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Post by Fenrear on Feb 6, 2023 9:00:32 GMT -5
He continued to move through the front room, checking the walls and corners for anything significant. He couldn’t hear anything from the outside nor could he feel that Kyle had returned so he he took his time in checking. Finding nothing significant, he decided his best chance was to head up stairs to get a better look at the second floor. He eyed the stairs in the back with skepticism.
Moving in closer, he tries the first wooden stair. He had not seen any water or even any creatures down here yet. Despite its age, there was a chance they might hold him. Putting his weight gingerly on the first step, he finds that, despite a slight bend, that the first step indeed can hold him. There are handrails that lead up as well. As he felt them, he could tell that they were well made. He didn’t feel comfortable enough to make any assumptions however.
Step by step, he slowly and carefully ascends the staircase until he makes it to a landing. As he steps on the landing, he foot immediately crashes through it. Fortunately the hand rails still hold him and he is able to take his clawed foot out of the newly made hole. Aghhh, rotten. He says spitting at the ground. Stepping up again to the next stair and over the landing, he makes it up to the second floor.
The floor is nothing more than a large hallway lined with doors on either side. Trying the first door, it creaks open revealing a small room with a small desk and set of chairs. Checking the second room, there seems to be a similar set up with slightly different furniture and ornamentation. It looks to be some sort of office building. Fenrear had never really spent a lot of time in large cities so this was the first time he had actually seen one in person in years. He sat down behind the desk and made gibberish noises and shuffled papers like he was working there. He laughed to himself a bit knowing he must look ridiculous. Hello, I Mr. Gnollington, how can dos papers for you today blah blah blah. Fenrear hadn’t laughed this hard in a long time. At least he got something out of this little excursion.
Skipping the other rooms, he goes to the last room at the end of the hall. If there was anything at all important, it would be in here. As he suspected, this door was locked. You dont typically lock something unless you want to keep people out of it. Unfortunately for the lock and door, time was its enemy. Fenrear puts his shoulder to the door and shoves hard. After a couple rough tries, the latch on the door gives way and he is finally inside. As he does so, he is greeted by a pair of orange eyes peering at him in the darkness.
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Post by Arashi Tento on Feb 14, 2023 22:47:57 GMT -5
After a bit Arashi finished with both the indications on the map and some of the notes he wanted to take, but Kyle hadn't returned and neither did Fenrear... He looked at the undead hulk who waited patiently outside the door of the building Fenrear had entered. But he wasn't as patient and after a bit longer decided to go look for him in the building he had chosen to explore.
As Arashi entered the building, he could hear a muffled cackle from the second floor, at least someone was having fun although it is kind of a dangerous place to do so... He looked around a little trying to gauge how stable the building was, hopefully no cave-ins would happen but it didn't hurt to look out for the structural integrity of old buried buildings. Not noticing anything immediately dangerous he decided to go up and follow the gnoll, repeating the process of checking if the planks would hold his weight, and checking the handrails to make sure they wouldn't give in if he tripped, and he even repeated the almost falling through the floor as he reached the end of the stairs, while he had noticed the hole made by Fenrear earlier he had the bad luck of stepping in another rotten part of the floor, which made a loud sound just as the Gnoll had succeeded in opening the last door of the hallway
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Post by Fenrear on Feb 15, 2023 0:23:17 GMT -5
Well that is just fantastic. Fenrear had never seen one before in person but his tribe had talked about the cave fishers of the desert on a regular basis. Usually as a cautionary tale to young Gnoll about the stupidity of going underground. Fenrear had never put too much stock in the stories but he could hear his nursemaid laughing at him from wherever she was. There was even a little song that went with it.
Cave Fisher Cave Fisher in the hole. Leave me be, I’m a good Gnoll. You stay in your cave, I stay in my plain. Cave Fisher Cave Fisher, I know your name. While the song sounded a lot better in Gnollish, the point was clear. Gnolls and Cave Fishers should stay in their own lane. Fenrear had stepped in the wrong rec room. He backs out slowly as the creature can be heard skittering around in the room. As he does, he catches Arashi out in the hall. Bad timing yes. Needs to move back, no sudden moves.
The glowing eyes can be seen peering through the doors. Small strands of gossamer thread start flowing through the hallway. He waves at Arashi and tries to work his way back down the way he came. As the threads flood the hall, he can start to feel their pull slowing him down. He tries to move quicker but the harder he pushes, the more strain he puts on the floor.
As he gets to the bottom of the stairs he hissed at the undead hulk. Get in here!
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Post by Arashi Tento on Feb 22, 2023 11:10:40 GMT -5
As Arashi recovered from his almost fall, He saw Fenrear coming closer He was backing away slowly, which was enough to clue him in on the fact that there was something dangerous in that room, he nodded at the Gnoll and began going down the stairs slowly and quietly, while placing a hand on the hilt of his sword, in case it didn't wait around. He began seeing the almost invisible threads which pulled at them to either make them fall or catch them entirely. Glowing eyes shifted in unpredictable patterns inside the room, Whatever it was it was agitated.
As they reached the end of the stairs The Gnoll yelled at his undead minion to come in, which prompted the creature to hunt. it rapidly covered the corridor, and once on the top of the staircase it lunged at them, jumping at impressive speed going straight for the face. Arashi took out his sword while blocking the attack in one single motion, he tried to deflect the creature throwing it above him so it would land some distance behind, but he didn't account for how much momentum the creature had between it's speed and size.
"Dammit!" He fell on the floor with the Cave fisher on top of him, only his Katana between it's mandibles and his face, he struggled a bit as the threads fell on his face like spit, he hoped Either the gnoll or it's undead hulk would help him soon.
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Post by Fenrear on Feb 22, 2023 12:07:17 GMT -5
Fenrear turns to see that Arashi has been tackled by the beast. He pulls out both of his knives to try and cut away at the webbing but with little effect. In frustration, he dives at the cave fisher with the knife, trying to stab at it’s flickering eyes. The fisher does a good job of dodging the attack while still keeping its bulk firmly planted on Arashi. It is too distracted to notice the undead hulk approaching from the side.
With a wide swing of its great axe, the undead hulk managed to lop off one of the beasts legs. The creature screeches horribly and back up off of Arashi. Sword Man, are you ok? Fenrear calls to him, still struggling with the webbing. The undead hulk is unrelenting. It moves past Arashi and takes another big swing at the cave fisher. The monster skitters to the side to avoid the blow. Perhaps the group is too much as the fisher attaches to then climbs up the far wall until it’s almost to the ceiling but out of range for the hulk.
Fenrear finally mages to get free and rushes over to help Arashi who still seems stuck to the floor.
Dueling Knives
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Post by Arashi Tento on Mar 1, 2023 16:12:32 GMT -5
Arashi Struggled to keep the Cave Fisher's Maw away from his face, Fenrear tried to help but the thing somehow managed to dodge him and not relent his hold on Arashi. that was until it lost a leg by the great-axe of the giant undead Fenrear commanded as it screeched Arashi Pushed making it back away. "Yeah, I'm alright." Arashi managed to stand up as the Gnoll arrives next to him, he panted a bit taking some of the threads out of his face and clothes, then Flicks his sword to try and get rid of the ones in the blade, which due to their stickiness proved futile enough.
"What do we do now? It seems like it wants to attack but it probably won't until it gets a good opportunity... I don't have any ranged options either..." they could just try to leave but not only would that be Irresponsible since they're supposed to make the place safer, it would also be dangerous since it could just sneak up on them while they were leaving. Besides Arashi kinda wants to kill this thing now.
"If not, I guess I could act as bait sort of again... I think I can manage to not get knocked down this time though, probably at least."
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Post by Fenrear on Mar 1, 2023 17:31:38 GMT -5
Fenrear looks at the swordsman bemused. Distance not a problem, yes. Much better to kill in places they cannot kill you back. More afraid beast will no die, just get angry. The undead hulk kept shifting back and forth to make sure the monster could not get around him. You be ready. I hit him good and if he comes charging, you slash him with sword. Still think it better to just leave it alone and call it a day. The song was still ringing in Fenrear’s mind. Everything inside him told him attacking the monster would be a bad idea. Bad ideas are how he got into this mess in the first place.
He looked at the creature and pointed a clawed hand at it. A bolt of purple magic shot out and stuck it hard. The cave fisher, definitely not dead, shrieked and changed positions on the wall. Fenrear fires another bolt at him which strikes behind it on the wall. Ughh stay still. The monster switches tactics and clubs the wall and then onto the ceiling. Moving over, it is now directly above them. The undead hulk tries to cover them but Fenrear can tell it won’t be enough. The creature starts dripping webs from the ceiling. A ceiling that he can hear is straining under the creatures weight.
Chaos Bolt
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Post by Arashi Tento on Mar 2, 2023 16:15:37 GMT -5
"agreed, I'd rather not have it trying to eat my face..." Arashi wondered as he wasn't sure how exactly they were going to reach it. That's when Fenrear shot darkness at the cave fisher, it shrieked as it was struck by the magic but aware of the danger in which it was right now. It began moving around quite erratically, making striking him again quite hard. As it dodged another spell it decided it wasn't gonna wait around.
Jumping to the ceiling and moving above them, it began releasing more of its threads trying to get them stuck so that it could hunt them... The ceiling Arashi managed to notice that the ceiling was starting to crumble it seems the poor structural integrity of such an old place would end up coming in handy. Arashi moved to the side, getting out of being right under the creature, hopefully the building wouldn't collapse entirely, he thrust his Katana towards the thickest threads and with a few flicks got several of them stuck to his sword, the cave fisher kept spitting the threads. "Hope this works!" He lifted his sword and spun it around to get the threads tight, and then slashed downwards and sideways away from the creature, and as expected it pulled back causing enough strain on the ceiling, making it collapse. Rocks, wood and a few pieces of furniture from the second floor fell on top of the cave fisher as it screeched one last time...
"Well hopefully that's that..."
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Post by Fenrear on Mar 6, 2023 17:42:40 GMT -5
Fenrear wasn’t about to take any chances. Motioning to the undead hulk, the massive creature walks over and starts hacking away at the beast. It doesn’t move under the onslaught so Fenrear is satisfied. Just as the hulk finishes up, Kyle enters the room. Bawk bak bak. Ohhhh so now you show up once I am no longer in danger of becoming a monster smoothie. That’s fantastic. Bak bugugh. I don’t want to hear your excuses, just tell us what you found.
Kyle scratches at the floor and motions them to follow him outside. As they exit the building, Kyle starts pecking at something shiny on the ground. What is this? Brrrr gah bak. Fenrear picks up a small metal medallion and turns it over in his clawed hand. Kyle says there is a passage over there and he found this in there. The medallion doesn’t seem to be made of precious metal. Perhaps iron? On one side is the face of a lion. On the other, are two crossed swords. He hands the medallion over to Arashi to examine. This is interesting yes? Kyle also says nothing else alive down there. Not that he sees. Probably go down there next to see what is there. You ok?
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Post by Arashi Tento on Mar 31, 2023 20:33:10 GMT -5
Arashi stands back as the Giant undead rushes to bash what has now become a mix of debris and innards, it was... a bit of a gruesome sight, as the blood and bone of the cave fisher, became almost indistinguishable from the now smeared and pulverized debris, as the hulk finishes its handiwork, Kyle the undead chicken saunters in, and after a brief chuckle worthy exchange with Fenrear, Kyle leaves and they both follow it outside.
There Fenrear notices a medallion on the ground, he picks it up and explains what Kyle told him, as Fenrear gave it to Arashi, he inspected it discovering roughly the same that the Gnoll did "hmm a passage, that is indeed interesting. maybe this medallion has something to do with that. If it is locked then it might be a key... or part of one at least."
"And yes I am fine, a bit winded and my sword might need some sharpening once we're out, but otherwise I'm good." Arashi tried cleaning his sword a bit but the sticky webs were hard to get off, he managed to get a bit of excess off, at least enough to sheathe his sword again. "Alright let's go check that out" He said as he would follow Fenrear and explorer Kyle around
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Post by Fenrear on Apr 7, 2023 16:25:23 GMT -5
They waited until the undead hulk, goo covered from his work, ambled back into the square. Their party complete, the four headed down down the path with Kyle leading the way. The first thing that Fenrear noticed was the dramatic change in temperature as the continued downward. He wondered to himself how many years that it had been since leaving beings had ventured down these paths.
They had been walking downward at a steady pace for around thirty minutes. He was grateful for his night vision, but admittedly there wasn’t a whole lot to look at, at first. The soon found themselves in front of a large wooden door with a brace across the front. It was odd. This door had the brace on this side. Meaning it’s intent was not to keep people out. The door was designed to keep someone or something in.
Fenrear scratched his chin and took a closer look at the door. Hmmm large. Very solid. He takes a moment to push against the brace holding the door shut. It was heavy and from the layers if dust, it had not been moved in a long time. Whatever this door held probably died a long time ago. He knocked against the gate and heard a hollow echo against the void beyond. Whatever was back there was big. Give me a hand yes?
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Post by Arashi Tento on May 8, 2023 21:08:19 GMT -5
As the group continued their descent into darkness, Arashi had to trust his companion and his other senses to keep alert, even the torch was failing to illuminate much farther than a few feet away… the place was also deadly silent except for the echoing footsteps of the group.
After a while Generar noticed something first and Arashi followed him, arriving at a big barred gate, not only did the placement of such locking mechanism look odd since it implied it was keeping something inside rather than keeping stuff out, but also the fact this was so close to other parts of the ruins some of which looked like residential areas…
"Sure!" he got closer and helped Fenrear lift the brace and undo the lock. As they heaved and pushed, a cloud of dust fell on top of them, and the door began to move and open…
A huge chamber laid at the other side of the door, some bioluminescent fungi seemed to be growing all over the chamber giving it an eerie atmosphere, but the weirdest thing about it was surely what laid in the middle, the only thing that seemed to have withstood the passage of time within these ruins… a perfectly built fountain with clear, running water. The sight was impossible to miss thanks to the mushroom lights that adorned the place, and the fountain itself that was so well preserved it seemed to glow. It certainly was an incredible find.
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Post by Fenrear on May 8, 2023 22:23:24 GMT -5
As the entered the large cavern, Fenrear was just as shocked as Arashi at the sight of the fully functioning fountain. It didn’t make any sense. Ever since they entered, they had found nothing but rot and destruction. Even around the cave, evidence of broken buildings and structures was everywhere but there, an oasis of peace and serenity in the form of a flowing fountain.
Very strange this is, yes? No water. No water anywhere but here? Good thing to add to the map. Kyle, go look around. The undead chicken clucked and started checking around for life or more information. As he did so, Fenrear saw something shiny in the dirt. He picks it up and finds it’s a medallion identical to the one that Kyle had brought them earlier. As he looked closer to the ground, he could see several more scattered about. Picking up a couple, he wondered about their significance.
It was time to get a closer look at the foundation. He wasn’t quite sure why but his instincts told him to be careful. He motions the undead hulk to get closer. As the hulk lumbered close to the fountain, Fenrear waited for something to happen. Several minutes passed of the behemoth just standing there so he felt it was probably safer to get a closer look.
The craftsmanship of the fountain was beautiful but overly simple. It was odd that a structure so odd and apparently sturdy would be so basic. As Shaa examined it, he noticed several of the medallions were in the fountains pool. Looks like even ancient people believed in wishing wells. What do you think. Got a wish for the luckiest fountain in the world?
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Post by Arashi Tento on Jun 1, 2023 1:40:15 GMT -5
Something didn't feel right... Arashi was excited, it was a really impressive find after all, a working fountain in a ruined city... But as marvelous as it was it also looked suspicious... for some reason curiosity seemed to take over cautiousness, as Arashi approached the fountain with the medallion in hand. "Should I..? well yeah what is there to lose!" As he got to arms length of the fountain he looked back at fenrear giving him a nod before throwing the medallion. At this point the Gnoll might've noticed the pattern of what looked like stalagmites but would soon reveal to be much more than that... they were forming a circle around the fountain and unlike what's common for these formations they were angled towards it.
"I wish we could learn what happened here... Why was this room sealed? what happened to this civilization? what is this fountain made of?" as he threw the medallion in he sighed "Honestly an answer to any of those questions would be nice... but I don't mind that much I think I just wanna get out of here by now."
one plop later, the medallion disappeared into the fountain, but something was definitely not right... the floor began to rumble, "Is the place collapsing?!" Arashi began heading towards Fenrear hoping they could leave together completely oblivious to the fact that it wasn't just a collapse...
The otherwise plain fountain had one interesting detail, a golden orb on its top, or that's what it passed as... A giant beast opened it's eye, waking from a long, almost death-like, slumber. The stalagmites shook as Arashi looked behind him and suddenly realized... they were in deep shit...
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Post by Fenrear on Jun 1, 2023 8:04:03 GMT -5
As the cave began to rumble, Fenrear got a sick feeling in his stomach. This is why Gnoll usually don’t go in caves yes? Sky never falls hard on head. No amount of money was worth getting buried alive. Shaa was just about to suggest they grab some more of the coins and cut their losses when he hears Kyle clucking anxiously at him. BWAAK BAK BAGAH BAK BAK! What? What giant eye? He looks at Arashi who is staring at something over the fountain. He then finally catches up with everyone else in the room. They were not alone.
Is teeth!? Run fors the door! Fenrear starts to sprint back to the door. It all made sense now. This was all one big death trap and they had walked right into it. A big sign on the door would have been helpful, giant fountains are monsters. Who knows, maybe there was one at some point. Maybe they worshipped the thing and got eaten for their troubles. That was a question for academics and scholars, not for underpaid map makers.
As they were getting close to the exit, the undead hulk had jammed itself into the door to keep it propped open for their escape. Speaking of beings who were underpaid. If it wasn’t dead, Fenrear would so give this guy a raise. Good job! Arashi, you come now quick! Looking back, the fountain had disappeared, replaced by what looked to be a monstrous pink tongue covered with spikes. And it was coming after them.
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