Echoes in the Darkness [IC]

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Dec 17, 2022 3:17 am
OOC:
What do you do? Which way do you go?
A sudden gust of air sweeps through the chamber. The torch flares, its flame snaps away in the gust and it is reduced to a fading red glow. Its absence leaves the shadow of light in your eyes.

You hear something skitter across the floor, further into the emptiness that you haven't yet explored.

Rolls

denizens? - (3d6)

(333) = 9

Dec 17, 2022 4:37 am
You know, fear and a phobia are not the same thing. Being scared of the dark is normal. Being unable to function in the dark is not.

Gets latern from backpack and lights it.
Dec 17, 2022 5:02 pm
Lighting a lantern in the dark is a bit more difficult than you might imagine when you're doing it with some kind of light already to help you see what you're doing. Nevertheless, Rezin accomplishes the minor feat and a warm yellow glow suffuses the antechamber with the elaborate wall. The lantern's thick glass walls should protect its oil wick from any more sudden gusts of wind.

Which way do you go?
Dec 17, 2022 7:14 pm
Finally, thought that would've been easier. What do you say we find ourselves a snack.

Standing, I make my way towards the skittering sounds, fully expecting to catch a squirrel or bird that's stuck in the dark, looking for a way out.
Dec 17, 2022 11:50 pm
Rijo slings his battleaxe back on his belt, and ties his shield to his backpack. Gripping the headsman's axe, he nods at Rezin, and goes wide to the man's right. "I'll go this way, try and flank it."
Dec 18, 2022 6:44 am
Ur sees Rezin and Rijo move out and figures they must know what made that sound, to be so confidently moving towards it.

He follows Rezin, not intending to be left behind. He slides the broom into the gap between his back and his backpack, and grabs the coiled sling from his belt along with one of the smooth stone projectiles. He uncoils the sling, slips his finger into the finger loop, places the projectile in its harness, and starts it spinning.

"Psst! What is it?"
Dec 18, 2022 1:54 pm
I think it's some kind of animal trapped down here in the dark. At least I hope it is, and not some sort of bug. C'mon.

Listening intently I move slightly to the left of where I think the sound came from so we can chase it towards Rijo.
Dec 18, 2022 3:41 pm
Rezin holds the lantern and follows the left wall, between the wall and the pillars. Rijo follows the straight wall from the left opening out into the vast dark of the chamber. The lantern light casts shadows from the pillars into the darkness. Rijo finds that the straight wall actually is the side of a staircase that leads upward back to above the antechamber with the carvings on the wall.

Stor-bten, Webster, and Ur uncertainly follow.
OOC:
Who follows Rijo? Who follows Rezin?
At the base of the staircase, Rijo has reached the edge of Rezin's lantern light. Either Rezin needs to come off the left wall and out into the black, or else Rijo needs to move toward the light.

From further ahead comes the skittering noise, like claws on stone. You all see a pair of glowing yellow dots appear and vanish, probably a bowshot away from you. Their location might match the noise.
Dec 18, 2022 6:12 pm
Rijo will stay on the edge of the zone of illumination -- it won't do for him to fall in a hole. He grips his headsman's axe tighter, and prepares to face the unknown.
Dec 19, 2022 9:44 pm
Stor-bten moves quietly towards Rezin and the light, his eyes scouring the space where the yellow dots did dot
Dec 19, 2022 11:32 pm
Ur also continues behind Rezin. He stops spinning his sling to avoid making noise, instead keeping it hung by his side and ready to fire.

He peers out over his shield, barely seeing Rijo at the edge of the lamplight.

Whispering to those around him, "Can you tell which way it went?"
OOC:
Ur wants to ascertain whether it seems like Rezin's plan to chase it towards Rijo seems to be working.
Dec 20, 2022 12:02 am
Abruptly you hear a vigorous flapping of wings - not quite like those of a bird, they sound a bit leathery - from the same direction where the yellow dots glowed. The noise rapidly ascends and crosses above your heads, somehow sounding clumsy as it passes over you. A moment later there is a thump and scratch from above and behind you, like something about the size of a chicken just landed on stone.
Dec 20, 2022 1:59 am
Turning around, I hold the lantern up high and walk slowly towards the "chicken" trying not to scare it into running.
Dec 20, 2022 2:27 am
Raising the lantern high at arms length sheds its glow on the railing of a balcony or mezzanine that overlooks you, about twelve feet up. The railing appears to be a line of slender stone pillars that continue in one direction to the head of that staircase that has the elaborate stone carving on its backside. In the other direction, the pillars along the balcony continue out of sight into darkness.

The lantern does not light the ceiling of this vast room.

A yellow dot blinks at you from between two of the pillars up there.
Dec 20, 2022 2:29 am
tibbius sent a note to Eyes
Dec 20, 2022 3:06 am
"ooooooooh.... Guys, you know what it could be? It could be a cockatrice. They have yellow eyes and can turn you to stone with their pecker. I mean if they peck you. I'm pretty sure their edible too, so be careful and we'll have ourselves a good supper. Now, Ur, do you think you can hit it from here?"

Keep slowly advancing till I can see its shape with the lantern on the ground. If it starts to charge, I'll quickly set the lantern down and keep it in between us.
Last edited December 20, 2022 3:15 am
Dec 20, 2022 3:24 am
Rijo groans. "Not a cockatrice," he mumbles, but no one hears him, even if they did listen. He gets ready to sprint for the eyes, and lay waste with his axe. He envisions a chicken with it head cut off, and through visualizing prepares his body for the action to follow.
Dec 20, 2022 12:33 pm
OOC:
It's up on the balcony, 12 feet above you. To get there you would have to run up the stairs in the dark and then run along the balcony in the dark. Unless someone gets a lantern up there.
Dec 20, 2022 6:43 pm
OOC:
Assuming it seems this same staircase at which Rijo is located seems like it'll take us to to the balcony/mezzanine...
Ur gets out his torch again and quickly lights it from the lantern. He runs across the space to Rijo.

"Let's go up and see if we can spook it back down!"

Ur heads up the stairs (assuming Rijo comes along) with the torch in one hand and his dagger in the other, his shield stowed on his back again.
Dec 20, 2022 9:17 pm
While Ur shifts his gear around, the animal up on the balcony utters a rooster-crow that confirms it most likely is a cockatrice. The sound of its call echoes distantly from the walls of the chamber.
tibbius sent a note to seanfsmith
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