Ghosts of Gauntcliff: Chapter Five

[ewancummins]

THE OLD ABBEY
DORGIO, IN THE DUNGEON

The Dungeon

Dorgio tries to take a closer look at the portraits to see if anything can be gleaned about where he is or what this place is. At the same time, he also calls down a healing prayer on himself, knowing that he'll need his strength for whatever lies beyond.



((OOC: Cure light wounds on Dorgio))

The healing prayer restores a measure of vitality to Dorgio's battered and burned body.

Looking over the murky canvasses, he notices that the faces painted thereon shift and later when he stares too long at them and when he looks away.
Two of the pictures do not change, though. One resembles Primeiro, but much younger, perhaps nine or ten years of age.
On a wispy, nearly insubstantial easel propped against the wall rests an unfinished portrait of Everline. The artist has depicted her not as a hard-bitten adventuress, but as a girl of the gentry, well dressed in lace and holding a miniature spaniel with a big pink ribbon tied about its head.


Petrie, standing just behind Dorgio with the torch, asks,
“What does it mean?”

THOM, AT THE TOP OF THE PIT
The shadow thing falls right through Thom, leaving him shivering from an unearthly cold and blinded from webs of darkness that cling to his eyes. When Thom’ vision clears, he sees Primeiro coming towards the pit with sword in hand. Eustace wanders the ruins behind the young swashbuckler, uttering strange curses and waving his hands in the air.

PRIMEIRO

The enemy falls over Thom and sinks into the pit, vanishing from Primeiro’s sight.
The young man hears Eustace behind him, gibbering mad blasphemies and stamping about the stone floor.

[Ken of Ghastria]

Primeiro yells at Thom, "Help Everline! But beware! She and Eustace have been cursed by the creature -- their minds are not their own! I need to alert Dorgio and Petrie...!" He gazes down the pit into darkness. There's no time to climb down. A straight fall might kill him.

He's never considered himself to be particularly concerned about the fates of others. But something has changed tonight. And Primeiro knows that if the creature stops Dorgio and Petrie from reaching "the workshop," he'll likely be dead anyway.

He mutters, "Think of me proudly, Father." Then he leaps down into the pit!

If he retains consciousness, he immediately begins yelling, "DESTROY THE WORKSHOP!"

_________________________________________
Primeiro makes a Jump check to reduce falling damage: Jump check (1d20+10=26). Big success. He'll still take 2d6 damage from the fall. By my reckoning, he has 10 hp left. Fingers crossed.

[RocEter]

Thom shakes his head and wipes at his eyes frantically to clear his vision of the black webs. As his vision returns Thom shakes his head some more as Premeiro runs past him shouting something about Everline and Eustace being cursed and their minds not being their own. "Cursed?" Is all he manages to get before Premeiro jumps into the pit.

Turning his attention towards Eustace and Everline, He watches Eustace as pulls a potion from his satchel and quickly downs it. Tossing the empty vial aside he quickly moves towards Everline, to see what condition she is in.

[ewancummins]

THOM sees that Everline has been injured; the girl lies on the paving stones with blood seeping through her tunic.


Eustace continues to rave. Standing about ten feet from Everline and Thom, the mad monk tears at a heap of fallen masonry, yelling ''Begone, demons!"

[steveflam]

Juergin will whisper as low as he can "Dark One, in a few minutes go see if it is safe."

[Adam]

Benn picks himself up from the pavement, turning towards the voices. "I'm curious what becomes of me, now that I've completed your mission for you," he says. "I'd hate to think I went through all this trouble just to have you kill me now that I've done what you asked."

[ewancummins]

BENN

The three robed figures lurch from the dark alley mouth to confront Benn.

''Your life is of no further use to us, but your death would gain us nothing. Do as we command and you may go free. Deliver the key."

[Adam]

I will likely come to regret this, he muses, but holds the key up for the three robed figures.

"You may have it, but I would like to ask the favor of a pair of questions before you leave. I come from another world, one that apparently connects to yours through our dreams. My son was taken here, that is how I came to find and enter a portal to this place. My first question is whether you will tell me how to find him and depart this place. My second has to do with shadowy creatures that are stalking the nightmares of the people on an island in our world. I wonder if you could tell me who they are and how to defeat them?"

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

Dorgio shakes his head. "I don't know what it is meaning...is this what the creature takes from their minds, some kind of perverse trophy? Or is this how he controls them in the first place...I am knowing nothing but to be on my guard."

He turns and regards the next door. "Right, nothing to do but keep going." He is about to step through when he hears Primeiro's voice shouting from somewhere behind them.

"Black daggers!" Dorgio turns to Petrie. "I don't know what that was, but it sounds like he is needing out help!" With that Dorgio heads out the way he came in, back towards the pit.

[ewancummins]

BENN-
"The human boy attacked us, and then he ran from us. He may be elsewhere in the city. We do not know, nor do we care."


One of the three extends a bony hand to grab the key.

"The creature you fight is two-in-one, shadow and ghost, man-soul and nightmare. You may battle it in dreams, and win some respite, but it can be finally defeated only in its shadow sanctum. A child's hand may prevail where the might of men fails. "

The Exile Prince who took the key steps back to stand beside the others.

"If you wish us to use the key to return you whence you came, to the shadow sanctum, we can do that. Decide now, for we are ready to depart this place forever."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

JUERGIN

Dark One goes, and returns swiftly.
"Boy, rouse yourself! Benn is with those robed creatures, and they may be about to send him away!"

[ewancummins]

THE DUNGEON, DORGIO AND PETRIE

Dorgio shakes his head. "I don't know what it is meaning...is this what the creature takes from their minds, some kind of perverse trophy? Or is this how he controls them in the first place...I am knowing nothing but to be on my guard."

He turns and regards the next door. "Right, nothing to do but keep going." He is about to step through when he hears Primeiro's voice shouting from somewhere behind them.

"Black daggers!" Dorgio turns to Petrie. "I don't know what that was, but it sounds like he is needing out help!" With that Dorgio heads out the way he came in, back towards the pit.

Petrie shakes his head, blinking.
''Uh? Destroy what?"

Before Dorgio reaches the door to the antechamber, a huge black man-shape rushes into the room, bent low. It grabs for him...



PRIMEIRO, AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIT.
The door is open. Everything beyond it is gray or black, and not-quite-solid in appearance.

Primeiro hears Dorgio and Petrie's voices, somewhat muffled and distorted, from the murky space beyond the portal.

[steveflam]

Juergin smiles! "Benn....... Gruz, Smezel..... my fat one friend Benn is here! I need to go to him. Can you both get back to your place safely? I could come back here to meet you later, maybe? Listen to me.... you are my friends. You can come with me or we meet later. You have to decide now because I have to go now. You need to make sure the tiny boy is safe so his father Benn can be reunited with him, okay? The chief promised. Maybe you can find me and Benn later."

He stands up quickly. "Dark One, lead the way. I am running."

Juergin exits the alleyway and as soon as he spies Benn he grins like a child in a candy store. He still has the pole in his hand and sack in the other.

[Ken of Ghastria]

Primeiro grunts in pain as he lands at the bottom of the pit, somewhat amazed that he's still conscious. He'd thank his boots' previous owner -- that is, if the fool were alive. In any event, Primeiro knows he's badly injured, yet there's no choice but to continue.

Primeiro hears Dorgio and Petrie's voices, somewhat muffled and distorted, from the murky space beyond the portal.

He yells again, "DESTROY THE WORKSHOP!" His rapier once more at the ready, he steps quickly through the portal.

The sight before him is not what he expected. A half-dozen "doors," seemingly made of shadow? What madness is THIS?

He repeats his admonition about the workshop, then -- hearing shouts from Dorgio and Petrie through the first doorway -- he steps through the entrance.

_______________________________________
Initiative roll (1d20+4=13)

[Adam]

Benn turns regretfully, looking around the city. Every cell in his body says to go, get out of this dreamscape once and for all, but he can not leave his son behind. He is about to depart when he sees Juergin.

"Juergin, how did you come to be here?"

[ewancummins]

BENN AND JUERGIN-


The three voices speak all at once, ''The boy does not attack us now. "