BLOOD IS FUEL - The Vaults of Torment - [part 1]

[Malkavian Grin]

OOC

Huh. Dirgo succeeds in his defense. 😎 (I forgot the test is at 14 instead of 12 but it still succeeds)

"Please?!" Dirgo howled in confusion back at the monster. His feet dodged left and right as he weaved away from the tentacles' swipes.

"What do you mean, please?!" he screamed. "Please what? Are you still in there!?"

[Saltimbanco]

On 11/14/2023 at 8:15 PM, Dixi said:

"Dead end if there is nothing past that rough patch. Still, a chance to hide."

“Yes. Better to squeeze through here. Maybe it won’t fit. Or maybe it will get its fill of pigs.” Qilnach follows Urminor into the crack, through the mouldy liquid.

[Malkavian Grin]

Scurrying into the puddle, the rogues pair would find the stone around them a tighter fit. Blocks of the stuff were still in place along the wall where pieces had been torn off by some malevolent party. Progress was slow to avoid faceplanting or breaking a leg. As Urm escaped the detour he found himself in a more open hall. A moment later Qilnach was free, but the sound of Trill reaching the dark passage was heard.

"Hey are you still--HUUUH!!" shouted the tall and thin man as he ran straight into the wall in the dark, falling into everyone else's path.

Helza was the next to reach the passage, falling over Trill and nearly cracking her skull on a brick. "Ohh--OHH--HRRRK... shit f*ck!!" she screamed in pain.

Tizian's beastial companion came forth in the darkness, easily bounding over the pile of bodies and the bricks to catch up with his friends. The three half-jogged through what seemed to be a straight room before an abrupt doorway filled with stairs heading down.

Would they dare go down without their spoils? Without even a light?

---

Dirgo had managed to dodge out of the way of whipping tentacles miraculously. The Beast-that-was-Vardøger stood before the one-armed one-man bastion of hope.

"V are you still in there?!" Dirgo howled into the dark.

There is no time for that, for just him... There's something else to... Wait... Is that... Yes, it is! Helza screaming!

Hunt? Go hunt? Now? Kill? Kill. Hunt. Now.

Spill blood. Much blood.

Are the whispers real? Have we always been here?

Feed! Become Demon!

OOC

@Vedast You're up again 👽

 

[Vedast]

 

 Vardøger den Visitant - Soul Departed One

---

The beast-that-had-been-Vardøger reached forth a tentacle; grabbed the valiant Dirgo; and swallowed him whole.

The masticating sounds were punctuated by the snapping of bones grating on unworldly teeth.

 

Slay ...

The word boomed forth from the inhuman maw between chewing.

Helza it thought. Bones. The demon turned to follow quickly.

OOC

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by Vedast (see edit history)

[Saltimbanco]

Listening to the sounds of bones cracking sends Qilnach to shivering. Shakily, she reaches into her pack and pulls out a torch and a magnesium strip (I assume these are for lighting torches) and strikes it setting the torch alight. Grimly she says,

"While it is"...she swallows..."busy. We could head down and away."

[Dixi]

Pale Urminor (he was always quite pale and it was difficult to say in the uneven light of a torch if the noise affected his coloration) just nodded and looked around where to go next.

"Don't like that the path goes down but anything's better than that thing." Urminor paused for a second and then began his careful descent trying to stay within the light circle.

[Malkavian Grin]

Tizian nodded along with the plan as it was spoken. "Anywhere but here."

"Wait! Damnable curs, I order you to wait!" came Queen Katla's voice as she--and her loveable jester Poltroon--both emerged from the edge of the darkness.

The man-wolf looked at the others and said, "Go! If they make it, they make it. Go!"

The three trudged down the stairs as fast as their feet would balance. The tunnel downward had a slight curve to it, totaling dozens and dozens of wide-yet-shallow stone steps. Here the stone turned from the cold gray it had been to a warmer brown.

After what felt like minutes of slightly turning right and more than a few close calls, the group were poured forth into a narrow hallway going straight ahead. Along the right-hand wall were three half-alcoves each featuring a statue of a flayed person in agony. The hall terminated in a hinged door of uncut stone set in a slapdash metal frame. Pushing the door open, another hall was revealed. At the end, a left turn.

For the moment it seemed as though they were safe from the creature, but dared they stop to find out?

OOC

New map just dropped.

---

No blood? Need blood. Much blood.

The whispers were so strong. What was real anymore?

Loping along in the dark with agility, the creature easily found Helza pulling herself slowly through the debris of stone in a wrecked hallway. Feeling the tentacles rope around her ankles to pull her back, Helza shrieked in panic. Trill was pinned by tentacles and was at the mercy of the beast. He began waking up, groggy, and in the dark.

The woman kicked and scratched and fought to get free, managing one loose ankle. But it was for naught as she was hauled backward and held up.

Blood this time.

OOC

I rolled her defense here at home. 13 against DR14! Crazy NPC rolls with no bonuses.

 

[Dixi]

OOCYou mean "turning right", right? Or am I reading the map wrong?

Urminor fell quiet once the wolf-man and "Her Majesty" caught up with him and Qilnach. He was glad to see the survivors, but if they managed to get here so far, the monster could not be too far behind.

Silently he continued to keep a bit ahead of the crowd (within the light). Whatever waited ahead could not possibly be worse than the horror behind.

[Malkavian Grin]

OOC

Yeah sorry, go by the directions on the map. That's what's correct.

 

[Vedast]

 

 Vardøger den Visitant - Soul Departed One

---

The beast-that-had-been-Vardøger reached forth a second tentacle; took Helza's other leg, and pulled her apart. Her suffering was mercifully short, albeit hideous.

Rather than rapidly crushing and swallowing her body, the demon-thing let the caustic acids dissolve her skin and organs until the bones were bare. Then, horribly, the bones were spit out and the nightmare began ... arranging them, and oddly contemplative look on its inhuman face.

Me ...

The word boomed forth from the inhuman maw suddenly.

 

OOC

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Vedast (see edit history)

[Malkavian Grin]

The group took pause to look about the alcoves behind each flayed statue. Closer inspection revealed them to be carved from marble in exquisite, lifelike detail. They would likely howl and scream if not made of stone. Everyone was reminded of the six-armed demon woman statue encountered in what was colloquially known as Limbo.

Behind the middle statue a small bow made of wood and a leather quiver was found. The wood hadn't been smoothed or carved, ending up more like a gnarled branch with a string. Despite its strange form, testing the string proved it would function. The quiver held eight lonely arrows, most of which were straight. Behind the statue furthest from the stairs was a money pouch with a decent few coins inside.

From behind the group came a noise. An unmistakable boom.

Me ...

Looking at each other, everyone decided it was best to keep moving. The door opened without resistance into a turn to the right. The torchlight flickered and caught all the worked edges of the stone walls, floor, and ceiling, making their shadows dance. It was the same construction of dark stone as the previous level--seemingly built at random by crazed cultists.

As the light spilled around the corner a long tunnel was revealed. After several steps there was another long hall just to their right, ending in an oddly shaped dead-end. Satisfied for the moment, the group advanced to the end of the current hallway.

"You've done it! You've done it!" sang Poltroon, pausing every few seconds to play a tune on a flute he suddenly had. He danced in a crouch, looking quite stupid. Katla got red in the face and her lips drew tight but she said nothing.

"You've fouuuuuuuuuuuuund--the stairs!" he sang(?), dropping to his knees to play a flute solo. It was of...middling quality. Katla seemed like she was fighting off a heart attack due to embarrassment, hand completely covering her face.

Indeed, this room held two sets of stairs; one on either side of it, both heading down. In the center of the wall betwixt them was a large placard made of thin stone. It was similar to marble but with an array of light browns instead. Carved into its surface was some kind of picture but it was next to impossible to make it out due to a lack of paint within the shaped recesses. There had to be a way to see it.

While pausing to look at the stone plinth, Urm caught sight of something behind it. Pulling it out from a small hole in the wall he found a small bag with three unlit and unused torches as well as firesteel.

What do you do now?

OOC

The bow is ranged, dealing d6 damage. You have 8 arrows and a leather quiver of scrutable quality.

The pouch holds 22 silver coins.

The plinth is made of limestone, if you were curious.

The bag holds 3 items (currently the torches). The firesteel is likely a paired piece of steel and a flint striker on a leather cord or something. Let's go with that. I don't see anything like flint on the item list.

Updated map is heeeeeere!

 

[Vedast]

 

 Vardøger den Visitant - Soul Departed One

---

The beast-that-had-been-Vardøger took a few minutes arranging the bones, tying them into a sort of necklace using what was left of Helza's hair.

Finished with its grisly task, the thing seemed hesitant, in an odd way, expressing a sense of lamentation.

Finally, however, it turned back the way it had come: perhaps satiated; perhaps summoned back to the pit from which it had emerged.

Oddly, a drop of liquid fell from one of its eyes. Had the stone not sizzled where it splashed on the floor, it might have been called ... a tear.

 

 

OOC

 

 

 

 

[Dixi]

"Down again..." Urminor looked and sounded very upset. "Is there truly no way out of this place!"

It was a rhetorical question, of course. More like an exclamation, really. No one could answer answer anything here. He looked left and then right with equal disgust.

"Left or right? We can flip a coin. Heads - right, tails - left."

Urminor glanced at others, produced a coin, threw it up, caught and showed everyone else.

"Luck says right. Can as well follow?"

If no one had any objections, he turned to the right staircase and began his descent.

OOC"Right" would be east on the map, towards the other discovered corridors.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Dixi (see edit history)

[Malkavian Grin]

OOC

If you're wondering why you can see so far, it's due to how Visibility works. Right nowThere are ways to reduce Visibility. a torch gives Visibility 3; your current Tile + 2 Tiles in every direction you can see beyond your Tile (which has clear line of sight).

@Dixi To confirm, "right" means exploring toward that dead-end?

Tizian shrugged with disinterest. "Anywhere but standing still is fine," he said like his throat was full of gravel.

"Plungin' to the Deeps! The intrepid adventurerrrrrs! Plungin' for that Knowledge! The greedy adventure-ture-ture-ture-ture-turerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs!" Poltroon sang as Urm suggested exploring more of the current level. His flute was nowhere to be seen.

[Dixi]

 

"Right" means in this direction

Edited December 10, 2023 by Dixi (see edit history)