The Unbeating Heart - Chapter 11

The Brood

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Previously: The Journal

PC Message
Slim

"Zombies, ghouls, and now vampires," Slim shakes his head. "This place is becoming as over run as Darkon!"
Anton is as pale as a ghost at hearing the story, "That was the monster that attacked our caravan!"

Stephan

"They are undead," Stephan pipes up from near Nkosi, "I know it."

Karyna

Karyna frowns, "Then are we certain this place is still hallowed ground and the nosferatu, werewolf, or whatever it is hasn't already gotten in?"

Nkosi

Nkosi shakes his head. "No, we cannot be certain of that at all. Regardless, we must deal with these...parasites first. I don't think the journal will tell us anything more." He sighs, then adds, "We should continue. Karyna, how is your arm?"

Karyna

"Still a little numb, but otherwise all right I think," Karyna replied, testing her bow string to ensure the arms will hold in a fight.

Thurgood

"Yes, let us make haste. Once we have cleansed theis place of evil, we may hunt the vampire."
Thurgood points his sword at the chappel.
"Let's visit there first. Maybe we can find holy water or other things that will help us."
He strides up to the doors.

Karyna

Karyna nods and follows, knocking an arrow and taking up a position at an angle to the doorway, giving her a clear shot at whatever's on the other side.

DM

The doors of the chapel hang open and you see inside overturned pews and a shattered altar. The scent of carnage fills the air. Signs of a battle are everywhere, but there are no signs of any bodies.

Thurgood

Thurgood is nearest to the doors. He waits till the others have caught up before he enters. His face is not so much registering shock as burning with rage.

Nkosi

Nkosi, still thinking about the contents of the journal, is toward the back of the group. He keeps an eye on Anton, if for no other reason than to make sure he doesn't wander off.

Karyna

Karyna and Softpaw flank Thurgood, letting him go through the door first, then sliding through and covering his sides. One on each.

Thurgood

Thurgood staps through the door. He walks straight on, ready to strike at any undead that might jump out at them.

Karyna

Karyna and softpaw flank him on either side, letting Thurgood go up the center isle while they break off and go down the outter isles, checking the pews as they go.

Syn

Syn stays close to Stephen, Nkosi and Anton. She keeps eyeing the book with an almost visible interest in it, much like the hunger of a wild animal towards a fresh food.
"Thurgood, is there any way for you to tell if this place is still holy? I have heard stories of undead that were actually good. These undead would have a noble mission that would keep them 'living' long enough to fulfill their task and then they would move on. If this place is still holy, maybe we might be dealing with these types of undead. They might have not been able to complete their task and time has corrupted their minds and their mission."

Thurgood

Thurgood closed his eyes, trying to concentrate, sensing the surroundings around him. Was there anything left in this place but utter chaos? Up till now his senses had failed him... He felt around in the thick mist that clouded the evil of the place.

DM

Faint light leaks through the window slits, spilling over the pews, Red glass making the whole scene look as though it is painted in blood.
SLim looked around, the hairs on his neck stood up straight. He looked around at the shattered pews and the toppled altar. As the last person steps inside, there was a soft bang as the doors closed, almost of their own accord.
Slim jumped, whirling. There, clinging like insects to the wall above the door a pair of emaciated figures stare down at the three below them.
"N'kosi! Stephan! Look out! " Shouted the little man as he whirled, charging toward the three just entering the chapel.

Thurgood

Slim's cry rudely woke the paladin. The sight of the figures brought him back to reality. He rushed forward, bring his sword in an arc to strike.

Karyna

Karyna whirled at the sound of Slim's cry, bringing her bow up. When she finds her target, she fires.

Nkosi

Nkosi spins around and pulls his dagger out of his robes, ready to slice at any arms that reach for him. He'll take a defensive posture, backing up to get out of their reach.

Stephan

Stephan readies his flail once again, ready to strike any of the undead.

DM

The creatures scurry down the walls, dropping ontop of Anton and Syn!

Thurgood

Thurgood reaches out and grabs the creature that jumped on Syn, trying to pull it off her before striking at it with his sword.

Karyna

As they drop, Karyna, who had readied her bow previously, lets fly two arrows, one for each target to see if she can knock them away before they land.

DM

Thurgood rips one clear of Syn, tossing him high into the air where a flying arrow skewers it in the belly. The other arrow goes wide of the swiftly falling target, and Anton screams in panic.

Stephan

Stephan stands still and seems to be looking intently at the creature on Anton, his hand pressed against his dagger.

Syn

As Thurgood "catches" the creature that attacked Syn, he might have noticed the her image shimmered when the creature contacted it. As the arrows flew, Syn gasps and ducks low.
Syn turns to Anton to see if she can either knock him out of the way of the other creature or to pull the other creature off of him.
"Umm, This might be a good time to let everyone know that I have an item that makes me appear in one area and I am actually in another. Usually on intial attacks from creatures, unless I am surrounded, I am safe. But thanks you both for trying to keep me safe."

Thrugood

Seeing one of the creatures felled, Thurgood tries to skewer the other one with his blade.
"For Kelemvor! Back to the grave, you foul beast!"

Nkosi

Seeing Thurgood slash at the creature, Nkosi hangs back for a moment so as not to get in his way. He quickly looks around to see if there is someone or something who is orchestrating this latest attack.

DM

As he looks around he sees the tendrils that drop from the bulbous abomination attached, unseen untill now, to the ceiling. Each of the tendrils ends in a wicked looking barb, and the others have yet to see them as they coil to strike...

Stephan

Looking at the creatures, Stephan's eyes dilate and his voice becomes a low bellow.
"Stand off!"

The unliving abominations immediately fall back. They stare at Stephan with undisguised hatred but make no move toward the party. Anton lays in a huddled heap. His clothes are shredded, but he seems otherwise unharmed.
"You seem to lead a charmed life," replies Slim as he pulls him away from the door.
The undead stand there, staring expectantly...

Nkosi

Nkosi, usually unemotional, gasps in horror. "Anubis protect us...!" He yells, "All of you -- look out above!"

Stephan

Stephan continues to concentrate on the undead.
"Thurgood, stand down from attacking them, they won't do us any harm for now."

Thurgood

Thurgood is too filled with hatred for the undead to hear Nkosi. He swings his sword at the one that attacked Anton.

DM

As he begins the swing, he feels something sharp pierce his armor between his shoulder blades and lift him bodily into the air.

Syn

Syn jumps at Nkosi's warning. She looks up to see what is on the ceiling, but also trying to keep Stephen and the creatures in view out of the corner of her eye.

Thurgood

The palladin lets out a cry of surprise. As he rises from the ground, he swings his sword again in panic, this time trying to hit whatever it is that is behind him.

DM

The tentacle is just to hard to reach.

Karyna

Feeling something brush her back, Karyna drops into a roll and comes up with weapon drawn.
After identifying the thing that brushed her back as an enemy, she fires.

DM

Her first shot hits the bulbus membrane of the creatures body, bursting something like a balloon. The second goes wide.

Karyna backs off to make sure none of the splatter gets on her, not sure what it is or does. She knocks another arrow and prepares to fire at the nearest target.

DM

There are only the two of the ghouls, though as she examines the ceiling she notices cocoons on the ceiling around the tentacle creature.

Karyna

She fires at the tenticle creature

DM

Her arrows strike the leathery hide of the creature, but dont sink very far. From the wounds drip clear slime...

Dtephan

Stephan moves closer to the ghouls after checking to see that the rest of the party is faring well enough for now without him. He addresses the deader looking ghoul.
"Long dead tongue, awaken from your slumber. Tell me of this place and your master."
Stephan has just cast "Speak With Dead."

DM

"Not long dead, and soon you shall meet the master. This place was home to the soul, a place of purity and truth. Tainted now, like a wedding dress turned black. Tainted too is the soul. Above the living, below the dead. The master seeks to grow in knowledge, the foe seeks the lady he has claimed. The heart that loves most beats not. The heart that beats, loves not. What more would you know? Ask and I shall answer."

Thurgood

Thurgood rages in frustration. He throws his head back to see what is lifting him.

DM

A tenticled, amorphous, bulbous horror has attached itself to the vaulted ceiling of this once holy place. Nearby, several human shaped cocoons hang as well. A handfull are empty, and towards one are you being hauled...

Nksoi

Nkosi, out of spells, throws two daggers at the tentacled creature.

DM

The first of the daggers strikes the beast, the second glances off its hide.

Thurgood

Thurgood gasps at the abomination above him. "Holy Warden of The Dead, what is that!?" For a moment fear grips him, and he wavers, but then instinct takes over and he thrusts his sword upward, into the creature.

Thurgood

Syn sees Thurgood raising towards the creature in the ceiling. Instinct takes over.
"Missile guided by my sight
Strike true and unleash your might."
Syn casts magic missile at the Tentacle holding Thurgood, timing it so that it strikes after Thurgood strikes his blow.

DM

The missiles detonate just as Thurgood strikes his blow, cutting a large, fluid weeping gash in the beast.. Pulped ichor sprays everywhere as Thurgood crashes to the ground.

Thurgood

The palladin moans softly as he rolls over on his back. He slowly scrambles up, keeping his eyes on the abomination above him.

DM

The vaulted ceiling of the chaple is too high to reach it with a blade. Shadows seem to cloak the monster, it barely lies with in the light range of your torches.

Karyna

Karyna frowned at the beast on the ceiling. She knocked up two more arrows and fired at the monster (both hit).
As she's sighting in, she examines the ceiling the creature is hanging from. Is it solid? How is it hanging on? Is there a way to make it fall?

DM

The arrows sink to their fletching in the beast, but are instantly blown out by a rush of slimy clear fluid of one of the pustules as it bursts.
She sees no way to make it fall, and is uncertain as to how it is cemented up there.
"My, that was interesting," says Slim. "What are those cocoon things up there?"

Thurgood

Thurgood is moving tables and pews to the center of the chapel, climbing on top of them.
"They're people, I think." He says, as he tries to heave a pew on top of the others.
"Captives. We'll free them... if we can get up there." He looks down at the mesh of woodwork and up again. "This isn't going to work, is it?"

Nkosi

Nkosi sees no hope for a moment, then turns to Slim. "You best know the layout of this place, my friend. Is there any way for us to reach the roof from the outside? Or do you know of a storage shed, where we might find ladders?"

DM

"I dont know," Slim said wit irritation as he loaded a stone into his sling. Why did everyone think just because he had lived nearby that he knew the intimate details of the monastery?
Anton's trembling voice rose from behind, "There is a roof access, but you must kill the brood mistress."

Thurgood

Thurgood jumped down from the table. "Brood mistress? What is that?"
He looks up at the monstrosity, then at Anton.
He pulls out his club, weighting it in his hand.
"Anything else you haven't told us?"

Karyna

Karyna frowned, "You mean this isn't it? By Osiris, this day just keeps getting better and better." Softpaw had wandered over to his companion, and was currently growling at the ceiling. Karyna looked around to see if she could find somewhere higher up to shoot from. Somewhere she could get a better shot at the creature or a vantage from which to knock the cocoons down.

Anton

"what else would you call that?"

Thurgood

"A monstrosity from hell." Swinging his club, Thurgood hurls it at the beast at the ceiling.
He jumps up the table again, waving his sword and yelling "You monster! Come at me if you dare!"
Thurgood waits for one of its tentacles to attack him. He plans to grab it and have himself be pulled up.

It does and he is able to grasp the smoothe surface though he begins to slip almost immediately.

Stephan

Stephan turns to his undead "friends" once again,
"Two more questions, and I will free you from this existence. The first of these is is there a way to make that creature fall?"

DM

No. It has grown from the ceiling."

Nkosi

Like Thurgood, Nkosi was also surprised by Anton's description of the creature as the "brood mistress." He stares at him carefully.

Anton's terror has given him courage, he is trying futily to fight beside the others.

Thurgood

Thurgood tries to wrap his arm around the tentacle, as if he is holding on to a rope. He slashes at the creature, determined to hit it as often as possible before he has to let go.

Nkosi

Nkosi calls out to Stephan, "Do you still have that wand you took from the ghoul back in the woods?"

Stephan

Stephan turns at Nkosi's voice. He'd completely forgotten.
"Well, it's worth a shot."
He turns to the ghouls in his thrall.
"One final question, what is your former master's motives in the corruption of this once-holy place?"
He rummages through his pack to find the wand.

DM

"I do not know."

Stephan

Stephan is disappointed at the last answer, but no matter.
"You've been faithful for the tenure I asked, and I thank you for that. Return to the dust you were born from!"

DM

The power of his faith overwhelms the evil that binds the former monks to unlife, glowing with holy radiance, the ghouls tilt their heads back in a scream that might be pain, possibly extacy, most likely a mixture of both. When the last of their screams die away their bodies fall to the ground, crumbling to a fine powder.

Karyna

Karyna watched the others attack and frowned. It seemed as though they weren't doing any damage to it at all. Drawing upon the power of Osiris, she summoned a spiritual hammer sending it up to strike the creature.

Thurgood

Thurgood meanwhile strikes at the creature.
He aims at what he thinks is the body, trying to locate a sensitive spot.
Thurgood tries to determine if the wounds have any effect, while he keeps chopping at the creature.
As it is all over the ceiling, he searches for some kind of heart or brain.

DM

Karyna's arrows impact the creature just as Thurgood swings...
As he once again gets drenched in the slime that seems to compose the creature's blood, he notices it begin to sag, slightly at first, then a little more. It appears almost as though it is begining to liquify.

Thurgood

Renewed with determination, Thurgood continues hacking at the beast, hoping he can maintain his grip.

DM

The creature begins to gellify in his grasp, and as he tries to grip it, his fingers sink slowly into it.

Thurgood

Thurgood makes a last slash at the creature, then he let's loose, trying to land on his feet as he drops to the floor.

DM

Giving a dying shudder, the creature slides off the ceiling, collapsing like a dropped piece of circus canvas over the entire party.

Next: Coccoon

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