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Post by EloHim on Jul 8, 2019 9:56:01 GMT -8
"We'll do everything in our humble reach to uphold the Hippocratic oath."- Beak answered to the paladin, his tone polite and tactful as he bows to Valeria, giving her due respect.- "Do no harm, save the people, spare no expense on that, you know how it goes."
Claw on the other hand seemed to relish the suspicion thrown at them, finding himself an opportunity to spew some verbal bile.
"And no one told us anything about you either. They just sent us here. "Wait till the group arrives and watch for those who might escape the depths." Simple enough for anyone to understand, don't you think, Cyclops?" - Remarks about appearance found their answer quick. T'was not the best one but first ones never are.
"You were given a task, were you not? To hunt cultists and save prisoners. Not picking fights with common folk." - Beak chuckled sheepishly, trying to de-escalate the growing conflict, but so far no success was in sight.
"You ask for answers which had already been given, puppet of thorns. Don't waste your breath on us, and we will not throw accusations at your station." - Claw answered to Talea, tilting his head to the side.
-The darkness of the ruinous dungeon beckoned the group into the familiar halls where misery rained supreme. This time they were silent, no singing to guide them. The cage - from this unpenetrable side of it at least - seemed completely empty, the slaves taken elsewhere...deeper into the dark.-
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Post by Kidney on Jul 8, 2019 11:32:54 GMT -8
Semyon's sweat dripped down his forehead, bleeding onto his nose, and dripping sadly onto his bottom lip. He was scared, and slightly crazed, and made his way to stand next to Taas. He looked to her, as if for sage guidance, before realizing that she may not give it to him. Dark eyes shifted towards the birds again, and he whispered in Taas' direction through a mostly closed mouth.
"Why they no squawk?"
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Post by Spookery đź’‰ on Jul 10, 2019 10:45:04 GMT -8
Valeria's expression grew dark as Claw began to spit insults at the teammates behind her. She took a step forward.
"I'll thank you not to speak to any of us that way," she said, voice stony. Her polite disposition had changed quickly. "You will do your job, as you were hired to do, and we will do our own. Not waste time commenting on appearances--especially from behind such ghastly masks. Await our return. We will be back from the depths presently." With that, she glared at Claw once more, briefly, then nodded toward the gates of the dungeon and made her way to them.
The hall was mostly as she remembered, or at least until they arrived at the cell the prisoners had been kept in the last time she and Talea were here. Valeria grimaced at the sight of it.
"They've moved them," she noted. "They must be preparing for their ritual already. We must be swift."
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Post by Capster on Jul 12, 2019 17:21:18 GMT -8
"Perhaps we all ought to just stay relatively silent, work as group so our own goals our completed." He commented at the sounds of borderline bickering from Beak and Claw.
As they moved into the hall Sarak looked about, his eyes wide and seeing much clearer than they would at other times. At Vengeance's comment he turned and spoke simply.
"Be calm Vengeance. A slow and smooth foot is a swift foot."
There was a coldness to his voice, a sudden detachment from a seemingly borderline human element. It was the same voice that he would use as a slave himself when instructed to kill his fellow man.
He quickly went forward, his eyes on the ground looking for any signs that could be pointing them to the direction the captives had went.
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Post by EtherealNoire on Jul 13, 2019 14:38:30 GMT -8
Amidst the quarrels of Light-dwellers, Talea courted silence. None could compel her thoughts out loud where voices poised such peril granter than they that hunted bodies in the dark.
Nay, her sight lingered o’er iron and earth, seeing what could not be sensed by those poisoned from the sun’s accursed touch, and the gloom itself receded as though a tide about her spectral figure, granting her venture. For below its earthen viscera, a far darker creature stirred. One whom held the appellation: Malice for she and Night alone. Thus, the traces of mortal passage beckoned, an invitation guiding her into its nest of bones.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Jul 16, 2019 12:30:14 GMT -8
/Taas/
Though Sarak and Valeria had moved on, Taas stood planted with her ax in hand and her face twisted into a 'tsk'd scowl at the jab the one named Claw had spat her way. Though in truth, her mind lingered on the moniker he'd set upon the acquainted Talea 'Puppet of Thorns'; there was hardly a thing thorny about the girl besides her anatomy.
"You best watch y'hole birdbrain." she snarled and glanced to Semyon and his halfwit charm, "Aye, we got our task; I just don't like unexpected surprises... particularly when it pertains to allies." Taas huffed and blew a lock of hair frustratedly out of her sight.
"And leastwise, you knew someone was coming; all we was told is that we're coming to save some sorry sods from a pickly predicament." Her scowl faded, betraying her initial apparent wounding,
"Now's I appreciate the offering but you gotta see how awful suspect that makes you look--" She waved a hand to the woody surrounding, "--not too long ago I was taken captive m'self by some bandits. And they looked an awful lot more trustworthy than either of you... and your gang." Taas nodded her head to the townsfolk. Still, she abated some of her tension by letting her ax-head fall to the ground, though she kept a hand on its hilt's end.
"How'says it you show me your pretty mugs, since you've seen mine and ours?" She offered, cocking a brow as she grabbed her jaw and coaxed a kink out of the bones,
"Maybe tell us what's up with your cute masks too. You know Cultist's 'round these parts play dressup with skulls and bones too; not a good look on you, gotta say."
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Post by Kidney on Jul 16, 2019 12:44:00 GMT -8
Semyon took the lead pretty early, aiming his rifle at the two. His eyes locked on the gruffer-sounding one. With a huff and a growl of his own, strangely deeper than one may have thought he could make. A wolverine, he almost sounded like. "Take off second face."
Semyon looked then to Taas once more, "They no squawk."
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Post by EloHim on Jul 16, 2019 13:24:49 GMT -8
"Take of the face, eh?"
"Sounds like they don't accept things at ...hehehe... face value."
"Its their fault not ours. I mean, we warned them."
"There were only best intentions...but we'll play your game."
The hands - dressed in black leather from shoulder to the tips of their fingers - rise up from within the robes grasping on the edges of the mask and lift them. The sound of bones breaking and flesh being torn fills the ears of the only two people from the group left upstairs.
The eyes of the masks don't stop glowing as the faces are removed to reveal...nothing. Pitch darkness of the neck.But that nothingness slowly starts to spill over and out of the suits, like dust. The hands of the figures let go of the heads. They start falling to the ground. And then...
"Yere done talking with yerselfs? Hot dam’, and they call us livin’ in the Hamlet fekin cuckoo." - a voice from the group of townsfolk marks the complete disappearance of the two figures into thin air. Masks didn't fall, for there were no masks.
The men grumbled about outsiders getting more mad by the day and went about their business tending to their donkeys and horses.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The tunnels led deeper and deeper, dragging the group into the darkness, dimly lit by an occasional torch. The deeper they went - the more apparent was the smell of blood filling the air.
One with a good ear could hear the slight rhythmic vibrations coming off the very stones around them.-
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Jul 16, 2019 14:44:14 GMT -8
/Taas/
Her jaw clenched, and a tingle went up her spine... fear, frustration, anger, worry... It was all there in her balled fists and sharp eye; the amber slitted sphere shot around where the birdmasked men were, before the Townsman spoke up and stole her attention.
"You watch your hole, chum." She shot back, voice raised just shy of a shout, as she jabbed a calloused finger at the man and their donkeys and horses. There was something off about it all, more than usual; she'd played with dalliances of delusions in the woods, she knew, as she and those that saved her egressed... But it was never something so purely in the daylight, when she was so sure of her senses.
She gave a frustrated huff through her nostrils and stared at the villagers, then looked back to Semyon,
"They no squawk, they no here..." Taas' brows furrowed and her lips pulled into a terse, pensive line as she pinched her brow between her fingers,
"... whatever they were, I don't like it. We need to warn the others, yeah?" She flashed a smile at the man, the brief indulgence in mimickery was enough to lighten her mood a touch.
Her eyes still lingered on the Townsfolk, but if they had foul intentions, she was sure she and her troupe could handle them.
"Let's go..." she lightly patted Semyon on the shoulder and hefted her ax up to her shoulder before moving to follow after the group...
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Post by Kidney on Jul 16, 2019 17:56:16 GMT -8
With the same kind of intense distaste for the shenanigans presented already, Semyon reacted to the birds' disappearance with a growl and a few indiscernible words in a foreign tongue. At the words of the villager, he offered another growl, "Zhopu porvu margala vikoliu."
The Rus sneered, following Taas quietly and diligently.
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Post by EloHim on Jul 17, 2019 11:54:08 GMT -8
Darkness of the tunnel. It dragged on and on...seemed like forever. The time spirals inwards, then outwards, the tunnel walls seem to press down together but at the same time nothing happens. Dilapidated stones were cracking under the steps of the group.
A voice breaks the sounds of steps and crackling of the torch.It slowly grows louder as they approach.
The source - kneeling man in the middle of a round hall with many tunnels spreading out all over. He was semi-naked, rags covering his lower body. Both his arms and feet are nailed to the floor with large metal nails, preventing him from moving...anywhere. Blood slowly flows out of the wounds on the floor.
“...Sand and chains...chains and sand… bring me no dreams… sleep is death… Sandman… I’m better off alone… please no...don't do it...don't come near me...there are two… if you don't listen to one...the other...will stab-gnaw...chain you up...under the roof… end this… no end in sight… help… help me…Blood... so much blood...” - he rambled on and on[<-this is voice clip here], his face facing the ground. His back is turned to one particular tunnel, which is well lit with many torches, leading...somewhere.
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Post by Kidney on Jul 17, 2019 12:09:04 GMT -8
Within the depths, Semyon found himself getting increasingly upset. His eyes flicked around, head on a swivel. He listened to the rambles as they began, and with fear he slowly pulled his rifle away from the group and strapped it back across his shoulder. Reaching to the other shoulder, he pulled free a smallish hunting bow, reaching to his opposite hip and nocking a cresenthead arrow.
With a look of fear, he peered around shifting forms to look upon the rambling madman. He listened, no fire. Fire wakes the monster. "GorĂtÄ•. No. None of that."
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Post by Spookery đź’‰ on Jul 17, 2019 12:14:47 GMT -8
The tunnel felt longer than she remembered--maybe only because she was going further than before. Even so, it felt different down there somehow. The walls closer, perhaps. The darkness more intense. And then, suddenly, a soft, lilting voice that grew louder. An unpleasant chill went up Valeria's spine, though it didn't sound quite like the singing of the ominous thing the slaves had warned them of the last time... She glanced back at the group and nodded toward the source of the sound.
"Let's keep our wits about us," she said calmly. "The slaves warned us of a sort of monster that sings down here...Though it doesn't sound the same, it could be dangerous all the same."
Except, when they arrived at the source, it didn't seem very dangerous at all. It was nothing more than the murmurings of a man. Valeria slowed to a stop in front of him, grimacing at the sight and mumbling a slightly horrified "goddess..." to herself. The nails hadn't even been driven through the man's flesh carefully. He was bolted to the floor haphazardly, and the blood seeping between his fingers made her stomach clench. She had seen horrific things before, but this was not one of them. The paladin leaned her halberd against the wall before kneeling at the feet of the man, reaching out to pat his shoulder with one armored hand
"This will hurt--but we'll lead you out of here," she said gently, then reached down to dig the tips of her fingers under the bulky head of the nail--{d20, 11 to pass, rolled 16} "Try not to cry out"--and ripped it from the ground and his right hand.
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Post by EtherealNoire on Jul 17, 2019 17:14:31 GMT -8
The darkness lured her yonder, compelling as the hand of he who watched from the shadows. In the depths of destruction they were bound to fight; tethered to infernal cords she could not break alone. Her steps paced unhindered o'er rocks compelled with rage. They dare not challenge her when desolation's promise beckoned, but beneath the soles of mortals, their facade shattered into snarls laced with blood.
Talea's fingers traced the copper cast from solus flame upon the walls, coaxing it deep into the earth where a endless tempo loathed her touch. It threatened to drown her, stifle her in its fury, yet none could shroud the voice that met them in the chamber beyond.
Crimson carnage surrounded them, painting her steps as she crossed to Vengeance's flank. Where hands removed iron, Talea waited, poised with song and shadow to face that which would come.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Jul 17, 2019 17:31:51 GMT -8
/Taas/
She huffed, breathing heavily though that was the only sound she made; warrior she may be, but her furred boots and padded maille were but whispers even with her haste in catching up with the party; she'd been late to the scene, but she'd heard the man's ramblings. She'd heard far less in far worse woods than these; a cave certainly made noise travel.
"Kh! Val..!" Taas' words came at a terse whisper, her eye widened and flicked over the bloody scene; it was a tortuous sight, a warning, or perhaps a ward. The wyrd and occult rarely drew blood for aught but fear.
"... bloody rose; you ever hear the terms 'bait' and 'ambush'? Leave the chum alone; you even listen to what the man said?" She warned as her brow furrowed, and she cast an eye to the ceiling, then to the path behind them. She shouldn't have rushed... strength in numbers be damned, numbers counted for shit in hallways.
Taas squared the ax to her shoulders and squinted into the Dark, training her ears to listen for potential ambushers as she moved to position herself near Semyon and Sarak...
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