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

[unhand]

[THAT'S ALL HE WANTED. Hook flashes Emma a grin. He'll stop fretting now. Mostly.] Then we'd better be off.

[uncurse]

[ people you don't have to tell twice: emma. since this was a trap in and of itself she doesn't feel particularly compelled to check the next door or be careful. like, who expected them to get past the waiting mini-tribe of goblins protecting the prison? so over the wall and brazenly through the door she'll try to go unless anything abruptly stops her. like a locked door or a falling light fixture i guess. ]

[untethered]

[ the door is very unlocked! and leads into a normal looking corridor! so normal!

there's a door at the far end to the left, as promised by the tied up goblin and also one slightly to emma's left across the hall.

belle picks her way over there too, and erky follows, looking bizarre in his goblin get-up. ]

[undealt]

[Gold's just... not okay with any of these developments, but he's not scared of some CREEPY GARDENER, so he presses on, determined.]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila follows dutifully, not very gentle in how she handles the goblin, openly staring at their new gnome friend like how are you not batshit from being in there for a year? ]

[sternshield]

Whoa, whoa... [ erky moves into the hallway, putting a hand up in front of emma ] Does anybody see what I see? Because I'm not exactly dying for another stay at the goblin inn.

[ he points to the floor in front of the door at the end of the hall - the one their goblin buddy informed them leads to the dragon. a spot check of 21+ can make out the slim outline of the trapdoor, similar to the one they encountered out front. ]

[uncurse]

[ now that she looks - really, properly looks - she ... still doesn't fucking see anything (spot 9). but she'll take erky's crazy jumanji word for it, coming to a halt. mostly because she doesn't want to get stuck here for a year either tbh. ]

See what?

[unhand]

[Hook got a spot 9 too. He and Emma are ~that in sync.~ He gives Erky a dubious look.]

Sure you haven't been locked up long enough that you're seeing things?

[bittersweeter]

[ spot nat 20 because she has nothing to do but look at the floor, lila's grip on the goblin shifts until her bare fingers dig into the back of it's gobliny neck. ] It's another trap. You little shit, forgot to mention that, huh?

[ you know what, she's going to work him so his lying ass can't lie again. and she doesn't feel like holding on to him when her brain can keep him in line instead. and maybe she wants to give someone a nightmare to calm herself down. ]

[untethered]

[ the goblin got a 2 will save so if she wants him to he'll pass out immediately or whatever. ayup.

with a 21 spot, belle sees the trap door and moves forward to try to disable this one as well. ] Stand back... [ she has much more luck this time (disable device 26!!) and safely blocks the mechanism, standing up triumphantly. ] There!

[bittersweeter]

[ lila doesn't want to drag an unconscious body around, so she nudges him forward with a go. he can be their guinea pig because if he gets skewered with a javelin... who cares. ] Someone wanna open the door for our human shield? Goblin shield. Whatever. He won't be running away, don't worry.

[ just casually mind controlling a goblin nbd. ]

[uncurse]

Did you - ? [ she turns, watching lila with visible concern for a moment. but she pushes her discomfort down and blinks it back, turning her head away and moving on to open the door at the end of the hall. ] I got it.

[unhand]

[Hook also looks concerned, but he doesn't say anything. It's too late. Might as well make use of it.]

[untethered]

[ too bad both wooden doors are closed and locked l o l ]

[uncurse]

[ oh. well. she slings her bag off one shoulder and digs through it to produce her lockpicking kit as she crouches in front of the door. ] Hang on. This thing's locked. [ she produces the tools and starts to try and work the lock open (disable device (i think?) 21). ]

[untethered]

[ the door clicks open, revealing.......

mounted and stuffed animal heads adorn the walls of the room beyond. the mounting job is sloppy, and the assortment of heads includes cattle, rats, and other not particularly impressive specimens. However, a few grisly trophies share the wall with the animals, including a couple of kobold visages that make meepo cringe. smashed and broken cabinets and small tables litter the periphery of the room, mute victims of some sort of rampage. a rusted iron spike stands askew in the center of the room, trailing a broken chain. thin patches of ice coat sections of the walls, floor, and debris. ]

[uncurse]

Well. [ she straightens, stepping out of the way and not moving through the door for ... reasons that should now be obvious. ] Goblins first. [ expectant look to lila! ]

[bittersweeter]

Go. [ she nudges the goblin forward with her mind, the spoken word only because she knows how creepy it would be otherwise. the rest of her instructions remain silent if only because it's easier for her. they're just as simple though: listen to her and don't run. she only glances away from the goblin to meet emma's eyes. yep, she did just. ]

[untethered]

[ wait belle sees what's going on here and SHE IS NOT OKAY WITH IT, GO TEAM FREE WILL ]

Is she-- [ she stops herself for a moment, frowning deeply and looking around at the others ] Taking a prisoner is one thing.

[ the goblin stands in the middle of the room, blankly. ]

[bittersweeter]

It's not like it's hurting him. He's asleep, he won't even remember it when I wake him up. [ her eyes narrow in annoyance. ] And really? He tried to kill us. He kept whatshisface in a cage. For a year. I'm being kind.

[uncurse]

We need him to find the grove. [ and he'd be doing a lot worse to them. emma's comfortable being complicit in lila's sketchy fucking behavior tbh. remember that time she was ok with letting regina rip out a twelve-year-old boy's heart and control him? yeah, emma doesn't either, but this whole trip might as well be neverland rn.

it's as simple as that. they need him to find a way to bring her dad back, and he'd been willing to try killing them. she doesn't care what happens to the goblin now. he'd imprisoned and starved the gnome and several kobold, tried to kill all of them. he should be grateful they didn't leave him dead to be dragged who-knows-where by the rest of the kobold he'd hurt.

she'll do what it takes, which is why even though she knows she should be intervening for lila's sake more than anything else, she doesn't. a kid shouldn't be the one doing this, but she is, and it's their best option right now. so she lets it happen. ]

Looks like the coast is clear. [ she nods up ahead at the goblin and moves into the room after it, keeping a distracted eye out (spot 12). ]

[unhand]

[For once, Hook's got his eyes actually open (and not staring dreamily at Emma) as he enters the room to search for gold anything that might aid them in their quest (search 18).]

[undealt]

[Gold's pretty a-okay with this plan but he doesn't want to upset senpai, so this is a problem. He hangs back with Belle for a moment.]

It might keep the other goblins at bay, knowing the sort of state he's in. [(Diplomacy 13), BECAUSE WOW HE CAN'T BE ENDEARING AND SHADY AT THE SAME TIME.]

[untethered]

I think they would have already gotten the message with him tied up. They were easy to overpower - this just seems... [ SHADY AS FUCK ] unnecessary. [ yeah no, u are not going to talk the moral compass into being on board with dis, gold, nice try.

emma and hook have to make balance checks as they walk in the room, because holy fuck, that ice is a lot more slippery than it looks. if they don't make a 15+, they about to fall on their ass. erky moves forward slowly, weapon raised as he examines the broken chain.

hook's eyes were drawn to the glint of treasure beneath a little wooden table, and regardless of whether he made it all the way over there or his feet went out from under him, his approach rouses the creature that is nesting on top of the pile of goodies.

a flash of white comes flying out, heralded by a blast of icy cold arctic chill as it breathes a 15-foot cone that envelops where hook, emma, and the goblin are standing. each must make a reflex save to try to jump out of its way (DC 12) but since damage is halved on a successful save, they take 1 point of cold damage either way. (unless they have 'evasion' from being a fast hero - then they take 0) after the icy burst dissipates initially it's easier to see the creature that launched it - a tiny, tiny white dragon, about the size of a housecat. ]

[untethered]

[ belle notices a shiny tray that was laying in the floor where it'd be knocked over... and picks it up, turning it around so the reflective bit faces the thing. it has apparently never seen itself and assumes THERE IS ANOTHER WHITE DRAGON THERE, WHAT DO.

it stares for its entire turn, fascinated. SHE BOUGHT YOU A ROUND GUYS, GO FORTH. ]