Chapter One(ish) - Lost in the darkness

[cmrsalmon]

You follow the wide passage for close to an hour. The white, red-veined stone walls and floor exhibit wide cracks in places, reducing the water travelling through the central channel to little more than a trickle. There is no further evidence of collapses or cave-ins.

Torch roll, please

The only breaks in the gloomy monotony are occasional carvings on the passage walls. They look like short words or signs, but their purpose is unclear.

INT rolls are welcome if anyone wishes to study the markings.

As you begin to doubt you will ever leave this endless tunnel, the passage widens, revealing a tall stone doorway set into a deep alcove on your left. The main passage continues onward into the darkness, but beyond the flickering halo of the torch, something catches the light.

As you approach, you hear the sound of running water from beyond the doorway.

A distant, inhuman cry tells that you are not alone.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Torch [1d4] = 3

INT 6 [1d20] = 3

Fletch
The torch keeps the passage lit despite the odds. Fletch seems to recall something from his childhood about the symbols as they pass.

Hearing the inhuman cry, Fletch app races the door to listen at it, hoping for some insight about what lies in their path.

[lab mix]

Assuming we're all working from Fletch's torch...

Marsha studies the carvings on the walls.

Wall carvings (vs. INT 6) [1d20] = 12

She shakes her head. They're like nothing she's seen before. Marsha watches Fletch as he runs to the doorway, looking for any indication he might give as to what they may be facing. She listens intently herself...

[Rusty Tincanne]

I reread the decrypting of the tunnel and I am confused. Are we at the stone doorway that was on the left? Or did we go down the main tunnel farther? Is there enough room for two of us to listen at the door?

[cmrsalmon]

I assumed you were at the stone doorway set into an alcove on the left wall, leading off the main passage. The main passage continues onward.

There's no door in the doorframe, but you can listen at it.

[Tamerlaine]

Obviously intrigued by the writings on the wall, Atticus joins the cleric in attempting to glean some understanding from them.

Wall Carvings (vs INT 17) [1d20] = 18

Atticus turns away with a frown, disappointed in his inability to decipher the sigils and markings. After hearing the 'inhuman' cry, his features tense. "I do not like the sound of that," he offers in a low voice. "Who knows what lurks within these tunnels, stirred by the quake. I'm all for avoidance."

Is the cry coming from beyond the doorway, along with the sound of running water, or is it coming from down the tunnel?

[Rusty Tincanne]

No door, just an opening? Oh. That is different. Fletch won't be likely to carry a lit torch into the doorway. Instead, he will listen from a distance to see if there is more than one sound. If he cannot tell, he will creep forward without the light source and listen from behind the edge, keeping out of sight with his bow knocked. He will report anything he learns back to the other two.

[cmrsalmon]

As your learned companions scratch their heads at the wall carvings, Fletch, something about the patterns prompts you to recall a scrap of a childhood rhyme, taught to you by an elderly Northerner.

"Three hungry skellingtons,
Hungry for a soul,
One marker, two markers,
Three markers more,
One meets a pilgrim,
And then there were four"

As you approach the empty doorway, Fletch, you hand over the torch and creep closer. The strange cry echoes through the passage, it's source hard to place, but the running water is much louder now. This close, the splashing sounds less like a underground spring or river.

You cannot hear or see anything else beyond the doorway.

[lab mix]

Marsha takes the torch from Fletch and holds it forward, illuminating his investigation.

"Can you see anything?" she asks. "Is there something approaching us?"

[Rusty Tincanne]

Three hungry skellingtons,
Hungry for a soul,
One marker, two markers,
Three markers more,
One meets a pilgrim,
And then there were four

Fletch
I never did understand how one pilgrim could become four. That kept me up a lot when I was little.

Looking into the darkness revealed even less.What do you two think? Keep going straight or check out the water and whatever is moaning? The water might lead out of these tunnels.

[Tamerlaine]

"I concur," Atticus replies. "Let us follow the water. Keep to the side of caution and watch for any moon slime."

[lab mix]

Marsha hesitates for a moment, afraid that the cries may represent someone in danger...someone that she should help.

No. They have their hands full already.

"I agree," she says. She turns to Fletch.

"Was that something about...skellingtons you were mumbling before...?"

Marsha combs through her memories to see if this triggers anything...

skellingtons? (vs. INT 6) [1d20] = 3

Why does that sound so familiar? she wonders.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Well the poem starts with a bit about skellingtons, but it talks about pilgrims later, see? Do you think it means something?

Low intelligence...
so we are going throught the open doorway, towards the sound of water, correct? If Marsha is willing to hold the torch, Fletch will get his bow ready.

[Tamerlaine]

Atticus will throw in his intellectual faculties in deciphering the poem...if possible.

Poem vs INT 17 [1d20] = 4

[cmrsalmon]

As you edge carefully through the doorway, a circular room, about 40 foot in diameter is illuminated. The room has a domed roof, perhaps 15 foot high in the centre, and is built from the same white stone as the passage.

The space is bare save for a feature in the middle of the room. Water pours from a two foot-wide circular hole in the centre of the domed roof. The water falls onto a statue of three life-size skeletal figures. The figures are arranged in a tight triangle group, seemingly standing to attention, with their backs to each other. The water drains through small channels at the base of the statue, down, beneath the floor.

As Fletch relays the rhyme to you both, Marsha you recall studying an early translation of The Obscurity of Burnon that tells of the rites, pilgrimages and crusades of a people from the North, now lost to the ages. This translation was notable for its references to "soul-bearers", rendered in later versions as "wights", or simply "men".

Upon further consideration, Atticus, the purpose of the periodic carvings on the wall is clear. They must function as "markers" or waystones, indicating the distance between locations along the passage. As to the notion of "hungry skellingtons", you understand well the principle that a void seeks self-destruction, to fill itself with substance. It is not unreasonable to suppose that an empty soul vessel, properly made, would similarly seek to fill itself.

Another open doorway lies directly across the room, with another doorway to your right. The first doorway appears to lead to a much smaller passage, no wider than the doorway itself, but you cannot see much further. The second doorway is almost closed by a door that sits slightly ajar, and appears to be fashioned from a single piece of silvery metal, tarnished with age.

Over the splashing water, you hear a second, strange cry, from the passage ahead.

[lab mix]

"I have to admit, I'm not getting a great feeling about what we're finding here..." Marsha begins as she looks around the circular room.

She grips her mace tightly and motions toward the crying passage.

"Anyone up for investigating that with me?"

[Rusty Tincanne]

Fletch
Never the sharpest arrow in the quiver, Fletch approaches the statue. Wow! That's neat. Why would anyone put such a cool statue underground though? He tries to see if there is anything of value on the statues - gold, gems, weapons... anything. As he looks, he answers Marsha. Sure, I'll come with you. Better than going backwards.

[cmrsalmon]

As you approach the statues, Fletch, the empty eye sockets of the closest figure seem to regard you sadly. Something about the way the water runs down its skull.

Up close, there are no jewels inlaid in the statues, or decoration of any kind. Indeed, it is hard to tell whether the figures are expertly carved stone or petrifacted bone.

Closing on the small passage beyond, you see a flame flickering in the distance, illuminating a group of figures moving in a larger room beyond.

This small passage is constructed from the same white, red-veined stone as the rest of the complex. The stone is cut into much larger square blocks or paving, spanning the five-foot width of the passage. Two rows of identical square blocks make up the passage walls, with a row of blocks forming the roof of the passage, mirroring the floor.

The passage is five of these five-by-five foot blocks long. Each of the blocks appear to have a gap of less than half an inch between them, but you cannot see any mortar.

It is possible that an intricate pattern was once carved into the surface of these tiles, but age or traffic has long since worn the detail away.

[lab mix]

Marsha immediately begins to move as silently as possible, slowly creeping closer to the figures to get a better look.

Creeping (vs. DEX 12) [1d20] = 8

[cmrsalmon]

As you put your full weight onto the first of the large tiles, Marsha, the stone sinks down about half an inch.

You alone hear a voice, echoing, as though the sound is coming from inside your own head.

The voice, or rather voices, male and female, speak in unison. The male, sonorous, the female, strangely accented.

"IS YOUR SOUL READY?"