ADVENTURE LOG: February 17, 2019
The following developments were played via e-mail and in a virtual game session on Google Hangouts beginning on the morning of Sunday, February 17, 2019.
When the effects of the cult's black flower wear off, the adventurers awaken to absolute darkness. Korric immediately reaches for his pistols. He is relieved—and a little surprised—to find that they are still at his sides. Unholstering his weapons and cocking back the hammers with his thumbs, he rises cautiously to his feet.
He whispers to Ven while drawing his Colts, "We need light."
Stooping slightly, she cranes her head to peer cautiously up through the opening. A cool subterranean breeze brushes her face. There is a room directly above the circular chamber. With her darkvision, she is able to see that the ceiling of this room is carved in sculptural bas relief. She can vaguely make out entwined forms. They are grotesque and brutish.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
When the effects of the cult's black flower wear off, the adventurers awaken to absolute darkness. Korric immediately reaches for his pistols. He is relieved—and a little surprised—to find that they are still at his sides. Unholstering his weapons and cocking back the hammers with his thumbs, he rises cautiously to his feet.
He whispers to Ven while drawing his Colts, "We need light."
As Nik scans their surroundings with her darkvision, Ven feels around for his shield and, finding it lying beside him, evokes a light cantrip on it, and then he touches Nik and casts guidance (+1d4 to her next ability check). The cleric's shield flares to life, its dazzling radiance revealing a low circular crypt measuring some 20 feet in diameter. The vaulted ceiling is about 6 feet above the floor at its nexus in the center of the chamber. The
group's remaining gear, such as Ven's
fighting
stick and Sant'oka's scimitar, are piled against the wall.
There is a door in the wall near where the gear is, big enough for an average-sized humanoid to pass through, and sealed on the outer side by a heavy steel grate, which is rusted and dripping with moss. On the other side of the grate there are some stone steps, presumably the ones leading down into the earth behind the Orcus structure. There is an oculus—a circular opening roughly 5 feet in diameter—in a section of the vaulted ceiling, on the opposite side of the room from where the door is.
There is a door in the wall near where the gear is, big enough for an average-sized humanoid to pass through, and sealed on the outer side by a heavy steel grate, which is rusted and dripping with moss. On the other side of the grate there are some stone steps, presumably the ones leading down into the earth behind the Orcus structure. There is an oculus—a circular opening roughly 5 feet in diameter—in a section of the vaulted ceiling, on the opposite side of the room from where the door is.
Aided by her darkvision, Nik notices something curious about the oculus: there is graffiti etched into the ceiling all around the opening.
Rising slowly to her feet, she goes over to read
some of the entries:
Josiah, remember me
remember my name. I was Eladrin
remember me, I was Julia
I was Hannah, remember me
I had a name. I was Thomas
Remember my name. My name was SAMAEL . . .
I am . . .
I was . . .
Remember me . . .
Remember me . . .
The names are too many to
count. Smiling grimly to herself, the tiefling adds her own epitaph to the vault, scratching the words into the stone
with the tip of one claw:
Remember House Malyre
Stooping slightly, she cranes her head to peer cautiously up through the opening. A cool subterranean breeze brushes her face. There is a room directly above the circular chamber. With her darkvision, she is able to see that the ceiling of this room is carved in sculptural bas relief. She can vaguely make out entwined forms. They are grotesque and brutish.
Nik tosses a copper into the upper room and waits to see if anything happens.
The copper clatters across the
stone floor above, and then . . . silence.
"This should be fun," the succubus remarks dryly. Thereupon, she flaps her wings, lofting up through the opening to have a peek. She hovers there for an interminable moment as she gazes about her,
and then drifts back down to tell her companions what she has seen: a room, 10 feet square with a
low ceiling like down here, with an archway leading off somewhere. The
walls and ceiling of this room are carved all over with lurid scenes of writhing bodies engaged in all manner of bestiality,
sadism, and cruelty.
As stealthily as possible, Nik flaps back up again and hovers in the engraved room, careful to touch nothing for fear of triggering a trap, and tries to see if she can find some clue about the meaning or purpose of the relief images of humans behaving like beasts. With the help of Ven's divination cantrip (guidance), she recalls what Ven told the party about the underground Orcus complex on the Sword Coast serving as a ritual passage through the underworld. She concludes that the engravings are representative of a lower circle of hell where lost souls writhe in the agony of their own beastliness. Nik sees that the engravings extend through the archway and off into the complex. She imagines there must be levels to this complex that the group will need to ascend through in order to get to the top, and that the group will need to be careful to get out of here alive. There are words engraved around the periphery of the archway, written in the Infernal language:
HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE SHADOWS OF THE RIPPLES OF THE SAND
Korric, cocking his head to listen from where he stands just beneath the oculus opening, hears something, but he can't be sure if it's just the echo of the engraved tunnels beyond the room above him. It is extremely faint and could just be the wind, but it almost sounds like . . . whispers.
"Do you hear that?" he asks his companions, keeping his own voice very low.
Reluctantly, the gunslinger climbs into the upper room, followed by the cleric and the druid. The party advances cautiously into the darkness of the cramped and winding tunnels beyond. The tunnels are a kind of maze or labyrinth. Like the upper room, the tunnels are carved throughout with relief sculptures of grotesquely entwined, beastlike human forms that are symbolic, Ven surmises, of the fallen spirit of men. As the party members explore the maze, attempting to find a way back to the surface, they quickly discover that the maze is infested with "fallen spirits." The party battles its way through the darkness as its members are set upon by the undead shadows of countless others who have fallen victim to the Orcus complex. The shadows feed on the vitality of living creatures, draining them of their life force. At the center of the maze is a stone well cut deep into the earth, from which this sentient dark matter rises and falls on the subterranean updrafts and breezes. Traversing the well, the adventurers find some stairs leading upwards. They ascend the steps.
As stealthily as possible, Nik flaps back up again and hovers in the engraved room, careful to touch nothing for fear of triggering a trap, and tries to see if she can find some clue about the meaning or purpose of the relief images of humans behaving like beasts. With the help of Ven's divination cantrip (guidance), she recalls what Ven told the party about the underground Orcus complex on the Sword Coast serving as a ritual passage through the underworld. She concludes that the engravings are representative of a lower circle of hell where lost souls writhe in the agony of their own beastliness. Nik sees that the engravings extend through the archway and off into the complex. She imagines there must be levels to this complex that the group will need to ascend through in order to get to the top, and that the group will need to be careful to get out of here alive. There are words engraved around the periphery of the archway, written in the Infernal language:
Korric, cocking his head to listen from where he stands just beneath the oculus opening, hears something, but he can't be sure if it's just the echo of the engraved tunnels beyond the room above him. It is extremely faint and could just be the wind, but it almost sounds like . . . whispers.
"Do you hear that?" he asks his companions, keeping his own voice very low.
Reluctantly, the gunslinger climbs into the upper room, followed by the cleric and the druid. The party advances cautiously into the darkness of the cramped and winding tunnels beyond. The tunnels are a kind of maze or labyrinth. Like the upper room, the tunnels are carved throughout with relief sculptures of grotesquely entwined, beastlike human forms that are symbolic, Ven surmises, of the fallen spirit of men. As the party members explore the maze, attempting to find a way back to the surface, they quickly discover that the maze is infested with "fallen spirits." The party battles its way through the darkness as its members are set upon by the undead shadows of countless others who have fallen victim to the Orcus complex. The shadows feed on the vitality of living creatures, draining them of their life force. At the center of the maze is a stone well cut deep into the earth, from which this sentient dark matter rises and falls on the subterranean updrafts and breezes. Traversing the well, the adventurers find some stairs leading upwards. They ascend the steps.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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