Episode 2

SÉANCE TUNNEL

Ryhim’s arrow is on course for a kill, but the humanoid bug’s quick reflexes save it from being skewered. It drops its flight path low, and the arrow clips the edge of a wing rather than its head.

Ranged Attack Hit.

The bug pulls back at the last minute and rises up higher to the ceiling, and then actually floats back in the tunnel. Hovering, the insectoid sets its wings beating in a roaring drone. The noise pulses in and reverberates through the tunnel. Ryhim and Maeriks both feel a pressure rising somehow in their heads – a growing disorientation. Their senses are under attack – the bug is trying to debilitate them with its unnatural assault of sound.

Required Action, Ryhim, Maeriks: DC 12 CON save or fall Unconscious

Maeriks, completely exhausted already, is overwhelmed by the cruel drone. He falters, finding that he cannot take another step. He falls to one knee, holding his head. In the next moment, he collapses in a heap.

THE SMALL IRONS GATE

The long snout of the fly-like creature is like a hollowed out spear. It stabs Iasu's shoulder, high, above the clavicle. It gouges a severe wound, and Iasu can feel the burning of the poison injection right away. The pain is devastating. Iasu's vision flashes white with the pain and his head spins.

Hit. Iasu moves to 0 HP. Enter the Zero Hit Point State (ZHPS)

The aggressive Hel spawn tries to force its way through the closing passage and on top of Iasu, but the Hechesi ranger is able to hold the fiend back in the narrowing opening at the chute as the large platform rock on which he is laying continues to rise upward, quickly closing off the route to the tunnel. In a last strained effort, Iasu shoves the buzzing fly back roughly, making it too far away to engage again before the way is closed. With little choice other than accepting the rise of the stone, Iasu is carried up towards the night sky.

When the platform comes up to meet the top edge of the stone shaft opening, the great rock grinds and shift as it locks into final position. With a crunch and small boom, it becomes a horizontal table platform fitted atop a set of base stones.

Behind Iasu's head is a large boulder block, cut but severely worn over time. It is the one side of the structure that stands higher above the rest. There are three other stone block sides that rise up to meet the horizontal platform on its three other sides. The complete configuration is rugged, weathered, ancient.

But it does not take long to surmise what the set of stones is, or at least was - long ago. Iasu is laying atop what must have been an altar of sacrifice.

There it sits, in the abandoned part of the city, offset now as more of a yard ornament a considerable distance from the neglected Adriyalet Palace: the Small Irons Gate.

But it looks as no Gate at all. A passer-by would never know that it was a gateway, yet it was - a portal to The Pit at the Edge of the World, the final step before a descent into The Underworld on a route through Hel itself.

Perhaps in all history, Iasu was the one man who had traveled the path in the opposite direction. By Elam's betryal, Iasu had begun the Devotion of the Small Irons, administered upon him as it always had been over centuries, willingly by one's own family. By the extraordinary daring of foreign strangers, Iasu had been spared the agonizing ending of the cruel Devotion. By the rare knowledge of Bryn Rynault the Dannein, Iasu had been carried by the Small Irons themselves back to the World.

There, laying on the Altar of the Small Irons, his legs bound in the inert iron bands that were once the Serpents of Hinnon, Iasu sits outside of the Cursed House of Adriyalet, under the open sky. His body, though pierced and wounded, is not degrading by the powers of the curse that once bound him within. Somehow he can tell inside that he is beyond the effects of the hex now.

But then the internal pain sets in. The wound burns and his entire shoulder is overtaken with a stiffness, nearing paralysis. His hands begin to shake. His head pounds. His vision is getting blurry, with darkness closing in on the edges. Iasu knows he is poisoned. He has very little time before he loses consciousness, or perhaps worse.

previously note="jabes.plays.rpg"]
OOC: Switching to Note posts and Hide Everything dice rolls. This is a real curve-ball scenario that we have wound up in. No matter which way it goes, I want to withhold developments from the crowd. I have a feeling that one way or another, the scene will be too influential to ignore.
Please Note and Hide rolls on your entries as well going forward.

Thanks, bro. Good luck.

--------------------------------------------------

Iasu's eyes are soon drawn to a few lights.

Torchlights. Though the moon is in waning, casting some pale shine across the terrain, these torches are the only light piercing the darkness on the ground.

Three of them. No... four of them. And they approach.

Voices now. Calls among men. The language? Iasu is not sure yet, but it is not Heshbaan.

Aside from the Palace, other structures of the Old City are scattered off in the distance. But here, on the Small Irons Gate which is now a stone formation, Iasu is out in the open.

For the most part, but there are scraps of weeds and rogue shrubbery. The Old City is a realm of neglect, where the land and the natural world is gradually breaking back in to take back from the structures of man. Iasu may be able to hide if he chooses, perhaps benefiting from the dim light and certain shadows that would be cast by the torches.

The torches are getting closer. Iasu's vision is getting worse. His muscles are tightening up and he begins shaking.

As the men stride closer, Iasu catches a few words now.

"Press left. Eyes out."

Commands from one of the men to another.

Yuoric words.

Action when ready.




[/note]

Ryhim can Action in SEANCE TUNNEL. Public posting.

Iasu can Action in SMALL IRONS GATE. Hidden Note posting.

SEANCE TUNNEL

Seeing the opening in the web-like interlocking of chains, another insectoid creature flies down and lands.

Peering through, it sees its brethren engaged against victims.

Wings burst into motion. It leaps to the chain barrier and begins to wiggle its way through the opening.

"OFF SCREEN"



Bryn can see it all. The Sigils on The Stone reveal everything to him. He understands all of the Words of Power here. The Chamber is like a tool to him now.

He speaks and the Main Irons clang to attention. Another phrase sets them in motion at the exit.

Surging forward at high speed, ignoring all obstacles in their way, the grimy chains fling forward in waves. They route through the heavy eyelets on the wall and interlock between one another. One after another, perfectly synchronized, they begin to restore the threshold barrier.

The one bug climbing through is caught in the motion, immediately captured as The Irons surges right past it, right over it without regard. As more Irons stack on top of one another, the pressure increases. The bug squirms desperately, but it is too late. When the whole assembly of Irons snatches taunt, the insectoid burst. Fluid and ichor spray forward both in the tunnel and in the chamber as the creature's exoskeleton ruptures and its foul internals pour out.

The Chain Barrier is locked into place. The entrance to The Pit Chamber is completely sealed.


-----------------------------------------------------

Bryn Mac Rynalt takes a deep breath.

He looks across to watch the final fate of Elam the Deceiver. The Xorn has stripped Elam of his backpack and sword belt. Now it picks the blue-skinned half-devil up and hangs him on one of the Main Irons. When the hook pierces Elam's back and locks perfectly under his shoulder blade near the spine, Elam screams out like he is being murdered. He will soon wish he was.

The Harvester slithers close to Elam like a living fluid. It hisses and speaks ancient words softly into Elam's ear as he screams. The monster nudges the pivot nubs of its spear appendages along Elam's torso, and then pushes him forward. The Iron on which Elam hangs slides over to The Pit. The Harvester follows to the edge and glares across at The Platform, on which both Bryn and Bushyasta stand.

Bryn does not turn around, but speaks back to Bushyasta in Dannein.

"Send it away. It has its claim."

Bushyasta complies, speaking in the Words of the Depths. Elam is lowered into The Pit. Screaming.

The Harvester leaps across to a set of chains, swirls down them like running water, disappearing into the Darkness, following after its hapless victim.

The Chasmes are still flying around like madness. Buzzing and chirping.

Bryn looks across now into The Vault. All of it inside is his now. It is magnificent. He can see what lies beyond.

The Galetgul, still perched on Bushyasta's shoulder, flaps its one good wing to steady itself. It licks its tongue and slaps with its neck tentacles to pull around to get a closer look at Bryn. "WARLOCK!!!!" it buzzes. "A mortal challenges!!! BBBZZZAAAAA!!! It is a challeeeeenngeee..."

Bryn raises his hand and blows the head apart with an Eldritch Blast. Brains and blood are blown out as gore, some spraying into the air and the rest splattering against the side of Bushyasta's face. The Pale Monster blinks its eye open and closed several times to smear away the sludge.

Bryn pulls the Black Book out from the holster-like satchel at his belt. He maintains eye contact with Bushyasta as he lays the book down on top of the slanted podium top of the menhir stone. Without looking back at the book, Bryn opens it with one hand to the page desired, and holds the book in place.

He speaks to Bushyasta, still staring at the monster at first, but then turning around to read as he speaks.

"Vine Incubus and his succubi can have the city. What they do above is of no concern to me. But The Lower Chambers are mine."

Bryn looks out at the entire Chamber. The Irons. The great Chasm. The Door of the Kings. The Entry to the Bastion. The Platform and the Stone.

He can read all of them. He hears the guidance from Suter-Set.

The buzz and churn of the flying fiends is near deafening now. It angers Bryn. Severely.

"The Pit is mine."

In one grand motion, The Irons turn into a whirlwind of metal. A tornado of death.

The flying Chasmes are ripped to shreds.


--------------------------------------------------------

SEANCE TUNNEL

Ryhim's blade slices through the flying insectoids torso, opening a huge gash, and carries onward to tear off part of a wing. The bug crashes to the tunnel floor and begins to toss, turn, and buzz in its death throes.

Hit

Ryhim stands at guard over Maeriks, watching to ensure the bug is no longer a danger.

Maeriks is unresponsive at first, so Ryhim has to commit to the strain of dragging the heavy Dannein uphill to the Séance Chamber and across it. Winded and sweating from the effort, Ryhim tries again to revive Maeriks after struggling to get him up the natural staircase that leads to the burned remnants of the Snake Door. Maeriks begins to mumble and flutter his eyes. After a few moments invested into prodding and helping Maeriks along, Ryhim is able to get him walking again to make the rest of the stairs.

Outside of the Snake Door, Ryhim investigates the cached equipment in the hall. He can instantly tell that Kray and Thorn have already passed by and carried some of the baggage on with them.

"My stuff...!" Maeriks says, still groggy, when he notices the pile of abandoned gear that includes his armor, kilt, sandals, along with some of his bags and even his glaive.

Securing and lighting a torch, Ryhim covers the hallway as Maeriks takes a quick moment to clothe and arm himself. The Sarceran presses forward down the hall a ways, trying to see if he can see any way to catch up with Thorn and Kray. He finds nothing though. They must have made it further on. Or perhaps went a different way?

----------------------------------------

Maeriks and Ryhim quickly return to movement, still trying to put distance between themselves and The Chamber of the Pit. Maeriks has to maintain a slow pace, he is so injured and exhausted.

The pair move back to the junction hall with the living quarters, the well, and the armory.

After a cautious pass through that area, they move on through the halls and past the kennels. When they turn the corner, they have returned to the great drain chamber where the grand battle was fought, where members both the Cursed and the Rabisu fell, where The Howler met its ending at the hands of Trece the Seetan, where hybrid spider-men, burning hounds, and a great glob of acidic gel joined in the melee. It is where Maeriks turned into the bull, and he recognizes it. The wreckage and bodies are still there. The smell of burnt flesh, spoiling blood and guts.

Now it is where the group reunites. Thorn and Kray are there. They are lighting a large collection of torches, with intention of lining the narrow bridge passage ahead with fires - an effort to keep back the dangerous gel that has retreated back to its large drain pits in the adjacent room.

After a short reunion, the group of four presses on, quickly risking it across the central walkway in the next room. They are wary of the gel below on both sides, and dash as fast as they can across the danger area. Whether it is the torches or the fact that the gel is too full to seek other victims, the crossing is successful though nerve-wracking.

Soon the group passes out of the Eagle Door, back to the Hearth Room, up a level of stairs and then keep moving onward by memory of the route by which all of them, save Ryhim, passed through previously in the opposite direction.

Their destination: the secured section of rooms the served as the home and headquarters of the Cursed.

With the recovered key ring on his belt, Kray believes that he can gain entry into this relative safe zone once they get there.

previously note="DMJ"] Are my legs still bound?[/note]

Kray and Ryhim provide strong coverage as Thorn and Maeriks move along as best as they can, both still dealing with severe injuries.

The group returns to the first of the defensive barriers that mark the transition to the Cursed's headquarters area. This door is a rugged iron band door, bolted on rugged hinges. A modern lock mechanism is welded into place as the latch.

Kray inspects it carefully and sees no danger from traps.After a few tries with different keys, Kray finds the match. A turn and the latch opens. Kray swings the rough-built door open with a loud creaking sound that belts through the hallways.

Everyone moves through the next hall eventually coming to a large oak wood and iron bound door. This one, unlike the previous, is an old door, part of the original structure of the house. It has a characteristic look-through shudder set at eye level. The shudder is closed.

Kray tries the keys. There are two large locks. It takes a while to find the matches. The smaller clicks open. The larger is a heavy bolt, Kray can tell. The key also is more of a small lever, a husky handle that turns a large mechanism within. This apparatus gives some trouble. Either the lever key is not quite working, or the bolt inside is worn or bent. Kray can feel it move to some degree, but has to rattle it back and forth, trying to find some way to get it to move entirely.

Then suddenly, the look-through shudder opens.

A set of eyes moves forward. Someone is looking from the other side. The torchlight shows a flash of the onlookers face, but it is a quick glance, a bit shocking. Before the group can get bearings to speak, engage, or get anything through the small opening, the shudder is slid back once more, snapping to a close.