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

[everyredcent]

[ the mind flayer turns to fix dark, shiny eyes on katniss and gaz, as the dwarf unloads some cheese, dried meats, and fungus for ella to look through.

"What kinda weapon you use? Knife?" he asks gruffly as christos, who slips himself slightly between katniss and the illithid. visible beyond them is a tunnel out of this area that leads down into a wide series of buildings that seem to be built here underground. only those with darkvision can make out the few sentries down there, wearing archaic looking white tabards bearing leering black skulls. ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss glances briefly at the mind flayer, but her sense motive was garbage so she just ends up looking away again, unsure of if she should be worried or not.]

[sorceresslite]

[ zero darkvision here. ]

Yeah, how'd you know?

[ she might take some of the cheese because she's hungry and lol if it's poisoned it's not like it'll kill her. ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz gets a 28 on spot to try and make out what's lurking in the shadows with her low light vision, but only a 15 on sense motive for that mind flayer. Which is enough to make her know it's creepy as all get out anyway. ]

[buttholy]

[dante's spot with low-light vision is a 25, so. yeah. but he sees the mind flayer eyeing gaz and katniss just fine and 20 totaled his sense motive so maybe he'll just try to sliiiide his way in front of them. so subtle. so brave.]

[everyredcent]

[ with their low-light vision, gaz and dante can both make out movement down below, at least. and the mind flayer switches his focus to him as he does so, ignoring christos.

when he speaks, its in rasping english, his voice a terrifying and unearthly sound.

"I have much more interesting items, if travelers can pay..." he says. the dark dwarves flash him annoyed looks, even as they work on getting ella her knife and cheese, and demanding a few gold pieces from her. hope she has some on her...

christos pointedly ignores the illithid, speaking to the dwarves instead. ]

This city. What is it called?

[ that draws another suspicious glance between them, but the merchant says: "This is Szith Morcane. Home of your kind." he raises his eyebrows at christos like duh bitch how did you not know that ]

[sorceresslite]

[ ella always has gold and silver, but she's v unwilling to part with it so she will try to haggle them down if she can. (diplomacy 21)

to the mind flayer: ] What's your price, then?

[everyredcent]

[ the dwarf grumbles, but agrees to drop the price, even as the mind flayer steeples his elongated fingers.

"What kind of items interest you, child?" ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz does NOT think doing business with a mind flayer is a good idea, but she's keeping her mouth shut and keeping her attention focused on the vague movement she saw below. ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss, meanwhile, wishes it wasn't so fucking dark in here this place is horrible.

Just gonna...stare at the ground with her fists clenched.]

[sorceresslite]

Oh, you know. Interesting things. I'm real interested in Xibalba... [ a beat. ] You know, for obvious reasons.

[everyredcent]

[ "Xibalba," he rasps, his dark eyes shining. "What is this Xibalba?"

christos exchanges a look with her as subtly as he can. ] Szith Morcane, she means. Regional translation. [ he stares the mind flayer down, as if he knows fully well how stupid it is to try to lie to one, and doesn't give a fuck. tentacles wave a bit from side to side as the illithid fixes its attention on him instead, but if it's caught him in the lie, it doesn't call him on it.

"The outpost itself has changed hands now. Those exiled from Maerimydra find themselves unwelcome there, if they will not accept the word of the new goddess. I imagine many will be leaving to the surface, if they can find no further refuge below." ]

[sorceresslite]

[ she tips her head, tapping her temple, ] Duh. Of course. What, um, if. What if they don't find refuge on the surface with all those rubbish people?

[everyredcent]

[ that breaks his fixating on christos at least.

"Then they will return and make war. Either way, I will have business." ]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz tenses slightly. War in the Underdark does not sound like a promising prospect. ]

[anthophobia]

[With a horrific will save, Katniss mutters under her breath:]

Nothing like making a profit off of war.

[buttholy]

[dante sort of sideglances like uhhhhhh ... this guy .... ok then. this is how drow do it. /racism.]

[everyredcent]

[ with a great effort of will, christos doesn't look over at katniss for her remark ] This new goddess. You mean the Lady of the Dead, don't you?

[ the mind flayer lets out a horrible hissing noise that might double as laughter, and before he can truly respond, christos says: ] Right. I think we should be moving on.

[sorceresslite]

[ ella's eyes go wide and she nopes back, stepping away from the merchants and back toward christos. ]

Right. Lovely chat, toodle-oo.

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Moving on sounds like a good idea. Though, if they're moving on towards the vague movement down below, that could spell trouble. ]

[everyredcent]

[ on the contrary, christos nods for them to go back the way they came, and it's not until they're out of earshot that he says in a low, tense tone: ] We need to leave.

[anthophobia]

Why?

[She's not disagreeing, she just doesn't understand. They came here and they haven't really figured out anything yet.]

[buttholy]

Have we scoped the situation out already?

[i mean ... just checking ... ]

[everyredcent]

Because this situation as you call it, is a powderkeg. Somehow it seems that an entire section of the Underdark has fallen through the Veil beneath these caves. They have no idea that it's even occurred.

They believe they're still in Faerun. [ he glances back over his shoulder towards the mart, and then fixes each of them with a stare ] And there's a war between the followers of two gods down here that is likely to boil to the surface.

Wynn needs to know about this, and decide what more is to be done. Our job was to do no more than scout out what was happening, and I think we've ascertained as much quite clearly.

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz rolled a grand total of 6 on her Wisdom check so she's a little too distracted by the new information to remember Christos' name at the moment. ]

The drow is right. This is bigger than us. We need to get out of here and back to the castle.