D&D 5E The Kalarian Precipice - Chapter Five

[97mg]

The Kalarian Precipice - Chapter Five
​

The bodies of a few well-slain lesser demons smoulder upon the floor, acidic ooze-like flesh dissolving. Soon, they will be nothing more than crocodillian bones, elongated skulls and plentiful rows of teeth. Their days of guarding this chamber are over.

Surrounded by streams of slowly moving red-hot coals, ash and winding tentacles of magma, the "hall" for want of a better word, is plenty uncomfortable. Sweat comes easy to many of the group, as does the discomfort of what feels like a slow roasting. Long-term, it would devour one’s strength for sure. Unless of course your flesh had previously been removed.

As the ranger approaches the caged bodyless head, it speaks.

"I must admit, I was concerned for you when you burst in here alone mister. But wisely, of friends you have many! And now, you may add one more. You have my thanks.”

Dain must rely on instinct here, as talking skulls are something of a rarity, even in the ranger’s twisted darkearth dreams. Well, it seems friendly enough. There is no evidence of betrayal or evil, but then again, how does one read body language or facial cues, when of them there are none?

Then it nods calmly, a pleasant introduction from the sorcerer.

He calls me Friend. The first steps go well. So they want to know about comings and goings, jailers and prisoners. Now that, would be a story!

“Young man, it pains me to admit, I’ve seen many a mortal come and go. Slaving workers taught a little about underperformance, mostly. Sometimes an undead creature, or whispy fairykind has shared this space. As far as I know, I am alone here with what remains of them, a sad tale indeed.”

Carthum re-enters then, having rescued what might have become demi-human spider bait. What would Suru consider of such an otherworldly sight? Could this be the remains of a man corrupted beyond recognition? Or has his fate been unjust, a life spent in punishment deemed necessary by those of evil intent? Suru gives the half-orc no simple answers on this matter, today.

“Lucky for all of us me thinks, that of recent years the snotty fiends remaining here are those… lesser in stature, and prowess. The Pitchlings and their bit... sorry, woman, for better or worse, made things… shall we say… less economical?"

The woman, his words almost grated at the mention of her...

The head goes a rull rotation then, spinning upside down before resting back at a traditional eye-level.

“So tell me, who are you? And what might tempt such young feisty souls to the very edges of our dual-layered isle? Other than to rescue a man who will father no children, nor feel the weight of a staff in his hand, of course.”

Meanwhile, Annit has agreed to Carthum’s suggestion, placing herself back in the tunnels, keeping watch for the merest hint of movement, a hairy leg, or the beating of a red infernal wing. She doesn’t wander too far of course. The words behind her are interesting...

 

[daindarkspring]

Dain - Decisions

Listening to the disembodied skull, Dain appeared to shake his head slightly, as if clearing away some annoyance. His eyes closed briefly and a sensation of falling into something soft and damp followed. The pain in his chest faded. Time slowed down for him, and he was keenly aware of his heartbeat in his ears, one beat, silence, and then finally another...

Everything was dark. And warm. And then…the smallest bit of light, as if from a distant and shrouded moon, passed through a tangle of branches to speckle illumination upon Essithea’s body. She was rising up out of a gloomy pool of water, wet hair clinging to pale skin. Her gaze sought him out, stopping his heart altogether when their eyes met. *You will know me.* Her voice was a trickle of water over stones in an underground spring. It was a tangle of roots in deep earth. *As you dream of me.* And above all, it was desire.

His voice was a knot in his throat. She was near to him now, near enough that her warmth fell over him and his stopped heart threatened to burst. Her breath was like a flower that puts forth its final and most perfect scent before the bloom wilts and falls from the stem. Utterly ripe, but a moment from death and decay.

Her lips touched his forehead, and at first they were as cold as ancient ice. But his heat passed into them and they began to warm. His eyes tingled, his body shook. *Give to me, as I give to you.* It was a plaintive, but it was also demanding.

She began to recede from him, her motions in perfect reverse of when she had approached him, backwards and unnatural. The shadowy mere swallowed her. He tried to reach for her, but his body froze and thorns rose up around him. Tearing him. Suffocating him.

His heart ached.

Dain took a step backwards, a jilted motion borne of brief panic. He was back from wherever he had gone. He recovered quickly, and wiped a hand across his face to clear the beads of sweat. The pain was back as well, and it helped ground him. His eyes returned to the skull, and there was a hint of abhorrence in his face. This thing was dead and yet not dead. It was cast out of the cycle of life and death, decay and rebirth. The only thing that stopped Dain from despising it outright was the thought that it may in fact be a victim, and had not chosen its cruel fate.

Or had it?

He looked over at Metea and Otiroth. This was their domain. Talking skulls and demon-spawn. If they were in the wilds, he would offer opinion…but here? The mystics and the cleric were the knowledge bearers. “We cannot stay here long. We should follow the cart tracks. Its fate…” He glanced at the skull. “…is your decision.” Maybe the dwarf could carry him.

Dain headed for the entranceway, both to escape the heat and to join Annit in watching for trouble. Jeovanna could keep an eye on the mystics.

 

[Jeovanna]

Jeovanna: Decisions

Jeovanna paces the hall like a caged animal. The heat is certainly getting to her. Were it a hot summers' day, a gust of wind might've danced past and temporarily lightened the load. Down here, it seemed every second was only the hotter, and the only gusts of wind that arrive? Are hotter still.

It is too much talking, though Jeovanna supposes she should appreciate that. Rare indeed to talk to a floating skull.

She licks her teeth. They seem sharper. Perhaps it is just her imagination. Perhaps the heat has put her on edge.

She feels very different. It is not just the heat, not just the lingering adrenaline of a corrupt rage. It is something else. When she closes her eyes, she could swear she heard the pack, laughing and snarling, playing and fighting, but... her eyes open, and they are not there. Just the rest of the party, and that talking skull.

 

[Otiroth]

Otiroth: Decisions

His blood burns.

Otiroth can bear it no longer- he yanks off the bandage around his arm. The flesh is still torn and bruised in places, but it is a strange feeling indeed... vitality soars through him, and the heat of the cavern is nothing compared to the burning in his chest.

For a moment, he even seems baffled at what he just did- but a smile returns as the floating skull talks.

It is still strange as the nine hells, but I enjoy strange!

"Economical?" The sorcerer repeats. "Were you with the miners?" A mage to ascertain the worth of what they dug up- it was a lofty position indeed! Though not one that had lead to lofty conditions, in the end. "You have been down here for some time, then. My condolences. What is the name of the last year you remember?"

It strikes him only after asking- could the skull have been down here before Dolstian law?

"We are travelers from Kalair, here seeking something to aid the world above. Even as the demons flee this cavern, other creatures come out of the Sands. It is a dire time. And makes for strange bedfellows indeed."

It was faint, perhaps a trick of the heat and the room, but Otiroth's eyes, already always an unnatural red, seemed a bit... brighter. Like a coal just taken from the fire, though they did not glow.

 

[Carthum One-Tusk]

Carthum One-Tusk: Decisions

Carthum approaches the cage a bit closer, though he does not touch it.

It was indeed... extraordinary times.

Whether or not the skull had chosen his path or had it thrust upon him... Carthum felt pity all the same, the same as he had for the skeleton higher up in the mine. "You are not the first of such a nature we have seen," the priest says, though there's no accusation in his voice.

"My friend is right. It's dire times indeed. But you do not need to suffer longer for our curiosity, if that is your will."

Suru would wish them to release this creature from its suffering, no matter what information it may give them.

 

[Metea]

Metea: Decisions

The heat was quite nice, actually!

Metea's pack, already quite light, felt... a bit heavier?

It was strange indeed. While Otiroth chatted up the skull, and Carthum started up the 'blessings of Suru, purge the darkness' stuff, Metea would pull off her pack, set it down on the ground next to her. She'd kneel down by it, tail thrashing in excitement as she picked through it.

Her searching hands fell on an unfamiliar square of leather and the very familiar feeling of a tome! Metea paused before pulling it out, though. She shouldn't get too distracted.

 

[97mg]

Decisions

The skull rotates to watch the ranger as he wanders off. It probably wasn't the kind of greeting the old dome had expected, but not everyone was playing aloof or disinterested. Including Annit.

“Are you ok?” She asks simply but with genuine concern. “What happened?” The rogue gently places a hand on Dain's leather armoured chest, having noticed small holes newly burnt into the hide. “Take a moment and rest, Dain, I’ll keep a look out. So, what do you make of the prisoner? What turned your tide of interest in freeing it? Nothing in this place is right. Nothing.”

Magaw turns his attention back to Otiroth then, a receptive, engaging and mysterious young man. Maybe the sorcerer has reminded it of someone, or starved of good conversation for so long, is pleased to finally share words with a soul who is clearly seeking deeper knowledge.

“With the miners? Indeed, you could say that, or that I was a miner once, though I much prefer the name prospector. Ah, yes, economical. The old woman is a double-edged one. A loose peace comes from removal of other’s power. But power distorts, and peace can not always be. If anyone exploited the best of this damned earth, or Kalair’s brazen gem hunters, it would be her aha. Years? I remember not a name for it, but there was much chaos above. It sounds like...”

He appears to contemplate Otiroth's mention of dire times, and The Sands, for a moment.

“...little has changed. The Sands? You must tell me more! But first, what is your name fine lad?”

A half-orc approaches then, reinforcing that Kalair is in need, before gaining the skull’s eerie and eyeless full attention.

“Friend, I know a servant of the heavens when I see one, that light, your words chosen in battle. What suffering is it that you offer to end? My constrictive accommodation? Or the affliction of being, well… neither living nor dead? Over time, strangely, I've become quite fond and accustomed to being that which I am. You must forgive me if my state offends ye.”

 

[daindarkspring]

Dain - Decisions

Dain stared off into the darkness of the mine. And it was no longer dark. Shadows were lit up and alive, seething like swamp gas. A shortened breath marked his surprise.

Essithea...

Annit's question draws him back and he looks at her, nodding. "Well enough, I think." He wondered if he was the only one being affected by the trip through the mine. "This mine is like a womb, it seems, a place where we may all be reborn if we are fortunate enough to survive it." Her hand on his chest feels light. "But as you say, nothing here is right."

"Rest will come. Later." He was young and daring, and he would not falter! His eyes scanned the darkness. "And the skull...I do not abide things that neither live nor die." He made a subtle gesture with his free hand, some sign against evil that he had learned in another life. In another place. It went unnoticed by him it was so casual. "When I first saw it, I thought only how it might aid our survival. I thought it best the scholars decide its fate, and whether it deserved pity or scorn."

"You might think me cruel." He looked at her again, his eyes meeting hers. "But that is not my intention. I am a soul of nature, and the natural order of things...and beyond that? I know very little of this world."

Or even of myself. She is a beauty. Delicate like a wildflower but keen as a blade. Have I ever loved? Is there some pretty face that weeps for me in some distant land?

"You are kind, Annit." A small grin appeared on his face. "Too kind to be a thief? Or do you pass your spoils on to the poor, like some heroine of a child's tale?"

 

[Metea]

Metea: Decisions

Metea stood up again, flipping her hair out of her face. "Fond of being a floating skull? Begging your pardon, but it seems dreadfully boring, to me. Unless there's more to that floating trick you're doing, than meets the eye?"

Or the 'eye hole' in this case, perhaps?

Maybe they had best let Jeovanna just smash in the cage. The creature had grievances with the Pitchlings, and perhaps rightly so, if they didn't fully drive out the demons. But he didn't seem dangerous... to them.

 

[Carthum One-Tusk]

Carthum frowns, ever so slightly. "Offends... me?" He put a strange amount of inflections on that last word. "No. And you are right. There is more than one type of freedom. If your imprisonment here was unjust, then we cannot leave you here, more alone than before."

Ever Carthum tried to appear like the priests of his high order. But they had toiled and soared in Suru's light for far longer. This deep walk into the mines had shown him Suru's strength in a different way, but he did not pretend to be as wise as his elders in such matters.

"You warned before to keep magic away from your cage. Are there specialized enchantments in place?" This seemed a certainty, but Carthum was more pressing for information than anything. "And can the lock be picked? Or smashed?" Such a thing was unlikely for a floating skull to manage, but there were other ways now...