Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

“Danica, Inete.” He as the owl dives on the crater. “The sink hole is around fifteen feet in diameter. There is a puddle of water and mud at the bottom. Lots of debris, but nothing of our companions.” His attention is drawn by a singular loud sound. “A bubble rose from below and most of the mud on the pool was drained – there is an open place under the hole and it has some air. I’m guessing that is where we are going to find the others.” He started to ponder over the information as his familiar, with nothing better to do, starts to circle around in the ditch. “Can’t say how much of a fall from the mud to any solid ground. Going back after diving may be impossible.” Maybe with a rope, he considered. “Another bubble appeared. Everything happened just like with the other.”

He could see more if he sent Ninlil down the hole, but that would risk the owl and he had no idea when he would have the materials for Find Familiar again. Long term it was best to call her back and so he did with the voice of his mind.

“I have fifty feet of hampem rope. One of us can try do go down the sink.” Velan said as his familiar returned, using her eyes to scout around the group. It was not that he didn’t trust Inete and Danica, but they were three casters with no frontliner amongst them. There was no thing as too much care. “If we do that, whoever is going should have this.” The wizard raised his right hand and commanded his familiar to put the eerie token on it.

Notes: Velan has Ninlil look around the trio.

Perception Check: 8

Hew examines the stone.  "Nah, not Grung.  No chance."  Then he leans over, wracked with coughing, and then clears his throat.  "If I had to guess this is old Chultan.  I didn't see any ziggurats above ground.  Maybe this is something that sunk long ago?"  He shrugs.  "It's no where I've ever been before."

He looks to Meili, then back toward where the sinkhole empties.  "Dunno.  50 feet down?  100?  I lost my bearings in the muck."  He seems uncharacteristically confused and irritated.

Mica and Ran, both of you examine the stone hallway.  There doesn't appear to be any breeze or air-flow and it looks level.  From what you can see, neither direction stands out as more promising than the other.

Ninlil lifts off to survey your surroundings, though the familiar seems to be struggling on account of the heavy rains.  It doesn't give any warnings.

[Whats the plan for sending someone down?  Will you anchor the rope somewhere or will those on the surface just hold it?  There will likely be some rolls involved I just need to know what to ask for.]

Turning to look away from the endless grey rain and shadows as Velan speaks up, Danica looks up as his familiar begins doing lazy circles around them above. Focusing back on the hole as the wizard sheds some metaphorical light on it, she rubs her mouth with her right hand, the rain and bug repellant making her skin slick. Once he was finished explaining, the elf states, "I don't like the idea of me goin' down and leavin' the pair of you up here alone. But I like the idea of either of you going down alone even less. You're not sure how deep it goes though, right?" She asks, even as she tugs her pack off of her shoulders to retrieve her own coil of rope. "Got another fifty feet or so here." 

Being a sailor Danica has learned many different kinds of knots and ties. She would use the best one to secure the two ends of the rope together to create the sturdiest length possible and lash one end around herself like a harness. "Usually do this when trying not to get thrown off a ship, not jumping into something..." The elf grumbles. After tying everything, she would lay her hands on the skull of her wheel shield and cast Light, causing it to shine with golden light. After which she would make sure her wheel shield is secured on her back and scimitar at her side before approaching the edge of the sink hole to peer down. 

Glancing back at the mages, Danica asks, "Probably best for us to tie me off on something sturdy, ey? I'm heavier than I look." 

((Not sure if you need me to roll anything for the rope tying.))

"So pick a direction," Ran says looking both ways and not seeing anything more promising than the others. "Right?"

He holds the torch up and starts moving down the passage to the right, looking for signs of anything that might collapse under them as they go.

Perception: 17  

“It’s even odds that one way leads to the surface eventually.. well, maybe.”  Mica sniffs the air like a wolf, although it tells him nothing in this case. “Right is good with me.”  He takes a handful of mud and marks a crude arrow on the stone wall pointing right, at about eye level.  “Just in case this tunnel winds back on itself, we can tell we started here.  Don’t want to get lost in an underground maze”  He follows Ran down the tunnel, torch held high in one hand and hand axe gripped in the other, eyes looking ahead for danger.  Perception: 15.

.

"We can always flip a coin," suggested Meili but the guys were already ahead taking both torches with them. Before joining the rest (and while there was still some light) Meili wasted one of her torches as well. "Do you think others will try to get to us?" She was talking to Hew now. "Seems like they would try. But they do not know about the drop-off..." She thought for a moment, then took another torch and tried to secure it closer to the drop-off, preferably in a way, that both the hole in the wall and the edge of the of the fall were both in the light spot.

"Shall we follow?" Meili returned to the hole, climbed inside and helped Hew do the same. Then turned right and followed Mica.

The four of your turn right and start down the tunnel.  A thin puddle of mud and water has spread down this hall, enough to bring a little splash with everyone's footfalls.

You continue in this direction for a minute or so, perhaps traveling 100 yards.  All you can see is the dimly lit 15' in front of and behind you in the lonely stone corridor.  Then a door looms up before you.  It is made of stone.  There is no handle, and the door is carved with a bas-relief of a curious monster.  It looks like an amalgamation of a man and a bat, with a hooded face and huge leathery wings.

As you approach, you suddenly feel... something.  Hew recoils as if struck by fear and takes a step back from the door.

Despite the frightful appearance of this character, you are not deterred.  Something about this figure speaks to you.  The monster on the door was a hunter... but it hunted evil.  Its prey was those things that would prey upon the living souls of this land.  There is no way for you to know this... yet you feel this knowledge entering your mind all the same.

Despite the frightful appearance of this character, you are not deterred.  This was not a creature that was capable of mercy... yet it held mercy as the highest of virtues.  The healers and medicine-folk of this land stood beneath the protection of this monster and it looks upon you with great care.  There is no way for you to know this... yet you feel this knowledge entering your mind all the same.

The creature on the door seems to loom larger than life, standing over you in judgement.  You are very aware of your past choices... bounties taken or turned down, based on the weight of coin rather than the virtue of the job.  This thing, whatever it is, reads you like a book... and then discards you.  You feel no anger, no contempt; just cold disinterest.  This is nonsense, of course, it's just a door.  Right?

 The odd feelings pass.  And then the door starts to rumble, sliding upward into the stone ceiling, revealing the void beyond.  Water on the floor starts to rush under the door as it slowly opens before you.

Danica approaches the edge of the sinkhole, prepared to boldly dive down into possible muddy doom to rescue the others.

Ninlil the owl continues to circle overhead in the storm.

Inete continues to stand in the rain, wet and disturbed and deeply affected by this turn of events.

Velan hands Danica his eerie token.  

Tying off Danica's rope to a nearby tree, she has about 80' of play [Some feet used to tie off to the tree, then some feet back to the hole, then some feet where the two ropes are tied to one another].  Climbing down into the first layer of the sinkhole, 10' down, is simple enough.  The next step is considerably harder.  Even knowing you are tied off to a rope, all Danica's instincts cry out to her that it is madness to let herself be pulled down the bubbling mud tunnel.  Does she proceed?

[If no one else takes any action, Danica needs to make an acrobatics or athletics check.]

 Meili looked at Ran curiously. "You felt it too? It was probably a depiction of some god of old and maybe holy aura had remained."

She watched the picture until it disappeared and then stepped inside without (at least visible) fear.

Danica raised an eyebrow in curiosity as Velan said that he wasn't that strong, having known plenty of immensely strongly capable half orc sailors in her time. But perhaps that was simply a stereotype. He seemed to be more strong in mind than in body. Though upon his mention of influencing reality itself to help her, the elf gave a startled laugh, "Hopefully won't be needed, but good to have you at my back." She makes sure to tuck the eerie token safely into a pocket.

At the precipice, Danica murmurs a quiet prayer for Guidance from Selune before looking down into the dark bubbling liquid. The rain felt cold on her neck despite the jungle's heat and she closes her eyes before taking a jump and locking her ankles together as she dives down into the muck feet first. 

Acrobatics: 16
Guidance: 2

Meili and Ran stride into the room beyond the door.  By the light of Ran’s torch, they find themselves in a 15’ x 20’ chamber.  Water and muck from the corridor has already spread across the floor, surrounding a few blocks from the ceiling that have collapsed over the ages, roots hanging down from above.  To your left, a passage opens into an even larger room.  Hew [and, I presume, Mica] follow into the first chamber. 

The chamber on your left is larger, 20’ x 25’.  Against the furthest wall sits a stone sarcophagus.  There are no other doors.  This area seems like a dead end.

As you peer about in the gloom, a figure materializes over the sarcophagus.  It is ghostly and immaterial, illuminated in dark blue but emitting no light.  Its features are vague and obscured, like a it is wearing a hood and heavy cloak over a large body.  The shape trails off into nothing around the bottom; having no visible feet, it floats in the air above the tomb.

A disembodied voice booms through the chamber, deep and raspy.  It is in no language you can understand.  After a moment, Hew shakes his head.  “Its old Chultan… A few of the most remote tribes still speak a version of it… but I’ve never learned it all (cough).  I think… I think it is… welcoming us?  Inviting us in?  Something about a name or a legacy.  I don’t know - hrmph- I think we need to get the Nine Hells back the way we came.”

Though he is doing his best to hide it, you notice that Hew is shivering slightly.

Danica drops into the muck.  It is so much thicker than water, and the buoyancy is all wrong.  You sink as far as your downward momentum carries you… and then you are stuck.  It is too thick to swim, to cloying to float in.  Before panic can set in, you feel a bubble of air rush past you from below and then you are sucked downward.  It would be exhilarating if it weren’t so terrifying, pulled down through wet, smothering darkness. 

Its impossible to measure how far you travel in the disorienting much, down, then laterally, then down again, but you still have plenty of slack rope when you are spilled out onto a hard and uneven, rocky surface. [Acrobatics check success]  You take half of 14 bludgeoning damage (7).

Clearing the mud from your eyes, you find yourself in a subterranean chamber.  You are inside a natural earthen hollow, 40’ long, 10’ high and 10’ wide.  The bottom below your feet is uneven, lumpy bedrock, but the wall along your left side is made of blocks of cut stone.  To the right, the floor falls away into a chasm of unknown depth.  Water and mud from the sinkhole pour over the side and down into darkness.  The sinkhole you fell through continues to discharge mud and water, along with the occasional lump of clay or surface plant.  The is a squelching sound as bubbles of air from your subterranean prison move up the sinkhole and are exchanged for discharged of wet soil and mud from above.  Someone has left a torch set up to illuminate the edge – for your benefit?  Good news then… someone must have survived.

There is no one else in the chamber with you but you spot many foot prints moving around in the muck.  There is also a section of the cut stone wall that is collapsed and the footprints all seem to lead through there and into the chamber beyond.

Based on the 80’ of play you had, and how much slack you have left, it seems there is a 40’ climb through the sinkhole back to the surface.

Danica drops into the mud and then she is gone.  The rope plays out quickly until there is about 20’ of slack left and then it stops.

Inete looks at you for a moment.  “I am alright.  I am just… tired.  We have been pushing so hard and sleep has not come easy for me.  I…” she stops.  “There is something out there…”.

No sooner has she made the remark, then you get a ping from Ninlil.  The owl has spotted something.  There is a very large animal in the underbrush 200’ south of you.  It is not in an aggressive posture at the moment.  As you process this information, a loud, low call booms out from that direction…

Owwwww... hoo... hoo...... hoo......... hoo...............hoo……………………………hoo.

The sensation of drowning wasn't an unfamiliar one to the sailor unfortunately, but it was even more oppressing feeling like she was being buried alive and about to drown all at once. Grunting hard as finally she was released, landing with a roll on the hard rock, she spat out the bit of mud in her mouth, attempting to wipe her eyes and mouth clean as she knelt. Getting to her feet and peering around, the first thing to catch her attention was a torch and she was infinitely glad that she couldn't see any bodies. 

Catching the tracks and the collapsed wall, Danica follows the trail with her eyes before looking to see how much rope she had left to play with and then glancing back up at the hole she had been spat out from. Pulling the bit of hair that was the token given to her by Velan, Danica is about to use it to message him when she remembers just in time about the word limit and curses, holding out her fingers to count before she spoke, "Made it to the bottom. Think they survived. Somebody left a torch and there's tracks leading away. There's architecture, a wall. Should I keep going?"

Insight: 16

Meili stared at the ... apparition? still seemingly fearlessly. It did not have prominent wings but the general shape still reminded the figure on the door. Not commenting on Hew's discomfort with the being, she thoughtfully said: "Maybe it is expecting us to say the name of the god from the bas-relief on the door? Which we neither know nor can guess." 

The smart thing to do would be to follow Hew's advice, get out of this room and check the other direction of the corridor. And yet, she still did not sense any danger from the ghost or that god (she was convinced that was the god) the thing represented. And now she was simply too curious to turn back. "I want to check something. Just give me a moment." A grain of positivity in the later sea of misery - all one can hope for to keep life's balance. Maybe their painful fall was not in vain and something useful around here could answer the numerous questions about their quest or even help in some way?

Meili held the torch a bit more firmly, slowly walked to the ghost and said simply "Greetings. We mean no harm."