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, 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.

[buttholy]

[he stares at gaz like omg u don't wanna do that son. like he may be low-key drow racist too but he doesn't wanna get murdered by christos.] Christos. [and to christos] Sounds good to me. Not good, but, uh. Informative. Yeah. Let's clear out.

[sorceresslite]

Y'won't hear no fight from me.

[anthophobia]

[Katniss just nods, taking Christos' explanation as good enough.]

I'll watch our six.

[farmgirlfighter]

I'll lead off. [ Gonna start with a 26 climb. ]

[layonhands]

[ risa follows behind her... but she's partway up when her hand slips and she goes plummeting below... everyone can make a reflex save and str check to try to save her... ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss reaches out quickly to try and grab a hold of her wrist before she's out of reach (reflex save 21, strength 17).]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ Gaz's strength is 16, but her reflex save is only 13 so she doesn't reach out in time. ]

[sorceresslite]

[ ella's having serious egypt flashbacks here and just loses her head completely, crit failing her reflex save and letting out a high pitched yelp. ]

[buttholy]

[dante's ref save was a whole 8 so he's very much slow motion noooo-ing. SORRY RISA :( we're all so sorry]