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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1687723" data-attributes="member: 9626">Nighmare Prince: The Journey to the ManorFor hours, the metal serpent weaved its way through the underground tunnels.  Periodically, it would stop, and some black-robed figures would get on or off.  At one point, the party’s guide up to this point left with the crowd.  Everyone saw him, but couldn’t do anything to stop him, since it would attract too much attention to themselves.  They just let him go, and hoped that he feared the Nightmare Prince and was as repulsed by him as he had seemed up to this point.    A few stops later, a few more unusual cultists entered their “car.”  Oddly enough, they appeared to be dwarves, which were nearly non-existent among the cultists from their experiences so far.  They couldn’t see any more about them, however, since the cultists’ hoods were designed to hide the face (a fact the party has used to their advantage on more than one occasion.)    What the party didn’t know at this point was that these were not ordinary dwarves, either.  They were Viett and Roryn Holderhek, dwarf brothers whose paths had crossed with Bas before.  Viett, in fact, is an ex-cultist of Bas, albeit in the non-evil sect that advocates neutrality and trains all of Bas’ psionicists.  Viett actually first joined the cult because of this, when they offered to help him when he first discovered his powers, and was exiled because of this.  However, while he still respected the Neutral sect, he became disillusioned with Bas worship when he learned of the other sects.  In fact, the sect led by The Nightmare Prince so horrified him that before he left, he obtained information relating to how to find him, and then found his brother Roryn, a wild warrior who’s chaotic and vengeful fighting style has made him a village outcast as well, to help him stage an assault on The Nightmare Prince.  The two brothers are united by one other thing: they had a strange collective dream.  Surprisingly, though, it had nothing to do with Lady Memory.  Instead, it was a gruff, dwarf man, who complained that this (whatever this was,) didn’t feel right, and technically broke a lot of rules, but they had to do something to counter her (whoever she was.)  They lost their memories for a while after that point, just like the various Lady Memory dreamers, but gained them back all the same.    Before the groups could formally introduce each other, however, they saw something that distracted both groups.  The subway passed a cavern, and a horrifying scene could be witnessed through the windows.  What looked like a giant gold dragon was being attacked and horribly killed by dozens of creatures that appeared to be vampires.  Thorrun quickly moved to the other side of the subway and turn his head in fear, but the normal cultists who were in the subway with them looked on the seen casually, and with some enjoyment.  One even commented that it was a particularly good show today!      All of this was making Grockith not scared, but enraged.  He was about ready to burst out of the subway already, and hearing the way the cultists spoke about this scene, which reminded him profoundly of his own mother, drove him mad.  He stood up and was just about to breathe his fiery breath on the three cultists, when Tal, Galeron, Thorrun, and Robin all grabbed onto him from behind, holding him back.  The two dwarves saw this and thought they might be some of the Nightmare Prince’s men, who discovered their presence, so they drew weapons and prepared to fight the party.  This caused Danae to respond by webbing them, which fortunately gave everyone time to calm down.  The three confused cultists caught in the middle of all this looked around, terrified.  Tal, trying to think of a quick excuse, said, “Sorry about that.  My friend here just thought he heard somebody insult his mother.”    The cultists nodded understandingly, but one of them said, “Hmm.  He should know better by now anyway.  He won’t last long if he’s still concerned with that useless creature.”  The cultist then turned to watch the “show” outside, while Grockith’s internal rage further grew, and as she noticed there had only been male black-robed cultists so far, Danae just grew very thankful for the bulky robes the cultists all wore!    Finally, the subway reached the party’s stop.  They all departed, and noticed the two dwarves were leaving as well.  Since they were the only two groups to get off here, they decided to finally get some answers.  “Okay, I can tell you’re not really Nightmare Prince cultists,” Viett said, having noticed the half-gold dragon Grockith and Thorrun, not to mention Danae.  “Who are you?”    The group exchanged glances, and had Thorrun step forward to speak for them, due to the racial bonds he had with these dwarves.  “We’re enemies of him, seeking to stop him.  Are you the same?”    Viett nodded, and replied, “Yes.  I’m a…bard, who learned of a way to access these tunnels.  My brother and I decided to try and defeat the Nightmare Prince as well.”  After what happened in his home village, he decided that very few people could be trusted with the truth of his power.    The party quickly discussed these newcomers.  “I think they’re telling the truth, but there’s something this Viett is hiding from us,” Galeron said.  “We should let them come along with us, but watch them very closely.”    The dwarves agreed that there was strength in numbers, especially in a place like this, but they were equally suspicious of the party.  Eventually, the now merged party continued down the tunnel from the subway, only to find the first test of the tunnel.  The next cavern was extremely long and had a river of lava flowing through it.  Only a few narrow bridges and ledges provided a safe path through the area.  To make matters worse, as soon as they neared the river, it started to churn, and the lava periodically would form into a wave.  It was like the river was being partially dammed and then released.  Of course, the bridges weren’t safe whenever a wave formed, forcing the party to hide in small alcoves on the sides of the cavern periodically.  To make matters worse, when they neared the middle of the tunnel, they were suddenly attacked by three statues with strange runes where their faces should be, and a tentacled monster that lived in the lava itself.  The statues weren’t too bad, though they proved dangerous simply because they blocked essential parts of the paths, exposing people to repeated waves of lava.  In addition, they could fire blood out of their runic “faces,” which tried to warp the minds of those hid by it, confusing them.  Fortunately, the party members struck were able to resist this effect, and destroy the statues.    The tentacled monster was a greater threat.  For one thing, it had a weapon in each of its many arms, and could attack one target almost a dozen times!  In addition, it seemed to be tied to the elemental of fire, and even put up a wall of fire down the middle of one of the bridges, making it impossible to continue until it was brought down.  It also could grapple party members in its tentacles.  It managed to grab Tal, and was slowly dragging him towards the edge of the ledge he was on, and into the lava!  Tal was almost forced off, and into the almost certain doom of the river, when the monster was finally brought down through a combination of Danae’s magic, Robin’s arrows, and Viett’s “bardic lore.”    After the monsters were defeated, the party was able to cross the lava room slightly more easily, though Robin’s animal companions and Grockith’s rhino gave them some trouble.  From there, the party had to cross another tunnel, and encountered even more dangers.  As they went down the corridor, they found a pair of stone statues, which were carved to resemble cultists.  When the party neared them, they suddenly moved, shouting words of praise to the Nightmare Prince, and then kneeling while instructing the party to do the same.  Since they were still attempting to reach the manor without alerting it, they follow these instructions.  A little farther down the corridor, they saw a second pair of statues, who instructed the party to praise Khaspar.  Everyone followed this one except Galeron, Thorrun, and Grockith, though the latter was growing increasingly disturbed at this point.  He was beginning to mutter to himself, and seemed to sometimes draw his weapon and stare at unseen enemies, but he never explained these actions to the others.  Regardless, the others’ actions seemed to satisfy these statues, for they didn’t respond to the party after this.  The third set told the party to cut themselves with the holy symbols of Bas, which most of the party had grown used to by now.  However, the final test was stranger, and more disturbing.  The two cultist statues attacked a third statue of a seemingly innocent person, and they instructed the party to attack an unwilling target in the same way!  This was too far for the entire party, and they decided to take their chances at this point.  Surprisingly, the statues didn’t respond to this refusal, but Danae knew that there were many ways magical traps could be devised, and was afraid that they still alerted the guards to their presence of caused something even worse to happen.OOC Notes: Viett and Roryn are the new characters for Fnipper and Tebryn’s players, respectively.  This makes the third character to date for Chris, for those still keep track.</blockquote>

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