinary” zombies as they were lightning quick, and could easily surround the heroes. With no priest at hand to exercise the restless spirits, the group was nearly worn down by the relentless task of hacking to pieces each animated body as it surged toward them and yet on they fought, finding the hidden reserves of strength they needed to escape and explore the tunnels. The entire time, Yens was reminded of the lyric from that old sailor’s shanty about the walking dead, [I]Oh that smell, Oh that smell, the smell of death around yee…[/I] Finally they broke away from the hordes of zombies to find an underground river and the body of a very much dead Pancus. His bloated body reeking with [I]The Smell,[/I] they covered their faces to search it and found a note. The note was written in the colorful sailor’s cant so familiar to Yens that he felt he new this dead pirate as if he was a long lost friend. Translating for the rest of the party, Yens elaborated the dead raconteur’s tale: It told of Vanthus’ treachery and how he left his “mates” here to die. Obviously a scheme for power, Vanthus had betrayed them to rise through the ranks of the “Lotuses,” a group that Yens would soon learn was a Sasserine thieves guild. It ended with curse upon Vanthus’ soul, a sentiment now shared by Yens and his companions. Having now learned of the tragic vileness of Levinia’s brother and his plots, they vowed to scrub out the stain that was Vanthus at the first opportunity. They also found a treasure cache near Pancus’ corpse, containing many chests of coins and a powerful gem that could summon an earth elemental. Swimming the river, Tsuan and Fen exited out into the lagoon, to free the heroes from their prison. [/INDENT] “It’s a throne room.” Commented Urol. Urol Forol’s comment broke Yens’ daydream, dragging him to the present. The tired adventures had just emerged from the long tunnel into a great hall beneath the mountain. A throne at the far end of the room held a long decayed skeleton wearing a golden necklace that glinted in their torchlight. The shaft of a longspear protruded from its rib cage, its noticeable lack of rot and decay suggested something unusual about this weapon. A short-walled pool of water just inside the entrance to the room was revealed to be a deep well by a quick inspection. The group made a quick search of the corpse to verify that it was not a trap and that it in fact was not some kind of undead creature. Kira discovered that this spear was far superior to his own and was even slightly magical, and thus he took it as his possession. Yens took the necklace; although it was not magical it seemed shiny, exotic, interesting, and, most importantly, valuable. The group rested in this throne room and while most broke out rations and eased their loads, Yens washed out his braids in the cold pool of water near the entrance to the room. As he dunked his head beneath the surface, he noticed an odd glint near the bottom. Reeling his head back out of the water violently, he readied for the attack but none came. After a moment he then called to Tsuan. After they probed the bottom with the butt of Kira’s old spear, Tsuan dove in and quickly recovered a small red-stone tipped rod. They could not find an immediate use for the rod so Yens pocketed it. A set of steps, hidden in a shadowy alcove near the back of the room, exited the room, and thus Yens and his companions proceeded downward. After a time, the steps emerged onto a vast cavern spanned by two stone bridges. As Yens and Rowyn eased forward on separate bridges, two giant centipedes, each twenty feet long or more, dropped down among the party. Yens and Cyrus were bitten by the enormous insects and looked on in frustration as their joints and muscles locked up, rendering them immobile. Klem, the warforged smith, proved himself to be a mighty combatant, since he seemed immune to the centipede’s toxin, and proceeded to smash the two bugs into pools of ichor with his warhammer and assistance from Amella, Rowyn, and Kira. After a time, the centepede’s venom wore off. By then, Rowyn had scouted ahead and found two sets of doors terminating each bridge. Beyond was a large cavern area partitioned into alcoves by walls just bigger than a man. As Yens and his companions wove through this winding maze of alcoves they observed a number of corpses tucked into a few of the recesses. Inspecting one, Yens found a necklace similar to that worn by the skeleton on the throne. They felt unease at looting the ossuary and so continued onward until they reached a dead end. Retracing their steps, Rowyn was able to find a secret door. As she touched it, the sound of caked dust and fused bone cracking could be heard throughout the catacomb. Before Yens could react, a mummy rounded the corner. And for the second time in as many hours, Yens was forced to watch from a body stiffened by paralysis, this time caused by the gut wrenching fear created by their horrid visage. The three mummies lunged at him. One swung wide and crushed the stone an inch from Yens’ head, another grazed him spinning him on the rigid ball of his foot. The slam of the third impacted him full on, knocking both the breath out of his lungs and nearly knocking him from his feet. A line of steam scoured the two of the mummies as cloud of hot vapor, steam and dust began to coalesce near the third mummy. Only Kira and Tsuan seemed to have had the will to remain mobile in the face of the mummies gaze of dispair. Two of the mummies turned to move toward the druid and mage, but they were two far away and so they pummeled Klem and Rowyn instead. The third nearly passed Yens by, but unfortunately for him decided to continue to attack him, nearly crushing him to the floor. A creature of stone, magma, and fire appeared behind one mummy and slammed it with a crunch, while just as suddenly a ball of fire erupted at the feet of same mummy, igniting it when it made contact with surface of the spongy flaming orb. This mummy was already nearly destroyed by Kira’s spells. Yens felt his limbs loosen and he stabbed at the mummy next to him nicking it feebly. Out of the corner of his eye saw the cone of steam and raw heat before it would have struck him and ducked behind his mummy. The undead took the force of the blast full on and was instantly destroyed as was the one damaged by Kira’s orb and Thoqqua. Tsuan called out, “Sorry, if I gave you a bit of a scare, but I knew you’d evade once you could move again.” The third mummy still clung to unlife, but now Rowyn and Klem were upon it and it too was soon destroyed. The group paused for but a moment to gather their breath. As they did so, Kira sent his Thoqua on ahead into the chamber beyond the secret door. Luckily for the heroes, none of them had decided to go first as a viscous spear trap impaled and destroyed the summoned elemental. The trapped room held a large stone sarcophagus with double doors at the far end. After a thorough search, it was opened to find a blue-stone rod, a silver dagger, golden medallion, and shiny pink pearl. The double doors lead to chamber beyond with massive heavy stone doors and ports for the rods. “They are storm doors.” Added Yens. “Look here and here. Reinforced. A titan would have to strike twice to bash these in.” “Nay,” contradicted Rowyn, “they are ice cold. I think they hold back the tide.” After passing his hand through the collected condensation, Yens reluctantly agreed, “Tomorrow morn should coincide with low tide. We should rest here but open them when we wake.” And so they rested, uncertain as to what was really beyond the doors. [/QUOTE]
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