The group rested well into the next day before collecting their trappings and, with baited breath, entered the foreboding cave in search of the temple.
DISCOVER A SITE (Haunted Cavern) - Find the forgotten temple (Formidable)
FEATURE - Twisting passages
DELVE THE DEPTHS [0/10] (Kabeera, Shadow) - Miss [0/10]
Kabeera led the way, keeping the pace slow and careful. The cavern was ancient and echoey - every scuff of a boot seemed to ring out an alert to whatever might call this forsaken place home. The way narrowed and split multiple times into a warren of tunnels and passages. They ventured into the bowels of the earth and each of them became horribly aware of how remote and contained they were.
A soft noise reached the noble's ears, bouncing lightly off the walls from somewhere ahead. She led the group in this direction, curiosity and intimidating isolation drawing her to any sign of humanity. As they drew closer to the source she recognised it as a girlish voice, muttering and whispering indistinctly. Her comrades behind her hissed their concerns at where she might be leading them, but it fell on deaf ears as she pushed on.
The others followed her to a cavern strewn with piles of rubble and no discernible exit. Kabeera was standing in the centre, softly entreating a disturbingly-translucent figure that stood in the shadows, facing away. They looked about them in horror as they realised the heaps weren't rubble but dozens and dozens of desiccated corpses, sucked dry by centuries of rot and decay. The figure span round with a scream and the torches all blew out in an instant.
'RUN!!' someone shouted.
FACE DANGER...
... Kabeera - Miss
... Luiden - Strong Hit
... Williarth - Weak Hit
... Bjorn - Weak Hit
... Tekhra - Strong Hit
In a mad, terrified panic they turned and fled back into the passages as fast as they could manage. Luiden and Tekhra found their instincts reliable and made it straight out, but Williarth and Bjorn struggled to find the exit at first. The air was a cacophony of alarm and fear and desperation. Kabeera was completely disoriented and in her scrabbling about dislodged a large bone that brought a nightmarish avalanche of corpses down upon her, pinning her to the cavern floor as the gibbering haunt approached through the utter darkness. She could feel the temperature plummeting as it approached.
ENDURE STRESS - Strong Hit with Opportunity (1)
She held herself together, refusing to engage with the hellish circumstances. Shifting the pile on top of her to gain some freedom of movement her hand found an old leathery container which she had the self-possession to keep hold of. She pushed herself in the direction away from the voice and in what she believed was the exit, frantically feeling her way along the cavern wall.
FACE DANGER - Strong Hit
In moments she was free of the corpses and out of the cavern, pumping her legs in the darkness as fast as she could towards the flickering torchlight ahead. She nearly ran straight into the others on their way to rescue her. The party distanced themselves further from the mass grave, the girlish voice still whispering and chuckling as they went. Kabeera checked the old satchel she'd found and inside was a few small tools and textiles that had stood the test of time - a modest but appreciated boost to their supplies.
FEATURE - Apparitions
Not much later, as they forged deeper, the group suddenly started to hear other strange noises that didn't belong. Clashing of swords, beating of shields, cries of battle-lust and thundering of hooves. A mist sprang up quickly and soon visibility amidst the rising sounds of war dropped to mere feet.
With Bjorn scouting ahead as best he could, the other four proceeded carefully in pairwise back-to-back formation. Their eyes constantly darting about to try and identify any earthly source of the terrible sounds.
AID YOUR ALLY (Wayfinder) - Weak Hit
DELVE THE DEPTHS [0/10] (Williarth, Wits) - Strong Hit [1/10]
FIND AN OPPORTUNITY - Item of interest
Williarth paid close attention to the battle-sounds, largely unshaken by what was clearly a hallucination. He could make out some individual cries and calls of leaders and recognised it as a particular historic battle near his home of Frost Barrow. He related this to the others, assuring them that all they were listening to were the forgotten echoes of long-dead warriors that fell many hundreds of miles away. As he was doing so he noticed something unusual just to the side - a dead cultist wearing a grand, colourful robe. He took the time to remove the robe and stuff it in his pack, but lingered no longer than that.
FEATURE - Cramped caves
As they left the clangs and screams of war behind them the group agreed that stealth was prudent. There were dark forces and troubled souls down here that might have been undisturbed for aeons. However, after encountering the ghastly haunt Kabeera didn't feel up to taking the lead so Tekhra stepped up.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [1/10] - Weak Hit [2/10]
They crept slowly onwards, keeping close together as they carefully navigated a small network of caverns with unnervingly-high ceilings.
FEATURE - Dark pit
Luiden grew a little impatient and moved forward as they reached the exit of a small collection of caverns. Tekhra violently grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and yanked him backwards away from a sudden precipice he'd not noticed. She held the others back with a raised hand and carefully approached the edge with her torch outstreched.
The opening was like a window into a huge vertical shaft. Upwards and downwards the darkness was complete and untouched by her torchlight. Even the opposite side of the pit was hard to make out. She announced it to be a dead-end, but Bjorn was not so easily obstructed.
GATHER INFORMATION - Weak Hit
Practically hanging by his feet he extended himself out through the window to look around the wall of the pit in all directions, eventually scrabbling back inside to announce that he'd spotted a ledge by a large enough opening further down and round a bit. The walls of the pit were rough enough that scaling it was quite doable, the scout proclaimed, but Luiden was quick to remind him that this could not be true for those down a limb. Bjorn quickly rummaged through their packs.
CHECK YOUR GEAR - Strong Hit
He found what he'd hoped for - pitons. He handed them to Tekhra and she climbed out into the pit to ram them at close intervals so that the increased and improved handholds and footholds would make the challenge doable for the impaired Skirmisher.
FACE DANGER (Tekhra, Masked) - Strong Hit
FACE DANGER (Luiden) - Weak Hit
ENDURE STRESS (Luiden) - Weak Hit
Bjorn climbed down first and Tekhra threw him a torch. Then, with Williarth holding out a torch at the window she worked her way from one to the other slowly and diligently, ramming the pitons forcefully into carefully-chosen nooks and cracks. She hammered them home with her plated forearms and by the time she was done she ached severely, but now there was a far more feasible way for the one-armed skirmisher to descend. For good measure they tied a rope around his waist and hung it over a piton above the course with Tekhra and Bjorn holding onto the other end. Luiden made his way down awkwardly and slowly. On one occasion his foot slipped from a piton and he was left dangling by his single hand above a fathomless plunge, but he grit his teeth and drove himself onwards until finally safe on the ledge with the scout and the champion. Williarth and Kabeera followed suit.
Aside from the bashing of pitons and the gasps at Luiden's near-miss the progress was silent. Once they were all on the ledge Kabeera took charge once more and had them proceed in continued silence lest the pit hold any threat yet to be disturbed. She sent Bjorn ahead to check out the opening near the other end.
AID YOUR ALLY (Bjorn, Wayfinder) - Weak Hit
DELVE THE DEPTHS [2/10] (Kabeera, Shadow) - Miss [2/10]
Tekhra froze upon hearing the sickeningly-familiar wittering of the haunt wafting from behind her. She turned to see it climbing up over the rim of the ledge behind them. She stared in horror as it rose to full stature and, still gibbering unintelligibly, reach up with both hands to a large, bleeding cut across its own face. The fingers dug into the wound and pulled it apart with a wet sucking sound to reveal huge jaws with multiple rows of teeth within and then this horrific gaping maw started to laugh. Tekhra screamed and fled from it in terror, as did the others upon seeing this hellish thing up close.
ENDURE STRESS...
...Kabeera - Strong Hit
...Luiden - Weak Hit
...Williarth - Weak Hit
...Bjorn - Miss
...Tekhra - Weak Hit
They piled out of the pit and into the passage beyond, frantically trying to put distance between them and the haunt without getting in each other's way. Bjorn in particular struggled to keep his head together and frequently had to be grabbed and pushed onwards as the fear threatened to incapacitate him. Some hundreds of yards into the primordial darkness they felt some safety from the pursuing horror.
FEATURE - Twisting passages
The way went deeper and maintaining their orientation nearly impossible. Bjorn was out of patience now and insisted they maintain a high pace to traverse this hellish underworld as quickly as possible.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [2/10] (Bjorn, Edge) - Strong Hit [3/10]
FIND AN OPPORTUNITY - Hunting
The scout led them at a terrific pace through the depths, paying scant attention to the many recesses that could have held any manner of threat, and it served them well. Maybe an hour later they found a relatively open cavern in which the scurrying of rats was a welcome familiar noise. As the others caught their breath Bjorn set about hunting them for their meat.
RESUPPLY - Weak Hit
With their food supplies replenished somewhat with the questionable rat-flesh they ventured on.
FEATURE - Apparition
As they probed deeper they were again beset by horrible, disembodied sounds. This time it was a deep bellowing of rage, the same voice but multiple sources overlapping each other in a rising orchestra of fury. As they clutched hands to ears and hurried onwards they each recognised it with dreadful realisation.
The voice was Artiga's.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [3/10] (Bjorn, Edge) - Miss [3/10]
Sparing little thought to potential dangers the scout led them headlong into more mist. The thought of engaging with the source or sources of the wrathful screams, whether genuinely their erstwhile ally or some wicked mimic, was abhorrent to them and fleeing the area was their only concern. But this time it wasn't mist but a poisonous gas seeping out of some unseen toxic reservoir. They began coughing and spluttering in the fumes, eyes watering painfully. None of them could see clearly and from somewhere Bjorn called for them to follow his voice, though he too was clearly struggling to breathe.
FACE DANGER...
...Kabeera - Strong Hit
...Luiden - Weak Hit
...Williarth - Strong Hit
...Bjorn - Weak Hit
...Tekhra - Strong Hit
ENDURE HARM (Bjorn) - Weak Hit
ENDURE HARM (Luiden) - Miss (Dying)
Though at the point of coughing blood, Bjorn found an easy climb to an elevated passageway that was clear enough of the fumes to breathe easy. He helped pull the others up one by one but no Luiden came into view and no response came when they called. The elf and the scout ventured back down, clutching cloths over their mouths and returning for air periodically until they found Luiden's unconscious form and dragged him to safety. Williarth poured a small phial of tonic between the skirmisher's cracked lips and massaged his throat to get it into his system.
HEAL - Weak Hit
It was breath-baitingly slow progress and Williarth was beginning to lose faith until finally, tense minutes later, Luiden was spluttering and retching himself awake. They cradled him there in the tunnel until he had the strength to continue.
FEATURE - Blood was spilled here
The passage led to a large, long cavern that looked once-inhabited. Wooden structures and stone surfaces struck strange angles and here and there rusted manacles dangled from large iron rings. As they ventured in they started to notice more signs of dark activities - copper-coloured blood stains, sickle-shaped blades and carved emblems with motifs of fangs and claws. Once upon a time this was some kind of ritual torture chamber and as one they understood the potential for angry, malevolent spirits in such a place. Tekhra silently motioned for a stealthy approach.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [3/10] (Kabeera, Shadow) - Weak Hit [4/10]
They crept between altars, racks and furniture that defied description. The tense silence was suffocating. Even after reaching the opposite passageway without incident not a word was spoken for more than a hundred more yards.
FEATURE - Something unusual or unexpected
The passage ran long with no branches or tributaries, narrowing to single file and still a squeeze at that, until finally they emerged into a vast cavern. The ceiling shot up to fifty feet or more above them and the sides nearly disappeared in both directions. They stood at the top of a small bank that ran down into a veritable jungle of a garden. They stared in amazement at the fantastic sight - tall grasses, large hosts of brilliantly-coloured flowers, even trees with barks of alien hues and bizarre foliage. Their torches were moot here, for some kind of bio-luminescence lit the place in a way that defied reason and logic for no particular source was discernible. It was like a meadow born of lunatic dreams. The smell was a sickly-sweet medley and the atmosphere greatly foreboding.
After many minutes of staring in wonder Williarth took the helm, being more learned than most and certainly curious about what wonder they had stumbled upon. Tekhra insisted she check out the mad vegetation first lest it be a threat to physical constitution.
AID YOUR ALLY - Miss
ENDURE STRESS - Strong Hit (Burn)
The soil squished wetly beneath her boots and it turned her stomach but she wasn't sure why. She carefully knelt down and pushed grasses aside to touch it. The soil was soaking wet and uncompressed. She plucked a small clump and raised it to her nose to smell through the otherwise-overpowering floral fragrances.
It was raw, ground meat.
She cast it from her and fought the rising urge to vomit. She stood up quickly, clearly alarmed but when she saw Williarth's inquisitive expression just shuddered and the bard knew better than to ask her to elaborate.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [4/10] (Williarth, Wits) - Miss [4/10]
They ventured carefully through the grasses, keeping their distance from the trees and flowers, some of which towered above them with splayed petals larger than shields of war.
'This is no place for you.'
The sudden voice startled them all. It was deep, brooding and dripping with gravitas. They turned to see a deep-hooded figure approach from behind a wide bank of undulating bushes. It moved slowly with a large scythe as a walking staff. Its clothes were old and tatty. Its hands, the only visible skin, were deathly-white and slender. Williarth was the first to show courage and beseeched it for a name and an explanation.
'My name is Lago and this place is not for you.'
The figure kept coming and as it drew close brought the scythe round to bear as a weapon. Williarth once more entreated it for discourse over conflict, but it became rapidly clear that this was not on offer.
ENTER THE FRAY - Wight (Formidable)
...[Shadow] Kabeera - Weak Hit
...[Heart] Luiden - Strong Hit
...[Heart] Williarth - Weak Hit
...[Heart] Bjorn - Miss
...[Heart] Tekhra - Weak Hit
ENDURE HARM (Bjorn) - Weak Hit
Bjorn was ahead of the rest in readying his weapon, but this simply drew Lago's attention. The wight took two quick strides and used his incredible reach to slash the scout's shoulder and knock him to the moist ground. The blade gleamed as it arced through the air and made a high-pitched whistle like an angry birdcry.
FACE DANGER (Bjorn) - Weak Hit
ENDURE STRESS - Weak Hit
Bjorn snatched his bow and scrabbled away from Lago. He glanced up and briefly saw under the hood and instantly wished he hadn't.
Luiden clutched his spear and made a move to outflank the wight.
SECURE AN ADVANTAGE - Miss
CLASH [0/10] - Weak Hit [2/10]
ENDURE HARM - Weak Hit
The ground was uneven beneath the grasses and he stumbled straight into the wight's reach. He jumped back in the nick of time as the scythe swished past, carving through the grass, then he used the moment to smash the butt of his spear into Lago's chest. He felt a soft crunching of bones and expected a flinch that he could exploit, but instead Lago took one hand from his weapon and grabbed the skirmisher by the lapel to then effortlessly toss him aside. Luiden flew a clear twenty feet and smacked heavily into the thick bole of a tree.
In the same motion Lago span round to face Tekhra who was ready and waiting.
CLASH [2/10] (Masked, Duellist) - Strong Hit [6/10]
The two of them clashed in a flurry of forceful blows and though the hooded figure was a deceptively potent fighter Tekhra was perfectly focused. Again and again she struck away the scythe with one blade to then swipe in with the other. She landed multiple blows, cutting hard and deep and pushing the wight firmly onto the back foot. Kabeera appeared from the foliage behind it and sprang out when the opportunity presented itself.
STRIKE [6/10] (Cutthroat) - Miss [6/10]
ENDURE HARM - Strong Hit (Burn)
The furious and frantic motions of her target were too much for her to land a solid blow and before she knew it the scythe had ripped through her thigh. She backed out of reach to regroup and check her wound. It hadn't hit the artery - she would live.
Williarth came to Tekhra's support, closing the circle around the wight.
CLASH [6/10] (Long-arm) - Strong Hit with Opportunity [7/10]
He twirled his staff expertly, landing multiple soft strikes to the legs and feet to curb Lago's maneuverability before thrusting the end of the shaft firmly into its head. This momentarily stunned the wight and it backed away, swinging the whistling scythe wildly to ward them off, but Bjorn was already lining up his shot from the tall grasses behind.
SECURE AN ADVANTAGE (Archer, Honourbound) - Strong Hit
STRIKE [7/10] - Weak Hit [9/10]
The arrow skewered the wight through the neck and for just a moment it stood there with arms splayed and head thrown back.
END THE FIGHT [9/10] (Tekhra) - Miss
PAY THE PRICE - The true enemy is revealed
The moment was just enough for Tekhra to step forward and plunge both blades point-first into the wight's chest. She held Lago there with gritted teeth until she felt the body go limp then allowed it to fall off her blades, dead.
They gathered around the corpse, someone noting that the flesh on the hands were rotting and withering away at a remarkable rate. Tekhra went to unhood the body, but Bjorn grasped her wrist and implored her not to. She gave it a moment's consideration and then agreed it would be best not. Kabeera picked up the scythe. It was remarkably light for its size and she felt magicks running deep within it.
Luiden bravely grabbed one of the arms and wrenched it free from the shoulder with a sickening sound. He ripped out a single bone and by this point there was no flesh left upon it all.
REACH A MILESTONE (Acquire the remains of legendary warriors to oppose the doom) - [3/10]
On confirming that they were all still in good enough shape to proceed they ventured on through the garden, even more alert than before. Soon something else bizarre came into view. A square of flagstones some fifteen feet across bore a low dais at its centre and upon the dais stood a tall, wooden throne. It was a grand and stately seat and sure enough upon it sat a crowned man of impressive stature. He was maybe seven feet tall and richly-dressed, but the skin was sunken and pallid-grey and his head lolled with closed eyes.
They approached the seated corpse with much trepidation, arms at the ready. There was no sign of any other being nor of any signs of murder or violence upon the body.
The Dead King lurched awake with a sudden gasp and sickly-green eyes darting all around.
A moment of stunned silence on both sides held the scene briefly motionless. Then the Dead King's rotten eyes landed upon the scythe and in an instant he sprang forward and snatched it from Kabeera with frightening speed and strength, laughing maniacally.
'So the gardener is ended,' he mused, regarding the scythe like some intricate wonder. 'So then too is my diabolic imprisonment!'