THE CURSE OF THE WITCH KING CHAPTER 7

[ewancummins]

The party rides overland to the Darkling Stair....


The adventurers find the hillside entrance as they left it, the boards loosened but placed back across the gloomy doorway.
Plenty of daylight left, not even noon.
Down there, of course, it's black as pitch and even a torch thrust in hardly relieves the darkness.
Fala goes in alone...

The gnome's boots make only the slightest scrapes and thumps as she descends.


Stepping down the last shadowy step, the gnome's dim, guttering torch suddenly flares painfully bright. She's reached the end of the enchanted gloom, surely.
A huge cavern, the far reaches lost in darkness and the floor starting about ten paces from the stair bottom covered in a chiaroscuro jumble of stalagmites, pillars, walls, and statuary. Most of the masonry has long since toppled, but the outlines of low, roofless buildings remain.
Walking along, wary as ever, Fala scouts the near portion of the cavern. No hidden foes or traps, at least not that she uncovers, but the ground is treacherous in places with shifting rubble heaps and jagged stonework fragments. She casts a last look about the shadowy ruins before before hastening back up the stairs to report.

[ewancummins]

After hearing Fala's report, Klokulf decides to come back later, at morning's first light.

The party loops by the derelict farm to collect the horses that belonged to the dead men, before returning to Olek's Cairn.

....


DAWN


By torchlight glints on the heather, although it's high summer by the calendar.
Not even a sliver of the sun shows, only a reddening in the purple sky to the east.
Your breath makes mist.


Your horses begin to panic as they draw near the mound, forcing you to close the distance on foot.

In the gloom, the entrance to Darkling Stair stands out like a piece of jet dropped in mud, a slab of solid darkness. Only when you approach within a few feet does the blackness yield enough to the feeble light that you can make out the short landing at the top and the descending flight of stairs, which curved down and away into an obscurity so profound even the gnome's eyes fail to penetrate it.

[ewancummins]

Klokulf's dead men stand ready to serve their master.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"Shall we begin our descent? There is no time like the present."

He begins thinking orders to the two dead men. One walks before me, one behind; catch me if I fall in the dark.

[kintire]

Kat shivers in the chill light, though whether it is the cold or the walking corpses is not entirely clear. She is staying well away from them, and not hiding her disgust. At Klokulf's words she makes a last check of her equipment, and nods.

"I'm ready."

She moves to the entrance and gives it a look over, more out of habit than expecting to find anything

[ewancummins]

Kat shivers in the chill light, though whether it is the cold or the walking corpses is not entirely clear. She is staying well away from them, and not hiding her disgust. At Klokulf's words she makes a last check of her equipment, and nods.

"I'm ready."

She moves to the entrance and gives it a look over, more out of habit than expecting to find anything

Everything seems much the same as before.

[Lord Skybolt]

"Ok shall we ."Alain says as he lets Fala lead the way into the darkness . Alain pauses and says to Klokulf:"Did you want to cast your Daylight spell or did you want to save it on the way back up the stairs ?"


Fala prepares to cast her daily use of Message targeting everyone in the party before the delve into stairs and the caverns beyond it . She plans on saving her use of True Seeing from her Scouts Headband .

[ewancummins]

THE DESCENT

Alain follows the gnome. Next the dead men and their master, the priest carrying a sunrod. And in the rear, Katrin.


Down you all go, into the gloom under the earth...


After the long walk to the bottom, the weak light of the rod suddenly flares into full brilliance.
The landing at the bottom gives way to a vast, shadowy cavern, the farther reaches hidden by blackness as thick as mud.
Rubble and ruins cover most of the floor in sight.

Moving forward with Fala guiding, the group explores the near part of the cavern. The gnome went over this ground yesterday, and moves quickly now, but still pauses to check again various nooks and crannies where a spy or monster might lurk.

A few minutes into the search, Fala gets the feeling that something is now out of place. But what?

Looking about, the gnome frowns…

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"Ok shall we ."Alain says as he lets Fala lead the way into the darkness . Alain pauses and says to Klokulf:"Did you want to cast your Daylight spell or did you want to save it on the way back up the stairs ?"

"I did not prepare it," Klokulf replies. "Since the darkness is not as extensive as I feared, I opted to ready myself for other eventualities; grave injuries in particular."

Before going down, he puts his free hand on the shoulder of the zombie before him for support.

[kintire]

As the light becomes clearer, Kat moves forward to examine the ruins with Fala, looking about with all the alertness she can muster. Despite the gloom, she seems more comfortable in buildings, even ruined ones, than it the wilderness outside

[ewancummins]

Fala notices a pedestal with the broken feet of a fallen statue on the top, standing in a rubble-strewn courtyard a short walk to her left.
Nothing unusual about that, except she's pretty sure the statue was whole yesterday.
Getting closer, she finds the life-sized stone carving of a woman lying broken in sections on the floor near the pedestal.
Something has crushed the head to splinters.
Cracks in the tiles beneath suggest a great weight crashing down here, much heavier than the toppled artwork.


Katrin hears furtive scurrying noises in the dark beyond the sunrod's reach, but sees nobody down here besides her party. And Klokulf's dead men.
As her gaze passes one of the animated corpses, she chances to meet its flat-eyed stare.

VIEW CONTENT:

For a moment, the purple lips curl into a smile. Kat blinks, and the zombie's face has resumed its usual blank expression.

[Lord Skybolt]

Fala whispers via her message spell like ability in affect "Watch out everyone something or someone is with us in the entrance "

[kintire]

Kat jumps, hand flashes to her sword hilt, then her gaze flicks around as she hears the Message.

"We should get into the ruins and get some cover. the light will give us away of course but..."

She eyes the walking corpses again.

"And we should leave the corpses behind. There's somethign funny about them... beyond the obvious"

[ewancummins]

...

[ewancummins]

FURTHER EXPLORATION of the near part of the ruins uncovers a mildewed, dusty mural daubed on a semi-intact wall.

Once some of the dust and grime has been carefully removed, Klokulf sees that the painting depicts humanoid figures engaged in all manner of debauchery and horrid practices: cannibalism, 'dancing' with headless corpses, and nude dances around the central figure of the artwork, a gigantic, fat-bellied, goat-headed shape. Vaasi script, barely legible, runs along the top and bottom of the painted well section.
Near as the priest can make out, it's a litany to the Demon Prince Orcus, calling for his favor and his gifts and promising him bone and blood and souls.

It's hard to tell time without the sun, but your may estimate you've been below ground at least an hour.