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

[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. ]

[farmgirlfighter]

Names or no names, there's some pretty dark stuff going on down here. I suggest we take care of the rest of it, then get out.

1/2

[layonhands]

Agreed. [ she gives ella a sympathetic look, stepping closer to the girl as if to assure her that she won't let anything happen to her. high level cleric is pretty good protection against horrible undead, at least. ]

[everyredcent]

[ christos moves quietly to look over the edge of the cavern. in striking contrast to the deathly still air elsewhere in these caverns, a cold, strong breeze blows up from some unknown depths. a chasm yawns in the earth, reaching far down out of sight. though it is only 30 feet wide, the rift continues for hundreds of feet on either side.

most horribly, large webs stretch down into darkness, and from far below, they can hear rushing water. ]