scotland ♔ yet how the wind revives us here

[untethered]

♬ Presentiment - Manami Kiyota

WHO || Belle, Gold, Emma, Hook, Lila [closed]
WHAT || Several Knights take a secret journey to try to help Amara...
WHERE || Oakhurst, Scotland
WHEN || January 15th, 2014 [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

It's probably a very good thing that Gold sweet-talked them a car in the nearby tiny Scottish village of Oakhurst, because it is freezing cold out and snow blankets almost everything around. Walking the seven miles up the Old Road to the ruins would be a bitch and a half.

Instead, they comfortably drove past rocky downs, near stands of old-growth oak covered in snow, and past two farms that looked abandoned. No other travelers were visible on the lonely road, which finally curves, passing east of a narrow ravine. Belle signals for them to pull over here, where, at the road's closest approach to the cleft, several broken pillars jut from the earth where the ravine widens and opens into something akin to more of a deep, but narrow, cavern. Two of the pillars stand straight, but most of them lean against the sloped earth. Others are broken and several have apparently fallen into the darkness-shrouded depths. A few similar pillars are visible on the opposite side of the ravine.

Comments

[uncurse]

I guess a welcome mat would've been expecting too much.

[ emma pushes open the car door as they pull over, hopping out of the vehicle and adjusting the fit of her holster on her hips. she pulls her short sword from the bottom of the car and hangs it on the side opposite her gun, eyes riveted on the eerie looking pillars as she finishes strapping her weaponry on and pulls her backpack out of the car. ]

Let's suit up. If you've got anything to prepare still, now's the time. [ like your souls. since this doesn't look promising. here's looking at you hook, we all know how much time yours will take. or if anybody forgot to pee while they were in the village i guess. ]

[untethered]

[ belle lofts her bag onto her shoulder, pulling her cloak's hood up as she gets out. is it this cloak? damn straight it is.

instead of double checking her things, she wanders closer to the edge of the ravine, looking up in wonder at the pillars. ] There's writing on these! It's rather worn but... it looks like the dwarven alphabet.

[bittersweeter]

[ omg sweet freedom, lila is out of that car like a speedster, tugging her hat down over her ears. she glances at the cavern and mumbles something that sounds like "balrog" and digs into her backpack to tug out her flashlight, which she shoves in her pocket with her cigarettes, and a candy bar, which she unwraps. because she doubts she has time to actually smoke. ]

All hope abandon ye who enter here?

[uncurse]

Dwarven? [ emma glances over, brow furrowed. ] I thought we were dealing with goblins. [ unless it was a dwarven city before it was ruined and the goblins inhabited it. she grimaces at the thought, but it certainly takes some of the guilt off of stealing from them if they're just squatting scavengers. ]

[unhand]

[Hook doesn't look much different from usual. All he's bringing, he's fit into various pockets in his long leather coat. To prepare, he pulls out his flask and takes a sip of rum. Happy, Emma? He's preparing his spirits.]

Doesn't much matter, does it? We go in either way.

[untethered]

It's using the Dwarven alphabet, but the words themselves are in Goblin... They look like warnings - threats against intruders, that sort of thing.

[undealt]

Well, it wouldn't be much of a trip if they just encouraged us to steal from them.

[Gold pretty much followed Belle when she went to explore. Possibly because he's worried she'll fall into the ravine. Or possibly because he wanted to hang all over her while she nerded out.

Tish, that's dwarvish, etc.]

[untethered]

[ standing near the edge of the ravine as he is, allows gold to notice a sturdy knotted rope tied to one of the leaning pillars. it hangs down into the darkness below and is in relatively good condition. there are also weathered hand and footholds carved into the cliff face. ]

[undealt]

[Oh hey. Brilliant. Mooning over Belle pays off. Gold bends down slightly to tug on the rope a bit.] This looks like our way in.

[uncurse]

Great. Let's get going. [ she approaches readily. let's be honest gold climbing down first seems like a world of bad decision, all disabilities considered. hook might be able to climb a beanstalk with, well, a hook, but he doesn't have to cringe every time he puts weight on it and this looks a lot like there will be rockclimbing involved. she actually shifts her gaze to gold, concern masked but still apparent. ] You gonna be okay climbing this thing?

[untethered]

[ belle turns on her flashlight, sweeping it down over the side. it's impossible to see the bottom of the rope. ] It still seems sturdier than those handholds...

[bittersweeter]

[ chewing her chocolate thoughtfully, lila glances down while the adults are talking. shrugging her bag off her shoulders, she stows the candy and pulls out the grappling hook -- so handy -- before the bag gets set on her shoulders again. ] I should go first. I have experience descending ropes into bad decisions. And I weigh the least, if its going to support anyone then it's going to hold me. While I'm going down you can set up the grappling hook with a secondary line. Just in case. [ she glances up and tugs her leather gloves a little more snugly. (diplomacy 32) ] Besides, I spent three years as a cat -- I always land on my feet.

[uncurse]

[ when emma looks at her, she sees determination, and she realizes one very clear fact: it's not going to do her any good to try and talk lila out of this. so she sighs and nods, hands on her hips. ]

All right. Let's do it. Lila first. Then Gold and Belle. Hook and I will bring up the rear.

sunless citadel; grove level

[untethered]

[ luminescent fungus clings to the walls and ceiling, shedding violet light. the air is damp, chilly, and redolent with the odors of loam and decay. a layer of earth, mixed with rotting vegetation and the remains of cave animals, covers the floor of the wide cavern. several varieties of mushroom and fungus grow on the detritus, as well as a few saplings. two gaunt, cloaked figures busily shovel well turned earth into a rusted trough.

as emma gets within visible sight of them, about five feet from the ground climbing down the vines, two of the saplings begin to uproot themselves... and the cloaked figures turn at the sound to affix her with glowing red eyes.

oh hey, look, skeletons. ]

[herebemonsters]

[ the skeletons pitch their shovels aside, shambling forward towards emma and extending clawed hands up to grasp at her dangling legs. however with attacks of 4 and 7, they can't quite reach her yet. however, they're right below her, clapping their teeth together and making dull moaning noises. ]

[uncurse]

What the hell- ?! [ emma's eloquence can be y'all's heads up that there be monsters. she drops to the ground and well i guess she had to put her sword away to climb but LUCKILY IT IS A FREE ACTION TO DRAW A WEAPON. dodging the skeletons and moving north to hang against the wall, she brings out her gun (quick draw), and fires it off at one of the skeletons (atk 24, dmg 9). let's call it on skelly1. ]

[untethered]

[ emma's bullet hits the rib cage of the thing, but it appears entirely undaunted by the chip caused. belle finishes climbing down 5 feet and then drops down, moving away in the opposite direction to try to split the creature's attention as she draws her sword. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ fucking skeletons. lila knows her gun isn't going to do much so when she drops to the ground (climb 18), she moves a few feet from the vines to draw her gun (quick draw) and fire at twiggy one (atk 23, dmg 14) so the people with swords and fire can take care of the skeletons. ]

[sternshield]

[ while the bullet doesn't seem super effective against the tree, it at least buries itself in its bark, and it seems more aggrieved by this than the skeleton was.

erky finishes his climb down and moves 10 feet away as he draws his morningstar. ]

Well, this is new.

[ twiggy1 advances on lila, and claws at her with its 2 bizarre 'arms' (atk 17 and 11, dmg 2 ). poisonous sap makes its way into the wound as well delivering another whopping 1 hp of damage. yep. TERRIFYING. ]

[undealt]

[Apparently Belle side-eyeing his ability to not be a disabled man in a crisis made Gold superman, because he deftly scales down those vines (climb 18) and hits the ground, pulling his cane back out of the top of his satchel with the intent to bludgeon. He's saving his spells for the druid okay.]

You're truly adept at finding trouble, aren't you, Emma? It's a bit inspiring, actually.

[unhand]

[Goddammit why did they let the POISONED GIRL go first. Hook's pretty graceful for all his worry (climb 20) and he makes his way down to the bottom, landing by skeleton 1. He slices at it with his hook, but the blow whooshes by the bones (atk 11).]

All right there, Swan?

[herebemonsters]

[ twiggy 2 moves in on emma's territory and i honest to bahamut just rolled 2 nat 20s in a row for its claw attacks. as she failed one save vs. its poison sap, it does a total of 9 dmg.

skeleton 1 claws at hook and misses him on both occasions (atk 7 and 16) while his friend decides that gold looks pretty weak and steps towards him. (atk 16 and 6, dmg 6) ]

[uncurse]

[ emma's in really bad shape. but it literally takes less than 7 hp for her to admit it, so even though she's visibly on the struggle bus and bleeding, she's just going to declare herself - ] Fine! [ and throw a hand out to touch twiggy 2 attacking her and cast shocking grasp through her touch attack (atk 18, dmg 8) ]

[untethered]

[ the tree blackens under emma's touch and it looks barely mobile once she's done with it. emma used magic. it was super effective!

belle moves to flank the other twig beast with lila and swings her sword at it (atk 17, 2 dmg). that's enough to disable the twiggy at 0 hp, although it's still up ... for the moment. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila fires again at the same tree beastie for good measure. (atk 23, dmg 18) as worthless as her weapon seems to be against the crap in this cave of sorrows, its the only one she has and at least the bullets connect instead of ricocheting off uselessly. she moves to emma afterward, to provide back up support. ]