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

[untethered]

[ belle moves to gold's side to make sure he's ok after all that being stabbed by a javelin, while erky throws open the door to the north... revealing an arboretum identical to the one where rumbelle found the goblins to the south, except that there's another door directly to their left, and another bugbear gardener, clearing scorched plants with a scythe. guess what? initiative again, bitches. no i almost feel bad this time ]

[bittersweeter]

[ ANOTHER GARDENING BEAR WHY HOW DOES THE CREEPY RUINS HAVE A GARDENING BEAR BEACON???? lila moves around her brand new gnome bff and bang. (atk 22; dmg 16) ] Next time, let's go east.

[undealt]

They wouldn't be here if we weren't headed in the right direction. [Gold walks in and tries to take a swing at it with his cane and... misses. Go team!

Thankfully his 21 reflex save keeps him from falling on his ass when he goes too wide on that swing.]

[sternshield]

[ erky moves to flank the thing on the other side, quipping: ] Do you mean left or right, by your east? [ as he swings his morningstar and... even with the +2 flanking bonus still can't hit the thing, which is staggering back on its last legs. the bugbear brings its scythe down, burying it into erky's shoulder (atk 21, dmg 10). the gnome lets out a groan of pain at the terrible blow, as the bugbear yanks the scythe back out with a roar. ]

[uncurse]

How many of these things are there?! [ emma is not worried about the directional drama going on. no, she's just fucking confused as to why these things are like coming in waves. apparently so confused that, as she enters the room after the others and fires off a shot, she ... crit fails. ]

[unhand]

[Hook draws his sword and moves in, trying to swing at the thing, but probably coming short unless he's a lot lamer than the last one (atk 12).]

Depends how many gardens they've got, I suppose.

[untethered]

[ belle watches, aghast, as Emma accidentally shoots their own teammate, but manages to keep it together, running forward as she shouts "Gold!" Because fucker still has never told her a first name. And she swings her sword wildly, easily batted aside by a massive paw. (Atk 6) ]

[bittersweeter]

[ w o w always surprised it's not lila shooting her own team. judging all y'all. ANYWAY, lila ain't got time for this shit and she fires again. (atk nat 20, 26 total; dmg... 28) ]

[undealt]

[Yeah, Gold isn't doing shit right now, because HE JUST GOT SHOT. But the bear may be... dead by now.

Is the bear dead. Please let the bear be dead.]

[sternshield]

[ holy fuckballs, that bear be dead. lila's shot goes right through its face and brain matter explodes out the back of its skull. erky whirls around to stare at her with a raised eyebrow ] Quite an impressive shot there. [ and muttered aside to hook: ] Remind me not to make her angry.

[bittersweeter]

[ she preens, pleased with herself and gives erky a bright smile. yes, it was impressive, wasn't it? she is hella proud. ] Thanks.

[ and because she doesn't really give a shit about gold so she won't be rushing over to his side, sorry not sorry, she takes the clip out of her gun to see how many bullets she has left. ]

[uncurse]

[ oh goddammit. emma steps up to gold's side, looking apologetic. ]

You gonna be okay?

[ she holsters her gun so she at least seems less ... dangerous ... ]

[undealt]

I'm fine. [Except for the whole being shot part. And to prove this, he gets to his feet. He can't even insult Emma's marksmanship, because HE SWUNG AT A BEAR AND MISSED, so you get a reprieve from his smartass mouth.]

That's three of them thus far. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. Our druid seems to keep his gardens well-staffed.

[untethered]

Which is exactly why you ought to have one of these. [ belle just presses a potion of cure light wounds into his hand insistently. and watches him expectantly, so he better drink it right the fuck now. ]

[unhand]

[Whatever, Hook's got no time for their romantic fussing. He's gonna go open the door to the right this time, provided he doesn't see any traps, but with his spot check of 9, it'd have to be Wile E Coyote levels of subtle for him to catch it.]

[uncurse]

[ that's ok, emma's moving on behind him because uhhh belle has that covered. and her spot of 21 has her ready to eye any traps and jerk hook out of the way of them. ]

[sternshield]

[ the door is trap-free, and opens into a narrow corridor that widens out into a semi-circular chamber. dragon-carved granite blocks tile this chamber's walls and ceiling, though many are crumbled and broken, creating stony debris on the floor. a huge marble statue of a rearing dragon (a red dragon, as a knowledge: arcane lore check of 10+ can attest) still stands in the curve of the western wall. the eye sockets of the dragon are empty, but a red glow lingers there, providing reddish light throughout the chamber. the effulgence casts an inky shadow behind the statue's wide wings. a crumbling five foot diameter circular redstone tile is inset in the floor in front of the rearing dragon craving. runes are carved around the circular tile's inner edge. ]

[undealt]

[Gold chugs the potion.] Thank you, Belle. [He even squeezes her hand gently to reassure her that he's fine. He has bigger things to worry about than Emma's aim.

And in fact... got a nat 20 arcane lore check, so he can apparently tell you everything there is to know about red dragons.]

Well, that's promising. [And he goes to get a closer look at the statue, stepping in front of it. He's a pawnbroker. He likes pretty things. Also he's more invested in the statue than the tile. (spot 18)]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila's arcane lore check of six is completely legit to how much she doesn't know about rl dragons. ] Unless those runes spell out all the ways it's going to come to life and reenact some key sequences of Harry Potter.

[undealt]

[Gold looks down at the runes by his feet and studies them.] Ea serpenta rau kaluva nyawisti.

[And no one was shocked that Gold speaks Draconic.]

"Let the sorcerous power illuminate my mind."

[bittersweeter]

[ shooing motion. ] So illuminate him.

[ look at how much she doesn't care about the difference between wizard and sorcerer. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE NOT THE SAME??? ]

[untethered]

[ the moment gold speaks the words out loud, a puff of flame seems to rise up and envelop him, and belle leaps forward, one hand outstretched, afraid that he's triggered a trap that's set him on fire. but the flames are spectral, and gold would feel a surge of power filling him, as if magic were tingling at his fingertips. he gains a bonus to his Charisma score of 3, for the next 24 hours, which will affect the DCs on saves for his spells, etc. the flames die away, leaving gold standing there in their wake. ]

Wha-- What was that?

[undealt]

[Gold looks probably way too amused by this chain of events. He grins and stares at his fingers for a second before flicking his wrist dismissively.]

This is a place that grants power to sorcerers.

[Because that explains everything.]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila's eyes drag over to emma at gold's answer, staring expectantly as if to say, do the thing, before her attention swerves back to gold. ] Do you think it'll do it again?

[uncurse]

Not interested.

[ wow lila. she caught that. ] We'll have to double back. I think I saw an eastern door.