The bear stands there, still looking paralyzed with indecision at the oncoming cart. Joren's handaxe elicits a panicked swipe from the bear, but it stands its ground. Then it is nearly bowled over by the force from the Ring of Ram's Head. Before being able to recover its balance, it feels a spike of psychic energy driven through its mind along with a shot of flame along its backside. The abundance of sensation, none of it pleasant, at last prompts the large creature to beat a hasty retreat, and not a moment too soon. A little extra telekinetic shove from Malachi helps it clear its rump just before the cart barrels past. The cave fills for a few long moments with the bear's growls of discomfort, following them in an echo down the tracks. Then once again the only noise is that of the wheels on the tracks.
Joren re-summons his echo, which had vanished after moving more than 30' away to smack the bear. He stows his handaxes and re-equips his Dunamis Blade, going back to using his echo to sweep debris from the tracks 30' ahead of the mine cart.
"We do what Ashley says we are needing to do," he drawls matter-of-factly, as if discussing the weather.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Faster, yes faster!" Ashley proclaims as they are hurtling down the tunnel in the minecart. She watches with her eyes peeled for the next possible obstacle that would be in their way.
With a click, Vilus shifts the lever into the final position. The cart lurches forward, nearly doubling in speed. It takes all of Vilus' and Samir's attention to react to curves in the track in time to avoid derailing, but for the next while, the tunnel narrows and is conveniently clear of other wildlife.
Ashley:
Another pang strikes Ashley, but by the time a third strikes her, she feels they are over halfway to their destination. At this rate, it feels like they'll make it on time.
Ashley is not the only one with a growing feeling inside. It's gradual at first, easy to write off as nerves, but everyone in the cart feels a sense of growing pressure from within.
With the releasing of magic from the Hydaelim, everyone gets to level up. You can describe how it feels or how it expresses itself if you feel like it happens outwardly.
It was amazing, sometimes, how quickly clarity and understanding can come upon a person. For instance, one could be hurtling along in a rune-marked mine cart towards an uncertain fate and what could be a metting with some great unknown horror, when things just suddenly click. For Samir, it was almost an audible sound, as his thoughts scurried through concepts and images from their adventures. Unable to help himself despite their situation, the artificer's mind had drifted into memories and unintentionally began making those connections that he had been missing. The curves of a sigil, the feel of the Blue Lady's presence, the unmistakable buzz of magic along the nerves of his body as he looked upon the Godrunes that shouldn't exist.
And in that instant, it all made sense.
In his mind's eye, Samir pictured weaves of magical energy cascading along carved glyphs, relating those concepts he had learned in his studies to those ancient powers that the cultists were so desperate to reproduce and steal. It was like the time in his second year of university when he had finally worked out a method for briefly turning fine silver into an aerosolized form to integrate into other materials. The sudden flash of insight forced him into a moment of rapid blinks, his lips parting slightly in the wake of his sudden epiphany.
As he wills his injured body and mind back into the rhythm of moving his echo forward, clearing debris with his blade, further and faster ahead than before, the sensation of pressure gradually growing, pulsing, flowing... yet every flow must have its ebb.... the Blue Lady and the Red Huntsman... Joren half-slips into a waking dream. The old dream. A mean-spirited, asymmetric soldier's duel in the snow... Uneven in skill and in prestige...
Bleeding easily, mongrels are...
The sneering face of Bernard Kryn swims in his vision. Trueborn Khirian son and distant cousin, teaching the half-breed a lesson. Cut after well-placed cut by Bernard's echo, toying with his opponent. Smiling knowingly, fully aware he could kill Joren, the half-dwarf bastard, with no repercussions. Not for Bernard anyway, even though the duel was intended as non-lethal. But intent would be subject to Bernard Kryn's whim. Joren had been able to land but a single blow with the flat of his greatsword, from his own position, not his echo's. How the half-drunk crowd of trueborn Khirian echo knights had jeered at that one. So crude, that. To be attacking from your own position like a common infantryman. The mutt bastard's only here because his mother begged!
Blood and sweat pour from Joren's face and body as he growls in failing, doomed determination. Pivoting low to aim a reckless blow at an odd angle just as Bernard's echo catches him square and cuts Joren clean to the ribcage. It is death. Death if Bernard has his way with him, or likely death later by execution if Joren somehow kills the princeling. At the last minute, with instantaneous, yet immense reluctance, Joren twists his blade sideways to make his own attack non-lethal. As he would again much later and much farther to the west in the basement of Opportunity's Knock with Jon Shep.
Flat of the greatsword against Bernard Kryn's temple as Joren's own torso is laid open. Both men crumple to the dusty ground, Bernard with a shocked expression on his face and eyes rolling back in his head, and Joren in fetal position, bleeding his life away upon the stony foothills of the Veil Mountains, halfway back from the Battle of Dragontail Narrows, marching home to the Dalmodh Plains. Death on a night of celebration and revelry.
Though he hadn't died, had he? Then or now. The half-dwarf who lived... who learned, though later in exile, not at the time...
Joren Kryn sees it now. His seething hate for the princeling had blinded him. Hate, aye and jealousy, if he is honest with himself. Envy of the stature and respect of his countrymen that he himself would never enjoy as Bernard did. All of it had blinded him from truly grasping it. What deft footwork the princeling had shown if only Joren had been willing to learn from his antagonist! What a quick pivot, flexing the hips and turning the greatsword's momentum into a counter-cut. How the trueborn son had seemed to whirl and deliver two blows for every one that the half-dwarven bastard managed.
If I had not found my place among companions I care for and trust, Ashley and Samir, Malachi and Marion, even Vilus consumed by his dark strangeness... if I had not found my place, would my bitter rage have ebbed to the point that I could open my eyes and learn?
Despite his wounds and soreness, Joren sees it so clearly now. Feels it instinctively. Perhaps in a different timeline, another Joren would have learned right away, and yet another never would have picked it up. How he had been limiting himself. How to attack and attack and attack again, much faster than Joren ever had. The lesson had been there right in front of him all along. All he had to do was relive his worst memory with clear eyes.
Back in this timeline Joren breathes. Whatever is ahead, he feels ready to face it, despite everything. The bastard exile smiles into the onrushing darkness.
Malachi slumps against the side of the mine cart, tired and worn from the near misses of the bats and the cave bear, to say nothing of the earlier fights. What am I doing here? He wonders again as they speed through the dark tunnels. He has always had an appreciation for the finer things in life, even if he never truly had them on his own. Still he had developed the ability to move in that world, if only for pretend at times. This tunnel was a long way away from his life in the twin cities. Had he not overreached in his deals and schemes, maybe he would still be there.
All the talk Vilus had with Ashley on her vision back in Tensmith led Malachi to think of his vision, of his mother sitting at the chair by their fire before being interrupted by the banging on the door. He hadn’t really thought about it at the time, but that brought back another dream from his youth. He had dreamed of the same house, the same room, but this time the banging was on a small pantry door. When he had pulled on the door, it had opened to a dark void of blackness and bitter cold, filled with whispers and slithering sounds. In his dream, he had slammed the door in horror before waking in a cold sweat, sealing the dream away and trying to forget it.
He sits up quickly in the cart as he realizes that in the vision replaying in his mind the door was no longer closed, but cracked open and a now familiar slithering sensation slipped across the back of his consciousness.
Shaking his head to clear the daydream, he tries to focus once more on the task at hand. “Uh, do we know what we are speeding toward right now? What do we expect to find at the end of these tracks?”
As the third strike hits her and the feeling of heat intensifies.. she finds her mind wander to the Smoking Sands. She finds she doesn't miss it. Not one bit, but the heat of the tunnel as they head down pulls her mind there and the fire inside of her grows. The anger of her home and how she was treated when she found magic.. how she was pushed out of her town, her family.. looked upon with disgust.. it boils within her and she finds herself relishing in the fire, the dance of it, the control of it, the need of it. On the outside, her hair turns a deeper shade of red.. the glow everlasting.
She then opens her eyes and sees her friends. The ones she now holds most dear. Her face turns into a scowl as she thinks how they are all heading full speed to known danger, thinking of all that they have faced so far and here they were doing it again, without question. Her skin goosebumps as she thinks about it and focuses on how she can protect them better, finding any way possible to help them in any battle they may face.
"Yes... this speed.. we are going to make it, as long as nothing else stops us along the way." she almost utters in a murmur, her thoughts swirling with fire and friends.
The cart continues on down the tracks while the air grows warmer and warmer. At one point, the track splits, one path leading north and the other continuing to the East. Ashley confidently points straight ahead.
Every time Vilus moves the lever to adjust speed on a corner, the runes flash a little with yellow light, but Samir realizes with unfortunate certainty that the flashes have started getting dimmer.
The magical essence used to power the runes is beginning to dwindle.
What's more, the cart doesn't seem to be moving quite as fast as before. He does some quick mental math. If Ashley's estimation of the remaining distance is at all accurate, and assuming the turns don't get more frequent, they should have just enough power to get to their destination. Maybe.
Just before he is able to speak up though, the cart starts to accelerate again. He looks up. The ground beneath them has begun a gentle decent. The tunnel get a bit steeper, and the cart continues to increase in speed. Then the tunnel starts to curve slightly to the left, and doesn't stop. It is spiraling, slowly and surely, downward. Ashley feels the draw and the pulse of the heat much closer now. Below them.
(Everyone make me a perception check. It is dark here, so if you have nightvision that turns darkness to dim light, roll with disadvantage)
Vilus keeps his eyes peeled, watching for obstacles or danger. In so doing, he notices that the walls here appear different. Though worn and aged, this part of the tunnel is relatively smooth. He realizes he is looking at worked stone. Not the crude jagged edges of excavation, but careful and painstaking work. The rail they are on my be new, but the tunnel itself is a hall
He is not alone in this realization though. He and Ashley notice simultaneously the worn etchings and faded paints. It's hard to make out at their current speed, but they catch flashes of symbols and designs, images and scenes. Carvings of fire. Lots of them. Like some unending mural, spiraling into the depths.
The cart continues to speed up. The wheels jostle and jounce, and the cart starts to lean dangerously toward the outside of the curve.
Joren's voice remains laconic. "Seeing any brakes on this thing, Vilus or Samir?"
Unlike many soldiers, echo knights often lack training in land vehicles or mounted combat because of their ability to "echo march," effectively turning them into somewhat slower cavalry themselves. Joren is no exception, and the controls on this cart being arcane make him even less knowledgeable.
"Going fast is one thing, but should get there in one piece. Needing to be ready to abandon ship if we are careening off track or into a lava lake."
He suits his actions to his words, not moving, exactly, but readying himself to spring out of the cart if it derails or the track suddenly ends.
Vilus gives a nod to Joren and slows the cart down from its fastest setting, just for a moment to see whether the uncontrollable acceleration eases off, "how close are we Ash?" He grumbles as he looks down at the arcane markings with some confusion.
The lever clicks into position on a slower setting, and the cart jerks, suddenly slowing down. It holds at that speed for a few seconds, but then the wheels emit a crackling sound, and magical sparks burst from the lever. Then the runes go dull and the cart starts slowly speeding up again. No with no magic left to reign in its momentum.
Ashley's head pounds again, and this time everyone feels the tremor in the ground. An explosion, somewhere below them. Samir recognizes it. It sounds just like the mining rigs that had been stolen from Tensmouth.
Dust tumbles down around them, and Vilus watches as part of the inner wall of the curve crumbles away, leaving a large opening through which a soft luminescence shines, as well as a large chunk of stone on the tracks before them. Vilus realizes that if they can't find a way to slow the cart down, they'll only have a few seconds before crashing or being derailed.
Seeing the murals rush by them, Ashley feels a strange pull towards them, enough to make her want to stop even though she knows they can't. She feels the paintings have a strong connection to the Heart of Flame, but can't read them as they fly by so she can't really understand them and it frustrates her.
But she doesn't have time to be frustrated for long as the explosion is not just in her head this time and she looks towards the luminescence and shrieks. Not even seeing the rock or registering how that is going to affect them, she stares into the opening in the wall, "That glow. That glow is the same bioluminescence we saw when we stumbled upon the Gloazworm hive. We are right underneath where we saw them earlier. We... we need to get closer! We need to keep going, we're so so close! We need to..." she starts mumbling but then gathers more strength, "It feels like our destination is something underneath the chamber where they built their nest. We're going to encounter... a lot of those things." she shudders as she says this, scared for all of them.
Vilus looks down at the controls and doesn't notice his understanding of the runes in such a high pressure situation. However he does understand that even if he restored the magic to the runes, it wouldn't return the use of the speed settings in time, if at all. Standing and stamping on the control, Vilus puts his arms out in front of him and mutters a quick incantation casting shatter on the chunk of stone. Causing 12 thunder damage to the stone in the way and sending shock waves shuddering back through the tunnel.
Joren listens intently to Ashley, wishing he understood better. Delving below the gloazworms. Right. His drawl is wry with gallows humor.
"As I was saying, next stop, Gloazworm Central. Now featuring mining charge detonations! The sooner, the better, if you are asking me..."
With that, he swaps places with his echo, which has been pacing the mine cart, 30' ahead. Just in time to appear a few feet to one side of the boulder blocking the tracks in front of the onrushing cart. Bracing with his legs, he charges and slams into the rock with his shoulder, aiming to shove it aside.
JorenAthletics: 25 (with or without help from Malachi'sTelekinetic Shove)
Leaping away from the cart an instant before it takes his head off, Joren echo-swaps once again, back into the cart, hurtling down the now-cleared tracks.
The shockwave from Vilus' spell shakes dust loose from the ceiling and walls, but the stone remains unmoved. That is until Joren's desperate slam tips it off the tracks. Taller than it is wide, is gets enough momentum from Joren that it topples out through the hole in the wall. As the cart hurtles past the opening, its occupants lookout to see a glassy, insectoid head staring in at them, with the glow of the hive bending through its translucent exoskeleton. Then they are past it. A split second later, something slams into the wall behind them. Ashley and Malachi look back to see one of the creature's scythe-like limbs pulling out of a dent in the far wall, raking across the tracks, and withdrawing out through the hole.
The spiraling decent steepens, and the cart starts to speed up more. A minute later, a new glow appears around the bend. This one, though is the flickering orange-yellow glow of torchlight. The end is near.
The sudden intrusion of near death (at least in his mind) experience pulls Samir from his thoughts, and he stares wide-eyed at the hole in the wall as they go barreling past. One hand clutches tightly to the rim of the mining cart while the other clasps his satchel to his side as if his life depended on it.
"They're using mining rigs down there for something!" He could only hope that his voice carried over the rushing wind of their rapid descent. "Whatever this heart of fire is, I fear they are either trying to take it, or destroy it!"
Ashley gasps at the sight of the gloazworm making a dent in the tunnel wall. She hadn't known they had that much force along with everything else that was twisted and wrong about the creatures. She can't help but wonder how they came to be.
As the cart races faster down, she turns back to the front, willing it to go faster as they needed to get to the heart of fire.
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The bear stands there, still looking paralyzed with indecision at the oncoming cart. Joren's handaxe elicits a panicked swipe from the bear, but it stands its ground. Then it is nearly bowled over by the force from the Ring of Ram's Head. Before being able to recover its balance, it feels a spike of psychic energy driven through its mind along with a shot of flame along its backside. The abundance of sensation, none of it pleasant, at last prompts the large creature to beat a hasty retreat, and not a moment too soon. A little extra telekinetic shove from Malachi helps it clear its rump just before the cart barrels past. The cave fills for a few long moments with the bear's growls of discomfort, following them in an echo down the tracks. Then once again the only noise is that of the wheels on the tracks.
"Sh*t sorry about that guys, I dropped the ball on that one, but I'm focussed now... Shall we pick up the pace?"
Joren re-summons his echo, which had vanished after moving more than 30' away to smack the bear. He stows his handaxes and re-equips his Dunamis Blade, going back to using his echo to sweep debris from the tracks 30' ahead of the mine cart.
"We do what Ashley says we are needing to do," he drawls matter-of-factly, as if discussing the weather.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
"Faster, yes faster!" Ashley proclaims as they are hurtling down the tunnel in the minecart. She watches with her eyes peeled for the next possible obstacle that would be in their way.
Perception 20
With a click, Vilus shifts the lever into the final position. The cart lurches forward, nearly doubling in speed. It takes all of Vilus' and Samir's attention to react to curves in the track in time to avoid derailing, but for the next while, the tunnel narrows and is conveniently clear of other wildlife.
Ashley:
Another pang strikes Ashley, but by the time a third strikes her, she feels they are over halfway to their destination. At this rate, it feels like they'll make it on time.
Ashley is not the only one with a growing feeling inside. It's gradual at first, easy to write off as nerves, but everyone in the cart feels a sense of growing pressure from within.
With the releasing of magic from the Hydaelim, everyone gets to level up. You can describe how it feels or how it expresses itself if you feel like it happens outwardly.
It was amazing, sometimes, how quickly clarity and understanding can come upon a person. For instance, one could be hurtling along in a rune-marked mine cart towards an uncertain fate and what could be a metting with some great unknown horror, when things just suddenly click. For Samir, it was almost an audible sound, as his thoughts scurried through concepts and images from their adventures. Unable to help himself despite their situation, the artificer's mind had drifted into memories and unintentionally began making those connections that he had been missing. The curves of a sigil, the feel of the Blue Lady's presence, the unmistakable buzz of magic along the nerves of his body as he looked upon the Godrunes that shouldn't exist.
And in that instant, it all made sense.
In his mind's eye, Samir pictured weaves of magical energy cascading along carved glyphs, relating those concepts he had learned in his studies to those ancient powers that the cultists were so desperate to reproduce and steal. It was like the time in his second year of university when he had finally worked out a method for briefly turning fine silver into an aerosolized form to integrate into other materials. The sudden flash of insight forced him into a moment of rapid blinks, his lips parting slightly in the wake of his sudden epiphany.
As he wills his injured body and mind back into the rhythm of moving his echo forward, clearing debris with his blade, further and faster ahead than before, the sensation of pressure gradually growing, pulsing, flowing... yet every flow must have its ebb.... the Blue Lady and the Red Huntsman... Joren half-slips into a waking dream. The old dream. A mean-spirited, asymmetric soldier's duel in the snow... Uneven in skill and in prestige...
Bleeding easily, mongrels are...
The sneering face of Bernard Kryn swims in his vision. Trueborn Khirian son and distant cousin, teaching the half-breed a lesson. Cut after well-placed cut by Bernard's echo, toying with his opponent. Smiling knowingly, fully aware he could kill Joren, the half-dwarf bastard, with no repercussions. Not for Bernard anyway, even though the duel was intended as non-lethal. But intent would be subject to Bernard Kryn's whim. Joren had been able to land but a single blow with the flat of his greatsword, from his own position, not his echo's. How the half-drunk crowd of trueborn Khirian echo knights had jeered at that one. So crude, that. To be attacking from your own position like a common infantryman. The mutt bastard's only here because his mother begged!
Blood and sweat pour from Joren's face and body as he growls in failing, doomed determination. Pivoting low to aim a reckless blow at an odd angle just as Bernard's echo catches him square and cuts Joren clean to the ribcage. It is death. Death if Bernard has his way with him, or likely death later by execution if Joren somehow kills the princeling. At the last minute, with instantaneous, yet immense reluctance, Joren twists his blade sideways to make his own attack non-lethal. As he would again much later and much farther to the west in the basement of Opportunity's Knock with Jon Shep.
Flat of the greatsword against Bernard Kryn's temple as Joren's own torso is laid open. Both men crumple to the dusty ground, Bernard with a shocked expression on his face and eyes rolling back in his head, and Joren in fetal position, bleeding his life away upon the stony foothills of the Veil Mountains, halfway back from the Battle of Dragontail Narrows, marching home to the Dalmodh Plains. Death on a night of celebration and revelry.
Though he hadn't died, had he? Then or now. The half-dwarf who lived... who learned, though later in exile, not at the time...
Joren Kryn sees it now. His seething hate for the princeling had blinded him. Hate, aye and jealousy, if he is honest with himself. Envy of the stature and respect of his countrymen that he himself would never enjoy as Bernard did. All of it had blinded him from truly grasping it. What deft footwork the princeling had shown if only Joren had been willing to learn from his antagonist! What a quick pivot, flexing the hips and turning the greatsword's momentum into a counter-cut. How the trueborn son had seemed to whirl and deliver two blows for every one that the half-dwarven bastard managed.
If I had not found my place among companions I care for and trust, Ashley and Samir, Malachi and Marion, even Vilus consumed by his dark strangeness... if I had not found my place, would my bitter rage have ebbed to the point that I could open my eyes and learn?
Despite his wounds and soreness, Joren sees it so clearly now. Feels it instinctively. Perhaps in a different timeline, another Joren would have learned right away, and yet another never would have picked it up. How he had been limiting himself. How to attack and attack and attack again, much faster than Joren ever had. The lesson had been there right in front of him all along. All he had to do was relive his worst memory with clear eyes.
Back in this timeline Joren breathes. Whatever is ahead, he feels ready to face it, despite everything. The bastard exile smiles into the onrushing darkness.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Malachi slumps against the side of the mine cart, tired and worn from the near misses of the bats and the cave bear, to say nothing of the earlier fights. What am I doing here? He wonders again as they speed through the dark tunnels. He has always had an appreciation for the finer things in life, even if he never truly had them on his own. Still he had developed the ability to move in that world, if only for pretend at times. This tunnel was a long way away from his life in the twin cities. Had he not overreached in his deals and schemes, maybe he would still be there.
All the talk Vilus had with Ashley on her vision back in Tensmith led Malachi to think of his vision, of his mother sitting at the chair by their fire before being interrupted by the banging on the door. He hadn’t really thought about it at the time, but that brought back another dream from his youth. He had dreamed of the same house, the same room, but this time the banging was on a small pantry door. When he had pulled on the door, it had opened to a dark void of blackness and bitter cold, filled with whispers and slithering sounds. In his dream, he had slammed the door in horror before waking in a cold sweat, sealing the dream away and trying to forget it.
He sits up quickly in the cart as he realizes that in the vision replaying in his mind the door was no longer closed, but cracked open and a now familiar slithering sensation slipped across the back of his consciousness.
Shaking his head to clear the daydream, he tries to focus once more on the task at hand. “Uh, do we know what we are speeding toward right now? What do we expect to find at the end of these tracks?”
As the third strike hits her and the feeling of heat intensifies.. she finds her mind wander to the Smoking Sands. She finds she doesn't miss it. Not one bit, but the heat of the tunnel as they head down pulls her mind there and the fire inside of her grows. The anger of her home and how she was treated when she found magic.. how she was pushed out of her town, her family.. looked upon with disgust.. it boils within her and she finds herself relishing in the fire, the dance of it, the control of it, the need of it. On the outside, her hair turns a deeper shade of red.. the glow everlasting.
She then opens her eyes and sees her friends. The ones she now holds most dear. Her face turns into a scowl as she thinks how they are all heading full speed to known danger, thinking of all that they have faced so far and here they were doing it again, without question. Her skin goosebumps as she thinks about it and focuses on how she can protect them better, finding any way possible to help them in any battle they may face.
"Yes... this speed.. we are going to make it, as long as nothing else stops us along the way." she almost utters in a murmur, her thoughts swirling with fire and friends.
The cart continues on down the tracks while the air grows warmer and warmer. At one point, the track splits, one path leading north and the other continuing to the East. Ashley confidently points straight ahead.
Every time Vilus moves the lever to adjust speed on a corner, the runes flash a little with yellow light, but Samir realizes with unfortunate certainty that the flashes have started getting dimmer.
The magical essence used to power the runes is beginning to dwindle.
What's more, the cart doesn't seem to be moving quite as fast as before. He does some quick mental math. If Ashley's estimation of the remaining distance is at all accurate, and assuming the turns don't get more frequent, they should have just enough power to get to their destination. Maybe.
Just before he is able to speak up though, the cart starts to accelerate again. He looks up. The ground beneath them has begun a gentle decent. The tunnel get a bit steeper, and the cart continues to increase in speed. Then the tunnel starts to curve slightly to the left, and doesn't stop. It is spiraling, slowly and surely, downward. Ashley feels the draw and the pulse of the heat much closer now. Below them.
(Everyone make me a perception check. It is dark here, so if you have nightvision that turns darkness to dim light, roll with disadvantage)
Vilus keeps his eyes peeled, watching for obstacles or danger. In so doing, he notices that the walls here appear different. Though worn and aged, this part of the tunnel is relatively smooth. He realizes he is looking at worked stone. Not the crude jagged edges of excavation, but careful and painstaking work. The rail they are on my be new, but the tunnel itself is a hall
He is not alone in this realization though. He and Ashley notice simultaneously the worn etchings and faded paints. It's hard to make out at their current speed, but they catch flashes of symbols and designs, images and scenes. Carvings of fire. Lots of them. Like some unending mural, spiraling into the depths.
The cart continues to speed up. The wheels jostle and jounce, and the cart starts to lean dangerously toward the outside of the curve.
Joren's voice remains laconic. "Seeing any brakes on this thing, Vilus or Samir?"
Unlike many soldiers, echo knights often lack training in land vehicles or mounted combat because of their ability to "echo march," effectively turning them into somewhat slower cavalry themselves. Joren is no exception, and the controls on this cart being arcane make him even less knowledgeable.
"Going fast is one thing, but should get there in one piece. Needing to be ready to abandon ship if we are careening off track or into a lava lake."
He suits his actions to his words, not moving, exactly, but readying himself to spring out of the cart if it derails or the track suddenly ends.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Vilus gives a nod to Joren and slows the cart down from its fastest setting, just for a moment to see whether the uncontrollable acceleration eases off, "how close are we Ash?" He grumbles as he looks down at the arcane markings with some confusion.
The lever clicks into position on a slower setting, and the cart jerks, suddenly slowing down. It holds at that speed for a few seconds, but then the wheels emit a crackling sound, and magical sparks burst from the lever. Then the runes go dull and the cart starts slowly speeding up again. No with no magic left to reign in its momentum.
Ashley's head pounds again, and this time everyone feels the tremor in the ground. An explosion, somewhere below them. Samir recognizes it. It sounds just like the mining rigs that had been stolen from Tensmouth.
Dust tumbles down around them, and Vilus watches as part of the inner wall of the curve crumbles away, leaving a large opening through which a soft luminescence shines, as well as a large chunk of stone on the tracks before them. Vilus realizes that if they can't find a way to slow the cart down, they'll only have a few seconds before crashing or being derailed.
Seeing the murals rush by them, Ashley feels a strange pull towards them, enough to make her want to stop even though she knows they can't. She feels the paintings have a strong connection to the Heart of Flame, but can't read them as they fly by so she can't really understand them and it frustrates her.
But she doesn't have time to be frustrated for long as the explosion is not just in her head this time and she looks towards the luminescence and shrieks. Not even seeing the rock or registering how that is going to affect them, she stares into the opening in the wall, "That glow. That glow is the same bioluminescence we saw when we stumbled upon the Gloazworm hive. We are right underneath where we saw them earlier. We... we need to get closer! We need to keep going, we're so so close! We need to..." she starts mumbling but then gathers more strength, "It feels like our destination is something underneath the chamber where they built their nest. We're going to encounter... a lot of those things." she shudders as she says this, scared for all of them.
Vilus looks down at the controls and doesn't notice his understanding of the runes in such a high pressure situation. However he does understand that even if he restored the magic to the runes, it wouldn't return the use of the speed settings in time, if at all. Standing and stamping on the control, Vilus puts his arms out in front of him and mutters a quick incantation casting shatter on the chunk of stone. Causing 12 thunder damage to the stone in the way and sending shock waves shuddering back through the tunnel.
Joren listens intently to Ashley, wishing he understood better. Delving below the gloazworms. Right. His drawl is wry with gallows humor.
"As I was saying, next stop, Gloazworm Central. Now featuring mining charge detonations! The sooner, the better, if you are asking me..."
With that, he swaps places with his echo, which has been pacing the mine cart, 30' ahead. Just in time to appear a few feet to one side of the boulder blocking the tracks in front of the onrushing cart. Bracing with his legs, he charges and slams into the rock with his shoulder, aiming to shove it aside.
Joren Athletics: 25 (with or without help from Malachi's Telekinetic Shove)
Leaping away from the cart an instant before it takes his head off, Joren echo-swaps once again, back into the cart, hurtling down the now-cleared tracks.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
The shockwave from Vilus' spell shakes dust loose from the ceiling and walls, but the stone remains unmoved. That is until Joren's desperate slam tips it off the tracks. Taller than it is wide, is gets enough momentum from Joren that it topples out through the hole in the wall. As the cart hurtles past the opening, its occupants lookout to see a glassy, insectoid head staring in at them, with the glow of the hive bending through its translucent exoskeleton. Then they are past it. A split second later, something slams into the wall behind them. Ashley and Malachi look back to see one of the creature's scythe-like limbs pulling out of a dent in the far wall, raking across the tracks, and withdrawing out through the hole.
The spiraling decent steepens, and the cart starts to speed up more. A minute later, a new glow appears around the bend. This one, though is the flickering orange-yellow glow of torchlight. The end is near.
The sudden intrusion of near death (at least in his mind) experience pulls Samir from his thoughts, and he stares wide-eyed at the hole in the wall as they go barreling past. One hand clutches tightly to the rim of the mining cart while the other clasps his satchel to his side as if his life depended on it.
"They're using mining rigs down there for something!" He could only hope that his voice carried over the rushing wind of their rapid descent. "Whatever this heart of fire is, I fear they are either trying to take it, or destroy it!"
Ashley gasps at the sight of the gloazworm making a dent in the tunnel wall. She hadn't known they had that much force along with everything else that was twisted and wrong about the creatures. She can't help but wonder how they came to be.
As the cart races faster down, she turns back to the front, willing it to go faster as they needed to get to the heart of fire.