Siobhan's fantasy epic of eipc fantasy (open, PM me first)

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison nodded at his assessment. "Very well then. We continue forward, but carefully. Watch where you step, everyone." Harrison continued a few steps forward, watching the foot prints of the group that went on ahead. If nothing else, they might signal where it was safe to step. That doesn't mean he follows them blindly; his eyes watch the walls and ceiling keeping an eye open for anything that might prevent them from continuing safely.

 

[siobhancan99]

The fissure ran around and Harrison could tell it was coming back close to the point of origin. The dwarf speculated there must be some structure in the center, or something solid to anchor things too. it sloped downwards as it went, and come close to the point of origin, where it widened out. It was a full story below, however, in terms of depth. A large alcove was formed, in part by a granite roof that sheltered the back of the building and had kept it debris free. Recently, the area had been quite disturbed. Harrison found some shredded armor.

The City had fallen 1000 years before, and the empire 500. In the late imperial period, the styles of armor changed to reflect some of the "barbarian" technology of the Volk and Ludowy who often made up the bulk of the legions. Harrison's examinations put the armor pieces at that period, meaning that this was from an expedition around the time of the founding of the new city. Livonia had suggested that one had disappeared in this region. It seemed whoever got there ahead of him also investigated the armor. A few moments later, the cleric touched his shoulder and raised a finger to his lips. he pointed over to what looked to be the entrance to a fallen building next to the tax office, then raised 6 fingers.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison could see the disturbed dust and earth around the armor scraps. Like him, this preceding group wondered about what or who could have rent the armor so completely down here all those centuries ago. When Jan pointed out what lay ahead, he was fairly sure he had his answer. He passed the word around the group via hand gestures as well. Unhooking the catch on his hip, he took his whip in hand as he crept forward. Undead weren't particularly light on their feet and he'd learned it was a lot easier to fight them if they were laying on the floor.

Nearing the section where the passage opens up to allow access to the lower floor of the tax building or the outbuilding beside it, Harrison crouches low, peering into the darkness ahead to see if he can spot any motion inside it. He draws his rapier slowly, trying to keep the sound to a minimum as he watches.

 

[siobhancan99]

Inside the ruin of the building crouched 5 figures. Two in the lamellar armor of the late homines period, two men and a woman dressed in modern garb. They grunted and made noises as if talking, but there was no intelligence in it. Jan crouched next to Harrison "minor wights. Not fully intelligent like their progenitor. Nastier than ghouls, not as dangerous as a fully aware undead. If they kill you with their claws though, youll rise as one of them. They can drain your life out and heal themselves, and their claws can rend steel so watch out."

The big blond cleric readied his warhammer. "light first, might blind them. Take off your goggles so I don't ruin your vision." Miray readied a spell and the dwarf slid his axe free, crouching behind his shield. The cleric gave a moment's warning, then brought up a light, bright as day, to hover in the center of the wights.

Indeed, they were stunned, and the party was able to take advantage of their momentary confusion and blindness.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison slipped his goggles up in time as the sun came out deep underground. Springing forward, he took advantage of the window he was afforded. With a snap, he flicked the whip out to lash around one of the wight's ankles. He jerked for all he was worth as he continued to close the distance. Aiming for an exposed area, he thrust his rapier forward on the off-balance undead before sliding to the side to let the clanking, charging Grimgur power through the horde.

Harrison had learned how to fight opportunistically and always seemed to keep a body between him and the enemy. Springing in and out, he took advantage of wights that were distracted by Grimgur and Jan. He relied on his deft hands rather than brute strength to slip the sharp blade in his hands into small windows on the wight's armor. The longer the fight dragged on, the more Harrison appreciated the gathered talent around him on this delve.

 

[siobhancan99]

Taking full advantage of Harrison's attack, Jan smashes his warhammer into the wight brought low by the tugging whip, adding his damage to that already inflicted by the archaeologist. Miray speaks a word, and flame shoots from her hands in bolts, striking here and there among the small group of wights. Grimgur smashes one's head open with an axe, then scrambles behind his shield as another rakes its vile claws along the metal studded wood..

Between Harrison and Jan, one is down, Grimgur adds one to the tally and Miray has inflicted small damage to the other three. Jan spins, taking one on the shield that had been coming for Harrison. The one on Grimgur leaves long deep scars in his shield, but doesn't manage to get around it. A third slips around him, heading for the sorceress who pelts it with another bolt of fire as she scrambles back, it moves past Harrison, leaving itself open to attack from behind.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison smiles as he sees that the height difference between him and Jan allowed him to be lost in the shuffle. As wight charged past him, aiming to claw up Miray, Harrison wheeled and stabbed for the base of the neck. Knowing armors didn't reach that high on most builds, he hoped a stab and twist would be enough to sever whatever remained of the spine. He didn't know necromancy magic, but figured that would be enough to end whatever magics were holding it up.

If not, he kept at it, not leaving Miray to fend for herself. While her silks looked lovely, they did little to impede the claws of the undead. Once the threat was gone, he sidled near Grimgur to give him some reprieve from the wight that was dead set on clawing its way through his shield to get to him. Snapping out his whip, he aimed to yank the distracted undead off its feet to give Grimgur the opening to cleave the foe's head from its shoulders.

 

[siobhancan99]

Harrison easily dispatches the lesser wight, while the severing does little to slow its locomotion, the resultant damage to the body along with another blast from Miray is enough to destroy the head. "Good thing you're not just pretty" She manages a quip, winking at the man. "I mean, thanks" She turned to observe Jan smashing in the head of another wight with his warhammer, and Grimgur sever a leg, then take the head off another.

"Ah, nice warmup for the main event aye?" The dwarf laughed softly "i appreciate you not throwing any fire that could bring down the cavern, Miray"

She grinned "have i ever? don't answer that" the pair had an easy banter and had obviously worked together before. Jan knelt and inspected the bodies "all lesser wights, which means there's at least one greater wight inside. I initially detected six but the sixth has moved out of range. Probably the master. It will be cunning and will make much better use of actual weapons, if it has them"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison produced a cloth and wiped his blade clean before sheathing it. He watch Miray and Grimgur chat and smiled to himself. Having a pair like that will make this go a lot more smoothly. "I'm glad Livonia brought us together; this is an encouraging first step," he said, trying to praise their efforts so early in the delve.

Turning to Jan, he listened, frowning a bit. "It might have used these created foes to learn about our capabilities then, if they are as clever as you say. Now that it has seen what we can do, I wonder if it might be reporting to a superior? Either that or retreating to a place of power. In any event, we need not chase it. It will likely come for us in time. Our focus is the vault under the customs house... which should be... there." Harrison points out after scanning the hallways for length and depth under the floor above.

 

[siobhancan99]

Jan nods and kneels over the corpses of the minor wights "I am concerned about this armor. I've never seen it before" referring to the late homines period armor on two of the wights "If this is very old it means those wights were very old, which makes their progenitor ancient." he straightens "any insight into that? or is it maybe just foreign? I admit I'm not familiar with Sewochi or even Keshvian armor styles."

The dwarf, while the others talk, makes an inspection of the walls between the customs house and the open building the wraiths were in "Things look pretty sturdy under here. There's good support in both buildings and someone has taken steps to buttress the opening here between the two. Well.. some thing maybe."

Miray walks behind Harrison and surreptitiously runs her hand over his ass "thanks for the rescue." pressing into him a little just for a moment. She then rummages in a corner, where the wights belongings from their time in life seem to have been discarded. "no magic, so whatever it is that made them probably took anything they had. There's dry rations and water though, probably from the trio who were a day ahead of us."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison looks at the armor of two of them. "Well, they would be from the right era as the fall of the city. The armor is the right age. As for the progenitor of these wights, I can't speak to how powerful it is. I'm not versed in how undead gain strength over time. If these wights are any indication, their age didn't make them any stronger." He observes given how quickly they were dispatched.

Harrison nods at the good news from Grimgur. "Good, that means the vault is still intact, hopefully. I hope the door isn't jammed from the shifting above it, however." He added, moving through the group as they changed course to head into the lower floors of the tax building. As he passed Miray, he allowed her caress and gave her a squeeze back as he lingered beside her.

"Happy to help," he replied simply, not wanting to make a big show of it. Hearing that the food was still left behind, Harrison grumbled. "I imagine they still had plenty of exploring to do when they were turned. If we can spare the weight, we may keep it with us if it's still edible. Could gives us a buffer if we need to spend an extra day down here for one reason or another."

Either way, Harrison's focus was finding the cache left behind in the lower reaches of the tax building. If it was still there, he hoped he could live up to his boast of being able to circumvent the security keeping it locked away.

 

[siobhancan99]

The party collected what was salvageable of the food and water, adding it to their stores. They moved into the building next to the tax building, finding another fissure in the tax building walls.

Down below, the building was far less ornate than up above. there were no mosaics, just row after row of stone benches with scattered inkpots along the floor and the crumbled remains of thousand year old paper. rubble filled the stairs up to the upper floor, but another hole punched through to a cavern beyond. Additionally, on the main wall was a huge vault door made of bronze. In front of the door were two statutes, and before the statues were two bowls. Harrison knew that the homines often used elaborate mechanical devices in situations such as this, and either the proper offering had to be made or the statues manipulated in some fashion to open the doors... unless he wanted to try breaking them down.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison scanned the room and his mind's eye could see row upon row of scribes, keeping the records of the empire in this room. He wondered if he might have been one of them had he been alive at the time of the Homines. He let that thought slip away as he turned to face the vault door. Nodding, he knew he'd found something worthwhile here. Swinging his satchel around in front of him, he reached inside, producing a clutch of candles from inside. With his other hand, he fished out a tindertwig and sparked it against a table.

Using the flame, he heated the base of the candles, letting them liquify a little before setting them up around the room. The light each provided helped illuminate the vault and its guardians. With light available to him now, he slipped the goggles up from his eyes, seeing the room in color for the first time.

"Okay, if I recall these sorts of mechanisms, the guardians accept an 'offering' in their bowls. In reality, it's a weight that puts the requite tension on a pin inside the device. Once both guardians are 'satisfied', i.e. both pins are pulled, the vault unlocks. At least, that's how I believe this thing should work. My only worry is what the guardians do if they are displeased..." he murmured the last part as he search both statues and the ground around the vault for any sign of a trap that would activate if he gave them the wrong "offering".

 

[siobhancan99]

As Harrison inspects the device he makes several notes. The first is that the bowls in front of the statues seem to be discolored and slightly deformed as if they have been heated and cooled repeatedly. That, however, might have nothing to do with the mechanism and everything to do with the use any underground dweller had for the bowls after the literal fall of the building into the catacombs. The second thing he notices is a small panel on the back of the column supporting the bowls.

After a brief inspection he finds a small trap on the column, but determines that it has decayed from age beyond usefulness. After opening the column he sees a series of lead pipes which have slight condensation on them. He knows that the Homines were greater engineers than wizards, and they had a love of using water pressure in making doors appear to open magically. the pressure might change because of weight, or because of some other factor that would affect the pressure within the closed system of the pipes, which affix to the base of the bowls but clearly are capped by them, keeping the water within the pipes.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

As Harrison inspects the statues, he can feel the eyes on him from the others in the group. He breathes deep to clear his thoughts and refocus on the task before him. Following the pipes through the statue as far as he can see, he bends down and around, following them to the hands on the undersides of the bowls. Stepping down from the pedestal, he starts pacing, tapping his lips with a finger.

"They liked for mechanisms to appear magical, but really it was correct application of force..." he reminds himself. "If there's water in the pipes, they might have designed these to work via water pressure. How do you increase water pressure without a pump?"

Lifting his chin, he wheeled around and reexamined the statues. "No, this isn't recent heat damage. These bowls were meant to be heated..." He muttered, looking around the room. Scrambling over to the scattered papers, he began tearing them into strips or balling them up. He set a few balls and strips in each bowl and retrieved one of his lit candles. Applying the flame to one of the strips hanging over the edge, he lit the paper in each bowl, hoping it would burn hot enough to make enough steam to make the water move in the pipes.

 

[siobhancan99]

harrison can hear the mechanism working, but not enough. The sorceress steps in, muttering a few words and sending a small jet of flame towards each of the bowls. At that, the mechanism triggers. The doors, heavily patinaed and green, slowly creek open. At the opening, a magical light inside triggers. Inside, Harrison would see rotting box after rotting box of coins. Great bronze wheel coins of the Homines spilling out of chests. The wheels were made to be broken into bits, and there are sacks upon sacks upon sacks of the coins in a great vault. Harrison knew the bronze coins would have some small worth to an investor, but the Duke would likely melt most of them down for cannon. Still, the Duke had already promised to buy such off of him and leave him a sufficient quantity for display. What was really valuable were the gold and silver coins used for large commercial transactions.

Stepping into the vault, Harrison found the decayed remains of another trap, made dust by ages. What would have been a tripwire trap had long disintegrated. The foursome was able to move freely about the vault. The vault itself was ornately decorated, marble instead of mosaic. In the back corner were iron chests that the archaeologist knew would hold the greatest treasure. After jimmying the locks, he indeed found thousands upon thousands of silver coins, and another thousand in gold. Too much to carry, if he didn't have his magic bag of course. This was the mother load... but only the beginning of the descent and the mapping he'd been tasked with by Livonia.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison smiled as Miray provided the necessary heat to activate the mechanism. Hearing the ancient doors sliding open, he couldn't help but marvel at their engineering prowess. It took some precision craftsmanship to build doors like this that would still move and slide after sitting idle for so many centuries. He chuckled at the remnants of the tripwire trap and the poisoned needles that lay scattered on the floor. They must have fired ages ago when the wire finally gave out under the tension.

Stopping at the bronze wheels, he smiled at the currency model the old society used. He talked about how things were counted in "Wheels" and "Wedges" when people would negotiate prices on a day to day basis. While bronze wasn't valuable, the society understood that it was safer to carry around and trade with it than using silver or gold for daily transactions. Most times businesses would settle affairs at year's end by trading in bronze disks with a tax office or bank for gold and silver equivalents. That was why this vault had such a large cache of both at the back.

Seeing the boxes full of coins, Harrison marveled at how much was there. Taking a few handfuls for now, he wanted proof that they had found the vault as the minted coins would be unmistakable on the surface. "I think we should leave these here. We know how to get into the vault and can seal it behind us. We can pick these up on the way out. What do you think?" He asked the others, concerned about toting all this weight and volume even with his magically enhanced satchel.

 

[siobhancan99]

The dwarf sighed at the thought of leaving all that treasure, and appeared about to object when Jan cut in "I think there's a more powerful wight up ahead, and I'm not here for coin but as a favor to your country." He shot a look at Grimgur who shook his head but acquiesced "can ye trap it then?" he gestured at the doors "something to make it safer in case others come in our wake? I'd hate to have gone to all this trouble only to lose out."

Miray put her hand on Harrison's shoulder "I agree with Harrison and Jan. We seal it up nice and tight, then head on. Our job is to clear the way for mappers and see what is down here. Treasure is nice, but it is a distraction from the goal." She let her hand fall away, after giving Harrison's notion support, but remained standing beside him.

Her long time delving partner, the dwarf sighed. he knew he was beaten "yes. Seal it up then." he shoved a handful of gold coins into his pack "Just in case it's all gone when we come back" Then, appearing mollified, looked to Harrison "so do we just seal the doors or break the mechanism? If we take the water out we might not get it working again..."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison looks back. "I'd rather not break the mechanism. It's survived this long and it feels wrong to me to destroy something from that ancient culture. I can probably restring that trap and reset it on our way out. Between that and the cleverness of the mechanism, that should be enough to keep people out. If you, Jan, or Miray have a glyph spell or some other magic that might deter people from entering... or even an illusion spell that will obscure the vault door. Even something as an empty wall would do," he suggested.

"In the meantime, I'll get to work on the trap," he says before grabbing a few handfuls of coins himself. He'd hate to leave empty-handed as well. Satisfied he didn't burden himself too much, he retrieves his tool kit and goes about rewiring the trap and resetting the mechanism that went off when the tripwire was pulled. Hopefully, that would give the others enough time to vacate and set up whatever magics they intended to use.

 

[siobhancan99]

Jan shrugs "I'm not here for the coin" though he does take some.

The dwarf hmmms and sets about moving some things in front of the door. , but moves them back as it becomes clear the rocks are arranged. Miray kneels on the floor, drawing with chalk and muttering. Runes of flame appear where she draws, and she inscribes them with stored power, setting a trap not mechanical but mystical. Any living or undead being that approaches the doors without her undoing the trap would be incinerated "this will only last a few days." She straightens, checking and rechecking her work. "but it should be sufficient deterrent for anyone to assume that its part of the original Homines trap. Unless they're an expert like you." She gave him a flirty wink, then brushed past him to the other exit.

The party moved on, moving through a series of tunnels, working downward with switchbacks, till they came to a large cavern. It was illuminated with some sort of eerie blue light, which Harrison quickly ascertained came from a fungus growing on the wall. Miray made a face "it lives on magic. There's a strong source of it down here for sure if there's such a healthy colony. Tha'ts good... maybe. but also bad. maybe. It depends."

In the area was a fairly well preserved set of Homines houses, and in the center of a square was a man dressed in late imperial clothing, half rotted. He had milk white skin, drawn too tight across his frame. around him were 2 lesser wights, and in his hand was a staff tipped with an orange crystal. He spoke, in Homines

"You too come to plunder the old city do you? New fools for old folly. I am king now, and this kingdom of death such as it is is mine. You may pay your respects, or join it."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison watch Miray inscribe her rune and felt instantly better. Between that and the tricky mechanism to open the vault, he hoped it would be enough. Whether or not he saw the trap set off inside would tell him how successful they had been. Hopefully, it would all be there when they made their return trip.

Following tunnels both natural and man-made, Harrison made notes on his map and his journal about all he saw. He listened and followed Miray's finger as she pointed out the luminous fungus. Nodding, he agreed. "I think it was an existing species that adapted to growing around the Homines. The light emitted helps the colony grow, I believe. I'm not a fungus expert, but I think I read that in my research," he explained.

Following the roads of this part of the sunken city, they came into a plaza or square amidst a collection of houses. Putting a hand on Jan's shoulder to stay his weapon, Harrison stepped forward. Speaking in his best Homines, he tried to talk with the withered undead.

"No, not to plunder, but to study. You and your people have been lost to us for too long. We merely want to know what your people learned, what they built, what they wrote. We don't come to destroy or plunder; we come to learn. Surely, you don't want what you learned or built to be lost to dust. Let us take it with us to enshrine in our places of learning and study," Harrison said, swallowing nervously. As he drew closer to the undead, he could feel the energy radiating off the powerful undead threatening to suck the soul from his body. He did not shrink away from it however.

 

[siobhancan99]

The Wight pauses, looking him over "One of the barbarians. By your accent."

At the time of the man's disappearance into the catacombs, the Homines had mostly lost their grip on the empire, and the Volk and Ludowy were ascendant, but the Empire remained.

"Are there any men of my country left? Or having despoiled the surface have you come here, at last, to this grave of the men of the empire?"

The Wight leans on its staff, and the malevolence of the beast rolls off it in nearly palpable waves. Jan readies his hammer, and looks close to striking. As a priest of the twins, the destruction of beasts like this is his primary focus.

"A ludowy. A priest of the bitch goddess. Come to put me to my final rest? I will feast on your soul, priest. Unless your friends are of wiser measure." He turns back to Harrison "What secrets have you come for, barbarian?"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison let the "barbarian" comment roll off of him. The last time this wight was alive, that's all Harrison's ancestors were to the people of this Empire. It's not that much of an insult, but really the moniker used for anyone not of the Empire. At his question about the people of the Empire, Harrison frowned, shaking his head.

"I'm afraid there aren't any full blooded Imperial citizens left. When your city fell, those beyond the destruction had no choice but to join the communities and cultures that surrounded it. There is a new city that is rising from the ruins above; that is who we serve. Our goal is preservation and recovery of artifacts and knowledge your Empire possessed. The city may be buried, but your accomplishments need not join it," Harrison reasoned.

The creak of Jan's glove on his hammer made Harrison's head whip to look at him. The zealous urge to smite the undead was apparent on Jan's face, but Harrison didn't want that. He hoped he might work with this wight as it was clear that it still had control of its faculties. If he could convince it, it might help lead them to stores of information or technology here below.

Harrison stepped between them. "He is a cleric of the twins. We brought him along as not all of those turned to undead are as capable of reason as you are," he explained. "We are hoping that you might lead us to a library or other repository of knowledge. Failing that, anything you or your kin may have constructed using the Empires methods of magic would be desirable."

Harrison's heart was in his throat as the other wights seemed ready to tear his throat out if their leader gave the word. He hoped it wouldn't come to that. There's no telling what he might find with the help of this former citizen of the old city.

 

[siobhancan99]

Jan shot Harrison a look along the lines of "are you for fucking real right now?" but held back a moment to see where this went.

"the twins? we knew death as one goddess with two faces" The wight shoots Jan a withering look "Gentle repose, and forceful repose. I see that your friend prefers forceful." He tapped the base of his staff on the ground and the crystal flared with orange light, overwhelming the blue "He will find that it is not so easy."

Miray gasped "Harrison" she whispered "that staff... I can feel its power." The look on her face was one Harrison would have seen on any number of adventurers. Lust for something rare and unique and powerful. "Harrison, with such a staff..."

The dwarf only looked around, taking stock of the assembled undead "bout 20 ghouls lad, in the dark. A handful of wights as well. If the Sorceress can keep him busy the three of us might be adequate to the task... but we might not. Best to keep things friendly a moment" He muttered.

The Wight looked Harrison over "if you are willing to acknowledge my supremecy, barbarian... I will grant you a boon as a courteous guest. I hope that tradition did not die with the empire. As for knowing your kind infest the halls of power, that was already true in my time. It was as inevitable as the dawn. Only death is unsure. All else has its season. Bend the knee and show me respect, and I will answer what questions I feel are appropriate"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Harrison looked at Jan. "I know your quest, but you need to weigh the situation around us. Grimgur is right; this one is concentrating the rest of the undead in this section of the district. We can't risk violence when we are so woefully outnumbered, even with the skills in our possession." He explained as he sidled over to Miray.

"I know, but lust for a thing is what kills a lot of people on delves like this. What does it help anyone if we wind up adding to the host of undead down here?" He says, speaking quietly to her. He leaves it at that but it all changes as the wight makes his demand.

Harrison narrows his eyes when the staff-wielding wight demands he bend the knee. He approaches the powerful undead and addresses him in his practiced Homines. "I'm sorry, but there is no Empire. Not anymore. All that stands of it is a mausoleum. Look around you." He gestures to the encroaching undead. "These are not citizens. You reign over a realm of dust and death. There is no title to honor anymore. As you say, every people has their season and the season of your Empire is past. I had hoped that you were a person of reason, a scholar like me. But I see that you are a child, demanding respect while offering none. A relic of a former age demanding respect for a reputation that has weathered to patina. On your way, ghost, I will find what I am after without your help." He says, waiting and watching.

As he does, he slides his off-hand up his back. As he waits, he puts up three fingers, then two as the wight responds. As the undead move in, he puts up one finger. If the wight moves to lash out with his staff, Harrison cries out "NOW!"