Silas sees more lines of doors making their way down, they go two by two.  And leaning on the ground against the wall it appears to be Vadim.  He doesn’t see the girls.  Vadim’s whole body is limp and severely emaciated.  It looks like something just sucked the very essence out of him and he’s barely able to breathe.  He’s very labored and gasping and moaning.  He doesn’t seem to notice Silas.  Silas doesn’t see anybody else.  He doesn’t sense any danger around and motions to Brinden to come over.  

 

Brinden activates his danger sense.  He turns to William and makes a shushing noise and motions for him to hang there for a moment.

 

Brinden:  I’ll be back in a second.

 

William, Artemis and Illi sees Brinden take a deep breath… and then immediately jump down the stairs.  They brace themselves as he lands whole hog on the ground, but the noise that would normally echo out and reverberate is actually deafened by Artemis’s stealth spell.  The three give each other knowing glances as Brinden looks around in confusion, quizzically wondering why there isn’t more sound.  He starts stomping around in a circle, swinging around his sword.  He eventually makes his way over to Silas.  As Silas sees this display in front of him… he knows the big guy’s trying.  Silas raises a finger to his lips and tries to shush Brinden.

 

Brinden:  What do you see, Silas?

 

Silas:  I don’t see anything but the guard down there.  He looks really bad, I’m wondering if maybe one of Illi’s berries might help him?

 

Brinden:  Alright, I can go back.  I’ll go back and get one.  Or a couple.

 

Silas:  Okay.  Be as quiet as you can.  Or you can send Illi up here.

 

Brinden:  Yeah yeah yeah.  I’ll send her over.

 

Brinden stealthily makes his way back.  Meanwhile, Silas sees something he can’t quite describe.  As he’s focused on his cohort stomping back, his eyes turn again to the guard.  He sees the shadows that flicker at the edge of the hallway almost take form as if out of liquid.  And he sees a shape pass through the door, the unopened door right in front of him.  It comes out of the wall and pulls from the shadows and it just starts drifting.  It doesn’t have legs.  It appears to be made of inky darkness and it just slowly starts drifting, it drifts past the guard.  Silas stays and watches it, putting a hand out in a stop motion, hoping Brinden will see it before he comes stomping down again.

 

Brinden is kneeling down in front of William.

 

Brinden:  Uh… ‘scuse me, William.  I gotta… Illi!  Illi!

 

Brinden is pushing William to the side as he continues calling for Illi.

 

Brinden:  Illi!  I need you!

 

William squeezes past Brinden out onto the landing to allow Brinden room.

 

Brinden:  Illi, can you hear me?  Are you there?

 

Illi:  Yeah?

 

Brinden:  I need you.  Or Silas needs you.  Needs your berries!

 

Illi:  Is he okay…?

 

Brinden:  I think he’s okay.  He’s fine, he’s fine.  It’s the guard, the guard apparently does not look too good.

 

Artemis:  Oh, the GUARD!  Okay.

 

Everyone hears Artemis’s exclamation.  Out from the secondary door, Silas sees shadows drift out from the door and aparate into another form.  It just kind of hovers there, it doesn’t have a face or features, it looks almost as if a living shadow and if he were to take his eyes off of it, he might lose sight of it.  But he is quite certain there is some kind of presence hovering there now.  

 

Illi:  What guard?  The guard with the girls?

 

Brinden:  The guard with the girls.

 

Illi:  Are the girls there?  Are they okay?

 

Brinden:  I don’t believe so.  But the guard is looking pretty worse for wear.  Why don’t you head over to Silas, you’re probably more nimble than I am.  Is that okay?

 

Silas still has his hand out.  Illi makes her way forward, trying to shove past everyone quietly.  She had to maybe politely scoot William over to one side.  As Illi makes his way out, he clearly sees Silas with his hand out in her direction.  

 

Illi:  (tries to whisper out to Silas)  Silas, what’s going on??

 

Silas:  Stay there.

 

William hears Illi doing her best calling out to Silas.  His eyes drift to the corner of the room as these strange inky shadows around the table form up and looks to be sleeping presences on it.  As Illi’s sentence dies out, the presence appears to slowly sit up.  William does italianspiderman.gif.  

 

Illi traces William’s finger, he seems unsettled by something, but she has no idea what he’s doing, she doesn’t see anything that concerns her.  Maybe he’s just freaking out, he freaks out about things.  Illi turns to him.

 

Illi:  What are you pointing at?  What’s going on?

 

William ignores her and turns to Artemis and tugs her and continues italianspiderman.giffing.  Artemis doesn’t know what he’s pointing at either.  He’s pointing at a dark corner.  Shadows are washed over where the flames are not quite illuminating fully.  It looks empty.

 

Artemis:  What’s going on?  What are you pointing at?

 

William:  There’s a ghost. There’s a ghost. There’s a ghost. There’s a ghost.

 

Artemis:  ...a ghost?

 

William:  It’s a ghost! It’s a ghost! It’s a ghost! It’s a ghost!

 

Brinden’s aware of some kind of commotion and he’s pressing into the back of Artemis, leaning his head over.  Meanwhile William’s pushing on the other side of Artemis, trying to get back into the tunnel.  Artemis is a wonderful little sandwich, and lays flat like a piece of deli meat, all noodly and limp.

 

Silas is aware of all this commotion going on behind him.  He’s focused still on these presences, enough to see that they are still just hovering at this point.  They don’t appear to be moving anymore yet, but they appear to be just shadowy figures.  He puts his hand over his chest and allows his senses to wave out, casting Divine Sense.  He senses three undead presences around him.  He also senses William.  He senses two more presences coming from the south, beyond the closed door.  Silas turns back to see what’s going on behind him.

 

William is flailing.  Illi puts her hand on his shoulder.

 

Illi:  Calm down, I don’t see anything.

 

William turns around and slaps her hand forcefully away and then backs up a step.  Brinden pushes past Artemis.  Illi looks at William.

 

Illi:  What did you do that for?!

 

William:  Just leave me alone!

 

Illi:  Why? What did I do wrong?

 

William returns to ignoring her, immediately shutting down and pulling his hood more forward.  He turns away from her and looks off into the corner again.  He seems to be shutting off completely to Illi.

 

Brinden:  What is going on here?

 

Illi:  I don’t know, William seems mad at me?  I didn’t do anything!

 

Silas turns back and loses sight of all the figures he’s seen before, they appear to be just shadows again.  The others become aware that there are some shadowy figures and shapes, one that’s moving off a table and drifting towards them.  They also notice around the corner from where Silas is, another figure just slowly floating.  These are almost inky shades, they are formless, transparent, but black.  Formed almost of the shadow itself.

 

Brinden looks at Illi and William, then around the room, and he almost does a double take.  Instinctively his left out flies out and hits William, pressing him against the back wall protectively.  William clings on to his arm.  Brinden leans back to Illi.

 

Brinden:  Do you see that?

 

Illi:  I-I do!  (yelling to Silas) Silas, watch out!

 

Silas notices the figures moving again, this time they appear to be slowly drifting in his direction.  It’s hard to tell, they don’t appear to be focused on him.  He keeps his shield out.  He doesn’t attack, doesn’t say anything, doesn’t move, just readies himself in case they attack.

 

William:  (whispering to himself)  Wh-what are they…?  What are they?

 

The voice reaches out into William’s mind and says, “They are lingering shades, boy.  They are displaced souls.  This chamber houses their bodies.  They are trapped here.  They wander aimlessly, shapelessly.  They are compelled to stay in its halls.”

 

William:  ...are they dangerous?

 

“They are capable of drawing the life out of those that have it.”  William whimpers.  “But they don’t appear provoked.  Only malevolent spirits lash out thusly.”

 

Brinden:  William, I need my hand, quickly.

 

He pulls his hand away from William, who holds on tightly.  Brinden forcefully pulls, dropping down to his knees.  At the same time he puts his sword down on the floor next to him and pulls his arm in with William attached towards his pouch, taking out a torch and trying to light it.  William tries to hold on, but Brinden’s arm is slick with sweat and kinda squirts out from his grasp.

 

Brinden:  Sorry William, but I gotta do this!

 

He has the torch out and as quickly as possible, lighting it up with a flint.  As the light fills the room, the northernmost two shades disappear.

 

Brinden:  Omigod… they’re gone.

 

Illi:  Yeah, I watched them fade when the light came on.

 

William:  ...you killed them.

 

Brinden:  Maybe… Maybe they (??? weren’t barbers??) but… I’ll keep the torch lit anyway, just in case.

 

Silas pulls out a torch as well and lights it up.  As he does, the rest of the shadowy presences disappear.  

 

Brinden:  This is weird. Alright.  I don’t think we should send you over by yourself to Silas.  But if we’re careful… It’s just...

 

He takes a few steps down the stairs with Illi quietly following behind him.

 

Brinden:  I think if we move… slowly make our way to Silas… you with us, William? Artemis?

 

Brinden has his sword slightly behind him at his side and the torch out front.  He walks forwards quietly with everyone following.  They meet up with Silas.

 

Brinden:  Silas, did you see that?

 

Silas:  There were three of them.  And I felt two more behind the doors.

 

Brinden:  Two more...

 

William:  They’re not dangerous…

 

Silas:  ...they’re not dangerous?  How do you know?

 

William:  I just know.

 

Brinden:  Huh.  I had a what can be described as a weird dream… but I saw five beings like with dark shadows, and I thought that might have been them back in the cemetery with the big guy whose sword I got.  But I saw five shadows, they’re the ones giving like a big black chair to the guy called… I don’t know if it was Rannok or not, but there’s a big guy… and there were five spirits offering him this throne.  But I don’t know, five seems to be kind of a common occurance here.

 

Silas:  There’s five of us.

 

Brinden:  Think we can get around there safely?  Think they’ve gone?

 

Silas:  I don’t see them anymore.  Actually, if you guys want to stay here.  Illi, can you give me a berry?  That guard looks really awful.  Can I see if one of your berries will work on him?

 

Illi:  Yeah!  

 

She hands Silas two small berries.

 

Illi:  Feed him both.

 

Silas:  Okay.

 

William:  Be careful, Silas...

 

Silas goes stealthily over to the guard.  He kneels down and touches the guard lightly on the shoulder.  As he does, the guard’s eyes flutter with a faint awareness.  His body doesn’t move, but Silas hears him utter words in the unknown language.  Silas slips the berries into the guard’s mouth.  The guard begins to masticate the food, but Silas actually has to help him move his jaw.

 

Brinden:  Water! Give him water!

 

Silas gets out his waterskin and administer some water.  The berries wash down his throat, and his body almost seems to fill into his skin a little bit more.  He still looks a bit worse for wear, but he’s able to move his head again.  He looks at Silas and speaks more in the unknown language.

 

William moves into the corner and sits down.

 

The guard is coming to and is able to start moving his head and arms, almost as if all his limbs have been asleep for hours and he’s slowly getting movement back in them.  His joints are laboring to compel muscles into motion.

 

Illi:  Bet he’s not hungry anymore.

 

Silas:  I don’t want to leave him down here.  Cause if those things come back…  They’re the only things down here, did they do this to him?  I don’t know. Something screwed him up royally.

 

Brinden goes to the south door and listens at it.  He doesn’t hear anything but dread silence.

 

Brinden:  I hear nothing.  So what do you want to drag him back to that first chamber?

 

Silas:  Yeah.  And maybe leave a torch with him.

 

Brinden:  Does someone want to take the torch and I’ll pick him up, or can you pick him up, Silas?

 

Silas:  I can take him.

 

Silas ((drags him down the hall - there are some loose tiles and the guard’s head bangs against a few doors)) helps the guard to his feet and puts one of the guard’s arms around his shoulders.  He is able to move a little bit, but Silas notices as he’s lifting him up and propelling him over his shoulder, his legs are dangling and almost dead weight.  Although the berries have rejuvenated him, as Silas husks the mass over his shoulder, he’s almost immediately taken aback because it’s like the man hasn’t eaten for years.  Everything has been emaciated and he’s still drawn out thin.

 

Brinden:  I’ve never seen anything like this, poor fella.

 

Illi pokes the guard’s leg.  It dangles and wiggles.  Silas nudges Illi with a foot.

 

Silas:  Get on the other side and help me.

 

Illi sticks her tongue out at him, but goes and help.

 

Brinden:  Alright, let’s get him back.

 

Illi is having some fun, but the gravity of the situation as she’s gerding herself for mass, and it’s like a half empty sack of potatoes. It just limply falls over her and drapes on her, and it’s unsettling.

 

Illi:  (to Silas)  What happened to him?  He feels weird.

 

Silas:  I have no idea, he wasn’t like this earlier.

 

Silas carries the guard over and leans him up against the base of the statue.  The existing torches in the room aren’t as intense as the torches the party has, and appears they have been burning for quite a while and haven’t been maintained in a bit.  Silas puts his torch in the angel’s hand so that it casts light around the guard.  As he does so, the guard reaches up to his side lapel.  He has a medallion there that had been displaying arcane light.  He unclips it and holds it out to Silas, his hands wavering, almost collapsing under its weight.  Silas accepts it.

 

As Silas takes it and holds it in his hand, a vision apparates in his brain.  It’s almost like he’s having a memory, but it’s not of him, it’s of the guard.  He sees the guard and a beautiful young woman, and they are looking out from the patio of a thatched roof house onto an open yard.  There’s a little girl running in circles, spinning happily, gayly, her dress floating in the breeze as she spins in one place.  He is reinforced with a happiness, he feels a sincere and honest joy.  And the vision fades out, and the last of the light inside the medallion also fades out.

 

Brinden:  Why don’t we leave his body in the other room away from the shades or whatever they are in here.  Just kinda deposit him (???) for safety.  Before we continue.  What do you think?  Or maybe an angel’s a good place to leave him.

 

Silas:  That’s what I was thinking.  At least there’s light and maybe it’ll give him some comfort.

 

Silas isn’t quite sure, but he feels like the statue of some form of religious significance.  He just can’t hack down what.

 

Silas:  We should probably go back to that door and see if we can maybe… see if anybody else hears anything behind it?

 

Brinden:  It was pretty silent for me, I heard nothing.

 

Silas points to Artemis.

 

Silas:  Artemis, can you go take a listen?

 

Artemis heads to the south door.  She leans up against the door, there’s no light coming from beyond.  There’s no immediate sounds coming from beyond.  She hears nothing but the still darkness.  She feels fairly certain there’s nothing ahead.

 

Artemis:  Couldn’t hear anything.  It’s completely dead on the other side of the door.

 

Silas:  Okay.

 

All the doors they’ve come across are simple heavy wooden construction.  There are some etchings and carvings and filigreeds inside of them, the corners simple metalwork, iron handles, the edges have iron inlaid and nailed into it.  The door (???) locking mechanism.

 

Silas:  (to Artemis)  You said you had a way to get us in wherever we need to be?  Or you thought you did…?  Is this the way or is it some other way?

 

Artemis:  The way was just to be unseen.  If we go through here, if we stick together, I think we’ll still be undetected immediately.  But I don’t know what’s on the other side.

 

Silas:  Okay.  Do we want to keep a torch lit?  Cause if we need to be unseen, then a torch might not be the best idea.  But we can keep it ready in case those things show up agian.

 

Artemis:  Right.  I say we put it out and keep it on hand.  

 

Brinden:  Mm, sure.

 

Brinden goes over to a wall and stamps out his torch in a corner rather than on the floor.  He has a big, deep respect for the places of the dead, so he won’t trash it.  As he does so, he notices there’s a shadowy figure standing next to him.  Brinden makes noises that could almost be sound effects for the figure.  He jumps and backs away with a little bit of shit in his pants.

 

Brinden:  Whoa, whoa, whoa… He’s there.  He’s there!

 

Silas:  Okay, calm down.

 

As Brinden backs away, the figure didn’t lash out or anything.  Silas is consoling him.  During this entire time, William had been performing a ritual.  He’s not very good at rituals, so he had just plopped himself down, wedged himself into a nice, secure corner.  He reaches down into his belt pouch and takes out some items and just… shoves it in his mouth and starts chewing.  He pulls down his hood over his face and just continues chewing for ten minutes.  At the end of the ten minutes, he swallows and his ritual for Comprehend Language is complete.

 

Illi is currently sitting next to the guard and hanging out with him and watching William.  She saw the boy pulling don’t know what out of his pouch, being secretive about it, and shoving stuff into his mouth and chewing.  It doesn’t appear to be a pleasant experience, whatever he’s chomping on, but he also appears to be done.  

 

William gags a little and stands up, quickly making his way over to the guard and sits down in front of him.  He stares at the guard expectantly.  And then looks away.  And then stares again, and poking at him.  And poking at him.  And poking at him.  The guard turns to William and Illi hears the guard speaks the unknown language.  But William can understand him.

 

Guard:  You.  You want to kill me.

 

William quickly shakes his head no.

 

Guard:  Yes.  Your dagger.  You drew it on me.

 

William:  (shaking his head again)  I didn’t!

 

Illi:  Didn’t do what?

 

William ignores Illi.

 

Guard:  I don’t understand.  I delivered the gift.

 

William:  What happened?  Why are you…?

 

William makes a gesture at the guard.  The guard doesn’t seem to understand him, but he seems to pick up on the gestures.

 

Guard:  My life…  I didn’t offer…  And they took from me in life…

 

William:  ...you didn’t offer?  They took?  Was it the ghost??

 

William wiggles his fingers to try and gesture out a ghost.  The guard looks at him quizzically.

 

Guard:  I didn’t offer to the dead…

 

And at that point, the guard is having a hard time composing thoughts.  William puts a hand to the guard’s chest and tries to give a comforting pat.  Illi smiles at William.  William is still ignoring Illi.  The guard is still so weak that as William presses on him, he can’t even compel his body to resist the motion of the hand.  William feels himself press him against the statue as he presses into his chest.  

 

William:  It’s okay… We’ll take care of it.  You just…  stay here.  Be good.  Don’t die.

 

The guard flops around, clunking his head against the statue.

 

William:  Nonono, don’t do that! Don’t do that!

 

He grabs the guard’s head and holds it still.

 

Guard:  Go.  Please.  Go… get… get our gift back…

 

William:  Get… get the gift…?  What gift…?

 

Illi:  Did he say he didn’t give the girls…?  They’re the gift that he was taking.

 

William is still ignoring Illi.  He gently places the guard’s head against the statue, stands up and runs over to everybody else.  He then recounts everything to them.  Illi realizes William is aggressively ignoring her.  She’s not sure why, but there’s something about her that William seems to not want to connect with at all.  Maybe it’s cause she’s a girl or maybe cause she’s a ranger or maybe she smells like a spice he had one time that made him ill.  But it seems like William is just aggressively against communicating with her for some reason.  She follows William back to the group.

 

The presence that Brinden had noticed earlier is still there and has not moved, although William and Illi does not notice it as they round the corner.  It’s making Brinden nervous.  

 

Silas:  How did you know what the guard was saying?

 

William:  I just know.

 

Silas:  Don’t lie, just tell me.

 

William:  I just know…

 

Silas:  How did you not “just know” earlier?

 

William:  Cause I didn’t know then, and now I do…?

 

William shrinks down a little.

 

Brinden:  That makes no sense, William.  How would you know now and not previously?

 

Illi:  Well, he was eating something…  I don’t know.  My berries make you feel better, maybe he was eating something that made him understand stuff?

 

Brinden:  Is that so, William?

 

William frowns when Illi started speaking and completely shuts down, pulling his hood tighter over him to block everybody out.  Brinden looks to the rest of the group and shrugs.

 

Silas:  Withholding information doesn’t help anybody.  

 

Illi:  That doesn’t seem very Silas-like.  Earlier you were mad because I knew something about you.

 

Silas:  That’s personal.  This is something that can help the group.  

 

Illi:  How do you know it’s not personal?

 

Silas:  Knowing how he talked to the guard?

 

William:  (muttering under his breath)  Of course it’s personal…

 

Silas realizes he can’t win this argument, so he goes to the south door.  Artemis is still concentrating on her own arcane machinations and as this is going on, she feels the winds of magic shift around her.  She’s not in her natural place, although she is deep inside the ground so she is able to pull focus from that state, and it’s hard to tell because there’s so much that appear to be unnatural going on around her.  Although she can’t focus to it, she is drawn to something ahead of her.

 

Brinden’s still got his eyes on that shadow figure.  He looks around to the group.  He’s disturbed by the shadow, but he’s also disturbed by the weird stuff going on.  

 

Brinden:  I really don’t know what is going on between half of you here.  We haven’t known each other long, but I think we gotta like pull some of our shit together here, because we can’t be an effective fighting unit or exploration unit when we seem to distrust each other at every turn.  Something’s going weird here and I think whatever people have got between them have to be cleared up here somehow.

 

Everyone’s aware that while Brinden’s regarding them all directly and straightforward, his eyes have not lost their laser focus on this space on the wall.  If they spent time and focused, they would notice a trace outline of one of those shades.

 

Illi:  I agree, I don’t know why everyone’s so afraid to talk about themselves.  The more we know about each other, the better we fight.

 

Brinden:  (clearly concerned) We’re in a really dangerous place here where we’ve just seen a man who seemed fairly strong but a few hours ago withered to some husk… and we’re going to walk forward towards this?  And yet I feel like I don’t trust any of you.  I don’t know why we’re here doing this together.  Like when I feel like I’ve got a knife in my back and if not knives, then just eyes at my back or something like that and it’s kinda weird.  I come from a fighting clan where we trust each other and we would fight amongst ourselves at times, but it was clear we trusted each other and respected each other.  And we’re gonna open that door and who knows what’s going to happen, but I feel like half the battle is amongst us.

 

His speech is rallying.  William is rallied.  There is something very plaintive and imploring.  Maybe some of them aren’t use this type of straightforwardness from people, maybe this is how people of the mountains act.  None of them have really worked with anyone like each other before.  But Brinden is reaching out.

 

Illi:  My pack is the same way.

 

Brinden:  You have each clearly got some amazing strengths.  And William, I feel like you shy away, but you bring it when necessary and everybody’s got these amazing talents.  But don’t be afraid to use them.  But let’s communicate, let’s talk, and I think we’ll get through this.

 

As Brinden says all this, William just blurts out what the voice told him earlier about the shades being lingering essences of the people entombed here, that only the ones that are malevolent will attack.  He’s letting it all out.

 

Brinden:  This is amazing William, thank you!  This is like pretty good life-saving information right there.

 

The hood is still low over William’s face and he’s not looking at anyone or making eye contact.

 

Brinden:  Fair enough, fair enough.  But that’s pretty good information and it may save our lives in here.  

 

Artemis:  I know we just met… in jail, nonetheless… But I have a good feeling that I can trust most of the people here.

 

Silas has been rather stoic as this washes over him.

 

Silas:  I don’t trust any of you, but I will do my best to keep you alive.

 

Brinden:  Well.  As long as we share our plans or our thoughts, we can sort of (???) in each other.  That’s gonna help us a long way.

 

Illi listens at the south door.  It sounds relatively silent, but she hears an echoing that sounds like sobbing.

 

Illi:  (turns to the rest of the group)  It sounds like crying.

 

Artemis:  We should… we should go.

 

Brinden:  Anyone else hear anything?

 

Silas hears the same faint whispers of a weeping echo from beyond the door.  William casts detect magic.  He gets the familiar pangs of magic from Brinden’s chest, from Silas’s chest, Artemis has something in her pocket, and there’s a new ping coming from Silas’s pocket pouch.  It is a strange pulse that he’s not familiar with.  It seems new to him.  It resonates with a slight smackering of evocation magic.  William stares (at Silas’s conch).

 

Illi:  Can we go through the door?

 

Silas:  Yeah, I hear it too…

 

Brinden uses his danger sense.  Silas has his shield out.

 

Silas:  I’ll block the door essentially in case  anything comes after us.  If someone will open the door, I’ll stand in front of it.

 

Illi:  I can open the door.

As the door opens, Silas sees a long hallway around 60-70ft in front of him.  There appears to be more of the familiar rows of doors at the end of the hallway.  There is no natural light, no torches, no sunlight.  His darkvision is illuminating this.  He sees a stack of doors familiar adorning the hallway.  The hall seems to open up to an entrance on the east wall, although he can’t see down it.  There appears to be another one of those wooden doors on the west wall and some kind of alcove opposite it.  Silas can’t quite see in it from where he is, but there’s some kind of carved-in openings there.