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]

[Katniss' next two shots are pretty terrible, probably because she's shooting around so many people, but finally aims true on the third (atk 19/15/30, dmg 7(if that 19 somehow hits)/14)]

[sorceresslite]

[ the moment ella catches her breath, keeping her balance easily (balance 22) she says fuck it and shoots a huge cracking arc of lightning at the spider, deciding it's even better than "kill it with fire". (elemental affinity, ranged touch atk 27, electricity dmg 27...) she, um, really doesn't like spiders? ]

[everyredcent]

[ katniss actually misses once, but otherwise her arrows sink into its side as ella unleashes crackling electricity that knocks it right off the web, and it falls down, dying, sparking with blue lightning just like palpatine at the end of return of the jedi, into the bottomless chasm below.

christos watches it fall grimly, before peering up into the dark beyond them. ] There might be others. We should move quickly.

[ /init! ]

[farmgirlfighter]

Great, just when I was thinking, 'Let's never do that again.'

[ With a nat 20 on spot (plus low light vision), Gaz attempts to see her way forward on the webby strands. ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss makes her way out onto the webbing as well, moving lightly along the strands so that they can cross before running into any more trouble (balance 24).]

[sorceresslite]

Fucking spiders. [ ella shudders, picking stray webbing off of herself now that she has a chance. gross. just fucking gross. ]

[buttholy]

It beats dire wasps. [always the dire wasps, man.]

[farmgirlfighter]

Why is it always the icky things that are dire? Why are there never any dire kittens?

[everyredcent]

[ gaz notices that further down the cliff wall, accessible across the webs, is a cleft in the rock face. she even can see a bedroll - tightly rolled and neatly tied - and a backpack lying propped against the wall.

below that and off to the left is another cavern mouth that they could reach, that one wider, and disappearing into a tunnel that bends out of sight. ] We should get across as quickly as we can.

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz points out what she sees, ] Looks like someone's set up camp there, and down there there's another tunnel.

[buttholy]

[dante responds to gaz with a shrug before they get back to business. the only way to keep going is to keep indiana jonesing their way over the strands, so dante keeps on with that. c'mon y'all. (balance (?? or whatever) nat 20. showoff dick...) ]

[anthophobia]

Do we want to avoid them or see who might be there?

[Asking Christos, tbh.]

1/2

[layonhands]

[ risa stays behind long enough to look to christos to and offer: ] If there's someone who might have answers that we can catch alone, we should speak to them...

[everyredcent]

[ EW PEOPLE. but ok fine. ] Very well. Let's try to approach quietly if we can. [ he doubts y'all can ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss nods and starts making her way down, her steps completely silent (move silently nat 20). Katniss pls.]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz isn't quite as silent as Katniss, but she does ok (move silently 17). ]

[buttholy]

[and then there's dante wilder. with his whole roll of 10.]

[everyredcent]

[ yep, he is no doubt the loudest one, but the others are quiet enough as they approach to sort of... hush him up, with dirty looks. x( spot checks as the enter the little cliff area plz! christos keeps an eye out towards the web, gesturing for them to check out the small area. ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Glad to be on solid(er) ground again, Gaz looks around (18 spot + low light) ]

[sorceresslite]

[ hey guys guess what ella is still useless when it comes to using her eyes!!! (spot 6) ]

[buttholy]

[GOSH FINE Y'ALL HE'LL TRY TO BE MORE QUIET. also spot 17 + low light vision. he's doing what he can, ok.]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss is more focused on being quiet than looking around, but it's dark af to her, so that makes sense (spot 15).]

[everyredcent]

[ nope, nothing to see here except a backpack!

i'm sure it's fine ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Well, then, there's no harm in rummaging through the backpack then! (23 search) ]

[layonhands]

[ the bag rattles slightly as gaz goes to open it, metal clanking against metal inside. it looks to be filled with rather mundane spelunking equipment: hooks, a long twine of silk rope, a shorter chain, a full waterskin... but there's also a crowbar, a grappling hook, an old, but well-made leather pouch that contains numerous lockpicks, and a small pouch that rattles with coin - and a second that's full of caltrops. as she's rooting through it, however, a figure bursts forward from the dark shadows of the rocks against the sides of the cavern, previously all but invisible to all of them, now brandishing a scimitar worked with fancy arcane symbols across the blade. in a flash, she holds the blade to gaz's neck, hissing:

"Drop it."

the woman is quite a sight, dressed in black leather that seems to be made of shadows itself, a pair of small wings on her boots, a dark cloak at her back, and a strange crystalline fang that looks fused into the skin of her neck. her skin is completely black, a stark contrast to the gray of christos' even in this low light from risa's spell, but as she snarls at gaz, she can see that her canines are unusually long and sharp. her limbs and digit also seem unnaturally long, and tufts of course, black hair seem to cover her body.

most horrifying of all, however, are her eyes, which are far too large, and multifaceted, just like... a spider's. ]