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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 690565" data-attributes="member: 96">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."</blockquote>

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