THE MONOLITH

Father: As the group travelers deeper and deeper into this dimension, you feel at peace. Calm. You feel like you belong here. You look over to Madison for a moment, who's career as a Dawnhammer years ago - her talents was used to murder elves and dwarves, this place was entirely different and alien, and her eyes darted to and fro across the landscape, as if waiting or watching for something. She was sweaty. Nervous.

"Gods forsaken.." she would mutter to herself. 

The landscape became darker, but the intensity of the brightness of the red star did not diminish. As we looked up, the star and celestial formations told us absolutely that we were no longer on our home world. Madison looked up, turned towards the ground, and vomited. She struggled to regain her composure.

Craggy hills of broken and baked flesh jut upwards at weird angles, casting dark tortured shadows across themselves. The whole landscape was a blight of shadow, and organic material.

We came to the end of the path. Before us, the largest crater we have ever seen laid before us. The crater was so large, the edge of it went beyond the horizon. Sloping down for miles, in the center, was a titanic structure. A monolith of the deepest black, it was unnatural. It was almost as if our minds had trouble comprehending what we were seeing, so it displayed a reality we could interpret and understand. The monolith looked almost like a ruined pyramid, and deep in the recesses of our mind, we could hear our own slow heartbeat. Was it ours? We could not tell. Inside the crater, tentacles slowly writhed as if they had a mind of their own, yet there was no wind. 

Everywhere we looked, the alien blight was black, deep reds and greens, and everything made us uneasy. 

In the midst of the vast alien crater, a relic of a civilization stood before you. Surrounded by the broken foundations of a once mighty city, the great monolith itself rises up from the blighted ground, looking barely touched by time. It is truly enormous. Stairs lead up to a platform in front of the monolith's entrance. 

Villanelle gazed upon the city, her mind struggling to comprehend the alien structure with its colors, shape, and rising tentacles. Yet what is the most off-putting to her is how Madison vomits like a drunken party girl who couldn't hold her liquor. It filled her with disgust for everything that she was. For everything that she is. Mortal. Weak. Clinging to the Creed. Her fanged mouth curves into a mocking smile that fades once Madison has finished emptying her guts onto the floor. "Losing your nerve, Madison?"

Madison spit the last of the puke out of her mouth as Villanelle spoke, but she didn't even bother looking at her. "No, I was just thinking of you in the most casual sense. Look at the sky." She then turned to the monolith. "We're very far from home. Wherever we are, I am positive we no long have home advantage any longer. We must be on our guard."

BatFreya lands, transforming back into her now hideous humanoid form. Strangely, she comments offhandedly “I actually like the colors here....red seems to suit me these days.”

Tora glances around silently for a moment before speaking simply. "Less than ideal. Interesting." She looked around at the relic quietly, not approaching it as she circles it almost like prey, her eyes scanning it for any discernable features other than the obvious stairs and size. With a slight tilt of her head, she frowns. "Approach?"

"Indeed," Dia agrees with Tora. "I believe so. But with caution."

As Madison makes her quip, Villanelle makes no response, but thinks of how very easy it would be to take her halberd and cut off Madison's head right now while she was turned around. She maintains control over her murderous impulses, telling herself that she can't do something like that. Especially since decapitation is too quick.

Despite the sinister and otherworldly nature of this place, Father feels incredibly at peace here. He doesn't pay any mind to Madison as she vomits and gets into a small back-and-forth with Villanelle.

THE MONOLITH
THE FOUNTAIN OF URTHIS <---

The alien monolith, from the entrance, it truly enormous. You cannot tell if it was built, or always existed. As you approach the entrance, you feel you are stepping on something unlike anything this reality could produce. The entrance leads inside the monolith. You slowly walk through the entrance, the material the monolith is made from is black, so black, and smooth, cold to the touch. It leads into a room that is completely dark.

A broken basin, made from a material you've never seen before, but can only describe as black rock, lies broken before you. It appears to have once held liquid, and drained it, irrigated it, to the outside steps and beyond. However, now, there is no evidence of liquid. Looking up, the ceiling has no holes, it's perfectly smooth. Then where would liquid come from? 

The monolith's walls look worn by time, but yet are still quite solid. There are no windows and only one entrance. The only other way out of this fountain room are steps leading up to another room. As you gaze through the darkness, at the top of the steps are two massive "guard" tentacles "standing" at attention. They look wet, and you can't tell if it's a trick, but your eyes tell you they are still - yet moving - at the same time.

Vulcan walked over to the basin, fearlessly, his hands reached out and petted the material, grazing it with his hands as he inspected the craftsmanship. Looking up at the "guards", he calls out in the alien language, "Los hi faal kirre do daar staad?" (this is Dovahzul)

The material is impossibly smooth and black. The craftsmanship is unlike anything you've ever known. Even broken, the pieces form a geometry your mind is having trouble wrapping around. When you speak the language from another dimension, the tentacles umbral "flesh" ripple, as if the sound waves of your voice hit the "water" of their flesh. They offer no other response in return, and you cannot tell if the words you said fell on intelligence. At every angle you look at them, it is pure black and the features of the tentacles can barely be seen.

Realizing that his words, were being heard, even if they weren't being understood,  Vulcan gained some inspiration for an idea. He grabbed a shard of the basin's material, if he could, pocketing it before he began to ascend the steps to the guards. As he climbed, he began muttering more and more words in the alien language. Speaking at them, throwing endless words, questions, phrases. Looking for changes in the ripples, and to what degree they impacted the "guards".

"Kolos los daar staad? Wo uv what dreh hi aam?" (questions)

"Wa zu'u.  Diin.  Mah...  Take zu'u wa hin kinbok." (commands)

The tentacles "surface" ripple as you speak, as least, that's what your eyes are telling you. You ascend the steps and realize that even though there are two completely black tentacles guarding the passage ahead on either side of the beginning of the "hallway", nothing is on the ground that indicated they "emerged" from the floor. They just are. As you approach closer, they silently move to form an "X", blocking the path. 

They don't, however, attack you. Simply a warning.

Despite what you are seeing, you are calm. Unless someone shines a light, it is darker than the blackest abyss in this room.

As the landscape became darker, it felt as its shadows were weighing down upon her shoulders, pressuring her to succumb to its depravity. Each step held concern that one wrong one could lead her astray. The sound of Madison retching would stop her in her tracks. At first Exelda thought she stopped because it might be her turn to join in on losing some lunch, but no, it was because she felt empathy for the Dawnhammer. Something she hasn't felt in a long, long time.

LeBlanc would wrinkle her nose at Villanelle's reaction before taking a few steps to stand next to Madison, also looking out towards the monolith. She would offer Madison water from her own waterskin to rinse her mouth out should she wish. Exelda would stand in silence for a moment to let the weight of her words to sink in. The blademaster would regrip the hilt of her daggers in both hands, feeling the dampness of her sweat left behind. Madison recognizes the darkness... Her resolve hasn't wavered. LeBlanc would look to the Dawnhammer beside her and reach a hand out to tilt her chin to her, to really look at the woman who's pointed them on this path of darkness, "Lueur d'espoir." She'd whisper so only she could hear.

(casting: Bardic Inspiration on Madison.)

Exelda would pause at the entrance of the monolith to look up at its enormity. Though it wouldn't take long before the feeling of the floor below her feet would remind her how much she did not want to get stuck behind. She would continue moving along with the rest of the group. As they passed through to the next room, LeBlanc couldn't help but become mesmerized by the smooth richness and variety of dark materials in this room. Darkness. Shadows. Ink black.

There became something much more interesting taking place when Vulcan would approach the basin to begin an affectionate inspection of what ever was inside it. When he'd speak the alien language shivers would rush down her spine, rippling through every nerve in her body, peppering her skin in goosebumps. LeBlanc would simply freeze in place with a death grip on her blades, awaiting for her nerves to calm and keeping her senses aware.

The Crown and the Creed deployed us years ago. The horrors the Dawnhammers overcame were nothing compared to what was now infecting our world. The expulsion and murder of two species came easy to me. As a holy soldier, it came easy. But now, we were not even on Aetharis. It was like the Ghastlands were some sort of..It was hard to find the word to describe it. In a moment of anxiety and fear, I had emptied the contents of my stomach.

Exelda touched her. It startled her. 

"Thank you." She said to Exelda, swishing and then spitting. "This..place has me on edge. It is almost like the darkness here is draining my courage."

As Vulcan approached and the tentacles moved, Madison was transfixed. We were in a place not of this world, perhaps, not of this reality. Yet, here we were. Her senses tried to translate what she was seeing. What manner of cosmic horrors laid ahead? 

Deep inside her head, the slow deep rumble of a heartbeat could be heard, and it wasn't hers.

She wanted to speak, to warn Vulcan to be careful. What would she care, she hardly knew these people, except..all of us now had something in common. We had traversed time and space to explore a place our minds could barely comprehend. 

It took conscious effort to get her hand to stop shaking by her pistol holster. 

Dia silently fought a battle of wills in her mind.

Her fiendish nature and pure damn stubbornness battled against the horror and pure wrongness of this place. The succubus mentally glared the darkness down, although she knew it didn't really care about her opinion of it. But the psychic exercise helped her mind, letting her overcome the horror and fear racing through her as she experienced this place, compounded by the nausea gnawing at her stomach. Here, she felt like Olivia again, a powerless girl at the mercy of her ruthless sister. But here, the thing that watched her was far, far worse than Yesenia. Here, the thing that watched her could do far more than kill her. It could rend her mind and soul into tiny scraps of what they once were.

Dia focused hard to keep her glamour active, using old tricks to keep her mind focused and uncorrupted. She watched Vulcan examining the monolith and speaking with the creatures, noting how easily he seemed to exist here. Her estimation of the danger he presented ratcheted up another notch.

To the side, the warriors of light were finding comfort in each other. They were fools, Dia knew. Villanelle's petty taunts, too, were pointless, here or anywhere else. As Dia's mind cleared and she was able to refocus, her thought patterns returned to their usual paths, and a slight, lazy smile curved up at the mouth, although it was far less effortless than it would normally be. You caught more flies with honey, after all...and she'd be damned if she let this place stop her plans just with its presence.

Throughout the entirety of their walk here, Father felt rejuvenated, almost at peace despite the horrid sights and sounds of this place. None of it seemed to affect him negatively, and his smile had never been so bright and beaming before until now. Even when Madison threw up, it never dimmed, and even though he could tell most of them weren't exactly the most 'at home' here, he was, and he couldn't stop that feeling of utter elation course through his veins. Excitement could be seen behind his eyes as well, him constantly touching and feeling the cool, smooth walls, even running his fingertips on the jagged edges of the broken basin, unaffected at the slicing of his skin.

He looked as if he were a child in a candy store in this place, and upon approaching the tentacles blocking their path, he gently puts a hand on Vulcan's shoulder for him to cease speaking and move him aside had he been in his way. The priest then ran his hands along the tendrils tenderly, murmuring words to them, whispering in a tongue unknown to the group, but the tone was enough for them to pick up that he had been attempting to coax the tentacles to part for them to continue their journey forward.

THE MONOLITH
THE FOUNTAIN OF URTHIS
TEMPLE INTERIOR <----

As your hand caresses the tentacles, you can feel the very cells in your body change - you absorb them, to your delight. Your mind interprets what you are feeling as a tentacle, but it was almost like the blackest shadow was sentient. It wraps around your hands, your forearms, and into your veins through your skin. In the darkness of this place, whatever it was, you were changed. It accepts you, and grants you a boon that lasts until further notice.

Choose a power.
EXPEDIENT: Once per long rest, you have an additional action to use anytime.
ECHOING VOID: Each time you do damage, you store a part of the Darkness inside you. It has a chance to collapse each time.
DEADLY MOMENTUM: Each time you roll a nat20, your chance to score a nat20 from that point on occurs on a 19-20. This stacks until it gets to 17, then resets.

A dark corridor lays before you all.

"What the **** just happened.." Madison asks Father, from the base of the steps. "Did you just...?"

Father inhales deeply as he readily accepts the boon graciously given to him. He quietly murmurs a thank you to Umbra before turning around to the others with a widened smile. "The path forward is cleared. Let's keep moving, yes? No time for questions now. No, no, simply no time. There is much to be explored~!" He does not wait for a response and instead pushes forward down the dark corridor.

"I wonder what's got him in such a good mood." Villanelle asks as she follows behind Father.