Sam is with Elthana and Muir on this one - no offering up who we think the hag wants as bait. “It’d be one think if one of us others could look like you.. but neither you nor Gewyn should get closer than needed…”
Trudging forward, Sam continues forward. He’s eager to get this over and done with, to settle it one way or another, but fools rush in and all that. Besides, they’re all too tired as is, he refuses to add a pace that increases their physical exhaustion. Luckily so.
“”Hold!” Sam calls out in a hush, throwing his arms wide to block anyone from walking past him.
“There,” he says a bit softer now, pointing to a spot near the ground just a few steps ahead. “Some kind of string a bit above the ground. You see it?”
Sam grunts as he gets down on to all fours so he can take a closer look. He squints and peers down one way and then the other, “By the edge there,” he says as he crawls in the direction he signals. “I think that’s a bell or such… Probably just an alarm but I’m no expert…” Sam pauses and looks to the others to see if perhaps one of them is.
Elthana looks at the string disheartened. With the way her legs were now, she was basically dragging one behind her as she walked, and she wasn't sure she could lift it over the string without worrying her foot would hit it.
She looks down at her feet, not able to meet anyone's eye as a bright flush starts covering her disformed face, "I..I am not sure I can step over it."
"I am not very nimble with these" Muir waves his big ole sausage fingers to the group "But if someone needs assistance getting over, I'd be happy to help"He says to the group while waving his trunk in the air like he just don't care
With Muir's help and Sam's watchful eye, Elthana makes it over the trip wire no problem. Neferox jumps it nimbly, and it provides no issue for the others after it had been so helpfully pointed out by Sam.
Since the intersection where the group first saw the trail of destruction left by old thicket, it has been around 15 minutes of walking, Elthana's slower speed doesn't seem to impede the group too much as her regular speed is normally faster than the majority, the smell of the pungent fruits is getting stronger and stronger as they progress, and understandably the twigs and debris left by the massive tree serve as helpful markers that the groups heading is correct, just a little further...
Before the group gets too far from the Sam idly asks if anyone has a candle. "It occured to me, if we rigged a lit candle close enough, perhaps it would burn through the string after a while... After it burned down a while. It could send the hag's foces to the alarm bell instead of to where we really are..."
Other than that little inspiration of a probably useless idea, Sam focuses on the path ahead. He's slowed by his concerted effort to look at the ground and the roof and the walls of each area before he passes into it. Someone paranoid enough to set one trap is paranoid enough to set many...
On Vin's idea he nods as others don't like the risks with the plan "It's alright. I just had the idea. You're probably right and we can't risk me or Gewyn. Okay, so lets go and Gewyn and I can support from the rear."
Vin shakes their head to Sam's idea, "Normally, that idea would work. Setting the trap off later would likely lure enemies away. However, we are in a tunnel. Those replying would come right at us towards the sound with nowhere for us to hide and that's assuming they don't just lie in wait for an ambush in a fortified location after hearing the bell. Good catch on the bell though. Lets just hurry and hopefully now we have the element of surprise. Maybe we can take out the hag before she can command the town's folk she controls."
The group make their way further through the debris, the smell of the fruits now overwhelmingly strong. After another five minutes past the bell trap, (which was left unrung, for better or worse) a light begins to pierce the darkness, a warm orange glow. The tunnel keeps going past an entrance on the groups right, but the darkness of that path is left undisturbed as the light, now pouring, from the opening comes into veiw. those at the front of the group would notice bloody footprints leading to and from the lit cavern entrance, though they do not exolore far into the tunnels at all.
Rounding on the entrance, a massive cathedral like chamber opens out in front of you, a circular cavern which seems to have no ceiling, or at least not one that is visible from here.
Tiered rows, like descending shelves or seats in a gladiators theater, circle this gargantuan chamber, each shelf is filled, teaming with plants, thousands upon thousands of leafy fruiting bushes, cover every inch of the floor, and each fruit glows, though upon closer inspection each leaf is coated with a drying copper liquid, slathered acriss the enture chamber as if dumped in the plants from above. The palm sized orange and purple fruits draw the echoes of a memory in each of the party, the smell connecting the brain to an unplacable long forgotten time, sad but nostalgic, though it does not divulge its secrets, merely leaves you with a want, a need, to find out more.
In the center of this circular chamber, around which the tiers of fruit bushes crowd, lies a huge crucible of twisted tree and thorn, at least 180ft high with a single golden grand bell extended out on a branch out toward the party.
Looking around the cavern walls Runes are inscibed high, each one at a point around the center, like hours on a clock face.
Looking at the scene is both somehow beautiful and gruesome at the same time. Like beauty is trying to hold up despite the coating of blood. Vin knows they were moving the blood so now they know where. The smell of sweet fruit. The tree now twisted and covered in thorns looks more like it's in pain rather then a spectacle of beauty. The bell atop the tree beautiful in it's design. Nef is of course shadowing behind and the pair seem to look at each other for a moment then Vin scooches down to the first set of plants they come upon. It's clear they are covered in blood. Every single one. Like a nursery that is being poisoned. Vin wonders if the tree here used to be beautiful before all this happened. He takes one moment to cast a quiet spell careful not to alert anything to see if it'll have an affect. A simple spell that cleans and perhaps help the plants here recover a bit. There is a strange pull from them like an endless curiosity so he casts Prestidigitation on the very edge of the plants cleaning all the blood from the plant and the soil in the spells area of effect. A quiet sparkling of light gently falling over the plants and the soil in a small area cleaning everything.
Nothing changes.
Vin wasn't sure what he was expecting but it helped him feel like he did something against their plans. An act of kindness and purity so much like himself he pours a bit of water from his waterskin too. The entire thing less then a few moments as he doesn't want to fall behind the others. Nef of course waits and watches Vin as they seem to take a role of watchful protector. Keen eyes scanning for any movement at all. She wasn't going to let this hag sneak up on them. Especially not Vin as she stays close to him. Otherwise they follow the group into the room. Being as quiet as they can. Wanting to get the drop on the hag if possible.
Muir is floored by what he sees to the point he is unable to recall any of his teachings. He can't fight his drive for knowledge as he walks into the room and plants his staff firmly into the ground and casts speak with plants
Gewyn walks close to Vin and Muir near the rear of the group, looking around at the vegetation as he goes. He keeps his pipes close at hand, quiet for now but ready to play loud should the moment arise. As claustrophobic as he felt in the tight tunnels, the open space here is worse. Gewyn can't stop checking over his shoulder and looking up, down and all around, wary of a threat from any angle. A bead of sweat tickles his brow.
He stops to consider the blood on the fruits. In some ways it answers some questions. Where was the blood going, why was the fruit having strange new effects, etc. But at the same time, it brings up another.
Why?
If this is the hag's doing, why is she devoting so much effort towards tainting these fruits? Is it related to her quest? To the sacrifices she needs to usher in her vision for a new world?
What would it be like? This new world? Gewyn feels a yearning within him for a sensation long forgotten. For a time when he didn't feel this way. For a time where he had maybe known contentment. Peace. Before the weight of the world, secrets, promises, and expectations had started to squeeze the breath and life from him. When had that been?
Or is this the fruit's doing? He wonders, putting a brightly coloured handkerchief over his mouth.
As Muir walked into the room hearing the plants all shout Wheeeeee as he walked by. He stops and asks them a question or 2 "Hello friends! What has happened here? How can we help you?"
The plants respond to Muir's question "So the man stopped harvesting you all. Who feeds you now? What do they feed you?" Muir asks the question with the suspicion he already knows the answer.
Muir turns to the group before asking his next question "The plants said the man used to harvest them but when he stopped they fed on the magic here...which was the sleeping magic of the protal, but once the hag began trying to close the portal the food taste spoiled....They do not know what the blood is for but I asked them who did the splashing....and they said it was the men. When they finished the lady, I assume the hag, chanted and became angry.......Gewyn you told us that blood born of Fey and forged on this plane was referring to yourself and that born of fire and forged the same was Vin. I understand the part referring to you. You were born here of fae ancestry. She needs your blood but again implore Vin or his pet to explain the last part.....Please we need to know what is happening."
Elthana stumbles around the room, trying to make sense of it all but really struggles. The bell catches her eye and from underneath she notices a winding pattern from the center out to the ridge which must make it emit an amplified sound in an interesting way.
As Muir starts talking with the plants, she stops to listen. And as he asks Vin the direct question, she looks to the boy as well, waiting to hear how he is going to answer it.
"Can you ask them where the hag is?" Sam asks in a grumble as he looks around and tries to take this all in. "If we can take her off the board then we have all the time in the world to settle everything else..."
Sam slowly, carefully trying to not overly disturb anything, approaches the center tree like structure. "And ask them where the portal is too, while you are at it."
Being put on the spot again Vin seems like he's feeling very uncomfortable as he looks to Nef who was already looking like they weren't going to say anything. Vin seems to reason with them a bit and says "Again, it'll endanger me Muir. I believe her on that. All she can share is something was done to save me. Yes, I want to know more but she wouldn't keep it from me without a good reason and... i think we should respect that for now. I think... the details of why are not important. It just means my sacrifice is more powerful then a typical person's. Same with Gewyn. Did I get that right nef?" The black hound seems to shrug and woofs quietly. "She says it's like needing a virgin sacrifice versus a normal one. The person being sacrificed might have a special quality that is required for a ritual." Nef seems very uncomfortable this is even being talked about but she nods to that explanation.
While Muir consults the foliage, Sam approaches the center tree-like structure. He places a hand on it as he inspects it. Knocks on it, basically our of curiosity. He then kneels down, digs through his belongings, and pulls out a torch.
"If this place is the source of the fruits which infected the kids..." Sam says and assumes the rest is understood.
Muir finishes speaking with the plants as Sam approaches and touches the tree "NO Wait!" Muir yells unsure what would happen to Sam "The plants said the Hag came from there until the tree showed up"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Sam is with Elthana and Muir on this one - no offering up who we think the hag wants as bait. “It’d be one think if one of us others could look like you.. but neither you nor Gewyn should get closer than needed…”
Trudging forward, Sam continues forward. He’s eager to get this over and done with, to settle it one way or another, but fools rush in and all that. Besides, they’re all too tired as is, he refuses to add a pace that increases their physical exhaustion. Luckily so.
“”Hold!” Sam calls out in a hush, throwing his arms wide to block anyone from walking past him.
“There,” he says a bit softer now, pointing to a spot near the ground just a few steps ahead. “Some kind of string a bit above the ground. You see it?”
Sam grunts as he gets down on to all fours so he can take a closer look. He squints and peers down one way and then the other, “By the edge there,” he says as he crawls in the direction he signals. “I think that’s a bell or such… Probably just an alarm but I’m no expert…” Sam pauses and looks to the others to see if perhaps one of them is.
Elthana looks at the string disheartened. With the way her legs were now, she was basically dragging one behind her as she walked, and she wasn't sure she could lift it over the string without worrying her foot would hit it.
She looks down at her feet, not able to meet anyone's eye as a bright flush starts covering her disformed face, "I..I am not sure I can step over it."
"I am not very nimble with these" Muir waves his big ole sausage fingers to the group "But if someone needs assistance getting over, I'd be happy to help" He says to the group while waving his trunk in the air like he just don't care
With Muir's help and Sam's watchful eye, Elthana makes it over the trip wire no problem. Neferox jumps it nimbly, and it provides no issue for the others after it had been so helpfully pointed out by Sam.
Since the intersection where the group first saw the trail of destruction left by old thicket, it has been around 15 minutes of walking, Elthana's slower speed doesn't seem to impede the group too much as her regular speed is normally faster than the majority, the smell of the pungent fruits is getting stronger and stronger as they progress, and understandably the twigs and debris left by the massive tree serve as helpful markers that the groups heading is correct, just a little further...
Before the group gets too far from the Sam idly asks if anyone has a candle. "It occured to me, if we rigged a lit candle close enough, perhaps it would burn through the string after a while... After it burned down a while. It could send the hag's foces to the alarm bell instead of to where we really are..."
Other than that little inspiration of a probably useless idea, Sam focuses on the path ahead. He's slowed by his concerted effort to look at the ground and the roof and the walls of each area before he passes into it. Someone paranoid enough to set one trap is paranoid enough to set many...
On Vin's idea he nods as others don't like the risks with the plan "It's alright. I just had the idea. You're probably right and we can't risk me or Gewyn. Okay, so lets go and Gewyn and I can support from the rear."
Vin shakes their head to Sam's idea, "Normally, that idea would work. Setting the trap off later would likely lure enemies away. However, we are in a tunnel. Those replying would come right at us towards the sound with nowhere for us to hide and that's assuming they don't just lie in wait for an ambush in a fortified location after hearing the bell. Good catch on the bell though. Lets just hurry and hopefully now we have the element of surprise. Maybe we can take out the hag before she can command the town's folk she controls."
Muir nods in agreement with Vin and follows towards the back near Gewyn and Vin, helping Elthana along if she needs it.
The group make their way further through the debris, the smell of the fruits now overwhelmingly strong. After another five minutes past the bell trap, (which was left unrung, for better or worse) a light begins to pierce the darkness, a warm orange glow. The tunnel keeps going past an entrance on the groups right, but the darkness of that path is left undisturbed as the light, now pouring, from the opening comes into veiw. those at the front of the group would notice bloody footprints leading to and from the lit cavern entrance, though they do not exolore far into the tunnels at all.
Rounding on the entrance, a massive cathedral like chamber opens out in front of you, a circular cavern which seems to have no ceiling, or at least not one that is visible from here.
Tiered rows, like descending shelves or seats in a gladiators theater, circle this gargantuan chamber, each shelf is filled, teaming with plants, thousands upon thousands of leafy fruiting bushes, cover every inch of the floor, and each fruit glows, though upon closer inspection each leaf is coated with a drying copper liquid, slathered acriss the enture chamber as if dumped in the plants from above. The palm sized orange and purple fruits draw the echoes of a memory in each of the party, the smell connecting the brain to an unplacable long forgotten time, sad but nostalgic, though it does not divulge its secrets, merely leaves you with a want, a need, to find out more.
In the center of this circular chamber, around which the tiers of fruit bushes crowd, lies a huge crucible of twisted tree and thorn, at least 180ft high with a single golden grand bell extended out on a branch out toward the party.
Looking around the cavern walls Runes are inscibed high, each one at a point around the center, like hours on a clock face.
Looking at the scene is both somehow beautiful and gruesome at the same time. Like beauty is trying to hold up despite the coating of blood. Vin knows they were moving the blood so now they know where. The smell of sweet fruit. The tree now twisted and covered in thorns looks more like it's in pain rather then a spectacle of beauty. The bell atop the tree beautiful in it's design. Nef is of course shadowing behind and the pair seem to look at each other for a moment then Vin scooches down to the first set of plants they come upon. It's clear they are covered in blood. Every single one. Like a nursery that is being poisoned. Vin wonders if the tree here used to be beautiful before all this happened. He takes one moment to cast a quiet spell careful not to alert anything to see if it'll have an affect. A simple spell that cleans and perhaps help the plants here recover a bit. There is a strange pull from them like an endless curiosity so he casts Prestidigitation on the very edge of the plants cleaning all the blood from the plant and the soil in the spells area of effect. A quiet sparkling of light gently falling over the plants and the soil in a small area cleaning everything.
Nothing changes.
Vin wasn't sure what he was expecting but it helped him feel like he did something against their plans. An act of kindness and purity so much like himself he pours a bit of water from his waterskin too. The entire thing less then a few moments as he doesn't want to fall behind the others. Nef of course waits and watches Vin as they seem to take a role of watchful protector. Keen eyes scanning for any movement at all. She wasn't going to let this hag sneak up on them. Especially not Vin as she stays close to him. Otherwise they follow the group into the room. Being as quiet as they can. Wanting to get the drop on the hag if possible.
Muir is floored by what he sees to the point he is unable to recall any of his teachings. He can't fight his drive for knowledge as he walks into the room and plants his staff firmly into the ground and casts speak with plants
Gewyn walks close to Vin and Muir near the rear of the group, looking around at the vegetation as he goes. He keeps his pipes close at hand, quiet for now but ready to play loud should the moment arise. As claustrophobic as he felt in the tight tunnels, the open space here is worse. Gewyn can't stop checking over his shoulder and looking up, down and all around, wary of a threat from any angle. A bead of sweat tickles his brow.
He stops to consider the blood on the fruits. In some ways it answers some questions. Where was the blood going, why was the fruit having strange new effects, etc. But at the same time, it brings up another.
Why?
If this is the hag's doing, why is she devoting so much effort towards tainting these fruits? Is it related to her quest? To the sacrifices she needs to usher in her vision for a new world?
What would it be like? This new world? Gewyn feels a yearning within him for a sensation long forgotten. For a time when he didn't feel this way. For a time where he had maybe known contentment. Peace. Before the weight of the world, secrets, promises, and expectations had started to squeeze the breath and life from him. When had that been?
Or is this the fruit's doing? He wonders, putting a brightly coloured handkerchief over his mouth.
As Muir walked into the room hearing the plants all shout Wheeeeee as he walked by. He stops and asks them a question or 2 "Hello friends! What has happened here? How can we help you?"
The plants respond to Muir's question "So the man stopped harvesting you all. Who feeds you now? What do they feed you?" Muir asks the question with the suspicion he already knows the answer.
Muir turns to the group before asking his next question "The plants said the man used to harvest them but when he stopped they fed on the magic here...which was the sleeping magic of the protal, but once the hag began trying to close the portal the food taste spoiled....They do not know what the blood is for but I asked them who did the splashing....and they said it was the men. When they finished the lady, I assume the hag, chanted and became angry.......Gewyn you told us that blood born of Fey and forged on this plane was referring to yourself and that born of fire and forged the same was Vin. I understand the part referring to you. You were born here of fae ancestry. She needs your blood but again implore Vin or his pet to explain the last part.....Please we need to know what is happening."
Elthana stumbles around the room, trying to make sense of it all but really struggles. The bell catches her eye and from underneath she notices a winding pattern from the center out to the ridge which must make it emit an amplified sound in an interesting way.
As Muir starts talking with the plants, she stops to listen. And as he asks Vin the direct question, she looks to the boy as well, waiting to hear how he is going to answer it.
"Can you ask them where the hag is?" Sam asks in a grumble as he looks around and tries to take this all in. "If we can take her off the board then we have all the time in the world to settle everything else..."
Sam slowly, carefully trying to not overly disturb anything, approaches the center tree like structure. "And ask them where the portal is too, while you are at it."
Being put on the spot again Vin seems like he's feeling very uncomfortable as he looks to Nef who was already looking like they weren't going to say anything. Vin seems to reason with them a bit and says "Again, it'll endanger me Muir. I believe her on that. All she can share is something was done to save me. Yes, I want to know more but she wouldn't keep it from me without a good reason and... i think we should respect that for now. I think... the details of why are not important. It just means my sacrifice is more powerful then a typical person's. Same with Gewyn. Did I get that right nef?" The black hound seems to shrug and woofs quietly. "She says it's like needing a virgin sacrifice versus a normal one. The person being sacrificed might have a special quality that is required for a ritual." Nef seems very uncomfortable this is even being talked about but she nods to that explanation.
Muir nods and turns back to the plants asking them where the hag and portal are
While Muir consults the foliage, Sam approaches the center tree-like structure. He places a hand on it as he inspects it. Knocks on it, basically our of curiosity. He then kneels down, digs through his belongings, and pulls out a torch.
"If this place is the source of the fruits which infected the kids..." Sam says and assumes the rest is understood.
Muir finishes speaking with the plants as Sam approaches and touches the tree "NO Wait!" Muir yells unsure what would happen to Sam "The plants said the Hag came from there until the tree showed up"