DCC DotSK: Act 1-3

"Perhaps we needn’t all have come. If we can fetch up the shield and spear quickly, we can be back before dark!" Anora says to Dufgal, gently pressing the back of her hand against him, as if to spur him into action.

Although meant to spur him into action, Anora’s touch had other effects as well. The surprisingly spry thief takes to the climb like one who’s reached the top of many trees. His nimble fingers find purchase in the lines of the carvings and he is quickly off the floor.

Aldric moves forward and clambers into the chamber with Dufgal and Anora, if for no other reason than to stand upright again. As his nostrils fill with the ever-intensifying odour of the chamber, he muses on the strange twists and turns of life. For example, he would never have suspected that fucking the crone would only rank as the second most disgusting experience he's had this all day.

He once again dons his shield as he waits for ever-reliable Dufgal to fetch the prize.

A soft sound behind Ty makes him hesitate after he moves past the corner, and as he turns and looks back, movement draws his eye to the ceiling, to the strange mass of earth and twigs. Bony gray fingers are pushing through the dark thatch almost silently, pulling apart the earthbound branches that make up the top of the tunnel. The ghoulish hands are strong, and are quickly opening a hole in the roof that will allow their owner to drop down into the narrow passage.

Ahead, Aldric drops down into the chamber and fixes his shield to his arm. Anora watches as Dufgal, urged on by her gentle prodding, starts his ascent. The column of stone and wood looks like an easy climb… but the man isn’t three feet off the ground when a chunk of rotten wood crumbles beneath his foot and falls to the chamber floor. A large stone tumbles out of the column, landing heavily and making the wizardess dodge its weight. It’s followed by another, and another… forcing the thief to jump back down to the ground as the whole column trembles and then at once — collapses! Hunks of disintegrating wood and dozens of engraved stones thunder down onto the floor of the chamber, driving the two adventurers away from the middle of the room… which suddenly shudders itself, robbed of its central support.

Dirt and rubble begin raining from the ceiling — which quickly crumbles and begins to come apart. Several hundred pounds of earth and stone comes pounding down onto the ground, and then the entire chamber begins to collapse!

Dufgal rolls with the fall and pops back to his feet. Given the state of the rotting wood, he almost expected it to give. What he definitely didn’t expect was the whole support column collapsing. He backs up to avoid the largest of the falling chunks and prepares for what is next.

Aldric raises his oar and shield to ward against failing debris as the ceiling collapses!

The rubble is already raining down by the time Anora, Dufgal, and Aldric realize what’s happening. Fist-sized stones pelt the ground along with heavy clods of earth as ancient mortar dust showers down, coating everything grey. The passage they came in through is surely their only escape — but where in it is Aldric? Will there be enough room for all three of them to get to safety? And can they get there quickly enough?!

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Anora looks up, as the earth and stones start to fall all about her…

The terror of meeting the Bitch Queen in the afterlife fuels Aldric's addled body and mind into a burst of energy. He deflects the raining debris with the oar and shield that bears Her thrice-crested wave.

Recalling the time he had to navigate through the church in total darkness, Dufgal quickly memorizes a path to the only exit. But first he must grab for the Wolf-spear as it was the culmination of their efforts. He turns to locate it and is momentarily blinded by the avalanching dust and debris. His survival instincts kick in and his legs jerk him back around and begin darting along the imprinted path toward the egress. He miraculously dodges every larger chunk of earth and stone that falls.

As he gains momentary cover in the tunnel, he looks back in hope that his crewmates are also safe.

After Dufgal darts into the only means of escape, the tunnel that led to this now doomed chamber, he turns back as watches at the spear falls and disappears beneath what must be tons of cascading earth and stone. Anora and Aldric are coming, but the ground moves beneath their feet, and they scramble to avoid huge rocks that fall from above, any one of which is large enough to kill a person outright should it land straight on them!

In the tunnel behind Ty, who is hearing the thunder and the screams of his fellows, a withered, decaying creature slithers and slinks through the hole it's opened in the ceiling, then turns towards him and hisses -- twice! The monster's once-human face yawns wide, revealing a wriggling black tongue, but so too does the fanged mouth of the snake-thing that's burst part-way out of its host's sunken chest!

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As he looks on at the terrifying scene, Dufgal also see that he's dropped something during his flight!

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Anora looks up, and sees a slab of stone large enough to crush both her and Aldric with ease. Far too great to be held at bay by Pelagia’s holy weapon, the oar.

Anora springs aside, clutching up her cloth as she runs. To get it caught beneath debris would mean certain death. The woman puts her hand to Aldric’s shoulder, and pulls the man along with her! She grips tight, feeling that the man is ever so slick to the touch!

Just enough to pull them both out of the path of that largest piece, which sends shivers up to her knees when it lands just in front of her.

"The Bitch Queen would surely smite us all, if we let you be claimed by earth, and not sea…"