drnuncheon's Online Story Hour (now playing: Of Sound Mind)
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Drusilia Nailo
First Post
I know that Ahoke was extremely irritated with her adventuring companions for taking the gem at all. 
drnuncheon
Explorer
Harvester's hand reaches out to touch a spot on the wall, and then he crouches, lifting something for closer study. He glances up to the priest, as he gathers the glassy shards, "Was there a mirror or something here?"
Sen-Jyu nods, "I think so. I found the broken remains of a mirror frame, up in the bowl. Why do you ask?"
The korhorrag shakes its reptilian head. "I know nothing about mirrorsss being here." its eyes narrow as it studies you. "All I know iss that the humanssss dissapeared from thisss chamber after ssslaughtering my people."
Ahoke coughs. "What humans? When did this happen?"
Harvester lifts a shoulder, then traces the outline of the oddly placed bare spot on the wall, aomng the carvings, then gestures to the remnants of a mirror on the floor.
"Three of them...they entered our cavernssss sseveral dayss ago. One we ssslew, and her head guarded the entranssse, warned me of your presssenssse."
Coming closer to the place that the Harvester has indicated, Sen-Jyu studies the outlines and carvings. At the korhorrag's admission, his nose wrinkles in distaste, but he says nothing.
Ahoke frowns. "Why were they here? I just assumed that they were here to rescue the children, same as us." She glared suspiciously at Tanalruk. "Of course, if you'd sent undead after them, they had no reason to /not/ assume that you were an enemy."
Harvester speaks softly, "The Heroes of Bellhold.... Where did the other two go?"
"They ssslew my people sstoneborn. if they had not done ssso, there would /be/ no undead."
Ahoke hmmms, studying the korhorrag. "I see, kind of. With a sigh, she says, "Tell us of the goblins."
Tamalruk turns away, throwing his withered arms up in frustration. "Ssso many quessstions, anssswered already. How your kind conquersss the ssssurface iss beyond me. I sssaw not where they went," he tells Harvester, then turns back to Ahoke. "The goblinsss came weeksss ago, through the ssssealed gate, sssseeking ssssomething. They too fought my people, then ssslunk away."
Sen-Jyu examines some of the remaining shards from the mirror, head tilted to one side, eyes dimmed as if he were daydreaming.
Harvester speaks in a low tone, "We ask questions to learn, and ask the same questions to learn new information or to clarify poorly worded answers." He looks at the korhorrag, "If you desire our assistance, priest, please at least _pretend_ to be civil..."
Ahoke turns, glancing at the other two. "Well, I suppose we should probably go kill the thanork. I have a feeling that these dreams and sleeplessness are all their fault, and it sounds like they have the children too, since it doesn't appear to be the korhorrag."
Harvester nods to Ahoke, though he still looks at the Tamalruk. "Agreed. I is unlikely to be the korhorrag."
"Ssssivility? To a rassse of essscaped ssslavesss?" The korhorrag spits. "/We/ were the chosssen of the dragon, not you." He limps towards the bowl. "I will find sssuitable payment for your...ssservisssesss."
Harvester murmurs, "Slaves? When were we your... slaves?"
Ahoke mmphs. "Probably when the people of Bellhold worked the mines here, under Copperdeath's 'protection.'"
Tamalruk does not hear, or perhaps pretends not to, as he climbs the stairs towards the great fiery bowl.
Harvester glances towards Ahoke with a knowing nod at her words. "Possibly. And you know what that means..." He speaks very softly.
Sen-Jyu watches the Korhorrag mount the stairs, stepping away from the carvings he had been examining with such a hypnotized look. With as neutral an expression as a statue, he waits, supposing the korhorrag is attempting something.
Ahoke looks back to Harvester, nodding slowly. "I can think of a few things... but I'm hoping that I'm wrong. But... first things first, I suppose. I think, and hope," she said, her voice taking on a new note of fervency, "That more will be revealed when we find the thanork."
Sen-Jyu nods, "I think so. I found the broken remains of a mirror frame, up in the bowl. Why do you ask?"
The korhorrag shakes its reptilian head. "I know nothing about mirrorsss being here." its eyes narrow as it studies you. "All I know iss that the humanssss dissapeared from thisss chamber after ssslaughtering my people."
Ahoke coughs. "What humans? When did this happen?"
Harvester lifts a shoulder, then traces the outline of the oddly placed bare spot on the wall, aomng the carvings, then gestures to the remnants of a mirror on the floor.
"Three of them...they entered our cavernssss sseveral dayss ago. One we ssslew, and her head guarded the entranssse, warned me of your presssenssse."
Coming closer to the place that the Harvester has indicated, Sen-Jyu studies the outlines and carvings. At the korhorrag's admission, his nose wrinkles in distaste, but he says nothing.
Ahoke frowns. "Why were they here? I just assumed that they were here to rescue the children, same as us." She glared suspiciously at Tanalruk. "Of course, if you'd sent undead after them, they had no reason to /not/ assume that you were an enemy."
Harvester speaks softly, "The Heroes of Bellhold.... Where did the other two go?"
"They ssslew my people sstoneborn. if they had not done ssso, there would /be/ no undead."
Ahoke hmmms, studying the korhorrag. "I see, kind of. With a sigh, she says, "Tell us of the goblins."
Tamalruk turns away, throwing his withered arms up in frustration. "Ssso many quessstions, anssswered already. How your kind conquersss the ssssurface iss beyond me. I sssaw not where they went," he tells Harvester, then turns back to Ahoke. "The goblinsss came weeksss ago, through the ssssealed gate, sssseeking ssssomething. They too fought my people, then ssslunk away."
Sen-Jyu examines some of the remaining shards from the mirror, head tilted to one side, eyes dimmed as if he were daydreaming.
Harvester speaks in a low tone, "We ask questions to learn, and ask the same questions to learn new information or to clarify poorly worded answers." He looks at the korhorrag, "If you desire our assistance, priest, please at least _pretend_ to be civil..."
Ahoke turns, glancing at the other two. "Well, I suppose we should probably go kill the thanork. I have a feeling that these dreams and sleeplessness are all their fault, and it sounds like they have the children too, since it doesn't appear to be the korhorrag."
Harvester nods to Ahoke, though he still looks at the Tamalruk. "Agreed. I is unlikely to be the korhorrag."
"Ssssivility? To a rassse of essscaped ssslavesss?" The korhorrag spits. "/We/ were the chosssen of the dragon, not you." He limps towards the bowl. "I will find sssuitable payment for your...ssservisssesss."
Harvester murmurs, "Slaves? When were we your... slaves?"
Ahoke mmphs. "Probably when the people of Bellhold worked the mines here, under Copperdeath's 'protection.'"
Tamalruk does not hear, or perhaps pretends not to, as he climbs the stairs towards the great fiery bowl.
Harvester glances towards Ahoke with a knowing nod at her words. "Possibly. And you know what that means..." He speaks very softly.
Sen-Jyu watches the Korhorrag mount the stairs, stepping away from the carvings he had been examining with such a hypnotized look. With as neutral an expression as a statue, he waits, supposing the korhorrag is attempting something.
Ahoke looks back to Harvester, nodding slowly. "I can think of a few things... but I'm hoping that I'm wrong. But... first things first, I suppose. I think, and hope," she said, her voice taking on a new note of fervency, "That more will be revealed when we find the thanork."
drnuncheon
Explorer
Harvester crosses his arms as he watches and waits, the scythe held in one hand and resting in the crook of the opposite elbow.
The korhorrag priest looks back to Harvester, as if to say 'what?', then heaves himself, slowly and painfully, into the flaming bowl, muttering all the time as he starts to dig.
Ahoke sucks in a deep breath, and then exhales slowly. "How do we get ourselves in these messes?"
Harvester says, "I blame Ollie."
Ahoke glances at Harvester, blinking a few times in wordless question.
Tamalruk's head emerges over the side, and he gestures towards Sen-Jyu. "Come clossser."
Sen-Jyu simply shakes his head. "No."
Harvester catches Ahoke's glance, then grins at her. "Yeah... Ollie used to always get me into fine messes... I think it kinda stuck on me."
Tamalruk shrugs. "You sssurfassse dwellersss. You wantsss no payment, no help, that isss fine." He begins to heave himself back out of the bowl.
Harvester clears his throat.
Sen-Jyu grins at the Harvester and shrugs, not appearing to regret his decision.
Ahoke frowns, walking up to the edge of the bowl and looks up at Tamalruk. "I'll take any help that I can get, if you're willing to give it," she says, wary now that she sees her companions' distrust.
Harvester moves with a chuckle, to stand behind Ahoke. "My mama didn't raise no fool..."
Tamalruk's jaws creak open in a horrible grin. "Ssstoneborn hasss sssenssse onssse again." It pulls its leg back over the rim of the bowl. "Only two handsss, thisss fallsss, they breaksss." He stretches out, holding a handful of tiny vials.
Ahoke stretches upward, taking the the handful of vials gingerly. "What do they do?"
Harvester looks over Ahoke's shoulder to study the vials thoughtfully as she takes them.
"Humansss had them, drank them, woundsss healed." Tamalruk goes back down. "More there wasss. No revenge if you diesss," he mutters to himself. Again the clawed hand emerges, this time with a handful of stone necklaces. "Protective runesss. Very powerful."
Keeping his eye on the korhorrag, Sen-Jyu is suddenly mirthless, as if knowing how wasted any sort of benevolence would be on this creature.
Ahoke ahs. "Potions are good," she says thoughtfully. "Harv, can you grab the necklaces, and pass them out? My hands are a little full here."
Tamalruk shakes the necklaces impatiently.
Harvester nods to Ahoke at her inquiry, and reaches up the short distance to take the necklaces. "Patience, priest.... you'll give yourself a heart attack..."
Ahoke holds her hands open, cupped, with the four vials resting in them. "Take what you want, just leave me one of them," she says, "In case that one of you can't get over to feed it to me quick enough."
The clawed hand drops the necklaces on Harvester, and vanishes again into the eerie flames of the bowl. A moment later, the head emerges again, and gives you all an appraising look. "Perhapsss...they did ssslay the vengeanssse..." It seems to come to a decision, and pulls out three stone-tipped spears. "Weaponsss of great warriorsss, thessse. Sssoulsss cry out for vengeanssse, for goblin blood. You feed them, yesss?"
Harvester examines the stone necklaces carefully, then replies to Ahoke. "We should each take one, yes..."
Holding up one hand, Sen-Jyu refuses the offer of potion, necklace or spear.
Harvester laughs softly, "I've little knowledge in the ways of using a spear, though if they will help..." He sees Sen-Jyu's refusal and grins knowingly. "Ahoke?"
Ahoke mmms. "I don't like your people very much, priest, but I'm more than happy to kill goblins for you." When Sen-Jyu refuses the potions, she shrugs, and drops two of them down behind her armor, to rest between her breasts. "Harvester?" She takes one of the necklaces from him, draping it over her neck, and then reaches for a spear with a shrug. "Sure."
Harvester accepts the pair of vials and places them into a pouch. He does not reach for a spear.
Harvester, after a moment, extracts his vials and studies them carefully.
The first bit of humor comes from the priest at Ahoke's words. "Likewissse." It dips down one final time, placing something in its mouth, and then clambers painfully out of the heatless flames. Removing the crystalline object, he holds it up. "Thisss, very old magic." it appears to be a whistle of some sort.
Ahoke reaches up, taking the whistle. "What does it do? Besides, I'm assuming, make noise?"
Tamalruk shrugs. "I know not. Now, I gather bonesss, and you ssslay goblinsss, yes?"
Harvester nods to himself on determining what he desired of the potions, and replaces them in his pouch.
Ahoke hrms, and then shrugs. "Harvester, if you're not taking a spear, you should take the magic whistle. It's only fair. And yes, korhorrag, I'd love to kill goblinssss, er, goblins, er thanork, dammit. Which direction?"
Harvester says, "Where were the other surface dwellers slain, priest? Particularly the one whose head you used for warning?" He nods to Ahoke and holds out a hand to her, palm up.
Tamalruk says, "Here in the tunnells. Only one ssslain. The othersss, gone. From thisss room, sssomehow."
Producing a second bamboo reed from his backpack, Sen-Jyu loosens the armor about his chest, that he can apply the goop to the buckler-sized bruise that's trying to form on his side.
Harvester points to his left ear, "Did you find a piece of 'decoration' similar to this on her?"
Ahoke carefully places the whistle in Harv's hand, glancing back to Tamalruk. "I'm very curious about how they did that, myself. If we aren't eaten by thanork, maybe we'll find out," she adds, with a sigh.
Harvester studies the whistle, now, then places it into the same pouch as the pair of curatives, unless it is on some sort of chain.
Ahoke tests the weight of the spear, hefting it experimentally. A low growl starts from the back of her throat, not from any immediate rage, as those who know her already know, but at the thought of future battle.
Harvester taps his foot, impatiently, as he awaits Tamalruk's reply to his query.
Tamalruk peers carefully. "No," is all he says.
Harvester grunts. "alright. Which way to the Great Egress and the Goblins?"
Sen-Jyu points at the dragon -- well, through the dragon.
Tamalruk says, "The dragonsss path isss behind the sssstatue, but I cannot open it."
Ahoke turns, staring at Tamalruk. "You... can't? Er... do you know how /we/ could do it?"
Tamalruk begins to limp off. "No. But pleassse wait for me to get far away if you intend to ssssteal an eye again. I have no desssire to be ssstomped flat."
Harvester mutters an invective under his voice. "Well, Sen? You feeling adventuresome again?"
Tamalruk looks back, as if he can't believe you're going to try that again, then starts to shuffle off faster.
Ahoke turns back to regard the dragon statue for a moment, narrowing her eyes. "It might be wrong... but if it is, easily righted." She reaches up, taking off a necklace that she's always worn, a small wooden rune, lovingly, if not expertly, carved. And then climbs up towards the bowl, dropping it in. "Dragon, I make a sacrifice. The symbol of my status of the tribe, I give to you for passage."
The dragon's eyes glitter in the firelight, but nothing else seems to occur.
Ahoke grunts. "Well, there goes the placating route. I'm going in to get my damned symbol back. Don't do anything until I get out." Her head pops up over the bowl. "I know that this kind of thing isn't valuable anywhere else but with my tribe. Do you think it wants something more valuable?"
Harvester calls up to Ahoke, "Not until you extricate yourself, 'Kay."
Ahoke slides over the edge, and then walks back down the stairs. "There's got to be an easier way to do this than to piss it off at us again."
Sen-Jyu watches the two, grinning a bit at the comical nature of the situation. He starts to wander over to the carvings around the room, reading their meaning as best he can.
Harvester, too, appears to have the same idea as Ahoke, and he tosses in another golden disk. His eyes close momentarily as he frowns in concentration. 'You are the mighty dragon... all fear and tremble at your passage.... We seek to travel beyond, in the place you protect...'.
The stone dragon sits impassively, unmoved by the Harvester's words and thoughts.
Ahoke grunts. "Bribery doesn't work, flattery doesn't work... I wonder if it prefers copper?"
Harvester mutters, "So much for speaking praise and having the dragon come down from his mountain..."
Sen-Jyu takes his sweet ol' time in looking at those carvings.
Ahoke muses, "I wonder if intimidation would work..."
"Um..." says Sen-Jyu after a while, when standing near the carving that the Harvester had found. "This is interesting."
Ahoke says, "What is?"
Harvester moves to stand beside Sen-Jyu, "And that is...?"
Sen-Jyu gestures to a panel, where two dragons sit and accept sacrifice. "This." He asks, "You had mentioned something about a mirror. I wonder, was there a mirror back in the room with the toy soldier?" Sen-Jyu licks his lips. "Rather, wasn't there?"
Harvester examines the panel indicated, "We've tried that already... giving sacrifices. Haven't we?" He looks at Sen-Jyu, perplexed, "Yes, there was... I meant to ask Ahoke about that, given what I found here..."
"Aren't dragons rather vain creatures? Especially those that make statues of themselves?" Sen-Jyu shrugs a bit.
Harvester frowns thoughtfully, "You think to reflect the dragon's image, from here..." He gestures to the blank spot on the wall, above the broken mirror shards, "and perhaps cause the statue to attack the 'intruder'?
Ahoke shrugs, pulling out the grime-covered mirror. "What, this one?" She carefully keeps it from reflecting directly at the dragon, just in case.
Harvester hmmms, 'I also possess a smaller mirror, made of steel, though that one might prove better..."
Sen-Jyu peers at the Harvester. "Uh... no, I wasn't supposing that. I was simply thinking to offer a mirror as a sacrifice." He nods to Ahoke's producing the mirror he was referring to. "Something like that, yes...though I'm not discounting any thoughts about reflections and the like. I know very little about magic, and am somewhat deficient in thinking like a dragon." Sen-Jyu smiles sheepishly.
Harvester pats the wall, then points down to the broken shards. "I thought to affix it here.... and so there would be 'two' dragons, as indicated in the panel you discovered...perhaps place the mirror here, then offer a sacrifice, to cause its eyes to shine as they have each other time."
Sen-Jyu grins a little. "Be my guest." He steps out of the way of the dragon-statue, however.
Ahoke hmms. "Well, I guess there's only one way to find out." She walks over to the spot on the wall that a mirror had formerly been hanging on. She props hers up against the wall, shrugging. "Well, there. Mirror." She steps back, looking at the statue cautiously.
Harvester grins back at Sen-Jyu, "Isn't this exciting?!" He moves to stand somewhat 'behind' the statue, just in case.
The mirror seems to glow faintly blue, as if trying to reflect the light of the room, but the accumulated tarnish effectively prevents that from happening.
"... I could just pee," Sen-Jyu comments flatly to the Harvester.
Harvester nods to himself, "Try cleaning it first?"
Harvester laughs back at Sen-Jyu, "Well, try to control yourself, bub..." Then he frowns at the mirror.
Ahoke hmmphs, glancing up at the others. "Well, something happened, anyway. Maybe that better mirror of yours will work."
Harvester nods to Ahoke, then bends to drop his pack and carefully extract his own mirror. He slips the pack back on and polishes the reflective surface, as he moves towards the bare spot. He keeps his back to the statue as he places the mirror in a position to reflect dragon to dragon before moving quickly to one side and around. Just in case.
Ahoke takes the copper mirror back.
The mirror sparkles and begins to glow blue as light reflected from the dragon's eyes hits it. It seems to bounce back, towards the dragon's gaze, there to be magnified and re-reflected. Gradually the light travelling between eyes and mirror shines visibly blue.
Harvester stands a short distance from the statue, along the wall it 'guards'. He waits.
Ahoke huhs. "Well, interesting. So now what?"
The light grows in intensity and hue, until it is almost painful to look at - even looking away your vision bears afterimages of the line of purest azure.
Harvester tosses a golden coin into the bowl, "The sacrifice... and praise...."
There is a sound from the mirror.
Ahoke squints at the mirror, forcing herself to look at it.
Harvester attempts to shield his eyes as he looks toward the mirror.
Sen-Jyu watches the dragon instead, possibly for movement.
The steel of the mirror has begun to warp, softening under the blue beam - and as Ahoke and Harvester watch, it bursts into flames! Molten steel splashes the area around it. The blue beam dies away, leaving the area shrouded in darkness.
And then, with a grinding of stone, the statue begins to move.
Ahoke turns back towards the statue, poised for flight if that becomes necessary.
The statue steps forward, then to the right...revealing a darkened tunnel.
Harvester begins to sidle towards the tunnel that lies behind the now-moving statue, and enters as quickly as he may.
Ahoke follows, directly on the Harvester's heels.
Sen-Jyu, too.
Harvester tries to move faster as the barbarian dwarf and spirit warrior clip his heels, "Hey now.. no shovin.... Plenty of room for everyone!" He continues moving forward, "Need to change your drawers yet, Sen?" he laughs.
The floor of the room beyond is made of tarnished copper sheets, but it is largely empty. A copper bathtub is pushed against one wall. The walls here do not bear the marks of pick and stone - rather, they seem to have been gouged by claw and rubbed smooth by scale.
Across the room, a tunnel leads deeper into the mountain.
Sen-Jyu clears his throat, "Who's wearing drawers?"
One part of the flooring is stained differently than the others, as if it had already been corroded before the rest of it became tarnished. Whatever lay on it was enormous - thirty feet long, at least.
Ahoke whistles low, looking around the room. "I've never seen this much metal before in my life," she says softly. She walks over to the more corroded spot, scowling at it thoughtfully.
Behind you, the dragon statue begins to move again.
Harvester looks towards the place Ahoke speaks on, "Yeah... maybe that's where Copperdeath rested while he waited...." He casts a glance back towards the statue. "Guess we'll have to get out down the mountain...." He moves to inspect the bathtub.
Moving over to the tub, Sen-Jyu grins. "Well. He was a thirsty beast." A finger points out the scars along the bottome, as if an immense tongue had been licking it.
Harvester says, "Ah... I _thought_ he was a bit big to fit in there....""
Ahoke is quiet, looking down the tunnel leading deeper into the mountain. She sighs, then.
The statue settles back in place, cutting off the room's known exit. Only the unknown remains...
Harvester moves to peer into the tunnel after looking about.
Ahoke draws herself up to her full height (which, while not very tall, seems to bolster her courage.) "We have children to save," she says resolutely. "And thanork to kill."
Harvester laughs softly at Ahoke, "Well.... just waitin on y'all..." comes the drawl and wink.
Ahoke nods, unsmiling, and starts to walk down the corridor. "Alright."
The tunnel proceeds into the depths of the mountain, curving slightly up. About sixty feet in, it takes a sharp turn - directly upward, into a wide 'chimney'. Higher up, you can see another tunnel, round and smooth.
It seems as though the Heroes of the Bell have been here before you, though - a stout rope hangs down from that tunnel, almost to the floor.
Sen-Jyu takes up the rear, Ichido-sama joining him in preparation.
Harvester sighs on finding the rope. "Coming down was lots easier than this is gonna be....
Ahoke looks up, and up. "Yeah, I think you're right. Shall we give it a try, though?"
Harvester pulls his rope from the pack again, and begins to consider. "Who's gonna go first? Take this, or am I elected?" He holds out the rope.
Ahoke takes the rope from Harvester, offering him a tiny smile. "I can try," she says. "We'll see how it works for me this time." She seems to be having some difficulty getting a good grip on said rope.
Harvester sighs. "I'd try, but can't see squat up there...."
Ahoke wipes the palms of her hands off on her clothes, and then scrambles up with the ease of someone who was born to climb ropes out of misbegotten caverns. Odd, that. Her squat form can be barely seen up at the top, but eventually, she calls out, tentatively, "I'm up. Nothing's tried to eat me yet."
Harvester calls up softly, "Lower the rope!"
Ahoke lowers a second rope, wth threats of what she'll do if you pull her over the edge.
Harvester takes the end of the rope and ties it to his pack and scythe and crossbow as carefully as he can and tugs on the rope. When it is lowered again he ties it to his waist with one more tug and begins his ascent, with Ahoke's aid, hopefully.
Sen-Jyu, sheathing his sword, takes the original rope and gives it a try.
Harvester begins his climb with all the grace of a hippo climbing stairs, feet scrabbling for purchase.
Ahoke grunts, bracing herself, and then just starts to pull Harvester upward, using brute strength.
Harvester wipes off his own hands, "Dammit." before trying again. And then again. And then finds himself being jerked upwards. "ERk! Slip...knot.... stupid... me...." Finally he reaches the upper tunnel and scrabbles over the edge, panting. "Uhm.... thanks..." The priest offers a weak smile.
Sen-Jyu climbs up after Harv, without help.
Ahoke gives the Harvester a grin, and wipes the beads of sweat off of her forehead. "Put your equipment back on. We're going to need it."
Harvester waves a hand as he does as Ahoke says, "I'm gonna... I'm gonna..." A moment later, after stowing the rope. "Okay, let's go...." He looks back at Sen-Jyu, "I _told_ you down was easier..."
Ahoke looks around at the surroundings.
The tunnel continues on into darkness. The walls are rough-hewn, as if clawed from the red rock of the mountain, while the floor is polished almost smooth.
Sen-Jyu draws his katana once more.
Ahoke starts walking into the darkness.
Harvester follows Ahoke into the darkness, which becomes lit by the light on his scythe.
Guano stains the floor of the tunnel, and somewhere above you bats squeal and chirrup in protest at the sudden glow. As you proceed, you can hear something...a low rumbling...and feel a vibration through the rock.
Ahoke scowls at the rumbling, but doesn't slow her pace. She also scowls upward towards the bat sounds.
Gradually, the air becomes...damp...misty, even. The rumbling grows louder, like a long, continuous roll of thunder.
Ahoke hmms. "I wonder if that's a waterfall," she murmurs, without breaking stride.
"Mmm, sounds like one," Sen-Jyu admits, looking behind the group on occasion as they advance down the passage.
Ahoke says, "Yes, either it's that, or the dragon is warning us away..."
The tunnel twists, and you see the truth in Ahoke's guess: it opens into a grotto, in the center of which pours a column of luminescent water, shifting slowly through the spectrum as it falls in breathtaking splendor. A stone barrier channels the water away from the tunnel you stand in, but the clouds of mist that rise from the water drift down towards you.
Ahoke stops short, staring at the water.
Sen-Jyu strains to listen to something, his face knotted in concentration.
Harvester murmurs, "I thought I heard something... but the waterfall drowns it out..."
Sen-Jyu scowls. "Someone's... singing. Down there. I wish I could hear it -- it sounds beautiful."
Ahoke turns, looking at the other two in consternation. "Singing?" She moves into the grotto, looking around. "I don't hear any singing..."
Harvester cups his hand behind his ear, the one with the 'hearing-trumpet' earring, in better attempt to focus his hearing.
Ahoke mmms,nodding. "Yeah...now I hearit..."
Sen-Jyu takes a tentative step or two toward the waterfall. "... hello?" he calls out, as if addressing someone there.
Ahoke peers at Sen, then at the waterfall, alarmed.
Harvester follows behind Sen-jyu, and to one side as he rubs the mist gathering in his eyes.
The song grows, swelling to a crescendo, as the movement in the waterfall grows closer.
You can see a shape, now, in the glowing waters, approaching the edge of the pool. It...no, she, very definitely she...emerges from the water: long, red hair falling across her bark-brown skin, clad only in the mist of the pool. Her face is a poet's dream and a lover's broken heart, and she moves with a grace that no earthly form could match. It is she who is singing, she whose melody blends with the falling water, calling to you...
Harvester begins to move... slowly, at first, then with quickened step towards the woman. A wide grin splits his features as he hurries towards her. He sighs, "I'm coming... Wait for me..."
Sen-Jyu's jaw drops at seeing femininity incarnate approaching, but he does not take the same approach as the Harvester. Rather, he seems a bit shocked that the priest would simply charge into the water, and attempts to catch the robe of the Harvester in one hand.
Harvester slaps away the hands that grab for him, "leggo, dammit... she wants me..."
The last notes of the song die out, and a smile spreads across her face. "Yes, come to me," she says, her voice barely audible over the water. One hand beckons to the Harvester. "It has been so long..."
Ahoke stares at the woman for a few seconds, and then shakes her head rapidly. 'I don't even like the way that human women look," she says to herself. "I don't even like women ..." She casts a longing eye back towards the would be enchantress, though. "Harv... that waterfall will probably hurt you if you step inside..."
Sen-Jyu knots his fingers in the robe of the priest. "Mmmmno," Sen-Jyu says, curling his arm backward at the same time. "The Harvester, aren't you sworn to chastity or something?"
Harvester fights to free himself of Sen-Jyu's grasp, going so far as to slice his scythe towards the man in warning, ""Back off! She ain't gonna let me get hurt!"
Ahoke says, softly, "The children, Harvester. You're doing it for your god, remember? He /wants/ the children to live."
The woman's laugh echos in the cavern like the bells of the town at the mountain's base. "Of course not. I merely desire...company. It has been so many years..."
Harvester shakes his head rapidly, once, as Sen-Jyu calls out to him, then begins to try and force the other away, trying as he might to continue towards her.
"The Harvester!" Sen-Jyu shouts into the priest's face, probably the loudest that his companions have ever heard him be. "You're acting like a desperate pubescent boy! Never mind your pimples, get a hold of yourself!"
Harvester shakes his head yet again, as his name is called, and then he pulls free, skittering back, towards his new love. He shouts to the woman, "I'm coming!"
The woman steps out of the waterfall, holding her arms towards Harvester in welcome.
Sen-Jyu sheathes Ichido-sama, shaking his head. "This is -not- happening," he breathes. And chases the Harvester.
There is the sound of clattering from behind as Ahoke does something, but nothing comes of it.
Harvester runs as swiftly as he is able, swinging his scythe wildly behind himself as he goes.
The woman steps closer. "You do not understand...I am so very lonely here..."
The spirit-blood catches up to the love-stricken cleric and throws himself onto the other. A flurry of appendages later, Sen-Jyu seems to have wrestled the cleric to a standstill. "Listen, the Harvester. Listen. She's not -normal-. You don't just go copulate with any woman you see... normally... well, you haven't since I've known you, at least."
Sen-Jyu clears his throat and murmurs, "Granted, you've been with me and Ahoke, and... I can understand why you'd repress yourself. But show some self-control, man."
Harvester snarls, "LET! ME! GO!!!" a sickle is drawn from his belt, and slashed across Sen-Jyu's chest, without harm, fortunately, as it does not penetrate his attacker's armor.
Ahoke sucks in her breath, looking around the grotto, seductress momentarily forgotten. "Who are you? What is it with disembodied voices in this place?" Her voice is ragged, and she sounds like Wolverine is bubbling to the surface, ready to lash out at the first person or creature that tries to harm her.
"What manner of friend are you, that would deny your companion what he wishes? And how cruel, to keep me from my love." The woman is at the edge of the pool now, one arm reaching out to Harvester. "Why have you come here? I have been so long imprisoned..."
Harvester snarls again, "I said, GEDOFFAME, B---H!" Another violent slash of the sickle finds blood - hot, red, sticky blood that courses across The Harvester's body. Sen-Jyu's flesh is torn, ripped away in a great fount as the priest seeks his escape. Again, he screams out, "I'VE COME FOR YOU!!" to the woman.
Ahoke snarls viciously, leaping towards the grappling pair on the ground. "Stop /it/, damn you, Harvester!" She raises her great club high in the air, and lets it scream through the air, closer and closer to Harvester's head. It veers away at the last second, though, knocking the sickle so hard that it skitters across the grotto floor.
From somewhere behind Ahoke, a small form springs from a ledge: a rat-thing, wet with mist, and with a strange, almost human expression of rage in its eyes. The dwarf manages to twist out of the way of the rat-creature, and it hisses defiance at her from beneath its misshapen brow.
Sen-Jyu fumbles his attempt at pinning the priest. Likely his spurting chest wound has something to do with it.
Water courses down the woman's body as she pulls herself, seal-like, from the pool. Her eyes show nothing but concern as she reaches - no longer for Harvester, but for Sen-Jyu. "You are wounded..." she says, rather unnecessarily. She licks her lips as if to moisten them. "It should be tended. My love, you will heal him, will you not?"
Harvester blinks once then his eyes narrow in anger as the woman reaches towards Sen-Jyu, his hand straying towards his..... dagger. "Of course, my love..." he says, without hesitation, in reply, voice tinged with joy at her acknowledgement. "I shall do anything you ask of me....." He attempts to push Sen-Jyu off of him, "If he lets go...."
"Skring!" the woman's voice calls, and the rat backs away from Ahoke, still staring at her with narrowed eyes.
Ahoke snarls back at the rat, the rage on her face, unlike the rat's, is totally inhuman. When it backs off, she turns to look at the woman, scowling.
The korhorrag priest looks back to Harvester, as if to say 'what?', then heaves himself, slowly and painfully, into the flaming bowl, muttering all the time as he starts to dig.
Ahoke sucks in a deep breath, and then exhales slowly. "How do we get ourselves in these messes?"
Harvester says, "I blame Ollie."
Ahoke glances at Harvester, blinking a few times in wordless question.
Tamalruk's head emerges over the side, and he gestures towards Sen-Jyu. "Come clossser."
Sen-Jyu simply shakes his head. "No."
Harvester catches Ahoke's glance, then grins at her. "Yeah... Ollie used to always get me into fine messes... I think it kinda stuck on me."
Tamalruk shrugs. "You sssurfassse dwellersss. You wantsss no payment, no help, that isss fine." He begins to heave himself back out of the bowl.
Harvester clears his throat.
Sen-Jyu grins at the Harvester and shrugs, not appearing to regret his decision.
Ahoke frowns, walking up to the edge of the bowl and looks up at Tamalruk. "I'll take any help that I can get, if you're willing to give it," she says, wary now that she sees her companions' distrust.
Harvester moves with a chuckle, to stand behind Ahoke. "My mama didn't raise no fool..."
Tamalruk's jaws creak open in a horrible grin. "Ssstoneborn hasss sssenssse onssse again." It pulls its leg back over the rim of the bowl. "Only two handsss, thisss fallsss, they breaksss." He stretches out, holding a handful of tiny vials.
Ahoke stretches upward, taking the the handful of vials gingerly. "What do they do?"
Harvester looks over Ahoke's shoulder to study the vials thoughtfully as she takes them.
"Humansss had them, drank them, woundsss healed." Tamalruk goes back down. "More there wasss. No revenge if you diesss," he mutters to himself. Again the clawed hand emerges, this time with a handful of stone necklaces. "Protective runesss. Very powerful."
Keeping his eye on the korhorrag, Sen-Jyu is suddenly mirthless, as if knowing how wasted any sort of benevolence would be on this creature.
Ahoke ahs. "Potions are good," she says thoughtfully. "Harv, can you grab the necklaces, and pass them out? My hands are a little full here."
Tamalruk shakes the necklaces impatiently.
Harvester nods to Ahoke at her inquiry, and reaches up the short distance to take the necklaces. "Patience, priest.... you'll give yourself a heart attack..."
Ahoke holds her hands open, cupped, with the four vials resting in them. "Take what you want, just leave me one of them," she says, "In case that one of you can't get over to feed it to me quick enough."
The clawed hand drops the necklaces on Harvester, and vanishes again into the eerie flames of the bowl. A moment later, the head emerges again, and gives you all an appraising look. "Perhapsss...they did ssslay the vengeanssse..." It seems to come to a decision, and pulls out three stone-tipped spears. "Weaponsss of great warriorsss, thessse. Sssoulsss cry out for vengeanssse, for goblin blood. You feed them, yesss?"
Harvester examines the stone necklaces carefully, then replies to Ahoke. "We should each take one, yes..."
Holding up one hand, Sen-Jyu refuses the offer of potion, necklace or spear.
Harvester laughs softly, "I've little knowledge in the ways of using a spear, though if they will help..." He sees Sen-Jyu's refusal and grins knowingly. "Ahoke?"
Ahoke mmms. "I don't like your people very much, priest, but I'm more than happy to kill goblins for you." When Sen-Jyu refuses the potions, she shrugs, and drops two of them down behind her armor, to rest between her breasts. "Harvester?" She takes one of the necklaces from him, draping it over her neck, and then reaches for a spear with a shrug. "Sure."
Harvester accepts the pair of vials and places them into a pouch. He does not reach for a spear.
Harvester, after a moment, extracts his vials and studies them carefully.
The first bit of humor comes from the priest at Ahoke's words. "Likewissse." It dips down one final time, placing something in its mouth, and then clambers painfully out of the heatless flames. Removing the crystalline object, he holds it up. "Thisss, very old magic." it appears to be a whistle of some sort.
Ahoke reaches up, taking the whistle. "What does it do? Besides, I'm assuming, make noise?"
Tamalruk shrugs. "I know not. Now, I gather bonesss, and you ssslay goblinsss, yes?"
Harvester nods to himself on determining what he desired of the potions, and replaces them in his pouch.
Ahoke hrms, and then shrugs. "Harvester, if you're not taking a spear, you should take the magic whistle. It's only fair. And yes, korhorrag, I'd love to kill goblinssss, er, goblins, er thanork, dammit. Which direction?"
Harvester says, "Where were the other surface dwellers slain, priest? Particularly the one whose head you used for warning?" He nods to Ahoke and holds out a hand to her, palm up.
Tamalruk says, "Here in the tunnells. Only one ssslain. The othersss, gone. From thisss room, sssomehow."
Producing a second bamboo reed from his backpack, Sen-Jyu loosens the armor about his chest, that he can apply the goop to the buckler-sized bruise that's trying to form on his side.
Harvester points to his left ear, "Did you find a piece of 'decoration' similar to this on her?"
Ahoke carefully places the whistle in Harv's hand, glancing back to Tamalruk. "I'm very curious about how they did that, myself. If we aren't eaten by thanork, maybe we'll find out," she adds, with a sigh.
Harvester studies the whistle, now, then places it into the same pouch as the pair of curatives, unless it is on some sort of chain.
Ahoke tests the weight of the spear, hefting it experimentally. A low growl starts from the back of her throat, not from any immediate rage, as those who know her already know, but at the thought of future battle.
Harvester taps his foot, impatiently, as he awaits Tamalruk's reply to his query.
Tamalruk peers carefully. "No," is all he says.
Harvester grunts. "alright. Which way to the Great Egress and the Goblins?"
Sen-Jyu points at the dragon -- well, through the dragon.
Tamalruk says, "The dragonsss path isss behind the sssstatue, but I cannot open it."
Ahoke turns, staring at Tamalruk. "You... can't? Er... do you know how /we/ could do it?"
Tamalruk begins to limp off. "No. But pleassse wait for me to get far away if you intend to ssssteal an eye again. I have no desssire to be ssstomped flat."
Harvester mutters an invective under his voice. "Well, Sen? You feeling adventuresome again?"
Tamalruk looks back, as if he can't believe you're going to try that again, then starts to shuffle off faster.
Ahoke turns back to regard the dragon statue for a moment, narrowing her eyes. "It might be wrong... but if it is, easily righted." She reaches up, taking off a necklace that she's always worn, a small wooden rune, lovingly, if not expertly, carved. And then climbs up towards the bowl, dropping it in. "Dragon, I make a sacrifice. The symbol of my status of the tribe, I give to you for passage."
The dragon's eyes glitter in the firelight, but nothing else seems to occur.
Ahoke grunts. "Well, there goes the placating route. I'm going in to get my damned symbol back. Don't do anything until I get out." Her head pops up over the bowl. "I know that this kind of thing isn't valuable anywhere else but with my tribe. Do you think it wants something more valuable?"
Harvester calls up to Ahoke, "Not until you extricate yourself, 'Kay."
Ahoke slides over the edge, and then walks back down the stairs. "There's got to be an easier way to do this than to piss it off at us again."
Sen-Jyu watches the two, grinning a bit at the comical nature of the situation. He starts to wander over to the carvings around the room, reading their meaning as best he can.
Harvester, too, appears to have the same idea as Ahoke, and he tosses in another golden disk. His eyes close momentarily as he frowns in concentration. 'You are the mighty dragon... all fear and tremble at your passage.... We seek to travel beyond, in the place you protect...'.
The stone dragon sits impassively, unmoved by the Harvester's words and thoughts.
Ahoke grunts. "Bribery doesn't work, flattery doesn't work... I wonder if it prefers copper?"
Harvester mutters, "So much for speaking praise and having the dragon come down from his mountain..."
Sen-Jyu takes his sweet ol' time in looking at those carvings.
Ahoke muses, "I wonder if intimidation would work..."
"Um..." says Sen-Jyu after a while, when standing near the carving that the Harvester had found. "This is interesting."
Ahoke says, "What is?"
Harvester moves to stand beside Sen-Jyu, "And that is...?"
Sen-Jyu gestures to a panel, where two dragons sit and accept sacrifice. "This." He asks, "You had mentioned something about a mirror. I wonder, was there a mirror back in the room with the toy soldier?" Sen-Jyu licks his lips. "Rather, wasn't there?"
Harvester examines the panel indicated, "We've tried that already... giving sacrifices. Haven't we?" He looks at Sen-Jyu, perplexed, "Yes, there was... I meant to ask Ahoke about that, given what I found here..."
"Aren't dragons rather vain creatures? Especially those that make statues of themselves?" Sen-Jyu shrugs a bit.
Harvester frowns thoughtfully, "You think to reflect the dragon's image, from here..." He gestures to the blank spot on the wall, above the broken mirror shards, "and perhaps cause the statue to attack the 'intruder'?
Ahoke shrugs, pulling out the grime-covered mirror. "What, this one?" She carefully keeps it from reflecting directly at the dragon, just in case.
Harvester hmmms, 'I also possess a smaller mirror, made of steel, though that one might prove better..."
Sen-Jyu peers at the Harvester. "Uh... no, I wasn't supposing that. I was simply thinking to offer a mirror as a sacrifice." He nods to Ahoke's producing the mirror he was referring to. "Something like that, yes...though I'm not discounting any thoughts about reflections and the like. I know very little about magic, and am somewhat deficient in thinking like a dragon." Sen-Jyu smiles sheepishly.
Harvester pats the wall, then points down to the broken shards. "I thought to affix it here.... and so there would be 'two' dragons, as indicated in the panel you discovered...perhaps place the mirror here, then offer a sacrifice, to cause its eyes to shine as they have each other time."
Sen-Jyu grins a little. "Be my guest." He steps out of the way of the dragon-statue, however.
Ahoke hmms. "Well, I guess there's only one way to find out." She walks over to the spot on the wall that a mirror had formerly been hanging on. She props hers up against the wall, shrugging. "Well, there. Mirror." She steps back, looking at the statue cautiously.
Harvester grins back at Sen-Jyu, "Isn't this exciting?!" He moves to stand somewhat 'behind' the statue, just in case.
The mirror seems to glow faintly blue, as if trying to reflect the light of the room, but the accumulated tarnish effectively prevents that from happening.
"... I could just pee," Sen-Jyu comments flatly to the Harvester.
Harvester nods to himself, "Try cleaning it first?"
Harvester laughs back at Sen-Jyu, "Well, try to control yourself, bub..." Then he frowns at the mirror.
Ahoke hmmphs, glancing up at the others. "Well, something happened, anyway. Maybe that better mirror of yours will work."
Harvester nods to Ahoke, then bends to drop his pack and carefully extract his own mirror. He slips the pack back on and polishes the reflective surface, as he moves towards the bare spot. He keeps his back to the statue as he places the mirror in a position to reflect dragon to dragon before moving quickly to one side and around. Just in case.
Ahoke takes the copper mirror back.
The mirror sparkles and begins to glow blue as light reflected from the dragon's eyes hits it. It seems to bounce back, towards the dragon's gaze, there to be magnified and re-reflected. Gradually the light travelling between eyes and mirror shines visibly blue.
Harvester stands a short distance from the statue, along the wall it 'guards'. He waits.
Ahoke huhs. "Well, interesting. So now what?"
The light grows in intensity and hue, until it is almost painful to look at - even looking away your vision bears afterimages of the line of purest azure.
Harvester tosses a golden coin into the bowl, "The sacrifice... and praise...."
There is a sound from the mirror.
Ahoke squints at the mirror, forcing herself to look at it.
Harvester attempts to shield his eyes as he looks toward the mirror.
Sen-Jyu watches the dragon instead, possibly for movement.
The steel of the mirror has begun to warp, softening under the blue beam - and as Ahoke and Harvester watch, it bursts into flames! Molten steel splashes the area around it. The blue beam dies away, leaving the area shrouded in darkness.
And then, with a grinding of stone, the statue begins to move.
Ahoke turns back towards the statue, poised for flight if that becomes necessary.
The statue steps forward, then to the right...revealing a darkened tunnel.
Harvester begins to sidle towards the tunnel that lies behind the now-moving statue, and enters as quickly as he may.
Ahoke follows, directly on the Harvester's heels.
Sen-Jyu, too.
Harvester tries to move faster as the barbarian dwarf and spirit warrior clip his heels, "Hey now.. no shovin.... Plenty of room for everyone!" He continues moving forward, "Need to change your drawers yet, Sen?" he laughs.
The floor of the room beyond is made of tarnished copper sheets, but it is largely empty. A copper bathtub is pushed against one wall. The walls here do not bear the marks of pick and stone - rather, they seem to have been gouged by claw and rubbed smooth by scale.
Across the room, a tunnel leads deeper into the mountain.
Sen-Jyu clears his throat, "Who's wearing drawers?"
One part of the flooring is stained differently than the others, as if it had already been corroded before the rest of it became tarnished. Whatever lay on it was enormous - thirty feet long, at least.
Ahoke whistles low, looking around the room. "I've never seen this much metal before in my life," she says softly. She walks over to the more corroded spot, scowling at it thoughtfully.
Behind you, the dragon statue begins to move again.
Harvester looks towards the place Ahoke speaks on, "Yeah... maybe that's where Copperdeath rested while he waited...." He casts a glance back towards the statue. "Guess we'll have to get out down the mountain...." He moves to inspect the bathtub.
Moving over to the tub, Sen-Jyu grins. "Well. He was a thirsty beast." A finger points out the scars along the bottome, as if an immense tongue had been licking it.
Harvester says, "Ah... I _thought_ he was a bit big to fit in there....""
Ahoke is quiet, looking down the tunnel leading deeper into the mountain. She sighs, then.
The statue settles back in place, cutting off the room's known exit. Only the unknown remains...
Harvester moves to peer into the tunnel after looking about.
Ahoke draws herself up to her full height (which, while not very tall, seems to bolster her courage.) "We have children to save," she says resolutely. "And thanork to kill."
Harvester laughs softly at Ahoke, "Well.... just waitin on y'all..." comes the drawl and wink.
Ahoke nods, unsmiling, and starts to walk down the corridor. "Alright."
The tunnel proceeds into the depths of the mountain, curving slightly up. About sixty feet in, it takes a sharp turn - directly upward, into a wide 'chimney'. Higher up, you can see another tunnel, round and smooth.
It seems as though the Heroes of the Bell have been here before you, though - a stout rope hangs down from that tunnel, almost to the floor.
Sen-Jyu takes up the rear, Ichido-sama joining him in preparation.
Harvester sighs on finding the rope. "Coming down was lots easier than this is gonna be....
Ahoke looks up, and up. "Yeah, I think you're right. Shall we give it a try, though?"
Harvester pulls his rope from the pack again, and begins to consider. "Who's gonna go first? Take this, or am I elected?" He holds out the rope.
Ahoke takes the rope from Harvester, offering him a tiny smile. "I can try," she says. "We'll see how it works for me this time." She seems to be having some difficulty getting a good grip on said rope.
Harvester sighs. "I'd try, but can't see squat up there...."
Ahoke wipes the palms of her hands off on her clothes, and then scrambles up with the ease of someone who was born to climb ropes out of misbegotten caverns. Odd, that. Her squat form can be barely seen up at the top, but eventually, she calls out, tentatively, "I'm up. Nothing's tried to eat me yet."
Harvester calls up softly, "Lower the rope!"
Ahoke lowers a second rope, wth threats of what she'll do if you pull her over the edge.
Harvester takes the end of the rope and ties it to his pack and scythe and crossbow as carefully as he can and tugs on the rope. When it is lowered again he ties it to his waist with one more tug and begins his ascent, with Ahoke's aid, hopefully.
Sen-Jyu, sheathing his sword, takes the original rope and gives it a try.
Harvester begins his climb with all the grace of a hippo climbing stairs, feet scrabbling for purchase.
Ahoke grunts, bracing herself, and then just starts to pull Harvester upward, using brute strength.
Harvester wipes off his own hands, "Dammit." before trying again. And then again. And then finds himself being jerked upwards. "ERk! Slip...knot.... stupid... me...." Finally he reaches the upper tunnel and scrabbles over the edge, panting. "Uhm.... thanks..." The priest offers a weak smile.
Sen-Jyu climbs up after Harv, without help.
Ahoke gives the Harvester a grin, and wipes the beads of sweat off of her forehead. "Put your equipment back on. We're going to need it."
Harvester waves a hand as he does as Ahoke says, "I'm gonna... I'm gonna..." A moment later, after stowing the rope. "Okay, let's go...." He looks back at Sen-Jyu, "I _told_ you down was easier..."
Ahoke looks around at the surroundings.
The tunnel continues on into darkness. The walls are rough-hewn, as if clawed from the red rock of the mountain, while the floor is polished almost smooth.
Sen-Jyu draws his katana once more.
Ahoke starts walking into the darkness.
Harvester follows Ahoke into the darkness, which becomes lit by the light on his scythe.
Guano stains the floor of the tunnel, and somewhere above you bats squeal and chirrup in protest at the sudden glow. As you proceed, you can hear something...a low rumbling...and feel a vibration through the rock.
Ahoke scowls at the rumbling, but doesn't slow her pace. She also scowls upward towards the bat sounds.
Gradually, the air becomes...damp...misty, even. The rumbling grows louder, like a long, continuous roll of thunder.
Ahoke hmms. "I wonder if that's a waterfall," she murmurs, without breaking stride.
"Mmm, sounds like one," Sen-Jyu admits, looking behind the group on occasion as they advance down the passage.
Ahoke says, "Yes, either it's that, or the dragon is warning us away..."
The tunnel twists, and you see the truth in Ahoke's guess: it opens into a grotto, in the center of which pours a column of luminescent water, shifting slowly through the spectrum as it falls in breathtaking splendor. A stone barrier channels the water away from the tunnel you stand in, but the clouds of mist that rise from the water drift down towards you.
Ahoke stops short, staring at the water.
Sen-Jyu strains to listen to something, his face knotted in concentration.
Harvester murmurs, "I thought I heard something... but the waterfall drowns it out..."
Sen-Jyu scowls. "Someone's... singing. Down there. I wish I could hear it -- it sounds beautiful."
Ahoke turns, looking at the other two in consternation. "Singing?" She moves into the grotto, looking around. "I don't hear any singing..."
Harvester cups his hand behind his ear, the one with the 'hearing-trumpet' earring, in better attempt to focus his hearing.
Ahoke mmms,nodding. "Yeah...now I hearit..."
Sen-Jyu takes a tentative step or two toward the waterfall. "... hello?" he calls out, as if addressing someone there.
Ahoke peers at Sen, then at the waterfall, alarmed.
Harvester follows behind Sen-jyu, and to one side as he rubs the mist gathering in his eyes.
The song grows, swelling to a crescendo, as the movement in the waterfall grows closer.
You can see a shape, now, in the glowing waters, approaching the edge of the pool. It...no, she, very definitely she...emerges from the water: long, red hair falling across her bark-brown skin, clad only in the mist of the pool. Her face is a poet's dream and a lover's broken heart, and she moves with a grace that no earthly form could match. It is she who is singing, she whose melody blends with the falling water, calling to you...
Harvester begins to move... slowly, at first, then with quickened step towards the woman. A wide grin splits his features as he hurries towards her. He sighs, "I'm coming... Wait for me..."
Sen-Jyu's jaw drops at seeing femininity incarnate approaching, but he does not take the same approach as the Harvester. Rather, he seems a bit shocked that the priest would simply charge into the water, and attempts to catch the robe of the Harvester in one hand.
Harvester slaps away the hands that grab for him, "leggo, dammit... she wants me..."
The last notes of the song die out, and a smile spreads across her face. "Yes, come to me," she says, her voice barely audible over the water. One hand beckons to the Harvester. "It has been so long..."
Ahoke stares at the woman for a few seconds, and then shakes her head rapidly. 'I don't even like the way that human women look," she says to herself. "I don't even like women ..." She casts a longing eye back towards the would be enchantress, though. "Harv... that waterfall will probably hurt you if you step inside..."
Sen-Jyu knots his fingers in the robe of the priest. "Mmmmno," Sen-Jyu says, curling his arm backward at the same time. "The Harvester, aren't you sworn to chastity or something?"
Harvester fights to free himself of Sen-Jyu's grasp, going so far as to slice his scythe towards the man in warning, ""Back off! She ain't gonna let me get hurt!"
Ahoke says, softly, "The children, Harvester. You're doing it for your god, remember? He /wants/ the children to live."
The woman's laugh echos in the cavern like the bells of the town at the mountain's base. "Of course not. I merely desire...company. It has been so many years..."
Harvester shakes his head rapidly, once, as Sen-Jyu calls out to him, then begins to try and force the other away, trying as he might to continue towards her.
"The Harvester!" Sen-Jyu shouts into the priest's face, probably the loudest that his companions have ever heard him be. "You're acting like a desperate pubescent boy! Never mind your pimples, get a hold of yourself!"
Harvester shakes his head yet again, as his name is called, and then he pulls free, skittering back, towards his new love. He shouts to the woman, "I'm coming!"
The woman steps out of the waterfall, holding her arms towards Harvester in welcome.
Sen-Jyu sheathes Ichido-sama, shaking his head. "This is -not- happening," he breathes. And chases the Harvester.
There is the sound of clattering from behind as Ahoke does something, but nothing comes of it.
Harvester runs as swiftly as he is able, swinging his scythe wildly behind himself as he goes.
The woman steps closer. "You do not understand...I am so very lonely here..."
The spirit-blood catches up to the love-stricken cleric and throws himself onto the other. A flurry of appendages later, Sen-Jyu seems to have wrestled the cleric to a standstill. "Listen, the Harvester. Listen. She's not -normal-. You don't just go copulate with any woman you see... normally... well, you haven't since I've known you, at least."
Sen-Jyu clears his throat and murmurs, "Granted, you've been with me and Ahoke, and... I can understand why you'd repress yourself. But show some self-control, man."
Harvester snarls, "LET! ME! GO!!!" a sickle is drawn from his belt, and slashed across Sen-Jyu's chest, without harm, fortunately, as it does not penetrate his attacker's armor.
Ahoke sucks in her breath, looking around the grotto, seductress momentarily forgotten. "Who are you? What is it with disembodied voices in this place?" Her voice is ragged, and she sounds like Wolverine is bubbling to the surface, ready to lash out at the first person or creature that tries to harm her.
"What manner of friend are you, that would deny your companion what he wishes? And how cruel, to keep me from my love." The woman is at the edge of the pool now, one arm reaching out to Harvester. "Why have you come here? I have been so long imprisoned..."
Harvester snarls again, "I said, GEDOFFAME, B---H!" Another violent slash of the sickle finds blood - hot, red, sticky blood that courses across The Harvester's body. Sen-Jyu's flesh is torn, ripped away in a great fount as the priest seeks his escape. Again, he screams out, "I'VE COME FOR YOU!!" to the woman.
Ahoke snarls viciously, leaping towards the grappling pair on the ground. "Stop /it/, damn you, Harvester!" She raises her great club high in the air, and lets it scream through the air, closer and closer to Harvester's head. It veers away at the last second, though, knocking the sickle so hard that it skitters across the grotto floor.
From somewhere behind Ahoke, a small form springs from a ledge: a rat-thing, wet with mist, and with a strange, almost human expression of rage in its eyes. The dwarf manages to twist out of the way of the rat-creature, and it hisses defiance at her from beneath its misshapen brow.
Sen-Jyu fumbles his attempt at pinning the priest. Likely his spurting chest wound has something to do with it.
Water courses down the woman's body as she pulls herself, seal-like, from the pool. Her eyes show nothing but concern as she reaches - no longer for Harvester, but for Sen-Jyu. "You are wounded..." she says, rather unnecessarily. She licks her lips as if to moisten them. "It should be tended. My love, you will heal him, will you not?"
Harvester blinks once then his eyes narrow in anger as the woman reaches towards Sen-Jyu, his hand straying towards his..... dagger. "Of course, my love..." he says, without hesitation, in reply, voice tinged with joy at her acknowledgement. "I shall do anything you ask of me....." He attempts to push Sen-Jyu off of him, "If he lets go...."
"Skring!" the woman's voice calls, and the rat backs away from Ahoke, still staring at her with narrowed eyes.
Ahoke snarls back at the rat, the rage on her face, unlike the rat's, is totally inhuman. When it backs off, she turns to look at the woman, scowling.
drnuncheon
Explorer
Harvester gives Sen-Jyu another shove, to displace the man from atop him. "My lady has asked me to heal you, Sen-Jyu. So geddoffa me! and I will..."
Sen-Jyu scowls at the Harvester, then sighs as the effort for continuing to grapple with him exacerbates the gaping wound left by the sickle. "Fine. Go to her. But first," Sen-Jyu's arm relinquishes the priest, to point toward a corner of the pool. "Please, look."
Harvester casts a moon-eyed glance towards the bathing beauty.
Harvester sighs, "I'm looking.... I'm looking..." He rises to his feet.
Ahoke glances over in the direction that Sen-Jyu points in, and then laughs. "And what is your explanation for that pile of bones, /Lady/," she says, a savage note creeping into her voice. She hefts her club, and takes a step towards the water creature.
With a shriek of rage, the woman's face contorts. A dagger appears in her hand as she lashes forward at Sen-Jyu. Only the spirit-blood's quick reflexes save him from the knife.
Meanwhile, furry bodies launch themselves through the air at Ahoke, their teeth slashing deep into her legs. Blood stains the stone floor of the cavern.
The attack from the woman does little more than draw the hint of a smile from the lips of the spirit-blood; it's as if he had intended her to be provoked, baiting the line, as it were. His sidestep is elegant, the water almost parting to allow him passage, while Ichido-sama is drawn, a languid salute of metal and a promise of death. It is without sadness that the sword-blow is struck, and no hint of resistance is felt from the oni's neck as the blade passes cleanly from one side to the other. The body seems reluctant to acknowledge this, trembling for a moment before collapsing, the head floating momentarily as the water churns a lustrous red.
Ahoke, who had been moving towards the singing water woman is so startled by her change in visage that she halts, staring. Belatedly, she tries to smash one of the rats that's biting at her, but misses, unsurprisingly.
Harvester's surprise is evident as the combat breaks out anew, and his hands begin to move in intricate patterns. He speaks soft words and reaches out to slap Sen-Jyu on the back. The spirit-blood's move during his attack pull him aside at the last moment.
Ahoke's surprise is short-lived, and her club wards away one of the rodents - but the other sinks teeth deep again, and blood wells to the surface of fresh wounds.
The blade, after performing its duty, is returned to its home at Sen-Jyu's side; the young samurai seems reluctant to harm the cleric. Both hands, with fingers like the legs of spiders, reach forward and gnarl themselves in the robes of the Harvester, and Sen-Jyu begins to pull the other into the water. However...
Harvester finds himself thrown to the ground once more as Sen-Jyu leaps upon him once more. The charmed priest's face narrows into one of focus as a hand slowly struggles free to fully clasp the Spirit-blood by the face. A final word is uttered, and golden flecks of light fly from between splayed fingers as Sen-Jyu finds the worst of his wounds closing, sealing, the flow of blood slowing...
Ahoke laughs aloud as the rodent bites her leg, and brings down the club hard onto its skull, crushing it into red globby paste on the stone floor of the grotto. "Nice try, rat. Better luck in the next life." She turns her gaze to the other one, baring her teeth in a dominance display.
Harvester gives a violent shove to Sen-Jyu and frees himself, and stumbles back into the shallow pool. Hands rise, whether in benediction, defense or anger, it is difficult to say.
The remaining rat lunges at Ahoke, its teeth snapping on air near her shin.
Sen-Jyu steps back from the Harvester, accidentally bumping into the floating newly-made corpse. He jumps at that, but doesn't remove his eyes from the Harvester. "I sincerely hope you don't have lascivious thoughts toward her -now-," he says. "That's not romantic, that's... necromantic."
Ahoke, perhaps offended that the rat didn't submit to her dominance, smacks it, hard, with her club. There is the sound of splintering bone, and then a rat corpse goes flying through the air, landing in the water between Sen-Jyu and the Harvester with a splash.
The woman's severed head lolls in the water, bobbing up and down. It rolls over in the current, and her eyes open, staring sightlessly past you. Her mouth forms a word - is it 'Free'? - and then, as if head and body were ice in a furnace, the woman is gone, melted into the water. The only trace of her presence that remains is the golden cuff that once adorned her ankle.
Harvester watches Sen-Jyu carefully, his eyes flicking now and then towards the corpse of his beloved. Eyes fill with tears, as one by one the salty droplets fall into the pool. He kneels in the water beside the body, pulling it into his arms as he whispers, "How could you? How could you slay her so? She did nothing to you!" He glares balefully at his companions, then to her face as both body and head disappear, "No! Come back..." he breathes. "COME BACK, BELOVED!!"
Sen-Jyu steps -away- from the Harvester. "Um, Ahoke, let's give him some time to, ah, mourn his one-minute stand."
Ahoke wipes her club on the ground, and nods, scowling at the Harvester. "I hope that this isn't going to be a big drama scene. We have children to rescue." She glances over at the pile of bones, and says, "Mmm. Sparkly stuff?" She walks over, peering down without touching.
Harvester spies a golden cuff in the water, where he ankle once rested, and he fairly lunges for it, splashing Ahoke and Sen-Jyu liberally. The priest hears Sen-Jyu's words and rises, angrily speaking. "You... How dare you speak so cavalierly of a love so true...." He takes but a single step forward.
Ahoke says, harshly, "Her time had come and gone /long/ ago. Surely you of all people should be able to accept that, oh priest of the god of death." She stirs some of the bones up with the tip of her great club.
Harvester turns his head to look at Ahoke and snarls silently, lips pulled back to expose white teeth. "What would you know of 'drama' or 'love', savage?"
"Tch." Sen-Jyu raises one finger toward the Harvester. "Remember thyself, priest. Remember your purpose for being in the underbelly of this mountain. If you wish to stay and bemoan the melted one, that is your choice. That will leave two of us to rescue the children."
*Where is she? What has happened to my songbird? Who has opened her cage?*
Sen-Jyu asks, aloud, "... songbird?"
*I know you are coming...*
Sen-Jyu looks querulously at the other two, "Do you hear that voice?"
Ahoke looks at the priest, the hurt evident in her brown eyes for two seconds, until she goes completely stiff. "I see what it is that you think of me now. At least I don't try to kill my companions over lust." She lifts some armor up.
Harvester only turns his head to look at Sen-Jyu, slowly deflating. "I remember why i am here... Just you remember not to belittle our love..." He looks around at those words, then clasps the cuff about his own ankle, "I am claiming this as the remnant of our love... a memory..." He doesn't bother to answer Ahoke. "Yeah, I hear it, Sen-Jyu. Where's it coming from?
Snorting a bit, Sen-Jyu murmurs, "Ahoke, he speaks from the song that was woven over him, not from his heart." He listens, stepping back from the waterfall, that he might better see and hear from whence the voice or voices speak.
Ahoke shakes her head, clearly disbelieving.
The voice seems to come from everywhere, and nowhere. With the stone walls echoing and the roar of the waterfall, it's impossible to pinpoint.
"We need to keep going," says Sen-Jyu warily. "We likely don't have much time, and if those voices are correct, we're only giving them more time to prepare."
Harvester sighs softly, then nods. "Our time grows short, yes.... and I have little of my Lord's glory left within me this day...."
Ahoke lays a set of chain mail off to the side, and then a set of half plate beside it. "I'm all for it. Let me change armor. If a priest can lay claim to something, I suppose an ignorant savage can too." She reaches for the chain mail. "This can be made to fit me. There's more stuff over here too. Maybe it can help us." HEr words are clipped and brisk.
Sen-Jyu looks at Ahoke, then back at the Harvester. "You should apologize," he says softly to the priest. "She holds you in good esteem, despite the gruff exterior she wears."
Ahoke snorts, starting to peel out of her bone armor. "No, I'm glad to know how he truly feels about me. At least I won't be bound to him by any illusion of friendship."
Harvester looks at the armor Ahoke has discovered, and moves nearer to look them over. He squates to examine the half-plate. A look to Sen-Jyu, "Fine. If she... and you will apologize for belittling the passions of my heart. Something I thought _she_, if no one else would appreciate."
Harvester nods, with an apology to Ahoke, then begins to lift the heavy plate armor for a closer look. "Y'all mind if I take this, then?"
Ahoke glares at Harvester, but doesn't apologize. She starts strapping on the chainmail. "Take whatever you want. I don't care." She pokes through the bones of Harvester's love's last victim, looking for more goodies.
Moving the armor did reveal a few more things...a sack, some rope, a pair of vials, a sodden quiver and a longbow.
Ahoke starts pulling things out of the bones, and lays them up on the shore, next to the others. "I dunno what this stuff is, some of it," she says.
Harvester sets the armor down. "I guess I can't wear this til it's sized right, huh." He looks through the items as Ahoke tosses them onto the shore. First he starts to take the sack, then glances to Ahoke, "you mind?" he asks, while _trying_ to be nice.
Ahoke shrugs, not meeting the Harvester's eyes, and moves away from the skeleton. "I'm ready to move when you two are. Maybe the vials, since you didn't take anything from the korhorrag, Sen?"
Sen-Jyu steps back, watching the two, and shakes his head. He looks quite resolved to keep his mouth shut, but then words start to spill out as he paces back and forth frantically, like a cat. "Listen." His eyes dart between the two, and his voice is raised, just enough to counter the dampening of the vaulted cave and the waterfall. "If I learned anything, anything at all from my father, it was... to make your peace before you die. I, for one, don't want to see the three of us hiding these wounds. Because, unlike the physical wounds that we've all taken." he gestures toward the scabbed-over mark left by the sickle, "they can't be healed so easily. Since we're headed directly into the possibility of death, I want us all to be... friends." He sighs heavily after that, pausing in his pacing for a moment.
Harvester shrugs a shoulder at Sen-Jyu, and takes the sack to look inside. "Hey. I _tried_. But she doesn't give a sh*t."
Ahoke laughs, stepping away. "You're right. I don't give a sh*t. Just because we had to rescue you from becoming a skeleton in the bottom of a pool and we don't get any gratitude from it, and I don't instantly accept your half-assed apology like some dumb savage, I don't give a sh*t. Whatever. I'm ready to go when you guys are."
Harvester shrugs a shoulder, "Some money... and a... copper armband." That item he extracts and carefully looks over.
"How can you say that? How long were we together, crossing the mountains, before this? We watched each other's backs that entire time." Sen-Jyu scowls at the both of them. "I think we all deserve more respect than we're giving one another."
Harvester looks at Sen-Jyu again. "And you _heard_ me apologize to Ahoke. And you witnessed her rejection." He flicks a glance towards Ahoke. "And my love wouldn't've harmed me. I know this."
Sen-Jyu nods. "I heard it, but I don't know that she did."
Harvester slips the armband back into the sack and rises, "Fine. Then I'll repeat myself. Ahoke, I apologize for calling you a savage. It was an ill-considered response to your belittling of my love for _her_." He points to where the woman dissolved.
"And it's not true," Sen-Jyu adds thoughtfully.
Harvester turns to remove his robe, and then his armor. A backwards glance to Sen-Jyu, quizzically, then he stoops to don the half-plate. A long, laborious process, when conducted alone.
Sen-Jyu watches the priest. "Do you even know how to -wear- that, the Harvester?"
"I do," comes the reply. "It is difficult, however, to properly adjust alone. And I have not done so, in quite a long time."
Sen-Jyu grins. "You might ask for some help, then?"
Harvester nods once. "if you would, then?"
Shaking his head, Sen-Jyu says, "I'd likely tighten something a bit too much -- cut off circulation."
Harvester laughs softly. "I'll tell you if it's not right..."
Ahoke nods, stiffly, though it's hard to tell if the apology has been accepted or not. "Perhaps I am," she says finally, wearily. "The spirits should know that 'civilized' society is confusing for those of us who weren't born to it." She folds her arms across her chest, watching, looking towards the path spiraling upward, resolutely.
"Civilization," Sen-Jyu replies to Ahoke, "isn't where you're born. It's where you choose to be, here." He points to his chest and, presumably, some organ contained therein. Maybe a lung.
Harvester finally concludes the donning of his new armor and kneels, to place his old armor into his pack. He scoops up the remaining items that still lie unattended on the shore and examines them carefully, before stowing them as well. He gives particular care to the vials.
Ahoke glances at Sen-Jyu. "I'm a berserker, Sen. Always on the outside of what is civilized. That's wolverine's call on my life." She shrugs, and then snaps into the air, "Oh shut /up/ you stupid lizard."
Sen-Jyu shrugs, "I stand by what I have said."
Harvester hefts the longbow and gives it an experimental pull. He murmurs, "This longbow... it is quite well crafted.... and has apparently suffered no ill-effects from being submerged so long..." And a gesture, "And these potatives... they appear to be curatives, created by the same being as concocted those others we got..."
"Probably members of the previous crew, though how sh... er, how their flesh became stripped from their bones is... beyond me." Sen-Jyu carefully looks away from the Harvester.
Ahoke hmms, glancing at the bow. "I'm not so good with a bow as I am my club or my axe... but the curing potions might be helpful. Do either of you want the bow?" Ahoke glances at the Harvester, and then Sen-Jyu, pursing her lips together in an attempt to stay silent.
"Hmmm." Sen-Jyu steps forward to examine the bow.
Harvester rises to hand the vials to Sen-Jyu. "Take these, as we possess several already."
Harvester hands Sen-Jyu the bow, as well.
Sen-Jyu accepts it. "This is a finely made bow, yes it is."
Harvester looks to Ahoke. "You've got some already, don'tcha?" He holds out the sodden quiver to Sen-Jyu, too. "May as well complete the set, bub."
"Yeah, I took two of them," the dwarf agrees. "I think you took the other two."
Accepting the quiver as well, Sen-Jyu looks over the assortment of arrows, assuming there is any variety to them at all, and starts to tuck them into his own quiver.
Ahoke sighs, looking upward at the path. "Guys... far be it from me to back away from our quest, but my legs are bleeding. Those rats might have made the wounds get feverish. Can we rest for just awhile? I'm sure that the wounds won't seem as bad, when I've slept for a few hours."
Harvester shrugs, "Yeag... we're all whipped, i think. Can do a little bit o'healing, if you want..."
"I'm ready to g..." Sen-Jyu looks at his other companions, then ducks his head. "Camp, right."
Ahoke grins at the Harvester. "I'd never turn that down... should probably save the potions for an emergency. But let's go somewhere dry. She glares at the waterfall, "I'm not going to dry out for a couple of moon cycles."
Sen-Jyu scowls at the Harvester, then sighs as the effort for continuing to grapple with him exacerbates the gaping wound left by the sickle. "Fine. Go to her. But first," Sen-Jyu's arm relinquishes the priest, to point toward a corner of the pool. "Please, look."
Harvester casts a moon-eyed glance towards the bathing beauty.
Harvester sighs, "I'm looking.... I'm looking..." He rises to his feet.
Ahoke glances over in the direction that Sen-Jyu points in, and then laughs. "And what is your explanation for that pile of bones, /Lady/," she says, a savage note creeping into her voice. She hefts her club, and takes a step towards the water creature.
With a shriek of rage, the woman's face contorts. A dagger appears in her hand as she lashes forward at Sen-Jyu. Only the spirit-blood's quick reflexes save him from the knife.
Meanwhile, furry bodies launch themselves through the air at Ahoke, their teeth slashing deep into her legs. Blood stains the stone floor of the cavern.
The attack from the woman does little more than draw the hint of a smile from the lips of the spirit-blood; it's as if he had intended her to be provoked, baiting the line, as it were. His sidestep is elegant, the water almost parting to allow him passage, while Ichido-sama is drawn, a languid salute of metal and a promise of death. It is without sadness that the sword-blow is struck, and no hint of resistance is felt from the oni's neck as the blade passes cleanly from one side to the other. The body seems reluctant to acknowledge this, trembling for a moment before collapsing, the head floating momentarily as the water churns a lustrous red.
Ahoke, who had been moving towards the singing water woman is so startled by her change in visage that she halts, staring. Belatedly, she tries to smash one of the rats that's biting at her, but misses, unsurprisingly.
Harvester's surprise is evident as the combat breaks out anew, and his hands begin to move in intricate patterns. He speaks soft words and reaches out to slap Sen-Jyu on the back. The spirit-blood's move during his attack pull him aside at the last moment.
Ahoke's surprise is short-lived, and her club wards away one of the rodents - but the other sinks teeth deep again, and blood wells to the surface of fresh wounds.
The blade, after performing its duty, is returned to its home at Sen-Jyu's side; the young samurai seems reluctant to harm the cleric. Both hands, with fingers like the legs of spiders, reach forward and gnarl themselves in the robes of the Harvester, and Sen-Jyu begins to pull the other into the water. However...
Harvester finds himself thrown to the ground once more as Sen-Jyu leaps upon him once more. The charmed priest's face narrows into one of focus as a hand slowly struggles free to fully clasp the Spirit-blood by the face. A final word is uttered, and golden flecks of light fly from between splayed fingers as Sen-Jyu finds the worst of his wounds closing, sealing, the flow of blood slowing...
Ahoke laughs aloud as the rodent bites her leg, and brings down the club hard onto its skull, crushing it into red globby paste on the stone floor of the grotto. "Nice try, rat. Better luck in the next life." She turns her gaze to the other one, baring her teeth in a dominance display.
Harvester gives a violent shove to Sen-Jyu and frees himself, and stumbles back into the shallow pool. Hands rise, whether in benediction, defense or anger, it is difficult to say.
The remaining rat lunges at Ahoke, its teeth snapping on air near her shin.
Sen-Jyu steps back from the Harvester, accidentally bumping into the floating newly-made corpse. He jumps at that, but doesn't remove his eyes from the Harvester. "I sincerely hope you don't have lascivious thoughts toward her -now-," he says. "That's not romantic, that's... necromantic."
Ahoke, perhaps offended that the rat didn't submit to her dominance, smacks it, hard, with her club. There is the sound of splintering bone, and then a rat corpse goes flying through the air, landing in the water between Sen-Jyu and the Harvester with a splash.
The woman's severed head lolls in the water, bobbing up and down. It rolls over in the current, and her eyes open, staring sightlessly past you. Her mouth forms a word - is it 'Free'? - and then, as if head and body were ice in a furnace, the woman is gone, melted into the water. The only trace of her presence that remains is the golden cuff that once adorned her ankle.
Harvester watches Sen-Jyu carefully, his eyes flicking now and then towards the corpse of his beloved. Eyes fill with tears, as one by one the salty droplets fall into the pool. He kneels in the water beside the body, pulling it into his arms as he whispers, "How could you? How could you slay her so? She did nothing to you!" He glares balefully at his companions, then to her face as both body and head disappear, "No! Come back..." he breathes. "COME BACK, BELOVED!!"
Sen-Jyu steps -away- from the Harvester. "Um, Ahoke, let's give him some time to, ah, mourn his one-minute stand."
Ahoke wipes her club on the ground, and nods, scowling at the Harvester. "I hope that this isn't going to be a big drama scene. We have children to rescue." She glances over at the pile of bones, and says, "Mmm. Sparkly stuff?" She walks over, peering down without touching.
Harvester spies a golden cuff in the water, where he ankle once rested, and he fairly lunges for it, splashing Ahoke and Sen-Jyu liberally. The priest hears Sen-Jyu's words and rises, angrily speaking. "You... How dare you speak so cavalierly of a love so true...." He takes but a single step forward.
Ahoke says, harshly, "Her time had come and gone /long/ ago. Surely you of all people should be able to accept that, oh priest of the god of death." She stirs some of the bones up with the tip of her great club.
Harvester turns his head to look at Ahoke and snarls silently, lips pulled back to expose white teeth. "What would you know of 'drama' or 'love', savage?"
"Tch." Sen-Jyu raises one finger toward the Harvester. "Remember thyself, priest. Remember your purpose for being in the underbelly of this mountain. If you wish to stay and bemoan the melted one, that is your choice. That will leave two of us to rescue the children."
*Where is she? What has happened to my songbird? Who has opened her cage?*
Sen-Jyu asks, aloud, "... songbird?"
*I know you are coming...*
Sen-Jyu looks querulously at the other two, "Do you hear that voice?"
Ahoke looks at the priest, the hurt evident in her brown eyes for two seconds, until she goes completely stiff. "I see what it is that you think of me now. At least I don't try to kill my companions over lust." She lifts some armor up.
Harvester only turns his head to look at Sen-Jyu, slowly deflating. "I remember why i am here... Just you remember not to belittle our love..." He looks around at those words, then clasps the cuff about his own ankle, "I am claiming this as the remnant of our love... a memory..." He doesn't bother to answer Ahoke. "Yeah, I hear it, Sen-Jyu. Where's it coming from?
Snorting a bit, Sen-Jyu murmurs, "Ahoke, he speaks from the song that was woven over him, not from his heart." He listens, stepping back from the waterfall, that he might better see and hear from whence the voice or voices speak.
Ahoke shakes her head, clearly disbelieving.
The voice seems to come from everywhere, and nowhere. With the stone walls echoing and the roar of the waterfall, it's impossible to pinpoint.
"We need to keep going," says Sen-Jyu warily. "We likely don't have much time, and if those voices are correct, we're only giving them more time to prepare."
Harvester sighs softly, then nods. "Our time grows short, yes.... and I have little of my Lord's glory left within me this day...."
Ahoke lays a set of chain mail off to the side, and then a set of half plate beside it. "I'm all for it. Let me change armor. If a priest can lay claim to something, I suppose an ignorant savage can too." She reaches for the chain mail. "This can be made to fit me. There's more stuff over here too. Maybe it can help us." HEr words are clipped and brisk.
Sen-Jyu looks at Ahoke, then back at the Harvester. "You should apologize," he says softly to the priest. "She holds you in good esteem, despite the gruff exterior she wears."
Ahoke snorts, starting to peel out of her bone armor. "No, I'm glad to know how he truly feels about me. At least I won't be bound to him by any illusion of friendship."
Harvester looks at the armor Ahoke has discovered, and moves nearer to look them over. He squates to examine the half-plate. A look to Sen-Jyu, "Fine. If she... and you will apologize for belittling the passions of my heart. Something I thought _she_, if no one else would appreciate."
Harvester nods, with an apology to Ahoke, then begins to lift the heavy plate armor for a closer look. "Y'all mind if I take this, then?"
Ahoke glares at Harvester, but doesn't apologize. She starts strapping on the chainmail. "Take whatever you want. I don't care." She pokes through the bones of Harvester's love's last victim, looking for more goodies.
Moving the armor did reveal a few more things...a sack, some rope, a pair of vials, a sodden quiver and a longbow.
Ahoke starts pulling things out of the bones, and lays them up on the shore, next to the others. "I dunno what this stuff is, some of it," she says.
Harvester sets the armor down. "I guess I can't wear this til it's sized right, huh." He looks through the items as Ahoke tosses them onto the shore. First he starts to take the sack, then glances to Ahoke, "you mind?" he asks, while _trying_ to be nice.
Ahoke shrugs, not meeting the Harvester's eyes, and moves away from the skeleton. "I'm ready to move when you two are. Maybe the vials, since you didn't take anything from the korhorrag, Sen?"
Sen-Jyu steps back, watching the two, and shakes his head. He looks quite resolved to keep his mouth shut, but then words start to spill out as he paces back and forth frantically, like a cat. "Listen." His eyes dart between the two, and his voice is raised, just enough to counter the dampening of the vaulted cave and the waterfall. "If I learned anything, anything at all from my father, it was... to make your peace before you die. I, for one, don't want to see the three of us hiding these wounds. Because, unlike the physical wounds that we've all taken." he gestures toward the scabbed-over mark left by the sickle, "they can't be healed so easily. Since we're headed directly into the possibility of death, I want us all to be... friends." He sighs heavily after that, pausing in his pacing for a moment.
Harvester shrugs a shoulder at Sen-Jyu, and takes the sack to look inside. "Hey. I _tried_. But she doesn't give a sh*t."
Ahoke laughs, stepping away. "You're right. I don't give a sh*t. Just because we had to rescue you from becoming a skeleton in the bottom of a pool and we don't get any gratitude from it, and I don't instantly accept your half-assed apology like some dumb savage, I don't give a sh*t. Whatever. I'm ready to go when you guys are."
Harvester shrugs a shoulder, "Some money... and a... copper armband." That item he extracts and carefully looks over.
"How can you say that? How long were we together, crossing the mountains, before this? We watched each other's backs that entire time." Sen-Jyu scowls at the both of them. "I think we all deserve more respect than we're giving one another."
Harvester looks at Sen-Jyu again. "And you _heard_ me apologize to Ahoke. And you witnessed her rejection." He flicks a glance towards Ahoke. "And my love wouldn't've harmed me. I know this."
Sen-Jyu nods. "I heard it, but I don't know that she did."
Harvester slips the armband back into the sack and rises, "Fine. Then I'll repeat myself. Ahoke, I apologize for calling you a savage. It was an ill-considered response to your belittling of my love for _her_." He points to where the woman dissolved.
"And it's not true," Sen-Jyu adds thoughtfully.
Harvester turns to remove his robe, and then his armor. A backwards glance to Sen-Jyu, quizzically, then he stoops to don the half-plate. A long, laborious process, when conducted alone.
Sen-Jyu watches the priest. "Do you even know how to -wear- that, the Harvester?"
"I do," comes the reply. "It is difficult, however, to properly adjust alone. And I have not done so, in quite a long time."
Sen-Jyu grins. "You might ask for some help, then?"
Harvester nods once. "if you would, then?"
Shaking his head, Sen-Jyu says, "I'd likely tighten something a bit too much -- cut off circulation."
Harvester laughs softly. "I'll tell you if it's not right..."
Ahoke nods, stiffly, though it's hard to tell if the apology has been accepted or not. "Perhaps I am," she says finally, wearily. "The spirits should know that 'civilized' society is confusing for those of us who weren't born to it." She folds her arms across her chest, watching, looking towards the path spiraling upward, resolutely.
"Civilization," Sen-Jyu replies to Ahoke, "isn't where you're born. It's where you choose to be, here." He points to his chest and, presumably, some organ contained therein. Maybe a lung.
Harvester finally concludes the donning of his new armor and kneels, to place his old armor into his pack. He scoops up the remaining items that still lie unattended on the shore and examines them carefully, before stowing them as well. He gives particular care to the vials.
Ahoke glances at Sen-Jyu. "I'm a berserker, Sen. Always on the outside of what is civilized. That's wolverine's call on my life." She shrugs, and then snaps into the air, "Oh shut /up/ you stupid lizard."
Sen-Jyu shrugs, "I stand by what I have said."
Harvester hefts the longbow and gives it an experimental pull. He murmurs, "This longbow... it is quite well crafted.... and has apparently suffered no ill-effects from being submerged so long..." And a gesture, "And these potatives... they appear to be curatives, created by the same being as concocted those others we got..."
"Probably members of the previous crew, though how sh... er, how their flesh became stripped from their bones is... beyond me." Sen-Jyu carefully looks away from the Harvester.
Ahoke hmms, glancing at the bow. "I'm not so good with a bow as I am my club or my axe... but the curing potions might be helpful. Do either of you want the bow?" Ahoke glances at the Harvester, and then Sen-Jyu, pursing her lips together in an attempt to stay silent.
"Hmmm." Sen-Jyu steps forward to examine the bow.
Harvester rises to hand the vials to Sen-Jyu. "Take these, as we possess several already."
Harvester hands Sen-Jyu the bow, as well.
Sen-Jyu accepts it. "This is a finely made bow, yes it is."
Harvester looks to Ahoke. "You've got some already, don'tcha?" He holds out the sodden quiver to Sen-Jyu, too. "May as well complete the set, bub."
"Yeah, I took two of them," the dwarf agrees. "I think you took the other two."
Accepting the quiver as well, Sen-Jyu looks over the assortment of arrows, assuming there is any variety to them at all, and starts to tuck them into his own quiver.
Ahoke sighs, looking upward at the path. "Guys... far be it from me to back away from our quest, but my legs are bleeding. Those rats might have made the wounds get feverish. Can we rest for just awhile? I'm sure that the wounds won't seem as bad, when I've slept for a few hours."
Harvester shrugs, "Yeag... we're all whipped, i think. Can do a little bit o'healing, if you want..."
"I'm ready to g..." Sen-Jyu looks at his other companions, then ducks his head. "Camp, right."
Ahoke grins at the Harvester. "I'd never turn that down... should probably save the potions for an emergency. But let's go somewhere dry. She glares at the waterfall, "I'm not going to dry out for a couple of moon cycles."
drnuncheon
Explorer
More Quotes from the Virtual Table!
The crunching and thudding that was going on in the darkness ceases.
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "Ahoke, are you eating your kill?"
<OOC> Sen-Jyu is gonna cast an Empowered Ball Lightnin... er, wrong sheet. Damnit.
<DIE ROLLER> Ahoke rolls 1d20+4 and gets 24.
<OOC> Ahoke says, "F***ing undead."
One of the Harvester's hands releases its hold on the scythe and begins to wave in a series of gestures. Words are spoken in a tone that calls out above the din of the battle. "I call upon the divine favor of He Who Is To Come to bear the fruit of Life unto my companion... Let his wounds be healed!" The thin hand reaches out to touch Sen-Jyu on the shoulder.
<DIE ROLLER> Harvester rolls 1d8+2 and gets 3.
<OOC> Dungeon Master says, "Apparently it was the Grape of Life only."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "'Bringing statues to life is a time-honored tradition of low-level characters."
<OOC> Dungeon Master says, "As is getting stomped flat by them?"
Harvester calls back, over his shoulder, 'You wanna be the one to hand it to it?" He continues moving forward.
You paged Harvester with 'You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.'.
(Sen-Jyu uses the healing salve his mother gave him)
Producing a second bamboo reed from his backpack, Sen-Jyu loosens the armor about his chest, that he can apply the goop to the buckler-sized bruise that's trying to form on his side.
<DIE ROLLER> Sen-Jyu rolls 1d8+1 and gets 2.
<OOC> Tamalruk says, "Mom didn't like you very much did she?"
(Sen-Jyu is severely wounded by the charmed Harvester.)
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "Please, remember to describe the chunks of flesh that you gouge out."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "Don't leave any of the sloppy bits out."
<OOC> Muse, in the front row, wants to get hit with sloppy bits!
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "People in the first five rows, you WILL get wet."
(The dananshee sees that Sen-Jyu is wounded)
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "No offense, lady, but licking your lips while talking about my wounded state does -not- make me feel more comfortable."
(we resume play as Sen & Harvester grapple)
<OOC> Harvester says, "Sen finally quit hugging me then?"
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "We just got into frenching, actually."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "What's the DC to cop a feel?"
(They search the waterfall pool)
Long distance to (Sen-Jyu, Ahoke): Dungeon Master feels he should mention that there's other stuff in the pile of bones - looks like maybe whatever the unlucky owners were carrying.
To (Ahoke, Dungeon Master), Sen-Jyu pages: Like, perhaps, a scrollcase that'll start drifting with the fast current once we disturb them?
(XP is awarded for the past coupole of sessions)
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "So, curiosity compels me to ask: we're getting this buttload of xp... why?"
<OOC> Ahoke says, "Because the DM wants us to be third level.
"
<OOC> Ahoke says, "Which doesn't bode well, come to think of it."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "That was my guess."
The crunching and thudding that was going on in the darkness ceases.
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "Ahoke, are you eating your kill?"
<OOC> Sen-Jyu is gonna cast an Empowered Ball Lightnin... er, wrong sheet. Damnit.
<DIE ROLLER> Ahoke rolls 1d20+4 and gets 24.
<OOC> Ahoke says, "F***ing undead."
One of the Harvester's hands releases its hold on the scythe and begins to wave in a series of gestures. Words are spoken in a tone that calls out above the din of the battle. "I call upon the divine favor of He Who Is To Come to bear the fruit of Life unto my companion... Let his wounds be healed!" The thin hand reaches out to touch Sen-Jyu on the shoulder.
<DIE ROLLER> Harvester rolls 1d8+2 and gets 3.
<OOC> Dungeon Master says, "Apparently it was the Grape of Life only."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "'Bringing statues to life is a time-honored tradition of low-level characters."
<OOC> Dungeon Master says, "As is getting stomped flat by them?"
Harvester calls back, over his shoulder, 'You wanna be the one to hand it to it?" He continues moving forward.
You paged Harvester with 'You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.'.
(Sen-Jyu uses the healing salve his mother gave him)
Producing a second bamboo reed from his backpack, Sen-Jyu loosens the armor about his chest, that he can apply the goop to the buckler-sized bruise that's trying to form on his side.
<DIE ROLLER> Sen-Jyu rolls 1d8+1 and gets 2.
<OOC> Tamalruk says, "Mom didn't like you very much did she?"
(Sen-Jyu is severely wounded by the charmed Harvester.)
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "Please, remember to describe the chunks of flesh that you gouge out."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "Don't leave any of the sloppy bits out."
<OOC> Muse, in the front row, wants to get hit with sloppy bits!
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "People in the first five rows, you WILL get wet."
(The dananshee sees that Sen-Jyu is wounded)
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "No offense, lady, but licking your lips while talking about my wounded state does -not- make me feel more comfortable."
(we resume play as Sen & Harvester grapple)
<OOC> Harvester says, "Sen finally quit hugging me then?"
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "We just got into frenching, actually."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "What's the DC to cop a feel?"
(They search the waterfall pool)
Long distance to (Sen-Jyu, Ahoke): Dungeon Master feels he should mention that there's other stuff in the pile of bones - looks like maybe whatever the unlucky owners were carrying.
To (Ahoke, Dungeon Master), Sen-Jyu pages: Like, perhaps, a scrollcase that'll start drifting with the fast current once we disturb them?
(XP is awarded for the past coupole of sessions)
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "So, curiosity compels me to ask: we're getting this buttload of xp... why?"
<OOC> Ahoke says, "Because the DM wants us to be third level.
"<OOC> Ahoke says, "Which doesn't bode well, come to think of it."
<OOC> Sen-Jyu says, "That was my guess."
drnuncheon
Explorer
Caliber said:
Harv has proven that he can only roll well when he's attacking his companions.
Normally I reward XP after every session, but the past couple of times, we had been in the middle of an encounter when we broke for the night (first the statue I think, then Harv vs. Sen-Jyu) so I didn't.
Speaking of Story Hours...we *have* finished OSM, so now that I'm back on the posting track expect super-fast updates.
After OSM is done, I hope everyone will join us for something a little different (and a rare chance for me to be a player!) as drnuncheon's Online Story Hour leaves the Prime behind and takes a trip to the City of Doors...
Fans of the current characters need not fear, though - they'll be back for OSM2 if nothing else!
J
drnuncheon
Explorer
Retreating to the 'bathtub room', the trio makes camp. There, on the cold metal floor, their dreams are no less disturbing than they were in the town...
With a vicious snarl, Ahoke sits up, clawing at the air. "Traitor," she growls, before looking around the room, surprised that she is still here. "Er, or not," she says, leaning against the wall in a vain attempt to stop trembling.
Harvester awakens and sits bolt-upright, with a loud, ragged gasp! "No...." he whispers. "No.... my mind is strong... My Lord shall not forsake me, nor I Him...."
And again, Sen-Jyu's troubled dreams are only revealed in the fear-streaked gloss to his wide-open eyes, nary a whimper having escaped him while he dreamt. He does not move, scarcely breathes, and one might question whether he had died in his sleep and gone rigid already.
Ahoke gets into her pack roughly, pulling out a loaf of bread that Tokket had supplied. She bits into it, tearing away at it with her teeth viciously. "My father would not drop me off of a cliff," she says resolutely. "Something is trying to make us lose heart with these dreams, to defeat us before we even begin." She pauses to chew some more, and then says, "Let's go kill it."
Harvester rises as well, and tears into a piece of ham Tokket had supplied. He nods to Ahoke, in wordless agreement, and moves to Sen-Jyu's side. "Sen? You gonna live, bub? Buck up... don't let the demons getcha down..." He attempts to be encouraging.
Sen-Jyu rises, a motion surprising to the eye considering the immobility that his limbs had held a moment before. "It wants our worship," he says in a whisper. "It wants us to bow to it. It probably wants the same of the townspeople. If the children are not dead already... I hate to think what damage has been wrought to their minds."
Ahoke grimaces, rising the rest of the way to her feet, and starting to don her armor. "Let's hope... that they recover. Children," she says, and then pauses, uncertainly, "At least dwarven children, are able to recover from things that adults wouldn't."
Harvester stands as well, swallowing the last of his ham. A ragged grin greets Sen-Jyu, "Yeah, well.... He Who Is To Come already got that. This thing, whoever he is, threatens to break my mind if I don't serve 'im."
Ahoke hmmphs, looking at Harvester. "He threatened to break my body. Interesting, I think, that he seems to threaten what he thinks is most important to us. We won't let him. What is a puny god impersonator to us, anyway?"
To calm his nerves, Sen-Jyu begins to practice swordplay with an ethereal opponent. Strike, parry, spin and strike again... but this time, he slows in his dance, head flopping to one side as he considers for a moment. His free hand extracts his other blade, the smaller of the two, and he begins the dance anew. Strike, thrust, parry, spin, turn, double-strike... Sen-Jyu seems mildly surprised and even a bit reassured.
Harvester laughs in reply, "He's puny...."
Ahoke nods. "Yeah. Now let's go back to the waterfall room, and start making our way up to the lair. We've goblins and a would-be god to hack apart."
Harvester muses quietly, as he slips into his pack. "This thing... threatens to break my mind, even as my Lord bolsters me with the gift of His greater power... greater than I have known in this lifetime.... We are truly blessed..."
Ahoke stretches her limbs out, cracking her knuckles, and then walks to the doorway of the bathtub room. "Sen, are you ready, or do you want to practice a little more?"
Sen-Jyu sheathes both of his swords, the flatness of his eyes indicating his introspective mood.
Ahoke takes that as assent to the former, and after one last look at her companions, starts walking the sixty feet or so to the rope leading upward.
Harvester turns, with a final glance to Sen-Jyu, and follows Ahoke.
Sen-Jyu follows, much quieter than he had been the day previous. Maybe all of his loquaciousness was exhausted in the brief spiel of philosophy.
Ahoke gets up to the rope, and tugs on it with a scowl. "I don't know how long it's going to take me with the armor, but I feel strange going up there without it. Have some patience with me," she says. "Unless someone else wants to go first?"
Harvester almost strangles on his laughter. "I'll take about three weeks on my own..."
Sen-Jyu advances on the rope, looking at Ahoke questioningly.
Ahoke holds it out to him. "We'll make sure that you land on one of us instead of the rocks, if you fall."
Sen-Jyu takes up the rope, and begins the ascent. Maybe.
Sen-Jyu checks around the tunnel a bit to make sure that the thanork didn't plant any surprises up there while they slept, before returning to the lip and preparing to help the next in line with their ascent.
Harvester sighs as he looks up at the impossibly long climb ahead. "Um. Mebbe you better go first, and help pull me up again..."
Ahoke, despite her pessimistic words, is able to shimmy up the rope much like a monkey. She grins at Harvester as she ascends, taking the extra rope with her. "I'll throw it down to you," she says, calling down.
Ahoke tosses the rope over the edge. Well, she keeps ahold of one end.
Harvester sweiftly knots the rope about his waist and attempts to begin his climb. And makes it up about three inches. He spits on his hands and rubs them together. He calls up, "You pull, while I climb..."
Ahoke sees that the priest is struggling, and starts backing up, holding the rope. With much grunting and growling, she pulls him up, rather quickly, and only bounces him off the rock wall a couple of times.
Sen-Jyu keeps an eye out behind the group while Ahoke helps the priest over the edge. Literally, not figuratively.
Ahoke wipes her brow. "That metal armor made you heavier than usual," she comments. "Alright. Are we ready to go wack some thanork?"
Harvester snorts. "Tell me about it. Thanks..." He readies his scythe. "Ready."
It is the journey of only a few moments to come to the waterfall cave, where everything seems to be as you left it (but you can make Spot checks to be certain). The spiraling path that skirts the falling water climbs high into the mist above you.
Ahoke peers into the cave. "I don't see anything amiss," she says after a moment, and then tromps over to where the path begins to spiral up. She glances back at the others, to see if they followed her, or if they've fallen into the clutches of water nymphs.
Sen-Jyu ahems quietly, then points to a splotch of dampness on the dry ground, somewhat distant from the pool.
Ahoke looks to where Sen points. "Hmm?"
Harvester looks around slowly, but sees naught amiss. He walks to the pool and pauses a moment, head bowed in silent prayer. Soon, he walks after the others, and spies Sen-Jyu's gesture.
Harvester whispers hopefully, "Wha.... does she live?!"
Crouching next to the ground, Sen-Jyu traces his finger around the shape of a footprint. Similar to the ones found in the mud back toward the river.
Ahoke scowls, walking back to where Sen-Jyu crouches, and seeing the tracing. "Well, there's confirmation that they're here. I wonder if they came looking for /us/."
Harvester stands behind Sen-Jyu and speaks softly, "Looks like they're waitin for us... where's it go?"
Sen-Jyu shrugs a bit, then points up, nebulously.
Harvester grunts. "Then that's where _we_ go."
Ahoke nods at Harvester "Right. Well, I guess that's where we want to be, then." She moves back over to the path, and begins climbing.
Harvester follows Ahoke.
Sen-Jyu nods to Ahoke, taking up the rear, scrutinizing the cavern as they progress.
The ramp is wide - ten feet wide - but the stone is worn smooth, and slick with mist and the algae growing upon it. Your feet threaten to slide from under you at your current pace, sending you tumbling down the ramp - or over the edge into the glowing waterfall.
Ahoke slows her pace accordingly, to keep herself from slipping, if at all possible.
Harvester uses his scythe in attempt to steady his upward movement.
Sen-Jyu keeps both his swords sheathed, crouching down on all fours to help him climb the passage and, if one of his leading companions stsrts to slip, to brace against their slipping or even catch them before they fall.
Harvester gets bowled over by a barbarian dwarf steamroller as she tumbles down. only a quick arc of his scythe to wedge into a crack in the path manages to avert his tumultuous plunge into the luminescent water below.
Seeing these events unfold in that horrible slow-motion effect that usually only occurs when the inevitable finally hits you, Sen-Jyu lunges past the Harvester in order to catch Ahoke prior to her fall. He is spidery in his motion and covers the distance easily, but is just not equipped to handle a metal-laden dwarf with downward inertia in her favor. She is tugged from his grasp, and he catches hold of an edge before he joins her in her plummet.
Ahoke falls below, after frantically grabbing at Sen's hand, but slipping off. There is a steady stream of words in the dwarven tongue, which, though no one speaks it, are fairly obviously swear words of some kind. The words are only cut off by a very loud splash. And then there is silence.
Somewhat panicked, Sen-Jyu looks at the Harvester, then back to the pool where the dark spot in the water indicates the aquatic dwarf. He watches for a few seconds to see if she is making any progress in the buoyancy department.
"Oh. Crap." are the only words from the priest as he lies spread-eagled on the path. He slowly, carefully skitters to the side and peers over. "Dwarves sink..." he remarks. "We gotta go fishin... quick..."'
After a moment of silence, there is the sound of water rushing off of a body as that body stands to its feet. There is a stream of more dwarven curse words, and then, finally, in common, "That hurt."
Ahoke wades out of the chest height water, peering up the thirty feet or so to where she assumes her companions still are. "I'm going to try /again/," she says.
Harvester nods to himself, seeing that Ahoke is relatively unharmed. He begins to inch his way up the path now, inch by painstaking inch. On his belly. Crawling like a baby fearful of heights and baths...
There is quiet again for a couple of seconds, and then Ahoke calls out, "I have an idea. Can you wait until I get to you? The rope is going to really come in handy.."
Sen-Jyu grins down at Ahoke, then finds a place where he can comfortably recline until Ahoke returns.
Harvester stops scraping his armor along the stone and waits as well.
Ahoke moves up to where the two men are, walking cautiously. There are bruises and cuts and scrapes on her, and her clothing (not the armor, though) is torn in places. "Never fall off of a cliff," she tells them. "It's much less fun than people say it is." She gestures with the rope. "Now, if we tied ourselves together, if I were to fall like that, you two could stop me. Or if any of us were to fall, the other two could stop it."
Sen-Jyu listens, then nods his agreement, one hand outstretched to receive one end of the rope, assuming that Ahoke is going to offer it.
Ahoke does, in fact, offer the rope.
Knotting it about his waist, Sen-Jyu takes up about ten feet of the slack before letting whoever's next tie themselves in.
Harvester shrugs from where he lies, "Sure. Whatever. Okay..." he looks doubtful, but willing to try.
Ahoke does so, and then looks upward with a sigh. "I hate it down here."
Harvester accepts the rope now, and ties himself lets himself into the loop. "Buck up, 'Kay. We're ging 'up' now..."
Ahoke brightens. "True," she says, beginning to move again, slowly and carefully.
Sen-Jyu waits for Ahoke to get tied in to this crazy train before starting his climb.
The mist soaks you to the skin as the knots are tied, and upward progress is resumed. You climb slowly, alert for the slippery rock, patches of algae...As you climb, the glow of the water pouring down next to you changes colors, moving through the spectrum.
Climbing higher, you see an enormous spiderweb stretched across the falling water. It does not block the path - merely acting as a fishing-net for whatever falls through.
Sen-Jyu points out the spiderweb with a great deal of consternation in his expression.
Harvester nearly slips numerous times. With the balance of his scythe, however, and the aid of his agile and/or stolid companions, he does not pitch forward to his doom on the jagged rocks below.
Ahoke frowns at the spiderweb. "I do not want to think about what made that. Let's just keep climbing for now," she mutters.
Harvester sees the spiderweb as well, and breathes. "Aw. Crap."
Careful placement of feet takes you higher...past another web, and another. You circle the waterfall again and again, rising to dizzying heights.
Sen-Jyu keeps alert as he continues up the slick slope, hand testing the position of the hilts of his swords as he looks about.
Harvester stops.
Once the slack tightens, Sen-Jyu stops as well.
Ahoke does too, grunting. "What is it?"
Harvester's head tilts as he listens to something. A frown creases his features, then he shakes his head uncertainly, as he mumbles indistinctly, "Thought I heard somethin..."
Ahoke hehs. "Oh, I know how /that/ is. Lots of voices here. Makes me mad. You going to be okay to climb on?"
Harvester speaks softly, almost inaudibly. "You do not speak for Him... you seek your own deification... your own glory..." He begins walking forward again, carefully, slowly.
More than once, Ahoke's feet threaten to slip out from under her - but eventually, the top is in sight. In the light of the glowing water, you can see the top of the ramp in front of you. It ends at a long, open window, five feet off the level of the ramp and fifteen feet tall. The room behind it looks dark and empty.
Ahoke breathes deeply when she sees the top of the ramp. "I'm so... glad. I hope there's another way down, though I guess we can just slide down on our bellies and make it faster..."
Sen-Jyu hoists himself the five feet once he reaches the top of the ramp, quickly collecting the slack so as to help the Harvester make some progress.
Harvester follows after, as quickly as is safe, looking up for a moment and pausing long enough to bow his head. "I shall remember, my Lord..." He clambers up next to Sen-Jyu.
Sen-Jyu offers an arm down to Ahoke upon her arrival at the top of the ramp.
Ahoke scrambles up behind the other two, grabbing ahold of Sen-Jyu's arm for extra support. Pulling herself up and over, she rolls over onto her back, and then gets to her feet. "Thanks," she says to Sen. She pulls out one of the vial things, and uncorks it. "Now... that fall hurt me enough that I should drink one of these.."
Climbing through the window...your mouth is a desert. Your clothing, your armor, everything...bone dry.
Harvester utters a word. "Wow..." He experimentally wrings out his robe, to find no water. "Wow."
Ahoke, who had been soaked, blinks, as she realizes what just happened. "Hmm. I want one of those," she says, eyeing the window speculatively.
Perplexed, Sen-Jyu looks back at the scenery now behind and below them, both skeptical and confused.
Harvester snorts at Ahoke, "That mean you wanna keep jumping into water from thirty feet?"
Ahoke walks up to the window, looking at it with tilted head. "Interesting. Very much so. But. We have work to do." She turns her back on the curiousity, and looks around the room exploratively.
The room is lit only by Harvester's scythe and the glow of the water - but no water seems able to pass through the 'window' you climbed through. Strange shapes huddle in one corner of the room - statues of some kind? A tarnished bell in another corner. A shadowy alcove with something in it sits across the room from the window, and next to it, on the right-hand wall, is a passage lined with more statuary - copper, naturally.
Ahoke walks over to the alcove, peering inside.
Harvester moves slowly, cautiously towards the middle of the room. Just so far as to illuminate the shapes in the corner.
Sen-Jyu unties himself from the group, leaving the slack to trail behind the Harvester.
Ahoke also untied herself, incidentally. She mmphs at the alcove, and then prods at it with her great club.
Harvester stops, remembering after growing the 'tail', to untie and stow the rope. He murmurs, "Anyone for a game of chess?" and approaches the giant set warily.
Sen-Jyu enters further, taking care to search the walls carefully.
As Ahoke wipes away the cobwebs, a draconic face is revealed, sculpted in verdigrised copper. The eyes open as she touches it, and a voice issues forth:
This garden is a lonely place
where many come, and yet remain
the plants grow strong on fertile ground
watered with legacies of pain.
And should I plow, my plow would break
on cast-off husks of iron grain
now buried where they fell like wheat.
What am I? Speak! Or face the bane.
Harvester turns to face the face. "You are a battlefield."
With a vicious snarl, Ahoke sits up, clawing at the air. "Traitor," she growls, before looking around the room, surprised that she is still here. "Er, or not," she says, leaning against the wall in a vain attempt to stop trembling.
Harvester awakens and sits bolt-upright, with a loud, ragged gasp! "No...." he whispers. "No.... my mind is strong... My Lord shall not forsake me, nor I Him...."
And again, Sen-Jyu's troubled dreams are only revealed in the fear-streaked gloss to his wide-open eyes, nary a whimper having escaped him while he dreamt. He does not move, scarcely breathes, and one might question whether he had died in his sleep and gone rigid already.
Ahoke gets into her pack roughly, pulling out a loaf of bread that Tokket had supplied. She bits into it, tearing away at it with her teeth viciously. "My father would not drop me off of a cliff," she says resolutely. "Something is trying to make us lose heart with these dreams, to defeat us before we even begin." She pauses to chew some more, and then says, "Let's go kill it."
Harvester rises as well, and tears into a piece of ham Tokket had supplied. He nods to Ahoke, in wordless agreement, and moves to Sen-Jyu's side. "Sen? You gonna live, bub? Buck up... don't let the demons getcha down..." He attempts to be encouraging.
Sen-Jyu rises, a motion surprising to the eye considering the immobility that his limbs had held a moment before. "It wants our worship," he says in a whisper. "It wants us to bow to it. It probably wants the same of the townspeople. If the children are not dead already... I hate to think what damage has been wrought to their minds."
Ahoke grimaces, rising the rest of the way to her feet, and starting to don her armor. "Let's hope... that they recover. Children," she says, and then pauses, uncertainly, "At least dwarven children, are able to recover from things that adults wouldn't."
Harvester stands as well, swallowing the last of his ham. A ragged grin greets Sen-Jyu, "Yeah, well.... He Who Is To Come already got that. This thing, whoever he is, threatens to break my mind if I don't serve 'im."
Ahoke hmmphs, looking at Harvester. "He threatened to break my body. Interesting, I think, that he seems to threaten what he thinks is most important to us. We won't let him. What is a puny god impersonator to us, anyway?"
To calm his nerves, Sen-Jyu begins to practice swordplay with an ethereal opponent. Strike, parry, spin and strike again... but this time, he slows in his dance, head flopping to one side as he considers for a moment. His free hand extracts his other blade, the smaller of the two, and he begins the dance anew. Strike, thrust, parry, spin, turn, double-strike... Sen-Jyu seems mildly surprised and even a bit reassured.
Harvester laughs in reply, "He's puny...."
Ahoke nods. "Yeah. Now let's go back to the waterfall room, and start making our way up to the lair. We've goblins and a would-be god to hack apart."
Harvester muses quietly, as he slips into his pack. "This thing... threatens to break my mind, even as my Lord bolsters me with the gift of His greater power... greater than I have known in this lifetime.... We are truly blessed..."
Ahoke stretches her limbs out, cracking her knuckles, and then walks to the doorway of the bathtub room. "Sen, are you ready, or do you want to practice a little more?"
Sen-Jyu sheathes both of his swords, the flatness of his eyes indicating his introspective mood.
Ahoke takes that as assent to the former, and after one last look at her companions, starts walking the sixty feet or so to the rope leading upward.
Harvester turns, with a final glance to Sen-Jyu, and follows Ahoke.
Sen-Jyu follows, much quieter than he had been the day previous. Maybe all of his loquaciousness was exhausted in the brief spiel of philosophy.
Ahoke gets up to the rope, and tugs on it with a scowl. "I don't know how long it's going to take me with the armor, but I feel strange going up there without it. Have some patience with me," she says. "Unless someone else wants to go first?"
Harvester almost strangles on his laughter. "I'll take about three weeks on my own..."
Sen-Jyu advances on the rope, looking at Ahoke questioningly.
Ahoke holds it out to him. "We'll make sure that you land on one of us instead of the rocks, if you fall."
Sen-Jyu takes up the rope, and begins the ascent. Maybe.
Sen-Jyu checks around the tunnel a bit to make sure that the thanork didn't plant any surprises up there while they slept, before returning to the lip and preparing to help the next in line with their ascent.
Harvester sighs as he looks up at the impossibly long climb ahead. "Um. Mebbe you better go first, and help pull me up again..."
Ahoke, despite her pessimistic words, is able to shimmy up the rope much like a monkey. She grins at Harvester as she ascends, taking the extra rope with her. "I'll throw it down to you," she says, calling down.
Ahoke tosses the rope over the edge. Well, she keeps ahold of one end.
Harvester sweiftly knots the rope about his waist and attempts to begin his climb. And makes it up about three inches. He spits on his hands and rubs them together. He calls up, "You pull, while I climb..."
Ahoke sees that the priest is struggling, and starts backing up, holding the rope. With much grunting and growling, she pulls him up, rather quickly, and only bounces him off the rock wall a couple of times.
Sen-Jyu keeps an eye out behind the group while Ahoke helps the priest over the edge. Literally, not figuratively.
Ahoke wipes her brow. "That metal armor made you heavier than usual," she comments. "Alright. Are we ready to go wack some thanork?"
Harvester snorts. "Tell me about it. Thanks..." He readies his scythe. "Ready."
It is the journey of only a few moments to come to the waterfall cave, where everything seems to be as you left it (but you can make Spot checks to be certain). The spiraling path that skirts the falling water climbs high into the mist above you.
Ahoke peers into the cave. "I don't see anything amiss," she says after a moment, and then tromps over to where the path begins to spiral up. She glances back at the others, to see if they followed her, or if they've fallen into the clutches of water nymphs.
Sen-Jyu ahems quietly, then points to a splotch of dampness on the dry ground, somewhat distant from the pool.
Ahoke looks to where Sen points. "Hmm?"
Harvester looks around slowly, but sees naught amiss. He walks to the pool and pauses a moment, head bowed in silent prayer. Soon, he walks after the others, and spies Sen-Jyu's gesture.
Harvester whispers hopefully, "Wha.... does she live?!"
Crouching next to the ground, Sen-Jyu traces his finger around the shape of a footprint. Similar to the ones found in the mud back toward the river.
Ahoke scowls, walking back to where Sen-Jyu crouches, and seeing the tracing. "Well, there's confirmation that they're here. I wonder if they came looking for /us/."
Harvester stands behind Sen-Jyu and speaks softly, "Looks like they're waitin for us... where's it go?"
Sen-Jyu shrugs a bit, then points up, nebulously.
Harvester grunts. "Then that's where _we_ go."
Ahoke nods at Harvester "Right. Well, I guess that's where we want to be, then." She moves back over to the path, and begins climbing.
Harvester follows Ahoke.
Sen-Jyu nods to Ahoke, taking up the rear, scrutinizing the cavern as they progress.
The ramp is wide - ten feet wide - but the stone is worn smooth, and slick with mist and the algae growing upon it. Your feet threaten to slide from under you at your current pace, sending you tumbling down the ramp - or over the edge into the glowing waterfall.
Ahoke slows her pace accordingly, to keep herself from slipping, if at all possible.
Harvester uses his scythe in attempt to steady his upward movement.
Sen-Jyu keeps both his swords sheathed, crouching down on all fours to help him climb the passage and, if one of his leading companions stsrts to slip, to brace against their slipping or even catch them before they fall.
Harvester gets bowled over by a barbarian dwarf steamroller as she tumbles down. only a quick arc of his scythe to wedge into a crack in the path manages to avert his tumultuous plunge into the luminescent water below.
Seeing these events unfold in that horrible slow-motion effect that usually only occurs when the inevitable finally hits you, Sen-Jyu lunges past the Harvester in order to catch Ahoke prior to her fall. He is spidery in his motion and covers the distance easily, but is just not equipped to handle a metal-laden dwarf with downward inertia in her favor. She is tugged from his grasp, and he catches hold of an edge before he joins her in her plummet.
Ahoke falls below, after frantically grabbing at Sen's hand, but slipping off. There is a steady stream of words in the dwarven tongue, which, though no one speaks it, are fairly obviously swear words of some kind. The words are only cut off by a very loud splash. And then there is silence.
Somewhat panicked, Sen-Jyu looks at the Harvester, then back to the pool where the dark spot in the water indicates the aquatic dwarf. He watches for a few seconds to see if she is making any progress in the buoyancy department.
"Oh. Crap." are the only words from the priest as he lies spread-eagled on the path. He slowly, carefully skitters to the side and peers over. "Dwarves sink..." he remarks. "We gotta go fishin... quick..."'
After a moment of silence, there is the sound of water rushing off of a body as that body stands to its feet. There is a stream of more dwarven curse words, and then, finally, in common, "That hurt."
Ahoke wades out of the chest height water, peering up the thirty feet or so to where she assumes her companions still are. "I'm going to try /again/," she says.
Harvester nods to himself, seeing that Ahoke is relatively unharmed. He begins to inch his way up the path now, inch by painstaking inch. On his belly. Crawling like a baby fearful of heights and baths...
There is quiet again for a couple of seconds, and then Ahoke calls out, "I have an idea. Can you wait until I get to you? The rope is going to really come in handy.."
Sen-Jyu grins down at Ahoke, then finds a place where he can comfortably recline until Ahoke returns.
Harvester stops scraping his armor along the stone and waits as well.
Ahoke moves up to where the two men are, walking cautiously. There are bruises and cuts and scrapes on her, and her clothing (not the armor, though) is torn in places. "Never fall off of a cliff," she tells them. "It's much less fun than people say it is." She gestures with the rope. "Now, if we tied ourselves together, if I were to fall like that, you two could stop me. Or if any of us were to fall, the other two could stop it."
Sen-Jyu listens, then nods his agreement, one hand outstretched to receive one end of the rope, assuming that Ahoke is going to offer it.
Ahoke does, in fact, offer the rope.
Knotting it about his waist, Sen-Jyu takes up about ten feet of the slack before letting whoever's next tie themselves in.
Harvester shrugs from where he lies, "Sure. Whatever. Okay..." he looks doubtful, but willing to try.
Ahoke does so, and then looks upward with a sigh. "I hate it down here."
Harvester accepts the rope now, and ties himself lets himself into the loop. "Buck up, 'Kay. We're ging 'up' now..."
Ahoke brightens. "True," she says, beginning to move again, slowly and carefully.
Sen-Jyu waits for Ahoke to get tied in to this crazy train before starting his climb.
The mist soaks you to the skin as the knots are tied, and upward progress is resumed. You climb slowly, alert for the slippery rock, patches of algae...As you climb, the glow of the water pouring down next to you changes colors, moving through the spectrum.
Climbing higher, you see an enormous spiderweb stretched across the falling water. It does not block the path - merely acting as a fishing-net for whatever falls through.
Sen-Jyu points out the spiderweb with a great deal of consternation in his expression.
Harvester nearly slips numerous times. With the balance of his scythe, however, and the aid of his agile and/or stolid companions, he does not pitch forward to his doom on the jagged rocks below.
Ahoke frowns at the spiderweb. "I do not want to think about what made that. Let's just keep climbing for now," she mutters.
Harvester sees the spiderweb as well, and breathes. "Aw. Crap."
Careful placement of feet takes you higher...past another web, and another. You circle the waterfall again and again, rising to dizzying heights.
Sen-Jyu keeps alert as he continues up the slick slope, hand testing the position of the hilts of his swords as he looks about.
Harvester stops.
Once the slack tightens, Sen-Jyu stops as well.
Ahoke does too, grunting. "What is it?"
Harvester's head tilts as he listens to something. A frown creases his features, then he shakes his head uncertainly, as he mumbles indistinctly, "Thought I heard somethin..."
Ahoke hehs. "Oh, I know how /that/ is. Lots of voices here. Makes me mad. You going to be okay to climb on?"
Harvester speaks softly, almost inaudibly. "You do not speak for Him... you seek your own deification... your own glory..." He begins walking forward again, carefully, slowly.
More than once, Ahoke's feet threaten to slip out from under her - but eventually, the top is in sight. In the light of the glowing water, you can see the top of the ramp in front of you. It ends at a long, open window, five feet off the level of the ramp and fifteen feet tall. The room behind it looks dark and empty.
Ahoke breathes deeply when she sees the top of the ramp. "I'm so... glad. I hope there's another way down, though I guess we can just slide down on our bellies and make it faster..."
Sen-Jyu hoists himself the five feet once he reaches the top of the ramp, quickly collecting the slack so as to help the Harvester make some progress.
Harvester follows after, as quickly as is safe, looking up for a moment and pausing long enough to bow his head. "I shall remember, my Lord..." He clambers up next to Sen-Jyu.
Sen-Jyu offers an arm down to Ahoke upon her arrival at the top of the ramp.
Ahoke scrambles up behind the other two, grabbing ahold of Sen-Jyu's arm for extra support. Pulling herself up and over, she rolls over onto her back, and then gets to her feet. "Thanks," she says to Sen. She pulls out one of the vial things, and uncorks it. "Now... that fall hurt me enough that I should drink one of these.."
Climbing through the window...your mouth is a desert. Your clothing, your armor, everything...bone dry.
Harvester utters a word. "Wow..." He experimentally wrings out his robe, to find no water. "Wow."
Ahoke, who had been soaked, blinks, as she realizes what just happened. "Hmm. I want one of those," she says, eyeing the window speculatively.
Perplexed, Sen-Jyu looks back at the scenery now behind and below them, both skeptical and confused.
Harvester snorts at Ahoke, "That mean you wanna keep jumping into water from thirty feet?"
Ahoke walks up to the window, looking at it with tilted head. "Interesting. Very much so. But. We have work to do." She turns her back on the curiousity, and looks around the room exploratively.
The room is lit only by Harvester's scythe and the glow of the water - but no water seems able to pass through the 'window' you climbed through. Strange shapes huddle in one corner of the room - statues of some kind? A tarnished bell in another corner. A shadowy alcove with something in it sits across the room from the window, and next to it, on the right-hand wall, is a passage lined with more statuary - copper, naturally.
Ahoke walks over to the alcove, peering inside.
Harvester moves slowly, cautiously towards the middle of the room. Just so far as to illuminate the shapes in the corner.
Sen-Jyu unties himself from the group, leaving the slack to trail behind the Harvester.
Ahoke also untied herself, incidentally. She mmphs at the alcove, and then prods at it with her great club.
Harvester stops, remembering after growing the 'tail', to untie and stow the rope. He murmurs, "Anyone for a game of chess?" and approaches the giant set warily.
Sen-Jyu enters further, taking care to search the walls carefully.
As Ahoke wipes away the cobwebs, a draconic face is revealed, sculpted in verdigrised copper. The eyes open as she touches it, and a voice issues forth:
This garden is a lonely place
where many come, and yet remain
the plants grow strong on fertile ground
watered with legacies of pain.
And should I plow, my plow would break
on cast-off husks of iron grain
now buried where they fell like wheat.
What am I? Speak! Or face the bane.
Harvester turns to face the face. "You are a battlefield."
drnuncheon
Explorer
The dragon's face grins, and the back wall of the room sinks slowly into the floor. Behind it, a room - possibly twenty feet square, and lit by flickering torches. The floor of the room is covered in piles of coin, and in the back corner, you can see some chests. A pair of copper statues stand watch over the horde.
Ahoke whews. "I'm glad that was the right answer," she says, turning to look at Harvester. "Though it is the only one that made sense..." She looks back towards the "new" room, and takes a step in.
Harvester marches towards the new room, his scythe held ready. He frowns, then nods as he nears Ahoke. "As am I..."
Coins clink and slide under Ahoke's foot as she enters the room.
Harvester moves to one of the statues and studies it thoughtfully.
Ahoke mmms to herself, licking her lips greedily. "There's lots of money in here." She stoops, letting some of the coins run through her stubby fingers. "Although," she admits reluctantly, "We'd probably better not weight ourselves down too much with this stuff. It'll keep us from saving the kids.'
Sen-Jyu grins at the pair, though he appears poised to dive out of the way. "Glad that we're all agreed on the answer," he murmurs to himself.
The coins gleam red-gold in the ruddy torchlight, but it is clear that they are made from the metal the town is famous for. They bear the head of a dragon - presumably Copperdeath - on their obverse, and some sort of sigil on the reverse.
Ahoke hmms. "I might be remembering this wrong," she says, "But copper isn't worth as much as say, gold. Right?" She too moves over to statues, eyeing them suspiciously.
Harvester murmurs aloud, as he reads a plaque, "Arkady Bellwright... this chamber may have been here for centuries.... at least, so it would appear from these dates..." He bends over to lift a coin and look at the sigil on its reverse.
"I think you're remembering accurately," Sen-Jyu replies, kneeling to scoop up one of the coins and look at the sigil on one of its sides.
Ahoke peers around the room, and then starts to walk around its perimeter, looking for ways out.
Harvester pockets the coin - a souvenir of sorts - and proceeds to one of the chests to examine it, now.
Sen-Jyu shrugs, pocketing the one coin. "So, shall we continue? Or is there something here that I'm not seeing?"
Harvester says, "Just some chests, Sen..."
Ahoke hmms, moving over to a chest, and nudges it experimentally with her toe. "I wonder if it has something in it besides copper..."
Harvester glances to his companions, "Can you determine if they are trapped in some manner?
Ahoke looks at Harvester, askance. "What did you just call me?" She blinks then, and looks around the room. "Wait... that didn't sound like you."
Harvester looks back at Ahoke, brow furrowed, "That damn lizard again?"
Sen-Jyu advances toward the chest, but pauses at Ahoke's question. "Er... I could search for any... incongruencies on the chest?" he offers, slightly on the hesitant side.
Harvester, knowing his weaknesses, is more than willing to allow the others to open the chests, and moves to the second statue to examine it.
Ahoke's brow furrows in a fierce scowl. "It called me a little morsel. No one calls a dwarf a morsel," she says indignantly. She then steps aside for Sen-Jyu. "Er, go ahead."
Harvester laughs softly, "Indigestion, maybe.... if it swallows you whole..."
Sen-Jyu stoops by the chest that Ahoke had prodded, fingers exploring its surface for unusual devices, like things that are meant to kill suspicious rogues.
Ahoke smirks at Harvester, and then watches Sen-Jyu, with her arms folded across her chest.
Harvester's head tilts a bit, as he points out to Ahoke, "Here's a dwarven town founder, Kay... Thruin Deepdelve. Old guy."
"This chest seems fine," says Sen-Jyu after a couple minutes of examination. "I can't say I'm all that qualified to open locked chests, however." He meanders over to the second chest, conducting a similar investigation.
Sen-Jyu shrugs, his eyes raising from the second chest, nodding his approval. "This one appears fine, too."
Ahoke smashes in the top of the first chest with her club, with the sound of splintering wood. And then suddenly, she drops to the ground, gripping, of all things, her leg, face screwed up in what can only be agony.
Harvester moves towards Ahoke as qickly as he is able, and grabs her leg for a quick inspection, "Hold still, Kay!"
Sen-Jyu scowls at the urgency of Ahoke's agony, but stands back and lets the Harvester do his work. "... must've missed something," he breathes.
Ahoke eventually stops writhing, and then coughs. "Wolverine's balls! I didn't think I'd ever feel pain like that again..." She scowls at the leg. "That's impossible! The wounds that I got from a bear trap came back."
Harvester begins moving his hands in a rapid pattern, and speaks his words of healing. "I do not know what caused the wounds, but shall, with the blessing of He Who Is To Come, heal them...."
Ahoke grimaces at Harvester. "Thanks." She turns, looking back at the chest. "I don't think I want to get into it anymore."
The shattered top lies loosely on the contents - the wood easily plucked forth to reveal what is within...
"... what, exactly, happened?" This, from Sen-Jyu, who's worriedly appraising the others for signs of exactly what it was that caused Ahoke to break out in open wounds.
Ahoke bites her lower lip. "I don't know." She turns, fastening a ferocious glare at the chest. "Once, when I was a little one, I accidentally stepped into a bear trap. It was like I relived that. I guess I should be grateful that I hadn't been half eaten by a mountain lion."
Harvester murmurs as he plucks wood from the chest, "A mystical trap on the chest, I'm guessin..." Harvester, ever speaking the obvious.
Ahoke hmmphs. "I hate mystical crap. At least, I do now. What's in the chest?"
Sen-Jyu shakes his head. "Magic. Hmmph. Strange magic, and quite impolite." Moving to open the second chest, he sighs, "Though I suppose it's impolite to procure the possessions of others, even if they are evil..."
Harvester lifts items out, one at a time. Some scrolls. A crystal. A sword. He examines the crystal first.
Ahoke moves over towards the sword, interested.
Sen-Jyu opens the other chest, exposing a mixed heaping of gold and silver coins.
Harvester pauses, then turns the crystal about in his hands, "Innerestin.. I almost didn't see the crystal, despite it being iridescent... seemed to camoflage itself or something..."
Ahoke coughs. "A copper sword with a rabbit's foot on it. Do you think it's magical?" She turns, glancing at Sen-Jyu. "Oooooooo," she says, her mouth forming a perfect "o."
Harvester glances over as he takes the scrolls in hand to examine now. "Anything buried inside?
Sen-Jyu takes out his wakizashi, using its point to part the coins and discover what else might be in the second chest.
Harvester looks at Ahoke, and the sword she carries. "A rabbit's foot? Mayhaps it's lucky?
Ahoke shrugs, and adds the sword to her ever growing collection of weapons, strapping it onto her belt. "I don't know what's so lucky about a rabbit that managed to get caught long enough to have its foot chopped off," she says, uncertainly. "Maybe it's unlucky."
Harvester shakes his head, "Wrong or not, humans have believed for a long time that rabbit feet were lucky. And four-leaf clovers, and..."
Sen-Jyu sheathes his wakizashi, face contorting a little with discomfort. He gets down on his knees to continue sorting through the coins.
Ahoke turns back to look at Sen-Jyu. "Is it causing you pain too?"
Harvester looks up from the scrolls. "Well. _Someone_ knows where we are, and hopes we've got dinner set..."
Ahoke ers. "What do you mean, Harvester?" She looks up, hand going for the axe handle.
Harvester murmurs as he peruses the scrolls, "Heard a voice. Says it knows where we are. Hopes we're ready for company."
Sen-Jyu doesn't look up, but instead starts to empty the chest of its coins, pouring them into his backpack.
Ahoke draws her axe, and half crouches in a ready position, listening.
Ahoke whispers, "You're right. I hear footsteps." And then she waits.
Sen-Jyu leaves his backpack propped up against the chest, standing straight and withdrawing both swords from their sheathes.
Harvester sticks a pair of scrolls into one tube, and the third into a separate container and stows it all. He rises, pocketing the crystal and scooping up his glowing scythe. He, too, turns and steps away from the others. "Nothing else, Sen?"
Sen-Jyu shakes his head at the Harvester, but says nothing, straining to hear what Ahoke has heard.
Harsh voices twist your heads towards the statue-lined corridor - the language of thanork, and a large number of them to boot. They come scuttling out of the darkness, their narrowed eyes shining in the reflected light of the torches and Harvester's scythe, clutching their javelins and morningstars, ears folded flat against their heads.
You count a half-score of the creatures within sight...and who knows how many more of them lurk unseen in the shadows?
The goblins hesitate at the mouth of the hall, and a flight of javelins flies towards our heros - clattering from armor or poorly aimed, only one finds it's mark - a red line drawn in blood across Sen-Jyu's cheek.
Harvester reaches up to a glittering necklace at his throat and speaks in a loud, commanding tone, "By He Who Is To Come, I call down His blessing upon us!"
Moments after completing his incantation, there is the -thump- of a crossbow, and Harvester looks down to see a wooden shaft protruding from just under his ribcage...
A second flight of javelins arcs through the air, and again Sen-Jyu is the sole person to play victim.
Seeing the ranks of thanork approach, Sen-Jyu leaps forward, swords glinting with curved smiles. His own smile is rather dampened at seeing the hail of javelins in the torchlight, and two of them strike him, leaving him bleeding and unhappy, but still fighting.
Sen-Jyu's hum is high-pitched and buzzes with anger as he throws himself toward the ranks of thanork. Dancing into their front line, he gestures with a sharp, quick motion, and Ichido-sama greets the first of them with death.
Ahoke charges in at one of the thanork, swinging with her axe, and misses. Dwarven curses fill the room as she readies herself for another attack.
One last desultory javelin flies through the air to clatter from the steel plates shielding the Harvester's body. Meanwhile, the front ranks of the goblins hurriedly drop their javelins, pulling morningstars from their belts. They swing the spiked clubs with more enthusiasm than skill - Sen-Jyu is able to dodge their blows easily, while Ahoke's stockier form is dealt a glancing blow that tears a bloody furrow in her scalp.
Harvester again intones the words of power granted him by his deity, and a shining, translucent scythe appears in the air and slashes forward, in aid of his beleagured companions. A gobling falls, shrieking.
The crossbow-weilding goblin hangs back from the combat, reloading his weapon. Heedless of his companions, he fires it into the melee...
...missing cleanly.
The goblins now move to surround Ahoke and Sen-Jyu, and one of them slips past the samurai's defense to land a well-aimed blow on the spirit-folks knee. Only his fast footwork turns it from a shattering blow to a mere scratch.
Sen-Jyu's anticipation of the attack is his saving grace; the thanork do not find him an easy target, with his blades working not only as his fangs, but his scales as well.
The one to wound Sen-Jyu also is deserving of his wrath, and Ichido-sama is not to be denied. Leaping back two feet, he gives himself enough room for his katana to be slashed forward, catching another thanork across the chest. His stroke is strong and merciless, and leaves the goblin falling backward in two separate pieces. The wakizashi also lashes out, but against a foe who has not yet earned his anger, it only gives a welt across the goblin's flesh.
Ahoke snarls at one of her mortal enemies, and sends the stone head of her axe splintering through its skull, and into its brain. A spray of hot, rust colored blood splashes out in all directions.
Taken aback by this unexpected show of force, the remaining goblins shriek in their gutteral tongue. "Bree-yark!" is the sound of their cry, as they break ranks and run, some dropping to all fours for more speed as they lope back down the corridor.
The Harvester's scythe floats ephemerally after them, slicing one across its back as it runs.
Ahoke chases after the fleeing thanork, raising her axe. As she disappears into the darkness, the sickening thud of stone into bone is heard once again. The shrill screams of the thanork echo eerily down the dark corridor, mingling with Ahoke's laughter.
After noting the complete darkness that the thanork have retreated to, Sen-Jyu chooses the intelligent thing -- stay close to the light.
Harvester begins to pant, with the heavy exertion given to his running. The shimmering scythe winks out.
Ahoke comes to a halt, looking behind her, when the light goes out of Harvester's scythe. She grumbles, not pursuing. "We'd probably better do something about that," she says, looking back to the corner to make sure that the thanork aren't trying to sneak up on them. "So that you can see."
Ahoke whews. "I'm glad that was the right answer," she says, turning to look at Harvester. "Though it is the only one that made sense..." She looks back towards the "new" room, and takes a step in.
Harvester marches towards the new room, his scythe held ready. He frowns, then nods as he nears Ahoke. "As am I..."
Coins clink and slide under Ahoke's foot as she enters the room.
Harvester moves to one of the statues and studies it thoughtfully.
Ahoke mmms to herself, licking her lips greedily. "There's lots of money in here." She stoops, letting some of the coins run through her stubby fingers. "Although," she admits reluctantly, "We'd probably better not weight ourselves down too much with this stuff. It'll keep us from saving the kids.'
Sen-Jyu grins at the pair, though he appears poised to dive out of the way. "Glad that we're all agreed on the answer," he murmurs to himself.
The coins gleam red-gold in the ruddy torchlight, but it is clear that they are made from the metal the town is famous for. They bear the head of a dragon - presumably Copperdeath - on their obverse, and some sort of sigil on the reverse.
Ahoke hmms. "I might be remembering this wrong," she says, "But copper isn't worth as much as say, gold. Right?" She too moves over to statues, eyeing them suspiciously.
Harvester murmurs aloud, as he reads a plaque, "Arkady Bellwright... this chamber may have been here for centuries.... at least, so it would appear from these dates..." He bends over to lift a coin and look at the sigil on its reverse.
"I think you're remembering accurately," Sen-Jyu replies, kneeling to scoop up one of the coins and look at the sigil on one of its sides.
Ahoke peers around the room, and then starts to walk around its perimeter, looking for ways out.
Harvester pockets the coin - a souvenir of sorts - and proceeds to one of the chests to examine it, now.
Sen-Jyu shrugs, pocketing the one coin. "So, shall we continue? Or is there something here that I'm not seeing?"
Harvester says, "Just some chests, Sen..."
Ahoke hmms, moving over to a chest, and nudges it experimentally with her toe. "I wonder if it has something in it besides copper..."
Harvester glances to his companions, "Can you determine if they are trapped in some manner?
Ahoke looks at Harvester, askance. "What did you just call me?" She blinks then, and looks around the room. "Wait... that didn't sound like you."
Harvester looks back at Ahoke, brow furrowed, "That damn lizard again?"
Sen-Jyu advances toward the chest, but pauses at Ahoke's question. "Er... I could search for any... incongruencies on the chest?" he offers, slightly on the hesitant side.
Harvester, knowing his weaknesses, is more than willing to allow the others to open the chests, and moves to the second statue to examine it.
Ahoke's brow furrows in a fierce scowl. "It called me a little morsel. No one calls a dwarf a morsel," she says indignantly. She then steps aside for Sen-Jyu. "Er, go ahead."
Harvester laughs softly, "Indigestion, maybe.... if it swallows you whole..."
Sen-Jyu stoops by the chest that Ahoke had prodded, fingers exploring its surface for unusual devices, like things that are meant to kill suspicious rogues.
Ahoke smirks at Harvester, and then watches Sen-Jyu, with her arms folded across her chest.
Harvester's head tilts a bit, as he points out to Ahoke, "Here's a dwarven town founder, Kay... Thruin Deepdelve. Old guy."
"This chest seems fine," says Sen-Jyu after a couple minutes of examination. "I can't say I'm all that qualified to open locked chests, however." He meanders over to the second chest, conducting a similar investigation.
Sen-Jyu shrugs, his eyes raising from the second chest, nodding his approval. "This one appears fine, too."
Ahoke smashes in the top of the first chest with her club, with the sound of splintering wood. And then suddenly, she drops to the ground, gripping, of all things, her leg, face screwed up in what can only be agony.
Harvester moves towards Ahoke as qickly as he is able, and grabs her leg for a quick inspection, "Hold still, Kay!"
Sen-Jyu scowls at the urgency of Ahoke's agony, but stands back and lets the Harvester do his work. "... must've missed something," he breathes.
Ahoke eventually stops writhing, and then coughs. "Wolverine's balls! I didn't think I'd ever feel pain like that again..." She scowls at the leg. "That's impossible! The wounds that I got from a bear trap came back."
Harvester begins moving his hands in a rapid pattern, and speaks his words of healing. "I do not know what caused the wounds, but shall, with the blessing of He Who Is To Come, heal them...."
Ahoke grimaces at Harvester. "Thanks." She turns, looking back at the chest. "I don't think I want to get into it anymore."
The shattered top lies loosely on the contents - the wood easily plucked forth to reveal what is within...
"... what, exactly, happened?" This, from Sen-Jyu, who's worriedly appraising the others for signs of exactly what it was that caused Ahoke to break out in open wounds.
Ahoke bites her lower lip. "I don't know." She turns, fastening a ferocious glare at the chest. "Once, when I was a little one, I accidentally stepped into a bear trap. It was like I relived that. I guess I should be grateful that I hadn't been half eaten by a mountain lion."
Harvester murmurs as he plucks wood from the chest, "A mystical trap on the chest, I'm guessin..." Harvester, ever speaking the obvious.
Ahoke hmmphs. "I hate mystical crap. At least, I do now. What's in the chest?"
Sen-Jyu shakes his head. "Magic. Hmmph. Strange magic, and quite impolite." Moving to open the second chest, he sighs, "Though I suppose it's impolite to procure the possessions of others, even if they are evil..."
Harvester lifts items out, one at a time. Some scrolls. A crystal. A sword. He examines the crystal first.
Ahoke moves over towards the sword, interested.
Sen-Jyu opens the other chest, exposing a mixed heaping of gold and silver coins.
Harvester pauses, then turns the crystal about in his hands, "Innerestin.. I almost didn't see the crystal, despite it being iridescent... seemed to camoflage itself or something..."
Ahoke coughs. "A copper sword with a rabbit's foot on it. Do you think it's magical?" She turns, glancing at Sen-Jyu. "Oooooooo," she says, her mouth forming a perfect "o."
Harvester glances over as he takes the scrolls in hand to examine now. "Anything buried inside?
Sen-Jyu takes out his wakizashi, using its point to part the coins and discover what else might be in the second chest.
Harvester looks at Ahoke, and the sword she carries. "A rabbit's foot? Mayhaps it's lucky?
Ahoke shrugs, and adds the sword to her ever growing collection of weapons, strapping it onto her belt. "I don't know what's so lucky about a rabbit that managed to get caught long enough to have its foot chopped off," she says, uncertainly. "Maybe it's unlucky."
Harvester shakes his head, "Wrong or not, humans have believed for a long time that rabbit feet were lucky. And four-leaf clovers, and..."
Sen-Jyu sheathes his wakizashi, face contorting a little with discomfort. He gets down on his knees to continue sorting through the coins.
Ahoke turns back to look at Sen-Jyu. "Is it causing you pain too?"
Harvester looks up from the scrolls. "Well. _Someone_ knows where we are, and hopes we've got dinner set..."
Ahoke ers. "What do you mean, Harvester?" She looks up, hand going for the axe handle.
Harvester murmurs as he peruses the scrolls, "Heard a voice. Says it knows where we are. Hopes we're ready for company."
Sen-Jyu doesn't look up, but instead starts to empty the chest of its coins, pouring them into his backpack.
Ahoke draws her axe, and half crouches in a ready position, listening.
Ahoke whispers, "You're right. I hear footsteps." And then she waits.
Sen-Jyu leaves his backpack propped up against the chest, standing straight and withdrawing both swords from their sheathes.
Harvester sticks a pair of scrolls into one tube, and the third into a separate container and stows it all. He rises, pocketing the crystal and scooping up his glowing scythe. He, too, turns and steps away from the others. "Nothing else, Sen?"
Sen-Jyu shakes his head at the Harvester, but says nothing, straining to hear what Ahoke has heard.
Harsh voices twist your heads towards the statue-lined corridor - the language of thanork, and a large number of them to boot. They come scuttling out of the darkness, their narrowed eyes shining in the reflected light of the torches and Harvester's scythe, clutching their javelins and morningstars, ears folded flat against their heads.
You count a half-score of the creatures within sight...and who knows how many more of them lurk unseen in the shadows?
The goblins hesitate at the mouth of the hall, and a flight of javelins flies towards our heros - clattering from armor or poorly aimed, only one finds it's mark - a red line drawn in blood across Sen-Jyu's cheek.
Harvester reaches up to a glittering necklace at his throat and speaks in a loud, commanding tone, "By He Who Is To Come, I call down His blessing upon us!"
Moments after completing his incantation, there is the -thump- of a crossbow, and Harvester looks down to see a wooden shaft protruding from just under his ribcage...
A second flight of javelins arcs through the air, and again Sen-Jyu is the sole person to play victim.
Seeing the ranks of thanork approach, Sen-Jyu leaps forward, swords glinting with curved smiles. His own smile is rather dampened at seeing the hail of javelins in the torchlight, and two of them strike him, leaving him bleeding and unhappy, but still fighting.
Sen-Jyu's hum is high-pitched and buzzes with anger as he throws himself toward the ranks of thanork. Dancing into their front line, he gestures with a sharp, quick motion, and Ichido-sama greets the first of them with death.
Ahoke charges in at one of the thanork, swinging with her axe, and misses. Dwarven curses fill the room as she readies herself for another attack.
One last desultory javelin flies through the air to clatter from the steel plates shielding the Harvester's body. Meanwhile, the front ranks of the goblins hurriedly drop their javelins, pulling morningstars from their belts. They swing the spiked clubs with more enthusiasm than skill - Sen-Jyu is able to dodge their blows easily, while Ahoke's stockier form is dealt a glancing blow that tears a bloody furrow in her scalp.
Harvester again intones the words of power granted him by his deity, and a shining, translucent scythe appears in the air and slashes forward, in aid of his beleagured companions. A gobling falls, shrieking.
The crossbow-weilding goblin hangs back from the combat, reloading his weapon. Heedless of his companions, he fires it into the melee...
...missing cleanly.
The goblins now move to surround Ahoke and Sen-Jyu, and one of them slips past the samurai's defense to land a well-aimed blow on the spirit-folks knee. Only his fast footwork turns it from a shattering blow to a mere scratch.
Sen-Jyu's anticipation of the attack is his saving grace; the thanork do not find him an easy target, with his blades working not only as his fangs, but his scales as well.
The one to wound Sen-Jyu also is deserving of his wrath, and Ichido-sama is not to be denied. Leaping back two feet, he gives himself enough room for his katana to be slashed forward, catching another thanork across the chest. His stroke is strong and merciless, and leaves the goblin falling backward in two separate pieces. The wakizashi also lashes out, but against a foe who has not yet earned his anger, it only gives a welt across the goblin's flesh.
Ahoke snarls at one of her mortal enemies, and sends the stone head of her axe splintering through its skull, and into its brain. A spray of hot, rust colored blood splashes out in all directions.
Taken aback by this unexpected show of force, the remaining goblins shriek in their gutteral tongue. "Bree-yark!" is the sound of their cry, as they break ranks and run, some dropping to all fours for more speed as they lope back down the corridor.
The Harvester's scythe floats ephemerally after them, slicing one across its back as it runs.
Ahoke chases after the fleeing thanork, raising her axe. As she disappears into the darkness, the sickening thud of stone into bone is heard once again. The shrill screams of the thanork echo eerily down the dark corridor, mingling with Ahoke's laughter.
After noting the complete darkness that the thanork have retreated to, Sen-Jyu chooses the intelligent thing -- stay close to the light.
Harvester begins to pant, with the heavy exertion given to his running. The shimmering scythe winks out.
Ahoke comes to a halt, looking behind her, when the light goes out of Harvester's scythe. She grumbles, not pursuing. "We'd probably better do something about that," she says, looking back to the corner to make sure that the thanork aren't trying to sneak up on them. "So that you can see."
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