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]

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]

[layonhands]

[ it's ok guys, katniss got dis, mvp.

risa lets out a gasp as the girl grabs her wrist, and she swings there for a moment, before pulling herself back up again, giving her a grateful look ] I'm sorry...

Thank you.

[anthophobia]

It's fine.

[Her reply is rough, tinged with relief, before she motions for her to try again.]

Careful.

[everyredcent]

[ the rest of the trip out is tense - christos seems more on edge than ever before, and there are several times where he makes a demanding hand gesture to still them entirely, sometimes making them wait for a solid twenty minutes in the shadows before he'll allow them to move onwards. eventually, however, they make their way back up out of the cave entrance, greeted by the quietly churning water and a sliver of real light. ]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss continues to keep an eye on their six even as they start to approach the exit, just in case.]

[farmgirlfighter]

[ And Gaz follows along, using her low light vision to keep watch for anything dangerous. ]

[everyredcent]

[ it's a safe escape, and risa remains pretty quiet, eyes focused on christos for most of the trip back. he doesn't say much himself, until they get back in the vehicle to head back to their plane. ] This is precisely what we've been afraid of seeing for the last hundred years. Entire sections of the Underdark, transposed onto this world.

The implications, if this isn't a complete outlier... Are broad.

[anthophobia]

Because that's what everyone needs right now, more bad news.

[Nothing like heading out for recon and coming back with the worst case scenario.]

[buttholy]

[he's been quietly taking this in like shit son this is gr9. not.] So if more and more of the Underdark is being crammed underground here ... what's the worst case scenario?

[everyredcent]

The balance of drow society in the Underdark is always tentative at best. This kind of displacement is bound to lead to ... unrest, as we saw in our brief excursion. Unrest will lead to exodus... and then they'll become everyone's problem.

[anthophobia]

Considering how people seem to feel about Shadowkind already lately, that doesn't sound like it's going to help at all.

[layonhands]

The world is in a precarious position already, one that seems to be getting worse by the day. This could prove disastrous.

We'll have to leave it in Wynn's hands to decide how to proceed. And hope the gods are on our side.

[ /annnnnd we're gonna call this one a wrap! ]