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"Out of the Frying Pan" - Book I: Gathering Wood (reprise)
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<blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 71187" data-attributes="member: 11"><p><strong>Session #8 (part III)</strong></p><p></p><p>nto the darkness Ratchis leapt, but to his trained and inhuman eyes, the room was a world of reversed shades of gray. He landed on a slab of stone not unlike the one that they had seen in front of the shack, but was off-balance for a second as the small form a boy that must have been no older than 11 years in life came at him. </p><p></p><p>“Eng! Eng!” was all the boy could say, dressed in a fine quilted jacket of molding velvet. The boy’s face seemed to have been powdered with make-up, but in places where it was faded the chilling sight of bluish pallor could be seen. His teeth were blackened, and one eye was swollen to be out of proportion with the rest of his face. </p><p></p><p>The little boy zombie grabbed at Ratchis, but despite being off balance, the woodsman was able to move out of the way, and place a hard kick to the boy’s head knocking him backward. </p><p></p><p>“What’s going on down there?” Kazrack called, sticking his head down the hole, using his dwarfish vision to pull out Ratchis pull out his long hunting knife and dive at a foe that was out of his arc of sight. </p><p></p><p>Ratchis leapt towards the zombie with a wide cut that punctured the swollen eye, causing stale blood, pus and that strange blue liquid to come bursting out in spray. Ratchis put one hand up, and the zombie undaunted, seeming to still possess the undying enthusiasm of a child lurched forward and grabbed the large man’s off-hand arm and yanked hard, sending pain shooting through Ratchis’ shoulder. He pulled his arm back and swung again, and this time the former little boy’s head plopped over, still attached to the neck by a patch of skin and some sinew, sending another burst of ichor into the air. The zombie toppled over, motionless. </p><p></p><p>Kazrack dropped down through the hole, using the lowered hook and chain to guide him, just as Ratchis stepped off the stone slab. The slab was about seven feet long and three and a half feet wide, and made of a off-white stone that was stained with spotches of something rust-colored in some spots and brown in others. Blood. There were also stains of unidentifiable blue stuff and green stuff. The slab was up against the western wall. </p><p>In the northwest corner, a coffin was propped up, and in the northeast corner was a rack of priestly garments and funeral clothes. The southern wall was a stone sideboard covered in bottles and jars of unidentifiable stuff (at least not using darkvision (69) ). In the east wall was a set of narrow double doors, that seem to have been plated with beaten pure gold, to depict a jackal-headed man standing before gates. Behind the gates were countless figures looking out beyond them into the room. (70)</p><p></p><p>Eventually, the rest of the party followed into the small room, bringing a lantern down with them. The still unconscious form of the care-taker (or whatever he was) was lowered down as well, and laid down beside the sideboard. </p><p></p><p>Ratchis and Kazrack debated placing the care-taker into the coffin to keep him out of trouble if he woke up. Ratchis was against it, fearing that if the party did not return from what was beyond those doors the man would die a horrible death, but if merely left tied up there was a good chance he could eventually wriggle out of it. Kazrack grudgingly agreed. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Beorth examined the bottles and jars on the sidebar and found that among them were the familiar tools of a mortician, and for performing autopsies. The jars held embalming fluid and the preserved bits of the dead, like hearts, a brain, eyeball and a tongue. He then walked over to the golden doors and examine the bas-relief in detail. </p><p></p><p>“Wow, thassa lutta gold,” Chance said quietly to Jeremy “Ah wonder how heavy it is.” </p><p></p><p>“Probably very heavy, but not impossible to get off and out of here with some determination,” said Jeremy, eying the gold greedily as well. </p><p></p><p>“Whaddya say we try ta git these off later?” Chance said, trying to be quiet. </p><p></p><p>“Hey,” admonished Jana, overhearing. “I think that is a very bad idea.” </p><p></p><p>“Av carse,” said Chance, looking at the young girl. “We wus jast kiddin’. Weren’t we Jeremy?” </p><p></p><p>“Of course,” the Neergaardian replied. </p><p></p><p>Jana rolled her eyes and stepped over to look at the stuff on the sidebar for herself. </p><p></p><p>Chance elbowed Jeremy and winked. Jeremy nodded. </p><p></p><p>“A tomb lies beyond here,” Beorth announced. “We shall enter, for Anubis does grant permission for those that work in his name to enter these forbidden and sacred places for the purpose of destroying the evil that does desecrate it. </p><p></p><p>Ratchis and Kazrack pulled open the doors, and beyond was revealed a very small alcove, beyond which was a very narrow passageway that went onward into pitch darkness. It was barely six feet high, and Ratchis groaned realizing how difficult passing through such a space was going to be for him. </p><p></p><p>It was agreed that Kazrack, being the shortest would lead the way, with the rest following in this order: Jeremy, Beorth, Jana, Chance and Ratchis taking up the rear. </p><p></p><p>The crept along the passage way of loose brick and packed dirt, coming to wooden supports every dozen or so feet, which cause them to duck their head s even further. Ratchis was particularly cramped, dragging his quarterstaff along behind him. Jeremy held the lantern. He knew that if they were attacked by something while in this passage he would be particularly vulnerable, and he soon realized would block the escape of the others. It was too late to do anything about it now. </p><p></p><p>The passage had the slightest upward grade, which Kazrack immediately noticed. There was the slightest cool breeze which carried a fetid smell on it coming from the direction the party headed. They walked and walked, the cramped conditions giving them the impression that they had been marching along for hours with no change, except the deepening of their breaths. </p><p></p><p>Eventually, Kazrack heard a crunch beneath his feet and felt some small thing landing on him from above. At first he thought that the ceiling of the passage was crumbling, but looking closely it appeared as if the passageway walls, floor and ceiling were moving – squirming was an even better word – and now he could see thousands upon thousands of insects crawling about the passage, in and out of cracks in the walls. Kazrack took another step forward and could feel the bugs crawling up his body, down his neck beneath his armor and with his beard. He could hear their carapaces clinking off his helm. </p><p></p><p>“What is this stuff?” Jeremy said, stepping into the infested area.</p><p> </p><p>“Bugs,” said Kazrack, but he should not have opened his mouth, because the moment he did a large waterbug popped right in. He spat it out disgusted, and just continued and the party followed, filled with loathing for the predicament they found themselves in. </p><p>They could hear the chittering of their legs and mandibles, and the crunching beneath their feet, and along the walls as they smeared the countless bugs. Jeremy looked and bugs had even crawled within the lantern, some smoking in the flame, others floating dead in the kerosene. Ratchis held the hood of his cloak over his head and crouched down lower, trying to shield himself, and Jana kept her mouth tightly shut and covered her ears with her hands. Beneath her cloak she could hear her little friend happily chopping down bugs. </p><p></p><p>“Yum, yum! Good bugs! Bugs good!” it said to her in her mind. </p><p>Chance merely shrieked every time he felt a large bug under his clothes and would smash it with an open hand. Beorth walked stoically through the infestation without reaction. </p><p></p><p>The narrow passageway had gone about 200 feet or more when it came to a simple wooden door, that Kazrack pushed open. The light from the lantern spilled out into the space beyond. They broke through cobwebs into a tall crypt. It had a sandstone floor, and the ceiling was lost in the darkness above. Wooden stairs lined the walls going up and around, held in place by tall wooden supports. The walls of the chamber where brick and mortar, and the right hand wall held five long tapestries, some of which were in tatters. </p><p></p><p>The center of the crypt was dominated by a large sarcophagus made of gold, and bronze. It sat upon a stone bier, and was decorated with the bas-relief of a woman’s figure, arms crossed upon her chest. All around the sides of the sarcophagus were etched figures paying homage to gods. It was flanked by two tall torch scones that were unlit. Just a little behind the large sarcophagus was two more sarcophagi perpendicular to the first one. They were both made of fine lacquered wood, one red and one blue. </p><p></p><p>“This place has been defiled,” Beorth said softly. “Whatever evil lingers here shall be destroyed in the name of Anubis!” </p><p></p><p>The party spread out, Beorth examined the large sarcophagus, as Jeremy and Chance went over to the tapestries and began to push them aside to look for other entrances/exits. Ratchis went and stood by the stairs, while Kazrack looked at the red and blue sarcophagi, without touching them. </p><p></p><p>Jana merely stood and observed, and then said suddenly, "Do you hear that?” </p><p></p><p>Everyone stopped and listened. The wooden stairs were creaking with the movement of many feet. They could hear the now familiar “eng” sound as a half dozen or more zombies began to slowly descend upon them.</p><p></p><p>---------------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><p></p><p>(69) (In Aquerra) Darkvision cannot be used to tell details like writing or small scratches or impressions in things.</p><p> </p><p>(70) These are a depiction of the gates to Anubis’ Realm.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="el-remmen, post: 71187, member: 11"] [b]Session #8 (part III)[/b] nto the darkness Ratchis leapt, but to his trained and inhuman eyes, the room was a world of reversed shades of gray. He landed on a slab of stone not unlike the one that they had seen in front of the shack, but was off-balance for a second as the small form a boy that must have been no older than 11 years in life came at him. “Eng! Eng!” was all the boy could say, dressed in a fine quilted jacket of molding velvet. The boy’s face seemed to have been powdered with make-up, but in places where it was faded the chilling sight of bluish pallor could be seen. His teeth were blackened, and one eye was swollen to be out of proportion with the rest of his face. The little boy zombie grabbed at Ratchis, but despite being off balance, the woodsman was able to move out of the way, and place a hard kick to the boy’s head knocking him backward. “What’s going on down there?” Kazrack called, sticking his head down the hole, using his dwarfish vision to pull out Ratchis pull out his long hunting knife and dive at a foe that was out of his arc of sight. Ratchis leapt towards the zombie with a wide cut that punctured the swollen eye, causing stale blood, pus and that strange blue liquid to come bursting out in spray. Ratchis put one hand up, and the zombie undaunted, seeming to still possess the undying enthusiasm of a child lurched forward and grabbed the large man’s off-hand arm and yanked hard, sending pain shooting through Ratchis’ shoulder. He pulled his arm back and swung again, and this time the former little boy’s head plopped over, still attached to the neck by a patch of skin and some sinew, sending another burst of ichor into the air. The zombie toppled over, motionless. Kazrack dropped down through the hole, using the lowered hook and chain to guide him, just as Ratchis stepped off the stone slab. The slab was about seven feet long and three and a half feet wide, and made of a off-white stone that was stained with spotches of something rust-colored in some spots and brown in others. Blood. There were also stains of unidentifiable blue stuff and green stuff. The slab was up against the western wall. In the northwest corner, a coffin was propped up, and in the northeast corner was a rack of priestly garments and funeral clothes. The southern wall was a stone sideboard covered in bottles and jars of unidentifiable stuff (at least not using darkvision (69) ). In the east wall was a set of narrow double doors, that seem to have been plated with beaten pure gold, to depict a jackal-headed man standing before gates. Behind the gates were countless figures looking out beyond them into the room. (70) Eventually, the rest of the party followed into the small room, bringing a lantern down with them. The still unconscious form of the care-taker (or whatever he was) was lowered down as well, and laid down beside the sideboard. Ratchis and Kazrack debated placing the care-taker into the coffin to keep him out of trouble if he woke up. Ratchis was against it, fearing that if the party did not return from what was beyond those doors the man would die a horrible death, but if merely left tied up there was a good chance he could eventually wriggle out of it. Kazrack grudgingly agreed. Meanwhile, Beorth examined the bottles and jars on the sidebar and found that among them were the familiar tools of a mortician, and for performing autopsies. The jars held embalming fluid and the preserved bits of the dead, like hearts, a brain, eyeball and a tongue. He then walked over to the golden doors and examine the bas-relief in detail. “Wow, thassa lutta gold,” Chance said quietly to Jeremy “Ah wonder how heavy it is.” “Probably very heavy, but not impossible to get off and out of here with some determination,” said Jeremy, eying the gold greedily as well. “Whaddya say we try ta git these off later?” Chance said, trying to be quiet. “Hey,” admonished Jana, overhearing. “I think that is a very bad idea.” “Av carse,” said Chance, looking at the young girl. “We wus jast kiddin’. Weren’t we Jeremy?” “Of course,” the Neergaardian replied. Jana rolled her eyes and stepped over to look at the stuff on the sidebar for herself. Chance elbowed Jeremy and winked. Jeremy nodded. “A tomb lies beyond here,” Beorth announced. “We shall enter, for Anubis does grant permission for those that work in his name to enter these forbidden and sacred places for the purpose of destroying the evil that does desecrate it. Ratchis and Kazrack pulled open the doors, and beyond was revealed a very small alcove, beyond which was a very narrow passageway that went onward into pitch darkness. It was barely six feet high, and Ratchis groaned realizing how difficult passing through such a space was going to be for him. It was agreed that Kazrack, being the shortest would lead the way, with the rest following in this order: Jeremy, Beorth, Jana, Chance and Ratchis taking up the rear. The crept along the passage way of loose brick and packed dirt, coming to wooden supports every dozen or so feet, which cause them to duck their head s even further. Ratchis was particularly cramped, dragging his quarterstaff along behind him. Jeremy held the lantern. He knew that if they were attacked by something while in this passage he would be particularly vulnerable, and he soon realized would block the escape of the others. It was too late to do anything about it now. The passage had the slightest upward grade, which Kazrack immediately noticed. There was the slightest cool breeze which carried a fetid smell on it coming from the direction the party headed. They walked and walked, the cramped conditions giving them the impression that they had been marching along for hours with no change, except the deepening of their breaths. Eventually, Kazrack heard a crunch beneath his feet and felt some small thing landing on him from above. At first he thought that the ceiling of the passage was crumbling, but looking closely it appeared as if the passageway walls, floor and ceiling were moving – squirming was an even better word – and now he could see thousands upon thousands of insects crawling about the passage, in and out of cracks in the walls. Kazrack took another step forward and could feel the bugs crawling up his body, down his neck beneath his armor and with his beard. He could hear their carapaces clinking off his helm. “What is this stuff?” Jeremy said, stepping into the infested area. “Bugs,” said Kazrack, but he should not have opened his mouth, because the moment he did a large waterbug popped right in. He spat it out disgusted, and just continued and the party followed, filled with loathing for the predicament they found themselves in. They could hear the chittering of their legs and mandibles, and the crunching beneath their feet, and along the walls as they smeared the countless bugs. Jeremy looked and bugs had even crawled within the lantern, some smoking in the flame, others floating dead in the kerosene. Ratchis held the hood of his cloak over his head and crouched down lower, trying to shield himself, and Jana kept her mouth tightly shut and covered her ears with her hands. Beneath her cloak she could hear her little friend happily chopping down bugs. “Yum, yum! Good bugs! Bugs good!” it said to her in her mind. Chance merely shrieked every time he felt a large bug under his clothes and would smash it with an open hand. Beorth walked stoically through the infestation without reaction. The narrow passageway had gone about 200 feet or more when it came to a simple wooden door, that Kazrack pushed open. The light from the lantern spilled out into the space beyond. They broke through cobwebs into a tall crypt. It had a sandstone floor, and the ceiling was lost in the darkness above. Wooden stairs lined the walls going up and around, held in place by tall wooden supports. The walls of the chamber where brick and mortar, and the right hand wall held five long tapestries, some of which were in tatters. The center of the crypt was dominated by a large sarcophagus made of gold, and bronze. It sat upon a stone bier, and was decorated with the bas-relief of a woman’s figure, arms crossed upon her chest. All around the sides of the sarcophagus were etched figures paying homage to gods. It was flanked by two tall torch scones that were unlit. Just a little behind the large sarcophagus was two more sarcophagi perpendicular to the first one. They were both made of fine lacquered wood, one red and one blue. “This place has been defiled,” Beorth said softly. “Whatever evil lingers here shall be destroyed in the name of Anubis!” The party spread out, Beorth examined the large sarcophagus, as Jeremy and Chance went over to the tapestries and began to push them aside to look for other entrances/exits. Ratchis went and stood by the stairs, while Kazrack looked at the red and blue sarcophagi, without touching them. Jana merely stood and observed, and then said suddenly, "Do you hear that?” Everyone stopped and listened. The wooden stairs were creaking with the movement of many feet. They could hear the now familiar “eng” sound as a half dozen or more zombies began to slowly descend upon them. --------------------------------------------------- [b]Notes:[/b] (69) (In Aquerra) Darkvision cannot be used to tell details like writing or small scratches or impressions in things. (70) These are a depiction of the gates to Anubis’ Realm. [/QUOTE]
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"Out of the Frying Pan" - Book I: Gathering Wood (reprise)
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