xibalba ♔ sublime | like a heartbeat | in its own beat

[everyredcent]

Heartbeat - Gazelle Twin 

WHO || Christos, Risa, Gaz, Ella, Katniss, Dante  [closed] 
WHAT || The Knights explore several drow raids stemming from a series of caverns in Belize
WHERE || Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre, Belize 
WHEN || March (date TBD)
HOW || Actionspam (single thread)

[ Travel to the Mountain Nature Reserve goes smoothly, and as promised, a woman who works for the park meets them and escorts them within as 'researchers', guiding them towards the area near the cavern entrances.  She speaks very fluent English and makes it clear that she's willing to put her job at risk getting them in there if it means putting a halt to these attacks before waiting for it to get cleared through red tape with the authorities.  She stops them at the cave mouth, nodding at the entrance. ]

From here, you must swim inside of the cave, and then wade up the river within for about a kilometer before you will reach dry ground.  The caverns stretch within for another few kilometers.  Will you be alright from here?

Comments

[layonhands]

[ gaz slips first, and it's enough to alert katniss in time to reach out and save ella from the same fate. gaz falls smack into the cold floor next to christos and dante, who are already down, while ella dangles in katniss' grip down the hole, risa still standing beside katniss on the floor above.

she keeps enough light directed on the hole that ella, christos, dante, and gaz when she lifts her head and recovers from the 1 falling dmg, can see where they are.

a hideous creature stands watch a few feet away from them. though it has the overall shape and stature of a drow, no shred of skin or hair is visible on its body - just gleaming muscles slowly oozing blood. its eyes watch without blinking, and its fists constantly clench and unclench as if it can't wait to pound something with them.

behind this montrosity stands a drow wearing a deep purple tunic and black breeches. a big black spider scuttles around its feet, the size of a dog. the cavern is comfortably appointed, with four padded wooden chairs set around a square table. the cavern seems to open into a dark abyss of nothingness beyond the figures, as if there is a sharp, sudden drop into the void where the ground comes to an end.

the monstrous creature bares its teeth at them, a lipless grin.

time for init! ]

[everyredcent]

[ christos doesn't waste a moment, his silver rapier flashing in the scant light as he closes the gap between himself and the monster, unfazed by its unnatural gaze. his sword cuts a diagonal slash across the creatures torso, severing tendons and spilling blood everywhere (atk 28, dmg ... 43) ]

[sorceresslite]

[ saved from biting it, ella let's go of katniss's hand and drops lithely to the ground like a cat (tumble 23). the second her feet touch the ground, she shouts in gaelic, casting magic missile. four streaks of pale green jet towards the enemy drow. (dmg 5, 3, 4, 4) ]

[anthophobia]

[As Ella drops to the ground below safety, Katniss jumps down as well, landing easily on the ground below (jump 24). She notches back two arrows, catching sight of the creature not far away, and lets them fly (many shot 21/29, dmg 10/5)]

[herebemonsters]

[ katniss' arrows land in the body of the flayed thing, but it still stands, and it backs away from christos, spitting an explosive blob of caustic acid at katniss (atk nat 20..., dmg 20) which does 2 splash dmg to dante and ella as well. ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz, wincing more from a hurt pride than anything, stands, draws her swords, and runs towards the drow behind the monster. ]

1/2

[layonhands]

[ the drow backs up, but can go no further b/c there's that ledge there, snarling at her in its native tongue. a coruscating ray leaps from his hand (ranged touch 13 - if it hits, it drains 5 Str from her, no save). risa shouts down: ] Katniss! [ before going to climb down the rope ... slowly with her shitty check, it's gonna take her whole turn ]

[buttholy]

[dante goes in for the creature with his sword. (atk 25; 7 dmg) ]

[everyredcent]

[ almost enough to drop it, by not quite... so christos will follow it up with one of those strokes of his that will finish the job ]

[sorceresslite]

[ grrr. die already. with an irritated hiss, ella flings both her arms forward, casting scorching ray, two fiery rays shooting toward the drow. (atk 29 & 26, dmg 11 & 12, caster check 27) ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss grits her teeth and barely makes a noise through the pain (will save 22), as she fires off a few arrows at the drow now that the monster has dropped (atk nat 20/27, dmg 30/11).]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz lashes out at the drow with her swords. (atk 22/4/18/17, dmg 6/8/5/3) ]

[layonhands]

[ welp, between the lot of them, the caster goes down more than easily, and risa places a hand on katniss' shoulder, healing her back to full. all that's left is that giant spider... ]

[buttholy]

[and dante, being s-so heroic, will be the first one to go for the spider. (atk 20 total, 11 dmg) ]

[everyredcent]

[ he stabs down into its back and black ichor spills out the wound, an unnatural color accompanied by a horrific screeching sound. when he pulls the sword out, however, it lunges forward, sinking its fangs into his leg (atk 23). he feels something painful traveling up his leg, spreading through him and has to make two fortitude saves... christos curses in drow beneath his breath and moves to finish the thing off with one final stab, and it rolls over, legs shriveling in on itself

/init ]

[anthophobia]

[As the spider curls up and dies, Katniss sucks in a breath as the horrible pain form her flesh literally burning seems to vanish, leaving her skin itching.

She's breathing a little hard from the adrenaline rush as she turns to look at the woman.]

Thanks.

[everyredcent]

[ christos doesn't sheathe his rapier, approaching the strange body of the creature that was killed and kneeling beside it ] Do you know what this is? [ he glances up at risa, as if she's the only one he expects to answer ] A quth-maren.

Clerics of the Lady of the Dead create them by flaying corpses and raising them to unlife. [ his disgust is plain, both for the practice, and the Lady in question. people can make a knowledge (religion/theology) check to see if they've ever heard of her. you can just toss them in the last init plurk if you want and i'll tell you what they know. ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Yeah yeah, flayed corpses, whatever. That's one big spider. Gaz kneels down to inspect it, try to see if she knows where it came from. (knowledge nature unnatural 20) ]

[everyredcent]

[ the moment she starts to inspect the spider, she'd realize something is wrong with it. it looks like no natural spider she's ever seen - in fact, it's body seems to be composed of thick shadow rather than anything physical, its eyes distant red pinpricks that die out as it expires. as she stares at it, it actually breaks apart into a dispersed mist ]

[anthophobia]

You're talking about Kiaransalee, right?

[Clearly she's been doing research on drow. Hooray.]

[sorceresslite]

Oh my gods, you don't just say their names! [ THE DEAD GIRL LOOKS SLIGHTLY PANICKED, chugging down one of her inflict light wounds potions to heal herself up. (+7 hp) ]

[everyredcent]

[ christos' initial look of concern implies he was probably thinking the same thing, but the moment katniss gets chastised by someone else about it, his lips set into a thin line. ] The Revenancer.

[ he glances across them all ] It's likely that if she has worshipers hiding away here, there will be other undead. Her priests practice necromancy as a path to power and eternal life.

[anthophobia]

[Katniss doesn't react well to that at all, her shoulders tensing sharply, her entire body looking like she's about to have to react to some sort of lethal threat at any moment.]

It's just a name.

[Her roll to know about this was fucking terrible, I'm sorry. Someone needs to send out a drakenet PSA I swear.]

[buttholy]

[dante takes a moment to ... look over his sexy spider bite wound and make sure he's not dying, probably. maybe he'll rip off part of his shirt to bandage it or something. so sexy. anyway.]

Saying their names gives them a hotline into your conversations. If you don't wanna be noticed by the wrong deities, I'd avoid it.

[sorceresslite]

[ ella's arms cross over her chest uncomfortably, looking at risa like so this seems like a horrible place for me to be walking into. she has a healthy aversion to necromancers and pretty much anything that might possibly have the ability to control her. ]