[DM]
Pine give me a wisdom saving throw (14)
When
they are walking towards the fortress, they are talking about the
dragon etc, and for Pine, their voices start to fade oddly, like hearing
through a bubble. Then every part of your survival instincts start
screaming warnings to him. He senses something terrifying to his left.
Although his companions are still there, they don't react. Their
presence helps push back the fear, but he is aware of the presence.
[Pine]
All
his fur stands on end, and his tail puffs up. He would look towards
what his instincts are screaming as a significant threat.
[DM]
Right
next to you, literally five feet away, there is a man hidden in long
flowing robes, just keeping pace with you. You are looking at the
figure with wide eyes, and it turns to you a bit and you can see a bit
of skin, it looks extremely old, and possibly diseased. It raises a
hand, a boney almost corpse-like hand, and points at the mountain
directly ahead, and as it does that you feel the urge that you haven't
felt in a long while, strongly. Intensified. To a specific spot on the
mountain. You have never felt it this specific.
[Pine]
He is terrified, but he would look up to the spot. Is there anything he can see?
[DM]
Not
from this distance, but you are getting closer. None of the rest of
the group are aware of any of this. Pine's reactions are not shown to
the rest of the group, and the conversation on both sides is completely
in your head. Due to the saving through, although Pine is reacting, his
physical body is not. You are just walking normally. You are in a
dreamlike trance. Do you say anything to this figure?
[Pine]
He's been wanting answers from these voices and people he's started seeing now, and I think that he would ask
"Who are you?"
[DM]
"The
pursuit of knowledge is a positive aspect. We three are interested in
you. We are curious who you will belong to. In the mountains ahead lies
a test for you, cleric. We are watching.
[Pine]
"Why are you interested in me?"
[DM]
The figure chuckles.
"So many questions. I will answer only the first one for now. The 'who I am', for I am DEATH!"
The figure turns black and vanishes.
At that point the signals from the brain finally reach the body, and suddenly everyone can notice Pine freak out.
(It
was the same voice as the second voice he heard back at the orc
infested shrine "Why choose life when you could let death claim her.")
[Siax]
"Are you okay? Is everything all right?"
[Pine]
"I
am not okay." Then, understanding that this is not enough to quell the
concerns of his companions, "Struggling with my new powers. I think."
[Siax]
"Anything we can do to help? We're all in it together now."
[Pine]
Pine would shake his head, and then say:
"The
priests, they don't know either, but they are going to try… try and
find what's up. But I have been told that I have a test on the
mountain. It… it was not given in a comforting manner."
[Idris]
Do you want to go to the mountain now?
[Pine]
Pine
is too overwhelmed right then to deal with more questions and decision
making. He is scared and freaked out. He needs to calm down first.
"Let's continue on."
[Siax]
"Remember
you are not on your own now." He said, trying to comfort Pine in his
own way. Then he would refer back to the quote that he told Zenari that
he got from his father, "The journey of a thousand miles starts with
one step"
He would then turn and carry on.
[DM]
More
time would pass, but you are able to keep quite a good look out, and I
would say that you would be able to hunt a bit if anyone wanted to to
replenish your supplies a bit.
Eventually you would go to the
mountain, to the start of it itself. You would now see the yellow flags
that the Rockseeker brothers have placed in this place, and they lead
you up a winding path and you can see that this was kinda here, they
kinda made it, its been recently carved. Some areas have been made more
accessible. You go up the mountain without much happenstance, its not a
hard climb at all, and finally they show you a slit about a couple
inches wide in the stone, and one of the Rockseekers is like:
"Here it is."
Pine
checks (rolled 20), and it is quite discouraging. Its a clean, small
cut in stone, and extends for quite a while. To open this into an
opening would take weeks of labour. Its incredible work, you have no
idea how they did it, but it is also not a way in.
"So this is a sign that Axeholm is here, we just need to find the entrance."
Pine,
you have a very specific tug on your attention to the east from where
you are, and this is the urge that you had from the mountain that came
onto you during the trip.
[Pine]
"Well we've got to
start somewhere," and then would start making his way east. He wouldn't
mention the tug to the other group members,
[Idris]
"Okay, lets go this way then first."
[DM]
The rain starts becoming lighter now and you can feel a cool wind. It's not comfortable for sure.
Pine, do you follow the direction where you are going as is, or do you try to do anything different?
[Pine]
Pine
is wary, and not only because he's still freaked out, but because they
mentioned a test. A test in the way they were mentioned did not sound
like it's just going to be like 'hey, yea, what's five plus five'. So
yeah, he would be wary, so he would be watching out for anything that
could be a test or something that's abnormal, but he is following the
direction because he has got no better option. He doesn't really know
the area, but this is as good a place to start as any, so he will go
that way.
[DM]
Please give me a D100 (90)
You
cautiously give into the urge and you start going, and eventually you
sort of get into a flow, like 'I know exactly where I'm going. Here,
here, here'. You get down to the point where the rest of the party
struggles a bit to keep up with you because you are going with full
certainty. They do keep up though. You turn a corner, and you are
confronted with this (Picture of Axeholm front entrance).
You
turn a corner, and uncovered and not damaged is a dwarven fortress.
Looking around, you see the hills around you, and you are like 'This
place would have been a nightmare to find. You could have been wandering
on those mountains for days before you stumbled onto this place.
Thrust
out from the base of this great mountain is this entrance to this
dwarven fortress, and it goes in and down. You can see the passageway
you are on is about 15ft and flanked by 45ft high blocks of smooth
seamless stone. The iron portcullis that you see in the picture is
closed, sealing the entrance, and you can see on the walls, arrowslits
carved into the bullwarks. They are dark, there doesn't appear to be
anything bringing any light above it.
At this point everyone else catches up to you.
Nundro: "Ill be! You've really got a talent for this!"
[Pine]
"I had some help."
[DM]
Rockseekers:
"Well we found this place now, we just need to get in, clear out
whatever's in there, and Toradin is your brother!"
[Koraliki]
Is not looking greatly enthused about going into another dwarven place, underground.
[Siax]
Is
looking at the door thinking, okay, we're going to go inside here, and
he's glancing over at Koraliki to see if she has realising we're going
inside here. He's wondering what she's thinking; is she going, is she
not going? What can we do to help here?
[Siax does an insight check on her: 7.]
He has no idea what Koraliki is thinking.
[DM]
[Factoré insight check on Koraliki: 18]
She
can tell that Koraliki wants to go in because that was the entire point
of coming here, but she's also not certain of how well she's going to
react when she gets inside. She's a little nervous, but not anywhere
close to a full blown panic attack. She's definitely anxious though.
It's not just a fear of the structure collapsing, its more actual
claustrophobia. SHe doesn't like to be confined.
[Idris]
Is checking the walls and door.
[DM]
This
place, like a lot of the caverns you saw, is big. The corridors seem
to be 15ft wide, and at least 10ft in height. There's two floors and
you can see that they are expansive. The dwarves seem to have built as
much for comfort. This isn't a cramped miserable place like the
barrows. You might find tunnels inside that will be, but the main
building feels bigger than a normal building.
Idris you look
around and you see this thing is rusted. There are winches on the side,
and they dont seem to be secured, they are also rusted.
[Idris]
Looks at the chains, then back at the group, then at the chains, then back at the group.
[Pine]
Pine
would have a question for the Rockseeker brothers. He would ask about
the sort of mechanism that would open these doors, because potentially
if it was safe and if it was working, Zenari might be able to teleport
in. She is able to blink through areas she can see through, and we can
see through the arrow slits
[DM]
They would think, and then say:
"Well
normally its winches, but from the inside there could be a less rusted
mechanism that's not exposed to the elements. Much easier to operate.
Just a few simple tugs should open the gate. You might be right."
[Pine]
Pine would nod, although would be aware that Zenari was not the most armoured, and he doesn't want to put her in harm's way.
[Zenari]
"I can also send someone else in there, that would be more beneficial to open the gate."
[Idris]
Stares at the group
"Should I pull it? Pine, can you cast mending on it?"
[Pine]
"I can, actually."
[DM]
The chain links are not broken, they are just rusted. I don't think mending would fix this.
[Koraliki]
I don't think any of us have any lantern oil to help lubricate and remove the rust.
[DM]
Pine,
your passive perception is enough that you notice the noses of ballista
pointing out the arrow slits. Massive crossbows that shoot quite a
lot.
It would be at that point that you would hear Factoré's voice going:
"E...E… Everyone? Is that normal?"
She would be pointing at the top of this building.
[Pine]
Pine leaps back
[Siax]
Siax looks to where she is pointing
[DM]
As you all look up, you all see this, but Pine, you would be like 'oh, holy shit'.
There
are three figures standing on the top of this building looking down
upon you. One of them is a shadow that you recognise from the wererat's
mine, but some more details are uncovered. You notice that on one of
the hands there seems to be a jewelled gauntlet being worn. In the
centre, the shadow is massive, 7ft tall, and its grimacing, and you
swear you can make out skin with black cuts upon it. And on the right
of that, there is that man you saw hidden in long robes, whose skin
looks old, possibly diseased.
You can all see this.
[Siax]
Siax immediately knocks an arrow and aiming.
[Pine]
Pine would gesture to Siax 'no' and he would say,
"I've been hearing them. They led us here. This could be the test I mentioned."
[Siax]
As
soon as Pine says that Siax would lower the bow. He would still have
the bow and arrow knocked, but it would be pointing to the ground.
[Idris]
Idris is waving, to see if they react.
[DM]
They don't.
On the left the shadowy form that spoke to you way before at the mine, goes:
"As my associate has told you, a challenge awaits you, little cleric."
The middle figure, the 7ft tall shadowy one:
"We watched to see what you do."
The robed figure says:
"We all have our ways, now we must see which one you will take. Will you…
Middle: "murder,"
Left: "conquer,"
Right: "or surrender?"
Left: "Which one of us will claim your soul, I wonder."
[Idris]
Can we all come in as well?
[DM]
The centre figure points a hand at you, Idris, but the one in the long flowing robes is like:
"No, brother, we cannot kill his companions, they are necessary for the test to succeed."
The middle figure grunts/growls in discontent, but does not kill Idris.
[Siax]
Siax would turn around to Pine and say:
"Are you sure about this? They don't sound friendly."
[DM]
They definitely don't.
[Idris]
Idris would stick out his tongue to the middle guy.
[DM]
Would you give me a Constitution saving throw, Idris. (16)
You
stick your tongue out, and you are about to take it back in, and it
doesn't move. You freeze. Completely. You are completely paralysed and
immobilised as the figure on the left casts a spell casually at you.
Not even a spell, just a movement of the hand.
[Siax]
Siax would be keeping his bow and arrow pointed to the ground, and he would just be, not in a panicked voice, but just going..
"Pine… PINE" (as in we need to make a decision here. What's happening, friend or foe?)
[Pine]
He
would look up to the three, but more towards the one on the left (if
they can see that from that distance) that he'd spoken to in the mine,
because out of all of them, that one seemed more 'him'. He would ask
"If I do this test, will the fortress be available to the people as that's what we came for."
[DM]
Robed figure:
"We have no stake in this place. We but desire to see how you act within it. So yes."
Figure on the left:
"And
worry not for answers, little cleric. Whomever you please during this
trip may answer some of your questions. The other two maybe wont be as
pleased."
As Pine is thinking what to say, the middle one would be like:
"Too much thinking! Go in and strike!"
Meanwhile Idris is still frozen, and is slightly toppled and leaning against the wall, but hasn't fallen over.
[Pine]
At
this point I think Pine , he's been getting more and more freaked out,
or more and more out of his depth with this thing, and it seems like
it's this or nothing. They can find him, they can speak in his mind,
they can appear to him anywhere, they can change his spells. There is
no real getting out of this, and so I think that he would be like:
"Right, let's get this over with".
[DM]
The figures do not vanish, they just stay there and watch.
You
all now have a more complete description of them. If they are known to
anyone you could probably describe them well enough to maybe get an
identification. They seem to be spirits, but they seem to be extremely
powerful.
Idris you can move again.
[Idris]
Unfreezes, then says to the one on the left who had cast the spell
"That was directed to the guy in the middle."
Then stand there causally like he is innocent.
[Pine]
The
rest of the group might not realise just how powerful they are, but
Pine would know, from his previous experiences. He would turn to the
group and say:
"These spirits are exceedingly powerful, far more than
I. There is no getting away from whatever test this is. Its better to
just get it over with. One way or another, you will be able to get
into Axenholm afterwards."