Mists of Winter: Chapter Three

[ewancummins]

MISTS OF WINTER: CHAPTER THREE

read chapter TWO end post first

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… Golithos’s massive corpse propped up against the rear wall, head slumped on his chest, positioned not far from the open, uncovered hatchway that leads down the ramp to the tunnel they first came through. . The dead kitten’s severed head rests in the dead ogre's open right palm. A chalk marked slate tally board leans against his big feet, propped up.

Vlad walks over, looks down at the board and laughs, bitter and mirthless. He points out the words written there in chalk:

SARA, NICE SHOT.
GOLITHOS LOVED HIS KITTEN TOO MUCH TO EAT IT, RAEN.
LOVE TO HAVE YOU ALL FOR SUPPER TONIGHT, BUT MY HOUSE IS A MESS.

-YOUR OLD GRANNY JENNY

Vlad turns towards the nearby hatchway. He looks down.
“I am not seeing her…”

[Adam]

"She's a charmer," Benn mutters, "Let's be gone from here. I'm tired of playing her games, and I doubt she would be foolish enough to leave behind anything for us to use."

[ewancummins]

"She's a charmer," Benn mutters, "Let's be gone from here. I'm tired of playing her games, and I doubt she would be foolish enough to leave behind anything for us to use."

Vlad nods.

"I am thinking you are right, Benn. The Night-Thing has left us only this taunt, damn her."

He turns towards Kat. "'Bring that shining stick. It is dark down there, wet and dark."

The long green fingers close on Vlad’s right ankle before Benn can open his mouth to scream.
He sees the man shoot down the slide, yanked into the gloomy passage below.

Everyone hears Vlad screaming over the splashes and the wet crunching thuds that echo up from the bottom of the ramp.

[kintire]

Kat bounds forwards, sunrod in her left hand, levelled rapier in her right, head for Vlad's cries, ready to skewer the monster as soon as she sees it!

[steveflam]

Franz quickly follows, unsheathing both his blades.

[Adam]

Bennedict will similarly sprint down the hallway, holding his cane.

[ewancummins]

Kat rushes down the ramp into the flooded lower passage.

Benn and Franz race after her, slipping and sliding on the wet stonework yet remaining on their feet.

Sunrod lifted, Kat sees the back of Vlad's head and shoulders rising from the water a short distance down the shadowy tunnel. Long, segmented, green things like dead branches coated in pond scum wrap round the back of his neck.
Fingers.

The deformed hand drags the man under.
His arms emerge, hands flailing.

Kat splashes down the ramp into the rising flood. She lifts her sword, looking for a clean thrust at her enemy in the splashing water.

Water sprays in Kat's face. She blinks. A body hurtles at her from dead in front. She steps a foot to the left and jerks her blade aside.

Vlad splashes down hard, almost knocking Benn from the lower ramp as the Lamordian runs down into the waist-deep water.

Franz jumps over the fallen Barovian, throwing up a big out gout of water as he lands. Swords raised, he casts about for an enemy.

Vlad scrambles partway up the ramp, but loses his hold and slides down in the water.

Benn sees

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something under the water, a shadow moving like a giant pike hunting in shallows, but it vanishes when he blinks.

[alhoon]

Raen, recovering from his surprise whisper some obscenities in Darkonese and then falls into spellcasting. Touching a pebble as the spell finishes, light suddenly emanates from it; a golden-blue light bright as a torch. He throws the pebble towards the place the whole commotion takes place.

[ewancummins]

Raen, recovering from his surprise whisper some obscenities in Darkonese and then falls into spellcasting. Touching a pebble as the spell finishes, light suddenly emanates from it; a golden-blue light bright as a torch. He throws the pebble towards the place the whole commotion takes place.

Standing over the hatchway and ramp, Raen lights up the little rock with his magic and tosses it down into the splashing, crashing chaos below.
The gold-blue light of the now-submerged stone mixes with the yellow glare of Kat's sunrod, filling the space below the hatch with watery green light.

He sees Vlad scrambling up the ramp, and sliding back down.

He sees Kat, Franz, Benn moving forward through waist deep water at the base of the ramp, weapons raised (Benn has a stick) as if ready to strike, or to fend off an attack.

But he does not see the enemy.

[alhoon]

"Oh you clever Witch... " Raen says "witches like you is why we're get burned alive outside of Darkon"...
He moves closer to see inside the now greenish water, ready to use a spell. "She's just one person, we can kill her if we stand our ground!" he tries to bolster the morale of his allies.

[steveflam]

Franz points in a direction with his sword. "Dere it is! Dere! Bigger dan a man, svimmink under de vater! Dis vay, Dis Vay! Follow me!" Franz moves in the same direction he saw the huge man like form swimming under the water.

[Adam]

Bennedict casts about frantically beneath the surface. "I saw something swimming as well. Watch your feet!"

He kneels next to Vlad, reaching down into himself and channeling positive energy into the injured monster hunter.

[VAN]

Sara gets her gun out again and follows the others down the tunnel. She doesn't get near Kat, Benn and Franz though, she waits a bit behind ready to shoot when the enemy emerges.

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

Dorgio follows Franz and places a hand on his shoulder, then chants in Luktar. "There, that should be giving you back some measure of your heartiness, for a time. Useful if you are having to swim."



[[OOC: Casting Lesser Restoration]]

[ewancummins]

Franz

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feels vigor return to his weakened body. He's not so weak and tired now, but he's still not back to his old self.

Anyone paying attention to the water level in this lower passage notices a steady and swift rise, inch by inch.