Changelings Part II: A Holiday In The Sun

[VAN]

Catherine curses in her native language when the slab gets down blocking the entrance. When the cold water starts filling the room she looks paniched around barely listening to Helfierd but anyway she nods in agreement and tries to help him with the slab. While searching for hidden levers she says:

"I can get gun powder out of the bullets of my gun maybe we can blow the slab if you can't lift it. The problem is that getting the powder out will need some time and I don't know how much we have, plus very soon people will rush here and try to break or lift the slab and this will not help us. So we need to hurry."

[BigBadQDaddy]

Helfried nods, "Agreed."
Producing his crowbar he begins to look for some leverage.

[alhoon]

On the other side of the door, Seradon quickly looks around to see what's the situation and if armed guards are coming to put an end to his life.

[kintire]

Inside, screams fill the air as the cold, dark water rolls across the room. Glittering decorations, revellers in their finery, entertainers and waiters in their costumes, roll beneath the dark, cold water. Others, including the two adventurers, retain their feet but are quickly having to fight the rising water, as candle after candle is overwhelmed and extinguished. The stubborn door will not move...

Outside, the steps are silent, dark, and as Seradon moves he can feel sand crunching on the stone steps. No longer are they neat and swept as they were when he descended. Now they feel like an ancient ruin, long abandoned would.

Still, he can still hear the screams from within, and the sound of efforts to force the door...

[alhoon]

Seradon quickly falls into spellcasting and a magical light bathes the door with light. Seradon looks around for a latch or even a secret panel to help the screaming people.

[kintire]

There is nothing in the stairwell, but Seradon is aware that this place, while well built for its day, does not have complex mechanisms. The machinery for raising the slab will be in the room directly above him.

[VAN]

Catherine helps Hepfierd find something to use as a lever so they can open the slab but deem down knows that isn't an easy task, the door has a mechanism to open and close and without activating it will be almost impossible to open it.

[alhoon]

Seradon can't see any other solution. He can't just let the people drown, so he rushes in the corridor trying to find the stairs. The first instance that he's relatively alone, he drops into spellcasting to cast a protective spell over himself, looking around nervously for witnesses.

[kintire]

Catherine and Helfierd wrench at the slab, but it scarcely budges. In an instant, the water overwhelms the tables and everything goes utterly black, the last of the candles swamped as the water surges around their waists, screams growing wildler as the water rises, not far now from the cieling, which is not high.

As Raen dashes upstairs he quickly realises there is little need for caution. He is rushing through a milennial-dead ruin, devoid of life. The layout is not complex and he quickly finds the ancient winch for the door, which turns slowly and reluctantly as he begins to strain at it

[alhoon]

Seradon strains muscle as he tries to open the door, hoping that the re-play of the sacrifice won't leave his allies mired among dozens of undead.

[VAN]

Catherine tries to get as more air as possible and makes an inner prayer to Ezra to help them.

[kintire]

The water rises to the ceiling, and Sara and Helfierd are submerged. It is utterly dark, and as they press against the cieling for those last hints of air they feel rather than hear great thumps as the sluicegates fall closed. At once, they feel a hint of air again, as the water drains through the opening door, very slowly at first but then quicker. Still, the hall is large.

And then, even as hope begins to return, there is a sudden sense of movement in the dark waters around. The drowned corpses that choke the black waters begin to stir...

[VAN]

Catherine gasps for air at the beginning but then when the door opens she coughs letting the water out of her mouth and get some deep breaths. Looking around makes sure that Helfierd is safe as well. Trying to not maintain her calm as the floating corpses get closer she yells and motions to everyone alive to follow her and exits the hall hoping to find Seradon at the other side of the door.

[BigBadQDaddy]

Helfried rushes to heed Catherine, also putting himself between any possible survivors attempting to escape and the drowned corpses to buy the others time.

[alhoon]

Seradon realizing the grand room is opening and what's happening, he drops his efforts and rushes back, 3 steps at a time, to the corridor to see if his friends made it and assuming there will be undead on their steps. He just hopes the powerful witch that made a suicide last night won't be around, the image of the shriveled killed doppelganger she killed still in his mind.