Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser@Home" data-source="post: 280195" data-attributes="member: 4945">Session Two, Part OneTWO DAYS later, the party trudged back to the Golden Dragon. They had left the gate unlocked but it appeared that no one had trespassed while they were away. Small wonder. Dragonflies buzzed among the tall grasses of the estate as they made their way up the path and back into the family gate of the forlorn inn-house. Cautiously, the group rechecked the rooms they’d battled in previously. All clear. Following Vinh and Lei, they crept inside the central building and returned to the nest-room of the rat-people, which had once been a guestroom. “The bodies are gone!” exclaimed Woo. Lei checked the tunnel in the next room. It slithered six feet down in the musty light and disappeared. “No obvious tracks,” said the mercenary. In the nest room, Tam examined the blood-soaked walls, periodically stopping to record information on a scroll. After a few minutes, he announced, “We have deciphered these inscriptions. They are written in a barbaric arcane language. Primal, one could say.” The others paused. “The sentiment ’A convergence of blood to drown the Neshumi’ repeats many times. A mantra.” He scratched his head. “We don’t know who the Neshumi are.” The wizard glanced at Hien. The younger man shook his head. “Nor do I.”“Hm,” Lei grunted, “Anyway, we’ve got more rooms to cover. I’d wager the rats are gone now, though.” He was right. They killed more large spiders, and survived a harrowing moment when Vinh’s foot plunged through the rotted deck and stuck, only to be swarmed by a nest of giant centipedes from under the floorboards. The no-sheng scraped some flesh off when he tore his foot out, and the party made short work of the vermin. Once again, Hien treated his poisoned wounds. Eventually satisfied the main building was clear, the party checked the stables and discovered a large hole in the ground tucked away in the northeast corner inside a stall. The stables were adjacent with the central structure on that wall, and they soon realized that this was the larger part of the same hole under the floorboards inside the inn. The party gathered around the dusty opening in the stables and looked down into the darkness. “That’s a big hole,” noted Vinh. “Big enough for a horse…” Woo nodded.“I guess we should take a look around down there,” ventured Tran. He glanced at Lei. “Yes, master,” the fighter grimaced and dug into his backpack for a rope. A few minutes later, he rappelled down into the dark. Woo and Vinh followed next, and the rest of the group cautiously worked their way down afterward. At the bottom, about 30 feet below the surface, the stronger warriors helped the less physically inclined to the dirty floor. From down here, dust drifted from the floorboards of the inn above. They could see into both the guestroom and the stables.“The rats must have tunneled up and out, then used the dirt to fill the barrels in front of the storehouse,” suggested Vinh. He and Woo had noted on the previous trip that the dozens of barrels stacked against the storehouse door were filled with dry soil. “There’s a tunnel that leads west,” called Lei from across the room. He held a torch and was peering into the black beyond their vision. In his other hand he gripped his scimitar. The others armed themselves and stepped into the tunnel, following Lei. The ceiling was low, about 6 feet, but it was wide enough that two people could walk side-by-side. Here and there, thick wooden supports held up the walls at precarious angles, giving the passageway a claustrophobic feel. It meandered on for some time until Mai realized, “You know, we’re not under the Golden Dragon property anymore.” The party stopped.“Should we go on?” asked Vinh as he shifted his kama-do carefully. The weapon was all but useless in the cramped space.Tran spoke up. “Our instructions were to clean up the inn. I’m not sure this qualifies.”“We agree,” offered Tam, “the rats are gone. We can explore another time.”Hien shook his head. “While this tunnel exists they can return. I’m not sure leaving it is wise.”“We’re on a deadline,” argued Woo. “It’s going to take many days to make the inn presentable again. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and we’ve no idea how far this tunnel could lead.”“Let’s go back, then,” said Lei. “We can block it on our end.”And so they did. Several hours later, sweating and grimy, Hien, Lei, Vinh, and Woo relaxed at the bottom of the vertical shaft and examined their handiwork. A dozen barrels full of soil blocked the opening of the tunnel, three deep. They had wedged them in tight, making it all but impossible to pull them out again without hacking them to pieces with an axe. Approving, they shimmied up the rope and reemerged on the surface to a dazzling afternoon sun. Hien’s eagle, Hiraki, soared high overhead.“We have stalled long enough,” said Woo, “Let’s find out what was frightening enough to imprison in the storehouse.” He jogged across the center rooms and emerged in the family yard. The others followed, and the men began rolling barrels away from the barred double doors. While they did that, Mai climbed onto the roof and looked for a crack or a hole she could use to spy into the building. The roof was in good repair, however, and she dropped back to the ground unsatisfied. Half an hour later, the fatigued men finished their chore. They rested for a while afterward, and then Woo stood up and approached the doors. Sweat glistened on his forehead and his long braided hair swayed as he hopped up onto the deck in front of the storehouse. Vinh and Lei followed more slowly and took up positions flanking Woo. As the three of them stood in front of doors preparing themselves, a noise echoed from within.Sshhhhhhhhhhhhh-THUNK. SshhhhhhhhhhhHHH-THUNK. Dust suddenly billowed out between the wooden planks as both doors shuddered and bowed toward the party.  Something inside was leaning on them. Something large. Woo breathed methodically. The water is calm.He reached out with his bamboo staff and levered the heavy bar off the door. As it clattered to the deck, he jumped back. Lei reached out and yanked open the left-side door, stepping back with it as it swung out. Vinh, his weapon at the ready, saw the monster first. Another kaung-shi, this one much larger than a man. It towered over them as it lunged forward, dragging one long ape-like arm behind it and raising the other high overhead. Its fists were large as a human skull, and its body was leathery, rotted, and dry. Unlike the rat-zombie, this creature had eyes, although one had caved into the skull, and the other had lolled back into its head. The creature’s nose was long and hooked, the face broad and wart-riddled, and the form emaciated and disproportionate – the arms were far too long. The sorcerer’s minions burst into motion. Hien invoked the spirits to bless and guide their actions. In response, little invisible voices began to whisper in each person’s ear, encouraging them to be brave while suggesting where best to strike. Bolstered, the group assaulted their foe. Tam twisted yin and yang to cause a burst of stone shrapnel on the floor behind the monster, Vinh focused his ch’i and lunged, and Lei and Woo stepped up to harass the creature with telling blows. After one clumsy swipe at Woo, the kaung-shi fell. The party rejoiced. Inside, they found the remains of seven dead rat-men, partially eaten. Two of them lay near long poles with hooks on the end. On the kaung-shi’s corpse, Lei spotted a leather collar with rings. They formed a theory; the kaung-shi had been created elsewhere and driven here underground and up the tunnel by the rat-men, for what purpose, unknown. The dead rats all had red fur like the others they’d fought days before. A tribe, they concluded. After a final sweep of the storeroom, which turned out to be empty other than the corpses, and a larger sweep of the premises, which they determined to be clear of vermin, the adventure was over. Now the real work began: they had eleven days to turn the Golden Dragon Inn into a shining example of order and cleanliness. Lei sighed. He would have preferred more rat-men. Next: What IS that smell?</blockquote>

Verification