Loudwater
Chronicles
Session 15:
Up on the watch tower, Illi is in her sleep trance. Artemis is on watch. We are just nearing the crest of the sun coming across and dawn setting in. Down below, everyone seems to be in an edgy kind of rest, uneasy.
William, Silas and Brinden are in the main room, sleeping. The guard is leaned up against the wall by the hearth. The fire embers have died down and burned out. The girls are all cowered together, huddled up and still chained. Silas’s sleep is labored and doesn’t come easy. He is stirred and find himself coming to with a resolution of action, but holds himself. He notices William appears awake.
William has been awake for a while and kinda sure everyone around is asleep. He was snapped to awareness, something has been weighing heavily on him until now. Across from him lies the guard, the guard that had said some awful things and spat in his face. The guard is asleep, his chest is heaving a little bit. He’s still tied up. William stares at the guard and reaches up, touching the spot where the guard had spat on him. He stands up resolutely and quickly walks over to the guard, kneeling before him. He seems to pause a moment, as if thinking. He then reaches down into his boot and takes out one of his daggers.
Silas immediately stands up and approaches William. William is focused on what’s in front of him and doesn’t notice. The guard still has no idea what’s going on. As William has the dagger in his hand and his eyes are almost glassed over looking at the person in front of him, two arms wrap around him, restraining his movement. He tries to collapse himself a little bit and slip through, but it seems the person is used to his moves and has some experience grappling him. Silas clamps down on the boy and lifts him up a little bit, their heads close. William’s grip on the knife tightens and he points the tip to Silas’s neck.
William: Put me down.
Silas hisses in William’s ear.
Silas: I need him. Don’t hurt him.
William: He spat at me.
Silas: He spat at me too. I still need him.
William: For what.
Silas: How about this? I’ll put you down on the stairs, and you go up and see Artemis.
William: Fuck Artemis.
Silas is immediately taken back. That was a very strong and purposeful statement that William apparently means every bit of. He’s not quite sure how or why, but he doesn’t seems to be acting like himself, or at least what he thinks of as William. Silas thinks about that for a second.
Silas: I need him to take the girls to Rannok.
William: ...you’re still thinking about sacrificing them?
Silas: Yes.
William: ...alright, then.
He seems amenable to this solution, and Silas is sure he’s being on the up and up. Silas does a half-turn and puts William down away from the guard. William doesn’t resist, growing uneasy as he’s being moved, seemingly wanting just to be put down. He appears relieved as soon as he’s set down.
William: And afterwards, he’s mine.
Silas: That’s fine.
William returns the dagger to his boot and settles back to watch. Silas points William towards the stairs.
Silas: Can you go up the stairs and distract Artemis?
William: Distract her from what?
Silas: From me letting the girls out.
Brinden starts coming to. It’s been a long rest and waking up is imminent, but not immediate. Silas and William are aware of him waking up. Silas walks over and unlocks the door and then walks over to Zoska and lightly touches her on the shoulder. She comes to, eyes fluttering and looking up, like she was expecting to see one person but is surprised to see Silas. She cowers a little and looks up quizzically, waiting to see what he does.
Silas puts a finger to his lips and does the same thing to the other two girls, waking them up. As Zoska stirred the chains a little bit, they’re coming to as well. Whereas Zoska is inquisitive but understanding, the other two are almost immediately obedient. They softly whimper to themselves a little bit, remembering and feeling the weight of the chains holding down their arms. They don’t appear to be making any humongous clout.
Silas attempts to speak elvish to Zoska, who hears something akin to “you help, we help.” She’s still confused, but waits to see what he does. She has no idea what’s going on and is a little bit intimidated by him. A lot intimidated.
Silas stands away and goes to the guard, touching him on the shoulder to wake him up. As he does it, he performs Lay On Hands to heal him. He snaps awake and sees Silas, feeling rejuvenated. He mumbles something in the unknown language, and Silas quickly puts a finger to lips, motioning for him to be silent. Silas unties the guard and helps him to his feet, then looks over at Zoska and repeats his attempt at elvish. The guard recognizes the same kind of syllables. Zoska is very confused at seeing Silas bringing up the guard. She doesn’t know what’s happening, and is still intimidated. She saw Silas release the guard, maybe he’ll release her next. Brinden is beginning to stir.
Silas walks over and opens the door. He points to all four of them, then points out the door. The guard sees this. Silas points to the girls, then to the guard, then out the door. Zoska begins to move a little bit. The two girls around Zoska aren’t moving at all, and she’s restrained by them. She starts pulling and turns, calling to the girls. At which point, the guard realizes what’s going on, and sees Silas, and kinda moves slowly at first, like a cat about to chew on a plastic bag in front of you even though that cat knows she’s not allowed to chew on plastic bags, London. He puts his hand down towards the chain and waits to see if Silas lobs it off. Upon seeing Silas not doing anything to stop him, he grabs the chain and pulls tightly on it and pulls the girls in one strong motion towards the door and actually gets them out the door. Zoska cries out in the unknown language, and Brinden is awake.
Artemis hears something from down below, it sounds like one of the girls crying out in the unknown language. Illi is snapped to consciousness as well at hearing Zoska’s voice in duress. It takes Artemis a minute, remembering during her watch the howling of the wolves and the setting quietness of the coming dawn. It takes her a moment to realize what’s going on, her attention quickly drawn to the door. She check on Illi a little bit, watching her coming to and looking quizzically at her and looking at the door. Suddenly a motion out of the corner of her eye attracts her attention and she snaps to awareness as she looks over the side of the guard tower and towards the west to see the guard and the girls. The guard is pulling the girls across the courtyard as quick as he can, pass the fountain and down the path.
Brinden snaps to awareness, Silas is still standing in front of the door and William is standing by the stairs. As he comes to, Brinden becomes acutely aware of the sound of that voice. The girls and the guard are no longer there. Brinden still feels the aching and wounds that are healing and surveys the room, groaning a little and stretching.
Brinden: Is it morning already…?
As he brings himself to his feet, it sinks in that they’re not there. He sees Silas.
Brinden: Silas, what’s going on here?
Silas closes the door and locks it.
Brinden: Well, that’s really strange. What’s going on?
Silas: I let the guard take the girls to Rannok.
Brinden: You let them go to Rannok.
Silas: Yes.
Brinden: Why? Why would you do that?
Silas: To save the town. If we go in there… we’re going in after them, we already decided that. If we go in there, and we fail, that town is gone.
Brinden: I get that.
As Brinden continue to collect his thoughts, Artemis up in the tower watches the girls getting pulled away by the guard.
Artemis: (shouting) HEY! HEY!! OVER HERE! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!
The guard is not breaking stride. The two girls are heads down, but Artemis notices Zoska’s head turning, looking back and seeing her gesticulating and waving, and Zoska screams back in the unknown language, not sounding very happy. Illi sees all this happening too, making her way to the wall in time to see Zoska’s response.
Illi books it down the stairs. She sees the missing girls and guard, and she sees Brinden and Silas speaking to each other. William is by the fire, Silas is by the door, which is closed, and Brinden looks like he’s still coming to and asking some questions.
Brinden: Illi, Illi, come here. It’s good to see you down here.
Illi runs over to the door and tries to open it.
Illi: He’s taking them! I thought we were going to free them, what happened?
She shakes the door. Silas just lets her go at it.
Brinden: Don’t waste your time, Illi. (Sighs). They’re on their way to Rannok, it seems.
Illi: Are we not going too? Are we just leaving them by themselves?
Silas: We are going after them, but we need to let them get to Rannok first.
Illi: Do they know the way? Are they just going in alone? Shouldn’t we have their back?
Silas: The guard is going in with them. The guard is taking them.
Illi: Is he going to protect them?
Silas: …I don’t know.
Illi continues to shake the door, freaking out. Artemis makes her way down the stairs, hearing this back and forth.
Brinden: I think you should unlock the door. Whoever has the key… Silas, should unlock the door.
Silas: I’m not unlocking this door.
Brinden: How long do you intend for us to stay in here?
Silas: Until well past dawn.
Brinden: What time is it now…? Is it still dark out?
Silas: It’s growing light.
Based on Artemis’s watch, assuming that the rules of this world and its sun obeys the same rules, she assumes the sun is going to rise in the next 5-10 minutes.
Brinden: I’m not sure what the reasoning is behind this, sending three girls to potential death to save a town from any more deaths, but we’re going in anyway?
Silas: Yes.
Brinden: To, uh, cause more death? We could’ve just done that anyway without three girls going in to…
Brinden is still shaking off his sleep and not quite ready for a debate, so he just gets some snack out and sits back against the wall, resolving himself. Illi considers going up to the tower and climbing down the wall with rope. Silas’s reflexes snap in and he goes to grab her. As he arms clasp, she is the wind. It was almost as if Illi expected that to happen and slipped right past him and up the stairs.
Silas: (yelling at her) Stop!
Illi stops.
Silas: Come back here and let me explain.
Brinden springs to his feet in between Silas and Illi in a light-footed elf way. Compared to the men of the mountains, this is black swan ballet. What everyone else sees is a big two-footed I’m-about-to-be-stomped-into-a-puddle BOOM! Both Silas and Brinden noticed that when Silas said stop, Illi stopped. She’s turned an is regarding Silas.
Silas: I let them go to save the town, which I already said. But the reason was, if Rannok doesn’t get those girls, from what you told me Brinden, he is going to raise an undead army and he’s going to destroy the town.
Brinden: Yeah, apparently so. I mean, I get it. I really do get it. It’s a moral dilemma that I feel as though we could’ve let them go and just not bother going in, if that were the case. Save all the town and he goes back to his business producing maybe no children and then go back to the town for more, or collecting his however many… three a year or something like that... but I figure we would at least save at least three from death and go in to cause a distraction and mayhem anyway, maybe we could do that without alerting him to any weird presence, who knows what they might see when they get there.
Illi: Don’t forget that you all killed their guides.
Brinden: There’s that.
Silas: But if they see the guard wandering around, they might actually send more out. If it looks like the town is trying to give him his offering, he’s probably not going to raise an undead army to go after them.
Illi: Right, but we can’t guarantee they’ll get to him.
Brinden: His guards are dead as well. When they don’t turn up, I’m sure if I was Rannok, I’d be a little suspicious if there were no guards bringing the offerings as I ordered.
Illi: Right. There could be traps, there could be other enemies. We should help them. We should help them now.
Silas: No, we shouldn’t help them now, we should help the town now. The town made a choice to send these girls. Who are we to get in their way?
Brinden: Who are we to bother going in at all?
Artemis is overhearing what’s going on and she remembers a little back to her waking nightmare, seeing the girls and his reaction towards them. She’s thinking they do need to be present once they’re presented to him, so she’s wondering if they could go in covertly behind them.
Artemis: If I have a way to get us there, tracking them without being perceived, would you be willing to go in behind them?
Silas: As long as Illi doesn’t go rush ahead and (?!?!! 41:35) all up.
Illi: ...I can do that.
Briden: Otherwise, we’re going over the wall.
Artemis is imploring Silas to unlock the door. William has just been standing back, watching all this conversation going on and he just wants to go home, but everyone’s talking about following the girls, saving the town, doing this, doing that… so he just wanders over to Artemis and basks in her glory. Silas feels like Illi is giving him the straight guff, but he’s kinda confused why she’s relenting like this. He’s pretty sure she’s listening, and it almost takes him back to a scenario where he prevents her from running headlong into goblins. She seems to be acquiescing to his demands.
Silas: You can get us in, Artemis? Without being seen?
Artemis: I’m fairly certain.
Brinden: (to Silas) Do you mind unlocking the door? Because, uh, I need to go pee. I’m not gonna go running off. I don’t think we should do that right now, but… just try and just keep our heads, but… I need to go pee. So I’m asking you to unlock the door.
William: I don’t want him to pee in here…
Silas: As long as we’re not going after them right this second, not until Artemis can guarantee she can get us in.
Brinden: Sure. Just open the door.
Silas is wholly certain the man has to pee. He tosses Brinden the keys and steps aside. Brinden briskly goes to the door, opens the door, walks outside, closes the door again, and they all hear relief. Brinden feels 5 points of relief. He eats some food and goes to sit down, using a stone to sharpen the edge of his blade. The girls are long gone, he doesn’t see them anymore.
Illi goes outside as well and takes a look around. At this point, the sun has crested. It’s started to burn off the fog and mist that’s settled in. She sees the surrounding graveyard and the local. Over by the fountain, near the base, there’s some cracks in the cement concrete structure weaving into the pavement around the dirt. Spouting up from it is a plant that’s flowering. She recognizes the plant, but not from the region she’s from. She recognizes it from a book someone has shown her, it’s belladonna. She picks some.
Artemis tries to see if she recognizes any of this from what she remembers to see if she has an idea where they went. She goes outside. She saw the surroundings at night and now sees them in the light of day. She isn’t immediately aware of her surroundings. As her focus turns, the fog which is lifting has revealed a keep in the distance of what appears to be a large mausoleum. And as her eyes are scanning across the countryside and go above that, she almost feels a pull towards the mausoleum. She realizes it’s not the mausoleum itself, but something beyond. She almost feels like she that familiar pull from her dream is tugging her towards the keep in the hills. She starts stepping that way. The southwestern path leads off and dips down a couple hills and leads up almost directly to the doors of the mausoleum in the distance.
Silas wraps up Brinden’s rope real nice and puts it on his bag. Brinden gets up and goes back into the room, feeling impatient.
Brinden: If we’re gonna do this, I feel like we should just get a move on. I mean, Silas. I gotta say, I’m not very happy how this has gone down. You made a decision for us, I don’t think everybody’s on board with it. (52:20 wtf is Brinden saying?!) And you just went out there and how do we trust... stuff is gonna happen to us when we’re not sleep... but we’re gotta committed to this... whoever, whatever ethical levels we each sit on. I feel like we should just get going. I feel like we should get in there. Do something. I don’t know how the rest of the party feels, but I feel like we gotta go now. Like we gotta step on this while we have the advantage. I’m all for covert, but you know…
Silas: Let’s see where Artemis leads us.
Brinden: Does everyone agree we should go now? Can we move?
Silas: Yeah. Let’s go.
Brinden: Yeah? William? You’re good?
William: ...I wanna go home.
Brinden: Oh, William. We all wanna go home. But we don’t know where home is.
William: Home’s not really that way.
Silas: We might find a way to get home by going there. They’re saying he has a black throne like the obelisk. Maybe it’ll take us back.
Brinden: Yes, I mean, I remember dreaming of a black throne. And then you’re talking about a black obelisk…
They collect their belongings and make their way down the path. Dawn is making its way and they have the benefit of the remnants of fog as they make their way across the graveyard. In the light of day, they can see the corpses lying on the ground. Artemis and William both take note the rays of the sun are just enough to start touching some of the zombie bodies and the warrior that Silas fell, and they see a crackling, smoking, embering and they hear a sizzling like eggs on a griddle, and they flesh sparking at points and burning, crumbling to ash as light washes across it.
William: Something’s happening!
Artemis: Something is definitely happening. If we lead them out into this daylight, we might have a better chance of defeating them.
Brinden checks the ground and quickly are able to see the footfalls of a group that he assumes was the guard and the girls. He sees some dragged footsteps and some clean footsteps that he assume is the guard moving labored but quickly. After about 15 minutes of expeditiously and carefully following this path and the footsteps, they realize they’re about to come upon the mausoleum.
Brinden: (turns to Artemis) I don’t want to rush us through here, but weren’t you doing something to keep us covert?
Artemis: Not yet. I think we’re safe outside. I just saw that it seems the undead are effected by the sunlight, and I don’t think we’re to have any trouble out here. So once we start going towards the mausoleum, I would like to... cloak us, in a sense. Okay, so we have to stick together a little bit. I know we just came from really close quarters, but…
Brinden: Is… is this like a form of magic or something you’re using?
Artemis: A little bit. A little distraction.
Brinden: A distraction… It’s not gonna do anything to me, is it? Any... side effects?
Artemis: You will have no idea what happened.
Brinden: Uh huh… Okay…
He seems uneasy. But bravado will take over from brains. Illi turns to William.
Illi: I wanna get home too. I hope we get home.
William doesn’t answer, acting extremely passive-aggressive, like she doesn’t even exist to him. He turns away from her, not looking her in the eye and even going out of his way to look away from her.
Illi: William? Are you okay?
He continues to ignore her, pulling his hood down over his face more and making his way over to Artemis’s side. He doesn’t seem to want to interact with Illi, maybe doesn’t like her very much. Artemis and Brinden both are aware of this exchange and take note as they see William acting short and pull up his hood, gruffly walking away from Illi, who seems kinda confused. Brinden turns to William and slowly walks over, kneeling down and putting his hand on William’s shoulder and tussling him a little.
Brinden: Hey William, you okay? Look, talk to us. I know you’re unhappy, but we’re all in a pretty miserable place here. We kinda want our families or whatever, whoever we’re close to... We’re walked into this with each other take the safe route and walk away from this but… What’s eating you, William? (1:04)
William: ...I’m okay. I just miss home. But if you think this is the best way to get home, then… then let’s go.
Brinden: Well, you know, if you need to step out of this one then you can. It’s gonna be pretty dangerous, I would imagine, but some of us would rather face that danger and either die as heroes or something like that then just let a tyranny rule the land. Others don’t want to get involved but that’s kinda okay as well, it’s not really any of our business, some of us are just making it our business, but if you need to step out, that’s great, fine, we won’t hold it against you. But if you want to come in with us, that would be great, if you could show us some of that passion you had, or even the strength you had to pulled though so far, we might actually need it, and I think we will, it’d be nice to know that you’re gonna be able to maybe save our necks a little bit… I don’t know if you’re going to or not, but we’d really appreciate it.
Brinden has brought out his silver tongue A-game. His words find some purchase in William’s psyche and is inspiring. He fantasizes while Brinden is giving this pep talk the shape of Bharash in front of him, entreating him to great heroism. Dramatic gust of wind blowing at Brinden’s hair. William’s eyes go a little wider and start sparkling in wonder. Brinden puts one arm around William and pulls him in tight, having a little bonding moment before releasing him.
Brinden: Alright!
Brinden smells a little of musk and a little of moss, with a bit of giblets still behind his ear. William is slightly uncomfortable. Artemis is prepared to do her thing. She concentrates really hard and raises her hand over everyone, making a cloak motion over everyone. Everyone notices a translucent, almost fabric kind of extend above and fall down slowly rippling upon them, feeling no weight from it. They all feel very emboldened, very self-assured. Everyone within 30ft of Artemis doesn’t leave tracks and gets bonus to stealth rolls, and they can see this illusory drape over them. Brinden is looking at her quizzically, a little doubtfully, a little uncertain, and he’s got this strange looking over her shoulder, trying to figure it out, he’s certainly got an uncomfortable side to him right now.
They’re on this path. They notice gravestones littered around. There are two large statues next to the stairway leading up to two large doors. The door on the left is open. Brinden uses his danger sense to flush out the scene for danger. They’re sure they haven’t been detected yet, but they’re keenly aware of some sounds. Brinden stops the group immediately and drops to his knees, beckoning them to do the same.
Brinden: I can hear something. Something’s sniffling around, there’s definitely a presence here. Keep your eyes on the two statues. I sense something with danger behind there.
Brinden is slowly and quietly drawing his sword. Silas takes Brinden’s word and casts divine sense, putting his hand over his chest and letting his awareness flow out in a wave. He doesn’t sense any pings in the area besides William. He informs the group. Silas seems a little bit subdued, kinda not with the group. ((Artemis is apparently secretly knitting)).
Brinden’s feeling a little (?!?!! 1:19). He suggests not approaching the door directly.
Brinden: Let’s pull over to one of the sides, maybe to the right. We’ll approach at an angle. Cause I sense danger, two things ahead at least. Let’s approach from one side so we’re not flanked.
He looks around at the group. As Silas is saying he doesn’t sense undead, Artemis is reminded of being awakened by a certain sound coming from the distance. A carrying, echoing howl. Since everyone’s doing things, William decides to cast detect magic. He focuses and sends out his own little sense, feeling the familiar pings around him - Silas’s hand, Brinden’s chest - focusing ahead of him, he doesn’t feel any immediate magic. But even if it’s not perceived, as he is using the spell, there is almost a rumbling where his feet is touching the ground. He’s almost getting an Xbox 360 controller force feedback rumble, shaking his feet from deep below the earth, from deep beneath him. He starts shifting around from foot to foot uncomfortably. As he lifts his foot up, it doesn’t feel as tingly, but the moment his foot makes contact, he feels the resonance, this dull rumbling again.
Illi: (asking the group) What sounds are you talking about?
Brinden: I heard a snuffling sound, some creature from over towards the pillars, something is behind there. I don’t know what it is.
As they’re talking, the noises behind the pillars are still going, and there is almost a purring noise from behind the right pillar. Silas gets out his shield. Pacing out from behind the column is a large wolf, black mane with a shock crest of grey going down its back. Its mouth is agape with stained ivory teeth and it’s frothing, dripping, and its eyes have a dull red glow that almost leaves a trail behind as its head is tracking out.
Brinden turns back to the group with a strange, almost smug grin on his face. He starts stroking the furs on his own armor. The wolf hasn’t noticed them yet, turning around and almost looking towards the west as it lets out some gruffs and growls.
These creatures are all at once strange and familiar to Illi. As she focuses on them and the behavior of the one directly in front of her, she recognizes its body language - the way its fur is bristling across its back, the way its presenting, its jaws, flaring its nostrils, its ears are lowered and down as if it’s tense and senses something nearby. It is not happy. Illi turns to the group.
Illi: It looks kinda tense, I’m not sure this will go well…
At this point, the wolf doesn’t see them yet. It’s just coming out from around the corner, looking to the west. Silas does thaumaturgy and makes the sound of people walking, shuffling, banging around towards the far northeast. William is the only one aware of where this noise is coming from. Everyone else are just aware that suddenly there’s the sound of people beyond the gravestone. As soon as the sound rings up, the wolf’s (orange) head just turns and it runs barking. As it gets there, it’s frantically looking around and its snout goes to the ground, sniffing around.
Brinden looks at Illi in anticipation for what her behavior is. At Silas’s noise, another presence (blue) comes out to the top of the stairs, looking off east. Another one (green) comes from behind the mausoleum and runs from towards it. Another shape (red) starts pacing in from the west.
They haven’t noticed the party yet, they’re all focused to the east.
Illi: ...are there other people here?
Silas: No, that was me making noise. But we should probably move out of the middle of the road.
Illi: Good call.
The graveyard looks completely open to the east and west. The fence is still surrounding the graveyard, but it’s far off. To the east and west are other patches of graves. It’s a large cemetery. The mausoleum is the largest structure in the area.
Artemis: We should move inside…
Silas: There’s one in front of the doors.
Silas moves towards the east.
Illi: What are you doing, Silas?
Silas: I’m gonna try to make more noise to draw them all away from us.
Illi: Don’t hurt them.
Silas casts his spell again, making more noise further to the east of the wolves. They all brill up again. The orange wolf moves up to investigate. The green one bounds over as well. The blue one moves down from the stairs of the mausoleum towards the others. The red one moves a little towards the noise, but not as aggressively as his comrades. He seems to be keeping his distance.
Brinden takes his shortbow out and grabs a tiny bit of food from his ration pack. He shoves it on the end of an arrow and attempts to fire the arrow at a tombstone off in the distance to the northeast to lure the wolves away.
Illi: What are you doing with that arrow?
Brinden: Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt them. Just a bit of distraction, a little bit of food, see what they take. But I kinda like their fur to be quite honest, I’m sorry. But if I can fight them, I’m going to.
Brinden shoots the arrow, but the food he tied to it made it hard to compensate and it doesn’t get the arc he was hoping for. The food lands further south than where he was aiming. The orange, blue and green wolves run up towards it. The red wolf sees the arrow but doesn’t sense the food, so he remains where he’s at. The green wolf is the first to get to the food and the other two are snapping their jaws at him as he’s enjoying the little morsel.
Brinden: Now looks like a good time to move.
Silas signals to Brinden to do the same thing in the other direction to the red wolf.
Brinden: Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah sure.
He puts more food on another arrow. Silas was apparently tripping the light fantastic. Luckily the wolves are too busy eating and couldn’t give two shits about him. The red wolf is sniffing the air and moving to the east. As he crests the stairs and is making his way down, his eyes lock with Silas. He hasn’t seen anyone else yet, as they’ve melded down towards the edge of the path behind some tombstones. But the red wolf sees Silas and rears back, letting out a loud howl.
Brinden has his bow and arrow ready, so he prepares to fire it. He moves in front of William and makes a power stance, nodding back to the boy in a reassuring Brinden way. He draws back his bow, but as he does, his front hand slips and the bow snaps back. He manages to corral it in, but not before his hand bops William on the forehead. It doesn’t do any damage, but it brings William a little sadness. Brinden apologizes profusely.
Brinden: William, I’m so sorry! Ah, screw this thing!
Silas: Try to get around it and to the door. I’ll distract it, you guys try to get to the door and I’ll try to get there too. Like, after you. But keep the wolf away from you guys so you can get in there. If I can distract the wolf and get it down here, you guys can just run up the stairs.
William: But what about you...?
Silas: ...I’ll be right behind you guys. I’m not fighting these things alone!
Silas moves a few feet closer to the red wolf. He looks down at his gauntlet. He spent enough time connecting and channeling it that he feels an innate connection to it. As he pulls out his javelin and places it in his hand, he notices the oculus opening up and the eye looking frantically around before making contact with him. As he does, it starts glowing, and as he puts the javelin in his hand, the glow washes over the javelin itself. He throws it at the red wolf, successfully doing psychic damage. Silas points at the other wolves and commands the red one.
Silas: Go.
Illi sees this happen, sees as the javelin arches over, it flutters a little bit into this femoral energy and passes straight through the wolf, at which point the wolf buckles a little bit and she sees its eyes glowing with the same energy as it looks towards its friends.
Illi: What did you do to it?
Silas: The same thing Bainx did to me, now GO.
Brinden: Let’s move it.
Illi makes her way towards the doors, slipping inside the open left door. As she passes the the wolf, she’s almost hesitant as she passes it’s threatened space. But it doesn’t seem to give two shits about her. Illi readies an action in case anyone needs help.
As she crosses the threshold, she sees in front of her some funerary tables to the left and right. It looks like the place they might bring out bodies for viewing or wakes. There are no bodies there now. She does see some telltale footprints, some drags in the dust on the ground that appear to be going towards the back of the room towards what is a door on the far end. The door is slightly ajar.
William attempts to run up the stairs and into the mausoleum as well, noticing as he goes that there are no footsteps left behind, no dust kicked up… it’s kind of strange, but he’s more than willing to take advantage of it. As he makes his way by the wolf on the stairs, he’s able to pass without it even regarding him.
The group of wolves begin moving towards Silas after hearing their friend bray. The red wolf is obeying Silas’s command, running through the pack as they continue to run towards Silas. The blue wolf reaches Silas, the others were held up by the red wolf’s movements so they weren’t able to fully leverage their full speed and get up on him. The blue wolf attempts to clamp down on Silas, who easily sidesteps those jaws. As the red wolf finishes its run, it stops and lets out a confused yelp, trying to figure out exactly what just happened.
Artemis follows the rest of the party towards the open door, stopping on the landing right before it.
Silas: Get inside!
Artemis responds by sidestepping in next to Illi. Brinden is regarding Silas with curiosity as he makes his way past. He’s wondering if he should stay and fight and help. He makes it to the landing outside the right door and draws his longsword, waiting to see if Silas manages to get away and preparing himself as a line of defense should it come to that. The wolves don’t see him.
Silas attempts to move away, and the blue wolf bites down, teeth sinking into his calf. The wolf tries to drag Silas down and knock him prone, but he wrestles his leg from its jaws. Illi reacts to it, firing an arrow into the blue wolf.
Illi: (to Silas) Be careful!
Silas is bleeding profusely. He gets out his ax and readies a reaction. Illi pulls out her sword and steps forward onto the landing next to Brinden, also readying an attack. Silas looks at Illi.
Silas: Get back inside. We’re coming as soon as we can.
Illi: I’m just staying close in case.
William looks around the room. It’s dark and there’s no natural light, though he sees some light flickering through the open door on the other side of the room. The tables are stone and placed almost like they were carved out of the walls themselves. He notices the same things as Brinden, dust and drag marks and drops of blood making their way to the door. William focuses on the blood and looks at the trail going to the door and starts following it. As he closes in on the door, easing in and putting an ear to the crevice, he hears a whispering of wind coming from down below and... a slight moaning. He’s not quite sure, it could be the wind. It could be something else. He’s not sure. He peeks in the door and he can see down into the stairway that leads straight down ahead of him 10-15 feet down. He sees light flickering from some unknown flame washing around. As he focuses down into the tunnel, he doesn’t see any presences, no people and no movement. He sees nothing at all. The sound he heard fades into nothing. He sees a little bit of patters of blood down the first two steps. It’s tough to make out any more further down. He’s pretty sure whatever was making the path through here has gone down there. Since there doesn’t seem to be anyone or anything there so far, he turns his back to the door and checks out the rest of the party. Artemis is on the inside of the door, peering around. Illi has her blades drawn and her back to him. He notices everyone at the ready, so he pulls out his bow and arrow as well.
The blue wolf runs up the stairs to Brinden, who is howling a furious battle cry. The remaining ones surround Silas.
Silas swings his ax at the blue wolf. He does not like that at all, he is bloodied, a humongous gash erupts on his hind haunches that’s just splashes ichorous blood upon the stone of the stairway. He’s still standing, but he doesn’t like it and he doesn’t like Silas.
Brinden lets out a battle cry and brings the sword down. The wincing blow as Silas clefts into the blue wolf causes it to stagger a little bit unexpectedly as its legs buckle under Silas’s steel. As Brinden brings his blade down it clangs, sparking off the stone stairway.
The green wolf attacks Silas, who is bracing himself. The wolf drags him down, knocking Silas unconscious. The orange wolf also brings its maw in and starts fighting at the green one, who is sunken deep in Silas’s flesh. The red one had taken this whole time to run up to everyone. The blue one in response to the loud clang of Brinden’s sword attempts to bite at him. Illi attacks the blue wolf, but misses. The shock of Silas going down and these wolves acting so ferociously against her own pack unsettles her. She’s never seen wolves act so ferociously or carelessly. She snarls at them.
Artemis ((throws Brinden onto Silas)) focuses and attempts to stealth outside. She goes up to Silas’s side and casts cure wounds. She puts her hands on his shoulders and makes a comforting motion, like what Mystery would be doing if it were out. Silas comes to, snapping to awareness. He feels an unfamiliar warmth stitching his wounds together. It almost looks as if small vines are pulling the skin together and compelling them to shut where there were bite marks and gashes.
Brinden has his longsword and switches it to his left hand. He lunges down with a big elf arm, grabbing Silas. He has his sword poking out. He feels Silas try to pull at him, but Brinden drags him inside the mausoleum.
As he drags Silas, the blue wolf snaps at Brinden, bloodying him. Silas tries to fight against the barbarian, but his might and strength and will are too powerful. As he’s dragged away, three sets of jaws try to sink into him. They all miss. William sees Brinden pulling Silas inside kicking and screaming, batting off wolf jaws with his shield.
Brinden is patting Silas.
Brinden: Don’t worry, I gotcha.
Silas gives Brinden a really nasty look and stands up. He moves forward to stand behind Illi. He drags Illi inside, placing her next to him. She is kicking and screaming, swords swinging wildly.
Illi: (to Silas) Artemis is out there! You just left her! She’s in trouble, there are four wolves!
Silas: No, don’t worry.
Brinden: What??
Silas: I know she’s out there, just--
William: Artemis!!
Brinden: What is she doing out there??
Illi prepares to step out again.
Silas: Don’t go out there. Don’t you dare go out there.
Illi: Artemis is out there, do you expect me to sit here?
Silas: Yes.
Illi steps out in front of Silas and shoots an arrow at the green wolf. She releases the arrow but her focus is interrupted as the slathering jaws of the blue wolf snaps at her instinctively. He doesn’t sink it, but it kind of unnerves her. She howls, similar to the way the wolf did, but it doesn’t seem fazed.
William: Artemis, noooooo!
William rushes forward past Brinden, trying to run out in front of Silas. Brinden throws out his arms in an attempt to block him. William simply uses him like a jungle gym and slips in front of Silas.
William: ARTEMIS, DUCK!!
William casts burning hands, sending out a wave of fire at all four wolves. The blue wolf lets out the harshest scream as it’s immolated and falls over, completely charred. It is smoking and cindering. Artemis just sees lots of fire.
The green and orange wolves are taken aback by this. They yelp in confusion and pace back in fear from the flames. Artemis swings her shield at the green wolf, but it just bops off his snoot as he backs off. The red wolf steps up to the charred remains of its friend and snaps at William angrily. As it comes up, Silas comes puts out his shield, slamming it away from getting at William’s throat. It looks like it was just going to tear the throat out from William. Instead, as it falls, it just grabs at William’s ankle and pulls him to the ground.
William: Run inside, Artemis!
Artemis runs for the door, grabbing William as she passes and throwing him inside. As she does, the red wolf snaps its jaws at Artemis and drags her down to the ground.
Brinden ((just closes the door on Artemis)) shoves past and clamps a hand down on Artemis.
Brinden: (to Illi) Get ready with the door!
With a heave, Brinden pulls Artemis through and puts her to the side, then returns to stand next to Silas at the door. The burnt and bleeding red wolf does not seem happy. He snaps his jaws angrily as Brinden takes his prey away from him. Brinden snarls back. The red wolf is snarling and fuming and angry.
Brinden: CLOSE THE DOOR!!
Silas slams the door closed. As he does, the wolf tries to throw its body against the door, but it is unable to find enough purchase to cleave it from its hinges. The party hears the wolves outside, circling, snarling, growling, and slamming their bodies at the door. After a couple minutes of this furious assult, they kinda resign themselves and move back to the nearby graveyard.
Illi growls out at them, hoping the echo of the room brings the sound out to them. They’re strange creatures to her. They’re natural wolves, but to her it’s like looking at an abhorration.
William quickly scrambles as far away from the door as possible, making his way back to the far corner near the open door leading into the tunnel.
Silas: (looks at Artemis) Never go out and heal somebody when it’s not safe.
Artemis: ...we’re all okay…
Silas: Don’t put yourself in danger to pick somebody else up.
Artemis: You would’ve been in more danger, there were three of them out there.
Silas: Then leave me until it’s safe.
Illi: If any of them had attacked you, you would’ve died. You know that right? We don’t want you to die.
William: ...please don’t die.
Brinden is still next to Artemis and in a gentle way uses his right hand to pat her on the shoulder.
Brinden: But your bravery is noted. And thank you for it. So, group, let’s take a deep breath.
William hyperventilates.
Illi: We need a hug. We almost lost Artemis.
They are surrounded by the quiet of this mausoleum. William is the only one to hear down at the base of the stairs in the depths of the darkness someplace, a soft pained groaning wheeze.
Illi slinks down against the door.
Illi: Never seen wolves act like this before…
Brinden: They’re not natural wolves… I see a lot of wolves in the mountains. And they tend to not bother us unless… perhaps livestock… but these are clearly not normal wolves…
William: ...guys…?
Brinden: Haven’t seen the like of these…
William: ...guys…?
Artemis: William?
William: ...I think there’s somebody in there…
Artemis: In where?
William: ...in the door…
Brinden: Alright. Well, close the door. Close the door or something.
Brinden looks at Silas, at the situation, at the wounds.
Brinden: Well, listen. That wound there, let’s get it healed. But I guess you’ve paid for the enterprising start to this morning. So…
He kinda shakes his head a little bit. Silas doesn’t respond, just gives him a nasty look, shakes his head and ignores him.