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| Action Id: 3049 | Crisis: | Participants: Jeffeth, Aureth, Mae, Caith, Andry and Juniper | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: Jan. 13, 2019, 4:07 a.m. | Public: True | GM: Puffin |
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Economic Resources: 100 Military Resources: 100 |
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Action by Jeffeth
We're going to the catacombs.
It has taken a while to get everything set up and learn about the catacombs. Tunnels change. It's hard to navigate. There are servants of the Queen. Certain parts are more dangerous than others. After learning a good amount, plans are being drawn. They will take the secret entrance into the tunnels under the Murder of Crows. Fitting since there objective revolves around a Murder. Jeffeth has information (Clue 2833) that suggests information about crows and their unusual history may be lost under the city in the catacombs somewhere. So a crack team has been assembled and they will take an expedition into the catacombs to search for this information.
Magpie made a deal that if he opened the door, he comes along. So with Magpie providing the entrance under the Murder to the tunnels. Magpie is along for the trip. Mae knows the way from the tunnels to the catacombs. And Aureth comes to keep Death's servants from harassing the group too much.
Once down they will let their need for the information guide the way. They bring along a lot of items that have been suggested for navigating the catacombs. A lot of chalk. A few very large balls of string. Extremely long wooden poles. A lot of candles.
This is Jeffeth's trip, but he's not the most keen on digging up information or finding things. So he will mostly be focusing on protecting his companions, hoping his more sharp eyed friends find something that may help them.
We go searching for crows!
Action by Caith
Does Caith have fighting abilities? Nope. Can she heal people? Nu-uh. So why is she down in the catacombs where she might encounter living skeletons and other assorted peril? In a word: ADVENTURE. Armed and armored with her trusty Jeffeth, she is going to use her tingly senses to help figure out where they should go. Mae is the authority, of course, but maybe something will jump out at her (hopefully not literally). One could say that she intends to stretch out with her feelings..
Action by Juniper
Surely everyone going along is very capable and formidable. However it's always good to bring a healer along and Juniper is just that person! She packs up a little first aid kit, sets aside her natural uneasiness at the possibility of facing animate skeletons (Death likes her, right? Please please please please) and goes along with the team to help keep people alive.
Action by Mae
Mae's been asked about the tunnels under Arx. Fact: No one knows them better than Mae. Okay, maybe someone does, but really, Mae knows those tunnels quite well! So, she's going to be going down with Jeffeth and his team, acting as a guide. Jeffeth's assured he has one of Death's Chosen (Aureth) with him, so that should keep the skeletons from attacking. Hopefully. Right? Mae will then lead the group onward, to Death's domain.
Action by Andry
Sir Andry Bayweather may not be quite the warrior his brother is, but is quite good at other things such as finding things which are lost or incoming deadly rolling boulders.
Action by Aureth
Aureth is not a warrior at all. He doesn't exactly stroll into the catacombs entirely secure in his own person; he comes wearing the spider's silk tunic in all its steelsilk protection that was gifted him by Death, for example, and he doesn't come without being armed, his trusty (crappy) crossbow and its set of bolts packed along for the ride. He can't leave behind his escort because after all he is a Legate of the Faith even if he is a Legate of the Faith doing something rather silly. But his aid in this endeavor is primarily to come, and pray to Death, and generally to let it be known to any nervous or upset skeletons or zombies that he's okay with Jeffeth. Jeffeth is an okay guy. It's fine.
Result
They travel down to the catacombs without further ado, looking carefully for any sign of crows or murders or something. They begin of course in the Murder of Crows bar. That's a good sign right? And since they're going under the city and down to the catacombs and the Necropolis, they bring Legate Aureth and Harlequin Mae and they hope they don't wreck anything important.
Mae knows the tunnels, at least the ones near the Murder, and so she takes the lead with torch held high to illuminate the tunnels. It's quiet here, the only sound their steps and the skittering of crawling things in the darkness that pervades. It's a little eerie, but worse is when they hear a howl of something that sends shivers down their spines. Mae quickly redirects them in a different direction.
Danger averted, it's Caith now who holds up a hand. "That.... way." They are standing at the junction of two paths, and one leads down and one leads up - and she strangely points to the one that leads up. Isn't down where they want to go? Caith is adamant. And so they go.
Up goes the tunnel, and then sharply down again, and now it's Andry who pushes them all out of the way as a statue, previously unseen, comes crashing down from an alcove. It narrowly misses them - was this a trap? Or just a weird coincidence? Spiders skitter out of the hold left by the statue toward the group. Spiders everywhere, and the torch Mae holds blows out, plunging them into darkness.
The spiders converge on Aureth, running up his legs, covering him completely until he is nothing more than an Aureth-shaped mass of spiders. And then he turns and takes a step toward the alcove where the statue was. One step, then another ponderous step, heard and not seen while Mae struggles to relight the torch.
It's Juniper that finally gets it going, just in time to see Aureth vanishing into a hole in the wall made by the statue that fell. Step. Step. Step. And through to a path that leads down, a path that has not been walked in decades - perhaps not in centuries.
At last they come to a halt as a snake slithers toward them. It's a big snake with a book in its coils, and as it stops before them the spiders at last release Aureth, vanishing into the darkness and cracks as the snake stares at them all.
Jeffeth steps forward bravely - this snake is big enough to devour a person, even someone of Jeffeth's size. But it does not move quickly, no. Instead it releases the book from its coils, hisses at them once, and then slithers back down the tunnel, leaving them to their knowledge.
The journey back is thankfully less eventful. Though strangely, when they leave the alcove the wall is repaired as though there never were a statue or an alcove in the first place.
Strange.