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

[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.

[untethered]

[ belle opens her mouth to point out the other door in this room-- when suddenly she stops, because she abruptly notices that a shadow that had seemed cast by the dragon on the altar has slowly spread across the floor, completely silently, and is rising up behind gold, manifesting a distinctly humanoid silhouette, about six feet tall.

yeah no really we're getting all canon up in here. i can't make this shit up. ] Gold! Look out!

[uncurse]

[ emma is all over this shit, because she leaps into action at the sound of belle's voice, spotting the shadow. she will go ahead and take a guess that shooting at it is not her best plan of action this time, and instead haul her ass over there to essentially charge it, throwing her hands out and producing an electrical charge that surges through it (shocking grasp - nat 20 touch attack, dmg 7). ]

Get back!

[untethered]

[ emma feels her hand close around something, almost like a wisp of silk, and then electricity courses up and down the shape of the creature, which unleashes a strange series of hissing noises, a thousand overlapping whispers. the shadowy substance that comprises it seems to dissipate slightly - but then it reforms facing emma instead and swipes at her. its hand whizzes easily over her head (atk 7). erky grumbles to himself, darts behind gold, slapping a palm against the back of his shoulder, and casting protection from evil, which gives him a +2 AC, +2 to all saves, prevents anyone from magically controlling or possessing him, AND makes it impossible for summoned creatures to touch him. is this shadow monster summoned? WE'LL FIND OUT.

belle draws out her excalibur pistol and shouts: ] Only magic can harm such a creature! Your guns - they're enchanted!

[undealt]

[Gold feels like he has some deep-rooted psychological issues related to shadows and instinctively freezes, which holds him up right until Erky puts a spell on him and he snaps back, looking at the shadow with so much anger.]

Move. [He takes a step forward and casts a single Burning Arc for... 32 damage. APPARENTLY, THE VEIL CAN TAKE YOUR MEMORIES BUT IT CANNOT TAKE AWAY DEEP-ROOTED EMOTIONAL SCARRING.]

[untethered]

[ the shadow catches fire, burning away into ashes that smolder out and vanish. belle stands there, gun drawn, pointing it at the space where the creature ... was, moments ago, before lowering her weapon and turning to stare at gold, mouth slightly agape.




oh. ]

[uncurse]

[ we're just gonna assume emma stepped out of the way of that after shocking the shadow, ok. ]

Where the hell did that come from?

[ she's quick to complain about this supernatural, magical bullshit ok. ]

[bittersweeter]

The dragon, probably. [ not like harry potter, but she still sort of called it. /gives herself a million gold stars. ]